Making connections through cuisine

Credit to Author: Canadian Immigrant| Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2024 22:01:05 +0000

One surprising way to make connections and integrate into your community might be through your palate! When moving to a new country, you often don’t expect to find the rich flavors of the dishes you have left behind or have a wide variety of choices. However, this isn’t the case for immigrants in Canada.

Ask Amana Awfer, a Sri Lankan-born student at York University.  Awfer went to a Jamaican restaurant in Toronto looking to find an authentic culinary experience with her Jamaican friend. Awfer and her friend were surprised to find that the Jamaican and Sri Lankan dishes had a lot in common.

“I think we ordered the shrimp curry, and the consistency and the colour and everything… it just gave me that feeling like, ‘Oh, this is something my mom would make,’” says Awfer.

“It had coconut in it, turmeric, it had the spices, it had the peppers—it had everything you could ask for. And also with the rice, it landed so well. It was quite spicy, which I like because, as a Sri Lankan, we love spicy food.”

Awfer came to Toronto from London, England to pursue a career in fashion. She finds that Toronto has a good work-life balance compared to London, which allows her to have a social life and take care of her wellbeing.

She says that what especially put Canada under her radar, though, was the multiculturalism and diversity found in the country.

“I feel [that] coming here and speaking to most people, your knowledge expands with interesting facts about how other people are brought up, what kind of food they eat and everything.”

This is what led Awfer to making a connection between Jamaican and Sri Lankan food, tying it to island culture, particularly from the tropics.

Awfer will cherish this memory. “That was something that really touched my heart because it was very exciting to know that I have a friend who is Jamaican who can relate to me in terms of food,” she says.

Culinary delights can also bring people closer to their own culture. Such was the case for Elisha Salazar, whose exposure to the wider, multicultural communities brought her closer to the enriching flavours native to her own culture.

As a third-year student working towards a bachelor’s degree in technology at Toronto Metropolitan University, Salazar worked at Benkei Hime, a bubble tea spot at the Eaton Centre in Toronto. She found that the drink was similar to one from her culture.

“I think a close similarity of the Filipino culture would be a drink called halo-halo’ which means mix or mixed in English, I believe. It’s a crushed ice-based drink that comes with multiple toppings such as tapioca, jelly, ube ice cream, and is mixed in with evaporated milk,” she says. “Bubble tea is a lighter take on that dessert.”

“Bubble tea is very popular in the Philippines!” she says. “Although it is not originated there, I think bubble tea became common [in] the Asian community.” She said she noticed other backgrounds of Asian ethnicity share the same enthusiasm in enjoying bubble tea.

She also found another dessert, Knafeh, a syrup-based food with cheese, very much like a Filipino dish. “I noticed that it had a very similar taste to a Filipino food called ‘ensaymada’,  which is a sweet bread that is sugar-based and usually topped with cheese.”

After recent trips to her homeland, Salazar has become even more fascinated with Filipino cuisine. “I don’t think I would ever get tired of tasting any dishes from my homeland … I believe that there is probably so much more I have yet to discover.”

Immigrants in Canada can find ways to make connections by following the trails of their favourite dishes. The country also offers opportunities to expand your palette. Who knows, you might even find a dish similar to yours! Though it is not an easy task integrating into Canadian society as a newcomer, discovering Canada’s diverse communities through food can give you a head start in establishing a new social life.

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