smith, paul. “vintage food ads” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 vintage food ads by: paul smith historical ads from the collection of dr. paul smith, department of folklore, memorial university < smith, paul. “vintage food ads” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 < smith, paul. “vintage food ads” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 < smith, paul. “vintage food ads” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 a letter from the editors: dear readers, this issue opens by celebrating work by the 2015 winners of the sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship. set in very different locations, eric morales’s, “fire, food, and earth: the tahitian ‘ahima’a” (first prize winner) and christina gooch’s “a road to identity: the new mexico chile” (second prize winner) offer thought-provoking takes on the dynamic nature of traditional foodways in the context of changing times. in the research note section, researchers share their findings on an intriguing range of topics. saeedeh niktab etaai reflects on the cultural meanings of bread, rita colavincenzo writes about the vibrant food culture of west cork, ireland and its thriving regional culinary tourism, and erin e. scott introduces readers to gas stations food in mississippi and texas. the section we call “amuse bouche” contains several smaller items: vintage ads, a small sampling of recent theses and dissertations on foodways, and a short reflection on the meanings of annually making chow from a family recipe. finally, we conclude with a book review of carole counihan’s around the tuscan table. once again digest takes us on an extensive food journey. as we travel through various north american locations (mississippi, texas, and new mexico in the united states, and nova scotia and newfoundland in canada), to locations further afield: tahiti, ireland, iran, and tuscany, we hope that you enjoy the ride! michael lange and diane tye, editors < smith, paul. “humour and food meet in vintage ads.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 humour and food meet in vintage ads by: paul smith < smith, paul. “humour and food meet in vintage ads.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 < smith, paul. “humour and food meet in vintage ads.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 < smith, paul. “humour and food meet in vintage ads.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 < smith, paul. “humour and food meet in vintage ads.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 < smith, paul. “humour and food meet in vintage ads.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 a letter from the editors: dear readers, greetings from digest co-editors michael lange (on-going), janet gilmore (in-coming), and diane tye (out-going). janet began transitioning into the new co-editorship in june 2016. she has relished regular exchanges with diane and mike since then as she adapted to editorial customs and the ebb and flow of the annual publication round. diane’s first edits for several submissions smoothed the way, and her capable management leaves us almost ready to complete the first 2017 issue. congratulations, diane, for half a decade of the new digest, and thank you for leaving it in such wonderful shape that it is a pleasure to assume. two university of wisconsin-madison folklore studies graduate students, chrissy widmayer and jared schmidt, have been helping with proofreading and style sheet updates. ali sousa again prepared the issue’s website, and university of wisconsin-madison art history graduate student morgan lemmer-webber substantively updated links and content in the respective html, pdf, and indesign formats. many thanks to the samuelson prize judges, and to the editorial board for peer reviews, suggestions for themed issues and american folklore society annual meeting foodways section sessions, and the willingness of some to mentor samuelson prize contestant submissions into research note form. it has been a lot of fun coordinating with all who have submitted work for this and coming issues. this late fall 2016 issue of digest (5:2) brings you the two prize-winning essays from the 2016 sue samuelson best student paper on food and foodways competition as well as a research note from another competitor in the field of nine. both first-prize winner rachel hopkin’s “way of the croissant” and honorable mention winner daša ličen’s “the authentic blend” focus on legendary continental european food traditions. both suggest distinctive culinary histories and geographies, one for the french croissant, and one for an intensified selection of istrian local foods. while hopkin explores how several historical and contemporary folkloristic theories apply to the food item, ličen examines how istrian food experts shape concepts of an istrian food heritage through contemporary rhetorics of local foods and “the mediterranean diet.” in our research note section, yvonne lockwood announces the donation of her and william g. lockwood’s culinary collections to the michigan state university libraries-special collections. sabine merta explains the riches food scholars may find in literature from dresden’s spectacularly popular 1911 german hygiene exhibition. and christine widmayer begins to stage a feminist foodways argument to frame ethnographic documentation of her mother’s preparation of hummoth kibbeh, the author’s father’s specialty detroit chaldean food. in the amuse bouche section, elizabeth bertonreilly continues an american-ethnic foodways theme that lurks in this issue by reporting on an estonian émigré’s christmas eve special food and gift-giving re-creations in a displaced persons camp in germany after world war ii. she quotes particularly from the woman’s unpublished cache of written stories and poems. the issue concludes with book reviews of five food related titles, including three of lucy long’s productive 2015 compilations that represent the work of many contributors to digest, the foodways section and afs meeting sessions, and many other folklore, culinary history, and food studies colleagues. we also get to admire the culinary writings of 20th century women journalists, and contemplate the politics and food/commodity sourcing of “freegans.” thanks to all who took the time to read and report expeditiously on these works for us. may you all enjoy reading these contributions as much as we did working with them and their authors. janet gilmore and michael lange, editors long, lucy m. 2017. review of flavors from home. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 75. © american folklore society 2018 review of: flavors from home: refugees in kentucky share their stories and comfort foods aimee zaring. lexington: university press of kentucky, 2015. pp. 291, appendices, bibliography, index. by: lucy m. long personal food stories are a powerful way to explore the experience of being a refugee. these stories give voice to individuals who have lived through such circumstances and also help us understand the history—and implications—of cultural migrations. aimee zaring allows readers to hear those voices in this excellent collection of oral histories of 23 refugees to the united states from around the world over the past 50 years—and presents recipes from each (42 in all) for dishes that remind them of home. these selections oftentimes represent the best and the favorites of a food culture, but they also are comfort foods, evoking memories of the past while also bringing together new friends and communities that help to create new homes. each chapter presents an individual’s life story, discusses the person’s relationships to food, and offers one or more recipes. each refugee’s journey to the us and commonwealth of kentucky is contextualized within broader political, economic, and cultural facts, offering a glimpse into how events frequently thought of as happening “over there” can impact the everyday lives of ordinary people. the recipes have been kitchen-tested, oftentimes being translated from oral tradition into written forms that will make sense to mainstream americans. photographs, both black and white and color, show individual cooks and dishes in their home contexts in kentucky, affirming the idea that these are real people—not just “informants.” zaring is an english for speakers of other languages (esol) teacher and writer in louisville, kentucky, where she has worked with students from numerous cultures. for this book, she started with individuals she knew, but also sought out others around kentucky in order to try to capture a broader swath of the diversity now found in that state. she does not attempt to be comprehensive, long, lucy m. 2017. review of flavors from home. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 76. © american folklore society 2018 but is offering a taste of this more multicultural society than in usually thought of as representing kentucky. as such, she challenges some notions of what it means to be an american and who can claim that identity. zaring also points out that the book focuses on refugees—individuals forced to flee their homeland for their own physical safety. she observes that they differ from immigrants who come to the us for other reasons, such as economic or educational opportunities. material goods frequently could not be brought, so cooking skills and remembered recipes serve as highly-valued souvenirs of the past. recreating them in new contexts then becomes a tangible way simultaneously to re-enact heritage and negotiate new identities. this book was sponsored partly by faith-based nonprofits providing assistance to refugees (catholic charities and kentucky refugee ministries), and some of the proceeds return to those organizations. while it does not address scholarship on foodways, tradition, ethnicity, or other pertinent areas, its approach will resonate with many folklorists. perhaps more significantly, it offers refugees a chance to document and share the multiple ways in which food has served them, and it introduces general readers and cooks to the idea that there can be much more to a recipe than simply another way to make a meal, demonstrating that food provides many kinds of sustenance. levin, cherry. 2017. “review of: as long as we both shall eat: a history of wedding food and feasts.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 81. © american folklore society 2017 review of: as long as we both shall eat: a history of wedding food and feasts claire stewart, rowman & littlefield, 2017. pp. 231, bibliography, index, photographs. by: cherry levin despite the rather clever title of stewart’s book, as long as we both shall eat: a history of wedding food and feasts, this book does not deliver for readers interested in a clear and detailed exploration of wedding feasts. this quasi-academic treatment of a ritual meal presents material in an overly broad manner and moves rapidly in a non-cohesive style through time and place with examples appropriated from medieval europe and the united states, entirely overlooking any connection with greco-roman practices in our inherited wedding traditions.1 for example, a brief segment on us wartime rationing is entitled “world war ii and food porn” (15). the material meanders through a maze of irrelevant facts, reading more like a current edition of people magazine’s celebrity wedding books and equally frivolous online publications with stewart’s flair for the dramatic revealed by her focus on extraneous yet humorous stories such as a legendary prank involving munchkins played on jimmy stewart at his bachelor party (36). stewart’s stated approach to her book is that food and drink served at a wedding celebration reflect the social status of the hosts yet she is unable to give concrete examples or consistent evidence of her claim. information relating to this focus does not appear until chapter 6: “chicken or beef?: choice of entrees” where stewart’s chapter headings cover religious groups. yet under the heading “mormonism” there is no mention of the food served at a mormon wedding. the same holds true in a section on “seventh day adventists,’’ whose belief system is represented as one that “espouses healthful living.” stewart’s only comment is that, as a group, adventists “do not consume meat or seafood” and “their wedding receptions do not include alcohol or caffeinated drinks” (66). the section on “islamists” does offer a modicum of information focused on acceptable foods (halal) in contrast to the unacceptable meats (haram), levin, cherry. 2017. “review of: as long as we both shall eat: a history of wedding food and feasts.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 82. © american folklore society 2017 yet only a photograph of an afghan wedding feast depicts the foods actually served, which are difficult to determine from the image. moreover, the sections on hindus, sikhs, and buddhists describe wedding practices without noting the actual foodways involved. exactly how does the company have trunk will travel, which makes possible the entrance of the groom on an elephant or horse (69), pertain to hindu wedding feasts? in the section on ethnic groups, stewart includes a segment entitled “restraint” which she ascribes to the attempt by home economists between 1901 and 1922 to “homogenize” the ingredients of immigrant food. this short section is followed by an extremely capsulized discussion of jewish immigration and dietary laws with literally no discussion of any food choices for a jewish wedding feast. is there chopped liver or not? additionally, stewart’s selection of shark fin soup as an indicator of prosperity in chinese american weddings is garbled, and it is unclear whether “the flourishing chinese economy of the 1990’s” (88) that she mentions relates to regions of mainland china, hong kong, or new york city’s chinatown, as all are mentioned in the breath of two paragraphs. also in her chapter 8 discussion of shark fin soup, stewart essentializes ethnic differences by comparing ways in which other immigrants from palestine, italy, mexico, japan, korea, greece, and germany use weddings to celebrate, as she argues, “affirmation that the country of origin has not been forgotten” (89). again, there is no description or naming of which specific foods served at the wedding feast might accomplish this assimilative process. there is, however, a tribute to “[m]any americans” who use food-related “racial and ethnic insults” by referencing “krauts, frogs, limeys and fish heads” to mark a changing american landscape (97). much could be done with the topic of selecting the menu for a wedding feast. recent “fusion” weddings, the marriage of a couple from distinctly different ethnic backgrounds, can be a rich source of material on how foodways from each culture may be incorporated into a menu that honors both cultures. wedding industry professionals in the contemporary us must be aware of food taboos or even something as simple as allergies. today, an american couple selecting the menu for their wedding feast has a staggering number of choices that will be reflected in the food and beverages they choose to serve. their choice is indicated in their personal preference in how to spend the money in their budget. this consists of such factors as their venue selection, their unique understanding and celebration of their heritage and ethnicity and whether food will be a highlight of their wedding day. gone are the days when the bride’s father paid for the wedding. most couples today pay for a large part of their wedding themselves and must negotiate their spending on what is important to levin, cherry. 2017. “review of: as long as we both shall eat: a history of wedding food and feasts.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 83. © american folklore society 2017 them. is it a great band, a couture dress, a premium open bar, a fabulous venue, or high-end photography and videography? somewhere in these fundamental decisions, the topic of meal selection does occur but, unlike stewart’s claim, for most couples this is not a way chiefly to “proclaim their affluence by serving extravagant food” (21). nor do these millennials “spend an enormous amount of time ‘plotting’ the meal to be served on their wedding day” (21). they will, however, take into careful consideration what food they choose to serve, how it is served, and whom they choose to serve it. (notes) 1 see edward westermarck, history of human marriage, 5 ed., vol. 1 and 2: 432-595 (new york: allerton book co., 1922); george p. monger, marriage customs of the world: from henna to honeymoons (santa barbara, ca: abc-clio, 2004); simon r. charlsey, wedding cakes and cultural history (london: routledge, 1992); roy c. wood, the sociology of the meal: food and social theory, sociologies of domestic dining, dining out theory, meals and society (edinburgh: edinburgh university press, 1995); john cordy jeaffreson, brides and bridals, vol. 1 (london: hurst and blackett, 1872); and linda keller brown and kay mussell, ethnic and regional foodways in the united states: the performance of group identity (knoxville: university of tennessee press, 1984). < kallen, jeffrey. “chicago: a food biography.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 review of: chicago: a food biography. daniel r. block and howard rosing. lanham: rowman & littlefield, 2015. pp. xvi + 326, illustrations, bibliography, index. review by: jeffrey kallen trinity college dublin one does not need to know chicago first-hand to know that it has a special relationship with food. many literary works of the early 20th century depict the social and material life of chicago in terms of its restaurants and saloons, its meatpacking industry, and the struggles of ordinary people in the buying, selling, and consumption of food: think of theodore dreiser’s sister carrie (1900), upton sinclair’s the jungle (1906), and carl sandburg’s chicago poems (1916). in more recent times, the ‘chicago deep dish pizza’ can be found in the frozen food sections of supermarkets all over the world, while celebrity chef rick bayless (to pick just one example) operates from chicago to entertain, to instruct, and to sell his vision of mexican food. my own awareness of the city, having spent many family vacations in chicago as a child, is firmly tied to the specialties of my grandmothers’ cooking and vegetable gardening, the ethnic diversity of the restaurant scene, and the visibility of large-scale food production. no doubt there are many of us who would need no persuading that a ‘food biography’ of chicago offers rich opportunities. block and rosing start with a geographical perspective that introduces the reader to the problems of drainage and transportation which faced the development of urban chicago in the early 19th century, linking it with food production in and around the city. the geographical perspective broadens in chapter two, which considers regional ‘indigenous foodways’, relying on archaeological evidence and accounts which stem from contacts between native populations and later traders, colonists, and settlers. chapter three turns to migration. after a brief consideration of immigration from great britain, the discussion focuses on ten ethnic groups, treated in roughly chronological order. irish, german (including jewish), polish, < kallen, jeffrey. “chicago: a food biography.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 eastern european jewish, greek, african american, italian, chinese, mexican, and puerto rican migration are considered. the next three chapters examine the more commercial side of food in chicago. chapter four covers major wholesale food markets as well as the later development of chain supermarkets and the current revitalization of farmers’ markets. chapter five gives some details about older industries (such as meatpacking, grain production and wholesaling, and the manufacturing of crackers and chocolates) as well as contemporary developments that include, in a twist of fate, seitan-based substitutes for meat products. chapter six offers a historical perspective on restaurants in chicago, subdivided to include ‘upscale’ and ‘fine dining’ restaurants, ethnicities (more or less reflecting the ethnic groups discussed in chapter three), and current movements involving molecular gastronomy and experimental approaches to the eating experience. it is only in the final chapter that block and rosing start to provide details on ‘street food, recipes, and cookbooks’ (205). a brief discussion of chicago’s role in creating the mcdonald’s empire is followed by a look at ‘street food’. this term in chicago refers more to a type of food than to the physical location of sales, since, due to a combination of regulation and custom, most ‘street food’ is sold from fixed locations rather from peddling carts. topics include the ‘tamale craze’ of the 1890s, chicago’s distinctive approach to the hot dog (or ‘red hot’, to use the more idiomatic chicago term), italian beef sandwiches, gyros, pizza, and chicken vesuvio. three recipes are provided. the second half of the chapter gives a historical overview of cookbooks based in or focused on chicago. there are no firm rules for judging what constitutes a biography of the food of a city. readers who want to know about foods, drinks, and practices or beliefs associated with food will not find abundant information. for those who understand the ‘biography’ not in terms of food on the plate but in terms of food production and distribution, there is material here which touches on the rise and fall of the stockyards, the importance of chicago at the centre of the railroad network (and, very briefly, the role that the invention of the refrigerated railroad car played in this development), and the current commercial role of major chicago-based corporations. this story is not told in detail, though, so other sources must also be consulted. given the vital role of neighborhood demography and commercial development in the chicago story, it is unfortunate that there are no maps included. since this book is about food, some basics of proofreading should have been observed: ‘dessert’ is < kallen, jeffrey. “chicago: a food biography.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 spelled ‘desert’ on several occasions (leading to references such as that to ‘marzipantopped deserts’ on p. 226), and references to ‘streudel’ (pp. 182, 226) appear to be to ‘strudel’, not ‘streusel’. there is a german sausage which can commonly be spelled as ‘thüringer’, ‘thueringer’, or even ‘thuringer’, but not ‘theuringer’ as on p. 183. everyone is likely to learn something about chicago food from this book, which has clear documentation and an impressive bibliography. the authors point out a number of foods that originated in chicago, or at least are alleged to have done so: though they state bluntly (p. 239) that the chocolate brownie originated in palmer house in chicago in 1893 and thus ignore the origins controversy documented most recently by zanger (2013), i am not aware of any challenges to the view that cracker jack also originated in chicago (p. 156). given the wide scale of the historical and geographical approach in this volume, a reader who is looking for an overview of aspects of food in chicago may find it useful to start here. references cited dreiser, theodore. 1900. sister carrie. new york: doubleday & page. sandburg, carl. 1916. chicago poems. new york: henry holt & company. sinclair, upton. 1906. the jungle. new york: doubleday, page, & company. zanger, mark h. 2013. brownies. in the oxford encyclopedia of food and drink in america, 2nd edition., ed. andrew f. smith, 220–222. oxford: oxford university press. microsoft word digest editors bio updates 2020.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 79-81 © american folklore society 2020 editors & editorial board member biographies for digest 7:1 (2018-2019) editors janet gilmore, lead editor janet c. gilmore is professor in folklore and landscape architecture at the university of wisconsin-madison, where she focuses on foodways and cultural landscapes. pacific northwestern, western great lakes, and upper mississippi river fishing people, maritime workers, folk artists, and farming people led her to publish, present, and contribute to exhibits and festivals that relate to the regions’ foodways and food landscapes—indigenous, old immigrant, and new immigrant. personal interests in food, cooking, and cookbooks, inspired early in her western oregon home, have now come full circle as she explores her mother’s and grandmother’s pacific northwestern-upper midwestern food legacies. dustin knepp & theresa vaughan,co-editors m. dustin knepp is an associate professor at california state university, bakersfield. current chair of the modern languages and literatures department, he directs the interdisciplinary studies programs on campus. his research investigates the intersection of food and culture in latino life, with particular attention to tamales and holiday food traditions and their impact through familial generations and in the historic record. he also served for a year as a local food critic, sampling and reviewing restaurants and food scenes in bakersfield. dustin has published his research across a variety of traditional and digital platforms, and he has contributed to food scholarship through various articles and written contributions, a digital trilingual english/spanish/kaqchikel food dictionary, and a short video documentary featuring bakersfield’s community tamalada. theresa a. vaughan is professor in the department of humanities and philosophy and assistant dean of the college of liberal arts at the university of central oklahoma. she co-edited the encyclopedia of women’s folklore and folklife (with liz locke and pauline greenhill), and her recent research combines her interest in women’s folklore with foodways and the medieval world. her forthcoming book balancing the humors: dietary recommendations for women in the middle ages is scheduled for publication in 2020 by the amsterdam university press. jennifer dutch, book reviews jennifer rachel dutch is an independent folklorist whose research focuses on the intersection of innovation and tradition in food production and consumption, particularly related to cooking at home and on youtube. her book look who’s cooking: the rhetoric of american home cooking traditions in the twenty-first century was published by the university press of mississippi in 2018. previously she was assistant professor of english and chair of the english department at york college of nebraska. she received her phd in american studies from the pennsylvania state university, harrisburg, and master’s degree in english from the university of new hampshire. 80 editor biographies, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) editorial board members michael lange michael a. lange is professor in the interdisciplinary core curriculum at champlain college in burlington, vermont. he is the author of norwegian scots: an anthropological interpretation of viking-scottish identity in the orkney islands (2007) and meanings of maple (2017), as well as several chapters and articles in journals such as anatolia, scandinavian-canadian studies, the journal of interdisciplinary studies in education, and voices: the journal of new york folklore. he has conducted research in scotland, norway, morocco, and several parts of the us. yvonne lockwood folklorist yvonne lockwood, who recently retired as curator of folklife at the michigan state university museum, directed the michigan traditional arts apprentice program and michigan heritage awards program there, curated the public food presentations at the festival of michigan folklife and the great lakes folk festival, and curated “michigan eats,” an interpretive exhibition that the museum now tours. other professional foodways activities include conference participation in the us and europe and numerous publications. a long-time member of the foodways section, she coedited digest for a number of years with william g. lockwood and judged student papers. she has extensive research experience in the former yugoslavia, eastern austria (burgenland), and in the upper midwest, primarily in finnish america, where she currently is researching foodways. she also often curates finnish food demonstrations and workshops at the annual finnfest usa. lucy long director of the independent non-profit center for food and culture, bowling green, ohio, lucy m. long (phd, folklore, university of pennsylvania) is an adjunct assistant professor at bowling green state university where she teaches folklore, food studies, ethnic studies, and tourism. she has edited and authored numerous foodways publications, including culinary tourism (2004), regional american food culture (2009), ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (2015), ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world (2016); the food and folklore reader (2015); comfort food meanings and memories (2017), and honey: a global history (2017). luanne roth lu anne roth teaches in the department of writing and rhetoric at the university of rhode island. her research and teaching focus on folklore, film/media, and food studies. her food studies writing has appeared in the journals digest, western folklore, and food, culture and society, and as chapters in such volumes as what’s eating you?: food and horror on screen (2017), comfort food meanings and memories (2017), unsettling assumptions: tradition, gender, drag (2014), and folklore/cinema: popular film as vernacular culture (2007). particularly interested in how food is used to negotiate ideology related to class, ethnicity, gender, and race, roth has been working on a book manuscript that interrogates media representations of the thanksgiving meal. https://harrington.uri.edu/meet/luanne-kroth/ digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 81 robert smith dr. robert james smith has an adjunct role as inaugural vice chancellor’s fellow at southern cross university in australia. until recently he was editor for the scholarly journal australian folklore. in addition to foodways, his research interests include contemporary memorial customs and regional folk culture. diane tye diane tye is professor in the department of folklore, memorial university. she researches intersections of folklore and gender, especially as they relate to foodways. she is author of baking as biography. a life story in recipes (mcgill-queen’s up, 2010) and co-editor with pauline greenhill of unsettling assumptions. gender, tradition, drag (utah state up, 2014). theresa a. vaughan professor in the department of humanities and philosophy and assistant dean of the college of liberal arts at the university of central oklahoma, theresa vaughan coedited the encyclopedia of women’s folklore and folklife (with liz locke and pauline greenhill), and her recent research combines her interest in women’s folklore with foodways and the medieval world. her forthcoming book balancing the humors: dietary recommendations for women in the middle ages is scheduled for publication in 2020 by the amsterdam university press. katrina wynn katrina wynn is currently a part-time stay at home mom and part-time public library worker after finishing up her five-and-a-half-year contract position as manager of the northeast archives of folklore and oral history at the university of maine. she held that position since graduating from western kentucky university with a ma in folk studies. katrina was a co-convener of the american folklore society’s foodways section for six years and has been a member of the section since starting graduate school. <dart, jesse. “no oranges after dinner or italian food lessons in three parts.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 no oranges after dinner or italian food lessons in three parts1 by: jesse dart part 1: the house is painted pale yellow and there is a metal gate that rolls on wheels, the sound of which signals that someone is home. there are mature trees out front and along the side of the garden, raspberry bushes, flowers, a few herbs. the kitchen is the hub of the house. painted a similar yellow to the outside, it also has dark wood cabinets and a light that isn’t very flattering. outside the kitchen windows, you can see some young fruit trees that my father-inlaw planted not long ago. they are small, but some of them bore fruit last year, an apple here, a pear there. there’s some grass, but it struggles to turn green or lush given the large trees that shade it most of the day. it’s lunchtime and inside the kitchen, we each take our places around the table. we always sit in the same spots, decided the first time i dined at their house. this is your chair, jesse, you will not sit in any other chair at lunch or dinner. the same goes for when we eat at the nicer, larger table in the living room. i have my spot, that’s where i sit. eating fruit after lunch and dinner is a normal, everyday occurrence in italy, especially in my wife’s family home. there is a fruit basket on the table, filled with seasonal choices (minus the bananas) and out in the garage is a basket filled with fruits that are either ripening, or, excess that doesn’t fit in the basket in the kitchen. one day after lunch, i reach for an orange. everyone’s faces turn white. “what”? i ask, unknowingly aware of the faux pas that i was <dart, jesse. “no oranges after dinner or italian food lessons in three parts.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 committing. “why is everyone looking at me?” “you can’t have an orange after dinner. why don’t you have a mandarin?” says my wife. everyone agreed, yes, a mandarin was a much better choice for after dinner fruit. “why can’t i have an orange?” i said, “it’s more or less the same thing as a mandarin, just bigger.” “we don’t eat oranges after dinner. bananas either. apples, pears, cherries and plums are all ok – mandarins are fine too. oranges and bananas though are too heavy on the stomach after a meal. they block your digestion.” val’s father is looking at me from across the table. smiling, he picks up an apple, washes it, then proceeds to use a knife to cut off the skin and eat it. he shares some with me the outsider, the foreigner – somehow saying, “look, this is how you do it.” i have a lot of things to learn. part 2: same table and i’m sitting in my spot actually, we are all in our prescribed spots. the table is different, but the fruit basket is still there. val’s mom has made a fantastic dish of spaghetti with langoustines. it’s my first time to have it and i ask val if they eat it often, “not really, i think it’s because she likes to show off for you.” somehow, the plain and simple foods of the region seem to disappear when i’m there. anyway, here we are at the table and i have a heaping portion on my plate, four large langoustines from the venetian lagoon – probably bought that morning – stare up at me. i ask, “where’s the parmigiano?” blank stares. val: “you can’t put parmesan on your pasta. there’s seafood in it. you don’t put parmesan on seafood pasta.” everyone nods in agreement, even if they didn’t completely understand what she said. “oh, really, why’s that?” i ask. <dart, jesse. “no oranges after dinner or italian food lessons in three parts.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 “you just don’t, everyone knows that. even if you order it at a restaurant, the waiters know not to bring parmesan. it’s just the way it is.” just the way it is has a place at the italian dinner table. food traditions are not just recipes, but unwritten rules of dining that, as an outsider, i’ve been introduced to since i married into an italian (venetian) family. and now, after a few years, i get it. these are just my observations, of course –it’s different everywhere in the country– but from north to south you will find these folk beliefs, these bits of wisdom that are passed through generations so that no one knows, really, where they come from. italy is full of passed down lay gastronomic wisdom, and it’s these everyday occurrences that form the basis of a great cuisine. they are related to health, to digestion, to flavor combinations that work together, to seasonality, to timing, to patience. it’s about making sense of your food choices of being presented with a never-ending series of options, looking at those and having some concepts that help guide you. no oranges after dinner, no parmesan on your seafood pasta are just two examples. no cappuccino after 11am, and definitely not with your lunch or dinner, is another. part 3: val and i are at home in our london apartment and some friends have come over for dinner. we made seafood pasta with clams, pasta alla vongole. it’s a recipe that we feel we’ve mastered, difficult to mess up, so we make it often when guests come over and we’re unsure about what to cook. one of our friends asks if we have any parmesan. val smiles and says, “of course we do i’ll just grab it from the fridge.” even if we’ve carried these rules with us into our own lives, into our home, we bend them we’re flexible. we keep what my wife calls a “venetian kitchen abroad”. a kitchen connected to traditions but also to the present moment. from the ingredients that we bring back from trips home to the recipes that she knows by heart, we’ve recreated something that has roots, but that also works for us in a foreign country. isn’t this what most people do? you reach to the past in order to make sense of the present? traditions and rituals start at home and for us, they start in the kitchen. <dart, jesse. “no oranges after dinner or italian food lessons in three parts.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 i was thinking about some of the rules i’ve learned in the few years i’ve been part of this family and how i’ve adopted them into my own daily patterns. i notice now if people don’t play by the (non) rules – if someone at work drinks a cappuccino with lasagna and eats a banana afterwards. perhaps it’s my training in anthropology that makes me pay attention, maybe it’s because my own habits are changing, or maybe it’s because many of the rules i’ve learned just make sense. later that evening, after everyone has left i gently wash an apple, pull out a knife and start peeling. “dining al fresco” “a glimpse outside, from the kitchen” <dart, jesse. “no oranges after dinner or italian food lessons in three parts.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 “seasonal fruit basket (minus the bananas)” photo credits: valeria necchio. turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 92. © american folklore society 2018 clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice: cooking with earth and smoke by: katherine l. turner photos: katherine l. turner and c. julián idrobo first life the round belly settled in the embers and blackened by smoke is a constant on the hearth. a few pieces of wood are added, growing and rekindling the greying coals. the contents slowly churn, traveling with the bubbles to the surface and sinking back in steady rhythm. meat cooks slowly rendering it tender, and dried corn, called mote, rehydrates and softens. there is always a pot of mote cradled at the edge of the fire. in water or milk squashes, legumes and tubers are stewed. in a dry, hot bottom deep purple corn kernels spotted with white are stirred to make tostada. many dishes are made this way, with the properties of the clay pot mixing with the wood smoke to shape the textures, flavors, and mold the life history of the food. turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 93. © american folklore society 2018 the center: minds and agency “we would sit on the ground, with my mother and her clay pot. us around her. the pot of mote in the center.”1 cooking leaves an echo, an imprint of the labor, the action of hands and minds2—that have imagined and brought into being the dish, a meal. an entanglement of human and non-human agencies: people, clay, plant, charcoal. the pot must be tempered prior to use. some cure a new pot by resting it in a coat of beef lard and corn flour; others by boiling it with flour and water. this seals the pot and ensures a longer life. “a few small pieces of wood, and the pots will boil all day,” they don’t burn, they hold the heat, they turn the food soft, imbue a delicate texture, a rich flavor. turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 94. © american folklore society 2018 the birth the vessel is made of clay, sand, and water, built slowly, adding pieces to one another growing higher, gaining shape and being smoothed: a seamless composite. rounded at the bottom, not to rest on a table, but to find stability in coals and ash. clay gathered close by or brought from farther away affords different colors and different properties. the potters know where to go. pots are made only in the dry season when drying and firing can be done properly. completed, the vessels are fired in simple kilns with animal dung and urine to give heat and color to the hardening clay. turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 95. © american folklore society 2018 the hands a vocation and a livelihood, often passed on parent to child. in a small town, la calama, an elderly brother and sister are pot makers. their father taught them, they learned; all their siblings did. neither makes very many now. they are old, the clay cold and hard on their hands. a grandson explains, “grandfather now only makes them to order.” his great-grandfather’s remaining pots, alongside those of his grandfather, live in a special room. families like theirs of generational potters are becoming fewer. it takes grandfather a week to make three pots. turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 96. © american folklore society 2018 the search it is hard to find clay cookware now. few people know how to make it. it is expensive at the campesino market in the city of tarija. “before it was a luxury to buy aluminum, teflon. that is to say it was only the rich people who could. now everything is metal. now it is more of a luxury to buy a clay pot than an aluminum one.” now clay vessels are expensive. “they are, and more than that they don’t last . . . . this one has lasted well—ten years or more.” turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 97. © american folklore society 2018 the practice “now we put the mote in iron.” it is the fastest thing in the pot now. “faster and more practical.” when possible, the flash of ignition and the heat of a gas flame. “current generations aren’t accustomed to using these basics like wood fire and clay because they don’t have the knowledge.” it is the old people who buy the clay pots. and the flavor, do you miss it? yes, i miss it. “no one continues to make pots,” the grandson explains, “because society discriminates against them.” turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 98. © american folklore society 2018 plastic barrels and plastic bottles wine: a tradition in the valley going back to the spanish conquest. grape vines brought to give the blood of christ, the fruit’s juice fermented in great vessels of clay tightly sealed. a sweet wine, mingled with tannins and aromas of earth. one family, a small sign outside the home marked “vino patero.”3 they are artisanal winemakers. they have a room for wine making lined with a dozen pots, too large to wrap your arms around. one is a hundred years old—a family inheritance, shown proudly. another vino patero maker, her clay vessels bought from her mother-in-law, carefully kept; they are hard to replace. many have replaced them though or bypassed them all together. plastic barrels are recommended.4 more hygienic, the authorities claim. vino patero is illicit. not real wine. it is served in gourds from smaller wide-mouthed clay pots and on corpus christi in the center of a hollowed-out tuber, ajipa (pachyrhizus ahipa).5 these ways of serving are the old ways. special ways, not the glass bottles and long-stemmed glasses of the industrial, global wine culture. lightly fermented drinks, alojas and chichas, also circulate this way at the markets and fairs. women wheeling large flat carts, a huge clay pot in the center, in it peanut or barley aloja. these are also made by boiling slowly in clay over the fire. turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 99. © american folklore society 2018 turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 100. © american folklore society 2018 the vendor she brings her pots first by donkey. two hours to reach the road. next by truck eight hours. she brings clay cooking pots, jugs, and urns, huge vessels for chicha making, tiny toy pots smaller than your fist for children. the largest are 150 pesos bolivianos, the toys 50 centavos.6 most fall somewhere in between. she explains how they are made. beautiful and intricate designs can be added, but those don’t sell. too much time, the price too high. she comes for the annual festival of san lorenzo, the town’s patron saint, and makes pots for months to bring. mentioned by many as one of the best, one of the last, places to find good clayware. three or four vendors make the annual journey. there are few potters like her. few who still depend on dirt cheap pots, alongside cultivating their fields and tending their herds. second life time, a fall, a slip, a slow crack. clumsy hands, heavy weight, hard ground. so may end the first life. sometimes the second is brief. disposal, reduction, pulverization. other times, however, second life can be long and glorious. life on a shelf or in a corner. still cherished, if ignored. or pieces bound together and reinforced with wire or string. earth, roots, and new life. or something simpler: a nest. a place in the garden. turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 101. © american folklore society 2018 re(dis)covery loss in time, in labor, in knowledge, in skill, in purpose. aluminum, tin, iron: now cheaper, now ubiquitous at the market and in the kitchen. light, flat bottomed, and ready for a gas stove and modern foods. quick foods—rice, pastas, a chicken soup, frying oil—ready for fast cooking and eager eating. but the slow boiling, the flavor of clay and smoke linger. on a sunday, urbanites travel. going forth from the city in their cars or on the bus—a small van filled with passengers. seeking out a creole hen soup or one of the thick stews called ajis, picantes, saice, and ranga, of ground yellow or red chili peppers with beef, tripe, or pig feet. prepared by someone who knows how, made with ingredients from the countryside, the campo, made the old way and cooked in clay. flavored with smoke. these, they say, are real, more authentic, turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 102. © american folklore society 2018 more natural. they taste better. many roadside stands, many front rooms with simple tables and benches, many rural women and their families who earn their living cooking and serving from hardened clay. fairs, festivals, and celebrations are spaces to congregate. to sell chancho a la olla—a stewed pork called “pork to the pot.” drink chicha or aloja served with a gourd dipper from a wide clay mouth. a few restaurants as well catering to the day trippers, the small middle class, the wealthier families, the nostalgia for flavors, the mingling of past and present. kitchens designed especially for open fires, clay pots, and the milieu of agency and materials. a slow simmering, a continuity, a resurgence. background and acknowledgments this essay draws on twelve months of fieldwork in the central valley of tarija, bolivia, in 2012 and 2013, on edible biocultural heritage in rural territorial development processes. data were gathered through multiple methods including extensive semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, visits to homes, participant observation at fairs, festivals, markets, and restaurants, and surveys with vendors at public markets and fairs. change and continuity in regional and household agri-food production, exchange, and consumption were the focus of the research, and clay cookware and fermentation vessels were a subtle yet recurring theme entwining personal histories, contemporary economies, food practices, and tensions over tradition, identity, and modernity. the personal stories, feelings, and reflections surrounding the role of clay pots in contemporary bolivian campesino culinary practice are an example of knowledge and experience that are often muted in academic and public discourse. while further details on the research methods and larger study can be found in turner (2016) and other academic journal articles (including turner et al. 2016; turner, davidson-hunt, and desmarais 2017), we wanted to explore this aspect of our work through a creative ethnography format. by interweaving images, quotes, and descriptive text, we believe the photo essay expresses an intimacy and nuance around the changing relations with traditional materials, such as clay, in ways that a regular paper format does not capture. we are deeply grateful to all in the central valley who made this research possible and shared their stories, experiences, and likenesses with us. turner turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 103. © american folklore society 2018 made return visits to key interviewees, research participants, organizations, and local authorities in the central valley in 2016. she provided spanishlanguage summary documents and copies of publications to individuals and organizations. additionally, towards the end of fieldwork in 2013, she printed copies of photographs taken with many research participants and their families as small thank you gifts. besides the central valley individuals and families involved in this research, we thank the following organizations for their collaboration and support: jaina–comunidad de estudios, rimisp– centro latinoamericano para el desarrollo rural, asociación de turismo de san lorenzo, and gobernación sub-sección san lorenzo. we are also grateful to ingeniera fidelia romero lopez, profesora leonela valdez, and marina pastrana for their collaboration, patience, and many insights and helpful suggestions during data gathering. this research was approved by the university of manitoba joint-faculty research ethics board. funding was provided by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (ip iain davidson-hunt research grants sshrc 410-2010-1818 and 890-2011-0113; and sshrc joseph-armand bombardier canada graduate scholarship, doctoral scholarship to author 767-2011-0128), and the canadian international development agency and association of universities and colleges of canada’s students for development program (individual internship award to turner). notes (1) quotations are from interviews conducted by the authors in the central valley of tarija, bolivia. we have left them anonymous to protect participants privacy and confidentiality. (2) labor as a dialectic process of hands and minds comes from wolf (1982:75). (3) patero from the spanish verb patear meaning to stomp or kick, referring to the process of crushing grapes with the feet. (4) the bolivian national viticulture centre and other capacity building organizations recommend plastic barrels to artisanal winemakers. (5) see advisory committee on technology innovation board on science and technology for international development national research council (1989:39). turner, katherine l. 2017. clay pots in bolivian campesino culinary practice. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 104. © american folklore society 2018 (6) at the time of research, 150 bob was around 22 usd and 0.50 bob was around 0.07 usd. references cited advisory committee on technology innovation board on science and technology for international development national research council. 1989. lost crops of the incas: little-known plants of the andes with promise for worldwide cultivation. washington, dc: national academies press. turner, katherine l. 2016. feeding local economies: bolivia’s edible biocultural heritage and rural territorial development. doctoral dissertation. winnipeg, mb: university of manitoba. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/31954. turner, katherine l., iain j. davidson-hunt, and annette aurélie desmarais. 2017. “agrobiodiversity, rural transitions and households experiences of globalised change: a case study from the central valley of tarija, bolivia.” rural landscapes: society, environment, history 4 (1): 1-24. turner, katherine l., iain j. davidson-hunt, annette aurélie desmarais, and ian hudson. 2016. “creole hens and ranga-ranga: campesino approaches to biocultural resource-based development strategies in the central valley of tarija, bolivia.” agriculture 6 (41): 1–33. wolf, eric. 1982. europe and the people without history. berkeley, california: university of california press. a letter from the editors: dear readers, change is a theme that runs through the contributions to this issue of digest. articles focus on intersections of food, change and ethnicity, beginning with diana garvin’s discussion of the emergence of ideal kitchen design in the 1930s in facist italy. m. ruth dike and mu li both examine the challenges of maintaining one’s culinary traditions in a new country. dike, who looks at moroccans living in the boston, and li, who considers the chinese community in st. john’s, newfoundland, explore how members of diaspora communities make culinary adaptions in their new home. the articles raise complex questions concerning the relationship of authenticity to change. research notes in this issue continue the theme. in his exploration of the popular television program, “top chef,” ryan eanes explores the transformation of traditional foods into trends. in this section, noah morritt examines an artifact—a baker’s hat—as a symbolically charged object of resistance in the face of changing commercialization in a coffee shop bakery. the section closes with terra barrett’s notes from an interview she conducted with her grandfather on changing foodways over the course of his lifetime. the issue comes to a close with the amuse bouche section that draws together several ads from paul smith’s collection of historical documents and ephemera, a 1910 promotional recipe booklet, “the american table,” issued by lawson brothers grocers of rockford, illinois, and a contemporary food photo. three reviews introduce readers to works on american dietary reform, foodways and film, and culinary tourism. we owe a debt of thanks to noah morritt for the very capable job he did as assistant editor for this issue. michael lange and diane tye, editors schmidt, claire. 2016. “review of: ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia and ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 review of: ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia edited by lucy long. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield, 2015. pp. 760, index, maps, bibliography per entry. ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world edited by lucy long. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield, 2016. pp. 358, index, maps. by: claire schmidt lucy long’s two-volume encyclopedia, ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia, and the companion cookbook, ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world, represent an enormous amount of collaborative and multi-disciplinary work. the fascination and respect for the relationship of food and culture is clear on every page. enthusiastic cooks and students of culture can immerse themselves in the wealth of details and insider knowledge collected from scholars and cooks around the world. the central argument of the encyclopedia’s introduction is that food and ethnicity are irrevocably intertwined, neither is static, and both involve politically charged choices (as well as lack of choice). food can be both a window into history and a mirror that reflects and responds to difference (long 2015:9). the introduction defines the terms crucial to the endeavor—ethnicity, american, and food—drawing on elliot oring, warren belasco, and don yoder. the encyclopedia is organized alphabetically by ethnic group, as is the cookbook. the entries in the encyclopedia are written by a wide variety of people, including food scholars, folklorists, graduate students, chefs, home cooks, and food enthusiasts. schmidt, claire. 2016. “review of: ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia and ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 while they vary in length and detail, each entry follows a consistent format. after the name of the ethnic group or nation and the global region (often with cross-references to entries for related food cultures), the entry usually contains a “background” section. the background gives information on historical and social immigration, settlement, and assimilation patterns. sometimes the background section includes information on regional, religious, or linguistic diversity within the ethnic group (see “nepal”), or etymology of group names (see “pennsylvania dutch”). in other cases, the background section draws on personal experience narratives of the authors of the entries or collaborators who assisted in the research process (see “czechoslovakia”). the next section, “foodways,” explains staple foods and essential ingredients in that particular ethnic cuisine. if traditional ingredients are not available, this section often lists substitutions. this section often describes daily patterns of food production, purchase, preparation, and consumption. many entries include a “holiday feasts” section that focuses on the ways ethnic food heritage may be performed during national or cultural holidays (see, for example, “denmark”). most entries include a section on “place in american culture,” which identifies and explicates the role of particular ethnic foodways in mainstream american culture. some entries include a section on “noted restaurants and chefs,” and all entries close with a section titled “further reading” which lists bibliographic entries for scholarly articles, websites, blogs, articles, and other encyclopedias. most encyclopedia entries include one or two recipes, often for a staple food (such as tanzanian ugali) or for a food that has become particularly emblematic in ethnic restaurants (such as pad thai) or during american holidays (such as danish butter cookies). some recipes, like chineseamerican turkey congee, demonstrate the focus on how “americans claiming an ethnic heritage or identity are eating today” (long 2015:9). entries range in length; the entry “peru” occupies five pages and “turkey” is ten pages, while “qatar” occupies one page. in the introduction, long writes that entry length ideally reflects the impact that the specific ethnic group has had on american food culture; but length is also determined by quality and availability of documentation, as european ethnic foodways have been schmidt, claire. 2016. “review of: ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia and ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 studied vigorously in the united states but african foodways have not. two issues made the encyclopedia less effective than it might have been; some of the maps are hard to read, both in the encyclopedia and in the cookbook. some are beautifully clear but others, due to the file resolution, are nearly unreadable. in terms of ease of use, it would also have been helpful if the encyclopedia included the letter of the alphabet in the header (as the cookbook does); long entries made it challenging to find one’s place while navigating through the encyclopedia. taking up the twin conceptions of food as mirror and window from the encyclopedia, the cookbook ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world gives a brief introduction to foodways and ethnicity. the cookbook is organized alphabetically by ethnic group, introducing each group and providing information on nomenclature and geographic region. for example, the entry for monaco reads “monaco (western europe), monegasque american,” and the introduction explains the relationship between foodways in monaco, and those in nearby france and italy (long 2016:194). the introduction to the cookbook indicates that when traditional ingredients are difficult to find in the united states, substitutions are offered. while this would present its own set of challenges, i wish that more of the recipes offered suggestions for brands. for example, the recipe for sadza, the staple food of zimbabwe and common in south africa and botswana, calls for “white cornmeal.” since i have many students from zimbabwe, i would like to cook this dish for college potlucks but i don’t know what kind of white corn meal to buy. when i asked my zimbabwen students they told me quaker white corn meal was the closest brand they had found in the u.s. but that people who are very serious about their sadza buy imported mealie meal or have it sent by family and friends back home. some recipes, like la reina pepiada (venezuelan arepas) and curry chicken (trinidad and tobago) do include brand recommendations. i cooked maklouba (upside down palestinian rice, 226), pho (vietnamese beef noodle soup, 301), fry bread (“native american,” 208), and ghanaian tea bread (110). i was very happy with the rice and the soup, found the fry bread recipe to be dryer and less salty than the fry bread i have eaten in wisconsin and manitoba (perhaps because this recipe is in the southwestern schmidt, claire. 2016. “review of: ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia and ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 native american section or perhaps because my technique is undeveloped), and the tea bread to be pleasant, though i substituted brown sugar for caster sugar and put butter on the slices when i served it. i had intended to make pirogo (gypsy or roma american noodle pudding, 122) but it called for “5 cubes of butter” and since i was not sure what that meant, i have not yet experimented with that recipe. similarly, i planned to make peanut butter soup with chicken (103), but dawdled because i was not sure whether the recipe ought to be made with skin-on, bone-in thighs or boneless skinless thighs (a distinction which probably says more about me as a perfectionist american cook and may not actually matter to the success of the recipe). aside from the question of identifying the ideal ingredient or iron-clad quantities, the recipes are generally quite clear. in fact, the varied voices, ingredient flexibility, and very occasional uncertainty make the cookbook (and the encyclopedia) feel human and alive—like a tour through someone else’s recipe box. many of these recipes come from home cooks, and the intimacy and informality of sharing family recipes separates these hybrid books—scholarly and practical, theoretical and hands-on—from the burgeoning commercial cookbook industry. the books emphasize the connection of the head to the heart, and the minority to the majority, and throughout both texts long never over-simplifies ethnicity and economic and social power struggles. < lange, michael, tye, diane. “an introduction to the culinary traditions of jiangnan region, china.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 an introduction to the culinary traditions of jiangnan region, china by: michael lange and diane tye as editors of digest, we (diane tye and mike lange) recently accompanied tim lloyd, the executive director of the american folklore society, on a three day culinary and cultural program held in the jiangnan region in eastern china. the afs members were invited by professor chao gejin, president of the china folklore society. we joined other scholars in ceremonies and a brief educational program designed to draw attention to regional foodways and folkways traditions and to help launch the process to include these rich traditions on governmental rosters of official intangible cultural heritage expressions. the group included international experts such as professor sangmee bak from hankuk university in south korea, professor matsuo koichi from the graduate university for advanced studies in japan, and professor pei-kai cheng, president of the chinese culture institute in hong kong, as well as a large group of chinese scholars. jiangnan is a region located south of the yangtze river. it includes the southern part of the yangtze delta and encompasses the municipality of shanghai, the southern part of jiangsu province, the southern part of anhui province, the northern part of jiangxi province, and the northern part of zhejiang province. in addition to shanghai, two of the most important cities in the area are changzhou and nanjing. changzhou, where the program began, is situated in the central yangtze river delta, near taihu lake and on the southern bank of the yangtze river. it is an ancient city with a cultural history extending back more than 3200 years. an administrative center, changzhou hosts a number of significant cultural and historic sites. it is also known for many local culinary specialties such as dried turnip, sesame cake, liyang geese, wild bamboo shoots, liyan cress, nanshan chestnuts, and changdang lake crabs as well as a range of folk craft traditions including changzhou combs, brick screens, cloisonne painting, paper lanternmaking, silk embroidery, bamboo carving and jintai paper cutting. < lange, michael, tye, diane. “an introduction to the culinary traditions of jiangnan region, china.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 nanjing, the city where the program ended on day three, has a long history as a major centre of culture, education, research, politics, commerce, transportation and tourism. the capital of jaingsu province and the second largest city in east china, nanjing has been one of china’s most important cities for over a thousand years and is recognized as one of the four great ancient capitals of china. it is known for several culinary specialties; radish is a local favourite as are dishes based on duck: nanjing salted duck, duck blood and vermicelli soup, and duck oil pancake. although tim lloyd had been to china ten times previously to participate in initiatives supported by the long-standing collaboration between afs and the china folklore, this was the first visit to the country for both of us. we found the experience both exhilarating and captivating. from the moment our plane landed, we were accompanied by helpful translators and cultural ambassadors, who not only made sure that we understood the conversations around us, but also informed us about the cultural surroundings and some of the meanings of the multi-sensory experiences in which we were immersed. the sense we engaged in that is of most interest to the readers of digest is, of course, taste. and taste we did. we were treated to multi-course meals prepared by some of the best chefs in china. most were national master chefs known not only for their expertise in regional cuisine but for their innovation at reinterpreting it in new and creative ways. over the few days of the program, we sampled many, many specialties. at the smallest banquet meals we were served more than twenty courses and at the larger ones, we often simply lost count. most meals were served in formal style, with guests sitting around a large, round table with a rotating center. during the meal, service staff gradually filled the center with a staggering variety of dishes. our first day began with an opening ceremony held in the grand hotel, changzhou. it gathered together scholars and officials to recognize the importance of changzhou and jiangnan traditions and to designate shuang gui fang, the sesame cake that is a regional specialty, as a chinese traditional food. the event also marked the official creation of a research commission of traditional food culture under the china folklore society to study and promote regional foodways and folkways. following the opening ceremony, the first banquet meal took place at xin he shun, a fine restaurant in the heart of changzhou known for its “lake fresh” cuisine. the chef greeted us and spoke briefly about the sources of his recipes and ingredients. it was a pattern that would repeat itself several times over the course of our visit. < lange, michael, tye, diane. “an introduction to the culinary traditions of jiangnan region, china.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 the jiangnan region is best known for its traditional seafood dishes and we sampled many of them in our introductory meal. a showpiece dish of this first dinner was a huge tureen of turtle soup that had a dozen or so whole turtles floating in it. after lunch, we toured several cultural sites including an artists’ workshop in an historic district, where silk embroiderers, bamboo carvers, comb makers, painters, calligraphers, and carvers all worked to maintain traditional forms of folk art indigenous to the region. in addition to demonstrations of crafts, there were performances of traditional practices such as tea ceremonies, incense burning, and folksinging and storytelling. dinner that evening was an elaborate banquet held at the tingsonglou hotel, another restaurant with a reputation for its fine lake fresh dishes. the meal featured more regional specialties and among the many dishes we sampled were puffer fish with burclover, crystal river shrimps, stewed duck in beer, green rice ball with ay tsao juice, braised bean curd, fried rice with dried turnip, crispy beef, stewed bamboo shoots, and fruit yoghurt. the second day kicked off with a breakfast meal consisting of an array of steamed and fried buns and other lighter dishes that are often served at holidays and festivals. here we tasted shuang gui fang, the special sesame cake for which changzhou is well known and the dish that had been designated as a chinese traditional food at the opening ceremony the day before. we were instructed on how the cakes were made and were guests at a graduation ceremony of apprentice chefs. the lunch that followed this lavish breakfast was held at a hotel on lake taihu where all of the dishes featured bounty taken from the lake right outside the windows. a grouper, like most fish in the traditional chinese cuisine we sampled, was served whole. it arrived with a small sword in its mouth, ready to be disassembled and distributed among the diners. other dishes included crab with fish corn soup, snail and fish with pepper and soy sauce, tihu lake brine shrimp, grilled eel, steamed white fish, dry fried taihu rhodeus fish, grilled needle fish, taihu lake duck marinated with rice wine, and a range of sea vegetables harvested from the shore and the littoral. yet again our stomachs and our senses were filled to beyond capacity. an afternoon visit to yancheng city and remarks from prof. lu jianfang of nanjing museum introduced us to the ancient city and the archaeological work that has been < lange, michael, tye, diane. “an introduction to the culinary traditions of jiangnan region, china.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 carried out there. the evening banquet took place at lake tianmu, hosted by the tianmuhu hotel that bills itself as “china’s first fish culture theme hotel.” again, we were fed by a national master chef and treated to a multivisual introduction to the dishes and their ingredients. the many dishes served included the hotel’s specialty, a reinterpretation of a local foodways: a braised fish head soup prepared in an earthenware casserole dish that is currently being franchised to other locations. our third and final day of the program began with a visit to, and banquet at, a newly opened taoism interpretative site. spring rolls, white fish, shrimp, and crispy noodles were but a few of the many dishes that made up this meal. next we travelled to the city of nanjing. at the nanjing museum we had a taste of kunqu opera and tea followed in the evening by our last banquet together and a boat tour of the city. the final banquet featured nanjing specialties such as famous stinky tofu. the strong, acrid smell of the tofu in preparation belies the subtle and rich flavor, which was a fine complement to yet another wonderful meal. we also were served a purple sweet-potato-based drink the consistency of yogurt. its delicate sweetness and hint of earth made for a nice addition to the meal. the program came to a relaxed conclusion as the closing banquet erupted into the sharing of traditional songs. it is not overstating things to say that our brief introduction to the jiangnan region through its cuisine left us with a case of sensory overload. we have not even tried to capture here the sights and sounds of our journey, but instead have tried to focus on just a few of the highlights of taste, as is appropriate to a short piece in a foodways journal. a meal in jiangnan was not simply a matter of a series of dishes crossing the plate and then the palate. the socialization, the toasting of friends and colleagues, the ritualized drinking and singing that are parts of many foodways traditions across china, were all present and created an overwhelming feeling of friendship and hospitality, of sharing and communion. it will come as a surprise to no one reading this that food can be an incredibly powerful vehicle for social cohesion. brief descriptions of the meals we encountered can only capture the barest minimum of the sociality we experienced on our visit to sample and celebrate the foodways of jiangnan. as tim lloyd so aptly put it when thanking the china folklore society and members of the local organizing committees, we left jiangnan with our minds filled with new experiences, our stomachs filled with delicious foods, and our hearts filled with friendship. as we made our way back home, we felt deep appreciation for the generosity of our hosts and the incredible richness of folk traditions and food ways < lange, michael, tye, diane. “an introduction to the culinary traditions of jiangnan region, china.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 in jiangnan. we also had an increased awareness of the respect the chinese have for forms of traditional culture and of the country’s emergence as an international leader in the recognition of forms of intangible cultural heritage for safeguarding. < lange, michael, tye, diane. “an introduction to the culinary traditions of jiangnan region, china.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 < lange, michael, tye, diane. “an introduction to the culinary traditions of jiangnan region, china.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 < lange, michael, tye, diane. “an introduction to the culinary traditions of jiangnan region, china.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 < lange, michael, tye, diane. “an introduction to the culinary traditions of jiangnan region, china.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 long, lucy m. 2017. review of from canton restaurant to panda express: a history of chinese food in the united states. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 77. © american folklore society 2018 review of: from canton restaurant to panda express: a history of chinese food in the united states haiming liu. new brunswick, nj: rutgers press, 2015. pp. 212, bibliography, index. by: lucy m. long not only is chinese food one of the most popular ethnic cuisines in the united states, it is also a popular subject of critical analysis (chen 2014, cho 2014, coe 2009, lee 2009, mendelson 2016). this addition to the literature offers a thought-provoking overview of chinese food, as both commodity and cultural tradition, that has over the centuries incorporated new styles, new ingredients, and new tastes while maintaining its essential character and strong ties to regional identities. recognizing the role of race in shaping american society, liu explores how chinese food in america represents the “eternal other,” in that no matter how assimilated the food or the individuals preparing and serving it become, it continues to be perceived as “foreign.” at the same time, this food illustrates the complexity of the chinese diaspora and the continuous interchange of people and cuisines across the pacific. through historical and ethnographic accounts and by focusing on individual “moments” in chinese american food history in the form of specific dishes, restaurants, entrepreneurs, cookbooks, and films, liu argues that chinese american food is not only translocal and transnational, it is simultaneously authentically chinese and authentically american. liu offers fascinating data and intriguing interpretations that are both insightful and frustrating; the latter instances, for a number of reasons, make it difficult to embrace the book wholeheartedly. more effective editing could have avoided the repetition and redundancy of information, concepts, and phrases throughout the book, along with grammatical errors and questionable word choices. occasional errors stand out, for example, crab rangoon, a fried wonton filled with cream cheese and crab, is described as made of cream and cheese, rather than the distinctive product known in the us as “cream cheese.” more problematic, however, is a lack of attentiveness to the complexity and nuances long, lucy m. 2017. review of from canton restaurant to panda express: a history of chinese food in the united states. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 78. © american folklore society 2018 of such concepts as authenticity, tradition, identity, cuisine, commodification, and so on, that are central to the author’s main points. simply stating that food carries identity and culture is not illuminating; although the book illustrates that idea, the idea itself needs to be more fully articulated. passages that acknowledge concepts often seem a little tacked on to the otherwise excellent historical and ethnographic descriptions. further, some analyses demand more contextualization within the broader history of the us. identifying american food as british fails to recognize the historical and political complexities making up what might be called mainstream american food. perhaps the most problematic interpretation, however, is liu’s assessment of the perseverance and popularity of chinese food in the us as resulting partly from it being some of the best food in the world. aesthetic judgments of food are highly personal and individualistic; taste is socially constructed, as are notions of edibility, healthiness, and cleanliness. liu’s characterization of chinese food as the best takes away from his own status as an objective scholar and dilutes his more useful observations about the food culture’s flexibility and adaptability. the book is organized historically beginning with the first chinese immigrants to california in the late 1840s, then focuses on the development of chinese american restaurants into the present. these establishments offered work in a society that oftentimes shut out asians from other opportunities, and they also offered spaces for community, nostalgic gathering and eating, and for negotiating chinese identity and culture with the larger american ones. much of the book challenges commonly accepted stereotypes about this diverse ethnic food culture. chapters 1 and 2 describe how the earliest chinese restaurants were established by wealthy chinese entrepreneurs who were experienced not only in running restaurants but also in dealing with international customers. these restaurants actually became models for american-style dining halls and were applauded for their sophistication, cleanliness, and professionalism. as described in chapter 3, however, anti-asian sentiments in the latter part of the 1880s culminated in the 1882 chinese exclusion act and changed the status of chinese immigrants (and american-born chinese) and chinese food. chinese restaurants have had to fight the stereotypes ever since of serving cheap food made from questionable ingredients, even while these restaurants spread throughout the nation. chapter 4 describes how the enduring stereotypes of chinese food are embodied by the dish “chop suey,” an invention in the us that became a mainstay of chinese american food and is even today an icon of its identity. the outsider status of chinese restaurants is further explored in chapter 5 and used partially to explain the well-known affinity that jewish americans hold for chinese food, particularly on christmas day. other scholars long, lucy m. 2017. review of from canton restaurant to panda express: a history of chinese food in the united states. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 79. © american folklore society 2018 have explored this connection as well, and liu could have usefully drawn upon some of that work, particularly those that approach the phenomena as ritual and tradition. liu’s point that chinese american food has always been translocal and transglobal is demonstrated in chapter 6 in his discussion of taipei, taiwan as an important hub in the more recent chinese diaspora in the second half of the 1900s. as such, it contained restaurants serving numerous regional cuisines, particularly hunan. immigrants from taipei brought those styles of cooking and recipes to the us, including the ubiquitous invented american favorite, general tso’s chicken. liu gives only a nod to the chinese immigrants to the us from other nations in the diaspora—hong kong, singapore, malaysia, vietnam, and many more. while i lack the knowledge to assess the fairness of his claim for taipei, i do think that one of the strengths of the book is the locating of developments in chinese american food culture in specific places: san francisco, new york, and, in chapter 7, the san gabriel valley in california from the 1960s on. the restaurant scene there is only the tip of a larger cultural shift in which chinese americans moved out of urban chinatowns, adapted effectively to american society and established their own neighborhoods, grocery stores, and other businesses. they also interacted with other immigrant groups from asia, creating a blended asian american fusion culture. chinese american food culture also responded to trends in the larger american food culture and society, allowing for the rise of chain restaurants. chapter 8 explains how p.f. chang’s was able to transform chinese food into an acceptable and familiar dining experience for middle-class american eaters looking for a “safe” exotic meal. similarly, panda express was able to break into the fast food market. while some of the success is due to entrepreneurial skill, some also reflects the growing multicultural palate of mainstream americans. the final chapter illustrates again the transglobal character of chinese food today by tracing the paths of dumplings from shanghai to taipei to san francisco and back to mainland china. the conclusion reiterates that chinese food has always been both a commodity and a cultural tradition, and significantly, that it is a historical practice for it to be adapted without losing its identity. how does this book compare to others on this topic? liu writes primarily as an historian and ethnographer. he offers a good deal of substance but less readability than some other publications, and his lack of clarity in his exploration of the cultural implications of his information make the book less long, lucy m. 2017. review of from canton restaurant to panda express: a history of chinese food in the united states. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 80. © american folklore society 2018 useful for scholars than it could be. at the same time, liu perhaps makes more general readers aware that chinese food in america is more than just a quick and inexpensive meal. it represents a rich and complex history of people, the food they eat, and the food they serve to others. references: chen, yong. 2014. chop suey, usa: the story of chinese food in america. new york: columbia university press. cho, lily. 2014. eating chinese culture on the menu in small town canada. toronto: university of toronto. coe, andrew. 2009. chop suey: a cultural history of chinese food in the united states. new york: oxford university press. lee, jennifer 8. 2009. the fortune cookie chronicles. new york: twelve. mendelson, anne. 2016. chow chop suey: food and the chinese american journey. new york: columbia university press. boyd, cynthia. 2016. “review of: the food section: newspaper women and the culinary community.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 review of: the food section: newspaper women and the culinary community kimberly wilmot voss. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield, 2014. pp. 252, bibliography, index. by: cynthia boyd the food section: newspaper women and the culinary community, by kimberly wilmot voss, is an in-depth analysis of women’s experiences as food writers and editors of mid-20th century american newspapers. this book documents the impact these women writers had on the domestic lives of women readers and their families through the suggested tips and recipes found within food section pages of newspapers. food enthusiasts, cookbook specialists, and researchers will find the food section a terrific compilation and invaluable resource. author kimberly wilmot voss, an associate professor and area coordinator of journalism in the nicholson school of communication at the university of central florida, has searched through hundreds of newspapers, investigating the life and work of over 60 women journalists who wrote countless articles and columns devoted to food between 1945 and 1975. these relatively unknown women were the “blog writers” of their day, whose tireless devotion to their craft—writing about food and inventing recipes that often educated women and their families on how to eat nutritious meals with cost-saving measures built in—was accomplished without access to the internet. voss recognizes just how thorough these women were in writing and researching food and recipes, leaving readers to ask: how did they do it? voss divides her book into seven sections: “the origins of food journalism in us newspapers,” “food and food journalism during and after world war ii,” “food journalism and the rise of consumer activism,” “cookbooks, boyd, cynthia. 2016. “review of: the food section: newspaper women and the culinary community.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 exchanging recipes, and competitive cookery,” “home economics: the study and practice of domestic science in food journalism,” “restaurant reviewer as journalist,” and “the death of the women’s pages: a changing industry and the legacy of the great food editors.” voss has produced a lively and intricate history of women’s writing influences on food journalism, but some sections in the book overlap and occasionally repeat—not surprising with such an extensive overview of so many women food journalists and their work. according to voss, the mid-20th century in american newspaper history saw budding women journalists find their voice in “the food section,” in what has often been referred to as “soft news.” here, women writers were given free rein to recommend and suggest the kinds of meals, dinner menus, and themed food parties that a predominantly female audience would be keen to emulate in their own homes or those of friends and family. as voss indicates, “the food sections of newspapers reflected gender roles, health standards, and governmental policies about food in a community” (13). notably, women writing about food, whether in local or national newspapers, reflected changing demographics in many cities in the united states. one case in particular was food editor jeanne voltz of the los angeles times who introduced readers to chinese cooking, a novel idea in the late 1960s (13-14). as voss notes, voltz recognized the impact of immigrants on the “new” communities in which they brought, and inevitably shared, their rich and varied food traditions. for many food researchers, historians, and folklorists, voss’s chapter dedicated to “cookbooks, exchanging recipes, and competitive cooking” is a treasure trove of information particularly involving the early history of regional food cookbooks, celebrity chefs and their cookbooks, and food journalists’ own cooking publications. especially interesting is voss’s brilliant discovery of individual journalists who became well-known cookbook writers because they began editing and/or writing for local newspapers. one such writer, peg bracken, became a household name in the 1960s because she wrote a cookbook addressing the needs of working women who complained of balancing their professional lives with their lives at home. bracken was working as an advertising copywriter when her witty and eminently useful, the i hate to cook book, helped land her a job as a newspaper food columnist (not to mention contracts for additional cookbooks following the success of her first) (93-94). this copywriter, turned cookbook author, turned newspaper food journalist, is boyd, cynthia. 2016. “review of: the food section: newspaper women and the culinary community.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 just one of many food writers whom voss examines with an investigative eye. voss includes a useful biographical addendum in the food section that provides information on each of the women newspaper writers she discusses. the book also contains extensive notes for individual chapters, an exhaustive bibliography, and a detailed index. i warmly recommend the food section: newspaper women and the culinary community to historians, folklorists, gender studies scholars, and especially to academic and public librarians who might like to add the volume to their cookbook collections. smith, robert james. 2017. review of food on foot: a history of eating on trails in the wild. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 84. © american folklore society 2018 review of: food on foot: a history of eating on trails in the wild demet güzey. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield food on the go series, 2017. pp. xii, 197, notes, bibliography, index. by: robert james smith the front cover of food on foot promises much in the way of adventure travel, with its picture of sir edmund hillary and sherpa guide tenzing norgay in a relaxed camp setting amidst snow, with a steep peak behind. while the implicit criterion for coverage in the book’s chapters appears to be any food eaten outside the home space and without mechanized travel, the subtitle “on trails in the wild” specifies for us what is meant here by foot. indeed this work recounts gustatory history across a range of journey contexts in its eight chapters, but prominent are the two longest chapters “polar explorations” and “mountain expeditions,” where the author shows his greatest enthusiasm in moments of lyrical prose on the harshness and the sublime effect. these two chapters work through the history of journeys in both settings, and identify the types of food and drink that sustained those on foot. there are many interesting details throughout the work, such as the prominence of wine in early mountaineering, the collection and eating of the fungus tripede-roche, or the eventual use of a pressure cooker to boil water in high altitude mountaineering. decisions made on food and its preparation are traced over time and contexts: for example “pemmican,” a “concentrated mixture of fat and meat” (38) that was essential for polar exploration then also came to be used for high mountain expeditions. while some found the taste and specific combination of ingredients challenging, pemmican was nevertheless effective and many attempts were made over the decades to increase its acceptance. what emerges here is solid coverage of the ongoing struggle to provide food that was both nutritious and sufficiently high in calories for the task and journey undertaken, while being light enough to carry over the required time frame. this dominant theme of the relationship between food and travel in extremis is smith, robert james. 2017. review of food on foot: a history of eating on trails in the wild. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 85. © american folklore society 2018 also traced in chapter 5, “desert travel,” and in chapter 7, “army rations.” yet subsequent sections do not address severe challenges, and so the final chapter, “street food,” seems somewhat tame. while much of this book is informative and makes for enjoyable reading, long sections seem too discursive, however. frequently the first sections of chapters give historical background but make no reference to either “food” or “foot.” the section on cannibalism (105) in tierra del fuego is merely an account given to the captain of the beagle, and conjures awkward thoughts about whose foot journey or trail is intended. in chapter 6, “pilgrimage,” the page and a half considering chaucer’s canterbury tales (129-130) has good detail on food but no mention of walking. at other places then, when either “food” or “foot” is mentioned, the topic seems an arbitrary inclusion. but this is part of the problem of the topic. as the fourth book in a series entitled “food on the go” (the other three cover mechanised forms of transport), one can see that this work requires broad coverage. the geographical coverage of the work is impressive. for example, as an australian, i would not have not expected much coverage of my continent in this relatively short work, yet güzey details a wide range of australian topics on pages 2, 20–31, and 147. however i was concerned when the first fleet was mistakenly dated as 1838 (20) when it actually arrived in 1788. in a later section, napoleon bonaparte (136) and napoleon iii (138) are both referred to in close succession solely as “napoleon.” while such points give some disquiet— since one wonders how many other facts might not be relied upon—all appears well grounded in primary sources, or the earliest printed accounts available, and is detailed in the notes and bibliography. taking on face value those early accounts, such as favenc (1908) on australian exploration, does tend to ignore, however, the important contributions of subsequent scholarship that at least deserve mention in passing. i suggest that güzey’s work is largely a musing upon walking and the discussion of related food. folklorists will find broader enjoyment in it for, in effect, its mode is of an extended campfire yarn, where scope and interesting detail are valued, and especially where the story of food may aid progress along the trail, or perhaps survival. even the attractive front cover has a relaxed hillary and norgay looking to their left off frame as if something interesting has just been said. this book’s many interesting details will instruct, amuse, and be readily recounted by those in calm times on their own trails. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 161-163 © american folklore society 2021 review of: the meanings of maple: an ethnography of sugaring michael a. lange. fayetteville: the university of arkansas press, 2017. pp. xxxix + 191, preface, acknowledgments, introduction, epilogue, b&w images, notes, bibliography, index. review by: lucy m. long __________________________________________________________ maplesugaring is the tapping of sap from trees, then condensing that sap into syrup, usually by boiling. although a variety of trees can be used, sugar maples (acer saccharum) are preferred, and those grow naturally in certain locations, such as vermont, where the process is intertwined with the state’s history, economy, and identity. in the meanings of maple: an ethnography of sugaring, michael a. lange explores these intersections and offers an in-depth look into why maplesugaring is a meaningful representation of the state. in doing so, he demonstrates how scholarly theories are used as lenses to shed light on a subject, and how that subject then can be used to illustrate, challenge, and refine theories. among those concepts are some that are particularly problematic in discussions of tradition, such as authenticity, commodification, heritage, and meaning itself. an important point lange makes is that maplesugaring holds multiple layers of meanings rather than a singular one, and these layers overlap and impact each other. in this way, lange illustrates the dynamic and constructed nature of meaning as well as the richness of maple as a signifier for a food product, a way of life, an occupational skill, an ethos, and a cultural identity. the fact that it has also become a highly effective motif for marketing and tourism has intensified those meanings, rather than diluted them, as some cultural critics might contend. lange bases the book on extensive ethnographic research, enabling him to present views of the sugarers, as they are called, in their own words. it also allows him to explore the ways in which individuals work within a larger community, and the sometimes messiness of defining that community and deciding who has the power and right to represent it. by acknowledging those issues, the book stays away from the romanticization of the place and the tradition that is frequently seen in popular representations. the organization of the book reflects the multiple meanings of maplesugaring, with each chapter introducing larger theoretical questions that are then explored through ethnographic data. the introduction sets a personal tone by describing lange’s brother’s involvement in the tradition. it also neatly states the purpose of the book: “i want to delve into the many and varied ways that humans make meaning with the objects and processes in their lives” (xv). the first of six chapters starts with economic meanings of maple. lange points out that economics is not just about money; it is a system of exchange of social and cultural resources as well as products and labor. within this framework, the bulk operations now long, review, meanings of maple digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 162 characterizing the packaging, distribution, and marketing of maple syrup are still considered aspects of a local economy because their scale is personal and individual. chapter 2 addresses culinary meanings, relying heavily on work by josée johnston and shyon baumann on the contemporary “foodies” movement (2010, for example). other forces at play in current interest in and support for maple syrup could be explored more here, and contextualization within the regional foodways ethos and aesthetic would also help explain what lange identifies as local preferences for a lighter, more delicate syrup. he compares that preference to the french notion of terroir, the concept of food tasting of the place in which it was produced. he also adds an interesting description of other culinary traditions associated with the sugarhouse (the structure where sap is boiled into syrup), such as smoking bear meat, drinking sap, and frying eggs. chapter 3 follows with geographic meanings and the significance of vermont as a physically bounded space, both legally and culturally. physical motifs—the maple leaf and the state outline—publicly emphasize that place-based significance and mobilize it for marketing. lange might also have addressed the customary shapes of containers frequently employed in packaging, since they are commonly used in the us for marketing moonshine, apple cider, and other “old-timey” styled foods, evoking similar meanings to those attached to the syrup in vermont. the chapter ends with an analysis of a carving of vermont’s outline from taphole maple (wood showing the holes made by taps) as demonstrating the inseparability of place, maple, and vermont in the minds of sugarers as well as tourists. ecological meanings of maple are explored in chapter 4 from the perspectives of three types of ecological thought: preservation, conservation, and sustainability. lange sees sugarmakers as upholding the latter two, partly because their involvement in sugaring requires immersion in the physical world surrounding the trees. he describes a recently developed technology using younger trees and allowing for “plantations” of maples to highlight sugarers’ traditional attitudes but discusses how the new way “violates the vermont sense of ecological awareness” (101) and threatens sugaring’s traditional ethos. lange calls for a more holistic cultural ecology that recognizes the meanings given by people to interactions with the natural environment. chapters 5 and 6 complement each other, the first focusing on agricultural meanings, and the second on heritage meanings. historically, sugarmakers were also farmers; they capitalized on what grows and had to be cognizant of nature’s cycles. while outsiders might see tapping sap as a form of gathering, the people doing it perceive of it as agriculture—they tend the trees and process the sap, challenging academic dichotomies between hunter-gatherers and farmers as well as popular assumptions that romanticize sugaring. heritage in vermont is commonly related to its agricultural history since small-scale agriculture has supported the state’s economy and shaped its culture. lange discusses heritage as a question of what is considered “proper” (perhaps alluding to anthropologist mary douglas?) as well as property, which implies a sense of ownership and stewardship of the sugaring tradition. the book ends with a brief epilogue on maple as a vehicle for the state’s identity, both externally and internally. the meanings of maple offers much food for thought and “is good to think,” as anthropologist claude lévi-strauss might say. it is an excellent foundation for examining scholarship relevant to food from both social science and humanities digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 163 perspectives. lange’s approach of starting with theories, then applying them to ethnographic data, then using that data to comment on the theories makes the volume useful for classroom teaching, although perhaps not as accessible to general readers who might find some discussions too nuanced or “philosophical.” the book would pair nicely with other work on the meanings of food—folklorist kathy neustadt’s study clambake of the new england food event comes to mind. overall, meanings of maple makes an insightful contribution to the scholarly exploration of the meanings of food, illustrating how meaning is intertwined with behaviors and attitudes. perhaps more significantly, lange demonstrates that understanding how meanings are constructed and used is crucial to understanding how and why some traditions not only endure, but also sustain local environments, economies, and cultures. references cited: johnston, josée, and shyon baumann. 2010. foodies: democracy and distinction in the gourmet foodscape. new york: routledge. neustadt, katherine d. 1992. clambake: a history and celebration of an american tradition. amherst: university of massachusetts press. neustadt, katherine d. 1992. clambake: a history and celebration of an american tradition. amherst: university of massachusetts press. merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911 by: sabine merta photo 1. franz von stuck’s poster design for the internationale hygieneausstellung, dresden, 1911, featuring the “awake eye” motif. this public domain image courtesy of wikimedia commons at (access february 19, 2017). the german hygiene exhibition in dresden, in 1911, emphasized the importance of food, hygiene, and health to the human body. its merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 presentation of all the newest scientific findings at the time about modern food hygiene, food preparation, and the food industry was of great public interest. a highlight showed the digestion of food in a transparent human body. this research note identifies the rich food and nutrition information to be found in the interrelated sections, events, and literature of this exhibition. it also conveys an international sense of the historical development of scientific inquiry and exposition on these research areas. the international hygiene exhibition, dresden the “international hygiene exposition” (ihe) took place in dresden, germany, from may 6 until october 31, 1911. with 5.5 million visitors, it was the best-attended exposition ever held in dresden. located in the urban exposition palace built in 1896, the exhibition was the idea of karlaugust lingner (1861-1916), the successful german manufacturer of odol mouthwash. lingner, who had developed and sold hygienic articles since 1892, felt himself responsible for public health education. in 1908, the verein zur veranstaltung der internationalen hygiene-ausstellung (“association for preparation of the international hygiene exposition”) was founded. two years later a poster competition was organized. after the young and not yet popular poster artist wilhelm petzhold won, lingner asked a wellknown poster artist from münich, franz von stuck, to create a proper poster using petzhold’s design motif. von stuck’s exposition poster was such a success that its “awake eye” became a symbol for hygienic questions. eleven countries had convened at the technical university to plan the details of the hygiene exposition. the exposition’s catalog shows that the many topics discussed included the quality of food, mineral water, sports, german health insurance for workers, infectious diseases, tropical diseases, the human and foreign department for health, and a range of other food topics (ihe 1911). lingner was also elected director of the exposition. he believed that “die hygiene ist die lehre von der erhaltung und pflege der menschlichen gesundheit, die lehre von der erhaltung des menschlichen wohlbefindens” (“hygiene is the instruction to preserve and to take care of human health, the merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 instruction to preserve human well-being”). his intention for the exposition was to give the public advice on how to keep healthy. to develop health awareness and to teach hygienic education to the general public were his specific aims. hygienic topics were very relevant for people in germany at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century because of the unhygienic living conditions found in urban communities. those like lingner felt that the rise of tuberculosis, skin and venereal diseases, and the low quality of food made a public hygiene exposition necessary. the exposition had significant support from reform movements (siedlungsund gartenstadtbewegung). for example, it became a vehicle for the promotion of ideas about urban development. advocates called for the construction of green housing estates with lots of light that contrasted to the unhealthy living conditions found in the big and overpopulated cities. although the exposition led to improvements, such as the creation of a department for disinfection and the construction of central slaughterhouses, it did not result in the creation of a hygiene museum in dresden as lingner planned. it was an objective that he was unable to realize before his relatively early death in 1916.1 the early beginnings of the international hygiene exhibition in dresden the ihe was part of a series of pubic initiatives in germany around public hygiene education that dated back to 1871 when a chair for hygiene was founded. six years later a chemical center for health service was opened, in 1878 a chair for hygiene at the saxon university in leipzig followed, and the idea of opening a hygiene museum in dresden was introduced in 1880. the huge success of a general german hygiene exhibition in 1883 in berlin sparked the idea to do the same in dresden and to open a permanent hygiene museum there. in 1883 the saxon government discussed this proposal but with no result (poser 1998:140). not until 1903 was the idea of an international hygiene exhibition in dresden born, which lingner initiated by organizing an exhibition pavilion on the topic of widespread diseases and their treatment (ihe 1908:31). the success of this exhibition pavilion with 220,000 visitors showed that there was widespread merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 public interest in hygiene. for the next several years this pavilion was shown in many german towns including frankfurt am main (1904), münich (1905), and kiel (1906). later it was integrated into the general ihe in dresden (ihe 1910:19). the content of the international hygiene exhibition in dresden the ihe in dresden addressed 50 different topics that were subdivided into popular, scientific, historical, industrial and literary departments. also included were special exhibitions organized by external organizations and associations. for example, ten european and non-european countries presented on the state of the development of their hygiene. the exhibition programme of 1908 refers to literature on different topics covered and indicates that public lectures about the special exhibitions were also given. as a kind of climax, the ihe organized live demonstrations on the good influence of sports on human health (ihe 1908:37). the industrial department was the biggest section of the ihe and it demonstrated an interest in technical hygiene research (ihe 1911:81). many companies showed their new products there. the popular department, with its “human body and its organs,” was the darling of the public. this exhibit of a glassy human body remained one of the most famous parts in the later hygiene museum. the following topics were addressed in the industrial section: the basics of life shown by microorganisms, cells and cell division, the human body and its organs, personal hygiene, apartment and settlement, human bodies shown at different life stages, widespread diseases and their treatments and occupational hygiene. these departments taught basic biological and medical knowledge and stressed the benefits of the health service. merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 the scientific department gave a systematic overview of hygiene knowledge (ihe 1911). the 43 topics covered included illnesses, vaccinations, disinfection, control of epidemics and statistics, air and sunlight, balneology (the therapeutic use of natural healing springs), meteorology and climatology, baby and youth care, school hygiene, occupation and work, technology and machines. next to jobs and work, illnesses were at the center of the ihe. in the occupation and work section, occupational statistics, occupational hygiene, the chemical industry, and health and safety regulations at work were also important topics. nutrition, a topic i will turn to in more depth shortly, was also covered. the historical department presented the history of hygiene from prehistory until modern times, including hygiene in primitive societies. the roman empire seemed to be exemplary. the historical-genetic development of hygiene was also described in modern times up to the present. ihe displays were based on original materials, models and realistic representations (ihe1908:7). the division of the exhibition space into departments served to appeal to different audiences, and the broad range of topics covered attracted a wide audience. the industrial department was aimed at entrepreneurs and factory owners while the popular and ethnographic department was intended for everybody. the scientific department for scientists, medical doctors, and civil servants was designed to give them the newest information about hygiene. on each floor there were special signs to direct visitors to the appropriate section. the ihe succeeded in attracting 5.5 million people from may to october 1911, more than the 4 million who attended the international health exhibition in london (poser 1998:147). civil servants on business trips and members of many societies and clubs were invited to increase the number of visitors. during the exhibition, around 400 national and international conventions took place in dresden (poser 1998:147). merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 preparation and realization of the ihe organizers of the ihe had two main aims: to promote improved hygiene among the general population and to clearly show the newest findings in the area of hygiene. lingner, the initiator of the ihe and founder of the hygiene museum in dresden, identified the core problems of individual hygiene as baby care, nutrition and alcoholism. he believed that the exhibition would result in a more satisfied citizen in a good state of health and with a better standard of living: the biggest goal, to awaken and strengthen the interest of citizens in their physical health and individual hygiene, should have the support of [the] state. the state had to invest millions of german marks into public health care, and this only will stop if citizens revise their hygienic rules and doctrines. if the exhibition is able to raise hygienic standards and to increase health awareness, the international hygiene exhibition of 1911 will fulfill one of the most important cultural tasks (ihe 1911:12). the main catalog was a programme that gave a short overview about the exhibition’s content. the subject matter was divided into 12 main groups according to scientific points of view. within these groups there were subgroups that gave practical hygiene information and addressed legislation and social efforts concerning hygiene. the different groups were chaired by leading scientists, while honorary members were chosen from all nations. the first group talked about topics like air, sunlight, earth and water; the second group was responsible for apartments and settlement; and the third group, which interests us, focused on food. merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 nutrition and food the topic of nutrition and food was subdivided into modern dietetics under the chairmanship of the leading german food chemist josef könig; meat products under the leadership of the director of the veterinary department of the imperial public health department, berlin; dairy products under the chairmanship of the director of the hygienic institute of the university of strasbourg; and food research under the chairmanship of the chemical-hygienic department of the imperial public health department, berlin (ihe 1911:16). presented first of all was metabolism of the human body (body heat and organ function) while at rest and at work. next were single food components like proteins, fats and carbohydrates as shown by their chemical properties, their heat of combustion (calories) and equivalent values. their different influences on human metabolism were discussed, including the effects of water and nutritive salts. addressed last were the nutritional needs required to fuel an adult body and to keep it fit and able to work. topics included the use and good digestion of foodstuffs in relation to topics such as: quantity, volume, temperature and meals; the question of which diet would be best, whether vegetarian, meatbased, or a combination of vegetarian and meat-based; preparation of food and the effect of stimulant foodstuffs; and the financial cost of food and nutrition for the masses. there were common schemata to the subject of nutrition. point b dealt with the subject of animal foodstuffs. it was stressed that when eating meat, its origin, structure and value should be known (animals for slaughter, venison, poultry, fish, crustaceans, and mussels). questions were raised concerning the health risks of consuming meat: were there substances in meat which could be harmful to health such as parasites or infectious diseases? it was recommended that damaged, merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 low-quality, or falsified meat be identified (ihe 1911:31). to ensure good quality, stricter controls were advocated for slaughtering cattle, controlling the import and export of meat, and inspecting meat (including for trichina), meat markets, and butchers. suggestions were made about what to do with inedible meat (how to refuse it and how to improve low quality meat), rules about what to do with low quality meat, how to handle slaughter benches, and the need for buildings and slaughterhouses to be regulated. legislation concerning all aspects of meat preservation (minced meat; sausages; addition of preservatives; preservation by cold, heat, drying, salting, pickling, or smoking; animal fats, glue substances, beef extracts, and stock cubes) should be matters of public discussion. keeping eggs fresh was very important because they were seen as meat for the poor. because eggs and milk were cheap animal proteins for workers, dairy farming and dairy products were a focus of the exhibition. besides milk, breeds, feeding, shearing time, seasons, and other hygienic points were important topics. it was recommended that the milk trade and products not be negatively influenced by pollution with dirt or microorganisms coming from the animal itself or the surrounding animals in the stable. stricter control of stables in the dairy and milk trade was demanded. it was argued that special physical, chemical, and bacteriological methods be introduced to the milk trade in order to investigate milk and to find any bad substances in it. pasteurization and the need to heat milk were a subject of discussion. preservation additions, milk proofs, and limits for canned milk were prescribed. forms of long lasting milk like canned milk and powdered milk, as well as methods to preserve milk with the help of bacteria (like sour milk, yogurt, kefir, or kumys) were introduced to the audience (ihe 1911:32). cream and butter production, falsification, pollution, and spoilage, as well as substitutes such as margarine or artificial cheese, were a focus. in the end, new stricter food laws were proposed. merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 vegetables, grains, and fruits comprised another main exhibition area. here especially the composition of vegetables as foodstuffs was interesting. different cereals made from rice, corn, millet, and buckwheat were shown with the help of visual aids. under the topic of wheat, different flours, grinds, sicknesses of wheat, and its substitutes were considered. the process of baking bread and the bread trade were dealt with intensively. the industrial production of sugar followed upon the extensive information given to the public about vegetables, potatoes, fruits, and dried fruits (ihe 1911:33). point d conveyed information about the meaning of coffee, tea, tobacco, cocoa, drinks, and alcohol on human nutrition and their bad influences on our bodies. photos and pictures illustrated spices, and especially the toxic influence of alcohol to the health of the human body. the focus on alcohol related directly to the big problem alcoholism posed in the period, particularly among the working class (ihe 1911:34). point e explained chemical, physical, microscopic, and bacteriological analysis of foodstuffs and toxic substances. a special emphasis was placed on the nutritional law of may 14, 1879, which prescribed the right packing material, colors, equipment, and containers for foodstuffs (ihe 1911:35). finally, the historical department gave an overview of all items of personal hygiene (nutrition, clothing, cleaning of the body, sports, and work). it covered topics such as new and older forms of food, famine foods, drinks, intoxicants and spices, eating habits, meals, cutlery, dinner service, cult food, seasonal meals, artificial foodstuffs, diets, and food trade. the special catalog for the nutrition group the part of the ihe devoted to nutrition fell under the merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 leadership of three chairmen, joseph könig, who was professor at the imperial university and director of the agricultural experimental institute in münster; professor adolf, director of the medical clinic halle an der saale; and emil abderhalden, famous professor and director of the physiological institute of the veterinary university, berlin. metabolism in animals and plants was illustrated in point i of the exhibition: we start with the plants and follow the building of many metabolism products on the basis of the same chemical elements. all these substances are eaten by animals and become essential combinations in the cells, organs and finally build the body of animals. . . the comparison of single physical elements gives us an impression of the processes of metabolism in single cells. we follow this metabolism process starting with its origin in the plant, over the transformation in the animal body, step by step, to its metabolism as end products. . . we would like to know in which quantity, and under which circumstances, single foodstuffs are needed. human and animal excrement gives information about the input and output of foodstuffs. by this method we can determine exactly the kind and quantity of food bodies require. special appliances help to analyze this excrement and others help to give us precise information about the gaseous input (oxygen) and output of carbonic acid (gas metabolism) (könig, schmidt, and abderhalden 1911:5). the plant accumulates sunlight in form of energy, which it needs to build up new plant cells. this energy will be free, again, when the cell metabolism of animals burns it during work or producing body heat. here the energy in terms of the nutrition received was compared merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 with the delivered energy, so that the metabolism of energy could be determined exactly with the calorimeter (könig, schmidt, and abderhalden 1911:6). then the description became very scientific and difficult for everybody to understand. the nutritional and financial value of foodstuffs was the second point of view that had to do with plants. it said: “the cheapest vegetable is the potato. the . . . use of animal food is much better than the one of plants, while vegetables are much cheaper than meat” (könig, schmidt, and abderhalden 1911:11). it was demonstrated how many grams of water, protein, fat, and carbohydrate were in one kilogram of beef, fish, eggs, milk, or cheese. the cheapest food was determined to be milk. the food intake required by an adult, who weighs 70 kilograms (or approximately 155 pounds), at work and rest, was provided and illustrated. changes were noted by age, including how fat was most needed in the first stages of a human’s life. the different influences on human metabolism of elements such as temperature and carbon and steam secretion were a focus of research. the 13 food tables that followed included one for dairy products, another for eggs and cheese, another for meat (fresh, pickled or smoked), and so forth. a comparison between the nutritional value of food and alcohol showed that alcohol really was not nourishment for the human body (könig, schmidt, and abderhalden 1911:13). point iii exhibited the secrets of digestion in bottles. point iv showed moulages of a meat diet, a vegetable diet, a mixed diet, a milk diet, and related excrement. point v showed three tables by professor albertoni from bologna, which illustrated the influence of egg, meat, and wine consumption on the metabolism of vegetarian italian farmers. the influence of fish consumption in the meals was visible in three other tables. point vii showed in a schemata how digestion functioned in a human body, and merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 point viii provided digested examples of raw vegetables, bread, and meat, with digestion secretions in bottles. a mock up of the diet kitchen in the imperial clinic in halle an der saale showed the stomach, intestines, metabolism, and kidneys of sick people. in addition to the general catalog for nutrition, there were many special catalogs. the special meat supply catalog of the scientific department of the ihe traced the origins of the production of meat. further it gave a definition, ingredients, and nutritional value of meat (illing 1911). the priority of meat, or the answer to the social meat question, was at the center of the exhibition discussion: meat is one of the most important foodstuffs, and humans, who mainly live on the consumption of strong and well prepared meat, demonstrate their better health by a better physique and condition. there is no scientific doubt about it that the everyday experience and . . . the longer lasting resistance against bad influences [bacteria, virus etc.] while consuming enough quantity of meat during special periods supports scientific findings. it is an hygiene problem and it should be a main goal that there is enough meat for everybody in the society (illing 1911:13). because meat was basic to nutrition from the point of view of the scientists, they discussed how to achieve better quality and better value from meat. it was questioned if importing cheap meat from other countries should be allowed or if it would be better to rely on german meat and to improve its quality by stricter controls and laws. the special catalog on milk supply tried to connect the interests of the dairy industry with the interests of science and technology, in order to achieve a better quality of milk (löhnis 1911). a special milk hygiene laboratory was installed to demonstrate new techniques of milk preservation. milk and eggs were seen merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 as the animal proteins of the poor (löhnis 1911:7). there was an emphasis on the importance of milk and dairy quality controls. the longest special catalog was about vegetables and the control of foodstuffs. first starches (cereals, wheat, bread, starch, and nutritive salt) were mentioned. then fats, oils, sugar, honey, vegetables, mushrooms, and canned foods were discussed, followed by alcohol (beer, wine, spirits), spices, tea, coffee, cocoa, alcohol-free drinks, and fruit juices. food control laboratories and special control instruments were to ensure quality. there was also a special library included on this topic (pleißner 1911:6). conclusions the goal of the ihe dresden was to produce responsible citizens in the area of hygiene and living conditions. the newest scientific findings on the topic of hygiene were aimed at industry leaders while hygienic education targeted consumers. the exhibition called for improved hygienic standards in food production, imports, exports, packing, and transportation. these were to be enforced by better and stricter controls of foodstuffs and more stringent food laws. the ihe was an attempt to solve social questions raised by conurbation, where formally separate suburbs, towns, and villages were merging into one large urban center. organizers believed that public health would be improved by the newest hygienic findings. the 5.5 million visitors at ihe dresden show how important this information was for the everyday person on the street. it also was intended as further training for civil servants. after the exhibition, exhibitors were asked to leave their tables, arrangements and demonstration objects there for use in the hygiene museum planned to be built later in dresden. in sum, the aims of the ihe were hygienic education of the merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 population in an effort to help manage social problems as a result of industrialization, economic aid, demonstration of capacity, and state representation. in 1912, a “memorandum for the foundation of a hygiene museum,” which was based on a constitution of the “association for a national hygiene museum” was produced. two main aims were considered: hygienic education for everyone, and overview and information about the newest findings on the subject of hygiene. many reports appeared in popular and scientific publications of this period indicating that the ihe in dresden was a positive public success; the dresdner nachrichten, a dresden newspaper, for example, emphasized how the ihe dresden attendance beat the recent world exhibition held in brussels. only some social democrats criticized the ihe, claiming that it would change the bad circumstances and living standards of the working class. if the ihe dresden really changed living standards in working class districts solely by teaching hygiene, however, remains another question. notes (1) plans for the hygiene museum were interrupted by world war i and the sudden death of lingner. after the war there was not enough money to build the museum; in 1930 only a few samples were left from the original ihe (poser 1998:149). references cited friedberger, w. n.d. der gläserne mensch [the glassy human body]. urania-universum 1: 37. illing, georg. 