For East African women, moving from Cheetos to mushmush

Patricia Leigh BrownCarlos A. Moreno/California WatchThe gatherings are meant to help daughters of East African women to understand their heritage and to encourage mothers to adapt healthy versions of American favorites like quiche and pizza.SAN DIEGO– For many daughters, the kitchen contains their mother’s secrets. In the tumult of pots and pans, the pinches of sugar and salt, reside recipes perfected over time without cookbooks, experience and intuition the only guides.For East African daughters in City Heights, a neighborhood that is a major West Coast portal for refugees, the opportunity to cook twice a month as a group with their mothers is a chance to steep themselves in Somali, Ethiopian and Eritrean culinary traditions, passed down orally through generations.“We have a common goal: to learn from each other,” said Ayan Sheikh, a recent graduate of CSU Bakersfield and a nurse, who missed the cooking group so much at school that she asked her aunt to post the sessions on YouTube.The gatherings started two years ago with 10 mothers and daughters; today, there are more than 30 regulars. The group has multiple goals: helping daughters growing up in the U.S. to understand their heritage while encouraging mothers to adapt healthy versions of American favorites like quiche and pizza.“Mothers were saying,‘I’m losing my daughter; she’s not eating my food,’” said Sahra Abdi, founder of United Women of East Africa, which ...
Source: http://californiawatch.org/topic/health-and-welfare/feed - Category: American Health Authors: Tags: Health and Welfare Daily Report cooking East Africa food San Diego traditional arts Source Type: news