My Positive Pandemic Journey: How I Traveled Internationally Without Actually Traveling
By: Stacy Fisch
Tags: Food, Pandemic, Covid 19, Inspiration, Positivity

“Don’t be an American chicken and get to the foreign chicken!”

What happens when there’s a deadly ferocious pandemic that forces millions of Americans to stay home? I’ll tell you about me — I get bored and sad, which naturally leads to hunger. But i’ll tell you now — I wasn’t the only one.

Weight Watchers Mexican Soup: Mexico

Let us trace back to when I was younger — I didn’t grow up in a chef’s house. I was surrounded by TV dinners, dinosaur nuggets, or Macaroni & Cheese from the box and restaurant leftovers. My mom used to teach — But is retired now — She never had the time to cook because of her commute — And my dad has a talent for burning water.

This left me un-cookable.

“Why are people buying so many eggs?” I told a customer at the supermarket that I was cashiering at during the beginning of the deadly pandemic that killed millions — Thousands at the time — “Cooking, of course!” I was kind of speechless because I should have known, “Restaurants are closed, so we need to make our own food for a change,” that got me thinking if this was my time to shine.

I didn’t want to create classic American food such as frying a burger or roast. For some reason, I wanted to cook something people usually don’t do in America. I think I wanted to distance my self from politics and of the “unknown”. I put my chef’s hat on and made shepherds pie — Originating from England. This was actually a complicated dish to make, but I did it. Next, I made Moroccan Fish from Morocco — Hence the name.

Sheppards/ Cottage Pie: England

One day I became curious if cooking was a way to distance myself from anxiety—Because I was feeling better with myself.

While I was still in school professor asked my class over zoom—The new classroom—To share something positive about their life. This was a different approach because normally my professor wanted us to discuss the craziness that was around us and if we’re ok. I thought the positivity discussion was good because I was noticing an absent in students. Sometimes I wouldn’t see a few people for days or weeks—It was a dark time to be a student in New York City.

Other students said that they are saving money on gas and bus fares because they don’t have a reason to leave the house. Some people said they are saving money because they don’t go to their local Bodega or Dunkin’ in the morning.

I couldn’t believe this was the positivity in people’s lives.

I said, “I usually don’t cook but I made shepherds pie the other day— It was difficult, took maybe two hours. Although I managed and i’m planning on continuing because it keeps my mind off of things and time goes by very fast.”

little did I know someone who “saved money” on buses agreed with me and she was thinking of starting to cook as well. I just hope I changed peoples opinions on what positivity and happiness is.

Since I found out my class mates were not cooking at all I wanted to find out if what I was doing was too extreme—In fact I was pretty normal. I found a study that Americans are more likely to experiment with food than people in other countries. In addition to that, the reason was because of the travel restrictions. If you’re a traveler and start to experience FOMO — Fear of missing out — Make one of their dishes. I realized it was more subconscious rather than purposely.

The study was lead by Pearl Olives, and 69% of Americans experimented with cultural food compared to generation X of 65% due to travel restrictions.

That’s not to say that Americans aren’t into experimenting with new foods and flavors. For instance, 37% say they are more adventurous or “ambitious” — As my dad calls it — For food than they were in 2019.

Mozzerella sticks : Italy

Unfortunately, since the cooking supplies in my house were hardly used, they were already wearing off, but I continued to use them until I couldn’t anymore because money was tight at the time. I needed to be the lucky caller to speak to someone from the New York Department of Labor. However, I did replace all my utensils with high-quality dishwasher-safe equipment such as an indoor grill, soup ladles, and spatulas — All different shapes and sizes.

The lockdown started around the end of March in New York City, and food retail has spiked compared to the months before.

The downside to it was gaining extra pounds. Since I was making all the food in the house, I can control the portion and calorie count. I signed up for weight watchers and followed their plan. I purchased diet-planned cooking books for ideas.

Guess what? Sales for cooking books rose in 2020.

Moroccan Fish : Morocco

I started watching Netflix cooking series — Who knew that existed, right? Nadiya’s: Time to Eat was an exciting experience for me because I would have never thought peanut butter will be able to go on chicken, did you? She used green curry paste; In my life, I would have never thought I would use green curry paste — There’s a red one too.

My favorite dish is Ethiopian chicken. I make it once a week for my family Sabbath meal on Friday night. It was challenging initially; I traveled to spice stores all over Brooklyn for Fenugreek seeds and ground Cardamom, and the cooking process for a newbie was three hours.

For fun, my pun of the day is: Don’t be an American chicken — Make International Chicken! It’s not so funny, but I guess it’s motivational.

My father is very picky with his food, and when I hear, “It’s not bad,” that means it was amazing, and it brings joy to my life when people enjoy my cooking. All my success I transferred to Facebook, and I received a lot of feedback and other people comment on what they made that’s similar in the culture.

Someone who didn’t grow up around food, I learned on my own to create international cuisine, and that’s the positive thing that came from this pandemic. If you want some positivity in your life, I think this is a step you should consider walking towards.