Yousif Hassan
Szetela
ENGL 1010
5 January 2019
Food From Back Home
Food is one of the few things in the world that everybody loves. The meaning of it and what types of food people eat are different for everyone. At some time every year, you probably have a special food you eat with your friends or family. That food for me is a Kurdish dish named dolma. Dolma is many different leaves and vegetables stuffed with rice and usually has meat. The stuffing of it is rice mixed with tomato paste onions, and garlic, you can also add peppers and jalapenos for a little kick. Some of the most common vegetables are grape leaves, any type of peppers, onions, and sometimes tomatoes and eggplant. It originates from the Middle East and some parts in Russia. There are many ways to make this dish because so many cultures love the dish. My parents are from northern Iraq which is also known as Kurdistan. The Kurdish variation of it can range from many flavors and temperatures, some people may like it cold and others like it piping hot. Also, it is also really good sour, spicy, or both.
For the dish to be prepared by lunch my mom has to start prepping for the meal in the morning by prepping the rice and hollowing out vegetables to get stuffed. After that, you put it in a big pot with water and let it boil and cook for about 1-3 hours. You can also put some kind of sour seasoning in the water to give it a unique spicy and sour taste.
Dolmas presentation and smell can vary from a lot of things, it all depends on how you like it. I like mine to be spicy and have more rice in the vegetables. The way it's presented usually is that it is plopped onto a big trey right after it’s finished and it’s everything sitting on top of each other. The smell is mainly the spices that are put into it whether it be spicy or sour but I promise it will smell and taste delicious every time.
I eat this dish on numerous occasions, I eat it with my family every time on the holiday Eid and sometimes at family gatherings with my cousins. My mother is the one usually preparing the meal for all of us. Every time we eat Dolma it just feels really special and I feel like it brings whoever I’m eating it with more together. I've also never heard anyone who has tried it never complain about it and only hear good things about it.
Me and my family like to visit my cousins and other close friends and family a lot so sometimes my mom makes dolma in the morning and takes it to my cousins house for lunch or dinner. Everyone there usually brings some sort of food also so it's kind of like a potluck. One place I love to go to and eat dolma is Murray Park just because when I go there a lot of my family members go and it’s nice to see everyone together and having fun.
This dish brings us together because my family has come a long way from living in poverty in Iraq and it shows how far we come also it helps us to never forget where you came from. It’s just something about dolma that makes me feel special on the inside every time I get together with loved ones and eat. This meal is made often by my mother at least once a month and it is still really special to me and my family because it reminds my parents of home and where they came from, for me, it tastes really good and it gives me a sense of how the culture is from where my heritage from.
Dolma is a dish that is that is popular in a lot of different cultures and has tons of different variations on how to make it. Some cultures only stick to grape leaves while others use a wide variety of vegetables. There isn’t really a country where it originated from, but some people say Turkey and it then expanded all over the Mediterranean and Middle East. The word Dolma means a stuffed thing in Turkish. In my culture, Kurdish, for big feasts with lots of people, it is a tradition for all the women to work together to make the food together and everyone enjoys it after it is finished. Before making it, the cook usually recites “Bismillah Rahman Rahim” which means In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful to bless the meal and to repel anything negative. After everyone is done eating everyone drinks a cup of steaming hot black tea (Choi). Kurds also love meat so they usually throw in a choice some chicken legs or any type of goat meat. Everyone has a food they love to eat and has a special story behind it. Dolma is the food I love to eat and the reason it is so special to me.
Work Cited
“Dolma (Stuffed Grape Leaves).” The Domestic Man, 30 Nov. 2016, thedomesticman.com/2014/08/26/dolma-stuffed-grape-leaves/.
“The Migratory Tales of the Kurdish Dolma.” Kitchens in the Garage, 7 July 2015, kitchensinthegarage.com/the-migratory-tales-of-the-kurdish-dolma/.
Szetela
ENGL 1010
5 January 2019
Food From Back Home
Food is one of the few things in the world that everybody loves. The meaning of it and what types of food people eat are different for everyone. At some time every year, you probably have a special food you eat with your friends or family. That food for me is a Kurdish dish named dolma. Dolma is many different leaves and vegetables stuffed with rice and usually has meat. The stuffing of it is rice mixed with tomato paste onions, and garlic, you can also add peppers and jalapenos for a little kick. Some of the most common vegetables are grape leaves, any type of peppers, onions, and sometimes tomatoes and eggplant. It originates from the Middle East and some parts in Russia. There are many ways to make this dish because so many cultures love the dish. My parents are from northern Iraq which is also known as Kurdistan. The Kurdish variation of it can range from many flavors and temperatures, some people may like it cold and others like it piping hot. Also, it is also really good sour, spicy, or both.
For the dish to be prepared by lunch my mom has to start prepping for the meal in the morning by prepping the rice and hollowing out vegetables to get stuffed. After that, you put it in a big pot with water and let it boil and cook for about 1-3 hours. You can also put some kind of sour seasoning in the water to give it a unique spicy and sour taste.
Dolmas presentation and smell can vary from a lot of things, it all depends on how you like it. I like mine to be spicy and have more rice in the vegetables. The way it's presented usually is that it is plopped onto a big trey right after it’s finished and it’s everything sitting on top of each other. The smell is mainly the spices that are put into it whether it be spicy or sour but I promise it will smell and taste delicious every time.
I eat this dish on numerous occasions, I eat it with my family every time on the holiday Eid and sometimes at family gatherings with my cousins. My mother is the one usually preparing the meal for all of us. Every time we eat Dolma it just feels really special and I feel like it brings whoever I’m eating it with more together. I've also never heard anyone who has tried it never complain about it and only hear good things about it.
Me and my family like to visit my cousins and other close friends and family a lot so sometimes my mom makes dolma in the morning and takes it to my cousins house for lunch or dinner. Everyone there usually brings some sort of food also so it's kind of like a potluck. One place I love to go to and eat dolma is Murray Park just because when I go there a lot of my family members go and it’s nice to see everyone together and having fun.
This dish brings us together because my family has come a long way from living in poverty in Iraq and it shows how far we come also it helps us to never forget where you came from. It’s just something about dolma that makes me feel special on the inside every time I get together with loved ones and eat. This meal is made often by my mother at least once a month and it is still really special to me and my family because it reminds my parents of home and where they came from, for me, it tastes really good and it gives me a sense of how the culture is from where my heritage from.
Dolma is a dish that is that is popular in a lot of different cultures and has tons of different variations on how to make it. Some cultures only stick to grape leaves while others use a wide variety of vegetables. There isn’t really a country where it originated from, but some people say Turkey and it then expanded all over the Mediterranean and Middle East. The word Dolma means a stuffed thing in Turkish. In my culture, Kurdish, for big feasts with lots of people, it is a tradition for all the women to work together to make the food together and everyone enjoys it after it is finished. Before making it, the cook usually recites “Bismillah Rahman Rahim” which means In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful to bless the meal and to repel anything negative. After everyone is done eating everyone drinks a cup of steaming hot black tea (Choi). Kurds also love meat so they usually throw in a choice some chicken legs or any type of goat meat. Everyone has a food they love to eat and has a special story behind it. Dolma is the food I love to eat and the reason it is so special to me.
Work Cited
“Dolma (Stuffed Grape Leaves).” The Domestic Man, 30 Nov. 2016, thedomesticman.com/2014/08/26/dolma-stuffed-grape-leaves/.
“The Migratory Tales of the Kurdish Dolma.” Kitchens in the Garage, 7 July 2015, kitchensinthegarage.com/the-migratory-tales-of-the-kurdish-dolma/.