Episódio 8: Comfort food (Comida para a alma)

Duolingo English for Portuguese Speakers Podcast

Em 2016, Lesley Lammers mudou de Boston para Nashville, capital do Tennessee.

Era a sétima mudança dela em dez anos! Como ela podia trabalhar a distância, não precisava se fixar numa mesma cidade.

I could live anywhere.

My brother and his wife lived in Nashville.

I wanted to be closer to him, and I also liked the city.

So, I moved to East Nashville, which is a cool neighborhood, known for its music and food.

I liked it, but it was hard to make new friends in the beginning.

I felt isolated.

Um dia, Lesley estava se sentindo muito sozinha, e uma amiga sugeriu que ela organizasse, uma vez por semana, uma espécie de clube de jantar, ou supper club.

Lesley já tinha feito isso antes, quando morava em San Francisco.

In San Francisco, I lived in a house with several other people.

Almost every weekend, I organized a meal, or a “supper club," at my house.

I made a lot of new friends at these dinners, and I felt like I was a part of a group.

I didn't know many people to invite to a supper club in Nashville, but I thought maybe my friend was right.

If I wanted to be a part of the community in Nashville, I needed to take the first step.

Welcome, bem-vindas e bem-vindos ao podcast “Histórias em Inglês com Duolingo”.

Eu sou Helena Fruet.

Em cada episódio, você vai poder praticar inglês no seu ritmo, ouvindo histórias reais e emocionantes.

Os personagens falam um inglês simples e fácil de entender — perfeito pra quem tá aprendendo.

Eu vou te acompanhar em cada episódio pra ter certeza que você tá entendendo tudo.

Siga nosso podcast no Spotify ou na sua plataforma preferida!

Hoje vamos ouvir dois relatos sobre comida pra alma, ou comfort food, aqueles alimentos que aquecem o coração.

Como veremos, a comida ajuda a estabelecer confiança, fortalece relações e cria comunidade.

Lesley cresceu em San Luis, uma cidade no estado do Missouri.

When I was growing up, my mom and my grandmother loved to have dinner parties.

The whole family lived together, and they loved inviting people to our house.

They were wonderful cooks.

Once a year, we always had a big party.

They started cooking a few days before the party, and then all of our friends and family came.

So, I have always thought that food helps build communities.

A comida era parte essencial da família de Lesley.

Todas as noites, ela, os irmãos, a mãe e a avó se reuniam pra jantar.

Era um ritual.

Já adulta e morando sozinha, ela sentia muita falta disso.

When I turned 18, I moved to the state of Arizona for college.

After that, I lived in many cities, like Brooklyn, San Francisco, and Boston.

Like a lot of young people in the United States, I was just trying to find a job.

I also wanted to see different parts of the country.

So, every few years, I moved to a new city.

I always made new friends…but finding a place that really felt like home was harder.

As I got older, I realized I was ready to stay in one place for a while and create a community.

Lesley resolveu seguir a sugestão da amiga e organizou um jantar.

Pediu pro irmão e pros poucos amigos que tinha pra que chamassem seus próprios amigos, pessoas que ela nem conhecia, pra expandir seu círculo social.

The first dinners went really well.

I thought it was really fun to meet new people.

People brought instruments to the dinners, and after dinner, people often played music in my backyard.

Everything was very casual and completely improvised.

Lesley começou a conhecer muita gente e logo fez novos amigos.

Com o tempo, sentiu que Nashville era seu lugar.

A lot of creative people came to these dinners, and they invited other creative people.

Often, people had debates about art, music, politics, and many other things.

It was very exciting!

Depois de dois anos organizando os eventos em casa, Lesley teve a ideia de fazer jantares em maior escala.

Não seria um restaurante, mas algo mais íntimo.

Ela mesma ia arrumar as mesas, escolher a música e definir a programação.

I thought: I can sell tickets to these dinners.

And the money from tickets can pay for a chef and musicians.

I wanted to help different people who, like me, wanted to feel more connected with a community.

A primeira vez que Lesley cobrou entrada pra um jantar foi numa sexta-feira à noite.

O cardápio era churrasco, ou barbecue.

Às seis em ponto, minutos antes da chegada dos primeiros convidados, Lesley já estava a postos na sala de jantar.

I was nervous and excited.

For this dinner, I got a chef who cooked food from the south of the United States: barbecue.

But I was worried.

