Thursday, April 22, 2010

Food

Here is another post in my Conversation Ideas series.

Do you enjoy cooking? Who taught you how to cook? When did you learn how to cook? Does your husband know how to cook?

Where do you buy most of your food? When do you shop for food? Do you shop for food by yourself or your husband or both of you go together? Are the grocery stores like the ones in your country? What differences are there? Do you find everything you need for cooking your kind of food here? Do you sometimes go to an ethnic food store? (Perhaps suggest you’d like to go with her sometime to her ethnic store and she can explain the different items she uses to you. You may get into a conversation about foods that are haram/forbidden in Islam and halal/permitted.) Do you have any food allergies?

Each of you share what kind of food you eat for breakfast, lunch and supper. Find out if she likes to eat only her kind of food or try food from other cultures.

Have her explain how she makes rice. Also discover how she prepares tea.

You could bake chocolate chip cookies together. Go over the recipe with her.

Do you eat a special kind of bread? Is bread very important in your culture? Do you make it in your home? Have you ever heard of a bread maker? Explain how it works and show a picture of one to her. Do you eat bread every day?

Ask if you could read some verses from the Bible(Psalm 78:17-25) about bread – not being cooked in a kitchen – but coming down from heaven. She will be somewhat acquainted with the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. But if not, you will need to share some history of that. Imagine such bread being provided by God every day for forty years! The real point of this story is to teach that God is not only powerful but He is trustworthy. Muslims acknowledge that God is all powerful but because he is believed to be far away and inaccessible how can one totally trust Him? This truth about God being trustworthy is very important for a Muslim woman to grasp. It lays the foundation to believe He is good and is loving. Some Muslim women go to people endowed with divination powers because they believe they can help them rather than trust God who is trustworthy and able to care for them.