Hi Everyone,
As I sat on a plane bound for the United States of America, I contemplated what to write about in this week’s column. What do I want to say on the eve of Christmas? I absentmindedly flipped through the pages of the current issue of the Saveur magazine in my hands and stopped at page 60.
When I’d finished reading Annia Ciezadlo’s article: ‘They Remember Home’, about a group of Iraqi refugees now living in Lebanon who gather daily for an evening meal that “keeps them whole, keeps their scattered world intact,” my eyes were filled with tears that blurred the pages. I knew then what I wanted to say.
Some people leave home because they want to, some because they need to but for others, it’s because they must; like Ali Shamkhi, who was shot in his home at close range just beneath the shoulder by gunmen trying to recruit him. He had an ultimatum, to join them or be the victim of their better aim the next time. He fled leaving everything and everyone that mattered behind.
When I created ‘Tastes Like Home’ it was because I missed the food of home. Food had a special way of connecting me to my family, it was what kept me safe and made me feel whole. It helped me to maintain my identity especially at times when I felt like an outsider.
There are many of us who are choosing, willingly, where we want to spend Christmas this year. There are many more that do not have that luxury and wonder when and if they will ever see their families and homes again.
I miss Guyana every day. Still, I have come to realize that home is more than just a physical location. It is something deeper, it is the memories and relationships we carry in our heads and hearts. Food is one of the key ways in which we recreate these memories. Food nourishes our bodies and our souls as well. It is for this reason that, although each year we busily search cookbooks, blogs, magazines and newspapers for new recipe ideas, we always, always include the familiar. We include the dishes that remind us and those that bind us and connect us to our homes and families, a taste of home.
I can only imagine how much harder it must be for those who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, genocide and natural disasters, a taste of home for them must be a lifeline to a place and time they once knew and where they were, hopefully, happy. And that’s the power of food. It can transport you to a place from which you can draw strength to face your challenges. It can humble you with its simplicity and ability to yield enough so that you can share it with others. This year as we sit down with our families and loved ones at our tables laden with all our favourites, I want us to pause for a moment and acknowledge how privileged we are to be in that space, in that moment. We have food. We have something to eat. We have the freedom to choose where we want to be this Christmas.
For people like Ali and the others in the story, ‘They Remember Home’, that is all they might have for a long time, a memory, because there is no going back. Telephone calls will replace visits, eating with their families will be a shared memory and comfort and assurance will come in the hope that one day, some day, the family can sit together and break bread.
This holiday, wherever you are, whomever you’re sharing it with and whatever you’re feasting on, have a happy holiday and remember that for a taste of home all you have to do sometimes is to close your eyes and remember. Remember when.
Merry Christmas everybody!
Cynthia
tasteslikehome@gmail.com
www.tasteslikehome.org
