Traditional recipes that evolve to save time and revive memories

How a childhood meal turns into a contemporary recipe you pass on to friends

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

I was asked in a cooking class last month, “What would be the one traditional dish that you’d like to make for friends at home?”

Now, a tradition in general terms is described as a recurrence of time, effort and product that denotes resemblance to who you are, and where you come from. Tradition represents one’s identity, a mutual coexistence of past and present, which one carries forward (or at least hopes to) to answer the question, “Who am I?”

Especially when it comes to cooking, each one of us has distinct memories of taste and smell, that lay the foundation of what one at traditionally ate at home, growing up. The climate, vegetation, economic resources, livestock, religion, migration, all have a direct relationship with traditional recipes.

Some recipes were exclusive to festivals or birthdays; and some were just made everyday, so simple that they never made it to a guest’s table.

Ironically, these are the recipes that one misses the most after moving away from family and living on your own. The everyday meals…