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Aileen Suzara
Oakland
I'm passionate about food, storytelling, and loving our earth.
Interests: food justice, climate justice, culinary history, Filipino foods, island living, agroecology, farming. Favorite flavors: dark chocolate, kale, coconut, chili, seaweed, and fish.
Recent Activity
Thanks David! Oh, productivity. In another place and/or time, a role w/food and the land would be everyone's, the way it rarely is now in North America. One reason why the current model of work can feel alienating, to be choosing specialized functions without much integration. Our DNA didn't evolve that way. New waves of folks exploring farming are portrayed as trend followers, naïveté, or echoes of the "back to the land" movement; I think it's an indicator of deeper hunger. While full time farming isn't for everyone...having a place in care of the earth is. What do you think? :)
Toggle Commented May 8, 2013 on On Farming and Saturn's Return at Kitchen Kwento
On Farming and Saturn's Return
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All things move in cycles. "So, where is your farm?" I am sometimes asked. "I don't have one," I reply. At times the response is simply, "Oh." Or, "Why don't you get one yet?" Or, especially if the questioning is from relatives, "Then why did you spend all that time... Continue reading
Posted May 6, 2013 at Kitchen Kwento
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Aileen Suzara added a favorite at Burnt Lumpia: Filipino Food | Filipino Recipes | Culinary Hijinks
Feb 12, 2013
‘Āinatarian: A Conversation with Gigi Miranda
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Getting back to the source. Photo credit: Gigi Miranda I am lucky to have come of age where "local" was a way of life. In Hawai'i, ʻāina is land. Nurturing the land is to mālama ʻāina. I remember those who continued traditional practices - from pounding poi, to gathering limu,... Continue reading
Posted Feb 6, 2013 at Kitchen Kwento
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Navigating (and Nourishing) a New Year
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New year's arrived on a ridge in Tagaytay, the Philippines. It shifted into place somewhere between starlight, the smoke of fireworks, dark water, and poppers echoing into the night. My parents, sister and I were like children: we jumped up and down for luck, ran circles holding bags of clanging... Continue reading
Posted Jan 12, 2013 at Kitchen Kwento
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How To Cook An Aching Heart
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There is a time to simmer, and there is a time to toss it in and turn up the fire. As an undergraduate, I realized with dismay that I was not meant to be a biologist. I was more interested in biology's sweeping narratives of evolution, adaptation and attraction than... Continue reading
Posted Dec 2, 2012 at Kitchen Kwento
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Mom and Dad Agree: We Should Know About GMOs
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My parents have embraced change their entire lives. They were two young healthcare workers who fell in love, eloped, and faced the unknown of migrating from Manila to New Jersey in the 60's, learned how to disco and perm their hair in the 70's, bought a microwave in the 80's,... Continue reading
Posted Nov 4, 2012 at Kitchen Kwento
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Seeds of Inspiration: California's Prop 37
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(Note: this piece was originally published on October 25 at Hyphen Magazine) Angela Angel at work on "Free Our Seeds: Seeds Are Free." Photo by Robin David. It was 1985: the era of Madonna, the Reagan administration, and the Millenials. It was also the year that the US Patent and... Continue reading
Posted Nov 2, 2012 at Kitchen Kwento
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A Feast of Stories
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I'm a bit overwhelmed by the profusion of Bay Area Filipino/American History events. In a good way. From the Kodakan exhibit, to Oakland Museum's Dia de los Muertos exhibits, to Joe Bataan crooning at Yoshi's, to a 100-year-chronology and exhibit of Filipino civil rights struggles "We Are America: Resistance and... Continue reading
Posted Oct 13, 2012 at Kitchen Kwento
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Seed Story
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It's October. Welcome to 425+ years of Filipino American History. While reflecting on our community's legacies and connections to this land, we shed light on just how deeply this story is woven into the story of food and agricultural systems. This is true whether talking about the first Filipinos in... Continue reading
Posted Oct 6, 2012 at Kitchen Kwento
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Journey of a Coconut Kabayo
