‘Life’ Archives
Advice to Harvard freshman (the hardest part is getting in)
A reader, Vivian, emailed me to ask for advice to incoming Harvard freshman, particularly in regards to writing. This is my response, with the caveat that it's aimed towards a particular personality type. (i.e. if you're hyper driven and prone to biting off more than you can chew.) A lot is applicable to college students in general. Advice to incoming college freshman Lesson 1: Life sucks [...]
Gluttony as Work: Interning at Serious Eats
Working at Serious Eats is, pardon my pun, serious business. What are aren't paid in wages we're more than compensated for in amazing food - the creme de la creme of what New York can offer. I've sampled NYC's top 7 falafel sandwiches, 11 bowls of the best Taiwanese shaved ice, and countless sandwiches. Whenever editors travel, they tend to bring back regional specialties - chess pie from [...]
Asian Girl Cooking: Growing Pains
I didn't want to be that sad person, standing bare footed in my mother's kitchen and eating a Bisquick-and-parmesean-cheese creation straight over the cast iron pan. But here I was, eating my cheesy biscuit thing. The Bisquick was at least 4 or 5 years old. Yeah, I know. Cooking in my mother's kitchen, with her pantry, presents a unique set of challenges. After leafing through two [...]
My thoughts on freelance writing
For awhile, I seriously considered being a freelance writer. I took a few books out of the library and talked to other freelance writers. And just to check in, I'll still chat to freelancers about their decision to skip a steady paycheck, so I have a reasonably informed sense of what the job is like. But I'm not going to be a freelance writer. At least, not as my full-time occupation. There [...]
How to convince people that your liberal arts degree is useful
I'll never forget a conversation I had with an American expat. We happened to be at a faux-exclusive club in Shanghai with shark tanks and a glittering, ghostly clientele. It was a clear night, save for the fuzz of smog that filtered the 24th floor view through the violet gauze of pollution. He asked where I went to school. I was a rising junior at Harvard at the time; he had graduated [...]
Crowdsourcing my blog entries
Hi denizens of the Internet, Asian women, unseemly lovers of Asian women, Harvard students, and their ilk: I want to try something out. Actually, I want you to figure out what I should try out. After all, you know better than me what to do with stale cake, why Chinese food is so damn cheap, why I'm wrong for eating innocent whale flesh, and where to grocery shop in Boston. So I want [...]
Drinks at M Bar at the Mandarin Oriental
M Bar at the Mandarin Oriental reminds me of Shanghai's slickly overproduced watering holes. The difference is that in China, these kinds of establishments stock only the most svelte and snowy-skinned of waitstaff, the kind with faces that inspire as much protection as possession. (The physicality of Chinese beauty hits you in a very different way from Western beauty. Even at its most [...]
How not to date a foodie – A Valentine’s Day post
"Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly." - MFK Fisher One of my friends is a half-Asian stunner who loves food as much as I do. We were sharing some very forgettable Indian tapas and swapping stories about our love lives. "He's great, and so sweet," she said of her boyfriend. "But I know he's not the One. He doesn't like to [...]
When I was 17
I wrote this for my college application essay. In China, I found cheese a bit of a conundrum. Only high end supermarkets would carry it, and even then, the selection was about as good as the average gas station. It's nice to be spoiled again, being back in Boston, where plenty of local cheesemakers churn out all sorts of gourmet cheddars and goat cheeses. In the meantime, since I've not [...]
How to pick a date restaurant: advice from food writer MC Slim JB
I thought I would highlight a comment from my fav Boston food writer (for the Phoenix and STUFF) MC Slim JB. I wrote a semi-serious post on how to choose a date restaurant where I warned men not to take me to Bertucci's. He adds a few good points: My advice on this score includes: don’t pick someplace expensive (looks like you’re trying too hard), do pick a place that makes really good [...]
How to pick a date restaurant
The question I get asked most often is: "Where should I take my romantic interest on a date?" When you ask me this, I secretly congratulate you on "dating." The media often presents a rather skewed vision of college life, with claims of "rainbow parties" in middle school (I thought rainbows were the things that came after rainstorms) and incessant "hookup culture." I'm not convinced [...]
An anthropological view of beauty pageants
Once upon a time, I was a contestant in Miss New York USA 2010, and I blogged a lot about it. And posted photos of my experience. If you read coverage, you'll find that I had a positive experience overall. I also noted in my paper that my dieting/exercising/obsessing was probably more appropriate for someone competing on the national level - so my stress level was definitely more elevated [...]
[Photo Album] Hey, Remember That Time I Tried to be a Beauty Queen?
![[Photo Album] Hey, Remember That Time I Tried to be a Beauty Queen?](http://lingboli.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/imgp4792-300x225.jpg "[Photo Album] Hey, Remember That Time I Tried to be a Beauty Queen?")
Love her! Everything a beauty queen should be - smart, ambitious, and yes, gorgeous. This photo shall serve as photo evidence that I was indeed, for two brief seconds, ever so fit and tan. I'm a little scared by the ribs, but I think that's just my oversize skeleton poking through. Yeah, I had no idea why they had cadets there either. There are just some things you don't [...]
Getting fat again
So I use "fat" in a tongue-in-cheek way. But I definitely spent the last few weeks watching what I ate, which meant no crazy banquet dinners, dinners of scrambled egg whites and vegetables, and the occasional helping of cheese dip, heaped high with guilt. As a result, my stomach became a cast iron tank. My collarbone and ribcage took greater prominence. When I lay down, I marveled at how my [...]
Some reflections on pageantry
So it's back to being a civilian again. I applied a slick of black eyeliner and donned my skinniest jeans to commemorate the thinnest that I have ever been - I'm doing some guilt-free gorging on sushi, Chinese food, and lattes for a few days. Being in a pageant made me realize (although my friends have been telling me for a long time) that I'm thin. For some reason, I assumed that [...]
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