Food is a fundamental part of our lives. From traditional foods that link us to our culture, to special dishes created for celebrations, to comfort meals enjoyed after a long day, food is a personal and universal experience. “People want to hear stories and absorb others’ knowledge about how we cultivate, prepare and consume the foods we eat,” says food and travel writer Nastasha Alli, Guest Judge for our Food Writing Competition. “So if you have something to share, there will be an audience eager to read and learn about it.”
Read on to learn more about her work and the food writing genre!
Growing up in the Philippines, living in Toronto, with lots of travel in between – you’ve been all over the world! How do the places you visit inform your relationship with food and food writing?
We all have to eat, and we all have stories to tell. Most people have distinct memories associated with something they’ve enjoyed eating at a specific place and time. If you offered me a slice of cake, for instance, I might recall the strawberry shortcake I baked for a friend’s birthday once. Or I might tell you about the time I set foot in the most elegantly decorated pastry shop I’d ever been in, up four flights of stairs through an old building in the centre of Vienna, after hours of walking, in search of Sachertorte – a dark chocolate cake layered with thin wisps of apricot jam. You can tell I really like cake!
My appetite for adventure, travel, books, and food blend together like cake batter. They’re ingredients you can enjoy on their own, but together, they make an even better treat - one that opens up a world of excitement, possibilities and celebration, peppered with opportunities to share meaningful moments with others. There are endless stories to write about our favourite foods and the occasions we enjoy them in.
You write a food blog and host a podcast, Exploring Filipino Kitchens. How does each form relate and differ from each other?
Storytelling is a central aspect to our existence that humans have shared across generations. From our earliest ancestors, fables and tales about the natural world and how we interact with it formed the basis of creation stories and cultural traditions. We carry these stories with us and continue to tell them through oral and written practices around the world, and through song, dance, and art forms that make up a common language. Cooking, too, is part of that common language. The diversity of culinary traditions we’ve developed over time is just outstanding!
Simply talking about our shared experiences around food and drink is a powerful way to nurture the storytelling traditions we have inherited. In podcast interviews, I find there is so much to learn by listening to how people tell a story. Emotions can be clearly conveyed through tone and rhythm of speech. And there is so much power behind listening to stories that reassure and enliven us. It’s like a bowl of whatever comforts you when you’re sick – which for me is chicken arroz caldo, a savoury rice porridge my lola (grandmother) often used to make.
People want to hear stories and absorb others’ knowledge about how we cultivate, prepare and consume the foods we eat. So if you have something to share, there will be an audience eager to read and learn about it.
As a journalist, you won the Food Sustainability Media Award from the Thomson Reuters Foundation for your article on how the climate crisis is affecting breakfast in the Philippines. What role do personal stories play within these bigger issues of food sustainability?
Food security and the climate crisis can be overwhelming and frankly daunting topics to discuss, in both writing and conversation. I use personal stories to zoom in on a level that hopefully most of us can relate to. That helps make complex and wide-ranging issues around food sustainability a bit easier to figuratively and literally digest. But I also do a lot of research on these topics independently, by reading books, academic journals, blog posts, and news articles. I like watching videos and documentaries produced across the world, to gain a better sense of how communities from various geographical regions relate and react to increasingly urgent issues surrounding food production and distribution.
For the story on how fishers in the Philippines are affected by plastic pollution and the changing climate, I chose to talk about my visits to several coastal communities whose livelihoods have long relied on the production of dried fish products. I introduced real people whose daily lives are impacted by the state of our oceans and shared their perspectives about rapidly declining marine resources and its effect on Filipino food culture. My aim was to help readers visualize how everyday actions directly connect to the breakfast foods that many people in the Philippines consume most days without much thought.
Log in or sign up for Write the World to learn more about our Food Writing Competition; and keep an eye out for Part 2 of Nastasha Alli’s Q&A, providing tips for writing a great entry!