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The coconut kabayo (horse). Photo by Heidi Leung Panic. My kabayo was missing. In just one week, I was to lead a workshop on coconut cookery and this tool was essential. Sure, we would cook with canned and frozen coconut milk. Yet I wanted the kabayo to be there as... Continue reading
Posted Jun 15, 2012 at Kitchen Kwento
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Aileen Suzara is now following Tammy Donroe
Jun 15, 2012
Aileen Suzara added a favorite at Burnt Lumpia: Filipino Food | Filipino Recipes | Culinary Hijinks
Jun 10, 2012
We Are Already Here
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He wanted to apple galettes. Our farmstand only offered strawberry, and I told him so. "But I want apple," he insisted. It could have been a light bantering over fruit, in season or not, yet the exchange felt tense. His next words were the ones that got under my skin.... Continue reading
Posted Jun 4, 2012 at Kitchen Kwento
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Butanding and Bicol Express
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Mount Mayon rises like a dream in Donsol. Bicol is my father’s childhood region. It is coconut country. It is sili country. It is an alchemy of flavors, with dishes of smoky coconut milk laced with birdseye chilis. But while I dreamt of laing and pinanggat and chili-rich Bicol Express,... Continue reading
Posted Feb 12, 2012 at Kitchen Kwento
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Dragon Year, Dragon Fruit
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The Year of the Water Dragon is here. In the Philippines, January is thick with fiestas and areas such as Binondo in Manila are in full festival mode. But the place where my parents live is quiet, and just a few lonely firecrackers popped into the night. I suddenly missed... Continue reading
Posted Jan 23, 2012 at Kitchen Kwento
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Aileen Suzara is now following rictandag
Jan 8, 2012
Aileen Suzara is now following Nanette Louchart-Fletcher
Jan 8, 2012
2012 Is In the Details
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Happy New Year. I spent the first day of 2012 in the sky, waking and dozing over the restless Pacific. Hours of darkened skies transformed into dawn just as the plane shouldered into Manila. Now I write from my parent's quiet home, awake with jetlag yet soothed by the night... Continue reading
Posted Jan 6, 2012 at Kitchen Kwento
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Aileen Suzara added a favorite at Rummage
Jan 6, 2012
Filipino Soups for the Soul
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Soup makes my soul sing. Sharing soup with company is, well, even better. As the winter has slowly crept in I have been dreaming of a time to bring together family stories, warming soups, and many cooks in the kitchen. Last Saturday was the chance to do just that. Thanks... Continue reading
Posted Dec 22, 2011 at Kitchen Kwento
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The Hands That Harvest
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This week, on Thanksgiving week, I want to pause in gratitude to hands and especially the hands of the farmer. There is no turkey dinner, no cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie, without someone's hands touching our food at each point in its nearly invisible journey - from the fields, the... Continue reading
Posted Nov 23, 2011 at Kitchen Kwento
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The Other Kind of Barrel Man
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Back to barrel basics. BarrelManApps and Movement Generation. If you haven't yet seen the barrel man in real life, don't let me spoil it. Let me just say that both the iconic wooden figurine and its hidden "surprise," and the concept of saving rainwater in barrels, are familiar to many... Continue reading
Posted Nov 13, 2011 at Kitchen Kwento
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Where We Occupy
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where we occupy after june jordan by Aimee Suzara projectile canister fracture crack baton bullet teargas attack rise remote display destroy disturb the peace on native soil return release unsettle sleep unrest the dead upset unseat veils oya elegba watch bathala christ diwata cross baree baree tabi po tabi po... Continue reading
Posted Nov 9, 2011 at Kitchen Kwento
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Apple Cider from Scratch
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I'm craving fresh apple cider. I'll admit my heart had to be won over by a fruit that seemed to represent my parents longing for all things American while growing up in the Philippines. There, each apple arrived wrapped in a fitted foam sleeve. Each was crisp, imported and thus... Continue reading
Posted Oct 30, 2011 at Kitchen Kwento
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