Recipes for Happiness

Story By: Saji George
Written By: Cristina Rodriguez and Saira Gonzalez
Edited by Naz Hussein, Hayley Ross, and Dainelis Rodriguez

Saji George. Photo Credit: Saji George.

Saji is a home chef and caterer from Kochi, India who is currently living in Jacksonville, Florida. Although she has built a career in clinical nutrition, Saji has maintained a passion for sharing her cooking with others. Even though we celebrated Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this past May, we are highlighting the establishment of Saji’s dream restaurant and the story that has brought her to this moment.

Saji is currently in the process of opening her own restaurant in the Jacksonville neighborhood of Avondale called Mesa, meaning table in Malayalam and Spanish. You can follow their Instagram for all updates. Mesa is set to open in August 2021. It will provide fine dining and contemporary Indian cuisine inspired by Saji’s background. Coming from Kerala, the southernmost state in India, a lot of Portuguese influence can also be expected.

Logo for Saji’s New Restaurant. Photo Credit: Saji George.

Behind the Dish

Iam not a professional chef. I am a home cook who wishes to share my kitchen with everyone. Since I can’t invite everyone to my home, I am welcoming everyone to my Mesa, or table. Though not professionally trained, I have learned a lot through my experiences. Since childhood, I realized that it is my passion to make people happy through food. It has always been my dream to open a restaurant or cooking studio where I can teach others how to make food.

I wanted to share one of my favorite dishes, biryani, not only for its amazing flavor but for its efficiency. You may not believe it until you see it, but this dish only takes me a total of 20 minutes to make in a pressure cooker. It’s a very feasible, homemade meal to enjoy after a stressful day at work.

There is no specific recipe for biryani. It is made differently depending on the region and the individual. Therefore, what I share is a reflection of my own background and experiences. I grew up with biryani being served for special occasions. Although we can now make the dish in 20 minutes, it would take the whole day to prepare biryani back home in India. In India, there typically isn’t plentiful food for everyone. Meat, for instance, is always limited, so when we do have a special occasion, we really try to go overboard.

The Final Product: Biryani. Photo Credit: Saji George.

I remember having to go catch ducks before Easter Sunday while I was living in my grandmother’s home. I would go run from one circle and then the other duck would go swimming to the other side — it would take me all day to catch only one duck.

Once we sat for the meal, we’re able to share, feed each other and pass around the food. It was a really warm feeling, knowing you had accomplished something at the end of the day. You really savor the food because, although it might be very little, it still makes you full knowing it’s something to be enjoyed with family.

Onam sadhya: yearly tradition meal served on a banana leaf. Photo Credit: Saji George.

Growing up in Southern India
My mother died when I was about four years old. My father had his own business but later lost it. I went from a well-off household with maids and chauffeurs to living in a house of about 10 people. I had to go live in a home with my grandmother and cousins because my dad traveled for business and spent a lot of time away. He needed us to be in a stable home, but it was a big burden on my family. Money and food were always short, but it did make me appreciate every single thing that I had.

Growing up, there were no written recipes or internet to look them up. You simply had to remember how your grandmother or other female relative made the meal before. We had an inside kitchen, but it was very small and limited. We didn’t even have a stove. We had something to cook where we had to stuff it with wheat husks. Though during the rainy season or in a monsoon, it would become soaked and wouldn’t light up. There was a lot of struggle in this. Some people would cook outside, putting bricks and stones and then putting a pot over the food. We didn’t have the technology to make meals in 15 minutes. I would think dishes like biryani were too complicated and that there was no way I could make it myself. I didn’t realize that through trial and error, it would come out pretty good.

Here in the United States, everything feels accessible. In Kochi, India we never even had a refrigerator — whatever we got that day is what we cooked that day. I would go to the fish market and buy fish to cook that same day. In a sense, this was an advantage we had over life in the U.S. All of our food was always fresh and tasty. When we make our food in the U.S., you never get that same flavor because things there are not as fresh from the source.

Traditional Kerala Fish Curry: Photo Credit: Saji George

Experience as a new immigrant
I can now say that I have lived in the United States for 40 years. My father wanted my brother and I to have a better life, so we left India to move to New York. Although my family and I have made a home for ourselves in Florida, first arriving in this country as an immigrant was no easy experience.

The immigrant experience is a huge learning process. I constantly learned new things about American culture and how different it was from my own. In India, I was enrolled in an all-girls boarding school run by very strict nuns. We would have to wake up at 5:00 am and study. We always had to follow strict routines and schedules. In the U.S., it was much less strict. Despite this, all I wanted to do was go back. I didn’t fit in here.

When I arrived in Syracuse, New York at age 13, I was made fun of a lot by other students. I attended a pretty much all-white school. There were maybe one or two other Indian kids — that’s about it. Since I looked so odd, nobody wanted to be my friend. I didn’t speak much English and was a skinny girl with a big nose. People made fun of me because I looked different. I was bullied for my nose to the point where I wanted to cut my nose off or get a new nose job. Through the years, I’ve come to accept my nose and see it as what makes me, me.