I thought the dinner might be a disaster.

I thought the guests might not want to talk to each other.

Lesley recebeu 18 convidados naquela noite.

Eles sentaram ao redor de uma mesa grande.

O chefe preparou o jantar e deu uma breve explicação sobre a comida que seria servida.

Entre um prato e outro, os convidados tiveram bastante tempo pra se conhecer.

Obviously, this wasn't the first time that I had a dinner party.

But this one was more elaborate.

And although I was very nervous, it went really well! People liked the whole experience.

It was very different than going to a restaurant.

People had more time to speak to each other and make new friends.

I liked it so much that I had more dinner parties.

In the beginning, the dinners were informal, with only 15 or 20 people.

But quickly, it became a formal project: The Humble Table.

A Mesa Humilde, ou The Humble Table.

Esse foi o nome que Lesley deu aos jantares, que aos poucos deixaram de ser apenas reuniões casuais.

Depois de tantas experiências positivas, em 2019 ela decidiu abrir seu próprio negócio com uma amiga chefe de cozinha.

A lot of people contacted me because they wanted to come to the dinners.

Local farms and restaurants wanted to prepare the food for us.

Musicians wanted to play.

A lot of different people wanted to participate.

I finally found the friends I was looking for, and I really felt like I was a part of the community in East Nashville.

Lesley estava finalmente se sentindo em casa.

E quando a comunidade enfrentou uma emergência no início de 2020, ela estava pronta pra ajudar.

This year, in March, I woke up very early one morning because I received an alert on my phone.

It was a tornado alert.

I looked out the window at the sky, and there was a big white cloud and lots of wind.

The tornado was passing through East Nashville!

A casa onde Lesley morava não foi atingida, mas o tornado devastou vários pontos da cidade.

Restaurantes, lojas e prédios ficaram completamente destruídos.

My first thought was to have a Humble Table dinner at my house.

My plan was to invite everyone.

Anyone who wanted to come and eat was welcome.

The idea was to help people feel better, so some friends and I cooked classic foods from the south of the United States, like mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, fried chicken, and grits.

Lesley levou todos os pratos pra sala de jantar: polenta cremosa, ou grits, macarrão com queijo, ou mac and cheese, e o frango frito típico do sul dos Estados Unidos.

I spent the whole day posting messages online that said, “Free food for anyone! Just come to my house!” But no one came.

Time passed.

And passed.

The mac and cheese and grits became cold.

And I realized that I had the wrong idea.

If your house was just destroyed by a tornado, would you go to someone's house and ask for food? No.

It was our responsibility to deliver the food.

Lesley colocou a comida em marmitas e levou a um abrigo onde estavam várias pessoas que perderam suas casas.

Foi muito bom pra ela poder oferecer conforto por meio da comida em um momento tão difícil.

When I started the Humble Table, the response from the community in East Nashville was amazing.

They made me feel welcome.

So, I knew that I had to do something to help them.

The best way to do that was by sharing food.

Now I look at this amazing community — full of wonderful food and friends — and I’m so happy that I decided to build my life in Nashville.

Assim como Lesley, Karen Amarotico também queria ajudar sua comunidade.

Ela teve uma ideia que a princípio parecia uma loucura: durante um ano, todos os dias ela prepararia o que em inglês se chama pie, ou “torta”.

Karen tinha acabado de descobrir algo chamado “projeto gratidão”, ou the gratitude project.

O objetivo era agradecer diariamente por alguma coisa.

This was in 2011, and at the time, I heard Oprah talking about the idea of gratitude projects on her TV show.

Every night, in a notebook, she wrote down five good things in her life.

My daughter and son were adults, and they were moving out of my house.

They didn't need me as much anymore.

So, I had a lot of extra time, and I decided to help my community in some way.

No começo, Karen tentou escrever cartas agradecendo familiares, amigos e vizinhos por fazerem parte da sua vida.

Mas aquilo não parecia suficiente.

Then, one day, at two o’clock in the morning, I woke up and I thought, “I can bake a pie every day for a year… and give them away! That can be my gratitude project.” It sounded brilliant in the middle of the night.

But the next morning, I thought, “That’s a crazy idea!”

Karen tinha aprendido a fazer tortas quando trabalhou num buffet para eventos.

A de maçã é praticamente um patrimônio nacional dos Estados Unidos! Desde pequena, Karen acreditava que a comida aproximava as pessoas.

