If you like my article, I’d like your vote.

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I usually don’t take part in competitions. It just gives me heartburn. And forget about winning anything, it leads to negative investment when I lose (aka tub of ice cream to cry my losses into.) But this time was different. The topic of the competition pulled on an emotional chord of my heart that has been rubbed raw this year. The whole process of trying to start Frying Pan Adventures and the conversations it has sparked – with parents, with friends, with journalists, with random people who I suddenly make my Agony Aunts of the moment – those conversations have really made me internalize. And when you’re a swamp of gooey, murky, incoherent, nebulous thoughts like I am, internalizing can be shit scary.

I wrote the article and entered the competition for that reason. That, and honestly, after frittering away my life savings on getting a blasted license for the food tours, it would really nice to make even the tiniest bit of money so I can actually record a piddly something on the incomes side of my life profit & loss statement.

So do give the article a read when you’re desperately trying to melt into the monitor and look like you’re engrossed in reading something official when the boss strolls by. Warning, the article is long and hairy and struggling to decide what it really wants to be. But it is what it is, and I’ve entered it. Vote by leaving a comment or using the social media ‘like’ or ‘share’ buttons at the bottom of the article. OR, if you hate the article to bits…here, let me make place on the boat of haters right next to me – then feel free to not vote. The article was about trying to put perspective on things, and it won’t do either of us any good if social media vote-rigging and false-likes and generic comments about ‘great clicks!’ on a post that is pretty much, photo-less, distorts that perspective.

Here’s the article link: http://www.expatsblog.com/contests/17/making-myself-right-at-home

FYI, my personal favourite is this article by an English Lit teacher in Turkey. Incredible writing and she deserves to win. If you have time to read one, and only one article, hands down I’d go with hers.

CategoriesHomeless Post :( My doodle laboratory

Author: InaFryingPan

With a family legacy of ingenious cooks, a nutritionist and chef-extraordinaire mother, and a father who introduced me to steak and caviar when I could barely reach the table, I had no choice but to acquire a keen awareness of food during my childhood years in Dubai. But it was only after I found myself on a college campus in Philadelphia – far away from home, too cheap as a student to spend on anything other than pizza, and with dorm rooms that had little rat-holes of kitchens if they even had them at all – when I developed a heightened appreciation of food. An appreciation of food that I once ate every night at the dinner table in Dubai, but that was now an entire ocean away. I lusted for the culinary treasures that lay outside the stale walls of my college dining hall, hijacked friends’ kitchens to try my hand at something, anything , remotely edible, and greedily raided different websites in search of highly-rated restaurants. With my move to New York to work for a consulting firm that secretly harbored self-professed foodies, my appreciation transformed into a passion, an addicition. I felt like everyone around me in New York was talking about food: where to get the best cupcakes, pizza slices, banh mi, kati rolls, pho, fried chicken, and every other food item out there that is just a plain old dish in some part of the world, but that’s become hyped to unforeseen proportions in New York. What fuelled my addiction over time was travel to different cities, both for work and play, which gave me unfettered access to the culinary havens of not only New York, but also of DC, Virginia, Chicago, Houston, Vegas, Austin, Seattle and even a little city called Bentonville (Arkansas!). After 9 years away from home, I’ve finally taken the leap to come back to Dubai – with not just an awareness, but genuine appreciation and passionate addiction for what I’d taken for granted as a child. Mom, I’m back to reclaim my seat at your dinner table, and to rediscover this city with its ever-expanding menu of international flavors.

4 thoughts on “If you like my article, I’d like your vote.”

  1. Guest says:

    Brilliantly written article – the one on expats blog… as always you
    write down all the dilemmas before we can nail them down on paper (after
    they have started lugging at the heart)! No place to comment there,
    hence commenting in here… I had time only to read one article – so
    read only yours. Good wishes:)

    Reply
  2. IshitaUnblogged says:

    Brilliant! – the one on expats blog… as always you
    write down all the dilemmas before we can nail them down on paper (after
    they have started lugging at the heart)! No place to comment there,
    hence commenting in here… I had time only to read one article – so
    read only yours. Good wishes:)

    Reply
    1. inafryingpan says:

      thanks @ishitaunblogged:disqus ! You are incredibly kind, and thanks for the comment on the article contest site :)

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