The other day I called Zvi on his way home from work and told him I was having an identity crisis.
"About what?" (he asked partly amused, partly taking me seriously, as he should).
"I feel like I lost my creative outlet. Who am I even? I barely write anymore." I frowned, sitting at the kitchen table, with my knotted hair bun and spit up covered shirt from around the clock nursing.
I used to love blogging, but I got tired of my niche topics such as writing book reviews on people's favourite books (why was I so specific?) or the Working Yid, which I enjoyed but the minute we moved to Israel felt less relevant. I even tried blogging about Zvi’s culinary school experience until it turned into me forcing him to sit down for lengthy interviews which largely consisted of me asking questions like “huh? what do you mean by thickening agent…” I couldn’t grasp half the technical cooking details to write a sound blog post that I myself understood.
After my identity crisis rant was over, Zvi said:
"Sarit, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. You need to start a new, general blog where you can write about whatever the heck you want."
"Hmmm. Should I call it whatevertheheckyouwant.com?"
He laughed and said, "pretty funny actually."
I sat with that name in my head for a couple of days until I finally decided it sounded like a porn site.
Anyway, here I am with eatszlife.com. Some of you are familiar with Eatsz, an Instagram account I started in April 2020, just as the world was going awry with the pandemic. Zvi had started cooking for the first time and I decided to document (aka paparazzi) him in the kitchen.
We started the account one random night, while on the phone with my best friend who was studying digital marketing in New York at the time. We landed on the name Eatsz (eatsz by Sarit and Zvi). But of course, that name was taken by someone with just a couple of followers. I tried bribing her five dollars (was willing to go up to ten) for her to give up the name. She didn’t bite. Anyway, I can’t tell you if her following has increased since, because she blocked me. I don’t think I’ve ever been blocked before (as far as I know) but hey we ended up settling on Eatsz with an underscore –> Eatsz_. Not aesthetically pleasing, but it would do.
Why am I telling you this? Because starting that account was the beginning of the most unlikely journey. Documenting Zvi turned into watching a chef in the making. Here we are three years later, Zvi has gone through culinary school, and has worked in a restaurant for a year and a half now. His life has completely changed, and by virtue so has mine. And as time passed, I didn’t just showcase food on the account, but also every day moments, life in Israel, and hilarious things our toddler does, because no one is funnier than a three year old. So while I’ve been trying to find a new outlet for my writing (aka an all-encompassing funny/punny blog name), I decided not to reinvent the wheel. But just to add the word life to Eatsz instead. So…Eatsz life, and voila, I get to cover any topic I want.
Such as:
-Food: I’d like to post recipes. (I'm a little skeptical since the culinary blog fail, but Zvi says it's doable).
-Career changes: Zvi and I both changed careers at 30. And we both decided this on the Tel Aviv boardwalk.
-Motherhood/parenting: Because when else am I up at ungodly hours thinking of things I want to write about?
-Israel: My birth place and the home I returned to with Zvi. So much beauty, nature, good food, and hilarious moments here. Some rockets too.
The list can go on. There will be something for everyone! Just kidding. You don’t have to read it. This is for me, so that I can get my creative voice back. Ok but read it.
Thanks!
-Sarit
p.s I think I'll change our Instagram name to Eatsz life now. It's not taken. I already checked. Bye bye awkward underscore.
Comments