15-Final Reflection

 During this project I had learn a lot about my culture, my country value and how important is to represent where you coming from and also how important traditions are. For me tradition is what makes your family different from every other family and make your family unique. Some traditions keep family together and some don’t there are also people from the same family that would not agree on the type of tradition they have and will try to get rid of it. This project did not change the way I eat but it make me reflect about the food i'm use to eat and how those type of food represent my culture a lot of people would not know about some type of food that I eat that I think are just regular food but for other people might not see like regular food because they not use to it they only use to their food and might see it like I see their food. I think that food have an important role in culture because food is a way to tell where you coming from or who you are and it’s also mark social differences. Some of the food that you might find in different country might have different meaning for all of them for example I don’t know another country that define itself with Mangu or Rice, Beans and Meat they might eat those type of food but it doesn't mean anything for them.    

14-If I Were....

If I were a food I would be Rice,Beans and Meat. Why I choose this food? well rice beans and meat typically represents Dominican people and also some people say that this food have our flag color and how much I like  to represent were are coming from and my beautiful country and culture. Im very proud of my country and culture even though is not a perfect country and no country is but for me my country is the most beautiful country is topical it have beautiful beaches and many beautiful places that not even me that were born over there had experience this wonderful places and now that I leave out of the country I realize my country value .I would never  realize this if I would still leave over there there are many beautiful countries but for me my country is the most beautiful. Another food that I would like to be is mangu  because mangu is also one of our culture food and I would be any food that represent my country.

13-Holidays

Some of the holidays that I celebrate with my family are Christmas, New Year, Three Kings, The Holy Week  and some many more. Almost all of this holidays are related with food the one that are not related a lot with food is the Three Kings. When I was little I used leave cookies, milk and candy the day before the Three Kings now I don't actually celebrate the Three Kings because only little kids can celebrate it but the Three Kings is almost the same thing as here when they open the gift in December 25 but we don’t celebrate it in December with celebrate it on January 6 or 7. In the Holy Week when its come to the holy friday some people don't eat meat I don't know why but i think that they don't eat meat because of their religion I think they do this because the meat represents jesus body or something like I don't really know because my family don't follow this tradition my family is christian but they don't stop eating meat because is holy friday what we really do is that we prepare Habichuela Con Dulce on this day. Christmas is the most Holiday that is related with food like I say before my mom cook a lot on this day and make a lot of different type of food the most important part of the food that cant ever miss is the chicken or the pernil.

12- Food, Family, And Culture

My family I would say is very Dominican we celebrate every holidays that are celebrate in our culture even though we live in the united states the only thing  we don't celebrate is the Dominican Independence Day we do celebrate it don’t get me wrong but not like they do it at D.R. In D.R they do a big festival they dress up and the artifact that they use is call “Diablo Cojuelo” on that day we go where the event take place, most of the time they do it at the park a lot of kids and people get dress up in some type of custom but the most famous one is the Diablo Cajuelo. 

Most of our holidays are related with food we don't celebrate 
thanksgiving on the same day that is celebrated here the New York we celebrated on December 24. On this day my mom don't usually do lunch or breakfast she buy us food apart because she spend the day cooking for the dinner my mom usually  do for dinner a lot of food she cook different type of meat and different type of food, food that she don't basically cook on  normal days. In D.R is very different from here we don’t have a tree with presents we do have a tree but we don't put  presents on it usually for us on that day is for us to give thanks to god for everything and to be in family. My family for example are christian and we have a strong belief and before we eat we read the bible and after we read we pray and give thanks. For us Christmas represents Jesus birth. We actually do something similar like for December 25 when they give out the gift kids in D.R get their gift but on January 6 we celebrate the three kings I remember that I used to leave cookies, milk and candy for Santa Claus so he can leave me my toys the last time I get toys was when I was 10 years old after that I come to New York and I realize that they don’t celebrate that here and I never celebrated again. This pictures are from last year I get it from my uncle in D.R. 

11- Legacy

 In a future when I have my family I do imagine myself preparing and serving my culture food. I think its important for me to continue preparing the food I were born with and raise my kids with those foods because that's what represents where i'm coming from and it's also represents my culture and I don't want my culture and traditions from my family to die with me I want my kids to learn about it so when they get their family they can pass it to their children and it continues for generations. Also I think that a family without a tradition is not a family I think that you should represent where you're coming from and what represent your culture because if you don't have a tradition what culture or tradition  you're going to introduce to your children. I also think that a tradition is what make a family different from every family that's what represent not only where you’re coming from but it also represent your family and how that tradition have been pass from generation to generation.  

10- COMPARISON

 I link to sumaya's blog and for her perfect meal she have Rice, Elish as curry (Hilsa fish curry), Masoor dal (red lentil soup) Pitha(sweet). The only thing with have in common is the rice I had never in my life heard about this type of food. The elish is fish but in some different way I had never taste it like that I had ate fish but in some very different way but I have no idea of the masoor dal. My perfect meal is simple I think that most of the people here in the united state had ate rice beans and meat the only differences is that in DR we eat it almost all of the time for lunch maybe in her country is common because thats the food that represents them. In my country they do eat rice and fish but i’m not sure about the masoor dal there is some cain of soup that looks like that but is call Sancocho but it have more stuff like plantain, corn, different type of meat and some other ingredients to me its look  like Asopao too. Asopao is something like soup but very different is made of rice and meat and is look like a soup but is not is very delicious actually and I think you can made Asopao with beans but I had never eat it like that. I think that her food and my food are very similar in one way or another.

http://sumayearoundtable2014.blogspot.com/2014/05/10-comparison.html

9- A PERFECT MEAL

 The perfect meal in my country would be ARROZ HABICHUELA Y CARNE These are the basic components needed in a full Dominican meal, “arroz, habichuelas y carne” (Rice, Beans, and meat) are typically called “La Bandera” (The flag) due to how close it is to our culture and very foundation just as the Dominican Republic Flag is. While this may not seem like something only made for the Dominican Community, this is something that we all live by, and thats why is part of the Dominican culture and most people on the country eat rice everyday it can be rice with some other cain of meat but the beans would never miss in a dominican plate. A dominican have rice meat and beans in their blood if you come from a dominican family or you were born there you know this is true when kids are little they make then eat beans to the babies as their first food. Rice and beans, the name alone say “Latin”, add meat to it and what else do you need? You got your carbs in the rice, you got the fat and the protein in the chicken, and then you got the fiber in the beans, its like imperfect in the book of Dominican Foods! You could literally live off of this stuff, no exaggeration, this is why it’s a part of the Dominican staples when it comes to meals.