I Miss Good Food

-

Those who know me, know that I care a great deal about food. My mother jokes that I can remember all the places I’ve been solely by what I’ve eaten there. She’s not wrong. I love learning about the food of different places – the traditions surrounding different recipes and cooking styles, the meaning behind dishes. I love finding new ingredients and new spices to incorporate into my own well-loved recipes, and I love cooking with new friends and learning about their culture through food.

When I spent time in the Comoros, their spice markets are some of the most richly stocked in the world. I could buy huge bags of freshly dried cloves, packets of cardamom pods, jars of star anise and black pepper. Every few days I would brew a huge pot of fresh chai, after speaking to women in the market stalls about their own traditional recipes. In Madagascar, discussion with the local people who hand-pollinated vanilla beans yielded a recipe for a vanilla cream sauce that was perfect when served with fish.

In my own city, I love the diversity of our restaurants. I love the giant dim-sum restaurants with their huge round tables, and the tiny ramen shops, I miss the comfortable Indian take-out places and the sleek sushi bars, I can’t wait to get back to Robson Street with its blocks of Korean restaurants and Main Street with its plethora of tiny cafes that serve lattes the way I like them.

So when I got to Waterford, I was more than a little disappointed with the food. I understand the realities of the situation – it is nigh impossible to cook three meals a day for 600 people and make it taste good. I’m also very conscious that for many, this is the best, and the most food they’ve ever had.
But for me, the blandness of the food makes me sad. It’s not even that it’s bad – it would honestly be more interesting if it was bad, and I wouldn’t feel as guilty about complaining – it’s just that I won’t remember a single meal here by the food.

That’s a new experience for me. I don’t recall a single meal here so far that’s made me think, ‘oh, I feel full and happy now!’ or ‘oh, that’s just what I wanted for dinner!’
It’s not a problem – I’ve bought a bottle of extra-hot hot sauce, and I think I’ll be getting a mini-fridge so I can hopefully make some of my own meals, but it is another special part of the ‘UWC experience.’

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kamhlaba and COVID-19

-
At the end of my last year at Waterford, I collaborated with two friends on a devised theatre piece. It told the story of three friends from three different contexts, who experienced an unspecified, dramatic event that forced them to leave one another. It followed them through their separated lives through a series of monologues. While we were creating the piece we discussed what the catalyst should be, before deciding to leave it to the audience. We represented it by the audio of an explosion, and simply referred to it as 'The Move.' 'The Move,' we decided, could represent climate crisis, financial crash, war, natural disaster, and more. I don't think we ever talked about a pandemic. Each of our characters had different reactions to the move, each of them could only do so much, each was limited by her context. During the workshopping process, we had long talks about how we would feel if we ever had to leave Waterford, if we were forced out. I thought a lot about th...
Read more

Time to say goodbye

-
 This blog post has been a long time coming, but it feels right to write it now, at the start of a new chapter, and a new year. I began this blog with the intention of telling stories and I hope that I've accomplished that. I also began it as a way to give myself tangible memories, and rereading old posts feels like a wave from an old friend.  I got my final IB results two days ago and I think that marked the true end of my UWC experience. Thinking about those results has been something that's been weighing on me all through this long, awful year. Until the final paper was written, the final exam was sat, I felt that there was always the chance that I wouldn't finish the IB. No matter how much support I had from friends and family, I always had the knowledge that choosing to stop would've been so easy.  I've had friends this year that have chosen to step back from the IB, either temporarily or permanently, and I'm so proud of them for prioritising their own heal...
Read more

WK Vocab

-
When first got to Waterford, I was deeply confused by all the acronyms and slang that people tossed around - a mix of IB acronyms, Southern African slang, and Waterford idioms. Mostly, this was because I hadn't read the handbook that the school emailed and honestly didn't have much of an idea of what IB consisted of, let alone the acronyms used. I got most of the Southern African slang, but Waterford slang took a bit longer. In the hopes that some incoming first year might find this blogpost, I've compiled a short list of WK vocab. IB acronyms: EE or E squared - the Extended Essay every IB student has to complete as part of the diploma TOK - Theory of Knowledge, a mandatory philosophy type course for IB students CAS - Creativity, Activity, and Service. The three central components of the IB IA - Internal Assessment, essays that are graded by your teacher, rather than an IB examiner Additional slang: Guans - I'm not sure if this is how it's supposed to be sp...
Read more