Furlough: The Staycation of Procrastination

[READER]( [Food & Drink]( Last week I took some time off to fine-tune my screenplay Dibs and Dog Shit: [An Albany Park Story](. Takes place on Paczki Day. It’s a romance. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’re gonna love it. That’s one of the bright sides of the pandemic for a lot of us, right? So much free time to pursue fulfilling side hustles. Or is it many more hours available to stare deep into the creative wellspring, praying there are a few swallows of juice left at the bottom? I did have a long list of other projects I needed to tackle last week, but the only one I managed to bring into the world was [pizza pudding](. And by then I was too exhausted to decipher the scribble on my cell wall to see what was next. So Sunday afternoon the alarm goes off, and I’m like, Ohhhhhh, horsefeathers. I still need to finish my column. That snapped me out of it. I dusted off the story I started three weeks earlier about a chef on furlough, [Mona Sang]( who, along with her mom Sarom Sieng, cook and deliver the most magnificent and generous Khmer food this side of [Hermosa](. I finished it in time to spend a few minutes thinking about my next project: Furlough: The Staycation of Procrastination. It’s a seven-part “infomentary,” inviting you on a journey of discovery as you achieve peak human performance by investing your savings in my forthcoming line of all-natural nutritional supplements—made with real snail goo. Unless you really want to see that streaming on Netflix, might I suggest contributing to the Reader in some way, so that I and my colleagues can continue to produce the high-quality independent journalism you count on? There are lots of ways to do it: Have [a beer](. Buy [a book](. Become [a member](. Every little bit counts toward protecting the public from the byproducts of idled journalism. [Mona Bella caters Cambodian]( A Lettuce cook and her mom deliver a new Khmer menu each week. By [Mike Sula]( [@MikeSula]( [Don’t Stop the Presses with this bittersweet lager]( Support the Reader and local journalism with this tasty new lager from Haymarket Beer Co. By [Mike Sula]( [@MikeSula]( [A tale of two tapas bars]( El Internacional, Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba!, and bacalao at the dawn of small plates America By [Mike Sula]( [@MikeSula]( [Rishi Manoj Kumar is a macha man]( Bar Sotano's chef de cuisine launches a line of toasty, nutty, Mexican chili oils. By [Mike Sula]( [@MikeSula]( [Aye-Aye, Kapitan]( The owners of Serai open the country’s only nyonya restaurant, devoted to the food of Malaysia’s Peranakan culture. By [Mike Sula]( [@MikeSula]( 2012 [How I learned to stop worrying and drink coffee already]( A caffeine newbie tries not to lose his mind By [Kevin Warwick]( [@kevinwarwick]( [Issue of March 4 - March 17, 2021 Vol. 50, No. 12]( [Download Issue]( (PDF) [View this e-mail as a web page]( [DONATE]( [@chicago_reader]( [/chicagoreader]( [@chicago_reader]( [Chicago Reader on LinkedIn]( [/chicagoreader]( [chicagoreader.com]( [Forward this e-mail to a friend](. Want to change how you receive these e-mails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. Copyright © 2021 Chicago Reader, All rights reserved. You are receiving this e-mail as an opted-in subscriber via our website, Facebook, or event to one or more of our newsletters, memberships, or e-mail lists. Our mailing address is: Chicago Reader 2930 S. Michigan Ave. Suite 102Chicago, IL 60616 [Add us to your address book](