1911. sonderkatalog für die gruppe fleischversorgung der wissenschaftlichen abteilung der internationalen hygiene-ausstellung, dresden 1911 [special merta, sabine. 2016. “food at the international hygiene exhibition, dresden, 1911.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 catalog for the meat supply group of the scientific department of the international hygiene exhibition dresden, 1911]. international hygiene exhibition, dresden (ihe) [internationale hygiene-ausstellung, dresden]. 1908. programme. . 1910. official speech in the technical university, dresden. february 12. . 1911. catalogue. könig, joseph, adolf schmidt, and emil abderhalden. 1911. sonderkatalog der gruppe ernährungslehre der internationalen hygiene-ausstellung programmen, dresden [special catalog of the nutrition science group at the international hygiene exhibition dresden]. löhnis, f. 1911. sonderkatalog der gruppe milch-versorgung der internationalen hygiene-ausstellung, dresden [special catalog for the milk supply group of the international hygiene exhibition, dresden]. pleißner, m. 1911. sonderkatalog für die gruppe pflanzliche lebensmittel und lebensmittel-untersuchung der wissenschaftlichen abteilung der internationalen hygiene-ausstellung, dresden [special catalog for the vegetable, food, and control of foodstuffs group of the international hygiene exhibition, dresden]. poser, stefan. 1998. museum der gefahren. die gesellschaftliche bedeutung der sicherheitstechnik. das beispiel der hygieneausstellungen und museen für arbeitsschutz in wien, berlin und dresden um die jahrhundertwende [museum of danger. the social meaning of safety measures. the example of the hygiene exhibitions and museum for maintenance of industrial health and safety standards in vienna, berlin and dresden at the turn of the century]. in cottbuser studien zur geschichte von technik, arbeit und umwelt, 3 [cottbuser studies on the history of technology, work and environment 3]. münster/new york/münchen/berlin. < merta, sabine. “the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern) late 19th and early 20th century german diet theories seeking to extend the human life span by: sabine merta in germany at the end of the 19th century health guides were written giving hints on how to lengthen the human life span. at first this kind of literature was written for the upper strata seeking methods to return to a more healthy and natural lifestyle as opposed to a dissipated life of luxury. obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other health problems became popular topics and were interpreted as consequences of civilization. wise sayings from greek physicians like “more humans are killed by food than by the sword” provided a topic for discussion. in their search to find the right medical methods to fight these increasing health problems, the authors of 19th century health guides collected diet advice and recipes as well as prescriptions from ancient medical guides. they followed the advice of the french philosopher of the enlightenment, jean-jacques rousseau, “retournez à la nature” and combined it with their own nutritional ideas. consequently, a new generation of monographs were created about how to lengthen the life-span with titles like langes leben und gesundes alter [long life and healthy age] ((kluge 1910), gesundheit, verlängertes leben [health and a longer life] ((breistroff 1912), die verhütung des frühen alterns und mittel zur verlängerung des lebens [the prevention of an early old age and methods to lengthen the life] ((weber 1905), wie erreicht man ein hohes alter? [how to reach an old age?]((merschnikow 1912), die kunst des essens und ihr einfluß auf gesundheit, kraft und langes leben [the art of eating and its influence on health, power and long life] ((möller 1924), and das geheimnis, das menschliche leben zu verlängern [the secret to lengthening life] ((maßdorf n.d.). how this special brand of prescriptive literature developed and how it diffused into other social groups is the subject of this < merta, sabine. “the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 research note. the specific questions i consider here are: 1.) when was this variety of prescriptive literature published? 2.) who was the intended audience? were these monographs written for special groups? 3.) what were the motives behind these diet instructions? 4.) were there the ideological implications? 5.) do we find statistical material in this literature? and if so, at what period does it first occur? 6.) are there recurring methods promoted regarding how to lengthen the span of human life? 7.) was this health literature only a phenomenon of the period, or did it become some kind of fashion or even a movement? 8.) what kind of influence did scientific findings of the 19th and 20th century have on this literature? an analysis of guides for lengthening life expectancy there are five different kinds of guides. first, there are manuals that instruct on how to lengthen the human lifespan with dietary advice based on the personal experiences of a physician’s patients ((e.g. see weber 1905). second, there are dietary guides (mostly coming from new york, london or paris) founded on new international scientific findings ((e.g. see lorand 1909). thirdly, there are dietary guides written by medical doctors who report on their own life experiences and give evidence about the right lifestyle drawing on examples of persons they know. ((e.g. see hermann 1902). fourthly, there are pseudo guides for elderly people. these are health guides aimed at a general readership but that claim to be written specifically for older people. ((e.g. see nickolson 1869). fifth, there are guides for older people which combine medical < merta, sabine. “the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 research and medical experiences with medical slimming cures ((e.g. see kluge 1910). these guides for lengthening life expectancy have different structures and contents. in the book dietetics in old age (1902), josef hermann, a medical doctor, defines old age, explains when you belong to this group, gives the indicators of old age, reviews dietetics in old age, and offers examples from his own life as an elderly person ((1902:10). in the chapter on hygiene in old age he writes that old age is a metamorphosis going backwards ((hermann 1902: 41). here he speaks about nutrition, breathing, physical exercises, care for the soul and intellectual power which help people to stay away from affliction and sickness. he believes that either a vegetarian diet or one that includes meat combined is permissible as long as the individual follows the rule of moderation that is a must in old age. meat consumption should be limited because cell and body metabolism are much slower. after eating a lunch with a little bit of meat, one should have no meat or eggs for dinner. if you are hungry in the afternoon you can drink milk, eat fruits or drink a milk coffee. having a regular eating time and way of eating, and chewing food well as a preparation for digestion, should be observed ((hermann 1902: 42-47). alcohol and tobacco are forbidden. in the last and the longest chapter “notification of my own life,” hermann describes his own lifestyle and how he stayed fit by following these ways of prevention ((1902: 64-81). the book, the prevention of an early old age and methods to lengthen the life, by dr. weber starts with the sentence: my topic is related to the theory of how to lengthen life, but is not identical. our great teacher hufeland has said so many good things in his macrobiotic that my work seems to be unnecessary, but the emphasis on some points out of my long experience makes it original ((weber 1905:1). weber’s guide begins with the prophylaxis of old age, the prophylaxis of “senilitas praecox,” ((weber 1905: 2), or the quick getting older of organs and their functions. he references doctor brunton who pronounced the importance of good nutrition for healthy blood vessels, veins and lymph system organs ((weber 1905: 2). he says for the efficiency of blood circulation, brain vessels, digestion, joints, heart and nerves, you should live according to his dietary advice. he prescribes: following a moderate diet will reduce the inclination for deposits to develop in the fine blood vessels, and physical exercise helps to produce an increased < merta, sabine. “the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 blood flow to all organs and of course to the brain. the fine blood vessels are forced to work harder and so their elasticity is preserved ((weber 1905:4). he gives practical examples based on his former patients. then he informs readers about the different kinds of contemporary medical slimming cures, for example the german oertelsche cure, which recommends reducing excess weight by dehydration through limiting water intake and strenuous physical exercise, the mitchell milk cure, or the mineral water drinking cure ((weber 1905: 15-22; see merta 2003: 237-47). weber bases his argument on a combination of own patients’ experiences and new medical findings and slimming cures. his rules are: to keep all organs in a strong condition, to fight tendencies of sickness if they are inherited or acquired, to be temperate in eating, drinking and sexual lust, to engage in physical exercises outside in fresh air with breathing training and climbing and walking tours, to go early to bed and to get up early, to take alternating cold and hot baths combined with massage, to undertake regular work and brain training, to be aware of your moods and to fight passion and nervous fear ((weber 1905: 87). kluge promotes his book, long life and healthy age, as public hygiene instruction for everybody. he begins his writing with hufeland. kluge writes down rules which should be followed if you want to live longer while staying healthy. the first chapter “to get old, its character and its reasons,” opens with the sentence: “to get old is a normal physiological process” ((kluge 1910:3). here he discusses all questions about getting old, the time frame, the physiological processes, previous explanations, previous criticism, factors which help to speed up getting older, comparison between getting old and sickness, and anatomy of getting old. kluge talks about the process of getting old very intensively in comparison with the other guides. chapter two is about the right diet. he criticizes lahmann’s theory that sicknesses come from the wrong mixture of salt in the blood ((kluge 1910:59; merta 2003:134 and supports the medical position that voit’s protein dogma is right ((merta 2003:71, 153). he thinks eating meat is good, as long as the glands and the secretion organs are still working. moderate meat consumption is allowed. older people with less functional organs should avoid consuming much animal protein coming from meat. instead, milk and cheese should be eaten everyday. then he reports on his personal experiences with patients who lived on milk and milk products in their everyday diet. he presents metschnikoff’s theory of the body that lactose is responsible for digestive functioning. kluge believes that milk sugar is very important for good digestion in old age and < merta, sabine. “the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 pronounces the importance of lactose in milk and milk products to support digestion. he feels that you are poisoning your body if your digestion does not work properly ((kluge 1910:71). the rest of foodstuffs such as plants, salt and spices, he declares as not so important because he believes that there is no evidence showing their influence on longevity. his nutrition rule is: “less meat, much milk; the consumption of vegetables, cereals and fruits depends on one’s health condition and efficiency; less salt and less spices” ((kluge 1910: 73). concerning the quantity of food, he believes that one should never eat more than to satisfy your hunger, and he warns that over nourishment is one main factor in shortening life expectancy. after this nutrition advice, the general dietary rules follow. in his conclusions kluge summarizes the five most important principles for a longer life: first, avoid sicknesses that you are able to avoid and do not waste too much life energy. second, improve and care for your organs. third, be moderate in eating, drinking and sex: “who wants to live long, has to eat less!” ((kluge 1910: 181). fourth, dietary and physical exercises should be practiced. fifth, all sickness which comes with older age should be treated early and very exactly ((kluge 1910: 177-184). he ends his book by saying that the real picture of aged people you could find in his doctor’s office ((kluge 1910: 184). nickolson, a member of the american vegetarianism movement and follower of sylvester graham, wrote a guide titled, health, luck and old age or how the human being should live? (1869). he offers emotional and moral reasons for following a vegetarian diet, sharing the scientific findings of dr. beaumont ((nicholson 1869: 36, 57, 58) in new york, who made observations about the digestion of food through a hole from a gun bullet in his stomach and dr. burdell who did experiments on the effects of tea on rabbits, squirrels and birds. he also mentions george combe who believed that there is a natural constitution ((nickolson 1869: 42). he argues that his own fourteen year experience as vegetarian should be evidence enough to realize that this is the only truly natural diet ((nickolson 1869: foreword, 3536). his books starts with a chapter about plants as food ((nickolson 1869:37-41). you can find all the arguments of the vegetarianism movement in this guide: in the bible god tells people to eat plants, killing animals leads to killing humans and makes people aggressive, the human body is made to only digest vegetables, vegetables keep us healthy and positively influence our souls ((nickolson 1869: 3741). tea, coffee, tobacco and alcohol are “anti vital” or life destroying ((nickolson 1869: 42, 44,47, 54-55, 58-59). breast-feeding mothers especially should avoid consuming these poisonous matters because of the damage they do to the health of < merta, sabine. “the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 their babies ((nickolson 1869: 44-45). when nickolson talks about the preparation of food, he instructs that vegetables shouldn’t be boiled too much and made too spicy. fruits should be washed very well in clean and fresh spring water ((nickolson 1869: 59-60). fresh clean spring water and a hygienic place for the preparation of vegetarian food are obligatory ((nickolson 1869: 60-62). as a follower of sylvester graham, he devotes one chapter to whole wheat bread: bread always must be baked from whole wheat. the grain must be washed very well before milling. the bread should be made with very clean water by clean hands kneaded and placed in clean baking forms. advice for bathing, physical exercise, and clothing follows. the guide ends by countering arguments against vegetarian food and is not much different from a general contemporary health guide ((nickolson 1869: 67-72). you cannot find any special characteristics for the elderly, rather nothing is age related. that means you cannot find any hints about the changes people undergo during the process of getting old (such as slower metabolism or less excretion). to get old, its reasons and its treatment, written by the karlsbader physician arnold lorand, was first published in1909 and its last edition appeared in the year 1932. chapter one analyzes age physiologically: the change of the blood glands, thyroid glands, sex hormones, nerves etc. in chapter two lorand reports on the reasons for getting old, the prevention and the treatment. chapter three gives advice on how to support the function of detoxifying organs. chapter four helps to support the skin and kidney functions. chapter five recommends natural remedies like light, air and physiological exercises. chapter six, the longest chapter with twenty pages, shows how to lengthen life with good nutrition. chapter seven reports on getting proper sleep. chapter eight deals with sex life. chapter nine addresses hygiene of the soul. chapter ten deals with special treatments for older people. chapter eleven discusses the positive effects of ultraviolet light. chapter twelve introduces the prevention and treatment of arteriosclerosis. chapter thirteen explains the meaning of sicknesses. chapter fourteen gives hygienic advice for brain work. chapter fifteen completes and sums up the book with the following “twelve commandments for long living”: 1. take care that you do enough exercise in fresh air, if possible in the sunshine. try to walk a long distance every day. 2. eat meat only in limited quantity and only once a day. the diet should consist mainly of raw milk coming from healthy cows or goats, eggs, cereals, green vegetables, butter, cheese and fruits. every third month you < merta, sabine. “the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 should avoid eating meat and you should chew your food very well. 3. bathe every day and if possible once a week go to a turkish bath. 4. pay attention to your everyday stool; if necessary take a natural laxative. 5. wear comfortable clothing that breathes. cotton is the best material for the summer. in winter you can wear woolen underwear. your shirt collar should be wide enough for good breathing and in the summer time you should choose light colors while you should wear dark colors during the winter. 6. go early to bed and get up early. 7. sleep in a dark and quiet room with the window open. a man shouldn’t sleep less than 6 ½ and not longer than 7 ½ hours; a woman not longer than 8 or 8 ½ hours. 8. rest once a week for a whole day and try to spend saturday until monday outside in the countryside or in the mountains. 9. avoid a negative frame of mind and excitement. don’t worry about something you cannot change or what will come in future and don’t talk about negative things. 10. temperate your sexual lust, but also don’t repress your sexual instinct absolutely. get married and if you are widowed, get married, again. 11. avoid overheated pubs with steam heating or bad ventilation. 12. don’t consume too much alcohol, tobacco, coffee or tea. the “twelve commandments for long living” demonstrate that the authors of these guides were recruited from the life reform movement since this advice can also be found in more general life reform literature. there are no differences between their rules for a natural lifestyle and these commandments. the authors of prescriptive literature on extending life generally tried to bring in scientific findings to support their nutritional theories. for example, lorand mentioned beaumont’s experiments as a basis for his argument for a vegetarian diet and referred to many other contemporary international food scientists such as scheunert, urbeanu, cooper, weichardt, stoklasa, watson, metschnikoff, parr, and karrell (lorand 1932: 81-114). < merta, sabine. “the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 lorand’s chapter six on lengthening of the life-span by good nutrition begins with the sentence: “many of our foodstuff are more than a medium for our nutrition, they are high quality medicine...many of our foodstuff contain very important nutirents…even so a high quality medicine like iodine” ((lorand 1932: np). this introduction reveals that the author was influenced by the theory of “uric acid as a factor in the causation of disease” by the english physician alexander haig (1853). haig’s theory was the basis for the development of most diet systems proposed by life reformers. his theory on uric acid waste products in the blood and in the histological cells as the main reason for diseases built the foundation for his diet advice for older people. it is very interesting to compare the early 1909 edition with the last edition of lorand’s book published in 1932. while in the first edition he uses haig’s theory as a foundation for his diet, in the later edition he also connects his diet ideas to recent scientific findings coming from modern vitamin research. a main point of his diet is that you can strengthen the heart muscle by glycogen, best eaten in form of honey. he believes that when people get older, they develop heart problems due to malnutrition caused by the consumption of too much meat and by excess weight. his argument for eating less meat is based on a book called the danger of a potassium poor diet from 1916 written by dietary scientist urbeanu. lorand adds to these scientific findings the advantages of a lacto vegetarian diet. in his guide he suggests eating green vegetables, whole wheat bread, and fresh fruits because the secretions, detoxification and digestive organs (liver, kidneys, intestines) don’t work in the older human body as effectively as they do at young age. in the 1909 edition he talks about the importance of eating green vegetables and fresh fruits. in his later 1932 edition he backs up his theory by naming the vitamins which are in this food. lorand advises consuming the water used to boil vegetables and claims that it is better to eat some vegetables raw because of their vital ingredients, later called vitamins. he also emphasizes the importance of milk products because their positive effects on digestion (lactose) and on the thyroid gland (iodine). in his guide on how to lengthen your life lorand repeats the doctrines of the diet reformers of the modern life reform movement which were in fashion during his lifetime and underpins his theories with new scientific literature. < merta, sabine. “the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 conclusions 1.) in germany we mainly find literature with health recommendations for increasing one’s lifespan appearing at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. at that time the first hygiene movement started to enlighten average people on how important it was to follow simple dietary rules to stay healthy. 2.) as mentioned in the foreword of some of the books, these monographs were written for a special age group of the german population, explicitly for people from 60 years onward. 3.)the health instructions were intended to lengthen the lifespan, to allow people to stay young and fit longer, to keep healthy, and to avoid sicknesses or to treat special sicknesses as a result of old age. 4.)there are many ideologies behind these kinds of guides. hufeland, the german founder of the “macrobiotic or the art of how to lengthen the human life,” is often found in the books’ forewords and he provides the foundation for all the recommendations on how to stay young longer or to how to lengthen one’s lifetime. another ideology is vegetarianism which emerges as the most important rule for how to get old while staying healthy and fit. the name of sylvester graham, a leader of the american vegetarianism movement and the inventor of the whole wheat bread, is mentioned as a positive example for eating a plant-based diet especially when you are old and your metabolism and your digestion has slowed down. importantly, these special guides for older people were written by the same authors who wrote general health guides. 5.)we do not find statistical material in these guides for older people. only simple examples taken from the authors’ life experiences are described. there is one book with a nutrition table and one with studies about health and sickness, but they aren’t included in the guides aimed at an older audience. 6.)the books on how to lengthen your lifetime or how to get as old as possible without any lamentation mainly suggest living in harmony with the nature by following the dietary rules put forward by the naturopathic doctors. recurring recommendations are not to eat too much and be moderate, and to get enough physical exercise, sleep and rest in fresh air, and psychical training < merta, sabine. “the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 of the brain. some medical doctors combine these naturopathic guidelines with emerging scientific findings in the fields of medicine and nutrition. 7.)these books first appeared at the end of the 19th century, at the same time when the first health and hygiene movement emerged and when a youthful body was embraced as the new ideal. 8.)in nearly every guide contemporary scientific findings are mentioned in order to put the advice on a firm medical foundation. references cited breistroff, h. 1912. gesundheit, verlängertes leben [health and a longer life]. leipzig: s.n. hermann, josef. 1902. die lebensführung im hohen alter [dietetics in old age]. freiburg, leipzig: s.n. holm, nicol. n.d. das leben im alter [life in old age]. freiburg, leipzig: s.n. ---. n.d. lebensregeln für das alter [life rules for the age].freiburg, leipzig: s.n. kleinschrod, fr. n.d. die erhaltung der lebenskraft [to keep your life power]. s.l.: s.n. kluge, georg. 1910. langes leben und gesundes alter [long life and healthy age]. berlin: s.n. lorand, a. 1932. das altern, seine ursachen und sein behandlung durch hygienische und therapeutische maßnahmen [how to get old, the reasons and its hygienical and therapeutical treatment]. 1909. freiburg, leipzig: s.n. maßdorf, willi. n.d. das geheimnis, das menschliche leben zu verlängern, [the secret, to lengthen life]. freiburg, leipzig: s.n. merschnikow, leo. 1912. wie erreicht man ein hohes alter? [how to reach an old age?] freiburg, leipzig: s.n. < merta, sabine. “the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 merta, sabine. 2003. wege und irrwege zum modernen schlankheitskult: diätkost und körperkultur als suche nach neuen lebensstilformen 1880-1930 [ways and wrong ways to slimming diets and fitness culture as a search for new ways of life style 1880-1930]. studien zur geschichte des alltags 22. möller, siegfried. 1924. die kunst des essens und ihr einfluß auf gesundheit, kraft und langes leben [the art of eating and its influence on health, power and long life]. dresden: s.n. nikolson, a. 1869. gesundheit, glück und hohes alter [health, luck and old age]. s.l.: s.n. richter, geh. n.d. verlängere dein leben [lengthen your life]. freiburg, leipzig: s.n. schulz, a. 1912. wie werde ich 80 jahre alt und wie erhalte ich mir meine leistungsfähigkeit bis ins höchste alter [how to get 80 years old and how to stay fit in old age]. s.l: s.n. seefeld, alf. 1869. studien über gesundheit und krankheit [studies on health and sickness]. s.l.:s.n. weber, h. n.d. mittel zur lebensverlängerung [mediums to lengthen life]. freiburg, leipzig: s.n. weber, h. 1905. die verhütung des frühen alterns und mittel zur verlängerung des lebens [the prevention of an early age and methods to lengthen life]. freiburg, leipzig: s.n. notes i the original german reads: “mein thema ist verwandt, aber nicht gleichbedeutend mit der lehre von der verlängerung des lebens. unser grosser lehrer hufeland hat in seiner makrobiotik so viel gutes gesagt, dass eine arbeit wie die meinige unnöthig erscheinen könnte; aber es dürfte doch die hervorhebung einzelner punkte aus einer langen erfahrung nicht ganz unnütz sein” (weber 1905:1). ii the original german reads: “bei mässiger nahrungsaufnahme wird die < merta, sabine. “the art of lengthening human life (die kunst, das menshliche leben zu verlängern).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 neigung zur ablagerung in den feinen blutgefässen vermindert, und die körperliche bewegung wirkt durch erzeugung von vermehrtem blutzufluss zu allen organen und natürlich wird ihre elasticität erhalten” (weber 1905: 4). iii “brot muß immer von ungebeuteltem mehle gebacken, das dazu verwendete getreide vor dem mahlen reihßn gewaschen, das brot mit reinstem wasser angemacht und mit ganz reinen händen geknetet und in wohlgereinigte gefäße gelegt warden” (nickolson 1869:62). iv the original german reads: “viele unserer nahrungsmittel sind mehr als mittel zu unserer ernährung, sie sind hochwertige arzneimittel… unserer nahrungsmittel enthalten hochwichtige mineralstoffe, so kalk, schwefe…phosphor, eisen, kupfer, magenesium, kalium usw.... sogar so ein hochwertiges arzneimitttel wie das jod” (lorand 1932: page number???). a letter from the editors: hello readers, at last we bring you one single digest issue for volume 6—just barely before the end of 2018 and in time for winter solstice season reading. its contents live up to digest’s earlier subtitle as “an international journal of foodways research.” our banquet of lead essays, robust book review section, research note, and amuse bouche photo-text essay represents the works of folklorists, historians, and anthropologists who take us around the world in their food scholarship and on-the-ground research, collectively invoking foodways from all continents but antarctica. through them, you may vicariously experience food sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and sensations from singapore to bolivia and rio de janeiro, from mediterranean islands, madrid, and the swiss-italian border area to new york’s del monico’s and kentucky’s new immigrant cuisines—from on the road, in homes and restaurants, among food cults, in prisons and war-time camps, at weddings, and in museums. besides the sue samuelson prize winning essay for 2017, folklorists in particular have lent their distinctive perspectives to the book reviews section—look for their often candid insights and appraisals of popular and scholarly works. over this year and some, while reviewing, editing, soliciting, and preparing the entries for online publication, we have been monitoring the technological dimensions of online preparation and presentation of the journal, weighing the dynamics of varying platforms and considering movement to a new format. the extra care we have put into ensuring fewer editing infelicities across digest's multiformat digital files—which start with word documents that become transformed separately into html5 for the online presence, and into indesign to generate pdfs—has definitely complicated our publication pace, and driven us to consider new platforms. as mike lange has transitioned out of the tech editorship, we have sought to build in more editorial help and board involvement. thanks to jennifer dutch for starting to take on a book review editorship, and to rachel finn and dustin knepp for helping to edit a new version of the submission guidelines, which may be found under the contribute to digest link in the left sidebar. another team of board members is helping with the transition to a new platform. we are in transition and hope that changes afoot may eventually lead to less time-consuming editing and online entry, quicker publication of submissions, and more frequent publication of issues. please bear with us during this period of positive transformation, with so many helping behind the scenes. please continue to send us your work and ideas for consideration, desires to review specific publications and exhibits—and more. thank you to all who have contributed in one way or another over the past year + of putting out volume 6! before i leave you to enjoy the issue, please join me in giving thanks to our painstaking, cheerful, and accomplished digital technology expert, morgan lemmer-webber, who is now finishing her dissertation in art history at university of wisconsin-madison. also thank you to uwmadison folklore studies dissertator chrissy widmayer, who once again carefully proofread final versions of the content. many thanks also to numerous outside peer reviewers, editorial board help in providing stalwart editorial support, and to the samuelson prize judges who keep providing us with top work in student foodways scholarship. on to 2019! janet gilmore, with dustin knepp and jennifer dutch, editors < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england by: elizabeth ann berton-reilly in the late spring we plant the corn and beans and squash. they’re not just plantswe call them the three sisters. we plant them together, three kinds of seed in one hill. they want to be together with each other, just as we indians want to be together with each other. so long as the three sisters are with us, we know we will never starve. the creator sends them to us each year. we celebrate them now – onondaga chief louis farmer (laduke 2005:153). in the very beginning of time, according to the haudenosaunee confederacy, sky woman came down from the heavens and carried with her the seeds of corn, beans, and squash, known as the three sisters (mann 1997). as corn grows tall, it serves as a pole for the beans to climb. the beans fix nitrogen into the soil and the large squash leaves shade the ground. the three sisters represent cooperation, and each plant nourishes our bodies in different ways and nourishes the earth together. introduction in this age of processed foods and processed cultures, how can we make food culturally empowering? can the act of growing our own food and eating what our ancestors ate nourish us in ways we never thought possible? food is literally what sustains us—how can we make it more sustainable? by going back to their ancestors’ traditional foods, indigenous peoples today are rediscovering a healthier way of eating. through tapping into how their ancestors grew specific foods and how they prepared them, old ceremonies return. food sovereignty also equates to tribal self-sufficiency (goad 2014). when indigenous peoples grow their own food, they do not need to rely completely on outside sources for nourishment. this alone is empowering. through the exploration of food sovereignty and security, this research note < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 demonstrates how traditional foods and foodways are empowering to indigenous peoples and their communities in northern new england. my perspective here is largely etic; i am originally from los angeles and i am not a member of an indigenous new england nation as the three individuals i interviewed are. my interest in the topic grew out of my graduate studies at plymouth state university. i was working on my master’s in education in heritage studies where i took courses in foodways, ethnography and indigenous studies. specifically, this research note is based on a paper i wrote for an independent study course in indigenous new england foodways. it also builds on work i did prior to this research when i interned at the mt. kearsarge indian museum in warner, new hampshire. that internship consisted of an oral history project—interviewing indigenous veterans. the project posed the challenges of not only finding veterans who wished to talk to me, but also raising subject matter that was very difficult. when i began to embark on foodways, i discovered that discussing food opened the door to other issues. the question, “what do you eat?” led to talk of food sovereignty and how governments and corporations are poisoning us. discussing food also prompted meaningful self-reflections such as “i was raised white,” “i let go of my indianess years ago; it was too painful,” and the most common response, “well, i know nothing about native foods at all.” time and time again conversations about food triggered issues of identity. this research note is based on three oral history interviews i conducted with individuals of the abenaki nation in northern new england who are active members of their communities and who have an intense interest in issues such as food sovereignty and traditional foods. in sharing their views on how food sovereignty, foodways, and food traditions affect the indigenous communities of northern new england, the interviewees reveal how food connects to memory, culture and identity. topics such as food sovereignty, childhood diet, and traditional foods bring up strong feelings, yet the individuals i interviewed all agree that eating a healthy diet of indigenous food is vitally important. indigenous foodways in new england although the indigenous population in northern new england is relatively small, it represents an integral and important part of the region. according to the 2010 us census, 10,524 people in the state of new hampshire claim indigenous ancestry (norris, vines, and hoeffel 2012). while this is up 33.5% from the 2000 census (norris, vines, and hoeffel 2012), indigenous peoples still comprise only .3% of < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 the state’s population and there are no federally or state recognized indigenous nations. the nation of abenaki people residing in vermont, new hampshire, maine, and quebec, canada, are affiliated with the wabanaki confederacy (the other four nations include the penobscot, the micmac, the passamaquoddy and the maliseet peoples) (toensing 2008). the abenaki speak an algonquin language and there are only a handful of speakers left (bruchac n.d.). in vermont, there are also no federally recognized indigenous nations, but there are a few state recognized ones: the nulhegan band of the coosuk abenaki nation, the elnu abenaki tribe, the traditional koasek abenaki nation of the koas, and the st. francis/sokoki band of the abenaki nation. the sovereign abenaki nation of missisquoi founded the abenaki self-help association, inc. located in swanson, vermont, working towards improving the economic and educational lives of the abenaki people (abenaki tribal council n.d.). finally, in northern maine, there are four federally recognized indigenous nations: the aroostook band of micmacs, the houlton band of maliseet indians, the passamaquoddy tribe of maine, and the penobscot indian nation. while it may first appear that indigenous communities in northern new england are scattered and fractured, they come together in community powwows and other events. david m. lacy and donna roberts moody, an abenaki elder and the abenaki repatriation coordinator for the abenaki nation, discuss the sharing of abenaki heritage through foodways: much of what we need to sustain our lives we find in the mountains. as children we learned how to hunt, gather medicines and foods, harvest trees and the bark, and tap the maples for syrup. we have ceremonies for all of these activities to honor what we take. and we have teachings in stewardship to ensure that there will be enough for the next seven generations (lacy and moody 2006:153). these foodways traditions go back thousands of years. according to julia clark and george neptune, since the archaic period (9,500–3,000 years ago) indigenous peoples of new england have had a varied diet consisting of animals, seafood, plants, fruits and vegetables (clark and neptune 2014). they also utilized a seasonal cyclical format, migrating with the animals, thereby allowing them to harvest foods at their peak times (clark and neptune 2014). this rhythm also allowed them to be at the seacoast during peak fishing times and then migrate inland to hunt game (mcbride and prins 2009). < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 between 1300 and 1400 ce, corn was integrated into the already complex diet of indigenous peoples living in new england (baker 2004). planting and harvesting corn led to a more agricultural sedentary lifestyle (baker 2004). corn was also used in trade when the europeans arrived in new england. bruchac writes that “in one dramatic instance, in 1638, the indians at pocumtuck accepted payment of 300 fathoms (six-foot lengths) of wampum for 500 bushels of corn, and delivered it by canoe to supply the starving english settlements below hartford” (2004:24). food sovereignty and security food sovereignty and security means that individuals have control over what they eat. according to the united states food sovereignty alliance, food sovereignty is “the right of people to determine their own food and agriculture policies; the democratization of food and agriculture” (united states food sovereignty alliance n.d.). simply put, it is putting food sources back in the hands of the consumer instead of in the hands of big business. for indigenous peoples, food sovereignty is sometimes achieved by going back to the basics of their ancestors through reclaiming traditional foods and gardening traditions. food insecurity is the lack of access to traditional and healthy foods; instead, people have to rely on fast food and other unhealthy foods (lambden, receveur, and kuhnlein 2007). there are many factors that cause indigenous peoples to experience food insecurity, such as no access to healthy foods on reservations (or any isolated area), the fact that healthy foods are often more expensive than processed foods, and the lack of knowledge of how to cultivate and/or hunt for one’s food. additionally, according to anthony sutton, micmac people in maine suffer from food insecurity because they are located in a very isolated environment, and their collective unemployment rate is about 70% (sutton 2012). food insecurity and poverty lead to diabetes, now rampant on many reservations. the culprit is primarily commodity foods that first began as rations to the indigenous peoples during their forced removal and relocation to reservations. these foods consist mainly of white flour, salt, sugar, lard, highly processed cheese, and canned meat. indigenous peoples were forced into eating these foods because nothing else was available (echo hawk consulting 2015). eventually these foods took their toll on the lives of the indigenous peoples. in 1940, diabetes was virtually unknown in indigenous populations but now “nearly every native < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 american is involved either personally with diabetes, or with family and friends with diabetes. it has been called the new smallpox” (echo hawk consulting 2015:31). indigenous peoples’ movements toward food sovereignty in northern new england the food sovereignty movement in northern new england is growing slowly but surely, and several indigenous nations are making great strides. for instance, the passamaquoddy people are taking action towards a healthier diet. currently on the passamaquoddy pleasant point reservation on the canadian border, an old dairy farm has been converted into a community garden growing indigenous foods using traditional methods (goad 2014). they are attempting to be completely selfsufficient within four years (goad 2014). in meredith goad’s “food sovereignty movement grows roots among passamaquoddy” one passamaquoddy woman stated succinctly, “it’s really brought everybody alive again” (goad 2014). another organization striving to do more for indigenous new england foodways is the mt. kearsarge indian museum, located in warner, new hampshire. it is a pan-indian museum and gathering place offering workshops and a yearly powwow (mt kearsarge indian museum 2015). as part of honoring the abenaki culture, the museum will host a variety of upcoming foodways programs including a cooking class using traditional indigenous new england ingredients (charlebois 2015; clark 2015) and a harvest festival where they will be harvesting the vegetables they grew and giving different food demonstrations (mt kearsarge indian museum 2015). they also have for sale in their gift shop a self-published cookbook, favorite native american foods and recipes. seed saving and sharing another way to preserve food sovereignty is to grow and harvest indigenous foods, starting by planting heirloom seeds. although not based in new england, for the past 25 years seeds of change, located in rancho dominguez, california, has been preserving and selling heirloom and traditional seeds (seeds of change n.d.). this organization also provides grants, one of which was to the sioux ymca learning garden serving the cheyenne river sioux reservation located in eagle butte, south dakota. the grant helped them establish their “onspewicakiyapi wojapi (learning garden)” (sioux ymca n.d.) helping them offer cooking classes < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 and instruct lakota youth in organic gardening methods (seeds of change 2015). vermont abenaki scholar dr. fredrick wiseman continued this idea with “seeds of renewal,” which locates indigenous seeds and gives them to the corresponding nation. he does this through the haven project, which researches and celebrates indigenous vermont culture (sched 2014). wiseman and others have recovered over 25 varieties of seeds all over the united states. he emphasizes the importance of growing these seeds correctly and avoiding cross-pollination in order to keep the plant from being modified. one of the many advantages to growing these indigenous plants is that they are far more adaptable to their environment, thereby needing less pesticides (sched 2014). this is a very important point. these plants are not only better for the environment; they are healthier for the consumer. this holistic perspective of gardening not only helps heal the specific indigenous nation and the individual, it helps heal the land as well. in “the seeds of renewal project: renewing abenaki agriculture, one seed at a time,” wiseman recalls growing up abenaki in vermont while pointing out the nutrition needs of the abenaki people: i remember abenaki families, who were often very poor, living off the waters and lands by hunting and fishing. i remember children and adults gathering edible plants: marsh marigolds, wild onions, and fiddleheads in the spring, wild herbs, roots, and nuts in the summer and fall. today i live in swanton, and it’s clear that this rigorous but ultimately healthy outdoor lifestyle has largely been replaced by the intake of commodity food, which is heavily reliant on refined carbohydrates, fats, and processed items. this fundamental change from a land-based to an industrial food system is most certainly contributing to our region’s childhood obesity problem, and i have found that vermont’s indigenous abenaki communities have been particularly hard hit by this cultural transformation (wiseman 2015:12). wiseman also states that by preserving and growing traditional seeds, other aspects of culture, such as singing and dancing, can come into play: “in talking with tribal elders, i quickly came to the conclusion that an agricultural calendar integrating ritual with agricultural technology was the keystone to the whole program (2015:25).” wiseman presented a holistic look at diet—food not only nourishes the body, it also nourishes the culture. < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 liz charlebois i interviewed missisquoi abenaki liz charlebois, chairperson for the new hampshire commission on native american affairs and the educational director at the mt. kearsarge indian museum, to learn about her foodways traditions and her thoughts on food sovereignty. the interview, recorded on july 4, 2015, took place during an event held by the mt. kearsarge indian museum. when it comes to indigenous foodways, charlebois sees herself as a beginner because she has been only studying indigenous foodways for about two years. she explained just how important it was for indigenous peoples to eat the indigenous foods, as opposed to eating processed food: “. . . native bodies are not meant to be processing the foods that are available to people” (charlebois 2015; clark 2015). when i asked charlebois about food sovereignty, she emphasized a non-purist approach. instead of trying to recreate what their ancestors ate, charlebois is more concerned about eating healthy food from this land and “focusing on the foods that we are supposed to be eating and having ownership . . . going out planting them, saving the seeds, keeping them pure” (charlebois 2015; clark 2015). the goal here is health and empowerment, not a stringent requirement of what their ancestors ate. on the topic of food sovereignty and seed saving, she stated, “i think it’s just a movement towards having tribes protecting those foods we have always been in charge of protecting” (charlebois 2015; clark 2015). because charlebois is in new england where indigenous nations and groups are spread out and isolated, she occasionally travels to other locations across the us to attend food sovereignty and seed saving conferences. these conferences are devoted to sharing ideas, seeds and gardening techniques. charlebois discussed how much she enjoys “. . . traveling to different indigenous food conferences, and indigenous seed conferences to meet with other people who are really passionate about saving our seeds” (charlebois 2015; clark 2015). she also discussed how much she has learned from these conferences and how she is able to bring that knowledge back to the museum. for instance, she learned how to hand-pollinate from one of the conferences: i went to a workshop at this conference at white earth [white earth ojibwe tribe located in minnesota] and somebody had been talking about it there, doing the geteokosomin squash. . . . so they had talked about hand pollinating and i had come home < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 with some information and then i basically taught myself. so it’s really interesting. i joked around all summer that i was impregnating squash (charlebois and clark 2015). throughout the foodways interview. charlebois expressed hope for a better diet. she talked about the importance of reclaiming the foods of your ancestors, saving seeds and growing and eating the food for a healthy diet. she described the museum’s seed library where members can check out seeds to plant. when it is time for harvest, the growers will harvest some of the seeds to give back to the museum. charlebois explained that this project is in its beginning stages and that they are working the kinks out right now. charlebois’ belief that the personal is the political is evidenced in her efforts to provide indigenous food when the mt. kearsarge indian museum had their yearly inter-tribal powwow featuring dancers from all over indian country on july 11, 2015. despite the fact that indigenous food movements such as food sovereignty appear to be gaining ground, vendors at the event offered what has become the typical powwow food—fast food such as burgers, hot dogs and so-called ‘indian tacos’: fry bread with ground beef and red beans. however, the museum also provided healthy, traditional cuisine as an alternative for the dancers and singers. the museum staff served the singers and dancers corn soup, “wild rice with butternut squash and cranberries, boiled cornbread, sunflower seed cakes, wojapi (indigenous thick berry sauce), green salad and fruit salad” (charlebois, 2015b). dana benner penobscot, pequawket and micmac professor dana benner lives in manchester, new hampshire. a former member of the inter-tribal council of new hampshire, benner is an author, professor, and a lecturer on indigenous ways of life of new england indigenous people. i interviewed him on august 6, 2015; because he was incredibly busy, the interview was conducted via email. in his email, benner revealed how rituals and beliefs about indigenous foodways can be deeply personal. as a man who literally practices what he preaches, he estimated that about 60% of the food he and his family consumes he has either shot, fished, or grown, and that includes traditional food, fruits and vegetables (benner 2015). however, he declined to answer the question about ceremony, stating that the question was inappropriate when < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 interviewing indigenous peoples (benner 2015). his point was well taken. in reply to my last question, “do you have any family stories concerning food?,” benner simply stated, “everything has a story attached to it in a native family. unless you hunted you could never understand” (benner 2015). he emphasized that in order for me to understand indigenous culture, i would have to live it. i would have to visit reservations and “. . . take in whatever is offered. the understanding doesn’t come in a book or from a professor” (benner 2015). according to benner’s worldview, obtaining food is deeply connected to culture— what we hunt, fish and grow reflects our beliefs and who we are as individuals. paul pouliot i interviewed paul pouliot, chief of the abenaki cowasuck band located in alton, new hampshire on august 16, 2015. he also runs the social and cultural services organization group, cowass north america (cowasuck band of the pennacookabenaki people n.d.). pouliot is an abenaki educator who lecturers extensively on abenaki foodways throughout the region. he is dedicated to preserving traditional foodways, especially how his abenaki people used to eat. he has given multiple lectures about this, in colleges as well as tourist attractions (such as strawbery banke, in portsmouth, which interprets new hampshire life from the late 1600s to the mid-1900s). his focus is learning about traditional foodways by studying the abenaki language. he provided several instances where a word for a type of plant described the plant in a certain way, thereby giving us insight into its usages (pouliot 2005). pouliot described another foodways tradition, fishing. he said the abenaki fished a lot more than they hunted, emphasizing how fishing was (and is) incredibly important to their culture. even after world war ii when the indigenous peoples were becoming more acculturated and losing their old ways, fishing remained strong in his family and that tradition was passed down to him. he discussed a wide variety of fishing traditions, including catching eels by trapping them and then immersing the herb jack-in-the-pulpit in the water, thus stunning them. then they would kill the eels and sun-dry them to preserve them “like dried oysters” (pouliot 2005). he then brought up beaching, which is driving the fish onto the shore. he also related that the abenaki people used the swordfish bill to hunt swordfish. pouliot’s main focus was that of opportunistic hunting and fishing in which the abenaki people would migrate seasonally depending upon where the food was available. < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 like charlebois, pouliot emphasized how it would be impossible to eat exactly what his ancestors ate no matter how hard he tried, just as it is for anyone to try to recreate aspects of the past. he mentions that some species that the earlier generations of abenaki people ate are now extinct. “you can’t roll back your food sovereignty and say bring back the passenger pigeon” (pouliot 2005). pouliot’s emphasis appears to be historically based; what was eaten then as opposed to trying to recreate that diet today. when i broached the subject of seed saving and sharing, he pointed out how unscientific it is. in his opinion, a person could claim a variety of corn came from greenland, but this would need to be proven. corn, he asserts, cross-pollinates too easily. for pouliot, food is indeed a complex and emotional subject. perhaps because he is a retired mechanical engineer, he views indigenous foodways and related topics from a scientific viewpoint. although he did say that ceremony was important, throughout our interview he emphasized the need to study the abenaki traditional ways as scientifically as possible. how can we prove that earlier generations ate this particular plant? pouliot also comes from the perspective of a linguist. we discussed the different abenaki names for the jerusalem artichoke, and what each name tells us about not only the plant, but about the abenaki language. for pouliot, traditional foodways is also a story of a language and of a people. wampanoag foodways on the southeastern coast of new england live the wampanoag people, also known as the people of the first light. they have communities in mashpee on cape cod, and nantucket, massachusetts, and as far south as bristol and warren, rhode island. the aquinnah (wampanoag tribe of gay head) are in martha’s vineyard, gay head cliffs, and aquinnah, massachusetts (eldredge n.d.). like the abenaki people, the wampanoag suffered a loss of 90% of their population through disease by the time the pilgrims arrived at plymouth (nanepashemet 1990). as explained by nanepashemet, the late director of plimoth plantation’s wampanoag indian programs, the psychology of the indigenous people who survived this epidemic was to find support where they could—through the pilgrims. he stated that in order to fight off their rivals, they aligned themselves with the english hoping for their support (nanepashemet 1990). in addition, like the abenaki, the wampanoag enjoyed a wide variety of foods, including fish, < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 game and vegetables to eat, depending upon the season (dempsey 2000). a narrative told by nanepashemet in the documentary nani: a native england story illustrates how identity ties into feasting with the wampanoag peoples. he discussed how a two-year war broke out simply because of what a tribe was fed during an intertribal feast. according to nanepashemet, the narragansett and the nipmuc peoples had a feast, in which the nipmuc fed the narragansett people eels and fresh water fish, which was considered “too musky” for the narragansett people who were used to ocean fish (dempsey 2000). he pointed out how this food was considered an insult by the narragansett people, so war broke out. nanepashemet used this story to illustrate how these tribes were similar and yet at the same time, “uniquely different” (dempsey 2000). david vanderhoop in 2008, david vanderhoop, an aquinnah wampanoag from martha’s vineyard, was interviewed by the cultural conservancy for the “traditional foodways of native america—oral histories of native food revitalization.” vanderhoop is director of the wampanoag aquinnah shellfish hatchery and in charge of the menemsha pond, which has provided oysters for his ancestors for thousands of years (cultural conservancy 2008). his focus is making sure that the pond is healthy and can sustain the wampanoag people, both now and in the future. vanderhoop said that his father was the last person who was able to maintain a living year-round solely from growing oysters in this pond. by having both such a personal connection to this pond via his father, as well as a cultural connection, vanderhoop acts as a catalyst by bringing together both the wampanoag harvesting oyster traditions and his family traditions into the 21st century. vanderhoop also discussed a time when it was a lean year for him and his family of five. he had a gun, but only two bullets, and needed to feed his family (vanderhoop 2008). he spent several weeks out hunting for a deer. finally, he shot one and brought it home. he gathered his family around and they gave thanks, made a fire and cooked the heart and the liver immediately. in a traditional and respectful fashion, they ate the heart and liver first. he explained how thankful he was, being able to provide food for his family, and how this deer was a gift in such a tough time (vanderhoop 2008). < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 like pouliot, vanderhoop discussed gathering whatever foods are available, such as fish, game, nuts, fruits and vegetables, plus the concept of eating the food you are meant to eat: “. . . and the creator has basically sent to us and said, ‘yes this is for you, you take this bounty and be thankful for it . . . .’ the food the creator has actually given you from your area to keep you healthy” (vanderhoop 2008). conclusion: our corn is still standing in her ted talk about the importance of seed saving and maintaining indigenous varieties of food, ojibwa activist winona laduke began by discussing how the ojibwa people, their culture, and their identity, is inextricably linked to their sacred wild rice. she said that spiritually, we have a relationship with our food and that they are “our relatives” (laduke 2012). laduke emphasized a need for a wider variety of indigenous foods to counter gmos (genetically modified plants). her example was a special variety of corn, the bear island flint corn, from the red lake reservation in northern minnesota. she compared this traditional corn to the monsanto roundup ready corn, demonstrating how important indigenous foods are for all of us: . . . and that corn in itself, it came from bear island in the middle of leech lake, i got about this much from a seed grower. [note: shows hands together indicating a small amount.] he gave it to me and now we have fields of it. grows about this tall [note: indicating about five feet tall] has big ears, doesn’t require irrigation, frost resistant. and when a sear wind comes through, monsanto’s roundup ready corn tips over, but our corn is still standing (laduke 2012). laduke and the indigenous people in new england give us a unique perspective into indigenous foodways and how they are linked to indigenous identity. all three people i interviewed—liz charlebois, dana benner and paul pouliot—had several things in common: they are all abenaki who literally walk their talk. each lives what they can of an abenaki lifestyle. liz charlebois is not only a student of abenaki foodways; she also is a traditional dancer and basket maker. dana benner and paul pouliot both lecture about the abenaki way of life, and live it as well. they are not simply academics who live in so-called “ivory towers” and who look at the abenaki way of life as an intellectual oddity, these three people live it and share its heritage. equally important is how indigenous foodways start from seed, be it the seed of knowledge or the seeds being passed down. within indigenous communities, there is a deep sense of commitment in improving their lives and the traditions < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 of their nations. regardless of colonialism, capitalism, and the modern age filled with monsanto gmo plants and pesticides, indigenous peoples and many others are saying, “enough!” through going back to the roots of their ancestors, they are bringing to the rest of the world a new sense of hope that we can indeed nourish our bodies—and our culture—at the same time. references cited abenaki tribal council. n.d. what is abenaki self help association, inc.? the 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http://friendsofacadia.org/news-publications/ friends-of-acadia-journal/people-dawnland/ (accessed august 7, 2015). cowasuck band of the penacook-abenaki people. n.d. goals statement. the cowasuck band of the penacook-abenaki people, the people of the white pines. http://www.cowasuck.org/statement.cfm (accessed august 14, 2015). cultural conservancy. 2008. traditional foodways of native america – oral histories of native food revitalization audio recording project. < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 interview with david vanderhoop. the cultural conservatory. http://www. nativeland.org/raft/vanderhoop.html (accessed august 7, 2015). dempsey, dr. jack. 2000. nani: a native england story. eureka, ca: shenandoah films. echo hawk consulting. 2015. feeding ourselves: food access, health disparities, and the pathways to healthy native american communities, longmont, co: echo hawk consulting. eldredge, nancy. n.d. who are the wampanoag? plimoth plantation. http://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/homeworkhelp/who-are-wampanoag (accessed august 13, 2015). goad, meredith. 2014. food sovereignty movement grows roots among passamaquoddy. portland press herald. november 16. http:// www.pressherald.com/2014/11/16/food-sovereignty-movement-growsroots-among-passamaquoddy/ (accessed on october 12, 2015). lacy, david m. and donna roberts moody. 2006. green mountain stewardship one landscape. multiple histories. in cross-cultural collaboration: native peoples and archaeology in the northeastern united states, edited by jordan e. kerber, 150-164. lincoln. ne: university of nebraska press. laduke, winona. 2005. recovering the sacred: the power of naming and claiming. cambridge, ma: south end press. ———. 2012. tedxtc winona laduke seeds of our ancestors, seeds of life. youtube. published march 4. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=phnlel72eqc (accessed august 20, 2015). lambden, jill, olivier receveur and harriet v. kuhnlein. 2007. traditional food attributes must be included in studies of food security in the canadian artic. international journal of circumpolar health 66 (4): 308-319. mann, barbara a. 1997. the lynx in time: haudenosaunee women’s traditions and history. american indian quarterly, 21 (3): 423-449. mcbride, bunny and harald e. l. prins. 2009. indians in eden: < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 wabanakis and rusticators on maine’s mount desert island, 1840s-1920s. camden, me: down east books. mt. kearsarge indian museum. 2015. august 1 october 31. http:// indianmuseum.org/wh/wh_events.html (accessed on august 20, 2015). nanepashemet. 1990. interviewed by dr. jack dempsey at plimoth plantation. wampanoag program, 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university of maine. toensing, gale courey. 2008. sacred fire lights the wabanaki confederacy. indian country today media network. june 27. http:// indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2008/06/27/sacred-fire-lightswabanaki-confederacy-93141 (accessed on august 22, 2015). united states food sovereignty alliance. n.d. what is food sovereignty? us food sovereignty alliance. http://usfoodsovereigntyalliance. org/what-is-food-sovereignty/ (accessed july 1, 2015). < berton-reilly, elizabeth ann. “our corn is still standing: indigenous foodways and identity in new england.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 vanderhoop, david. 2008. interview by cultural conservancy. martha’s vineyard, ma. audio. wiseman, frederick matthew. 2015. the seeds of renewal project renewing abenaki agriculture, one seed at a time. vermont’s local banquet. february 12. http://localbanquet.com/stories/issues/2015/spring-2015issue-32/item/the-seeds-of-renewal-project (accessed july 1, 2015). schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 1. © american folklore society 2018 abstract this examination of two sites of culinary tourism on the mediterranean island of gozo explores the ways in which each defines “authentic” gozitan identity through the selection and intensification of specific food ingredients, recipes, production processes, and educational activities. fieldwork revealed how each site variably stresses these food production aspects to manufacture a version of gozitan identity and uses the rhetoric of authenticity to assign value to a romantic representation of gozitan culinary heritage. beyond providing education about local ingredients, traditional agricultural methods, and the food preparation processes according to recipes handed down through generations, each site offers visitors tangible representations of gozitan identity that they may take home and continue to interact with: material objects that have also been carefully selected, presented, and commodified for the tourist gaze. key words: malta, gozo, culinary tourism, identity the densely populated maltese archipelago of three inhabited islands—malta, gozo, and comino—sits in the midst of the mediterranean sea between italy and libya. years of invasion and foreign occupation have left a distinct mark on the physical and cultural landscape and have combined to create a history and lifestyle of which the maltese people are extremely proud. today, malta is host to over one million annual visitors (malta tourism authority) who come to experience the mediterranean climate, the stunning landscape, and the rich cultural heritage. one piece of malta’s complex cultural identity can be found in its foodways. through the lenses of folklore studies, cultural studies, and food studies, this paper examines two sites of culinary tourism on the island of gozo that attempt to define “authentic” gozitan identity through food. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship 2017 by: kylie schroeder schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 2. © american folklore society 2018 this paper compares and contrasts the ways in which aspects of local foodways are selected and focused upon at these sites in order to create a version of gozitan identity. through local ingredients, recipes, food production processes, and educational activities featured at each site, visitors learn what to expect of “authentic” gozitan foodways. guides and workers at each site stress its respective origins—whether physically close or from within the family—using site features and the rhetoric of authenticity to assign value to a romantic representation of gozitan culinary heritage. after centuries of invasions and outside rule, malta gained independence in 1964, became a republic in 1974, and entered into the european union in 2004. tourism, mostly made up of western europeans, provided the majority of malta’s income at the time of this research (malta tourism authority). gozo, the second largest island of the maltese archipelago, with an area of roughly 40 square miles, is located 3 ¾ miles off the northern coast of the main island of malta. with a population of about 31,000, gozo is more rural and agricultural than its larger sister island. in a 1969 study, ian masser reported that 50% of the population of gozo was part of the traditional farming community and that the island’s industry was largely connected to the “processing of agricultural produce” (240­241). in 1999 thelma barer­stein confirmed that this had not changed much—at least in perception. she stated that local customs were quite distinguishable and the gozitans were seen as “the scotsmen of our islands” by their maltese counterparts (305), painting the smaller island’s inhabitants as wild and rugged compared to those of the more “civilized” main island. the perceived concept of rural otherness plays a large role in the manufactured sense of authenticity expressed in the following examples of gozitan foodways. it was on this smaller island that my fieldwork took place. in august of 2014, i spent three weeks living in the coastal gozitan village of xlendi with a dozen students of anthropology and a handful of instructors from the university of leuven in belgium.1 armed with a proposal inspired by undergraduate coursework in folklore, i was ready to jump into one of my first post­collegiate experiences with fieldwork. with an interest in cultural commodification, i searched for presentations of the “authentic” and “traditional” offered for visitors on the small island. online investigation had led me to the magro food village and savina creativity center, which advertised an interactive experience for tourists that focused on “traditional” gozitan foods and crafts. after my arrival, i saw sign boards for ta’ mena, an agro­tourism estate that offered tours followed by a tasting of schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 3. © american folklore society 2018 traditional gozitan specialties, the majority of which were produced on site. ultimately my fieldwork study focused centrally on comparing and contrasting these two gozitan sites. my fieldwork on the island included participant observation based on multiple tours of the magro factory and a tour and tasting at the ta’ mena estate. i took photographs of the built and natural environments and material culture, and held informal in­person and email interviews with staff, tour guides, and executive personnel including joanna magro—a member of the founding family of the food village—and joseph spiteri, director of ta’ mena estates. my observations in the field were structured around foodways: the “network of behaviors, traditions, and beliefs concerning food” which includes the activities from procurement to “preparation, presentation, and performance” (long 2004: 8). lucy long defines culinary tourism as “the intentional, exploratory participation in the foodways of an ‘other’” (2004: 21). while some scholars discuss culinary tourism that results simply from the need for subsistence while in a new place (mak, lumbers, eves, and chang 2012; long 2004), my fieldwork in gozo specifically considers two sites visited by tourists who make an effort to travel to a specific location and participate in a set of activities through which they can experience the foodways of the “other”—spending time and in some cases, money, to do so. the magro food village, located in the city center of xewkija, gozo, offers a variety of experiences ranging from a seasonally available tour of the tomato processing factory—around which the food village experience was built—to cooking classes featuring traditional gozitan foodstuffs led by master chefs (savina: visitor’s information). the website states that the food village offers a “unique experience in local food­making and crafts all under one roof,” and that it is “a one­stop shop for all travelling taste buds!” (magro group: factory tours). whether visitors are simply part of a hop­on, hop­ off bus tour of the island (photo 1)—who stop for ten minutes to browse the gift shop filled with “traditional and authentic” souvenirs that can be taken home—or they pre­book a tour and explore the factory with a guide for over an hour, the magro food village and magro group are proud of the organization’s role in “keeping gozitan culinary traditions alive” (magro group: visitor video). schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 4. © american folklore society 2018 in 1916, the original magro brothers joined their father in his business as a merchant in pjazza savina in gozo’s capitol, victoria. in 1934, the brothers entered the business of canning and processing fresh tomatoes grown on gozo along with “the importation into malta of livestock, fodder and foodstuffs and exports of local agricultural produce” (magro group: “our history”). through the following generations, the business continued to expand and in 1995 the company moved into a new factory that is now a “centre of excellence for food processing in the mediterranean” that exports its products to over 20 countries (magro group: “our history”). the company is currently in the hands of the fourth generation of the magro family. not only does the company offer tourists the chance to learn about the history of the company and purchase food and souvenirs, but, depending on the interest of the visitor, a variety of activities is also available. these include a free tour of the savina creativity center, a free (but pre­booked) tour of the magro food village, including the tomato processing plant and the dairy center, and a pre­booked session in the magro village kitchen, including lectures, group activities, and cooking classes for a fee. photo 1. hop­on hop­off tour bus parked outside of the magro food village. xewkija, gozo, july 2014. photo: kylie schroeder. schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 5. © american folklore society 2018 compared to the magro factory and food village, ta’ mena estates offered quite a different experience, though the central themes remained the same. ta’ mena is a family owned estate in xaghra, gozo that offers “maltese wine, agritourism activities and traditional foods” (ta’ mena enterprises). through the generosity of ta’ mena’s director joseph spiteri, i was invited to tour the estate and participate in the food and wine tasting that followed. located in the rural countryside, the gated entrance to the estate opened into a tented outdoor seating area and a small roadside shop. in 1936, joseph spiteri’s grandfather owned two hectares of land in xhagra on which he cultivated grapes for wine making. in the 1960s his mother carmela—known as mena—purchased 23 more hectares of land and cultivated it. she offered the opportunity for people to come pick their own vegetables and shop the produce from her land until her death in 1986. in 2002, joseph, his four siblings, and their father decided to pursue mena’s dream of “integrating agriculture with tourism so that one sector sustains the other” (ta’ mena enterprises). (photo 2) the land that was once a fruit and vegetable garden now includes an orange grove, fruit trees, 1,500 olive trees, and over 10 hectares of vineyards. their food production includes a mix of traditional methods and modern equipment, including a windmill from the 1930s, a winery, and a cold press for olive oil (joseph spiteri, personal communication; ta’ mena enterprises: about us). photo 2. roadside sign for ta’ mena in xaghra. gozo, july 2014. photo: kylie schroeder. schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 6. © american folklore society 2018 ta’ mena’s website states that its goal is to offer “more of what is unique to gozo with its history, folklore and culture” (ta’ mena enterprises: about us). this includes “hands on agricultural experiences” during the harvest season, in which visitors can pick their own produce, take guided tours of the estate (free of charge), participate in tours followed by wine and olive oil tasting (pre­booking required), or experience private tours, lunches, and dinners that feature traditional and seasonal gozitan specialties (with a minimum fee of €200). ta’ mena’s website also advertises cooking classes and the opportunity to observe wine making and the production of olive oil (ta’ mena enterprises). accommodations in self­catering apartments and rustic farmhouses are also available. in his publication on staged authenticity in tourism, dean maccannell states that the desire of the tourist is to “share in the real life of the places visited, or at least to see that life as it is really lived” (1973: 594). the online english oxford living dictionary gives several definitions for “authentic” including “of undisputed origin and not a copy; genuine,” and “made or done in the traditional or original way” (oxford university press 2018), in other words, how close something is to how it “ought to be” (appadurai 1986: 25). bendix states that “[once] a cultural good has been declared authentic, the demand for it rises, and it acquires a market value (2004: 8). tourists often look for authentic experiences, or at least experiences that are perceived to be authentic, and therefore, successful companies will cater to this need. several scholars have since critiqued maccannell’s work by stressing that authenticity is a construct and therefore subjective rather than being objective reality (bendix 1997; scarpato and daniele 2003; germann moltz 2004). according to jeannie germann moltz, there are several ways in which tourist experiences can project authenticity, from the ingredients used to the décor to those responsible for conveying the information (in long 2004: 57). in their 2003 article “staged authenticity and heritage tourism,” deepak chhabra, robert healy, and erin sills mention that built environments are “perhaps the most obvious manifestations of heritage and the most popular destinations of heritage tourism” (704). both the magro food village and ta’ mena estates operate from specific built environments to which tourists are invited in order to experience staged encounters with gozitan heritage. once within the purposefully constructed sites, visitors are not only presented with a version of gozitan authenticity that is carefully crafted, but they are also shown the different components of this authentic food that imply value. schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 7. © american folklore society 2018 three main components emerged that can be thought of according to their relationship to the food at both sites: where the food came from (ingredients), how the food is made (recipes and processes), and what the visitor can do to experience the food (activities)—both at the sites and after visitors leave. while the sites are quite different in size, scope, and content, both focus on the same components (and larger ideologies) to create a sense of local and authentic gozitan identity through food that is created close to its origin and is therefore more valuable as both a process and a product. the first component that plays a role at the food village and ta’mena is the origin of the sites’ ingredients, and consequently, the agricultural methods used to produce them. both sites stress that their ingredients are local—whether they employ local farmers, like the magro tomato processing factory, or grow the majority of the ingredients on site, in the case of ta’ mena. however, this is more than just a statement shared by those in charge of the guided tours. in both cases, visitors are taken to see the produce that is either recently harvested or still on the vine. the magro food village’s main focus is the tomato, as that is the chief product of the larger processing factory around which the food village is centered. (photo 3) seasonal tours of the factory include a visit to the loading docks where countless tomatoes are awaiting processing less than 24 hours after being harvested. this statistic is due to the minimal distance that the produce must travel—either from elsewhere on the island of gozo or from malta—to reach the factory. true to the company’s desire to stimulate the senses, a visitor is drenched in the thick smell of ripe tomatoes warming in the mediterranean sun as the produce arrives at the factory. not only are all visitors told that the tomatoes are fresh and brought to the factory on a daily basis, which is a point of company pride, but they are not expected simply to believe the guides; rather, visitors are invited to see for themselves. according to regina bendix, the “scarcity value [of authentic items] is evaporating” because of the mass application of the term “authentic” to a variety of products (1997: 7). perhaps it is for this reason that the magro tours include a trip outside of the carefully constructed savina creativity center and into the depths of a massive factory—the act of calling something authentic is no longer convincing; rather, the magro food village presents solid evidence in the form of mountains built from crates of tomatoes. schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 8. © american folklore society 2018 one must question, then, how the magro food village communicates this idea of authentic products to those visitors who do not tour the factory and encounter the tomatoes, as this is another option for tourists as well as a seasonal necessity. i suggest that the stress applied to the seasonal production of the factory is implicitly responsible for this task. just as tours of the factory are seasonal, so is the variety of products being produced by individuals behind glass walls in the savina creativity center. by producing seasonal products, the company is implying that they are following the natural growing seasons and using fresh produce from the island’s traditional agricultural cycle. while this relationship is largely implied by the magro food village, those at ta’ mena explicitly show their dedication to the use of fresh and local (and therefore more authentic) ingredients. visitors to ta’ mena are able to experience a more diverse selection of produce as they tour the spiteri estate, following paths through olive groves and looking out on acres of carob trees, fruit trees, and vineyards while a guide discusses the traditional methods of agriculture used on the family’s land (photos 4 and 5). these include hand­picked produce and irrigation photo 3. sliced tomatoes drying in a display outside the magro food village. july 2014. photo: kylie schroeder. schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 9. © american folklore society 2018 powered by an 80­year­old windmill. visitors are literally led through the land on which the ingredients grow and in some cases are able to harvest the produce themselves (ta’ mena). bendix connects the original form of a thing to the most authentic form of that thing (1997: 49), and whether discussing the original windmill or the locality of the produce, visitors at ta’ mena are asked and/or expected to recognize this connection between originality and authenticity, and therefore, value, prescribed by those in search of authenticity. not only are the contemporary origins of the ingredients important, but the stability of each company’s history is emphasized. in both cases, a connection is drawn between the origins of each site and their present operations: the original magro brothers exported local goods and mena grew produce for locals to harvest. this portrayal fits with the rural and idealized view of gozo that was related earlier about the conception of gozitan identity. in fulfilling this notion, the magro food village and ta’ mena are propagating the idea of a rural gozo as the most authentic version that a tourist can experience, starting with local ingredients. photo 4. view of ta’ mena estates, including historic windmill used for irrigation. july 2014. photo: kylie schroeder. schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 10. © american folklore society 2018 the second component is that of recipes and the production processes—how are the ingredients transformed into food products? the focus shifts from where in a physical sense to who—where is the origin located within the families that are responsible for presenting the food and the larger experience to visitors. patterns reflect a romanticized vision of authenticity that generally falls to the responsibility of the women, and in the case of the magro food village, women from some unidentified point in the past. both of the companies stress the role of recipes that have purportedly been handed down through the generations from the families’ respective forefathers. the companies both explicitly state and implicitly project this idea: ta’ mena’s website states that “[they] are using traditional recipes which were used by [their] fore­fathers who did not have refrigerators and freezers but still had to provide for the winter season” (“our products”), while the magro food village reflects a more community­based locality which, in the case of cheeselets production, is “the same way [it] has been done for generations in small local farms” (magro group). photo 5. walking tour of ta’ mena passing through olive grove. july 2014. photo: kylie schroeder. schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 11. © american folklore society 2018 while the language that is used to communicate this close connection to the recipes is generally masculine or non­gendered, the majority of representation takes a female form, reflecting a case of essentialism which, according to susan gelman is “the view that categories [such as “girl” or “boy”] have an underlying reality or true nature that . . . gives an object its identity” (2003: 3). in the case of ta’ mena and the magro food village, the connection between women and the creation of food is emphasized. bendix identifies two types of authority that can be recognized when it comes to authenticity: the credibility of the anonymous folk or the credibility of a specific individual (46­47). the magro food village and ta’ mena provide both. while the generally anonymous forefathers are mentioned, each site represents their food through at least one named female. ta’ mena’s source of feminine authority is mena herself, matriarch of the spiteri family and in whose honor the estate was reopened. though a majority of the workers, guides, owners, and farmers are male, the brand bears mena’s name and carries her legacy. photographs of mena can be found on the estate’s website, but the image that is most firmly connected to her name is a stylized feminine head that serves as a logo for the brand (photo 6). photo 6. wine bottle from ta’ mena, featuring stylized woman’s head. september 2016. photo: kylie schroeder. schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 12. © american folklore society 2018 one of the central figures for the magro food village and savina creativity center is sor serafina, an aunt of the magro family and a franciscan nun (photo 7). her image is featured on a line of sweet treats and accompanied by the story of her recipes—lost and found again, and used to recreate her desserts, such as jam tarts, fruitcakes, and maltese pastini, for visitors to the magro food village. the following narrative is included on the packing of the entire line: amongst my grandmother’s papers, several years ago, i found a collection of recipes, handwritten by a relative of my grandmother, sor serafina. born in 1892, sor serafina was a loving aunt of my family. she joined at a franciscan nunnery at a very young age and became a regular provider of sweet delights for christmas, easter and our summer feast of santa marija. she passed away at the venerable age of 92. these gourmet desserts are re­ created in her honor and we are proud to share the recipes of sor serafina with you and your loved ones. (john magro; box of savina creations product) photo 7. sketch of sor serafina included on the packaging of a sweets line sold at the gift shop located in the magro food village. july 2014. photo: kylie schroeder. schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 13. © american folklore society 2018 in a rhetorical move that is not new, but nevertheless effective, the companies have located a sense of their products’ authenticity in a feminine representation. however, one notable feature at magro is the presence of multiple statues of anonymous women at the magro food village in old­ fashioned clothing and with bare feet (photo 8)—the industrious “peasant woman” responsible for the creation of the food, if not now then at least at some point in the past. while this image contrasts with the workers behind glass windows in sterile uniforms, producing foods and wares for the gift shop in stainless steel kitchens, the anonymous women remind visitors whom the employees are emulating. one must then ask why this image is represented at the magro food village and seemingly absent at ta’ mena. i suggest that the anonymous female statues in traditional garb are an active opposition to the magro food village’s location within a large factory that sits in the middle of xewkija, which is far less rural than xhagra. ta’ mena, surrounded by the gozitan countryside and situated among the produce that is transformed into the goods that can be bought at the end of the drive, does not need to evoke a romanticized version of a rural past because it is photo 8. kitchen statue of unidentified woman carrying goods from magro brands. magro food village, july 2014. photo: kylie schroeder. schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 14. © american folklore society 2018 not so hard to imagine the history that the spiteri family uses to legitimize their brand. on the other hand, the magro food village actively works to offset the inherent modernity associated with sterile mechanized food production. by aligning their products with those people who are connected to the romanticized version of gozitan authenticity, both sites make use of a rhetorical strategy that is not new, but nevertheless effective: locating their authority as purveyors of gozitan food in the authority of both individual women and the “folk” at large through the depiction of mena, sor serafina, and the anonymous women in historic garb. finally, both the magro food village and ta’ mena offer a variety of activities that introduce visitors to their produced idea of gozitan culture and food. a very basic visit to either site contains activities that are largely non­interactive. at the magro food village, one can watch a video that depicts the history of the magro family, watch workers infuse olive oils behind glass walls, and wander through the gift shop with strategically placed “photo points” before leaving the premises (photo 9). visitors to the roadside stand at ta’ mena, or those who participate in the free walking tour are led through the estate to look at the variety of plants and animals that contribute to the goods in the gift shop. however, both sites also offer more interactive experiences for those who are interested. photo 9. “photo point” bobbin lace­making diorama located inside the magro food village gift shop. the figure is slightly larger than life and seated above eye level to provide picture­ taking opportunities. july 2014. photo: kylie schroeder. schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 15. © american folklore society 2018 additional activities at the food village include a tour of the magro canning factory and an interactive presentation in the magro village kitchen—in which tourists are encouraged to look for familiar products (ketchups, sauces, etc.) produced by the company—simulated milking competitions with cut out cows, and tomato bulls­eye throwing competitions. at ta’ mena, guests are welcome to pre­book a food and wine tasting and can even participate in harvesting ingredients and watching the production of olive oil or wine. both offer cooking classes that teach the visitor to create typical gozitan cuisine and are available for a price. regardless of the depth of interactivity by the visitor, trips to both sites end with a tasting of different food items and a trip to the gift shop. not only can a visitor enact a version of gozitan identity while at the site, but through the gift shop a visitor can leave with products that have been imbued—by experience and branding—with a sense of authenticity. obviously, the representations of gozitan culinary and cultural authenticity depicted at ta’ mena and the magro food village are not fully representative of the diversity of the island. however, these are two of the most visible representations for visitors to gozo. through presenting a similar focus at each site, though accomplished in different ways, these sites undoubtedly affect the representation—which is selected by proprietors at the sites—and the perceptions, consumed by visitors, of what makes gozitan food special. not only are visitors to the magro food village and ta’ mena estate able to bring home foods, drinks, and other goods, but they also leave with a sense of what is “authentic” according to those with the power to select and present a specific view of what it means to be gozitan and maltese. therefore, being closer to origin—either in location or in familial connection—means being closer to the original and more valuable. after learning about and interacting with the local ingredients and traditional agricultural methods, and food processed and prepared according to recipes handed down through generations, a visitor to either site is able to take home and continue to interact with a tangible representation of gozitan identity that has been carefully selected, presented, and commodified for the tourist gaze. schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 16. © american folklore society 2018 notes 1. off the beaten track field school, expeditions. references cited books and articles appadurai, arjun. 1986. letters. anthropology today 2(4): 24­25. barer­stein, thelma. 1999. you eat what you are: people, culture and food traditions. ontario: firefly books limited. bendix, regina. 1997. in search of authenticity: the formation of folklore studies. madison: the university of wisconsin press. chhabra, deepak, robert healy, and erin sills. 2003. staged authenticity and heritage tourism. annals of tourism research 30 (3): 702–19. cohen, erik. 1988. authenticity and commoditization in tourism. annals of tourism research 15 (3): 371–86. gelman, susan a. 2003. the essential child: origins of essentialism in everyday thought. oxford university press. long, lucy, ed. 2004. culinary tourism. lexington: the university press of kentucky. maccannell, dean. 1973. staged authenticity: arrangements of social space in tourist settings. american journal of sociology 79 (3): 589­603. maccannell, dean. 1976. the tourist: a new theory of the leisure class. berkeley: university of california press. mak, athena h.n., margaret lumbers, ania eves, and richard c.y. chang. 2012. factors influencing tourist food consumption. international journal of hospitality management 31(3): 928­936. masser, ian. 1969. a plan for gozo. a case study of problems of tourism schroeder, kylie. 2017. identity and gozitan culinary tourism: two case studies. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 17. © american folklore society 2018 and conservation. town planning review 40 (3): 233­250. scarpato, rosario, and roberto daniele. 2003. new global cuisine: tourism, authenticity and sense of place in postmodern gastronomy. in food tourism around the world: development, management, and markets, routledge 2011 edition, ed. c. michael hall, liz sharples, richard mitchell, niki macionis, and brock cambourne, chapter 17, 296­313. oxford: elsevier ltd.; new york: routledge. websites oxford university press. 2018. authentic 1 and 1.1. in english oxford living dictionaries. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/authentic (access updated may 2018). savina. 2013. about savina. http://savina.com.mt/about­savina (access january 25, 2016). ­­­­­. visitor’s information [brochure]. http://www.savina.com.mt/siteimages/fileuploads/636509934875312500 _savina%20mta%20brochure%20for%20website.pdf (accessed june 13, 2018). magro group. 2010. http://www.magro.com.mt/brands.aspx (accessed february 10, 2017). [editor’s note: while site title is listed thus as of may 2018, no current tabs direct viewers to this specific content. the “craft food” subtab under “brands” leads to some similar information at the savina.com.mt site above.] malta tourism authority. 2010. mta: marketing—research & statistics. http://www.mta.com.mt/research (accessed february 10, 2017). ta’ mena enterprises. ta’mena||maltese wine and traditional foods|agritourism. ta’ mena|island winery|maltese wine and traditional foods|agritourism. http://www.tamena­gozo.com/ (accessed february 10, 2017). [editor’s note: access at same web address as of june 2018 reveals changed home page content tabs that include: |terroir of the maltese islands |wines |foods |agrotourism|]. a letter from the editors: dear readers, articles in this issue consider meanings associated with particular foods. frank dugan takes us on a journey through time and space as he traces the many meanings and uses of garlic while noah morritt reflects on how classed notions of the sandwich are rooted in legend. robin patric clair, kai kung, ziyu long and jamsine e. tan shift the focus to chinese american cuisine in their exploration of constructions of authenticity in a one restaurant. together authors highlight the complexities found in the changing meanings of food that are shaped by factors ranging from global issues to interpersonal relationships. meanwhile, the research notes both offer fascinating examples of food’s interconnections to social change. sabine merta shares her work on theories of diet and longevity popular in late nineteenth and early twentieth century germany and elizabeth ann berton-reilly looks at contemporary food practices and initiatives in native new england foodways. in the amuse bouche section we include jesse dart’s reflections on his encounters with italian “food rules,” a brief overview of our own recent trip to china, and we draw again on paul smith’s wonderful collection of foodrelated ephemeral. this time we look at examples of humorous ads—either designed to be funny or transformed by the passage of time into something that now prompts a smile. the issue concludes with book reviews of four food related titles to add to your summer reading list. it’s the kind of wide ranging and stimulating line up that digest prides itself on. this issue marks the end of digest’s first phase as an online journal (launched in 2012) in that it is the last issue to be co-edited by diane tye. diane wants to take this moment to say what a privilege it has been for her to serve as co-editor and to thank everyone who has helped during her four years and eight issues. her special thanks to mike lange who has been the best co-editor and colleague imaginable, and to members of digest’s editorial board whose support and assistance has been invaluable. diane will continue to serve digest as a member of the editorial board. we both welcome and look forward to working with the new co-editor, janet gilmore, associate professor in the department of landscape architecture, department of comparative literature and folklore studies, and center for the study of upper midwestern culture, at the university of wisconsin, madison. janet will take over her editorial responsibilities with the fall issue. michael lange and diane tye, editors eleuterio, susan. 2017. review of madrid: a culinary history. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 86. © american folklore society 2018 review of: madrid: a culinary history maria paz moreno. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield, 2018. pp. xii + 202, introduction, photographs, notes, bibliography, index, series foreword. by: susan eleuterio another of the big city food biographies, madrid accomplishes succinctly what editor ken albala describes as the series’ purpose: it demonstrates how “food is used to define the identity” of cities (ix). author maria paz moreno, an essayist, poet, literary critic, and professor of spanish, lyrically supports her thesis that “food is intertwined with history in madrid” (1). while she focuses on “the devotion that madrileños have for their beloved city’s” food and drink, she also highlights the influences from all of spain on madrid’s foodways and from its inhabitants dating back to prehistoric times (1). similar in presentation to the volume on rio de janeiro, this text includes descriptions of madrid’s natural resources (which are bountiful), its people (particularly kings, chefs, cooks, and culinary writers), its markets, historic cookbooks and restaurants, and its traditional dishes. my one wish for this volume is that there be a couple of maps. even if readers have been to madrid, a map of the various regions moreno references and a map of the city itself marked with places of culinary significance would make it easier to follow along on this journey of several centuries. madrid’s food heritage continues to reflect the influence of the arabic moors who conquered most of the iberian peninsula by ad 711. they established madrid (as magerit—later mayrit—“place with abundant water”) as a military fort on the manzanares river along with a system of agriculture featuring orchards, cattle, and a variety of crops and food methodologies— which moreno showcases as still present in madrid’s language (azúcar or sugar), desserts (buñuelos, roquillas, and alfeñiques, boiled sugar which was imported to mexico by the spanish and is featured for el día de los muertos), and seasonings (saffron, cinnamon, cumin, and coriander, among others). another major influence outlined in this text is that of the jewish community, eleuterio, susan. 2017. review of madrid: a culinary history. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 87. © american folklore society 2018 which before the christian “reconquista” of spain, and later, the inquisition, originated some of madrid’s most traditional dishes, particularly the cocido madrileño (a chickpea stew with vegetables). moreno takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the evolution of this dish which eventually featured pork, an ingredient she and other food historians note was added to test the religious commitment of conversos, or spanish jews who had converted (on pain of death) to christianity (16-24). she uses cocido made without any meat to describe the impact of the spanish civil war on madrid’s population, which survived food shortages and rationing even after the war ended (65-67). moreno examines the history of specific tapas (tortilla de patatas, patatas a la brava, cod fritters with roasted peppers known as soldiers of pavia), main dishes (the aforementioned cocido, tripe, sea bream, and a variety of roasted meats (which she notes are preferred over fish except for cod), and desserts (torrijas—a kind of french toast—flan and rice pudding done madrid style, and leche merengada, a milkshake with egg whites). in each case, she provides recipes and references to the specific nature of how these dishes are prepared, eaten, and enjoyed in madrid. she also documents the rise of elite cuisine, particularly, but not limited to ferrán adriá’s world famous molecular gastronomy, contrasting it with what she notes is “the popular cuisine which is affordable and based on flavors, ingredients, and textures that are familiar and accessible to the majority of the population” (74). a chapter entitled “too many kings spoil the broth,” traces the establishment of madrid as spain’s capital and the influence of new world foods from tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers to chocolate and coffee, which continues today. armchair tourists will also be able to use this volume to “visit” some of the oldest restaurants and markets in europe, including sobrino de botín, founded in 1725, which became an ernest hemingway hangout. moreno makes the point that some restaurants equally proudly claim that “hemingway never ate here.” one of the most interesting stories related about restaurants is that of the embassy, a tea salon operated by an irish ex-patriot who hosted british spies during world war ii and helped to hide jewish refugees and allied servicemen who were escaping to portugal. in contrast to the series biography of rio, madrid is incredibly well referenced with careful notes and an extensive bibliography. in her introduction, moreno confesses that having grown up in a small town in spain, “for a long time i did not even like madrid all that much.” she found the size and pace stressful, but was able to change her perception through the intervention of her brothereleuterio, susan. 2017. review of madrid: a culinary history. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 88. © american folklore society 2018 in-law (“whose family has deep roots in madrid”), who patiently took her and her husband on a tapas and wine tour of old madrid. she reminds us that “the shortest way to a person’s heart is through the stomach” (2) and confirms that her gustatory journey through this major city led her “de madrid, al cielo” (from madrid to the heavens), a saying she quotes in the introduction. i highly recommend beginning your own gastronomic exploration of madrid with this volume. < morritt, noah. ruth. “reading a baker’s cap” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 reading a baker’s cap negotiating changing commercial baking processes and technology through occupational material culture by: noah morritt material culture is an important part of workplace expressive culture. items such as tools and uniforms do not simply serve a utilitarian function; they shape and are shaped by values and beliefs that are central to people’s experiences and ideas about work. this was the case when i worked as a baker in a doughnut shop while i was an undergraduate student. like other employees i was required to wear a standard uniform that consisted of a pair of white pants, a white shirt, white non-slip shoes, a belt, and a white cap with a visor. however, after protesting that the hats were neither functional nor comfortable, my co-worker and i were given permission to wear a white baker’s cap with a mesh top similar to those worn by cooks in other commercial and industrial kitchens. in the reflexive autoethnographic research note that follows, i examine our decision to wear this baker’s cap as an intersection of occupational material culture, foodways, and global political/economic regimes. i explore how an item of occupational material culture, like a baker’s cap, can become a site of debate and resistance, confronting changing conceptions of labour and occupational identity. while domestic baking has been a topic of interest for folklorists working in foodways (tye 2010), baking as it is practiced in commercial and industrial establishments has received little scholarly attention. earlier studies of other industrial work cultures can provide usable models, but they are not well equipped for dealing with the kinds of changes that are occurring in franchise commercial bakeries where the trend has been to pre-bake products at a central facility, flash freeze them, and ship them to store locations where they are re-baked and presented for sale. by examining a single piece of occupational material culture – the baker’s cap – i explore the expression of occupational identity amidst changing notions of what it means to be a baker in a commercial doughnut shop. using a marxist political economy approach i argue that our white caps enacted particular conceptions of what it meant “to bake” in response to significant changes in the methods, processes, and technology used in food preparation. the bakers’ cap and the occupational culture of commercial < morritt, noah. ruth. “reading a baker’s cap” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 baking the doughnut shop where i worked as a baker is located in a busy tourist area of a small ontario city. to meet the demands of the summer season it hired an extra day shift baker who was usually a student looking for a part-time job. for several summers during my undergraduate studies, i was employed to help the regular full-time baker who had worked there for over 18 years. as a high school student i had taken courses in commercial baking so i was shocked to discover that we did not prepare any of the baked goods on site. instead, all of the products we sold were pre-baked at a centralized facility, flash frozen, and shipped to local stores to be re-baked, decorated or finished, and sold. rather than a bakery full of industrial stand-mixers, large bags of ingredients, and an enormous oven for baking large quantities of baked goods, i found two computerized ovens pre-programmed with designated time, temperature, and fan settings for each individual product and a large walk-in freezer where all of the pre-prepared baked goods were stored. i remember the regular baker laughing at my initial shock and he assured me that the job was easier now than it had been in the past when the doughnuts were baked on site. when the regular baker was first hired, he was trained in what he called the “old bake” where bakers were required to make doughnut dough from scratch before setting it aside to rise. following this they had to measure, weigh and cut out the doughnuts before allowing them to rise a second time (proofing) before frying. he frequently commented on how time consuming the process was and explained that there were different techniques and steps required when mixing and baking various different kinds of doughnut dough, or mixes, depending on whether they were yeast, cake, or small batch types. yeast and cake dough were used to make dipped (iced), filled, and glazed doughnuts, whereas special recipes had to be followed to make other kinds of doughnuts such as orange twists and crullers. it was common to bake yeast doughnuts first to allow them time to cool before being filled and iced. glazed yeast and cake doughnuts were often baked later because they required less time to dry and cool after being glazed. he often complained that the old bake required a lot of training and hard work, but explained that it was a rewarding and enjoyable job. the regular baker frequently made comparisons between the “old” and “new” bakes, commenting that the old bake was predictable, consistent, and always followed a well organized schedule. individual tasks were completed in a consistent pattern that ensured that different kinds of doughnuts were given the proper amount of time to proof, cool, or dry. this was similar to how we tried to organize our daily routine using < morritt, noah. ruth. “reading a baker’s cap” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 the new system, however, the constant preparation of small batches was difficult to organize in a consistent manner because there was no way to predict what would need to be baked at what time. before he began baking at the store where i worked, my coworker had started as a baker at a different location. when he changed stores he began working the midnight shift running the front counter, serving beverages, and filling orders. when the “old bake” was replaced by the new system of re-baking flash frozen doughnuts made at a central production plant, he was retrained and began working the dayshift. every summer i worked the same hours as he did; we baked, cleaned, and kept the front display cases stocked with product as the store prepared for each daily rush of local regulars and tourists. upon reflection i realize now that we shared a rich occupational culture that not only helped pass the time but make the job easier. the study of occupational folklore or folklife through material culture has been shaped by a number of theoretical approaches. while much of this work has focused on workers in industrial factories and primary industries (nickerson 1982, mitchell 1982), folklorists have examined how occupational culture intersects with issues of class and ethnicity in a broad range of work sites (mccarl 1984, santino 1983). this body of research demonstrates that the daily interactions of workers, their expressive forms, repertoires of work technique, and membership within an occupational group link them to wider economic processes determining the purpose and organizing principles of the occupational group (abrahams 1978). identification and analysis of the organizing principles of an occupation and their associated expressive forms has been a primary method of analysis within occupational folklore scholarship (byington 1978, green 1978, mccarl 1978). robert mccarl (1978) has been one of the strongest advocates for a contextual approach to occupational folklife, arguing that the expressive culture of workers needs to be understood in relationship to its “occupational environment.” he states that “context here is not viewed as a variable background which influences the nature of interaction; occupational contexts are a part of the interaction itself” (mccarl 1978: 4). interactions with equipment, mandated procedures, routines, and fellow workers are therefore symbolic and communicative. mccarl also outlines how cultural expression in occupational settings can be shaped by work processes. fundamental to his approach is the concept of technique, which he also calls the canon of work technique. technique is the informal body of knowledge that forms the basis of worker’s own interactions with the occupational environment, including the technology workers use, other employees, and the organizing principles of their occupation (mccarl 1978, mccarl 1986). the performance of technique is expressive, reinforcing the behaviours and beliefs that structure the experience and < morritt, noah. ruth. “reading a baker’s cap” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 pattern of work on a daily basis. at the doughnut shop where i worked our organizing principle was known as the “rhythm of the bake.” it was an important strategy for coping with repetition, fast-pace, and unpredictability of small-batch baking. in mccarl’s terms the “rhythm of the bake” played an important role in structuring our canon of work technique. our caps were both part of that canon of work technique and a reflection of its central importance in our occupational culture. they emphasized the importance of the rhythm of the bake in our occupational culture. a typical day began at five o’clock in the morning when we arrived at the store to relieve the midnight shift baker who was usually just finishing the morning bake. the midnight shift baker also worked with another employee at the front counter serving coffee and food until about 4 am when both of them began throwing out the last day’s baked goods, replacing them with fresh products. this process of discarding the previous day’s products and replacing them with the fresh “morning bake” was a fast-paced and busy job. for this to go smoothly the afternoon shift needed to clean the kitchen, restock the fondant pots, clean and refill the doughnut glazer, and correctly prepare the evening “pull” by sorting out all of the doughnuts, bagels, muffins, and pastries that needed to be baked in the morning and placing them onto pans in the walk-in freezer. it was not uncommon for the midnight baker to routinely criticize and condemn the mistakes made by the afternoon shift, which slowed down and complicated an already busy schedule. as the hour from five to six o’clock immediately followed the first morning bake, we used this time to prepare for our own bake, completing tedious tasks that we preferred to finish before the store got busy. while the full-time baker made the soups, i prepared the tarts, dessert squares, and yogurt parfaits. after this we both began “pulling” frozen product and storing it in a shelving rack in the freezer that is only supposed to be used for the evening pull. we did this in order to ensure we had the most popular products ready to be baked as soon as the morning rush of customers began. before this, we expected to be left alone. the first part of the day was our time to get ready, and we expected management and our fellow workers to respect and acknowledge this. because we were doing something that was not sanctioned by company policy most of this work was done in the freezer out of management’s view. once this was complete we began the day’s bake by putting on our aprons and baker’s caps and walking out-front behind the counter to see what needed to be baked first. by waiting until after the morning preparations were completed to assemble our full uniform we explicitly separated the morning bake from our own. this demarcation made it clear to other bakers, counter staff, and management that our bake, canon of work technique, and occupational < morritt, noah. ruth. “reading a baker’s cap” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 culture was similar, but yet markedly distinct from the morning and afternoon bakers. for the remaining eight hours of our shift, the full-time baker prepared the breakfast products and baked the bagels, buns, and pastries while i baked and decorated the doughnuts. we were expected to keep our designated display cases stocked with a specifically allocated amount of each type of product. according to company policy we were expected to bake small batches of each product as they were required. this policy was strictly enforced and we were required to record the amount of each product baked in our log book. ideally this data was supposed to help bakers predict how much of each product needed to be baked at any time in the future. in actuality, it was very difficult to precisely predict demand, and bakers were often so busy trying to keep up that they ignored their logs, using them only to record what they had baked rather than as a tool for organizing their future baking schedules. much of the informal knowledge and technique developed by bakers at the shop focused on their organization of the daily bake. for us, the “rhythm of the bake” was the central organizing principle of our occupational folklore. knowing the most efficient way to balance production with other tasks such as cleaning the ovens and doughnut filling hoppers, recording the refrigerator and freezer temperatures, and cleaning dishes and equipment were fundamental to our success. bakers at the shop generally developed techniques to combine jobs or get them done faster. for example, knowing which products can be baked together at a similar temperature and fan setting allowed us to bake more than one kind of product at a time, which officially was a violation of corporate policy. this technique of combining similar products during baking demonstrates the vitality of vernacular canons of work technique alongside, or in direct violation of, officially mandated procedure and policy. our baker’s caps were an important part of our canon of work technique. on a functional level, they helped us maintain our work rhythm: the mesh top prevented sweating and itching, the absence of a beak prevented the hat from hitting the shelves in the freezer as we retrieved product, and the fitting adjustment on the back allowed for a tighter fit. our caps were also specifically designed for cooks and were therefore are a distinct marker of occupational identity separating us from other bakers, and more importantly, from the front counter staff. in response to changing processes of food preparation and production at the shop, we chose to wear caps that were commonly worn by cooks and bakers who participated in a more “traditional” form of baking. at one point the regular day shift baker suggested that we each start wearing a chef’s jacket as well. during < morritt, noah. ruth. “reading a baker’s cap” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 the early morning when we completed our initial preparations the walk-in freezer was often the coldest. he argued that the jackets would help keep us warm in the freezer and look more professional than our standard uniforms. management did not support this additional change and as a result the only unofficial alteration to our uniforms was the substitution of a baker’s cap for the standard hats issued by the company. changes to our uniforms were thus part of a larger debate about occupational identity that was linked to our perceptions of traditionality and professionalism. thus, our ideas about which methods, techniques, and processes of baking were more traditional than others were consciously expressed through the alterations we made to our official uniform. our unsanctioned canon of work technique and wider occupational culture helped us negotiate changes in food preparation and production and cope with the challenges of the new bake. as an important component of our canon of work technique, our caps helped us accommodate changes in the methods, technology, and processes of baking at the shop. additionally, our caps were also integral to the process of occupational identity construction. amidst the transformation of baking occurring at our shop, and others across the country, we conceptualized the significance of our caps through notions of tradition and professionalism; we wanted to make it clear to management and other employees that we were bakers by visually expressing our perceptions of what a baker should look like. as expressed through our baker’s caps, our occupational culture provided a way of negotiating changes in the baking processes and technologies of our shop. from the “old bake” to the “new bake”: occupational material culture and the political economy of commercial baking responding to critiques of classical marxism, marxist political economy reaffirms the central importance of ownership of the means and modes of production, but reconceptualises base-superstructural relations arguing that political and economic power exist together, reinforcing one another and reproducing oppressive socioeconomic regimes. the joining of structural marxism and political economy to examine the impact of capitalism on the local has had an important impact on anthropology, sometimes referred to as the historical cultural approach. as the theoretical basis of world systems theory this approach asserts that the disparities between local and global systems are produced by interrelated processes of imperialism, state formation and capitalist economic expansion (roseberry 1988). although marxist political economy has had less theoretical impact in folkloristics (limón 1983), analysis within the gramscian tradition has recognized that folklore can be counter-hegemonic, < morritt, noah. ruth. “reading a baker’s cap” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 producing opposition and political philosophies that transform the folk into agents of resistance in opposition to the global economic order (limón 1983). through marxist analysis, folklorists have an interesting opportunity to highlight how the expressive traditions of workers can expose and resist global economic regimes, demonstrating how the integration of global and local economic processes can produce serious consequences for those who are politically weak and economically vulnerable. the bakery where my co-worker and i worked was a site of economic intervention where the neoliberalization of labour practices and management models met with local resistance. as already indicated, before i started working at the doughnut shop, many of the products sold were produced on site by bakers who drew upon a much larger canon of work technique, elements of which was shared by many workers in other commercial bakeries. bakers’ intimate knowledge of recipes, proofing techniques, and proper baking procedures were integral to the success of the store, and their skills were recognized by a higher pay rate than that of other workers at the shop. some commercial bakeries, such as the one i worked at, were never fully industrial in the sense that deskilling workers was not a viable option. as a result, the model of production that existed under the old bake fundamentally lacked flexibility, both in the range of products that could be produced without significant retraining of bakeshop staff and in the degree of control management had over production. what was known in our shop as the “new bake,” – doughnuts that were now baked and frozen at a central factory and shipped to local stores where they are re-baked in specially designed ovens that have built in time and temperature settings for individual products – is part of a larger response to global trends. in introducing a new model of product preparation that decentralized production while fully standardizing product availability and quality in all of its stores across north america, corporate management joined a global movement known as flexible accumulation, a management strategy that promotes expanded capital gains through a production model designed to accommodate constantly changing consumer tastes (patterson 1998). this is achieved through the use of automated technology, the production of small quantities, or batches of goods, and the just-in-time system of delivery that ensures that supplies arrive just as they are needed (oberhauser 1990). these strategies free up capital for other uses, however they also covertly restrict shop floor consciousness that is replaced by a system that seemingly encourages worker’s participation in management. this system represents a complete transformation of the older fordist model of production, which according to oberhauser (1990) “entails long-run, mass production in which workers are stationed at separate posts along as assembly line” (215), resulting in the deskilling of workers, downward pressure < morritt, noah. ruth. “reading a baker’s cap” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 on wages, and labour unrest. under flexible accumulation workers are given jobs with multiple components that are supervised and controlled by automated technologies. folklorists have not yet paid enough attention to changes in the organization and structure of contemporary industrial production models and their impact on occupational folklore. the growing influence of marxist analysis within occupational folklore scholarship does suggest that a critical re-evaluation of worker’s experiences and confrontations with changing economic regimes and management models is possible. using a marxist political economy as an analytical framework it is possible to examine how management strategies such as flexible accumulation transform food preparation and production processes, and in turn, how occupational culture provides strategies for negotiating or resisting its adverse effects. as bakers we were expected to comply with the corporate small-batch policy, making small batches of baked goods only as they were required. this became harder to do as the day progressed, sales increased, and the store became busier. we were also required to record the exact amount of each product baked in our daily computerized production log. according to upper management these procedures were designed to help us regulate production and reduce the amount money lost from discarded goods at the end of the day. as i have shown, however, we often relied on our own techniques. in order to cope with the demands of the new bake and the fragmented, and seemingly disorganized fast pace of small batch baking, we developed our own techniques to maintain the rhythm of the bake. as a management strategy, flexible accumulation strives to break shop floor consciousness, and thus standardized uniforms were used at the shop to reinforce a corporate team ethos meant to subvert and suppress shop floor consciousness and obliterating any risk posed by unionization or collective action by workers. our caps, however, emphasized the importance of solidarity and were a marker of our occupational identity inscribed with alternative definitions and models of labour. the corporate team ethos and the new style of production frequently produced tension as management at the corporate level attempted to tightly regulate the production process by demanding that we work autonomously while completing a range of interrelated tasks. notices posted to remind bakers of corporate policy and workshops held by upper management to teach and reinforce official policy were partially accepted or outright ignored. at the store level, however, we maintained a relatively positive working relationship with the managers who supported our decision to wear a baker’s cap instead of the hats issued as according to the corporate uniform policy. overall, this was a minor concession by management and an act of goodwill, and for the most part we generally followed other corporate policies. < morritt, noah. ruth. “reading a baker’s cap” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 from our perspective our caps explicitly expressed solidarity and occupational identity, which eric wolf (2001) argues is a consequence of people’s incorporation into economic systems and relations of production. he explains that “the processes of incorporation arrange and rearrange people in terms of the governing social relations of production; the processes of identity-making and –unmaking represent responses on the part of particular populations to such arrangements” (wolf 2001: 354). our baker’s cap therefore unmade the identity ascribed to us through flexible accumulation and replaced it with one of our own making. this identity was performed and enacted through costume, and our bakers’ caps can be analysed as both a cultural text and an assemblage. this reading of cultural texts through the framework of marxist political economy seems deterministic and far too narrowly focused on structural relationships inherent in the exercise of political and economic power, however, as i have shown, there is room for agency. conclusion cultural texts such as a baker’s cap have the capacity to become sites of resistance through which economic regimes can be contested and opposed. occupational culture ultimately provides rhetorical strategies and expressive practices through which identities, ideologies, and relations of power can be unmade and reconfigured – it is the process through which occupational identity is enacted. during the summers i worked as a baker, the seemingly inconsequential baker’s cap became a point of intersection where material culture, foodways, and occupational culture met. through the cap and its relationship to the rest of our uniform my fellow baker and i expressed our occupational identity and demonstrated how work techniques were inseparably linked to changing processes of food preparation and models of corporate management. < morritt, noah. ruth. “reading a baker’s cap” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 references cited abrahams, roger d. 1978. towards a sociological theory of folklore: performing services. in working americans: contemporary approaches to occupational folklife, ed. robert h. byington, 19-42. los angeles: california folklore society. byington, robert h. 1978. stratgies for collecting occupational folklife in contemporary urban/industrial contexts. in working americans: contemporary approaches to occupational folklife, ed. robert h. byington, 43-56. los angeles: california folklore society. green, archie. 