Growing up in an old school Mennonite home with a foster mother who knew very little English meant that we were told a lot of wrong information. With no internet to confirm or deny what we were told, we had no choice but to believe what my foster mother told us. Whether it was being sent to school to let the teacher know that the earth was in fact flat and not round, or that the sun revolved around the earth and that the moon stood still, she was our parent and we believed everything she told us. But it wasn’t just school facts that she got wrong. We were also told that foods that she would make for us were called different things. For instance, we grew up eating ‘bubbat balls’. And I loved them! They were one of my favorite things to eat as a kid, and my foster mother wouldn’t make it that often which made it even more of a treat. We always called this dish ‘bubbat balls’ and no one ever corrected us. <\/p>\n
One day, my girlfriend-at-the-time’s mother invited me over for supper. I agreed, and she asked what my favorite dish was so that she could make it for me. I told her it was ‘bubbat balls’ and asked her if she had ever had that (as she was from a Mennonite background as well). She looked confused, so I explained to her that it was ‘like a chicken stew with ‘bubbat balls’ in it’. She said she knew exactly what I was talking about. I was super pumped for supper that weekend. When I got to her house and sat down for supper, what I saw in my plate was not what I had expected. Instead, I had a plate of biscuits in chicken stew. Although it was delicious, it definitely was not what we referred to as ‘bubbat balls’. <\/p>