When I was 11 years old, I lived with my family in an apartment building.

One day, we had a new neighbor.

I really wanted to bring her a dessert to welcome her, just like people did on TV.

At first, my mom didn't want me to do that.

But finally, she let me bake something.

We brought the dessert to our new neighbor, and that woman and my mom actually became good friends!

No começo, Karen não estava tentando fazer amigos.

Ela só dava tortas de presente pra família e conhecidos pra demonstrar gratidão.

Mas ela logo percebeu que teria que aumentar esse círculo.

I asked my friends if they knew anyone who was feeling sad.

I heard about people who were sad or sick, and I started making pies for them.

Making pies was easy, but delivering them was difficult.

I have always been a shy person, and I don’t like talking to people I don't know.

Karen tinha medo de que os desconhecidos achassem estranho ganhar uma torta de presente.

No passado, ela já tinha deixado de fazer amigos por causa da timidez.

One time, maybe 10 years ago, I went to a community meeting.

I didn’t know anyone there, but I brought cookies because I wanted to be friendly.

But when I got there, I was too shy to say anything… or to share the cookies!

Quando entrou no carro pra ir embora, Karen chorou.

Depois dessa experiência difícil, ela sabia que dar tortas pra desconhecidos seria complicado pra alguém tão tímida como ela.

But most people who received a pie were really happy.

Pies made them feel special.

It was like “pie therapy.” One time, a woman from my kids’ school cried when I gave her a pie.

She said she had a really bad day and it was nice that someone thought of her.

Ao longo daquele ano, Karen preparou vários tipos de torta: de maçã, framboesa, mirtilo… e sua preferida: cereja.

I thought a lot more about the people around me and how I could make their days better.

One time, I gave a pie to a local store employee.

I saw her all the time, but I never talked to her.

She was really surprised when I gave her a pie! After that, she always said “hello” to me when I was at the store.

Só teve uma pessoa que recusou a torta da Karen.

Um vizinho tinha pedido que ela fizesse uma torta pra uma amiga que estava tendo um ano difícil.

The woman opened the door and I explained why I was at her house.

I smiled and tried to be really friendly.

But she was not happy to see me.

I told her, “But this is for you.” And she said, “No, thank you!” and closed the door.

Karen ficou meio chateada.

Mas ela tava decidida a dar aquela torta de presente pra alguém.

There was a man outside the grocery store, collecting donations for charity.

I asked him if he wanted the pie, and he was happy to take it!

Com o tempo, Karen foi abandonando a timidez.

People ask me, “What did you learn from that year?” Well, I definitely got better at making pies! I also learned that small things can make people happy.

You can show that you care about someone just by doing something nice for them.

After I baked 365 pies, I felt not only more optimistic but also more confident.

So, my gratitude project worked!

Algumas semanas depois de Karen terminar seu projeto das tortas, uma senhora se aproximou dela na igreja.

The woman came to talk to me suddenly.

She said, “Hey! Why didn't you give me a pie?” We weren’t friends — I just knew her from church.

She said, “I broke my hip, and I still didn't get a pie!”

Era claro que a mulher tava brincando, e que seu quadril, ou hip, já estava melhor.

Mesmo assim, Karen prometeu uma torta para ela!

I wasn't planning to make more pies, but I told her, “Marion, I’ll bring you a pie really soon.” Because when you’re 90 years old, you're allowed to ask for a pie!

Karen Amarotico mora em Ashland, no Oregon.

No blog “Pie a Day”, ela conta a experiência de fazer uma torta por dia.

Lesley Lammers mora em Nashville, no Tennessee, e trabalha como redatora, estrategista de conteúdo e consultora de comunicação para empresas alimentícias e de meio ambiente.

Esse episódio foi produzido por Ado, ou Antonio Díaz Oliva, escritor chileno que vive em Chicago.

Obrigada por ouvir mais um “Histórias em Inglês com Duolingo”.

Gostou do episódio de hoje? Compartilhe e comente com seus amigos usando a hashtag #DuolingoPodcastBR.

Esse foi o último episódio dessa temporada, e nós adoraríamos saber o que você achou.

Basta enviar um e-mail pra podcast@duolingo.com.

Assine nosso feed no Spotify ou na sua plataforma preferida.

No YouTube você encontra uma versão desse episódio em vídeo.

Eu sou Helena Fruet.

Thank you for listening!