1978. industrial lore: a bibliographic-semantic query. in working americans: contemporary approaches to occupational folklife, ed. robert h. byington, 71-102. los angeles: california folklore society. limón, josé e. 1983. western marxism and folklore: a critical introduction. the journal of american folklore 96 (379): 34-52 mccarl, robert s. 1978. occupational folklife: a theoretical hypothesis. in working americans: contemporary approaches to occupational folklife, ed. robert h. byington, 3-18. los angeles: california folklore society. ---. 1984. “you’ve come a long way. and now this is your retirement”: an analysis of performance in fire fighting culture. the journal of american folklore 97 (386): 393-422. ---. 1986. occupational folklore. in folk groups and folklore genres: an introduction, ed. elliot oring, 71-90. logan: utah state university press. mitchell, roger. 1982. occupational folklore: the outdoor industries. in handbook of american folklore, ed. richard m. dorson, 128-35. bloomington: indiana university press. nickerson, bruce e. 1982. factory folklore. in handbook of american folklore, ed. richard m. dorson, 121-27. bloomington: indiana university press. oberhauser, ann m. 1990. social and spacial patterns under fordism and flexible accumulation. antipode 22 (3): 211-232. < morritt, noah. ruth. “reading a baker’s cap” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 patterson, thomas c. 1998. flexible accumulation, flexible labor and their consequences. critique of anthropology 18 (3): 317-319. roseberry, william. 1988. political economy. annual review of anthropology 17: 161-185. santino, jack. 1983. miles of smiles, years of struggle: the negotiation of black-occupational identity through personal experience narratives. the journal of american folklore 96 (382): 393-412. tye, diane. 2010. baking as biography: a life story in recipes. montreal & kingston: mcgill-queen’s university press. wolf, eric. 2001. pathways of power: building an anthropology of the modern world. berkley: university of california press. < boyd, cynthia. “review of:lunch: a history (megan elias) and brunch: a history (farha ternikar).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 review of: lunch: a history (megan elias) and brunch: a history (farha ternikar). megan elias. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield, 2014. pp. 204, index, bibliography. farha ternikar. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield, 2014. pp. 164, index, bibliography. review by: cynthia boyd lunch: a history by megan elias and brunch: a history by farha ternikar are two titles from the meal series, part of the rowman & littlefield studies in food and gastronomy. there are five titles in this series thus far, and based on the two i have had the pleasure of reading and reviewing for digest, this series has great potential and will definitely inspire historians, folklorists, and chefs, and the budding foodie in all of us. megan elias has written an erudite and fascinating study of lunch describing everything from the infinite variety of foods eaten for lunch to the endlessly intricate ways people perform lunchtime traditions whether at home, at work, or at school. within her first chapter on the history of lunch, elias asks candidly “did cavemen lunch?”(5). she indicates that they probably did not, but then she delves deeply into the archaeological record, revealing how the neolithic cook had no choice but to rely on the tools and materials at hand to catch food and prepare it. historically, whether it was a meal shared among medieval farmers working in the fields or the communal repast of monastic orders confined by ritual observances, lunch has often occurred between work and prayer (13-14), and in more modern times, between breakfast and supper. at the end of the eighteenth century, the term “luncheon” came into fashion in england, and was used by novelists like jane austen, whose bennett sisters of pride and prejudice fame described a meal they arranged in a local inn as “the nicest cold luncheon in the < boyd, cynthia. “review of:lunch: a history (megan elias) and brunch: a history (farha ternikar).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 world” (austen 2004, 170). in france, however, ‘lunch with a fork’ (dejeuner a la fourchette) became the designated meal of choice of the late afternoon and included solid dishes (oysters, melons, chicken) and hence the need for a fork (21). elias’s first chapter emphasizes how north american lunchtime traditions reflected historic changes such as child laborers eating lunch on the factory floor during the industrial era, shift workers eating at “lunch wagons” (29), and wartime female factory workers eating at lunch counters and “automats” (36). what follows in chapter two is elias’s impressive research surrounding global lunchtime offerings from the fast food paninis available at tim hortens in canada to the tightly molded rice dishes of the bento box in japan or the puffed rice, chickpeas and samosas of “tiffins” in india (50, 65). in chapters three and four, elias concentrates on the concepts of “lunch at home” versus “lunch away from home,” in which the north american perspective presides. the strength of both of these chapters lies in the author’s ability to weave contextual detail with historic fact. throughout lunch: a history, elias makes a clear and significant argument that lunch – the meal and its performance – has often been heavily influenced by gender. this is particularly evident through elias’s references to cookbooks many authored by women whose recipes reflect the continual dynamic that has become the lunchtime meal. the last chapter of this book concentrates on the influence of the arts and popular media on lunch in which elias includes examples from european fine art, english literature, children’s bedtime stories, and north american films and television series. within lunch: a history, there are many instances where the same examples are repeated in different chapters; it is nothing that a thorough editing would eliminate for a future edition. elias’s detailed history of lunch and lunchtime traditions would have been further enhanced by the inclusion of some actual recipes. lunch: a history is nicely illustrated with black and white photographs primarily from historic collections. while a helpful index and detailed notes are both key to a text of this nature, the extensive bibliography will wet readers’ appetites in wanting to know more about lunch and its ongoing history. brunch: a history is another interesting text in the meal series in which author farha ternikar addresses a meal of more recent history than breakfast, lunch, or supper. ternikar has provided a descriptive analysis of brunch by first tracing its origins to the “hunter’s breakfast” in britain (2). it is not surprising then, that the term “brunch” was first coined in the british periodical, hunter’s weekly in 1895 (2-3). while brunch < boyd, cynthia. “review of:lunch: a history (megan elias) and brunch: a history (farha ternikar).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 has such a strong link with the united kingdom, specific brunch style dishes have been eaten in other parts of the world long before brunch became a popular meal; dim sum in china, huevos rancheros in mexico, and le grand petit dejeuner in france, to name a few (1-2). brunch became a well-known american tradition because of its popularity in both new orleans and new york city in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (3-5). stemming from new orleans’ restaurants like madame begue and later, brennans, southern dishes like pain perdu (lost bread) or french toast, eggs benedict, eggs bourguignon, and omelets with seafood became well-known brunch fare (3). deserving a study unto itself, the ubiquitous brunch favourite, eggs benedict, had its origins at two new york city establishments: the waldorf hotel and delmonico’s (5). ternikar’s thorough description of the many eateries and restaurants in north american cities that contributed to the popularity of having brunch ‘out’ are nicely contrasted by her analysis of how brunch became the weekend meal of choice to have ‘in,’ especially among homemakers and their families. what becomes evident in themed chapters about “brunch at home” and “brunch away from home,” is how the brunch meal directly impacted the lives of women from the 1950s onwards who identified with a meal that allowed them to spend less time preparing food in the kitchen and more time with friends and family. as ternikar emphasizes, “brunch was a meal with no rules, and no established menu” (57) and while women and their families have long been excited by the freedom that such a meal provides, chefs and cooks have had the freedom to develop and re-invent brunch food and drinks in their restaurants, cookbooks, and multi-media forums. following this analysis, ternikar describes how brunch has become the trendiest way to celebrate specific occasions and holidays like mother’s day, weddings, christmas and easter (58-61). in her final chapter, ternikar discusses how brunch has played a role in popular culture (95-115), and her references to brunch events on television and film are noteworthy. what gives this chapter punch is ternikar’s notable observations on how television series like all in the family, gossip girl, and how i met your mother frequently depict the interconnection between brunch and class status (98-103). while ternikar’s study of brunch has many merits, the text overall is continually marred by the repetition of similar material. there is not only an overlap of common themes between chapters but on at least one occasion, a lengthy quotation has been repeated verbatim in the same chapter with different publication dates (65, 72-73). it is unfortunate that the author, and more importantly her editorial team, failed to eliminate a myriad of repeated facts < boyd, cynthia. “review of:lunch: a history (megan elias) and brunch: a history (farha ternikar).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 because the repetition is distracting to the reader. despite these criticisms, however, brunch: a history is a well-researched and fascinating study about a meal that has received, up until now, very little attention. ternikar has integrated black and white photographs of brunch dishes throughout her text, and she has provided well-organized endnotes, an index and a substantial bibliography. i especially applaud ternikar’s inclusion of several wonderful brunch recipes, which begs the question: what’s the good of a food study without a few recipes? references cited austen, jane. 2004. pride and prejudice. oxford world classics. oxford: oxford university press. < eaton, nicholas. “food on the rails: the golden age of railway dining (jeri quinzio).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 review of: food on the rails: the golden age of railway dining (jeri quinzio). lanham, maryland: rowman & littlefield, 2014. pp. 153, notes, index. . review by: nicholas eaton wayne state university (detroit, michigan) in her latest work, food on the rails, the golden era of railroad dining, jeri quinzio draws in both railroad buffs and those with an interest in culinary history. from the crumbly dry sandwiches people ate on trains with tobacco spit soaked floors of the 1820s, to the grand cuisine served on “la belle epoch’s” orient express and the puttering post war “automat” microwaved dishes, to the death of railway food with the invention of commercial flight and amtrak, this is a railroad story that inspires both disgust and delight. food on the rails, a magnificent work that tells the tale of food served at high speeds, will keep both train hobbyists and food scholars riveted. while a great deal of the book focuses on the stories of the wealthy, there is space left for the stories of the men and women who served them, the everyday passenger, and the entrepreneurs, american and european, who brought food served on trains to equal anything served in the best restaurants in the world at the time (for some while at least). food on the rails is as much a story of great men doing great things, as it is one of men who would go on to do great things. quinzio relates the tales of both walt disney and thomas edison who, like many other working class boys at the time, sold candies, oranges, and newspapers on the trains. the term for these young chaps was “news butcher.” these two met with some trouble, edison finally being prohibited < eaton, nicholas. “food on the rails: the golden age of railway dining (jeri quinzio).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 from working on the trains because of his so called “experiments” in the back areas by a conductor who was none too pleased with him. disney went on to become a lifelong train buff, despite being a poor candy salesman, and integrated this love of trains into his later work of disney land, as any who have visited the parks can attest. edison, well, we all know the path which tinkering around on trains took him down. the tale of folks trying to settle the west of the united states and their inability to find a decent meal along the rail is told in vivid detail by quinzio. as late as the 1870s trains to the american west afforded very few opportunities for sustenance, and it is related that buffalo meat was piled outside the stations for passengers in between stops to cut hunks of meat off that could be cooked to order. often times these steaks were served with old beans and coffee, which were really only partaken of to fight off hunger. usually the trains would leave before any real meal could be had. across the pond, the british at least offered so called “tearooms” at railway stops which sold typical snacks like tea and sandwiches, pork pies, cakes and sausage rolls, but again, these were often old and displeased many of the passengers looking for a quick ten minute bite between stops. charles dickens even remarked on the poor quality of these items, calling the pork pies “glutinous lumps of gristle and grease.” but things would not always be this way. by the 1840s european and canadian rail lines built their own hotels to accommodate passengers and provide wonderful food. the americans lagged behind in this regard, however, still offering food which the new york times referred to as “abominations of desolation,” in an article dated june 10, 1857. the american solution was to offer lunch baskets to passengers that could be ordered by wiring ahead to the next station. these included items like oysters, ham, boiled eggs, bread, olives, sardines, and pickled pig’s feet. an interest for anyone reading the book lies in the industry of two men named george. one, an american with the last name pullman, was so inventive and creative and his standards so high, that his name represented the very definition of quality and luxury in both the united states and in england in his time. the other was a belgian with the last name of nagelmackers. he was pullman’s european counterpart, and ran several luxurious trains, but none so famous or iconic as the illustrious orient express, a ticket on which from paris to constantinople, cost more than the annual salary of one of the highly skilled wait staff who worked on it. the < eaton, nicholas. “food on the rails: the golden age of railway dining (jeri quinzio).” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 sections on the orient express and the pullman cars are worth the read alone. food on the rails is a great read, but if i were to voice one complaint about the book, it is that it is so brief. it is an extremely interesting work, and i would have enjoyed learning more about an age that so few of us living today have had the ability to experience. even when dining cars were common, they were a luxury, like first class flying. this brevity continues into the biographical outlines of the characters who shaped the work, but are complex and interesting enough to encourage further reading. one area of the book where quinzio is more than generous is the recipes from various eras and countries, describing culinary terms and methods used, which i appreciated as a culinary educator. one needn’t possess professional cooking knowledge though, as the solid and brief culinary explanations serve the uninitiated as well. food on the rails is a quick read, packed with information and stories which will expand the train buff’s interest to include the culinary history of the rail, and will introduce the culinary historian or foodways scholar to an area which might have been previously overlooked in their research. even for someone interested in neither food nor trains, it is magnificent entry into the world of the mid-19th to mid-20th century, as every major event happening on the world stage is mentioned and viewed through the lens of the railways passenger, both patrician and plebian. eleuterio, susan. 2017. “review of: rio de janeiro: a food biography.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 89. © american folklore society 2017 review of: rio de janeiro: a food biography marcia zoladz. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield press, 2016. pp. xi + 116, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. by: susan eleuterio part of the big city food biographies series,1 rio de janeiro begins with author marcia zoladz’s note that “the food in the city . . . is also part of the history of its cultural development” (vii). she first outlines the evolutionary interplay of indigenous amerindian food and methods (cassava for flour, tapirs as meat, and the moquém, a grilling technique used for drying and smoking food) with portuguese colonial introductions such as rice, sugarcane, chickens, cattle, and later coffee. next she presents the impact of africans forced into slavery and brought to rio and brazil with their fish dishes, angu, a corn flour porridge served with offal in a stew, and foods featuring introduced ingredients like peanuts, along with local ingredients like capsicum peppers, pumpkins, and black beans. finally she looks at the post slavery period and contributions from european and levantine immigrants like pizza, kibbeh, pasta, and french cuisine in restaurants and wealthier homes. she notes that cariocas (the name for native born rio inhabitants including herself) “have a dual perception . . . on one hand, there is a . . . strong idea of their city as an idyllic place in a special landscape . . . on the other hand, rio is open to all and any foreign influence in food . . . and each new addition is adapted to the brazilian culture” (x). rio de janeiro moves from this useful outline of the peoples and periods of food history and culture in rio to a slightly encyclopedic listing of material resources, the first inhabitants, later immigration, markets and retailing, restaurants and eating out, concluding with historic cookbooks—covering the same topics as the other volumes in the series. for every fascinating section, however, there is, at times, almost too much information (with some facts repeated unnecessarily), which can overwhelm a reader just when she is getting interested. “a small glossary of things everybody knows in rio,” for example provides insider knowledge on the african roots of à baina or ingredients and methods from the northeast state of bahia, the three types of limes (called limão or lemon eleuterio, susan. 2017. “review of: rio de janeiro: a food biography.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 90. © american folklore society 2017 in portuguese) used in rio, a fish/seafood stew moqueca made with palm oil in a large shallow pot, and the role of quitandeiras or women who sell fruits, vegetables, cakes, hot puddings, or doughnuts (and sometimes biscuits) on large wooden boards (28-29) to be sure, zoladz provides a thorough and sophisticated analysis not only of the foodways of rio, but of the historic and ongoing intersectionality of people, politics, and cultures. describing the impact of immigration, she includes not only the specific foods now available in rio, but also detailed descriptions and histories of methods of preparation, presentation, and a variety of dishes, concluding with current cooking shows on television. she covers how successive waves of immigrants (germans, swiss, french, chinese, jews and non-jews from eastern and central europe, japanese, and middle easterners, among others) both changed what was available in the city but also had their food customs modified by what was available and the traditions of the cariocas. she notes: “in rio, there is a tendency to cultural dilution in the kitchen . . . a constant dialogue with the tropical climate and ingredients [sic] availability” (39). author of an award-winning cookbook of brazilian sweets and desserts, zoladz includes recipes and what appear to be family stories. my favorite is the description of preparing a turkey for christmas by getting it drunk on cachaça (fermented sugarcane liquor) making sure that it was “not under any stress when the cook came by and broke its neck” (77). the style of most later chapters is that of oral history, in the author’s dialect idiom, not conversational in tone, and sometimes a bit jumpy in time and place, but very dedicated to providing an on the ground view of foodways from field to market to kitchen to table. for me as a portuguese american, there were flashes of recognition in some traditions such as sunday being the “day to prepare cozido, a portuguese specialty where meats and vegetables are cooked in different broths,” which reminds me of the stews my father would make on sundays, and the love of sugary desserts such as pudim de leite, “a milk custard covered with a caramel sauce, a variation of the portuguese flan” (88). this volume’s overview of historic cookbooks is fascinating, including the facts that sweets were typically prepared in monasteries or convents or by poor widows to make money (105). zoladz does an equally excellent job of sprinkling descriptions and recipes of the typical (and in come cases, unique) dishes of rio, for instance, feijoada, black beans and rice (today served with meat), farofa, a eleuterio, susan. 2017. “review of: rio de janeiro: a food biography.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 91. © american folklore society 2017 “well seasoned mix of manioc flour, eggs, thinly sliced onions [sic] rings, green kale finely shredded, and a little bacon cut in tiny pieces” (43), codfish, and wonderfully named specialties such as casadinho (“roughly ‘sweetly married’ two cookies joined together with guava paste or milk marmalade that can be bought at street markets,” which she notes is an “informal version of the bemcasado (‘well married’) cookies wrapped in fancy paper and given as a treat at weddings” (105). while the list of cookbooks and bibliography is extensive, i found it odd that sweeping statements were made with little or no reference to sources except in a few cases. while this book is aimed at a popular audience, it would still have been useful to have links to the source material. otherwise, this food biography provides a deeply researched and, at the same time, an intimate look at the historic and contemporary foodways of rio. (notes) 1 other cities include madrid, new orleans, san francisco, new york, portland, chicago, and kansas city < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl representing the sandwich in legend and cookery literature the first sandwich consisted of two slices of bread with a layer of ham between. the legend runs that it was eaten by john montagu, the fourth earl of sandwich (woodman 1934: 9). by: noah j.a. morritt introduction sitting around a dimly lit, smoky, boisterous card table, john montagu, the reputedly infamous fourth earl of sandwich, is reported to have made an important culinary innovation. unwilling to abandon his hand or the thrill of the competition, the earl ordered a servant to bring him pieces of meat enclosed between two pieces of bread. free to play his cards with one hand and eat with the other, he had created a dish worthy of his reputation; that is to say, the reputation that later writers and cookery book authors created and reported in their narrative accounts of the earl’s character, his status as an eccentric gambler, and his culinary invention. looking to establish the aristocratic pedigree and historical lineage of the sandwich, cook book authors in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century britain reported the legend of the earl’s invention of the sandwich, often as a historical anecdote to accompany their recipes. as legend, narrative accounts of the earl ordering slices of meat to be brought to his gaming table served between two pieces of bread are presented as true or, at the very least, plausible. often defined as narratives told as true (bascom 1965), legends are exemplary prose narratives formulated from, and embedded within a group’s system of belief (dégh 2001; dégh and vázsonyi 1976; georges 1971; smith 1994; tangerlini 1990). for the purpose of this paper i use the term legend to refer to both text and process: to refer to specific narratives that describe the earl’s culinary invention as well as the process of debate that in turn informs and shapes these narratives overtime. in this sense, the legend of the earl and his game-time snack is emergent (ellis < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 2003); it is a narrative process that constructs the history and legacy of the earl’s invention of the sandwich from the socio-economic vantage point of the teller. i also explore how these narratives are presented as both legend and anecdote simultaneously: they are etiological legends that explain the origins of the sandwich and anecdotes that characterize and attest to the earl’s reputation and personality. using the theoretical lenses of legend studies and foodways scholarship, this paper examines two specific dimensions of the sandwich’s history: reports of its legendary origins as a make-shift snack of the gentry and its transformation by cookery writers during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. i begin my analysis with the biography of the fourth earl of sandwich and his reported invention of the dish that bears his name. after surveying one-hundred-andsix british cookbooks that span a period from 1860 to 1950, i noticed that three writers – florence jack, mary woodman, and mrs. stanley wrench – included a brief history of the sandwich alongside their recipes and general advice for good sandwich-making, and that these brief historical notes exclusively focused on the legend of john montagu’s invention of the sandwich.(1) in the first section i will explore the multivalent discursive uses of this legend by cookery writers from the period and the contested history of the sandwich that it produced. secondly, i examine the recipes and preparation advice that these books present. unlike the make-shift sandwich eaten by the earl in the legend, the sandwiches of nineteenthand early-twentieth-century cookbooks required careful attention to preparation and presentation. written to guide and instruct middle-class british women, these books identified the sandwich as a commonplace, everyday food in need of improvement. their authors advocated a (re)presentational transformation of the sandwich from a utilitarian food of the working class into one of middleclass sociability and refinement. as such, the sandwich became a site for the performance of daintiness, culinary skill, good hospitability, and gentility. by arguing that cookery authors sought to restrict the socio-cultural use of the sandwich as a practice of household economy and a marker of identity, i am drawing attention to the class-based significance of food items such as sandwiches, as well as their larger relationship to broader historical trends such as the development of the domestic science movement and the commodification of food production. drawing upon the legend of the earl and his game-time snack, cookery authors sought to manage the sandwich’s multivocality – its apparent disregard for the < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 boundaries of social-economic class or the conventions of haute cuisine, as well as its potential for both utilitarian simplicity and gastronomic extravagance. sandwich legends and sandwich’s biography: culinary history and legend the history and biography of john montagu, fourth earl of sandwich, is as contentious, opaque, and contested as his legend. born into a moderately wealthy family on 13 november 1718, montagu assumed his title and a meager inheritance after the death of his grandfather in 1729. following his classical education at eton and trinity college, cambridge, he embarked on a tour of the mediterranean, including stops in greece, turkey, constantinople, and egypt. beyond his early training and experience as a classists and orientalist, his main accomplishments were political and administrative: over the course of his career he served the posts of secretary of state twice, and first lord of the admiralty three times (rodger 2008). however, despite these accomplishments later writers tended to focus on the less flattering dimensions of his personality and legacy. he has been accused of excessive gambling, corruption, and promiscuity, and as a result, sandwich’s biography has often been the subject of intrigue and rumour. the legend of sandwich’s sandwich thus referentially links anecdotes about his character to the event reported in legend. characterizations of the earl as a lecherous, indulgent gambler are plainly evident in many popular biographies and histories. an anonymous biography published during the earl’s lifetime in 1770 under the title the life, adventures, intrigues, and amours of the celebrated jemmy twitcher , goes so far as to assert that the earl’s propensity for vice, imprudence and trickery was constant throughout his life. as a child, the author claims, “he appeared a froward [sic], ill-tempered child; and though apparently possessed of superior talents, seemed prone to abuse them on every occasion” (1770: 29-30), and suggests that these characteristics continually overshadowed his accomplishments and marred his reputation. more significant, however, were the earl’s sexual indiscretions, which according to the author were numerous and unconcealed. ending the sordid narrative around the time of the earl’s marriage and appointment to parliament, the book closes by stating that “with all his faults; and which, perhaps, renders them greater, he is a man of uncommon sense and penetration. suffice it therefore to say, that he lives, a monument to superior abilities, prostituted to the worst of purposes!” (anonamous 1770: 91-92). < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 other characterizations of the earl by his contemporaries were no-less flattering. historians and biographers have noted that attacks on sandwich by writers such as john wilkes and horace walpole were politically motivated and based on rumours and gossip circulating at the time (martelli 1962). in the case of wilkes, sandwich played a leading role in attacking his former friend for publishing two controversial pieces in his newspaper, the north briton. sandwich’s role consisted of leading an attack in parliament that stripped wilkes of his parliamentary privilege and thus made it possible for the government to prosecute him for seditious libel in response to an inflammatory piece he wrote in opposition to king george iii and his parliament’s decision to make peace with france and end the seven years war, as well as a second piece, a poem titled essay on women. this poem had been printed for private circulation, but at sandwich’s insistence, it was read aloud during a sitting of the house of lords. as a result, most of wilkes’s friends in parliament abandoned him and he was expelled from the house of commons and convicted on charges of seditious and obscene libel (martelli 1962). outside of parliament, wilkes’s fate was lamented as the product of trickery and corruption. for his role in wilkes’s downfall, sandwich earned the nickname “jemmy twitcher,” a reference to a character in john gay’s the beggar’s opera, and was the subject of ridicule and attack. wilkes’s response to sandwich’s role in his downfall was swift and hard-hitting; he attacked sandwich’s reputation and competence as a government official (martelli 1962). as a result, characterizations of sandwich as a corrupt politician, incompetent administrator, lustful philanderer, and indulgent gambler have had considerable resonance through time. these characterizations, whether baseless or rooted in fact, have not gone unnoticed by academic historians who have been swift to defend the earl’s reputation as an important naval administrator and patron of the arts. the naval historian n.a.m. rodger in his full length biography of the earl has taken many of these accusations to task. he argues that naval records and the earl’s personal papers reveal an “energetic and conscientious minister” (rodger 1994: xvi). wrongfully accused of the vices commonly associated with his legacy, rodger’s biography carefully contextualizes the charges made against him, and argues that the less savory aspects of his private life were relatively common social practices of the british gentry at the time. for example, rodger argues that gambling was an important part of public life and a “professional necessity” (1994: 76). when montagu did gamble, he states, it was for relatively low stakes and part of some other activity, usually cricket. it is, therefore, < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 unlikely that montagu would have ever have been so engrossed and committed to a hand of cards that he would have required a meat sandwich to be brought to his game table. nonetheless, “familiar in our mouths as a household word, he has suffered the indignity of being forgotten as a man and remembered as a thing” (roger 1994: xiii). despite the strong association that exists between montagu and the sandwich, rodger devotes very little space to the sandwich legend, dismissing it as gossip. he argues that the legend can likely be traced to a passage from a piece of travel literature, grosley’s tour of london, written in the 1770s. as quoted in rodger (1994: 79), grosely reports, a minister of state passed four and twenty hours at a public gaming-table, so absorbed in play, that, during the whole time, he has no substance but a bit of beef, between two slices of toasted bread, which he eat without ever quitting the game. this new dish grew highly in vogue, during my residence in london: it was called by the name of the minister who invented it (grosley 1772, 1: 149). according to rodger, the episode reported by grosely likely occurred in 1765 when montagu was a cabinet minister. quick to dispel the report as libelous and untrue, rodger does, however, claim that it is possible that montagu ordered sandwiches to be brought to his work desk: “the alternative explanation is that he invented it to sustain himself at his desk, which seems plausible since we have ample evidence of the long hours he worked from an early start, in an age when dinner was the only substantial meal of the day, and the fashionable hour to dine was four o’clock” (rodger 1994: 79). by identifying the sandwich story as gossip, and by offering an alternative origin for the legend, rodger is drawing attention to the negative characterizations of the earl’s private life the legend entextualizes. in particular, he critiques the use of the sandwich as a referent to the earl’s legacy, a legendary history of his allegedly notorious private life that supersedes his political and administrative accomplishments. the power of the sandwich as a referent, to both the legend and the earl’s character, demonstrates its multivocality. in its biographical context, the legend serves as a referent to popular notions about the earl’s private life and his reputation as a gambler. in a brief introductory note to her section dedicated to sandwich recipes, british author florence jack provides a brief report of the sandwich’s origins: “the word ‘sandwich,’” she states “is supposed to have originated with < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 john montague, 4th earl of sandwich, who, to avoid being interrupted by meals, used to have slices of bread and butter, with meat between, brought to him at his gaming table” (jack 1914: 520). two decades later, mary woodman, a popular british cooking author of the 1930s provides another example in her book 100 varieties of sandwiches: how to prepare them, published in london in 1934: the first sandwich consisted of two slices of bread with a layer of ham between. the legend runs that it was eaten by john montagu, the fourth earl of sandwich. this worthy lord was an inveterate card-player and, on one occasion, he spent twenty-four hours without a break at the gaming table. in order to allay his hunger and so as to waste no time, he commanded his butler to bring him some meat between pieces of bread, the idea being that he should be able to eat without interrupting the play. the butler brought a slice of ham enveloped in two layers of bread. thus was born the first sandwich (woodman 1934: 9). interestingly, both jack and woodman’s accounts emphasize the sandwich’s convenience and time-saving ability. inconvenienced by his hunger, yet engrossed in the game unfolding before him, the earl in both accounts is determined to continue without interruption. he needed a quick, simple, and easy to eat culinary solution. his innovation, a food he could eat with one hand while he played his cards with the other as to waste no time... that he should be able to eat without interrupting the play. innovative and pragmatic, this sandwich marked the competitive determination of a reportedly inveterate gambler. a separation of the legendary event from the frequently explicit anecdotal references to the earl’s personality is impossible as the two are fundamentally linked. the accounts of both jack and woodman demonstrate that the sandwich’s invention was not solely the result of the social environment and conditions of the gambling table. there is no reference to other participants following the earl’s example, and as far as these authors are concerned, the earl’s sandwich was unique. unwilling to follow the earl’s example, or forgotten and eclipsed by the boldness of his extraordinary request, the response of his fellow gamblers in interestingly absent. there is, however, an additional use of the legend at play. drawing attention to the earl’s nobility, these writers used the legend to establish the sandwich’s nobility. mrs. stanley wrench, a popular romance writer and cookery author during the early-twentieth century, provides an example of the kind of discourse management that is typical in cookery books from this period. in her < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 introductory note to the sandwich’s history and sandwich-making, she writes, i have already written of sandwiches, which seem to be regarded by most people as a sort of makeshift meal, yet they need not be. remember how they were invented by jeremy twitcher, the fourth earl of sandwich. this notorious nobleman, who lived in the eighteenth century, was devoted to the gaming table, and would never leave it even to go to his meals, but one day, hunger getting the better of him, he called for a slice of bread, had a slice of beef cut from the joint, clapped this on top, and laid another slice of bread over, and so continued his play. for a time this kind of portable meal was known as a “jeremy twitcher,” and later on by the name of the noble lord himself. but even he would be astonished at the variation which have been rung on this experiment of his. indeed, sandwiches may be made so substantial, they easily become a meal, especially with salads (wrench 1934: 116-7). in this account the status of the sandwich as both a makeshift and substantial meal draws attention to its use as a characterization of the earl. similar to the other accounts i have examined, wrench’s version makes explicit reference to popular perceptions of the earl’s private life by referring to him as “jeremy twitcher,” a nickname given to him by his enemies. however, despite negative characterizations associated with the earl’s private life, his status as a member of the british nobility is also identified as being important to the status and identity of his culinary invention. as wrench states, this portable meal would later be known “by the name of the noble lord himself,” demonstrating for her readers the sandwich’s noble origins. the legend of the earl’s invention of the sandwich thus simultaneously makes reference to popular perceptions of his notoriety and the sandwich’s legendary origin as a food of the nobility. by associating the earl’s nobility with the sandwich, this legend has the capacity to facilitate the transformation of the sandwich into a food marked by nobility and gentility. interestingly, this alternative identity exists side-by-side with the identity of the sandwich presented in the passage above. by refusing to pause the card game to alleviate his hunger, the earl made use of resources at hand, ordering a servant to bring him a meal that was easy to eat and filling at the same time. the status of the earl’s sandwich as makeshift and substantial is important. in the later part of the passage, wrench comments that the earl would no doubt be “astonished at the variation which have been rung on his experiment,” indicating that the sandwich recipes in her book represented something new – the sandwich transformed. < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 food writer and historian bee wilson (2010) explores the history of the sandwich as a global culinary tradition in her book sandwich: a global history. she argues that it is unlikely that the earl invented the sandwich, and attributes its origins and popularity to the peasant foodways of early-modern europe. drawing upon evidence that suggests that french rural labourers were frequently served meat between slices of brown bread, she states that “the same was true in all the peasant countries of europe. workers did not need to give this snack a name. it was just what you ate” (wilson 2010: 16-18). wilson also addresses the relationship of sandwiches to socio-economic class, and notes that by the nineteenth century there was a marked difference between the sandwiches of the middle and working classes. she states that aristocratic sandwiches, those eaten by the upper and middle classes, were made to be “dainty, consistent in texture, and varied in filling,” and comments that “even a sandwich with an apparently simple upper-class filling such as cucumber – a symbol of leisure, ease and privilege – took elaborate preparation to get right” (wilson 2010: 42-44). these delicate and carefully prepared sandwiches were different from the large, crust-intact sandwiches of the working class. popular for their mobility, tastiness, and economy, sandwiches were an important form of working-class sustenance: “many british working-class sandwiches had no meat at all but consisted of thick doorstops of bread sandwiched with a little fat (as in the yorkshire ‘mucky fat’ sandwich made from meat drippings) or jam” (wilson 2010:45-46). sandwiches were thus a food of both the wealthy and the poor. made from simple ingredients that were common in british kitchens during the period, sandwiches were also an important strategy of household economy for the working class. oddy (2003) argues that the nutritional quality of the british diet began to steadily decline in the 1890s, and continued to decline until the 1960s. this “poverty diet” was the result of intensified industrialization and its impact on the domestic consumption of food stuffs, particularly its reliance upon staples such as bread, potatoes, tea, treacle, sugar, and bacon (drummond and wilbraham (1939) 1991; spencer 2002). it is possible to argue that strategies for the management of household resources were especially important for the working class. this may have included their reliance upon, or preference for, specific food stuffs that were readily available and economical. walton’s (1989; 1992) study of the political, economic, and socio-cultural importance of fish and chips in britain < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 demonstrates that particular food stuffs became important parts of both workingclass identity and diet. targeted by middle-class reformers and domestic scientists as emblematic of working-class living conditions, fish and chips were “presented as part of a pathology of culinary ignorance and the failure to use cheap ingredients to their best advantage” (walton 1992: 13). spencer colin (2002) in his historical survey of british food notes that chip shops were frequently associated with poverty and urban slums. however, despite the condemnation of fish and chips by reformers, street food remained an important culinary tradition throughout the victorian era, and foods such as hot eels, kidney puddings, fried fish, and chips, as well as ham sandwiches, remained popular. nonetheless, the discourse of reform was pervasive, and it permeates the sandwich recipes of cookery books from this period. rather than recognizing sandwiches, or fish and chips, as vernacular strategies of household economy, cookery writers identified them as an often ill-prepared, nutritionally deficient, and unpalatable food in need of reform. these working-class foods thus resembled the earl’s sandwich in a number of interesting ways – they could be makeshift, made from whatever ingredients that happened to be available; they could be substantial and eaten as a meal, rather than an appetizer or snack; and they could be unruly, fillings slathered between thick slices of bread in the easiest and most convenient way possible. they do differ, however, in other important ways. while the earl’s sandwich was born of recreational rather than economic necessity, working class sandwiches could be an important strategy of household economy. largely absent from cookery literature before the nineteenth century, sandwiches were made and eaten at the margins of british food practices until its discovery by the earl. finnis (2012) uses the term marginal to refer to foods and food related practices that are often associated with peripheral or non-elite groups. guided by literature in the anthropology of food, she draws attention to how marginality is constructed, performed, represented, and debated. finnis argues that the movement of people and food related practices across time and spaces facilitates the process of incorporating marginalized foods into the culinary mainstream. situated at the intersection of identity-making and political economy, these movements follow wider geopolitical processes. drawing upon finnis’ concept in response to the historical studies i have discussed above, i propose that the legend of the earl’s invention of the sandwich facilitates the transformation and reimagining of the sandwich as a food and marker of socioeconomic identity. by requesting a sandwich, the earl adopted a workingclass food practice, facilitating the sandwich’s movement from the culinary margins < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 to the centre of british cuisine. his status as a member of the nobility, as well as his reputation as an eccentric and philanderer, was thus important for cookery writers looking to differentiate their recipes from the culinary practices of the working class. the movement of the sandwich from culinary marginality to the pages of popular cookery books was a process of transformation. aware of this legend’s capacity for multivocality, cookery authors needed a strategy for discourse management; they needed to carefully distance themselves and their recipes from the sandwich’s supposed historical antecedents – the working class and the unruly earl. in the three examples that i have discussed thus far, the earl is represented as a man who takes leisure seriously. portrayed as an avid gambler and person of means, his socio-economic status as an upper-class british nobleman is an integral component in each of the accounts. the creative act of ordering meat to be brought to the table between two pieces of bread was not an act of economic necessity or resource management, but rather a display of sociability and wealth; the earl did not make his own sandwich, instead, a servant carried out and delivered his culinary request. by emphasizing the context of the gaming table in their accounts, these cookery writers highlight the class-based dynamics of the earl’s interactions with the game, the other players, the servant, and food more generally. the unruly earl, his unruly sandwich, and his unruly legend thus became a site of reform for cookery writers looking to transform the sandwich into a genteel, dainty delicacy. from makeshift meals to dainty morsels: cookery writing as discourse management no matter for what occasions it is chosen, however, whether it is to be lunch, tea, supper, motoring or picnics, if the sandwich is to have real food value, two things are necessary – thoroughly good bread and pure fresh butter (everybody’s home recipe book, n.d.: 204). the freshest ingredients, attentiveness to proper preparation, and careful attention to detail are paramount to the success of any sandwich, or at least, in so far as cookery authors of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century were concerned. advised to carefully select and prepare their ingredients, women were told to use thinly sliced bread that was sparingly buttered and filled with an even layer of vegetables, meats, or salad. this was the foundation of the daintily made triangular, or oblong, crustless < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 sandwich often associated with the refinement and gentility of english high tea. seeking to advise and instruct the cooking women of britain, cookery authors of the period described, in detail, the techniques and preparations that women would need to make and serve the finest sandwiches. unlike their simple and makeshift predecessors, the sandwiches called for in these recipes were touted as the epitome of refinement. they were also praised for their nutritional quality and versatility. tied to the domestic science movement (later known as home economics), cookery writers sought to transform the sandwich into a more nutritious and delicate food – they were to become morsels fit for social tea and the middle-class parlour. the wider implications of the domestic science movement on the food practices of the trans-atlantic, anglo-american world has become an important area of focus within the social history of food and cooking. in particular, scholarship within feminist food studies highlights the important role of cooking and cookery literature within women’s culture (theophano 2002), as well as the ways that women reproduce and resist constructions of gender through food related practices (avakian and haber 2005; mcfeely 2001). sherrie inness (2006) explains that cookbooks are of particular importance to feminist scholars and argues that they have simultaneously been both agents of conservatism and proponents of change. in an earlier study, dinner roles: american women and culinary culture (2001), inness shows how early twentieth-century cookbooks reinforced traditional gender roles and conveyed to women that cooking and the kitchen was their responsibility. however, she also proposes that cookbooks can be a site of women’s resistance and agency. cookbooks thus provide an important window into women’s experiences and worldview. as a focal point for analysis, cookbooks provide an important resource for historical studies that examine the impact of the domestic science movement on the everyday food practices and lived experiences of women. developed during the later part of the nineteenth century, the domestic science movement was an important project of reform that sought to promote science and technology in the realm of housework. laura shapiro (1986) in her study perfection salad: women and cooking at the turn of the century, examines the ways that the domestic science movement used food as an important site of reform and argues that cookery books played an important role in creating a manageable, controllable, scientific household. conceptualized as the counterbalance to the secular, industrialized world of business, the home was marked by sentimentality and moralism, and as cookbooks proliferated at the < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 turn of the twentieth century, they were accompanied by a sense of sociopolitical urgency. domestic scientists concerned with issues of nutrition, sanitation, and household efficiency concentrated their efforts on the introduction of science into the domestic sphere. this required a transformation of victorian sentimentality aimed at bringing the home into the scientific era (shapiro 1986). to do so, domestic scientists reinforced the ideology of domesticity, promoting a separate sphere for women with “a parallel set of privileges and a female world that would mirror man’s” (shapiro 1986: 44). women were encouraged to maintain control and manage household duties pragmatically, while reinforcing the femininity of domesticity. in the kitchen, daintiness thus became an important tool for feminizing domestic science, emphasizing and enacting the movement’s rhetoric of control and refinement. in the advice and recipes printed in cookery books from this period, the rhetoric and performance of daintiness is an important enactment of a cook’s control and skill in the kitchen. sandwiches were no exception. under the sandwich entry in mrs. rundell’s cookery book, modern domestic cookery founded on principles of economy and practical knowledge, women are advised that sandwiches “require more care that is usually bestowed upon them” and encouraged to pay special attention to the preparation and baking of the bread to be used, the thickness of the slices, the freshness of the butter, and the trimming of the crusts (rundell 1880: 564). published in 1880, this book aims to provide general advice for sandwich-making rather than specific recipes. sliced beef, tongue, or chicken are the only suggested fillings, and as a general guide to preparation and presentation mrs. rundell advises women to “cut the bread moderately thin, butter it very slightly indeed, lay the meat cut thin, season with salt, pepper, and mustard, as may be required; cover with a second slice of bread, trim the edges, put them one on the other, and cover with a damp cloth until wanted” (1880: 564). much like the meat-filled sandwiches common among the working class, these sandwiches require simple ingredients – bread, butter, meat, and a bit of mustard. however, rundell advises her readers to use more care in their preparation. as she explains in her introduction to the book, her aim is to provide “plain and useful recipes, the result of experience and practice, adapted for those families of moderate fortune in which a degree of elegance is combined with attention to domestic economy” (1880: iv). as a cookery book informed by and entrenched within the domestic science movement, mrs. rundell’s advice for sandwich-making instrumentalizes elegance as a tool for culinary reform. despite the absence of more varied and elaborate sandwich recipes typical in < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 later cookery books, mrs. rundell provides her readers with a clear and concise description of the techniques and procedures necessary for elegant sandwichmaking. her concern for linking elegance and economy is clearly demonstrated by the simple and limited sandwich fillings she suggests, as well as the savory toast recipes that she includes in her section devoted to savory breakfast dishes. in cookery books from the 1880s period savory toasts are commonly included and are often associated with sandwiches. in the recipes provided by mrs. rundell, slices of toasted, buttered bread are covered with a filling or sauce and heated. in one example, pieces of toast are covered with left-over ragout that has been thickened with egg yolks, topped with hardboiled egg, breaded, and baked. in another, cold ham is grated or pounded, mixed with egg yolk and cream, cooked, and then served over buttered toast (rundell 1880: 561-2). based on the ingredients required and the instructions provided, it is possible that these recipes were intended as a strategy for kitchen economy – left-over stews are thickened and cold meats are sliced or minced to create hearty breakfast dishes. however, much like the sandwich preparations she describes, savory toasts also require care and culinary skill. they also require access to an oven or range. culinary historian colin spencer (2002) notes that many cookbooks written with the intent of improving the diets and culinary practices of the working class presumed that working-class women had access to cooking equipment such as ovens. in some instances a communal oven may have been available, but for many working-class cooks recipes for baked savory toasts were of little use as a practice of household economy. however, mrs. rundell’s recipe may not have been solely intended as an economical dish; it may have also been intended as a performance of culinary creativity and elegance. in many of the recipes the fillings must be carefully seasoned and dressed, the bread properly buttered, and the entire dish thoroughly heated and garnished. elegance in this instance is the proper execution of technique and careful attention to detail. in many of the cookery books that i surveyed, the relationship of culinary technique and skill to the performance of daintiness is a relatively constant theme. in an anonymously written entry in cassell’s dictionary of cookery (1896), general rules for sandwich preparation are described. it advises that meat should be properly dressed, trimmed, and sliced into bite-sized portions and served between pieces of buttered, crustless bread. when properly executed, the entry states that “sandwiches, when properly prepared, constitute a convenient, elegant, and palatable dish for suppers or luncheons” and assures readers that careful preparation will avoid the “bad repute” that befalls most sandwiches “on account < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 of the careless manner in which they are often made” (cassell’s dictionary of cookery 1896: 824). to be convenient, elegant, and palatable the sandwich had to cleanse itself of its unruly, makeshift quality. as a gendered practice and performance, daintiness is constructed and represented as a process capable of transforming the sandwich’s “bad repute.” unlike the earl and his sandwich, cookery authors had no intention of replicating what they saw as carelessness. daintiness, or elegance, was thus employed as an important form of discourse management. in the above passages it is conceptualized and enacted as culinary skill, careful preparation, and attention to detail. the strategic linking of daintiness and preparatory technique created and maintained socio-economic distance that separated these author’s sandwiches from those of the earl and the working class. the sandwich’s identity as a cultural practice of the working class is frequently alluded too, but rarely stated outright. what is clear, however, is that it needed to be transformed. the sandwiches of the working class and the sandwich served to the earl in legend are represented as careless and makeshift, a food of the past unfit for luncheons and dinner parties. by transforming the sandwich into a dainty, refined, and respectable food, it was in turn reconceptualised as a site of reform rather than a site of subsistence and vernacular home economy. by lending his upper-class status to the sandwich, the earl and his legend rendered the sandwich available for transformation. cookery authors extended this by reimagining the sandwich through discourses of daintiness that identified particular aspects of the sandwich as in need of reform. this included preparatory technique, but it also included the variety and quality of ingredients. florence jack, following her account of the earl’s legend, remarks that “the term [sandwich] has now a much wider meaning than formerly,” explaining that it now “includes not only the plain sandwich, consisting of slices of meat placed between two pieces of buttered bread, cut into varying degrees of thickness, but also many dainty trifles suitable for afternoon teas and other light refreshments” (jack 1914: 520). made using different types of bread, biscuits, toasts and pastries, savory and sweet fillings, and an array of commercially made spreads and condiments, jack provides her readers with forty-seven recipes that range from anchovy and beef, to caviar, foie-gras, and lemon curd. as she states, “the variety of these little sandwiches is endless” and with practice “clever fingers and a little ingenuity will soon invent many others” (jack 1914: 520). by emphasizing the many varieties of < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 breads, fillings, and spreads that can be used, jack represents daintiness as culinary creativity. unlike the earl’s meat sandwich, jack’s recipes call for innovation – interesting ingredients, textures, and flavours. daintiness imagined as variety and quality distinguishes the sandwiches made for teas and light refreshments from the monotonous, plain, uncreative sandwiches of the past, of the socio-economic other. daintiness and creativity are further linked in jack’s introduction to savory and sweet sandwiches through her advice for sandwich cutting and presentation. she instructs that “sandwiches may be cut in various shapes – square, triangle, oblong, or diamond, while different fancy shapes may be stamped out with a cutter,” while “vary dainty little sandwiches can also be made by spreading a tasty mixture on thin bread and then rolling it up, instead of putting a second piece of bread on the top” (jack 1914: 520). her advice for sandwich cutting reinforces the domestic science movement’s rhetoric of control and household management, enacting reform through the performance of daintiness. the capacity of daintiness to differentiate the sandwich recipes in cookery books from the sandwiches eaten by the earl and britain’s working class, is also enacted in the thickness of the bread slices called for by cookery writers. jack writes that “neatness and exactitude in the cutting are very necessary to the appearance of the sandwiches,” exalting the integral importance of careful attention to detail. depending on when and to whom the sandwiches are to be served, jack advises that sandwich bread can be cut into different shapes and sizes. “for afternoon tea they must be cut very thin, and nothing of a substantial nature must be offered, as it would take away the appetite for dinner which follows so shortly after,” whereas “for evening refreshments they may be made more substantial, and still more so if they are to serve as a substitute for meat” (jack 1914: 520). the appropriate pairing of a sandwich’s thickness to the type of occasion where it is to be served also links it to discourses of sociability and gentility. mary woodman, the author of 100 varieties of sandwiches, cautions that a sandwich’s appropriateness to its intended occasion also requires careful consideration of the fillings to be used. as an example, she explains that “it is no use, for instance, to give someone, who intends to cycle all day, a packet of raspberry sandwiches, nor some cod’s roe sandwiches to your friends who call for afternoon tea” (woodman 1934: 13). clearly aware of the sandwich’s use as a marker of sociability, writers such as jack and woodman encouraged woman to approach their sandwiches < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 with caution. by doing so, they wanted to draw their reader’s attention to what their sandwiches were communicating – their potential for multivocality. thick versus thin, makeshift versus elegant, the role of daintiness in the (re) presentational transformation of the sandwich in these books is gendered, as well as classist. thickly cut bread and thickly cut meat are problematized by these writers for all the reasons i have discussed thus far: they are unruly, unmanageable, inelegant, and undainty. the sandwich eaten by the earl in legend, while undoubtedly delicious and filling, presented a problem for these writers beyond its connection to his reputation. as a man of title enjoying a hand of cards in an exclusively male social space, his sandwich is represented as a marker of male sociability. its simplicity and lack of careful preparation further marks it as unwomanly and uncultivated – characterizations that these writers implicitly extend to the working class more generally. the women who prepare sandwiches that resemble the earl’s are defeminized and their sandwiches characterized as uneconomical and unpalatable. alternatively, the feminization of the sandwich through the discursive use of daintiness as an enactment of reform marks the elegant, carefully prepared sandwich as a performance of womanhood. much like the sandwiches that cookery authors encouraged them to make, woman are represented as genteel, delicate, and manageable. the engendering of the sandwich through the legend of the earl, as well as the recipes and preparation advice in their books, was an integral form of discourse management employed by these writers. this engendering of the sandwich was also facilitated by the movement of the sandwich away from the culinary tradition of street food and the depraved masculine environment of the card table to the kitchen, the domestic sphere of women. walton (1992) in his study of fish and chips as working class british food states that opponents of the fried fish trade often touted it as an example of the domestic ignorance of working-class women, arguing that fish and chips represented the abandonment of household responsibilities. likewise, the earl’s lack of concern for respectable dining and the sandwich maker’s disregard for careful preparation represent an abandonment of both culinary and domestic responsibility. the target of this attack against economic and culinary carelessness in these cookbooks is clearly and explicitly aimed at women. as a site for the performance of daintiness, and thus womanhood, the sandwich is represented as an important symbol of household management and control. to serve a perfectly cut sandwich filled with fresh and carefully arranged < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 ingredients was to present oneself as a responsible, dignified, and modern woman. as a marker of sociability, home economy, and socio-economic status, the sandwich’s identity, as it was presented in cookery books from this period, was a site of transformation. these authors sought to distance their recipes from the earl’s reputation and the food practices of the working class while simultaneously drawing upon his nobility to elevate the status of a food they were appropriating from a socio-economic other. daintiness provided an important strategy of discourse management that enabled these writers to control the sandwich’s, and the legend’s, multivocality. by doing so, they engendered the sandwich and attempted to redefine its socio-economic identity. the sandwiches in their recipes were as much markers of sociability, status, and womanhood as they were food. conclusion aware of the sandwich’s popular history as the invention of a notorious eighteenthcentury nobleman, cookery writers of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century sought its (re)presentational transformation. through the legend of the earl and his sandwich they ennobled and elevated a food practice of the working class by drawing attention to its alleged elite and high-class origins. these authors thus used this legend to create a new socio-cultural identity for the sandwich, marking it as a high-class food and a performance of sociability. however, these writers were unable to fully disassociate the sandwich from the reputation of the earl as a gambler and philanderer. they thus had to create and maintain temporal and social distance between the earl’s legendary sandwich and the recipes in their books. by doing so, they drew upon the domestic science movement’s rhetoric of reform and discourse of daintiness, engendering the sandwich and pathologizing its use as a vernacular practice of home economy by the working class. due to limited historical evidence for the sandwich beyond these cookery books, it is difficult to assess their success. however, the continued popularity of the bacon butty and the jam sandwich as british foods points to the continuity of the sandwich as a culinary tradition beyond the recipes of these cookbooks. this continuity adds to the legend’s multivocality, highlighting its importance as both a popular food practice. < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 references cited anonymous. (1770) 1975. the life, adventures, intrigues, and amours of the celebrated jemmy twitcher. facsimile of the first edition. new york and london: garland publishing. avakian, arlene voski and barbara haber. 2005. feminist food studies: a brief history. in from betty crocker to feminist food studies: critical perspectives on women and food, ed. arlene voski avakian and barbara haber, 1-26. amherst and boston: university of massachusetts press. bascom, william. 1965. the forms of folklore: prose narratives. journal of american folklore 71: 3-20. cassell’s dictionary of cookery, with numerous engravings and full-page coloured plates. 1896. london, paris, and new york: cassell petter & galpin. dégh, linda. 2001. legend and belief: dialectics of a folklore genre. bloomington: indiana university press. dégh, linda, and andrew vázsonyi. 1976. legend and belief. in folklore genres, ed. dan ben-amos, 93-123. austin: university of texas press. drummond, j.c. and anne wilbraham. (1939) 1991. the englishman’s food: a history of five centuries of english diet. london: jonathan cape. reprint, london: pimlico. ellis, bill. 2003. aliens, ghosts, and cults: legends we live. jackson: university press of mississippi. everybody’s home recipe book: the whole art of preparing food by modern methods and in economical ways, together with many tested recipes. n.d. london: odhams press. finnis, elizabeth. 2012. introduction. in reimagining marginalized foods: global processes, local places, ed. elizabeth finnis, 1-14. tucson: the university of arizona press. < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 georges, robert a. 1971. the general concept of legend: some assumptions to be re-examined and reassessed. in american folk legend: a symposium, ed. wayland d. hand, 1-19. berkley: university of california press. grosley, pierre jean. 1772. a tour of london; or, new observations on england and its inhabitants. 2 vols. london: printed for lockyer davis, in holborn, printer to the royal society. inness, sherrie a. 2001. dinner roles: american women and culinary culture. iowa city: university of iowa press. ---. 2006. secret ingredients: race, gender, and class at the dinner table. new york: palgrave macmillan. jack, florence b. 1914. cookery for every household. london: thomas nelson and sons ltd. martelli, george. 1962. jemmy twitcher: a life of the fourth earl of sandwich, 1718-1792. london: jonathan cape. mcfeely, mary drake. 2001. can she bake a cherry pie?: american women and the kitchen in the twentieth century. amherst and boston: university of massachusetts press. oddy, derek j. 2003. from plain fare to fusion food: british diet from the 1890s to the 1990s. woodbridge, suffolk: the boydell press. rodger, n.a.m. 1994. the insatiable earl: a life of john montagu, fourth earl of sandwich, 1718-1792. new york: norton. ---. 2008. montagu, john, fourth earl of sandwich (1718-1792). oxford dictionary of national biography, online ed. oxford: oxford university press. accessed july 6, 2015. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/19026 rundell, mrs. 1880. modern domestic cookery founded on principles of economy and practical knowledge, and adapted for private families, by a lady. london: john murray. shapiro, laura. 1986. perfection salad: women and cooking at the < morritt, noah j.a. “a legendary sandwich for an infamous earl.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 turn of the century. new york: farrar, straus and giroux. spencer, colin. 2002. british food: an extraordinary thousand years of history. new york: columbia university press. smith, paul. 1994. definitional characteristics of the contemporary legend. foaftale news 44: 5-8. tangerlini, timothy. r. 1990. “it happened not too far from here…”: a survey of legend theory and characterization. western folklore 49: 371-390. theophano, janet. 2002. eat my words: reading women’s lives through the cookbooks they wrote. new york: palgrave macmillan. walton, john. 1989. fish and chips and the british working class, 1870-1930. journal of social history 23: 243-266. ---. 1992. fish and chips and the british working class, 18701940. leicester: leicester university press. wilson, bee. 2010. sandwich: a global history. london: reaktion books. woodman, mary. 1934. 100 varieties of sandwiches: how to prepare them. london: w. foulsham & co. wrench, mrs. stanley. 1934. bachelor woman’s cookery. london: the fenland press. notes (1) all of the cookbooks surveyed for this study are part of the private collection of paul smith, professor of folklore at memorial university of newfoundland. his extensive collection of cookbooks includes materials from britain, canada, the united states, and newfoundland. focusing primarily on books published in britain before the second world war, i found that sixteen of the cookbooks contained sandwich recipes, and that nine of these books contained instructions and general advice for sandwich preparation. of those that contained preparation instructions, three credited, or made reference to, john montagu as the inventor of the sandwich. < barrett, terra. “notes from an interview on foodways with my grandfather, william snelgrove, lower island cove, newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 notes from an interview on foodways with my grandfather, william snelgrove, lower island cove, newfoundland by: terra barrett on sunday march 24, 2014, i interviewed my grandfather, william snelgrove, a native of newfoundland, canada, about foodways in his life. some of our conversation, that touched on his experiences of gardening, hunting and gathering, preserving, and poaching, is drawn on here. my grandfather was born in lower island cove, conception bay north, on june 18th, 1934 to fanny and william snelgrove. he has two sisters and a brother: “beatrice was the first to come along, then it was beatty, then it was me, and then it was my little tiny brother gordon.” at an early age my grandfather turned his back on fishing, the occupation that attracted many of his peers. as he recalls: “my father fished all of his life.” [when i] “was 17 year[s] old my father wanted me to go fishing with him. he was going to buy traps and all that, [however i] said, ‘no father, no fishing, no traps for me.’ so that’s when i left to [go to] montreal.” as my grandfather’s comment suggests, my great grandfather was a self-reliant fisherman-hunter. like the newfoundland fishermen-hunters john warren describes in his ma thesis, he relied on a combination of fishing and hunting in order to survive (warren 2009:1). he worked hard his whole life and according to my grandfather, always “wanted to work for what he got.” today my grandfather take pride in the fact that even during the hardest years of the depression, the family never “went on the dole,” referring to the rations dispensed by newfoundland’s commission of the government (smallwood 1981:612). my great grandparents also kept a garden, raised cows and sheep and had a newfoundland pony. one of my grandfather’s chores as a boy was to use the horse and cart to go to the nearby community of brownsdale, trinity bay where the family’s sheep grazed in the spring. in the fall william would drive the horse and car to pick up the sheep and bring them to lower island cove for the winter. as a child, he helped with the fishing and gardening and would sometimes sell the berries he picked to earn a bit of money for the family. self reliance, being proud, and making the best of what you have, characterizes an earlier generation of < barrett, terra. “notes from an interview on foodways with my grandfather, william snelgrove, lower island cove, newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 newfoundlanders, as is reflected in the words of bess, a gardener from the province’s great northern peninsula, who was interviewed by john omohundro: “i worked my whole life and never got paid. my husband and my father never got any ui [unemployment insurance], and i got no child support for my eight children. but we survived – we made things for ourselves and people took care of one another” (omohundro 1995:157). like bess, my great grandmother was a homemaker. although the memories my grandfather shared of his mother were positive, they also hint at the scarcity of growing up in newfoundland in the 1930s and 40s. for example, he recalls receiving a “tongue banging” from his mother for skimming the fat off the top of the milk while she was scalding it. he also remembers going through a lot of her homemade bread especially when he would go out berry picking. he said that “every day i went in [berry picking] she had to have two or three loaves of bread just for me, that [wasn’t] for the others.” after leaving lower island cove at 17, my grandfather went to montreal with the help of a loan of five hundred dollars from a local merchant named stevie garland. his father got the loan for him and he recalls that “the first time i made five hundred dollars i shipped it back to [stevie.]” he worked with several different companies during his time in quebec including canadian vickers, canadian pacific railway hangar shops and dominion structural steel. at 19 years of age he got married to my grandmother, joyce murdoch, who was born in shawinigan falls, quebec. the two settled in greenfield park, just outside montreal. they had three children in quebec—david, donna, and dale--before moving back to newfoundland where their fourth child, doug, was born. my grandfather recalls, “i worked [at dominion structural steel] for 10 years and [then i] got laid off and i came back to newfoundland with three children, a 1952 chev, four wheels and tires up on top.” the family “landed in st. john’s with the old 52 chev, and the children, with $55 in our pocket.” they survived and made ends meet although as my grandfather described it they did not have t-bone steaks for christmas dinner that year. he held various jobs in st. john’s at prepound steel, concrete products, and simon lono roofing sheet metal where he worked for 35 years. as he puts it, “they closed up and i retired at 60.” with retirement, my grandparents bought a house in lower island cove and purchased a trailer in florida. my grandfather claimed, “joyce said if we [were] going to live in lower island cove, [we had] to go to florida” and for over 15 years the pair spent their winters in florida and their summers in lower island cove. my grandfather declared that with retirement, “my work was [just beginning]” because it was then < barrett, terra. “notes from an interview on foodways with my grandfather, william snelgrove, lower island cove, newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 that he started clearing land for a garden in lower island cove. there he gardened until the death of my grandmother in 2005. although a few years later he met his new partner, evelyn snelgrove, and relocated to carbonear, he no longer gardens. my grandfather started gardening once he retired and moved back around the bay. in part gardening was a hobby because, as he said, “at 60 i was too young to retire and i had to have something to do.” however, he was soon reminded of how unpredictable gardening in newfoundland can be. the first year he produced a thousand pounds of potatoes. it was far more than he could use and he ended up selling some to restaurants on the shore. the next year was the complete opposite. he said, “ i had a blight. i had nothing. i dug it all out and threw it in the garbage.” but of course, gardening was more than a pastime. he could have availed of the convenience of a grocery store and the vegetables for sale there but he chose to plant a garden instead. just as the goal of self-reliance is reflected in my grandfather’s comments about his own father doing everything he could to get by and “set enough [in his garden] to feed his family,” it is also evident in the pride with which he talked about his own gardening efforts. here he echoed the sentiments of gardeners john omohundro interviewed on the north coast of the island. one retired man declared “i glories in my garden” while another woman reported, “i could be at the garden, or berry picking all day. the only thing i hate is housework” (omohundro 1995:164). for example, my grandfather prided himself on making his garden beds “the old fashioned way.” while he claimed a lot of people started to make rows and use drills, he “never liked the drills so i never set them in drills. i had the old fashioned, the old way my father showed me.” the method he is describing here is known as the “lazy bed” which is a garden bed of varying lengths, separated by trenches. the beds were made by turning the soil from the trench over onto the bed to create a raised bed. these beds were remade each year and used for potatoes and other small seeds (omohundro 2006:30). resourcefulness certainly characterized my grandfather’s approach to fertilizing. he used anything available to make a fertilizer for his garden including capelin, cods heads and kelp. he also went out in all kinds of weather to tend to his garden. he recalled, “i’d come home from florida, [and i’d] be in the garden the next day, getting ready for [my] vegetables.” he remembered putting on his skidoo suit in may and going out and digging the garden in preparation for the upcoming season. omohundro refers to a person who has a love of gardening, despite a lack of necessity for a garden, as a proud and traditional regional revivalist and a < barrett, terra. “notes from an interview on foodways with my grandfather, william snelgrove, lower island cove, newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 flag bearer of the outport tradition (1995:168). my grandfather’s gardening certainly seemed to be an example of this revivalist movement for self-reliant rural life. my grandfather loved moose hunting and trout fishing and when he was younger he usually spent two weeks hunting and trouting in central newfoundland, usually around indian bay. he went on these trips with friends and family and the party often included his sister and brother-in-law. socializing was a big part of the holiday when they would come together to hunt, trout, drink, and eat for two weeks. other than the sociability, he tells me that there were few rituals except having a bottle of screech. he also picked berries--blueberries, partridgeberries and bake apples--from the time he was a young boy. as a child, he used to spend a day in picking berries. for example, partridgeberries were packed in a barrel with water and shipped off for a bit of money or credit at the merchant. he recalled, “if [the berries] got fifty cents, i got a quarter out of that and my mother got a quarter.” as an adult he has not picked as many berries but of those he has picked in recent years, partridgeberries were pickled and blueberries frozen. for many years after moving back to lower island cove, he used to pick about a gallon of berries to give to each of his children. having hurt his back last year, he now claims he is too “old for anything now.” over my grandfather’s lifetime food was stored in a number of ways. when he was growing up, some root vegetables, such as potatoes and turnip, were put in the root cellar. after retirement he packed carrots in a cooler with sawdust to keep them throughout the winter. my grandfather reports that he never bothered to store cabbage because they go bad quicker than other vegetables. instead, he usually bottled cabbage to preserve it. he also bottled partridgeberries, beet, moose, rabbit, and cabbage. john warren describes bartering or a system of exchange as a tradition of sharing among family, neighbors and friends that was once widespread in newfoundland (2009:84). interestingly my grandfather described giving away much of the food he grew, gathered or hunted. as noted earlier, he sold potatoes the first year he gardened when he unexpectedly ended up with a thousand pounds and he sometimes sold the berries he picked, particularly before he went away to montreal. however the rest of the food he gathered was often given away as gifts. for example, exchange was always a very important part of my grandfather’s relationship with his sister beatty. the two often gave bottles back and forth as he described: “i’d take in oh yes be it a bottle of rabbit or a bottle of moose and send < barrett, terra. “notes from an interview on foodways with my grandfather, william snelgrove, lower island cove, newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 in to aunt beatty and she’d give me something else, you know. a bottle of vegetables, a bottle of she’d have something you know. be it a bottle of, she used to bottle up beet too, and she used to send them out to me, so i would send her in a bottle of something, bake apples, i used to give her some bake apples and then she would send something to me.” warren describes three varieties of non-cash exchange: the gift (not reciprocated), offering (reciprocated later and in a form not stipulated in advance) and trade (explicit and immediate exchange of equivalents) (2009:84). my grandfather and his sister seem to have engaged simultaneously in a gift exchange and a trade; both gave the food as gifts however they also tended to exchange items back and forth in order to fill the perceived needs of the other. for example, my grandfather knew beatty did not pick bake apples so he picked enough for her and sent her a bottle while she knew he no longer pickled vegetables and she put a bottle aside for him. my grandfather said that he never gave food away expecting something in return. if something was offered he accepted but the reason he was in the garden and the reason he had vegetables to give away was because he loved to be out in the garden. in his words “i love in the garden and i still love in the garden but i’m not good at it.” through this quote we can see how gardening became a sort of religious practice or a daily worship service for him (see mcguire 2008:7, 110). his garden was not a necessity but somewhere to spend some time each day, to benefit from time spent in the garden and reap the reward through his vegetables. a final subject we touched on in our interview was poaching. my grandfather has a pragmatic attitude towards the law and while i knew he was not a person to follow regulations strictly i did not expect some of his comments. william described an incident when he and two friends illegally picked twenty five gallons of berries and a member of the community informed the wildlife officer. the boys hid the berries from the officer and the man who reported them did not receive any sort of pay off as they were not charged. disregard for the law can also be seen in a story he shared about poaching moose at night and how they never, as he said, “had the wildlife officer after us, we were too cute for them.” this particular incident took place out of the moose hunting season and without a hunting license however both my grandfather and his cousin worked together to cut and clean the moose. this example supports warren’s argument that although members of the community may disapprove of poaching or other illegal activities, they will not report it to the authorities. instead, there is an effort to < barrett, terra. “notes from an interview on foodways with my grandfather, william snelgrove, lower island cove, newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 maintain harmony and avoid conflict (2009:77). my grandmother was uneasy with the idea of my grandfather poaching moose, telling him at one point that he was “going to lose everything [he’s] got.” however, she would never consider telling the wildlife enforcement officer on him. i can remember going trouting with him as a child, or seeing him come back from trouting, with his basket full. it was years later before i realized there was a quota on how many trout you could catch per day. when my grandfather was in the woods in his trouting spot, he did not think of the quotas; he filled his bag and went home, regardless of what the law may have said. connected to this, i know that my grandfather also made moonshine illegally as well as his own wine from berries. my grandfather’s memories of earlier foodways represent the tip of an iceberg in that there is so much more to explore. his comments during our interview suggest that his continuation of activities such as gardening, trouting, and hunting might have been an example of what omohundro terms a proud and traditional regional revivalist (1995:168). his perpetuation of food-related traditions beyond the time they were necessary indicate that aspects of his foodways were linked to sociability and/or might have constituted forms of his personal religious practice (mcguire 2008:7, 110). finally, i am left wondering if there is a disregard for the law behind the illegal activities my grandfather engaged in with his friends and family or if were they a result of the emphasis on self reliance and the philosophy mentioned earlier that one must always make the most of what resources you have. his attitude toward the law, as well as his other comments about gardening, hunting, and berry picking, are all things i would like to look into further. < barrett, terra. “notes from an interview on foodways with my grandfather, william snelgrove, lower island cove, newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 my grandfather, william snelgrove, and friend enjoy a mug up (cup of tea) while berry picking in the late 1970s. < barrett, terra. “notes from an interview on foodways with my grandfather, william snelgrove, lower island cove, newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 my grandfather and me trouting in the mid 1990s. < barrett, terra. “notes from an interview on foodways with my grandfather, william snelgrove, lower island cove, newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 my grandfather in his potato garden in the mid to late 1990s. < barrett, terra. “notes from an interview on foodways with my grandfather, william snelgrove, lower island cove, newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 trouting in the mid 1980s. < barrett, terra. “notes from an interview on foodways with my grandfather, william snelgrove, lower island cove, newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 references cited mcguire, meredith b. 2008. lived religion: faith and practice in everyday life. cary, nc: oxford university press. omohundro, john t. 1995. “all hands be together”: newfoundland gardening. anthropologica 37 (2): 155-171. omohundro, john. 2006. an appreciation of lazy beds. newfoundland quarterly 99 (1): 29-31. pages???. smallwood, joseph roberts and robert d. w. pitt. 1981. depression and destitution, effects of (the great depression). in the encyclopedia of newfoundland and labrador. st. john’s, newfoundland: newfoundland book publishers. snelgrove, william. interview with author. march 24, 2014. warren, john p. 2009. moose hunting in heart’s content, trinity bay, newfoundland. ma thesis, memorial university of newfoundland and labrador. < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front” wwi “war menus” in the st. john’s evening telegram1 by: brittany roberts the sacrifices which war entails are not restricted to the men who go forth to join the colours, but extend to their women and children at home. these sacrifices are for the most part borne uncomplainingly [...] it is noticeable that in newfoundland the largest number of volunteers come from homes where the women have put selfishness aside and not placed obstacles in the way of the men, doing their public duty conscientiously (horwood 1916:1). between december of 1917 and february of 1918, one of newfoundland’s most popular daily newspapers, the st. john’s evening telegram, published a short-lived series of twenty “war menus.” succinct, businesslike, and pragmatic, many included a list of dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and some included a handful of recipes alongside. others simply highlighted an important ingredient and provided tips and encouragement on how to use it creatively. all were textually brief, ranging from sparse and almost poetic lists of food items, to utilitarian sets of a few instructional paragraphs. the shortest clocks in at a skeletal 57 words, while the longest is a mere 350. it’s clear that within the menus’ mission, there was no space, time, or tolerance for writers who wanted to wax poetic about gastronomy. in light of this brevity, one is tempted to ask: how much information can they really contain? on the surface, the documents can appear bland and prosaic. even worse, they may seem like trivial footnotes that minimize the devastation caused by the great war. but when examined closely, they hold compelling information about what life was like in early twentieth-century newfoundland. they also contain thought-provoking data about the associations, organizations, and movements that were affiliated with their production. by analyzing the contours of the menus it is possible to come to a deeper understanding of how food operated as a tool for communication during a period of crushing and silencing grief. furthermore, they can reveal how foodways < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 functioned as a barometer of newfoundland’s economic, cultural, and political pressure systems. in short, taking a closer look at these menus can help to usher the contemporary reader into the marketplaces and kitchens of wartime newfoundland. in light of this significance, it is important to note that the study of historic foodways can be difficult to tackle. gleaning an understanding of what food meant to those in the past can be a complex process, and there are many potholes along the way that a researcher can stumble into. food historian sandra oliver illuminates this in her examination of american historical foodways scholarship. she explains that academics who delve into the culinary past often get tangled in thorny issues, such as: [...] a lack of understanding of underdocumented food, that is food prepared without the benefit of cookbooks; premature interpretation of past tastes and culinary habits; and an inadequate understanding of what early americans learned from the native americans about food, or about the contribution of african american cookbooks [...] the study of food history is burdened by too much reliance on cookbooks, the overrepresentation of the elite, and an underrepresentation from material culture and the craft of historic cookery (2006:92). it was with these warnings in mind that i carried out the research for the following essay in as careful and inclusive a manner as possible. i eschewed the study of cookbooks in favour of newspapers, which, as oliver states, “[...] are great sources because they reveal more about everyday eating habits” (2001:96). in addition, i focused on how class differences have impacted historic culinary tradition in an attempt to move beyond the glut of foodways studies that are solely centered on the upper and middle classes (oliver 2001:97). admittedly, however, it has been a struggle to get close to the daily eating practices of early twentieth-century newfoundlanders. as a study by maura hanrahan and marg ewtushik reveals, “the simple truth is that we don’t have a long-running picture of how things were, food and nutrition wise, through the history of newfoundland and labrador” (2001:xi). this can serve to make research into the island’s historic food culture quite challenging. despite this, there is one detail that we can be relatively certain of: hunger was rampant in newfoundland. thanks to a spate of nutrition studies on the great northern peninsula in the first half of the 1900’s [...] we do know that the diet there was deficient in a number of respects. it likely was elsewhere. we know from oral history, < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 much of it not recorded, and other sources that malnutrition and hunger were possible and probable in certain regions [...] (hanrahan and ewtushik 2001:xi). this fact is particularly significant when considered in relation the great economic stress brought on by the first world war. between 1914 and 1918 the financial rigors of wartime combined with mounting social and political pressures to place a large burden on the shoulders of newfoundlanders as whole; hunger was merely one piece of a larger puzzle of pressing issues. perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of the strain culinary and otherwise was foisted upon those in the working class. as divisions based on class and gender deepened throughout wartime, foodways became a tool in fights both for and against various kinds of societal separation. food distanced individuals of privilege from those who had been pushed to the margins of society, but it also provided a means of subtly signifying solidarity with marginalized groups. the relationship between foodways and class definition is of particular significance to this discussion because it reveals just how powerfully food can communicate social and cultural beliefs. folklorist judith goode explains: as one of the basic human drives, the need to eat provides many opportunities for communication. human groups select raw foods from nature, transform them through cuisine, compose meals, create cycles, of meals to punctuate seasons and stages of life, and create rituals of etiquette for meal performance. with each of these steps they use food to mark social status, power relationships, and group identity. food transactions and sharing underscore major social relationships. domestic events reveal relationships of dominance and subservience between [...] groups (1992:244). by closely examining the “war menus” in the evening telegram, it is possible to understand just how food shaped the group identities of many newfoundlanders. but before that analysis can be achieved, it is necessary to establish the historical context of the menus themselves. the context of conflict: newfoundland’s role in the great war during the first world war, what is now the province of newfoundland existed as the british dominion of newfoundland. often, it was simply referred to as “britain’s oldest colony” (duley 2012:52). the island functioned as an autonomous outpost of a waningly powerful empire, and was controlled under british sovereignty (cleverdon < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 1975:208). a british pamphlet addressing the natural resources of newfoundland describes the island’s governmental structure in the early twentieth century: the government consist of a governor, who is nominated by the crown, his salary being paid by the dominion; an executive council, chosen by the party commanding the majority in the legislature, and consisting of nine members; a legislative chamber of about twenty-four members, nominated by the governor in council; and a house of assembly, at present consisting of thirty-six members, elected every four years by the votes of the people. (great britain, high commissioner of newfoundland 1921:5). newfoundlanders had the ability to voice their political opinions, but the island was still intimately tied to british rule. while the rest of canada grappled with the demands of war, newfoundland struggled even more as a result of its strong ties overseas. in 1914, the war was met with blind optimism by the english: “britain was swept with flag-waving jingoism befitting its great empire, and those who had been raised in the patriotic ethos be they men or women wanted, indeed considered it their duty, to do something for the war effort” (storey and housego 2010:5). for many of newfoundland’s men and women, the patriotic propaganda associated with the fight “for god! for king and empire” propelled them headlong into the carnage of war (fig.1). as historian margot duley explains, this flight took an incalculable toll on the island, and culminated in a “profoundly altered newfoundland society” (2012:51). duley states further: “thirty-six percent of the men of newfoundland and labrador between the ages of nineteen and thirty-five served in some way, roughly half (6,241) with the royal newfoundland regiment” (2012:51). accordingly, many women in newfoundland had a profoundly intimate interest in supporting the war effort. early in the war effort the government of newfoundland struggled and failed to take advantage of the growth in demand for the materials of battle in particular, they were unsuccessful in capitalizing on the need for ships and munitions (o’brien 2011:47). the island’s finances faltered, and though the demand for fish increased, the fiscal return that resulted was insufficient. as a consequence of mounting budgetary pressures newfoundland’s class divide began to open into a wide chasm, and the upper crust was viewed with great scrutiny by those whose pockets were bare. compounding the issue was the fact that some wealthy newfoundland merchants turned to wartime profiteering, forcing the prices for imported retail goods to unstable heights (o’brien 2011:58). < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 the financial gains from this illicit enterprise were staggering, and many members of the public began to suspect that merchants who participated in price inflation were using their profits to indulge in luxuries during a time of great need (evening telegram 1916:7). in particular, accusations were heaped upon those who owned and operated the large and successful reid newfoundland company (o’brien 2011:60). in 1917, the fishermen’s protective union newspaper evening advocate accused the reid family and their company managers of imposing a “starvation embargo” on newfoundland, and excoriated the government for their cowardly inaction (evening advocate 1917). similarly, an article in the evening telegram referred to the actions of newfoundland’s coterie of merchants as “cold blooded and heartless” and stated that “to raise the price of goods, held before the rise is robbery, nothing less” (evening telegram 1916:7). measures that had previously been put in place to prevent this problem were poorly enforced and proved impotent in practice. historian mike o’brien explains: in early september 1914, in response to these public demands, the house of assembly passed an anti-profiteering measure, the food stuffs act, which gave the governor in council the power to seize any food supplies that he believed were being “unreasonably withheld from market” and, if necessary, to fix maximum food prices. despite the passage of this act, the morris government would prove reluctant to take any concrete action against profiteering (2011:58). in addition to the grossly inflated cost of imported food items, newfoundland also experienced serious fuel shortages. by 1915 coal was in worryingly short supply (o’brien 2011:60). because public opinion of retailers was under such open scrutiny, fuel scarcity was also blamed on the greed of the merchants. it is very likely that this resource shortage had a significant effect on cooking as many homes in early twentieth-century newfoundland were furnished with coal fed stoves (gray 1977:116). for the most part, only the homes of the affluent and upper middle class would have had the luxury of a gas range. members of these comfortable sectors of society would have been able to afford the rising cost of fuel, and would have experienced little change in their already stable diets. conversely, it is possible that those struggling in the grip of poverty would have had to switch to cooking their food over an open flame, and perhaps would have had to abandon their coal heated stoves altogether. by 1917, however, newfoundland’s economy began to benefit from some of the gains of wartime production. fish prices rose alongside employment rates < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 (o’brien 2011:61). unfortunately, this financial increase was tempered by the fact that profiteering had continued to result in a steep incline in the cost of daily living. o’brien states: “prices of some necessities had doubled or tripled since the beginning of the war, resulting in a declining standard of living for many of the less wealthy inhabitants of newfoundland” (2011:61). putting an end to the damage of profiteering served as a prime motivator for the formation of the newfoundland industrial workers association or niwa, and the parallel ladies branch of the niwa, in 1917 (cullum and baird 1999:104). both groups functioned as broad-based industrial unions for all individuals employed in manual or clerical labour. in particular, the ladies niwa was concerned with examining how rising commodity costs were impacting women in the workforce: “price increases were particularly hard on women workers, most of whom made less than four dollars per month and who were, in most cases, without paid overtime or sick leave for work that was often harder than that done by men” (o’brien 2011:62). not long after their formation both sections of the niwa partnered with other newfoundland labour organizations and pressured the government of newfoundland to establish a food control board (o’brien 2011:63). similar institutions had already been successfully installed in the united kingdom, canada, and the united states, and these served as models for newfoundland’s nascent organization. though the request to form the board was largely met with derision, the government did acquiesce to the appointment of a high cost of living commission (hclc). the results of this commission were inflammatory, but unsurprising to niwa members: [the hclc’s] first report in may 1917 found that consumer prices had risen at a much higher rate than import costs, and that such increases were completely unwarranted. rates of profit on flour, for example, had increased by more than 600 per cent [...] (o’brien 2011:63). a study published and distributed in 1917 by the canadian department of labour starkly illustrates this predicament. though the information and statistics are specific to a canadian context, they can be viewed as a relatively close approximation of circumstances in newfoundland. some of the most provocative findings within the cdl pamphlet are included in a table that tracked the rise in the average cost of foods in sixty canadian cities over the four years since the outbreak of the war. the numbers are based on the approximate amount of food that a family of five would consume over a week. the chart reveals that the price of 15 pounds of plain white bread rose from 63 cents in 1914 to $1.10 in 1917, two pecks (or half a bushel) of potatoes rose from 50 cents to $1.18, and ten < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 pounds of flour rose from 33 cents to 70 cents (national service board of canada 1917:17). though st. john’s would not have been included as a sample city, many of the prices would have been even higher than those listed in the canadian study (o’brien 2011). the dramatic rise in cost of staple foods like flour and potatoes are particularly significant as these items would have constituted the majority of many working class diets, especially in newfoundland (gray 1977: 130). high prices could greatly diminish the quality of life for the poor and marginal. in an effort to curb these effects, cutting back on wheat consumption became a major campaign for food organizations in many countries affected by the war. one month after the hclc report, the government of newfoundland finally installed a food control board (or fcb). unlike similar organizations, the fcb did not focus on rationing food (a necessary practice in britain and europe, and to a lesser extent a voluntary measure in the us). instead, the fcb chose to manage food shipments, curb profiteering, and put a cap on prices (o’brien 2011:64). the gains that were made as a result were limited, but they were important for those who were most vulnerable to starvation. when examining the structure of newfoundland’s wartime food system, applying kurt lewin’s influential “gatekeeper theory” can be beneficial (1947). by utilizing lewin’s approach, it is possible to frame the difficulty to control imported commodities as a struggle to define precisely who gets to be the gatekeeper of the “buying channel” that all commodities must pass through (lewin 1947:143). initially, it was newfoundland merchants who were the gatekeepers. they were concerned with raising prices and procuring handsome financial gains. conversely, the niwa which was appalled by this behaviour advocated that the government should enact reform to stop the process. as such, the niwa attempted to take over the control of the passage through which foodstuffs reached newfoundland’s marketplace. the government begrudgingly agreed to the niwa’s demands and established the food control board, thus ousting profiteers and placing social advocates in charge of gatekeeping duty. simultaneously, war posters, government pamphlets, and community organizations encouraged individuals to act as their own gatekeepers through the “gardening channel” (lewin 1947:145). newfoundlanders were urged to take control of their food production by growing and foraging for their own food, saving everything last scrap that they could, and doing their utmost to eliminate waste in their kitchens. at the very heart of this preoccupation with food was a plan to staunch the economic bleeding caused by the devastation of war. the loss of battle was acutely felt in newfoundland, where nearly a whole generation of promising young workers were swept away by the butchery of the fight overseas. margot duley explains: < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 the casualty rate of the all-citizen newfoundland regiment was among the highest of any country, with 37 percent wounded and another 21 percent killed. the regiment’s death rate was over twice that of the canadian expeditionary force or the british empire as a whole, and it exceeded that of france, germany, the russian empire, austriahungary, and the ottoman empire (2012: 52). the staggering toll of this conflict would forever change newfoundland and its people. it would also have a profound effect on the women of the island. serving on the homefront: the women of newfoundland mothers, daughters, wives, and sisters in newfoundland mourned for the loved ones they lost and shared the crushing burden of their grief with each other. but they also funnelled their rage, loneliness, agony, and heartbreak into something practical: they mobilized themselves into a force for social change. newfoundland’s women devoted untold hours of unpaid labour to the war effort (duley 1999:30). they pledged their time, patience, caring, resources, and determination to the cause of repairing their country and communities. as historian gale warren has revealed, it was the rallying cry of ‘patriotism’ that more than any other factor united newfoundland’s women in action (2005:8). this was especially true in the city of st. john’s where british connections were strongest (warren 2005:9). though the majority of newfoundland women were far from the battlefield, their contributions proved to be of essential importance. as a means of organizing female labour, in 1914 a group of influential ladies living in st. john’s formed the women’s patriotic association, or wpa (warren 2005:13). by the end of the year the wpa had founded 26 outport branch associations in addition to their main headquarters in st. john’s, and enrolment in the organization had ballooned to over 15,000 members island-wide (warren 2005:14). the wpa focused their efforts on the production of domestic handiwork, mustering funds to send overseas, aiding the work of the red cross, and facilitating programs to promote community support (duley 2012:60-61). the organization was heavily involved in fundraising, and by the end of 1918, wpa events had raised an impressive $500,000 which amounts to roughly $6.5 million today in support of the war effort (warren 2005:33). members also knitted tens of thousands of socks, scarves, hats, and waistcoats (colloquially referred to as “comforts”) for < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 soldiers overseas. in addition, the wpa established a “visiting committee” that would call upon and tend to those who had lost loved ones, those who were sick and ailing, and wounded soldiers who were recuperating (warren 2005:7). historian gale warren explains that prior to the war, women’s work had been largely unrecognized due to its “relative invisibility”: it took place privately in the home, and it was not accounted for in traditional economic models (2005:17). knitting, sewing, and baking were daily activities for working and middle class women, and it was “[...] only when this work [was] quantified, as it was during the war, [that the] magnitude of the work performed was actually revealed” (warren 2005:17). crucially, the type of women’s wartime work promoted in newfoundland was far different from that which was encouraged overseas. in britain, for example, women lent their strength to work in munitions factories, heavy industry, and the women’s land army (storey and housego 2010:13-14). conversely, women’s war work in newfoundland remained, in large part, traditional or domestic in nature (warren 2005:17). this domestic work was framed as essential to maintaining national strength on the homefront. historian susan grayzel states: “no matter what type of organised volunteer activity or paid employment women performed during the war, their wartime nations also assumed that they had a vital second role: managing their homes” (2002:49). this was part of an overarching pattern of female responsibilities during wartime. social historian amy bentley explains that throughout history, women have “[...] been called on to intensify their traditional role as keepers of civic virtue, to contribute to the war effort through their domestic endeavours, and to raise patriotic and civicminded sons and willingly send them off along with their fathers to war” (1998:2). in addition to these responsibilities, women in wartime newfoundland were urged to revolutionize their domestic routines. the application of thrift, resourcefulness, and ingenuity to household work was lauded as one of the most noble contributions a woman could make to the war effort (bentley 1998:20). however, many individuals who promoted austerity in the home were aware that it was a tall order. a brochure published in 1917 by the national service board of canada (nsbc) entitled how to live in wartime stated: “thrift is not a natural instinct. it is an acquired principle of conduct. it involves self-denial the denial of present enjoyment for future good and subordination of natural impulse to reason, forethought, and prudence” (1917:3). while this stern encouragement was explicitly directed at canadian women, it provides a useful parallel to the unsolicited advice that was heaped upon housewives in newfoundland. < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 those who championed austerity claimed that the reward for this kind of prudence was patriotic pride. media sources were saturated with messages instructing newfoundland women to tighten their own belts and those of their family members and “put selfishness aside” to make life better for those overseas (horwood 1916:1). once again, it is helpful to turn to canadian examples as a means of approximating the language that would have been used in a newfoundland context. the brochure produced by the nsbc staunchly promoted household thrift and stated that frugality would lead to moral decency, charitable goodwill, and “domestic happiness” (1917:7). when the promise of fulfillment was not enough to motivate women to change their daily home-maintenance routines, the rhetoric of paralyzing guilt was employed. take for instance this statement: “it has been calculated that on the average each canadian family wastes enough to feed a soldier!” (national service board of canada: 1917:7). if that was not jarring enough, perhaps this would do: “[...] it is the wastefulness of individuals which occasions the impoverishment of states. so that every thrifty person may be regarded as a public benefactor, and every thriftless person as a public enemy.” (national service board of canada 1917:3). even more terrifying is this admonition: [...] look about us. thousands, tens of thousands, millions of our men, women and children are engaged in silly and idle services or in production that is for mere luxuries and comforts and that helps nothing in the conduct of the war. such people, though they work fourteen hours a day, are but mere drones in the hive as far as the war is concerned. every crippled soldier that comes home and looks upon our streets feels this by instinct, with something, perhaps, like hatred in his heart… (national service board of canada 1917:9). though the nsbc brochure was not specifically targeting the newfoundland public, it does accurately reflect an ideology of thrift that spread throughout nations affected by the war. the message it brings is clear: remain conscious and vigilant about your own personal consumption of goods, services, and foodstuffs, or risk becoming an object of hatred for beloved war heroes and an enemy to the public at large. those were frighteningly high stakes. the lifestyle that was prescribed to women who wished to avoid such a fate was spartan in nature: “save every cent. live plainly. do without everything. rise early, work hard, and content yourself with bare living” (national service board of canada 1917:11). in order to accomplish this, miss b. m. philip of macdonald college urged women to assess their daily spending habits, eliminate luxuries, and to only attend to < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 the “physical necessities of life”, shelter, food, and clothing (national service board of canada1917:7). she advised women to switch off electricity when not in use, run the stove economically, and to turn off gas immediately after