I'm really lazy when it comes to certain things. Food prep, for example. My parents are two of the best cooks I know, and they're always cooking something up. Feeding you is how they say hello, how they relax, how they make you feel comfortable. I never had to cook much growing up, to such an extent that family lore includes me calling my dad up one day when I was home alone, hungry, asking how to boil water.

So imagine how much the lazy hungry-man in me rejoiced when I visited the bodega that's literally two doors down from my new place. I live in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood and saw beans, burritos, fried plantains, all kinds of chicken and pork dishes under heat lamps, for super cheap ($3 for a decently sized burrito, $2 for a 16 oz cup of beans). Open 5am-9pm everyday. I started imagining how often I was going to come here, how the matriarch of the bodega is gonna know me by name, how I'm gonna put their kid through school with all the beans and burritos I'll buy from them.

I guess I'm never learning how to cook.