Today I spent a lot of time thinking about Somalia, the impetus being this blog project, of course, but beyond the recipes, it's a place, a culture that I interact with quite often. We live in a city with one of the highest Somali populations in the US. We live in a community within this city where the cultural impact of the Somali culture is seen at every corner. My first culinary experience of the day began with a morning stop at the local Somali coffee shop.
I don't normally have coffee out, but as it was my first day of winter vacation, I felt like treating myself. Upon entering the shop on Central Avenue, I realized immediately that I was the only white person there. I was the only one speaking English as my primary language. I'd wager I was the only non-Muslim as well, as I was the only woman without a hijab. This does not happen to me very often, not unless I am traveling really, which is a white privilege that is my norm. So I took a moment and scoped the place out, soaking in the uncomfortableness of being different as I read the menu. I ordered my caramel macchiato, thought about buying some samosas, and was on my way.
Being uncomfortable wasn't necessary a negative experience for me today. It keeps me thinking about my place in the world and the things I still need to know. What I know about Somalia, I've learned from the news, which is primarily negative. As a country that borders Ethiopia, I've learned some about the conflict between the two nations, again a negative situation, and the reverberations of that conflict between the two communities here in our city. But that doesn't stop me from appreciating the resilience of a people pushed from their worn torn nation to start over in the cold north of Minnesota.
And I continue to learn more through food.
Tonight I made two Somali recipes. One is a repeat for this blog, Ambabur Bed, an egg crepe usually eaten during Eid, made from Extending the Table. My mother has made crepes every Christmas since I can remember in one of our family traditions. This year Ian asked if we could bring these Somali crepes to the party, which was wholly welcomed by my mother, a long time member of the global community:) So I made crepes for tomorrow morning brunch. But the food didn't stop there.
Yesterday was Ian's birthday, and from his Granddad and Grandma in Scotland he received a wonderful cookbook, Kids Cook the World (added to my main page!). I told Ian he could pick any recipe he wanted for dinner tonight, and he chose Somali rice with vegetables, a simple dish loaded with veggies and spiced with cinnamon, clove and cardamom. It was delicious. As we cooked Ian and I talked about the difference between the words Somalia and Somali, and read about halal cuisine on the pages preceding the recipe. One of the highlights of this particular book is not only the cultural information that accompanies each recipe, but the pictures of the children cooking the meals. There are many more brown faces that white in its pages, a rarity for my son, who will deal with uncomfortableness at the very least as he maneuvers through the world with his beautiful brown skin.
I'm not done thinking about Somalia by any means as the day winds down. Or my white skin and my son's brown. This is a life long journey that I hope holds many more uncomfortable moments and delicious meals.
Showing posts with label Somalia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Somalia. Show all posts
Friday, December 23, 2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Ambabur Bed (Somalia)
Big day in our house! Today was Ian's first day in his Hi-5 preschool program. After eagerly packing the backpack and picking out a new school outfit, Ian was off and running as an official student, one who rides the bus and everything. Something we love about Ian's school is the diversity of the student body. Almost 40% of the school is black and 35% Latino, so many of the students are brown like Ian. Many of his classmates are Somali, so tonight in honor of Ian's first day of school and of Eid al-Fitr, which falls today to celebrate the end of Ramadan, I made Ambabur Bed, Somali Egg Crepes, which is a recipe made specifically for this holy day.
For a long time, Ian believed that any brown person he saw was from Ethiopia. Technically that's true for all people, since the origins of humanity have been linked to ET, but that isn't exactly what he understood;) We've slowly been introducing him to concept of race by explaining the different places where brown people can be born and what that means. This is a big idea for a four year old, only complicated by his understanding of adoption! Just recently he asked what country his new cousin, my brother's baby, will be from when it is born in October. I explained the baby will be American and why, yet he still asked what language it would speak and how we all might be able to communicate. He knows so much of the world and what makes a family, but then is limited by the uniqueness that experience.
And the fact remains that many of his classmates are indeed Somalian, from a country right next to Ethiopia. Their journeys to America are much different than his, though they share a complicated history of culture and conflict as neighbors from this corner of the world. Some of that history is quite recent or even ongoing for many members of the Somali community, and I want my son to understand the complexity of the Ethiopian-Somali ties. That will take some time and effort. Today we started with food, soft, warm crepes, rolled tightly and flavored with a healthy amount of clove.
As I poured the thin batter into my skillet, the rest of the family sat coloring at the kitchen counter, and Ian told us about his day and his classmates. He got to drink juice at school and color a school bus yellow. He made one new friend. One of the boys in his class cried when he had to get on the bus home, and one of the girls rolled her wheelchair onto a special platform to help her ride on Ian's bus. During his telling, little Suki just demanded his crepes:) There are many different experiences and people that Ian and Suki will encounter in their school days. I hope that we can teach them to be open to how that might enrich their lives and the connectedness that may exist. Ian is certainly ready to get back to school tomorrow, which was made even sweeter by the promise of left over crepes from breakfast in the morning.
For a long time, Ian believed that any brown person he saw was from Ethiopia. Technically that's true for all people, since the origins of humanity have been linked to ET, but that isn't exactly what he understood;) We've slowly been introducing him to concept of race by explaining the different places where brown people can be born and what that means. This is a big idea for a four year old, only complicated by his understanding of adoption! Just recently he asked what country his new cousin, my brother's baby, will be from when it is born in October. I explained the baby will be American and why, yet he still asked what language it would speak and how we all might be able to communicate. He knows so much of the world and what makes a family, but then is limited by the uniqueness that experience.
And the fact remains that many of his classmates are indeed Somalian, from a country right next to Ethiopia. Their journeys to America are much different than his, though they share a complicated history of culture and conflict as neighbors from this corner of the world. Some of that history is quite recent or even ongoing for many members of the Somali community, and I want my son to understand the complexity of the Ethiopian-Somali ties. That will take some time and effort. Today we started with food, soft, warm crepes, rolled tightly and flavored with a healthy amount of clove.
As I poured the thin batter into my skillet, the rest of the family sat coloring at the kitchen counter, and Ian told us about his day and his classmates. He got to drink juice at school and color a school bus yellow. He made one new friend. One of the boys in his class cried when he had to get on the bus home, and one of the girls rolled her wheelchair onto a special platform to help her ride on Ian's bus. During his telling, little Suki just demanded his crepes:) There are many different experiences and people that Ian and Suki will encounter in their school days. I hope that we can teach them to be open to how that might enrich their lives and the connectedness that may exist. Ian is certainly ready to get back to school tomorrow, which was made even sweeter by the promise of left over crepes from breakfast in the morning.
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