She Gave Me Her Keys for Two Months — Here's What I'm Doing to Her Kitchen

How do you know if your friend really trusts you?

Some people say it’s if they’d call you to help bury a body. Others say it’s when their kid starts calling you auntie.

For me? It’s when a friend tells you she’s leaving town for two months, hands you her keys, and says, “Do whatever you want to my kitchen.”

That’s the highest honor I know.

And it’s what’s happening to me right now.

My girl, Anela Malik, is gonna be gone for two months hosting fabulous group trips around the world with her brand, Unfiltered & Fed, and when I say gone. I mean gone gone… Like on a boat traveling down the Nile River with spotty Wi-Fi type of gone…

And that’s the part that makes this an honor and not just a favor. She won’t be here to check in or provide me with feedback… This kitchen is all on me. And, Homies, it needs me.

In her own words, the kitchen is “utilitarian”…

It’s got a decent amount of storage, but the cabinets are boring, sticky, and because there are no knobs, more than one person has broken a nail trying to get a mug. Oh, and the blue paint feels like something a landlord got half off at Lowe’s.

So, while she’s gone, I’m gonna fix all of it with permission from her landlord, so I ain’t gotta worry about doing something that’ll get her evicted.

This will be the kind of project that tests whether I can hold somebody else’s vision as carefully as I hold my own. I think I can do it, and obviously she trusts me to give her a space she loves.

I’m bringing you inside the project to help me make every decision and solve problems that require clever solutions. You’re getting the whole thing, probably before Anela even sees it.

This is going to be fun!!!! Drop your ideas and wish me luck down in the comments.

xo,
IK

Spend 11 days through Lima's Afro-Peruvian food scene, the Sacred Valley's ceramics and weaving communities, and Machu Picchu with the time to actually take it in!

Honestly, I can’t get Anela to stop talking about how much she loves Peru, so I know anyone who travels with her will love it. Spots are limited, so book your spot ASAP!

BOOK YOUR SPOT

I had the best matcha of my life at Equitea in Baltimore and they were featured on the first episode of Our Block, the show where Anela travels city to city, pulling up on Black folks doing dope things in their communities.

Watch Our Block