Personal Narrative: My Colombian Culture

Food is one of human beings favorite addiction. From the arepas, to arroz con coco (coconut rice) there are many different platters from my cultural background. Being Colombian and eating Colombian almost every day brings me closer to these aspects from my culture. The way I feel connected to my Colombian culture is through its food. Many of the meals that I have eaten in my life come from my Colombian culture. Whether I’m home, at my aunt’s house or a family party something that is being made connects me back to my food roots.
Living with my mom or being in a household with my mother you’re going to consume a plethora of these Colombian dishes. On a typical weekday my mom likes to accompany most of her dishes that she makes with patacones.

A patacón also called tostónes is a green plantain type of banana that isn’t so sweet squashed into thick pancakes that are deep fried into vegetable oil until golden brown. Colombians have many ways of eating this, they can be eaten as a side with rice and a meat or one of my favorite ways which is relleno (two slices of patacón but in between it contains cheese meat/chicken mashed up chips and you can add a variety of sauces).Being a child and living in Colombia I can remember how almost every morning we would wake up to the sound of the plantain hitting the hot oil and rushing down with my cousins to eat what we usually liked having which was the patacón accompanied by a breakfast side usually eggs with Colombian cheese. My mom knows how much we enjoyed eating patacones when I was in Colombia so that’s why she kept that as one of her favorite recipes to cook
My family is what reminds me the most about the delicious foods that my Colombian culture has to offer. At a family get together or big gathering it’s a tradition to cook a sancocho ,a common dish that is cooked in many countries but in Colombia it contains chicken or meat ,plantains , yucca,cilantro,corn and potatoes. This is a food that was cooked at almost all parties or big gatherings when I lived in Colombia, and now my family brought that tradition with them and replicates it here. You may ask why sancocho? The reason for that is because it can feed up to 25 or more people. In Colombia when things are cooked they are either cooked in large quantities or a lot of food is being made. This relates to how my family do their parties they like to have not only the main dish but also have bocaditos.
As my mom cooks, I talked to her about how every time we are together with family or on vacation in Orlando the way we ate breakfast is similar to how we ate it in Colombia, I can remember how my grandmother would wake up almost every day to prepare the food we would eat later but as she does that she would make breakfast for everyone In the house. Arepas or empanada is what she enjoyed making. The steps are similar to how my family does it she would grind up the meat then roll out the yellow flour and fill it with meat after she would shape them to semi circle type shape and lastly she fried everyone to the most perfect golden color. Reasons my family likes making empanadas/arepas is because an art for them and even for my family.
Soup was cooked, you breaded and fried, you chopped you cooked and distribute. Most of the time there is no fast repairs or shortcuts to the way you cook a meal. A lot of your life is spent cooking. This is how both my family and grandmother did their duties of cooking with similar meals and similar values .It is important to keep my culture alive and what a better way than through food.