Sara'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 Sara's Food Story! 

The earliest I remember eating fry bread is when I was just a wee little child. My mom, feeding me pieces of bread. I think that's where my love for bread came from (lol). Fry bread is a golden, flat, bread that is fried in lard, shortening or oil. 

Fry bread was developed out of necessity using flour, sugar and lard originally to feed thousands of natives. In the 1800’s, when natives were being forced into internment camps (reservations today), they were given commodity food boxes. They were boxes that were filled with rations of flour, lard, salt, sugar, coffee beans and canned foods, supplied by the U.S. government. 

Fry bread is a symbol of perseverance, resilience, and sacrifice and although it may not be the healthiest, it’s very existence is special because of the many hardships so many natives went through. I am not that connected to my native culture, unfortunately, but I’m proud that I as a native can choose to make and enjoy fry bread, instead of how my ancestors were being forced to make it just to get sustenance and survive. 

It’s golden outside, the yummy white fluffy inside. It makes me happy when eating it now and remembering happy memories of my mom!! I remember coming home from school and hearing the pops of oil that came from frying it, and me waiting in the kitchen where the sun would come through the windows in my childhood house. My dad makes it now and he is teaching me how to! My mom tells me about how her grandma made it for her, which is different than how my dad does it because he doesn't use cups to cut it. He just rips the dough and then fries it.  Although my mom rarely makes it anymore, my dad makes it just as yummy as she did! We have it every couple weeks now, although my dad makes fry bread as a little snack if I ask him to. Sometimes we eat it with certain soups, sometimes we make it into tacos! The fresh crisp of the lettuce, and yummy meat that goes onto it, the bright red tomatoes. So yummy. I know that it seems like a small thing to focus on to explain through my food story, but it makes me happy that this is something that I can experience!!

Here’s a recipe that my dad uses :D My mom used to just measure it randomly but my dad uses proper measurement:

Ingredients: 5 cups of flour | 2 ¼ cup of room temperature buttermilk | 5 tsp of baking powder | ¼ cup of hot water | Salt  (the more flour you use, the more powder/ salt/ buttermilk you use)

Directions: Mix ingredients in a bowl to a dough consistency | Let sit for 20 minutes | Put whatever oil thing you're using into pan and heat it up | Roll out dough and cut it into circle shape or whatever shape and cut it, or rip a piece of the dough and flatten it | Place in pan until it is golden yellow on one side, flip, cook until the other side is the same | Eat it!

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.