The Sporkful Podcasts: It's not for foodies, it's for eaters

I recently discovered this fascinating food podcast, called The Sporkful. It uses the topic of food to get to the heart of people and to learn more about people. Basically, food as a bait to get into the psychology of people.

They recently concluded a four-part series called "Your mom's food" - an examination of food and heritage. They interview international adoptees, mixed heritage people like Soledad O'Brien, and people who follow vegetarian and kosher food rules to approach the topic of how people self-identify through food.

It's a meaningful series that reminded me of the various ways I self-identify through food. As a person of mostly Lebanese and part Greek heritage, I grew up in both France and the United States, and currently live in the United Kingdom. While I enjoy Greek cuisine, I much prefer Middle Eastern cuisine overall. I also love French food just as much, and many other international cuisines that I've had the pleasure of eating.

I especially enjoyed Part 3 of the series, where an American from the Midwest, Anne, talked about adopting her Indian husband's vegetarian and Indian foods. Anne wondered whether having left behind a lot of the foods she grew up eating at home made her mom sad. That reminded me of my incorporation of halal foods into my life once I converted to Islam. Even though I keep halal at home, it's always been important for me to eat the foods my mom makes. I see it as a way of reassuring my mom that I'm still the same person who really loves her rice and meat dish, amongst others.

I enthusiastically recommend this Sporkful series for some introspection and insight on how your food preferences are influenced by the food you grew up and the food traditions you incorporated into your life later on.