Theres something about food
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[Applause]
i
only had one job when i was nine years
old
and that job i took very seriously
my duty was to hold the motta ever so
tightly
my siblings and i saddled around the
mother dodging the pistol from hitting
our tender faces
was all in the hopes of eating
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pounded yam no other food requires such
selflessness and strength
you see pounded yam is the king
of all foods it serves both the rich
and the poor alike panda jam is made
with two
simple ingredients yam and water
that’s it it’s that simple the constant
pounding turns
a rough tube of yam into a very soft
dough in your tells a story like no
other
it is as traditional as you can get
it is authentic and unpretentious it is
sweat
and vigor the sound of pounding
is music to my ears i can never forget
the sound that rocked me to sleep
and awakened my soul there’s just
something
about food food
is music the thumping sound of the
mortar
heard across several planes in africa
the sound of hot pounded yam usually
eaten
with a goosey soup a staple in my
hometown
if you listen very closely
it sounds like the beating of the heart
the synchronized sound
from up down left
and right that rhythm awakens those who
are hungry
to the hope of a new meal
like my love for pounded yam
that love knows no bounds
food is love the first date sitting
across the table from a man you love
fisting on the plate of filet mignon
if you’re acting like you don’t eat that
much
you order a bowl of salad whichever way
you eat you’ll create memories
food is memory
my first meal in america was spaghetti
with meatballs from governor square mall
in tallahassee florida i loved it the
second day i was at kfc with my
uncle fisting on fried chicken mashed
potatoes with gravy
and soft buttery biscuit i
love the chicken and the biscuit
the mashed potatoes and gravy not so
much
i remember my first pizza my first
burger
my first sushi my first gyro was with an
ex-boyfriend it was so good we had it
almost every
other day how can i ever forget the
taste of pita fries
and tzatziki sauce and then there was
the chinese restaurant my cousin and i
will go to
every time we worked out it was like our
five dollar reward for working out so
hard
we made lots of memories and gained a
lot of weight over those
how special fried rice with fried
chicken
and dog sauce sweet soy sauce and for me
hot oil i swear
nothing comes close to the taste of
chinese food from that storefront
in tallahassee i fell in love with
food living in tallahassee florida
i became passionate about cooking and
learned
how to cook living in that small town
i became entroled about southern soul
food
taking trips to fort valley georgia
how can i ever forget the taste of
collard greens
and blueberry cake i fell in love with
mexican food
living in houston texas there’s just
something about tortillas
i grew to appreciate creole food while
living in louisiana for one
year these are my food memories
and every one of us have them but we
rarely think of them
or appreciate them we connect food to
people places and events
that shaped our lives for many of us
food evokes pleasant memories we
remember
places smells people and moments
we associate food with moments that are
that come to warm feelings and tie us
together
pounded yam is my favorite childhood
memory it connects me to home
pounded yam is home food
is home people gathered around dining
tables across the world
sharing a meal laughter conversations
and creating memories food is
sunday soul food with big mama making a
pot of mac and cheese
it’s cinco de mayo and eating tacos
it’s chinese new year indulging in
traditional
chinese foods it’s ghee during the hindu
festivals
it’s pizza and barbecue night at the
andersons
it’s also christmas morning rice with
stew and chicken
every single christmas when i was
growing up it’s
thanksgiving dinners with the ones you
love pairing knives ready to carve the
turkey
it’s enjoying my cousins chicken
tatazini
and her burnt cookie every single year
it’s my warm coconut pepper soup faux
whenever
a guest comes to my home
food is ritualistic
baking brownies every saturday with my
boys is a ritual for us
making warm peppa soup is a weekly
ritual for me in some cultures
eating pounded yam during the new year
festival
is a ritual and you dare not eat it
before the king does
these rituals involve conversations and
laughter
and the point of our souls to each other
we all have
certain food rituals it’s just we never
get to think of them do we
there’s just something about food
food connects there’s no better
connector than food
it symbolizes how we define ourselves
and how we connect with our culture
pounded yam is a family of fear where
the man
harvests the yam and the women do the
pounding and in some cases
the men do the pounding and the women
have as the yams
villages and communities share in the
joy of cooking and
eating social gatherings are usually
grazed with a
spread of food people connect over their
