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| | Padma Lakshmi 'demanded' Tabasco everywhere as a kid: 'I couldn't taste anything' | | Added 4 years ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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I?m the kind of person who sometimes tears up during cooking shows. It?s because my mind wanders and I start thinking about the immigrant history (and current immigrant experience) of America and how all of these different people from all over the world brought their food to America and how food unites us as a people. Basically, I think a lot about food constantly, which is a very Indian thing, and Padma Lakshmi is the same. She?s got a new Hulu show called Taste of the Nation where she travels around the country and explores all of these immigrant-cuisines which were brought to America. She chatted with Parade about food and the show and more. Some highlights:
She was just a child when her family immigrated to America: ?When I first came to this country, we were limited in where we could go out to eat because I needed rice. I come from a rice culture in South India, so we?d have to go to a Chinese restaurant or a Mexican restaurant. And even though I was a young child, I was demanding Tabasco in my little Indian accent because I couldn?t taste anything.?
On hot dogs: When her mom introduced her to a New York City institution?hot dog carts?the then-vegetarian Lakshmi ordered hers with everything on it. Minus the hot dog.
She didn?t get peanut butter: ?I?d go to friends? houses and they?d make me a PB&J sandwich and I?d go, ?Oh, my God, I can?t?it?s stuck to the roof of my mouth. Now I love peanut butter, but unless you?ve grown up with it, it?s a very odd ingredient.?
Her packed lunches: Like many immigrant kids, she longed to fit in, and the school lunches of dinnertime leftovers packed by her busy single working mom didn?t make it easy. ?I was terrified to open my lunch box,? Lakshmi recalls. The fragrant Indian fare in her lunch was a stark contrast to her classmates? humdrum baloney sandwiches. ?When you opened my Tupperware, you?d get all this curry smell coming out. Indian food is delicious, but it?s not very visually appealing. I?d cringe, and kids were really mean: ?What is that? It stinks!? One of the reasons I think I was so skinny when I was a kid was because I didn?t want to open the box up.?
There is no ?all-American? food: ?We like to say that something is ?as American as apple pie. But there?s nothing American about an apple pie. Not one ingredient is from North America, not even the apples, not the cinnamon, not the lard or rendered fat or butter, not the milled flour?none of it.? Even hot dogs are German contributions, as she explores in the show?s Milwaukee episode. ?Until 100 years ago, nobody thought hot dogs were quintessentially American,? she says.
She spends an episode highlighting New York?s Indian American community, and it features her daughter Krishna: Krishna is biracial, Lakshmi says, and her culinary experience reflects that. ?She goes to her father?s house, which is [more traditionally American] when it comes to food. And then she goes to her mom?s house, where we eat with our hands if we?re having Indian food.? (Growing up on the Top Chef set also helped foster her daughter?s adventurous palate, she says.) But those kinds of ?layers of culture make us who we are. I think that?s what makes America special. We might speak different languages, we may have different spices on our chicken, but at the end of the day the deeper issues are very much the same.?
[From Parade]
I?m fine with some Indian food, but there?s one dish which makes me so sick, even if I just smell it, I feel like throwing up (even when my dad used to make it from scratch, I would have to leave the room/house). While I like a little spice, I?m also from the old-school (?) of ?I want to taste what I?m actually eating.? I feel that way about spicy Indian food and I feel that way about barbecue too why are you lathering good meat in all of these ridiculous sauces and rubs? I want to taste the actual meat, not get a mouthful of vinegar, curry powder and tomato sauce. Anyway, yeah this sounds like a cool series.
Photos courtesy of WENN, cover courtesy of Parade.
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| | Angelina Jolie: 'Listen to those who are being oppressed & never assume to know' | | Added 4 years ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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Angelina Jolie has an interesting interview in the latest issue of Harper?s Bazaar UK. Honestly, it should have been the cover! Her son Knox Jolie-Pitt photographed Angelina for the magazine, and you can see those sweet photos here. She spoke with Bazaar about the pandemic, refugees and racism. She?s been in lockdown in LA for months, and as we?ve already seen, she?s been using this time to write and use the media to draw attention to the issues she cares about. Some highlights from her interview:
Whether the lockdown changed her perspective on what matters: ?I was fortunate years ago to travel with the UN to frontlines around the world and put into perspective what really matters. Having six children, I am reminded daily of what matters. But after almost two decades of international work, this pandemic and this moment in America has made me rethink the needs and suffering within my own country. I am focusing both globally and domestically; they are of course linked. There are over 70 million people who?ve had to flee their homes worldwide because of war and persecution and there is racism and discrimination in America. A system that protects me but might not protect my daughter ? or any other child, woman or man in our country based on skin colour ? is intolerable. We need to progress beyond sympathy and good intentions to laws and policies that actually address structural racism and impunity. Ending abuses in policing is just the start. It goes far beyond that, to all aspects of society, from our education system to our politics.
Advice for talking about racism: ?To listen to those who are being oppressed and never assume to know.?
