“Real cultural diversity results from the interchange of ideas, products, and influences, not from the insular development of a single national style.”
– Tyler Cowan
This week I went back to making tabbouleh, working on my portioning and balancing of ingredients using eyeballing over exact measurements, a skill my mentor has perfected. What she showed me was that when you’ve been making a dish for so many years, it becomes muscle memory, a flow of movements that you don’t have to think about making. Measuring ingredients and reading a recipe becomes unnecessary when the recreation of these dishes become natural. I feel like the freedom and levity that my mentor has when she makes the dishes she taught me are just as important as all the other steps and tricks used to make these Iraqi staples.
Questions for this post…
What kinds of learning opportunities exist to reinforce new learning?
Learning opportunities that exist that reinforce new learning relating to my In-Depth project would be to speak to some other family friends of different backgrounds and learn about their cultural cuisine. This would expand my learning about different types of cooking, and of different cultures. It would broaden my outlook of the world, and would be a really cool experience to learn about more cooking styles.
What kinds of learning opportunities does the mentor provide to expose you to new learning?
My mentor is always showing me videos about Iraq, of people trying street food or of tours of some of the common monuments. I’ve learnt so much about architecture in Iraq, and about the history of the country. Because of this learning opportunity I’m always being exposed to a new culture, hearing about somewhere so different from where we live here in Canada.
Example of some modern architecture in Iraq
What kinds of opportunities exist that might accelerate learning?
Opportunities that might accelerate my learning of preparing these dishes could be as simple as cooking a full 3 courses for my family. I learn best under pressure. The pressure of having to make a full meal for my family would push me to stay focused and on task with my cooking. I’d give myself a time to be finished, and that time looming over my shoulder would help me maximize efficiency.
When you get together what do you talk about?
When together my mentor and I talk a lot about Iraqi food. Not just what she’s teaching me to make, but also about food she grew up having and popular street food she misses from back home. We also talk about foods we’ve prepared of other cultures, and also just casual things like school and work, etc.
What are you learning about one another?
I’m learning a lot about my mentor’s childhood, from cuisine she was used to to experiences. My mentor’s been learning about some of the variances between Iraqi foods and other cultural dishes I’ve made. Together we’ve been learning a lot more about some of our common interests, like an appreciation of architecture.
What is going particularly well in your mentoring relationship right now?
Something that’s going particular well in our mentoring relationship is that we have really good communication. When together or when not, we’re constantly talking so that I can ask any questions I have and so I can continue to learn new things about what we’re doing/what we will be doing, even without my mentor being with me physically.