*An Identification with a Love of Food

When I first read the prompt to write about a food I "identify with", I was a bit puzzled. I began thinking about the possible connections I could draw upon between culture, race, family etc, and the food that I consume. I began with race. As someone of mixed backgrounds, I have never fully identified with one food group. I cold have an English breakfast, Irish lunch, Native American snack, Mexican dinner and French dessert and still not have eaten from every background.

I suppose though, having an aunt who makes the best Menudo you will ever have, makes it easy for me to identify with Mexican cuisine, specifically my aunts Menudo. In fact, the Menudo recipe is one that I have wanted to get for her from sometime. Just writing about it makes me crave it. It is by any definition, the ultimate Mexican hang-over-cure soup. Being a festive bunch that my family is, the soup is typically prepared for the next morning, and there isn't a single person who passes it up. Menudo not only acts as a cultural identity, but as a family one as well.

But then, there's the Caesar salad my mom makes. That’s a whole other story. The Caesar dressing my mom makes has so much garlic in it you're mouth will burn. But that won't stop you, because it is so good it’s worth the burn, and the smell. The recipe, which I believe originated from a cook she once knew in San Francisco, has taken on my mother's love of antioxidants and hence the large amount of garlic. Like any good mom, she used to be concerned with me going out to parties in high school, and would make Caesar salad before I left, which of course I couldn't resists, and so of course I would reek of garlic all night. Nonetheless, the Caesar salad is a necessity whenever I come home. So it would be easy to say then I suppose, that I identify myself with Caesar salad, but not just any, I identify myself with the tongue-burning, reeking of garlic Caesar salad which my mom makes.

So it would seem that although my food identifications can be traced to linage, they are primarily an identification with the love the food is associated with. In a city where food from around the world is available at your finger tips, you would think something as simple as Caesar salad would be any easy craving to meet, but let me tell you, finding something as good as mom's is impossible. And although I know most Mexican places serve Menudo on Saturday mornings, its resemblance to my Aunts would be all but disappointing. It is this love of food, and love of sharing food with loved ones, which I identify with.