Bths.enschool.org



As I struggled to remember what the next step of the process was, my mother reminded me to concentrate and relax. I allowed her instructions to guide my hands while I kneaded the dough, flattened it with a rolling pin, and placed it upon the stove. After this step, I used the old-fashioned waffle maker to mash the boiled potatoes and added the necessary ingredients. Realizing that the process was complete, I stepped back to take in my creation. It was the first Guyanese dish I had ever made—“roti” and “aloo choka.” Many people would perceive this experience as a simple cooking lesson but to me, it meant much more. This lesson taught me about how a mixture of ingredients could lead to increased knowledge of both culture and life.

Simply put, roti and aloo choka are two elements of a dish of Indian descent; roti is a flat, round-shaped piece of bread while aloo choka consists of mashed potatoes mixed with hot peppers and onions. It was always a personal favorite of mine and when my mother offered to teach me, I couldn’t refuse. It would be the first time I attempted to cook a Guyanese dish. Moreover, it was going to be the first time she taught me how to cook anything. From this lesson, she would pass on to me the methods that women from generations before used when cooking. I learned how to knead the roti dough as my ancestors did, how to mash the potatoes the old-fashioned way (as she did in Guyana), and how to add just the right number of peppers so that the dish remained spicy. When I took the first bite of the dish I had made, I was extremely satisfied. It was something I made with my own hands and it was perfect: the roti was soft and flaky; the aloo choka was thick and pungent. It tasted just as a genuine Guyanese dish should—flavorful and spicy. Although I was born in the United States, the meal I had just prepared made me feel connected to the land of my ancestors.

Not only did the process of cooking this dish tighten the bond between me and my Guyanese culture, it also helped me understand life a bit better. While many may not realize it, cooking is very similar to life; in both processes, you put in what you can give, try your best to make the components work, and hope that the end result is worth your efforts. If you don’t attempt life (or cooking) with your best interests, however, you may never reach what you intended to. As the addition of a bitter spice could completely ruin a sweet dish, a tiny negligence in your life could produce a similar effect. In a sense, this small cooking lesson taught me a major lesson: if you go about life trying your hardest, you will not have any regrets.

One specific example of the effects of this lesson upon my life includes my visit to a small town in Texas. This past summer, when I decided to embark upon this journey with my parents, I was not accustomed to the rapid switch from exciting city life to boring country life. I discovered, however, that this factor of "boring" only existed because I helped it to. Hence, in order to reap the benefits of being in a completely different environment, I made the effort to accompany my Texan cousin to tours along the countryside. These tours gave me the opportunity to see how the other side lived and led me to appreciate the simpler ways of life. Essentially, the aforementioned cooking lesson enabled me to enjoy my trip to rural Texas and to examine life through a different perspective.

Two years ago, when I first received that cooking lesson from my mother, I never thought it would change my outlook on life and culture. I started looking at the meals my mother prepared for my family in a different way; they weren’t just meals anymore. Instead, they became packages that contained years worth of cultural influences carried from Asia all the way to South America. Furthermore, the process from which she created these packages didn’t just involve throwing ingredients into a bowl or a pot. It became a delicate series of steps that required attention and dedication. I realized that the results of cooking, along with those of life, depended wholly on their handler. Ultimately, if I had never received this particular cooking lesson, I would not have developed such determination, an interest in the cultural aspects of life, nor a complete sense of ease with my ethnicity.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download