The week of December 27, 2014 was learning the secrets of midnight mass (it’s not at midnight); eating lots of Chinese food, like good Jews, but also drinking piña coladas; and realizing that “A Christmas Story” might suck.

 

Now That’s What We Call Mash-Up:

To celebrate our first full year of Mash-Up, instead of our usual curated stories from around the world, we bring you the Best Mash-Up Stories of the Year. Thank you for being a friend this year!

POP CULTURE

Jad Abumrad: Exploring the Margins on Radiolab and in Life

“I never felt like an official Arab. I felt like an American kid who liked Def Leppard who happened to speak Arabic, like some weird interloper.”

Ashok Kondabolu on Das Racist, Dosas & Dating While Indian 

Ashok, Indian-American podcaster, personality, and former hype man for Das Racist, a groundbreaking rap group, sat down for lunch with us to talk candidly about racial dynamics in Queens, why his relatives in India think he and his brother, Hari, are singers and lawyers, and why he’ll probably never leave New York.

Mash-Up Presents: An Interview with Awkwafina

The first in our video interview series. The rapping Queen of Queens, Awkwafina, talks hip hop, hapas and hotness. Did we mention that her hit song is called “My Vag“?

Maria Hinojosa on Telling America’s Stories, Yours Included

“We’re 100 percent American, that’s a given. The real question is how are we going to keep hold to our cultural roots, which makes all of us richer as a country?”

RELATIONSHIPS

Attraction is (Almost) Colorblind

Why are mash-up babies the cutest? Science of course! The incredible Helen Fisher, anthropologist and chief scientist at Match.com, talks to us about attraction, love, and why race doesn’t matter when it comes to desire.

12 Tips for Being a Good Indian Daughter-in-Law

Your 12 step guide to being the greatest Indian daughter-in-law. Even if you’re a white girl from Serbia.

What Dating Advice From Immigrant Parents?

Sometimes people come to America from other countries and then they have kids and then they give their kids dating advice. There’s quite a bit of old-country wisdom, a little bit of absurdity, a teensy bit of racism and a lot of hilarity.

ISSUES

Guilt. We Feel It. Turns Out You Do Too.

Oh, to be able to choose the best of all worlds, and to feel bad about it all the time! Welcome to our lives.

What Makes a Hindu a Hindu 

Our Black-Indian-Baptist-Hindu-American Mash-Up Sharda shares with us how one Southern Baptist peeled back the layers to find her inner Hindu. It might have a little something to do with Donkey Kong.

Fat in Korea, Skinny in America: When Standards Collide

As if it wasn’t hard enough to grow up and love your body. This is one woman’s story about different standards applied to her by her Korean family and American culture.

Top 8 (+1) Tips for Being the Best Non-Jew at the Hanukkah Party

Going to your first Hanukkah/Chanuka/Khanuke party? We got you. Pro tips: Take Tums and don’t blow out the candles.

FAMILY

How Cultures Around the World Think About Parenting

Co-founder Amy wrote a piece for TED about how different cultures parent. In Tokyo, 7-year-olds and 4-year-olds ride the subway alone and they LIVE!

FOOD

Lime in Chicken Soup, or, How I Mixed Up My Traditions

A recipe from when we realized that Ashkenazi Jewish chicken soup probably didn’t originally have lime and cilantro in it.

Miyeok Guk. Sounds Funny, Tastes Delicious.

Eat this after you have a baby. Or any other time.