thefarmerandthesnake: Real Food

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Real Food

Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie's books are my latest passion. They are the perfect combination of insightful social commentary and beautiful language. I generally try to force everything that I love onto my students (with varying results - "Fences" was a hit; The Great Gatsby- not so much). My 5th and 6th grade Language Enrichment students just finished Purple Hibiscus and went from complaining that the book was "too hard," to cheering as we completed the book together.

5th Grade Final Project on Purple Hibiscus

Inspired by Adichie's short story Real Food, I had my 8th graders write their own narratives about food, family and culture. The stories that I received were about everything from fried chicken to fufu; Thanksgiving meals to Eid celebrations. The following story is by Brittney Nelson:

When I was younger my mom used to make a meal every Sunday for me, my aunt, my cousin, and my grandfather. I used to love the way she cooked because she used special seasonings that she knew that I liked. She used to make pork chops, sloppy joes, cheese burgers, and fried chicken. That's not all she made, but those were the ones I liked especially. We didn't sit at the dining table because we liked to all watch television in the living room together. Those were the times when no one argued and everyone was laughing together. She used to always get mad at me because whenever my hands were greasy, I would wipe them on my clothes or on the suede couch. When I did that, she would give me a look- then I realized that I was in trouble.

As my mom started to get sick, she wasn't able to cook for us so she would have one of her sisters cook for us. I used to get mad because I liked my mother's cooking better, but there was nothing I could do about it. As my mother started to get really sick, we didn't even have home cooked meals anymore. We ordered take-out from the nearest restaurants. But I will never forget the meal that my mom asked my aunt to make for us before she was hospitalized. She asked my aunt to make boiled chicken and noodles. Before we started eating, my mother requested that all of us sit at the dining room table while we were eating. We had a wonderful discussion; we also had many laughs as we brought up the good ol' times. I am so glad that we all had that peaceful family time because that was the last time that we sat at the dining table with a home cooked meal.

Now that my mom has passed, I always ask my aunt to recreate that meal. It may not be every Sunday, but when I do eat it, it always brings back wonderful memories. That will ALWAYS and FOREVER BE MY FAVORITE MEAL!