SYNONYM Magazine Issue #3: SPICES

From the creators of Synonym Magazine:

Issue Three (June 2025) digs into spices, and all the different stories they tell, from romance to survival to providing a sense of place.

116 pages, spiral bound, full color.

We profile New York–based Van Van, a single-origin spice company based on the terroir of Vietnam. The couple behind the brand is not only sharing Vietnamese culture and cuisine, but also the vibrant flavors and quality of Vietnam’s herbs and spices as they are meant to be tasted. Our editor, Tien Nguyen, interviews writer and author Monique Truong about the use of salt as a literary device. The result is an extraordinarily beautiful take on an ordinary seasoning and the metaphors it can inspire. We also have some lovely essays, including one about how a bike ride–turned–foraging expedition in Texas transports the writer and private chef Umair Khakoo back home to Pakistan. Ruby Robina Saha writes about the colonialist history of nutmeg from Indonesia’s Banda Islands and how it destroyed a culture (and created New York City as we know it). Daphne K. Jenkins talks about the love for li hing mui with Neale Asato from Asato Family Shop in Hawai‘i, and shares recipes featuring this sweet, salty, and tangy powder. Our frequent contributor Kat Hong speaks with Taiwanese/Japanese comedian, Atsuko Okatsuka, about the Cheesecake Factory and the bay leaf conspiracy, as you can imagine it’s pretty hilarious. This issue is full of stunning imagery to go along with recipes, like the ones from Edy Massih, author of the cookbook Keep it Zesty, and a very special excerpt from Noodles, Rice, and Everything Spice by Christina De Witte and Mallika Kauppinen.