Meet Eshraqa
To eat in Eritrea, is to share. And to cook, is to love. At least that’s what Eshraqa believes. Born in Sudan, hailing from Eritrea and living in Melbourne since 2000, Eshraqa’s classes reflect her unique life experience. And her “love, love, love” of cooking.
You see, cooking with Eshraqa is not just a lesson in making spongy injera flatbread, it’s a lesson in Eritrea’s desert cuisine. It’s not just an afternoon spent drinking ginger-spiced coffee, it’s an afternoon spent learning about Asmara’s Italian influence.
Eritrea — bordering Sudan and Ethiopia, and hugging the Red Sea coast — is a place of seaside beauty, art deco architecture and magnificent mountain ranges. Despite a history marred by colonisation and conflict, Eshraqa wants her classes to be an insight into her authentic homeland.
“No one knows about Eritrea, I want them to learn about my beautiful country,” she says. “Eritreans are a kind people… we share everything, especially food.”
And the food she’s sharing ranges from hearty tsebhis (stews) to alicha birsen (lentil curry) and the famous berbere (herbal spice mix). It’s a menu of rich tomato sauces and sweet fried donuts, all passed down through the women in Eshraqa’s family.
“No one knows about Eritrea, I want them to learn about my beautiful country. Eritreans are a kind people… we share everything, especially food.”
“My mother and grandmother were very strong women, very logical and strict,” says Eshraqa. “But their cooking tasted so good because it was filled with love.” She speaks of sitting beside these women after school, learning spice by spice, ingredient by ingredient. As a young girl she’d watch these matriarchs pour themselves into these dishes to feed the wider family, and now Eshraqa does the same.
“We cook to show people we love them,” she says. “Nothing will taste the same as my grandmother’s cooking — but I hope my cooking tastes just as good to my kids. Different, but good… because you say it with your heart and then you cook.”
Eshraqa speaks of cooking and Eritrean cuisine with undeniable passion. In Eritrea they make and eat injera at home almost everyday. “Some people don’t cook with patience, but for me — three hours go by and I’m not bored.”
“In my culture, the family is supposed to eat together. It feels good when a family eats together,” she says. And this is exactly what Eshraqa hopes for her classes — that those who join her will feel like family, sit as a family, and find joy in her family recipes.