Wrapping Up

 

The World We Visited

Over the past four weeks, Caroline and I really enjoyed the experiences we gained from cooking the bao buns, churros, chorreadas, and macarons. Investing all the time into getting the ingredients and cooking the food was certainly worth it. We got some deep insights into cultures and regional cuisine that has largely been blind to us, especially this past year when we've been stuck at home under lock down. It truly was a lot of fun visiting international stores, finding ingredients, researching recipes (both popular recipes and family recipes), and cooking up interesting dishes to share with our friends.

One of the most valuable insights we took away from these experiences were all of the unique cooking methods. Between steaming the buns, squeezing the churros, crisping the chorreadas, or filling the macarons, we learned a lot about how people all around the world prepare their foods. It is easy to become ignorant of all the effort that goes into the food we consume, especially in college when it's all prepared for us behind the counter.

Sharing the foods we cooked has been another valuable experience in this process. We appreciated the ability to closely connect with some of our friends through foods that are culturally significant to them. It was really powerful to hear some family stories about Mexico, El Salvador, France, and China that all surround their cuisine. It really opened our eyes to how powerful food is and critical to important life experiences. 

Ultimately, the experiences from cooking all of this food really did expose us to what it means to have a good life. In the immediate sense, cooking these meals gave something fun to do, get us away from work, and something to look forward to each week for the past month. Sharing the food with friends was a really fun opportunity that we'd like to continue in our futures. In the grand scheme of our lives, we learned that cooking really does provide a meaningful gateway into new experiences. We felt transported to other cultures, around the world, all from Durham. Learning new cooking techniques and being exposed to new ingredients and flavors were valuable memories that we will take away from this. In all, this project really was unforgettable and it reminded us the power of new experiences in enriching our lives.