My mouth is watering as I write this. Food is something I love to experiment with, although most times I end up burning it to the bottom of a pan. I made charcoal out of soup once! Oh well…

Shrimp pasta… Sigh… My mouth is already watering! I cannot wait for my birthday for one main reason (two, actually). The first is that I will get certified to drive. The second: shrimp pasta is the thing my mom makes for every birthday I have. It is, by far, the most wonderful food I have eaten in my life - and trust me, I have eaten a lot of strange foods, including grasshoppers. In Guatemala, I would watch native women sitting on their straw mats frying up some grasshoppers as an afternoon snack! When I finally got my courage up to try one, I found it surprisingly good, although I hated the legs and whenever I got them after that I pulled off the legs. They felt like they were alive and tickling my tongue as I ate them! Yes, those were good days, where I ate whatever was next to me and didn’t care what it was. I’ve eaten many types of weird things, including ants, grasshoppers, chicken feet and heads, and eel. I cannot say I liked all of those things, but I can say that I ate them all until they were done, some with a happy face, some with a grim scowl.  But now I seem to have less of a want to try things like that.

Anyway, shrimp pasta is my favorite food in this world! It has veggies in it and anyone who knows me knows I don’t much like veggies, but mom makes them with just the right amount of shrimp and noodles and sauce to make it taste extremely delicious! My mom says that if I ever get a wife then she will teach her how to make that for me. I guess I will have to get one fast! Some people may ask, “Why don’t you learn yourself?” and the answer is, I have, but I have forgotten and besides, cooking is something I don’t excel at!

Jello is a food that whenever we see my dad’s family gets shared like water. People give it to each other like presents. My mom hates it, and I think Hannah, my sister, does too. I, on the other hand, love it! I just don’t like thinking about what it is in it… The first time I had Jello was at my dad’s grandmas place. She is 93 years old now, but still drives, cooks, and eats! I do not know many people who are as happy as she is. She makes Jello really well. She puts lemons in the lemon Jello, orange slices in the orange Jello, and even carrot slices for some type of Jello I forget. The first time I ever had Jello was at her house. When she learned that I hadn’t ever had Jello, she had a meltdown on mom. She was saying things like, “What?! You have never given your kids Jello?!” I think she was nearly on the verge of disowning mom!!! Jello is my dad’s family’s favorite food. 

You can see that throughout my life I have loved one food, been creative in eating others, and been taught to love another family food… Or dessert! And really, without food, what would the world be like, other than a dry dusty place with plants growing!?

Gabriel Miller is a member of the Youth Travel Blogging Mentorship Program

Photo courtesy and copyright Tony Miller