Sophie Nguyen Week #15: Ratatouille Moment

    In 9th grade English Honors, we were given our final project and essay in the beginning of quarantine. I don’t quite remember what the prompt for the essay was, but I managed to relate it to the Disney movie Ratatouille. Originally, I wanted to write about food memory; basically the sense of nostalgia or the feeling of the home that a dish could bring to a person. This is based off of the scene when Anton Ego tries the ratatouille and has a flashback to his life as a child and the dish his mom used to make him when he came home. Obviously, in real life, the nostalgia is not that dramatic, but it is still there.

    At the time I was also reading a webtoon titled Gourmet Hound (I highly recommend reading it for good drawings of food) about how food is connected to home. The author was inspired to write the comic when she moved from Hawaii to Nebraska for college and none of the food tasted right but even a dish faintly familiar to her made her homesick.

    These things combined made me wonder more about this connection between food and home. Home being the place you feel the most comfortable and the most belonging. For me, there are specific dishes that remind me of home. An example is lumpia. Lumpia is a fried spring roll that commonly is dipped in a sweet chili sauce. Lumpia reminds me of the Filipino side of my family. It reminds me of every party held at my grandparent’s house, making food with my grandma, and making lumpia with my childhood friend in her garage.


    This one dish and many others remind me of many moments in my life and the flavors of my home.

link

Comments

  1. Sean WangMay 3, 2022 at 9:34 PM

    Hi Sophie,

    Lumpia slaps. I remember eating them the second time I ever went to Roman's house. As soon as I got home, I searched up recipes to make them, although I was never motivated enough to overcome my laziness and actually cook something. My mom always teases me about returning home in the future just to try her home cooking because she knows I will never forget the taste of home. As much as I hate to admit it, my mom is telling the truth.

    Sincerely,

    Sean Wang

    ReplyDelete
  2. Krish ParikhMay 4, 2022 at 9:46 AM

    Hi Sophie,

    Believe it or not, Ratatouille is one of my favorite movies ever. There's a quote from the movie that continues to stand out to me today: "Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere." It makes me think about how much talent we're losing out on because people in poverty don't have access to basic necessities such as food, shelter, water, and education to reach their full potential. I hope that as humanity marches forward, we do our best to propel those who have been left behind.

    Sincerely,
    Krish

    ReplyDelete
  3. Faith QiaoMay 4, 2022 at 11:02 AM

    I don't really remember my impression of Ratatouille. I knew of the movie, but never watched it in full until Ms. Greene showed us the movie for French II. To be honest, the movie was okay. It was a suitable ending for a wholesome story of inclusion. As for your reflection on cooking and food, I have a lot to say but not enough energy to say it all. I never had a good relationship with food nor enough variety of food to create a good relationship with it. To me, it is a necessity rather than something I look forward too. When it come to cooking, I can barely hold a cooking pan straight because my wrist cannot handle the force.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anwika PalleMay 4, 2022 at 11:07 AM

    Hi Sophie,
    I've never tried lumpia, but I may have to give it a try after hearing about it. Food that reminds me of home is one of my mom's most simple dishes, called an egg curry. Although there is a traditional Indian egg curry, my mom made it her own and added my family's favorite spices. I have never tasted an egg curry (usually eaten with rice) as good as my mom's.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sierra DellenbaughMay 4, 2022 at 6:39 PM

    Hey Sophie, I feel like the nostalgia food brings is one of the best feelings in the world. The foods that instantly take me back are Sonic's cherry limeade, my grandma's curry, and my dad's ribs. My late aunt's favorite fast food place was Sonic, and every time we go I'm reminded of how happy she was when she got her cherry limeade. The last two are simply iconic. Writing about food really uplifted my mood; thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  6. VivanMay 4, 2022 at 6:46 PM

    Hi Sophie,

    I remember watching that movie in either 7th, 8th, or 9th grade French. It was truly a great movie. What was funny to me though was the fact that the food was made by rats, and rats are usually associated with trash.