mutual love for food
and a chance meeting a starbucks and
realizing you both love macchiato could
actually create a ripple effect of a
lifetime friendship
but just as food connects us food also
separates us
food defines class it defines the halves
and halves not
i read about two five thousand year old
mummies that were found
frozen in time what was fascinating
though
was the scientist was able to tell what
class they belonged to
based on their diet one was wealthy and
the other
wasn’t how incredible
is that meaning what i eat or not eat
solely depends on my
income and sometimes my zip code
we see a great disparities in how we eat
and what we eat which in turn determines
the length
and the quality of our lives
food is health we are what we eat after
all
we eat food for sustainance to
live long to live better and to thrive
eating the wrong types of food
would affect us eating the right types
of food would help us
live longer
and unfortunately food is death you eat
too much of the wrong meals and your
health is threatened
you overeat and under eat there is
trouble
people and nations fight over food
security
and the lucky ones who cannot afford a
meal
die of starvation
while other nations have their citizens
overeating themselves to death
but food is hope for the poor
a bowl of soup or a plate of rice
gives hope just like what a roman noodle
is to a college student
it reassures eurovision will say
obasi konjeshatiwa meaning
even if there’s no money as long as
there’s food
poverty is more painful when there is no
food
being broke is more evident when your
fridge
is empty
food is beauty i’m in love with the
plating of food
the look of well-plated food pleases my
palate
i’m entrolled by the law of it
the beauty of green vegetables
quietly placed nest to steamed
potatoes or the beauty of pepperoni
on pizza how about
the beauty of sushi craftly laid out
on a plate the spirit of
zobo as it dances in a cup
or suya leaning on a stone grill
there’s something beautiful about food
food is celebration where i come from
that means ninja patsy jo love
smoky red rice without which a nigerian
party is incomplete
there’s an ongoing culinary war actually
about this rice
we pay homage to food as an essential
part
of every celebration it’s a malawi
egg we’re doing gregory soup it’s ophel
wearing
when a guest comes to your home is tuo
and mian kuka
of course it’s pounded yam and a goosey
soup
the smell of food sumans the herald of
celebration
it beckons the dance and the excitement
finally food is culture
food exists as a way of expressing
culture
it gives insight into cultural norms and
traditions
we also connect different cultures to
their food
like fufu being african
when you think sushi you think japanese
taco mexico pasta italian
baklava middle east burger
and barbecue america as an immigrant my
biggest worry when i came to this
country
was to be able to find food that reminds
me of home it took almost 15 years to
finally
eat real pounded yam
while immigrants explore new foods we
also want to be connected
to our culture we want to maintain our
traditional
eating habits and we often use food as a
way of retaining
our cultural identity
food is an expression of our cultural
identity
there is more of a connection between
food and culture
than you may think as an immigrant i
brought with me
memories of food that i grew up with
it helped me not being homesick it
actually helped
me not being homesick because i could
see it everywhere i go
like eating soft juicy mango that
actually tastes like i remembered it
or eating broad corn that reminds me of
lokaja
in nigeria or the very first time i had
guava in texas
and i was transported right back to
secondary school
inokane sitting on the front porch
devouring them
that’s the power of food when we share
our food cultures with others
our culture is preserved and traditions
are passed down
it is important to explore other food to
connect over food
to use food as a tool to give hope to
show
love to create memories and teach others
to be more informed about
other cultures and their food it is also
important not to allow
food separate us but to use
food as a communicative tool to help us
understand the world
better
i only have one job at 41 years old
and that job i take very seriously
i plan to have conversations about
african
food and culture and to give people a
peek into what authentic
african food is all about
and explore how to connect and fuse
foods from different cultures
to create a beautiful story that dances
on your palate
it is celebrating the cultural diversity
of food
and to make sure that we produce and
cook real foods
that with cultural relevance that are
devoid of harmful chemicals
there’s definitely something about food
it’s beyond biological sustainance
it’s love it’s home it’s memories
it’s celebration it’s beauty it’s hope
it’s health and so much more
so what’s your food identity
what is food to you
what memories do you have about food
like my people would say come
and chop thank you
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you