cooking. furthermore, it stated: “watch the bread box. waste there is criminal” (national service board of canada 1917:7). it is almost certain that women in newfoundland would have been bombarded by very similar statements. the message was clear: engage in sacrificing household comforts or risk “criminalizing” yourself and your family. missives of frugality, thrift, and altruism have been lobbed at women – and workingclass women in particular throughout history, both in times of conflict and in times of peace. some of the most forceful supporters of domestic selflessness were nineteenthcentury advice gurus like catherine beecher, who helped to popularize the notion that self-sacrifice was a uniquely feminine characteristic: “zealous homemaking was suggested as a route to self-assertion for women of all classes, conferring purpose on the ‘aimless vacuity’ of rich women, ennobling the ‘unrequited toil’ of poor women, and improving the status of middle-class women” (hayden 1981:56). beecher was writing in a time that was exempt from the social, economic, and political pressures brought on by industrialized international battle. perhaps unsurprisingly, the great war served to inflate these kinds of traditional messages to truly gargantuan proportions. women’s unwavering dedication to household thrift, even at the expense of their own health and wellbeing, took on the mantel of a “sacred calling,” a “moral obligation,” and an ultimate expression of noble virtue (stone 1997:78). for early twentiethcentury women in newfoundland and throughout war-torn nations, messages that promoted an empty stomach and staunch determinism were particularly resonant. the politics of food: social and cultural implications of wartime meals as the war progressed, the threat of starvation was a specter that loomed large. by 1916, worldwide food shortages resulted in escalating commodity costs. those who could not afford the inflated prices of staple groceries were struggling to make ends meet. in light of this issue, conserving scarce commodities and eliminating waste in the kitchen became a vitally important task particularly for those who were most prone to wasteful habits. accordingly, affluent and upper middle class individuals became targets of reform. in 1917, the united states secretary of agriculture addressed the american public, stating: < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 in many homes there is a strong feeling that it is ‘only decent’ to provide more food than will be eaten and that it is demeaning to reckon closely […] the food waste in the household, the experts assert, results in large measure from bad preparation and bad cooking, from improper care and handling, and, in well-to-do families, from serving an undue number of courses and an overabundant supply, and failing to save afterwards and utilize the food not consumed (u.s. department of agriculture 1917:1). this dismissal of luxury and entitlement would likely have struck a chord with many newfoundlanders. for an island population that spent much of its time in the grip of hunger, the concept of wealthy individuals indulging their appetites to the point of wastefulness during a time of great need would have been particularly ludicrous. the most direct means of reducing kitchen waste was to steer clear of food items that were in high-demand in favour of those that were readily available. people were urged to rely upon vegetables for a large portion of their daily nutrition. this was difficult in newfoundland where the soil was rocky, the weather cold, and the growing season short. as such, the island’s vegetable farmers sensibly focused their attention on nurturing high yields of hardy crops such as turnip, cabbage, parsnips, potatoes, beets, and carrots (gray 1977:22). these long-lasting and resilient vegetables became an integral part of the wartime diet. if plant based dishes were supplemented with newfoundland’s plentiful and protein-rich seafood as many nutritional guidelines suggested – stomachs could stay full for longer and the conscience could be free of the guilt of wasting scarce resources. some of these guidelines and regulations could be confusing for homemakers who were well established in their daily routine. in response, the domestic science school on harvey road in downtown st. john’s became involved in teaching young women the appropriate way to “pitch in” in the kitchen. founded in 1912, the institute was an open, interdenominational space that served the female students of the methodist college, the roman catholic convent schools, and bishop spencer college (riggs 2000). pupils from a wide variety of economic backgrounds were admitted and instructed together; progressively, the children of the rich were taught side by side with those of the working class (riggs 2000). while the central mission of the institute was to provide guidance in nutrition education, cooking, and baking, wartime teachers focused their curriculums on efficient domestic practises and frugal kitchen techniques (riggs 2000). a quote from the wpa’s 1917 journal the distaff reveals precisely what students were learning: < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 speaking generally, their efforts are confined to plain cooking (unless the one candy lesson at christmas can be styled fancy), for our aim is to teach the food values of the common food materials always at hand, and how to use them to the best advantage. special stress is laid on economy, and how to prevent waste [...] a visitor dropping into the school during the last few weeks has seen the pupils making bread and buns, while among our different visitors during last school year, one saw a class making soup stock and vegetable soups, another watched a lesson on “left over meat dishes,” still another heard a lesson on vegetables, while another enjoyed the practical results of a lesson on ‘eggs and omeletes [sic],’ and so on. (dickinson1916: 11-12). not long after this passage was written, the wpa partnered with newfoundland’s newly established food control board to produce a set of “war menus” for the st. john’s evening telegram. these menus were delivered cheaply to the masses in the form of the ubiquitous daily newspaper, and thus were intended to reach a large audience of newfoundlanders. in total, 20 menus were published between late december of 1917 and late february of 1918 (fig.2). though the menus are somewhat formulaic in nature, they also have distinct variations in structure. three examples simply lay out a menu of dishes for a single days breakfast, dinner, and supper (also referred to as luncheon or tea), 12 include recipes alongside a menu (of these, two include menus and recipes for two consecutive days), and five consist of only a handful of recipes. within the documents it is possible to see tangible proof of how the domestic advice on cooking in a conscious, ‘patriotic’ way was put to use. they reflect an effort on the part of their writers to augment the use of wheat with more accessible alternatives such as cornmeal and oats, restrict sugar, use red meat in moderate amounts, and emphasize vegetables and fish as the bulk of the diet. by encouraging the moderate use of scarce ingredients like meat, fats, and sugar, the menus attempted to push newfoundland closer to the intended goal of using rare or expensive foodstuffs to their most productive effect. throughout nations effected by wartime, every housewife was urged to “[...] ‘do her bit’ in augmenting the food resources available for the boys overseas [and] assist less fortunate families to buy food at lower prices” (national service board of canada 1917:19). however, a breakdown of the food items used in each of the menus reveals that, in fact, many of the ingredients would have been accessible only to those in the upper classes (fig.3-5). the menus are peppered with dishes like cheese souffle, tomato scallop, macaroni and cheese, lemon snow, baked bananas, and dark raisin pudding. additionally, < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 flour a staple that was outrageously expensive and fiercely rationed in many wartime nations appears as an ingredient in nearly every meal and in many recipes. take for example the menu for january 19, 1918, which includes bread and butter for breakfast, “potato pasties” containing a quarter pound of flour for dinner, and “johnny cake” that includes two cups of flour for tea (fig.6). the rationing of wheat appears to have been a largely conceptual concern for those in the wpa recommending augmented wartime foods. the few recipes for flourless dishes like “war bread” (containing oats, cornmeal, molasses, and butter), “oatmeal pudding” (a mixture of oats, apples, raisins, sugar, and cinnamon), and “corn pudding” (made of corn, milk, butter, and corn flour) hardly make up for the superfluity of bread, flour-filled baked goods, and wheat-heavy desserts. it is also significant to note that the menus were published during the winter season; a time of frigid weather, meagre resources, and food scarcity for members of the island’s working class. often, newfoundlanders referred to february and march as “the hungry months” (hanrahan and ewtushik 2001:xi). in an effort to combat this shortage, many individuals would hunt and gather seasonal wild foods and preserve them for the long, cold, hungry nights in the future (gray 1977:11). this was especially true in the outport communities where imported commodities were often scarce, even in times of plenty (hanrahan and ewtushik 2012:86). food items that working class women would have been familiar with such as moose, partridge, caribou, turr, seal, goose, and duck were not included in any of the menus (gray 1977:13). neither were commonly foraged foods like blueberries, partridgeberries, or bakeapple (gray 1977:13). there were, however, familiar dishes such as fish and brewis, creamed fish, boiled cod, mashed turnips, herring and potatoes, fish cakes, codfish balls, cabbage and beet salad, and pea soup included in many of the documents. despite this, the menus rely heavily upon a litany of specialty goods and fresh ingredients. take for example the menu for february 24, 1918, which includes a recipe for “jellied tomato salad” that requires store-bought ingredients like canned tomatoes and vegetable gelatine, and fresh produce like celery and lettuce leaves (fig.7). or the menu for february 3, 1918, which details a recipe for “apricot jam” that contains one pound of dried apricots, one-and-a-half pounds of sugar, and once ounce of blanched chopped almonds (fig.8). (it is also interesting to note that the dinner to be had on the same day as the “apricot jam” was “roast beef” – a particularly luxurious indulgence.) as such, while the “war menus” purported to be useful to a wide range of newfoundland homemakers, in practice, they were helpful only to those already well established at the top of the economic ladder. < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 this fact did not go unnoticed. jas. e. dempster, a resident of st. john’s, wrote a scathing letter to the evening telegram on the afternoon of december 29, 1914, just after the first “war menu” was published. dempster’s letter states: dear sir the menu published in this morning’s ‘news’ is nothing short of an insult to at least 90 p.c. of the people. hoover says that ‘if the more fortunate of our people will avoid waste and eat no more than they need, the high cost of living problem of the less fortunate would be solved and the shortage of food would no longer be a menace’, and he knows. let the idle rich cut out their dinner parties and afternoon teas and then they can talk to their less fortunate but just as intelligent brethren with much greater force (1917:3 original emphasis). the critique is pointed and astute: it explains that in the harsh light of everyday life, the “war menus” reveal little in the way of an attempt to reduce kitchen waste or carry out ingredient conservation. quite the opposite, they appear bloated and luxurious when compared to the daily fare of many newfoundlanders (hanrahan and ewtushik 2001: xi). the menu that dempster was addressing in his letter was intended specially for new year’s, and it included a diverse array of items: fruit, cornmeal porridge, potato bread, butter, coffee, tea, sugar, and milk for breakfast; cabbage and beet winter salad, bread and butter, preserved fruit, a floury spice and raisin war cake, and cocoa for luncheon; and tomato soup, roast chicken, jelly, mashed potatoes, peas, a chocolate and citrus fruit pudding, coffee, sugar, and milk for dinner. even to contemporary eyes, the menu leans towards the cushioned realm of decadence. perhaps this element of hypocrisy provides a reason for why there were only twenty “war menus” ever to be published. the wpa, however, vehemently denied the accusations of disingenuousness. by contrast, they embraced the elitism of the menus. a defensive response to dempster’s criticism was issued by the organization in the same edition of the telegram that contained his letter, and in an article entitled “the matter of menus,” they state: it may not be plain to many at first sight that [the menu] is an exceptional one, and not intended for an everyday precedent. even so, it is not obligatory, and if any cannot afford to follow it in its entirety they need not do so. we quite agree with mr dempster that the ‘rich’ ought to cut out their ‘dinner parties and afternoon teas’ but by suggesting that the first duty falls upon those whom he has in mind we think he misses the whole vital point of the situation… it is not in any way a question of rich and poor, but if it is made < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 so, we are compelled to say the far greater duty lies on the poor, and not the rich. for the thousands of our poorer people these very foods [flour and meat] constitute almost their sole dietary. how much of the total flour and meat supply of this country is consumed in the ‘dinner parties and afternoon teas’ of the rich? an infinitesimal portion… we have not got to save money, but to save flour and meat. if we do not do so, the whole country will go short, desperately short, by next spring. consequently, those persons who should pay most heed to the w a r n i n g are those who use the g r e a t e s t proportions of those commodities, and they are not the ‘idle rich’ (women’s patriotic association of newfoundland 1917:4 original emphasis). despite the fact that those who wrote the menus were inspired by lofty ideals of patriotism, sacrifice, and recognition for women’s domestic labour, their advice was directed at a small and privileged audience, and as such their culinary guidance seems to have gone largely unnoticed by the majority of newfoundlanders. it is difficult to ascertain whether or not any wheat, beef, or bacon actually made it to the “men at the front” as the aspirational lead caption on many of the menus claims; nonetheless, the “war menus” did draw attention to the bid for increased food awareness, and they enabled women to stand at the forefront of the worthy if poorly managed cause of food awareness in newfoundland. conclusions in the end, what can we take away from these “war menus”? most importantly, perhaps, is an acknowledgement of the fact that during the great war food was used a weapon. the battle on the homefront was fought not only by busy hands, but by frugal stomachs as well. what one ate and the ways in which they ate it acted as deeply powerful tools of informal communication. wasting food was framed as deceitful, harmful to the nation, and downright criminal. those who did so were derided as individuals who basked in luxury while their morally upright and patriotic brethren sacrificed, starved, and died. throughout the war, the resentment of working class newfoundlanders towards greedy well-fed merchants and profiteers provided a key rallying point in the fight for change. but the animosity was short lived. in the decades after the war the persistence and valorization of hunting and gathering methods associated with traditional foodways subsumed some of the frustration over luxury import goods and < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 decadent upper class lifestyles. maura hanrahan reveals: “[...] the sumptuous eight course meals enjoyed by the hated merchants of newfoundland history do not loom large in the collective psyche. it is as if they are deliberately pushed to the side and the table spread with roast caribou, salt fish, and fresh berries” (2012,91). in addition, the compilation and dissemination of the “war menus” provided a much needed space for newfoundland women to fight for the importance of domestic labour. the discussion of kitchen thriftiness acted a safe way to support the fight for female social, economic, and political freedom. it enabled women to get involved with the cause of suffrage from the confines of their own home, and within the socially sanctioned auspices of “feminine domestic work.” margot duley explains that after the great war: “[...] women [in newfoundland] emerged with a new-found sense that their traditional skills and community work had public and economic value, and they demanded full citizenship in the form of the vote, thus moving into the male sphere of politics” (2012:70). thus, the “war menus” can be seen as one very small facet of the overall battle for women’s emancipation. this study is obviously only a brief foray into the full significance of wartime cooking in early twentieth-century newfoundland. further research would be greatly bolstered by the examination of diaries, letters, cookbooks, detailed economic reports, material culture analyses, and oral histories. the topic of foodways during the great war is rich and varied, and there is a rich pool of information to support future in-depth explorations. it is important to devote scholarly attention to such simple looking documents as the evening telegram “war menus.” it is fruitful to study what appear to be banal recipes. this is so because underneath the bland textual exterior, it is possible to unearth a campaign for gender equality, justice for the marginalized, community cooperation, and recognition for “invisible” labour. though the ‘war menus’ may have missed their target in 1917 and 1918, they have certainly been useful in illuminating the complexities of the social and cultural climate lived by those who are now one century removed from us. < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 (fig.1) newfoundland recruitment poster courtesy of the virtual reference library, toronto public library. (fig.2). menu for february 1, 1918. image courtesy of the memorial university digital archives initiative. < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 (fig.3-5) charts created by the author. < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 (fig.6) menu for january 19, 1918. image courtesy of the memorial university digital archives initiative. < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 (fig.7) menu for february 24, 1918. image courtesy of the memorial university digital archives initiative. < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 (fig.8) menu for february 3, 1918. image courtesy of the memorial university digital archives initiative. < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 references cited bentley, amy. 1998. eating for victory: food rationing and the politics of domesticity. urbana and chicago: university of illinois press. cleverdon, catharine l. 1975. the start of liberation: the woman suffrage movement in canada. toronto: university of toronto press. cullum, linda, and maeve baird. 1999. a woman’s lot: women and early law in newfoundland from early settlement to the twentieth century. in pursuing equality: historical perspectives on women in newfoundland and labrador ed. linda kealey, 66-162. st. john’s: institute for social and economic research. dempster, jas. e. 1917. the shortage of food problem. st. john’s evening telegram. december 29: 3. dickinson, ethel g. 1916. the domestic science school. the distaff ed. mabel w. lemesseurier, 11-12. duley, margot iris. 2012. the unquiet knitters of newfoundland: from mothers of the regiment to mothers of the nation. in a sisterhood of suffering and service: women and girls of canada and newfoundland during the first world war ed. sarah glassford and amy shaw, 51-74. vancouver: ubc press. ---------1999. “the radius of her influence for good”: the rise and triumph of the women’s suffrage movement in newfoundland, 1909-1925. in pursuing equality: historical perspectives on women in newfoundland and labrador ed. linda kealey, 14-65. st. john’s: institute for social and economic research. evening advocate. 1917. march 30: 1. evening telegram. 1916. the thoughts of theobald. january 8: 7. goode, judith. 1992. food. in folklore cultural performances, and popular entertainments: a communications centered handbook ed. richard bauman, 233-245. oxford: oxford university press. gray, pamela j. 1977. traditional newfoundland foodways: origin, adaptation and change. masters thesis: memorial university of newfoundland. < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 grayzel, susan r. 2002. women and the first world war. london: pearson education limited. great britain, high commissioner of newfoundland. 1921. dominion of newfoundland and labrador: some information about the resources of the ancient colony. london: whitehead morris. hanrahan, maura. 2012. pine-clad hills and spindrift swirl: the character, persistence, and significance of rural newfoundland foodways. in edible histories, cultural politics: towards a canadian food history ed. franca iacovetta, valerie j. korinek, marlene epp, 85-93. toronto: university of toronto press. hanrahan, maura, and marg ewtushik. 2001. a veritable scoff: sources on foodways and tradition in newfoundland and labrador. st. john’s, flanker press. horwood, julia. 1916. w.p.a. visiting committee. the distaff ed. mabel w. lemesseurier, 1. hayden, dolores. 1981. the grand domestic revolution: a history of feminist designs for american homes, neighbourhoods, and cities. cambridge: mit press. lewin, kurt. 1947. frontiers in group dynamics: ii. channels of group life; social planning and action research. human relations 1: 143-153. national service board of canada. 1917. how to live in wartime. ottawa: j. de l. tache. o’brien, mike. 2011. producers vs. profiteers: the politics of class in newfoundland during the first world war. acadiensis january (1): 45-69. oliver, sandra. 2006. ruminations on the state of american food history. gastronomica 6.4: 91-98. riggs, bert. 1995. dickinson, ethel. mf-329; asc-ead0010. memorial university of newfoundland archives and special collections division. ---------2000. what’s all the fuss about ethel dickinson? memorial university of newfoundland’s archival treasures november. http://www.heritage. nf.ca/cns_archives/11riggsjuly06_1995.html [accessed march 4, 2014]. stone, deborah. 1997. work and the moral woman. the american prospect (35):78-86. storey, neil, and molly housego. 2010. women in the first world war. london: shire publications. < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 u.s. department of agriculture. 1917. keep good food out of your garbage pail and kitchen sink don’t feed high-priced human food to hogs or chicken: waste no food! washington d.c.: u.s. department of agriculture. warren, gale d. 2005. voluntarism and patriotism: newfoundland women’s war work during the first world war. honours diss., memorial university of newfoundland. women’s patriotic association of newfoundland. 1917. the matter of menus. st. john’s evening telegram. december 29: 4. ---------1917, 1918. war menus. st. john’s evening telegram. january 3 february 23. < roberts, brittany. “to save wheat, beef, and bacon for the men at the front”: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 notes 1 this paper was originally submitted as an assignment in memorial university’s spring 2014 course “food and culture,” and it has benefitted from many rounds of class discussion and review. i want to thank instructor paul smith for his generous supply of source material, and to also acknowledge my anonymous peer reviewers for their thoughtful feedback < hangmind, xu. “gyoza: a dumpling innovation” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 gyoza: a dumpling innovation by: xu hangming boiled dumplings, called jiao-zi in chinese, are a traditional food in northern china but in japan people commonly enjoy grilled dumplings, called gyoza. differences between these two kinds of dumplings exist not only in their preparation methods, but also in other aspects. japanese style gyoza are the re-definition of chinese dumplings, a creative interpretation of jiao-zi. gyoza are an example of japanese innovation. shock upon arrival in japan when i first arrived in japan from china as a foreign student, i invited a japanese friend to my house for a meal. before her arrival, i thought for a while what kind of chinese food to prepare. i decided on handmade boiled dumplings. dumplings are a vital part of chinese home cooking, with people often preparing and cooking them together. families often work together making the filling and dumpling skins, and then assembling each dumpling. making, eating, talking – it is a very happy family time. although the preparation for handmade dumplings is quite time-consuming, i thought it was the perfect cuisine to express my gratitude and to share with my japanese friend. i began to consider the filling. i wasn’t sure if fillings popular in china would also be appreciated by japanese eaters. i had just come to japan and my experience with the taste of japanese food was not extensive. after consideration, i decided that what would be the best for my guest, if i did not know her likes, would be what i found most delicious. so, i selected my favorite: a mix of chopped leeks and fried eggs. it seemed very simple, but with the distinctive smell of the leeks, and the pleasant contrast between the fresh green leeks and the yellow of the eggs, i became confident with my choice. without a doubt, these dumplings would be accepted. the day arrived and my friend visited my home. we made dumplings together, starting by preparing the dough for the dumplings’ skin. after about one hour, the dumplings were boiled, and we began to eat. when my friend tried our dumplings i was sure she would say that the filling was delicious. however, to my surprise her < hangmind, xu. “gyoza: a dumpling innovation” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 comment was, “the skin. this skin is so delicious.” i still remember her comment. i was stunned to hear it, and am surprised when i think of it even now. why was she so taken with the skin? why not the filling of crisp leeks and creamy eggs? for me, the dumplings’ skin was just ordinary, not the tasty treat of the dumpling. at that time i really could not understand my friend’s feeling. however, i did not question her response. we enjoyed our meal of dumplings and later she went home. but, her fascination with the skin became a riddle for me that lasted a long time. ten years later, the riddle is understood ten years have passed since that meal with my japanese friend, and since then i have eaten many plates of japanese gyoza. and, i think i have finally solved the riddle of my friend’s fascination with the dumpling skin that we made. gyoza in japan are usually pan fried and not boiled so the skin of gyoza is crisp, whereas the skin of boiled dumplings is sticky. when my friend first ate handmade boiled dumplings at my home, she was struck by the new texture of boiled dumplings. as for me, conversely, during the first few years of living in japan, i did not have much interest in gyoza. to be honest, i was convinced that they would not be so delicious. to tell you the truth, there are pan-fried dumplings in china which are similar to gyoza, such as “guotie/potstickers.” in addition, in china, there is a habit of eating leftover boiled dumplings the next day, pan-fried in oil. the common feature of them is that the skin is thick. the fried skin does taste good and many chinese people feel that the texture after frying is inferior to the texture of boiled dumplings, so they prefer their dumplings boiled. however, i have now lived in japan for many years, and have gradually come to realize that gyoza are delicious on their own and shouldn’t be compared to boiled dumplings. i like the crisp texture of the pan fried skin and the savory flavor of the filling that becomes even more delicious after the skin is fried. in fact, gyoza have become one of my favorite foods. gyoza, an innovative food from dumplings gyoza are very different from boiled dumplings even though the shape of them is the same. not only the preparation and the texture, but also the function is very different. in china, dumplings are a meal and usually each person eats more than 20 pieces. in contrast, gyoza are a kind of accompanying dish and only several pieces per person are served at a meal. therefore, gyoza are not an extension of boiled dumplings but < hangmind, xu. “gyoza: a dumpling innovation” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 rather a redefinition of the boiled dumpling and an expression of japanese innovation. why was it invented in japan and not china? most chinese are so accustomed to boiled dumplings that they are not able to accept the idea of gyoza as being equal. but in japan, after boiled dumplings were introduced from china, the food evolved under the influence of japanese food culture. in japan, fried food, such as tempura, is popular, so pan frying dumplings did not seem like such a strange idea and these types of dumplings were accepted and grew in popularity. gyoza: from japan to the world gyoza took on a different form in japan and gyoza culture has been well established there. now gyoza culture is not limited to japan, but is accepted in other countries. in china, gyoza are now appearing on menus in japanese restaurants and there unique taste has been accepted by some chinese people (see figure 1). in larger cities in the united states, frozen gyoza are sold in some supermarket chains, with package designs that refer to gyoza, not jiao-zi and dumplings (see figure 2). and, just last year, a “gyoza bar” opened in paris (see figure 3). it has a very simple menu, gyoza and beer, but it is always full of people. gyoza are gradually becoming popular beyond the borders of japan. in the near future, gyoza may be offered next to hot dogs on menus in baseball stadiums in the usa, with a glass of chianti in italy, or in a pub in oxford, england…i believe that gyoza will become a global food one day just like sushi and ramen. gyoza machine as gyoza become more and more popular around the world, the need for high quality, automated gyoza making machines has increased. fortunately, gyoza making machines and pan-fried machines have been invented and are being produced in japan. according to my investigations, there are more than one thousand patents for gyoza machines in japan. these machines produce gyoza with a speed that cannot be matched by human hands, and with a taste and texture quality close to handmade. not surprisingly ,the international market for these gyoza machines is growing rapidly. the gyoza bar in paris, uses a small half-automatic gyoza machine (see figure 4) made by toa industry, located in hamamatsu city, a famous gyoza city in japan, where < hangmind, xu. “gyoza: a dumpling innovation” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 the average annual gyoza consumption is the highest in japan. these machines are enabling the growth of gyoza culture. japan food culture and japan technology are connected; japanese innovation, the combination of culture and technology, is at work. boiled dumplings and gyoza in my house now after discovering the delicious texture of gyoza, now i enjoy making gyoza in my home. i still like to eat boiled dumplings, so my family always makes both jiao-zi (see figure 5) and gyoza (see figure 6). the fillings are the same, the skins are different, but both of them are delicious. i have named them “china-japan friendship food.” last year, my japanese friend who said, “the skin is delicious,” came to my home again after about ten years because i moved to osaka from tokyo. i invited her to my home again and we made both boiled dumplings and gyoza this time. they reminded us of ten years ago when he came to my home and the memory is also “delicious.” thanks to boiled dumplings and gyoza, we can enjoy two kinds of dumplings, and the two cultures they embody. figure 1 restaurant menu in beijing figure 2 supermarket in los angeles figure 3 gyoza bar in paris < hangmind, xu. “gyoza: a dumpling innovation” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 figure 4 gyoza machine figure 5 handmade boiled dumplings figure 6 handmade gyoza schroeder, kylie. 2016. “review of: freegans: diving into the wealth of food waste in america.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 review of: freegans: diving into the wealth of food waste in america alex v. barnard. minneapolis: university of minnesota press, 2016. pp. 294, index. by: kylie schroeder amid the rising interest in where and how food is produced—and the correlating increased availability of organic, local, and ethical goods— alex v. barnard’s ethnography about “freegans,” a faction of anti-capitalist counter culture concerned with the excessive surfeit of ex-commodities found primarily in the form of food, is both timely and thoughtprovoking. based on personal involvement in the freegan movement and ethnographic research from 2007 to 2012, freegans: diving into the wealth of food waste in america provides a compelling and coherent dialogue between participants in the freegan.info community and “scientific theories about capitalism, waste, and social movements” (xiii). barnard supplies examples of diverse motivations held by those who self-identify as “freegans“ and the actions they take in the name of activism. barnard identifies freegans loosely as individuals who reject capitalism and strive for alternative strategies of existence, in a system where the best options of ethical consumption are considered not good enough. while one frequently identified activity associated with freeganism is “collective waste reclamation” (dumpster diving) for food (86), freegans examines a number of other ways in which these activists voluntarily limit their participation in capitalist society, such as alternative forms of transportation, community building, housing, and the procurement and maintenance of goods that would have otherwise been wasted as ex-commodities—oftentimes indistinguishable from the wares presented for consumer purchase. schroeder, kylie. 2016. “review of: freegans: diving into the wealth of food waste in america.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 barnard’s work focuses on participants from the freegan.info community based largely in new york, though he offers regional and global examples for comparison. while the author readily admits that the book does not attempt to represent all freegans, he found the freegan.info group the most visible and organized assemblage at the time of his research; the group thus provides an opportunity to examine the efforts of individuals who are trying to make what can be viewed as a failed system more ethical, while attempting to minimize participation in the system. while he notes that freegans have received a fair amount of media attention, barnard focuses on the fetish of waste and ex-commodities to show how freegans reject ethical consumption. barnard states that his intention was an attempt to create “a piece of journalistic reporting” that addresses the “underlying processes that make freeganism possible and the issues that drive them to the dumpster” that have been absent thus far from discussion surrounding the group’s activities and motivations (xiii). he points out that while there has been increased general interest in where food comes from, there has been little work focused on where it actually ends up. he notes that an astonishing 40 percent of the food supply in the united states is never consumed (2). freegans opens with “a brief history of a tomato,” in which a single salvaged item is used to illustrate the shocking statistics of food waste in america, before barnard discusses freeganism and sociological theory. he uses this narrative to demonstrate that waste extends far beyond a single tomato, and is in fact a reflection of generally unseen “human exploitation and ecological harm” (2). barnard introduces his participants by sharing their stories and histories of involvement with different movements and their disenchantment with other forms of activism. the initial chapter, “capitalism’s castoffs,” explores the inception of freeganism and its affiliation with other anarchist groups. the author traces the history of the movement while situating the group’s ideologies within other political mindsets. the history of the group is combined with a history of ex-commodification and the sociological implication that capitalism cannot function without waste. barnard then identifies the demographics of the 22 participants (the schroeder, kylie. 2016. “review of: freegans: diving into the wealth of food waste in america.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 majority of whom are white, middle to upper middle class, college educated, childless and unmarried) and explores their motivations for involvement in the movement. he provides three major influences: ideologies imparted from older family members, childhood rebellion, and personal practices involving waste that evolved over time. barnard then explores the activities linked to freeganism and freegans’ intentions to criticize capitalism while maintaining minimal involvement in the system itself. the book concludes by exploring the diversity of opinions and even some of the contradictions that exist within the movement, before discussing the decline of the group amidst internal and external backlash and conflict. two concepts discussed by barnard were particularly welcome. first was the representation of the most widely-recognized freegan activity, dumpster diving, as a scripted performance with specific intentions for those involved. this analysis combined participant accounts with the author’s observations and offered an interesting look behind the scenes of the group’s activities and self-representation. the second was the persuasive argument in which barnard presents freegans’ evidence, challenging preconceptions that consumer activism is an efficient way to make a change—especially with mass-marketing of “ethical” products that have as many negative consequences as the products they are trying to replace. barnard succeeds in writing clearly for non-sociologists and those without intimate knowledge of economics, so they can easily digest his work. he is not afraid of the contradictions that presented themselves in his research, but rather uses them to explore the diverse ideologies and practices that the freegan group utilized to work within a flawed system. while freegans is packed full of vivid and engaging discussion, i would like to have seen stronger emphasis on freegan activities outside of the reclamation of edible waste. perhaps the constant return to dumpster diving and trash tours’ emphasis on food intentionally reflects the most widely recognized aspect of the movement and the activity that caught many members’ attention. it seemed that there could be enough evidence for greater discussion of the non-edible aspects of the movement such as housing, transportation, and clothing, for example. i would recommend this book to anyone interested in activism, modern schroeder, kylie. 2016. “review of: freegans: diving into the wealth of food waste in america.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 anarchist foodways, and the politics of waste, and even to people who wish to become more aware of the shortcomings of the capitalist consumer system that many take for granted. this book was both enjoyable and eyeopening, and will definitely encourage readers to take a second look at their daily environments with new (and perhaps necessary) perspective. microsoft word review-graham-dying to eat-galley-3-30-20.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 67-68 © american folklore society 2020 review of: dying to eat: cross-cultural perspectives on food, death, and the afterlife candi k. cann, ed. lexington: university press of kentucky, 2017. pp. 208, acknowledgments, index, contributors. review by: tiff graham ____________________________________________________________ dying to eat: cross-cultural perspectives on food, death, and the afterlife, edited by candi k. cann, is a culinary and cultural expedition, where the reader travels to china, taiwan, korea, mexico, united states, morocco, and south africa to learn how the living bury, honor, and remember their dead with food, drink, and ritual. the compilation’s eight well-researched contemporary essays are grounded in ethnographic fieldwork, historical research, and scholarly insight. although the connective ingredient in each is the study of food and death, the book will appeal to diverse scholarly interests in folklore, anthropology, history, culture, religion, gender, class, education, age, geography, funerary and mortuary practices, psychology, economics, public health, or technology. individual essays or the entire book could be assigned in undergraduate or graduate level courses aimed at foodways, food culture, death studies, or religious beliefs and practices. in the introduction, cann explains the book’s interdisciplinary approach and variety in themes addressed as they focus on the subject of death and food. a central premise, evident in works by several authors, including cann, is that food serves as a conduit for a living community to relate to their dead by preparing, serving, consuming, and/or offering food to them, and in their remembrance (4-8). drawing on scholarship of bereavement studies, they invoke “continuing body theory,” which holds that people cope better when they renegotiate bonds with the deceased. structurally, each essay includes a funerary cooking recipe, and sometimes a photograph of the food, in a familiar cookbook style. yet the multi-layered analyses and explorations of social, cultural, and economic influences shaping beliefs and practices suggest anything but cookbook writing. in “moroccan funeral feasts,” for example, david oualaalou first distinguishes morocco from other muslim countries using couscous, its daily dish and funerary food. he then examines changing viewpoints, food, and activities associated with the dead, and explains how generational, educational, rural versus urban geography, social class, and technological influences shape the moroccan funeral. in “eating and drinking with the dead in south africa,” radikobo ntsimane vividly details funeral stages and ancestral homecoming rituals with specific food and drink ranging from pre-funeral scones, tea, and coffee for visitors to mogoga (funeral meals) for everyone, and postpost funeral offerings of meat and sorghum beer to the deceased (174-180). alongside descriptions of food and ritual, ntsimane addresses modern issues of the economically disadvantaged, large payout funeral insurance policies, hiv/aids pandemic-related deaths, christianity, and white people’s influence on funerary foods and practices (174). 68 graham, review, dying to eat digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) the theme of religion is embedded in many of the essays. buddhism, confucianism, daoism, judaism, islam, protestant and catholic christianity, african spirituality, folk catholicism, and as one author suggested, “religion of no religion” (155), emerge as shaping attitudes, beliefs, and practices around food and the dead. in “the eating ritual in korean religiosity: young san jae for the dead and for the living,” jun eun sophia park focuses on confucianism, shamanism, buddhism, and catholicism in relation to korean ancestor veneration and food traditions. she builds a multisensory personal account of the bong won temple monks’ “symbolic reenactment of the last festival the historical buddha had with his disciples” and reveals that offerings such as the three tower plates of nuts and fruits, oil and honey pastries, and rice cakes symbolize “wishes of dedication, blessing, and invocation” (42, 45). joshua graham’s “funeral food as resurrection in the american south” explores southern christian “denominational funeral food patterns” and how offerings of food and drink vary by an individual’s closeness to the departed, religious denomination or congregation, and social class (98). while episcopalians might offer alcohol, graham explains, baptists would not; methodists frequently offer “funeral goo” dishes with processed ingredients made for longer shelf life; and “episcopalians prefer aspic, small rolls, cheese straws, and fudge cake” (98). although religion plays a strong role in the book’s essays, plenty of other themes are discussed, such as: women’s roles; the ability of the dead to connect and renew bonds with the living who prepare and serve them special recipes (95); and the conjuring of the body or bringing human remains to life through vivid detail in the care and preparation of flesh and bones. this latter topic made a particularly memorable impression on me. in “chinese ancestral worship: food to sustain, transform, and heal the dead and the living,” for example, emily wu conveys esoteric knowledge about the ideal body conditions for a bone-picking master, among descriptions of other chinese traditions that relate to worshipping deities and ancestor spirits with appropriate food offerings. similarly, lacy k. crocker and gordon fuller’s essay, “the circle of life: memorializing and sustaining faith,” details jewish traditions for preparing the unadorned body and sitting shiva with symbolic foods, while also explaining how judaism shapes attitudes, behaviors, and practices related to death and dying bodies. in a surprising historical and macabre turn, christa shusko’s essay, “alcohol consumption, transgression, and death,” reports on the alcohol-fueled rituals of death-themed activities of the whitechapel club, a nineteenth century men’s social group in chicago illinois. shusko specifically looks into how this group came to burn a deceased body on an outdoor pyre. while most of the essays in this collection are focused on one culture’s foodways approaches to death, cann’s “sweetening death: shifting landscapes of the role of food in grief and mourning,” challenges the reader to compare multiple culture’s funerals and holidays of remembrance (such as day of the dead, qing ming) through similarities in funerary food ingredients. in sum, dying to eat offers a multifaceted study of death in relation to food. in each essay, the reader steps into another country, culture, and bittersweet human experience that reveals distinctive food histories, cultural rituals, and ways of thinking about the dead. this reader found the essays appealing, exhausting, saddening, and yet deeply educational. griff-sleven, hanna. 2016. “review of: the food and folklore reader.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 review of: the food and folklore reader edited by lucy m. long. new york: bloomsbury press, 2015. pp. vii + 467, introduction, index, appendix. by: hanna griff-sleven folklorist lucy m. long has curated a textbook to serve as an introduction to folklore methods and theory as they apply to food culture. it is an ambitious undertaking: this book contains forty articles spanning the discipline of folklore. long has culled the archives of the field, using seminal works that define folklore as well as articles that explore more contemporary issues such as food security and culinary tourism. the strength of a good reader relies on the choice of articles and an understanding of why the articles were chosen. this reader succeeds the most with long’s comprehensive introductions to each of the book’s five parts. she does an admirable job covering diverse food cultures with examples from the many ethnic identities within the united states, canada, australia, sweden, jewish and arab cultures, and many more. also included are helpful questions for discussion and suggestions for further reading in order to encourage students to explore these ideas in their own work and/or future projects. however, the book is a lengthy one, and if one is using it in print, it is a heavy one. there are simply too many articles, and not all of the older ones need to be reprinted since they are easily available elsewhere. food culture is so popular these days, with food blogs and articles appearing daily, perhaps a more critical editing of long’s selections would make this book stronger. the food and folklore reader is divided into five parts: “foundations: history, definitions, and methodologies,” “food in groups, community, and identity,” “food as art, symbol, and ritual,” “food as communication, performance, and power,” and “food in public and applied folklore.” long has written excellent introductions to both the subject and the subsequent griff-sleven, hanna. 2016. “review of: the food and folklore reader.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 articles. the introductions are all followed by discussion questions, references, and suggestions for further readings. there is an appendix of sources and a thorough index as well. because this reader was intended to introduce the reader to the many viewpoints and ways to study food, long excerpted many of the articles in order to include so many. as a foodie reader, i found this disconcerting and disappointing: i wanted the whole article there. i think this is one of the downfalls of such ambition. because of the book’s heft as well, i would have liked to see a selection of half of the forty essays that included complete versions of her favorites and reference notes for the others. in part i, “foundations: history, definitions, and methodologies,” long opens with don yoder’s 1972 article, “folk cookery.” re-reading this article reminded me that he was the one to suggest the use of the word “foodways” in order to include all the many different ways food should be studied, setting the course for food studies in the united states. part ii, “food in groups, community, and identity,” not surprisingly, is very diverse as it looks at folk groups and identity. “continuity and adaptation in arab american foodways,” by william and yvonne lockwood, was included in its entirety and was full of rich ethnographic detail about the arab-american community’s foods and the changes they have undergone in various contexts, both public and private. the culinary glossary and rich ethnographic documentation made me want to jump on a plane, call the lockwoods, and go shopping in the markets and eat my way through the neighborhoods. as a mind bender, i enjoyed jay mechling’s “boy scouts and the manly art of cooking.” his analysis explores how the boy scouts of america take the traditionally feminine domestic field of cooking and other nurturing tasks and present these skill sets as masculine. another well-written article is marcie cohen ferris’s “feeding the jewish soul in the delta diaspora,” a description of her jewish family’s foodways in arkansas and how they used their ethnic identity to negotiate their religious and regional identity. she is a beautiful writer and this article is a must for anyone who wants to look at foodways through family stories and identity. part iii, “food as art, symbol, and ritual,” looks at folk traditions and food in many different ways. annie hauck lawson and sean galvin write about griff-sleven, hanna. 2016. “review of: the food and folklore reader.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 their fieldwork with five different ethnic bread makers in brooklyn, new york. they did a remarkable job of addressing the interplay between baking as an art versus baking as a business and the ways religious and cultural values are encouraged through bread making. they captured the diversity of brooklyn through the commonality of bread and a study like this would be a helpful article in a world where diversity appears to be a dirty word. long’s own article, “green bean casserole and midwestern identity: a regional foodways aesthetic and ethos,” is a good read on how mass produced recipes become meaningful and has the bonus of including the original recipe. this also would be helpful in a class where the exotic might very well be the white caucasians who are wondering where their folklore is situated. barbara kirshenblatt-gimblett’s article, “playing to the senses: food as performance medium,” looks at the possibilities and constraints of the convergence of food and performance by examining how food as art and food in everyday life intersect. it is a very accessible and creative lens to look at folklore in context. part iv, “food as communication, performance, and power,” is perhaps one of the most thought provoking as the authors chosen bring up many sensitive issues through food. janet theophano’s “‘i gave him cake’: an interpretation of two italian-american weddings,” examines two weddings in one family and how the choice of the menu for each highlights the importance of understanding the context of any situation (in this case, how the family felt about the choice of the grooms). perhaps one of the more disturbing articles i have ever read is luanne roth’s “beyond communitas: cinematic food events and the negotiation of power, belonging and exclusion.” she examines the way mainstream films use foodways as metaphors for representing groups as different, foreign, or distasteful. this article was only an excerpt and focused mostly on the violence in the film american history x. roth alluded to her examination of food in my big fat greek wedding and along came polly and i liked the contrast of humor with her insightful yet visceral analysis of american history x. thus it was a relief and pleasure to read diane tye’s article, “‘a fruitcake always makes me think of grandma’: food and memory in l.m. montgomery’s griff-sleven, hanna. 2016. “review of: the food and folklore reader.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 creation of female landscapes.” tye examines food in a literary context and how food descriptions can evoke a sense of place and passing of time. part v, “food in public and applied folklore,” is perhaps the weakest section. there are too few articles about foodways and festivals and yet the public arena of festivals and food blogs is where the student of folklore and food usually first comes in contact with food. it is also a disservice to the reader that no photographs were included. food and its preparation are such visual genres, i am sure many of the authors have documented their work and such documentation in this chapter would have been helpful. i found two essays helpful. “no food or drink in the museum?: the challenges of edible artifacts,” by sarah conrad gothie, raises interesting questions as she looks at still life paintings, julia child’s kitchen, and how these give way to complicated issues of experiencing food in and out of context. this article would be of great use in a classroom, having students reconsider classic paintings of food, reconstructed kitchens, and how museums interpret such things. nomvula mashoai cook and betty belanus’s article, “a taste of home: african immigrant foodways,” was originally in the 1997 program book for the smithsonian folklife festival. this is a beautifully written article that uses folklore theory as it describes the role of african restaurants in establishing continuity in traditional celebrations and food. overall this anthology is good and the bibliographies and other references are excellent. long knows the world of food and foodways. yet this might be the fault in the book. on the one hand, fuller versions of a smaller selection of long’s favorites may have sufficed. on the other, a two-volume format could have permitted full versions of the entire selection. as an adjunct professor whose time is limited, i would have appreciated having everything in one place instead of having to hunt down full versions of the articles elsewhere. all in all, however, long did an admirable job of collecting these articles on how to study the vast and ever growing world of food and culture chiefly from folklore’s foodways perspectives. widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 review of: just a dish? power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh by: christine j. widmayer this research note closely resembles the 2016 samuelson student paper prize competition submission and represents an early effort to combine autoethnography and creative writing with foodways scholarship. the author developed the work in a larger conceptual framework for her folklore studies master’s thesis, which now underlies a more balanced, in-depth study that incorporates feminist food studies, family folklore, her father’s voice, and her own experiences and positionality. “i can’t talk long,” my mother told me on a november weekend in 2015, “i’m making hummoth kibbeh!” i had called to chat—my mother’s father had died a couple weeks earlier and i was calling to check in. my intentions were quickly diverted by this proclamation: my mother was making hummoth kibbeh—a chaldean dish, meatball soup in a tomato-based broth. the dish itself is delicious, warm, and regarded as comfort food in my family. but the fact that my mother was making it was surprising because she is not the chaldean in the family, and almost never participates in our chaldean food traditions—my father’s family is the source of my chaldean heritage. in 1910, my paternal great-grandfather, george najor, immigrated to detroit, michigan from what is now iraq. he later returned to iraq to retrieve his wife, mary. george and mary were chaldean, a term that currently describes both a cultural group and a branch of the catholic church. they were some of the first chaldean immigrants to the detroit area. my great-grandfather opened the first chaldean grocery store in detroit, through which he sponsored other chaldean immigrants to the area. by the time he died in 1952, the chaldean population in detroit was booming. today, detroit is home to widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 one of the largest populations of chaldeans outside the middle east. as minorities in detroit when they first arrived, george and mary chose to favor american culture. in the decades following their immigration, george and mary became naturalized american citizens, and raised their children to speak english. out of their six children, only two married other chaldeans. one of these, my grandmother ruth, married my german-american grandfather, warren, and raised five children including my father, the oldest, also named warren. over time, the descendants of george and mary najor lost many of our cultural signifiers. we did not speak chaldean, a neo-aramaic language. we did not attend the chaldean catholic church—most of us were still raised catholic, but roman catholic. by the time my generation was growing up, the only clearly recognized cultural signifiers that connected us to our chaldean heritage were our foodways. for this reason, our food traditions became special and important—for me, chaldean foods are wrapped up in my personal understanding of what it means to be chaldean american. these foods were not purely recreations of dishes from the homeland. immigrant groups’ foodways often undergo a process of selection and creolization. “the common food that first-generation settlers considered everyday sustenance gradually takes on a new luster…it is special, it is different, it sets them apart from other groups” (kaplan, hoover, and moore 1998: 122). this “luster” singles out and intensifies special dishes that become symbols for identity. for my father and his family, their ethnic foodways ostensibly developed over decades—these foods are what the family chose to identify their chaldean identity. foodways often become symbols of the ethnic group (lockwood & lockwood 2000: 516). these symbols are also performances—performative gestures, which, as susan kalčik argues, “provide a whole area of performance in which statements of identity can be made—in preparing, eating, serving, forbidding, and talking about food” (kalčik 1985: 54). over the years, my father’s family selected certain chaldean dishes to perform as reminders of its chaldean identity—these dishes now stand for something more, and have become special, festive foods. but for my mother, beth, whose national heritage is german, polish, and widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 french, chaldean food does not resonate in the same way. beth believes that you cannot claim chaldean heritage without being chaldean by blood. therefore, she doesn’t believe she has chaldean heritage—her husband has chaldean heritage, and her children do too, but she does not claim that heritage for herself. my mother told me two things when i confessed my surprise that she was attempting to make hummoth kibbeh on her own: first, she said she was nervous; then, she raved about how much she loved my father and wanted to make it for him. the first thought was unsurprising—she was tackling a traditional family food that comes with expectations and pressure. the second was a direct result of how supportive my father had been in light of my mother’s grief: she wanted to “reward” him with this food they both loved and rarely made. instances of wives connecting to their husband’s heritage or ethnic foodways are common—historically, wives learned their husband’s favorite dishes when they married into the family, crossing these ethnic boundaries (see najor 1981, counihan 2005, and avakian 2005). but in my family, beth had rarely participated in chaldean food traditions. through observation of beth cooking hummoth kibbeh and interviews with beth, i explore— as part of a longer, deeper research project currently in progress—what it means for beth to engage with this chaldean dish. how is it related to her own history, identity, and role in the family? what does it mean for her to take on this chaldean dish? understanding beth’s choice to engage with this chaldean tradition requires a deep understanding of her past experiences cooking, and her relationship with my father. knowing beth’s backstory clarifies why beth chose this dish on this day at this point in her life. a lifetime of cooking beth was born in washington, d.c. in april 1957. though both of her parents were originally from the detroit metro-area of michigan, her father was in the judge advocate general corps, serving in arlington, virginia. when he was discharged, the family returned to grosse pointe, michigan to be near beth’s parents’ families. beth’s mother stayed at home with the kids, while her father worked as a lawyer. they had three widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 more children after beth, and when beth was a teenager, they moved to ann arbor, michigan, where beth graduated from high school. beth started cooking when she was nine years old. she recalls being in the fourth grade when her mother broke her wrist. beth’s parents sat her down and said she had to help out. so beth started to cook for her family. it was rare that beth’s mother directly instructed her in cooking. beth describes sitting in the kitchen with her mother because she “adored her” and “loved to listen to her talk.” as she watched her mother cook, beth picked up on recipes. occasionally, she would act as an assistant when her mother was cooking, but typically she just washed the dishes. the first dish beth learned how to cook independently was her mother’s homemade bread. beth also remembers her aunt laurie giving her a betty crocker cookbook for christmas one year, a gift beth said seemed like “a crappy gift” but turned out to be extremely valuable as beth grew up. “i remember there was a recipe in it for mashed potatoes and meatloaf,” beth said, “and that was my specialty. you know, it would be my turn and— ‘beth, can you make your meatloaf?’ and everyone loved it. and so i got the whole feeling of, you know, the reward of being the one that made the great meal.” this rewarding feeling motivated beth to continue cooking. beth started to cook more often as she grew up, especially when her mother was sick or had migraines. one migraine episode in particular prompted one of beth’s favorite stories about learning to cook: she said she had a migraine headache, and i was like, “oh, what should i do for dinner?” “oh, i was going to make pork chops and sauerkraut.” and i went down and told my dad, “mom says to make pork chops and sauerkraut.” and he goes, “i hate sauerkraut! she likes that stuff! she’s not even going to eat it! why are you making that?” and i go, “that’s okay, dad! i know how to make the pork chops widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 with cream gravy and mashed potatoes that she makes,” which was another favorite of mine . . . and i remember on my own figuring out that’s what i could do with the pork chops instead of the sauerkraut pork chops that she wanted me to do. but that would have been after seventh grade. so i was a little older. so, i had a lot of experience, i guess, between fourth and seventh grade—watching her cook. this story demonstrates a certain level of confidence and comfort in the kitchen. by seventh grade, beth emphasized, she knew how to substitute foods. at that point, beth acknowledges, she was not even following recipes. with that pork chop dish, she says she made it by trying “a little of this, a little of that” until she got it right. this also demonstrates beth’s level of confidence in cooking, which she finds remarkable looking back. “i didn’t have any confidence about any other thing in life. but i knew how to cook.” from her childhood onward, cooking was the one thing she felt skilled at. after graduating from high school, beth spent a few years at kalamazoo college before following a boyfriend to san francisco, california. there she started to encounter foods outside her family tradition—dishes she never had the opportunity to try, and even ingredients she did not like to eat. she started eating mushrooms, tried seafood, and encountered carrot cake for the first time. though she was eating new foods, she did not start cooking new foods until she met and started dating my father, warren, after she moved back to ann arbor to finish her bachelor’s degree at university of michigan. neither beth nor warren cooked much during their early days together, beginning in 1980, because they mostly ate out, since they lived in downtown ann arbor, and beth sometimes obtained free dinners when she waitressed or served as a hostess at local restaurants. but when they moved to an addition to an old house outside the city on pontiac trail, they started to cook together for the first time. the christmas before beth and warren moved to their place on pontiac trail, beth’s cousin had given her the moosewood cookbook, a vegetarian cookbook full of recipes that i now consider family widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 staples, like vichyssoise and hummus. beth explains how, . . . we were setting up house, and much more domestic, and it was just the two of us. and we would just look through that cookbook, and [say] “oh, that looks good!” and “oh, let’s try making this hummus stuff!” and i don’t think i’d ever had hummus before. i can’t remember, but there was a lot of kind of exotic things. . . . we would come home via the kroger, and we’d have, okay, we’ve got our shopping list of this, things that we need to make whatever this was from the moosewood, and, yeah, we just went through the moosewood, and we’d make casseroles, and we’d try different things, and you know, develop our repertoire. this everyday practice of trying a new dish became customary over the year they lived on pontiac trail. both were learning new things about cooking, even though beth had a confidence in her ability that warren lacked. having not really cooked meals growing up, warren was more of a beginner. beth, on the other hand, continued her experimentation and felt confident making substitutions and changing recipes: one of the things when we first started looking at the moosewood. . . if i didn’t have the right spice, it didn’t bother me. oh, i’ll just leave it out, or i’ll add cumin, or whatever. oh, it drove your dad nuts! he wanted everything to be made the way the recipe said . . . i was like, “what the hell!” you know? it said to put artichokes in, we didn’t have ‘em, so i put in whatever—i can’t think of the substitutions. but it’s like with grandpa and the sauerkraut. i was always a very flexible cook. he was not. warren’s discomfort with deviating from a recipe continues to this day. he is the type of cook, according to beth, who prides himself on making everything perfect. warren is slow and careful. beth, on the other hand, relies on her experience and creativity, which give her more freedom in the kitchen. despite these differences in style between warren’s preciseness and beth’s flexibility, their time in the kitchen on pontiac trail was an important facet of their relationship. cooking together in the kitchen was “very much a widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 together thing” as beth puts it, a blissful time before children and careers invaded their solitude as a couple. the kitchen itself became a safe and comfortable place in their house and their relationship. beth reflected fondly: we had a kind of galley kitchen in this place, and in the place on pontiac trail—okay, when we first moved in, when it was warm, we would cook in the galley kitchen and then there was a little dining room that was off the kitchen—it was a rectangle. so it was a long living room, and then behind the living room was the kitchen. it was , like, a u-shape. the kitchen, this corner dining room. it had windows, beautiful windows looking out, and this beautiful thing. and we would—we had our tv on the dining room table, and we would sit, and we would probably watch jeopardy! and we would eat. and, you know, that was—it was heaven! we loved that. beth goes on to say that it was huddled in the kitchen in the middle of a terrible winter storm that warren asked her to marry him. these warm memories of that kitchen, and their tradition of trying new recipes and bonding over dinner, demonstrate how significant that kitchen was to them. that kitchen was the heart of their relationship, and it was part of their love story, a central place in their lives at that time. within a few years of living on pontiac trail, beth and warren had three children and moved to a suburban neighborhood in ann arbor. beth worked full-time, as did warren, but beth also took care of many chores at home, including cooking. beth’s biggest concern through most of my childhood was trying to get warren to come home for dinner. a workaholic, warren would work so late that he often did not get home before my mother put us to bed early in the evening. beth made an early dinner for the children and a late dinner for her and warren. when i was ten, beth quit the job she was working with her mother as a healthcare lobbyist to become a writer. for nearly twenty years, beth has worked from home on her novel. warren, meanwhile, has been running his own law firm. a skilled and frequent cook to this day, beth prepares dinner almost every night, and often makes warren breakfast as well. however, during all that cooking, beth has rarely engaged with warren’s chaldean traditions. widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 understanding the context surrounding warren’s chaldean traditions illuminates why beth is so unpracticed in chaldean foodways. chaldean foodways: a rediscovery beth knew from the beginning that warren was chaldean in background. she also knew that when he was nineteen, warren’s mom died suddenly. these two aspects of warren’s identity and history go hand-in-hand. warren’s mother, ruth, was the heart of his family. ruth was also the only connection warren had to his chaldean heritage. according to beth, life at home during warren’s childhood was not ideal. warren and his siblings had a strained relationship with their father because of his treatment of their mother. when ruth died of a brain aneurysm at 45, her children were devastated. warren was a sophomore in college at the time, and he stopped going home after his mother’s death. when warren met beth five years after his mom died, he was disconnected from his siblings. her death was something beth believes he had not really resolved. when beth and warren started dating, she witnessed some of the first discussions the family had about their mother’s death. over thanksgiving 1980, just months after warren and beth had started dating, they invited warren’s four siblings for a visit. “we had this apartment on packard,” beth said, “and i can remember them all sitting around the living room of that apartment, and it was as if they had never talked to each other in all the years since their mom died. . . . it was as if a floodgate opened.” the five siblings talked it all out—their mother’s death, their problems with their dad, and so much more. beth thought the time was right: it was almost as if they slowly evolved toward remembering their mom. like they couldn’t remember her right away, you know what i mean? and like, that five years later, okay, now it’s not painful enough that we can sit around talking about mom and dad and everything. but it’s almost as if they hadn’t been able to do that before. the opening-up of his family—the open discourse and the opening of their relationship—made beth feel welcomed into warren’s family. she felt that widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 warren’s family was expressing trust in her, by discussing these things in her presence, and she also felt welcomed and included in these deep discussions about their difficulties and loss. for beth, participating in this discussion with warren’s family deepened her connection to warren. beth’s first encounter with chaldean american food was when warren’s aunt, rose, started hosting family reunions. beth cannot remember when the reunions started, but rose always hosted the party at her house in the summer, and made a chaldean feast with her sisters. she set up a buffet with an array of chaldean foods: “there was a little porch where they had all the food. and i’m pretty sure your dad like, hand-held me through the line and made me, you know, this is this, this is this, you know.” beth does not remember whether she liked certain dishes over others, though admits that yuppra, a chaldean version of stuffed grape leaves, seemed at least familiar since she had had the greek counterpart. “i really don’t have a good idea of when i first tried that food,” beth commented, “but it was all colored by the fact that for dad, it was the greatest thing in the world.” soon after rose started having these reunions, warren’s family began engaging more with chaldean foodways. everyone came to the reunions, even eventually warren’s father, who loved chaldean ethnic food, despite having a complicated relationship with his wife’s chaldean family. his presence led warren and his siblings to make amends with their father. eventually, warren’s sister carol began gathering with rose and some of her other aunts and cousins to make kaletcha, a walnut-stuffed chaldean christmas cookie. she gave the cookies as gifts to her siblings, and the next year, warren asked to participate because he wanted to have more kaletcha to eat than he could expect to be given. soon, the rest of his siblings were involved. once my siblings, cousins, and i were old enough, warren and his siblings organized an annual kaletcha day where we would make dozens and dozens of cookies in an assembly line. soon, chaldean foodways were the way all of us connected with our chaldean side of the family, and how warren and his siblings started to heal from the loss of their mother. beth explains: it was this special memory of their mom, and it became the way that they—you know, they talked about their mom when they widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 were doing it, they talked about the favorite foods that she made, they talked about how to make ‘em, and what made ‘em special, you know—what’s that spice, you know, that kind of stuff? eventually, the time spent cooking these dishes became food events that linked the family to our heritage. trying to understand this part of my family, i began to urge my father to make chaldean dishes with me. when i did a report on iraq in the eighth grade, we made meat bread, a hamburger-and-onions-stuffed bread folded into a triangle pocket, and yuppra. for my high school graduation party we made hundreds of yuppra and meat bread, and hummoth kibbeh. this was a way for me to connect to my father, and to my chaldean heritage. in these moments, beth would sometimes assist us in making these foods, but she always took a back seat. over the years, beth stopped participating in our annual kaletcha day, largely because she was allergic to my aunt carol’s cats and couldn’t comfortably participate. when we made chaldean food at home, beth rarely participated—it was typically my father and me, even though beth was typically home when we were cooking. beth says she was not uninterested in chaldean food—she found the process fascinating and the food delicious—but she often sat out to allow my father time to bond with me and the rest of his family. still, choosing to take on a chaldean dish after so many years on the sidelines complicates beth’s motives. by examining beth’s performance in the kitchen, and her reflections on making hummoth kibbeh, it became clear that understanding beth’s motivation relies on knowing her and warren’s background and relationship. observation and methodology: the cooking and interviewing process over thanksgiving 2015, i asked beth if she would consider making hummoth kibbeh while i observed and documented the process. beth was delighted by the idea, because she knew we would have dinner and lunch to eat for a while if she made the dish around the holiday. on november 25, 2015, i assisted beth in making hummoth kibbeh, while also documenting the experience using photography and audio recording. widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 making hummoth kibbeh can be divided into two main phases. in the first phase, the cook makes the meatballs. the meatballs themselves, called “kibbeh,” are actually stuffed meatballs. traditionally, the name “kibbeh” is given to dishes of varying shapes and sizes that are made with a mixture of bulgur or another grain with meat or another shell (often potato is used instead of meat, or the shell is made entirely of the main grain) (strum 2013). these shells are then stuffed with something—almost always a meat (strum 2013). our kibbeh are meatballs that have an outer shell made of ground beef mixed with cream of rice cereal, which is then stuffed with pre-cooked ground beef and onions—a mixture we call “hushu”—and rounded into balls. these meatballs are then cooked directly in the broth of the soup, which consists of tomato paste, water, celery stalks and leaves, lemon juice, and mint that has been fried in butter. the broth cooks the meatballs, and often thickens as the cream of rice dissolves into the broth. to prepare the kibbeh, beth asked me to cut an onion while she measured out the meat. we chose to make a half batch of meatballs—we ended up with about 24 total—so we had to adjust the measurements of the recipe as we went. i fried the onion in a large pan. once the onion was browned, beth added about one pound of hamburger to the pan. while the hamburger and onions were cooking, she measured the amount of cream of rice to add into the remaining raw hamburger to create the shell dough. (photo 1) she paused at this step and seemed unsure how much cream of rice to add. we adjusted the measurements for the amount of hamburger we had left—two pounds of hamburger to “one package” of cream of rice would make a full batch of dough; since we did not know how much “one package” of cream of rice was, and had to halve the recipe anyway, we attempted to calculate—but beth remained uncertain: “you can tell by feel, though, right? if it’s too dry. . . . i think you just do it by feel—it doesn’t tell you how much,” she said, “my recollection is you want it stiffer than you think so you can handle it.” widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 photo 1. beth measuring cream of rice cereal to mix into ground beef for the kibbeh shells. november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. beth carefully poured some of the cream of rice into the bowl of raw hamburger and kneaded it to mix it together. “you know, i’ve only just made this one time!” she exclaimed, frustrated at not knowing the exact measurements. “i know. and the only other time we’ve made this was with dad. with dad overseeing it,” i said. “yeah, with dad telling us, ‘oh, oh no, that’s not enough,’ or dad mixing it himself, right?” she confirmed. she asked me to check the dough and deferred back to her. “i think this is good,” she said. (she used about seven ounces of cream of rice in the end.) (photo 2) widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 photo 2. “i think you can just do it by feel.” beth kneads the cream of rice cereal into the ground beef. november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. after the dough was prepared, we returned to the hushu, which was still cooking on the stove. (photo 3) now browned, the hamburger needed to be split up a little more. “i guess it’s really important to get as finely minced hamburger as you can because that makes it a lot easier to fill the little things with,” beth said, referring to the meatball shell. photo 3. the filling for the kibbeh is pre-cooked onions and ground beef—a widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 mixture called “hushu.” november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. we drained the hushu in a strainer to remove the fat, and put it in a bowl. we gathered plates on which we would stack the finished meatballs, two placemats, the bowl of hushu, and two spoons, and we sat down at the dining room table to shape the meatballs. when we sat down to make the meatballs—a process that requires time, but little concentration—i asked beth questions about her previous encounters with chaldean food. while we were talking, we started shaping and filling the meatballs. we each took a ball of shell dough a little smaller than a golf ball and formed it into a small cup. beth placed the ball on her palm, and pinched around it until it was sitting in her hand like a cup. (photo 4) we then filled the cups with hushu, and each of us pinched the tops of our cups closed, then rerolled the balls so they were round. (photos 5-7) we continued chatting and making meatballs until we realized we did not have enough shell dough. beth got up and retrieved more hamburger from the refrigerator. she mixed the dough without comment, and returned to the table. when i asked her what makes a good kibbeh, she replied: i always start out thinking i have to make this flat pancake-y thing, and then i realize—oh no, you know, there’s nowhere to put the meat. so it’s really like making this little cup. and then the important thing is not over-stuffing it so you can close it. but sometimes what happens to me—i just smash it all together and hope it seals. (photo 8) widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 photo 4. beth pinches the shell dough into a cup to fill with hushu—ground beef and onion filling. november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. photo 5. beth fills the shell with hushu. november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 photo 6. pinching the shell closed is a difficult step. november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. photo 7. after the kibbeh is closed, beth reshapes the meatball so it remains round. november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 photo 8. a plate of kibbeh ready to be cooked. november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. we soon finished the remaining meatballs, and started the second phase of cooking. beth set me to chopping three celery stalks (leaves included) while she minced two cloves garlic—garlic is her own adaptation to the recipe, which she “got permission” from warren to put in the broth. (photo 9) we started heating a big pot, and beth sautéed the garlic briefly in a small amount of olive oil before adding water. once the water was boiling, we added the celery and a large can of tomato paste. beth mixed this until the tomato paste separated, and let the water come to a boil. (photo 12) she added a tablespoon of salt. then, she added a small can of fire-roasted tomatoes, another addition that is a deviation from the traditional recipe. while the broth came to a boil again we melted two tablespoons butter in a small saucepan and then added six tablespoons of dried spearmint. (photo 10) the spearmint, beth was careful to tell me, must be rubbed between the palms or fingers as it is added to the butter so that it releases all its flavor. (photo 11) beth stirred the mint, which was frying in the butter, with a wooden spatula, and let it fry for a few minutes. once it was fried, she transferred it to a bowl and put the meatballs in the broth. (photo 13) after a few minutes, once the broth was boiling again, she added the butter-mint mixture and juiced a lemon into the pot. the broth continued to boil, and about an hour later, she declared the hummoth kibbeh finished, and ladled herself a bowl. (photo 14) widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 photo 9. one of beth’s additions to the recipe was minced garlic. november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. photo 10. beth precisely measures the mint for the broth, which is then fried in butter. november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 photo 11. beth crushes mint between her palms to “release the oils” as she adds the mint into butter. november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. photo 12. beth stirs the broth, a mixture of water, tomato paste, lemon juice, minced garlic, celery stalks and leaves, tomato paste, mint fried in butter, and fire roasted tomatoes. november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 photo 13. the meatballs cook in the broth for at least 15 minutes before the shell is cooked through. november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. photo 14. the finished product. (some of the meatballs burst when cooking.) november 2015. photo: christine widmayer. two days after we cooked the hummoth kibbeh, i sat down with beth for a formal interview. as we conversed comfortably in the living room, i asked her widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 questions about when she started cooking, what she understood about being chaldean when she met my dad, and what this particular set of food traditions meant to her. we discussed her relationship with warren, and explored her understandings of his family background. when i called beth on the phone a few weeks after this interview to follow up on a few points that were not clear from the initial interview—specifically about her role as the main cook in the household—it became clear how significant beth and warren’s relationship and gender roles were to understanding beth’s decisions to make this dish. “it’s just a dish”: power dynamics and gender roles this instance of beth cooking hummoth kibbeh demonstrates several similarities to and inversions of beth’s typical cooking experience, or at least how she represented it in our interviews. while she maintained a certain level of adaptability, she appeared to me to have lost her cooking confidence when she approached warren’s chaldean dish. i suspect that these changes in performance illustrate the shift that occurs in the power dynamics between beth and warren when chaldean food is involved. when it comes to everyday foods, beth ostensibly holds all the power—she decides what the family eats for dinner and prepares the food, making several choices along the way with confidence and surety. warren, on the other hand, shows up each night not knowing what food he will be eating for dinner. if beth were not cooking for him, warren would be limited in his own cooking—despite being a good cook—because of his strict adherence to recipes and lack of time and comfort in the kitchen. on the face of things, beth is a more powerful cook because of her experience and creativity. however, this superficial appearance of power only skims the surface of the dynamics at play here. by looking closely at beth’s performance in the kitchen, and her understanding of her role, it is clear that she actually holds much less power than it seems. widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 the power of satisfaction and reward part of beth’s power comes from the satisfaction and reward of knowing a skill and doing it well. beth expressed how, in her childhood, cooking was the only thing she had confidence in. this satisfaction was its own reward: confidence feels good. however, in her relationship with warren, this sense of reward is undermined by the traditional gender roles at play. though beth holds power in the kitchen, as a feminist and liberal she said she sometimes “resents” being required to cook as a duty. “i like cooking because i know what i’m doing,” she said, but she continued, “i feel like i’ve mastered cooking, and it hasn’t got a lot to offer me anymore.” this ambivalence toward cooking comes a long way from the satisfaction she found in her cooking competence. because she cooks so regularly, it has become a chore. thomas adler argues that this division of labor is typical in the american household when gender roles are divided so that the man works and woman stays home: “to the wife who cooks regularly, food preparation is a task to be completed” (1981: 47). this kind of position removes some of the power from cooking, especially in relation to a husband or partner who rarely cooks. for the woman’s role, her labor in the kitchen is less recognized and lacks power, whereas the man’s labor, both in and outside of the kitchen, is elevated. in the case of beth and warren, this division is quite pronounced. warren, an occasional cook, is “exalted” (adler 1981: 47) in his cooking. his cooking becomes celebrated and celebratory. even beth would celebrate the littlest concession on warren’s part in division of the cooking labor. when she visited her brother a few years ago, beth felt “very envious” when he declared that he was going to make dinner: he was like, ‘oh, it’s my night to cook.’ so he was making, pork fried rice. and this was some specialty of widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 his. he had the recipe card all typed out, and he was very methodically following this recipe. i was incredibly jealous. because, you know, i would—i wish—because your dad’s a fabulous cook. but i can’t rely on him. but i wish that wednesdays were his days to cook. or fridays, or whatever it was. but i can’t rely on that, ‘cause i’ll maybe starve if i’m waiting for him to cook. this anecdote demonstrates much of beth’s attitude toward warren’s cooking. beth’s brother is represented as a cook very similar to warren—he has a typed out recipe that he “very methodically” follows. beth sees in her brother what she wishes she would see from warren—even the smallest gesture that he would be willing to share the cooking load would help her feel less burdened. she acknowledges that warren is a “fabulous” cook but then expresses that she does not think she can “rely on” him: to make the time, or perhaps to take the habit seriously. her mention that she might “starve” while waiting for him to cook could apply both to the actual length of time it takes him to complete a dish, and to warren’s late work hours and problematic schedule. either way, beth indicates that to ask warren to take on an evening meal is outside the realm of what she thinks he would reasonably do. compared to beth’s dissatisfaction with cooking as an obligation, warren, on the other hand, can swoop in occasionally to make his special dishes, and be treated like a king for making a smaller contribution to the household culinary work. warren’s role as an occasional male cook conforms thus with adler’s association of festivity and novelty with the male cooking event. whereas the woman’s weekday food preparation can be characterized as ordinary or “ferial,” when the man takes over (often for weekend meals), the meal feels more “festal” (adler 1981: 47). when warren cooks now, the stakes are often higher. that he so rarely cooks, or he cooks a special dish, chaldean or not, that is particularly recognized as “his” heightens the cooking experience widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 and provides greater satisfaction for a meal well made. warren ostensibly thus gets satisfaction from several levels of the cooking—that he is cooking at all and that he is cooking a chaldean dish elevates his own, and the family’s, excitement. beth, however, gets no extra buzz from cooking chaldean foods. “he’s got an emotional attachment to them that i don’t have,” beth says. she continues, speaking specifically about hummoth kibbeh: “i don’t have that attachment to it. it’s just a recipe to me, you know, it’s just a dish—that can be improved upon and changed and made into my own.” while she respects warren’s ethnic connections to the dish, it is still “just” a dish, she says. other than its good taste, what does she gain from making it herself? the answer to this question relates to the complicated culinary choices beth makes every day. the power of food choice since beth is the main cook in the household, she decides what she and warren eat each day. beth does the shopping, beth does the food preparation, and beth makes a choice, each night, what to put on the table. however, that is a gross oversimplification of beth’s process when choosing foods to make. it is clear from talking to beth that her love for and support of warren often influences her choices, as does the time he comes home from work. beth knows what warren likes, and she often chooses to feed him foods that make him happy. similarly, warren is somewhat of a health nut and regulates the amount of protein versus carbohydrates he puts into his body. beth feels required to defer to these food preferences because she wants to take care of him, resembling similar trends of women deferring to their husbands’ preferences that michael owen jones discusses in “food choice, symbolism and identity.” jones cites several examples of women giving their husbands more than an equal portion of the food, or picking traditionally masculine widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 dishes or ingredients—meat and potatoes, for instance (jones 2007: 142). in beth’s case, she chooses foods that fit warren’s health needs, as well as his food likes and dislikes. jones also considers mary douglas’s discussion of what is considered a “meal” in terms of how a husband’s expectations influence wives into choosing particular foods, implicitly or explicitly (jones 2007: 142). douglas argues that conceptions of “meals” are socially formed in small groups and society (1972: 61). she points to how “small-scale social relations” codify food beliefs and practice, including everything from frequency of meals, portion sizes, ingredients, and positioning on a plate (douglas 1972: 61). in the case of beth and warren, their meals are codified by understandings of food preferences and also time restrictions due to warren’s work schedule. beth describes, for instance, a new practice of cooking breakfast for warren in the morning: i make him breakfast in the morning. i didn’t always do that, but you know, lately i’ve been feeling guilty about, you know, sending him off into the world with nothing to eat. you know, it’s his choice that he doesn’t eat oatmeal, or toast, he’s all, “oh no, i need to have a protein or something.” you know, but, so i kowtow to that and i make it for him because i love him and i want him to have a good—it’s important to have a meal. . . . i take care of him because he doesn’t take care of himself. here beth demonstrates several facets of how warren’s food preference affects her food choices. first of all, she admits her guilt that she is “sending him off into the world” without a good meal, a feeling directly related to her role as wife (and often caretaker) to her husband. almost immediately, however, she backtracks and comments on his food limitations—“it’s his choice he doesn’t eat oatmeal or toast”—demonstrating an internal debate about enabling his food preferences. this widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 internal debate—the wish for him to have a good meal, and the recognition that not getting a meal is not her fault—shows how beth’s resentment toward being warren’s personal chef wars with her caring nature. her use of the word “kowtow” later also demonstrates her recognition of her subservience— she knows that she is not in control when his food choices and limitations battle against her love for him. finally, she reasserts a sense of duty to warren—“i take care of him because he doesn’t take care of himself.” while this could be construed as a positive caring relationship, it could also indicate beth’s resentment that she has to “take care” of a grown man. beth also experiences limitations on food choice based on when warren comes home to eat. since he works until 8:00pm or 9:00pm every night, beth finds it difficult to schedule a meal so that she is not eating directly before bed: “so i’ve started trying to figure out things that i can make ahead of time that i’ll eat, and then he can just heat up, or it’s still on the stove, or whatever, like stews and soups and things that are not like chicken piccata, you’re going to put it on the table right after you do it. i think that’s always been a struggle.” beth describes this as one of her main motivations behind trying hummoth kibbeh herself—it’s a dish she knows warren loves, and also a dish she can leave on the stove for hours until warren comes home. these practical considerations—keeping the peace by providing foods he likes, and foods that make her role easier on herself—allow beth and warren to compromise over food choices. beth sacrifices some of the power of food choice to warren’s preferences, but in doing so, gains more freedom to do what works for her. when it comes to her choice to make hummoth kibbeh, however, beth seems to be most motivated by her desire to express her love for warren through cooking. she describes hummoth kibbeh as “comfort food” and says, “it is something i do because i know it’s one of his favorite meals. . . . i wanted to make something special that he loves.” this gesture of widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 love goes beyond the typical food preference. while it is obvious that warren loves this dish, beth’s motivation is not based on what product she is giving him, but rather the expression that the process demonstrates. for beth, performing chaldean foodways is not an expression of extended family identity, but rather a demonstration of love and marital identity. considering beth’s change in confidence and comfort when she cooks hummoth kibbeh, this gesture is a symbol of the strength of beth’s affection. power in performance: confidence and adaptability watching beth cook hummoth kibbeh was an interesting experience because beth transformed from the confident, adaptable cook that she describes herself as into an insecure, much more recipe-bound cook. from the very start, beth was unsure of whether she was following the recipe correctly. while i chopped, she pulled out all the hamburger meat we had in the refrigerator to see how much we had and how much we needed. while i was chopping, she chose to make a half batch of the meatballs, and she carefully weighed the hamburger meat on her kitchen scale. we did math out loud to determine what ratio should be used in converting the other ingredients. beth seemed to want to measure everything precisely. this insecurity became clearest when beth had a crisis of confidence over measurements for the cream of rice cereal. we spent a while trying to figure out how much to add before beth decided to do it by feel. it was at that point that she burst out with, “you know, i’ve only just made this one time!” this moment while cooking was the first time i realized she was nervous about making the hummoth kibbeh. she had told me when she made it alone the first time that she was nervous, but seeing her have such anxiety when adding the cream of rice was surprising. this could also indicate her inexperience in cooking this dish, but widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 even when making something new, beth often demonstrates confidence in her knowledge and ability. i didn’t see that here. all of beth’s nervousness seemed to surround the making of the meatball dough and shaping the meatballs. this fear was clear in her reflections on cooking. “when i made it alone that time,” she said, “it was a little intimidating. you know, i was like, ‘am i even doing it right?’” this insecurity is, in part, because she does not have much experience or frequent practice in making the meatballs: “it’s almost like every time since i don’t do it all the time, you have to learn again how to make that little cup to put the hushu in,” she said. since she lacks practice, she also lacks technique. she commented regularly on how she wished she “had the confidence” to make the meatballs’ shells thin. these reflections, and her performance in the kitchen, demonstrate the reversal of her typical confidence when cooking. similarly, beth was insecure about the measurements for the broth, especially when it came to adding the mint. when she added the mint, she used a tablespoon to measure out the four to six tablespoons of mint required. i rarely see beth use tablespoons with spices—she often measures them in her palm to eyeball the amount. i asked her, as she was adding the mint, if she typically uses measuring implements: “well, it depends on what i’m cooking,” she said. “do you feel like it has to be really particular for this recipe?” i asked. “i do. i mean, i was thinking about just pouring that whole bag in there!” “why do you feel like it’s more particular for this one?” i asked. widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 “because it’s your dad’s special thing. it’s not my thing. if it was, you know, my crab cakes, those are mine. i know how to make those. i could do that just totally by eyeball,” beth replied. here, it is clear that part of her stress about adding the correct measurements of the ingredients has to do with the fact that she considers this warren’s dish. it is his “special thing” and not hers. the assertion of warren’s ownership diminishes her confidence in her ability. adler discusses that “once a recipe has been staked out as the man’s exclusive territory, he may go so far as to assert that it cannot be properly cooked by anyone else” (adler 1981: 47). though warren never told beth that she cannot cook hummoth kibbeh, she has obviously responded to his ownership of the dish territorially—she knows she is encroaching on warren’s territory, and proceeds with caution, hoping to make it as good as when he makes it himself. her lack of confidence comes from the fact that this dish is in warren’s tradition, not her own. this aspect of “ownership” in the dish comes to a head when beth considers making adjustments to the recipe. when she first made hummoth kibbeh by herself, she followed the recipe exactly—another inversion of beth’s typical cooking performance. beth would almost always adapt a dish by adding some new flavor or ingredient that she thought would improve it. “i’ve always done this with recipes,” she said: i feel free to do that about everything except for hummoth kibbeh—my thought when i started making it was, ‘well, this needs garlic,’ you know? i had to get his permission. he was actually very—you know, obviously he’s mellowed with age—‘oh, yeah, you’re right. probably, yeah! oh, put tomatoes in it. oh, sure!’ but at first, i was afraid to even bring it up, ‘cause it’s kind of this sacred recipe. and he’s always kind widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 of had this thing about, he had to have the recipe. i’m afraid that somehow it won’t pass the, you know, whatever warren’s, you know, ideal recipe is. somehow it won’t be as good for him. that’s how i feel. here, beth emphasizes needing warren’s “permission” before she changes anything, and her surprise at his willingness to change the dish at all, saying he “mellowed with age.” she calls the recipe “sacred,” and worries about it living up to warren’s “ideal recipe.” together, these phrases clarify the level of ownership she feels warren has over the dish, and how she must again kowtow to his beliefs about the dish. notably, beth is imposing these restrictions on herself, just as she does when allowing warren’s food preferences to take precedence. she worries that warren has an “ideal” in his head that she cannot achieve, and reveals her perspective toward the chaldean food traditions. she seems to believe she cannot possibly reach the level of authenticity she hopes to reach with these dishes, perhaps because she does not consider herself chaldean. beth knows that by entering into chaldean food traditions, she is entering into a typically in-group practice. the pressure she feels to produce an authentic chaldean dish that is respectful of these traditions causes beth to see chaldean dishes as “sacred.” however, warren has never forbid beth from her participation in these chaldean foodways and has, in fact, encouraged her adaptations to hummoth kibbeh. warren’s flexibility in this moment highlights again that inversion of the typical power dynamic between warren and beth in the kitchen. this, along with beth’s discomfort with the “sacred” nature of the dish, and her compliance with the recipe, except for the agreed-upon additions, tell me that for beth, hummoth kibbeh is not “just a dish” as she claims. instead, it is a dish that undermines many of the power dynamics and gender roles beth is used to. by widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 making hummoth kibbeh, beth is upsetting the norm. however, some of that normal balance was regained when beth made her additions to the pot when we were cooking. the few times beth was truly and visibly confident in the dish was when she added new ingredients—garlic and fire-roasted tomatoes. instead of consulting the recipe, or debating when to add these new ingredients, beth just did it. i found out later that beth considers these adaptations to be significant moments in a recipe: one of the things we found out, i don’t know where in our cooking experience, we found out that—a recipe becomes your own when you change an ingredient. i think it was like a martha stewart thing, or something. somewhere somebody was explaining what makes a proprietary recipe your own, you change—well, i added garlic. therefore, it’s my recipe now. it’s not his hummoth kibbeh. this transformative moment—the moment beth adapts the hummoth kibbeh—is the moment it becomes hers. beth’s main issue with hummoth kibbeh seemed to be her lack of ownership over the recipe. but now, after beth was allowed to adapt the dish, she is calling it her own— the dish has gone from being a dish of cultural in-group identity representing warren’s chaldean heritage to being beth’s dish, a dish of personal identity and artistry. i wonder if part of beth’s efforts in cooking hummoth kibbeh was to make it her own—to find a way to adapt this special tradition into her own thing. i came into this project wondering whether she felt she was taking on warren’s identity, or connecting to our chaldean past in a compelling way. beth did admit some envy for our chaldean traditions, and her inability to be chaldean, while she’s surrounded by chaldeans, seemed to affect her: “i have always felt kind of weird about that because like, during the iraq war, when you guys were wearing those widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 buttons that said, ‘this is what an iraqi looks like,’ i was a little jealous, you know. because i can never be there. you know?” however, she reiterated in the very next sentence: “i feel like i’m doing something nice for him, as part of his tradition.” by taking on this chaldean dish, beth’s real purpose here is to express her love and appreciation for warren in a language he recognizes, a symbol he will understand —through his maternal family’s comfort food traditions. beth’s conversance with warren’s chaldean foods and their significance—the echoes of warren’s mother’s love, the reminder of his supportive family—all these reverberations are born from performances of chaldean dishes. they are comfort foods because they remind warren of a loving, supportive family. and beth has chosen to do something nice for him in his present nuclear family, to express her love for him, through this traditional symbol. if, in the end, beth also takes some comfort from making a chaldean dish something of hers, taking a little bit of that comfort into herself, then that makes this dish even more successful. references cited adler, thomas a. 1981. making pancakes on sunday: the male cook in family tradition. western folklore 40.1: 45–54. avakian, arlene voski. 2005. shish kebab armenians?: food and the construction and maintenance of ethnic and gender identities among armenian american feminists. in betty crocker to feminist food studies: critical perspectives on women and food, ed. arlene voski avakian and barbara haber, 257-280. amherst: university of massachusetts press. counihan, carole m. 2005. the border as barrier and bridge: food, gender, and ethnicity in the san luis valley of colorado. in betty crocker to feminist food studies: critical perspectives widmayer, christine j. 2016. “power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 on women and food, ed. arlene voski avakian and barbara haber, 200-220. amherst: university of massachusetts press. douglas, mary. 1972. deciphering a meal. daedalus 101.1: 61-81. jones, michael owen. 2007. food choice, symbolism, and identity: bread-and-butter issues for folkloristics and nutrition studies (american folklore society presidential address, october 2005). journal of american folklore 120: 129–177. kalčik, susan. 1985. ethnic foodways in america: symbol and the performance of identity. in ethnic and regional foodways in the united states, ed. linda keller brown and kay mussell, 37-99. knoxville: university of tennessee press. kaplan, anne r., marjorie a. hoover, and willard b. moore. 1998. introduction: on ethnic foods. in the taste of american place: a reader on regional and ethnic foods, ed. barbara g. shortridge and james r. shortridge, 212-133. langham: rowman & littlefield publishers. lockwood, william g. and yvonne r. lockwood. 2000. continuity and adaptation in arab american foodways. in arab detroit: from margin to mainstream, ed. nabeel abraham and andrew shyrock, 515-549. detroit: wayne state university press. 515-549. najor, julia. 1981. babylonian cuisine: chaldean cookbook from the middle east. new york: vantage press. strum, beckie. 2013. from north to south, a tour of the national dish: kibbeh. mcclatchytribune business news february 23. < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship 2nd place winner 2013. by: m. ruth dike introduction moving to a new country can have a profound impact on the way people think about themselves, their home country, and their culture. immigrants experience a push and pull between the new culture they are being exposed to and the traditional culture of their homeland. food can serve as a way to reinforce ethnic identity for immigrants. one of my informants, abdel (pseudonym), spoke particularly eloquently about why he believes that moroccans in america are exceptionally attached to their cuisine and tradition: “when you are away from home, you try to associate with anything that will bring you closer to home. that’s why we [stick] with the cooking; we try to keep the tradition” (naifeh 2012). while abdel’s view is not shared by all of my informants, it expresses the importance of food for many moroccan bostonians. in this article i investigate challenges faced, and some solutions sought, by moroccans living in boston in fall 2012 who want to keep their moroccan traditions alive through foodways. building on an earlier study of moroccan cuisine i conducted over four months in rabat, morocco, in spring 2011 (dike 2012) , i explore evolving moroccan bostonian identity through food. my questions include: is moroccan cuisine an important aspect of bostonian moroccans’ cultural identity? what are the challenges and solutions to cooking moroccan cuisine in america? has the moroccan community blended moroccan and american dishes or modified moroccan recipes, and for what reasons? how do the thoughts and food practices of first and second generation immigrants compare? i examine how and why moroccan foodways are changing in the new north american context. although i could not find hard census data, most moroccans i spoke with estimated there to be approximately 10,000 moroccans living in the boston area. the majority < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 resides north of the city in medford, malden, everett, and revere (see figure 1). women and families do immigrate, but there are a disproportionate number of single men represented in the moroccan bostonian population, perhaps because they are among the first generation immigrating to the united states in great numbers. since the midtwentieth century, a significant number of moroccans immigrated to the united states in pursuit of undergraduate, graduate, medical and professional degrees. more recently, the congressionally mandated diversity immigrant visa program (commonly known at the green card lottery) has dramatically increased the number of moroccan immigrating to the united states (koury 2012). although moroccans who win the green card lottery are not always as educated as previous immigrants, they frequently finish their studies in the united states, after starting out as taxi drivers and food service workers. methodology to study moroccan bostonian foodways, i used a range of ethnographic techniques over the course of three months including participant observation, semi-structured interviews (with projective techniques), food mapping, written food logs, photographs and analysis of restaurant menus. for the purpose of this study, i narrowed my focus to only moroccans (who i considered to be anyone who self-identifies as moroccan). i undertook participant observation as a customer at two moroccan restaurants, two halal (a religious term used for islam’s dietary restrictions governing what one should and should not eat, similar to the kosher classification in judaism) markets, one bakery, and three cafés associated with morocco. i conducted more than ten hours of semi-structured interviews with ten moroccan informants. all except one—youssef boujabit--preferred to remain anonymous and they are identified here by pseudonyms. i asked each of them numerous questions and showed pictures i took of food in morocco prompting them to identify and describe the food. this projective technique (fetterman 2010:59) proved particularly revealing. the individuals i interviewed ranged from twenty-six to fiftyeight years old and the amount of time each informant has spent in the unite states ranged from one to twenty-two years (see figure 2). all the informants, except one, have some college education as well as stable jobs. they include five single males, two single females, one divorced female, one widowed female and one married female. i had the opportunity to have one formal interview with a co-owner of a moroccan restaurant and conducted shorter informal interviews with a co-owner of a moroccan bakery. unfortunately i was unable to interview a second-generation moroccan over the age of eighteen, likely because the majority of moroccans have only recently immigrated < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 to boston and do not fall in this age group. however, i was able to interview two moroccans with children and observe moroccans with children at a café and bakery. it is important to note that my informants do not represent the moroccan population as a whole; that they were financially able to immigrate denotes a level of upper-middle class status in moroccan society. while vallianatos and raine (2008) explain that in canada immigrants frequently have poor socioeconomic opportunities available because they do not speak the language and their foreign credentials are not recognized, my educated informants fit into the middle to upper middle class category. perhaps related to this, all but one informant are fluent in english and were born and raised in urban spaces. findings in general, the definition of moroccan cuisine shared by informants in boston matched the definition of informants in my earlier study in morocco (dike 2012) and moroccan food is an important part of moroccan culture in both boston and rabat. both groups stressed the use of spices in moroccan cuisine, the importance of bread to soak up sauce with every dish, and the regional differences in cuisine across morocco. this said, moroccan bostonians placed significantly more emphasis on the importance of seasonally appropriate meals than people i interviewed in morocco, probably because of the stark lack of seasonal variety in america. bombarded with the chaos of moving to another country, food can serve as an anchor to a distant homeland for immigrants. due to the importance of ethnic cuisine to identity, it can be a particularly illuminating lens through which to explore ethnicity (grieshop 2006, nicolaou, et al 2009, rabinowska 2010, vallianatos & raine 2008). mehta highlights the importance of food to an immigrant population, stating, “sharing a meal becomes an act of repossession to maintain a sense of wholeness while imposing order in a disempowering world through the structuring force of rituals” (2005:31). in the context of studying two novels, mehta argues that immigrant food can provide order in an otherwise senseless world for caribbean and north african immigrants living in france. marte makes a similar claim that the immigrant situation can be filled with “uncertainty, displacement, and struggle for survival” (2011:181). while my informants have many varied feelings and opinions about moroccan cuisine, everyone reported that they enjoy moroccan food and many declared they love it and/ or are proud of it. some indicated that preparing traditional moroccan food and buying < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 products from morocco can be an especially comforting way to create a sense of home in america. for example, abdel describes the meaning he finds in moroccan products: see, people have the choice sometimes, but they would rather go buy things from the arab store, just to be in the moroccan store… like sometimes we buy things that we do not need. for example [there are] some cookies here [that] are better, but you see cookies that you were [used to] getting [in morocco], even though you [know] they don’t taste that great, but [you] just to have [to buy them] (naifeh 2012). food is an important way for abdel to connect with his moroccan identity, to “bring [his former] home here” at the same time he also embraces his new home in america. in this way, some moroccan americans may be accused of trying to be more traditional than moroccans in morocco because they feel the need to be close to their culture in the context of america. half of the informants listed italian foods among their favorites while others described a preference for french, mexican, american, japanese, indian, spanish, european, asian, thai, chinese, indonesian, and/or malaysian cuisines. however, eight out of ten informants named moroccan as one of, if not their only, favorite food. when asked why she preferred moroccan food, twenty-seven year-old fatima replied “…because i grew up eating it…so i don’t get a choice in the matter” (wasem 2012) reflecting a deep, albeit perhaps unselfconscious, connection between moroccan food and the identity felt by some moroccans in the diaspora. struggles in an effort to discover any challenges associated with cooking moroccan food in boston i asked all of my informants whether or not they found it hard to find moroccan ingredients in the united states. although the majority said it was generally easy to find special moroccan ingredients in boston, i discovered that a variety of things can make it difficult to create traditional moroccan cuisine in america. some ingredients are hard to find in american supermarkets, some fresh ingredients (meat, produce, and even spices) are different than in morocco, and the price point of ingredients in the two countries is usually not comparable. finally, lifestyle differences including time constraints and family structure can also make it harder for immigrants in the diaspora to cook moroccan cuisine. to explore some of the challenges moroccan bostonians face in making moroccan < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 dishes, i showed my informants photographs of various moroccan dishes. for example, when i displayed a picture of snail soup (see figure 3) they talked about missing it and described its health benefits. when i asked if my informants could make it here most said it was hard, if not impossible, to find live snails. responses to the picture of snail soup contradicted their initial claims that ingredients are not hard to find. in addition to this, khadija, who frequently cooks moroccan cuisine at home, could not find the ramadan spice mesqa in boston (salib 2012). salima, co-owner of the small but thriving moroccan restaurant moroccan hospitality located in malden, ma, talked about the importance of using moroccan ingredients in moroccan recipes: olive oil too, we get gallons and gallons of it because…when you use italian olives, olive oil and stuff, [it] doesn’t taste the same [as it does with moroccan ingredients]. like if i use moroccan olives with [italian] pasta, it is a little strong…but yeah it’s just different, the olive oil is just different from one country to country (tuma 2012). because salima is cooking for customers and representing moroccan cuisine to (often) non-moroccan clientele she may feel extra responsibility as a cultural gatekeeper. in order to make moroccan cuisine in boston taste the same as it would in morocco, salima explained that it is especially important for her to use moroccan ingredients with their unique flavor profiles and tastes. but even if a moroccan is able to get moroccan olive oil and olives from morocco, in some ways it is impossible to recreate dishes in exactly the same way due to regional differences in seemingly identical ingredients. fresh fruits and vegetables taste different in america than they do in morocco and several informants talked about the difference in both fresh produce and meat products from morocco versus those in america. for fatima, a twenty-seven year-old single female who just moved form morocco to boston about a year ago, meat in america tastes different and takes longer to cook than meat in morocco: i’ve noticed that the taste is different. like, for example, the chicken and the lamb that i buy from the supermarkets, it tastes totally different. i’m not sure why…actually the meat in morocco taste(s) better, a lot better… it also cooks a lot faster…in morocco. like if you cook the lamb here and in morocco for the same amount of time, i think the one in morocco will easily come off the bone really quickly compared to the one here (wasem 2012). < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 because the meat takes longer to cook in america, fatima has had to adjust her recipes. ironically life is usually more fast-paced in america, but fatima finds that meat takes longer to cook, which exacerbates the problem of making moroccan food in the united states. fatima also talked about the difference in fresh produce in america versus morocco. many more types of vegetables are available in america, but the quality and taste of the produce varies from morocco. in response to a picture of fresh vegetables in morocco (see figure 5), fatima talked about how produce is different in america: there’s this veggie that i’ve seen, it’s called yucca, i’ve never tried it before, but maybe [it’s] south american. the squash tastes different and there are more kinds of it here, lots of kinds that i have never eaten before like there is the acorn [squash]; i’ve never seen that. for some reason, there is less flavor to it here. the tangerines here, they’re less sweet here….i used to love tangerines in morocco. lemons, yeah lemon is o.k. [in america]. apples, apples look different there, they’re not bright shiny and not only the organic ones, both of them (wasem 2012). in morocco today, there are large supermarkets in big cities like casablanca and rabat so fatima has had experience with packaged produce. however, most moroccans continue to shop at a daily open-air marketplace called a souq where produce and other items are purchased directly from various vendors. the experience of going to the grocery store to buy a week’s worth of produce can be strange when compared to shopping at the daily souq. furthermore, the climate, production methods, and terroir of moroccan produce impacts its flavor, taste, and appearance. as a twenty-seven year-old student named youssef said, “everything grows in morocco” (boujabit 2012). instead of growing up with blemish-free produce sprayed with pesticides and bred to withstand long travel, most moroccans have grown up with more flavorful (and uglier) organic produce that was trucked into a daily souq from a nearby farm. apples in america are shinier than in morocco (wasem 2012), and the produce in morocco generally tastes more flavorful according to my informants. much of morocco’s most blemish-free produce is shipped to europe, and moroccans are left with the less visually appealing fruits and vegetables. when discussing the struggles of cooking moroccan food in america, price was often an important factor. for amina, a community organizer and mother, the beauty of moroccan food is that it is a delicious cuisine that is accessible to all segments of society regardless of socioeconomic status or dietary restrictions. when i asked her to describe moroccan cuisine she said: everybody enjoys a nice meal. if you are rich or poor, if you are a meat < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 eater or vegetarian, and moroccan cuisine has seasons, has occasions, has culture, has a lot of things that are a part of it. moroccan cuisine stays number one...because…with little ingredients, you can make [a] delicious dish. it’s not like, you don’t need lobster…to make it delicious; you just need some vegetables with olive oil, and you are all set (basara 2012). youssef also discussed price in our interview, but more so in the context of how expensive healthy foods like salads are compared to unhealthy foods such as hamburgers in america: if you get a salad it’s like $9; it doesn’t make sense. but if you get two sandwiches…it’s like $4.80. it doesn’t make sense. if you want to eat healthy, it is expensive. why is it so expensive like that? i used to live in western mass[achusetts], and they have [a] local farmer’s market. but it is so expensive; i spent like $100 on veggies (boujabit 2012). youssef was surprised at how much he could spend on vegetables at a farmer’s market because he grew up in a society where it was cheaper to buy vegetables than processed western foods, like hamburgers. amina’s assertion that rich and poor can afford vegetables with olive oil diverges with youssef’s comments about expensive vegetables in america (basara 2012). granted, vegetables and olive oil and still much less expensive than lobster. for many informants finding ingredients that taste good and are affordable is easy compared to finding the time to actually cook traditional moroccan cuisine. even though morocco is changing, the pace and way of life in morocco is still generally more laidback and slow-paced compared to boston. moroccans customarily follow a french model allotting around two hours for lunch during the day. most moroccans like to come home to a freshly cooked tajine during this time to eat with their entire family, take a quick nap, and then go back to work. youssef explains how america is different from morocco: it’s like a way of living. we don’t [have] time. it’s a question of time; it’s not [a] choice. you have an hour for lunch, [and] you just have time to drive, take the food from [the] drive through, and go back. that’s it. go through the drive through and go back. but before when i was in morocco, [it] was like, what the hell, i can go to mcdonald’s once a week or two weeks or three weeks, but not every day. but after living here, it makes sense. a lot of things make sense (boujabit 2012). after living in the united states, youssef understands why americans value the convenience of going to a fast-food restaurant every day. compared to a typical two-hour lunch in morocco, a thirty-minute lunch break is a huge change in the way < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 youssef lives, which reveals how time rhythms can affect eating patterns. for youssef there is little time to eat, much less cook a traditional tajine (boujabit 2012). in morocco, the traditional lifestyle of a mother staying at home to cook for the family and care for the house allows more time for preparing elaborate moroccan meals than for a woman working outside the home. multigenerational households offer extra labor that can be used to prepare meals for the family. this lifestyle also allows more time for someone to shop for fresh vegetables every day and to make time-consuming dishes like couscous. amina, a fifty-one year-old mother and wife, noted the difference in how people shop for produce in morocco and boston. she also commented on the difference in organic vegetables in the two countries. she found that most vegetables in morocco are organic but in boston only the special, more expensive ones are organic. she commented: when you buy vegetables from morocco…most of them are organic, most of them are daily vegetables. if you eat salad it’s just like fresh from the garden, and you see people they go to the market every day to buy every day’s vegetables and fruit but…there…you always have someone home to do this work. go to the market, grab vegetables, come home, cook and lunch is ready by 12:30 or 1 o’clock…but here most of it is frozen. you get frozen peas [here]. there were a lot of people to cook for me there, but here that is not the case. i learned how to cook, because i was supposed to become a wife one day; however, my brother never learned how to cook (basara 2012). for amina, having someone at home to go to the market, buy fresh produce, and cook for the family every day was a huge contrast to life in boston where she had to buy food for an entire week in one trip due to lack of time. because moroccans frequently live in multi-generational homes and female labor is often relegated to the home, there is time for mothers, sisters, or maids to cook elaborate meals. in addition, many young men and women do not know how to cook traditional moroccan cuisine, because their mothers or grandmothers never taught them how to make traditional, time-consuming dishes. while it is becoming more socially acceptable for young male moroccans to show an interest and passion for cooking, parents are pushing their children to work harder in school for a “better life” leaving little time for children to learn how to prepare traditional meals. it is no longer imperative for every young woman to know how to cook well in order to get married someday in morocco. twenty-seven year-old fatima never learned how to make couscous in morocco, but she did in america: recently there have been books about moroccan cuisine made by moroccans, < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 and that helped me actually a lot to learn about my own cuisine…from my own culture i mean...