Introduction
I have decided to focus my introspection on myself while cooking, my favorite activity. Cooking inspires my creativity through the process of cooking and preparing tasty dishes. I find the sight, smell, sound, texture, and taste of the food being cooked, which results in a rich multisensory tapestry, that I find most satisfying. To explore this activity, I spent one hour preparing meals in my home kitchen on Sunday afternoon, February 12th, 2024; I was all by myself as I put vegetable biryani on the stove, an Indian mixed rice dish with spices, vegetables, and herbs. While cooking, I noted my impressions, bodily reactions, thoughts, and feelings in particular. I also contemplate the memories that this activity evoked. Then, I reviewed my notes and picked two main events that must be researched more. I have opted for vegetable biryani since it uses a broad range of spices, vegetables, and herbs that stimulate multiple senses when the food is cooked. Biryani is prepared in the following steps: dicing up various vegetables, grinding spices, tempering the aromatics, and layering the components before baking. The whole biryani-making approach was a great chance to put all my creativity into me.
I gathered all the ingredients and tools I needed first and then cooked to avoid getting distracted for that hour. The biryani I made of basmati rice, potatoes, carrots, peas, cilantro, mint, garlic, ginger, yogurt, ghee, and spices- cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, cloves, cardamom pods, bay leaves, chili powder, and salt. Moreover, I ensured that the stove, oven, all pots, pans, knives, and utensils were within arm’s reach. I was cooking, but at the same time, I was writing down my notes in my notebook; I paused often to explain the details thoroughly. I continued by mentioning the visual display of ingredients, my physical movements, emotions, memories, and some cognitive thoughts on the process. After the hour of cooking was up, I savored my biryani meal along with raita, a condiment made of yogurt. Revisiting my notes on a full stomach, I could now see why certain events needed to be studied more closely.
The First Moment: Chopping Onions
At 2:05 PM, I began chopping one large onion to add to the biryani. As I sliced through the onion, my eyes started stinging and involuntarily watering. The vapor released a pungent, biting smell that filled my nostrils. My shoulders tensed up as I tried not to rub my watery eyes. I thought, “No pain, no gain,” and smiled as memories of learning to chop onions as a child flooded my mind. I remember my mother demonstrating the correct way to cut onions when I was ten years old (Johnson et al., 2004). She carefully showed me how to fold my fingertips when peeling the onion half. Her words of reassurance and encouragement made me less afraid of the knife. I recalled the exhilaration and joy I felt when I cut my first onion.
As an adult, I have a different relationship with tearful onions. They indicate I am letting go of the essential compounds responsible for this fantastic flavor. It is also a way of practicing mindfulness, noting the automatic urge to rub my eyes and then returning my awareness gently to the sensations and movements of chopping. The irritating fumes made me unintentionally cry while concentrating on cutting the onions for the biryani. I was impressed that my body was performing beyond my intellectual control, but I still had power over how the discomfort impacted me (Bérubé, 2023). Instead of feeling irritated at the sting, I recognized it and used caution while chopping.
I remembered my mother’s advice when I was a child, showing me to hold the onion securely and to tuck my fingers away from the blade. I was comforted by her constancy, which enabled me to conquer my initial fear and uncertainty of knife usage. Eventually, chopping onions, which required skillful hand-eye coordination, came as second nature to me. No amount of skill makes my eyes blind to the onion’s defense mechanism. The vapors still create the reflex of lacrimation tears as if I were a crying child. I noted that this emphasizes the limits of personal control in the presence of involuntary bodily processes (Baixinho et al., 2020). The tears will flow, and my eyes will water no matter how experienced I will be. I took solace in realizing there are certain things I cannot control. The only thing I can control is my reaction.
The Second Moment: Adding Spices
At 2:35 PM, it was time to toast and grind spices for the biryani. The kitchen was filled with a nutty, earthy aroma as I dry-roasted the cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and peppercorns in a pan. I felt eager anticipation, knowing how these spices would meld with the other ingredients. Crushing the spices triggered memories of visiting open-air markets in India as a child (Baral & Adhikari, 2024). Vendors offered colorful piles of turmeric, chilies, cumin, peppercorns, etc. I remembered the sensory overload of the pungent smell that filled the air, vendors shouting prices, and the kaleidoscope of colors everywhere.
Mixing the ground spices into the biryani pot changed the scent from something sharper to a warmer, more complex one. It was similar yet distinct from anything I had ever smelled before. While the biryani was cooking, the smell spread throughout the whole house. I wondered how smells can evoke so many vivid memories passing through time and space (Binu & Jose, 2023). A mere scent is enough to invoke nostalgia and take me back to the past moments in my life story. While dry roasting the spices, I could smell their powerful aromas, filling the kitchen and pervading my senses. It was as if a jolt of déjà vu went through my body – my mind and body reacting to familiar scents before I could even place them. I was there in a flash, in the spice markets of India from my childhood.
In my mind, I saw the gigantic sacks of vibrant turmeric, the golden curry leaves, and the mounds of plump-dried chilies. Traders would scoop spices to weigh them on brass scales, with many shoppers coming and going in the narrow alleys. I recall the ecstatic noise of prices ringing through the air, accompanied by pungent and sweetish smells (Maunumäki, 2023). Sprinkling the freshly ground spices on the biryani took me back. The dry roasted flavors merged with garlic, onions, and ghee, producing an elevated, more profound, and more complex fragrance. I realized this was its distinct scent, neither entirely like the markets nor utterly separate from them (Mohamed et al., 2023).
