Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Feast.
Late Night Toast
Growing up, I struggled to make friends. The Locals in my hometown were set in their ways, and there was no changing it. Being a more open-minded child made me sort of a social outcast. But, I had one friend I could rally on to be there for me no matter what, my grandfather Doc. My grandfather was a great man. He was always there for me, no matter what. He was also very ill with kidney failure. A concept I didn’t quite understand until I was much older. Because he was so sick, he had to take an array of medications at various times of the day and night. Every summer, I would spend two weeks with him in July. Maybe more, depending on my mother’s summer plans. Despite going to Dialysis every morning, he never let his sickness stop him from taking me on many adventures. Boy, did we have fun! We would go to the theater to watch plays. We go to the video rental store and spend hours deciding what movies to watch that night. Then we would head to the nearby mall to buy all toys and books I could carry in my tiny arms. My favorite part of the day was going to the thrift store in town and conjuring up little stories for the trinkets we came across inside. When we got back to his house, we would eat dinner, and spend the rest of the night watching the movies, or old TV shows like The Munsters and Bewitched. As the evening hours approached, we would move the party outside. We sat on the porch swing watching the sunset over the nearby riverbank. The colors were as stunning as my grandfather’s strength. As the stars began to pop out, we went back inside to wash up for the night. Around nine o’clock, we would all head to bed. I would sleep on the folding cot near the foot of his bed because of the limited space in the house. This is where the battle of wills began. While he and my grandmother slept, I would watch TV to fight the urge to sleep myself. It wasn’t a hard fight, though. Growing up, I was always a night owl, so staying up past my bedtime wasn’t the issue. But staying awake until two in the morning could be challenging for a kid. I would sit there on my little cot, trying my best to keep my eyes open. No matter how badly I wanted to, I knew I couldn’t fall asleep. At long last, two o’clock would come. The first sign I knew it was time was when the TV would click off. My grandfather had it set on a timer so that I wouldn’t fall asleep leaving it on. The next clue was the part I was waiting for all night. I heard him shuffling to get up in bed.
By M.L. Lewis2 years ago in Feast
Intertidal Magic
I am not a native Pacific Northwesterner. My husband and children have that birthright; for me, I fell in love in my twenties with this misty region where snow-capped volcanoes and rocky mountains mingle with temperate rainforests and orcas frequent the inland sea. It is home to giant tides, where the vertical height of the water can change by sixteen feet within a single day- it can creep over shorelines to shape beaches at one point, and twelve hours later it will draw back to the point that entire bays and sandbars appear, the waterline now more than a thousand feet from shore. It is here, within the mysterious intertidal zone, that my favorite mysteries of the Northwest lay waiting to be discovered. It is also home to one of my favorite delicacies, intertidal clams.
By Penny Fuller2 years ago in Feast
Food, Man, Food…. Top Story - June 2022.
I am not one of those people who has a million skills. Most days I feel like a barely functioning adult who will take every gold star I can get, so long as I earned them honestly. That out of the way, I know food. I considered going into the service industry for a living and decided not to because I realized it would make me hate doing something I enjoy, which would have drastically skewed my outlook on summers and what they bring. Fresh sliced watermelon that was picked at just the right time, so it’s juicy and sweet. Cold cocktails with friends in the hot dry evenings of the Southwest. Ice cream with my kids after a long day of working in the sun. All of that is so intertwined with Summer in my memories that I can almost smell them on the long days waiting for the sun to set in the western horizon, starting somewhere around the middle of May, when New Mexico starts to really warm up.
By Travis Rawlins 2 years ago in Feast
The Skewered Pork Barbecue
Summer tastes like an abominably spiced-up, sizzling-hot pork barbecue to me. Interestingly, I do not remember how many times I have said that, but it is more than a few times. To be fair, summer also smells like a lot of other things to me; freshly-cut grass, salt water, suntan lotion, scorching sun on white sand, sun-bleached sheets on a cool bed, and scalloped potatoes—and I can barely believe the sheer coincidence between the first option in this essay prompt and my actual, real-life olfactory relationship to summertime. Oh, and how can I forget Shalimar; the favorite—and quite frankly, exclusive—fragrance of Mrs. Denali.
By Sarah Elisha2 years ago in Feast
Just Right
My favourite summer food is chocolate. This is because my favourite food is chocolate. In the winter time, chocolate is warm hued riches, a gratifyingly fatty sparkle of the exotic, a hug tinged with eroticism even as it holds you safe like a loving parent. In the summer, chocolate is….the same. But also, a little sickly and prone to melting. Like me, chocolate was not made for hot climates, and I, alas, was not made for chocolate, every dose plunging me into hours of lying still in darkened rooms, my head splintering in ultra slow motion. This is not an optimal way to enjoy the bounty of summer, and so let me turn my attention to other foods, if not rivals, then other runners, worthy of note.
By Hannah Moore2 years ago in Feast
Mac N Cheese
I love mac and cheese. It's the easiest recipe to learn how to make as a child. I mean, the first thing you know is how to pour your cereal into your bowl and then your milk into your bowl without spilling it. You're a kid! After you accomplish that, you think you can conquer anything.
By Irene Mielke2 years ago in Feast
Camp Cookies
by Lennox Ó'Súilleabháin To say Camp Emerald Bay was beautiful would be an understatement. Idyllic and pristine, isolated in its own bay on the remote Santa Catalina Island, twenty-two miles off the coast of Southern California. The bay for which it was named clear and blue, beautiful both above and below the waves. A colorful array of sea life in its rocky waters. The camp running long into the rivets of the valleys that fed out to the ocean. Far from the orange glow of the Los Angeles sprawl, at night the Camp rested under a vast star cover. It was a place to explore, a place to relax, a place to make lifelong summer memories. This, however, is not about the camp itself. It is about its food.
By Lennox O'Suilleabhain2 years ago in Feast
No Taste Like Home
My first time making my mom's famous potato salad didn't go so well. I had been living with my partner in our first apartment and, after being unable to visit my family for a while during lockdown, I was craving more than just a phone call and he was craving my mother's cooking.
By Sarah Shea2 years ago in Feast
Destination Picnics
Every time I eat a sub sandwich, I know something is missing. It can be a top-rated ensemble, but if it is not eaten in the right context, it will not compare. Sure, it tastes great, yet there is a piece of me that knows it is not right. Somewhere along the way, there was a wrong turn. Let me explain by taking you back to my childhood days.
By Megan Somero2 years ago in Feast
Food for the Soul. Top Story - June 2022.
There is no single food that entirely encapsulates summer. Such constriction in this season of freedom is unnatural. Summertime is for Mom and Pop’s places; for make-shift melon stands; for pomegranate-stained fingers and popsicle-painted faces. It’s for that blackberry cobbler recipe your great aunt tucked in the back of her bible, all the while, claiming dessert this good has got to be a sin. It’s the closest we get to the good ole days and the furthest we get from the troubles of now.
By Hailey Narvaez2 years ago in Feast