(what did you learn to cook from books here instead of there?) couscous. i never could learn it when i was back home, because it just seemed to take so much time and…i didn’t want to make the effort [but] here…i miss it, so i have to make it…for myself. because my mother used to make it for me when i was there (wasem 2012). after immigrating to the united states, fatima’s mother was no longer able to make her couscous but fatima felt that it was important that she learned how to make couscous and found the time to learn. preparing couscous in boston connected her to her mother’s cooking and to her moroccan identity. despite fatima’s success, lack of cooking knowledge presents another significant struggle for immigrants reproducing moroccan cuisine in the diaspora. to summarize, despite informants’ reports that reproducing moroccan food in america is easily done, a deeper analysis reveals there are several challenges. it can be hard to find certain ingredients, such as live snails and certain types of flavors such as mesqa. in addition meat, produce, olive oil and spices look, taste, and cook differently than they do in morocco. vegetables, which are typical in moroccan cuisine, are more expensive in america. immigrants employed full-time, do not have the same amount of time to devote to cooking as they once did in morocco. finally, most immigrants are not able to live with their extended family, which could provide labor and valuable knowledge for preparing meals. access to products, the quality of the products available, their prohibitive price, time constraints and lack of extended family and knowledge all present significant barriers to recreating moroccan cuisine in boston. solutions historically not all immigrants have had access to ethnic food items and this continues to be true for some even today. for example, my informant khadija for whom the flavoring mesqa proved impossible to find in boston, asks her mother to bring the spice from morocco when she comes to visit (salib 2012). that said, the moroccan immigrants i interviewed procure ethnic food items from a variety of sources in addition to arranging shipments from home and by visiting morocco directly. today they most often depend on local ethnic food markets and larger supermarkets. vallianatos and raine (2008) discuss how non-recent south asian and arabic immigrants < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 experienced extreme isolation when they first arrived in canada due to the small size of the ethnic community and the lack of ethnic food markets. based on my interviews and ethnographic research it seems that moroccan bostonians’ recollections of earlier years support vallianatos and raine’s findings. abdel talked about how ten years ago the only halal markets in all of the boston area were around haymarket (see figures 8-10) whereas today more than eleven halal markets are spread throughout the greater boston area, many of which are located in medford, malden, and revere (boston museum 2012) (naifeh 2012). more recent immigrants discussed a choice between large western supermarkets that are beginning to have a wider variety of ethnic foods and more expensive but also more personal ethnic markets (vallianatos and raine 2008). for fifty-eight year-old nadia, chinatown is the best place to find worqa, the thin sheets of pastry dough similar to phyllo dough needed to make a special meat pie called b’stilla, stuffed with chicken, eggs, and almonds or seafood and spices, as well as briouats which are small triangular or cigar-shaped pastry containing meat, seafood, or rice and cinnamon (hadad 2012). while ethnic markets may be less economical for immigrants, they provide areas to socialize and ways to connect with one’s community as marte demonstrates in terms of dominican republic immigrants in new york city who “nonverbally ‘narrate’ boundaries of home” by frequenting specific ethnic markets (2011: 197). in the quote below, hicham, a twentyeight year-old sous chef at a local restaurant, talks about the importance of markets not only for finding halal meat and moroccan ingredients, but also for creating community: halal markets: o.k, they are important. if you go there, you’re going to make a lot of friends, too, be friends with the people like the cashier and learn [about] a lot of people [who] go there. that’s important, too…you go, like, put an announcement up there; you go…learn something. if you go to the ones they have in beachmont…they have a board where someone has like rent, or something; they post it up there. it’s one thing, and [you] just feel like if you have it, you feel like people are more organized; and [if] you don’t have many, you can’t meet anyone. you can go on the train and see someone there and say, o.k., you are moroccan; but if you meet him [at] a grocery store -at like a halal store -at least you’re going to say salam (hello) and start talking and [getting to] know him (maloof 2012). in this way, ethnic markets help create a sense of community for an otherwise dispersed population. halal markets are a safe space where immigrants can speak their own language and feel comfortable in a familiar setting. perhaps one of the reasons moroccans settled in revere and malden was because halal markets opened there, < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 and so people wanted to move there to be in a moroccan community together. on the issue of whether or not it is important to eat halal, my informants were split. five said it is important and the other five said it is not important for various reasons. the issue of eating halal or non-halal foods is especially revealing as a marker of assimilation or strong muslim identity in light of global tension between muslim and nonmuslim populations. when informants said it was important to eat halal, they pointed to religious, health, and accessibility reasons. islam was mentioned by all of the informants who indicated that they only eat halal meat. amina and nadia also both said that it is healthier to eat halal meat and amina mentioned that it was easy to find halal markets in malden (basara 2012, hadad 2012). in contrast, abdel said he tries to go buy meat at a halal market every week, but does not always succeed because he is busy (naifeh 2012). the reasons for not eating halal were a little bit more varied. saed loves sausage and bacon: “i’m definitely going to have colon cancer, because i eat a lot of sausage” (abadi 2012). alternatively, fatima does not believe in islam (wasem 2012); salima and ahmed both feel it is not that important to eat halal (tuma 2012, koury 2012); and youssef said that it’s not important to eat halal, but it is nice to do (boujabit 2012). youssef and ahmed both had the viewpoint that if halal was available it is good to eat it but they will not make a concerted effort to ensure that they only consume halal meat. youssef also clearly felt guilty that he did not eat halal all the time and even went as far as to say, “i’m a bad person” (boujabit 2012). it is much easier to eat only halal meat in morocco because almost every butcher follows religious dietary rules; but my informants also all knew of ethnic markets where they could get halal meat in boston if they wanted it (even if it was inconvenient at times). those who only eat halal meat often cook more at home than those who sometimes eat non-halal because there are significantly fewer halal options (mostly vegetarian or fish) in restaurants. because all seafood is considered halal, and consequently something that everyone can eat regardless of whether or not one eats halal, seafood restaurants are particularly popular with my informants. choosing to eat halal, and to what degree, has a great impact on what my informants choose and are able to eat. moroccan restaurants can provide important community space and can help provide solutions to many of the challenges in preparing traditional cuisine at home such as time constraints, lack of cooking knowledge, or available labor. the restaurant moroccan hospitality serves as an important meeting space for the moroccan american cultural and community center (maccc) where moroccans can eat traditional food and plan community activities. several informants said that moroccan restaurants were important to the community because they provide a place for moroccans without the know-how < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 or time to cook moroccan food to enjoy traditional cuisine in boston. my informants often mentioned single men who may not know how to cook but can go to restaurants and eat moroccan cuisine. moroccan hospitality opened up in malden because the owners knew many moroccans lived there and thought that they would support the restaurant. while i have not been to the restaurant when it was full with non-moroccans, ironically the owners estimate that only about 5% of their customers are moroccans and the vast majority of their patronage comes from curious westerners (tuma 2012). ethnic restaurants are an important way that immigrants in the diaspora define and express their identity through food. yano (2007) discusses japanese okazuyas (literally “side-dish house/business”) in hawai’i where working-class men could purchase a “home-cooked” traditional japanese meal. owners may develop deeply personal relationships with their customers, portioning out the right portion of the appropriate type of food, day after day. while okazuyas have come to represent japanese-ness for japanese americans in hawai’i, they are becoming a relic of the past due to globalized food markets providing cheaper alternatives and owners’ children being educated enough to not have to continue the family business (yano 2007). in the same way that okazuyas can reinforce a japanese identity in hawai’i, moroccan restaurants like moroccan hospitality can reinforce moroccan identity in boston. hicham, sous chef at an up-scale modern american restaurant, challenges the idea that restaurants are important to the identity of a community because he believes moroccan restaurants do not present an accurate picture of moroccan cuisine and culture, nor do they represent the only choices open to moroccan bostonians: uh, no, because whenever you go to a moroccan restaurant, what are you going to see? you’re going to see a lot of folklore; […] you’re going to see, like, girls dancing. that’s not moroccan. it’s like things, they’re changing. people think moroccan cuisine, they think [that] morocco [is] like middle east. they see girls dancing, whatever…it’s more like a club. if you go there, have fun or whatever, but it’s not a restaurant. some people i know if they want to go eat, they always like go to [a] lebanese restaurant; they always go to like ethiopians’ and some indians’ restaurant, too, you know. (yeah…why do they go there?) because they serve halal, too…ethiopians and pakistani…they all serve halal food (maloof 2012). hicham feels that moroccan restaurants present an ingenuous portrait of morocco for consumers. when conducting participant observation at an upscale moroccan chophouse < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 i understood what hicham meant; the restaurant makes morocco seem extra exotic in order to attract clientele wishing to be transported to the east. there was a painting on the wall of a “foreign” woman dancing in front of a western audience, set in the tropics. this is reminiscent of the sexualized nature the west often inflicts on the east. customers may be paying for the “exotic” atmosphere of the restaurant more than traditional food. the restaurant also offers a hookah lounge and belly dancing, neither of which originated in north africa (maloof 2012). while the dishes i ordered tasted good, it used contemporary ways to present the dishes, typical of haute cuisine, in order to attract a wider clientele and charge more. while tangierino offers a clearly exoticized version of moroccan and middle eastern décor and somewhat westernized food for its customers, moroccan hospitality, like the okazuyas discussed by yano (2007), may provide more opportunity to moroccan bostonians to create meaning through food. moroccan hospitality as well as other moroccan restaurants and cafés, are places for immigrants to gather and to eat traditional moroccan cuisine. creolization while the theme creolization of food runs through the literature on food and ethnicity (mintz 1974, lockwood and lockwood 2002), it was not prominent in the data i collected. although my informants did mention blending moroccan and american dishes on occasion, they did not report doing it on a regular basis. scholars once believed that immigrants slowly lose their own ethnic foodways and embrace western food the longer they stay in a new country until the theory of creolization created by sidney mintz (1974) became widely accepted. creolization argues that instead of simply losing ethnic foodways, immigrant populations create a new cuisine by combining elements of both traditional and western foods (mintz 1974). khadija did mention that she does cook moroccan food at home, stating that, “sometimes i will incorporate italian ingredients [in] to my dishes” (salib 2012). this blending of moroccan and italian cooking is an example of creolization. as another example, nadia explained that when she prepares thanksgiving dinner, she cooks her turkey with moroccan spices to make it taste better (hadad 2012). in a similar way, vallianatos and raine (2008) cite examples of indians in canada making pizza at home, but with indian spices. lockwood and lockwood (2002) also describe turkeys being rubbed down with olive oil, lemon, garlic, spices and sometimes being stuffed with a lebanese meat and rice dish called hashwa, similar to the way nadia modified her turkey recipe. in a casual conversation with salima at the restaurant, she mentioned a moroccan had requested she and her sister (the other owner of the moroccan < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 hospitality restaurant) cook a turkey “in the moroccan way,” which meant with moroccan spices and french fries on top (tuma 2012). the picture was later posted on facebook. creolization can provide immigrants a way of creating their traditional cuisine while fusing it with new cuisine and embracing both their american and moroccan identities. second versus first generation foodways in the diaspora are particularly dynamic when a second generation of immigrants starts pushing their parents to buy non-ethnic foods. in this regard, i found that foodways follow changes in and individual or family’s lifecycle. for example, an interesting and complicated divergence exists between single informants and those with families. it seems that when a moroccan immigrant is single, he/she eats and cooks less traditional moroccan cuisine due to time constraints and motivation in cooking for one person. gender difference may also come into play because single men generally reported cooking less traditional moroccan food than the single women, although there were some exceptions (koury 2012). when those immigrants marry, having a weekly meal of traditional cuisine, such as couscous, becomes more important and feasible in a family unit. however, as children become older, they may demand that the family eat more and more western food. children growing up outside of their parents’ country create a variety of problems, but also opportunities for immigrants seeking to retain their traditional identity. vallianatos and raine (2008) discuss south asian and arabic children asking their mothers for western foods even though the parents would prefer to only eat traditional foods. some muslim women interviewed in the study did not allow their children to go to non-arabic birthday parties because they worried about their children eating food items that were not halal (vallianatos and raine 2008). abdel and nadia mentioned that the traditional moroccans in boston follow islamic dietary restrictions (halal) extremely closely (naifeh 2012, hadad 2012) and i would not be surprised if they also do not allow their children to go to birthday parties for fear of non-halal food. lockwood and lockwood (2002) also give the example of western foods (such as pumpkin pie) mostly being eaten by children instead of adults at thanksgiving feasts for arab americans in detroit. while i was not able to interview any second generation moroccans, data from participant observation and interviews with informants who have children largely confirms the above findings in the literature. while at a crepe café with moroccan specialties, i saw a middle eastern mother and father with two daughters having dinner. the father encouraged his older daughter (probably around seven years old) to try the hummus on the table. < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 she stuck out one finger and scooped up a tiny bite of the hummus to try. promptly, she replied, “i don’t like it!” and went back to eating the french fries also on the table. while i could not tell whether the family was speaking moroccan arabic or not because they were too far away, this vignette might be typical of many immigrant families. my participant observation at the moroccan bakery also supports these trends. i spent over two hours there on a thursday night, during which time i saw a total of thirty-six people come into the bakery. similar to some pastry shops in rabat, morocco, the bostonian moroccan pastry shop is brightly lit and full of a wide variety of pastries. the bakery sells both moroccan and french pastries, including various kinds of moroccan traditional cookies, fancier petit fours, plastic cups of yogurt, pre-packaged mille fueille/napoleons, cheese/meat packages, croissants, pain au chocolat, danishes, almond croissants, triangular pastries called briouats, vegetable pizza, and other puff pastries. there was an older moroccan woman with a simple headscarf in the back who worked on making various pastries. if the customer spoke in moroccan arabic, i identified them as moroccan. on the first thursday night, i saw two couples come in with children, three men with children and two children that came in by themselves over the course of the two hours. when the children were allowed to choose between traditional moroccan cookies (see figure 6) and french pastries as a treat (see figure 7), they chose french pastries. all of the customers with children took the pastries home to eat later instead of eating them at the bakery. i talked with mohammed, one of the owners, asking questions about the bakery. it has been open only for about four months, and he owns it with a friend who is the mastermind in the kitchen. i asked about other pastry shops in revere; he said that he did not know of any but that safy market on broadway was pretty well known as an ethnic grocery store and a small restaurant (safar 2012). while he stocked canned goods in the prepackaged area, mohammed asked how i liked everything. i said there was a lot of almond flavor in all of the cookies. he said this is a traditional moroccan thing and sometimes it can be too much for even him; he also noted that almonds are cheaper in morocco. after i explained what i was studying, mohammed noted that younger moroccans always go straight for the pizza while the older people (who still remember morocco fondly) go for the traditional moroccan cookies because they remind them of home (safar 2012). on a separate sunday afternoon, i also saw two women come in with children. a veiled mother came in with an older (around ten or twelve years old) boy and two younger girls (about five and seven years old) who looked at the french napoleon case and said, “this is what i want.” ignoring their wishes, the mother ordered two < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 disks of khubtz or moroccan bread (see figure 4). while her motivations were not obvious, it is unequivocal that the child wanted the fancy french mille feuille instead of traditional moroccan cookies. similar to ethnic markets and moroccan restaurants, it is clear that the moroccan bakery serves as a place for moroccans (and others familiar with moroccan/north african pastries) to have a small taste of home. amina is a fifty-five year-old mother and community organizer with two children, an eighteen year-old daughter who is a vegetarian attending columbia university and a younger son (basara 2012). amina talked about cooking easy american items like “turkey sandwiches, wraps, cheeseburgers, and salads” for dinner frequently because her children enjoy them and the dishes take less time to make than traditional moroccan dishes. however, amina usually makes couscous every sunday (instead of the traditional friday), because that is the day when the whole family can be together for a meal and when she has time to cook the couscous (basara 2012). nicolaou, et al (2009) give similar examples of turkish and moroccan women talking about their children disliking traditional food. unlike nicolaou, et al’s informants in 2009, however, amina’s children continue to appreciate and enjoy traditional moroccan cuisine despite the family’s tendency to eat more westernized food (basara 2012). notwithstanding obstacles to creating moroccan food in boston, ethnic markets, restaurants, creolization, and family dynamics can provide solutions to some of the barriers. ethnic markets can offer hard-to-find ingredients and a sense of community for moroccan bostonians. similarly, restaurants can supply a “taste of home” for immigrants without the time-consuming process of actually cooking the meal. creolization offers a way for immigrants to recreate moroccan food with western influences or western food with a moroccan influence, embracing both moroccan and american identities. differences in first and second generation moroccan bostonian consumption patterns suggest the importance of family in changing the way immigrants produce and consume food. significance and conclusions while the published literature contains rich examples of moroccan ethnographies (newcomb 2009) and some food-centered diaspora studies (marte 2011), this article has tried to contribute to the scholarship with its focus on the role of food in forming and changing moroccans’ identity in boston. few other studies i have read discuss the struggles of cooking traditional ethnic cuisine in the diaspora, or explore possible solutions for an immigrant population. significantly, moroccan bostonians define < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 moroccan cuisine in largely the same way as the moroccans i interviewed in rabat did, focusing on spices and sauce as well as regional and seasonal variety. it is clear from the comments of moroccan bostonians that ethnic cuisine can be of paramount importance for an immigrant population because it provides a way for them to feel at home in a new environment. however, a variety of barriers exist for moroccans attempting to reproduce traditional moroccan cuisine in the united states. finding ingredients such as live snails and the flavor mesqa can prove to be challenging, if not impossible. meat, fresh fruits and vegetables, and even chili powder taste blander and cook up differently in the new environment. produce, a dietary staple, is more expensive in america compared to morocco. furthermore, it is harder to cook while living the american lifestyle, which often does not allow time for cooking and fewer women stay at home full-time. while most of my informants were able to afford specialty-imported products, this luxury is likely not true for members of other immigrant populations. living in boston, moroccans have the opportunity to shop and eat at various moroccan restaurants and markets that are less available in some other parts of the united states. ethnic markets provide both hard-to-find ingredients and a sense of community for immigrant populations. additionally, moroccan restaurants provide traditional moroccan cuisine for those who do not have the time or know-how to produce it. the published literature, as well as my participant observation and interview data, all suggest that despite the increased availability of moroccan food products and restaurants locally, second generation moroccans value traditional moroccan cuisine but enjoy more western foods than their first generation counterparts. my informants have less trouble eating in the diaspora than other immigrant populations because they are largely middle class with access and resources to enjoy ethnic food markets and restaurants. in the future, more research should be done with a more geographically and socioeconomically diverse population in order to provide a more complete picture of moroccan immigrants. in addition to this, further research including extensive interviews with second-generation moroccan americans and families is needed for a more in-depth study of comparisons and the potential clash between first and second generation foodways. moroccan cuisine provides an elucidating lens through which to study the moroccan immigrant population in boston. while my study exposes both the barriers to reproducing moroccan food in the united states including price, lifestyle differences, quality, access, and taste differences, it also points to possible solutions such as < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 ethnic markets, restaurants, creolization, and first and second generation foodways comparisons. moroccans are forming their identity as moroccan americans by finding ways to consume and/or produce moroccan, american and other assorted cuisines in boston despite the challenges inherent in adapting to a different way of life. < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 glossary of terms b’stilla: a time-consuming dish usually reserved for special occasions consisting of chicken or pigeon meat, eggs, almonds, and cinnamon being stuffed and baked inside large, thin sheets of pastry. a more expensive version is made with seafood inside. couscous: a dish consisting of small grains of couscous topped with meat and vegetables or cinnamon and raisins. khubtz: disk of moroccan bread generally used to sop of sauce from a tajine. mille feuille: french napoleon pastry that is extremely popular in morocco. souq: open-air marketplace in morocco. tajine: traditional moroccan dish usually consisting of a mixture of meat and vegetables cooked over low heat for a long time, cooked in a cone-shaped clay vessel also called a tajine. worqa: thin layers of pastry, literally means “sheets” in arabic. < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 references cited abadi, saed. 2012. interview with author. october 12. basara, amina. 2012. interview with author. november 12. boston museum. 2012. ethnic food markets. last modified august 27. http://www. bostonmuseum.org/bostonethnicmarkets.html (accessed september 23, 2012). boujabit, youssef. 2012. interview with author. october 13. dike, miriam r. 2012. exploring moroccan identities: the tension between traditional and modern cuisine in an urban context. honors thesis. university of tennessee-knoxville. fetterman, david m. 2010. ethnography: step-by-step. los angeles: sage. grieshop, james i. 2006. the envios of san pablo huixtepec, oaxaca: food, home and transnationalism. human organization 65 (4): 400-406. hadad, nadia. 2012. interview with author. december 2. koury, ahmed. 2012. interview with author. december 3. lockwood, william g. & lockwood, yvonne. 2002. being american: an arab american thanksgiving feast. in the meal: proceedings of the oxford symposium on food and cookery, edited by harlan walker, 155-164. devon, england: prospect books. maloof, hicham. 2012. interview with author. october 25. marte, linda. 2011. afro-diasporic seasonings: food routes and dominican place-making in new york city. food culture & society 14 (2): 181-204. mehta, brendha j. 2005. culinary diaspora: identity and the language of food in gisele pineau’s un papillon dans la cite and l’exil selon julie. international journal of francophone studies 8 (1): 23-51. mintz, sidney wilfred, 1922-. 1974. caribbean transformations. chicago: aldine pub. co. < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 naifeh, abdel. 2012. interview with author. december 2. newcomb, rachel. 2009. women of fes: ambiguities of urban life in morocco. philadelphia: university of philadelphia press. nicolaou, mary, colleen m. doak, rob m. van dam, johannes brug, karien stronks, and jaap c. seidell. 2009. cultural and social influences on food consumption in dutch residents of turkish and moroccan origin: a qualitative study. journal of nutrition education and behavior 41 (4): 232-241. rabikowska, marta. 2010. the ritualisation of food, home and national identity among polish migrants in london. social identities 16 (3): 377-398. safar, mohammad. 2012. interview with author. october. salib, khadija. 2012. interview with author. october 14. tuma, salima. 2012. interview with author. november 12. vallianatos, helen and kim raine. 2008. consuming food and constructing identities among arabic and south asian immigrant women. food culture & society 11 (3): 355-373. wasem, fatima. 2012. interview with author. december 1. yano, christine. 2007. side dish kitchens: japanese american delicatessens and the culture of nostalgia.” in the restaurants book: ethnographies of where we eat, edited by david beriss and david e. sutton, 47-64. oxford: berg. < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 locations demarcated by a pushpin are restaurants and cafés that associate with the moroccan identity in some way but serve a mainly non-moroccan clientele. while the lighter blue pushpin and fork and knife icon indicate restaurants, the darker blue pushpins and place mark are for cafés. the yellow place makers indicate halal markets that are frequented by middle eastern, north african (including moroccan), and other clientele looking for foreign products. the green place marker is for a moroccan bakery and the pink place marker behind it is where the first moroccan american cultural and community center (maccc) meeting was held. the moroccan hospitality restaurant in malden is indicated by a fork and knife icon because i spent the most amount of time doing participant observations and interviews there. < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 figure 2—informant demographic data < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 figure 3—snail soup eaten at an open-air market in marrakech, spring 2011. < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 figure 4—fresh lemons, oranges, tangerines, tomatoes, zucchinis, potatoes, apples, onions, and clementines at an open-air market in morocco. < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 figure 5—canned vegetables in the garden halal market including spinach, green beans, garbanzo beans, foul beans, and other vegetables. < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 figure 6—moroccan olive oil in halal garden market. < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 figure 7—what i bought at halal garden market: $2 cinnamon raisin bagels, $2 milawi/rhiaf, $4.78 dried apricots, golden raisins, and la vache qui rit (laughing cow), the brand of plain cheese spread used with bread in the mornings for breakfast. < dike, m. ruth. “exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 figure 8—spices that i bought at blackstone halal market (from left to right, $2 each): ground ginger, saffron for flavor (as opposed to the powdered saffron that is used mainly for color), ground anise seeds for baking. notes 1 an earlier version of this paper was presented at the session “constructing family and community identities with food,” at the 112th annual meeting of the american anthropological association, chicago, november 2013. i thank dr. carole counihan for her guidance in this paper, the moroccan bostonian community at large, and all of my warm, welcoming, gracious participants, without whom this project would have been impossible. thank you as well to dr. diane tye and noah morritt for their very thorough reading of this manuscript and editorial suggestions. < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 top chef and taste traditional foods as trends by: ryan s. eanes arguably bravo’s top chef has become television’s most popular reality competition program related to food. despite the mainstream or lowbrow connotations that are often associated with reality television, top chef retains at least a veneer of sophistication that is typically associated with the gourmand—haute cuisine is the object of the game, and food is to be respected. however, in an episode from the most recent season, the top chef judges challenged the show’s “cheftestants” to rethink a number of food “trends,” despite these foods’ significant histories and arguable importance as traditional foods. this paper examines the paradox created by top chef, a mainstream television program, as it creates value judgments about traditional foods by reframing them as trends. the program’s judgments about taste and class are considered, and an examination of the concept of “omnivorousness” as a potential explanation for this paradox is offered. top chef and cultural relevance food shows have been a part of the television landscape since the early days of broadcasting, with larger-than-life personalities like james beard appearing in cooking segments on daytime variety shows in the 1940s, home economists and cooks on local programs through the 1950s, and iconic figures like julia child emerging in the 1960s. by the time the food network launched in the 1990s, food and cooking had long been part of the programming lineup for the public broadcasting service, and cooking segments were popular on morning and late-night talk shows alike (collins 2009). while procedural cooking shows had been around for decades already, it was likely the food network’s introduction of the japanese series iron chef in the early 1990s that introduced the element of competition to cooking on tv, despite the fact that food competitions—in the form of harvest competitions at fairs, not to mention cook-offs—had been going on nationwide for many decades and were not unfamiliar to americans (saltzman 2014). for whatever reason, though, it was likely this japanese influence—combined with the introduction of popular reality show competitions like survivor and high-stakes game shows like who wants to be a millionaire? at roughly the same time—that led food competition < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 shows to explode in popularity. today, the food network alone lists well over a dozen competition shows on its comprehensive program guide, including chopped, cutthroat kitchen, iron chef america, and beat bobby flay (food network 2014). however, it is the bravo cable network’s top chef that is arguably the most popular; it has been renewed for twelve seasons, it has spawned several spin-offs and a line of products available for purchase online, and its ratings regularly top a million viewers per episode (nededog 2014). the structure of each episode of top chef follows a particular pattern. each program begins with a “quickfire” challenge, followed by a main or primary challenge. quickfire challenges are generally fast-paced, with one hour or less on the clock; typically, the winner will receive some sort of advantage in the main challenge. more rarely, a competitor is eliminated for losing a quickfire challenge. however, main challenges, which can last hours or even days, always result in the elimination of at least one cheftestant. it is important to note that top chef actually shows a great deal of respect (indeed, almost reverence) for food. everything about the show is designed to showcase food: the gleaming kitchen, the lovingly crafted displays of ingredients and the chefs’ white jackets, which symbolize cleanliness (jackets and toques 2010). consider the set of top chef, a kitchen specially built for television and designed to direct focus towards food preparation. it is outfitted with top-of-the-line, restaurant-quality workstations, sinks, stoves and ranges, not to mention that it is beautifully lit, spotlessly clean, and features a number of decorative touches (stylized doors, particular paint colors) that evoke new orleans, the location for the most recent season. as alison pearlman might say, this studio set is a true “temple of gastronomy” (2013:2)—this is a television-ready kitchen that was made with glamour in mind. top chef’s production values echo a popular design trend present in many restaurants today—the open, or display, kitchen. pearlman explains that open kitchens allow the chefs in restaurants to perform; they also allow restaurant patrons to form a psychological connection with the preparation of their meals. however, display kitchens—including the one that the top chef competitors use—rarely reveal the full story. restaurants use their back-of-the-house or basement kitchens to hide the messy, bloody, or otherwise visually unappealing grunt work that goes into prepping and stocking the display kitchen. the same is true of the top chef kitchen; while there are indeed plenty of shots of havoc in the kitchen alongside depictions of often-sloppy food prep, all of the mess and debris simply vanishes when it comes time to present the plate. nothing remains of the prep or the gore that went into making it. the editing of the program hides another type of gore—specifically, the jibes, crudeness, < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 violence, and overt sexuality that plague many other reality television programs. while reality tv is often guilty of flaunting “all kinds of cultural ills” (donvan and demchuk 2001), top chef keeps personal antics to a minimum. most cheftestants show a great deal of focus as they work on any given challenge; chit-chat is minimal, though the action is often interspersed with “confessional” cut-aways, transitional segments that allow them to share their true thoughts with home viewers. virtually all of the commentary focuses on the food, with an occasional complaint about the challenge’s difficulty or the methods that other cheftestants employ. even padma lakshmi’s presence as the show’s host is tame; with her modest attire and professional demeanor, a viewer could be forgiven for not knowing that she is a former model who has appeared in playboy, among other publications. the food is what is sexy here; the presence of a successful model only enhances that theme. indeed, when food is judged on top chef, each dish literally gets its own close-up. every chef’s finished product is shown in a cut-away shot that features a slow-motion pan of the food as well as a dissolve to at least one detail on the plate. each of these mini-montages includes a lower-third screen caption that identifies the chef that prepared the dish and includes a menustyle description of the completed dish. in a typical quickfire challenge, the judges will taste each dish and offer minimal feedback although in some cases, dishes are sampled with no comment at all, and in rare instances, sound effects and close-up of grimacing faces are added to emphasize the judges’ displeasure with a particular dish. these types of reactions are rare, however; more typically, the judges will conclude the quickfire with praise for a range of chefs before announcing the winner. media scholar raymond williams noted that pieces of art could be analyzed to reveal “the communication of certain values by certain artistic means” (1998:50). when this sort of analysis is applied to top chef, it is clear that the producers are expressing reverence or respect for food as a value. williams goes on to say that such an analysis is incomplete without consideration given to the society that produced the particular piece of art. such a consideration of american culture reveals a sort of obsession with food—the slow food movement, for example, has never been more popular; organic foods are the subject of ongoing discussion; school lunches, community gardens, and local food pantries routinely make the news cycle; and food-related media has never been more available on either tv or the internet. top chef has tapped into a mainstream cultural interest and put food—the prepared plate—atop a pedestal, transforming it into art. dan-ben amos noted that folklore is “an artistic action… a social interaction via the art media” (1972:9). this suggests that top chef is much more than a reality < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 competition show. it can also be seen as a folkloristic vehicle that conveys and amplifies a deeply valued element of american culture—namely, a passion for food. trend or tradition? in the third episode of the eleventh season of top chef, the cheftestants enter the kitchen to find out about that episode’s quickfire challenge. two judges are waiting for them: padma lakshmi, a former model turned recipe book author, and emeril lagasse, a well-known television chef and restaurateur but relatively recent addition to the top chef family. dana cowin, the editor-in-chief of food & wine magazine, joins them as the guest judge for the quickfire challenge. lakshmi describes cowin as “the person who has to know it all” about the food world, and turns the floor over to her. cowin declares that chefs can have “unhealthy relationships” with particular fads, and she identifies four “trends” that are allegedly past their prime: topping dishes with an egg, kale salad or chips, smoked foods, and bacon as an ingredient. the challenge is for the cheftestants to create dishes that will ostensibly persuade the judges “why [these trends] still have a place on menus.” after the cheftestants draw labeled knives from a block in order to reveal who will work on what trend, lakshmi ups the ante when she reveals that one cheftestant will be eliminated based on his or her performance during this challenge. with only thirty minutes to work, the cheftestants scramble to complete the challenge. once time has been called and the judges have tasted all of the dishes, cowin proclaims that some “succeeded in making me feel these trends should be brought back, and some made me feel like they should be buried.” shirley chung, who prepared a rice congee with a shirred egg on top, wins the challenge; nina compton’s dish, a scotch-style quail egg atop confit potatoes, is also praised, as is stephanie cmar’s candied bacon pasta with flash-fried sweet potatoes. the judges then single out three dishes as less than desirable. first, bret pelaggi is criticized for topping his gazpacho soup with a kale salad, even after cowin had warned the competitors to avoid making either kale salad or kale chips. on the other hand, louis maldonado’s smoked trout is panned for not being smoky enough, seemingly a contradiction. however, it is aaron cuschieri’s offering of crispy kale chips—fried and then dredged in a concoction made from mirin, rice vinegar, and soy sauce—that sends him home, as the judges indicate that the dish was too salty to eat. the dishes created by the winning and losing chefs are worthy of further examination, particularly as it seems that the winning cheftestants may have simply modernized the traditional—in other words, the winning dishes simply highlighted the dreaded “trends” in a simple, appealing, and delicious way. compton’s dish of confit potatoes < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 topped with a scotch-style quail egg is praised by cowin for being “simple” and for featuring “incredible flavor.” likewise, lagasse praises chung for her preparation of rice congee, a dish with ancient asian origins, calling it “homey.” cmar’s dish, while perhaps the most unusual of the three, heavily featured bacon—her pasta was coated in bacon fat, and the dish was topped with a preparation of candied bacon. indeed, cowin says that her dish “reminded us why [bacon] became a trend in the first place” after admitting that she greatly enjoyed the plate. while it is clear that all three of the top dishes were successful in embracing traditional ingredients and showcasing them in an appealing way, it is much less clear as to why two of the bottom three dishes were specifically singled out. it would seem that the judges correctly selected the most flawed dish as the loser; overseasoning food is a grievous sin in any gourmet kitchen, and even cuschieri acknowledged that his fried-and-dredged kale chips were far too salty. however, the judges’ reasoning for selecting the remaining two losing dishes is inconsistent at best. pelaggi’s dish, for example, was a bowl of gazpacho topped with a small kale salad as a garnish. the judges offer no feedback on his soup at all, instead complaining specifically that he chose to make a kale salad (this does not seem much different than complaining about a decorative sprig of parsley on a plate while ignoring the rest of the meal). even more baffling: the third and final losing dish, maldonado’s smoked trout, is criticized for not being smoky enough. the inconsistency is puzzling—the judges react poorly to pelaggi’s dish simply because it attempted to approach a trend in a new way, while maldonado’s plate is panned because it doesn’t sufficiently push the envelope. in the end, the challenge could be seen as entirely artificial—nothing more than a construct fabricated by a cultural elite, enabled by the producers of a mainstream television program—particularly as the choice of “trends” is questionable at best. two of the trends, kale and bacon, are simple ingredients that have been used by home cooks and chefs alike for centuries. kale, for example, despite its recent spike in popularity among health food enthusiasts, has been cultivated for thousands of years; unlike janet jackson’s breast at the super bowl, it did not suddenly burst onto the cultural scene with no warning. likewise, bacon has been a common foodstuff since at least the sixteenth century; it is popular because it is delicious, versatile, and relatively inexpensive. topping foods with an egg has been going on even longer—certain traditional asian preparations of rice congee (not at all dissimilar to the dish made by cheftestant chung) have been topped with an egg for centuries, while on the other side of the globe, sausage-and-crumb-coated scotch eggs have been common since at < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 least the eighteenth century. the technique of smoking foods, the only non-ingredient trend, has been practiced ever since man learned how to control fire; it wouldn’t have taken long for primitive man to discover that smoke imparts flavor to meats and that it can be used as a preservation technique. it would seem that the only thing that these four “trends” have in common is a long history; otherwise, they seem to have been arbitrarily selected—fried foods, cheese curds, quinoa, and gluten-free preparations (or any other combination of four “popular” ingredients or preparations) might just as easily have been chosen. the choice of trends presented, along with the judges’ inconsistent treatment of the cheftestants’ “reimagination” of trends, raises a question: what is a trend, anyway, and where does the authority to decide what is “trendy” come from? trends vs. taste the random house unabridged dictionary (2013) defines a trend as “the general course or prevailing tendency” of something; it also notes that trends typically denote popularity. popularity requires critical mass, which makes the popular a product of mainstream tastes. john storey describes popular culture as “the culture that is left over after we have decided what is high culture… in other words, it is a definition of popular culture as inferior culture” (2012:5-6). in so many words, trends, as elements of popular culture, are inferior phenomena to be rejected by the cultural elite. pierre bourdieu, in his seminal work distinction: a social critique of the judgment of taste, concurs, arguing that education and socioeconomic status (i.e., the “habitus”) influence taste. these differences create stratifications between cultural elites and mainstream masses: taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. social subjects, classified by their classifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make, between the beautiful and the ugly, the distinguished and the vulgar, in which their position the objective classifications is expressed or betrayed. (bourdieu 1984:6) bourdieu is speaking primarily of the preference for “forms over function, of manner over matter” (1984:5) as an identifier of highbrow taste; indeed, he notes that nothing is more distinctive, more distinguished, than the capacity to confer aesthetic status on objects that are banal or even ‘common’… or the ability to apply the principles of a ‘pure’ aesthetic to the most everyday choices of everyday life, e.g., in cooking, clothing, or decoration… (1984:5) this passage speaks almost directly to the challenge in question from top chef. dana < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 cowin, representing a “luxury-lifestyle [sic] authority” (food & wine 2012), serves as a voice for the bourgeoisie; she, along with the other judges, all of whom are celebrities in their own rights, are the arbiters of which dishes are distinguished and those that are just “banal or even ‘common’” (bourdieu 1984:5). this rejection of the common—the popular—is precisely what cowin, as an ambassador for the cultural cognoscenti, is doing when she states that certain food trends (more accurately described as popular methods of preparing and serving food, particularly in the restaurant environment) “should be buried.” this is exactly the sort of rejection of the mainstream that bourdieu anticipates from cultural elites: the denial of lower, course, vulgar, venal, servile—in a word, natural— enjoyment, which constitutes the sacred sphere of culture, implies an affirmation of the superiority of those who can be satisfied with the sublimated, refined, disinterested, gratuitous, distinguished pleasures forever closed to the profane. that is why art and cultural consumption are predisposed, consciously and deliberately or not, to fulfill a social function of legitimating social differences (1984:7). by identifying and disparaging food trends, cowin cements her position as a cultural elite; she and the judges further assert their authority as cultural elites by judging the value of the dishes prepared by the cheftestants, despite the fact that cowin ultimately praises dishes that do the best job of highlighting the “trendy” ingredient or technique in question. in a certain respect, this makes top chef not so dissimilar from other display events like festivals and fairs that “dramatize and reinforce the existing social structure [while] they also insist often enough that such structure be ignored, or inverted, or flatly denied” (abrahams 1981:304). it is cowin’s praise for the elevation of trends that demonstrates a certain paradox. while cowin is indeed openly disparaging trends, she is simultaneously asserting herself and her fellow judges as trendsetters by challenging the cheftestants to elevate the common to a new level. while trendsetters need not necessarily be cultural elites, it certainly can’t hurt; tadashi suzuki and joel best note that “trendsetting requires resources—particularly leisure time to devote to [a given passion], disposable income, and [access to] communication networks” (2003:61). by way of example, consider zygmunt bauman’s examination of british “actor, wit, and raconteur” (2010:327) stephen fry as an elite who is also an undisputed trendsetter: stephen fry is known to be a trend-setter, but he is also a most reliable spokesman for (and walking embodiment of) the trends set; he may be < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 trusted to speak not just in his own name, but in the name of hundreds of thousands of card-carrying and millions of aspiring members of the ‘cultural elite’—people who know the difference between comme il faut and comme il ne faut pas, and are first to note the moment when that difference becomes different from what it used a moment earlier to be. (2010:328) cowin, as the representative of food & wine, is similarly positioned. with a few strokes of her pen, cowin can define a trend and demote it to “common” status; likewise, she also holds the power to recover a trend and make it relevant, e.g., when she tells the cheftestants that “some [of their] dishes succeeded in making me feel these trends should be brought back, and some made me feel like they should be buried.” lagasse is in a similar position of power, particularly as a cookbook author, television food star, and massively successful restaurateur. as one of the original stars created by the food network (everyone knows who “emeril” is—david letterman frequently asks, “when is that big emeril guy going to go away?”), he runs his own food empire, effectively setting trends simply by offering them for sale. lakshmi, though respected as a television personality, does not wield the same kind of power as a food trendsetter. she undermines her own authority early in the challenge by proclaiming “i love kale! that’s not a trend to me!” she also holds significantly less clout as a food expert than either emeril lagasse or dana cowin. though lakshmi has authored two cookbooks, her renown derives primarily from her modeling career, her marriage to novelist salman rushdie, and her status as a television personality. beyond the cult of personality and the power wielded by celebrities, the complicating frame of television as the medium by which these trends are being critiqued and potentially reinvented demands consideration, as television is a direct distributor of mainstream, lowbrow culture to the masses, given that “higher education and income levels correspond with less tv usage” overall (friedman 2013). here we see a mainstream, popular television program elevating the idea of the cultural elite, despite the fact that the majority of the program’s viewers are not members of the cognoscenti. top chef may not be able to transcend its status as a product of mainstream television, but by associating itself with high culture markers (e.g., food & wine, revered chefs like lagasse, respected restaurants), it certainly reinforces the divide between mainstream and highbrow culture. there is room here to criticize bourdieu; his arguments suggest that it is solely the cultural elite who can confer status on objects or determine what is worthy of attention. this < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 elitist view runs counter to the very notion of folklore, which concerns itself with—and finds value in—the banal, the everyday, and the commonplace. george schoemaker explains that “folklore is part of the experiences and practice of our everyday life… we are all involved in the processes of performing folklore even though we may not always be aware of it” (2008:1). by condescending to the everyday, bourdieu is dismissing an entire arena worthy of study and reinforcing the notion of the cultural elite. bourdieu’s concepts are not in full force here, however—given that cowin and the other top chef judges sit in a paradoxical position where cultural elitism is conveyed by a popular/ banal/mainstream television program, can the concept of “omnivorousness” help to explain why the commonplace is being increasingly embraced by the cognoscenti? omnivorousness in her book smart casual: the transformation of gourmet restaurant style in america, alison pearlman uses the idea of “omnivorousness” to explain the trend in restaurants away from stiff presentation, elaborate décor, and strict dress codes in favor of a more relaxed environment that highlights the food as the star of the show. as she explains, omnivorousness is “an elite appreciation of not simply formal ‘high’ culture but rather a range of the ‘high’ and the ‘low’” (2013:4). an example of a restaurant that embodies the concept of omnivorousness might be wolfgang puck’s spago, which was designed to simultaneously address demands for both quality cuisine and less formal (pretentious?) service, offering such menu items as gourmet wood-fired pizzas topped with relatively exotic ingredients (e.g., prosciutto, morel mushrooms) that a run-of-the-mill pizza parlor wouldn’t have on hand. the food is allowed to speak for itself in an environment that is free of snobbery—indeed, such establishments make gourmet food more accessible to a broader segment of the population that might typically avoid a fussy or frou-frou dining experience. richard peterson and roger kern investigated the notion of omnivorousness and determined that elites have, in fact, broadened their proverbial palates; indeed, “highbrows are more omnivorous than others and… they have become increasingly omnivorous over time” (1996:900). omnivorousness, they explain, “signifies an openness to appreciating everything. in this sense it is antithetical to snobbishness, which is based fundamentally on rigid rules of exclusion” (peterson and kern 1996:904). this drive towards omnivorousness may represent the broadening of common foodways, defined by lucy long as “the network of activities and beliefs surrounding food” (2009:256); < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 just as elites are opening themselves to the “common,” so are the masses opening themselves to “exotic” ingredients and preparations. mainstream consumers now routinely purchase gourmet products, such as flavored coffees, elaborate syrups and other coffee embellishments; these affordable luxuries are no longer inaccessible, nor do the masses view them as out of reach (roseberry 2002). at the same time, there may be some circularity at work, as examples abound of undesirable or peasant food being appropriated by the upper class—alpaca meat in peru, for example, is now being marketed as a luxury to certain consumers (markowitz 2012), just as offal and organ meats are proudly listed on many high-end restaurant menus. even lobster, at one point in time, was considered a lowbrow food. whether there is a relationship between the emergence of omnivorousness and the elevation of “low” cuisine remains to be seen, however. while the precise reasons for the emergence of omnivorousness remain elusive, peterson and kern theorize that the pervasiveness of media may be a partial explanation, with “presentation of the arts via the media [making] elite aesthetic taste more accessible to wider segments of the population” (1996:905). certainly this explanation seems to reflect what is going on in this top chef challenge; despite television’s reputation as a mainstream, lowbrow medium, it is conveying highbrow sensibilities into the mainstream. this also reflects a folkloristic understanding of television as a medium; ben-amos, as mentioned previously, noted that folklore is comprised of “real social and literary interchange between cultures and artistic media and channels of communication” (1972:14). top chef can aptly be characterized as a channel of communication that facilitates an interchange of food knowledge between chefs, food critics, and food fans alike. in just one small piece of one episode of a popular reality television program, so much is said about the value of food, the distinctions between high and low culture, and the changing tastes of elites and the mainstream alike. further study could tease out these distinctions to an even greater extent, and could address additional questions regarding the interplay of old/traditional media forms (i.e., the magazine, embodied by food & wine’s association with the program, as well as the television program itself, as television is increasingly being considered a “traditional” media channel), new media forms (i.e., the top chef website, hosted on bravotv.com, and its interactive components), and how class roles are involved in selection and use of these media channels. references cited abrahams, roger d. 1981. shouting match at the border: the folklore < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 of display events. in “and other neighborly names”: social process and cultural image in texas folklore, ed. richard bauman and roger d. abrahams, 303-21. austin, tx: university of texas press. bauman, zygmunt. 2010. liquid-modern adventures of an idea. in handbook of cultural sociology, ed. john r. hall, laura grindstaff and ming-cheng miriam lo, 326–34. new york: taylor & francis. ben-amos, dan. 1972. toward a definition of folklore in context. in toward new perspectives in folklore, ed. américo paredes and richard bauman, 3–15. austin, tx: university of texas press. bourdieu, pierre. 1979. distinction: a social critique of the judgment of taste. translated by richard nice. reprint, cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1984. collins, kathleen. 2009. watching what we eat: the evolution of television cooking shows. new york: continuum. donvan, john and peter demchuk. 2001. is reality tv the end of civilization? abc news, june 14. http://abcnews.go.com/us/story?id=93079&page=1. food & wine. 2012. food & wine announces 2012 best new chefs in america. food & wine press release, april 3. food & wine website. http:// www.foodandwine.com/articles/press-release-food-and-wine-announces2012-best-new-chefs-in-america (accessed march 20, 2014). food network. 2014. shows a to z. http://www.foodnetwork. com/shows/a-z.html (accessed march 20, 2014). friedman, wayne. 2013. income, education levels impact tv viewing. mediapost. http://www.mediapost.com/publications/ article/197108/income-education-levels-impact-tv-viewing.html. jackets and toques: the history of the chef uniform. 2010. cheftalk. february 16. http://www.cheftalk.com/a/jackets-and-toques-the-history-of-the-chef-uniform. long, lucy. 2009. foodways. in encyclopedia of women’s folklore and folklife, volume 1, ed. liz locke, theresa a. vaughan, and < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 pauline greenhill, 256-62. westport, ct: greenwood press. markowitz, lisa. 2012. highland haute cuisine: the transformation of alpaca meat. in reimagining marginalized foods: global processes, local places, ed. elizabeth finnis, 34-48. tucson, az: university of arizona press. nededog, jethro. 2014. ‘top chef’ finale cooks up season’s highest ratings. the wrap. http://www.thewrap.com/bravo-top-chef-finale-ratings. pearlman, alison. 2013. smart casual: the transformation of gourmet restaurant style in america. chicago: university of chicago press. peterson, richard a., and roger m. kern. 1996. changing highbrow taste: from snob to omnivore. american sociological review 61 (5): 900–907. roseberry, william. 2002. the rise of yuppie coffees and the reimagination of class in the united states. in food in the usa: a reader, ed. carole m. counihan, 149-68. new york: routledge. saltzman, rachelle h. 2014. fair and carnival food. in food issues: an encyclopedia, ed. ken albala. thousand oaks, ca: sage. schoemaker, george h. 2008. the emergence of folklore in everyday life: a fieldguide and sourcebook. bloomington, in: trickster press. storey, john. 2012. cultural theory and popular culture: an introduction. 6th ed. san francisco: pearson. suzuki, tadashi, and joel best. 2003. the emergence of trendsetters for fashions and fads: kogaru in 1990s japan. the sociological quarterly 44 (1):61–79. top chef. commander’s palace. directed by paul starkman. produced by dan cutforth and jane lipsitz. bravo, october 16, 2013. williams, raymond. 1998. the analysis of culture. in cultural theory and popular culture: a reader, ed. john storey, 2nd ed., 48–56. athens, ga: university of georgia press. < eanes, s. ryan. “top chef and taste” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 notes 1 a shirred egg is essentially a style of baked egg; typically a shirred egg is baked in a shallow dish called a shirrer, though any dish can be used. microsoft word morlein-pig castration history-digest 7-1 res note-galley 4-6-20.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 57-61 © american folklore society 2020 history of pig castration by: johanna mörlein abstract: the widespread castration of non-anaesthetized pigs has been questioned, since scientifically there is no doubt about pain without anesthesia during the procedure. public outcries have led to changes in european law. these facts shed light on why there is now growing interest in the fattening of uncastrated male pigs as an alternative. the occurrence of an off-odor in the fatty tissue of the fattened, uncastrated male pigs, however, continues to hinder the widespread adoption of this method in europe and, in this case, germany. castration is, indeed, a longstanding method but it was usually implemented for breeding purposes and aggression reduction. in other words, it was used for very pragmatic reasons for management and handling. the reviewed ancient literature contradicts the widespread opinion that maintains that pig castration has always been used to prevent off-odors in meat produced for human consumption. keywords: food history, animal welfare, swine husbandry, castration, pork, boar taint consumer and scientific concerns about animal welfare in european agriculture have been growing in recent years, especially with respect to painful routine practices in animal husbandry. such invasive operations as tail-docking, beak-trimming, and castration—which are not practiced for curative treatment of diseases, but as preventive measures to adapt animals to food production systems—have come under increased scrutiny (der wissenschaftliche beirat für agrarpolitik, ernährung und gesundheitlichen verbraucherschutz [german scientific advisory council on agricultural policy, food and health consumer protection] 2015). consumers are troubled that contemporary intensive farming systems entail conditions that prevent animals from their natural behavior and imply body adaptation for industrialized raising conditions informed by scientific research (phoenix and walter 2009). the widespread castration of non-anaesthetized pigs, in particular, has been questioned, since scientifically there is no doubt about pain without anesthesia during the procedure. public outcries have led to changes in european law and will most certainly have lasting effects on the production of pork. these facts shed light on why there is now growing interest in the fattening of uncastrated male pigs (entire boars) as an alternative for fattening non-anaesthetized castrated pigs. the occurrence of an off-odor in the fatty tissue of the fattened, uncastrated male pigs, however, continues to hinder the widespread adoption of this method in europe and here, in my case, germany. in this research note, i present a short, beginning look at the history and genesis of castration to provide a better understanding of past needs, practices, and how they differ from those in current livestock management systems. my hope is to connect, open discussion, and share resources with others, in varied disciplines, who study and research practices in animal husbandry for pork production. i am especially interested in learning about ancient literature that treats the topic. 58 mörlein, history of pig castration, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) what i have found in my historical research so far is that the fertile crescent not only represents the earliest evidence of domesticated grains such as einkorn wheat (triticum monococcum) around 10000 bce (doebley, gaut, and smith 2006: 1309), but was also where domestication of the wild boar (sus scrofa) took place, which may have occurred as early as 10500–10000 bce (zeder 2008). there is evidence of other centers of pig domestication in southeast asia (kittawornrat and zimmerman 2011) and china around 10000 bce, and in southern sweden around 2400 bce (falkenberg and hammer 2007). zooarcheological findings of upper canines from pigs in uppåkra, sweden, reveal evidence of castration during the european iron age in 500 bce. based on the malformation of canines in male pigs and how canines continued to follow further developmental pathways in adult unaltered boars and sows, the assumption has been made that these differences could have resulted from castration (magnell, boethius, and thilderqvist 2016). this possibility is supported by the fact that the teeth of male pigs comprise a part of their secondary sexual characteristics, whose development, of course, can be affected by castration due to changes in the synthesis of hormones. although castration implies a health risk, there seemed to be reasons for taking this risk in the ancient past. irrespective of any doubts surrounding homer’s sole authorship of classical texts, felix hoesch’s monumental work on pig breeding (1911) cites a homerian text, dated to around 1102 and 800 bce, as early evidence of castration of pigs in the mediterranean area: “castration of boars must be restricted to the spring and fall and should only be done by a waning moon.” a century or so later, the ancient roman scholar and writer varro (116 bce to 27 bce) wrote three books concerning agriculture entitled rerum rusticarum libri tres. the second of these, de re pecuaria, deals with breeding and livestock management, and claims that “the best time for castrating boars is when they are one year old. no animal should be castrated before it has reached an age of at least six months” (hooper and ash 1934: 365). meyer et al. interpret varro’s statement as proof that the romans were already aware of the improved growth performance of boars (meyer, franke, and schäffer 2004). varro also describes the advantages and disadvantages of dog castration, also indicating that the romans were aware of its effects on dog temperament. he wrote: “whenever they carried out surgical castration male dogs lost their viciousness,” a clear advantage for easier handling. these two texts written by homer and varro from pre-christian times are early proofs that castration is an old tradition in pig livestock management systems. the next accessible reference i have so far been able to review is from johann christian gotthard from 1798 in germany, referring to differences in the management of sows, boars, and castrated males depending on their purposes. he explained that to be able to control breeding, at least two barns were needed so that sows and boars could be kept separately. he described boars as “mean, foaming at the mouth and being offensively aggressive toward humans,” recommending that, “to prevent any misfortune, their long incisors needed to be broken off.” compared to the handling of dogs described by varro, here the handling explicitly referring to boars is described as dangerous, thus alluding to the advantages of raising castrated pigs for purposes other than breeding (gotthard 1798). in 1838 g. h. haumann extended reasons for castration of male pigs, giving two reasons: 1) to control the number of offspring and breeding in general; and 2) to make it digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 59 easier to fatten them. he explained the second reason by his observation that uncastrated pigs did not lend themselves to fattening as they neither tended to gain weight nor did their meat become tender compared to castrated pigs (haumann 1838). according to these references, castration was not utilized as a means to influence odor deviations in meat. as mentioned above, one reason for castration was to control breeding. in fact, this justification became law in different regions of germany, for instance in thuringia in 1856 and bavaria in 1910 (meinzolt and niklas 1930). these early breeding laws (called körgesetz in german) also prescribed that only specific boars with approved traits should be commonly kept and used for breeding purposes (boettcher, ritter, and kürbs 1994). a few years later, b. koch wrote (1917) that the disputed castration of female pigs should not be carried out because of high mortality rates and because of the fact that it was not necessary. in comparison, koch adds, the castration of male pigs was to be carried out earlier than after puberty, namely at the age of 14 days. in contrast, toepper and perkuhn (1928) describe castrated pigs as “calm and whose meat is tender, well marbled, tasty, pleasant smelling and displaying excellent fat content.” the reader´s interpretation could be that meat from castrated pigs has odor advantages. but the same authors describe older boars as “mean, and so agitated by their sex drive as to make them dangerous.” they refer to the meat of such animals with the following description, that “their skin is thick, the flesh is hard, reeking of urine, making it unfit for human consumption.” it is obvious that toepper and perkuhn describe boars which had been used for breeding and which were in no way associated with boars for meat production. and they compare the meat of such animals with that of castrated pigs, so that the reader’s interpretation may be misled as the comparison does not consider the age of pigs. toepper and perkuhn also wrote about the advantages of a late castration, whereby “body muscle is further developed which for some purposes make the meat more valuable, e.g., for storable goods“ (1928). it becomes apparent through this small number of historical sources that castration is, indeed, a longstanding method. usually, however, it was implemented for breeding purposes and aggression reduction. in other words, it was used for very pragmatic reasons for management and handling. descriptions of off-odors were based on samples taken from old uncastrated boars formerly used exclusively in breeding. the literature i have so far reviewed appears to contradict the widespread opinion that maintains that pig castration has always been used to prevent off-odors in meat produced for human consumption. i welcome readers to respond with their thoughts and suggestions for further resources to explore. references cited boettcher, hartmut, ernst ritter, and rolf kürbs. 1994. die entwicklung der schweinezucht in thüringen. geschichtsheft der thüringer landesanstalt für landwirtschaft [thuringian state institute for agriculture] 4 (2): 1–41. 60 mörlein, history of pig castration, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) http://www.deutsches-schweinemuseum.de/images/pdf/boe_sz_thuer.pdf (access checked march 9, 2020). doebley, john. f., brandon s. gaut, and bruce d. smith. 2006. the molecular genetics of crop domestication. cell 127 (7): 1309–1321. falkenberg, h., and h. hammer. 2006. zur geschichte und kultur der schweinezucht und -haltung, part i. züchtungskunde 78 (1): 55-68. gotthard, j. c. 1798. das ganze der schweinezucht oder vollständiger unterricht in der wartung, pflege und behandlung der schweine, ihre benutzung, kenntniß ihrer krankheiten und heilung derselben: ein beitrag zur beförderung landwirtschaftlicher industrie. verlagsgesellschaft altona. haumann, g. h. 1838. praktische schweinezucht. weimar: b.f. voigt. hoesch, felix. 1911. die schweinezucht. naturgeschichte, rassengeschichte, züchtung und haltung der hausschweine, ihre stellung in der betriebslehre und der volkswirtschaft. hannover: m. & h. schaper verlag. hooper, william davis, and harrison boyd ash, trans. 1934. cato and varro on agriculture. loeb classical library 283. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. http://www.loebclassics.com/view/varro-agriculture/1934/pb_lcl283.365.xml doi: 10.4159/dlcl.varro-agriculture.1934 (access checked march 9, 2020) kittawornrat, a., and j. j. zimmerman. 2011. toward a better understanding of pig behavior and pig welfare. animal health research reviews 12 (1): 25–32. koch, b. 1917. schweinezucht und schweinehaltung. leipzig: dr. max jänecke. magnell, ola, adam boethius, and johan thilderqvist. 2016. fest i uppåkra. en studie av konsumtion och djurhållning baserad på djurben från ceremonihus och vapendeposition [fest i uppäkra: a study of consumption and animal husbandry based on animal bones from ceremonial house and weapon deposition]. uppåkrastudier 12 (folk fae och fynd): 85-132. meinzolt, hans, and wilhelm niklas. 1930. das gesetz über die haltung und körung der bullen, eber, ziegenböcke und schafböcke (körgesetz) in der fassung die bekanntmachung vom 26. mai 1930. münchen: c.h. beck'sche. meyer, h., peter robert franke, and j. schäffer. 2004. hausschweine in der griechischrömischen antike: eine morphologische und kulturhistorische studie. oldenburg: isensee. phoenix, laurel e., and lynn walter. 2009. critical food issues: problems and stateof-the-art solutions worldwide. oxford: praeger. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 61 toepper, paul, and fritz perkuhn. 1928. die kastration der männlichen haustiere: aus der praxis, für die praxis. berlin: p. parey. der wissenschaftliche beirat für agrarpolitik, ernährung und gesundheitlichen verbraucherschutz (wba). 2015. wege zu einer gesellschaftlich akzeptierten nutztierhaltung. gutachten [pathways to a livestock system accepted by society as a whole]. march 25. bmel. berlin. http://www.bmel.de/shareddocs/downloads/ministerium/beiraete/agrarpolitik/guta chtennutztierhaltung.pdf (access april 16, 2016) zeder, melinda a. 2008. domestication and early agriculture in the mediterranean basin: origins, diffusion, and impact. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 105 (33) 11597–11604. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0801317105 <�lange,�michael.�“foodie�influence�on�the�culinary�meanings�of�maple�syrup” digest: a journal of foodways and culture�4:1�(2015):�n.�pag.> ©�american�folklore�society�2015 foodie influence on the culinary meanings of maple syrup by: michael lange maple syrup production, a craft activity and important marker of identity in new england and eastern canada, has undergone serious changes as the culinary landscape has expanded and evolved over the past thirty years. some of these changes have cut right to the heart of sugaring’s traditional process, while others have impacted the culinary meanings of sugaring and maple syrup. interestingly, the changes in traditional process have been met with much wider acceptance among sugarmakers, while changes in the culinary meaning have been much more cautiously approached, and in some cases, rejected. traditional sugaring in vermont is understood to involve hanging metal buckets on trees to collect the sap, and boiling that sap over a wood fire to reduce it down to syrup. the unique flavor that results has been prized for generations in the region, but is in increasing demand across the continent and around the globe. the expansion of markets and increase in demand for syrup have coincided with the rise of foodie culture in north america and other parts of the globe. in this note, i want to explore a bit some of the effects of this timing, to see how the culinary meanings of maple have reacted to, and been forced to change by, the palates of the new markets it has encountered. my theoretical approach is basically epistemological. i view all aspects of culture as cultural only in the sense that they are assigned meaning by a group of people, using an indigenous system of meaning making. once a meaning is assigned to an aspect of culture, that aspect can be used to derive other cultural meanings, and it is in this layered meanings made upon meanings made that a cultural identity is formed, maintained, communicated, and perpetuated. historically, sugarmakers in vermont have been the arbiter of what constituted the best maple syrup, in terms of flavor and quality. culinary authority rested with the producers. but, one of the most powerful and attractive aspects of being a foodie is the claiming (validly or not) of a greater share of the authority to decide what <�lange,�michael.�“foodie�influence�on�the�culinary�meanings�of�maple�syrup” digest: a journal of foodways and culture�4:1�(2015):�n.�pag.> ©�american�folklore�society�2015 constitutes “best” and “tastiest.” so, as the maple horizon broadened, and greater distance, both geographic and cultural, was possible between maple syrup consumers and maple syrup production, the foodie culture was less able and less willing to grant authority over quality and flavor to producers. foodie identity claims a worldliness and cosmopolitanism, but it is in reality a very self-centered epistemology. from the individuality of the celebrity chef to the narcissism of the food blogger, foodie culture supports the making of meaning by the self and for the self, while those meanings are communicated loudly and broadly to others. appeals to various forms of authority are made, usually involving some sense of authenticity (johnston and baumann 2010, especially chapter two), but the ultimate determinant of “best” is the individual palate. such a self-centered epistemology runs directly counter to the sugaring tradition of vermont, where quality was not a thing made by the consumer, but a thing received by the consumer from the sugarmaker. sugarmakers decided what constituted the best quality syrup according to the production process itself. the lightest grade of syrup according to color, called fancy in vermont, was the hardest to make for generations of sugarmakers. darker syrups result from various uncontrollable factors, such as the individuality of the trees tapped, the time of year, the weather, and many more. however, there are several factors that can affect the final color of the syrup that are within the control of the sugarmaker, such as the cleanliness of their systems, how quickly sap goes from tree to boil, the efficiency and speed with which the sap is boiled, and the geometry of the evaporator itself. because some of these factors are under the control of the sugarmaker, sugaring was understood to involve a large amount of skill, and making fancy syrup has long been a marker of skill at sugaring. fancy was the goal for a long time, and fancy became the benchmark for the highest quality syrup. “light-colored syrup has traditionally been considered the highest quality among the maple-syrup-producing community. this bias dates back to the times when it was more difficult to produce light syrup and only the best sugarmakers were capable of producing it. back then darker syrups were much more prevalent and could contain serious off-flavors” (farrell 2013:118). while the color and flavor of maple syrup do not have any direct, determinative relationship, there is a strong tendency for lighter color and lighter flavor to occur together, and darker color to appear with stronger, more intense flavor. the different grades are determined solely on color, or to be more precise, on opacity, by gauging how much light penetration the syrup allows, but the general norm is <�lange,�michael.�“foodie�influence�on�the�culinary�meanings�of�maple�syrup” digest: a journal of foodways and culture�4:1�(2015):�n.�pag.> ©�american�folklore�society�2015 that lighter colored syrup has a lighter, more delicate flavor. because fancy, the lightest colored syrup, has historically been the most difficult to make and was therefore prized, lighter flavored syrup was given the meaning of “best” and “highest quality.” the palate of the consumer was shaped as a result, with fancy being seen as premium and more valuable. but that process only applies when the authority for determining best remains with the sugarmakers. foodies have given more meaning of high quality and greater desirability to darker syrups, again in direct contrast to the epistemological meanings made and used by the producers of the syrup. the pursuit of the stronger, more hard to access flavors that is a mark of the foodie’s motivation has caused changes in the way many foods are produced, presented, and consumed across the board. foodie culture tends to like something that is rare, hard to obtain, hard to like, or closer to an extreme end of some flavor spectrum. there is an appeal to difficulty, which creates an exclusive club of those who are “in the know.” a food that has broad appeal is a harder sell to the foodie mentality, so things with lighter, easier to access flavors hold less interest. in the case of maple syrup, the same product has both lighter, easier versions and darker, more difficult versions. as a taste for the difficult becomes more prominent, the darker versions are going to be more sought, especially when the exact same product is available in an easier version that other, less adventurous or less savvy eaters can have. sugarmakers themselves are prone to the same appeal of the difficult and the rare, but in their case the equation is between sugaring skill and quality of syrup. fancy is more rare because it is harder to make, therefore it is more prized. for the producers, difficulty is of course going to reside in the production process. for an increasing circle of consumers who are far removed from the production process, difficulty is to be found in the flavor. it has to reside there because for more and more people who are acquiring maple syrup, their first interaction with maple is on a store shelf. it is only a product, or at most, it is first and foremost a product. as a food item, the flavor is going to be easiest and best source of the difficulty that results in the meaning of “best” being applied. in a culinary sense, fancy’s light, delicate flavor was most prized by old vermonters as straight eating syrup, while the other, darker grades were more for cooking or selling to tourists. an insider/outsider set of meanings were very much in play. as such, fancy syrup commanded a higher price in the bottle. however, as the foodie culture has gained more influence on the marketing of food items, and more influence on the palates (and/ or wallets) of consumers, the desire for stronger, harsher, more difficult to access flavors <�lange,�michael.�“foodie�influence�on�the�culinary�meanings�of�maple�syrup” digest: a journal of foodways and culture�4:1�(2015):�n.�pag.> ©�american�folklore�society�2015 means that darker syrups are increasingly in demand. there is still an insider/outsider dichotomy, but the insiders are not people close to sugaring, but people who “know” that darker syrups have more difficult to access flavors. farrell continues, “although sugarmakers may pride themselves on making light syrup and prefer the flavor of it, it is important to realize what consumers like and market our syrup accordingly” (2013:118). to put it briefly, delicacy has fallen out of favor. the title of a 2008 article from an online magazine is but one example of many that demonstrate the value placed on the more intense flavor of darker syrups in the foodie world: “maple syrup grades: sometimes b stands for ‘better’” (callaway 2008). this shift has meant that now, all grades of syrup usually sell for the same price on the shelf. some vermont sugarmakers still prize the lighter grades for themselves, and a few bemoan the loss of the premium that their fancy used to command, although generally the price of darker grades came up, rather than the price of lighter syrup dropping much. while fancy does not bring the premium it once did, the prices of all grades in vermont leveled off together, closer to the high end than the low, following the changing tastes of the consumer: “we sell all of our syrup, same price across the board. our best seller is a medium, and second best is a dark, and our third is fancy, or the light. and then we sell some cooking, the b grade, which is cooking. so if they’re just allowed to just, with no pressure from me, taste it, lots of them choose the medium, and then the dark is the second best” (9 june 2011). consumers, who do not carry the traditional bias of vermont sugarmakers toward the lighter flavor of fancy grade syrup, and perhaps influenced by foodie trends of seeking out and preferring stronger flavors, now buy more medium and dark syrup from this sugarmaker. as a result, he sells all his syrup for the same price regardless of grade. as i asked this man to explain why tastes have drifted, he put some of the cause on the growth of maple’s popularity outside its home region, “the lighter is more of a local, connoisseur type flavor, but for the general population, a medium at least, or darker, is probably what suits their palate” (9 june 2011). the lighter syrup still holds the place of respect it long has among locals, which in the case is probably code for sugarmakers, while those less “in the know” have palates that want stronger tastes. even those people who live nearby but seek the exotic in the local tend toward darker syrup, so this man’s use of “local” to describe a preference for fancy has little to do with geography. being local in this sense is not being close to where the syrup was made, but close to the knowledge of what he defines as good sugaring. close to the center of the identity of the sugarmaker. <�lange,�michael.�“foodie�influence�on�the�culinary�meanings�of�maple�syrup” digest: a journal of foodways and culture�4:1�(2015):�n.�pag.> ©�american�folklore�society�2015 the center of sugaring’s identity is being changed, though, with the coming of a new grading system in 2014-2015. this new system, which is designed to align more closely with international maple grading norms, replaces the vermont terminology of five grades (fancy, medium amber, dark amber, b, and c) with four new categories (golden with delicate taste, amber with rich taste, dark with robust taste, and very dark with strong taste). under the old system, grade c was for commercial use only, and could not be bought by the individual consumer retail. of course, you could get some if you were an insider, but the rule was that c was not to be sold retail. it is important to note that the old system’s labels were descriptive of color only, while the new system’s labels describe both color and intensity of flavor. culinary meaning is explicitly made with the new grading system. one sugarmaker i visited very shortly after the new system came into existence talked to me about the culinary change that it was causing. after the usual chat about his boiling rig and his sugar woods, i indicated that i wanted to buy a quart of syrup. because i have a fairly dull palate and tend to need stronger flavors in my ingredients, i tend to like the darker syrups, so i asked him for “dark amber or b,” using terminology from the old grading scale. he had started using new labels with the terminology of the new grade system, so my request for dark amber or b had to be translated into that new set of meanings. he had syrup that under the old system would have been classified as dark amber, b, and c, but in the new system was all either dark with robust taste or very dark with strong taste. while i had known about the new grades for some time, this was my first encounter with the new system as a consumer, so i genuinely did not know which one i wanted. unfortunately, the sugarmaker was not able to be of much help either, as the changed terminology was new to him as well. neither of us knew how to make a coherent culinary meaning with the new grading system yet, which put us at a bit of an impasse in this situation. the sugarmaker was no great fan of the new system, which he thought was both unnecessarily confusing and promoted skewed values. he worked with the traditional vermont sugaring epistemology that had fancy as the best, and the new system, in his mind, was setting the darker syrups on too high a pedestal. in his reckoning, he was bottling syrup for the consumer that previously he would have discarded or sold only to secondary food producers (grade c, which was for commercial use as a flavoring or ingredient only), and this was a problem. he showed open disdain for the very dark with strong taste syrup he had bottled, to the point that he suggested i buy a quart of the dark and robust. i did so, only to have him throw in another quart of the very dark and strong for free. he had produced just a handful of bottles of it, and he did <�lange,�michael.�“foodie�influence�on�the�culinary�meanings�of�maple�syrup” digest: a journal of foodways and culture�4:1�(2015):�n.�pag.> ©�american�folklore�society�2015 not expect a large market. further, he did not want to make money from a syrup he did not feel represented well his sugaring operation (or his skills, in all likelihood). in essence, for this sugarmaker, the very dark and robust syrup was a bad representation of his syrup and vermont maple in general. i got the impression he was as happy to have it out of his house as anything else, and he only requested that i let him know what i thought about the flavor once i cracked it open at home. the tone of his request was less eager anticipation, and more curious sympathy for what i was going to taste. the new system, which explicitly and prominently incorporates taste as part of its description, is at least in part a nod to the changing food culture of the maple consumer. again, as more people who live farther geographically and further culturally from sugaring become consumers of maple, the palate is not guided by the sugarmakers’ understandings of the difficulty and skill of making lighter syrup. so, color as a sole determiner of quality has less resonance, less meaning for that broader consumer base. for those who encounter maple primarily as a product on a shelf, divorced from the process that makes it, flavor profile and intensity becomes more meaningful. when that shift is combined with the foodie culture’s desire for stronger, more difficult flavors, the darker grades of syrup get elevated. the new grade system, with its emphasis on flavor as well as color, and without the implied hierarchy of bs and cs, is designed to put all the grades on an equal footing, and to let the consumer choose among equals according to her or his own palate. again, the self-centered epistemology of the foodie has had an effect on sugaring. not only are darker syrups more sought, but even the terminology used to communicate the grade of syrup has been changed. different sugarmakers have different opinions on the new grading system. most accept it, some readily, others grudgingly, as a part of the shifting economics of maple. but i have yet to meet a sugarmaker whose personal tastes have changed, and all those who expressed a preference to me still want to eat fancy. they still want to make fancy as well, even though in most circumstances, there is not economic benefit to doing so. regardless, as producers, it still carries a cachet of skill and expertise if they can say that they made a lot of fancy. they don’t call it golden and delicate yet, either. <�lange,�michael.�“foodie�influence�on�the�culinary�meanings�of�maple�syrup” digest: a journal of foodways and culture�4:1�(2015):�n.�pag.> ©�american�folklore�society�2015 references cited anonymous. interview with author. june 9, 2011. callaway, nina. 2008. maple syrup grades: sometimes b stands for better. http:// www.thekitchn.com/good-question-maple-syrup-grad-46292 (accessed jan 14, 2015). farrell, michael. 2013. the sugarmaker’s companion: an integrated approach to producing syrup from maple, birch, and walnut trees. white river junction, vt: chelsea green publishing. johnston, josée, and shyon baumann. 2010. foodies: democracy and distinction in the gourmet food landscape. new york: routledge. elizabeth ann berton-reilly. 2016. “christmas eve at a world war ii refugee camp.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 christmas eve at a world war ii refugee camp by: elizabeth ann berton-reilly in 2014, i interviewed johanna keenan, an estonian american woman of seventy some years who follows estonian old ways that pre-date christian traditions. meeting and getting to know keenan gave me an opportunity to learn about an ancient european tradition and associated foodways. one of keenan’s most vivid memories of christmas (yule, or yõulu in estonian) dates from when she, with her mother and three siblings, were living in a refugee camp known as the pond barracks in amberg, germany. by the end of world war ii there were several million refugees from all of europe living in refugee camps that the allies established in germany to house people displaced due to the ravages of war. the camps were set up largely to give the refugees a place to live until relocation. although for the most part the allied camps were humane places providing food and shelter, the conditions were not ideal. these were makeshift shelters created mostly from military bases (kirchhof 2006). johanna and the rest of her family lived in one of these camps from august 1945 to may 1950. keenan’s father was missing in action. despite the sadness and despair she faced, there was hope. keenan recalled a particular christmas eve spent in the camps when she was six. although it was yule eve, a time when the yule grandfather would visit children and give them gifts after the children performed for him, keenan’s mother explained to her and her siblings that this year he would not show up because they were poor. her mother then suggested that the children could perform for one another instead (keenan 2014). below is keenan’s written account of that special christmas eve, just one of many unpublished stories and poems about her life both in the camps and in the united states that she has written throughout the years (keenan 2015): elizabeth ann berton-reilly. 2016. “christmas eve at a world war ii refugee camp.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 just as we finished eating, a knock sounded on the door. “who can that be?” [my sister] mare jumped up and ran to the door, we three at her heels. she threw it open. we stared openmouthed and started backing away. there stood a wholly white apparition, an old man, his white hair and beard flowing over a long white fur-trimmed coat, a bulky white bag slung over his left shoulder. even his boots and fur winter-cap were white. “aren’t you going to invite me in?” he smiled at our stunned faces. “but, but...” mother almost stuttered as she joined us. “it’s all right,” he winked at her and turned to us. “have you each learned well what you want to perform for me?” mare, being the oldest at nine, preceded first and we each followed, and after kalle had sung his short song, yule grandfather reached into his bag and drew out four chocolate candy bars and handed us each one. he winked at mother again and was gone. starry-eyed, we turned as one to show mother our treasure, but were bewildered and hurried over to where she slumped, head in hands, crying. “mother, why are you crying? are you still sad?” “mother, look, yule grandfather came after all.” “mother...” “mother?” she raised her tear-streaked face and her voice broke, “i’m not sad. i’m amazed—there is a yule spirit after all. i wonder who...” and she smiled bravely to share our joy. there were many other yule-times where we received presents and elizabeth ann berton-reilly. 2016. “christmas eve at a world war ii refugee camp.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 had a real tree, some with real candles burning on the branches, and decorated with colored paper chains and white stars and snowflakes cut from folded paper, but that year is burned into my memory with a unique vividness, while the so-many others melt to become one general memory, whether in the camps or later. for in that year there really was a yule grandfather (keenan n.d.) although the traditional yule meal of a pork roast dinner with sauerkraut and holiday bread was not served on this magical day that keenan recalls from the refugee camp, it has been a part of her holiday celebrations since and now connects her with this sacred memory. she also mentioned that instead of pork roast, many estonians cooked blood sausage, but pork roast was easier to obtain when she was growing up. this dish was served with “mannakreem (a thin wheat porridge whipped with juice)” (keenan 2014).1 keenan explained that was also not usually an option in her family because whipping was so difficult. keenan noted that in estonian tradition when the food was eaten on yule eve, it was important to leave out the leftovers for the “little people”—the spirits who were kind to them throughout the year—as a gesture of thanks. this custom was also followed to ensure that the little people would be kind in the upcoming year as well. keenan emphasized the importance of this ritual act. she stated that the community would ostracize those who do not leave this food out. she also mentioned that although these old traditions were outlawed for many years, they are coming back (keenan 2014). this fascinating aspect of the estonian version of yule—the honoring of the little people—reflects an attitude of gratitude that extends well into estonian 1 editor’s note: both this meal, and this dish, have numerous comparative examples in the nordic and germanic countries. one suggestive variant for “mannakreem” is the whipped farina-fruit juice ilmapuuro (“whipped berry pudding or ‘air pudding’”) in beatrice ojakangas, finnish cookbook (new york: crown publishers, 1989), 185. see also the “roosamanna” recipe in nicholas hartman’s “estonia” entry in ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world, edited by lucy m. long, 187 (lanham, md: rowman & littlefield, 2016). toivo vuorela, in “the estonians” section of the finno-ugric peoples (trans. john atkinson; indiana university publications in uralic and altaic series, vol. 39, 1964), section 9, 181-183, suggests a stronger slavic-east european influence “in the culinary sector” compared to “west european elements” and also notes culinary influences “stemming from the nomadic tribes of asia.” elizabeth ann berton-reilly. 2016. “christmas eve at a world war ii refugee camp.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 culture.2 giving back, it seems appears to be more important than receiving. during my interview with johanna keenan, i noticed how the estonian holiday traditions she described reflect who the estonian people are and what values they hold dear. in the estonian tradition, instead of material goods, the emphasis is on the family, and on hope. when children “sing for their supper,” it shifts the focus from consumerism and instead empowers them to become creative. as i listened, keenan gave me a different perspective of what this holiday can mean, especially when she told her heart-warming story of yule eve in the refugee camp, where there was hope in the midst of despair. references cited keenan, johanna. n.d. unpublished manuscript. las vegas, nm. ___. 2014. interview with author. march 26. ___. 2015. email message from kennan to author. november 20. kirchhof, andreas. 2006. “50 years on in germany, eastern europe’s displaced still remember.” unhcr. january 5. (accessed november 18, 2015). 2 editor’s note: kathleen stokker in keeping christmas: yuletide traditions in norway and the new land (st. paul: minnesota historical society press, 2000), 13-15, notes a commonplace historical norwegian version of this custom that, together with this estonian instance, suggests a nordic-baltic regional spread for this type of practice. camp, charles. 2017. review of american home cooking: a popular history. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 72. © american folklore society 2018 review of: american home cooking: a popular history tim miller. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield studies in food and gastronomy, 2017. pp. vii + 199, acknowledgments, index, bibliography, note on author. by: charles camp american home cooking is the latest of a growing number of books that provide an introduction to the scholarship of american foodways, and a good starting place for students and scholars relatively unfamiliar with the subject area. its specifics will be apparent to anyone reading american home cooking for that purpose: the author begins his story abruptly with the year 1800 and ends with a brief and somewhat mysterious chapter devoted to “the future of home cooking.” the bounds set by the author may recommend it to newcomers, but readers will note that excising the “future” chapter from this history book leaves a text 172 pages long—considerably less than might be expected for a work with so broad a title. in fact, american home cooking is a kind of bibliographic essay that will perform the valuable function of introducing readers to some of the american sources that foodways scholars employ. with just 97 citations in the bibliography, it is clear that american home cooking is at best an introduction to the “popular history” of the recent past in its subtitle rather than a structured survey or guide to basic sources. unfortunately, among the research and published scholarship that the author overlooks is everything that has contributed to foodways scholarship from the social sciences and folklife studies. it might be fair to say, no sleight intended to the academic study of history, that american home cooking is an introduction to american foodways of primary value to students enrolled in courses offered by history departments. my objective here is not to place the foodways research and publication of folklorists atop a pyramid of scholarship, nor to suggest divisions where alliances have been recently wrought with an ever-expanding range of disciplines. rather, i read american home cooking with an eagerness to camp, charles. 2017. review of american home cooking: a popular history. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 73. © american folklore society 2018 discover what a new generation of historians had to offer to existing historical thinking about foodways and opportunities for future collaboration. but despite the fact that a little less than half of the book is devoted to the years from 1945 to the present, no living home cook is present. instead, the sources for the author’s narrative are as bibliographically indebted to the living as the dead. what occurs in the second half of the book essentially aligns with the first three chapters, which are based upon what historians have said about the foodways of the past. i can respect the consistency of this approach, but i am puzzled by the author’s seeming indifference to the tens of millions of home cooks in their kitchens, stretching from his front door and reaching out coast-to-coast. the fact is that what is absent in american home cooking is “home” and “cooking,” a method for stitching the present and the future to the past, and an invitation for students to develop a degree of attentiveness that bridges scholarship and first-hand observation. such a recalculation does not require a new generation of fieldwork guides, just some encouragement. i won’t quibble with the author’s claim that increasing numbers of kitchens have come to be deployed to warm up leftovers and/or transform carry-out food into a momentary buffet. but these occurrences have not displaced home cooks, nor should they deflect attention from them. here’s the irony: the phrase “home cook” may have become an odd mutation of “home cooking:” i.e., a home cook is a person engaged in home cooking. and i don’t know what sort of census standard we might employ if we wanted to know whether home cooks are waxing or waning in the 21st century. but i would be reluctant to make characterizations of such people, or worse, projections that forecast their numbers or vitality in the future without speaking to a few of them. i’m not sure why american home cooking seems to lack the human touch that so many scholars and students from the varied disciplines drawn to this culture area have found essential to the study of american foodways. from the perspective of folklorists in the past half century who have come to incorporate cooks and cooking in their research, foodways has meant many things, including an escape from the esoterica of less common cultural practices. but foodways also offers a way back to those and myriad other expressive forms. but before i conclude, let me give credit to tim miller’s work. he shows considerable skill in tracing the changes wrought in american society during world war i and, especially, world war ii. i don’t know a better telling of difficult stories, made all the more important by the dwindling ranks of americans who fought those wars on the battlefront and the home front. we camp, charles. 2017. review of american home cooking: a popular history. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 74. © american folklore society 2018 all need to work harder to make sure the kitchen stories of those generations nourish the present, and the future. