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I was back home for part of the week and weekend, so lots of the food I ate was different than my normal diet/meals here in Wooster. For starters, when I’m home I always eat at one of my favorite restaurants, The Big Salad. It mainly has locations in Michigan, its only out-of-state location is in Texas. I desperately wish we had one in Ohio because I would eat there all the time, I wouldn’t even need a meal plan. The restaurant lets you make your own salad or wrap, or you can choose one off of the menu. I don’t have a favorite menu option here because everything I’ve tried has been phenomenal!

My friends asked if we could go get something to eat Saturday night before I left. There’s a small diner we like to go to in town called Travis Coffee Shop, which we’ve been eating at since high school. The specialty there is breakfast food, which we love and you can order at any time of the day. I always get an omelet when we go, no matter what time of day it is. I order the vegetarian omelet with no tomatoes, and I add spinach. Breakfast food, specifically omelets and bagels, is one of my favorite types of food. I love the breakfast menu at Travis, it makes me wish there was an all-day breakfast here in Wooster. The restaurant also has a special where you can get a short stack of pancakes and a hamburger or cheeseburger as your side. I’ve never tried this, but I’ve been told it’s actually pretty good.

Throughout my life, my mother showed her love for me through making yummy foods and teaching me traditional dishes that are made in our family. My mom always makes matzah ball soup for our family for passover, and has a secret recipe that I am not allowed to see until I am hosting passover seders as an adult.

Showing love through food is a very typical expression of care in Jewish families, as many of our ancestors experienced a lack of food and were taught to hold on to foods just in case of future need. In addition, making food for others when there was a lack of resources was a statement that, no matter what, we would take care of others.

My mother, raised in a Jewish family, was taught these values and was shown love from her mother through food as well. Our family celebrates holidays through sharing of meals, and I always feel cared for when people take time out of their day to make me something delicious.

This is my final blog post. In the true spirit of “saving the best for last”, I have decided to continue speaking about the international food experience, and the culture of food, but with a whole other twist. As suggested by a very good friend of mine, I have decided to talk about ingredients. I struggled for some time to decide what exactly this means. Is it about the ingredients that exist in various cultures that for some reason are impossible to locate in America? And that’s when I realized it – this blog has been just as much about my experience as it has about the general experience. There is no general without the individual, and the individual is (at times) affirmed by the general. All this to say that I feel two specific types of way about ingredients:

• They make food FOOD.
• Part of the immigrant experience is finding ways to make the exact same dishes with the ingredients you have.

At some point in our class, out professor got to speaking briefly about how he feels there are so many cuisines and dishes that people (mostly people who have lived and grown up in “first-world nations” such as America) often expect to taste one way, when in fact they don’t taste that way a lot. I personally have heard a large portion of Americans say how much they love Chinese/Indian/Greek food. And it’s interesting, this idea of the transnationalism of food. Because many people from these nations will say and have said that the dishes the Western world considers to be cultural and traditional are actually usually completely wrong, or just variations that don’t actually taste or look that way in the culture and/or country itself.

When these dishes are made by people who have immigrated to America, often they just don’t have easy and affordable access to the same ingredients. There is thus this moral dilemma, if you will, of trying to accurately recreate dishes from their home countries and cultures that their families, friends and others can enjoy. But without this access to the ingredients they need, it becomes virtually impossible to recreate the flavors of home. I think this takes me back to the idea of going home. Of return. Food is a search for home, an exploration of self.

I have been studying at the College of Wooster for three years, and there is one thing that makes me regret my choice. Food has always been something I took for granted back at home. Coming to Wooster and obtaining all this freedom in food choice also meant having me carefully inform myself about what I am eating. However, this vlog will ignore nutrition and the best places for a balanced meal and focus on my top two favorite meal locations in my three years of studying here.

To start things off, the first restaurant I always dine at whenever I return and depart from Wooster is El Campesino. This specific location provides a variety of foods ranging to three dozen different meal options. Starting from something simple like steak and rice to some delicious complexities like flautas and chilaquiles. Furthermore, El Campesino also provides its customers with a dozen specialties like Pollo Loco to Chile Colorado. Also, their beverage options contain a range in variety, from Margaritas and beer to your everyday soft drinks. What makes this place so exciting and preferable to me is that I can never finish my food. This place defiantly earns there spot as number two.

In the first place, Buffalo Wild Wings is always the must-go-to spot when I want something mouthwatering to eat. It is definitely the farthest place to reach, but the food is worth it. Starting with the burgers they provide always appear to satisfy your pallet. But I can’t place Buffalo wild wings without talking about the main course. The traditional or boneless wings are what make this place my favorite location. Whether you order mild wings like honey barbeque or something somewhat spicy like mango habanero (my favorite), wild buffalo wings will always be one of the best places to eat in Wooster. On top of the wings, their fries are second to none. To top it all off, Buffalo wild wings always has a special offer where you receive a second order of traditional wings for free every Tuesday, making this location even more satisfactory.