Like water for chocalate Cooking, once considered a method to avoid raw food, has been attributed meanings by the cook. From time to time, certain ways to cook dishes has connected to family tradition and memories. The smell of the dishes cooked in special receipt can evoke the emotions from the bottom of our heart. In Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquirel tells her grand aunt—Tita’s stories through the receipt that she had left over. Cooking and recipes are the bonds among Tita’s sisters and the continuation of her spirit. Tita’s deep connections with cooking and recipe can be traced from her childhood. Mama Elena at the shock of her husband’s death cannot feed Tita anymore. So Tita is fed by the cook Nacha, who knows anything about cooking. Tita literally grows up in the kitchen and the kitchen becomes Tita’s playground. She makes up animals with sausages and plays with the water drops on a hot pan. Her eating schedules are developed according to the smells and sounds in the kitchen. Cooking and recipes has been deeply connected with Tita since her childhood and therefore grow as an indispensable part of Tita. The cooking recipes on the family ranch are like special bonds that connect family members whoever loves food. Tita, Gertrudis and Chencha, members that loves food and cooking, are strongly tied together and eagerly help each other whenever others confronted troubles. Rosaura, who have been picky about food since her childhood, is the misfit among her sisters because she not only agrees her marriage to Tita’s true love Pedro, but also intends to impose the cruel family tradition to her own child. The family love on this family ranch is so rooted in the love of cooking and food that whoever cannot share the love for food will not be able to enjoy happiness in the family. Gertrudis’ eager crave for the cream fritter is her love for her sisters and her cherished memory about her childhood. Her yearning for cream fritter has been so strong that she “wanted to make before leaving the ranch, the next day.”(p.187) Gertrudis is very determined to leave the ranch with cream fritter. She “was careful to watch the fritter dessert that was on the flame” when Tita is seeking for her advices to resolve the issue about Pedro. With a strong determination, Gertrudis attempts to finish the dishes with her military leadership style when Tita leaves her the recipe and talk to Pedro. Gertrudis was “shouting in the kitchen” (p.193) and gives orders to Sergeant Trevino as if to finish the fritter is to occupy a city of strategic importance. Gertrudis, for a little piece of fritter, is even threating the life of her most entrusted sergeant: “because if you don’t, I will have you shot!” Gertrudis has been away from home for many years. She must miss her naïve childhood when she is tortured in the brothel by different men. She must miss her home when she combats in the battle against the rebels. All these moments provokes her surge of nostalgia and the fritter is the only cure. It is all the complicated feelings accumulated during Gertrudis’ time away from home that evokes the eager craving for the fritter. Hence, when the fritter is finished and Gertrudis carries them in her saddle bags, “she was not riding alone.” (p.203) Gertrudis carries love of Tita and Chencha, her childhood memory and her resolved yearning. Despite the family connection within the food, Tita’s spirit has also blended into the family recipes. For Tita, the joy of living is wrapped in the delights of food. Lost her nephew, tormented by Mama Elena and left the family ranch, Tita not only lost her joyful life on the family ranch but also left her beloved kitchen. Been through the trauma of Mama Elena’s torture and nephew’s death, Tita has lost all her senses, unable to feel and unwilling to talk. She refuses to come into contact with the world. Tita didn’t even taste the “food, which was bland and didn’t appeal to her.” (p.108) Tita’s heart is like damp and