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 1-3 © american folklore society 2021 welcome from the editors welcome to digest 8:1/2, a special issue on “foodways in hard times.” hard times are unsettling. they can test us in ways that shake us to the core, make us question our values, and leave us uncertain about the future. as the posters of countless pictures of sourdough bread and other baking projects shared on social media during the covid-19 pandemic demonstrated, foodways can be an importance resource for people to draw on when the going gets tough. for at least some of us, foodways have the power to help refocus and to redefine our past, future, and/or ultimately ourselves. this issue on foodways in hard times had its beginnings in a graduate class diane instructed entitled “food and culture” in memorial university’s department of folklore during the winter semester 2021. to infuse more energy into a seminar offered remotely, she suggested that the students write papers that, if they wished, could be revised to submit for consideration to a journal. when diane approached theresa, the idea of the special issue took shape. with memories of the covid-19 pandemic lockdown of march 2020 fresh in everyone’s mind, the class settled on foodways in hard times as a compelling theme, although from the beginning the scope of papers extended beyond the pandemic. in the end, six of seven students in the course submitted their work to this issue (the seventh had other commitments for their paper). lucy long, director of the center of food and culture (https://foodandculture.org/) contributed an article based on the work of the center on comfort foodways during the pandemic, and jillian gould, a faculty member in the folklore department at memorial, offered a recipe and personal reflection. five book reviews rounded out the issue. diane and theresa worked with the authors over several drafts; sarah shultz provided assistance with editing. together, contributors to this special issue explore intersections between hard times and foodways across time—from the 1940s to the covid-19 pandemic, and space—drawing on a patchwork of places including japan, india, bangladesh, russia, canada, and the united states. they consider the big picture through explorations of covid-19 patterns and ramen trends as well as the singular and the personal through a focus on one food or autoethnographic examination of foodways in an individual’s life. together they shake up assumptions, asking us to rethink familiar concepts like comfort, home, community, tradition, and authenticity. they push us to consider the power of informal models of food sharing and community building, and ways of being a family. importantly, they highlight the agency of vernacular foodways and offer hope going forward. the significance of foodways during the covid-19 pandemic is this subject of two articles. lucy long spent much of the pandemic thinking about comfort foodways and their role in people’s lives. her article, “finding comfort and discomfort through foodways practices during the covid-19 pandemic: a public folklore project,” describes the center’s crosscultural project that resulted in the “comfort foodways [virtual] exhibit” https://comfortfoodwaysexhibit.wordpress.com/. long encourages us to think broadly, settling not on the notion of comfort food, but on comfort foodways. rather than privileging the preparation and consumption of food that often first come to mind, she considers other https://foodandculture.org/ https://comfortfoodwaysexhibit.wordpress.com/ welcome from the editors, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 2 dimensions—including production, procurement, presentation, and cleanup/disposal—to be equally expressive. as long moves from discomfort to comfort, she asks us to reconsider conventional meanings of comfort food. in “a return to tradition: the significance of baking during covid-19,” juliana young narrows the focus, offering an autoethnographic exploration of the meanings baking held for her during the pandemic’s initial lockdown. drawing on david e. sutton’s work, young reflects on how baking brought her home; it was a “return to the whole.” baking’s physicality helped create sense of agency and food photos shared with family members were an important source of connection. her focus on memory and connection are themes that run throughout this issue. in roshni caputo-nimbark’s “seed swaps and sunday sauce: lessons about sharing food in hard times,” the author looks to the past for models of food sharing. drawing on her mother and paternal aunt’s narratives of growing up in gujarat, india and brooklyn, new york from the 1940s through the 1960s, she explores informal food economies in hard times. caputo-nimbark argues that anecdotes about culinary resourcefulness, mutual aid networks, and food-centered festivities highlight economic practices that are unacknowledged or undervalued in capitalocentric discourse but that are as central to the fostering of community and sustainability today as they were in the past. ainjel stephens extends the examination of food’s interconnections to community in “authentic-ish: ramen, culinary tourism, and canadian foodways.” in her article stephens asks why ramen, a dish with origins in nineteenth-century food shortages in japan, has become so desirable. through an autoethnographic examination of two canadian restaurants, she explores ramen’s transformation from a food of poverty and points to ways that ramen conflates and contests socio-economic status, cultural identities, and racial identities in complex ways. in the final article, “bread, berries, and fish: food and fairy encounters in newfoundland,” karin murray-bergquist looks at intersections of foodways and fairy lore in newfoundland and labrador. she considers the importance of both bread and berries to fairy narratives before reflecting on the total absence of fish, a surprising silence given cod’s centrality to the economy and culture historically. in exploring foodways’ links to perceptions of the environment in stories of fairy encounters, murray-bergquist investigates concepts of locality, scarcity, and abundance. the two research notes in this issue tease out the multiple meanings found in a single food. drawing on oral interviews as well as published sources, israt jahan lipa explores bangladeshi rice culture. she points out that in bangladesh, rice is home food, festive food, or, in hard times, a food of survival. rice pervades bangladeshi customs, rituals, and daily activities and lipa shows how it can be both a marker of distinction and a powerful uniting force. for dana modell, the meanings of kasha are personal; it is the food that first comes to mind when she thinks of hard times. in “kasha: the mighty buckwheat groat,” modell explores the role of kasha in her family’s foodways. in considering kasha within the digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 3 framework of survival/survivor food and refugee food practices, she reflects on how those practices inform her own experience of and relationship to it. in the amuse bouche section, jillian gould uses mandelbroit as a vehicle to remember her mother, marilyn, in all her complexities. as gould shares her memories and her mother’s recipe, she brings together the threads of foodways, memory, and connection that run through the issue in a very personal exploration of loss and resilience. the issue concludes with five book reviews by charley camp, ema kibirkstis, claire schmidt, sarah schultz, and jackie thursby. while folklorists more commonly have focused on the celebratory functions of foodways at holidays or rites of passage, the work shared in this issue speaks to the value of looking closely at the mundane. the authors convincingly argue that ordinary practices and daily foodways have as much or more to reveal as those connected to bigger occasions and that foodways can be deeply meaningful not just at life’s happiest moments but during the harder times as well. diane (tye) and theresa (vaughan) microsoft word letter from eds-digest 7(1) .docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 1-2 © american folklore society 2020 letter from the editors of digest 7:1 (2018-2019) dear readers, we bring you the inaugural issue of the online digest: a journal of foodways & culture on indiana university’s iuscholarworks open journals platform https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/. digest joins several folklore journals on this site, including journal of folklore research, children’s folklore review, new directions in folklore, folklore & folk music archivist back issues, and others from kindred fields. back issues from 1977-1999 (volumes 1-19) of the pre-online publication of digest can presently be accessed from the digest portal at the “journals” site above, and by using the search function, for example, for “foodways section of the american folklore society” as author, or by using the direct link to this archival repository: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/13619 . a final volume 20 (2008) in the old series will be available in the near future. for the time being, the archive link on the online champlain site of digest (2012-2018) leads to an index of past issue contents that can help navigate the iuscholarworks repository: http://digest.champlain.edu/archive.html . the old and new online digest back issues will all eventually be accessible from the new digest site through an archive link. our many reasons for moving digest to this site include iuscholarworks’ guarantees of: • online security and preservation over time • access to tools that can increase our publications’ scholarly visibility and citation impact, and • fulfillment of dissemination and data-sharing responsibilities to grant-funding agencies. for those of us in the afs foodways section, we hope the site’s open access journal production tools will make for greater collective participation and ease of input and editorial succession. digest’s editors, editorial board, foodways section conveners, and others have contributed to this transition, a juggling act with ongoing editorial responsibilities for incoming submissions, peer reviews, revisions, updated and still emergent submission guidelines, and all that is involved in production. there is still a lot of work to do, folks, and we welcome your talents and expertise to assist us with technology, editing, communication, and scholarship. as ever, we invite readers and section members to propose and organize special issues, and consider short and spicy contributions to our research essays, notes & queries section, announcements, news, & collections section, or amuse bouche section. this issue’s production has the peculiar distinction of unfolding along with the covid19 crisis around the world. communications with authors, editors, iuscholarworks specialists, and in online listserv groups like publore and the association for the study of food and society have afforded far-reaching insights into what’s happening simultaneously at distant locations as well as in the personal experience of sheltering in place. a burgeoning mass of social media reporting, journaling in many formats, formal 2 gilmore, letter from editors, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) and informal ethnographic documentation, and planning for prospective publications and productions often focuses on intimate, small group, and more public foodways. while this issue does not specifically bring fruits of these initiatives into its mix, its contents have inevitably drawn this editor to ponder how they relate individually and collectively to the moment—and the ongoing foodways that cycle up and down in rhythm with crises. themes that emerge in the issue’s topics and reviewed books may relate to thoughts, memories, worries, and coping strategies that many of us under siege have been pondering and experiencing perhaps more closely than we’d like. feeling the punches and poignancies of lent, passover, easter, or ramadan, refugees, slavery, colonialism, or exile? mira johnson’s and david puglia’s “the chocolate easter egg in south central pennsylvania” research essay features seasonal coping and communal spirit through church egg-production for fundraisers. julia fine’s 2019 samuelson award essay, “‘without sympathy there is no cookery’: imperial knowledge and the creation of ‘indian’ cuisine,”—and reviews of every nation has its dish: black bodies and black food in twentieth-century america and food and power: a culinary ethnography of israel—speak to transcendence and cultural empowerment in distinctive settings through regional cookbook writing, political culinary and health initiatives, and negotiations around food preferences and stereotypes. anxieties over uncertainties, restrictions, and mortality plaguing you? consider the wide-ranging creative and customary solutions presented in reviews of dying to eat: cross-cultural perspectives on food, death, and the afterlife; diet and the disease of civilization; and food and power. adaptations to new diets, cookery, grocery access, food selection, scarcities, and abundances necessitating new approaches to cooking and eating? are you drawn towards exploring traditional repertoires for eating and dining in confinement and past hard times, or renewed interest in sumptuous feasts of symbolic foods, or herbal medicinals? elements flit through this issue, including roots of “boar taint” in johanna mörlein’s “history of pig castration” research note. home cooking in close association with confined family members resulting in interesting negotiations over tastes? check out sarah shultz’s 2018 samuelson award essay, “‘she did what?’: married women’s renegotiation of kitchen mistakes through narrative,” for edgy and perhaps familiar narrative humor and relief in gendered exchanges over food values, preferences, and labor parities. longing for those special brewskis in public gathering places to refresh friendships and experience community and perhaps even communitas? see the review of a rich brew: how cafés created modern jewish culture to confirm the importance of this blend of actions, expressions, and spaces to us social beings, historically and presently. relying ever more on your cookbooks, recipe collections historical and contemporary, from all over the world, local, and among pals? enjoy the folger’s links to its early modern cookbook collection and “before ‘farm to table’” project. with special thanks to book review editor jennifer dutch, editing assistant megan o’sullivan, and in-bound lead digest editor, theresa vaughan, –your lead editor, janet gilmore, transitioning-out in the spectacle of 2020 < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland by: mu li what is “chinese food”? here i explore this complicated question in the context of st. john’s, the capital of newfoundland and labrador. although the chinese represent newfoundland and labrador’s largest non-indigenous “visible minority” with a single ethnic origin, they comprise only 0.26 percent of the province’s total population (statistics canada 2006). there is no chinatown and the small number of chinese newfoundlanders means that their culture remains largely invisible except for a few large public cultural displays such as annual chinese new year celebrations, an annual flower service in august, and sometimes, a moon festival dinner. in this context the twenty-five plus chinese restaurants and four chinese groceries stores located in st john’s become important markers of local chinese culture and locations for both chinese and non-chinese to define, negotiate and re-define what “chinese” means to them. drawing on interviews i conducted with 40 individuals of chinese descent as part of my phd thesis research on the chinese community in newfoundland, and my observations as a part-time waiter at magic wok eatery, a popular chinese restaurant in the city, i investigate three related and overlapping chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland: domestic foodways of chinese residents, or the food they eat at home; north american style chinese food served in the majority of local chinese restaurants; and “traditional” dishes more recently featured on the menus of some chinese restaurants. in considering how chinese individuals draw on and interpret these specific forms of chinese foodways, i also reflect on how they negotiate different, and sometimes competing, opinions of culinary authenticity. in this article, “authenticity” is conceptualized as something or a status which is believed or accepted as genuine or real (taylor 1991:17) and closely associated with their perceptions of ethnicity. food and identity the importance of food (as well as other aspects of foodways) as a marker of identity is well documented. according to claude fischler, foodways are central to identity because an individual “eats, so to speak, within a culture, and this culture orders the world in a way that is specific to itself.” therefore, “cookery helps to give food and its eaters a place in the world, a meaning” (1988:281-86). charles camp also notes < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 that “food is one of the most, if not the single most, visible badges of identity.” (1989:29). in this article i build on work by folklorists, anthropologists and others that examines how cultural identities, especially ethnicities, are expressed individually or collectively, negotiated through intra-or inter-group communication, and sometimes recreated in new social and cultural circumstances through foodways (e.g., brown and mussel 1984, fischler 1988, gabbacia 1998, georges 1984, humphrey and humphrey 1991 [1988], kaplan 1984, 1986; li li 2002, lockwood and lockwood 2000, shortridge and shortridge 1998, sutton 2001, van den berghe 1984, van esterik 1982). foodways can be central to immigrants’ immigration experiences and the social construction of their identities. anne kaplan suggests in the introduction of the minnesota ethnic food book that traditional foodways are often used by a particular group in self-reflection, interaction with members of other groups and for cosmological purposes (connecting to the natural world and a deity) (kaplan 1986). in the same vein, donna gabaccia discovered that “immigrants sought to maintain their familiar foodways because food initiated and maintained traditional relationships, expressed the extent of social distance between people, demonstrated status and prestige, rewarded and punished children’s behavior, and treated illness” (gabaccia 1998:51). drawing on his own experience, robert georges reflects on how his ethnicity as a greek descendant is often emphasized through food at family gatherings (georges 1984). researchers have investigated food’s role in the construction of immigrants’ identities during the processes of immigration, acculturation and cultural promotion. foodways may connect or reconnect members of the same imagined group, serve as a bridge for inter-group communication in a multicultural society, and/or be seen as a cultural divider to separate “us” and “others.” (e.g. brown and mussell 1984 and gabaccia 1998). for example, david e. sutton explored the relationship between food and memory in individuals’ diasporic experience (sutton 2001), discovering that the experience/ re-experience of traditional food evokes emotional and cultural recollections (sutton 2001). in the introduction to their influential book ethnic and regional foodways in the united states: the performance of group identity, editors linda keller brown and kay mussell write that, “foodways bind individuals together, define the limits of the group’s outreach and identity, distinguish in-group from out-group, serve as a medium of intergroup communication, celebrate cultural cohesion, and provide a context for performance of group rituals” (1984:5). roger abrahams explores food’s connections to esoteric and exoteric factors when he classifies food stereotypes as being “deep stereotypes” which contain the substantial characteristics of a group as perceived by others (1984). < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 sometimes, an ethnic group may adopt the foodways belonging to another cultural group in order to create a new tradition. for example, some jewish people in large american cities (new york in particular) define eating chinese food on christmas day as their own holiday tradition. a response to christmas festivities, it differentiates their ethnic and religious identity from other american, notably christian, groups (gaye tuchman and harry g. levine 1993, mu li 2011). this example not only highlights how the role of foodways as an ethnic or cultural marker is often situational and sometimes appropriated, but also underscores the fact that cultural identities are not fixed; they are fluid and socially constructed and reconstructed within various social circumstances. articles in creative ethnicity: symbols and strategies of contemporary ethnic life, complied by stephen stern and john allan cicala, consider the negotiation of ethnic experience and identity as a dynamic personal process (stern and cieala 1991). for example, studies by yvonne r. lockwood and william g. lockwood’s s on pasties in michigan, and janet theophano on italian wedding cake, demonstrate how an individual’s ethnicity reflects personal choices and strategies in different social situations, confirming larry danielson’s statement that “ethnicity ... includes a sense of personal survival in the historical continuity of the group” (danielson 1991:200). my research on foodways in st john’s takes up this folkloristic interest in the personal choices individuals make in terms of self-identifying with ethnicities. concepts such as full-time and part-time ethnicity (fleras and elliott 1996) and new ethnicity (nahachewsky 2002) that emerged out of the rubric of ronald cohen’s (1978) “situational identity” theory to describe an individual’s own perception and subjective choices concerning their ethnicity that are influenced by various social conditions have informed my work. at the beginning of the twenty-first century, michael owen jones encouraged more folklorists to conduct individual-centered studies. as he claims, “while many researchers are concerned with group practices, collective identity and cultural institutions, i prefer to examine tradition as symbolic construction in the activities and lifestyle of an individual who intentionally selects elements of what he or she conceives to be a tradition in order to fashion an identity articulated through various media.” (jones 2000a:120). foodways provides an important avenue for folklorists interested in studying complicated and everchanging constructions of ethnic identity that are both individual and situational. in shedding light on aspects of a particular chinese immigration experience, and on traditions as they have developed within one chinese diaspora community, an analysis of chinese foodways in newfoundland raises questions about what it means to a chinese newfoundlander and about understandings of authenticity more generally. < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 the chinese in st john’s the history of the chinese community in st. john’s dates back to at least the last decade of the nineteenth century. according to the memoir of the owner of the last chinese laundry, william ping, who came to newfoundland in 1931, the first two chinese to come to newfoundland were fong choy and szeto hing (william ping 1995). originally from a small village in hoi ping (kai ping) county of canton (guangdong) province in southern china, they arrived in newfoundland via the united states in mid-august of 1895. reportedly, they were looking to escape the racist treatment many chinese experienced in the states. many of the first chinese arrivals found life in the british colony difficult, however, and they faced institutional discrimination, economic restrictions and social isolation in a time period when characteristics other than ethnicity were often ignored by members of mainstream society, who simply divided people in newfoundland as chinese and whites. members of the early chinese community were forced to rely on each other for financial and emotional support that in turn strengthened their sense of what it meant to be “chinese.” from the first arrival of chinese immigrants in 1890s to the implementation of a more inclusive canadian immigration policy in 1967 (canada, manpower and immigration 1966), the majority of chinese immigrants who came to newfoundland were from the same socioeconomic class; they were uneducated labors. they also shared very similar cultural and linguistic backgrounds as the majority were rural cantonese speakers (cheng 1978, hong et. al. 1975, yu 1986). even after newfoundland joined the rest of canada, the repeal of the discriminatory law the act respecting the immigration of chinese persons (introduced in 1906) chinese immigration under the family reunion program did not change the homogeneity of the chinese demographic presence in newfoundland. more diversity came in 1967 with the adoption of a new immigration policy by the canadian government that mean applicants were accepted according to certain educational and economic criteria instead of traditional racialand ethnic-based standards (canada, manpower and immigration 1966). many qualified chinese professionals from all over the world, including hong kong, taiwan, and southeast asian countries like malaysia and indonesia, settled in newfoundland and established families. in late 1970s, immigrants from mainland china started to come to newfoundland (simon tam 2012 and e. t. tjan 2012) and in the last two decades, they have become the major source of chinese immigration to newfoundland. finally, the chinese population has become even more diverse with the growth of memorial university since the 1990s and the influx of large numbers of < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 chinese students. the previously homogeneous chinese society in st john’s has been transformed by these recent waves of immigration. instead of comprising a monocultural group, today chinese residents of the province differ in terms of religion, political opinions, professional domains, regions of origin and dates of immigration. although all my informants claim their ethnicity as chinese, or at least acknowledge their chinese roots, they sometimes have very different perceptions of what it means to be chinese. eating at home the earliest chinese immigrants brought foodways with them. for example, a preference for rice, which is a staple of chinese foodways, was described in a 1906 article titled “demand for rice” that appeared in trade review, a local journal: there is one article of domestic supply that the st. john’s grocery man finds it had to keep stocked now-a-days. that article is rice, and its increase in consumption is entirely due to the gentleman from china, who has lately come amongst us. our oriental visitor endeavors to conform to western ways in many particulars. he frequently cuts off his pigtails; he has discarded the picturesque blouse of his ancestors, and has substituted the western coat therefor [sic], and he encases his feet in caucasian shoes. but, in the privacy of his home, he still sticks to rice as his principal article of diet, hence the big demand for that class of goods here at present (anonymous1906). the exoticizing tone of the article notwithstanding, this reference suggests that from their first arrival, chinese immigrants attempted to maintain their traditional foodways. reflecting on his immigration to st. john’s in 1950, kim hong, a retired medical practitioner, recalls that members of the chinese community consumed traditional chinese in their homes on a daily basis: at the time when i came to st. john’s in 1950, i stayed with my grandfather [who came to newfoundland in 1910] at the john lee laundry on gower street and they cooked rice in every meal. to go with the rice, they would cook some chinese food which was often ordered from montreal like salt fish, some dried vegetables, and other things that chinese would normally eat. they also used local meat and vegetables like cabbage and potato. they cooked them in their way obviously (kim hong 2013). kim hong continues, “when cosmas ho, [a family doctor, practitioner of chinese < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 medicine, and successful businessman], came to newfoundland in 1962, there was not many restaurants serving chinese food and apparently, you could not get chinese food in local grocery stores. i therefore brought him to my grandfather’s laundry. he was so delighted to get genuine chinese food. the chinese food cooked by my grandfather in the laundry was very similar to what i had in china” (kim hong 2013). finally, francis tam comments, “my grandparents and parents always tried to cook as traditional as possible if groceries were available. sometimes, my grandfather would do traditional dishes like ma po tofu” (francis tam 2013). in tam’s case, dishes like ma po tofu were only cooked for special and important occasions like chinese new year or family reunions. as these recollections of kim hong and francis tam reveal, in the early days many chinese groceries were not available locally. when i asked my interviewees what their biggest challenge was at the beginning of their adjustment to life in newfoundland, i expected a variety of answers. however, most chinese immigrants to newfoundland i spoke to reported confronting a very similar difficulty: a lack of “chinese food.” for example, e.t. tjan, originally from a chinese community in indonesia, came to st john’s in 1966 to work as an ent doctor. he recalls, “the biggest challenge we had was food. there was no chinese food in newfoundland” (e.t. tjan 2012). tjan and other chinese immigrants were not looking for fancy or exotic chinese delicacies, but common chinese groceries such as soya sauce, garlic, ginger and green onion for everyday home cooking. these are the ingredients (spices, sauces and vegetables) that form the basis of chinese foodways throughout chinese centers (mainland china, taiwan, hong kong and singapore) and overseas chinese communities (e.g. southeast asian countries and north america). a few decades later, when stephen feng came to newfoundland as a graduate student from guangdong province of china, the situation had improved. however, he still encountered limitations: “when i arrived in st. john’s in 2007, it was still hard to get some chinese groceries, such as choy sum, chinese broccoli and bitter melon, which were so common in my hometown” (stephen feng 2012). in some cases, this lack of chinese groceries represented the most difficult adjustment; the disappointing weather conditions and dull social life were tolerable but not being able to eat the food that you grew up with was a real hardship. as alick tsui, a hong kong native, says, “i came in the winter of 1986, but i was not actively looking for chinese families to enjoy my pastime during the storms. all i wanted at the time were chinese groceries. only if i can get chinese groceries, i would be okay” (alick tsui 2012). chinese provisions, such as soy sauce, dried seafood, and other widely used chinese ingredients, such as green onion and ginger root, were sometimes brought along by immigrant laborers or imported directly from china to north america (coe 2009, roberts < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 2002). however, the lack of a local supply of chinese groceries forced chinese families to adopt local groceries and adapt to local foodways. for example, wendy long, wife of john shieh, a professor of computer science at memorial university from mainland china, says, “i had to force the whole family to adapt to local life.” (john shieh and wendy long 2012). the process of culinary acculturation is harder for some than others. shinn jia hwang, a retired researcher in ocean science originally from taiwan, recounts, i came to newfoundland in 1968. before my wife immigrated to newfoundland, i stayed at the on-campus residence. for convenience reasons, i took the meal plan at the university’s dining hall, which mainly served traditional newfoundland food. some [meals] were delicious but some others really turned me down, say kidney pie. every time, when my chinese friends and i showed up at the door of dining hall and detected the strong smell, “oh my, kidney pie!” we would run away immediately (shinn jia hwang and ching hsiang lin 2012). ching hsiang lin, shinn jia hwang’s wife, continues to tell the story of kidney pie, “on the days of kidney pie, they would cook some noodle soups with groceries such as chinese vermicelli and chinese hot pickled tuber mustard that we sent in from taiwan. he once said, the person who invented the hot pickled tuber mustard should be awarded a nobel prize” (shinn jia hwang and ching hsiang lin 2012). hwang’s story reveals that even though they were open to local foodways, some chinese immigrants ultimately preferred their own culinary traditions and opted to maintain them despite the challenges they faced. some second generation chinese newfoundlanders also opted to stick with chinese flavors, having been introduced to them as children by their parents. lewis yang, whose family was from northern china, comments, regarding my own dietary habits, yes, i eat chinese [food] a lot. i grow up learning how to cook from my dad so i cook all the time. i say at least 4 of 7 days a week. i ate chinese food that i cooked, and if i order out, sometime i order chinese too. it is what i used to, and so eating that is more satisfying than some of the other types of food that may or may not agree with my stomach (lewis yang 2013). scholars have pointed out that chinese culture is food-centered and traditional dishes contain various social and cultural meanings so that chinese individuals often try to maintain the foodways of their home communities to connect to their cultural roots (e.g. simoons 1991 and wu and cheung 2002). this was true in st john’s as well, as is reflected < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 in ching hsiang lin’s comments: “we make traditional food for almost every important festival. we make zongzi for dragon boat festival, we make moon cakes for moon festival and on chinese new year’s eve, we have hot pot party with family and friends. every time when i mentioned the dragon boat festival, the first response of my children would be, ‘oh, the festival that we can get zongzi’” (shinn jia hwang and ching hsiang lin 2012). lin’s remarks suggest that the availability of chinese groceries is important not only to daily foodways but is key to the maintenance of festive and cultural life. when chinese groceries were difficult to get locally, chinese residents of newfoundland had to be resourceful. some people would drop by chinatowns in bigger canadian cities during their vacation or business trips. for example, e.t. tjan recalls, “on our trips to the bigger cities, we would bring back a lot of groceries, especially sauces, for the rest of the year” (e. t. tjan 2012). others would rely on their parents or relatives in their home countries or in bigger canadian cities to send them chinese groceries by mail. chin tan, a family physician of chinese descent, recounts, “my mom used to send me chinese groceries such as mushrooms and soya sauce from malaysia” (chin tan 2012). in regards to international shipments, ching hsiang lin shares a humorous story: “i complained a lot about the lack of chinese groceries in newfoundland to my sister in taiwan. one day, i got a parcel from taiwan and it was so smelly. i could tell from the face of the postman. when i opened it, it was a whole package of peeled garlic. they were all moldy after a long journey” (shinn jia hwang and ching hsiang lin 2012). even yet, chinese newfoundlanders sometimes depend on people living outside of the province to send them groceries. bill ping, a second generation chinese who works as senior marine engineer, claims, “my brother still sends me chinese ingredients from toronto and sometimes i don’t even need to ask” (bill ping 2012). in the past, chinese people commonly placed orders with wholesale chinese grocery stores in vancouver or montreal. kim hong remembers, “chinese food was normally sent in from either montreal or vancouver and delivered by cod [cash on delivery]. at that time, you had to order by mail. that was how you got oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt fish, and lotus roots. we probably sent in letters two or three times a year” (kim hong 2013). during the summer months, chinese newfoundlanders also grew their own vegetables. kim hong recalls, “in the summer, we grew some vegetables, like bok choy, chinese broccoli, snow peas in the backyard of our laundry” (kim hong 2013). as the local demand for chinese foodstuff grew, a few stores started to carry asian groceries. mary jane’s, a health food store in downtown st. john’s which opened in1968, < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 was the first and most popular local store that sold a limited selection of chinese groceries (kim hong 2013). many chinese newfoundlanders still credit mary jane’s with changing their culinary life. ching hsiang lin remembers, “we were so excited to see that mary jane’s started to sell ginger roots in 1973” (shinn jia hwang and ching hsiang lin 2012). in recent years chinese groceries have become more accessible in newfoundland and there are now four chinese grocery stores in st. john’s including the magic wok grocery and asian variety downtown, the oriental snow store at the memorial university’s student center, and the new-opened just goody mart near the university. some chain supermarkets like costco, sobeys and dominion also carry a variety of chinese goods. dominion, in particular, offers a large variety and each location has a specific “chinese food” section. not surprisingly, these changes are welcomed by chinese residents of newfoundland. wendy long comments, “i am so glad that i can get bok choy at costco. it makes my life much easier now” (john shieh and wendy long 2012). although chinese newfoundlanders still must demonstrate flexibility and adaptation, the increased availability of chinese groceries allows especially those living in the st. john’s area to more easily reproduce their own culinary traditions. chinese restaurants in newfoundland and the emergence of north american style chinese food scholars attribute the global spread of chinese food to trade between chinese and the west, as well as to the migration of chinese persons to overseas countries (e.g. coe 2009, jung 2010, lee 2008; roberts 2002, wu and cheung 2002). according to andrew coe (2009), elegant and elite chinese food, such as shark fin soup and bird’s nest soup, was first brought by chinese wealthy merchants to their western business partners as a show of generosity and display of wealth as early as the 18th century. after 1784 when the american first met the chinese in guangzhou (or canton city, the capital city of guangdong or canton province), and especially after signing of the treaty of wang xia in 1845, international trade between china and the united states flourished. grand chinese restaurants were built in major cities along the pacific coast to serve wealthy chinese businessmen residing in america along with their families, friends and clients. the canton restaurant, which was established in 1849 in san francisco, is believed to be the first chinese restaurant in america (liu and lin 2009:136). at the time, upper-class chinese cuisine was not attractive to a white clientele. coe writes, “in the 1860s, the white elites of san francisco had no taste for chinese food. once or < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 twice a year, they attended ceremonial banquets … mainly to promote the business interests they shared with the chinese merchants” (coe 2009:107). in general, chinese food remained unknown to ordinary north americans who had no opportunity to access this kind of “luxury” food. any experience of chinese foodways they gained would have come through interactions with chinese immigrants (coe 2009:63). chinese restaurants were not widely established in newfoundland until the mid 1950s, approximately 100 years after san francisco’s canton restaurant. as coe reports was the case in the united states, in st. john’s, eating food privately prepared by chinese newfoundlanders was the only option during the first decades of chinese settlement in newfoundland. charlie snook, a retired local businessman of english descent, recalls tasting chinese food for the first time: my sister marjorie and fronie mathews were good friends. we were all relatives in grand bank. fronie married charlie (hing) hong [who came to newfoundland in 1931] in st. john’s in 1943 or 1944. fronie’s father, uncle jacob matthews, he was living with fronie and the family, of course, in st. john’s at the avalon bar and grill. and uncle jacob died, so they brought his remains back to grand bank for burial. and while i was there, charlie cooked up big feed of chinese food for us. that was the first time i met a chinese person and the first time i ate chinese food. as i remember, it was a big, huge boiler because that was a big crowd. it was a big boiler and there were a lot of tomatoes. i don’t know the name of the dinner, but i know it was damn good. it was only one dish. it was almost like a chow mein, those kinds of dishes. it was so colorful so that is why i remember. there was no meat in that dish and it was all vegetables. definitely all vegetables. and there was rice on the side. they brought the rice with them because there was no rice in grand bank. that was the first time i encounter with chinese people (charlie snook 2014). the first record of any chinese involvement in the food industry dates from 1906 on bell island, a community close to st. john’s where an iron ore mine employed a considerable number of chinese labors among its workforce (evening herald may 22, 1906, evening telegram may 22, 1906). the food was sold by an anonymous vendor who was not trained as a cook and did not own a restaurant. a few years later, the first known chef, nam how tong, also known as tom cook, came to newfoundland in around 1915 (william ping 1995:12-20, chinese association of newfoundland and labrador 1995:7). in 1918 (1919 in ping’s memoir), charlie fong (fong moo sic) who was related to the < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 fong family, the oldest chinese family in newfoundland, opened the first chineseowned restaurant, the king cafe on water street (william ping 1995:4, chinese association of newfoundland and labrador 1995:7, yu 1986:19-20). this was followed four years later by the province’s second chinese-owned restaurant, the dominion café, established in 1922 in st. john’s by au kim lee. the opening of these restaurants indicates that with the growing chinese population, some immigrants sought occupational opportunities outside of laundry business. in the relative absence of inter-ethnic conflict in newfoundland, the number of chinese ownedrestaurants increased and working in the restaurant business became a career for many chinese immigrants. up to 1940s, there were more than 20 chinese–owned restaurants including snack bars and fish and chips shop in downtown st. john’s (william ping 1995). the early chinese-owned restaurants served a western menu that included steak, pork chops, and fish and chips, rather than chinese food (william ping 1995:11-13). billy hong, the former owner of the hong’s takeout on torbay road in st. john’s, reports that “things were not changed until late 1950s.” during his first 13 years (1953-1966) working experience as a cook in newfoundland, he did not prepare any chinese food professionally; he only made chinese dishes outside of work for himself and his chinese friends: when i came to newfoundland in 1953, there was no chinese food on this island. i was first working in a chinese-owned restaurant called station grill. this restaurant served western food like fish and chips, small steak, pork chop and something else. a few months later, another chinese-owned restaurant called sam restaurant in bell island offered me a higher salary, so i went to work for them. the food they served was also similar to that of station grill. in 1954, i opened my own restaurant called sun café on bell island. i followed those restaurants that i used to work, to serve fish and chips and other popular local food (billy hong and lam hong 2013). the adoption of western foodways was an economic strategy of many early chineseowned restaurateurs in cities and towns throughout north america that did not have a sizable chinese clientele to draw on. in st john’s prior to the 1960s, patrons were almost all local caucasians who likely had little interest in tasting unfamiliar cuisines. therefore, kim hong says, “those restaurants were owned by chinese but they didn’t serve any chinese food. so i wouldn’t call them chinese restaurants” (kim hong 2013). his comment reflects the assessment of laurie turgeon and madelene pastinelli. in their study of ethnic restaurants in quebec city, the authors ask: “what makes a restaurant < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 ethnic?” (turgeon and pastinelli 2002:252). their answer--“a restaurant whose signboard or publicity clearly promises the national or regional cuisine of another land” (turgeon and pastinelli 2002:252)--would exclude newfoundland’s early chinese-owned restaurants. the imperial restaurant, united nation café, silver ball café, good view restaurant, white lily restaurant, london café, western café, people café, st. john’s café and west end café (william ping 1995) had no chinese signs and featured western cuisine. neither would scholars who conceptualize authenticity as something or a status which is believed or accepted as genuine or real (taylor 1991:17) and authentic cuisine as “using the same ingredients and processes as found in the homeland of the ethnic, national, or regional group” (lu and fine 1995:538), consider these restaurants as being “chinese.” although many people of chinese descent in newfoundland consider a chinese restaurant as a place that serves chinese food instead of non-chinese cuisine, defining what “authentic” chinese food remains problematic. the first restaurant in newfoundland to serve chinese food is believed to be the deluxe café that was located on water street in downtown st. john’s (billy hong and lam hong 2013, kim hong 2013). kim hong recounts: the chinese-owned restaurants started to serve chinese food in around 1954 to 1955. at that time, there was a small café called deluxe café on water street. the deluxe café was first owned by charlie ding au. he had a son wing ding au who came to newfoundland in 1946. wing ding went to local high school to learn some english and got his head tax back [$300]. after confederation, he went to toronto with some others to work at a famous chinese restaurant called litchi garden as a waiter. in 1953 or 1954, wing ding came back from toronto and took over the business. he must have learnt how to cook chinese food from the working experience in toronto and when he came back, he started to serve chinese food (kim hong 2013). instead of the upper-class delicacies offered at some of earliest chinese restaurants in north america, like the canton in san francisco, or the everyday meals prepared in chinese households in st. john’s, the food served at the deluxe café could be labelled as “north american style chinese food.” the label, “north american chinese food,” differentiates a type of restaurant food served in north american chinese restaurants from the foodways of chinese populated centers such as mainland china, taiwan, hong kong and singapore, as well as other overseas communities with a large chinese population (see: coe 2009, jung 2010, lee 2008, roberts 2002, wu and cheung 2002). in the minds of an earlier generation of chinese newfoundlanders, the term has a fixed meaning. in describing what it means in st. john’s, kim hong, lists familiar dishes that found on menus of chinese < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 restaurants throughout north america: “i think when people talk about north american chinese food, they refer to some ten items like eggrolls, wonton, chop suey, guy ding, sweet and sour chicken and so on” (kim hong 2013). significantly hong mentions “chop suey,” the cantonese term for odds and ends, that is perhaps the dish most synonymous with this style of restaurant food (coe 2009, jung 2010 and lee 2008). many of the current chinese restaurant owners and chefs in newfoundland do not consider the north american chinese food they prepare for largely non-chinese customers as “real” chinese food. rather, they see it is an american creation. for example, wallace hong, one of the previous partners of the kenmount restaurant in st. john’s, says, “when my wife and other female relatives first came to newfoundland, they knew nothing about the food we served here, so some of them asked ‘what is this?’ ‘chinese food,’ i told them. they were surprised to ‘discover’ a new type of chinese food. i had to tell them that we ‘cheated’ customers. that is what you can say about it” (wallace hong 2013). north americanized chinese food was the result of a culinary negotiation between chinese immigrants working in the restaurant sector and their non-chinese customers but initially it was not widely accepted in newfoundland. kim hong recalls how it first attracted mostly members of the local jewish community who had encountered it elsewhere: wing told me, at that time, it [deluxe café] was full with jewish people. jewish people were mostly business people and they went everywhere, here or there. they were all exposed to chinese food so that they liked chinese….local newfoundland people then were not so well exposed to chinese food and they tended to order roast beef, pork chop, fish and chips, hot turkey sandwich and others. a lot of chineseowned restaurants did serve these types of food (kim hong 2013). in time, this new type of chinese food became popular in chinese restaurants across newfoundland just as it did in other parts of the continent. francis tam, a second generation chinese born in newfoundland, remembers, “in my grandfather’s restaurant, he adapted to local taste and he had regular chicken balls, fried rice, chow mein” (francis tam 2013). kim hong also recalls, wing did quite well, and after a number of years, in about 1960, he opened bamboo garden restaurant on harvey road [the current location of the benevolent irish society]. bamboo garden had four woks. you must be doing well to keep four woks. and after his success at bamboo garden, he sold the place to gene hong [who changed the name to house of hong’s] and moved to open skyline motel on kenmount road (kim hong 2013). < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 today, north american style chinese food dominates the menus of chinese restaurants in newfoundland. wallace hong claims, “in the kenmount, we serve chinese canadian food, like chop suey, guy ding, beef and broccoli, different kinds of meat with mixed vegetable, chicken ball, and sweet and sour spare ribs” (wallace hong 2013). according to kim hong, “80% percent of the sales of many chinese restaurants in newfoundland come from those dishes what we call north american chinese food” (kim hong 2013). joseph mo compared this style of restaurant food to what he grew up with in china: “the north american chinese food here is different from what i had in guangdong (canton). people cook it differently so the taste is different. sweet and sour sauce is widely used in various dishes here, but traditionally, cantonese dishes are delicate and less saucy” (joseph mo 2013). wallace hong elaborated on the differences he has noticed: one of the biggest differences between north american chinese food and traditional chinese food is that traditional chinese food doesn’t really mix everything together. we don’t do mixed vegetables. when we do beef and broccoli in china, we don’t mix them with carrots baby corns and so on as what we do here. we do that here because we try to accommodate the local taste. also, when we know that local people are more concerned about their health, we add more vegetables when we cook chicken guy ding. but normally, when chinese do guy ding, they would put more chicken than vegetables, which are only used for decoration, or say, adding colours. another example is chop suey. when we do chop suey in china, in addition to chicken, we use primarily bean sprouts instead of other veggies. but in newfoundland, you may get everything in your chop suey. i guess that this kind of chop suey was probably first cooked in us and we just copy it. however, the tastes are about the same. let me tell you more. sweet and sour pork is the chinese way to do deep-fried stuff. traditionally, we dip meat into a mixture of egg white, a little bit flour and starch, and then deep fry, but we don’t really use batter. so in this sense, chicken ball, almond soo guy or lemon chicken with heavy batter are not traditionally chinese style (wallace hong 2013). in addition to adding more ingredients to some dishes, some north american style chinese dishes are simplified versions of their counterparts in china. wallace hong continues, “at the beginning, in the kenmount, we used ingredients like bean sprouts and celeries and sometimes we mixed chicken or bbq pork with veggies in our eggrolls < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 but afterwards we just tried to make it as simple as possible” (wallace hong 2013). many of the chinese cooks i interviewed look at the north american style chinese food they prepare for customers as both a part of their own culinary tradition and a reflection of how their life in newfoundland is an intermingling of chinese and nonchinese cultures. because of the popularity of north american chinese food, some chinese newfoundlanders, especially those of an earlier generation, actually consider it a “chinese” culinary tradition in newfoundland. billy hong says, “i love chicken balls and i think they are tasty if you are doing right. i don’t see why it is not chinese. they are made by chinese so they are chinese. that is my understanding” (billy hong 2013). in some cases, chinese chefs consciously use north american style chinese food as an expression of chineseness for a non-chinese audience. for example, kim hong comments “in the chinese new year celebrations, we served our guests eggrolls, guy ding, fried rice, sweet and sour chicken and honey garlic ribs. i don’t see there is any problem to serve them in this kind of events. i think the food is prepared in chinese way and they are actually much better than what i had in the countryside of china” (kim hong 2013). the private and the public: home cooking and restaurant style my participant observation and interviews with chinese individuals in st john’s today highlight differences between the north american style chinese food served in restaurants and domestic foodways. wallace hong, whose previous restaurants mainly served north american style chinese food, says, “we knew how to make dim sums but we didn’t really serve them in the restaurant because [it was] too much trouble. a lot of people are needed to make and serve [dim sums]. my wife and i only make them at home for our own use. my wife also makes zongzi [a chinese sticky rice cake wrapped with lotus leaves] which was normally made in china once a year but we make it here all year round” (wallace hong 2013). these experiences of dualism—eating one thing at home and preparing another type of food for public consumption--reflects an adaptive approach to life in north america that alison marshall terms “the way of the bachelor” (marshall 2011). marshall defines “the way of the bachelor” as a life pattern followed by many chinese immigrants who came to canada before the adoption of the new canadian immigration guidelines in 1967. according to marshall, most chinese immigrants generally behaved like other canadians in public but in private followed their chinese traditions which might be seen as strange or “unacceptable” by non-chinese canadians (2011). on < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 sunday they might attend a local christian church service but in the privacy of their home they continued to engage in non-christian, vernacular religious practices. applying marshall’s insights to foodways, i understand the differences between private and public chinese foodways in newfoundland as a form of “culinary ambivalence.” the emergence of culinary ambivalence is often attributed to non-chinese residents’ fears of unclean or “contaminated” materials in traditional chinese cooking and unfamiliar dining customs. an example of an uneasiness about chinese food is reflected in an 1914 article. titled “canton, china” and written by george fitch, the author of at good old siwash, it appeared in the evening telegram, st john’s major local newspaper, on march 4th. fitch writes with tongue in cheek: “canton people are very hospitable when approached properly and offer the visitor such delicacies as fried dog, stewed cat, boiled owls, pickled rats, smoked boa-constrictor and birds nest soup. on account of this hospitality, americans do not much visit much in canton.” although fitch’s intent is undoubtedly humorous, he reflects reservations that were widespread in north america at the time. fear of being served “inedible” “chinese” food not only stopped americans from traveling to china, particularly to the canton province, but also prevented them from tasting traditional chinese food (coe 2009, lee 2008). george fitch’s story is not an isolated example, but links to a whole urban legend cycle with many variants. some of these have been well investigated by folklorists (e.g. buchan 2000, hobbs 1966, klintberg 1981, shorrocks 1975, 1980, smith 1986, de vos 1996). as a result of widely-circulating urban legends, chinese food falls into the category of “disgust” according to michael owen jones (2000b). although many legends have been proven untrue, at times particular chinese restaurant businesses have been seriously affected. in this context, arguably americanized chinese food arose as part of an economic strategy on the part of chinese restaurant owners, especially those in areas where the local white population made up their customer base. they chose to modify their dishes to meet the tastes of their customers. they adjusted their culinary tradition “to make the unfamiliar seem sufficiently comfortable, thus making the exotic qualities of the food pleasurable” (lu and fine 1995:541). lack of chinese clentele for local restaurants might have been a contributing factor to the dominance of north american style chinese food on st john’s menus. before the late 1960s and early 1970s, the majority of chinese living in newfoundland were involved in the restaurant business and many of the chinese restaurants they owned or worked at were open seven days a week (billy hong and lam hong 2013, chan chau < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 tam 2012). if early restaurant owners and employees visited other chinese eating establishments, it was more likely for social reasons rather than the pursuit of culinary treats. not surprising then, it was not until the 1970s when the group of chinese professionals and students emerged, that chinese restaurants in newfoundland started to offer choices beyond the north americanized selections. in order to accommodate the requests of customers for non-north american style chinese food, the kenmount restaurant was the first in st john’s to provide some alternatives. wallace hong recalls, we didn’t have too many traditional chinese options in the menu and we only had cantonese chow mein and some hot noodle soups, which were more chinese than other dishes. in the noodle soup, we put some crab meat, vegetable and egg white for chinese customers. we sold a lot of this kind of soup. sometimes, customers could also order bbq duck, but they had to order one or two days in advance. at that time, we had some students from taiwan who often came to the restaurant to ask for traditional chinese food. they didn’t normally order from our menu because they said that the dishes in the menu were too canadian. in those cases, we just followed their orders and cooked what they wanted (wallace hong 2013). in recent years, the growing chinese population, including new immigrants and students, the increased social interaction between chinese and non-chinese residents of the city, and the exposure of the general public to more international cuisines through various sources from travel to cookbooks and online information, has led to a demand for chinese food beyond the north americanized standards on restaurant menus. as francis tam observes, “nowadays, newfoundlander’s knowledge of asian culture has grown and many people know asian foods. hence, a variety of food is able to be eaten in newfoundland. certain restaurants in newfoundland provide different dishes although it is still less variety than in bigger cities in the mainland [canada]” (francis tam 2013). westerners’ visits to chinese restaurants fall under the rubric of culinary tourism as defined by lucy m. long: culinary tourism is about food as a subject and medium, destination and vehicle, for tourism. it is about individuals exploring foods new to them as well as using food to explore new cultures and ways of being. it is about groups using food to ‘sell’ their histories and to construct marketable and publicly attractive identities, and it is about individuals satisfying curiosity. finally, it is about the experiencing of food in a mode that is out of the ordinary, that steps outside the normal routine to notice difference and < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 the power of food to represent and negotiate that difference (2003:20). motz continues, “unlike tourists in the traditional sense, culinary tourists can explore the exotic without leaving their own neighborhood. ethnic restaurants are one of an increasing number of arenas in which people can engage in touristic practices within their own culture and as part of their everyday life” (motz 2003:53-54). according to these definitions, “culinary tourism” localizes ethnic tourism (graburn 1983:25). when customers decide to dine in a restaurant outside of their own cultural group, they transform themselves into culinary tourists even if they live in the neighborhood. some local chinese restaurants have diversified beyond north american style chinese food. chan chau tam, the previous owner of the china house restaurant in st. john’s, says proudly, “i was the first one who introduced singaporestyle vermicelli, hot and sour soup and some other szechuan dishes to the customers in st. john’s” (chan chau tam 2012). francis tam also comments, my father went to grand falls to open up his own restaurant in around 1989. in this restaurant, the food was similar to what my grandfather’s restaurant had but my dad expended a little bit. he wanted to add some cantonese or szechuan dishes on his menu. he wanted to do those hot plate dishes like mongolian beef and sa cha beef or chicken, and he also wanted to do cantonese chow mein and singapore noodles. at that time, they wanted to show locals that there were more in chinese food than the normal canadian chinese version. they wanted to show the culture (francis tam 2013). several well-trained chinese chefs were recruited to work in local restaurants, such as the jade garden restaurant in st. john’s (may soo 2013). new dishes in szechuan and cantonese styles such as hong kong shrimp balls, spicy szechuan chicken and seafood in bird’s nest were introduced on the menus of local chinese restaurants. previously prepared only in the private sphere or embodied as memories in the minds of immigrants, they emerged into the public space of restaurants where they made a place for themselves on city menus beside the north american style chinese food. negotiating culinary traditions: the emergence of “traditional dishes” many of the younger chinese cooks and new immigrants i spoke consider north american style chinese food to be inauthentic. they feel that the popularity of dishes such as chop < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 suey and sweet and sour chicken balls has contributed to a misconception of chinese food and chineseness among non-chinese patrons. they are attempting to rebuild the image of chinese culinary tradition in north america by promoting what they understand as “real” chinese food, which is different from the north american style chinese food and people’s home cooking. these dishes are advertised as “traditional” because some traditional names of dishes popular in china are adopted and some newly-imported sauces are used in the cooking. the previously mentioned local adaptations of cantonese or szechuan cooking styles are examples of this current movement. in some popular restaurants like the magic wok, these dishes are separately listed in the menu. different sections exist for “north american style chinese food” and “traditional chinese food.” the magic wok eatery also offers customers traditional full course cantonese style banquets for events such as weddings, graduations, birthdays and other special occasions. despite the general attitude of cooperation that exists among the chinese restaurant operators in the province (many of whom are connected by kinship and/or region of birth), some operators and chefs argue that many of the so-called traditional dishes are not that traditional; they are different from how they are prepared in china. for example, joseph mo, a chef working at magic wok eatery, reports, “i think some of those new so-called traditional chinese dishes are still in north american style because there are remarkable differences from the food in china. these new dishes are still modified to cater to locals, although they might look more like the food in china than traditional north american chinese food. some of them even adopt the names of traditional chinese dishes like kung pao chicken and peking duck. however, they are still very non-chinese in terms of ingredients, presentation and taste” (joseph mo 2013). in commenting on a local chinese restaurant whose chefs introduced some szechuan dishes to their menu, mo says, “these chefs were not really trained how to do szechuan dishes. how could they serve this type of dishes?” (joseph mo 2013). on the basis of my fieldwork, the majority of chefs (i would say more than ninety percent) employed at local chinese restaurants are from hong kong or surrounding areas like canton (guangdong) or macau in the chinese southern coastal part, which is thousands of miles away from szechuan and beijing. in addition, many of them were trained as dim sum chefs or regular cooks rather than peking duck artists. that is to say, in preparing these “traditional” dishes, chefs are claiming authority over a culinary tradition that is not their own. this example raises the issue of “cultural appropriation” that “occurs across the boundaries of cultures” (young 2008:5). james o. young explains, “members of one culture (i will call them outsiders) take for their own or for their own use, items produced by a < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 member or members of another culture (call them insiders)” (young 2008:5). in the case of peking duck, cantonese chefs appropriate the dish from a northern culinary system and present it for commercial purposes. the appropriation itself, although it might not involve any tangible objects such as ingredients, tools and the like, does borrow the cultural knowledge and therefore falls into the rubric of “appropriation of traditional knowledge” (bannister, solomon and brunk 2009). michael brown defines “the complexity and moral ambiguity of the kinds of borrowing and imitation” as “interculture play” (2003:251). because of the lack of insider’s knowledge, culinary authenticity is brought into question. chien ming yeh, owner of the formosa tea house in st. john’s and an active chinese cultural promoter, criticizes some of the local chinese restaurateurs for misleading their customers. he does not see “traditional” chinese food as any more authentic than north american chinese food: i feel that many chinese restaurants do not intend to introduce our real culture to local people. the only goal of them would be making money instead of promoting our tradition. i think we have the responsibility to educate local people about our culture. in nowadays, things that we present to non-chinese people, such as chinese food or broadly speaking, chinese traditional art, are only physical forms of our culture instead of the core of the tradition. in my understanding, the core of the culture is more spiritual. confucius thoughts and other philosophical principles represent the core of chineseness. in terms of cooking, i think we should follow our ‘real’ tradition to prepare meals for our customers. for example, we should show local people what the traditional chinese fried rice supposes to be instead of ‘cheating’ or ‘mispresenting.’ the process may be slow because the older generation has loaded many misleading ideas on the locals, but it is our turn to right the wrong (chien ming yeh 2013). some chinese chefs call for a more “authentic” presentation of chinese foodways in newfoundland. for example, joseph mo states, one day, if i have my own restaurant, i won’t follow the traditional north american style chinese food. instead, i will pick up the cooking style in china to present my own idea of chinese food and chinese restaurant. i will decorate my restaurant in traditional chinese designs to introduce chinese culture to my customers. in addition, i will celebrate traditional chinese festivals with my customers. last but not least, chopsticks will be served on the table in my restaurant (joseph mo 2013). < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 mo tells me that he plans to adopt a cantonese style cooking in his restaurant in the future because he is trained as a cantonese cook. restaurant owners like chien ming yeh have already begun the quest for another kind of deeper “authenticity.” he says, in my restaurant, as you can see, instead of western cutleries, i set chopsticks. i use all oriental dishes and my restaurant is all decorated with traditional chinese paintings, calligraphies and buddhism sculptures. the mission of my restaurant is not only doing business, but also introducing culture. i intend to promote our oriental cultures which have been existed for more than 5,000 years, i mean, the traditional chinese culture and the native culture of taiwan to local people, who may know little about it (chien ming yeh 2013). yeh’s tea house has become a popular culinary destination in st. john’s for both chinese and non-chinese diners and he attributes his success to his insistence on presenting taiwanese tastes. however, for chefs like yeh, differences between chinese food in china and in north america, especially in newfoundland, are due to the same reasons as in the old days. often changes can be attributed to factors such as a lack of ingredients. chien ming yeh admits, “no, i can’t guarantee everything people get here is the same as what people can get in taiwan because i have to replace some ingredients with local materials” (chien ming yeh 2013). as rennies so, owner of the magic wok, noted, nowadays many chinese restaurants in the province still rely heavily on a bi-weekly delivery of goods shipped in from toronto (rennies so 2009). scholars shun lu and gary alan fine criticize efforts to return to earlier foodways that in most cases represent an impossibility anyway. they argue that exact reproduction should not be the goal: “the maintenance of a food pattern does not depend on whether it is identical with an original model but on whether the ‘fundamental’ characteristics of the food are defined as being continuously present, connected to core cultural beliefs, and recognized as a differentiated food pattern” (lu and fine 1995, 539). anne kaplan, in the same vein, asserts that “it is sentimental fallacy that change is an enemy of tradition… people… constantly alter traditions to fit their lives; a static tradition is … a dead one” (kaplan 1986: 3). more importantly, authenticity always lies in “its perception in the public mind” (shelton 1990). in not recognizing north american chinese food as real “chinese,” the young chefs overlook the role these dishes played in preparing customers for the emergence of what < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 they define as more “traditional chinese food.” dishes such as peking duck, kung pao chicken and sweet and sour pork, that are shared by menus of chinese restaurants in newfoundland and those in larger chinese centers, provide customers, particularly chinese customers, with a foundation from which to discuss their perceptions of chinese food. in the negotiation, they may be able to ask for the more “authentic” or “traditional” presentation. based on my observation as a server at the magic wok eatery, both chinese customers and those non-chinese customers who have been exposed to foodways in china are more apt to have specific requests for how they want their food to be prepared. for example, when they order ma po tofu, they might ask for chinese cabbage instead of mixed vegetables and to have chinese pepper in the dish. the transformation of chinese food also reflects the functions of chinese restaurants as places that “assist the customer to relate and interpret what is presented to him and to appreciate the novelty in a different cuisine” (rosenberg 1990), and places “in which customers can encounter the other, while not straying too far from their own tastes” (lu and fine 1995:348). conclusion in st john’s, chinese foodways are defined differently based on the participants’ knowledge and experiences. similar to the concept of tradition as mutable and contingent (hobsbawm and ranger 1984), and often “understood as a process of cultural construction” (glassie 2003:179), authenticity is also a “locally constructed folk idea” (lu and fine 1995: 538). in many cases, the judgment of whether a dish is authentically chinese is based on neither its taste nor cooking style but on pre-existing concepts of authenticity and power. these concepts are constructed during interactions among members of different cultural groups who vie for the authority to define “authenticity.” lily cho contends: “as i have argued elsewhere, ‘diasporic are not just there. they are not simply collections of people, communities of scattered individuals bound by some shared history, race or religion… rather, they have a relation to power. they emerge in relation to power” (2007:15). chinese restaurants therefore become a forum where different groups discuss, negotiate, create, recreate and renegotiate what they believe to be authentic chinese food. authenticity thus becomes a technical strategy to separate “us” and “others,” and more thoughtfully, becomes a resource reserved for chinese, who, through identifying authentic chinese food, obtain the power to negotiate chineseness. in fact, shun lu and gary alan fine see that “neither type of restaurant, whether consumption-or connoisseur-oriented, has authenticity as its primary goal. tradition as such is not the primary object of concern for social actors” (lu and fine 1995:547). lily cho’s analysis clearly reflects this idea: what that chineseness is, whether or not it is an accurate or authentic < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 reflection of chinese culture, is not the point. it is the very openness to interpretation, the very fact that these restaurants do not offer a static and authorial claim to chineseness, that renders them as such fine counterpublic spaces. they do not constitute a republic of difference, but rather a counterpublic of uncertain and constantly negotiated differences. in this sense, they do not resolve the problem of home and homelessness for diaspora. instead, they offer a crucial mediating space through which that problem can be staged and navigated (2010:129). likewise, many people of chinese descent understand the pursuit of authenticity in the restaurant business to be an impossible mission because, as joseph mo says, it is impossible to judge a dishes cooked in one restaurant more authentic than the one cooked in another place. i understand authenticity in the way that somebody can cook exactly the same as the creator of this dish when it first came out. however, nobody can do it, even the master who teaches you. how can you say yours is authentic? what we can do is to do it traditionally. you are always learning and cooking in a tradition no matter what tradition is (joseph mo 2013). turgeon and pastinelli write, “food is mobile, multivocal, and polysemic,” that it is able to move “from one group to another,” express “different voices,” and “take on different meanings depending on the intention of the consumers” (turgeon and pastinelli 2002: 250). chinese food in newfoundland conveys what these authors describe as “a set of alternative values: tradition, continuity, authenticity, and pluralism” (2002: 256). chinese food in this case is rooted in various chinese culinary traditions, which are brought with and maintained by chinese immigrants, and the larger newfoundland context, which over time has evolved from a relatively closed, homogeneous population to a more open and multicultural society. newfoundland’s chinese culinary history provides an example of how people positioned in divergent culinary streams continuously negotiate their perceptions of the “authentic” chinese food in light of these shifting cultural dynamics. < li, mu. ruth. “negotiating chinese culinary traditions in newfoundland” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 references cited abrahams, roger. 1984. equal opportunity eating: a structural excursus on things of the mouth. in ethnic and regional foodways in the united states: the performance of group identity, eds. brown, linda keller & kay mussell, 19-36. knoxville: university of tennessee press. anonymous. 1906. demand for rice. trade review. november 24. bannister, kelly, maui solomon and conrad g. brunk. 2009. appropriation of traditional knowledge: ethics 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society 2014 notes 1 in the daily news on august 19th, 1895, his name was called soo-oo-hin. margaret walsh cheng and miriam yu use “wang chang” in their article (cheng 1978:3, yu 1986:19), but john kenneth sparrow calls him “sue hoo hing” in his report (sparrow 2006: 6). they all indicate that this is the person who founded the first chinese laundry with fong choy. the reason for this confusion is likely caused by the pronunciations of different chinese dialects. 2 according to this act, every chinese person, except members of the diplomatic corps, clergymen, tourists and some other favored categories, had to pay the tax to get entry into newfoundland (evening telegram april 21, 1906). in addition, it also placed a limit of one chinese passenger per every fifty tons weight per ship. in canada, the chinese immigration act was first introduced in 1906 and in 1923, similar to the law of the united states, a new version of chinese immigration act was enacted to exclude all chinese immigration. these discriminatory acts were removed after the world war ii when canada joined the united nation (for more information, see peter li 1998 and edgar wickberg et al 1982). in 2006, prime minister stephen harper apologized on behalf of canadian government for this historical mistake. 3 this treaty allowed american cargo ships to access to the five chinese ports that were forced open to the british as a result of the first opium war between china and the great britain in 1840. microsoft word lead-shultz-digest 2018-2019-galley.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 3-18 © american folklore society 2020 “she did what?!”: married women’s renegotiation of kitchen mistakes through narrative1 sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship 2018 by: sarah t. shultz abstract: the act of preparing food the “right” way can be a source of tension between spouses. in interviews conducted with heterosexual married couples in rural kentucky and rural and urban pennsylvania, stories of stressful or disastrous cooking mistakes are reimagined by wives as being about times when they successfully “got away” with something or pulled one over on their husbands. in these reimaginings, the events in question are presented as humorous examples of the women’s resourcefulness. this paper explores these kinds of narratives and their ability to serve as opportunities for women to reclaim and reshape these experiences of kitchen mishaps and mistakes. keywords: practical jokes; personal experience narratives; gender; cooking mistakes; kitchen fails; foodways in baking as biography: a life story in recipes, diane tye explores the role that foodways played in the life of her mother, laurene. tye recounts an incident in which her mother accidentally used tea leaves instead of brewed tea while baking, noting: “and, as my father is still fond of telling, it was a neighbouring woman who gently told my mother after an early unsuccessful attempt at baking that recipes calling for tea required brewed tea, not tea leaves” (2010:11). after reading this passage, i called my mother and read it to her. while i expected her to share in my amusement, i was unprepared for her to reply with two similar stories of her own, one of which involved her attempt to make a coffee cake with coffee grounds rather than brewed coffee. this conversation got me thinking about the stories people tell about the mistakes they make in the kitchen: when and with whom do they share them, and what forms do their stories take? to answer some of these questions, i conducted group and individual interviews with men and women of various ages and backgrounds about their cooking mistake stories over a period of three months in the fall of 2016, work which eventually became my master’s thesis. after a process of trial and error i came to think of these narratives as “kitchen nightmare stories,” in which the events being recounted were stressful or unfortunate, but also potentially funny or silly. at the beginning of this project, i struggled to find a way to articulate what i was looking for to the people i spoke with. the term kitchen “mistake” felt too negative, while kitchen “mishap” felt too mild, and seemed more likely to elicit anecdotes about dropping a utensil while cooking than a full-blown narrative. “kitchen fail” was effective at conveying both the scale and tone of what i was looking for to younger interviewees, but a lot of older people i interviewed had a harder time connecting to this term. in my first few interviews i went with the term “disaster.” this worked for my interviewees, who seemed to relish its potential to be used hyperbolically for the sake of humor. but in 4 shultz, “she did what?!,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) discussing my project with other folklorists i was reminded that the term “disaster” has most commonly been used in the serious context of the study of the role of personal narrative in helping individuals and communities to make sense of and heal from serious traumatic events (lindahl 2012 and horigan 2010, among others). i ultimately settled on the term “kitchen nightmares” because i felt that it allowed space for both the humor and the unfortunate aspects of the events being related to come through in the narratives without the more serious connotations of a word like “disaster.” it is also worth noting that many times the interviewees supplied their own terms for their stories that they felt were a better fit. some of these terms were “fiasco,” “catastrophe,” “calamity,” “shitshow,” and in a few cases, “disaster.” i attempted to speak with people who prepare food together in a variety of contexts, including several family groups, roommates, co-workers, and neighbors. i also spoke with a few people individually. ultimately i recorded 13 interviews with 25 people altogether (10 men and 15 women) ranging in age from 19 to 70 years old. because kitchen nightmare stories can be told by anyone, this project was not focused on a specific place or group of people. instead i focused my research in western kentucky, where i was finishing my master’s degree, and in my home area of central, southeastern, and western pennsylvania, where i have family. i relied on friends, family, co-workers and professors for connections to prospective interviewees. many of the people i spoke with early on in this project recommended i reach out to their own friends, family, and co-workers. this strategy made it possible to compare kitchen nightmare stories from two different regions of the united states, as well as those from rural areas with urban settings like philadelphia and pittsburgh. this paper explores a specific type of kitchen nightmare story that emerged regularly in interviews with women 50 or older throughout the rural and urban areas of kentucky and pennsylvania that i investigated. all were married to men or in long-term relationships with them. they recount a time when the woman successfully hid a kitchen mistake from her male partner, only to reveal it to him later on. one of the interesting features of several of these narratives was a motif in which the women would explain the “food rules” of their husbands: the list of allowed food pairings as well as the cooking taboos that must not be violated during the creation of a meal. in the narratives discussed in the present work, the complicating action was the narrator’s violation of her partner’s food rules. during interviews, the women would explain how the rules had been broken, and then describe the actions they took to hide these violations, effectively “pulling one over” on the partner. in retelling these stories in the interview context, the women typically reconfigured the events of the narratives in more positive ways, transforming stressful experiences into both humorous memories and examples of their resourcefulness and ability to remain cool under pressure. these narratives thus took on elements of a practical joke, with the men playing roles of hapless dupes. this strategy of reconfiguring kitchen nightmares through narrative provided the storytellers with ways to resist traditional ideas about gender and domesticity. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 5 after briefly exploring the gendered dynamics of the interviewees’ food experiences, this paper presents a few examples of this “violation of partner’s food rules” motif to show how the women employed it strategically to resist these gendered dynamics. i conclude with some complicating factors and suggested areas for further research. because of its constant presence in day-to-day life, and its central status in many important ritual occasions and holidays, food carries great significance and emotional weight for many people. as michael owen jones points out, food can be useful as a tool that helps people think about themselves and perform their identities for others (2007). it is not surprising, then, that food often plays a major part in gender role stereotypes. in european and north american culture, the social world has traditionally been divided into two distinct spheres, the public and the private (habermas 1989), which have been understood to be segregated by gender. the public sphere, the realm of business and politics, is the world of men, while the private or domestic sphere is the primary domain of women (berkovitch 1999, elshtain 1981, gavison 1992, matthews 1987, nicholson 1984, okin 1979).2 as the male and female genders have been understood to have their own mutually exclusive spheres of influence and expertise, the skillful performance of tasks associated with either sphere became inextricably linked to gender performance as well. the procurement and preparation of food is intertwined with these notions of masculinity and femininity at a basic level: it is the man’s responsibility to provide the food, and the woman’s responsibility to prepare it well and serve it in a timely manner. this worldview solidified in the united states in the 1800s (cf. hattery 2009: 97-104),3 and arguably reached its actual and ideological apex in american society in the 1950s (inness 2001). while ideas about the appropriate roles for men and women have changed over time, these “traditional” nineteenthand twentieth-century ideas about gender still hold significant sway in american society. because of the cultural weight placed on providing and preparing food in the context of the performance of gender, the kitchen sometimes becomes a space of tension and negotiation for power between women and men in heterosexual partnerships. folklorists have studied how women have developed strategies to cope with the pressure to be talented and cheerful providers of domestic equilibrium. susan s. lanser argues that women can sometimes escape from the expectations of their male partners and society at large by claiming incompetence in the kitchen. in the 1993 essay “burning dinners: feminist subversions of domesticity,” she claims that, for some women, doing the cooking badly is not an actual lack of talent, but a subversive rejection of socially expected domestic responsibilities. rather than a simple statement of fact, claiming to be a “bad cook” can be seen as a coded refusal of the traditionally feminine role of homemaker: women claim incompetence when they assert that they cannot cook, bake, knit, sew, or keep a clean house . . . . women demonstrate incompetence when they do one of these tasks poorly—leave it incomplete, neglect it, or spoil it in some way. our hypothesis is that such performances may function as coded rejections not only of the task in question but also of a culturally constructed female role. like 6 shultz, “she did what?!,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) all coded phenomena, strategic displays of incompetence are inevitably doublevoiced and double-edged, but precisely for this reason they allow a woman to say “i can’t” when she means but cannot say “i won’t.” (1993: 42). in documenting narratives for this project, i heard accounts of women’s incompetence in the kitchen that i suspect may be examples of the kind of coding that lanser describes. one woman told me a story about an aunt who once famously baked an unbeaten egg into a pie. when the pie was cut, one slice contained the still-whole egg baked under the crust. after that incident, the woman told me her aunt was “never allowed” to bake the pies for holiday gatherings again. i also found that there were other, more resistant strategies that women could use in order to cope with the pressures of domesticity—although these more aggressive techniques did not tend to offer the same long-term respite from food work as the coding strategies lanser identifies. by reframing accounts of their disagreements with their partners over some aspect of cooking or serving food, or retelling a story of a time when they were able to “get away” with some cooking mistake, these women were able to relive the events in their narratives from a place of greater agency by presenting them as funny, even if there was nothing humorous about what happened at the time of the events they described. while the majority of interviewees in heterosexual relationships seemed to view their partnerships as happy and fulfilling, issues of power imbalances and negotiations involving food came up often. when asked to describe her early attempts at cooking, one older woman replied, “i started to cook when i got married because i had to. my husband certainly wasn’t going to do it.” another woman described her late spouse as a man who refused to cook but felt entitled to dictate how different dishes should taste. if something did not live up to his ideas of what it should be, he simply would not eat it. another told the following story about a time when she spent several hours preparing a new dish for her husband to try, only for him to refuse to taste it because it looked unusual: rhoda4: i was fixing that [coq au vin]. we lived at the lake at the time. and ben [her husband], ah, on the weekend he would be out on the boat a lot, and he would be drinking beer with his buddies. and he would come in all sunburned and not in great shape sometimes. but, i had spent all day making this. i even had julia child’s cookbook and everything. and i was really, really on the ball and i spent all day. made this, he came in, and he sat down, and i set his plate before him, and he looked, “mm, nuh uh, there’s no way i’m gonna eat that purple chicken.” it was good. i didn’t try it because i was so mad at him [laughs]. but, the people down the street really enjoyed it. [laughs] i just took it down, i said “here, you can have ben’s purple chicken.” many of these narratives about power imbalances dwell on the subject of what men will and will not eat, based on the set of food rules each man expects his wife to adhere to. a lot of these food rules have to do with what foods can be eaten as digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 7 accompaniments with other foods, the order in which foods will be eaten, and the desired standard of cleanliness in food preparation and serving. occasionally the food rules were described to me by the men themselves, or collaboratively with their wives or girlfriends, as in the following example from matt and polly, a married couple from rural pennsylvania: polly: well, here’s the thing. in matt’s realm of food that he likes, there’s definitely, there’s definitely favorites. and we would probably have, at least three of the things would be in constant rotation. one of them being steak. and with the steak, you have to have this marinelli sauce which is like a marinara sort of. and you have to eat it with linguine and no other kind of pasta. ever. he has rules in his food that are— matt: that’s the way you ate it. polly: —kind of ridiculous sometimes. matt: that’s the way you ate it. matt was unperturbed by polly’s characterization of his food rules as “kind of ridiculous,” insisting twice, “that’s the way you ate it.” he went on to recite a long list of his other food rules, which included only eating one specific brand of potato chips with a tuna sandwich and another with a ham sandwich, having to eat salad as a dessert course after a specific pasta dish, and drinking chocolate milkshakes at only the perfect “medium thick” consistency to counteract an upset stomach. he also insisted on having a spotless kitchen. on the surface these rules seem a little silly, as polly suggested, but many of the kitchen nightmare stories this couple shared included the violation of one or more of these rules. one specific incidence of this violation is more thoroughly explored later in this essay. in several anecdotes and stories shared by women with partners who are men, the women described either a potentially tense situation with their spouse, or a time when they succeeded in covering up a cooking mistake or a violation of one of the partner’s food rules without him knowing about it. though the events recounted in these narratives were mostly not perceived as humorous at the time they took place, they were told as funny later on. some are short, recalibrations of characterizations of events that may only be told once, while others became full-fledged personal experience narratives over time. as an example of the first kind, here is an exchange from an interview i conducted with an older couple at their home in kentucky one afternoon. the woman is a prizewinning baker, and was giving me tips on the best way to bake cakes that come out evenly and are easy to stack: sharon: and another, another little secret when you’re doing your batter? this cake, i’ve made a cake today, got up this morning and made it, ‘cause i wanted you to have some. and, but anyway, i always use a measuring cup 8 shultz, “she did what?!,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) and fill them about the same amount. it’s a little over two cups in each pan that i cook. but then after you get it poured in your pan, to get it level? [pounds hands on table] jar it before you put it in the oven. just keep jarring it. and get all the bubbles? sarah: yeah. sharon: air out of the batter? sarah: yeah. sharon: and it’ll be more even for you. now sometimes i do have them come out where they’re a little lopsided and everything . . . walter: and when you bang on the countertop you know you don’t want to do that when anybody’s asleep in the house. [laughter] sharon: which i, i cook a lot when he’s in the bed. that’s why he’s saying that. i probably woke you up this morning didn’t i? walter: yeah. sharon: jarring the pans. well, it’s time for you to get up anyway. i am not sure to what extent sharon and walter consider their relationship to be in line with stereotypical gender roles as described above, but they are religious christians, and sharon assumes many traditionally feminine tasks, spending a great deal of time in the kitchen cooking and baking for her husband, children, grandchildren, and friends. the act of jarring the cake pans could be read as a coded moment of protest against a social system which allows for men to sleep in while women are expected to get up early to prepare for anticipated guests. furthermore, sharon used a humorous one-liner in the retelling of what happened earlier in the day explicitly to criticize walter’s sleeping in. he first brought up the fact that jarring the cake pans sometimes disturbed his sleep, jokingly suggesting that before i tried this trick, i should make sure that there wasn’t anyone sleeping in my house. sharon responded to this remark with, “well, it’s time for you to get up anyway.” in the moment during the interview, this statement implied that her husband had stayed in bed too long, and called attention to the fact that she was up working to prepare for company while he was still sleeping. in effect, sharon had turned the tables on him. both the act of banging the pans and her joking that it was time for him to get up were moments where sharon seemed to push back against her husband’s expectation that she would cheerfully take care of the domestic responsibilities in the home. in reframing the experience to be about his digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 9 apparent laziness rather than about her disruption of his sleep in front of an outsider, she put him on the spot in much the same way that the dupe of a practical joke is exposed. it became his responsibility to laugh along, to prove that he was a good sport and could take the joke (marsh 2015). but walter did not laugh along with sharon. instead, there was a brief silence before she changed the subject. his silence possibly indicated that he had refused to accept her reframing of the experience. at any rate, his reaction and sharon’s subsequent subject change signaled that the two had reached an impasse. sometimes, the dutiful housewife role is more openly and clearly resisted, as in the following case, where i interviewed a husband, todd, his wife ann, and their 28-yearold daughter, katie, at their home outside of pittsburgh, pennsylvania. the topic of conversation was todd’s list of food rules. in this specific case, todd was explaining his aversion to warm milk, and he and his wife and daughter were laughing about how difficult it is to drive home from the store quickly enough to keep from ruining it, in his estimation. then the following exchange took place: todd: so now, if the milk is sitting out for like half a minute, i’m flipping out, i’ve got to get it back in the fridge. they [his neighbors] traumatized me for life with warm milk for breakfast. ann: he’s the only person that likes milk so it’s like really, like, to us we don’t really care. but like yeah, if i’m stopping after work it’s like, “oh, we need milk but you can’t stop over there on that side of the river to bring it home. that’s, 20 minutes is too long.” and when we get it home, you have to get your milk close to home because it can’t stay in the car that long. and we’re never allowed to have it sit on the counter. [laughs] todd: and only a certain brand of milk is the best milk. sarah: which brand is it? todd: turner’s milk. sarah: turner’s. ann: i never buy turner’s milk. [laughs] todd: yeah. she’ll have cookies and milk and just leave the milk sit out just to see how long before i would say something. or just, i wouldn’t even say anything, just “ruh!” i, “ugh!” i go get the milk and huff and put it back in the fridge. [laughter] todd: and you [katie] and ann would just sit there and laugh. they thought it was the funniest thing. 10 shultz, “she did what?!,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) at this point in the conversation, we had been discussing todd’s food rules, and his aversion to warm milk, for roughly five minutes. when he mentioned his preferred brand of milk, ann wasted no time in pointing out that she never buys it, provoking laughter from everyone in the room. this statement served to disrupt the direction the conversation had been taking, and todd began to describe the warm milk-related pranks his wife and daughter play on him, and his own irritated reaction. the subject of conversation changed from the things ann had to do to make sure the milk was acceptable to her husband to a brief, appreciative summing up of all the ways she tests or breaks this particular food rule on a regular basis. in this case, refusing to buy the correct brand of milk or to put it back in the refrigerator in a timely manner can be viewed as good-natured jesting, or (perhaps and) as a coded critique of established ideas about the domestic responsibilities of women. as mentioned above, the acts being described also share some similarities with practical jokes. in the 2015 book practically joking, moira marsh points out the difficulty of defining just one form of practical joke or prank, and instead puts forth a few different types. despite the difficulty in defining the practical joke, marsh does provide this general guideline: all these activities are playful performances involving the interaction of two parties— trickster and dupe—who have mutually incompatible ideas about what is going on. the involvement of dupes seems to be an essential characteristic of the genre. the role of the dupe is relatively passive: the trickster acts and initiates while the dupe is acted upon. (8) marsh also notes the potential for cruelty and aggression in the form of practical joking or pranking, pointing out that: “any play activity that designates one of its major protagonists as a victim must contain a heavy dose of aggression, at the very least. a practical joke is always at someone’s expense, at least for a brief time” (3-4). in the stories i documented which dealt with the covering up of a kitchen mistake, this subversive exercise of power in the act of cooking and/or serving a meal also contained descriptions of womanly ingenuity and complicity. the majority of narratives embedding this theme dealt with a mistake taking place during the cooking or serving of a meal that the man of the house would have found unacceptable had he been aware of it. in the following narrative, ann from pittsburgh recalled what happened when her dog got up on the table and started eating from a bowl of spaghetti just before it was time to serve a large meal: ann: and one time—my mom would make like a huge bowl of spaghetti for dinner . . . so we had the table all set, spaghetti was on the table. and just her and i were upstairs, everyone else was kind of scattered. and we went to finish something to get it on and i turned around and my little terrier-mix dog was sitting on the table with her butt in the plate. with her head in the giant bowl of spaghetti eating away. [laughs] so my mom and digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 11 i looked at each other, and we scraped off the first layers of spaghetti, and we never told anyone. i told my dad that story like, like five years ago. he’s like “she did what?!” [laughs] but, snoid [the dog] was very happy. she had like found herself quite a feast. [laughs] that was quite a sight. [laughs] the “dad” that ann was referring to here was a man who really liked to keep things clean. to illustrate to me how important this was for him, ann shared that he had once famously dropped a donut on the kitchen floor. he picked it up, but instead of dusting it off or throwing it away, he walked over to the sink, rinsed it under the faucet and then sat down to eat it. the dog contaminated both the bowl of spaghetti—by eating out of it—and one of the plates—by sitting on it—so this scenario would have been deeply disturbing for ann’s father. she and her mother worked together to rectify the situation quickly by disposing of the contaminated spaghetti, and gathered the rest of the family for dinner without mentioning the incident. as ann mentioned, they never told anyone about it. years later, after her mother died, she finally told her father the story. later still, she told it to me, and this time her father’s horrified reaction to his wife’s behavior (“she did what?!”) served as a kind of punch line for the narrative. what happened was an accident, except on the part of the dog, but years later the discomfiture of the father transformed the mishap into a funny narrative in which ann and her mother were able to pull one over on him. in a few cases, i documented similar stories while the men who had acted as the dupes were actually present. in these instances, the man usually laughed along at his own expense, as in this example told by matt and polly: polly: well, ok so this is the pasta fagioli story. so i have to, i have to ah, set the backdrop, where . . . matt is a neat freak. and, you know, didn’t do well if things got bad. well one evening, i think beth was in high school, maybe a junior in high school. and beth is our daughter, by the way. so, matt was in this room [sunroom directly off of dining/kitchen area] watching tv after dinner. beth and i were making pasta fagioli, might have been a sunday or something. and we were in the kitchen, “blah, blah, blah,” and it’s got a heavy red sauce. and i, you know i make a big batch for whatever reason. and at one point i set it on the counter and kind of like pushed it back. i thought i pushed it back. and the counter was a little slippier than i thought? so it fell off of the counter into the dining area. it hit the dining room table and just went “pfft!” like, everywhere. i mean it was on the ceiling, and on the walls. and, so matt heard something fall and he’s like “what happened?” and beth and i were just like making faces at each other, saying “nothing, we’ve got it. it’s ok.” and then we’re like, she just like ran down the hall and got the towels and we’re like crazy wiping things up. he’s like “is everything alright?” “yeaaahh everything’s fine.” and we never, we didn’t tell him. and it was like, i don’t know when it was that— matt: i noticed there was some— 12 shultz, “she did what?!,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) polly: he spotted a dot on the ceiling— matt: like, “what’s on the ceiling?” and polly just burst out laughing. polly: oh my god, the panic mode we both went into cleaning that. looked like somebody got shot in there. both matt and polly found this story deeply funny. matt’s status as a “neat freak” was accepted without critique, as was the attempt by polly and beth to cover up what had happened. the exploding pot of pasta fagioli was an accident, and the dramatic reveal of the event when matt noticed a spot on the ceiling a few days later was unplanned. but this accident took on new life as a narrative that showcased the ingenuity of polly and her daughter, and implicitly poked fun at matt’s need to have a spotless home. as he sat unknowingly in the next room, his kitchen nightmare scenario played out and was quickly and successfully dealt with. he did not find any evidence of it until a few days later, at which point the mess had been cleaned up, and he was free to laugh along with his wife and daughter without having to deal with the aftermath of the spilled sauce firsthand. these conversational anecdotes and stories point to the ways in which women can use narrative to reframe moments of disagreement about food preparation or cooking failures more positively in the future. in the context of joking, they can recast themselves as resourceful and in control of the situation, and at times offer a pointed critique of the rules they are expected to follow. but what are the limits of this kind of coded or resistant act? how far does telling these stories go towards unsettling the traditional expectations that women will be competent, cheerful domestic workers? these are difficult questions to answer, especially since i do not wish to presume anything about the women who shared these stories with me, or their lives with their partners. to get at some of these issues, it may be useful to return to the first quote from moira marsh’s book above: “all these activities [types of practical jokes] are playful performances involving the interaction of two parties; trickster and dupe; who have mutually incompatible ideas about what is going on.” in the case of these narratives, the women who successfully hide their kitchen mishaps from their husbands take on the role of trickster. in the 1993 book mythical trickster figures: contours, contexts, and criticisms, william j. hynes provides a rough typology of characteristics that occur in trickster tales cross-culturally (34): at the heart of this cluster of manifest trickster traits is (1) the fundamentally ambiguous and anomalous personality of the trickster. flowing from this are such other features as (2) deceiver/trick-player, (3) shapeshifter, (4) situationinverter, (5) messenger/imitator of the gods, and (6) sacred/lewd bricoleur. in regards to his fourth point, hynes notes that tricksters serve to highlight the most valued beliefs of a society, and often invert a situation just to return things to normal in digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 13 the end, whether intentionally or not. there is a corollary here between hynes’s thoughts on tricksters and inversion and the kinds of narratives i documented about women breaking a food rule or violating a taboo in the kitchen. although the kitchen nightmare scenarios described in these stories were not purposeful or intentionally mischievous or malicious, they do represent moments in which the normal order was disrupted. whether they acknowledged them as silly or not, these men expected their food rules to be followed. and, as far as they knew during the events recounted by their wives, the rules were being followed. the revelation that the women deliberately hid these transgressions, or cut corners in fixing the problem, contorts the image of the cheerful, efficient wife who strives to create domestic bliss for her family. instead, these wives get tired and fed up. they are willing to hide things from their husbands to save themselves some trouble and time, and their stories about covering up these mistakes often reveal a number of stresses embedded in their attempts to live up to domestic expectations. the fact that they recast these events as funny stories in which the listener is invited to laugh at the husband as a clueless victim, rather than at the wife for failing to follow the rules successfully, makes the situation even more disorienting. the men present for the telling of these narratives were chiefly good sports, cheerfully laughing along and sometimes adding self-deprecating comments themselves. but these particular kitchen nightmare narratives have the potential to be threatening and disruptive in a society that continues to place so much importance on the successful performances of masculinity and femininity. as ricki stefani tannen points out in the female trickster: the mask that reveals (2007: 159): women’s humor tends to attack through subversion the deliberate choices of the powerful; their hypocrisies, affectations and the mindless following of the acquisitive and consumption oriented social status quo. the way that women’s humor challenges authority—its subversive method—is by refusing to take it seriously. this is why the female trickster is more dangerous than the traditional trickster, who may serve a cathartic purpose in letting steam off from the symbolic order. the traditional trickster, although testing boundaries, leaves the basic configuration, the existence of the social order, very much untouched. women using humor become dangerous because they do not want or intend to stop at the steam venting stage . . . . think of the laughter of bertha as she burns down the house in jane eyre. tannen argues persuasively for the transgressive power of the female trickster, and there are elements of this threatening, deconstructive humor in the “pulling one over” kitchen nightmare stories featured here. but while there is a moment of resistance in these narratives, there does not seem to be the focused intent to burn the house down. these retellings often occur months or years after the incident itself, when the women can be said to have definitively “gotten away with” the transgression and feel safe revealing what they have done to their partners, friends, and family members. the women telling the stories all seemed very aware of the rules for food preparation, and described themselves as rushing to try to cover up the violation of these rules before 14 shultz, “she did what?!,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) the men found out what happened. ann introduced the story about snoid and the spaghetti by saying, “not, well, that’s so funny. because my dad would never approve of this.” polly described the attempt to clean up the errant pasta fagioli as going into “panic mode,” and ended the story with the observation, “looked like somebody got shot in there,” which is both wonderfully descriptive and shockingly violent, considering the narrative is about a dropped pot of sauce. most importantly, all of these stories were told in the context of sharing kitchen nightmare narratives. at first it seemed unusual to me that these stories, which were about the successful cover-up of a mistake, would be told along with accounts of dropping pans of lasagna into a hot oven or slicing open a finger. but the narrators considered these incidents “nightmares” because of the stress that occurred when the food rules were violated. the fact that they were successfully able to cover up what went wrong appears to be of secondary importance. all of the stories i documented that shared this theme were lighthearted. they were presented as humorous recountings of the foibles of both partners, and while it seemed clear that a discovery that the food rules had been compromised might have caused an argument in the moment, it did not appear that there had been any long-term negative consequences for the woman partner as a result of the kitchen mishap being described. but the kitchen can be a heavily contested space, where power struggles of varying degrees of seriousness are played out on a daily basis. with that in mind, i should note that it did not seem that there was any relaxing of the food rules by the husbands as a result of the humorous treatment of their expectations in these women’s narratives. reframing these incidents as funny stories that both the dupes and outsiders are invited to laugh at seems to provide women with the opportunity to exert a potentially disruptive influence, but only briefly. conclusion i have explored the ways that acts of food preparation and storytelling about “pulling one over” on masculine authority figures can serve as opportunities for women to resist gendered expectations—that they will take full and near-constant responsibility for providing meals for the family in accordance with the food rules of the man of the house. both of these acts allow women to express a kind of veiled aggression towards the husband and his food rules, and provide the wives with opportunities to resist the status quo, albeit temporarily. these kinds of narratives and anecdotes were only told by older, straight, women, married to men or in long-term partnerships with them. younger women and women in different kinds of relationships may also have and share these kinds of stories, but i suggest there could be a generational difference in the kinds of kitchen nightmare stories that women tell at various stages of their lives. in contrast, younger women in committed heterosexual relationships most often told kitchen nightmare narratives about attempting to put together an elaborate meal for their boyfriends only to have things fall apart spectacularly. these stories seem to be about the embarrassment of failing at performing femininity through cooking, and often include an evaluation either about how nice and understanding their boyfriends were about the situation, or how funny they found it. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 15 men also told stories about transgressing a food or cooking-related boundary of their wives or girlfriends, as in the following example from todd: todd: but the next cooking, we were making potato soup. ann: that’s exactly what i was going to say. yep. todd: so, ann’s out there, she’s making it. and, it, she’s stirring it up and i’m looking at it. my family always made theirs real thick. and, more like a milk, it almost looked like. so i say, just married, say, “that doesn’t look how my mother makes it.” sarah: oh no. ann: “when’s it gonna get thick,” or something, “like my mom’s?” todd: you know, like my mother’s. i think you said, “you can go to your mother’s and get it,” or something like that. [laughter] interestingly, ann still appeared to get the upper hand here, as the “punch line” of the narrative was her suggesting that todd should return home to his mother if he was unsatisfied with how she made potato soup. but the humor of the story was also based on stereotypical and potentially misogynistic ideas about how mothers-in-law and new wives will struggle for control over the domestic environment of a man, and it depicted the woman cooking as being deeply concerned with her ability to cook potato soup correctly. rather than resisting, the humor here seemed to be maintaining the status quo. the sample size for this project is much too small to draw any definite conclusions about the power or limits of these “pulling one over” tales to resist dominant cultural expectations for women’s domestic competence. however my research does suggest that individual women in heterosexual relationships can use these transformed kitchen nightmare narratives as tools. using them, they can 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(shultz 2017). 2 for a comprehensive overview of these concepts, see the entries on “domestic” and “public” in the 2017 anthology keywords for american cultural studies. 3 a lot of work has been done by scholars in various fields on the creation and maintenance of the public and private spheres in american culture. hattery’s work (2009) offers a succinct history of the idea as it applies to issues of gender specifically. 4 all names used are pseudonyms. microsoft word review-lazendorfer-food and power-galley-4-18-20.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 71-72 © american folklore society 2020 review of: food and power: a culinary ethnography of israel nir avieli. oakland, california: university of california press, 2018. pp. 274, index. review by: judith lanzendorfer ____________________________________________________________ in food and power: a culinary ethnography of israel, nir avieli underscores power relationships related to food in israel. the current volume spans over twenty years of data collection and includes observations of various levels of insider intimacy—ranging from the israeli anthropologist’s ethnographic practices in his home country to more personal autobiographical materials. avieli is transparent about how his analysis of collected materials is complicated by his status as an “insider” to the culture. at times this status is helpful, because it gives him access to communities that otherwise would be inaccessible. as presented especially in chapter 5, “meat and masculinity in a military prison,” avieli’s status as a military reservist stationed at mediggo gave him unique access to the prison environment. at other times, though, avieli’s insider status obstructs analysis of his ethnographic data, as seen in the tense dynamic avieli finds between his role as reservist and role as phd candidate. situations where avieli acts the most “outsider,” such as in chapter 6, “thai migrant workers and the dog-eating myth,” reveal power dynamics more clearly and effectively. this book importantly underscores the delicate and often difficult balance of writing about communities in which one is a member. while focus varies, overall the chapters emphasize power dynamics related to food. some are thematically linked: chapters 1, “size matters,” and 3, “why we like italian food,” both orient around the theme of food value for instance. where chapter 1 focuses on israeli desires to eat large quantities of inexpensive food in order to get the most value for money, in chapter 3, avieli complicates his analysis of food value, arguing that eating italian food makes israelis feel more like members of the mediterranean community (framed as positive), rather than members of the middle eastern community (framed as negative). avieli’s community insider status in both chapters helps him to highlight a stereotype about israelis’ relationships to food, and then reveal deeper cultural anxieties below its surface. this repetition and complication of theme is important for readers to understand, though it would have been more apparent if the two chapters appeared in succession, rather than being separated by chapter 2, on “roasting meat.” “roasting meat” concerns israeli independence day barbeque parties and power dynamics associated with “saving one’s space” in public parks. it also makes a connection between meat and masculinity. because women and children typically eat cheaper meats compared to men, who enjoy more expensive ones, avieli infers a subtle privileging of masculinity in israeli society. 72 lanzendorfer, review, food and power digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) the author revisits the connection of food to masculinity in chapter 5, “meat and masculinity in a military prison.” here power reversals among palestinian prisoners, military police, and reserve soldiers at a military prison are exemplified through the quality and quantity of meat eaten at meals. this chapter most clearly highlights the delicate balance of status that a researcher needs to navigate, especially when one is both an insider (a reservist) and outsider (non-muslim and non-prisoner) to the community which is the subject of study. chapter 5 is particularly useful for researchers as an illustration of how difficulties can arise in ethnographic work when the ethnographer is personally invested in the community that is the subject of study. the final two communities discussed in avieli’s book emphasize the importance of hierarchy in israeli society. chapter 4, “mcdonaldization of the kibbutz dining room,” concentrates on dining room power relationships, including where one eats and with whom. chapter 6, “thai migrant workers and the dog-eating myth,” focuses on the erroneous belief that thai migrant workers eat dogs, a belief that supports the stereotype of thai workers as “uncivilized.” this stereotype justifies putting the thai immigrant population on the lowest rung of the social order, a common practice in israel with each new immigrant group. avieli’s juxtaposition of chapters 4 and 6 provides an interesting contrast in approaches and analyses between the purely insider perspective he represents as a former member of one of the kibbutz under study and the purely outsider perspective he brings to researching new thai immigrants. although there are inconsistencies in the quality of analysis avieli could achieve because of essential differences in practicing ethnography as an insider or outsider, overall food and power: a culinary ethnography of israel is well researched and argued. it is useful for folklorists interested in analyzing how specific foods can highlight issues of identity and power in society, and especially useful for students as a well-researched source of further readings. most importantly, the book affirms the delicate balance that researchers must maintain to negotiate insider/outsider status when writing about communities where they are members: where insider status can give access yet hinder analysis. avieli’s book reveals not only power dynamics associated with what we eat, but also how we, as a community member or as an outsider researcher within it, use food to establish our “place” in society. microsoft word wynn-review-hawai'i regional cuisine-final-2-17-21.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 171-172 © american folklore society 2021 review of: hawaiʻi regional cuisine: the food movement that changed the way hawaiʻi eats samuel hideo yamashita. honolulu: university of hawaiʻi press, 2019. pp. xii + 181, preface, maps, glossary, notes, selected bibliography, index. review by: katrina wynn ____________________________________________________________ in the book hawaiʻi regional cuisine: the food movement that changed the way hawaiʻi eats, historian samuel hideo yamashita offers a detailed account of the hawaiʻi regional cuisine (hrc) movement of the 1990s and 2000s. a dozen chefs launched this movement in a deliberate attempt to overhaul the fine dining scene in hawai’i by shifting the focus away from french cuisine, made with imported ingredients, to a locally-sourced hybrid cuisine based partially on french styles, but also adding asian and american elements. the book’s five chapters trace the history, development, and impact of the hrc movement and the careers of its founding chefs. the book begins with “origins,” which examines the impact of colonialism and americanism on the islands and the resulting fine dining culture. yamashita lays out the foundation for hawaiʻi regional cuisine, specifically one in which white male chefs cooking french food had come to dominate fine cuisine on the islands. this chapter provides a very informative overview of the historical development of fine cuisine in hawai’i. the achievements of the hrc chefs during the 1990s and 2000s, with a focus on their restaurants, awards, publicity, cookbooks, television appearances, and extensive networking with celebrity chefs, are detailed in the second chapter, “development.” yamashita goes into considerable detail about the chefs’ previous training and awards, likely in part to establish their culinary pedigrees. this encyclopedic information is perhaps most interesting to an audience of chefs, culinary historians, and enthusiasts. to folklorists and foodways scholars, it speaks to the importance of formal professional chef training, experience, mentorship, and robust apprenticeship traditions. i found maps of the locations of restaurants owned by hrc chefs a nice addition to the chapter. the next chapter, “cuisine,” follows the same timeline as chapter 2, but examines what and how the chefs cooked, based on their commitment to use local products and their general leaning toward euro-asian fusion cuisine. digest readers may find the introduction of the “dishes” section in chapter 3 interesting, as it discusses influences on the chefs, especially their own personal foodways and the regional cooking of hawaiʻi. the theory discussion, “semiotics” in this chapter, may also appeal to folklorists as it is the only place in the book where yamashita ventures an interpretive analysis of the hrc. the fourth chapter, “successors,” focuses on the 2010s and the directions in which six young “post-hrc” chefs took fine dining in hawaiʻi as they moved away from french cuisine and toward one based more on personal memories and local foodways— something of special interest to digest readers. 172 wynn, review, hawaiʻi regional cuisine, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020 the final chapter, “legacies,” examines how hrc chefs have influenced the food scene in hawaiʻi. in the section “food scene,” yamashita explains how the impact ranges from helping them open the door to women and people of color to increasing the prestige of a culinary career. he also explains how the hrc has affected hawaiʻian food production. digest readers may also find this chapter interesting because of its discussion about sustainability and the results of the booming food business on farming and fisheries supply chains. despite the detail, there is no discussion in the book about how most of the hrc chefs were not from hawaiʻi yet came to define fine dining cuisine in hawaiʻi. yamashita also examines the twelve hrc chefs in a kind of isolation, without placing them in the context of other fine dining chefs in hawaiʻi during the 1990s and 2000s nor establishing whether the hrc chefs had a horizontal impact as well as a vertical one. this narrow focus on the original hrc members undercuts yamashita’s argument about the prominence of the hrc movement. moreover, this book would have benefitted from significant editing to manage the level of detail more effectively. while the chapters are often dense with information, there is much repetition, not all supporting details seem relevant, and there are occasional abrupt one-line insertions of scholarly references from other fields that seem outside of the book’s scope. finally, updated information could have been included for events occasionally alluded to in the future tense when they are now many years in the past. at its core, however, hawaiʻi regional cuisine is an homage to the founding chefs of the hawaiʻi regional cuisine movement and is worth skimming for the satisfying nuggets. most digest readers may prefer to focus on the first chapter with its interesting history of hawaiʻian fine cuisine, and on each chapter’s clear and succinct conclusion. a letter from the editors: dear readers, once again this issue of digest reflects the diversity of foodways studies, taking readers across centuries, continents and cuisines. the two articles that open the issue examine recipes from wwi to the 1960s and from australia to canada. in “it’s the cake talking: theorizing the recipe memoir,” tara brabazon creates a recipe memoir of a family favorite, “chocolate goo.” brabazon argues that “the recipe memoir offers a window into an array of intricate social, cultural, gendered, classed, rural, regional and national histories.” it an approach echoed by brittany roberts in her examination of a short series of menus published in a st john’s, newfoundland newspaper during wwi. directed at middle class home-makers, the recipes reflect a particular ideal of patriotism that is both gendered and class-based. the two research notes that follow raise questions about food’s far reaching cultural impact. intersections of food and health are at the heart of theresa vaughan’s research note that explores recommendations on diet found in the trotula, a collection of writings out of twelfth century salerno while michael lange reflects on who gets to determine issues of quality and meaning in his research note based in present day vermont, “foodie influence on the culinary meanings of maple syrup.” the issue concludes with vintage ads, a wonderful recipe for stuffed baked fish, and two reflections on sharing personally meaningful recipes—or not—that comprise the amuse bouche section. last but not least, four book reviews introduce publications exploring kentucky, mexican, and caribbean foodways, as well as food activism. as digest enters its fourth year in its new, online format, we continue to bring the depth and breadth of foodways scholarship to our readers. we hope you read, learn, and enjoy. michael lange and diane tye, editors < stryker, kim d. “review of:the carrot purple and other curious stories of the food we eat.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 review of: the carrot purple and other curious stories of the food we eat. denker, joel s. london: rowman & littlefield, 2015. 315 pages, including bibliography and index. review by: kim d. stryker joel s. denker is a food writer and historian based in the washington, d.c. area, who has published two other books on food as well as reported for the boston globe and the washington post. in this book, the carrot purple, he has compiled interesting anecdotes about the origins and varied uses of some of the foods we commonly eat. organized alphabetically, from anise to watermelon, denker has selected “curious stories” of herbs, fruits, vegetables and nuts. using a wide range of historical sources, denker uncovers how these crops found their way from ancient caucasian forests and persian orchards and onto our modern grocery shelves. in the author’s words, the “journey of foods from obscurity to familiarity” (denker 2015:3). for example, the carrot of the book’s title, which we consider to be the very exemplar of orangeness, denker explains was originally more valued for its greens than its puny root, and was purple, before cultivation yielded the sweet and sunsethued vegetable we know today (60). while i was not surprised by purple carrots, i’ve seen them often enough at farmer’s markets, i did enjoy learning about the different attitudes towards certain foods and how they changed over time. evidently, the cucumber was perceived as a nefarious food upon introduction from the far east to the british isles. the vegetable’s cool, moist nature was interpreted as a harbinger of sickness and death (123). denker quotes a 16th-century english expression: “raw cucumber makes the churchyards prosperous” which tells of the suspicion this plant was held in. yet, in the hot dry climates of india, egypt and greece, the cucumber was highly prized both for parching thirst and for its fecund properties (122). < stryker, kim d. “review of:the carrot purple and other curious stories of the food we eat.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 denker interprets the growing habits, shapes, and colors of certain foods through the lens of the cultures they were found in and imbued with significance. each story reveals some of the associated cultural values connected to foods, whether they were despised or prized, taboo or medicinal. denker chose not to write a continuous narrative, rather each food has its own entry, making it more likely that readers will enjoy it a few food stories at a time, rather than reading it cover to cover. in this way, the carrot purple is reminiscent of the old folklore miscellanies, such as myths and legends of flowers, trees, fruits, and plants: in all ages and climes compiled by charles m. skinner in 1911. as a collection of anecdotes, the carrot purple may have been improved by the addition of full color illustrations or even maps to chart the progress of foods across continents. the first line of denker’s chapter on chocolate asks: “have you ever seen the tropical cacao tree that is native to the rain forests of central and south america? even a photo of it? the image is arresting” (90). but where is the arresting image? instead the book gives us a black-and-white photo of some gloomy cacao pods. there is a rather unequal treatment of some foods in this collection. poor arugula is covered in scantly more than two pages, whilst the lowly chickpea gets a full court press at seven pages. there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to why certain foods are more fully covered or even left out altogether, other than the author’s choice, which can be a bit frustrating to the reader. one can understand leaving out the story behind the peach, when the author has covered its close cousin, the apricot perhaps, but to exclude the apple completely seems an odd oversight. capers are explored, but not coconuts; lentils are expounded upon, but not lettuce. the lack of consistency in denker’s approach irritated my sense of order, but casual readers may not be bothered. additionally, more could have been done to weave these stories together, perhaps situating these food histories in the context of today’s debates about the future of food, gmos, and the rapid expansion of global cultural exchange. in his discussion of cinnamon and the role the spice trade played in the expansion of european colonization of southeast asia (98-100), denker begins to expand the narrative, but then seems to lose steam. perhaps because the author’s strength is in historical research, or he takes it for granted as common knowledge, which explains why he fails to fully investigate the modern methods of cultivation in a contemporary context. there is one such missed opportunity is his conclusion to the story of < stryker, kim d. “review of:the carrot purple and other curious stories of the food we eat.