Back when I was a dumbass college kid I hung out on this website called Hubski[^2]. It is a very silly place for reasons that would require its own post, but the tl;dr is that it absolutely propelled me into leftism as a theory. It was one of the first places online that, coupled with my time at CU Boulder, really solidified my "otherness" both online and in the physical world. I bring Hubski up because it had - and maybe still has! - a food contest. Basically you would get a theme, and whoever got voted would be allowed to pick the next theme. One of the themes, I can't remember what it was, gave me an opportunity to make some *Molaah bel Assida* with my mom. For those who don't know it - which is all of you - it's a Sudanese dish made out of yogurt (*Assida*) and a mix of onions, minced meat, tomato paste, coriander, paprika, as much spice as you can handle, and weka. That's the *Molaah* part. To me, *Moolah* is everything. It's what we eat every day of Ramadan. Just thinking about it during this cold, wintery day reminds me of coming home after a long school day, waiting for the sun to finally touch the horizon before I could finally eat it. It's a symbol of my pride in Sudan as a country, and the things that let me be unique in a predominantly white society. To the judges on Hubski, 30 to 40 year old White people, it looked "aesthetically unappealing." Readers. I know I'm one to erroneously hold a grudge. That's my stubborn Turkish half peeking through. But I will never let this go. It still irritates me to this day[^1]. This is what *Moolah bel Assida* looks like: ![[The Aesthetics of Food-20241113142121804.png]] That bump in the middle is the yogurt. Sorry, you can't see it because I **douse** that shit on my plate. I couldn't understand why it was looked at as unappealing at the time, but looking back on it I realize that it was literally just another form of unexamined racism. It doesn't matter what *Molaah* means to me, or even how good it tastes - what matters is that it doesn't look like an American dish, and as such, it doesn't look "good." I've seen and eaten so many Sudanese dishes that would, retroactively, get the same response out of people. When I first saw those comments, I was upset. When I thought back on it, I was mad. Now, that irritation is beginning to be replaced with a sense of almost...pity. I feel embarrassed for anyone who sees this plate and doesn't salivate. How much food have you denied yourself because it doesn't look like it was meant for **Hell's Kitchen**? How many cultures are you locked away from because a bowl is filled to the brim, made not for aesthetic but for the joy of eating? Do you enjoy living this way? I wouldn't. I don't have a real point to this post, I guess - other than to say: more for me, dummy. 😋 [^1]: Obvs, or I wouldn't be writing this, LOL [^2]: If someone from that site finds this post, feel free to throw it in there, I'd love to see the 5000 word essays that get crafted by certain users about it~