Cindy came over to my apartment one evening, and I cooked
dinner for her. As you may recall,
I was debating about what to cook for her. I wanted to make something “authentically American;”
however, I ran out of time and ended up throwing together a quick pot of
soup. Thankfully, Cindy is not a
picky eater and ended up loving the meal.
Since our meeting revolved around food, it was only natural
for our conversation to revolve around food as well. We each talked about our customs revolving around having
dinner with one’s family. In my
family, for big meals, everyone typically is in the kitchen, and each person is
in charge of one dish. When it
comes time for dinner, we all grab our plates from the table, get our food
buffet-style in the kitchen, and return to the dining room to eat. This is the tradition that I grew up
with because no one wanted to use the serving platters and have to wash twice
as many dishes.
On the other hand, Cindy said that typically her mother and grandmother
cook for big family meals. When it
comes time to eat, all of the dishes are put into the middle of the table,
everyone takes their seat, and everyone begins to grab what food they want from
the options on the table. I
originally understood this description as passing each dish around the table,
each person taking what he/she wants.
However, Cindy meant that each person takes his/her utensils and grabs
food from the center of the table.
Maybe there is an order of who gets to put food on their
plate first, but this seems chaotic to me. However, I could tell that when I told Cindy about my
traditions, she seemed confused as to why we walked around the house with our
plates in our hands.
I consider myself a fairly culturally aware person, yet it continues
to amaze me how different our traditions are from one another in ways that I
couldn’t have imagined. From
something so simple as eating, a human act that is required to survive, I can
see how our values can differ.
Since my entire family helps cook the meal, it is unnecessary for us to
present it in the middle of the table.
However, for her family, sharing out of a large dish enhances the sense
of community amongst those at the table.
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