Personal Story About Food Essay

Personal Story About Food Essay

This is our first essay-writing assignment. Your task is to choose a quotation from either “Simple Recipes” or “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” and use it as inspiration for writing a personal story about food.
We all love food and I think we can relate to these stories of characters who experience joy and conflict around the dinner table. That makes food a powerful “framing device” in a story. In this assignment, you will “frame” your memoir with the quote from the short story. Take a small part of one of the assigned stories and use it as something you can relate to in telling your own story.
“Simple Recipes” and “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” are both very dramatic (even traumatic) stories. Your story DOES NOT need to be so dark or sad! It can be a warm and happy memory. However, you must clearly explain the connection between the quote and your story, even if your story is different in significant ways.
Most of all I want you to have fun with this assignment. It should be well written, but it is an informal piece of writing compared to a paper, and you have lots of freedom to make it entertaining for yourself and the reader!
GUIDELINES
Think about broad themes:
How has food been a gateway to new experiences for you? What kind of food experiences did you have when you moved to a new city or went out with your friends for the first time to a restaurant?
How is food connected to growing up, or to childhood? Who taught you to cook? Did you hate certain foods as a kid? Did you learn to appreciate new foods as an adult?
How is food connected to culture in your life? Is food connected to important people or celebrations? How is food a part of these experiences?
Do these experiences make you feel part of a bigger family, community, or culture?
In the past, some of my favourite student stories in the past celebrated family or friendship through food. Some students have shared their “guilty pleasure” foods, or the first time they tasted something new and exotic to them. They have also told stories about foods they loved that their parents disapproved of, or ways they learned how to cook foods with their parents, grandparents, etc.