{"id":699,"date":"2026-09-13T15:31:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T19:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/?p=699"},"modified":"2026-09-13T15:31:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T19:31:59","slug":"the-lobster-an-interview-with-winnie-lin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/the-lobster-an-interview-with-winnie-lin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lobster – An Interview with Winnie Lin"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Luna Ramirez Castellanos<\/em><\/p>\n

Winnie Lin returns to her sixteenth birthday when asked about her favourite memory:<\/p>\n

Glasses are fume-flogged up, utensils shimmer under a glazing sun, sweat runs down a treasured black apron: dad is on \u201ccooking mode\u201d. The sun burns, and the grill is a non-stop machine\u2014 plates of lamb chops, clams, and the star of the show: lobster<\/strong>. <\/em><\/p>\n

Her father: a server, line cook, head chef and griller, all at once. He is out there for hours, prepping the machine, then setting the table, putting the food on the plates. It\u2019s an all-consuming endeavour, \u201cyou could make a show about it\u201d, she adds. In conversation, you can almost savour the final product: \u201cIt\u2019s just marinated so well. He spreads mayonnaise on it. It is like, perfectly simmered. Oh my God, it is perfect\u201d.<\/p>\n

It takes time to put that lobster on the plate.<\/p>\n

I asked if she had the recipe. \u201cMy dad is afraid of me handling seafood, because the pincers of the lobster are kind of sharp\u2026 But I want to try it. He was like, \u2018No. Don\u2019t touch it.\u2019\u201d It isn\u2019t the food delicacies or the long list of visiting family relatives that she reminisces about, but getting to cook with her father: \u201cBut that day, I was helping my dad with it. I just felt so good, working with him on it. I think it just shows me how fast time flies by.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Winnie grew up in Flushing \u2013 \u201cthe place with good food\u201d, as she describes it. Her parents emigrated from China, an identity woven into the culinary scene around her. The annual family barbecue. She describes Flushing as a tight-knit community, a \u201csuburban\u201d enclave: her \u201cbubble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winnie\u2019s day begins the night before, everything planned. Life at Princeton is busy for her; she wakes up at 8:30 AM, grabs breakfast, works for three hours at the library, gets lunch, goes to class and then meets up with her friends or advisees.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Winnie Lin: a PAA co-chair, a PCA, and a great friend, all at once. Her first-year roommate and close friend, Prisha Maggu, jokingly notes, \u201cIf you wanna meet with Winnie, you have to be in her Google Calendar.\u201d She carries a deep sense of admiration for her. Having known her for so long, she can only name about \u201c70%\u201d of everything Winnie does on campus. Mackynzi Adams, another of her freshman-year roommates, attests to this: \u201c[Winnie] is always working for the community or a part of a club. She certainly cares about others and getting to know people deeply\u201d.<\/p>\n

When asked about Princeton, Winnie always goes back to community: her zee group from freshman year \u2013whom she religiously grabs dinner with at 5 P.M. in RoMa- or making space in her (very packed) calendar to help her advisees.<\/p>\n

It takes a hell of a lot of time to do all she does. But Winnie does it happily: \u201cI\u2019ve grown up with a mentality of giving to a community that needs it, being [\u2026] with people\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Luna Ramirez Castellanos Winnie Lin returns to her sixteenth birthday when asked about her favourite memory: Glasses are fume-flogged up, utensils shimmer under a glazing sun, sweat runs down a treasured black apron: dad is on \u201ccooking mode\u201d. The sun burns, and the grill is a non-stop machine\u2014 plates of lamb chops, clams, and<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7986,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7986"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":700,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/jrn449-f26\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}