Spongy
white, mushy brown, gelatinous purple, spongy white...my first recollection of
international cuisine was my first peanut-butter and jelly sandwich at Aldene
Elementary School. Ok, so you might think a P-B and J sandwich is not exotic,
but for me it was. Being raised in Puerto Rico, I was used to rice and beans
for my school lunch. To me, the two triangular shaped white, brown, and purple
concoctions wrapped in clear plastic was as bazaar as something Andrew Zimmern
would eat on his show. Thus the love to try new foods began for me in the state
of New Jersey. The joy I felt the first time I got my own personal pizza in a
tiny box for school lunch! I was so excited about eating "American"
food, that I turned my nose up to my mom's Puerto Rican home cooking. Thank God
that as I got older I learned to appreciate my native cuisine, but having lived
in Jersey for over 25 years, I cannot say I only eat Puerto Rican food. Like
the very people you will find in Jersey, my home cooking is eclectic, sometimes
simple and sometimes complex.
That is why I decided to write this blog. If you
ask me what do I love most about living in New Jersey my answer will be
"The diversity". I love the fact that on any given day I can go eat
food from any given country. I don’t have
to travel far to find myself ina neighborhood in which all the store-fronts are
in a different language. If I can’t find it in Jersey, then I can go into the
city (that is NYC for you non- Jerseyites). However, my love for international
cuisine really blossomed when I started working in the English as a Second
Language Department at Kean University. There I was exposed to a diverse group
of recently arrived immigrants and a staff that embraced and supported
diversity. I will never forget the departmental Christmas Potluck parties; it
was all about the food, the delicious food that represented each corner of the
world. Administrators, professors, students, office workers, the maintenance
crew, everyone was included and everyone would bring something that represented
who they were. Each dish was a story of each person’s cultural heritage and
family. We would sit around the large round table at the back of the ESL office
in the Willis Building sampling the eclectic cornucopia, as each person would
explain their dish...each bite came with a story. It is those stories that made
the morsels taste even better. It is those moments that I live for, when you
discover a new taste, a new way to eat something familiar, and when you have a
story to go with it. I love tasting something that transports me to a new way
of thinking, a new language, a new tradition, a new group of people, values,
and beliefs...all with just one bite. I am grateful that the world of ESL has
given me this privilege; first as an ESL student myself, then as an ESL
teacher. In this blog, my hope is to explore the stories behind the bites that
represent the diversity around me and to share it with others. I also hope that
those who read this blog can share their "bite stories" in your
comments and via email. So I encourage you to come along with me in this
journey and explore Jersey International Cuisine...where each bite tells a
story.
