Hey friends! I’m still in Yerevan, Armenia! We just started our second week of workshop classes at TUMO, and my students are doing amazing work. I finally had a moment to sit down and draw some comics for you. I’ve been working hard with my classes, seeing as many sights as I can, and also, of course, eating some delicious food.

Jingalov hats is soft and savory and delicious, filled with greens and lots of different herbs, and sometimes onions, garlic and cheese too. It’s a great street food snack but also can make a healthy dinner. Manti is an outstanding symphony of flavors and textures, with tiny meaty dumplings baked crispy and then dunked in beef and tomato broth, and usually topped with a dollop of garlicky yogurt. Khashlama is a fabulously comforting and hearty slow cooked stew of meat and veggies. And Gata are fabulous sweet fluffy bready cakes with a creamy filling inside. They’re often stamped with beautiful patterns before they’re brushed with an egg wash and baked.

I’m having the most incredible time at TUMO! Like I mentioned last time, this time around I’m here with several other international workshop leaders. They’re all fabulously talented and interesting and sweet people and I’ve made some excellent friends. We’ve had dinners together, visited the sights together, and gone on tours - but we’ve also had a lot of amazing conversations about teaching, creativity, travel, and our various art practices. It’s been so much fun and so edifying at the same time; exhausting and rejuvenating simultaneously, somehow.

I’m going to cut this short because I want to go to bed early so we can go see the Matenadaran tomorrow morning before classes. :) But, briefly:

Shameless Self-Promotion:

I had a really fun conversation with Molly Stevens and Kate Leahy of the Everything Cookbooks podcast, and the episode went live last week! Everything Cookbooks is a fabulous podcast that does the most thoughtful deep dives on all aspects of cookbook publishing, and it’s been an immense help to me and my work! So it was a thrill and an honor to be interviewed! You can read about it here and listen to the episode here.

What I’m Into Lately:

I feel like I’m just barely keeping up with classes and gallivanting around Yerevan! I had started Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t made much progress. I think I have to wait til I get home to pick it back up again. I have asked my new TUMO friends for book recommendations too, and I got some great books to add to my TBR list.

What Toki’s Into Lately:

I don’t know!! T_T I miss him so much. As I write this, Niles says it’s raining hard in Chicago, which means The Young Prince is probably hiding under a sofa. He does not like storms. Since I don’t have any new Toki photos to share, here are some of the great cats I have met in Yerevan:

(actually: don’t shop books and prints until I get home from Armenia in early August; the shop is closed at the moment! But you can browse if you want.)