The most faith-restoring things she?s witnessed: ?The way people are rising. Saying that they are tired with the excuses and half-measures, and showing solidarity with each other in the face of inadequate responses by those in power. It feels like the world is waking up, and people are forcing a deeper reckoning within their societies. It is time to make changes in our laws and our institutions ? listening to those who?ve been most affected and whose voices have been excluded.
The most horrifying impacts of lockdown, other than the plight of refugees: ?The other horror is domestic violence. The reality before lockdown was that the most dangerous place for a woman to be was in her home. During lockdown, the abuse and level of violence has risen. Above all my concern is for the children. The number of children we know at this very moment are being abused keeps me up at night. There is a global health crisis for children from abuse, neglect and the effects of that trauma. And not nearly enough done to protect them?.We still turn a blind eye to domestic violence. We often don?t believe survivors, we don?t put the rights of children first or take their trauma seriously. Our child protection services are not adequately resourced and funded. They lack proper training. So do judges. In America, there isn?t even a nationwide register of child abuse deaths or an agreed definition of death caused by maltreatment, meaning we can?t even track the scale of the problem effectively. It is my belief that not only those who commit the abuse but those who cover and dismiss it, must be held accountable. Everyone says that they are against domestic violence, but it is these kinds of very specific things we need to change and the protection of children should be at the heart of it.
What she?s been reading & watching in isolation: ?I am in listening mode most hours of the day. I follow TIME magazine, the New York Times, the BBC World Service and BLM activists online. Most recently, I?ve watched the documentary I Am Not Your Negro, about James Baldwin and the Civil Rights movement in America. Before bed, I?ve been reading Unreasonable Behavior by Don McCullin and reflecting on how journalism has changed in the last half a century.
The kids adopted disabled bunnies: ?Like most parents, I focus on staying calm so my children don?t feel anxiety from me on top of all they are worrying about. I put all my energy into them. During the lockdown, Vivienne lost a bunny during a surgery, and we adopted two sweet little ones who are disabled. They need to be in pairs. They are so gentle and it has helped to focus on their care with her at this time. And on the dogs, and snake and lizard?
[From Harper?s Bazaar UK]
While this is not the biggest headline from this interview, I friggin? love that Angelina?s kids are obsessed with animals and that Vivienne has disabled bunnies and they all live in a Hollywood mansion with bunnies, lizards, snakes and dogs. The Jolie-Pitt kids are amazing. As for the rest of it? I love her but my God she?s a Debbie Downer. I get it though she talked about not being able to sleep because she was thinking about all of the abused kids who don?t have a safe place and I felt that. She also talked about how she?s doing a kids? book in association with Amnesty International about how kids across the world can stand up for their rights.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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| | Kelly Clarkson filed for divorce from Brandon Blackstock, her husband of six years | | Added 4 years ago | Source: CeleBitchy |
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Kelly Clarkson married Brandon Blackstock in October 2013. She was pregnant with their first child together when they got married, and they welcomed River Rose in 2014, and then Remington Alexander in 2016. There was always a strange kind of vibe to Brandon and their marriage. Just weeks after their 2013 wedding, there were rumors (strong rumors) that Brandon cheated on Kelly. Her popularity and what I would assume her money whitewashed those rumors in the mainstream press, and Kelly always gushed about Brandon a little bit too much, especially regarding their amazing sex life (hm). And now it?s all gone to hell in a BIG hurry. Kelly has filed for divorce.
Kelly Clarkson is ending her nearly seven-year marriage to husband Brandon Blackstock. Citing irreconcilable differences, the singer, 38, filed for divorce in Los Angeles on June 4, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE on Thursday. The papers list the couples separation date as TBD.
Clarkson and Blackstock, who wed in October 2013, share two kids: daughter River Rose, 6 on Friday, and son Remington Alexander, 4. He is also father to son Seth, 13, and daughter Savannah, 18, from a previous marriage.
Clarkson had been social distancing at the couples Montana ranch with Blackstock and their children amid the coronavirus pandemic, even filming remote episodes of her talk show The Kelly Clarkson Show from their home. Clarkson put her Los Angeles home on the market for nearly $10 million in April, but has since removed it. Their family had been living full-time at their home in L.A. after they relocated from Tennessee so Clarkson can film her NBC daytime program.
[From People]
Yeah, my immediate thought was ?he was cheating? but my second thought was ?another coronavirus divorce.? The pandemic and more than that, the lockdown has forced a lot of already-rocky marriages to reach a boiling point. Kelly is reportedly worth about $45 million, and she?s already asking the court to enforce the existing prenup (clever girl). She?s asking the court to order joint legal custody of their two kids as well. There?s some Twitter tea I was trying to crowdsource about the Blackstock family and how Brandon?s father was married to Reba McIntyre and how his dad was rumored to be a womanizer too. Hm. Learned behaviors.
The Blast broke the story and they ran like twenty follow-ups, one of which was that their ?sources? say that the split is totally amicable and there was no affair, and their friends were shocked because Kelly and Brandon always seemed so loved up.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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