I Am From…
Whetstone is pleased to work with 826 Valencia, an organization that supports underserved students in creative and technical writing. We’ll be sharing student poems and pieces about food.
Alicia Pareded shares her grandmother’s recipe for tamales (but not the red sauce; that’s a family secret). Illustration by Montana Manalo.
Liana Blanche Sonza, Age 11
Attended Bessie Carmichael School
Delicious Fish
Oh paksiw, you are as yummy as a cookie.
You are spiky as a needle.
Filipino people would say, “Mmmm, this is so good. Can I have the rest?”
You are as slippery as a soap bar.
You are sweet, salty, and smooth.
You are as spicy as a pepper.
Oh paksiw, you are so good.
I can eat you 152 times a day.
Wait! More.
122 times a minute.
I love to thank you because I don’t get to eat it all the time.
I eat you when my grandma makes you.
Oh paksiw, you look so yummy.
I love to eat you, but you have spikes in your body that I can’t eat.
Oh paksiw, every time I see you, I come with joy, and when I’m done with you, I will finally ask for more.
When you are not cooked, you move around and make me laugh.
My grandma makes you.
It takes her an hour because she has to add a lot of seasoning.
Oh paksiw, when I’m done eating you, I want more, but I can’t have anymore because I’m full.
I’m Filipino, and I eat a lot of fish.
It’s in my blood.
Alicia Paredes, Age 14
Attended Everett Middle School
Interview with my Grandma
Today I am interviewing my Grandma Alicia Rios. My grandma is from Mexico, she was born in San Francisco but as a baby lived in Ciudad Juarez. She is one of seven children plus her mom and dad, so a family of nine. When I interviewed my grandma, she sounded excited and ready. She was happy that I wanted to learn about her food. She didn’t think that I would be focused on this because I’m a teenager. I asked her a few questions and was shocked by her responses so here it goes...
My grandma started cooking at age 15 because she became interested in food at that age and it liked how her mom worked on the food. My grandma started her cooking journey by making soup. One of the soups she first learned how to make was Sopa de Fideo. If someone in the family is sick, this is the remedy. She would cook with her mom and together they served the large family. Her mother was very helpful. The first thing they did together was put toppings on all kinds of food. She also really liked mole sauce and tacos. This is a sauce you can add on rice and beans, it's really good. For my grandma food means health, nourishment and something we all do from our heart.
My grandma taught my mom everything she knows. She showed her how to cook gorditas, soups, tacos, pozole,and tamales. Tamales are the family tradition. When there’s a party, the first thing that comes to mind is tamales. My grandma said that my mother always followed her so she learned to cook from her that way. That's how she learned how to cook tamales. The dish is important to my grandma and my mom and me too because it’s been going around in the family for a really long time, since the beginning.
Suddenly, I am in Mexico (Celaya, Guanajuato). When I’m here it's like a fun, crazy experience. I wake up to the sound of laughter and yelling. I get up and look at the clock at 12:48. I Head to the kitchen and to my surprise it smells delicious.“Que vamos a comer hoy abuelita?”, I asked my grandma. My grandma smiled and served me tamales. I love my grandma's tamales. When everyone finished eating, it was just me and my grandma and I asked her if she would teach me her secrets of making tamales. She totally agreed. I was so happy that me and my grandma could bond some more.
My family’s recipe for tamales
Ingredients:
2 cups Masa (dough)
Handful of corn husks
2 large chicken thighs
Red sauce (it’s a family secret I can’t share)
Preparation:
Marinade the chicken in the red sauce for an hour
Soak the corn husks in water to soften them
Cook the chicken with the red sauce in a pan
Add the chicken and sauce onto the corn leaf and spread it all over the leaf
Steam the tamales for 2 hours
Finally you eat those delicious tamales. I love to cook with my grandma. We served the tamales to everyone in the table and everyone started talking about how many tamales there were and that they were even tastier than last time. My grandma looked at me and said “I had an amazing helper.”
Amina Mohammad-Fuller, Age 17
Attends Gateway High School
Baklava and Peach Cobbler, with a Side of Resistance
I belong to two cultures.
