December 2020 - CONTINGENT

Personal Pan Histories: Turnips

“For my family, boiled turnips became a reminder of my grandmother’s suffering.”

“I don’t need to fit perfectly into one culture to feel like I truly belong.”

Jell-O remains an easy, popular way to enter the domestic realm.

It was the only dark chocolate my grandmother liked.

A cake made without milk or butter? Don’t tell the Minnesota Dairy Industry Committee!

My great-grandmother Sylvia’s stuffed cabbage held an out-sized role in my culinary imagination.

I suppose it really is addiction. But I’ve quit most of the other fun ones.

As a picky eater, I ate oodles of instant noodles growing up.

“To see scholars use the papers in their own research to produce groundbreaking history is something we celebrate.”

It might be a simple dish, yet it’s one I hold close to my heart—and a symbol, for me, of the Armenian immigrant experience.