👩🍳 Sabrina and Melissa debate over why online recipes turn into memoirs before getting to the ingredients? Watch the video here!
🍛 Melissa embarks on a personal journey through kitchens, cultures, and colonization, unraveling the tangled roots of curry and the stories we carry with it. Watch the doc here!
✨We have new bonus content! You can access extended interviews with recipe writers like The Korean Vegan, Internet Shaquille, and more on our website using this month’s password: RECIPE.
For the past year, I’ve been on a journey to document my family’s recipes — mainly to learn how to cook them for myself — but also to learn about their histories to better understand my own cultural identity. This passion project of mine turned into two projects you can find in this recipe website and this mini documentary (a dinner and a show, if you will lol).
In my website, Third Culture Kitchen, I share the traditions and instructions for dishes near and dear to my heart. I hope it shows how memories are a part of a dish and not just SEO like Sabrina argued in our recent video. In the documentary, A Tale of Two Curries, I unpack where those dishes sit in the historical tradition because what even is a curry? A spice? A dish? A Colonial misunderstanding? A whole lot of confusion it turns out.
On a more personal note, processing a lifetime’s worth of confusion and distilling all these feelings into this mini documentary was a challenge to say the least. I learned so much making it and now that I look back, it’s funny to me that though I spent a year on the project, it all really came together in the final 3 weeks - thanks to the incredible team behind it. Anyways, I hope you enjoy these projects and appreciate the fact that no one knows what a curry is and that’s exactly why it matters 🫶
-Melissa
🎧 Mixtape
Cooking for Two
This month’s playlist is all about turning up the heat—literally. Romanticize your life with this soundtrack that’s perfect for slow-dancing in the kitchen, chopping veggies with flair, and pretending you’re in a movie montage while your sauce simmers. Whether you’re whisking up a romantic dinner or vibing solo with a bowl of ramen, these tunes will make every moment feel like a recipe for a good time.
🔓 Patreon Unlocked
Our 2025 year theme
Every year, we set a theme for Answer in Progress, to guide our decisions as a business. Last year’s theme was “Ride the Rails” and you know how well terribly that went.
This year’s theme is “Space to Play” to remind us of all the reasons why we fell in love with learning in the first place. It’s about rediscovering the joy of experimenting and making mistakes without getting tangled in trends or algorithms. By focusing on play, we’re hoping to make curiosity our playground again instead of a performance.
We talk more about this theme and the motives behind it in this unlocked episode of our Patreon podcast.
If you want to support our work and get access to even more bonus content and aftershows, consider subscribing to our Patreon :)
🔦 Creator Spotlight
Mandelbro
We were first introduced to Mandelbro at a creative retreat where he performed a draft of this video in a tiny, sweaty room of 80 people. It was 4 months ago and I’ve thought about it every day since.
The Optimist Playbook is an innovative video essay, a musical banger, and also a beautiful reminder to choose hope, even when it feels like the hardest option.
⏭️ Up Next
💳 Sabrina uncovers the hidden costs of going cashless and explores how payment systems have evolved—from bartering to tapping your phone.
🙏 Thank You
Thank you for subscribing and following our chaotic little journey - see ya next month!
