Food

Nadim Barakat
2/16/18

Coming from the Middle East, food is a large part of our culture. A large variety of foods including salty and sweet play a large role in our lives, especially at gatherings. Some foods include Kibbeh, a meat stuffed with meat pie (it's so hard to describe, I wish I could put a picture) or Kunafah, a sweet made of layers of sweet cheese and filo dough topped with a sweet glaze. The recipes for these foods, however, are not stored in formal cookbooks or websites. Instead they are passed down from generation to generation, just like in the author's culture. The author says about the recipes "What happens is that the recipes act like stories that are told and retold in different ways depending on the storyteller or, in this case, the cook." Our recipes are also sometimes slightly different between close families and slightly different spices can be sensed by the most experienced tasters. Interestingly, it is these differences in recipes that makes our culture more unique and allow us to better bond. Instead of simply following a rigid cookbook, our food culture calls for a more dynamic and lively experience. This reminds me of how the author stated that families sometimes bond around food which is also true in our culture.

Unfortunately, as the author pointed out, the "Gulp Culture" has dominated some of our lives. This includes eating processed and sugary foods that are often unhealthy. Consuming these types of foods is often done on the go such as in the car or on a train. This Gulp culture threatens the dynamics of Mexican or Middle Eastern food culture and thus harms the family bonds that may form around diet. It seems unlikely that the Gulp culture will be radically changed, but striving to eat home cooked food with the family, at least once in a while, will help fight this trend.