Everyday eating for a young British Asian family

[nomadicwriter]

My main character is an eleven-year-old boy living in modern-day England; his parents are second generation Brits of Punjabi Hindu family background. I'm just trying to get a rough idea of what sort of thing they might eat at home, in terms of family meals, what kind of snacks they'd have in the house, what he might be given in his packed lunches

Comments

[phoenixnoor]

As a Brit Asian (Punjabi Muslim) my mum used to sometimes make us kebab sandwiches for school trips out, otherwise I used to have school dinners. When I cottoned onto the fact it wasn't "normal" I asked for (normal boring tasteless) tuna sarnies instead.

At home, after school we had a cup of tea, with biscuits maybe. Breakfast was the usual. But towards the evening it was a traditional Asian dinner - the staple is a roti (a sort of naan bread) with a curry, so maybe a chicken curry or vegetable curry. Rice, sometimes.

Snacks - sometimes my mum used to make pakoras, samosas as snacks on a weekend. Always used to have a stash of crisps and chocolate too though my dad used to have his own version of Pakistani sugar sweets (mithai) in the cupboard too.

If it was a special day, birthday for example, we used to have special food which would be roast chicken, rice, naan, curry, various puddings and desserts, a sort of fried roti (paratha), side dishes which was basically anything fried, chickpea salad (chana chaat) and even now, most of the English meals I eat have an Asian side to them - I eat my pasta with spices and my omelettes usually are spicy.

Hope that helps, let me know if you need mor specific information :)

[nomadicwriter]

Thanks, this is really useful.