The Fish in My Hands

Now that I've gotten back into the mode of writing, I've thought about what I would like to share on here. Honestly, there's a lot I haven't written about, that I would like to and it wasn't because I felt I couldn't, it was more based on courage, clarity of words and perspective as well as experience.

As you can tell from my blog title,and url, I've changed it. Plum Tree was something that I felt fit me last year when I created this blog but what was once a plum tree has now shaped and transformed into an Arabic word. I really enjoy learning the Arabic language. It's probably the hardest languages I've decided to study but that doesn't demotivate me from stop creating goals for myself with this exotic language. Samak means fish, and samakti means my fish in Arabic. Seafood, and specifically fish has never been something that I've really liked growing up. I always found it to be gross, smelly, and strange. If I think about fish in a metaphorical sense, it would have described last year and being 24. It was strange, scary, slippery, confusing...it reminds me of how I used to perceive this species. Samakti has, I feel, become a close and personal meaning to me because I had to gain things as my own. Overtime, I had to learn how to embrace this sense of not knowing how to handle things and yet learning how to all at the same time. In a way, it felt like learning how to handle a slippery, flamboyant and stubborn fish in my hands- again going back to the smelly, scary and not very enjoyable experience in the moment.

When I was 24, was also the time when I not just became more interested and confident in cooking but delved into ethnic recipes. I wasn't just cooking American recipes, as I normally would or the classics we have in my family. I wanted to create something for myself, and experience another world of creating food in the kitchen! I was starting to drift away from Betty Crocker and grow closer to inspiring, and ecleltic chefs like Marcus Sameulsson and Yotam Ottolenghi, and explore the various array of cookbooks at the library. Looking at all the options, and recipes from all across the globe.I was hooked! My world became in a sense smaller because I truly felt interested in things mostly related to food and cooking but also bigger because I could be in the kitchen and have international experiences at my finger tips!

Throughout this time, I also ventured out and tried more seafood and explored a few kinds of fish, and cooked shrimp for the first time! I started to watch the TV show, Check Please, Bay Area and Jacques Pepin's cooking show. My heart became more interested in Arabic and Middle Eastern cuisine throughout the end of last year and the beginning of this one.

 I started a blog mainly to keep inspiring myself and feel that I could have a place to share, like I would with a good friend. Looking back on my blog now, and the 50 plus posts I have, there is more that I want to share than just cooking details and recipes, though they are still important to me. My fish or samakti will be more about reflections on life, experiences, more on my Catholic faith and perspectives on living with a free spirited nature.In all, I hope to keep up my writing and sharing inspiration and beauty. Samakti combines all of my hardships, struggles, sufferings, and joys into one and has become more of an intimate space than ever before. I feel that I now have a clearer head and vision for what my purpose will be here.