There are three houses. One, two, three. All next to each other in one straight line. A mini neighborhood just for us, just for the family. If you told me I’d get married and live next to my in-laws, I’d laugh in your face. Now, I sit and laugh with them.
The symbol of love in our community is the filled Tupperware. It rotates from one home to the next, passing along dishes from faraway times and places. “I made something.” Three words more heart-warming than “I love you.” I peel back the steam-covered lid, reveal the contents of the container. Sometimes I find Persian stews I’ve never tried before: bademjan for eggplant lovers or fesenjan, a sweet and sour pomegranate-walnut delight. I don’t speak Persian, but I appreciate that many dishes end with jan. In Armenian, we say jan to our close ones, our beloved. When my mother-in-law brings the Tupperware, she says, “Here is some bademjan, Mariam jan.” A double love.
Sometimes it is an Armenian dolma, stuffed grape leaves wrapped by the hands of a ninety-nine-year-old. The leaves — picked by her daughter from the garden — are tangy and have a different texture than those from the old country. To participate in the Tupperware dance is a choice. It requires meal-prepping to have enough for the glass (sometimes plastic) vessel. When I hear that the neighbor — my husband’s sister — is sick, I throw cherry tomatoes in the oven, puree them into my favorite soup with a dollop of heavy cream, sprinkle in thyme from the garden, an herb also indigenous to our ancestral land.
I feel like my mom, who would teach me how to pick herbs from the Caucasus mountains, under the vengeful summer sun that could sear if you weren’t careful. She knew their names and their remedial uses: thyme to soothe, mint to digest, sea buckthorn to reduce fever. When the sun went down, I would feel its side effects catch up with me (I wasn’t careful). My mother would brew an herbal concoction. “I made something,” she would tell me, handing me the piping hot mug.
Image by Jon Gudorf on flickr.com, licensed under CC 2.0.
“Tupperware” is part of our latest anthology, A Table to Hold the World, Celebrating the Immigrant Roots of American Cuisine. This highly anticipated book from Zest! editor Deborah Norkin celebrates food transplanted into our American soil from every corner of the globe. Order it now through our website!
- Tupperware - October 13, 2026