Food does much more than fuel our bodies. It connects us with our cultural heritage, identifies a sense of place, and feeds our identity.
Deb Ventura-Tran, a registered nurse with the WEMOCO department of Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES, is originally from the Dominican Republic. Her husband, Ca—pronounced kaw—is from Vietnam. As an American family with two daughters, their kitchen table is often an impressive edible display that shows off their international household.
Despite now being a seasoned cook, Ventura-Tran says she learned her way around the kitchen because she had to. She had soaked up some culinary knowledge from her mother while growing up, but cooking was never her first love.
“I enjoy food. That is, I enjoy eating food,” she jokes. “But for a while I was the one at home while my husband worked, so I learned to cook.”
As an adult, she wanted to make her husband’s favorite Vietnamese dishes, and she credits Ca’s mother for showing her how. “Our meals are things I learned from my mother-in-law to feed my Vietnamese husband, cooked by a Spanish woman who primarily eats Spanish food,” she says.
Both tropical environments, Vietnam and the Dominican Republic grow surprisingly similar foods, though the traditional preparations are vastly different. Ca and the couple’s 8-year-old daughter, Leilana, both love egg rolls. Ventura-Tran makes her egg rolls with ground pork and a root vegetable, typically melanga, which is similar to a sweet potato. After peeling the melanga, she uses a food processor to blend it with the pork. She cooks the mixture with fried garlic, salt and pepper, then wraps it into a wonton wrapper and fries it.
“When my daughter gets off the bus she can immediately smell when I make egg rolls. She asks for them as soon as she gets inside,” Ventura-Tran says. “The whole neighborhood can smell what I’m cooking!”
Ventura-Tran loves egg rolls, too. She also enjoys a traditional Latin American dish called pasteles that uses similar ingredients but with different spices and cooking techniques. Like the egg rolls, pasteles are made up of ground pork and root vegetables along with spices. Green bananas or green plantains are also blended into the mixture. Finally, instead of being wrapped in a won ton wrapper, pasteles are wrapped in a banana leaf and either boiled or steamed.
Steamed dumpling buns called bum bao are another household favorite. The Vietnamese dish resembles large white baseballs with a slightly sweet flavor and cloud-like texture.
Ventura-Tran says she feels every family would benefit from trying to prepare more international foods. Many of the dishes require fresh foods, and as a result are healthier with wholesome ingredients. For her recipes, Ventura-Tran always buys fresh meats, vegetables and fruits.
Learning to cook ethnic foods helps casual cooks sharpen their kitchen skills. Even though Ventura-Tran sticks to recipes, much of her cooking is based on estimated amounts and lots of taste-testing. She often goes online to check out recipes and collect ideas, then changes them to suit her family’s tastes.
Eating international foods also helps people become more culturally aware. “It opens up the world. You become more adventurous,” Ventura-Tran says. “I’ve eaten some things that looked and smelled horrible but tasted delicious.”
