When Mum and I came together to start Maman’s Kitchen last year, we had only one objective in mind. Since then, our foodie website has turned into so much more.
Several years ago my family travelled back to Iran for a short vacation. Upon landing in Tehran, we reconnected with our relatives and spent the first few days being shuffled from one family dinner party to another. Night after night, we were treated to infinite plates of home-prepared foods, like ghormeh sabzi, zereshk polow, fesenjoon and chelow kabab. Food would be a recurring theme throughout the entire trip. As would music, dance and hugs. Oh, the emphatic hugs.
We travelled around and visited some of Iran’s most historic sites, like Ancient Persepolis (Taghd-e Jamshid), the Shaking Minarets (Menar-e-jomban) in Esfahan, and the tomb of Hafez in Shiraz. In Mum’s home town of Shiraz–a southern Iranian city known for its poets, literature and beautiful gardens–we tasted faloodeh and saffron ice cream, bastani, and we gathered fresh ingredients to make bowls and bowls of Salad Shirazi.
I learned a lot about Mum during this trip and I got a sense of how she became the person she is today. I think there’s nothing more special than going to the place in which your parents grew up, and learning about the kinds of things they experienced when they were around your own age. It really puts life into perspective, especially for children of migrant families.
When we started Maman’s Kitchen last year, we simply wanted to create a platform in which we could preserve and share our family’s Persian recipes and customs. I wanted to learn more about cooking and food in general, and as a result, I have come to connect with the foods and the stories behind them in a much more meaningful way. What started as a simple mother-daughter project has led to so much more. We’re now bonded through our shared love of food and have an excuse to reminisce about our past, and in doing so, we are slowly piecing together our family story and its place in Persian history. Thank you to everyone who has come on this journey with us so far.
Happy Mother’s Day weekend!
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2 Comments
Great post and also reminds me of the time I went to England, just me and Mum visiting the remote little seaside village where she spent so much of her life before migrating to Australia at 18.
I’m going to post this to my facebook
xx
Thanks, Alice! The seaside village sounds beautiful, send our love to your gorgeous Mum x