In my family, food is considered a blessing, its not necessarily sacred, but it’s something that should be honored and not taken for granted. This has been one of my family’s foodways for generations. According to my dad, the same foodways that we follow today was followed by my great grand parents from both sides and passed down to my grand parents from both sides and then passed down to my parents. I am expected to pass it down as well to my kids as to keep the tradition alive in my family at least.
The reason why my parents expect me to pass the tradition down is because everyone Bangladesh are very traditional. It doesn't matter who you are, you will eat the same thing. Farmers to government officials. Beggars to business men. In Bangla, there is a word used to explain this, rucchi. Rucchi means something like habits but only related to food. Bengali's say that a their rucchi can never change, no matter where they go, they will always crave for rice with lentil and chicken.
Most of the food I eat is cooked. I have almost never eaten raw food except some rare occasion with friends outside of school, but never with my parents. Each and every type of food in my house is cooked and prepared with the utmost care. When my mom gets into the kitchen, its as if shes in a zone and no one better disturb her. One more thing that's part of the Bengali rucchi is spices. All our food must be cooked with proper spices grown from the ground. My mom tried artificial spices ones but it just tasted disgusting to me. If any of my regular meals doesn't have proper spices, it doesn't taste good. This rarely ever happens because my mom is a terrific cook.
By living in New York, I have gotten used to eating all the different kinds of food that is available here: Chinese, Italian, French, Greek, and many many others. I will never mind eating any of these food but I don't think I can ever survive on them for a month straight. I will crave for my Bengali food and end up going to a Bengali restaurant. I know for a fact that my parents would never survive on other types of food for a month straight. And as for my grand parents and my great grand parents, they probably wouldn't survive a week.