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 chocolate. after a fascinating discussion of the discovery of cacao in the new world by european explorers and the spread of colonization, denker fails to even mention the american chocolate giants hershey and mars, or to examine the unequal benefits of chocolate profiteering and the adverse effects western demand has in terms of environmental and labor consequences. but then, the carrot purple is merely trying to interest and amuse readers, so perhaps i am expecting too much from this author. the carrot purple is most engaging when denker weaves his own experiences into the story. his writing can be evocative and pull us along into uncovering the mysteries behind a food, as he does with the entry on cloves. denker’s opening sentences to the chapter pull the reader along into exotic zanzibar: “the steamy tropical air of the indian ocean was thick with spicy fumes. aromatic droplets fragrant with cloves filled the atmosphere. a recent college graduate teaching in dar es salaam […], i walked through the harbor during a brief sojourn on the island off the east coast of tanzania” (101). his best writing carries the reader into the adventure of discovering the stories behind food. denker stays true to his mission, as stated in the introduction, to synthesize the findings of wide range of expert food scholars and boil it all down for better consumption by a popular audience (2). from pliny the elder’s documentation of the use of anise among the ancient romans, to shakespeare’s frequent mention of onions, and from 17th-century botanist nicholas culpeper’s expertise on medicinal plant usage to 20th-century harold mcgee’s scientific analysis of cooking processes, the carrot purple gives readers a wellresearched introduction to the hidden stories behind common foods. references cited skinner, charles m. 1911. myths and legends of flowers, trees, fruits, and plants: in all ages and climes. philadelphia: j.b. lippincott. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) ©american folklore society 2021 147 authors and contributors for digest 8:1/2 (2021) articles: john broadwell is a recent graduate of middle tennessee state university, where he earned his m.a. in public history. his research there focused on lgbtq+ student groups at christian colleges and universities in the south. he also holds a b.a. in history teaching from lipscomb university in nashville. currently, john is working at a small historical society in maine. in 2020, he worked as a researcher for the comfort/discomfort foodways project at the center for food and culture, developing resource materials, conducting and transcribing interviews, participating in the symposium, and adding content to the exhibit. roshni caputo-nimbark is a ph.d. candidate in folklore at memorial university of newfoundland. her academic interests include rethinking economies in terms of masked, mundane, and devalued performance, intersections of economy and ecology, and dynamic conceptions of heritage. she considers the varied and often contradictory influences of affective heritage and perceived profitability in food growers’ encounters with ecological and economic precarity in rural newfoundland. karin murray-bergquist is a ph.d. student in folklore at memorial university of newfoundland. as well as the ghost ship map of newfoundland and labrador, karin's research interests include sea mammals in old norse sources, as well as the work of the romantic poets. outside of academia, karin is a writer, poet, and actor, and one half of the practical fantasists creative team. quinlan day odum received an m.a. in public history from middle tennessee state university. she participated in the comfort/discomfort foodways project at the center for food and culture as a researcher, contributing materials on public history and conducting and transcribing interviews. she also participated in the symposium and development of the exhibit. jerry lee reed, iii is an independent scholar in north carolina. currently serving as an academic advisor at a community college, jerry holds an m.a. in popular culture and a b.s. in education from bowling green state university. his primary research interests are in folklore, foodways, and youth culture. he serves the center for food and culture as the associate project director for the finding comfort/discomfort through foodways project, where he assisted in overseeing and managing the project, including running the virtual symposium. he also helped develop and maintain the online exhibit. hannah m. santino is a ph.d. candidate in sociology at the university of limerick, ireland where she specializes in sociology of health and illness. she earned a masters degree in ethnochoreology at ul in 2017 and participated in and taught irish step dancing for much of her childhood and youth. for the comfort/discomfort foodways project, she helped develop materials on ethnographic methods, conducted and transcribed interviews, and participated in the virtual symposium and online exhibit. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) ©american folklore society 2021 148 ainjel stephens is a ph.d. student at memorial university of newfoundland in the folklore department. she obtained her ma in english from the university in guelph, where her research focused on masculinity in canonical fairy tales. juliana young is a second-year master’s student in the department of folklore at memorial university of newfoundland. she is interested in food’s involvement in identity formation, the relationship between fibre arts and gender identity, and the connections between the folk music traditions of diverse cultures. she obtained her bachelor’s in english from the university of winnipeg. minglei zhang, also known as hart bullock, is a doctoral student and instructor of environmental communication and gender studies in the department of communication and journalism, university of maine. his research examines the media’s involvement in shaping cultural processes and practices across historical and contemporary contexts, focusing on cultural diversity and exclusion, the public sphere, and memory. he also writes more broadly on digital media and the interdisciplinary development of communication and media studies. for the comfort/discomfort foodways project, he conducted and transcribed interviews, participated in the virtual symposium, and contributed to the online exhibit. research notes: israt jahan lipa is a ph.d. student in the department of folklore at memorial university of newfoundland, st. john’s, canada. she is graduated from department of anthropology, comilla university, cumilla-3506, bangladesh. during her graduation program, mainly cultural anthropology was her area of study. material culture, foodways, folk belief and social research methodological issues are her major research interests. in her professional career, she is a faculty member in the department of anthropology, comilla university, bangladesh since december, 2018. she aspires to explore cultural diversity and folk life through her research works. dana e. modell is a clinical social worker working as a therapist in massachusetts, dana is a second year folklore master’s student at memorial university of newfoundland. she/they recently co-authored the chapter “trauma informed teaching for trauma courses: a practical guide,” in trauma in adult and higher education: conversations and critical reflections. dana holds an msw from salem state university and a ba in english from umass boston. her/their research interests include lived experience, personal narrative, belief systems, and customs of meaning in day-to-day life. amuse bouche: jillian gould is associate professor in the department of folklore, memorial university. she loves to eat and bake and write about food. she is interested in the ways that nonorthodox jews are connected to judaism (either deliberately or unselfconsciously) through foodways, customs, and everyday expressive culture. book reviews: digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) ©american folklore society 2021 149 charley camp teaches folklife studies at maryland institute college of art in baltimore, md. he curated the smithsonian institution exhibition, “key ingredients: america by food,” that traveled to forty-nine states. ema kibirkstis is a ph.d. candidate in the department of folklore at memorial university of newfoundland in canada. she obtained her ba in folklore from memorial, and a msc in social and cultural anthropology from the university of amsterdam. her research interests include foodways, vernacular religion, homebrewing, narratives, computational social sciences, and sensory ethnography. she is currently working on her dissertation, which focuses on the intersections of taste and narrative, using the beer produced at orval abbey in southeastern belgium as a case study. sarah t. shultz is a ph.d. candidate in the department of folklore at memorial university of newfoundland in canada. her research interests include foodways, personal experience narrative, culinary tourism, critical race theory, and gender studies. she is currently working on her dissertation, which focuses on spicy foods as tourist attractions and symbols of local identity in nashville, tennessee and london, england. sarah has an ma in folk studies from western kentucky university. claire schmidt is associate professor of english at missouri valley college. she is the author of if you don’t laugh you’ll cry: the occupational humor of white wisconsin prison workers; her research has appeared in western folklore, digest: a journal of foodways and culture, and oral tradition. jacqueline s. thursby, ph.d., is professor emeritus, brigham young university, english department. thursby, an interdisciplinary scholar, taught upper division courses ranging from folklore and mythology, cultural plurality, and women’s cultural studies, to english teaching methods. author of many scholarly articles and several books including mother’s table, father’s chair; cultural narratives of basque american women (logan; utah state up, 1999); funeral festivals in america, rituals for the living (lexington, kentucky: the up of kentucky, 2006); foods and folklore (westport, ct: greenwood press, 2009); maya angelou: a literary reference to her life and work (new york, ny: facts on file, 2011). retired since 2016, she and her husband reside in provo, utah. < vaughan, theresa a. “food recommendations in the trotula” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 food recommendations in the trotula italian prescription for health? by: theresa a. vaughan greek theoretical understanding of the human organism and centuries of practical experience in the treatment of illness were the twin influences on medicine in eleventh and twelfth century europe. while the writings of aristotle and hippocrates were the most influential writings, use of them in the training of medical practitioners was somewhat limited. by the twelfth century, however, with the influx into europe of new greek writings from the arab world and the synthesis and systemization of greek medical theory by arabic writers (waines 1999), a new, more theoretical model of medicine arose (siraisi 2009). occurring simultaneously with the rise of the university, a flowering of medical literature and diagnostic commentary emerged. salerno, in southern italy, had earned a reputation as a location of talented healers and medical treatment, although not as a location for theoretical medicine. however, in the twelfth century, salerno was well placed to receive the medical knowledge of the arab world, as well as jewish medical thought (einbinder 2005). as academic medicine began to develop there, greek understanding of the functioning of the human body, often filtered through the translators and systematists of the arab world, came to influence both traditional and academic healers. one collection of writings out of twelfth century salerno, which came to be known as the trotula, offers evidence of this influence (green 2002). in this research report, i examine the recommendations on diet found in the trotula. the population of salerno was a combination of christian, muslim and jewish inhabitants in the twelfth century. being a port city, some direct trade brought regular contact with other mediterranean cities, but perhaps even more influential was salerno’s proximity to sicily with its very active mixture of different cultures. the cross-cultural exchange of medical writings and ideas (waines 1999) was key to the development of medicine in salerno. a “school” of medicine had existed there for several centuries, and there were salernitan medical treatises from before the twelfth century, most notably the regimen sanitatis salerni, compiled around 900 ad (bifulco, marasco, and pisanti 2008). it was perhaps the most ancient school of < vaughan, theresa a. “food recommendations in the trotula” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 medical knowledge in medieval europe, predating the rise of the university. “the school achieved its splendor between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, during the final decades of longobard power; it combined the greek and latin culture with the arab and jewish tradition to form a whole harmonious scientific knowledge comprehensive of the different learning” (bifulco, marasco, & pisanti 2008:602). it was also probably the first european site of medical learning to take the more theoretical turn which would characterize the medical training at universities (wallis 2010:129). diet had long been a consideration in medicine. while european notions of what constituted a healthful diet traced its origins to greek understanding, particularly of the humoral system, other large-scale civilizations had also developed systematized theories of the role of food in health, most notably in china, india and the arab world (york 2012). for europeans and eventually arabs, the fundamental understanding of the humoral system came from hippocrates, extended by galen. this, combined with the natural philosophy of aristotle, suggested an individually-based recommendation for proper health stemming from a series of mixes of humors and characteristics which constituted proper health. “the adage ‘eat to live, not live to eat’ translates, in medieval terms, to a search for a good equilibrium, aided by proper food, of the constitutive mix of the human body which characterizes it or their complexion(s)” (jacquart 2006:260).1 proper diet could, of course, be supplemented with medicines, fumigations, bleeding, cupping and a wide range of other treatments—but proper diet was considered fundamental to human health. different foods were processed in a variety of ways by the body. the utility of any given foodstuff was dependent upon the nature of the food itself as well as the cooking technique used (laurioux 2006:224). it was also the very nature of the body to process food into useful components depending on the complexion of the individual body itself—in humoral terms, a cold and moist complexion, such as might be found in some women, might not make effective use of the same types of food as a hot and dry body, such as might be found in some men. generally speaking, it was believed that the food could reconstitute into vital bodily substances (or wastes) according to their similar natures. at creation, medieval people believed, everything was made out of the four elements, including food. ingesting the right kind of food could address deficiencies or excesses of these elements, which translate in the body into humors. “blood was analogous to air, therefore it was hot and wet; …phlegm, cold and wet, is homologous to water; [yellow] bile, hot and dry, is homologous to fire; finally [black] bile, cold and dry, is homologous to the earth” (jacquart 2006: 261).2 therefore general guidelines existed for food consumption, but a physician was expected to understand the nature < vaughan, theresa a. “food recommendations in the trotula” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 and proper balance of a patient based upon his or her complexion, and what foods might maintain or restore a proper humoral balance (laurioux 2006). numerous treatises from the middle ages often provide similar information on the proper preparation and nature of different foodstuff for promoting health (nicoud 2008:8). these ideas seem to have remained fairly fixed throughout the medieval era and were held not just by the learned but found in folklore and the oral tradition as well (benedek 1978). the trotula emerges from this tradition. focusing on women’s health, the three treatises in the trotula were traditionally attributed to a single author, a female physician by the name of trota or trocta, associated with the salernitan school of medicine. while it is highly unlikely that all three treatises (liber de sinthomatibus mulierum or book on the conditions of women, de curis mulierum or on treatments for women, and de ornatu mulierum or on women’s cosmetics) were written by trota, green (2002) argues convincingly that on treatments for women was likely based upon trota’s work, either through her own writing or a record of her teaching (2002:49-50). the collection concerns itself almost exclusively with the health concerns of women, with women’s cosmetics comprised of head to toe beauty treatments.3 it is clear, however, that a woman of salerno associated with the name trot, trocta or trota was active in medicine in the eleventh century (mosher stuard 1974). dietary recommendations in the collection are not numerous, comprising only seven of 131 topics in conditions of women and three of 110 topics in treatments for women; however this analysis is limited to those recommendations. there are many treatments involving herbs and medicines to be ingested, but those have been eliminated from consideration. instead, only treatments of food are included. below are the recommendations in their entirety, from the english translation by green (2002). from the book on the conditions of women “on excessive flux of the menses”4 “[34] let her eat hens cooked in pastry, fresh fish cooked in vinegar, and barley bread. let her drink a decoction made from barley, in which great plantain root is first cooked, and boil it with the decoction and it will be even better. and afterward boil [the root] in seawater until it cracks and becomes wrinkled, and let vinegar be added and let it be strained through a cloth and let it be given to drink. let her drink red wine diluted with seawater. and if great plantain < vaughan, theresa a. “food recommendations in the trotula” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 root5 is boiled with the decoction, so much the better” (green 2002:70). “on the descent of the womb” “[58] let her diet be cold and styptic, without cumin and pepper and all pungent things. for fruit, let her eat quinces, medlars,6 service-berries,7 quinces, bitter apples, and similar things. let her drink wine mixed with warm seawater” (green 2002: 73). “on the regimen of pregnant women” “[79] note that when a woman is in the beginning of her pregnancy, care ought to be taken that nothing is named in front of her which she is not able to have, because if she sets her mind on it and it is not given to her, this occasions miscarriage.8 if, however, she desires clay or chalk or colas, let beans cooked with sugar be given to her. when the time of birth comes, let her be bathed often, let her belly be anointed with olive oil or with oil of violets, and let her eat light and readily digestible foods” (green 2002:77). “on difficulty of birth” “[98] or let these names be written on cheese or butter ‘+ sa. e. op. ab. z. po. c. zy. e pe. pa. pu. c. ac.9 sator arepo tenet os pera rotas,10’ and let them be given to eat” (green 2002:80). “[115] against difficulty of birth arising from constriction of the orifice (which cause is sometimes the most severe of all), we append this counsel. let the woman herself see to it that in the last three months [of pregnancy] her diet consists of light and digestible foods, so that by means of these the organs are dilated. such foods are the yolks of eggs, the flesh and innards of young fowl and small birds, that is, partridges and pheasants, and scaly fish with good sauces” (green 2002:81). “on choosing a wet nurse” “[127] her diet. she should not eat salty or spicy or pungent things, nor those things in < vaughan, theresa a. “food recommendations in the trotula” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 which heat is strong, nor styptic things, nor leeks or onions, nor the rest of those spices which are added to foods for flavoring, such as pepper, garlic, garden rocket, but above all garlic. also, let her avoid anxiety and let her beware provoking her own menses. and if her milk is diminished, let porridges made of bean flour and likewise of rice, and wheat bread and milk and sugar be given to her to drink, by which things the milk is augmented, and let a little fennel seed be mixed in. if, on the other hand, her milk becomes thick, let her nutriment be made subtle, and so let her be compelled to work. in addition, vinegary syrup and light wine ought to be given to her. if the milk becomes thin, let her nutriments be thick and strong, and let her get more sleep. if the bowel of the child is loose, let constipating things be given to the nurse” (green 2002:85). “on sterility on the part of the man” “[131] …if it is because of a defect of the seed, when they have intercourse they emit little or no semen. we help men such as this substances which augment and generate seed, such as onions, parsnip and similar things” (green 2002:87). from the book: on treatments for women “for conception” “[142] …and if she desires some food, let her first be given rosata novella.11 also, let her be given good and wholesome and warm food, and wine of the best quality taken moderately “ (green 2002:91). note: this is for phlegmatic and fat women who are having difficulty conceiving “[143] …you will feed her well, and let her drink good and sweet smelling wine” (green 2002: 92). note: this is for fat and “dropsical”12 women, in order to render them thinner. the food is taken after a series of baths and sweats. < vaughan, theresa a. “food recommendations in the trotula” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 “for provoking the menses” “[213] for provoking the menses, take vervain and rue, and pound them heavily, and cook them with bacon, and give them to the patient to eat. afterward, grind root of delicate willow and root of madder, and give juice to the patient with wine” (green 2002:106). the recommendations in the book on the conditions of women were probably most influenced by greco-roman and arabic medicine, as well as being more firmly in the written, rather than oral, tradition (green 2002:36). in reviewing these dietary recommendations, we can see the influence of ideas such as the “wandering womb,” distinctly greek in origin. let us look at each dietary recommendation individually. the recommendation for the consumption of chicken, fish and barley—considered easily digested foods, likely comes from the idea that “women were unable to concoct (literally, “cook”) their nutrients as thoroughly as men” (green 2002:20). for the greeks, the only way for women to purge themselves of excessive waste, which they retained due to their cold nature and inability to fully concoct their food, was through the menses. when the menses were excessive, the recommendation for easily digested food would, theoretically, reduce the amount of waste needing to be eliminated (green 2002:19). likewise, the idea of eating “cold” and styptic foods to treat the descent of the womb was based on the greek idea that the womb could become detached from its original position, wandering through the body causing distressing symptoms. stemming largely from hippocratic gynecology, writings in the hippocratic tradition offer numerous remedies for moving the womb back into place. most are not dietary, but cold and styptic foods would theoretically reduce blood flow and therefore be more likely to keep the womb in place. the recommendation that there should be a certain diet for pregnant women was known in greek and arabic medicine. for example, around 900 ad, “rhazes was one of the first arabic writers to include a pregnancy-regimen in his regimen-cycle of the liber de medicina ad al-mansorem” (weiss-amer 1993:13). dietary recommendations were also no doubt present in the practical oral tradition of midwives and other women healers. the concern that women not crave something she can’t have is common—and probably stems from the idea of sympathetic magic common to folk customs about what women eat or crave affecting her fetus. however, it has been noted that greek texts also tend to be oriented towards pathology in pregnancy (weiss-amer 1993:12)— which may explain the interesting addition here of the recognition of the phenomenon now known as “pica,” or craving for non-edible foods. not limited to pregnancy, but more common during pregnancy, the suggested treatment is for the patient to eat beans cooked with sugar—a < vaughan, theresa a. “food recommendations in the trotula” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 starchy and sweet concoction that is filling and may resemble texture of chalk or other commonly desired substances. the prescription for eating light and easily digestible foods during labor is also logical, although in modern medicine women are often forbidden from eating any solid food during labor. recommendation 115 also suggests light and digestible foods—egg yolks, poultry and fish—as some protection against a difficult birth. this is a continuation of the earlier recommendation for treating excessive menses, but in this case seems to be treatment for constriction of the orifices. perhaps the general idea that women in a delicate condition eat what was considered appropriate for women and invalids was applied generally to women’s conditions.13 it should also be noted that the advice in the book of the conditions of women, aimed at more professionally trained doctors in the literate tradition, was likely intended for women of the social classes sufficiently wealthy to be able to afford a doctor. poultry and fish had long been recommended as appropriate food for the constitution of the aristocracy (henisch 1976). recommendations of producing an appropriately abundant milk supply of good nutritional value and of the right consistency is found in “on choosing a wet nurse.” women are cautioned against eating foods “hot” in nature, or foods that would impede the flow of milk—i.e. styptic foods. sweet, bland and starchy foods are recommended for thickening milk and increasing milk production (sympathetic magic—like produces like), while work and wine are recommended to thin milk. the one dietary recommendation which seems to rely mostly on magical properties, rather than the inherent elemental makeup of food, is that of the cheese or butter (both milk-based foods in which one can easily make an impression) with the sator rotas palindrome inscribed upon it. the three recommendations in on treatments for women are somewhat different in nature. more reflective of more practice-based, practical salernitan medical tradition, two are for helping fat women, both phlegmatic and dropsical, to be able to conceive. both actually list a regimen of baths, sweats and other treatments to induce weight loss, but still suggest nourishing food. however, the mention of a “phlegmatic” temperament still reflects the greek tradition of the four humors—though likely this is used as was understood by less literate traditional healers. a “dropsical” woman was suffering from edema, an excess of water. the third recommendation for provoking the menses is more based upon herbal treatment, with the method of delivery mentioning food (bacon) and wine (drink). all three recommendations are probably the result of practical experience rather than a sophisticated theoretical understanding of the nature of the problem—and perhaps were more effective as a result. < vaughan, theresa a. “food recommendations in the trotula” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 the medical school at salerno would, by the fourteenth century, be eclipsed by other, larger, university-based medical schools. medicine, now taught at many universities, became increasingly professionalized (wallis 2010:xxiii). however, the trotula continued to be a popular work, found in translation in other parts of europe, through the fifteenth century. as a relatively early site of arabic influence on western medical theory, through the systemization of greek ideas in arabic writing translated into latin, we can see the influences of greek and arabic medical understanding overlayed on the indigenous traditions of the southern italian peninsula. while much has been written on the trotula, little work has been done on the dietary recommendations found within the text. this research note takes the initial steps towards a better understanding of those recommendations. < vaughan, theresa a. “food recommendations in the trotula” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 references cited benedek, thomas g. 1978. beliefs about human sexual function in the middle ages and renaissance. in human sexuality in the middle ages and renaissance, ed. d. radcliff-umstead, university of pittsburgh publications on the middle ages and renaissance vol. 4, 97-117. pittsburgh, pa: university of pittsburgh center for medieval and renaissance studies. bifulco, maurizio, marasco, magda, and pisanti, simona 2008. dietary recommendations in the medieval medical school of salerno: a lesson from the past. american journal of preventive medicine 35(6): 602-603. cavallo, p., proto, m., patruno, c., & bifulco, maurizio 2008. the first cosmetic treatise of history. a female point of view. international journal of cosmetic science 30: 79-86. einbinder, susan l. 2005. a proper diet: medicine and history is crescas caslari’s “esther.” speculum 80(2):437-463. fishwick, duncan 1959. an early christian cryptogram. canadian catholic historical association(26):29-41. http://www.umanitoba.ca/colleges/st_pauls/ccha/back%20 issues/ccha%20back%20issues/back%20issues.htm (accessed april 17, 2013). green, monica h., ed. 2002. the trotula: an english translation of the medieval compendium of women’s medicine. m. h. green, trans. philadelphia, pa: university of pennsylvania press. henisch, bridget a. 1976. fast and feast: food in medieval society. university park, pa: pennsylvania state university press. jacquart, danielle 2006. la norriture et le corps au moyen âge. cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes, 13 spécial(la figure de jules césar au moyen âge et à la renaissance): 259-266. laurioux, bruno 2006. cuisine et médecine au moyen âge: alliés ou ennemies? cahiers de recherches médiévals et humanistes, 13 spécial(la figure de jules césar au moyen âge et à la renaissance): 223-238. < vaughan, theresa a. “food recommendations in the trotula” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 mosher stuard, susan 1974. dame trot. signs 1(2):537-542. nicoud, marilyn 2008. food consumption, a health risk? norms and medical practice in the middle ages. appetite 51: 7-9. siraisi, nancy g. 2009. medieval and early renaissance medicine: an introduction to knowledge and practice. chicago, il: university of chicago press. waines, david 1999. dietetics in medieval islamic culture. medical history 43: 228-240. wallis, faith, ed. 2010. medieval medicine: a reader. toronto, on: university of toronto press. weiss-amer, melitta 1993. medieval women’s guides to food during pregnancy: origins, texts and traditions. cbmh/bchm canadian bulletin of medical history/bulletin canadien d’histoire de la médecine 10:5-23. york, william h. 2012. health and wellness in antiquity through the middle ages. santa barbara, ca: greenwood. < vaughan, theresa a. “food recommendations in the trotula” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 notes 1 “l’adage <<manger pour vivre et non vivre pour manger>> se traduit, en termes médiévaux, par la recherché d’un bon équilibre, grâce à la nourriture, des mélanges constituatifs du corps humain qui charactérisent sa ou ses complexion(s).” translation my own. 2 “…le sang est homologue de l’air, car il est chaud et humide, les deux qualities caractéristique de la vie; le phlegme, froid et humide est homologue de l’eau; la bile, chaude et sèche est homologue du feu; enfin la mélancolie, froid et sèche, est homologue de la terre.” translation my own. 3 for an interesting contemporary reading of on women’s cosmetics, see (cavallo, proto, patruno, and bifulco 2008), written by faculty at the department of pharmaceutical sciences at the university of salerno. 4 “illnesses of this kind emerge on account of corrupt humors within, which corruption nature refuses to sustain” (green 2002:70). 5 most likely plantago major 6 most likely mespilus germanica 7 most likely sorbus domestica 8 note that this advice is also present in arabic and ayurvedic medical treatises (york 2012). 9 “the strings of letters and symbols in this recipe and in [100] reflect corruptions first introduced into the text in the proto-ensemble ” (green2002:95). these were left to stand because they were assumed to be magical. 10 “the final verdict on the origin of the rotas-sator square is clearly dependent on future archeological discoveries. but in the present state of the evidence it seems reasonable to conclude that this charm, at least in the form we now have it, originated with latin-speaking jews (presumably settles in italy) in the period immediately prior to the christian era. …alternatively, it may have been a product of the pogroms of, e.g. a.d. 19 or a.d. 49. it would < vaughan, theresa a. “food recommendations in the trotula” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 seem that it fell into disuse, to be revived later as a christian symbol amid the new enthusiasm for symbolism characteristic of the third century and later” (fishwick 1959). essentially came to be used as a magic charm. 11 a compound medicine, used (among other things) as a restorative. commonly made of rose, sugar, licorice, cinnamon, cloves, spikenard, ginger, galangal, nutmeg, zedoary, storax, watercress, wild celery and honey (green 2002:131). 12 dropsy equates to edema, or retention of too much fluid resulting in swelling. 13 see by way of comparison bald’s leechbook iii—“a pregnant woman is to be earnestly warned that she should eat nothing salty or sweet, nor drink beer, nor eat swine’s flesh nor anything fat, nor drink to intoxication…” (wallis 2010: 125). [side bar, top, add dustin knepp and jennifer dutch, book reviews under editors] [all editors need their contact information printed under their names on the linked contact list]: janet gilmore: change department of landscape architecture to department of planning & landscape architecture dustin knepp m. dustin knepp, ph.d. associate professor director of interdisciplinary studies chair, department of modern languages and literatures california state university, bakersfield 9001 stockdale highway, hob 245 bakersfield, ca 93311 661-654-2295 mdknepp@csub.edu michael lange [as is] jennifer dutch, book reviews dr. jennifer r. dutch assistant professor of english & chair department of english york college 1125 e. 8th street york, ne 68467 402-363-5719 jdutch@york.edu full contributor list editors janet gilmore [bio remains the same] janet c. gilmore is professor in folklore and landscape architecture at the university of wisconsin-madison, where she focuses on foodways and cultural landscapes. pacific northwestern, western great lakes, and upper mississippi river fishing people, maritime workers, folk artists, and farming people led her to publish, present, and contribute to exhibits and festivals that relate to the regions’ foodways and food landscapes— indigenous, old immigrant, and new immigrant. personal interests in food, cooking, and cookbooks, inspired early in her western oregon home, have now come full circle as she explores her mother’s and grandmother’s pacific northwestern-upper midwestern food legacies. dustin knepp m. dustin knepp is an associate professor at california state university, bakersfield. current chair of the modern languages and literatures department, he directs the interdisciplinary studies programs on campus. his research investigates the intersection of food and culture in latino life, with particular attention to tamales and holiday food traditions and their impact through familial generations and in the historic record. he also served for a year as a local food critic, sampling and reviewing restaurants and food scenes in bakersfield. dustin has published his research across a variety of traditional and digital platforms, and he has contributed to food scholarship through various articles and written contributions, a digital trilingual english/spanish/kaqchikel food dictionary, and a short video documentary featuring bakersfield’s community tamalada.  michael lange michael a. lange is professor in the interdisciplinary core curriculum at champlain college in burlington, vermont. he is the author of norwegian scots: an anthropological interpretation of viking-scottish identity in the orkney islands (2007) and meanings of maple (2017), as well as several chapters and articles in journals such as anatolia, scandinavian-canadian studies, and voices: the journal of new york folklore. he has conducted research in scotland, norway, morocco, and several parts of the us. jennifer dutch, book reviews jennifer rachel dutch is an assistant professor of english and chair of the english department at york college of nebraska. she received her phd in american studies from the pennsylvania state university, harrisburg, and master’s degree in english from the university of new hampshire. her book look who’s cooking: the rhetoric of american home cooking traditions in the twenty-first century was published by the university press of mississippi in 2018. her research focuses on the intersection of innovation and tradition in food production and consumption, particularly related to cooking at home and on youtube. board members yvonne lockwood folklorist yvonne lockwood, who recently retired as curator of folklife at the michigan state university museum, directed the michigan traditional arts apprentice program and michigan heritage awards program there, curated the public food presentations at the festival of michigan folklife and the great lakes folk festival, and curated “michigan eats,” an interpretive exhibition that the museum now tours. other professional foodways activities include conference participation in the us and europe and numerous publications. a long-time member of the foodways section, she co-edited digest for a number of years with william g. lockwood and judged student papers. she has extensive research experience in the former yugoslavia, eastern austria (burgenland), and in the upper midwest, primarily in finnish america, where she currently is researching foodways. she also often curates finnish food demonstrations and workshops at the annual finnfest usa. lucy long director of the independent non-profit center for food and culture, bowling green, ohio, lucy m. long (phd, folklore, university of pennsylvania) is an adjunct assistant professor at bowling green state university where she teaches folklore, food studies, ethnic studies, and tourism. she has edited and authored numerous foodways publications, including culinary tourism (2004), regional american food culture (2009), ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (2015), ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world (2016); the food and folklore reader (2015); comfort food meanings and meals (2017), and honey: a global history (2017). luanne roth senior lecturer in the department of writing and rhetoric at the university of rhode island, luanne roth's research and teaching focus on folklore, film/media, and food studies. her food studies writing has appeared in the journals digest, western folklore, and food, culture and society, and as chapters in such volumes as what's eating you?:  food and horror on screen (2017), comfort food meanings and memories (2017), unsettling assumptions: tradition, gender, drag (2014), and folklore/cinema: popular film as vernacular culture (2007). particularly interested in how food is used to negotiate ideology related to class, ethnicity, gender, and race, roth is currently preparing a print and e-book manuscript, “talking turkey,” which interrogates media representations of the thanksgiving meal, along with an article that addresses culinary nationalism and racism in america.  https://harrington.uri.edu/meet/luanne-k-roth/ robert smith dr. robert james smith is vice chancellor’s fellow, an adjunct role, at southern cross university in australia. he is editor for the scholarly journal australian folklore. in addition to foodways, his research interests include contemporary memorial customs, and regional folk culture. diane tye [fine as is] diane tye is professor in the department of folklore, memorial university. she researches intersections of folklore and gender, especially as they relate to foodways. she is author of baking as biography. a life story in recipes (mcgill-queen’s up, 2010) and co-editor with pauline greenhill of unsettling assumptions. gender, tradition, drag (utah state up, 2014). theresa a. vaughan [correct last name spelling in sidebar list] professor in the department of humanities and philosophy at the university of central oklahoma, theresa vaughan co-edited the encyclopedia of women’s folklore and folklife (with liz locke and pauline greenhill), and her recent research combines her interest in women’s folklore with foodways and the medieval world. her forthcoming book balancing the humors: dietary recommendations for women in the middle ages is scheduled for publication in 2019 or 2020.  katrina wynn katrina wynn is currently a stay at home mom after finishing up her five and a half year contract position as manager of the northeast archives of folklore and oral history at the university of maine. she has held that position since graduating from western kentucky university with a ma in folk studies. katrina is the senior co-convener of the american folklore society’s foodways section and has been a member of the section since starting graduate school. contributors charles camp charles camp is the author of the foodways classic american foodways: what, when, why and how we eat in america (august house, 1989), and curator of key ingredients: america by food (http://www.keyingredients.org), the smithsonian institution’s traveling exhibition that has toured the united states since c. 2005. susan eleuterio susan eleuterio is a professional folklorist and educator. one great grandmother was brazilian portuguese, and a set of grandparents emigrated from the azores to the united states. she researched and contributed a number of essays to ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia, and the companion cookbook, ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world, both edited by lucy m. long. she collaboratively authored “even presidents need comfort food; tradition, food and politics at the valois cafeteria” in comfort food, meanings and memories (university press of mississippi, 2017), edited by michael owen jones and lucy m. long. sandra hudd sandra hudd is a reseach associate in the school of humanities, university of tasmania, australia. she is author of the site of the convent of the holy infant jesus in singapore: entwined histories of a colonial convent and a nation, 1854-2015 (2016). she can be contacted at sandra.hudd@utas.edu.au c. julián idrobo c. julián idrobo is assistant professor at the interdisciplinary centre for development studies at los andes university, bogotá, colombia. by bringing together ethnobiology, political ecology, and social wellbeing, his research examines the role of biodiversity and local knowledge and the associated adaptation of small-scale communities to environmental change. his research takes place in coastal areas of the brazilian atlantic forest and the colombian pacific. cherry levin a professional wedding planner in the san francisco bay area currently working on a book about wedding traditions, cherry levin earned a master's degree in folklore at university of california, berkeley where she studied under alan dundes. her dissertation, “wedding belles and enslaved brides: plantation weddings in fact, fiction, and folklore,” was written under the guidance of frank decaro and carolyn ware at louisiana state university. lucy m. long digest board member and director of the independent non-profit center for food and culture, bowling green, ohio, lucy m. long (phd, folklore, university of pennsylvania) is an adjunct assistant professor at bowling green state university where she teaches folklore, food studies, ethnic studies, and tourism. she has edited and authored numerous foodways publications, including culinary tourism (2004), regional american food culture (2009), ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (2015), ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world (2016); the food and folklore reader (2015); comfort food meanings and meals (2017), and honey: a global history (2017). michael a. meer a lawyer and amateur culinary historian. michael a. meer holds a dr. iur/jsd degree (summa cum laude) from the university of bern and an llm degree from new york university school of law. he has published professionally in the fields of intellectual property and international contract laws. claire schmidt a native of wisconsin with a ba in english from university of wisconsin-madison, claire schmidt is an assistant professor of english at missouri valley college where she teaches courses in world literature, film criticism, british literature, and writing, and serves as director of the honors program. schmidt received her phd and ma in folklore studies from university of missouri-columbia; her research interests include occupational folklore, humor studies, foodways, and anglo saxon literature. university of wisconsin press has just published her book, if you don't laugh you'll cry: the occupational humor of white wisconsin prison workers (2017) in the folklore studies in a multicultural world series. kylie schroeder kylie schroeder received her m.a. from utah state university’s folklore program in 2018, where her thesis research examined the constraints of local haunted heritage tourism. originally from kaukauna, wisconsin, she completed her undergraduate work in anthropology and folklore at the university of wisconsin-madison. other research interests include culinary tourism and digital folklore. tallen sloane tallen sloane earned her master of letters in folklore and ethnology from the university of aberdeen in 2016 where she wrote about women's multivalent expressions of vernacular judaism in “miriam's daughters: narratives of jewish ethnicity, religion, and community in the northeast of scotland.” when not waxing poetic about food as medicine, she writes about the intersections of food, feminism, and health for online publications such as lilith magazine (“how aberdeen shaped my jewish feminism”), to market magazine (“a league of their own”), and comestible journal (“stewards of the sea: female conservationists in the fisheries of new england”). you can find her in boston facilitating workshops and organizing support groups for women with endometriosis and talking food policy.  robert james smith robert james smith is a teacher-educator who has long had an interest in food studies, particularly in vernacular food and identity. he is now editor of the annual australian folklore. nicole tarulevicz nicole tarulevicz is a senior lecturer in history and asian studies in the school of humanities, university of tasmania, australia. she is author of eating her curries and kway: a cultural history of food in singapore (2013), and is currently working on a cultural history of food safety in singapore. she can be contacted at nicole.tarulevicz@utas.edu.au katherine l. turner katherine l. turner is a postdoctoral fellow at the school of environmental studies, university of victoria, british columbia. her research examines the relationships between local food systems and development projects, focusing on how gastronomy and local biodiversity have become key focus areas for many rural and regional development initiatives.  ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag.. © american folklore society 2017 the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food by: daša ličen abstract this article examines the discourses and concepts of regional istrian gourmet heroes, who bring into being and distribute ideas on what “authentic” istrian cuisine is. citizens of three different countries who speak four different languages, these experts consider themselves most of all istrian and characterize istrian foods as alternative foods in contrast to mainstream agro-industrial varieties. drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this essay focuses on how these experts arbitrarily use adjectives such as “authentic,” “traditional,” “natural” and others in overlapping ways which i will show create obstacles to labelling the precise terminology of each. ultimately i argue that these descriptors are all interchangeable in the experts’ discourse(s) on istrian food, furthermore denoting istrian food itself, although most of the time they absolutely do not mean the same. this mishmash is nowadays one of the main elements unifying the istrian region as such, and while similarly present in many different places, istria’s food movement is unique, because of its geographical and historical contexts. key terms: istria, alternative foodways, experts, authenticity, region, mediterranean diet. introduction experts like to put the word istrian before the name of a recipe to denote that the dish belongs specifically to the istrian region of italy, slovenia, and croatia, or they use some other positive adjective to reconfirm the quality of the product. dishes thus carry names such as “good homemade bread,” ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 which instantly make it better than ordinary “bread.” for example, at an event called novigrad scallop evening (večer novigradske kapešante), which occurs in novigrad on croatia’s istrian coast, the term kapešante is used whenever organizers talk about scallops. but the term is in fact not croatian, nor is it slovene or italian, the national languages one would expect to find on this peninsula; it exists only in the istrian dialect. the organizers could of course have used other expressions for these shellfish, but opted for a regional term highlighting the istrian character of these delicacies. this use of the term further implies that these are not just any scallops, but a particular scallop species that the inimitable istrian waters produce. according to the organizers of the event, kapešante are also tasty and healthful, embodying the istrian genius loci. they are allegedly even better when prepared with some istrian olive oil and washed down with local wine. novigrad’s parochialism thus does not seem to stand against the region, but is rather a part of it. i have never been particularly curious about istrian food, even though i grew up on the istrian coast. to be honest, i only recall thinking more about it when i first started to travel in my teenage years and was every so often invited to international dinners. i was always asked to prepare a slovenian dish. as i leafed through books and scrolled through internet pages, i realized there are apparently many slovenian dishes i have never tasted. i thus decided to cook one that i would actually eat on a regular basis and then realized it was rather more istrian than slovenian, more regional than national.1 the puzzle was intriguing enough for me to write my master’s thesis on the subject of what is istrian food (ličen 2015). after my first ethnographic steps, i realized that in istria particular connoisseurs can be discerned, i call them food experts, who play strong roles in an istrian regional culinary movement and deserve special attention.2 in my ethnographic study, which took place in spring and summer 2015, i thus attended culinary events all over the region, conducted around 15 in-depth interviews with these experts, talked to many more people, listened to the experts’ lectures, and in general tried to keep track of their culinary careers in any way possible. this article examines how these regional gourmet heroes articulate and disseminate ideas on what “authentic” istrian cuisine is.3 through public discourse(s), this social group uses its power to assert a strong influence ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag.. © american folklore society 2017 on the wider public’s food-related thinking and actions (van dijk 1997). photo 1. map of istria shows adjacent nation-state jurisdictions and suggests the complexity of historical, cultural, and political influences. original work by markus bernet is in the public domain courtesy of www.demis.nl (accessed april 2017 through wikimedia commons). istria, a peninsula in the northern adriatic, is a region currently divided among three different countries—croatia, slovenia, and italy—but it is one of those areas where systems of meaning do not necessarily correspond to national or ethnic or linguistic borders (photo 1). more unity can be found within the geographical region of istria than within each of the three nation states that divide it, and for that reason the region is a relevant framework for this study. the food experts i studied variably represent the three different countries and speak four different languages. but they consider themselves to be most of all istrian, and they hold very similar attitudes about istrian food. as a result of “modern accelerated dietary changes”4 the food discourse in the region has been transforming for at least the past 20 years. my research partners stand in opposition to “modernity” and “junk food” of the mainstream, and seek to ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 reconnect local food producers with consumers as they believe occurred in the past. the alternative they advocate, however, represents a confusing mishmash of istrian food discourses, as is clearly evident on a local tv show, for example. photo 2. shooting the segment of “la barca dei sapori” with the hosts marino and martina vocci; anton meden, local history expert; gianfranco abrami, photographer; and klara and drago marić, local pasta manufacturers. the hosts in this particular segment emphasized that the ancient tradition of pasta does not stop at the italian border, but that they make a high quality pasta also in the village of canfanaro/kanfanar in the very heart of istria. canfanaro/kanfanar, 13 october 2014. photo: courtesy of facebook profile of tv show “la barca dei sapori” (accessed 13 january 2017). tv capodistria, a slovene public television station targeting the istrian region and italy’s neighboring julian march, hosts a weekly show in which a ten-minute segment is devoted to local culinary traditions (photo 2). the section la barca dei sapori (literally, “the boat of flavors”) is not limited exclusively to istria, but mostly broadcasts from there. each week the show’s team of local food experts heads to an “authentic” enough place where they introduce viewers to selected local traditions. as one of ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag.. © american folklore society 2017 the host food experts whom i had recognized and interviewed put it: . . . we seek to follow the seasons, we present what is seasonal, regional (territorial), typical. it would be hard to find a pineapple from the maldives in our shows and traditions. we first research what’s to be found in the place we visit, the dishes that were eaten a hundred years ago. . . . we’ve never been to mcdonald’s, you know. not only for the hosts of this show, but for istrian food experts in general, long-established istrian cuisine is a means for a person or an entire region to break free of all perceived unhealthy, overly modern, dangerous, fake, and artificial food practices, often symbolized by mcdonald’s, as mentioned above. my case study draws from jeff pratt’s (2007) work on alternative food movements and their over-simplification of the contrast between mainstream and alternative foodways. my article seeks to supplement pratt’s work modestly by examining a particular example of the synonymous use of unlike food qualities that is evident in the istrian food experts’ discourses. the regional gourmet experts i studied include chefs, cooks, journalists, writers, and festival organizers, who are considered to be knowledgeable when it comes to istrian food. this article focuses on their arbitrary use of positive adjectives such as authentic, traditional, natural, and others, which i will elaborate and discuss in the following paragraphs. the interchangeable uses of these adjectives within the discourses on istrian food create obstacles to defining the terms precisely and distinctly. yet, at the end of the day, they merge under the “mastersignifier” of istrian food, where authentic is the most encompassing term, the kernel of the culinary discourses within istria. my ethnographic experiences indeed proved that authentic frequently served as a code word for all the other positive adjectives ascribed to istrian food. “authenticity” is then a sort of moebius strip on which all the terms endlessly overlap but have one broader meaning, namely, the “splendid” assortment of istrian culinary characteristics. to address food experts’ attempts to immortalize something as perishable as food and to establish it as an authentic mixture, i will introduce ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 the istrian food “cocktail” by briefly discussing key terms—authentic, traditional, healthy, ecological, organic, alternative market—their referents, the nuances of istrian food discourses, and some theoretical perspective. as this mélange of positive terms and concepts builds on the rhetorical opposition between mainstream agro-industrial food markets and alternative food movements, i will bracket my discussion between the two oppositional contexts, beginning first with perceptions of the mainstream food system, and contemplating alternative food movements at the end. the mainstream food system the industrial revolution did not take place in an instant, nor was it unrelated to previous historical events, yet this revolution signifies a break between the traditional and the modern, a transformation of a structure (sewell 2005). the transition to new manufacturing processes is connected to other fundamental changes—above all, a profound transformation of human lives, not necessarily for the worse. in the eyes of my research partners, machines changed the existing natural order—more specifically, they spoiled it. for the past two centuries, according to my collocutors, all things food have only been going downhill, as have other matters in general, all in the shadow of the mainstream agro-industrial food system. the alternative movements, among which i also classify the istrian food initiative, have supposedly been addressing a number of recent or less recent interconnected processes, which the english anthropologist jeff pratt draws attention to: the farming revolution, the development of the global foodstuffs market, transnational corporations in the food chain, supermarket chains, and consumption changes (pratt 2007: 286). these processes consequently generated worries about the environment: the fate of small farmers, the direction of global trade relations, the rise of corporate power throughout food chains, and food quality (pratt 2007:287). social movements such as istrians fighting for measures related to these changes promote an alternative food system in contrast to the mainstream one. the polarized view of the alternative movements can be described in a nutshell as the opposition between good and bad, or right and wrong. in the romantic landscape of food, the terms traditional, eternal, slow, ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag.. © american folklore society 2017 authentic, and original usually overlap with organic, local, and even ecological. pratt states that these are not the same, and analyzes how these discourses intersect in a mix contrasting with the global agro-industrial food complex (pratt 2007, also debevec and tivadar 2006, rogelja 2006). while there are about a dozen positive adjectives that my research partners associate with istrian food, i have chosen to examine those that are more evocative and that stress various aspects ascribed to istrian food. these are key to understanding what istrian food is in the eyes of the experts. when put together, these adjectives are not cohesive, but do represent a coherent entity at first glance. the qualities reflected in these terms are an important and revealing part of the modern istrian food movement, which on the one hand represents merely one of the many alternative answers to global changes, yet is, on the other hand, due to the region’s particular historical frame, also a unique one. until 1991 when slovenia split from yugoslavia, the istrian peninsula has for centuries been a part of the same, although rapidly changing, state formations (darovec 2009).5 authentic authenticity (in the local languages, autenticità, avtentičnost, autentičnost) is the most encompassing term, and it is commonly adopted as a code word for the blend of istrian food. the authentic stands against the mainstream, which one of my willful collocutors aimed to prove by entering her bread in a sloveniawide food fair. she was awarded the maximum points in all possible categories except for form. she knew which form was required of the competitors, but nonetheless made a biga—an “authentic” istrian loaf—just to prove her point.6 notions of authenticity, like those i have just outlined, are extremely widespread. they are often fused with notions of the genuine, real, or true, establishing themselves against the inauthentic and fake (bendix 1997, fillitz and saris 2012). the meaning of authenticity shifts from one context to another, but implies something true, original, good, and a plethora of other affirmative expressions. it seems to be a more powerful and broader expression than, say, traditional or ecological, and it is generally preferred over these latter two adjectives, which are stricter in their meanings. ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 istrian food experts find the source of food authenticity in two areas: natural and cultural.7 my interlocutors seek to situate istrian authentic food in the sphere of the natural, and they speak about the unique flora and fauna of istria as the reason for this. istria is referred to as the northernmost part of the mediterranean where olive trees grow,8 with the implication that istria has an exclusive location, supposedly the reason for the aboveaverage quality of the locally produced oil (ogrin 2004). experts are proud of other products too, such as the truffle, portrayed as the king of cuisine, and wild asparagus, which rank high on the imagined scale of quality foodstuffs. in comparison with more central european regions near istria, istria’s typically mediterranean goods, such as olive oil, wine, or tomato, are considered distinctive because of their production in croatia’s and slovenia’s littoral zones, where the continental past and present intersect with the mediterranean (e.g. rihtman avguštin 2001, godina golija 2006). fulvio tomizza, an esulo9 and a renowned writer who recounted stories predominantly about his native istria, used to claim that istria, despite its smallness, is a microcosm where “everything” can be found, at least according to his aficionados among the culinary experts. the implication is that istria offers an excellently balanced range of foodstuffs. while istrian products are supposed to be rare, however, they are also considered the best of their kind. the food experts boil the quality of foodstuffs down to geography and climate, which are responsible for the best truffles, wine, olive oil, asparagus, fish, and other foods. one of the many food festivals, for example, promotes the delicious pilchards caught in the delta of the mirna river, where saltwater and freshwater meet, supposedly resulting in the superior quality of the fish. the seemingly scientific explanations are of course very useful when seeking to authenticate a product. biological components of the environment thus bestow uniqueness and authenticity on a place’s products, prohibiting them from being replicated elsewhere. the common criticism of the “fake” chinese truffles that can be heard among the experts is an example of such fear of food pirating (photo 3). ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag.. © american folklore society 2017 photo 3. grilled ricotta with truffles served author by interviewee sandi tripar, owner of a truffle restaurant. belvedur, 29 may 2015. photo: daša ličen. one of my research partners, a chef who owns his own catering business and presents istrian cuisine internationally,10 explained to me how it is precisely nature that supplies authenticity and singularity to istria’s homemade products: there are ideas that are born spontaneously; for instance, pears with rosemary. i have three old [pear] trees, my grandfather already had them, and under them we planted a few decorative rosemary bushes, and when i passed by—and these pears were ripe, they were falling on the rosemary bushes—i found the smell incredibly nice, and said, wait a minute, why not try it, and i tried one batch, and it was really good . . . . i wanted to do more and tried with other pears . . . . no, that wasn’t it. ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 you know, there needs to be exactly that variety, apparently it was also ripe to perfection, as well as the rosemary, and so the combination was a really fortunate one because when i tried it with other pears it wasn’t right anymore. authenticity, according to conventional beliefs, also emerges out of istria’s culture. although istria’s goods are valuable, they are apparently not plentiful. the locals talk of cucina povera “poor cuisine,” not in the sense of nutritional value, but in the limited variety and availability of foodstuffs. because of the immense creativity of local women, however, housewives were able to build up a rich tradition despite the limited repertoire and quantities of foodstuffs. they also needed to cook depending on the season (štajon), yet another link to nature, according to my istrian culinary experts. people should eat what istrian soil provides but, even more, when it provides it. such food is then rich in taste, environmentally friendly, and healthy, at least according to my research partners. all this “authenticity” could be summarized by the concept of terroir, which has changed, or rather expanded, in the past few decades. at first it meant only the environmental and geographical characteristics that give individual foodstuffs their taste, but now it also includes the human factors of the area and, most recently, the aura of genuineness and authenticity that only a specific terroir can provide (demossier 2011). terroir, the taste of a place, links sociocultural heritage claims with special natural features in producing goods with a special aura. istrian cuisine is then one of the special places where culture, the artisanal cultivation, merges with nature. as much as terroir promotes a local landscape in a pan, it is really oriented outside of the local in its visibility at festivals that attract visitors from various places and “export” “authenticated” local cultural resources to a broader national and international audience. traditional while the istrian culinary experts do not see much difference between traditional and authenticity, scholars do. the notion of traditional primarily within the analyzed discourses aims at providing a dish or a foodstuff with ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag.. © american folklore society 2017 a timeless lineage. ethnologists used to, and some still do, enjoy making inventories of traditions of a past that is disappearing or has already vanished (fikfak 2008:38).11 many have seen the “traditional” past as static, rarely mentioning that traditional practices did not exist as such from the beginning of time. many have, however, surpassed the herderian spirit and deconstructed such historicist “returns to eden,” chiefly through denoting everything as folklorism—which again some scholars have abandoned because there is no clear line between folklore and folklorism. nor is there a clear line between kitsch and tastefulness.12 “only the sensibility and experience of those who do serious work on the subject can define the limits of history and romance properly, even if precariously” (montanari 2006:67). my goal in this section is not simply to deconstruct invented traditions (hobsbawm 2006)—because, after all, an invented tradition is still a tradition—but to show their role as relevant for the istrian food discourses. according to gérard lenclud, tradition is mainly defined as having one or all of the following features: being a vestige from the past, referring to non-written customs, and defining cultural facts as important (not just any cultural facts; lenclud 1987:9). henry glassie (1995) would add that tradition is a temporal concern, always intertwined with the past, but open to endless revision. continuity and not stasis is in tradition’s character. in the case of istrian food experts, the regional past is seen as static and flawlessly perfect, and istrian food is too. my research partners believe that people in former times lived carefree because their only worry was “whether or not their cow was pregnant.” besides that, their food was homegrown and healthy, unlike today’s “artificial” food, when “you do not even know what they put inside.” in my interlocutors’ opinions, all the significant istrian foodstuffs and dishes have always been present and ought to remain a part of this region. although it is somehow easy to believe wine production is an ancient activity in istria, it is harder to claim this for truffle hunting, but let me give you an idea how the experts “traditionalize” truffles. many of my field experts had no trouble declaring truffles to be traditionally istrian. the chef who, at the moment, probably prepares more truffles than any other in istria told me: they were not made up yesterday. there exist centuries-old ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 records of people going out and hunting truffles with dogs. people were hungry and tried truffles; they had no taste when cold, so they warmed them and the aroma developed. in fact, until recently, these nowadays expensive delicacies were considered to be merely “stinking potatoes” that pigs would eat. in istria, truffles started being collected only in the late 1920s, but to be sold to italians (ledinek lozej and rogelja 2000:93). they were invented as traditional much later, in the 1990s, when they became a symbol of istrian gastronomic identity (kocković 2014:53). an old arab proverb says that a man is more similar to his time than to his father’s time, which in a nutshell explains the story about truffles’ timeless history. italians have likewise naturalized the tomato and have largely forgotten its origins in the americas. similarly, istrians, and most of europe, have forgotten corn or polenta’s roots in the americas. by moving an item or a dish from the world of authenticity to the world of multiple copying, the “original” recipes, ingredients, and tools have been “relocated, renamed and introduced to a new system of representations” (billiard 2006:123). two food items that reveal experts’ perspectives on tradition appeared in every single interview i carried out; the first one was polenta, which used to be a substitute for bread in less affluent istrian households.13 for my research partners, polenta, boiled cornmeal, is a link to everything from the recent past, whereas by contrast, the second food item, rolled kebabs known as čevapčiči, “the intruders,” are the symbol of all that is alien, new, and foreign. grilled čevapčiči come from the balkans and are infecting the formerly “pure” istrian cuisine, not only symbolically but also with their odor, which my interviewees complained about.14 čevapčiči became rooted in istria during the yugoslav era, but are now more connected to the other—namely, to bosnians living in the istrian peninsula, and to all undesired immigrants from elsewhere in the former yugoslavia.15 interestingly enough, čevapčiči originate from ottoman cuisine and can be considered a mediterranean dish. mirjana randić (2006:38) says turkish or balkan cuisines are typically not regarded as mediterranean, however, but as rather different entities (randić 2006:38): what is considered part of greek traditional cuisine and what is considered turkish chiefly differs in only a letter or two of the name, revealing that tradition is not ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag.. © american folklore society 2017 only about food itself, but also about the wider social context. similarly to čevapčiči, ethnic food establishments in sardinia are seen to intrude into the authentic scene. according to carole counihan’s 2014 study, inhabitants explained “foreign” ethnic food establishments’ lack of rootedness in the land for the sardinian old towns’ restrictions on them. old and traditional are superlative, from the viewpoint of the culinary experts, but what i noticed during my fieldwork is that the oldest and most original are often mixed with the modern—yet not just any modern. in istria, čevapčiči are new in comparison to polenta, but not fresh enough to be a real modern element that can fashionably complement the traditional. one of the festivals i studied promotes itself with this telling quote, “incredibly healthy, nutritious, tasty, and affordable, pilchards have fed generations of mediterranean families, and now they return to the table in a number of imaginative combinations.” in istria, at least a dozen haute cuisine restaurants consider themselves principally istrian; they fit the idea of traditional perfectly, but add a pinch of innovation to their menus. a chef de cuisine whom i talked to is, for instance, renowned for his “molecular” minestrone (also known locally as mineštra or maneštra), which consists of different, as he put it, “rounded spheres,” which the customer then mixes on his or her own. “istrian sushi” is what another prestigious restaurant serves its customers; in the same artistic manner, several other istrian chefs concoct unusual dishes that journalists then praise to the wider public. following novel gastronomic trends is generally part of a more urban istrian cuisine, yet is not rejected by the wider expert community i conducted interviews with. not all of the experts implement new vogues though, and so there is a boundary between the more peasant rural cuisine (known as konoba) and “haute traditional cuisine” (sammells 2014:142), but the groups do not challenge each other. clare sammells came up with the phrase haute traditional cuisines as bridging the gap between geographic localism and globalizing cosmopolitanism. they move between two extremes, claiming legitimacy both as heritage and as global elite commodities (sammells 2014:142–143). the slovenian ethnologist maja godina golija also talks of traditional food being in balance with innovation, but does not give it a special name (2012:100). polenta was, for instance, one of the foodstuffs istrian experts selected from the past, but since it has also become popular around the globe at about the same time, it is therefore ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 considered very traditional (of course, only when cooked from scratch) and is simultaneously hip, appealing to the tastes of cosmopolitan “foodies.” regina bendix (1997) talks more generally about this paradox: the combination of the fossilized and dynamic. the modern elements should not be mistaken for suggesting that cooking is a constantly evolving practice, because they are thought of as just entering and leaving the picture without changing it, in the experts’ opinions. the combination of modernity and traditional has a lot to do with the fetishization of authenticity, and the market itself, to which i turn later. the present shapes the past and irrefutably claims sets of goods and practices as traditional, which di giovine and brulotte (2014) call “goods heritage.” indeed an increasing number of institutions, including the european union and unesco,16 are creating terroir designations for various regions, countries, or even wider units. the earliest stem from the italian wine industry—doc, or denominazione di origine controllata (controlled designation of origin)—and require that specific wines be produced in a specific well-defined region, according to traditional knowhow. while these designations serve openly to honor particular foods and food complexes, they also add value to them, especially for export and marketing, while offering protection from copycat products. these larger geographical marketing trends are for now rather absent in the mediterranean diet’s micro-region of the istrian peninsula, but more local, less formally applied designations of origin aim to protect istrian foods’ reputation as traditional. healthy what is healthy and what is not can obviously not be clearly separated, yet the idea among the istrian culinary experts is that healthy food has to be prepared from scratch, and it is absolutely not prepackaged, unless one prepared it oneself beforehand. this tenet that quality comes from homemade products goes hand in hand with the aim to construct a morally right local economy separated from the capitalist system (pratt 2007:288). healthy food must also contain as few foodstuffs from outside the region as possible, partly because the mediterranean context lends excellent support to the idea that home-made foods using local istrian foodstuffs are both healthy and environmentally sound. ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag.. © american folklore society 2017 part of the reasoning here is that the istrian diet is seen to represent a version of “the mediterranean diet”—a relatively new metaphorical abstraction (baskar and krese 1993)— which is proclaimed to be the healthiest in the world due to the ancient wisdom of the region’s inhabitants.17 according to my culinary experts, istrian food is claimed to be the healthiest of all. good nutritional and longevity benefits bestowed by olive oil, fresh fruits and vegetables, seafood, wine, and certain grains (di giovine and brulotte 2014:13) have been correlated with a lower incidence of cardiovascular diseases. ancel b. keys especially promoted this idea, encouraging americans, in his case, to adopt more rational dietary habits (keys and keys 1959). as the diet gained widespread international recognition in the 1960s and 1970s, the promotion of olive oil in particular increased its production (billiard 2006:118). in istrian cuisine, olive oil, the cornerstone of the mediterranean diet, is a pivotal ingredient; it is absolutely always present, chefs pour it over everything, make it available on every table, and sell it. defenders of istrian food, trapped in their desire to convert a fatty cuisine into a healthy dietary and trendy mediterranean one, have accordingly ignored parts of their culinary heritage, such as use of lard, which is however still very much alive “among simple people.” this amiable placement of istrian cuisine within the mediterranean nutritional model was definitely one of the factors contributing to the blossoming of istrian culinary experts. besides olive oil, also truffles are ordinarily accentuated as good for health. istrian connoisseurs of truffles are convinced that truffles are a good source of protein, work as an aphrodisiac and are in general very salubrious. one of the “truffle kings” said of his catering team: “they never even sneeze! i am sure it is because of the truffle consumption; i suppose it affects the immune system. this would be worth checking and i hope some scientists will study it.” to give the healthiness of istrian food more scientific backing at the local level, food experts organizing festivals regularly invite nutritionists or even doctors to lecture on a certain foodstuff, or on istrian cuisine in general. even though the experts see istrian cuisine as a particular fragment of the mediterranean diet, they typically do not link it to its healthiness, but rather to tradition. since retirement, one of the cooks i interviewed has begun to ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 promote istrian food as healthy, lecturing on the subject. she told how once, when readying a lecture for schoolchildren, she woke up very early to fry fritters (known in istria as fritule 18) because she wanted the children to have a good snack and not “industrially” prepared waffles. one does not need great insight to see that the difference in health benefits between the two is not tremendous. but according to her, whether or not a dish was “homemade” (traditional) made a substantial difference and could replace the role of a doctor. another research partner confirmed this idea in a story about crostata he recently ate: deep frozen, thawed, an italian trick, there are only poisons inside, especially for us who are a bit older, it is cholesterol, isn’t it? when you make a crostata at home it is completely different. okay, it has sugar and is a little bit fattening, but besides that, in my opinion it is not so harmful. . . . then i found out it was microwaved, some italian tre marie, mamma mia, i saw a truck delivering them, blah, get this away from me. so istrian cuisine is claimed to be healthy not only because of its mediterranean basis but also because of its home, local and ecological production, which is traditional, and, last but not least, authentic. one again sees that each of the adjectives describing istrian food can immediately be linked to all the others. ecological and organic how many kilometers did that avocado travel before it ended up on the shelf of the grocery store? were the hens allowed to roam around freely before they laid their eggs? trendy questions of this kind are relevant for istrian food discourses and the typically ecological and organic answers to them contain moral values, as do notions of what makes “healthy” foods. the supposedly most poisonous foods are those produced or transported by huge companies because “you never know what’s inside.” istrian food stands for exactly the opposite of the “toxic global.” ecological and organic are innate to istrian food, at least according to my interlocutors. when i asked the culinary experts about their notions of ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag.. © american folklore society 2017 ecological and/or organic, they were not only supportive of them, but found them to be integrated in their practices of istrian cuisine. most of my research partners have a farm, or at least a garden, where “everything is organic.” yet when asked about certifications, they noted how extremely complicated it is to obtain one, and how time-consuming it is to endure certifier visits that may be as often as once per week. some claimed they do not need the certification, and another mentioned his fear of obtaining it because his neighbor surely uses pesticides and other chemicals that could be determined to infect his crop. yet another questioned the reliability of certification because sometimes rain carries air-borne poisons that contaminate the soil. violations of certification also can result in stiff penalties from ecological or organic agricultural supervisors, so the farmers’ apprehensions are not completely out of place. in the experts’ eyes, almost everything in istria that grows, swims, or grazes, even if habitually not certified, may be considered biological, ecological, or organic in some respects. they also find wild organisms that prosper without human intervention, such as asparagus and truffles, the most purely “natural.” by extension, eating natural, ecological, green, and organic istrian food symbolizes cooling down the “overheated” (eriksen 2016) planet that the mainstream agro-industrial food system produces, although these actions in point of fact do not ameliorate the challenging environmental issues we all are facing. the alternative market it is presumed among the istrian food experts that authentic food is a part of an alternative market, which stands against global foodways that homogenize not only food itself, but the experience of consuming, as well as the imaginaries of the alimentary culture that relates to consumption (di giovine and brulotte 2014, wilk 2006, pratt 2007). even though istrians have adopted what i exaggeratedly call a blut und boden ideology when it comes to food, their political aspirations are presented as rather leftist. when the slow food movement was founded in bra in 1986, it was similarly politically oriented to ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 the left. carlo petrini, the founder of slow food, originally established it to prevent a new mcdonald’s restaurant from opening in rome and, most of all, more broadly attempted to reconnect producers with consumers. one of the parallels between slow food and istrian food activism is promoting social and economic justice through the food system, even though slow food has been drifting increasingly to the right since then (paxson 2005). however, while the left-wing aspirations of istrian experts sometimes appear a bit phony, still their general idea is to increase local production, provide fair pay to istrians, and to turn their backs on starbucks cafés around the planet. experts typically told me that their culinary endeavors are not connected to money, but are almost charitable acts. the organizer of an artichoke festival kept telling me how much hard work coordination of a festival demands. he does not get paid for any of his activity; what he does is a result of his own good will because he believes in what he does in the dissemination of local, natural, and high-quality products. the organizer of the artichoke festival is not acting merely as the head of the village tourist association, but in fact also as the biggest local retailer of artichokes, and he has been the head of the festival from its very beginning. a quick internet search, for example, revealed that up to 30% of his yearly harvest of artichokes is sold at this particular festival, which makes his statement about the meaninglessness of money very questionable. the slovene “truffle king”—as the media have dubbed him, and which he does not hesitate to make use of himself—operates similarly. in his and other experts’ opinions, the poisonous food brought from far away should be replaced with the local seasonal products. it would hinder the huge companies from abroad that interfere with traditional routines and would decrease inequality. the truffle expert is even a member of a quite radical, but not very successful, local left-wing political party, and within it he fights for the revitalization of the countryside, but simultaneously promotes his restaurant at shopping malls, where he sets up a stall, cooks truffle dishes, and sells the expensive products that he and his parents make at home. the “truffle king” seems to be trying to rule two kingdoms, the authentic as well as the inauthentic one, and there seem to be more such emperors. pratt (2007), however, denies that there are strong boundaries between the mainstream and the alternative market; they are in fact quite porous, which my conclusion explores in greater detail. ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag.. © american folklore society 2017 conclusion the message of this article concerns the idea of “authentic” istrian food, which, in the eyes of my research partners, cannot be distinguished from the “traditional,” “ecological,” “organic,” “healthy,” or “alternative market.” my goal was to illuminate a discourse, which chiefly recognizes istrian food as a mixture of different positive qualities and simply good. it claims to establish istrian cuisine against the mainstream agro-industrial market and thus as ultimately alternative. let me summarize the aforementioned qualities that are commonly and interchangeably ascribed to istrian food. according to the experts, istrian regional food gets its “authenticity” from local nature, on the one hand, and istrian culture, on the other. they portray istrian dishes as thus embodying both, giving a “true taste of istria itself.” “tradition,” another quality that brands istrian cuisine, implies that istrian food identity was inscribed in the heavens, and is for that reason eternal and fixed. what gives this regional cuisine its “healthiness” is commonly precisely tradition, as stated by the interviewed experts, but even more often “healthiness” is considered to be due to istria’s representation of the mediterranean diet. istrian food is in addition also supposed to be “ecological” and “organic”—which experts plainly explain as resulting from local production—because whatever grows on istrian soil or in its waters sprouted in an ecological and organic environment, unlike most of the other foodstuffs that are supposedly produced artificially—far away and in factories. last, but not least, i touched upon the common notion that istrian food is a part of an “alternative economy” operating in the alternative market, in contrast to the mainstream one that is frequently characterized by agro-industrial food production and distribution, and global capitalist companies such as mcdonald’s. these diverse qualities reinforce one another and are used interchangeably even if they do not mean the same thing. experts’ discourses should therefore be taken with a grain of salt because “the totalizing character of these discourses hides the fact that the different qualities evoked for alternative foods do not in fact entail each other, and may pull in different directions” (pratt 2007:285). ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 the analyzed experts mesh these qualities together and through them promote an important opposition: they perceive food as being either mainstream, thus industrial, global, and bad, or alternative, in their case istrian, thus healthy, traditional, ecological, authentic, and more. a universe where all of the negative qualities reside stands against one where all the positive can be found. the experts thus neglect many essential contrasts between the abovementioned qualities and see them as contrasting with the global or mainstream food system. yet these experts are, according to pratt’s words, not the only ones who share this common rhetorical dialectic between the alternative and the mainstream agro-food markets in contemporary times (pratt 2007). on the other hand, perhaps we should admire these experts for promoting “authentic” istrian cuisine. although lacking some meticulousness, they, on the bright side, correctly detect many problematic symptoms of global food trends and are actively seeking to address them in a variety of ways. they note, for example, that recommendations to eat autochthonous fish regularly combined with frequent offerings to tourists, in fact contribute to worsening the already high level of overfishing present in the adriatic sea. how people eat, where they eat, whom they eat with, and when they eat varies uniquely from place to place, but i contend that regions are the focal unities of a certain food coherence, like the one that my experts seek to articulate and trace to istria’s historical and cultural past. cuisine is a rather larger culinary structure that makes meals make sense, which seems much more easily ascribed to istria than to a greater nation-state entity like slovenia or for that matter any other. i did not set out to determine whether or not there is a culinary tradition that joins together the whole istrian peninsula, and in this manner answer if there really is something called istrian cuisine. rather, i studied the people who are positive such cuisine exists and continues to endure, although threatened. whilst the geographical and historical unity of the region inspires confidence that there used to be such a thing as istrian cuisine, my aim was to ascertain to what extent it exists as such nowadays and how. both the perceived reality and continuity of this cuisine could be due, to a great extent, to the influence of the culinary experts i researched. they are sure istrian cuisine was and remains homogeneous, they believe in the gastronomic unity of the region and, in a consistent folk rhetoric, they spread ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag.. © american folklore society 2017 almost identical although inconsistent ideas on what istrian food is or is not. they, at the end of the day, are the ones making the modern discussion of the existence of istrian food even possible. acknowledgments i wish to thank the culinary experts for allowing me to enter their daily lives and learn about their passionate advocacy for istrian foods. i also thank janet c. gilmore for her editorial help with this essay. notes (1) on this occasion, i prepared polenta—a dish of boiled cornmeal, usually consumed hot as a porridge. it has for centuries been a staple food of the regions now representing the north of italy, but the nearby mediterranean regions such as istria know it too. polenta can nowadays be found also in central slovenia, but mainly due to the fact it entered a new golden age and is now perceived as one of the more glamorous dishes. (2) more on them and their taste can be found in my article, “the fine and the tasteless. istrian culinary experts and taste ” (2015). (3) for the sake of allowing readers to reflect more readily on some data that were collected through fieldwork, i reproduce testimony without constantly using quotes and citations. but these may be found in my field materials and master’s thesis. (4) in his article “food values” (2007, 286-287) the anthropologist jeff pratt sheds light on a number of processes that brought along the agro-industrial food system as we know it. more on that in the continuation of this paper. ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 (5) in the late 18th century, when the venetian republic fell, istria became a part of the habsburg monarchy. after its occupation by napoleon in the early 19th century, it returned to habsburg rule until world war i. between the two world wars, it belonged to italy; after world war ii, to yugoslavia; and then in the early 1990s, it was split between the newly established republics of slovenia and croatia. (6) biga has different meanings, but in this case stands for a kind of loaf that looks like a set of buns holding together very tightly. one can then easily pull the buns apart and avoid cutting the bread. (7) there are clear parallels between nature and geography and between culture and history, but i as an anthropologist prefer to avoid the nature-culture division, unless in this case when i stick to the terms my collocutors like to use. (8) although istria is very proud of its olive oil, there are in fact parts of istria where there is no olive oil production, because olive trees actually do not grow above about 250 meters in elevation. (9) thousands of mostly italian individuals known as esuli left istria after world war ii, when these areas became a part of yugoslavia, and settled in italy. tomizza was among them. (10) he performed twice at milan’s 2015 expo, where he represented istrian cuisine. (11) slovene ethnology did not bother much about food until rajko ložar’s extensive study on food in1944, in which he warned ethnologists against simply collecting and publishing recipes. the real upswing in food studies appeared in the mid-1990s, and since then a growing number of articles and exhibitions have been devoted to the topic. credit especially goes to maja godina golija, but food is still insufficiently researched, which she also states (godina golija 2012:94). ličen, daša. 2016. “the “authentic” blend: experts weigh in on istrian food.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag.. © american folklore society 2017 (12) some academic attempts to protect traditional festivals from kitsch are surprisingly very recent. katja hrobat virloget offers guidelines on how festivals (called sagre or šagre in istria) should be conducted today (hrobat virloget 2012). at times, her suggestions seem a bit like battling windmills because her advice, although sensible, will probably not change the existing tradition. (13) in the past, polenta was a “dish for the indisposed;” that is, it was simple, economical, and had no added spices, and so it was the prototype for a lower-class diet (montanari 2006:39). ledinek lozej also mentions polenta as a bread substitute in the vipava valley in the slovenian littoral (2015:105). (14) most culinary experts also complain about non-local music that is played at the festivals; however, local alternatives are few. (15) migrants from various other parts of the former yugoslavia are, at least in slovenian istria, intriguingly simply referred to as “bosnians.” (16) since 2010, for instance, the mediterranean diet has been part of unesco’s list of intangible heritage of humanity. (17) although some argue that its healthiness in fact results from poverty (baskar and krese 1993). 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perspective: the case of the slovenian coast. anthropological notebooks 12 (1): 95-111. sammells, clare a. 2014. haute traditional cuisines: how unesco’s list of intangible heritage links the cosmopolitan to the local. in edible identities: food as cultural heritage, ed. ronda l. brulotte and michael a. di giovine,141-158. farnham and burlington: ashgate. sewell, william. 2005. logics of history: social theory and social transformation. chicago: the university of chicago press. van dijk, teun a. 1997. discourse as structure and process of discourse studies: a multidisciplinary introduction. volume i. london: sage publications. wilk, richard. 2006. slow food/fast food: the cultural economy of the global food system. lanham: altamira press. zwart, hub.2005. food consumption in the genomics era: a foucauldian perspective. tailoring biotechnologies 1 (2): 31-44. lockwood, yvonne r. 2016. “culinary collections news.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 culinary collections news the william g. lockwood and yvonne r. lockwood collection of national, ethnic, and regional foodways joins michigan state university libraries, special collections by: yvonne r. lockwood longtime foodways researchers and former editors of digest, yvonne r. lockwood and william g. lockwood, recently donated their 50-year collection of food and foodways books to the michigan state university libraries, special collections. the william g. lockwood and yvonne r. lockwood collection of national, ethnic, and regional foodways consists of some 4,500 books, reflecting the lockwoods’ ethnographic research and interest as anthropologist and folklorist in ethnic, immigrant, and regional cuisines. the specific strengths of this collection are on finnish, chinese, and eastern european—especially yugoslavian—foodways. most of the collection is in english; however, many volumes are in the languages of the cuisine described. primary among the reasons for choosing the michigan state university libraries are the existing culinary collections that span more than five centuries and include cookbooks from every continent, but with very little duplication in the lockwood donation. also the program feeding america: the historic american cookbook project (http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks) exemplifies the libraries’ strong and valued commitment as a public resource. the libraries’ emphasis prior to the lockwood donation was on the cooking of the americas, contemporary food movements, american regional and ethnic traditions, foodways of the caribbean, latin america, and south america, and cooking influences from west africa and the african diaspora. an important part of this collection is the michigan cookbook collection with more than 2,000 cookbooks compiled by church groups, charities, and community organizations in michigan since the mid-nineteenth century. the libraries’ holdings also include personal manuscripts and a wealth lockwood, yvonne r. 2016. “culinary collections news.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 of culinary ephemera. see the libraries’ “cookery & food collection” home page at: http://www.lib.msu.edu/spc/collections/cookery/. not your typical "junk" food: folk art rubbish barrel in westport, nl. photographer: gina snooks digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023): 99-100 ©american folklore society 2024 contributors to digest 10:1/2 (2023) lisa marie beiswenger received her ph.d. in anthropology from the ohio state university. her training includes advanced degrees in literature, media, and cultural studies, as well as a graduate interdisciplinary specialization in folklore. she studies public markets, food culture, laborlore, folkcraft, and commodity fetishism. she is currently an assistant professor of english at saint francis university in loretto, pa. jen berger is an interdisciplinary artist and community-engaged educator. she uses performance, visual arts, painting, printmaking, and installations to engage in social issues from reproductive rights, to ecological issues, to racial justice and economic equality. jen has worked with students and community members within the vermont community for over 15 years and has been faculty at champlain college, ccv, burlington college, and the university of vermont, where she works to consider the role of art in social change, engagement, and protest. she incorporates multiple mediums in the classroom to engage in deeper dialogue about these social issues and the ways we understand ourselves in the world. www.attherootvt.com sheila bock is an associate professor in the department of interdisciplinary, gender, and ethnic studies at the university of nevada, las vegas. her scholarly explorations of food and foodways traverse a variety of domains, including health and illness, humor, political performance, and, most recently, the expressive culture of death. zoë campos is a student at champlain college in burlington, vt, studying game design with a minor in interactive narrative (class of 2025). as a first-generation college student of nicaraguan descent, learning is a privilege that zoe will never take for granted. when zoe 's not busy as a fulltime student, she enjoys painting, drinking tea, reading, and journaling. she also speaks english and spanish and is in the process of learning japanese. susan eleuterio is co-author of "even presidents need comfort food: tradition, food and politics at the valois cafeteria" in comfort food: meanings and memories, and essays on belize, cape verde, portugal, and slovakia. she is co-author of essays on angola, central african republic, columbia, guinea-bissau, maldives, mauritius, mexico, laos, sao tome and principe, and timor-leste in ethnic american food today: an encyclopedia edited by lucy m. long. isaura valeria garcia graduated magna cum laude from the university of nevada, las vegas in 2022 with a b.a. in anthropology. her research interests are primarily focused on exploring the complex interconnectivity between history, gender, race, class, medicine, politics, and migration as they relate to the creation and evolution of cultures and social systems. miriam horne is an assistant dean and professor in the core division at champlain college in burlington, vt. with a background in composition and rhetoric, miriam prioritizes the scholarship of teaching and learning (sotl) in areas ranging from civic discourse to collective writing practices, and, most recently the intersections between weaving and pedagogy. her work has been published in the international journal of teaching and learning in higher education, college teaching, and writing in knowledge societies. mike lange is an anthropologist and folklorist, and a professor in the interdisciplinary general education curriculum, the core, at champlain college. his work centers on narrative, identity, the culture of higher ed, and food. his books include norwegian scots and meanings of maple. http://www.attherootvt.com/ contributors digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 100 lucy m. long is a folklorist (ph.d. folklore, university of pennsylvania) who teaches adjunct at bgsu primarily in the school of cultural and critical studies. she directs the independent non-profit center for food and culture, and has published extensively on a variety of topics around food, including her publications include: culinary tourism (2004), regional american food culture (2009), ethnic american food today (2015), food and folklore reader (2015), honey: a global history (2017), and comfort food meanings and memories (2017). cora mardin is a third-year student in the digital filmmaking major at champlain college, specializing in video editing and motion graphics with a minor in digital marketing. jerry l. reed is a library science master's student at the university of north carolina-greensboro and an independent folklorist. he worked with the center for food and culture on a project studying comfort foods during the covid-19 pandemic and has research interests in foodways, youth culture, and digital communities. his works include: “discomforting foodways: reflections on the challenges faced by individuals during the covid-19 pandemic” (2022) and “you are what others eat: informal economics and middle school social hierarchies” (2020). david rous is an adjunct faculty member at champlain college, and his research interests include colonial history, modern american history, and media studies. katheryn wright is roger h. perry endowed chair and associate professor of interdisciplinary studies. her academic and creative work examine cultural, embodied practices connected to the intersection of digital and physical environments. she is the author of the new heroines: female embodiment and technology in 21st century popular culture (2016). dr. wright has written book chapters and articles on topics including dark tourism, screen culture, posthuman studies, speculative education, spatial storytelling, digital humanities, and experiential learning. microsoft word lead-fine-without sympathy check-digest 2018-2019-galley.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 19-30 © american folklore society 2020 “without sympathy there is no cookery”: imperial knowledge and the creation of “indian” cuisine sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship 2019 by: julia fine abstract: by viewing colonial british cookbooks and indian cookbooks in conversation with one another, this essay analyzes the cultural melding and appropriation that occurred in foodways during the colonization of the indian subcontinent. it particularly explores how british cookbooks published in india at this time attempted to bind indian cooks within an ahistorical and homogenized vision of india. yet, as demonstrated through a close reading of two prominent bengali cookbooks, south asian cooks adapted these recipes in order to present a vision of nationalism that undercut british superiority and reified indian independence. the dialogue that emerges by exploring contemporaneous cookbooks affords a space to view changes to foodways that emerged from the colonial encounter as well as their impacts and cultural importance. keywords: india, great britain, colonialism, cookbooks, creolization, foodways “perfectly plain cookery is suitable only for england where plain food is of the best; but in india, where meat is poverty-stricken and vegetables are tasteless, spices and flavoring are a necessity,” opens one 1914 british colonial cookbook, instructing british memsahibs on how to run a proper household in colonial india (shalot 1914: v).1 in the wake of the sepoy rebellion of 1857, new protective borders (both literal and metaphorical) emerged around the european community in india. yet, as the above quote evinces, the kitchen remained a site where indian domestic servants of any gender interacted with their british memsahibs. indeed, as one british indian cookbook author suggested in its title page epigraph, “we may live without friends; we may live without books / but civilized man cannot live without cooks” (newman 1893). thus, although the memsahib instructed the cook as to what dishes to serve, the cook exercised significant control over food preparation and presentation. this arms-length collaboration created a syncretic cuisine combining british and subcontinental influences. the resulting food was, according to food historian cecilia leong-salobir, “distinct and different from the food practices of britain and asia, but at the same time incorporated dietary components of british culinary traditions and embraced indigenous ingredients and practices from the colonies”(2011: 69). many scholars have studied the ways in which this cultural mixing functioned within the british colonial kitchen. prominently, mary procida has argued that this novel cuisine “was intended to demonstrate the colonizers’ mastery and dominance in the private arena of the empire as in the public sphere” (2003: 123). in contrast, other scholars, including utsa ray and jayanta sengupta, have focused on the cuisine as it emerged in south asian kitchens outside of and in response to direct colonial control. they argue that this cross-cultural melding effectively shaped the colonial middle class in bengal and constituted one means by which they articulated visions of nationhood (ray 2015; sengupta 2010). while procida, ray, and sengupta put forth important contributions to 20 fine, “without sympathy,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) the field of imperial food studies, by focusing solely on either the colonial british or the indian kitchen, these authors fail to recognize the intrinsically dialectical nature of colonialism (comaroff and comaroff 2009). to understand this cultural dialogue, then, we must move beyond dichotomous constructions of the colonial domestic and public spheres as well as the british colonial domestic sphere and the indian domestic sphere. by acknowledging these spaces as inherently fluid and permeable we see not only how domestic imperial statecraft functioned, but also how it was received and adapted by indian actors. here, i focus on british cookbooks written in indian languages aimed specifically at both the memsahib and indian cook in the british colonial household. i analyze them in conversation with indian-authored cookbooks written in south asian languages for indian housewives rather than memsahibs, which were beginning to be published in certain regions of india during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. i explore the different forms of cultural mixing that emerge in these colonial cookbooks. as robert baron and ana c. cara write in their discussion of “creolization” as a lens for cultural analysis, “when cultures come into contact, expressive forms and performances emerge from their encounter, embodying the sources that shape them yet constituting new and different entities” (baron and cara 2011: 3). many have discussed this cultural mixing in terms of homi bhabha’s concept of hybridity, which he presented in his work the location of culture (1994).2 however, here, i elucidate these emergent cultural forms using baron and cara’s understanding of creolization. i use this not to describe the indian subcontinent, as creolization is a historically specific phenomenon as well as a “powerful marker of identity in latin america, the caribbean, southern louisiana, cape verde, and the islands of the southwest indian ocean.” rather, i use this as a lens to analyze indian cultural forms to “liberate us conceptually from a nation of fixed or ‘finish’ products in culture, whether purportedly ‘hybrid’ or whole” (baron and cara 2011: 4). following baron and cara’s recognition of the in-process and dialogic nature of creolization, i bring together contemporaneous british and indian cookbooks. while the colonizers’ cookbooks attempted to bind indian cooks within a homogeneous, ahistorical vision of india and indian food, south asian cooks adapted this cuisine to produce their own melded culinary forms which expressed an understanding of india as separate from and superior to britain. this emergent indian cuisine not only undercut the totalized colonial vision of “native food,” but also opened up space for new imaginations of a decolonized india. inside the colonial kitchen: inscribing india within british imperial knowledge cookbooks written by british authors in dual-language south asian languages and english reveal significant aspects of imperial ideals and aspirations. these books came into vogue in the late nineteenth century (leong-salobir 2015: 140–141). although their authors acknowledged that many cookbooks for the british colonial kitchen already existed in english, they felt the need to publish recipes in south asian languages as well because, as one cookbook author put it, “not one englishwoman in a hundred can, even in her own tongue, give an intelligible explanation of a receipt, much less in a language that nabi bukhsh3 could understand. the results are sometimes appalling” (shalot 1914: digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 21 iv). similarly, an 1881 cookbook written in both english and urdu justified its publication by a need for standardization and control: the principal stumbling block in the way of teachers has hitherto been the impossibility of relying on the memory of their cooks to retain the numerous ingredients and often complicated processes of a variety of dishes of which they have no record. it seemed to us that this obstacle would be removed by the possession of a cookery book which our cooks could read, in which they could find a simple clear account of the dishes they have to make, instead of being as heretofore dependent on a garbled, inaccurate, vague viva voce translation (newman 1893: iii). thus, in order for the memsahibs to instruct their cooks more accurately and quickly, these dual-language cookbooks began to proliferate. from the above quotes, we can glean the intended audience of the dual-language works: the english woman or memsahib, as well as “nabi bukhsh,” a stereotypical moniker for an indian cook. within the british imperial domestic sphere in india, cooking in the colonial home was not necessarily seen as a woman’s task. rather, as mary procida has demonstrated, “neither the physical space of the kitchen nor the knowledge and skills required of the good imperial homemaker were narrowly gendered as feminine” (2002: 132). indeed, men authored many of the works that the british imperial cookbooks were based on. in the preface to the 1879 work dainty dishes for indian tables, a cookbook in english and urdu, the author writes, “where francatelli, soyer, miss acton, and a host of others have spoken in vain, what hope is there for a new teacher, unless he be the pioneer of a new path up the hill of difficulty?” (newman 1893: iii). both charles francatelli and alexis soyer are men, and while use of the word “he” might signal any gender, it suggests the unnamed author could be as well. procida notes as well that “ordinary anglo-indians found nothing unseemly or unmasculine in men’s involvement in domestic and culinary affairs” (2002: 132). this subgenre of cookbooks thus destabilizes contemporary expectations about how men and women were to interact in both the domestic sphere as well as the larger biopolitical project of empire.4 while it is impossible to quantify the readership of these works, something of their popularity in british india can be inferred from the many editions issued. for example, at least seven editions of what to tell the cook, or, the native cook’s assistant: being a choice collection of receipts for indian cookery, pastry, &c., &c.: in english and tamil were released between 1875 and 1910. the book proved so successful throughout british india that a sinhala adaptation of the book was published for british colonists living in ceylon in 1895, which was then reissued at least once in 1901. similarly, dainty dishes for indian tables was first published in 1879 and then reissued six times between then and 1908. these new issues included a persian edition in 1895, demonstrating the work’s sustained appeal to a wide audience. the introduction to the fifth edition notes that “the cordial reception with which ‘dainty dishes’ has been received may be taken as proof that such a work was needed by english residents in india” (newman 1893: v). their popularity makes these works potent historical sources for understanding the construction of colonial cuisines. 22 fine, “without sympathy,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) i argue that these cookbooks present the british as benevolent, validating the right of britons to consume what they understood as “native food” and the notion that mutual understanding undergirded the colonization of india. for instance, ceylon cookery, or, the native cook’s assistant (1901: vii) opens by noting its creation at the request of a sinhalese cook: many years ago, an intelligent sinhalese cook came to us with a ponderous english cookery book saying: — “master make one sinhalese book like this, plenty good for cokies”! in an office where a newspaper is manufactured daily, our cook evidently thought it would be a small matter turning out a sinhalese edition of mrs. beeton’s well-known work. the nature of the text presents colonialism as a benevolent (albeit patronizing) exchange of british and indian cultural ideals, one that answers to the requests of indian servants. this effect is even ingrained in the format of these books, which typically present english and south asian translations on facing pages. the bilingual diptych, combined with the english production of these vernacular cookbooks, implies mutual construction and exchange of british and indian cultural ideals. the recipes and meal plans featured in these books also further this vision of benevolent exchange, as they attempt to consolidate “indian” food traditions that were comprehensible to and consumable by the british colonizers. in what to tell the cook, for example, one sample meal menu consists of “mulligatawny, beefsteak pie, cutlets à la soubise, kabob curry, pancakes.” other menus offer “clear soup, roast leg mutton, harico, chicken curry, bread and butter pudding,” or “vegetable soup, boiled fowls and tongue, mutton and cucumber stew, dry curry, custard pudding” (1875: 86). although mulligatawny and curry were essentially foods created by british colonizers— based on the presumed indian originals—the texts implicitly mark them as “indian” foods by writing that these are foods “every native” makes and eats (cf. what to tell the cook 1875: 34; see also narayan 1995; roy 2010; ruthnum 2017).5 the inclusion of such allegedly “native” recipes alongside european dishes without distinction suggests a form of cultural mixing through which british imperialists can absorb indian culture. while this mixing of cultural influences here does not represent true creolization in the terms of baron and cara due to the fact that rather than “embody[ing] resistance to domination and asymmetrical power relations,” it works to uphold them even as it claims benevolence, it suggests the way cultural forms were changed in a dialogic process among both colonizers and colonized. as the 1902 cookbook things for the cook (in english and hindustani) begins, “without sympathy there can be no cookery” (shalot 1914: iv). the book makes clear that sympathy here is demonstrated through appropriating “indian” cooking styles, writing that “perfectly plain cookery is suitable only for england where plain food is of the best; but in india, where meat is povertystricken and vegetables are tasteless, spices and flavoring are a necessity” (shalot 1914: iv). by framing this mixed style in terms of “sympathy,” the british writer suggests both the ability of britain to understand indian cuisine on a visceral level, as well as the larger idea of consent and benevolence underlying imperialism. yet this sympathy is predicated on the superiority of british vegetables and meat over indian ones, and thus recapitulates british supremacy even within the claim of benevolence. this notion of digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 23 unequal cultural mixing is furthered by the very inclusion of indian languages alongside english. what to tell the cook; or the native cook’s assistant, which in its first iteration was written only in tamil, begins by noting that in the second edition, the “publishers have availed themselves of the suggestion proffered by several of their constituents, with a view to make it more valuable to house-keepers to print the english text on the opposite page of the tamil.”(1875: preface). in other words, the inclusion of the english was meant to allow the memsahibs to check up on domestic servants and correct their cooking. in this sense, while the first edition allowed indian cooks to use the book on their own terms, this edition attempted to control indian knowledge through the inclusion of english. moreover, the addition of indian dishes (or rather, what the british thought were indian dishes) in english meal plans also served to reify colonial ideals about what is indian. in british india, “cultural forms in society newly classified as ‘traditional’ were reconstructed and transformed by and through [imperial knowledge] which created new categories and oppositions between colonizer and colonized” (dirks 1996: ix; see also mantena 2018: 89-118).6 in the case of these colonial cookbooks, the promotion of mutual understanding in fact worked to articulate and actualize british control over an idea of india and indian cuisine. consider the description of curries given in what to tell the cook: “curries. every native knows how to make these: chicken and prawn are, perhaps, the favourite ones” (1875: 34). by claiming it as the single dish that south asians intrinsically know how to make, the cookbook marks curry as a unified symbol of indianness. but the book then goes on to provide over fifteen recipes for variations on curry. by informing cooks how to prepare a dish “every native knows how to make,” the cookbook essentially instructs the indian cooks how to prepare properly what they supposedly already know, repackaging and presenting “indian food” to domestic servants in a form chiefly understood and comestible by british colonialists. a similar process occurs in many other colonial cookbooks. things for the cook, for example, offers a recipe for “shami kabab,” which is subtitled “a native receipt” (shalot 1914: 31). the subtitle suggests that the recipe came from the cook, one of the few “natives” with whom the memsahib would have interacted. yet by including the recipe in things for the cook, the memsahib essentially re-instructs the cook on what she understands to be his own cuisine to conform to british interpretations. moreover, this british construction of curry and kebabs, as scholars such as uma narayan (1995: 63) and e.m. collingham (2006: 115-120) have demonstrated, wholly elides the regional and cultural specificities of india. this melded cuisine thus recapitulates and reinscribes a british vision of a homogeneous, knowable, and controllable india. the transformation of indian foodways: a case study in bengali cuisine the indian colonial kitchen can be seen as one site of creolization, offering a “critical way of conceptualizing the emergence of cultural phenomena borne out of the necessity to negotiate cultural differences and to resist dominance by asserting a new local voice” (baron and cara: 3-4). these indian colonial kitchens represented sites of creolization, where “subaltern cultural communities resisted the imposition of mechanistic, systematizing, standardizing norms from official, politically dominant cultures” (ibid: 6). utsa ray has shown (2015) that colonial british cookbooks represented one way that british cuisine was transmitted to indian people and appropriated into different 24 fine, “without sympathy,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) regional cuisines, thus contributing to the production of cultural mixing within indian foodways. of course, i do not mean to suggest that this was the only way such mixing occurred; rather, this solely represents one fruitful way of knowing what parts of angloindian culture were actively and explicitly transmitted to indian peoples. in order to trace this exchange of culinary ideas and the effects of this exchange on indian foodways more completely, here i draw on the work of utsa ray and compare recipes provided in british colonial cookbooks written in indian languages to those appearing in cookbooks written by south asians for use in the indian domestic sphere. these comparisons help illustrate how cooks might have taken and transformed the knowledge disseminated in texts such as what to tell the cook and things for the cook, to varying effects. this process reveals one change to indian foodways catalyzed by the colonial encounter, and significantly, the emergence of an indian cuisine self-consciously symbolizing indian independence from the british. most scholars focus on the development of cookbook culture in south asia only in the postcolonial era. arjun appadurai (1988), for example, has focused on the spread of cookbooks in postcolonial india during the 1950s, and similarly, rachel berger confirms that the indian cookbook was a “largely twentieth-century commodity” (2013: 1628). yet south asian cookbooks published in the nineteenth century can already be seen as active participants in a dialogue—or even a debate—with british cookbooks about the colonial kitchen. while caste restrictions as well as oral traditions would likely have limited the popularity of these works, such cookbooks were published in several regions of the country during the late victorian period in multiple languages: પાક શા%& [pak shastra: cookery], a late nineteenth-century gujarati cookbook; पाक र%नाकर [pak ratnakar: the gems of cooking], a late nineteenth-century hindi cookbook published in delhi; and many bengali cookbooks, two of which will be the focus of the remainder of this essay. this smattering of examples begins to demonstrate the variety of food cultures across south asia as well as the publication of cookbooks taking place across the different regions in relation to their cultural and linguistic differences. in the remainder of this essay, i turn to how these culinary cultural dynamics played out specifically in the region of bengal. because bengal was the center of colonial administration until 1911, uniquely creolized british/indian cuisines emerged in the kitchens of the growing bengali middle class. bengal was also an important site for the development of different strands of indian nationalist thought, where, as jayanta sengupta and rachel berger demonstrate, cooking and eating became important arenas for the expression of nationalistic expression (sengupta 2010: 97; berger 2013: 1622– 1643). cookbooks, especially popular among the developing bengali middle class, were central to the very construction of that bengali middle class itself, as ray has demonstrated (2015: 3-8). however, this is not to suggest that bengal is representative of all of colonial india. in focusing on bengal, my aim is not to extrapolate a general claim about the transformation of indian foodways across different regions and cultures. rather, through close-reading the works of two popular authors at the time period— pragyasundari devi and bipradas mukhopadhyay—i demonstrate one way the colonial encounter changed the sorts of foods that south asian cookbooks prescribed, and the specific ways in which these changes were presented by writers in bengal. by focusing on the works of two popular authors, i do not mean to suggest that they represent the only visions of indian nationalism promulgated at this time in bengal. