- Chinese women believe a lot about certain things you eat
to comfort you while you're menstruating.
And so my mom used to always make this soup.
The soup would change as my life would change.
It was a sign to me that she was still paying attention
to where I'm at in my life.
Wow. I'm, like, getting kind of emotional thinking about it.
(upbeat music)
- My name is Marco, first generation immigrant.
Born and raised in Bosnia.
- I'm Sandra. I'm originally from Bogatá, Colombia.
- My name is Tiffany. I was born in Taipei.
- I am from the Ivory Coast.
- From Germany.
- After the Balkan War of the early nineties,
we had to move around because we were mixed, ethnically.
I eventually immigrated to the United States with my mom.
- (Interviewer) Is it hard to find food
from the Ivory Coast here?
- It is.
So, I try sometimes to substitute things
and I try to go to more international markets
to find the ingredients that I need.
- Let's talk about the food we have here.
You got any special items?
- Kohlrabi is translated to apple turnip.
- (Tiffany) Dried squid.
- (Ivory Coast immigrant) Casava.
- [Sandra] Cherimoya.
- [Interviewer] I see some 3 cheese Greek spiral.
- [Marco] That is similar to like what my mom used to make.
It's called sea pizza, it's like a cheese pie.
I tried to replicate it on my own.
Went horribly.
- What are you going to make with this stuff?
Well, with the guasca, ajiaco for sure,
the Columbian soup with potatoes and chicken
- Attiéké, which is our traditional staple.
You have the Casava.
You have to smash it, dry it, smash it again, boil it,
dry it again, it's a whole weird process.
We eat it almost everyday.
- What was like your relationship with food growing up?
I think of it as an active, reciprocal relationship.
- My mother was not a touchy feely person.
Food was the way that my mother showed love.
- Chinese women believe a lot about certain things
you eat to comfort you while you're menstruating.
And so my mom used to always make this soup.
The soup would change as my life would change.
It was a sign to me that she was still paying attention
to where I'm at in my life.
Wow. I'm, like, getting kind of emotional thinking about it.
- We've always used food to just kind of
bring people together.
And I remember you just to throw crazy parties
with live music and the cops would come
and everything and shut them down.
- A cop stopped by and said, "this is pretty cool,
actually, I like it."
He was really cute too.
- How often do you go grocery shopping?
- Once a week.
- Every two weeks.
- Too much like almost three to four times a week easy.
- On a monthly basis, how much do you think you spend
on groceries?
- Thousand dollars
- $500
- $150 to $200 a month.
- A month?
- Yeah. I have mindset of scarcity
as an immigrant in this country.
You're not used to having an abundance of stuff.
So, I actually start at the sales rack.
That sort of sets the foundation
for what I pick out elsewhere.
- How different is the food when you first came
to the States?
- It was shocking.
I never had McDonald's before.
I never had chips before.
- Did your mom continue to cook Bosnian food?
- Very anti-American cuisine strictly kept it
to the food that she knew, she grew up with.
- Being able to have like that cafeteria meatloaf,
I really wanted to try it.
- What I was eating in the home
was so different from what most kids were eating.
So, it's not like many kids really understood
our food at all.
- I'll be like, "oh, I had spaetzle"
and people would be like, "what is that?"
I'm like, "it's normal to me."
- I actually got bullied for bringing
my own sandwiches to school.
I kinda wished that I would eat Lunchables just
so I could like stop being like made fun
of and just so I can like make friends at school.
- What does food mean to you?
- Without food, I don't think I'll be here.
I think of childhood.
I think of my family.
I think of my friends, the best moments that we
had were centered around food.
- It ties you to places.
It ties you to people.
It ties you to history, but at the same time, it's also
like a means for exploration, getting to know
a different culture.
- My husband is Mexican.
And so we end up combining German and food
from his heritage a lot like spaetzle
with pork chili verde is amazing.
- To me, it doesn't have to be pure.
I appreciate the fact that both my girls still
value what I grew up with, but then have made it their own.
- Is there any like fusion that's happened in your cooking?
- I have adopted things along the way that I been exposed
to in this culture because of that,
what I eat is more yummy.
- Try to add things with intention and purpose.
Like, why am I doing this one way
as opposed to the way it used to be done?
I think doing it
with intention is you end up with a better result.
(Upbeat music)