Hi, … this is going to be awkward … I am not good at voicing out in public, not even through writing, and I wish to change that about myself. So here goes …
There are many reasons why I want to open Loafia, and I want to share them with you here. Loafia is more than a bakery or a business; it is a place where I hope to share my learnings to you through a meal.
You see, I am not the type of person who knows when to eat even when I need to. Eating is boring to me. It feels like a necessary chore I have to do for survival. Or at least that is how I used to think. I was fortunate enough to have made friends who changed my philosophy on food.
Before diving into the details, I wish to tell you who I am. I was once an international student, a tutor, a researcher, and a medical lab scientist. My entire late teen to mid-twenties was spent in Boston, Massachusetts, away from my home in Malaysia. Moving abroad isn’t the easiest thing to do; I was alone in a new environment. No relatives, no friends, no one to help guide me through difficult times. Though it may have been a lonely ride in the beginning, I learned to enjoy the independence and built a new home in Boston. I was gaining new hobbies, living in the present, and cherishing well-spent time with a few close friends I made, whom I affectionately call “mi familia.”
Hi, … this is going to be awkward … I am not good at voicing out in public, not even through writing, and I wish to change that about myself. So here goes …
There are many reasons why I want to open Loafia, and I want to share them with you here. Loafia is more than a bakery or a business; it is a place where I hope to share my learnings to you through a meal.
You see, I am not the type of person who knows when to eat even when I need to. Eating is boring to me. It feels like a necessary chore I have to do for survival. Or at least that is how I used to think. I was fortunate enough to have made friends who changed my philosophy on food.
Before diving into the details, I wish to tell you who I am. I was once an international student, a tutor, a researcher, and a medical lab scientist. My entire late teen to mid-twenties was spent in Boston, Massachusetts, away from my home in Malaysia. Moving abroad isn’t the easiest thing to do; I was alone in a new environment. No relatives, no friends, no one to help guide me through difficult times. Though it may have been a lonely ride in the beginning, I learned to enjoy the independence and built a new home in Boston. I was gaining new hobbies, living in the present, and cherishing well-spent time with a few close friends I made, whom I affectionately call “mi familia.”
Friends play an essential part of who we are and how we grow. This is how my relationship with food first changed: a friend of mine, whom I met in freshman year of college, introduced me to the one and only Malaysian restaurant in the area. If you’ve ever been to Boston, you would understand how hard it is to find Malaysian food; unlike in New York or California where you can get almost every type of cuisine from around the world. That was when I realized food can be the remedy to homesickness. Whenever I felt down and homesick, I would look for those familiar flavors of my childhood.
Well, what happens when one no longer feels homesick? That happened to me eventually after living in Boston for so long and it became my second home. I started neglecting having a proper meal. In fact, I skipped meals and grabbed whatever snacks I could find to stave off hunger. At the end of the day, I would cook a quick, simple meal and have it before heading to bed. Time is essential to me, especially when it comes to academia; I am not naturally gifted in that area and thus I have to devote more time to studying. The only thing I can do is work hard to survive through college, and I neglected meals in the process. After graduating, I was able to land a job in one of the well-known hospitals in Boston during the pandemic and started to focus on my career and gaining recognition in my field. Taking breaks isn’t my strong suit and the pace at which I worked took a toll on my health.
To be frank, I developed an unhealthy lifestyle as a response to being swamped by work and stress. Since the foundation of having proper meals was not established in my daily routine, and my work environment did not provide a clean and accessible place for dining, my eating habits worsened. The constant hunt for a table in the cafeteria, the uncleaned microwaves, the smell of public fridges– it was easier to just ignore the hunger. I was also stubborn and would rather starve and continue working than clean up after my co-workers, who would always push their work onto others. The extra chores were not worth it. I spent my lunch breaks either working or going for a walk, and would eat at home after work.
My partner started to notice that I was constantly sluggish after work and that I could not conjure the slightest energy to do anything on my personal time. He then came up with the idea of bringing sandwiches to work. It was simple but brilliant. You don’t have to heat the sandwich up or place it in the fridge till lunch break (an insulated bag helps). He taught me food is not just a necessity; he taught me what food can be and what we can learn from eating and how to enjoy a meal.
His sandwiches got me through the hard times and it has brought me joy at my tedious work. It is one of my most cherished memories I have in Boston. When I decided to take a break from the home I had built in Boston, I returned to Malaysia. Things were unfamiliar and familiar to me at the same time. I was coping and getting used to the Malaysian culture that I was once familiar with. My mother who was once struggling with baking has now excelled at it, and baked whatever she put her mind to. The bread she developed was exceptional. It was one of the fluffiest fresh bread I ever had, and there are no preservatives or artificial coloring. I was impressed by how far she achieved in her baking skills. I used her bread to make a sandwich the way my partner would, and it was delicious. I was pleasantly surprised to learn how fresh, fluffy bread can vastly improve the sandwich over store-bought bread.
I want to share the taste of these sandwiches with you. They are a culmination of what I learned from my mother and my partner, and the breadth of my experiences. I want to share how eating can be fun, to share the knowledge I had built, the joy in learning and reading, and most of all, I want to spark some joy in your most mundane days. Just as my partner did for me. I hope you will enjoy the meal and delight in learning new things with me. Thank you for reading, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to share this with you!
