Growing up between two cultures is not always easy. Your children go to school here, speak the language here, eat the food here. And slowly, without anyone meaning for it to happen, the food from back home starts to feel like something special occasion only. Something for weddings and funerals. Not Tuesday night.
It does not have to be that way. The kitchen is the easiest place to close that gap. Not through a lesson. Not through a lecture. Just through cooking together and letting the food do what food has always done.
Here's how to start.
Start with what they already like
Do not open with egusi soup if your child has never eaten it. Start with dodo. Start with kelewele. Start with jollof rice. These are dishes with familiar textures and flavors that kids take to quickly. Let them build from there. The bolder dishes come later, once the curiosity is already there.
Get them in the kitchen
Give them something to do. Stir the pot. Wash the rice. Peel the plantain. Kids who cook the food eat the food. It is that simple. And somewhere between the mess and the tasting, they start to feel like this food belongs to them too. Because it does.
Tell them what they are eating
Not a full history lesson. Just a sentence or two while you cook. This is what your grandmother made every Sunday. This spice comes from back home and you cannot find it just anywhere. This dish is always at naming ceremonies. Small things. They stick.
Bring them to the store
Bring your kids to Marché EHI. Let them walk the aisles. Let them see the stockfish, the egusi, the different pepper blends, the drinks they have never seen in a regular supermarket. Ask them to pick something they are curious about. Then go home and cook it together. The store is part of the education.
Do not force it
Some kids take to it immediately. Others need time. That is fine. Keep cooking. Keep offering. Do not make it a battle. The goal is that when they are older and on their own, they know how to make at least a few dishes from home. And they want to.
Use occasions to go bigger
Birthdays, holidays, family gatherings — these are the moments to bring out the full spread. Jollof rice, fried fish, dodo, chin chin. Let the food be part of the celebration. Children remember the food at every important moment. Make sure yours is on the table.
Write it down
The recipes your mother never measured. The ones your aunt makes differently every time. Write them down. Even rough versions. A family recipe book is something your children will actually use one day and something they will pass on.
Everything you need is at Marché EHI. The palm oil, the crayfish, the spice blends, the plantains, the drinks from back home. We have been stocking these shelves for 25+ years for exactly this reason — so that cooking the food from home in Montreal is never harder than it needs to be.
Come in with the kids. Let them pick something. Start there.
Marché EHI | 1201 90th Avenue, LaSalle, Montreal Shop online at Marcheehi.com
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