No ED in Sophia

June 12, 2009

One of my best friends, Joanna, treated me out to lunch today to “celebrate” in Washington, D.C. There wasn’t an extraordinarily special cause for celebration, but there were indeed many things to give thanks about: my continuous progress in recovery, her breakthrough from her depression since last winter, and my re-admittance to USC. Oh, and did I mention that I received an almost full scholarship grant too? I feel so freaking blessed. It seems like I’m recovering back everything I’ve lost one by one, and I don’t ever regret the decision to stick ED up his ass once and for all.

But one thing I have never ever lost even in my darkest valley was Joanna’s friendship. Even when I looked like a ghoul and got deeply absorbed into my own ED world, she never put a break to our friendship. While I was embarrassed at the stares I would get from other people in the public, she proudly put her arms around me as if to say, “This is my friend.” She never doubted that I would recover one day. She always said things like, “When you’ve recovered…” and “After you’re all better…” and planning things we’ll be doing together once I kicked ED to the curb. It brought tears to my eyes how much she believed in me, and it still makes me tear up now.

However, she doesn’t understand what an eating disorder is. She herself admitted that she could never understand, but that she put her faith in me because she saw the love God had for me, and the love God put in her for me.

I remember one time we were watching a documentary on eating disorders called Thin and one of the girls featured was crying because she felt gross and fat after eating a birthday cupcake. Joanna turned around to me, incredulous, and said, “Oh man, that girl seriously needs to be grounded or be punished or something. Or be sent to Africa.”

I stared at her, stunned, absolutely flabbergasted that she would say such a thing…to me, who was clearly struggling with the same issues as that girl! Joanna didn’t even notice, but just continued to watch the documentary, shaking her head and tsking loudly. Suddenly I realized that Joanna never even saw me as an eating disordered person. She saw me as me, as who I truly was without ED. To her, I was Sophia Lee, not an Anorexic. And I will be eternally grateful to her for that.

I think one of the biggest turning points during my recovery was when I stopped thinking myself as an Anorexic. I stripped myself of all ED labels; ED had no part in me. I declared to myself and ED: I am the one and only Sophia Lee, a unique individual formed personally by the hands of God.

I found out that it really matters how you view yourself. If you believe you’re a beggar, you’re gonna act like one of the bums in the streets, begging for money and obsessing about ways to take advantage of other people. But if you believe you’re a princess, you’re gonna act like someone dignified and respectable. And right now, I do believe I’m a princess, a princess of God. Someone hand me my tiara.

Anyway, Joanna wanted to surprise me with today’s lunch venue. All she revealed to me about the restaurant was that it was “fancy” and that “Michelle Obama went there.” Honestly, I was a bit nervous because ED doesn’t like being surprised particularly with food, but I trusted Joanna’s decision, and it was a relief not to worry about where to eat for once. Besides, I’m sure Michelle Obama doesn’t eat crap food. She, too, is a princess after all.

So…Any DC foodies out there who can guess where she took me to?

Art and Soul!! I was so excited to find out this was where we would be dining!

For those of you who are clueless (don’t be shy, raise your hand), Art and Soul is a southern food restaurant owned by Chef Art, who— get this— was former personal chef to Oprah Winfrey. He is also a two-time James Beard Award winner, and is a regular on the tasting panel of Food Network’s Iron Chef America, and was also guest judge to my favorite TV show, Top Chef! What a perfect venue for a wannabe-foodie like me!!!

We were served nice cold water as soon as we sat down, and instead of the usual boring bread basket, they served us some clover hot rolls:

Yum. Perfectly warm and buttery, and you pull them apart into little cute balls.

Joanna ordered the Trout:

Trout with roasted beets, fennel, horseradish cream. She was kind enough to give me a bite of it, and I thought the trout was just so tender on the inside, while crispy on the outside, cooked in its own rich flavors.

I order the Catfish:

Blackened catfish, stone ground grits, creole meuniere

I loved every single bite of it. The catfish was so perfectly cooked, so moist and juicy, with the slightly spiced and creamy meuniere sauce drizzled all over. It practically melted in my mouth! The beans were a bit on the mushy side, but still so flavorful and pleasing to eat.

But the best part? It was the grits. Man, they were SO rich and creamy and buttery, and there were a bit of a bite and grittiness to it which
I absolutely loved. I should have been born a southern belle (Is there such thing as an Asian southern belle?). I looooove me some good grits, and these were one of the best I’ve ever tasted.

Thanks for the wonderful meal, Joanna! Today’s lunch wasn’t just a celebration of my recovery from ED, or her recovery from depression. It was also a celebration of our long-lasting friendship, which held fast through all thick and thin, and which will continue on for as long as we live.

By the way, I still have not even seen my parents’ faces yet. They arrived when I was still in DC, and when I came back home, they were taking a nap, and they’re still resting till now. So more news on our little “reunion” tomorrow.

Question of the day: How do you view yourself? How would you like to view yourself?

'cuz burping and slurping is mandatory and polite when it comes to good eats

No ED in Sophia

Contact

Connect

Pages

Archives

Find by Category

Meta