Answer:
On an individual level, we grow up eating the food of our cultures. It becomes a part of who each of us are. Many of us associate food from our childhood with warm feelings and good memories and it ties us to our families, holding a special and personal value for us. Food from our family often becomes the comfort food we seek as adults in times of frustration and stress. When I was sick as a kid, I couldn’t eat rice because I was too weak, so my mother would cook soup and bring it to bed for me. The smell and taste of the soup became something very familiar to me. Now, whenever I feel tired or stressed, I remember the soup my mom used to make for me and I feel hungry for that soup.
On a larger scale, food is an important part of culture. Traditional cuisine is passed down from one generation to the next. It also operates as an expression of cultural identity. Immigrants bring the food of their countries with them wherever they go and cooking traditional food is a way of preserving their culture when they move to new places.
Continuing to make food from their culture for family meals is a symbol of pride for their ethnicity and a means of coping with homesickness. Many open their own restaurants and serve traditional dishes. However, the food does not remain exactly the same. For example, some ingredients needed to make traditional dishes may not be readily available, so the taste and flavor can be different from the taste and flavor of the dishes that they would prepare in their home countries. Additionally, when immigrants sell food in another country, they do not only sell it to people from the same countries as them, but to people from different countries. Therefore, they have to alter the original dishes to cater to a wider range of customers with distinct tastes and flavor preferences. Alterations to original dishes can create new flavors that still retain the cultural significance of the dish.
