Marie took the last bite of
before-crust pizza at a spindly table of the corner of 9th and
Christian. The slice from Lorenzo’s on the north end of the Italian Market was
an unusual lunch choice for her. “Very unhealthy, very unhealthy,” she said, splaying her French manicure over the
paper plate. “But I had to do it. I just wanted to grub today.”
On a typical afternoon,
Marie would be cooking for two six year olds. The kids are best friends and
live together with their moms, who are also best friends. Maria babysits and
helps keep up the home. “The kitchen is bigger than mine, but I cook regardless
of the size of the kitchen,” she said. Yesterday she made pasta with red sauce,
sautéed mushrooms in garlic sauce, broccoli with lemon, and a few pieces of
beef on the side. She smiled proudly. “So ya, I cook.”
Marie moved to Philadelphia
from St. Paul Minnesota ten years ago. She has a love/hate relationship with
the city. The love is food; she can get good Spanish food at Tierra Columbiana or Freddy and Tony’s, Vietnamese at Pho Ha, quick and convenient lunch at City
View Pizza, or cheap ingredients to make an astonishing meal at the Italian
Market. The thing she hates about Philly? “There’s something about the east
coast… people are dry.” The buttons
on her denim blouse hit the table as she leans forward. “I’m being polite.”
Marie misses the warmth and
friendliness of St. Paul. “My heart is in the Midwest,” she said, clasping her
hands together over her pink lace cami. She goes back to St. Paul more
frequently then Puerto Rico, where her aunts and sisters still live. “It’s sad,
but it’s true,” she said with a shrug.
We sat on the corner of the
very street of Marie’s introduction to Philly eleven years ago. She visited a
friend - a chef - and their first stop was the Italian Market. Outdoor produce
stalls with outrageous one-dollar deals (Seriously. Buckets of clementines,
pears, or apples for a dollar), cheese shops that are overly generous with
their samples, a tortilleria that emits the smell of masa down the block, forcing
you to purchase a bucket of avocados, a bunch of fresh cilantro, and seven
limes (for three dollars), fresh fish, handmade sausage… all of which attracts
the most diverse crowd in the city; how could one not swoon? “You don’t even
need to have a refrigerator if you live around here!” she said.
This afternoon she was back
in the neighborhood for an acupuncture appointment with Dr. Wang. Maria has
Fibromyalgia and was diagnosed with stage-3 cervical cancer last spring. Her
health insurance company recommended the acupuncturist on 9th. She’s
found that her weekly 25-minute appointments really help. She pointed to the
dingy yellow sign down the block. “You can’t expect anything glamorous,” she
said, “but they do what they’re supposed to.”
She indulged in a slice of
pizza because Dr. Wang was late and she had time to kill. “In a day that I’m
not misbehaving, I like making soup,” she said. She’ll cook for herself and the
girls - a serving of vegetables and a small piece of meat. I ask if the kids
are picky. Her 90s-style flipped hair sprang as she shook her head. “I cook
with a Hispanic twist, so my food has a lot of flavor,” she said. “They don’t
complain.”
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