A mother's cooking

Read the two pieces by Ahn and Nicholson. What cultural and personal significance do the authors attach to food? Compare how they do so? Did reading these pieces remind you of your own connection to food, and if so how

I found it interesting that the two authors noted very similar aspects about the food, but in the opposite ends of the spectrum. Nicholson noted the "whiteness" of the food his mother would make, while Ahn noticed the vivaciousness and flavor of the food that his mother would make in comparison to greasy american food. They both held a very close bond to each of their foods, respectively, and saw in it the way that they had grown after leaving the home of their parents and evolved their own tastes for the food of their culture and one that they had been blended into. Ahn particularly so, as he married a white american girl from the midwest. In that, and in the fact that they had a child together and his child's identity was more or less in is hands (at least in its infancy), we were able to see even more of a connection with him and his food than we were able to draw from the Nicholson article. Nicholson's article was more of a reflection of the bland, yet comfortable tastes of his mother, and how they reflected back to the American or British culture of the modern times.

I am a very minimalistic person, both in taste and in satisfaction with what I am given. For better or worse, I received this trait from my mother. My mother is an excellent cook (although she would deny it), and I have enjoyed every meal she ever made for me when I lived at home. Granted, my minimalistic nature might very well mean that the food isnt even good at all! But the fact remains that I love my mother and the food she made, and my father who has a much more developed taste than her was always happy, so I think she did a great job overall. There were not specific meals that I found myself missing, but there were times that I was eating one of my own minimalistically-prepared meals that I found myself wishing I was sitting across from her eating a warm, home made meal, no matter of what it might have consisted.