My relationship with food - Essay Example

I could say Italians are real food-lovers and so they raise their own crops, choosing the ones which are most important in their cooking. Early in my life, I have learned to indulge in home-grown foods. The words, “Home-grown vegetables are the most delicious in the world”, have become a cliche for me because they were my grandmother’s daily verse. As a result, I have grown to consider home-grown vegetables as the very heart of every meal. I do not consider eating as a lively activity when there is no green thing on the table.

Without the colorful vegetables that make the poultry attractive, the blood in my home-grown relationship with food is quite drained. I guess I could say that my romance with food is like tomatoes. It is very attractive. With the red color, it expresses its passion for me as much as I do for it. It is as juicy as my early romance with food in my hometown in Italy. For the first seven years in my life, I have smelled and appreciated food even before I knew anything about it. It did not simply sustain me to live and be healthy.

Rather, food gave meaning to my life. I could say that just like the tomatoes, my first seven years of romance with food has been the juicy stuff. I remember my grandmother excitedly gathering her homegrown vegetables and gleefully bring them to the kitchen for our consumption. I can see the males preparing the meat to mate with the vegetables to eventually give birth to a delectable victual. Then, the whole family sit together to eat, giving the children the priority to indulge first with the food before the grown-ups pick on our morsels.

The whole family was engaged in the preparation and consumption of the food and I think that is what makes my love affair with food quite juicy. It has been a homegrown relationship, strengthened by the people around me and, which was nurtured into a love that is to make my life more colorful and meaningful. When my family moved to California, my homegrown romance did not die. Although we did not grow our own vegetables, mother always made sure that we still have the lingering taste of grandmother’s homegrown vegetables.

Local fresh foods were always made available for us. My mother always made it a point that we prepare our food and that we all eat together at home because she knew that going out to eat in restaurants, especially fast food restaurants, would spoil our love affair with healthy food. I see this time in my life as a carrot. It still looks attractive and healthy although the chewing gets a little difficult. This period brought us challenges that eventually affected me. My mother really had to work hard to keep our kitchen a place where we could still indulge with food and see each other.

With the demands of a busy American lifestyle and the inability to grow our own vegetables, preparing food has been quite a feat. Nevertheless, my mother did not give up rather she kept my romance with food aflame by teaching me how to cook even though we had to get by with vegetables from the fresh market which are locally produced. When organic vegetables became popular, I could say that my relationship with food became more interesting. I did not have to worry about the source of the food that I eat rather I was confident and felt like I was with my grandmother once again.

I could perhaps describe this time in my life as the onion in my food romance. Onions are pungent and