window on my world: Food between friends

Food has always been an incredibly social event for me. I think it is the combination of meals around my grandmother's table in Tipperary, and the event that is a Sudanese meal growing up in Sudan. Both of these involved hours of preparation and many hands, all of which added to the joyous festive feeling of each and every meal - until it came time to do the wash up that is! The most important aspect was the social occasion that the meal was - not simply a time to eat until you felt you were going to burst but also a time where everyone around the table competed for their turn to divulge their words of wisdom for the day.
I miss these events and as I cannot simply give up eating I find that I have become what some have termed a sink eater. I eat on the go or while wandering around the kitchen dancing to a good tune or listening to the radio. On occasion I eat in front of my laptop or the television.
Hence in honour of my African heritage and my grandmother's wonderful ability to tell you how much she cared by feeding you, I started the tradition of the Dublin dinner parties. They are of course for totally selfish reasons although I have always been told that they are well received. Brining people together in the comfortable surroundings of my mother's wonderful home and feeding them dishes from around the world has given me immense pleasure over the years. An array of guests have graced my table and shared their wonderful thoughts and warm conversation. Sometimes there has been only one other guests and once their were 19 - yes I cooked for them all! We have travelled the world together eating foods from Asia, the Middle East, Africa and of course a fusion of them all. My dinner parties will not end, but their location will change as they have changed a number of times already from Dhaka in Bangladesh to Brighton in the UK.
My final dinner party in Dublin was on the 11th of May and there were 10 wonderful guests to host. The cuisine of the night had to be Sudanese as it is my speciality :-) The conversation was wonderful and it was after 1am when everyone departed for home.
Food is such a wonderful unifier amongst people from different backgrounds, cultures and walks of life and it has been and will continue to be my pleasure to continue the dinner party tradition.