How many people does your fridge need to feed?
One.
What do you usually eat for breakfast?
Something from the cafeteria in my office, like a hardboiled egg, or oatmeal.
Is there anything you eat every day?
Unfortunately, it would be something gross, like Diet Coke.
Every week?
I definitely eat tofu every week. I usually eat Japanese food, whether it’s sushi, or some kind of Japanese homestyle cooking if I’m at my parents’ house.
What item are you forbidden from purchasing right now?
Well, I forbid myself from buying Gummy Bears, but then I buy them anyway.
What’s the most delicious thing in here?
These spicy blue tortilla chips. They’re called Red Hot Blues. I keep them in the fridge because somehow I feel as if that prevents two things: staleness and rodents.
The most disgusting?
I think the most disgusting thing right now is this wilted kale. I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do with it. I bought it at the farmer’s market probably three weeks ago now and it’s still there. I should have just made an easy sauté, but now it’s been here too long and I’m like, ‘well, I’ve wasted it.’ So it’s not actually disgusting itself, I’m just disgusted with myself for not having done something with it.
The oldest?
The pesto Veganaise I purchased for a cooking attempt at some point a long time ago and never finished because I don’t have much use for pesto Veganaise outside of whatever thing it was I was trying to make at that time. The other oldest thing is the bag of coconut flakes that was for some kind of dessert for a bachelorette party I was going to over the summer.
Anything you regret buying?
Several years ago I bought 50 to 60 of these Scandinavian bran crisps, which are crackers for people with diabetes. I don’t have diabetes but I thought that a cracker with that much fiber—a cracker so fibrous that it would be especially for diabetics—was going to be something I should know about. And it’s taken me probably three years to work through however many tens of bags I got. And now every time I look at them I’m like, ‘Ugh, I’m still eating you! After all these years!’
I bought them on Amazon or Fresh Direct. It was definitely mail order. There used to be one deli on the Lower East Side that had them and I would go in every couple weeks and clear out their one, single row of the crackers, and then I discovered them online and just went for it one time. But I was overzealous.
What's your guilty pleasure?
Sweet things. Right now I’m into vanilla chia seed pudding—very guilty. But that will also translate into ice cream at 2am, or Gummy Bears, or those strawberry or watermelon straws you get at the bodega. You know, they look like ribbons in the shape of a straw. They’re gross.
Where do you do most of your food shopping?
McGolrick Park farmer’s market, Brooklyn Standard, or the deli across the street from the Brooklyn Standard.
How much do you spend on groceries each week?
There’s no set amount because I barely eat anything at home. The fact that there’s actually food in the fridge is not that normal. I would say I spend maybe $40 on food that’s consumed at home. Probably not even that much.
How often do you go grocery shopping?
With such infrequency that it’s not even calculable.
Is there anything in here that we would have found in your childhood fridge?
Yogurt. And the Asian mixed vegetables in the freezer.
What do you wish you had in here?
I wish someone would just come once a week, fill it with stuff, and leave instructions on how to make something with the stuff they put in here. And then at the end of the week I would take a picture of what was left and they would bring things that would supplement the stuff that was still there.
Aya is the Fashion Director at Cosmo magazine and lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. She’s holding a festive bottle of Moet Rose (a work perk).