Nicole Chanchalashvili

Writing the Essay II

Scott Korb

2/6/17

What Is a Meal?

What does a meal mean to me? Well, actually it means two things. The first thing is how when I come home for dinner I have a meal with my whole family. We do not eat our meal until the whole family is at the table. In my Georgian culture, all of our meals that we eat are with the family, the food that we have brings the family together. The food that we have are very traditional Georgian dishes such as this cheese bread called Khachapuri. Everytime when I eat Khachapuri, I feel nostalgic. Since this is a traditional dish, I feel like a little kid again. As my family and I come together for dinner, we wait for the food to come on the table. Once the food is on the table we then start to communicate with one another. We use food to communicate. When the food is on the table a conversation begins. Food is a huge gathering for my family. Another meaning of what food means to me is how it can indicate change. Since I’m a college student, I’m independent and, my parents aren’t on top of me. I could do whatever I want and eat whatever I want. I go out all the time. When I go out to eat, I will order mac n’ cheese with vegan bacon on the side, which is delicious, a blueberry smoothie with protein powder and almond milk, a tomato pesto and mozzarella cheese sandwich, grilled cheese with fries on the side, and let’s not forget artichoke pizza. These are the foods that I have since I’m on my own in college. Since I consider those two that symbolizes meals, it’s part of who I am. Since this is a big transition, I’ve been brought up with this tradition my whole life and now a huge change has made me into a different person of still having that tradition in my family, to break free and explore different things.