Collard greens and kousa mahshi thrown in a pot and stirred
as the word Blackestinian is born.
Rich brown eyes like the dates plucked from the tree
and left out in the blazing Turmus Ayya sun to dry.
Skin the color of baklava glistening with a caramelized syrup.
Stories of resilience carved into the three lines running down the palm of my hand.
Stories too recent to be history.
A chopped onion poured into a pan of olive oil searing the corners of my watering eyes.
As I stir the black-eyed peas, a hymn comes to my lips.
As they part a song emerges, Lift Every Voice and Sing.
Next I make the khubz.
I knead, and my grandmother Taita pats and stretches the olive rich dough to the rhythm of Ana min Turmus Ayya—an ancient song of our homeland echoed through generations.
As the bread rises, I retreat to my phone,
notifications pour in bearing news that is too familiar.
Another target in a world where colonial misconceptions
are disguised as truth and our story—history,
eurocentric dominates.
Palestinians and African Americans,
the same but different. Food bridging our senses and our hearts.
Unified by the love for our cultures,
Unified by resistance to inhumanity.
Micaylah Declouette, Age 9
Bret Harte Elementary School
Good Girl
I am from pepperoni and cheese pizza,
My grandma’s pumpkin cheesecake.
It tastes like sweetness and it smells like pumpkin spice.
When my grandma cooks the pumpkin cheesecake, she works so hard.
I help her put the mix in the bowl.
To say thank you, I made her a present.
It makes me feel happy.
I am from my brother Micah.
We have a very fun time playing hide-and-seek and a game clapping hands.
My baby brother DeAndre is very cute.
When he comes over he always plays with me, Micah, and DeAndre, my little brothers.
I was playing hide-and-seek with Micah since he was three.
I always pretend I’m falling off the couch and make him laugh.
DeAndre loves standing up but he doesn’t know how to walk.
He is always holding onto something.
He’s turning one next month.
I am from Jamaica (on my dad’s side).
African-American (on my mom’s side).
Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, we go to my cousin David’s house.
They make a pie with marshmallows, which tastes like cheesecake.
My uncle David’s bread bowls, filled with soup.
I am from Rocco, my new puppy.
Kilo, my other dog, who has a twin sister Kitara, and my auntie’s dog, who doesn’t like me.
My dogs make me feel as surprised as when I slip on slime on the grass,
Every time they bark or bite my finger.
I am from singing “Ocean Eyes” softly like a kitten purring,
Dancing to “Bang” like a Thanksgiving party.
Gymnastics flips.
When I was a baby, I used to dance and now I dance even more.
We all like to go out on Sundays.
Sometimes we get Dunkin’ Donuts or to In-N-Out or Subway.
We go swimming sometimes.
I am from
Trying my best and not cheating.
A’Nijha Smith-Evans, Age 10
Starr King Elementary School
I Am an Independent Woman
I am from my mom who makes the best red velvet cake!
It smells sweet like pudding!
When I taste it, it feels very moist.
I like the cake batter because it tastes good.
My mom's chocolate chip cookies.
They taste like cookie dough ice cream.
I love chocolate chips.
I am from my baby sister.
The first time I got to hold her she was as light as a pillow.
The second time, I got to feed her.
When I go into the room, I see her little face and it makes me happy.
Baby brother.
I liked when I went to see my baby brother for the first time.
He is growing up so fast, as fast as me.
Because he is so little, he can get hurt and get sick easily.
I am from every summer in March.
We go to the swimming pool and the pool is like a big school bus, and we stay there all day.
There is a buffet and we go there all month, every weekend.
We don't always go but we go sometimes.
Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday
I can tell my valentine to my mom, my dad, and whomever I want.
September is my favorite month because it is my birthday month!
I am from my phone.
I love my books Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Black history, and Super Turbo because they challenge me.
I am from girl time with my mom.
Playing peekaboo with my sister
Playing outside with my friends. Racing each other, getting ice cream and going to the park.
We like to spend time together.
I am from being a smart kid,
Talking about math too much.
I am from
Wanting to graduate, go to college, get a degree, and become an independent WOMAN!
