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Thursday, May 14, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com MICHIGAN IN COLOR

A Mother’s Day Reflection: 
My Amma, A life journey 
from India to New York

SUNITHA PALAT
MiC Staff Writer

PROVIDED BY SUNITHA PALAT

 A Lebanese Breakfast

MAYA KADOUH
MiC Staff Writer

Read more at michigandaily.com

It’s 1996. The door of the ‘88 Volvo closes 
with the gentle push of a chestnut-brown, 
smooth hand. The discounted Macy’s black 
leather left heel steps forward. With a less 
assertive movement, the right follows. Back 
and forth, with pseudo-confidence, the heels 
click in a straight line up the driveway, as 
thick, silky black hair moves behind in uni-
son. With each step, my mother looks up 
from her petite stature. Her bright brown 
eyes closely monitor how her heels touch 
the pavement, while refraining from sway-
ing her lean arms; instead she learns to hold 
them steady against her side. She looks up at 
their home in a middle-class, simple Atlanta 
suburb and exudes all the confidence she 
can. Stand tall. Walk with purpose. Be con-
fident. They need you as much as you need 
them. My father’s calming, rational voice 
echoes in her head as she practices. At the 
age of 29, my mother was learning how to 
walk like an American.
In 1993, my Amma had just immigrated to 
the United States from India to marry and be 
with my father. In the following three years, 
she had my older brother, studied for and 
passed her Step 1 and Step 2 Medical Exams 
and began to prepare for residency inter-
views. After volunteering at Emory’s hos-
pital, she quickly noticed how people in the 
U.S. walked differently from her. In India, 
women hold the pallu (sash) of their saris in 
their right hand, keep their left close to their 
body and glide. “Here, women were swing-
ing their arms when they walked — it’s just 
different in jeans.” Every night after getting 
back from her shift, she would practice walk-
ing up and down the driveway, deliberately 
monitoring her movements to prepare for 
the American professional environment.
Changing the way she walked was only 

I share these two classic Lebanese break-
fasts recipes hoping you are able to feel 
connected to something; whether that be 
yourself, the people you shared the meal 
with, or the Lebanese culture. With luck, the 
time spent making and enjoying these dishes 
will allow you to make new discoveries about 
your identity or those of others. These reci-
pes are intended to feed four people and can 
be enjoyed with sides of vegetables, cheese 
or eggs and meat. Arabic tea is commonly 
served at breakfast. Sahtein!

one part of the adjustment. She would lis-
ten to hours of NPR to learn the American 
accent, took notes on how to eat baked pota-
toes and other American foods to avoid look-
ing confused during interviews and learned 
how to have small talk about Christmas 
dinners and the Fourth of July. Although 
seemingly minor, these adjustments were 
difficult; in her resilience, my mother has 
become a strong American medical profes-
sional. 
These adjustments took small forms in 
her everyday life, but the hardest moments 
were those she could never get back — miss-
ing her grandparents’ funerals, the births 
of her nieces and nephews and the aging of 
her own parents. Immigrating left her with a 
feeling of irrelevance in the lives of those she 
loved and a longing for her simple life back in 
India. I remember our conversation when I 
asked her what she imagined her future life 
would be like at my age.
“When I was 20, I — hm. I imagined 
myself practicing there.” She said before she 
paused “I didn’t see much more than taking 
care of the family’s daily needs, wanting to 
be around family, being in the culture you 
identify with.” Her emphasis on family stung 
me, especially knowing that my brother and 
I will never be able to replicate those bonds 
with her loved ones while growing up oceans 
away. “I never thought I would live some-
where else, never.”
This myriad of experiences has defined 
her life into two chapters. As she and my 
father raised us, they became more engaged 
in American lifestyles, putting their stron-
gest cultural inclinations to the side for the 
sake of our ability to “fit in” to our New York 
suburbia, where we have lived for the past 18 
years.

PROVIDED BY MAYA KADOUH

Ingredients:
Ingredients:
6 potatoes 
3 cups of vegetable oil 
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 bunches of cilantro 
1 white onion 
4 jalapenos
10 cloves of garlic
Salt 
Pepper
Garlic powder

Instructions: 
Instructions: 
1. Peel potatoes, cut into cubes and deep 
fry in vegetable oil until crispy. Once pota-
toes are fried, season with salt. 
2. While the potatoes are frying, dice jala-
penos and white onion, chop cilantro finely 
and crush garlic cloves. 
3. Warm up 2 tablespoons of olive oil 
in a large saucepan on medium heat. Add 
crushed garlic to the oil letting it sauté for 
one minute.

Ingredients:
Ingredients:
2 pounds of greek yogurt
2 loaves of pita bread 
16 ounces can of chickpeas
2 tablespoons tahini (sesame seed paste)
Half of a lemon
6 cloves of garlic
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon salt 
1 tablespoon pepper
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 cup of pine nut
1/4 stick of butter
1 teaspoon of baking soda
Parsley to garnish 

Instructions:
Instructions:
1. Boil chickpeas in a saucepan, add a tea-
spoon of baking soda.
2. Cut pita bread into squares, then fry in 
vegetable oil until golden brown. 
3. Whisk greek yogurt, tahini, lemon, salt, 
pepper and crushed garlic thoroughly. 
4. In a saucepan, warm up butter. Add 
pine nuts and cook until golden brown. Be 
careful not to overcook.
5. Place pita bread, then chickpeas, then 
yogurt mixture into a serving plate.
6. Top off the dish with extra pita bread, 
chickpeas and pinenuts.
7. Garnish with parsley and cumin. 

4. Add onion, jalapenos, cilantro and 
another 2 tablespoons of olive oil, letting 
ingredients sauté. Mix ingredients frequent-
ly to avoid burning. Add a tablespoon of gar-
lic powder and a tablespoon of salt. 
5. Add potatoes to the saucepan and thor-
oughly mix with other ingredients. 
6. Transfer to a serving plate. 

DISH: BATATA 
HARRA

DISH: FETTEH

