Wednesday, March 13th, was a day of many feats for us! Zane and Arden went to meet Fatom at the Bazaar at Daniels Spectrum. This was a special moment for our group, we got to see Fatom’s art and meet her daughters, Aisha and Rateel. We also met Zane’s dad, Qaid, when he stopped by to drop off some props for our photo-taking.
Ines in Daniels Spectrum, at the counter where she sells her empanadas as part of RP Cafe.
The purpose of our visit was to interview Ines and get photographs of her splendid beef empanadas. It was our first time using the Focus Media Arts’ equipment and found the learning process very fun. Arden set up the lights with the help of Dimitri, and Zane started taking photos! We had a wonderful time learning to use such high quality technology, and we think we did Ines’ delicious empanadas justice. Our favourite thing we learned from Ines was that the idea to start her catering business, GarciaEats, was encouraged by her children! In fact, they helped her by setting up an Instagram account for it. You can follow her here! Last week we found it interesting how there’s so much overlap between projects, and this tidbit reminded us of the RE-VISIT group’s focus on the digital divide in Regent Park. Younger generations benefit from media literacy, and perhaps their knowledge could help to decrease the digital divide in the neighbourhood.
Afiya in the Focus Media Arts space after being interviewed.
While we had only planned to talk to Ines, Wednesday came with an unexpected but welcome gift: Fatom asked Afiyah at the Bazaar if she was interested in participating in our project, and she generously agreed to be interviewed on the spot. She shared her recipe for mahamri, a sweet bread she used to have every morning when she lived in Kenya. We learned that she makes mahamri for her friends and family in Regent Park. Food is a special way for her to connect with people because it serves as a reason to gather together.
In class the next day, we were asked by Aditi to rework our research question to better define what we mean by cross-cultural food. As we were reflecting, we realized that by cross-cultural food we mean the sharing of food across different cultures. So, our refreshed research question is: how does making, sharing, and consuming food facilitate cross-cultural connections in Regent Park?
During class this week, Roya, from the RE-VISIT team, graciously helped us launch the webpage for our crowdsourced cookbook. We’re hoping that this new element of our project will facilitate civic engagement from members across the community. We’ll be printing out flyers with a link to our Google form and posting them across the neighborhood on Monday, March 18.
If you’re a resident interested in contributing, please fill out this form by March 28, 2024! For those able to meet us, we’ll also include your recipe and story in a cookbook, which you’ll get a free copy of!
Zane met with Tyrone to seek consultation on the design of the cookbook, while Arden and Fatom organized meetings for the following week. Zane wants to use Adobe InDesign to layout the magazine, but this is complicated by the fact that accessing this program is not easy…He has since found out that InDesign is available on certain computers at UofT, which means we’ll be able to have more fine-grained control over the cookbook’s layout than would be offered by using Canva.
Here’s our current schedule for in-person meetings next week:
We are using a semi-structured interview format, meaning we go in with a list of questions but we can change them, remove some, or add new ones depending on the responses of participants. See the Appendix for a list of our interview questions.
From the conversations we’ve had so far, we are learning that sharing cultural dishes facilitates cross-cultural relationships in Regent Park because food is a universal way to show love and care for others. We are interested to see how all the recipes we have the opportunity to share in our book will compliment each other, and tell a bigger story about friendship, family, and connection in Regent Park.
The Seasoning Stories team members are Fatom, Zane, and Arden
Appendix
Interview Guide:
What is your dish and what makes it meaningful to you?
What culture(s) does it come from?
How did you learn to cook it?
Does this dish make you feel connected to the person who taught you?
How long have you lived in Regent Park? Have you lived in different buildings in Regent Park?
Where did you live before moving to Regent Park?
Why did you move to Regent Park?
Who do you make the dish for?
Does it make you feel connected to your family?
Do you make this dish for any special occasions/holidays?
Is food something that has helped you make connections with other people in Regent Park?
If so, has food helped you connect with people from other cultures?
What stores in Regent Park do you visit to get the ingredients for this dish?
Is there anything else we should know?