Its much more convenient to grab a bag of tortillas from down the street instead, so I compromise.
In fact, its my go-to potluck dish.
Even with this substitution, I never have leftovers.
Courtesy of Ilaf Esuf
But because I live in the U.S., this requires culinary creativity and blessings from theTrader Joesgods.
But where theres a will, theres a way, and that includes in immigrant kitchens.
And neither is Mongolian food spicy a lot of times.
Courtesy of Anjile An
Mongolian food is centered around a lot of the traditions of being nomadic and being herders.
An now lives in New York.
Its kind of like a communal meal.
Courtesy of Jason Chen
When Ans parents first moved to Vancouver, they couldnt find the Mongolian cheese theyd always used for breakfast.
Upon moving, Ans parents were exposed to a lot of different foods that werent available in Mongolia.
You end up eating river fish instead.
Courtesy of Calvin Lee
My mom has this really good glaze.
It tasted pretty good, so here we are.
The dish with pork is what reminds me more of home, like the old country home.
Courtesy of Melissa Atienza
But the one with salmon reminds me of my parents specifically, she shared.
It reminds me that my parents do this with salmon because they had moved away.
Then I turn on the heat for about 20 minutes and it becomes more like a liquid.
Courtesy of Karen Ruane
The solid part is the cottage cheese, she says.
Sadoma would use this cheese to stuff the vareniki and serve the dumpling with sugar for a dessert.
They would say the foods in Russian, she says with a laugh.
Courtesy of Kevin Bulli
Even though they didnt know the language, they knew the names of the food.
Its literally something Ive never heard of anyone eating.
Its just something my mom makes.
Its a mystery to me where she got this recipe.
But that reminds me of home.
Though his mom traditionally uses pork, Chen uses a meat substitute that fits his vegetarian diet.
Substituting a plant-based protein for meat isnt really an Asian thing, Chen says.
He thinks of veganism and vegetarianism as uniquely American, or at least, non-Chinese.
Chinese culture also has a collection of rich myths tied to each food that are historically significant.
These common Chinese dishes are rooted in histories that are still passed down to present generations.
These stories and traditions make me proud to be Chinese.
Its not a common practice in China.
(Chinese food) is what Im used to from home.
Its what makes me feel full, not just in a physical way, but a mental way.
Even if it just looks like what my mom made back at home, its comforting.
Its an Afghan dumpling of sorts that is stuffed with a vegetable Djawadi struggles to find.
They call the vegetable gandana.
The taste is somewhere in between chives and leeks.
But gandana is a little spicier.
Djawadi has also tried using green onions instead of leeks or chives, which still isnt the best substitute.
Gandana tastes close to green onions, but doesnt have the white part of the onion.
It is 99% green and only the tip is white.
Sometimes shell add some browned garlic and hot sauce on top for a finishing touch.
Making aushak is very delicate.
My son helped make the process really quick.
For years, Ill remember that he made it with me.
And now he can teach someone else how to make it.
Its just not the real thing, Calvin Lee says.
It doesnt have flavor, and its not fermented at all.
Its cabbage dipped in hot water.
Its a huge process that my mom used to do over a few days, he shared.
And she would put it in a kimchi refrigerator to ferment it which is how it gets its flavor.
Kimchi was traditionally buried in stone pots underground, so that the vegetables would ferment at a certain temperature.
The kimchi refrigerators were later made to mimic this fermenting process.
Lee usually makes kimchi fried rice on a lazy day since its a raid-the-pantry-dish.
You make kimchi fried rice with leftover rice because if you use freshly cooked rice, its too moist.
If you refrigerate the rice first, its a little dried out and it fries better, he shared.
Its a U.S. army ration food that found its way into our diet.
Spam might be the only ingredient Lee would get at the local grocery store.
Melissa Atienza says while reminiscing about her home in Quezon City, in the Philippines.
Wed be at home, classes would be suspended, she continues.
Wed eat this dish and wed be happy because you were at home, playing.
Sinigang is a Filipino soup, often served with rice, and makes a perfect meal for cold weather.
It was my favorite fruit.
Sinigang is supposed to taste super sour with the kamias, Atienza explains.
Rather than using kamias, Atienza cooks the dish with lime or lemon to give it a sour punch.
And while its not the same, cooking sinigang still heals her homesick heart.
My mom made it often when we were in the Philippines, she says.
I think thats the most common dish in most households.
I remember I would drown my rice with the soup.
And the more sour it is, the more I like it.
Despite these substitutions, Atienza continues to cook Filipino food to keep her stomach full and preserve her roots.
Sandwiches and salads arent real meals to me, she explained.
But when I have rice and some sort of meat, I feel like thats a full meal.
I wasnt really taught how to cook anything, she shares.
Growing up, I was always in the kitchen with my mom.
In Ghana, you mix water with fermented corn and the cassava.
Then you add salt and put it in a coal pot above charcoal.
This is the indigenous way of cooking banku.
Even the African stores hours away dont always have all of the ingredients Codjoe needs.
Im from Ghana, but we have different cultures within Ghana.
Im from the central region of Ghana, but live in the Western part.
We are called Effutu.
Now, shell make banku whenever the craving hits.
Americans dont use enough spices, its either too much salt or too much sugar.
With African food, I crave it.
That searing noise is supposedly what makes a good batch of pilaf, she says.
The vermicelli Ruane refers to is known as sipa in the Middle Eastern markets where she shops.
(The angel hair pasta) works, she says hesitantly.
But it doesnt taste as nutty when you brown it.
She says it makes for a less flavorful finish.
Ruanes mom used drive all the way from San Francisco to Fresno for her Armenian supplies.
Rather than making the same four-hour trek, Ruane picks out Armenian ingredients from Middle Eastern markets.
Though these hurdles are frustrating, Ruanes moms flavor-filled recipes make the challenge worth it.
In my moms era, recipes were like money.
My mom would literally put the best recipes under lock and key.
But its not just a heritage that I want my kids to have, Ruane shared.
I love what it tastes like.
Its part of my culture.
Thats how I grew up.
Salazar only learned to cook after moving to Newman, California.
Its these spices and the peppers Salazar struggled to find upon moving.
Salazar often uses this substitution while making marinades for dishes like polladaa traditional Peruvian grilled chicken.
She lets the meat marinate overnight before throwing it onto the grill, or baking it in the oven.
She uses this substitution for common Peruvian dishes like aji de gallina, a Peruvian chicken stew.
I take a stab at bring the peppers from home if I visit Peru because theres nothing like it.
No matter rich or poor, everyone uses aji panca and aji amarillo.
Its the flavor of our food.
He sees them opening up more now, but, according to Bulli, theyre just not authentic.
I can tell that the ingredients they use arent traditional.
It makes a big difference, Bulli shares.
I dont make my jerk chicken dry with a store-bought rub.
First, I like to marinate the meat overnight.
And then I use salt, paprika, black pepper.
For me, traditionally, the food has to be spicy, but not too spicy, he shares.
If I cant find Scotch bonnet peppers, I would use habanero peppers or something else.
But Scotch bonnet peppers are something I can easily find at home in Jamaica.
Typically, Sundays would also be a day we went to the beach.
They sold a variety of Jamaican food and wed double-check to get Jerk chicken from there, Bulli reminisced.
In Jamaica, jerk chicken was often a dish served in food shacks rather than at the home.
Theyd have jerk chicken in barbeque pits, you call them jerk pans.
Thats where youd go, Bulli added.
The longing to recreate this feeling drove him to experiment and replicate the dish all the way in Houston.
