Small-Scale Violence

A good white cake is about the perfect balance.

You see,

how stingy the lemon sauce, 

how generous the vanilla frosting, 

A Pastry Chef, who is in the search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, told me how a decent chocolate chip cookie should taste like.

We bite into this cookie together. 

Small-Scale Violence. 

"During grandpa's visiting hours in the hospital,  my mother would open a bag of treats she prepared for him and lay them on the table-- an assortment of Twix and Snickers, cloying sweet instant coffees and a random assortment of cookies my mom collected over the week.  “Why are you feeding him all these unhealthy things?” I would ask, watching him unwrap each treat one by one and devour it with childlike glee. “He is old, and he loves it,” she would answer. Even though desserts were served at his funeral, I doubt whether my grandpa ever truly liked sweets. I think he was placating my mother. I started to consider how this attitude has been passed down in my family-- this hidden power of sugar addiction."