Tinsae Elsdon and the power of feeding your inner child

Cooking teacher and cultural ambassador Tinsae Elsdon talks about growing up in Ethiopia, her favourite childhood dishes, and the importance of keeping soul-nourishing memories alive.

Source: Ruth Yigletu

--- The Cook Up with Adam Liaw airs weeknights on SBS Food at 7.00pm. Tinsae Elsdon's Childhood Favourites episode aired Thursday, 28 October and is available on SBS On Demand. Catch her on the Easy Desserts episode Friday, 26 November. ---

 

For me, growing up in a culturally diverse first-generation household, two truths existed. The first: food is love and should be cherished with all your being. The second: if you don't eat what you're given, you don't eat. The latter can sometimes leave a bitter taste when reminiscing about the past, but the first will make its way well into adulthood, in and out of the nostalgia. It leaves you with prolific personal memories, sure to take you back to the very first time you tasted lemon, or the giggles you shared with siblings after making a little mess with the flour.

It can admittedly be dangerous sometimes, being a grown-up person with grown-up money. I have complete control over what I eat, and I pair that with an insatiable hunger for food that just hits the spot. However, I've determined a single and undeniable truth. It informs most, if not all, of what I eat as I venture into my late twenties:

Dishes and flavours that call on even the oldest and most tucked-away memories from my childhood never seem to let me down.

For business owner and Blue Mountains local Tinsae Elsdon (@dinnerwithtinsae), making and celebrating your favourite childhood dishes is also about preserving culture. As a young girl, Tinsae would visit her local market for fresh produce. This is a tradition she's carried to her second home in Sydney. 

"I love markets, all types of markets - food, flowers etc. But nothing compares to the markets back at home." Tinsae frequented the Akaki Markets as a child, both after school and on the weekends. It sat in a suburb surrounded by farms, so produce was always at a high quality. 

Atop drinking coffee and cooking with her husband, thinking about her travels through Ethiopia kept Tinsae in comfort during Sydney's second lockdown. "I've been trialling a few dishes [from different regions of Ethiopia] that I normally don't cook, and I have a few new recipes coming." She notes using banana roots, most prominently used in the southern part of the country, as well as a diverse array of beans she had never cooked with before. "I'm passionate about exploring and digging further into my home culture. It's in our nature to share recipes."

Source: SBS Food

For The Cook Up's childhood favourites episode, Tinsae brings her atkilt alicha - a popular festive staple dish in Ethiopia, especially during Lent. She serves it with injera, an Ethiopian flatbread. 

"It's always good to make [injera] fresh at home if you could. But it's very hard to make." She refers to the changing climate here in Sydney, making it difficult to achieve the perfect sponge and bubble. Thankfully, she has found a fresh and local supplier, for when she needs it on the go.

Tinsae gives a special mention to mesir wat, another nostalgic dish. This is one of Ethiopia’s most popular vegetarian dishes. It's said to hero lentils in a way that’s unlike any you’ve had before.

Source: Tinsae Elsdon

Growing up in Ethiopia, Tinsae and her family "communicated through food, you know? That's how you show people you care, that's how you share love. Food brings people together, and that crosses all boundaries - cultural and generational. For me, enjoyment grows and memories grow when I make food." 

Food, and the true hospitality that came with it, upheld her hometown. "In Ethiopian culture, whenever people pass by, we offer food. I remember my Mum telling me: 'You must offer. You never know if they've eaten or if they've been travelling for a long time.'"

Tinsae is set to visit her hometown once there's more clarity around international travel, to hopefully reconnect with the stories and legacies she hopes to pass on. "It's vital. Culture and story are the glue when giving context to a recipe. Culture and food are interweaved together, we can't have one without the other." Recognising her own culture - the background and the food - has helped her appreciate other cultures and their dishes, particularly in a multicultural Australia.

Culture without food is like dancing without music.

With Ethiopian cuisine in Australia, Tinsae believes "there is a long way to go, but it's becoming more and more present. When I run my classes, people are excited. I can see that people are ready. Whoever tastes [Ethiopian food] loves it." 

Tinsae is looking forward to the next Africultures Festival, set for February 2022, where visitors can experience all the great food, music and the colourful and vibrant cultures on offer.

Whether it be to stay in touch with your culture, or to simply to throw it back to carefree times, there's no better way to feed your grown-up soul. Make your childhood fave dish today.

Love the story? Follow the author on Instagram @markusmuch