In Religion in the Kitchen, Elizabeth Perez states that “over the last two decades, scholars engaged in the academic study of religion have increasingly come to regard the human body as a malleable multi-sensory interface continually reconfigured through ritual practice” (10).
This quote at first caught my attention but for some reason I could not understand why, it took me a bit to understand that being part of different cultural environments changes my emotions. For example, whenever my family and relatives are having a get-together, being surrounded by Armenian culture changes how I feel. My grandparents were born and raised in Armenia, immigrating to the United States they brought their culture with them. 
On Sunday’s, my grandparents would invite us over along with my cousins to have Khash for breakfast: an Armenian dish that’s made of boiled cow or sheep, along with onion, and is served with vodka for adults. Personally, I did not enjoy this, however, every time I taste this nowadays I get instantly brought back to my childhood, where everyone sits around the table as a big family and talks about whatever the day ahead holds. A staple of Russian and Armenian culture is a type of barbecue-cookout known as Shashlik: a dish of skewered and grilled cubes of meat, traditionally slowly barbecued over a brick-furnace. Nowadays I only get the privilege of having this a few times over the summer and winter break. To this day, Shashlik is still one of my favorite meals to have. The specific flavor of the previous dishes is found almost in every Armenian household. Anytime I visit a friend from the same background, it is if I feel like I am brought back to my childhood as the taste of the food brings me back.
Although my background is Armenian, I still was born and raised here in the United States. Although my parents are well-versed in Armenian culture and food, they still cook food that is commonly found in the United States. Food like burgers, chili, steak, hot dogs, or even strangely enough the scent of my high school lunchroom gives a rush of Americanism for a brief moment in time. There is no explanation for it though, these tastes and scents just bring me back to moments I wish I could experience again in my childhood.
Being surrounded by different cultural flavors allows me to transform my memories to different points of time from my childhood.
I think it's so cool that, when we're eating these foods for the first time, we don't think about much about the contexts in which we are eating them. It's only after revisiting the foods after a passage of time that we are able to understand how the food fits into one of many cultural contexts in our minds. Also, I could really go for some Shashlik right now, it sounds like it would be delicious.
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