Fatuma's Food Story

When we think of food, ingredients, dishes and meals come to mind -- the dinner we recently enjoyed, something served at a favorite restaurant or take out spot, a go-to lunch plate, or maybe a family recipe. There are many layers to a favorite food. Is it the taste? The practice of procuring that meal? The good times you’ve had while enjoying it? Or the careful art of making it? 

Food is visceral experience. We make deep connections through the food we eat. Our memories, experiences, and preferences are what make up our food values. These food values are important to our daily lives. They help shape our personalities and forge connections with people, places and points in our lives.

We learn so much about each other when we talk about what we eat, what we ate, and what we want to eat. 

MAP Youth in the Mobile Market work group recently worked on telling our Food Story -- the practice of recalling and sharing a deep connection to food. We traced a favorite food back to our earliest memory of it, in hopes to get to know each other a little better.

This is Fatuma's Food Story! 

When I was toddler, and my mother first started getting the hang of feeding me actual human food not baby, food it was potatoes. Not mashed potatoes, but baked potatoes. She mushed them when she was feeding it to me like mashed potatoes but not actual mashed, if that makes any sense. That's when my obsession with potatoes grew; every meal my mom made had to have potatoes in it. 

Potatoes make you feel full, at least in my opinion, so having it in any single meal for me is a plus. When I'm sick and just not feeling the best, my mom makes me soup with ginger, carrots, onions, and potatoes. It's the best. It gives me a nice jump start to actually get up and get things done throughout the day. The best thing about potatoes is that they come in any way shape or form. You've got baked potatoes, fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, etc. 

My favorite kind of potatoes is baked potatoes with fried chicken and yellow rice, but with a hint of orange and red. The way my mother gets it with color is just when the rice is done, and the water has completely dried up, you add Sazon right on top and stir. The color spreads and adds flavor with the rest of the seasonings you add into your rice, which my mom adds a lot, but they all even out with each other which is so mouth-savoring. 

There's so many different ways my mom can change the form of a single potato into different things, it's crazy. I didn’t used to like fried potato wedges, but now they are bombs and I can eat them by themselves. Even when I go out to eat, I have to have fries or some type of potato. If I don't, I feel like I haven't really eaten anything. For snacks, chips-wise, I have to have the specific yellow classic Lay’s bag of chips. If you hand me any other type of chips I would eat them, of course, but they just don't hit the way the yellow bag of chips do from Lay’s. 

My favorite meal of all time would have to be fried potatoes, onions, and carrots, sometimes yellow bell peppers. You have to get them all incredibly soft and moist so first you bake them and then fry, but not to the point they are crispy or burnt, just right in between. That's when they are best to eat. My food story is just about a simple potato, that can be changed and formed in multiple different ways, which tastes awesome in all of its different forms.

Here are a couple ways I like my potatoes:

Potato Soup

Ingredients: carrots, potatoes, onions, red & yellow bell peppers, ginger (in its original form or powder, doesn't matter really)
Seasonings: garlic powder, salt, chicken soup base, Vegeta All Purpose Seasoning, and Tones Nashville Hot Chicken Seasoning Blend (only if you prefer it spicy)

Baked Potatoes, Carrots & Onions

Ingredients: potatoes, carrots, onions, (I prefer white onions over red), red and yellow bell peppers (if you want to), tomatoes (diced), tomato paste, and oil
Seasonings: garlic powder, salt, chicken soup base, Vegeta All Purpose Seasoning, Goya Sazon.

Share Your Food Story!

Think of

-your relationship with food.
-your personal history with food, eating, diet, wellness.
-your food heritage.
-food patterns you participate in, traditions you hold dear, practices that are unique to you.
-how you have come to know a particular food
-where ingredients come from
-how food is made, where food is made, when food is made

Choose a food you are close to.

Trace this food back to your earliest memory of it. Think of a dish or ingredient, its significance, the preparation, the taste and overall feeling you get when eating it. Think of how you will carry on the tradition of making or eating this food for years to come.

Tell me your food story.

If you would like to share your food story on our blog, please leave a comment below or send your submission to danielle@mass-ave.org.