I had this weird belief, assumption, whatever, that salt and pepper were anti-particles, and if you could mix them together in just the right way, they would cancel each other out and taste like nothing.

So, multiple times when we as a family went out to eat, I would finish my food and then while all the adults were talking, I would take out a napkin and put salt and pepper on it. And then, because they don’t blend together, I would use a little bit of water, like trying to get exactly the right ratio to make the pepper disappear the way the salt did.

I was a born alchemist.