By Cathy Hird
My father's father lived with us until I was five. Then we moved from Niagara Falls to Oakville, and he got an apartment near us. Every Sunday we went to his place for lunch. Grampa made the best grilled cheese sandwiches: perfect buttered toast and warm melted cheese.
Grampa also served us a glass of Tang: it was brand new at the time, and we never had it at home so it was a real treat. But before we could have our orange Tang, we had to drink our glass of milk. Because he lived alone, all he had was powdered skim milk. It was a struggle to get down the glass of what he considered healthy before drinking the treat.
After lunch there would be a treat from Hostess--usually one of the chocolate cupcakes with white cream inside. These we also never had at home, and of course, there was a healthy dish to eat before the treat: a bowl of canned apricots.
Grampa had clear ideas about healthy food, but for his grandchildren that came so regularly, he provided something special as well, something his son would not.
Food for the body needs to provide a balance of nutrients and calories. Most of us have a hard time getting that balance just right. Children know what they would like on their plate. The parent who prepares the meal has to know the child to balance what they know is healthy with what is desired. Adults are constantly negotiating to make sure enough of the good stuff makes it inside.
But food is more than calories and protein and vitamins. I remember coming inside on cold winter days, climbing out of a soaking snow suit while my mother warmed milk on the stove. At the perfect temperature, she poured in the chocolate, and I warmed my hands on the cup and sipped the sweet, hot liquid to warm my insides. For my own children and still for me, it is boiled water and a packet in a cup. This has to be sipped more slowly, but it warms the hands and the cheeks, the person.
Food we are used to also provides security and comfort. We all have our favorite comfort foods: toast and butter, KD, tomato soup. These are warm and familiar. They fill a gap in our stomachs and help relax us on a cold or difficult day.
New foods can be a challenge. In East Africa there are a couple dishes with beans, cassava, potato all cooked together. In the one called githerie, each vegetable can be seen in every spoonful. I enjoyed it when it was served. With irio, coriander is added and everything is mashed together into a nutritious green paste. This was harder to get used to.
When she lived in Ghana, my daughter tried to expand her Nigerian partner Kunle's eating habits with curry and other non-African food. Sometimes, after saying it was a good meal, he asked if they could go out for banku. Banku is cassava and fermented corn made into a thick paste and served with a consume like soup. Living in Canada, you just can't find banku. He enjoys chicken especially in a peanut sauce, but I am sure he misses banku and other West African dishes, although in one of his songs about missing home, it is the jollof rice his mother made that he longs for.
I've eaten banku. I've made irio at home in Walters Falls. I have made okay sushi but now that there are a couple good sushi restaurants in Owen Sound, I don't bother. I make curry a lot, and it is pretty good, although it is not nearly as spicy as South Asian visitors are used to. Still, for comfort food, for something warm and filling and relaxing, macaroni and cheese fits the bill for me.
Cathy Hird is a writer, minister and farmer living near Walters Falls.
