A year of dinners stuck at home under quarantine
A bowl of ramen at Ramen Ryoma in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego. Photo Credit: Lauren J. Mapp A year ago today, I had my last meal out in an actual, sit-down, indoor restaurant. I got in a car with my then fiance Peter and future sister-in-law Megan, we drove to a restaurant, sat inside at Ramen Ryoma in Hillcrest, slurped down bowls of noodles and had fun without much worrying involved. It felt like a fairly normal — albeit quiet — Friday night. Sure, I had started working from home the day prior, but I wasn’t too worried at that moment. I was young and healthy and the novel coronavirus seemed so far away from our booth. But as we walked through the barren aisles of Whole Foods Market after dinner to pick up some essentials “just in case,” the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic hit me hard. Few groceries could be found on the shelves, and the items that were still available were things like red lentil rotini, which I never would’ve bothered buying before. We threw what we cou