I still remember the differences that may have seemed simple. Kids that grew up in the states knew how to work the lockers. I didn’t even know how to operate a locker system. I would carry my backpack and coat everywhere because I didn’t know how to use them. I would just go to the locker and pretend to be turning the lock, and then go to class. I never even took lunch to school. Since I also didn’t like the American food served either, I would essentially starve during the school day.

When I got my first job, I couldn’t even pronounce the names of the food served correctly. I couldn’t understand words that had the W and H together, so when customers would ask for a Whopper at Burger King, the people working in the kitchen would never understand me. I spoke so fast it sounded like gibberish to them.

Ultimately, I was able to study and build a career here in the U.S. I started in community college until I transferred to Syracuse University where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Clinical Nutrition. During my time there, I was fortunate enough to have had great professors that I’ll never forget. Faculty like Dr. Schroeder and Dr. Schwartz acknowledged how hard I worked to pay my tuition with student loans and part-time jobs, and always recommended me for scholarships. With everyone’s kindness, my family’s support, and my work ethic, I was able to graduate and get a job right away!

As soon as I graduated from college, we also decided to make the move to Melbourne, Florida. Before our first trip to Florida years earlier, my family had never vacationed here in the U.S. When we first landed in Orlando, I was immediately reminded of Southern India. This mostly had to do with the palm trees and warm weather. I felt very much at home. Therefore, I was motivated to move to Florida for its similarities to Kochi. In 1990, after living in Melbourne for about a year, I then moved to the place I now call home — Jacksonville.

Egg Curry. Photo Credit: Saji George

Family & Marriage

When the time came for me to get married, I felt I was all-American. I was in college in the U.S. and my friends were so confused at the idea of an arranged marriage. I would have to explain that that’s just the way they do it in India. Though I affirmed this to my friends, I would question my father a lot. I would always wonder “what if I don’t like him?” This type of question is normally not even an option back home. In India, you must come from a good family, background, and reputation. To other families, their main priorities are that you are highly educated and come from a good, stable home. If you fit this mold, your chances at marriage are pretty good.

When my dad was trying to look for somebody, I tried to give him my criteria which I believed was hard to reach. Normally Indian people are not more than 6 feet, so I said I wanted somebody who was 6 feet tall. I would kind of tell him these kinds of things so that he would never find this ideal person. I had just finished college when my father went to India to find my ideal person. When he called me to say he had found someone, I couldn’t believe it. After I first spoke to my future husband, I thought he was too serious for someone like me and wondered if he even had a sense of humor. In my gut, I knew that nobody could force me to marry him. Once I went to meet him though, something just told me that this was it. At that moment, I knew there was nobody else I wanted to meet. My grandmother always used to say, “if you do good, only good things will come to you.” She knew I had a tough childhood, and I felt this was my reward.

He was finishing up his postgraduate school at the time but came to the U.S. about 7 or 8 months later. Next thing you know, we were married. Throughout our marriage, we started learning so much about each other. It was truly a match made in heaven. God couldn’t have picked a better husband for me and I know he feels the same way. We have now been happily married for 28 years.

Saji and her husband at their daughter’s Indian dance performance. Photo Credit: Saji George

We now have two children. While raising them, I wanted to ensure that they never experienced the same hardships I faced in this country. I wasn’t going to hold them back from experiences like going to the prom either. My husband and I even gave them American names, so that growing up here they wouldn’t have a hard time with people pronouncing their names. They now ask us why we did this. They say they look Indian but are named Brandon and Brittany. We wanted them to have the easiest time possible. We have always spoken English at home so that they wouldn’t have a heavy accent. Although now it feels like it may have been an injustice to them. Now they don’t understand their heritage, their language.

Saji and her family on vacation in Thailand. Photo Credit: Saji George.

Saji’s daughter, Brittany, connecting to her roots in a typical Indian saree. Photo Credit: Saji Geprge

Message to other Immigrants
Having a mentor would have benefitted my immigrant experience a lot. I believe every immigrant and refugee should have someone to help them transition into their new environment. For all the immigrants out there, don’t think that you have to give up in life. You’ll find a way. There are hardly any clear moments in life. Enjoy today because this is all we have right now, right this moment. Be accepting of others and of yourself. If you treat everyone with kindness and respect, you’ll find your niche and a group to blend in with. I believe this attitude has served me well and has allowed me to find happiness here in Florida. This philosophy is also what allowed me to make the decision to work on opening my restaurant.

I had dreamt of owning a restaurant for 25 years. Now that my children are older, I felt now was the time. I worried about whether it would work out well given the effects of the pandemic, yet I signed a lease for Mesa this March and have continued to allow myself to be guided by my faith. I thank God and all those who have supported me for this dream to come true.

Mural of Saji’s daughter at Mesa. Photo Credit Saji George.

Learn more about Saji and her story below. See how you can recreate her chicken biryani recipe at your own home:

Food is universal, but its culture is unique to each community.
Youtube Video — Saji George: Chicken Biryani

Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of WeaveTales and its employees.

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