Each story here is exactly 150 words, not one word more, not one less. The word limit was designed to mimic the sense of control we try to exert on our food choices.
Food nourishes us, food brings people together, but many of us have a complicated relationship with food.
At least one-third of Americans are actively dieting, even in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic dramatically changed our lives and separated people. Restaurants closed. Parties were forbidden. Sharing food at a table became dangerous.
There is beauty in small portions. Each sentence shines. There are no wasted words.
Occasionally, there are leftovers. In that case, the writers have continued their story with another savory 150 words.
Trying to capture a complex memory into a mini-story is a good puzzle. We had fun writing these stories. The challenge provided a creative respite during an otherwise extremely stressful time in our lives.
[This by the way, was 150 words.]
Contribute your story
Writers’ Bios
I started Table Tales as a creative outlet during the COVID-19 lockdown. Building a community of other writers was a fun and productive way to help me cope with the pandemic. I think it was a small miracle that through this group, I made new friends during a time when we were all physically distanced.
My stories have been featured in The Seattle Times, Business Insider, The Moth Mainstage and NPR-KNKX radio. If you’d like to collaborate with me on a creative project, email me at sashasoyon at gmail.
When I was a small child, I wanted to be an opera singer and pediatrician. My parents laughed, mocked an aria about flu shots. That contrast, that duality still shows up in me as a yoga instructor and educator who is also an urban planner and cultural geographer! I live for a good conversation, a good story, but good is the wrong word, I’m here for the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’m someone who loves storytelling, but I have been afraid to tell my story for years; so in a state of quarantine, job loss, and disillusionment, I picked up the pen and started writing again. It’s been real, and I mean that colloquially, but also literally. I love food, but have an uncomfortable relationship with it. These stories have been therapeutic, cathartic, but also fun. You can find me on insta @gabi_e and my adorable cats @boris_and_nandor.
Extraverted accountant. Single origin espresso connoisseur. Inversion junkie. Lacto-fermented Florida man. Grass-fed, grass-finished. Joel Salatin, Eliot Coleman, and Dan Barber are my spirit animals. Aspiring lunatic farmer.
I don’t call myself a writer or a foodie, but 150 words seemed a good portion size so I joined in. I’m a former English major, teacher, and editor, and a current IT analyst, shapenote singer, and jazz fan. In pandemic time I share writing to feel less alone.
My MySpace bio read, “I’m the wacky Asian neighbor in the sitcom of your life – want some fried rice?” Now I’m writing the script, and I’m the main character in the sitcom, or maybe a complex antihero with a dark secret. Either way, there is food involved, which is why I’m excited to be part of Table Tales. I love how food can give you an entryway into a new culture and experience. And I’m proud to have a stomach of steel, which has left me, in past traveling days, without fear when it comes to street food of all types – from Peru to Ukraine to Cambodia. Now, I like to explore the food of Seattle’s U District, which is like traveling around the world over a six block radius. I write about it on my blog eatingtheave.com. Want to be my lovable sidekick? Find me @minheeshock on Twitter.
Harjas was a picky eater from the start. The only fruit he ate was apples; dinner every night was sandwiches, burgers or pizza; and Harjas and veggies maintained a healthy 10-foot-restraining-order distance from each other – ironic for a son of restaurateurs. All that changed when Harjas saw a broadcast of MasterChef Australia and his eyes opened to the possibilities held by the food around the world. Coming to America when he was 18, and his subsequent travels across the globe, allowed him to experience what he’d only seen before on television. It also made him appreciate all the wondrous home-cooked meals he’d taken for granted all his life. From gol gappas in the streets of Ranchi (home) to Dinner by Heston in London, no food for Harjas is now off-limits. His favorite food movie is Chef and he’d love to open a food truck called Spud-nik serving his grandmother’s potatoes.
I think a lot about food, not just the stuff found in my kitchen—various types of fermentation experiments enroute to condiments, bread, and drinks (as long as lactobacilli and wild yeasts cooperate), but also ways to extract flavors that remind me of my childhood growing up in a small enclave in Eastern Washington to sprawling suburbia, where an abundance of hairspray inadvertently found its way into family meals. That hairspray umami is hard to forget. Bitter, sweet, sour, spicy are the memories I try to recreate from foraging forests, random wanderings, and garden harvests. I also think a lot about making images. You can find some of my work at vuongvuphotography.com.
Table Tales - 150 word stories 