Food tells you about your Culture

Have you ever think about the food you eat every day can tell you all about yourself? Have you ever think about why people in different countries eat different types of food? Do you ever ask yourself why certain foods or culinary traditions are so linked to your culture? Yes, food and culture and related to each other.

We grow up eating the food of our cultures. Food from our family often becomes the comfort food we seek as adults in times of frustration and stress. When we were sick, we could not eat heavy food because at that time we were too weak, so mother or grandmother would cook some liquid food and bring it to our bed. Still, you have that smell and taste of that liquid food in your memory. Now, whenever you feel tired or stressed, you remember that food your mother or grandmother cooked for you. That is the culture of your family. In some countries, they cook rice soup, some used to cook vegetable soup, some country they used to cook barley soup, etc. Each of these depends on which culture you came from.

Food is an important part of the culture. Traditional cuisine passing from one generation to the next. It also symbolizes cultural identity. If you are migrating from one country to another you bring along with you your traditional cuisine, and when you went back to your homeland you bring along with you the culinary of that county. Even though the flavour and taste of traditional cooking are different. For example, Indian spicy cuisine is famous all over the world. However, Indians using spice of their traditional one. In other countries, there are a lot of Indian shops selling spices, but the usage of these spices is different from Indians, they use very little because the Indian spices are hot. You can easily recognize the taste and flavour of traditional cuisine. 

I did eat pizza made in Kerala, India, and traditional pizza made in Italy. The taste of both is entirely different. Italian Pizza is puffy and soft while the Indian pizza that I ate was thick and hard. The name is the same but the culinary is entirely different.

As the world is more globalized, it is easier to access cuisines from different cultures made. We should hold our heritage through our traditional cuisine but we should also become more informed about other cultures by trying their foods. It is important to remember that each dish has a special place in the culture to which it belongs, and is special to those who prepare it. Food is a gateway into a culture, and it should be treated and respect as such.