Happy New Year!

Chinese, that is. My entire life I've had Chinese-American friends, so at this point the holiday seems as regular and relevant to me as Rosh Hashana. Just sayin'.

This week we've been studying lung cancer, pneumonia, tuberculosis... all disturbing diseases that eat away at you, leaving you breathless and in pain. I suppose the latter two are success stories, in the U.S. at least, but I think of the people who died of those diseases before there were cures, or those who health care successes have yet to reach. As in the first 100 pages of "The Magic Mountain" that I managed to get through this summer, with young (rich) people slowly dying of tuberculosis in the Swiss alps.

Lung cancer is still terrifying, of course, with about a 14% five-year survival. My grandmother on my mother's side died of lung cancer, and I've been wondering what that must have been like for my mother, a doctor, as the most healthcare-literate person in the family. I imagine that most people want to be hopeful when they receive a devastating diagnosis, but that such optimism would evade a doctor familiar with the numbers and the process. I wonder if it's unfortunate that she died just a few years before a ground-breaking pulmonary adenocarcinoma drug, or if it wouldn't have mattered anyway. These are not things we talk about.

Anyway, do you ever notice a paucity of salads at potlucks? That's often the case here, and anything raw is usually appreciated. Here's my contribution to a New Year potluck, scrapped together from here and here and what I happen to have in the cupboard.

Napa cabbage salad:

• 1 Napa cabbage, sliced as thin as possible
• 2 carrots (or peppers, sweet peas, bean sprouts), sliced as thin as possible
• handful of peanuts
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 bunch scallions/green onions
• handful of cilantro, chopped
• rice wine vinegar (I substituted rice wine and white vinegar)
• soy sauce
• chili oil or chili flakes
• sesame oil
• sugar
• white pepper

Slice all of your veggies. Chop the garlic, scallions, and cilantro. Stir together about 1/2-1 tablespoon of each of your sauces, sugar, and chili, adding each to taste (the recipes cited above may help you here). Toss in your garlic and herbs, then cabbage and veggies. Enjoy!

P.S. Suggestions welcome if anyone has a favorite cabbage slaw recipe! I wasn't able to find any one recipe that looked perfect.