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I love blogs that are complicated, that don't fit neatly into a little magazine-column slot by topic or focus, or that don't simplify life, or a concept, down to a little point like a too-sharp pencil. White on Rice Couple, Angry Black Woman, and Nyonya Food stood out to me this week as blogs that I love because of their breadth and complexity!
White on Rice Couple is a wife & husband mostly-food blog. I love how it's way more than recipes - it's a garden, kitchen, food, and travel blog, complete with cute photos of Diane and Todd on their motorcycle. Inspired by the concept of Victory Gardens, they explain how you can have your own garden even on a patio, or indoors. They analyze and think about food and travel and the things they do - in depth, but always in a way to where you can tell they have a great time. It's a blog full of deep enthusiasm!
Why “White On Rice Couple”?
Because it’s a fun term that describes us well. Todd was born on a cattle ranch in North Eastern Oregon and Diane was born in Da-Nang, Vietnam. Without taking ourselves too seriously or sounding corny, we do enjoy each others company, companionship, love and friendship. In other words we stick together like “White On Rice”, inseparable. Often times though, we’re literally taken as a sexual connotation and readers come to us hoping to find porno. To their pleasant surprise, they’re bombarded by food, our garden and our dogs. Bummer for them.
And yes, we like to ride free and fast too. But SAFE! Just don’t tell Diane’s mother.
I love how they're so outspoken, opinionated, and full of enthusiasm -- all with great writing. Read what Diane has to say about loving old objects... antique store or junk shop, how old objects are full of stories and secrets, family and history - the beautiful ways they hold ghosts.
The Angry Black Woman is a fantastic politics and culture blog. Its three writers, The Angry Black Woman, karnythia, and unusualmusic, keep up a high degree of awesome and passionate analysis as they take apart bigotry in the U.S. health care system, invite readers to help compile lists of Mindblowing Science Fiction by People of Color, or do high level roundups of racism in casting of Asian-American actors including but not at all limited to Avatar: The Last Airbender. Recently, I especially loved their posts for International Blog Against Racism Week; karnythia's We Have Feelings Too or The cost of Being a POC in Race Discussions, and The Angry Black Woman's Intersectionality,
You’ve seen us talk about it a lot as concerns feminism, and how mainstream feminists relate (or don’t relate) to women of color. How the issues that we face as people of color, as people of color from various cultural, ethnic and national backgrounds, AND as women are different to the ones faced by white women. They are related, but not always the same. We cannot divorce our gender from our race/ethnicity.
This is a blog whose continued existence heartens me daily. It stays complicated!
The comments on ABW are always interesting, instructive, and sometimes infuriating. The blog's writers have had to learn over the years how to be community moderators on very hot topics: racism and sexism in all their incarnations. To that end they present Required Reading and very clear rules for their commenters and for email feedback. It is really worth studying their techniques of community discourse.
On Nyonya Food, Bee Yinn Low passes on recipes that are her family tradition; Chinese or Peranakan cooking from the Malaysian Straits. She takes an in-depth look at individual ingredients like tamarind, and goes into detail about how to make Assam Laksa (Nyonya Noodles with Fish Broth. I like how each recipe has several photos in a little slide show, and all the family history Bee puts into her recipes.
With collaboration of my family members—aunt, sister, and sister-in-law—Nyonya food is a website dedicated to Nyonya cuisine, culture, and traditions. It’s also a place my family and I document all precious Nyonya recipes passed down
