By mtejan
I place a lot of my cultural roots in food. It is how I feel connected to my family and my heritage but also how I can learn about a new culture. I am half Sierra Leonean and half Irish and mealtime is extremely important in both cultures. Sitting down and having meals is one of the best times to learn about someone else’s triumphs and struggles. My host family sits down for dinner as a family every night at 10pm. I note the time because of how late Spaniards eat dinner. That timing of meals has definitely been something to get used to but it also helps you understand the set up of Spanish culture. Lunch is late, around 2 or 3pm and followed by a siesta. Lunch is the largest meal of the day, usually a meat and vegetable dish. After siesta, people go back to work and after work might get tapas or something small to eat then return home by 10pm for dinner which is a much lighter meal. I love the Spanish eating culture and hopefully I can continue it when I get back to the US.
About 2 months into my study abroad experience, I was feeling slightly homesick and I asked my host family if I could cook African food for dinner. They were all so excited, firstly to try a new food but also feel apart of my culture as well. The interesting thing with homestays is that my host family is learning from me as I learn from them. They learn English. I learn Spanish. I eat Spanish food. They eat African food. I cooked a dish that I knew I could find all the ingredients in Spain. The dish is called peanut stew and is a tomato and peanut based stew served on top of rice. They all finished their plates and told me how good it was. My host aunt said she was very impressed because she hadn’t seen my host siblings cook anything so “complex”. I really felt like in that moment, they could understand more about me and I could contribute to our mutual cultural education instead of it being one sided.
I did however, notice some differences that I had not thought about prior to the meal. Normally when we are having a traditional Spanish dinner, there are a lot of different items on the table: salad, ham, cheese, bread, fruit, and yogurt. However, when I sat down to serve my African stew there were only two items: the pot of stew and the pot of rice. Typically in Sierra Leonean culture, dinner is the only meal of the day. Because of this it is extremely heavy and filling. My host family was not used to such a heavy meal that late at night and I think they all immediately went to bed! All in all it was a wonderful experience and I am hoping to do some cooking for Thanksgiving.