Project 1, Part 1
Ruddy Landry Paulino
Prof. Jesse
English 110-H2
9/8/18
My Favorite Food
AH, the pleasant aroma of my grandma’s kitchen from all the hard work cooking and baking. My grandma’s cooking will always have a special place in my heart because first off its the best food you’ll ever taste, second she’s cute and short plus has an accent, third of all the dishes she makes scream at you saying you’ll want more. From all this loving and tasty food I have figured out one thing and that one thing is the reason I love this food so much is that its made by a person so close to me. I would like to share my reason why I think you guys would feel the same way I do. My favorite meal has always made by my grandma which always taste amazing, it also brings back my childhood, and shows the culture/ family I grew up in.
Yum, the sound of walking into a master chief’s kitchen with pot clanging and mouths watering. As I step over to the kitchen counter to see in the pots what’s being made I also waved my hand over them to get a whiff of the meal. The aroma is fantastic the white, fluffy Arroz hits your nose with a sweet scent almost as if you’re in a field of corn. In the pot next to the rice is an unusual sweet tasting vegetable that comes in a can. This canned product comes covered with a dolce syrup which has a delightful taste. Once the meals finished by my grandma yells to everyone and we all come running in for the food. When putting them together I slab a considerable chunk of rice on there and then walk over to get some beans, I then drizzle the sweet syrup all over the rice and watch the beans fall into my plate as I turn the spoon over. As I fill my plate I start to wonder how can I make this on my own.
When making a Spanish meal my grandma always told me “ it comes from the love and effort you put into it”(Grandma). Which never really made sense to me until I started this essay. Thankfully the meal never takes to long to make, I say like an hour or so which isn’t bad for a college student to attempt making. The ingredients to make rice and beans are, vegetable oil, salt, rice, water, canned black beans, some adobe, and chicken bolognese which aren’t pricey to get, so it’s a cheap meal to buy. I have tried multiple times to make this meal but have never made it as good as my abuela can which makes me sad because I wish I could prosper at my cooking as she does. A good thing is that I don’t have to worry because she will be around for a lot longer making me more of these meals.
I believe this meal means so much to me because it brings back my childhood memories with her. One time I remember we were on our way to her house and my brother’s and I were fighting over something stupid, so my dad threatened us with taking us back to our house. Which immediately got us to be quite because we knew if we went home there was no rice and beans for us. Another thing I loved to do was stay there because then I could have all the rice and beans I wanted. This meal also brings back memories of when I was still a kid doing fun things like playing soccer, or playing basketball with my cousins or even just hanging with my family. Rice and beans are essential to our family because not only did we get well-cooked food but it would also bring the family together for a few hours. Where we could have wonderful conversations about our lives and talk about how blessed we all were to be sharing this meal as a family.
My grandma’s relationship with this meal brings her back to some parts of when she was a kid trying to survive. My grandma comes from a poor island called the Dominican Republic which is on the other side of Haiti. She explained that growing up in DR was rough, there was never a guaranteed meal waiting for her at the dinner table. My grandma explained that they were farmers so they did grow their food to eat and sell. One thing she did mention was that there was never a guarantee that the food they grew would give them a meal. Her life was never easy so she was always glad that she could provide one special meal for us that the whole family could love. She believes that I love this meal because as my grandma think “ its made by the best cook” but she knows it’s because her food reminds me of the culture and historic family values that come from this home-cooked meal. When conversing with my grandma I asked her if her favorite meal was rice and beans, she said “ no I love chicharron the most out of all the meals I’ve had” which is when you sizzle pig meat in cooking oil for like a few minutes or until you have a crispy outside then once done squeeze a little bit of lemon on it and it should be delicious. Without my grandmother, I would have probably never known what it was like to have rice and beans.
The feelings I get for this food are amazing because it’s an exciting time when grandma yells to us “ dinner ready”. Funny thing is that not only do the kids come running with drooling mouths but so don’t the rest of the family. This meal has made it through many generations which in all honesty I’m glad. Even though the struggle was real for this recipe to stay around it made it so far and will continue to be passed on. Rice and beans brought around a lot of enjoyment to life, it also brought the family together and then showed what culture I grew up in as a child. I just want to give a big thanks to my parent for always bring us there when we asked and I also want to give a big thanks to my awesome grandma for always cooking us rice and beans.
Ingredients
2 cups of rice
3 tablespoons of cooking oil
1 teaspoon of crushed garlic
1 teaspoon of cilantro
1 or 2 cans of black beans
2 or 4 cups of water
1 tablespoon of basil
1 teaspoon of parsley (finely chopped)
