Roots and Recipes Final draft

My Mom hollers, “Not ready Isaiah.  Leave it alone.  You’ll burn your hand.” The heat of the oven hits my mom’s face as she takes out the golden brown custard bibingka.  The smell of brown sugar and coconut milk fuses together making me feel toasty. It’s still bubbling across the surface and a thin crust forms along the slightly burned edges.  I feel happy and eager, waiting for it to cool enough to eat.

My mom makes bibingka for special occasions and other social events.  My mom is Filipina-Japanese and is the only one in my family who makes this.  Rice is important in both cultures and is used in many dishes, and has social and family connections.

Mochi pounding is very important to Japanese culture and is done in the New Year.  It is important because it represents the idea of family.  Pounding mochi requires teamwork.  The stickiness of the mochi represents keeping the family together.  The act of pounding mochi bonds the family.  This is why it’s done in the beginning of the yeart. 

For Filipinos, eating is a social event and presentation of food is important.  Merienda is a special time in the afternoon when people sit and socialize.  It’s like a long coffee break with heavy snacks.  What makes bibingka different from mochi is the use of coconut milk and brown sugar.  Filipinos use coconut milk because the Philippines is in the tropics where there are a lot of coconut trees.  Brown sugar is used because it’s sweeter, makes the dessert more appetizing, and sugar is grown in the Philippines.

Bibingka is heavier and has a richer, creamer taste, than the mochi.  Mochi is squishier and has a subtle taste.  They both represent their cultures well because many things connected to Filipinos are bolder and flashy (think Manny Pacquiao’s jackets) whereas many things Japanese are low-key.

            I remember when my seventh grade social studies teacher found out that I am part Filipino and instructed me to bring him Filipino food.  I brought a pan of bibingka and all was right with the world.

roots and recipe first draft

The splashes of olive oil hits the bottom make me remember the time family members would come around the dinning table to feast on delicious food that my grandmother has prepared. the smell of eye watering onions fills my eyes as they are put in the pot, the sight of the big jug of vinegar sitting lonesome on the kitchen counter makes me think what my grandmother is making, so i ask my grand mother what she was making, "she said I'm making pork adobo", i ask why don't have this dish all the time, she answer in a stern voice, she said "BECAUSE IN THE PHILIPPINES THIS IS CONSIDER A TREAT!".
The brush of steam fly  past my face like a seagull flying gracefully through the air. You can hear the bubbling fat of the pork pop inside of the huge pot cooking the pork from the outside in, making it golden brown.
It has finally come to eat, an elderly voice echos throughout the house to call  make me remember the time family members would come around the dinning table to feast on delicious food that my grandmother has prepared, one after another , aunts, uncles, children all ages come through the doorway to the dinning room. there are bowls filled up to the brim of the bowl with steaming hot rice and freshly made adobo.
After the amazing food was devoured there where bowls stacked up a mile high, as everyone relaxed after a delicious meal.

roots and recipes project

Bistek

The special memory that i had with this dish was that it would be only made for special occasions , like holidays, birthdays, or house warming party's .You can hear the big red slabs of meat hit the firing skillet , with the hot bubbling oil cooks the meat from the outside in. the smell of the crisp onions being cooked fills the air through out the house, my mouth waters every time i smell that delicious smell fill in side my head. You can hear the laughter of adults and the screams of echo through the house, awaiting for the arrival of the food.

The person that will be interviewed is my grandmother because she said it is was my great grandma's recipe.