    About food, though, It is so true that the taste of home is always nostalgic. To be honest, I don't think I will ever forget the test of the food made by my mom and dad.

    Sincerely,
    Vivan Waghela

    ReplyDelete
  7. RaymondMay 4, 2022 at 9:09 PM

    Hi Sophie,
    The flavor of home is an interesting phenomenon. I have personally never tried lumpia before (if I have, I don't remember it), but I'm inclined to try it out from your description. I have many favorite foods that my mom makes, and their taste is inimitable. I suspect that it would not have the same effect on you, just as your lumpia would not on me. It is interesting how memory can enhance or detract from present sensations.
    Sincerely,
    Raymond Yu

    ReplyDelete
  8. DeetaMay 4, 2022 at 9:14 PM

    Hey Sophie!
    The "taste of home" is definitely a thing just as much as you may associate a person or music or a place as home. I think humans naturally tend to connect certain sensual perceptions with memories of where, when, why, or how they experienced them. There are certain smells one might associate with comfort and some colors one might associate with a certain person in their lives. I think this is such a cute tendency of ours, and the same applies to the comfort you find in lumpia. Thank you for sharing and good luck on your AP tests this week<3

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yi-Kuan CMay 4, 2022 at 9:29 PM

    Hi Sophie,

    I feel like food is definitely a big part of "home." The smell of my grandma's heitang mantou always gives me the same feelings of nostalgia. I think because smell and taste are such powerful senses, they oftentimes can correlate strongly with the emotions we feel at the time of eating that food. While I won't say that food is all of what makes my summers in Taiwan so memorable, it is undoubtedly a massive part.

    Yi-Kuan C.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sophie Nguyen Week #11 - Chaos Language

Image
       A popular video game, titled NieR:Automata is famous not only for its brilliant mechanics, story, and design, but also for the music. As I had watched every member of my family play the video game, I was mostly interested in the music.  Almost it’s entire playlist is made up of songs in a language that does not actually exist called “chaos language”. The songs were written by Keiichi Okabe, a Japanese composer who worked with Emi Evans to write the lyrics. Okabe would go to Evans to tell her the languages in which he wanted the words to sound like, to which in turn, Evans would study the language and create words.       In NeiR , Evans and Okabe combined their skills to seamlessly transition into new atmospheres. For example, when in the campsite, the music and singing would be more peaceful. After a boss fight, the music would become sullen and more dramatic, almost as if it was mourning a loss (Ave Maria esque).     ...
Read more

Sophie Nguyen Week #10: In Theory

Image
     As many people know, and are probably writing about for this quarter of blogging, words hold power. A simple sentence or phrase could make or break a person’s day. The effects of a few words could be the same as the usage of many.  I had a bit of trouble trying to figure out what I wanted to write about for this week’s blog. The topic being as broad as ever.       Our prompt for blogging this quarter leaves me at a loss. But after a bit of thinking through this flex-work period I’ve been given, and scrapping my blog multiple times, I’ve come to a conclusion. I believe that we could write on just about anything for this prompt and leave the analysis and connecting to the prompt for the students writing comments. The topics for each blog so far have made it easy to write about whatever we wanted, as long as it's possible to connect it to the main idea. For this prompt, “language and power,” one could just jump to the conclusion that all words h...
Read more

Raymond Yu, Q3 Week 4 - Metaphorically

Image
  Q3 Week 4 - Metaphorically By Raymond Yu (Metaphors describing a common subject, love)     Metaphors are one of the most basic tools in a writer's toolkit, one that is taught to all children starting in elementary school. It is widely analyzed by people of all age groups and when used properly, creates fantastic results. The sheer amount of different ways to describe common subjects is astounding, each one reveals a different perspective to the audience.      One of the most beneficial ways of using a metaphor is to describe an intangible concept so that the audience can more readily understand it. For instance, as shown in the image above, love can be described in a variety of ways through comparisons with tangible objects that the audience can draw from their own experience. Other examples include the use of money to describe time, heat to describe anger, and bitter tastes to describe failure. Metaphors are used to make the intangible tangible, the invi...
Read more