Andrea Lopez Labrador

Professor Lacey
English Composition 111
September 16, 2019

Magic words and spanish food

Let’s eat! - Two words that sounded like magic from my mother’s mouth. Nothing else was
needed for all the people in the house to leave what they were doing and sit at the table.
It was never a planned menú since we have never been the type of family to mark dates
such as “ Friday night pizza” or “Sunday family meal”, we have used it at home to intuit that
what was the dinner of the smell that came from the kitchen.
There was only one thing that was always the same, the salad with tomato and olives,
essential ingredients, in the center of the table. Depending on the day and the time of the year, it
was accompanied by one or others ingredients: the classic Mediterranean salad in cold seasons,
although it was such a typical dish that you could find it at any time of the year, formed by the
indispensable ones (lettuce, tomato, olives) and could include items such as carrots, onions, and
corn along with a special vinaigrette that we bought at the supermarket. In hot seasons, like
summer, more typical were pasta or lentil salads, where you always ended up finding the
indispensables. The salad can never be missing in the center of the table in my house as if it were
somehow out tradition.
Always arriving at the table, before sitting down, I used to ask: -“What about breastfeeding
today?” I knew perfectly well that two possible answers could have been: The first one, she tells
me exactly the dishes I had prepared, or the second option, his subtle response of “A very good
thing” followed by a mischievous smile, as if he were seeing her right now.
This second possible answer meant that there was a 99% chance that the menu of the day
would include dishes not especially to my liking. But for these occasions, my savior appeared,
my dear grandmother.

PAPER 1: MEMOIR !1
 When I touched this more unpleasant menu, I knew that my grandmother would reward
that bad taste in the mouth with her star dish for dinner, potato omelet, along with other
primordial Spanish foods. On the table you could find bread with tomato oil and salt, serrano
ham next to other Iberian sausages and my grandmother's potato omelet, very crispy and salty as
she does. And without forgetting the salad in the center of the table, it never fails.
So I wanted to hear the magic words and run to the table, chat with my mother and
grandmother, gather the 3 generations in one place enjoying something as beautiful as joining
food and family and create magical moments.

PAPER 1: MEMOIR !2