Everywhere, every day, food encompasses daily lives by fueling, reminding and connecting. Often it serves as a tool for survival, a source of enjoyment and a vessel for memory. People correlate food with something different depending on their personal roots. Many even argue that food can represent nostalgia itself.
Food serves to strengthen bonds, bring joy through flavor and connect people to their culture. Almost every significant moment in people’s lives, big or small, is undeniably surrounded by food. Woven into daily routines, food inevitably takes people back to special, difficult, exciting and sad moments of their lives.
“Anytime I smell flautas in the kitchen, I know I’m about to have a cozy night. Growing up, I was always surrounded by Mexican food, and flautas were a delicious staple,” Miami Palmetto Senior High junior Sienna Chamizo said.
When recalling a birthday, a holiday or a wedding, most people find at least one thing in common: food. For some, nostalgia does not only lie within the flavor of food but the smell and the sensation stimulated throughout the body by the recognition of its taste, smell and texture.
“A food that reminds me of home is my grandma’s forgotten cookies. Every year, without fail, my mom makes this using her mom’s recipe. They are minty, melt-in-your-mouth, meringue cookies that we only have at Christmas. Any time I see my mom making them, I know it truly is Christmas. I don’t touch any other cookie or dessert similar to them throughout the year, I just wait for the time when we make them,” junior Lucille Hargrove said. “Ever since my grandma passed, making these cookies has been so much more special. Despite how simple they are, they were hers, and our family will always keep making them.”
These stories show how people feel strong connections to particular foods because they carry meaningful memories that stay with them throughout their entire lives. Food travels. It links people from all around the world. One person may be eating ice cream alone after a long day as a reward for accomplishing an A on a challenging exam, while a person on the opposite side of the globe enjoys ice cream, giggling with friends at a fair, making the most of their break from school. These two people know nothing about the other but remain connected by the multifaceted nature of food, yet the memories behind the taste remain distinctly unique.
Directly linked to the past, food takes people back in time to moments when food accompanied them.
People’s lives are constantly built upon, with new memories added that identify a person. Meals do not simply serve to feed but to provide emotional fueling. For example, when cortisol levels shoot up from elevated stress, consuming foods linked to warm memories helps regulate emotional instability. Food serves as comfort, support and stability as it never changes and will always remain the same, playing a reliable role in people’s lives. Ultimately, food goes beyond taste. Different meals reflect the feelings they induce, the memories they carry and the milestones behind them.
