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Lubna Qureishi: Taking It Home

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Lubna Qureishi looks for the missing ingredient when food and drink just taste better when prepared by the hands of loved ones.

A few years ago I went to London to visit family. I noticed that every cup of tea I had, whether it be at a at a restaurant in a fancy cup or in a to-go cup tasted delicious. It must be the tea there I thought. So I brought some loose leaf tea home in the hopes of making a cup just as good. I boiled water. I warmed the teapot. How hard can it be? I took my first sip. Alas, it was nowhere nearly as good. My tea didn’t even come close to the deliciousness of a pot across the pond. Why, I wondered.

It’s the water. It’s better here, my cousin in London told me. Couldn’t really change that. But another friend offered a more intriguing explanation. She said the tea in London tasted better to me because I was on vacation when I drank it. This seemed surprising, that being on a relaxing trip can actually have an impact on taste. I thought of other times when I attempted to duplicate something at home.

I tried my aunt’s delicious Pakistani chicken curry at her home in Virginia. I asked for the recipe. She began, “Put some salt, then some garam masala,” etc. I knew the definition of “some” has a wide range since she never measures, so I gave her a measuring spoon and asked her, show me exactly how much!  She then said, add some grated nutmeg. Again, with that word some. I showed her a pod of nutmeg and asked again how much? Half she said.

Armed with these precise measurements, I couldn’t wait to make this dish. The curry turned out fine, but it just didn’t taste the way hers did. So maybe it’s true that something intangible has an impact on taste, not just a setting, but a feeling one has when being taken care of, being nurtured by my aunt’s hand, and nurtured in her home, a feeling that filters down to the flavor. Maybe it’s about really enjoying the experience vs. making a plan to take it home.

“How did the chicken curry turn out?” my aunt asked. I told her, I’ll just have to come to Virginia and eat at her house, again.

With a Perspective, I’m Lubna Qureishi.

Lubna Qureishi was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a second-generation Muslim-American.

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