While scrolling through Instagram’s stories, given that most
of my friends are chefs or have studied culinary arts with me, I get to see all
their creativity shining through their dishes. Unfortunately, outside of
Jordan.
اضافة اعلان
One dish was lobster with a tahini vinaigrette. It is not a
usual combination. This dish got me thinking of the number of possibilities
that could be done using a single Arabic-inspired ingredient. Yet, Jordanians
tend to stick to the norm and comfortability.
This epiphany got me thinking about the
Jordanian cuisine,
in general, and how it has yielded to a more westernized influence, not because
of evolving and keeping up with the trends, but because we are losing touch
with the food culture itself.
Food became an indicator of class, sophistication, and
money, just like in the old days. However, what was back then considered
delicacy is now ground beef placed between two pieces of bread.
Whenever we have foreign guests coming to Jordan, and we try
to give them a little taste of the Jordanian culture, the first thing we do,
aside from the
mansaf, of course, is take them downtown, specifically to Hashem
and probably later for kunafeh from Habiba.
That is the most we can do when it comes to a cultural food
trip from a westernized Ammani point of view. Coming to think of it, every
single governorate in Jordan, from north to south, has abundant food items that
are not well known in an Ammani culture. But we are not sharing that with
foreign guests because we simply do not know.
Dishes such as maqmourah, ashoruf, lazagiat, fateereh (both
the sweet version and the savory one, which is an original mansaf) are the
essence of our Jordanian heritage and culture, are what our ancestors lived on.
So why did they suddenly vanish from the food scene in households or even restaurants?
While digging a little more into why the westernized food
culture influences the late Millennials and the newer Generation Z, it all
comes down to the upbringing itself. I remember sitting down for hours in front
of a maqloubeh plate, crying my tears out, refusing to eat it, while my mother
would not even have a change of heart or get me the chicken tenders that I
would constantly nag about. Junk food was and is still considered a prize, a
gift, or a bribe, if you may.
Growing up and eventually making my own decisions about what
I wanted to consume, choosing fast food and western cuisine was the top pick.
It felt like being free from the prison of maqloubeh (or any other dish that
one disliked as a child). Having a buffet of options presented to me in a food
court on a plastic tray, surrounded by hundreds of people that I did not know,
I would still prefer that prison eating setup over crying for not eating a
home-cooked meal with my family under one roof.
As I grew older, I realized that the newer generation in the
family did not have to fight as much as we did, they had it much easier, and
parents were more passive. However, we cannot deny that the food scene is not
evolving, and there is a burger place around every corner, yet, we should
educate our children about our food, heritage, and culture.
Let them help out in the kitchen, learn how to cook and
learn where the food comes from, instead of making westernized food a taboo for
them to grow up only craving what was not allowed.
Better yet, even make the westernized food items part of the
weekly or monthly food experience so that they will not think of it as a prize
for a job well done, but just another type of food. They will get exposed to it
eventually, so they might as well do it under their parents’ watch.
On a day-to-day basis, I deal with college-level students
studying culinary arts. They are required to sit down and eat as part of a
class in a fine dining restaurant or a casual restaurant during their
education. I usually struggle with them when it comes to eating classical food
items such as a beef consommé, a classical French clear soup clarified using
egg whites. The trick in the recipe is that you need to bring it only to a
simmer for the protein in the egg to coagulate and take all the impurities in
the stock, giving you a crystal clear soup as a result. One boil, and the whole
thing is ruined. As much as I try to encourage them, they will not accept it
until I explain the history behind it, the science, and the delicate steps in
creating this soup.
The soup and the maqloubeh share the same dilemma, but the
consommé made its way to the heart with a simple explanation and history. It
could be a generation thing, so if reasoning and a story behind it help young
ones value the food more, then use them.
We cannot deny that the globalization of the world is
bringing us all closer together. Yet, we can include the younger generation in
learning and exploring our own culture of food and refrain from creating a
taboo food culture that the new generation will run to eventually.
Let them discover their roots, the stories of the food items
consumed by their grandparents when they were younger, or visit the north or
south home towns.
So next time you reach for those frozen chicken nuggets in
the freezer to avoid a conflict at the lunch table, you probably would be
saving a temporary situation, but you will be taking your children a step
further away from their culture.
Read more Good Food
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