“We have food at home.”

Whenever someone asks me “Where did you learn to cook like that?” - my mind always wanders back to these universal words that almost every child of immigrant moms heard as a firm response to our request to splurge on fast food. “We have food at home.”

And despite our childish frustration and the inevitable eye roll at the time, I think most of us can admit now that we are thankful that our mothers, who are often more motivated by frugality rather than nutritions, set firm boundaries with those 5 words.

Because in those shabby home kitchens is where we learned how to cook with our mothers. Not recipes, but the art of turning whatever ingredients we have available into a delicious and frugal meal. This art allows us to be dynamic and transcend cuisine borders. If we have fish sauce, pasta, tomatoes, and Italian spices, then we’ll cook fish sauce pasta. We don’t need recipes. Like our mothers, we’ll “figure it out.”

So today, as I put together a pasta meal from the kale, squash, and tomatoes I harvested from the garden, I am thankful for “We have food at home.”

And I am sure if you ask any ethnic food content creator where they learned how to cook, most of them would go back to “We have food at home.”