Roots & Recipes Rough Draft

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been going to my grandma’s house every summer vacation and other holidays. It’s always been full of excitement there and never a boring day. I and all my cousins always find different ways to have fun with the dullest situations. Every occasion when we all go there for a party, all the cousins would stay in 1 room all cramped up just so we could be together and joke around. The uncles all gather in one corner of the backyard barbequing and laughing together. While the aunties help grandma and grandpa prepare the food inside.


For as long as I can remember, my grandma and grandpa were the ones I’ve always looked up to. They were always known as the wisest ones in the family, so everyone would always go to them whenever there was a problem. Although sometimes, me and my cousins aren’t the greatest grandchildren to them, we always know when to show our appreciation. And for me, that is why I chose them to interview for my project.

As I reached there, that Sunday afternoon, I had a flash back of all the good memories we had together as a family growing up. It made me realize how grateful I was to have a family like them. Once I got in the house, my grandma, grandpa, and cousins were all there to greet me. My grandma and grandpa were eager to start on the interview. After we got started, I noticed their faces started to get more worried. More as if they were scared to make a mistake because they wanted to show everything to me perfect.

Watching my grandma first, soak the noodles and boiling the water. Then chopping and frying the meat. Later adding spices into the pot while they slowly mixed all the ingredients together, was a lot for me to handle. Usually I go outside while they cook to distract myself from the heavenly smell of their food. But at that moment, I couldn’t resist myself, my mouth started to water uncontrollably. It made me realize how much work it really took to make her recipe. Not much people ever appreciated all the time there is that goes into making her food that we all love so much. It also occurred to me, that every time we do crave for her delicious food, she is never too stubborn to say no. She told me that she loves making it for everyone no matter the situation because she is just proud to be sharing her food with the ones she loves. That just shows how devoted she is to her cooking and family.

I went through every step of the cooking process with them. They never let me miss a single second of how they cooked it! They let me help also, which I didn’t seem too fond of since I wasn’t really the cooking type of girl. They understood though, because they know how us teenagers are. While my grandma was cooking, she also told me a couple stories of how it was back when her and my grandpa were younger. She told me how she learned to cook by practicing for her growing family of 5 daughters and 1 son. She explained to me how hard it is to cook for a large family and also caring for all of them. She also implied that I shouldn’t get married too early as well.

Later while asking my grandpa to briefly go through all the steps and ingredients for me on a paper, I ended up having to redo my paper almost 5 times because of all the times he made mistakes explaining them to me and also making sure all the steps and ingredients were right. He told me he didn’t want me to write down the ingredients and steps wrong and turn it in that way. I had to assure him that I had it all correct.

Interviewing my grandma later after eating, she kept hesitating because she insisted not to have her interviewed because of her poor English speaking. Which was a good thing I had my mom there to translate for me to help her, or else she wouldn’t have agreed to be interviewed. It was pretty funny while I was interviewing her though. You should have been there to see what I meant. My other cousins also started laughing after hearing her in my interview from a distance. I don’t mean to tease her though. I tried making her tell me other stories in between all my questions, but she really didn’t have much to say. But after the whole thing was done, I took a deep breath satisfied, knowing that I would never forget that day because I actually bonded with them a little more. It is definitely something I will cherish later on in my life as I get older.

Recipe:

1. Prepare the chicken/pork & garlic.


2. Clean & boil the chicken/pork.

3. Cut the meat into sliced parts.

4. Fry meat with garlic.

5. After brown, add “patis” or fish soy.

6. Transfer it to another pot.

7. Add water to the pot depending on the amount of servings. (1 package = 5mml of water)

8. Add red dye to the pot.

9. When water comes to a boil, add noodles from package.

10. Boil water for 10 min. for until noodles are soft.

11. Taste if the flavor is suitable to you, of not, you can add more fish soy or etc. spices.

12. Enjoy! ( make sure you dont burn yourself! It still might be hot when served) :)

Roots & Recipes Interview

What: Appointment Date for Interview 
When: Saturday, 8/28/10
Where: Grandma's house or my house
Who: Interviewing my Grandma

Questions to Ask Her:
1. How many years have you been making this recipe?
2. Has it been passed on through generation?
3. Have you had any interesting memories behind making this recipe throughout the years?
4. Is she proud to be sharing and making this same recipe for others, like other relatives, friends, or for parties?
5. What's the best compliment you ever had for your recipe?
6. Has she ever made a mistake when making her dish?
7. Has anyone ever told her that her recipe tasted bad or something similar to that?
8. When's the time she made her worst batch ?
9. When's the time she made her best batch of this recipe?
10. Has she ever embarrased herself while or after making her miki? Like has she ever spilled in to someone, dropped something while making it, etc.
11. How is she feeling at this very moment while I am interviewing her? ( what are the motions running thorugh her head. Either excited, nervous, scared, bored, paranoid, terrified, etc.)

                                                                                                      - :)

Roots & Recipes Brainstorm

1) what food will you be describing?
Miki (Filipino Food)

2)What are some special memories it has for you?
I used to call it Mickey Mouse food!

3)What are some sensory details that will help brign the food "to life" for your readers?
decsribing how the food smells, tastes, feels, and looks like. Also by providing a before and after picture.

4) who will you be interviewing about you food?
My grandma.