Odes of Joy
By 826 Valencia
Illustration by Elizabeth McConaughy-Oliver
This year, students at Everett Middle School wrote odes to their favorite foods and interviewed someone special to them about a dish that they love. 826 Valencia published their writing in Kitchen Magic: Odes and Recipes from our Culture. The students celebrated their book release with a pupusa-making class at La Cocina Marketplace, a food hall in San Francisco that supports immigrant, women entrepreneurs as they formalize their food businesses.
“In a year like no other, we’ve come home. Literally, we have spent more time in our homes, these finite spaces with our families. Sometimes the spaces have felt too small or too tight, too noisy or too bright. Too crowded at times, too lonely at others. But Everett Middle School Creative Writing students can agree on one place in the home that is warm, comforting and even magical. In this book, students write about the food that fills their bellies and the people behind these dishes. One part poetry, one part profile and one part recipe; this book is all parts love. Disfrutélo!”—Chalida Anusasananan, Teacher
Ode to Strawberries
by Areon Condevillamar, age 13
Oh, strawberries, the taste of youth,
Like summer rain, and the old with ripening memory
With every seed and daring red.
Made to be in a painting - a feeling of forever young
A heart shaped fruit, first bite the taste of delight the second a sour end
Sweet sweet perfume scent.
The ruby jam
Glazed on the bed of bread.
Dressed up in brown and sweet like love
Chocolate covered strawberries lined up perfectly
On decorated sheets
In a pink bowed box
A sweet treat made with ease.
Ode to Hot Chocolate
by Hilary Escalante-Aguilar, age 14
Dear Hot Chocolate,
You smell amazing like sweets
You’re a perfectly round ball
You taste like sunshine
If you’re not careful you can burn yourself with your dazzling beauty
Your lingering flavor stays in my mouth
Making me leap with joy
You pair perfectly along majestic sweet bread
But I prefer you alone
You are in the center of my eyes
After a long day at school you take my worries away
Your cottage wood brown color is wonderful
It’s music to my ears hearing you boil
Two cinnamon sticks to further enhance your flavor
Bringing my family together with your warm embrace.
Cecilia
by Naomi Sanchez Hidalgo, age 13
My mom's name is Cecilia. She’s fifty years old and she's Ecuadorian. My mom comes from a family of eight siblings and one single dad. Her parents got a divorce when she was just five years old. Since then, my grandpa has always been a mom and dad role model for my mom and her other seven siblings. It was hard growing up and knowing that my mom and her family didn't have enough money for nice things. Now for my mom—she never wants that to happen to our family. That's why she always tries to give me, my brother, and my sister everything. We have lived in the U.S. for eight years and everyday I can tell my mom always tries to learn English. She's an Uber driver. She usually starts working around 7:00 a.m. and gets home at 7:30 p.m., sometimes at 8:00 p.m.
Me and my brother get home with my dad. My brother and dad are always hungry, so when my mom gets home she can’t sit and relax because my dad and my brother are pushing her to go and heat up the food. So when she gets home she puts her stuff down and goes straight to the kitchen. I could tell she's tired, so I try to help her by washing the dishes. “Why I love seco de pollo is because I'm the oldest one out of all of my siblings, so I had to learn how to cook, we had money put not money for like restaurants and so my dad would teach me how to cook, the first food my dad ever taught me to cook was Seco de Pollo.”
Ingredients
Chicken breast and thighs
Two tomatoes
Two bell peppers
Two onions
Ten small pieces of garlic
Bunch of cilantro
One frozen cup of passion fruit
Half of spoon salt
Two cups of water
Yellow rice
Three plantains
How to make Seco de Pollo
You put chicken in the pot to cook for five minutes on low heat.
To the pot add a little bit of garlic and a little bit of salt.
In the blender you add onion, tomato, and bell pepper.
When all of the vegetables are blended, you add it to the pot and let it cook for twenty minutes.
After twenty minutes have passed and it's all boiling you add the passion fruit and let that cook for ten minutes.
Some final touches are yellow rice and plantains.