Similarly, my cultural identity was a mixture of Indian origins and an American upbringing, and these spices were a combination of different cultural influences. The tastes evoked memories of the past but were wholly connected with what I was cooking. The same spirit of resilience and creativity is in me, too. The thread of time creates new flavors, new dishes, and ever-redefined identities means of spices and cooking. They become the new a, gain, and the cycle continues (Singh et al., 2022).
Analysis
I chose the moments of chopping onions and adding spices because they stood out as the most sensorial. The onion vapors provoked an involuntary physical reaction in my eyes and tension in my body. This highlights how the knowledge of adequately cutting onions has been passed along through generations in my family. The cumin, card,amom, and other aromatics released from dry roasting and grinding the spices created a visceral response. These smells triggered my salivary secretions and evoked sentimental memories of visiting India’s spice markets. It also developed a new association between the smell and this biryani I was doing then.
In Borderlands, Gloria Anzaldúa explains that the lived experience is happening in the Borderlands, a space between worlds, cultures, and identities (Anzaldúa, preface). These cooking moments showed me the Borders where my Indian heritage and Western upbringing met. The sights, the smells, and the memories brought me back to India. However, I was experiencing these events through the eyes of a first-generation Indian American. In the same way, Anzaldúa says that speaking a combination of Spanish and indigenous languages, my family also speaks a hybrid version of Gujarati and English with a Western accent (Anzaldúa 58). The biryani I cook is also adapted to our family’s tastes and what ingredients are available in American grocery stores. Through the experiences of cooking Indian food in an American kitchen, I have understood the Borderlands’ cultural identity.
Conclusion
Engaging in autoethnography and studying my favorite cooking activity allowed me to examine the nuances of my multicultural identity. Paying mindful attention to the sensory details of the sting of onion vapors, the nostalgia kindled through spices revealed connections between past and present within my own “lived experience” (Johnson et al., 210). I can see how I straddle and move between my heritage and the West through the borderlands theory. The sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and feelings of cooking turned on memories from my family’s intergenerational hybrid Indian-American culture. The autoethnography allowed me to learn about my cultural identity and family story by examining material aspects of my body and senses in cooking Indian food.
Reference
Anzaldúa, Gloria (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.
Baixinho, A., Santos, C., Couto, G., Albergaria, I. S. D., Silva, L. S. D., Medeiros, P. D., & Simas, R. M. N. (2020). Creative tourism on islands: A review of the literature. Sustainability, 12(24), 10313. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10313/pdf
Baral, B., & Adhikari, B. P. (2024). Exploring the Intersection of Multicultural Society and Chicken Tikka Masala in the UK. OCEM Journal of Management, Technology & Social Sciences, 3(1), 35-48. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Basanta-Adhikari-2/publication/377777727_Exploring_the_Intersection_of_Multicultural_Society_and_Chicken_Tikka_Masala_in_the_UK/links/65b84b1579007454974bc966/Exploring-the-Intersection-of-Multicultural-Society-and-Chicken-Tikka-Masala-in-the-UK.pdf
Bérubé, P. (2023). Towards a more inclusive museum: developing multisensory approaches to the visual arts for visually impaired audiences (Doctoral dissertation, Carleton University). http://repository.library.carleton.ca/downloads/gm80hw41r
Binu, O. S., & Jose, M. M. (2023). The Cornucopia of Banal Banquets; An Exploration of Food, Memory, and Culture in Crying in H Mart and The Hundred-Foot Journey. http://136.232.36.98:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/4402/Olivia.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
BITE, F. H. I. E. BREAKING BREAD & BOUNDARIES. https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8596&context=etd
Johnson, Richard, et al. (2004). “Researching Others: From Auto/biography to Ethnography.” In The Practice of Cultural Studies. (pp.203–224). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Maunumäki, T. (2023). Flavors and Traditions of Oulu-Food Tourism Route in the Capital of North Ostrobothnia. https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/811769/Maunumaki_Taryn.pdf?sequence=2
Mohamed Nazir, M. H., & Daud, Z. A. (2023). Batik Bliss. https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/85477/1/85477.pdf
NORHIDAYAH, A., ALBATTAT, A., SINHA, R., YAZICI, A. M., & Abd HALIL, N. H. Exploring the factors that contribute to the popularity of Sikkimese Ethnic Fusion food entrepreneurs in Sikkim. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ayse-Yazici-3/publication/375697962_Exploring_the_factors_that_contribute_to_the_popularity_of_Sikkimese_Ethnic_Fusion_food_entrepreneurs_in_Sikkim_Ayse_Meric_YAZICI/links/65573bd83fa26f66f40a0880/Exploring-the-factors-that-contribute-to-the-popularity-of-Sikkimese-Ethnic-Fusion-food-entrepreneurs-in-Sikkim-Ayse-Meric-YAZICI.pdf
Singh, S. K., Srivastav, D., Singh, S., Tripathi, R., & Kumar, M. S. CULINARY HERITAGE OF AWADH REGION: KEY FACTOR FOR GASTRONOMY TOURISM PROMOTION. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dhananjay-Srivastav-2/publication/376686853_940_CULINARY_HERITAGE_OF_AWADH_REGION_KEY_FACTOR_FOR_GASTRONOMY_TOURISM_PROMOTION/links/6583ff722468df72d3c0d645/940-CULINARY-HERITAGE-OF-AWADH-REGION-KEY-FACTOR-FOR-GASTRONOMY-TOURISM-PROMOTION.pdf
write