Scarlet and I just returned from a life-changing trip to Southeast Asia – we have a bestie that is currently living in Singapore, and we toured Bangkok, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka together.  We both have so much to write and share with you about this trip, but I thought I would tackle the most important feature first – FOOD!!!  We had some absolutely amazing meals while in each country, including a splurge night to the 2 Michelin star restaurant Gaggan, but I‘d like to talk about two regional dishes which were our favorites.

The first dish was in Bangkok, and it is called Kanom Krok.  These are tiny, round filled pancakes made of coconut milk and tapioca and rice flour.  About the size of a golf ball and a little flatter but still rounded, these little pop-in-your-mouth gems are usually filled with more coconut (how can you go wrong), sweet corn kernels, or for a savory treat, green onions.  They can be filled with lots of other ingredients, but their taste and flavor are out of this world.  They are made in a special cast iron skillet that has the rounded divots already in it, AND I WANT ONE.  These were hard to find, as they are definitely a street food but not sold everywhere – we really had to look for them.  When we found them, it was a delight!

The next dish is something that is pretty common, and you have probably had it – but I had never had it the way they made it in Sri Lanka.  The dish is roti, which is a flatbread that is popular in India and throughout Southeast Asia.  In Sri Lanka, one popular way to make it is with coconut and wheat flour (pol roti).  We went to the same roti shop in Mirissa both nights we stayed there, and they had the best filled roti I have ever eaten – prawn with egg and cheese, vegetables with cheese, and the dessert roti were NEXT LEVEL.  They made a banoffee (banana and toffee) roti served with a scoop of ice cream that was so delicious I wanted to punch someone.  After doing a little research, I think what we were served is called godamba roti or oil roti.  If you look up some recipes, these look fairly easy, but the technique is more than likely the catch here!  There is also a popular roti dish called kottu, which is fascinating to watch – the roti is cut up on a grill along with vegetables, meats, or whatever else they are adding, and cut repeatedly with two pieces of steel.  It results in a lot of rhythmic drumming/cooking sounds, and it is so much fun (and delicious.)

I saw so much, and we had a wealth of fantastic food in this part of the world – it‘s a trip that I highly recommend not only on a spiritual level, but also a great trip if you love food.

Blessed journey,
–Blackbird

“You should have known better than to steal from a witch,” I whispered into the silence, my venom soaked voice awash with rage. “You should have known better than to steal from me.”

Stolen. My money. My identity. My name. By someone with the sheer audacity to call MY BANK and pretend TO BE ME. To answer to my name, to utter details of my life she had no right to.

She should have known better.

I need a custodian, I thought to myself, someone to be where I could not, someone to guard my name.

One’s name is sacred, their identity holy- to masquerade as another, a witch no less, is not only blasphemous, it’s downright dangerous.

You should have known better.

So I wrote my full name on a paper, intent to will a servator crafted from the very thing I would send it to protect. I crossed out letters that were multiples and then gathered the remaining letters into groups based on their shapes: ANM HILE GC R. From there I distilled the letters into basic shapes to tweak and combine, to sketch and mold until I could breathe life into my servator, the embodiment of my wrath, the personification of my own name.

You should have known better, I chanted as I worked.

I twisted my name into a sigil, pulling the letters into a new shape instilled with power, until I could feel my servator solidify with purpose. Then I named her. A German name because what language sounds as angry as German?

I sang her name, chanting to my ancestors and the spirits, and as I worked I drew her sigil upon my arm to further strengthen our connection.

“You are a witch’s wrath,” I sang to her, “Guard my name.”

You should have known better than to steal from me.

~Lily