Manal, a Coptic Egyptian mother living in Ridgewood, keeps several tawagen in her kitchen, each one used for something different. Her largest one is usually reserved for macarona with la7ma (meat) or bamya (okra), while a smaller one is used for rice pudding or molokhia.

She told me that growing up in Egypt, tawagen were always part of her family’s kitchen. She remembers her mother cooking in them and bringing them straight to the table while everyone waited around for food. “When you see the tagine (singular) come out, you already know everyone is going to eat,” she said.

After moving to New York and starting her own family, Manal continued using tawagen in her kitchen. She said that even though she can find many different kinds of cookware here, she prefers cooking certain dishes in the clay pots because they remind her of Egypt.

Her children have grown up eating the same foods she ate as a child, often from the same kind of pots. She said her favorite part is seeing her children recognize the dishes and get excited when she brings the large tagine to the table.

For Manal, tawagen are not just something she cooks with. They are a way of passing down the feeling of home to her children. Although her family now lives in New York, she says that when everyone sits around the table and shares food from the same tagine, “it feels like Egypt is here.”

– Ounay Tawadrous

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