Lentil soup and memories

Today we made lentil soup in class, one of my favorite foods! Not only is it warm and delicious, it’s a comfort food for me. It always brings back happy memories of the days when my niñera would make me lentil soup along with Ecuadorian specialties like plantains and papas. My parents worked all day, so Julia made me all of my meals. To this day, I can remember the food she cooked me, and lentil soup is still one of my favorites. The soup we made wasn’t exactly like the soup Julia made me, but it was close enough.

The more I think about it the more it seems that food, like scents, can bring back memories you didn’t even know you had. The way certain scents bring back memories of grandparents or vacations or whatever, eating any of the foods that Julia made me always makes me remember being small, before I started school, spending all of my time playing and coloring and running around in the warm California sun. Those were the good old days.