What My Childhood Tasted Like
What foods from your childhood mean the most to you? Tell the story of these foods.
With only four basic ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, and cinnamon), the dessert is not a difficult dish to make. There's a special kind of happiness, though, that comes over me when I make it. The smell of sugar and cinnamon fills my kitchen, and I finally get to taste that sticky, warm rice on my tongue again. If you've seen the movie Ratatouille, then you know exactly what I mean when I say that eating this dish takes me right back to being eight years old at my grandma's kitchen table on an early Sunday morning, the warm smell of cinnamon slowly waking me. So why exactly is it that what we eat is connected with what we remember years in the future?
from "Why This 1 Dish Always Reminds Me of My Grandma -- the Science Behind Taste Memory" by Chanel Vargas https://www.popsugar.com/food/Connection-Between-Taste-Memory-46029185
from "Why This 1 Dish Always Reminds Me of My Grandma -- the Science Behind Taste Memory" by Chanel Vargas https://www.popsugar.com/food/Connection-Between-Taste-Memory-46029185
Cake Decorations
My grandmother, my dad's mom, baked cakes for a living. She made birthday cakes, anniversary cakes, and wedding cakes, and she was known throughout Milton as "The Cake Lady on Rose Street". At least one weekend a month, my brother and I would stay at my grandparent's house. If Gram was preparing for an order, she'd have trays filled with icing roses and flowers, mint leaves, and sugar decorations. Each trip I made past the trays, which she kept in the dining room, was a temptation I couldn't resist as I'd sneak a sugary decoration. |
Chili
I hated beans of any kind. When I say hated, I mean abhorred to the extent of tears and gagging. Mom would make chili with ground beef and those horrid red kidney beans (Yah, kidney. Who would want to eat anything associated with a kidney?). I would pick out every single bean including any remnant that even looked beanish. I'd eat my whole bowl of chili, minus that pile of beans I created on the side. The chili I loved, the bean -- no way! |
Ellio's Pizza
My grandfather, Pap Meixel, always kept a box of frozen pepperoni pizza blocks just for me. I loved pizza and could eat it for every meal. During my preteen years, when I was old enough to use the toaster oven without help, I'd make a pizza block for my lunch each time I stayed in Milton with Pap and Gram. |
Tiger Butter
Each Christmas, Gram Rauch, my mom's mom, would make tiger butter, a silky smooth fudge with white chocolate and peanut butter. It was my favorite type of fudge. She'd make an extra batch just for me. I knew exactly what I was getting when I'd see the Cool Whip container with my name on the top. Today, I have her hand-written recipe, and for the Christmas after her passing, I made a batch to share with my family and parents. It was a sweet tribute to my gram. |