the first year
musings // #3 // brain dump of how gosh it's been a year of cathzine already?!
Hey there! 👋
Whether you’ve been with me since the beginning, or just hopped on this train recently, I appreciate your taking the time to subscribe, follow, read, share thoughts, etc. Interacting with my readers has been one of my favorite things about “putting myself out there” (it gives me that same heart ba-dump that you get when your crush looks your way and smiles), so please feel empowered to strike up conversation. 🙂
Now, let’s walk down memory lane together and do some soul searching and reflections of growth and resolutions of future goals! Yay!
A year ago, I felt a huge desire to “do something” with the YEARS worth of food pictures that had accumulated on my phone. That, coupled with friends constantly asking me where to eat and my growing frustrations when trying to find helpful, honest content through Yelp, Google, Instagram foodies, etc., pushed me to create something that I felt was missing: in-depth, candid information about how a third place experience would be as a plain Jane.
While the struggles of comparison, self-doubt, etc., etc., that I’ve mentioned in my 6 month check-in haven’t fully dissolved, it has gotten better. There’s a more frequent peace about letting numbers be numbers (there’s something beautiful about watching slow, natural growth), a more consistent focus on the purpose of writing Cathzine in the first place (as a public resource and as a personal journal), and a growing confidence in the style of the content I create.
As
once shared in her First Bloom Volume 1 Instagram Post—I know it’s not something they would suggest anyone start doing in the year of our lord 2024, but damn do I love spending my precious sweet time making things that feel long lasting and impactful…I like…making things that feel lush and vibrant and full and professional and polished, and soulful and honest…I’m not good at TikTok and have an increasingly low tolerance for content created for the internet gaze…
—why follow the trends and chase the internet algorithm if in the process you lose the enjoyment behind creating? Or your authenticity?
I’m “that person” who will always prefer pictures over words on a menu and will always attempt to look up a restaurant’s dishes on google. So annotated pictures of individual menu items will always be a staple in my reviews. I’m “that person” who loves asking for the “how did it all get started?” story and I wish I could interview the head chef/founder at every restaurant I visit. So I’ll always include background blurbs in the Elevator Pitch section whenever possible. I’m “that person” who is asking the service staff a million questions about if the pastries are made in house or where they’re sourcing X ingredient for Y product. So I’ll always include these little details in the Résumé section.
I’m “that person” where I prefer the table near the window and I want my appetizers to be served with my entrée so my camera can eat first and get the whole spread in natural lighting so everything can look gorgeous without a lot of post-processing effort (call me #GenZ, idc). Granted, I can turn all of these things off (I’m frequently self conscious about these behaviors), but when they’re all switched on, I know that I can be a lot to dine with. That’s why I’m so moved by the people in my life who have embraced these quirks about me without skipping a beat, and sometimes even sign up for it! (they’ve also developed the #DoItForTheZine mantra, which I find hilarious) You know who you are! 🫶
Cathzine, for sure, has played a role in how I approach dining out. Dining out has become more of a scheduled out affair, a balancing act between trying new places (which can look like intentional revisits and strategic ordering of dishes to cover a breadth of what is offered) and revisiting old favorites (mostly when I have too many new reviews still yet to be published, but also to update previously published reviews). I enjoy visiting a single place multiple times (when needed, and when possible) just to experience different facets of what the menu offers, the consistency of the experience, etc., (there are so many reasons)! It’s something I do to feel equipped to write a well-rounded review, and doubles as a way to prevent overstimulation from all the new restaurants opening.
Looking forward, I’ve been immensely inspired by my recent reading of Ecclesiastes (which, normally, can be a very depressing book, but it felt very relatable, freeing, and uplifting during this reread).
In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon shares his musings (in first person) about how everything is meaningless, and how really nothing is worth doing unless for the glory of God (whether that be explicit or implicit). Here are a couple of main ideas that I took away:
No matter how hard I work or “take matters into my own hands,” the result I want to see will not happen unless the Lord wants it to. God is the one who blesses and takes away, and His timing is perfect. // A reminder to practice eagerly waiting, versus impatiently waiting!
Ecclesiastes 3:9-11
9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Work is good, any form of it. I read this as being spoken from a “what else would you do with your time” perspective and not from a “hustle culture” vantage point. // This includes hobbies and skills and crafts that can feel like a “waste of time” since they’re not directly translating into the traditional definition of societal productivity; however, God encourages us to do whatever our hands find to do, with all of our might.
Ecclesiastes 3:22
22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?
Ecclesiastes 9:10
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
God wants me to enjoy the world I live in, of the life I’ve been given, of the resources He has given me. // Having been raised with a frugality mindset, it can be difficult for me to get over the hump of “but that’s a lot of money” when it comes to choosing to eat out or to take a trip versus staying at home and putting the money in a savings account. But what is the point of storing up all of these treasures on earth (Matthew 6:19)? Of course, this needs to be practiced in moderation and with wisdom, but ultimately the pursual of good food and beautiful things and experiences is okay too, and in fact, something God would find joy in me doing.
Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
18 This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. 20 They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.
I’m excited to see where Cathzine goes and what the Lord will teach me through it. Recently, I’ve been inspired to expand the original scope of reviewing third places to also reviewing products—packaged foods, beauty products, who knows what else, the world is expansive and large! And I don’t want to limit the creativity. 😊
The process of writing reviews on dishes from other cultures has also brought to light that dining out at non-American restaurants where the menus are comprised 90% of terms that are outside the average American vernacular can be quite stressful sometimes (for example, you’ll see this a lot at Indian, Middle Eastern, and French restaurants, to name a few). For these moments, I’ve felt that having a dictionary with visuals would streamline the ordering process for people (and if not for others, at least for me!), which would in turn lower the barrier to entry and increase patronage at those restaurants. Something you may start seeing sprinkled among my third place reviews… 😉
While there may be new bits and bobs on the horizon, what you can always count on is that my deep passion for food and hospitality will be here to stay in some form or another. Cathzine will probably see more changes and experience different metamorphoses with time (as do all things, amiright?) that I cannot even imagine, and the best thing to do is to welcome the inevitable with an open heart and mind (for new possibilities and open doors are beautiful!). But what will remain a constant is that you can always find me looking for good food and good vibes, and documenting it all somehow. 😘
Till next time,
~ cath!!
Can’t wait for next year’s reviews!! 💜