THE B-SIDE

Food is how I connect with people. Whether it be debating the best place for breakfast in Ann Arbor (Frank’s), swapping recipes (ask Saarthak for his salmon fried rice recipe) or sharing a bag of the best snack food (caramel cheddar popcorn), I find that food is at the center of many of my favorite interactions with others. 

In this B-Side, you’ll find that food acts as a way of telling stories. From Allison Wei’s journeys through joy and celebration with cake to Graciela Batlle Cestero’s ode to her mother’s chicken soup, each writer has found a way to connect their lives to food. And it’s no mistake that thinking about food unlocks so many powerful memories. It’s something so integral to our survival, yet so malleable to forces like creativity, love and grief. Food, and by extension cooking, is art. It’s a way for us to express ourselves — our talents, our desires and our feelings for others. It is so incredibly human of us to take the things that fulfill one of our most basic needs and turn them into community-building, culture-defining works of art.

So take a moment and read through these pieces. Think about the last great meal you had, or maybe the last terrible one. Find where food factors into your life, and what your relationship with it might be. Appreciate the act of consuming something prepared for you — whether by your own hands or somebody else’s.

We’ve all gotta eat, after all.

— Senior Arts Editor Hunter Bishop

An illustration of rapper lil Baby. He is sitting on a throne of potato chips.
Lil Baby can rap, but does he snack: A Rap Snacks review
Nickolas Holcomb Digital illustration of ratatouille, the dish, with the Eiffel Tower in the background
Food does not always come to those who love to cook
James Johnston Illustration of a girl and her mother baking framed on a place setting.
It’s not as easy as baking a cake
Serena Irani Illustration of a bowl of soup with a can of sprite, a book, a teddy bear, a TV, and a bowl of chicken and rice.
Chicken soup with a side of maternal love
Graciela Batlle Cestero Illustration of the top of a cake with a frog head on it.
To all the cakes I’ve loved before
Allison Wei Illustration of a blue place mat with a fork and spoon, and in the center a pink circle with a brown hand holding an orange inside.
My atypical Desi American college essay: ‘Flavors of Youth’ in 5 variations
Saarthak Johri An illustration of an apartment view of the night sky in Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background. Sitting on the windowsill is a steaming plate of Ratatouille.
An unofficial ranking of Food Network celebrity chefs
Laine Brotherton