recipe of belonging

Table of content:
1- SYRIAN BABA GHANOUJ - Syria
2- FRIED EGGS WITH CUMIN - Morocco
3- CANJA DE GALINHA- Brazil
4- THE BLACK MEAL: MUSAKHAN- Palestine
5- SMOKED CHICKEN WITH PEANIT SAUCE - Mali
6- FISH CURRY WITH PURIS - India
7- BEEF IN SWEET SOY SAUCE - Indonesia
8- PASTA ALL’AMATRICIANA- Italy
9- KOPITKA - Poland
10- KUGELHOPF - Austria
11- BABCIA NATAKA’S APPLE PIE- Poland
12- MUHALLEBI - Iraq
13- ZOBO DRINK - Nigeria
"Food has a quiet kind of power. It nourishes more than just our bodies—it stirs memory, evokes emotion, and offers connection when words fail. A certain smell can take us back decades. A single bite can carry us across borders. In a world that is too often divided, food reminds us that we belong to one another. This zine was born from conversations—over tea, through voice notes, across time zones and languages. We reached out to friends, family, and strangers, and in return we were invited into kitchens and lives. What we received was more than just recipes. We were offered pieces of people’s homes, stories folded into dough, spices soaked in longing, and the kind of hospitality that persists—even in an often inhospitable world. Each contributor shared a dish that holds meaning: the stew they make when they miss home, the cake their grandmother taught them to bake, the improvised meal that became a lifeline in a new land. Some recipes were scribbled on butter-stained index cards, others passed down orally, through memory and repetition. Some were created from scratch using unfamiliar ingredients in unfamiliar places. Each one is a love letter—to a place, a person, a past life, or a future imagined. Putting this zine together has been a process of deep listening and joyful discovery. We’ve been transported—by stories of migration and resilience, by smells and tastes that conjure entire worlds. It reminded us that to cook for someone is to say, “You are welcome here.” That even when borders close and languages falter, and hope wears thin, a shared meal can open a door. Inside these pages, you’ll find a Polish apple pie that tastes like a grandmother’s hug, a tangy Syrian Baba Ganoush that brighten the life of a family in a Glasgow kitchen filled with laughter, a fish curry learned and cooked over and over out of love . You’ll find comfort food, celebration food, survival food—each served with a story, a note, a fragment of home. We invite you to cook, to taste, to read slowly. To sit with these stories and savour them, to feel the warmth of connection—however far from home you may be."
-Archive of Belonging
3/9/2026
