Feeding our souls

There are times when I struggle to remember the hazy details of my life, when names and dates escape me and I have to exert effort to shake the sediments of what remains buried for so long, one can barely recall it at all. Did that event happen like that or did the years shape it and change it into something else? Do I remember that person accurately or are they a figment of my imagination? But one sniff of a favourite recipe, of a meal that my mother made for me as a child and memories come rushing back to me. It doesn't matter where you grew up, what you ate, what part of the world that memory is contained in; you know what I'm talking about.

"The smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us…" states Marcel Proust.

Nothing has the power to conjure up images and memories from our past like food does. The smells, the taste surround us and transport us somewhere else; most of the time to a place that doesn't exist anymore.

When people travel, one of the first questions I ask is: "How was the food?" A country's cuisine tells a lot about them; sometimes more than they even want to reveal. When I think of my travels, my memories are inescapably intertwined with the food that I enjoyed along the way.

Siena, Italy brings back visions of pastel covered walls and cobble streets, but it also evokes aromas of melt-in-your-mouth Osso Bucco, gamey wild boar sausages and sweet Tuscan wine. Vietnam makes me think of grilled cuttlefish and ice cold Hue beer, of basil-tinged Pho noodles and crusty bread. Greece makes my mouth water with memories of tangy feta cheese, silky olive oil, tomatoes fresh off the vine, mixed with fresh oregano and Kalamata olives that make your mouth pucker. New Orleans makes me think of spicy jambalaya and heart-clogging Muffaletta sandwiches. Just one bite and I hear the Zydego music start playing in my head.

Tonight, I will be dining with one of my best friends, who is moving away from Montreal on Friday. We'll be going to our favourite Indian restaurant and while we marvel over the puffy Naan bread and the creamy smoothness of the Butter Chicken, what we'll really be saying, is: "I love you. I'll miss you."

Food is the way we connect, we share, we celebrate, we confide in one another, we date, we commemorate, and we come together as family. We feed the people we love, we bring food to those in mourning and to those who have just brought life into the world. Food is our way of connecting, of loving one another, of establishing what we stand for. "We eat certain things in a particular way in order to remember who we are," explains Chef Jeff Smith. Because sometimes life can make us forget…