Episode 3:
Culinary Culture
Each country’s cuisine tells a story about their history, geographical location, traditions and more. People experience belonging to a specific cultural or ethnic community through food. Cuisine is something that is meant to be shared with others who ‘get it,’ who also understand the nuances of the specific spices, ingredients, preparation and social context attached to your dish.
Even through we grew up in Canada, both Jordan and I had families who still identified with cultural traditions from the other side of the Atlantic. For Jordan, this meant Dutch family dinners and bread with rainbow sprinkles at her grandmother’s house. For me, it was (sometimes begrudgingly) eating hot soup, regardless of the weather because that’s what my parents grew up eating as well.
We noted how despite the separation of time, distance and even generations, food traditions do persist — all it takes is a group of people to carry on those memories and claim them as their own.
Valeria stands beside her family's booth 'Santa Fe Latin Grill' at the Colombian Food Festival
Juan with his Mother at the Colombian Food Festival
No matter how far you stray, home is still home; that’s Thiru’s philosophy. He is the owner of Classic Indian Restaurant in Waterloo, as well as a caterer and mastermind behind his own line of vegan and Indian soup and sauces (appropriately named Thiru’s).
He’s lived and worked as a chef in many places around the globe, but has been living in Waterloo for nearly two decades. Thiru is on a mission to share Indian cuisine with Canadians, and break the stereotypes surrounding it. He wants people to know Indian food doesn’t have to be greasy, or takeout, or even spicy.
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At London’s Colombian Food Fest, Latin-Canadians gather annually to enjoy latin music and show off their family recipes. Local restaurants and food stores arrive hours in advance to set up their tents and cookware, start preparing their food and fall into the rhythm of the much-needed human assembly line to get food out to a long line of awaiting customers.
“It’s a type of expression that’s really attached to the culture of each country. at the end of the day, food is just one expression of your own identity,” Juan said to us at his mother’s food stall, taking a break from the sandwiches he was tending to on a hot griddle.
Thiru and his Daughter Venilla
A selection of the family's most popular soups. The Mullugtwanny soup on the left is Thiru's award-winning soup.
The Front Door of Thiru's Restaurant
His daughter Venilla agrees. While not a chef herself, she’s very conscious of the cultural implications of food, and the differences in cuisine even between different regions in India. “You kind feel like an outsider in your own country if you just travel a few states,” she said.
In respects to the region she grew up in, she immediately associates it with coconuts. “Coconut was used in a lot of our homestyle meals…we also used it in our skin care routine, our haircare. It’s a whole part of our South Indian culture.”