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 25 rather, they represent a specific vision of indian nationalism closely tied to their own subject-position as middle-class hindus. yet at the same time, these represent, as ray has shown, significant contributions to bengali literature as the “most popular” recipe books at the time, constituting “classic examples of the changing diet of bengalis” (2015: 63-64). these cookbooks exemplify what ray calls “hierarchical cosmopolitanism,” which attempted to “cosmopolitanize the domestic” while maintaining a regional flavor (2015: 13), as can be seen by comparing two recipes for plum pudding. a typical british cookbook from this time period might simply list ingredients in a recipe for plum pudding as: “one lb. raisins, 1 lb. flour, ¾ lb. suet, 2 tablespoonfuls of treacle, 1 pint milk. ginger may be added, but no eggs. it cannot be boiled too much” (poynter 1904: 8). by contrast, pragyasundari devi presents a recipe from the early 1900s in a paragraph of full sentences outlining steps and details for making the dish (1995: 118; as translated in ray 2015: 70-72):7 the bread needs to be made into crumbs by rubbing them between both palms. lard needs to be finely chopped and mixed with finely chopped candied peel. then slivered nuts, currants, raisins, lard, and candied peel are to be mixed with the bread crumbs. add sugar. mix three eggs. this mixture is then spooned onto a flesh towel. ghee is to be added. then this towel is tied together and dropped into a vessel of boiling water. this mixture will be steamed. here, we see how the british recipe for a dish given in “what” and “how” has been transformed into one acceptable to bengali hindus by the substitution of lard or pork fat for beef suet, a foodstuff against hindu law. in devi’s other recipes, she further transformed british dishes by adding ingredients not widely used in europe. for example, british colonial cookbooks tended to make a custard sauce sweet: “flavour with vanilla essence, or almond if preferred, add the well-beaten yolks of 5 eggs, and a little salt, with a tablespoon of cold milk, and stir over the fire till thick; whisk to a froth” (a lady resident 1865: 65; cf. the presentation in ray 2015: 70). by contrast, devi (1995: 118), translated in ray (2015: 70-72), made the sauce she called “custard” a sweet-sour savory: slice the onions into four, stem them and mince them. pour ghee into the saucepan. put in onions and whole spices of cinnamon and cardamom. after stirring for a while add some milk. add celery and salt. after it comes to a boil add some flour mixed with water. when the mixture thickens add vinegar. the addition of ghee, which had hindu ritual uses, suggests that devi deliberately transformed this dish into a melded british/south asian one (ray 2012: 706–707). the use of cardamom corroborates this conclusion. while heavily used in bengali cooking at the time, it was still rarely found in british home cooking then. this vision of cosmopolitanism makes foreign food acceptable to bengali tastes while demonstrating bengali modernity and cultural know-how in engaging with worldly foods. devi’s recipes defiantly reject the center-periphery model of power that typically makes cosmopolitanism the preserve of the imperial country, thus undercutting british perceptions of bengali cooking. 26 fine, “without sympathy,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) in other bengali works, authors are explicit about the fact that they are mixing their cuisine. for instance, in cookery, mukhopadhyay identifies english chops as an “authentic recipe,” but then writes (1887: 358-359): readers can clearly understand that the way this english chop has been prepared seems rather bland despite the fact that this is a much-esteemed delicacy for the english. to make it more palatable to food lovers across the world we suggest a few tweaks in the recipe.8 mukhopadhyay then elaborates a similar recipe with the addition of ghee and ginger juice, a popular seasoning in bengal. thus he self-consciously shows that he has constructed a creolized dish that is more acceptable to the bengali palate, thereby bringing the european into the realm of the bengali. conversely, by noting that the bengali additions to the dish would make it more “palatable to food lovers across the world,” the bengali palate displaces european taste as the default. in addition to regionalizing these foreign dishes, the bengali cookbooks—as demonstrated in mukhopadhyay’s introduction to cookery—attempted to construct a distinctly national cuisine in which the foreign and regional are brought into the fold of a developing indian cuisine. besides the “english chop” recipe, cookery expressly draws on global ingredients and recipes, including recipes for “german stew,” “french mutton cutlet,” “irish stew,” and “english meat roast” (9-10). while the integration of western european food specialties demonstrates the cosmopolitan palate of the bengali middle class, as ray has argued (2014: 63-64), in cookery mukhopadhyay subsumes these foods into the realm of indian cuisine. “india has an unparalleled wealth of chewable, suckable, lickable, drinkable food. the science of consuming food that was beneficial for health was also devised in this country,” he writes in the introduction (911), advocating that the consumption of all healthy food stems from a supposed indian ideal. this country to which mukhopadhyay refers is also understood to be made up of the different regions and religions within the subcontinent. at the beginning of one edition, he writes that he has taken “recipes from across india like the laddus from patna, gujiya from allahabad, kachori from kasi, pera from mathura, dalmut from agra, nakuldana from delhi, mohanpapri from lucknow, mohanbhog from lahore and ambala, papad from hapar, kulcha from kashmir” (11). by listing places throughout the indian subcontinent, mukhopadhyay suggests that it is the regional which constitutes the national cuisine. thus he subverts the british vision of a pan-indian curry by forming a vision of indianness predicated on the regional. furthermore, he encompasses multiple religions within this understanding of india, writing that his work is aimed at “the hindu and the non-hindus, as well as the shakta and the vaishnavs” (ibid). by listing these different religions, he suggests that indian cuisine is made up of the foods of “all creeds of people,” rather than being a single, homogenous entity. by extension, then, he promulgates a vision of a decolonial nation that is ambitious and somewhat utopian. in opposition to british attempts to codify “indianness” within a framework of british knowledge, the indigenizing of the foreign may have even functioned as a way to uphold digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 27 indian cultural superiority over the british. mukhopadhyay offers many recipes for “curry”in his discussion of curry in cookery.9 lizzie collingham argues that curry in british india was “not just a term that the british used to describe an unfamiliar set” of south asian dishes, but a “dish in its own right, created for the british in india” (2006: 118). in cookery, however, mukhopadhyay offers a different explanation that displaces the ownership of curry from the british living in india, while still noting its essential melded form. acknowledging many different recipes for the dish, including “sour curry,” “fennel seed curry,” “papaya curry,” “fish curry,” and “arum curry with potatoes,” he explains their origins in europeans learning “to cook ‘curry’ from the jews and the jews learnt it from the muslims” (mukhopadhyay 1928: 272; trans. ray 2015: 67). unlike cookbooks such as what to tell the cook which claim that curry is a recipe “every native knows,” mukhopadhyay attempts to historicize the dish as a mix across european cuisine, jewish cuisine, muslim cuisine, and now—based on mukhopadhyay’s own subject-position—hindu cuisine. here, then, mukhopadhyay takes the imperial knowledge given in cookbooks like what to tell the cook and reinvents curry to be an essentially mixed dish from its beginnings, while still claiming its origins as nonoccidental. mukhopadhyay thereby removes ownership from the europeans while subverting ideas about what “every native knows,” undermining british understandings of indian culture. conclusion through these bengali cookbooks by devi and mukhopadhyay, we see how creolization within the region served to undercut the vision of indianness promoted by the british in their cookbooks. as the bengali cookbooks show, the emerging middle-class kitchen was a space where colonial (mis)understandings of a homogeneous and consenting india could be rewritten and transformed by both men and women indian cooks. in the terms offered by de certeau, colonized indians were able to “continually turn to their own ends forces alien to them” through the conscious creation of and discourse surrounding creolization (1988: xix). the appropriation of british-introduced recipes and foodstuffs represented an “everyday form of resistance” through which indians could assert their own understanding of india and its relationship to the world.10 references cited cookbooks a lady resident. 1865. the englishwoman in india: containing information for the use of ladies proceeding to, or residing in, the east indies, or the subjects of their outfit, furniture, housekeeping, the rearing of children, duties and wages of servants,management of the stables, and arrangements for travelling. to which are added receipts for indian cookery. 2nd ed. london: smith, elder & co. [no author]. 1901. ceylon cookery; or, the native cook’s assistant. a collection of receipts for ceylon cookery with useful household hints: in english and sinhalese. 4th ed. colombo: a.m. & j. ferguson. devi, pragyasundari. 1995. amisha o niramisha ahara. calcutta: ananda publishers. 28 fine, “without sympathy,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) mathur, chaube dattram ji. 1869. pak ratnakar [the gems of cooking]. delhi: matbae hindu press. mukhopadhyay, bipradas. 1886. pak pranali vol. 2 [cookery]. calcutta: dr. r.j. chakraborty’s dispensary at great edin press. ——. 1928. pak pranali [cookery]. vols. 1-5 kolkata. newman, w., & co. 1893. dainty dishes for indian tables. 5th ed., rev. calcutta: w. newman & co. see also: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/rrujp2wp (accessed march 5, 2020) [no author] pak shastra [cookery]. 1884. ahmedabad: ahmedabad satyodaya press. poynter, e. s. 1904. “what” and “how”, or, what shall we have?, and how shall we have it? calcutta: thacker, spink, & co. shalot. 1914. things for the cook: in english and hindustani. calcutta: thacker, spink, & co. [no author]. 1875. what to tell the cook, or, the native cook’s assistant: being a choice collection of receipts for indian cookery, pastry, &c., &c.,: in english and tamil. 2nd ed. madras: higginbotham & co. scholarly secondary sources appadurai, arjun. 1988. how to make a national cuisine: cookbooks in contemporary india. comparative studies in society and history 30 (1): 3–24. baron, robert, and ana c. cara. 2011. creolization as cultural creativity. jackson: university press of mississippi. berger, rachel. 2013. “between digestion and desire: genealogies of food in nationalist north india.” modern asian studies 47 (5): 1622–1643. collingham, elizabeth m. 2006. curry: a tale of cooks and conquerors. new york: oxford university press. comaroff, john l., and jean comaroff. 2009. of revelation and revolution, volume 2: the dialectics of modernity on a south african frontier. chicago: university of chicago press. de certeau, michel. 1988. the practice of everyday life. berkeley: university of california press. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 29 dirks, nicholas. 1996. foreword. in colonialism and its forms of knowledge: the british in india, by bernard s. cohn, ix-xvii. princeton: princeton university press. foucault, michel. 2008. the birth of biopolitics: lectures at the collège de france, 1978–1979, ed. michel senellart, trans. graham burcell. london: palgrave macmillan. a 2010 edition (new york: picador) identifies françois ewald and alessandro fontana as general editors. leong-salobir, cecilia. 2011. food culture in colonial asia: a taste of empire. new york: routledge. ——. 2015. spreading the word: using cookbooks and colonial memoirs to examine the foodways of british colonials in asia, 1850-1900. in the routledge history of food, ed. carol helstosky, 131–155. new york: routledge. mantena, karuna. 2018. alibis of empire: henry maine and the ends of liberal imperialism. princeton: princeton university press. narayan, uma. 1995. eating cultures: incorporation, identity and indian food. social identities 1 (1): 63-86. procida, mary a. 2002. married to the empire: gender, politics and imperialism in india, 1883-1947. manchester: manchester university press. ——. 2003. feeding the imperial appetite: imperial knowledge and anglo-indian discourse. journal of women’s history 15 (2): 123–149. https://doi.org/10.1353/jowh.2003.0054. ray, utsa. 2015. culinary culture in colonial india: a cosmopolitan platter and the middle-class. cambridge: cambridge university press. ——. 2012. eating “modernity”: changing dietary practices in colonial bengal. modern asian studies 46 (3): 703–729. roy, modhumita. 2010. some like it hot: class, gender and empire in the making of mulligatawny soup. economic and political weekly 45 (32): 66–75. rudyard, kipling. 1889. in black and white. 2nd ed. allahabad: a.h. wheel & co. ruthnum, naben. 2017. curry: reading, eating, and race. toronto: coach house books. scott, james c. 1987. weapons of the weak. london: yale university press. 30 fine, “without sympathy,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) sengupta, jayanta. 2010. nation on a platter: the culture and politics of food and cuisine in colonial bengal. modern asian studies 44 (1): 81-89. notes 1 the word “memsahib” typically refers to a respectful term employed by non-europeans to address a white married woman living in india during the colonial period. for more information, see procida (2002, 2014 reprint edition). 2 scholars that have used hybridity to analyze british-indian foodways include mary procida (2003), utsa ray (2015), and jayanta sengupta (2010). 3 nabi bukhsh seems to be a stereotypical name for indian servants and employees used by british writers. rudyard kipling used a similar name (1888: i). 4 here, i draw on foucault’s definition of biopolitics as set forth in his posthumously published 1978-1979 lecture series (foucault 2008). 5 for the british fabrication of curry and mulligatawny, see: collingham (115-120); roy; narayan (63); and ruthnum. 6 mantena’s work discusses the importance of codification in imperial statecraft. 7 volume 1 of devi’s amisha o niramisha ahara was published around 1900, the second volume followed shortly, and the third was published in 1907. the 1995 work is a reissue of the volumes. for more, see ray (2015: 63). 8 i am grateful to amrita mukherjee for translating this passage. all translations from the bengali cookbooks used here are courtesy of amrita mukherjee, unless noted otherwise. 9 the term “curry” most likely originally came from a tamil word. for more, see collingham (115). 10 i am indebted to james scott for the phrase “everyday form of resistance” (1987: xviiixxii). schmidt, claire. 2017. review of prison food in america. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 70. © american folklore society 2018 review of: prison food in america erika camplin. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield studies in food and gastronomy, 2017. pp. 139, index. by: claire schmidt erika camplin’s prison food in america is described on the cover blurb as “a high level snapshot.” as a whole, the text is a useful introduction to the study of food in prison. it covers a lot of ground in order to paint a broad picture and address an important topic about which there is no other current scholarly book-length work. prison food in america is quite short and very accessible to a general audience and undergraduate students. there are eight chapters comprising 106 pages, plus end note references and an index. the book is very broad in its approach, encompassing history, economics, race, ethics, class, popular culture, politics, and sociology as it explores food in prison in the contemporary united states (with a short glimpse of norway) as well as historically in both the united states and great britain. the first chapter raises the main concerns of the book: 1) the united states incarcerates its people at a far greater rate than any other nation, meaning that, per camplin’s calculations, the us provides about 6 million meals per day; 2) food, poverty, profit, and race are inextricably linked in american institutions; 3) food lies at the heart of conflicting ideologies about punishment and rehabilitation; and 4) we can and should do better as a nation if we wish to address root causes of poverty, institutional racism, and health inequalities. chapter 2 gives a very brief and selective history of prison food in england and the united states. chapter 3 focuses on the economics of prison food and chapter 4 covers menus, nutritional and safety oversight (or lack thereof), and specialized diets. these two chapters (and chapter 6, on the commissary) make the strongest contribution to prison food scholarship. the reproduced menus, nutritional guidelines, and commissary forms are valuable artifacts and will be quite helpful for future scholars and students. the interrogation of profit, incarceration, and ethics in chapter 3 is timely. chapter 5 explores food as schmidt, claire. 2017. review of prison food in america. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 71. © american folklore society 2018 protest and punishment, chapter 7 focuses on the rehabilitative possibilities of food production, and the final chapter explores last meals before executions. from a scholarly point of view, the methodology is unclear. a great deal of the supporting material comes from blogs, fora, government websites, and online news sources like vice. some scholarly sources are incorporated into the text, including work by folklorist steve siporin and prison food scholar amy smoyer, but the balance of the material is populist rather than academic. folklorists may question the context of some personal experience narratives in the text. for example, references to and quotes from “my inmate friend” pepper the book, but no explanation is provided about the author’s relationship to the inmate friend, why the author has chosen to incorporate this information, how the information was gathered, whether the friend played a role in the overall conception of the book, or how that friend’s experience of prison and prison food may be influenced by his cultural background. further, the structure of the book is inconsistent. some chapters have a clear introductory passage while others do not. one chapter has a formal conclusion section with a header while the other seven chapters just stop without bringing the main ideas together into a concluding section or paragraph. the voice is also unpredictable: some paragraphs are written like a scholarly treatise, while other paragraphs read like a hyperbolic buzzfeed piece. camplin is generally very careful to avoid othering and essentializing inmates, but the final section of the book on last meals (chapter 8) feels sensationalized, particularly because the chapter, and book, end abruptly on a list of “notorious last meals” and give the reader no conclusion at all to the book as a whole. the concepts and topics often lack synthesis and the primary and secondary sources lack contextualization and critical analysis. as with other books in this series, image quality is inconsistent. more care from the editorial department would likely have resulted in a more functional and effective book. the text is impassioned and focused on raising awareness of an immediate opportunity for social change for the betterment of the humanity of the entire united states. while i wish it had been longer and more substantial, prison food in america opens the door for future scholars to respond by engaging deeply with issues brought to the fore in this present volume. meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 45. © american folklore society 2018 abstract: this research note sketches the biography of swiss immigrant alessandro (or alexander) filippini (1849­1917), a chef at new york city’s delmonico’s restaurants for over 25 years, and provides a short analysis of his culinary heritage. mostly forgotten today, and overshadowed by the reputation of french chef charles ranhofer for creating many of the dishes that made delmonico’s famous, filippini authored the very first delmonico cookbook (1889) and made significant contributions to the evolution of fine dining in the united states—in restaurants as well as in private homes and on transatlantic passenger ships. this note seeks to elevate his importance in the role that delmonico’s restaurants—founded in the nineteenth century by two swiss brothers of that name—played in the history of the american restaurant and the development of american cuisine. keywords: delmonico’s, alessandro filippini, charles ranhofer, american restaurant history, cookbooks introduction the history of the american restaurant and the development of american cuisine are inextricably tied to one particular nineteenth century establishment in new york city—“delmonico’s”—whose name to this day evokes a picture of lavish dinners, grand balls, famous patrons and fanciful new dishes. what in 1827 started as a small café and pastry shop on 23 william street in the lowest part of manhattan, where the hot chocolate was “unlike anything served elsewhere in new york—rich, thick, and foaming” (thomas 1967:9), became quickly the most famous and successful culinary empire of its day. it was founded by two brothers who emigrated from the little village of mairengo near faido in the canton of ticino, the italian­ speaking part of switzerland. giovanni (john) delmonico was a wine merchant, while his younger brother pietro antonio (peter) was originally a chocolate maker with a shop in berne (messerli 1922:6). in 1830, they opened their first restaurant on 25 william street, hired french chefs for the kitchen and sought the help of their nephew lorenzo delmonico, who the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini (1849­1917) an appreciation on the centenary of his death by: michael a. meer meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 46. © american folklore society 2018 joined them from switzerland in 1831. the restaurant surprised its clientele by the novel feature of ordering “à la carte” from a menu that listed the dishes in both english and french (choate and canora 2008:11, thomas 1967). the peak of success came with new york’s gilded age in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. primarily recognized today as delmonico’s culinary exponent is charles ranhofer (1836­1899), a french chef who worked for delmonico’s during that period, from 1862 until his retirement in 1896 (with a short three­year break in between). ranhofer, credited with creating many of the dishes that made delmonico’s famous, published the epicurean, a massive 1,200­page cookbook, in 1894. another cookbook of that period that is regularly mentioned when delmonico’s culinary achievements are discussed is a work not by a chef, but by someone who (much) later confessed that he “never cooked anything more difficult to prepare than a plate of scrambled eggs” (schriftgiesser 1943:5): oscar tschirky (1866­1950). also originally swiss, he worked as a maître d’hôtel at delmonico’s for three years, after a first stop at the hoffman house, one of the grandest hotels in new york at that time. in 1891, he then moved on to the new waldorf hotel before it even opened. there he became “oscar of the waldorf,” the embodiment of a professional host. the cook book – by ‘oscar of the waldorf’ was first published in 1896. while one would assume that tschirky was the actual author of that comprehensive collection of recipes, it was in fact a compilation “from the recipes of some of the most famous chefs new york has ever known” (schriftgiesser 1943:5), including, obviously, those from delmonico’s kitchens, even if tschirky does not name any of them. often mentioned in connection with delmonico’s, but getting no more than a passing mention, and thus never lifted to the culinary olympus, is yet another swiss, alessandro (or alexander) filippini, who was with delmonico’s for over 25 years. filippini was the author of five cookbooks, including the very first cookbook about delmonico’s, published in 1889 in new york under the title the table: how to buy food, how to cook it and how to serve it, and at the same time in london as the delmonico cook book. a supplement, published in 1890, was incorporated in later editions of the book. like the other two cookbook authors, but before them, he presented the menus and recipes of america’s most famous eating place to an amateur audience, the private home. while filippini appears in the contemporary new york press as a key figure in delmonico’s kitchens1 at least to the same extent as charles ranhofer, unlike ranhofer he sank into oblivion quickly after the publication of his last book in 1906. he is largely unresearched, to the extent that even his basic life dates had remained elusive.2 however, filippini’s contribution to the evolution of fine dining in the united states, in both restaurants and private meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 47. © american folklore society 2018 households as well as on transatlantic passenger ships, justifies a closer look into his life and work. the story of alessandro filippini is also a typical example of nineteenth century emigration from switzerland to the united states. the region the delmonicos and filippini originally came from, today the canton of ticino, switzerland, has been of geostrategic, and thus political and economical interest since the middle ages because of the gotthard pass, one of the most important crossings of the alps, connecting northern and southern europe. so naturally the ticinesi came into frequent contact with travelling merchants from all over the continent, and most certainly got a taste of frontispiece of the table, 1889. meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 48. © american folklore society 2018 foreign culture, customs, and culinary habits much earlier than other swiss. maybe it is not a coincidence, then, that the region also fathered the author of the world’s first modern cookery book and celebrity cook of fifteenth century italy, maestro martino (or martino de rossi). he was born around 1430 in torre, a village in the valley of blenio, neighboring the leventina valley where the delmonicos and filippini originated. but despite its importance, ticino has been notoriously poor, and this poverty certainly contributed to the high rate of emigration over centuries, first into other european countries, then in the nineteenth century in particular to the united states. the immigrants did not bring any significant pecuniary assets to the new world, but many of them were capable of making fruitful use of their cultural heritage and skills—including gastronomy—on fresh grounds. my combined interest in the emigration history of swiss citizens to the united states, the history of new york, and the history of food and specific dishes brought me to researching and writing the following essay. hopefully it will shed some new light on how swiss emigrants helped shape the culinary evolution of america. alessandro filippini—a biographical sketch alessandro filippini was born on new year’s eve of 1849 in the little village of airolo, switzerland (filippini 1900), merely 10 miles north of mairengo, the village where the delmonicos came from. in his early teens, he went to lyon, france where he received full training in one of the city’s famous culinary schools. he proved to be a gifted student, and the school, instead of having him pay for instruction, employed him as an instructor (los angeles times, july 23, 1899:20). not yet seventeen years old, with practical experiences in switzerland and germany, he embarked on the steamer ville de paris from le havre, bound for the united states. young alessandro filippini arrived in new york on june 5, 18663 where he immediately found employment at delmonico’s 14th street restaurant (new­york tribune, february 3, 1891:3). work in the new world was to start with a life­shaping experience. at delmonico’s for only two months, the young cook learned what it meant to be in the kitchen of the city’s most famous restaurant: president andrew johnson was visiting new york, and of course it was at delmonico’s that the citizens of the city hosted the dinner in his honor on august 29, 1866. it was “the finest dinner with which i ever had anything to do,” filippini much later told a journalist (new­york tribune, february 16, 1890:15). the bill of fare was composed as follows (filippini 1889:403)4: meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 49. © american folklore society 2018 dinner by the citizens of new york, to his excellency president johnson, in honor of his visit to the city, wednesday, august 29, 1866. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ menu. potages. variés. timbales de gibier à la vénitienne. variés. poissons. relevés entrées. sorbet. a la dunderberg, rotis. entremets. sucres. fruits et dessert. pieces montées. consommé à la chatelaine saumon à la livonienne. selle d’agneau aux concombres. suprêmes de volaille à la dauphine. ballotins de pigeons à la lucullus. filets de canetons à la tyrolienne. bécasses bardées. petit pois. aubergines. pêches à la new york. macédoine de fruits au curaçoa. bavarois aux fraises. crême aux amandes. beauséjour au malaga. gâteau soleil. bisque aux quenelles paupiettes de kingfish à la villeroi. filet de boeuf à la pocahontas. côtelettes à la maréchale. ris de veau à la montgomery. boudins à la richelieu. ortolans farcis. tomates farcies. artichauts à la barigoul. abricots siciliens. moscovites aux oranges. gelée californienne. méringue chantilly. mille­feuilles pompadour. biscuits glacés aux pistaches. monument de washington. temple de la liberté. casque romain. char de la paix. cassolette sultane. fontaine des aigles. trophée nationale. colonne de l’union. rotonde egyptienne. cornes d’abondances. meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 50. © american folklore society 2018 vins. potages. amontillado 1824. poissons. hochheimerberg. relevés. champagne. entrées. château margaux ’48. rotis. clos de vougeot. entremets sucres. tokai impériale. dessert. madère faguart. an impressive menu, indeed, and it came with an appropriate price tag: “about $100 a plate” ($1,500 in today’s money) (new­york tribune, february 16, 1890:15). while it is very unlikely that seventeen­year­old filippini was actually involved in composing the bill of fare, that dinner shaped his notion of fine dining and a grand banquet. the menu most certainly was ranhofer’s choice, since he had joined delmonico’s four years earlier, in 1862. it is interesting to note, however, that in 1866 the signatory dishes of the gilded age for which delmonico’s is famous still today are not yet on the menu, which is still very much in the contemporary french tradition. it does not feature the delicacies that used more local produce such as canvasback duck or terrapin and evolved into the french­american cuisine attributed to delmonico’s. also, specific new delmonico creations such as lobster newburg, delmonico steak, or baked alaska had not yet been invented. from the restaurant at 14th street, filippini went on to their broad street restaurant (until 1883), then to their pine street restaurant, and when that closed in 1889, he moved to the new delmonico’s restaurant at 341 broadway. a journalist recounted filippini’s achievements with meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 51. © american folklore society 2018 delmonico’s — in full praise—as follows: alessandro filippini has been a power of strength in the delmonico establishment for twenty­five years. he has been at one and at all times the manager, the buyer and the inventor of toothsome dishes. every morning for twenty­five years he arose in time to visit the markets by 3 o’clock, where he purchased the daily supplies for all of the delmonico restaurants, uptown and downtown. no man ever knew better than he the value of food products, and none could buy so well for his employer. every day he visited the various restaurants, studied their needs, made suggestions and improvements in the service, and kept everything running with perfect smoothness. not an hour of the day was he ever idle, and his black hair has become silver­streaked in his long service. (new­york tribune, february 3, 1891:3) another contemporary report, by deshler welch, a new york journalist, connoisseur, and author of the bachelor and the chafing­dish (1896), describes filippini’s standing within the delmonico empire and with its notable patrons: in no other one place in this country or europe could the assemblage have so obtained in its notabilia. i have seen at one time statesmen of several countries, world­wide­known actors, diplomats, literary men, critics and the best known representatives of music, art and money—for i regard the accumulation of the latter as a high and mighty art. that was during the latter eighties, when that really great cook alexander filippini had charge of the kitchen, where he marshaled his forces and drilled them with napoleonic accomplishment in the batterie de cuisine. i met filippini several times then, while i was under the guidance of “charley” delmonico in exploring the wonderful studies of preparation. he was a personal friend of many eminent people who visited delmonico’s: john hay, gordon bennett, chauncey depew, cleveland, the belmonts, vanderbilts, whitneys, oelrichs, and hundreds of others known as good raconteurs and bon­vivants. (welch 1915) not only was filippini friends with the celebrities who frequented delmonico’s, but he is reported to have been in culinary interaction with them as well. welch recounts the story of li hung chang, the famous and controversial chinese general, politician, and diplomat, who visited new york in 1896. while in town, the “viceroy” expressly desired to see meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 52. © american folklore society 2018 delmonico’s, and he is supposed to have left with filippini a particular recipe for cooking eggs which the chef then gladly added to his repertoire: fried eggs, li hung chang prepare and trim six fresh toasts, three inches square, lightly butter and place on a dish. broil six exceedingly thin slices lean bacon for a minute on each side, remove and cut each slice in two, and arrange over the six toasts. heat thoroughly a well­buttered, small frying pan, crack in two fresh eggs, sprinkle over a teaspoon very finely grated, cooked ham, season with a saltspoon salt and half saltspoon pepper, cook for two minutes on the range, then set in the oven for one minute. remove and carefully glide over one toast, then prepare five more portions in a similar manner. when all prepared sprinkle over half teaspoon curry powder evenly divided. place an ounce butter in a frying pan, shuffle the pan until the butter attains a nice brown colour, then pour in a teaspoon vinegar, toss a little, then pour over the eggs and serve. (filippini 1906:770) however, in all probability this story is too good to be true. while the chinese merchants of new york hosted a dinner for li hung chang at delmonico’s on september 1, 1896, the guest of honor was notably absent that night “because of a painful injury to his finger” (new york times, september 2, 1896:5). there are no reports of li hung chang actually visiting delmonico’s on another occasion, and in 1896 filippini was no longer in delmonico’s service anyway. in 1885, just after the death of the great charles delmonico (who was succeeded by charles c. delmonico), filippini began collecting and writing down the recipes used in the delmonico kitchens. after five years of work he published it in book form as the table, or the delmonico cook book. not only did filippini give a bill of fare for the three meals of each day of the year, with the corresponding recipes, but also extensive advice about the seasonality of all kinds of foods and about how to set a table and serve the food. in the introductory chapter, “the pleasures of the table,” filippini pointed out that the evolution of the culinary art in new york in the second half of the nineteenth century by establishments such as delmonico’s was possible largely because new york offered the required environment in terms of quality of foods and patrons who were open to be educated: . . . there is no place in the civilized world where the market for the meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 53. © american folklore society 2018 supply of food is so well provided as in new york, both as to variety and excellence, and even as to luxuries. educated as thousands of persons have been, in the art of dining, by the famous delmonico and his able lieutenants, new york, perhaps, contains a larger number of so­called high­livers than any other city. these “gourmands” (if you please), and their number is legion, have, with the aid of the excellent resources of the american market and the encouragement given to the culinary art of the period, brought the modern american table to virtual perfection. this is saying a great deal, inasmuch as the famed restaurants of london, paris, and vienna have ever claimed a reputation and an ascendancy over others that seemed to form a part of history itself. but as times change, so we change with them. westward the course of empire sways, and the great glory of the past has departed from those centres where the culinary art at one time defied all rivals. the sceptre of supremacy has passed into the hands of the great metropolis of the new world. (filippini 1889:1­2) a quarter of a century later, he had to revise his opinion. as he told a reporter of the christian register (1906:772), he found “the very best and freshest foundations in the way of meats and vegetables” in france and switzerland: in switzerland, particularly, the vegetable markets are exquisite, every article daintily cleansed and tied with the national colors. these markets put to shame the vegetable stands of new york, heavy with the sweepings of near­by halls and the street, while the vegetables themselves are kept by night in unventilated cellars. this destroys the savor of fruit and vegetables. and the people in the new world deserved to be enabled to bring that supreme culinary art of delmonico’s to their own homes: “variety is the spice of life,” filippini writes, “but nowhere is it more important, aye, actually necessary, than in the getting up of a palatable meal. this pertains not only to the dining­room of a hotel of the least pretensions or to the so­ called ‘grand’ restaurant, but particularly to the family table.” (filippini 1889:1). filippini held that, of course, the quality of the dish depended on the quality of the ingredients, and so he devoted a good portion of his introductory meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 54. © american folklore society 2018 notes also on where and when to buy what kind of food. to filippini, “one of the leading questions” that directly affected the american cuisine at the time was the transportation of meat to the east coast. when reading his statements today, they appear surprisingly modern, and it is hard to believe that they were actually made almost 130 years ago. the quality of meat does not depend upon the place where the animal is slaughtered, but it does depend upon the state of the animal’s health when it is slaughtered. let the cattle­cars be improved so that cattle can be transported without being knocked about and bruised, and let them be properly fed and watered while in transit; after making the long journey from the far west, let them be well rested and cooled off before slaughtering. the western dressed­beef men will also have to be on their mettle in order to meet the exigencies of the times. let them keep their wild prairie cattle and their scalawags out of their better markets, handles their beef carefully, keep it subjected to a uniform temperature of about 38° fahrenheit, discard all artificial preservative means, and all opponents to their interest will be bereft of argument. (filippini 1889:3) filippini then goes on to give detailed and precise instructions on how a table is properly set, and how the food, once prepared, is served. “to set a table seems, perhaps, very easy,” filippini writes, “but to set it properly and tastily, is not such an easy matter.” he points out that paying attention to setting the table and service was more important for a successful dinner than preparing “costly viands,” and also gives advice as to the temperatures of the dining room (“should never exceed sixty degrees”), the food (“dinner be served very hot”), and the different wines (“champagne . . . very cold, almost at the freezing point”) (filippini 1889:19­21). in the second part of the book, filippini compiled a bill of fare for the three meals of every day of the year. the menus look impressive, in quantity and in quality. for an arbitrary weekday in may, for example, filippini, suggests the following arrangement of food (filippini 1889:69): breakfast. eggs à la hyde. fried cod’s tongues. meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 55. © american folklore society 2018 pork chops, apple sauce. hashed potatoes, sautées. iced timbale of rice luncheon. broiled soft­shelled crabs à la diable. tripe à la mode de caën. potatoes soufflées. salad suédoise. crême en mousse au curaçoa. dinner. oak island oysters. consommé vermicelli. radishes. olives. kingfish, egg sauce. stewed kidneys, with cèpes. tomatoes à la bock. sweetbreads à la pompadour. spinach, with eggs. broiled snipe, with bacon. lettuce salad. strawberry shortcake. coffee. on a sunday, it would (appropriately) get even more sophisticated, and the bill of fare includes dishes that the reader was familiar with from visits to delmonico’s (or hearsay), such as terrapin à la newburg for lunch or roast canvas­back duck for dinner. most importantly, the reader for the first time could learn how these famous delmonico delicacies were to be prepared, for in the third part of the book, filippini made the hitherto secret recipes of all suggested dishes public, with the blessing of his employer. when reading the bills of fare and the recipes, one might wonder how the host and the guests could actually cope with such a setting. first, while filippini designed his book “for the use of private families” (filippini 1889:vi), it is implicitly assumed that the family had kitchen staff and appropriate equipment. as the reviewer of the new­york tribune noted on february 16, 1890, “most of these menus are too elaborate for any but families of wealth with many servants.” further, the bill of fare was rather a suggestion of choices than a strict order. filippini recommends that menus be placed at each cover5 and explains that “it is not a breach of etiquette to meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 56. © american folklore society 2018 refuse a course you do not desire; by knowing what is coming, you can with propriety refuse a course, and take the next one” (filippini 1889:20). nevertheless, the book was well received, sold very well, and was quickly re­ issued in a number of revised and enlarged editions. at the time, it was “one of the most popular culinary books in [the] english language” (fellows 1904:188). in 1890, charles delmonico decided to close the restaurant at 341 broadway, after only five years. the restaurant was not “as profitable as it was hoped it would be,” according to an article in the december 9, 1890 new­york daily tribune. he had established it especially for the accommodation of the dry goods and wholesale merchants who had their business in the neighborhood—against the advice of his best friends who thought it unwise to go farther uptown than chambers street. filippini regarded this as an opportunity and quit delmonico’s service, sounding the bell for the decline of the famous restaurant dynasty (see d’aversa 2014:70­ 75). confident enough, he opened a restaurant of his own—filippini’s—just a block away, at 337 broadway. today we know little about filippini’s own establishment. a contemporary report in the new­york tribune, published march 14, 1891, the day of the opening, allows us at least to imagine filippini’s concept: the new restaurant is fitted up in handsome style with all the modern improvements and conveniences. the building has been altered completely. the large, roomy kitchen is in the cellar. in order to preclude the possibility of any odors penetrating to other parts of the restaurant, mr. filippini has placed a brick shaft and pipe in the building, which runs from the kitchen floor to a height of twelve feet above the housetop. a huge fan, run by machinery, will drive any possible odors through this outlet. the sub­cellar will be used for a storage room and bakery, as mr. filippini will have the bread for the restaurant baked upon the premises. on the ground floor are the bar, the luncheon counter and the café. . . . a handsome stairway and an elevator lead to the restaurant proper, for men and women, on the first floor. in addition to the general room, it contains three private rooms connected by folding doors. when occasion demands, the three rooms may be thrown into one hall seating between sixty and seventy persons. meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 57. © american folklore society 2018 large plate­glass windows admit the light from the broadway side. the natural, cheerful tone of the room is enhanced by the use of light colored paper and carpet. the entire house is lighted with gas and electricity. the chandeliers are artistic and ornamental. filippini told the press that he “intended to keep only the best food, wines and other beverages” (ibid). one wonders what was on the menu at filippini’s, whether his offerings were similar to those at delmonico’s, or what individual handwriting filippini added. however, only one menu seems to have survived, from a private luncheon on new year’s eve 18916 that may not be representative for the restaurant as such. nevertheless, it shows a careful selection of classic dishes in the franco­american tradition of the time: menu ­­­­ huîtres ­­­­ consommé en tasse ­­­­­ céléri radis ­­­­­ filet de sole en vin blanc, gratiné pommes de terre, duchesse ­­­­­ côtelettes d’agneau, sauce périgueux petit pois à l’anglaise champignons frais grilles sur toast ­­­­­ cailles roties sur canapé salade de céleri, mayonnaise ­­­­­ charlotte panachée ­­­­­ fruits café ­­­­­ dec. 31, 1891 filippini’s the new york tribune on march 14, 1891 anticipated that—in view of the opening of filippini’s—“the restaurant, which will be run on the same plan as delmonico’s, is destined to have many patrons.” alas, it did not, and contrary to filippini’s ambitions to replicate his prior employer’s overall meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 58. © american folklore society 2018 success, the restaurant failed to attain the same fame and standing as the old delmonico’s. on may 16, 1893, the new­york tribune reported that filippini had to close filippini’s restaurant and make an assignment of his property for the benefit of creditors. one wonders why filippini decided to open his own place next door to the unfortunate delmonico’s broadway restaurant, but it seems that he had been very optimistic and had invested the respectable sum of $25,000 ($650,000 in today’s currency), partially with money borrowed from the influential and wealthy friends he made during his time at delmonico’s. according to contemporary sources, the initial investment was far from enough to cover refurbishment and operating costs. in two years, he had amassed liabilities in the amount of $95,793 ($2.5 million in today’s currency), whereas the actual value of the assets amounted only to $8,623 ($223,000) (new york herald, june 1, 1893:15). during the short life of his restaurant, the chef and owner however found time to put out three more cookbooks: one hundred ways of cooking eggs (1892), one hundred ways of cooking fish (1892) and one hundred desserts (1893), later published in a combined edition as 300 culinary receipts (1893). we don’t know whether he filled spare time due to slow business, or if he published these books as marketing tools for his own restaurant. in any case, the three works are far less innovative than the table, and he recycled quite a number of recipes from his first book therein. a new project to manage a hotel somerset in bernardsville, new jersey, in summer 1893 seems to have been very short­lived and never materialized (new­york tribune, april 20, 1893:8), and filippini may actually have been out of work for some years until around 1898 when he entered into the services of the international navigation company, which was later renamed international mercantile marine. his new employer was the large conglomerate, backed financially by the banker j. p. morgan, that at one point owned and operated 188 ships, including the american line, the red star line, the white star line and half of holland america (wikipedia contributors). and what a job he got. the contemporary press described it with headlines like a unique vocation (los angeles times, july 23, 1899:20) or queer job—and no other man in the world has one like it (cincinnati enquirer, august 7, 1899:4): he became the “travelling inspector of the american liners,” called in to “systematize steamship cooking on a new basis,” and spent “practically no time on land, frequently reaching port in time to sail back again on another liner upon the same day” (the philadelphia inquirer, july 30, 1899:5). he reportedly got on board a ship without previous arrangement, not being expected, and watched the preparation and serving of meals, showed the cooks and bakers essential details, and also made sure meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 59. © american folklore society 2018 that the table stewards were in good training. apart from his inspectorial duties, he also oversaw the composition of the menus served on board—evidently his core competence. an article in the the philadelphia inquirer of july 30, 1899 described it as follows: then mr. filippini also studies the classes of people traveling at various seasons, and prepares menus for each day to suit the tastes of people from all parts of the globe. for instance, he does not forget to have roast of beef for englishmen occasionally, sauces and stews for frenchmen, hungarian goulasch for austrians, wiener wursts for the germans, and macaroni and all dressings for italians, as extras, suiting the tastes of all nationalities, without having the bills of fare predominate in dishes not acceptable to others. in 1899, he traveled through the largest cities of europe (los­angeles times, july 23, 1899:20), and three years later took a long leave of absence. armed with a letter of introduction to united states consuls in all parts of the world, obtained from secretary hay at the suggestion of chauncey depew (then us senator for new york, frequent patron at delmonico’s, and a personal friend of filippini), filippini went on a trip around the world, starting in honolulu in january 1902 and ending in paris in september that year (filippini 1906:v­xv, welch 1915). in between, he traveled through japan, china and hong kong, the philippines, singapore, india, egypt, greece, turkey, romania, hungary, austria, germany, belgium, and his old country, switzerland. by visiting innumerable hotels, restaurants and private homes, he gathered over 3,300 recipes that he arranged to form suggestions (as in the table) for “complete ménus of the three meals for every day in the year” and published them as the international cook book (1906). filippini’s last culinary bow at the end of his career was again a success. it saw several reprints, and a number of newspapers published select exotic recipes from the book for their readers. as in 1889, he seems to have hit the gastronomic zeitgeist. a quarter of a century after the table, dining habits had changed drastically, with families having less time and allocating fewer resources to preparing food at home. filippini’s final work reflects that social change: the menus are simpler, the preparation of the dishes less complex, and the ingredients more commonly available than in the 1890s. and to serve the public’s appetite for more meat on the bone than just plain recipes, he spiced his compilation with anecdotes from his travels, such as his adventures in china: in the zealous search for knowledge of the kitchen in china, the writer had several very narrow escapes from the violence of suspicious boxers. not having been warned as to how dangerous it is for a traveller to enter meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 60. © american folklore society 2018 canton unaccompanied by a native guide, i boldly made my way through the old city early one morning. beginning with rude nudges from passers­by, the indignities increased until i was followed by an increasing horde, and then through the narrow passages i hurried, occasionally warding off an assailant. my curiosity had evidently led them to take me for a war­tax collector, and when i eluded them finally and got to the european quarters much surprise was expressed that i had ventured there alone and had been able to get away. (filippini 1906:vi) very little is known about filippini’s private life. for the better part of his life in new york city, he lived with two sisters and a brother, who also emigrated from switzerland. the busy life at delmonico’s and then the long periods on board ships seem to have prevented him from marrying. but quite late in life he met julia martinoli, a swiss widow 17 years younger, who became his companion, and in 1898 their daughter, alice filippini, was born. alessandro filippini died on december 8, 1917 in new york city, at age 67.7 neither a report nor an obituary was published in any of the newspapers. new york had already forgotten about him. filippini’s culinary legacy what remains of alessandro filippini today? filippini was not the first chef to write a cookbook for the general public with bills of fare for each day of the month (see déliée 1884, for example),8 but he made a remarkable contribution to the democratization of haute cuisine and fine dining by bringing, for the first time, the secrets of the most famous restaurant in america, generally reserved for the higher society who could afford to dine at delmonico’s, to the modest homes of the american majority. but does filippini also deserve credit as the inventor of the dishes, in particular the novel delmonico dishes, he assembled in his works? today, it is difficult to tell who the actual creator of these culinary novelties was—filippini, ranhofer or another chef at delmonico’s (tschirky, not having been a cook, is not a contender). many of the dishes in the table were later included also in the works of ranhofer and tschirky, without any acknowledgment to filippini. filippini himself attributes one recipe specifically to ranhofer (“chicken, sauté à la ranhofer”) and a number to members of the delmonico family (such as “fillets of shad à la chas. c. delmonico,” “striped bass boiled à la lorenzo c. delmonico,” “chocolate macarons à la aimée delmonico,” “beignets à la josephine delmonico,” “st. honoré à la rose delmonico,” or the famous “canapé lorenzo”). interestingly enough, filippini publishes the recipes for dishes for which meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 61. © american folklore society 2018 delmonico’s still today is most famous, namely “delmonico potatoes” and “delmonico’s steak,” only later in his international cookbook, even though they had been around already when the table came out. the attribution to the delmonicos may have been rather an honorary tip of the hat to a particular individual, or a recipe that a member of the family particularly liked or inspired, than an indication of inventorship. the delmonicos were not chefs themselves. filippini also seems to have been quite close to the delmonico family, in particular the older generation. coming into the new world from villages just a few miles apart obviously forms a natural bond, evident in the dedication of the table to the delmonico family “as a mark of reverence to those departed, and of respect and esteem of those living.” ranhofer’s book contains far fewer references to specific delmonico recipes. we find a recipe for “delmonico sirloin steak,”9 chicken, pheasant, and roebuck “à la lorenzo,” “oysters in case à la lorenzo,” and also the “canapés lorenzo.” prominently absent is the recipe for baked alaska, the famous delmonico dessert reportedly invented by him to celebrate the acquisition of alaska in 1867. tschirky’s only explicit reference to delmonico recipes is, apart from lobster newburg, the recipe for—again—“canapés lorenzo.” when comparing the recipes of that dish given by filippini, ranhofer and tschirky, it does not come as a surprise that they are quite similar. however, the comparison is to some extent indicative of the recipe’s origin. while the textual and preparatory differences suggest that ranhofer and filippini wrote them down independently, probably from memory or personal notes, tschirky’s text is obviously copied, directly from filippini’s book, with only minor alterations. filippini (1889) canapé lorenzo. cut out from an american bread six slices, the width of the bread, one­quarter of an inch in thickness; neatly pare off the crust, fry them in a sautoire with half an ounce of butter, so as to have them of a light brown color. boil eighteen hard­ shelled crabs in salted water for twelve minutes, remove them, and let cool until they can be handled with bare hands; then remove the upper shell, and with the ranhofer (1894) canapés lorenzo (canapés à la lorenzo). fry colorless two ounces of onions cut in one­eighth of an inch squares, and when done add a tablespoonful of flour; let this cook for a few minutes without browning, then moisten with a pint of fresh cream; season with salt, cayenne pepper and nutmeg, and reduce it to the consistency of a well thickened sauce; now throw in one pound of crab meat sautéd in butter over a brisk fire in a pan, letting it tschirky (1896) canapes lorenzo. cut six slices of bread the width of an american loaf and one­quarter of an inch in thickness, neatly pare off the crust and fry in a sautoire, together with half an ounce of fresh butter, so as to make them a light brown color; then boil eighteen hard­shell crabs in salted water for about twelve minutes, after which remove and allow them to become cool, when the upper shell should be removed, and with meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 62. © american folklore society 2018 aid of a pointed knife pick out all the meat; crack both claws, pick the meat out also; place the meat on a plate, season with a tablespoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of red pepper. place one ounce of butter in a saucepan with half a medium­sized, sound, peeled, and very finely chopped­up onion. cook on a moderate fire for two minutes, being very careful not to let get brown. add two tablespoonfuls of flour, stirring constantly for two minutes; then add one gill of broth, stir well again for five minutes while slowly cooking. add now the crab­ meat, and cook for fifteen minutes more, lightly stirring with a wooden spoon once in awhile. transfer it into a vessel, and let cool for fifteen minutes. place a tablespoonful of good butter in a sautoire on a hot stove, mix in well together one tablespoonful of flour, and cook very slowly for three minutes. add two ounces of grated parmesan cheese, and the same quantity of grated swiss cheese; stir all well together. then place in a vessel and let cool. place a layer of crab forcemeat on each toast a quarter of an inch thick. divide the prepared cheese, etc., into six equal parts, giving them a ball­shaped form two inches in diameter[.] arrange them over the layer of the crab forcemeat right in the centre. place them on a silver dish, and bake in a brisk oven for five minutes. then take out from the oven, and send to the table in the same dish. boil up once and then set it away to cool. cut slices of bread a quarter of an inch thick; from it cut round pieces four inches in diameter, using a cutter for this purpose; divide them straight through the center to make two even­sized pieces of each, toast them on one side only; cover this side with two ounces of the crab preparation for each half round, and lay the following preparation on top: with the hands work in a tin basin half a pound of butter, add to it grated parmesan cheese, cayenne and white pepper, and knead these together, adding grated parmesan so as to form a thick paste; cover the entire canapé with a layer of this butter and cheese, and set them on a buttered baking­sheet in the hot oven so they attain a fine color, then serve them as quickly as they are removed from the oven. they may be made round shaped two and a half inches in diameter if preferred. the aid of a pointed knife pick out all of the meat, cracking the claws and removing all the meat from there also; place it all on a plate, season with a teaspoonful of salt and half a saltspoonful of red pepper; then place one ounce of butter in a saucepan, with a peeled and very finely chopped onion, and cook them together for about two minutes over a moderate fire; add two tablespoonfuls of flour, stir again for two minutes, and add one gill of broth, and stir while slowly cooking for five minutes, now add the crab meat, and cook for quarter of an hour, stirring once in a while with a wooden spoon, then remove into another vessel and let it cool for fifteen minutes. put in a sautoire a tablespoonful of good butter over a stove, and mix in with one tablespoonful of flour, and cook for three minutes gently; add a couple of ounces of grated parmesan cheese and an equal quantity of swiss cheese, stirring well together; place it in a vessel to cool. put a layer of crab meat on each slice of toast a quarter of an inch thick, and divide the prepared cheese in six equal portions, forming them into ball shapes about two inches in diameter, and arrange them over the layer of crab meat in the center, place them on a dish and bake in a brisk oven for about five minutes, then take them out and serve them in the same dish in which they have been cooked. meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 63. © american folklore society 2018 hence we may conclude that in many instances, there may be no sole inventor of a particular recipe. the creation of the signature delmonico dishes is more likely the joint work of the chefs responsible for the delmonico kitchens, including both filippini and ranhofer. filippini, however, deserves the credit for being the first of the chefs to have made them available to the public, and his collection of delmonico dishes is by far the most comprehensive. it remains a mystery, and subject to speculation, though, why neither ranhofer nor tschirky acknowledged filippini’s prior work, and how filippini could so effectively be put out of the public’s perception of delmonico’s history after the 1890s.10 his later work for the international navigation company at the end of the nineteenth century, mostly unrelated to his time at delmonico’s, then set the standard for mass catering on cruise ships that became the generally accepted fare for most of the first half of the twentieth century. filippini realized that eating standards were becoming more universal “like the mail system and the standards of money,” and that he had to modify many of the original recipes “for the american taste” as many dishes he found on his travels were “too rich as prepared in the native homes” (filippini 1906:v­vii). because he tried to accommodate the tastes of the different cultures and adapted the recipes from different corners of the world to the western palate, it may thus be fair to name him a father of “international cuisine”—which in a misconceived and widespread form became the dreaded standard tourist fare of the twentieth century. “the work you have now completed,” writes charles c. delmonico in his reply to filippini’s dedication of the table to him, “i have no doubt, will prove instructive and invaluable.” right he was, and filippini’s work merits more attention by today’s culinary historians as the first comprehensive collection of delmonico’s culinary heritage, as a reformer of passenger ship catering, and as a promoter of “international cuisine.” the table for that has now been set. notes 1. see, for example, new york times, september 14, 1883:8; bangor daily whig & courier, january 17, 1884; new­york tribune, march 15, 1888:2; the american hebrew, october 31, 1890:252. see also welch (1916). 2. various sources also contain erroneous biographical information, stating meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 64. © american folklore society 2018 wrongly that filippini started working at delmonico’s in 1848 as the predecessor of ranhofer and took up writing cookbooks after his retirement, for example smith (2013:264), choate and canora (2008:18). 3. passenger lists of vessels arriving at new york, 1820­1897. new york public library, microfilm publication m237, roll 266, line 12, list number 587. 4. editors concur with the author’s choice to correct apparent typos in this menu, restoring “beauséjour” (from “reauséjour”) and “paupiettes” (from “panpiettes”) as represented in ranhofer (1920:1082). 5. as used by filippini, “cover” means the placement of the cutlery, plates, glasses, and napkins for each guest. 6. new york public library, buttolph collection, 1891­134. dejeuner for mr. john shaw to mrs. thos. brady and daughter / in remembrance of a very pleasant evening / april 1890. 7. new york city death certificate no. 34832 (1917). 8. this work is, however, much more general in nature, addressing at the same time “private families, clubs, restaurants, hotels, etc.,” and much simpler than filippini’s, suggesting a more limited choice of dishes per meal, and dishes that are less complex and novel. also, it lacks any kind of ancillary information on such matters as setting a table, serving food, or seasonality of food. 9. the term “delmonico steak” designates the cut rather than the preparation, which—in both filippini’s and ranhofer’s recipes—seems fairly standard for a steak. 10. intriguingly, both ranhofer and tschirky claim that their respective works fill a gap by bringing the recipes of haute cuisine to the household table for the first time—as if filippini’s work had not existed: in the preface to the epicurean, ranhofer writes, “in publishing this work i have endeavored to fill a much needed want—viz: the best and most effectual manner of preparing healthy and nutritious food. . . . . this edition contains innumerable recipes which i have simplified and explained in a comprehensive manner so as to meet the wants of all” (ranhofer 1894:vii). meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 65. © american folklore society 2018 similarly, tschirky states that he had devoted particular attention to the requirements of the “entertainment furnished at the hearthside,” as “the giver of a small reception . . . has been, it might be said, rather neglected in such works as have come before the notice of the undersigned, relative to cookery” (tschirky 1892:preface). references cited: choate, judith and james canora. 2008. dining at delmonico’s—the story of america’s oldest restaurant. new york: stewart, tabori and chang. d’aversa, andrew. 2014. delmonico’s: the creation of the modern american restaurant. pennsylvania state university. déliée, felix j. 1884. the franco­american cookery book, or how to live well and wisely every day in the year. new york and london: g.p. putnam’s sons. fellows, charles. 1904. the culinary handbook. chicago: hotel monthly press. filippini, alexander. 1889. the table: how to buy food, how to cook it and how to serve it. new york: c. l. webster & company. simultaneously published as the delmonico cook book: how to buy food, how to cook it and how to serve it. london: brentano’s. ­­­­­. 1900. passport application, july 28, 1900. new york public library, m1372 passport application roll 561, vol. 925, 1900 july. ­­­­­. 1892. one hundred ways of cooking fish. new york: c. l. webster & company. ­­­­­. 1892. one hundred ways of cooking eggs. new york: c. l. webster & company. ­­­­­. 1893. one hundred desserts. new york: h.m. caldwell co. ­­­­­. 1906. the international cook book. new york: doubleday, page & co. messerli, johann chr. 1822. adressbuch der stadt bern. bern: c. a. jenni. ranhofer, charles. 1894. the epicurean. new york: c. ranhofer. meer, michael a. 2017. the forgotten chef at delmonico's: alessandro filippini. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 66. © american folklore society 2018 ­­­­­. 1920. the epicurean: a complete treatise of analytical and practical studies on the culinary art. chicago: the hotel monthly press. schriftgiesser, karl. 1943. oscar of the waldorf. new york: e. p. dutton & co. smith, andrew f. 2013. food and drink in american history: a “full course” encyclopedia, vol. 1. santa barbara: abc­clio. thomas, lately [steele, robert v.]. 1967. delmonico's; a century of splendor. boston: houghton mifflin. tschirky, oscar. 1896. the cook book by “oscar” of the waldorf. chicago, new york: the saalfield publishing co. welch, deshler. 1915. “del’s:” interesting reminiscences of charles delmonico. the fra, for philistines and roycrofters 16 (march 1916): 208­ 210. wikipedia contributors. 2018. international navigation company. in wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/international_navigation_company (accessed august 2, 2017). microsoft word kibirkstis-wine-final-2-13-21.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 89-108 © american folklore society 2021 “this is our wine, we’re going to drink it”: exploring newfoundland and labrador terroir through berry wines1 sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship 2020 by: ema noëlla kibirkstis ____________________________________________________________ abstract: berry wines are a popular product in the canadian province of newfoundland and labrador. produced both commercially and at home, these wines are made from small fruits that thrive on this land. wine has been an important import commodity since european colonization in the sixteenth century, and later an important homemade product. through archival research and an interview with a local berry wine maker, this paper articulates the localized significance of berry wines using the concept of terroir. keywords: foodways; taste (food); terroir; alcoholic beverages; wine making; fruit wines; berries (fruits); newfoundland and labrador during spring 2017, i met up with a few friends to discuss our latest book club pick. we typically enjoy copious amounts of cheese, crackers, dips and, of course, wine. as we were nearing the end of our second bottle of cabernet sauvignon from washington state, michael greening offered to open a bottle of his father’s homemade gooseberry wine. my own experience with homemade wine had been, to be polite, disappointing, but as soon as i tasted this beautiful pink liquid, i knew that this was a very unique product. michael explained that his father uses local berries, and other newfoundlanders in our group recounted how their own parents or grandparents have made berry wines before. as a “mainlander” (i.e. from mainland canada), i was impressed that this was a common practice, and a delicious one at that. berry wines in newfoundland and labrador are commonly homemade, however they can also be found in newfoundland liquor corporation (nlc) stores across the province. berry wines are made commercially by frozen in time ltd. in whitbourne (2018-2020) and auk island winery in twilingate (2017-2020). dr. hilary rodrigues opened rodrigues markland cottage winery, now frozen in time, as the first berry winery in the province in 1993, in the heritage-designated 1935 markland cottage hospital.2 the former rodrigues website specified that the owner “began experimenting with old, traditional newfoundland recipes for making blueberry wines.” the site also highlighted the importance of high-quality products, as the winery used “only the best quality berries, many of them growing wild, pesticide and chemical-free in our beautiful province.” the frozen in time wine pages (2018-2020) echo similar virtues, but the business supplements locally-grown berries with others from outside the province. auk island winery, named in honor of the now-extinct great auk, is housed in the former durrell’s academy built in 1952. its website explains that its berries are “picked by hand by local residents and made with love into wine.” similar to rodrigues’s, this winery’s website highlights that “our wines are made from local fruits and berries grown in an environment free of pesticides and chemical fertilizers,” while emphasizing the health benefits of berries “rich with vitamin c and antioxidants.” kibirkstis, “this is our wine,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 90 both rodrigues and auk island highlighted the historical buildings that they rehabilitated into wineries and the heritage of berry wines in the province. also both indicated how “natural” the berries are through the use of words such as “wild,” “local,” “pesticide-free,” and “chemical-free.” both wineries provided tours and tastings, and their advertising targeted potential tourists. holly everett, in her article “a welcoming wilderness,” notes that berries play an important role in culinary tourism products in newfoundland and labrador due to the fact that they are a “low-risk culinary departure for many travelers” (2012: 50). the province’s berry seasons are short, however jams, baked goods, and wines are available year-round in local shops and restaurants. they are, in fact, a subject of culinary tourism that lucy long defines “as the intentional, exploratory participation in the foodways of an other” (1998: 181). these berry wines allow tourists to experience newfoundland and labrador through their palates; they provide a “taste of place” not only of locally available wild fruits, but of a local tradition, heritage, culture, and people—is this not terroir? terroir is a modern term that originated during the renaissance, deriving from the latin terratorium; originally, it simply meant “territory” (lukacs 2012 quoted in patterson and buechsenstein 2018: 37). it was only in the 1900s that it came to encompass a vineyard’s natural environment (ibid), meaning that “the particular, sometimes unique characteristics of a given site, as opposed to another either in close proximity or contiguous, could lead to recognisable if subtle differences in the aroma and taste of wines produced from the same grapes and by the same methods” (bohmrich 1996: 33). the soil and climate of a vineyard directly impact the grape, so much so that the terroir might be discernible from the taste of the wine (that is, a discernable taste of place). terroir has been useful in protecting specific products that are made in a certain region by assuring that they are regulated and not falsely imitated by products grown or produced elsewhere, through special designations such as appellation d’origine controlée (aoc) in france or denominazione di origine controllata (doc) in italy. though useful, terroir has often been oversimplified as simply relating to the natural environment, when actually conceptions and understandings of terroir are deeply entrenched in culture and necessitate human involvement. though “terroir” only became a buzz word within wine and food spheres in the twentieth century, the concept that things grown in different places taste differently (or better) has existed for millennia. ancient egyptians and greeks demonstrated preferences for wines from certain regions (bohmrich 1996: 33-34). cistercian monks in burgundy during the high middle ages grew monocultures of vines and acknowledged that the same grape varietal tasted differently on different plots, a practice most resembling today’s terroir viticulture (lukacs 2012 quoted in patterson and buechsenstein 2018: 37). in 2015, “the climats, terroirs of burgundy” were inscribed on unesco’s world heritage list. as the unesco website indicates, “climats are the product of natural conditions and the accumulated experience of winemaker expertise over almost two millenia. in an exceptional manner they reflect the ancient relationship of local human communities with their territories” (2015). seminal books on the topic, such as james e. wilson’s terroir: the role of geology, climate, and culture in the making of french wines (1998), might emphasize the importance of soil in creating terroir, but as food researcher harold mcgee and chef daniel patterson write, “if rocks were the key flavor of ‘somewhereness,’ then it would be simple to counterfeit terroir digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 91 with a few mineral saltshakers” (2007: 89). this intersection of the natural environment and the culture of place to create terroir has been minimally discussed in folklore and foodways scholarship (whalen 2007, davis 2019, fournier 2010, cf. trubek 2009), yet the interdisciplinary and holistic approach of folklore research lends itself well to study of the everyday use and expression of terroir. marion demossier has conducted research on her home province of burgundy for three decades, and in her article “beyond terroir” (2011: 695), she explains: using a rhetoric emphasizing terroir not only as a natural ecological concept, but also as a historicized and heritagized construction of place, the wine-growers create a suggestive and powerful image that can be passed on, narrated to, or consumed by a discerning group of consumers. a similar rhetoric can be seen in the berry wines of newfoundland and labrador. provincial berry wines are a historicized and heritagized product made from local wild berries that produce a powerful image of place to consumers. in what follows, i first situate berries, wines, and berry wines in the history and culture of newfoundland and labrador. then i focus on the interview i conducted with herbert greening from mount pearl, newfoundland and labrador, who has been making berry wines at home for over thirty years. pairing the natural and cultural environment of the province with the personal experience of wine making by my interlocutor, i will demonstrate a folkloristic approach to terroir. berries around 7000 bc, maritime archaic peoples, descendants of paleo-indians, began settling along the southern shores of labrador. they eventually moved up the coast and crossed the strait of belle isle to reach the island of newfoundland around 3000 bc (cadigan 2009: 13-14). as their designation indicates, the maritime archaic peoples relied heavily on the sea for their nutrition, in addition to wild game and, of course, berries (ibid). centuries later, in 1001 ad, accounts of norse expeditions detail their explorations and settlements on the northern coast of newfoundland. leif erikson named the land vinland after his german expedition member, tyrker, who vanished from the party only to reappear with an interesting discovery (kune, trans. 2001: 638): “i have not been much further off, but still have i something new to tell of; i found vines and grapes.” “but is that true, my fosterer?” quoth leif. “surely is it true,” replied he, “for i was bred up in a land where there is no want of either vines or grapes.” they slept now for the night, but in the morning, leif said to his sailors: “we will now set about two things, in that the one day we gather grapes, and the other day cut vines and fell trees, so from thence will be a loading for my ship,” and that was the counsel taken, and it is said their long boat was filled with grapes. now was a cargo cut down for the ship, and when the spring came they got ready and kibirkstis, “this is our wine,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 92 sailed away, and leif gave the land a name after its qualities, and called it vinland, or wineland. currently, researchers argue that there might have been issues of mistranslation or misidentification in the saga, as newfoundland’s northern climate would not have been suitable for grape vines, suggesting that the fruit in question could have been cranberries, currants, or other small fruit (pinney 2007: 3-4, fernald 1910: 20-23, quinn 1977: 32, large 2012: 2, shortis 1913: 5). when europeans began regularly frequenting the island beginning in the sixteenth century, their first-hand accounts report the vast quantity and diversity of berries and how they were an integral part of the diet of local indigenous peoples, such as the beothuks (marshall 1996: 294, de gómara [1552-1555] 1885: 345). sheila roberts’s history and recipe book, for maids who brew & bake: rare & excellent recipes from the 17th century newfoundland (2003: 77), explains that in the earliest european settlement times, housewives were chiefly responsible for “gathering and conserving fruits for the rest of the year.” roberts (2003: 70) cites a list of berries he found amid the descriptions of local geography, climate, and natural resources in john mason’s 1620 book, a briefe discourse of the new-found-land: the countrie fruites wild, are cherries small, whole groaues of them filberds good, a small pleasant fruite, called a peare, damaske roses single very sweet, excellent straberries, and hartleberries [blueberries] with aboundance of rasberries, and gooseberries somewhat better than ours in england, all which replanted would be much inlarged. mason acted as governor of coper’s cove, today’s cupids on the island of newfoundland, from 1615 until 1621 (heritage newfoundland & labrador 2000). richard whitbourne, an english colonist, recounts similar tales of newfoundland in his book a discourse and discovery of new-found-land (1620), including, “then haue you there faire strawberries red and white, and as faire raspasse berries, and goose berries, as there be in england; as also multitudes of bilberries, which are called by so me, whortes, and many other delicate berries (which i cannot name) in great abundance” (6). as for the vikings’ german friend, the rocky coasts of newfoundland reminded whitbourne of the grape vines grown in spain and granada. because the grapes in spain and granada “make strong wine,” he recalls (58), he surmised this new place could do the same. over a century later, in a diary entry on august 14, 1794, aaron thomas, a seaman aboard the hms boston, writes of newfoundland (1968: 140): i have had occasion before, in more then one place, to mention how plentifull this country is stored with berrys. nature has been abundantly gracious to this country in particular. all countrys has something to recommend them, china has its teas, lapland has its reindeer, ireland has its linnens and italy its delicious fruits. newfoundland has its fish, and to that i may add it has its berrys, which are gratefull to the taste and so abounding that horses and cows and goats lie upon them when they are ripe. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 93 thomas lists hurts (whimberries), partridgeberries, stone berries (perhaps blueberries), raspberries, currants, and cranberries, to name a few. all three of these accounts3 prove that berries not only grew in the province, but were abundant. some centuries later, fat-back & molasses: a collection of favourite old recipes from newfoundland & labrador, arguably one of the most distributed cookbooks of this province’s cuisine, highlighted the continuing importance of berries in the province. originally printed in 1974 and reprinted seven times, this compilation of recipes from around the province, edited by ivan f. jesperson and illustrated by his daughter lorie m. jesperson, gives us a glimpse into the on-going popularity of berry-picking and foraging—as in this example from the 1974 edition (30): come september month the excitement of berry picking brings many newfoundland families out to the marshes and hills. bakeapples, partridgeberries, blueberries, squashberries, black berries, raspberries, marsh berries, wild cherries, gooseberries, red and black currants and sarsaparilla await the joyful families bearing flour sacks, pots and pails to harvest the crop. scattered throughout the book’s many such descriptions, of course, are delicious recipes for berry jams, cobblers, crunches,4 grunts,5 squares, cakes, cookies, punches, and of course, wines. roberts’s collection includes recipes for strawberry jam, compote, and fool6 (2010: 77-84). roberts’s and the jespersons’ works are but two examples of countless recipe books from the province that use local berries within their pages. berries act as a versatile ingredient loved by locals, and are frequently available in jams and baked goods at local shops, and as an ingredient in restaurant dishes. berries also find their way into local oral tradition, confirming newfoundland’s strong association with berries and berrypicking. herbert halpert, former english professor at memorial university of newfoundland, founded the memorial university of newfoundland folklore and language archive (munfla) in 1968. here, through his and his students’ fieldwork, he amassed a diverse collection of provincial folklore, namely folk songs and folktales. in his folktales of newfoundland: the resilience of oral tradition, co-authored with john widdowson, ellen johnson retells a story from her youth in the 1950s titled, “the old woman who wanted to pick marshberries” (1996: 935-939).7 halpert categorizes this tale as a variant of the aarne-thompsonuther’s “the old woman and her pig” (atu 2030, see uther 2011) and notes “the role of berries in the plot of this tale is unique to this subgroup . . . . the marshberries in our newfoundland example are a localization, as is the old woman’s wish to go out to pick the berries; berry-picking is a common seasonal activity in the province” (1996: 939). fairylore in newfoundland is also distinctly localized by integrating berries and berrypicking within the setting of fairy-related disappearances, legends, and customs. peter narvaez claims in his 1991 article “newfoundland berry pickers ‘in the fairies’” that berry-picking places were good settings for fairy encounters, as they are liminal “zones of muskeg bogs, barrens, and marshlands on the inland geographic fringes of small communities” (338). due to the fact that berry grounds can be remote, and that berry picking might be done in solidarity or in dispersed groups, narvaez’s sources were often told to use preventive magic against the fairies when going berry picking.8 if such kibirkstis, “this is our wine,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 94 preventive measures failed or were not followed, berry pickers could be led astray, go missing, or encounter these mythical creatures, resulting in personal experience narratives or legends. halpert’s and narvaez’s examples demonstrate how berries and berry-picking are familiar themes in newfoundland and labrador’s oral folklore. wine besides the rambling lists of fruits found on this new land documented by english colonizers, we also find a long history of wine consumption in the province, though not made with local berries. in his 1620 account, whitbourne mentions use of herbs and flowers of the province, such as parsley and rose, to make “beere, wine of aqua-vita” for medical reasons (7). in peter edward pope’s fish into wine: the newfoundland plantation in the seventeenth century (2004), berries during the period were popularly consumed and preserved with the help of sugar, but there is no mention of berry wines. pope does state, however, that wine and other alcoholic beverages were used in the new colony as a way to face the harsh weather, particularly “spirits, sack, bordeaux, and the red wines of the atlantic islands” (398). additionally, wine was used as a form of currency, as newfoundland’s “wealth extracted from the sea and the value added in making fish” was “returned to england from southern europe, whether in specie or in the form of wine, fruit, oil, cork, or other goods” (91). in other words, england would trade newfoundland fish, namely north sea herring and newfoundland cod, for french wine (91-92). indeed, the triangular trade system extended to many europeans, namely portuguese, french, and spanish, and a wide variety of goods were sold and exchanged within the province, such as salt, sugar, port wine,9 and rum,10 as well as slaves11 (pope 2014, oostindie and roitman 2014). i searched the rooms provincial archives of newfoundland and labrador and munfla for earlier accounts of berry wines. i hoped, to no avail, to find some mention of fruit or berry wines from the plebiscite of the prohibition act in 1915 and in later additions and revisions. prohibition restrictions included “the importation, manufacturing and sale of spirits, wine, ale, beer, cider and all other alcoholic liquors for use as beverages” (prohibition act and liquor control, file 271.a) which ultimately applied to any beverages over two percent alcohol by volume, and thus the ban of several “medicinal” products that were assumed to be used as beverages. certain exceptions were made, such as for port wine, as this product was considered a transit item, meaning it was brought to st. john’s to be stored and matured, and then be reexported without local consumption (prohibition act and liquor control, file 271.b and file 271.f.1). of the accounts of arrests in violation of these laws, i found no proof of the illegal production of homemade wine. perhaps the seclusion of some of the infrequently visited outport communities, or the short period of prohibition (1917-1924), did not encourage thorough documentation. however, there was evidence of illegal beer and moonshine being made. in the 1920s, prohibition laws became increasingly problematic, namely the realization that use of “dope”12 and “moonshine” had not halted alcohol’s consumption and abuse (prohibition act and liquor control, file 271.g). it became clear that prohibition had led to the abuse of these homemade products, and so “in 1924 a new government under walter monroe repealed prohibition and established the board of liquor control, the precursor of the present-day newfoundland labrador liquor corporation” (baker 2012: 267). the 1921 report of the commission on the prohibition plebiscite act noted the increased arrests for drunk and disorderly behavior digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 95 since the 1917 prohibition, from 87 accounts recorded by police in 1917 to 276 in 1920 (272), claiming the data “makes clear that the use of dope or moonshine creates for more disorder than the use of ordinary liquor” (prohibition act and liquor control, file 271.g). instead, newfoundlanders and labradorians had to order from liquor books to obtain a ration of spirits, wine and/or beer or stout every quarter. recipes and accounts of berry-wine making can be found in munfla student papers dating as far back as the 1970s; some report homemade berry wines from early in the twentieth century (hunt 1972: 6, pike 1978: 7, babb 1979: 6-7, pynn 1979: 38). when researching this area, i noticed that berry wines might not only be categorized as wine, but also classified with homebrew (usually associated with beer) and moonshine (usually associated with high-proof distilled spirits). searching through these recipes, it became obvious that these berry wines, technically “fruit wines” (robinson 2015: 300), differ from grape wine in several respects. fruits other than grapes tend to have higher acid levels that make the product bitter, so fruit wines require the addition of sugar to render them palatable. in addition, due to the lack of yeast found in these other fruits, the addition of yeast is also required. the addition of yeast and sugar to grape wine is common, but it is not as essential as it is for fruit wines. additionally, though wine improves in flavor and value over years of barrel and bottle aging, “very few fruit wines improve with bottle age” because the “characteristic fruit flavours fade rapidly and most are best consumed well within a year of bottling” (robinson 2015: 300-301). though berry wines may be wine-like beverages, the etymology of “wine” is directly rooted in the latin word for vineyard, vīnea, and therefore might render the term “berry wine” nonsensical to wine purists. considering that the term “wine” might be solely used and understood by some as the fermented beverage made from grapes and, as noted above, considering that berry wines have been categorized as homebrew and moonshine, it is possible that the lack of mention of berry wines pre-twentieth century within the provincial archives and munfla might simply mean it was known under another name.13 the constantly changing vernacular terminology and definitions of alcoholic beverages were equally noted in the many “beer” recipes found in munfla, where the beer was not made with malted grain or boiled, as it commonly is today. many student papers at munfla indicated that homemade wine and other homemade alcoholic beverages are an old tradition (bennett 1978: 14-15), however i was not able to find any such documentation before the twentieth century. it could be argued that newfoundland and labrador received generous wine imports, particularly due to their trade history with france and portugal, that would have been easily accessible through merchants. thus there may have been no need to produce alcoholic beverages locally, and this explanation may account for the increased documentation of homemade alcohol during prohibition. or perhaps the activity was simply done regularly and discreetly enough not to warrant documentation—this subject is still unclear and worthy of further investigation. herbert greening’s berry wines berries have been a source of nutrition for as long as humans have occupied land known today as newfoundland and labrador. canada’s first nations people used berries for both food and medicine (see, for example, kuhnlein and turner 1992).14 norse and european colonizers enthused about the abundance of berries gracing the land, kibirkstis, “this is our wine,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 96 confusing them with grapevines. wine was an important import and economic resource for the colony, alongside fish. oral tradition and archival records demonstrate that berry wines are a notable part of vernacular culture. these details are important because they construct a powerful image of the history and heritage of berry wines in the province. to quote the same article by mcgee and patterson, “. . . on the one hand with nature and the soil, through the mystery of plant growth and the miracle of fermentation, and on the other with man, who wanted wine and who was able to make it by means of knowledge, hard work, patience, care, and love” allowing for “the ‘somewhereness’ is given its meaning by ‘someoneness’” (89). if you have ever had a sommelier or wine aficionado explain a wine to you, the soil might explain the earthiness and minerality of the wine, but often you hear instead about the estate that made the wine. the soil, history, and culture are filtered through a singular entity: the winemaker. this “someone” creates the terroir both physically and mentally, one reason why i would like to focus on my friend’s father, herbert greening. herbert greening was born in 1945 in musgravetown, bonavista bay, on the northeastern coast of the island of newfoundland. as a heavy equipment mechanic, he moved to st. john’s in 1970 and then to mount pearl in 1983, where he still lives today with his wife mary. they have two children, michael and greg. he retired in 2017 after working for over forty years. today, he is the only one of his friends and family who continues to make wine from berries. greening explained that to make good wine you need clean and sterile equipment, temperature regulation, which greening refers to as “procedures,” and good ingredients. for example, greening recalls making wine from sarsaparilla berries at a young age: hg: when we were a kid, when we were growing up, seems like everybody, well not everybody, but a lot of the people i hung around with, especially the older guys, they were making wine, or trying to make wine but there was no procedure for them, because you drank the wine out of the same bottles that you brewed it in (laughing). that’s if you got it to ferment and the bottles didn’t break because no one ever thought about, well you know like when it ferments it’s producing gas and that makes pressure in the bottles so if you don’t vent it out, your bottles are going to break. ek: right, so they didn’t do any airlocks or anything like that? hg: no, not them, no my lord, no, no one knew what that was. so you just made it and if it produced a bit of alcohol and you got a little kick out of it, that was good. spit the berries out (laughing). but that didn’t, we didn’t make too much of that because we always had to keep it hid from our parents because, of course, when you’re sixteen or seventeen they don’t want you making wine (laughing) or drinking it. the lack of “procedure” explains the mediocrity of the wine from his youth. it took him two other attempts during his adulthood before he finally started to make wine regularly. he began when a friend from work invited him out to pick blueberries and make wine, “he did a pretty well, like a recipe for doing it and a procedure for doing it, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 97 and his turned out good.” for those unfamiliar with producing homemade wine or other alcoholic beverages, significant emphasis is placed on hygiene and cleanliness, as a sterile environment ensures fuller control of the flavors of the final product; the inability to maintain a sterile environment will cause off-flavors and off-smells and can lead to poor quality wine (robinson 366-367). this meticulousness is expected and monitored in wineries, however as some readers might have experienced in a friend’s lackluster first attempt at producing wine from a kit, oftentimes attention to detail is set aside in favor of making a cheap, high alcohol beverage. greening’s emphasis on “procedure” also extends to his everyday life and home. after agreeing to the interview, michael had messaged me regarding his father’s concern that “apparently the basement is in a state and dad is embarrassed.” upon my arrival, i noticed the basement clean and organized, everything had its place (photos 1 and 2). when he showed me his winemaking notebook dating back to the 1980s, i noticed the handwriting was neat and that the book lay perfectly flat, without any creases or proof of use; it was as though the book was newly bought (photo 3). the rest of his house had the same meticulousness: spines of the books on the shelves were aligned and each pillow was delicately placed in its spot on the couch. this precision allows greening to keep track of his winemaking, improve the process if needed, and to remain consistent in the quality of his product. photo 1. herbert greening’s winemaking equipment placed on top of a large chest freezer. mount pearl, november 9, 2017. photo: ema noëlla kibirkstis. kibirkstis, “this is our wine,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 98 photo 2. herbert greening’s clean carboys (used to ferment wine, top), filled wine bottles (bottom). mount pearl, november 9, 2017. photo: ema noëlla kibirkstis. photo 3. herbert greening’s winemaking notebook. mount pearl, november 9, 2017. photo: ema noëlla kibirkstis. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 99 greening also emphasized that “good ingredients” are essential to making good wine. over the last thirty years, greening has used a wide variety of ingredients, primarily dogberry, gooseberry, and blueberry, though sometimes he uses other local products such as rhubarb, cherries, squashberries, and damson plums, and occasionally uses fruits from other parts of canada, such as peach, chokecherry, and plum. his vast vernacular knowledge of berries is nuanced and extensive. for example, dogberries are best after the first frost, partridgeberries are a hardy fruit that can survive through most frost and snow, whereas blueberries tend to be more delicate. when prompted to explain how he picks a good berry, he emphasized that you can tell by the way the berry looks (“not withered,” “plump,” “juicy,” “good color”) and tastes (“sweet,” “good texture”). though he used to procure the berries himself, he now relies on pickers who sell them from their cars alongside the road, a common sight during late spring and early fall. good berries are essential to making a good wine: . . . how the berry is, that’s how your wine is going to be. that’s going to influence the final product, you know. you need good berries and you need them ripe, and now i’m not like people who made them from, who grow the grapes and watch them, they got to pick them right at the, at the peak. you know it’s important to them, but i mean for me, for us i got a little wider range. in addition to berries, greening also uses spring water instead of tap water. he retrieves the water from a local source in southside hills, considering it “the best water around.” when the wine is ready to be bottled, he sweetens it with sugar and asks his wife to taste it, “i don’t even have to ask her . . . i can tell by her face.” unlike the carefully cared for vines of burgundy, berries here are native and abundant on the rocky island of newfoundland, as noted earlier. similar to a vigneron, greening chooses and picks his fruit at its peak and sources water locally because it directly impacts the quality of the wine. each batch is taste-tested by his wife mary to ensure a balanced product. with over thirty years of experience, greening has been producing berry wines for his friends and family, a tradition that he remembers from childhood and that the local archives date back to the early twentieth century, but whose heritage ultimately dates back to the neolithic era. with or without a designation similar to an aoc, when i had my glass of blueberry wine back in 2017, i appreciated the long history of berries and wine consumption in newfoundland. greening’s production of wine recalls a heritage of berry wine in the province, just as commercial berry winemakers rodrigues markland cottage winery and auk island winery acknowledged on their websites. when asked if berry wines are important to newfoundland and labrador, greening stated, “it’s probably not as important now because probably not a lot of people make wine,” and definitely not the younger generations. he explained that now there isn’t much reason to be making wine at home, when in the past there was: you could only get, say, so much, so many bottles, i think it was two bottles a week or something. it’s all you could buy because you had to get your book stamped every time you went in. so, a lot of people used to make, make wine and make moonshine . . . to up their quantity of booze, . . . and people sometimes lived places where they didn’t have access to store bought, . . . a lot of the coastal communities, there was no liquor stores there, you couldn’t get it, if you came to kibirkstis, “this is our wine,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 100 st. john’s, . . . or if you went to some of the bigger centres, you could bring some home, but most people made, made their own wine and ran moonshine.15 his narrative was very similar to others encountered in the archives: that this is a tradition that began out of necessity because there was no other way to acquire alcohol legally. these accounts recall a nostalgic past in which newfoundlanders and labradorians had to live off the land and “the berries serve as an iconic image of resourceful people living close to a bountiful, welcoming wilderness” (everett 2007: 49). this nostalgia is very similar to that in french cuisine, as amy trubek explains in her book a taste of place: a cultural journey into terroir (2009). in france, terroir is often associated with the landscape through a “mythic past” of farms and farming in the french countryside, even though “the majority of the population has left both behind in their own lives” (14). though greening’s berry wines might not be a renowned brand such as veuve cliquot or hold a famous designation such as the champagne aoc, the story of berry wine in the province and greening’s particular production demonstrates a powerful relationship between taste and place. as demossier writes in burgundy: the global story of terroir (2020: 34), the unique value of terroir is the ability to summon the place you are consuming: the burgundy region is charged with meanings which are derived from the wine that is produced there, but also from carefully chosen elements of its history which have been evoked to construct the place. the very mention of burgundy conjures up images of monks, monumental architecture, gastronomy and great wines. it is an imagined rural idyll that consumers are drawn to. terroir isn’t based on a principle of what tastes best or better, but rather what carries a significant attachment to a place. greening’s berry wines demonstrate terroir. conclusion exploring terroir in a non-commercial product such as homemade berry wine might seem pointless to some, as terroir is often used to sell and create an elite product (demossier 2020; hermansen 2012). however, homemade products are often compared to the high standards of commercial products to demonstrate their quality. when compared to commercial wine, greening says he enjoys his own product better partly because of the satisfaction he gains from understanding “what it takes to . . . make a good glass of wine . . . . i’m drinking this now and i know that i picked the berries . . . every step that i went through to get to this point.” in addition, it’s cheap and enjoyed as much if not more than anything store-bought. in one munfla paper, george pike tells his researcher and son, stephen g. pike, “i doubt you could tell the difference between the wine that i put up and the wine that you buy at the liquor commission” (1978: 27). greening made similar statements regarding the taste of his wine, but emphasized how similar they look. thanks to local stores, greening is able to buy corks, labels, caps, and other supplies that make his own wine have the appearance of store-bought (photo 4). he recalls giving a few bottles of wine to a friend who was returning to the northwest territories. when stopped at the airport and questioned about the wine and whether or not it was homemade, he was easily allowed on his way because the wine looked storedigest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 101 bought.16 homemade wine cannot be transported. greening had a good laugh and took great pride in that. photo 4. one glass of gooseberry wine, a bottle of blueberry wine, and a bottle of gooseberry wine—all made by herbert greening. mount pearl, 9 november 2017. photo: ema noëlla kibirkstis. terroir connects a product to a specific natural environment, which in turn allows for the higher price and prestige of fine wines with an aoc or other designation (demossier 2011: 691). however that designation can purposefully undermine the important human factor in its authentication of geographical uniqueness. there is no doubt that geology and climate directly impact the grape—as with any other crop or livestock: chef and farmer dan barber feeds his chickens carotenoid-rich red peppers to achieve deep red, flavourful egg yolks (jeter 2015); the distinguishably sweet and nutty “pata negra” jamón ibérico comes from pure-bred black iberian pigs that feast on acorns (jamon.com. 2020); the low-sulfur soils in georgia produce the mild and sweet vidalia onion (vidalia onions 2020). grapes and wines are not unique in showcasing how different soils and places provide different tastes, how the french were unique in using arguments of terroir to create designations, allowing other foods to do the same. the terroir in france is as unique as the terroir everywhere else in the world. references cited:17 scholarly secondary sources baker, melvin. 2012. 1921 report of the commission on the prohibition plebiscite act. newfoundland and labrador studies 27 (2): 267-279. bohmrich, roger. 1996. terroir: competing perspectives on the roles of soil, climate and people. journal of wine research 7 (1): 33-46. kibirkstis, “this is our wine,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 102 boulanger-lapointe, noémie, j. gérin-lajoie, l. siegwart collier, et al. 2019. berry plants and berry picking in inuit nunangat: traditions in a changing socio-ecological landscape. human ecology 47: 81–93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-018-0044-5. cadigan, sean. 2009. newfoundland and labrador: a history. toronto: university of toronto press. davis, hannah. 2019. review of meanings of maple: an ethnography of sugaring, by michael lange. journal of american folklore 132 (525): 339-341. de gómara, francisco lópez. [1552-1555] 1885. other notable thynges as tovchynge the indies: and first of the foreknoledgeage that the poet seneca had of the fyndynge this newe worlde and other regions not then knowen, translated by richard eden in the first three english books on america: [?1511]-1555 a.d., ed. edward arber, 337-351. birmingham, england. demossier, marion. 2000. culinary heritage and produits du terroir in france: food for thought. in recollections of france: memories, identities and heritage in contemporary france, ed. sarah blowen, marion demossier, and jeanine picard, 141167. oxford: berghahn books. ——. 2011. beyond terroir: territorial construction, hegemonic discourses, and french wine culture. the journal of the royal anthropological institute 17 (4): 685705. ——. 2020. burgundy: the global story of terroir. oxford: berghahn books. everett, holly. 2007. a welcoming wilderness: the role of wild berries in the construction of newfoundland and labrador as a tourist destination. ethnologies 29 (1-2): 49-80. fernald, m. l. 1910. notes on the plants of wineland the good. rhodora 12 (134): 1738. fournier, laurent sébastien. 2010. mise en tourism des produits de terroir, événements festifs et mutation du patrimoine ethnologique en provence (france). ethnologies 32 (2): 103-144. halpert, herbert, and john d. a. widdowson. 1996. the old woman who wanted to pick marshberries. in folktales of newfoundland: the resilience of oral tradition, vol. 2: 935-939. new york: garland publishing. hermansen, mark emil tholstrup. 2012. creating terroir: an anthropological perspective on new nordic cuisine as an expression of nordic identity. anthropology of food 7. http:aof.revues.org/7249 . jesperson, ivan f. 1974. fat-back & molasses: a collection of favourite old recipes from newfoundland & labrador. st. john’s: i. f. jesperson. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 103 kirwin, w.j., g. m. story, and j. d. a. widdowson, eds. 1990. dictionary of newfoundland english. 2nd ed. toronto: university of toronto press. kuhnlein, harriet v. and nancy j. turner. 1992. traditional plant foods of canadian indigenous peoples: nutrition, botany, and use. amsterdam: gordon and breach publishers. kune, keneva, trans. 2001. the saga of greenlanders. in the sagas of icelanders, ed. jane smiler, 636-653. new york: penguin classics. large, joshua john henry. 2012. empires of commerce: british trade in newfoundland cod and port wine, 1780–1850. phd diss., the university of chicago, chicago. long, lucy m. 1998. culinary tourism: a folkloristic perspective on eating and otherness. southern folklore 55 (3): 181-204. lukacs, paul. 2012. inventing wine: a new world history of one of the world’s most ancient pleasures. new york: w. w. norton & company. marshall, ingeborg. 1996. history and ethnography of the beothuk. montreal: mcgillqueens university press. narvaez, peter. 1991. newfoundland berry pickers “in the fairies.” in the good people: new fairylore essays, ed. peter narváez, 336-368. new york: garland. oostindie, gert, and jessica v. roitman. 2014. dutch atlantic connections, 1680-1800: linking empire, bridging borders. leiden, netherlands: brill. patterson, tim, and john buechsenstein. 2018. wine and place: a terroir reader. oakland: university of california press. pinney, thomas. 2007. a history of wine in america, volume 1: from the beginnings to prohibition. berkeley and los angeles: university of california press. pope, peter edward. 2004. fish into wine: the newfoundland plantation in the seventeenth century. chapel hill: university of north carolina press. quinn, david b. 1977. north america from earliest discovery to first settlements: the norse voyages to 1612. new york: harper & row. roberts, sheilah. 2003. for maids who brew & bake: rare & excellent recipes from 17th century newfoundland. st. john’s: flanker press. robinson, jancis, and julia harding, eds. 2015. the oxford companion to wine, 4th ed. oxford: oxford university press. kibirkstis, “this is our wine,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 104 sommer, brian j. 2008. the geography of wine: how landscape, cultures, terroir, and the weather make a good drop. new york: plume. thomas, aaron. 1968. the newfoundland journal of aaron thomas, edited by jean m. murray. don mills, on: longsman canada ltd. trubek, amy b. 2009. taste of place: a cultural journey into terroir. berkeley: university of california press. uther, hans-jörg. [2004] 2011. 2030 the old woman and her pig. in the types of international folktales: a classification and bibliography. based on the system of antti aarne and stith thompson. part ii: tales of the stupid ogre, anecdotes and jokes, and formula tales, 522-523. folklore fellows communications, 285. helsinki: suomalainen tiedeakatemia. whalen, philip. 2007. a merciless source of happy memories: gaston roupnel and the folklore of burgundian “terroir.” journal of folklore research 44 (1): 21-40. john mason. (1620) 1887. a briefe discovrse of nevv-found-land […]. in capt. john mason, the founder of new hampshire […], ed. john ward dean, 143-158. boston: the prince society. heritage newfoundland & labrador. 2000. mason, john. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/proprietary-john-mason.php . archival sources memorial university of newfoundland folklore archives babb, kathleen. 1979. community and group celebrations in carbonear, newfoundland in 1905. unpublished research paper. munfla 79-295. downey, ralph francis. 1971. grunts. munfla folklore survey card, ms 71-39/47. dictionary of newfoundland english word form database. http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/30679. hunt, larry andrew. 1972. moonshine, beer and wine; beliefs and customs. unpublished research paper. munfla 72-250. metcalfe, fraser. 1973. berryocky. munfla folklore survey card, q 71 d. dictionary of newfoundland english word form database. http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/7441. pike, stephen g. 1978. winemaking in the home, topsail, c.b. and st. john’s. unpublished research paper. munfla 78-256. pynn, warrick. 1978. [miscellaneous information]. unpublished research paper. munfla 79-034. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 105 the rooms provincial archives of newfoundland and labrador prohibition act and liquor control: petitions for prohibiting manufacture, importation and sale of liquors (1575 signatures). 1915. file 271.a. office of the colonial secretary fonds. special files. series gn 2.5, sub-series gn 2.5.271: 1915-1925. ——: applications for import of wine and whiskey; 23 june 1916-2 dec. 1919. file 271.b. office of the colonial secretary fonds. special files. series gn 2.5, sub-series gn 2.5.271: 1915-1925. ——: board of liquor control rules and regulations regarding importation of alcoholic preparations; 7 may 1917-16 dec. 1918; file 271.f.1. office of the colonial secretary fonds. special files. series gn 2.5, sub-series gn 2.5.271: 1915-1925. ——: correspondence and report of the commission of enquiry into the administration of the prohibition act. commission and report bound with ribbon. 10 aug. 1920-8 dec. 1925. file 271.g. office of the colonial secretary fonds. special files. series gn 2.5, sub-series gn 2.5.271: 1915-1925. legal, newspaper, radio, television, and other online sources auk island winery. 2017-2020. https://aukislandwinery.com/pages/about . baganza, chantal. 2020. chef sheila flaherty on inuit cuisine. chatelaine.com, https://www.chatelaine.com/food/sheila_flaherty_inuit_cuisine/ blades, ted, and camille turner. 2019. confronting newfoundland’s role in the slave trade, on the go. st. john’s, newfoundland and labrador: cbc radio, september 9. excise act, 2001, sc 2002, c. 22. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/e14.1/fulltext.html. flaherty, sheila, and kenton leier. 2019. menu. a taste of the arctic lk&iksaarniq, https://www.itk.ca/atota/. frozen in time ltd. 2018-2020. our wines. https://frozenintimeltd.com/wines/ . importation of intoxicating liquors act, rsc 1985, c. i-3. https://lawslois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-3/20170921/p1tt3xt3.html. jamon.com. 2020. jamón—the artisanal ham of spain. https://www.jamon.com/about-jamon-iberico.html . jeter, clay, dir. 2015. dan barber. chef’ table. season 1, episode 2. aired february 12, 2015. netflix. junaid, bushra, guest curator. 2019. what carries us: newfoundland and labrador in the black atlantic. the rooms exhibits, february 29-september 7. https://www.therooms.ca/exhibits/past-exhibit/what-carries-us-newfoundland-andlabrador-in-the-black-atlantic . kibirkstis, “this is our wine,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 106 kish, rheanna. 2015. what’s the difference between a cobbler and a crisp. canadian living, july 6. https://www.canadianliving.com/food/baking-anddesserts/article/what-s-the-difference-between-a-cobbler-and-a-crisp. mayer, andre. 2011. canada’s weird liquor laws. cbc news, may 13. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-s-weird-liquor-laws-1.1004724. mcgee, harold, and daniel patterson. 2007. talk dirt to me. new york times, may 6. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/style/tmagazine/06tdirt.html. newman wine vaults (436 water street, st. john’s). 2016. heritage newfoundland & labrador. rev. july 2016. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/society/newman-winevaults.php. shortis, h. f. 1913. where was vinland the good? evening telegram, april 12: 5. http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/compoundobject/collection/telegram19/id/81045/rec/ 2. turner, camille. 2020. in floe/flot, bonavista biennale 2019. https://bonavistabiennale.com/catalogue/artists/camille-turner/. unesco. 2015-2020. the climats, terroirs of burgundy. world heritage list, reference no. 1425, https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1425/ . vidalia onions. 2020. about vidalia onions. https://www.vidaliaonion.org/aboutvidalia-onions/. whitbourne, richard. 1620. a discourse and discovery of new-found-land. london: felix kyngston for phillip barrett. center for newfoundland studies—digitized books, memorial university of newfoundland—digital archives initiative. http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/cns/id/23942. winkler, marc. 2018. “ridiculous”: yellowknifers react to the supreme court ruling on importing alcohol. cbc news, april 20. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yellowknife-reacts-beer-supreme-courtruling-1.4627812?__vfz=medium%3dsharebar. zussman, richard. 2019. ottawa gets rid of inter-provincial liquor restrictions, provinces still need to negotiate deal. global news, april 9. https://globalnews.ca/news/5149144/bc-inter-provincial-liquor-restrictions/. notes: 1 adapted from a paper i wrote as a doctoral student for folk 6770: global/local with dr. cory w. thorne during fall 2017 semester, memorial university of newfoundland, st. john’s, newfoundland and labrador. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 107 2 since writing this article, rodrigues winery was sold to marek krol and renamed “frozen in time ltd” (2018-2020). rodrigues winery’s former website address, http://rodrigueswinery.com was de-activated by mid-december 2020. 3 though for centuries europeans had arrived on the coasts of this province for the fisheries, berries were largely consumed locally and were not commercially traded until the local commercial fishing industry adopted mechanized processing technology in 1927 and commercial blueberrying emerged in newfoundland in the 1930s, during a period of high unemployment (narvaez 1991: 324). 4 i couldn’t find a formal definition of a “crunch,” but by the look of the list of ingredients and the process of making this dessert, it would seem to be most similar to a “crumble.” an article in canadian living explains, “similar to a crisp, a crumble is a baked fruit dessert with a layer of topping. a crumble topping rarely includes oats or nuts, and is instead usually a streusel-like combination of flour, sugar and butter. however some variations may include oats and nuts. the topping is generally more clumpy than a crisp topping, but not as clumpy as a cobbler topping” (kish 2015). 5 “large pies called ‘grunts’ or ‘bangbellies’ were often cooked for dessert for supper. these were pies made in large baking pans, with a top crust and sometimes a lower one too—filled with blueberries or ‘apple jam’” (downey 1971). 6 though robertson’s book does mention wines, beer, and other alcoholic beverages, no recipe or direct mention of berry wine is named (2010: 105-114). 7 zita johnson, daughter of ellen johnson, recorded this tale in 1967 as a student of halpert’s. ellen recalls her mother telling her the story sometime in the early 1950s in renews, newfoundland. when they visited munfla on may 22, 1985, ellen and zita could not recall why “marshberries” rather than simply “berries” was used. halpert notes that “marshberries” could likely refer to small cranberries (1996: 938). 8 “the most common forms of preventive magic used by berry pickers to protect themselves from fairy encounters were to turn articles of clothing inside out or to carry pieces of bread, breadcrumbs, or ‘fairy buns.’” (narvaez 1991: 22). 9 newman’s port was aged in newfoundland and labrador from 1679 until 1998. the newman wine vault can still be visited in st. john’s (newman wine vaults 2016). 10 the province is widely known as a rum-drinking province including “screech,” “a variety of cheap, dark demerara rum bottled in newfoundland” (kirwin et al. 1990: 442). 11 visual artist camille turner highlighted the role the province played in the africancaribbean slave trade in her exhibit, what carries us: newfoundland and labrador in the black atlantic, shown during the 2019 bonavista bienniale at the rooms, st. john’s, newfoundland (blades and turner 2019; junaid 2019; and turner 2019). 12 though stereotypically applied to narcotics, “dope” has also been used to refer to alcoholic drink (oxford english dictionary, 2020: s.v. “dope, n.”); restricted online access through memorial university of newfoundland, november 18, 2020). 13 when editing and revising this paper, summer 2020, i discovered “berryocky” or “berry ocky” mentioned in munfla documentation as a type of alcoholic beverage made from berries, particularly partridgeberry (for example, see metcalfe 1973). 14 sadly, especially when it comes to food, there are a lot of resources by settlers on what first peoples in canada eat, but nothing from the primary sources themselves. i found locating sources that relate specifically to historical and contemporary uses of berries for food or medicine by newfoundland/labradorean first peoples unfruitful, as well as finding documentation and testimony in their own words and from their perspectives. it kibirkstis, “this is our wine,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 108 is representative of a bigger problem. for example, noémie boulanger-lapointe and team’s article (2019) discusses first-hand inuit accounts of the importance of berries in their diets, but written by white people. it may be worth mentioning the increasing online presence of national organizations such as inuit tapiriit kanatami’s “a taste of the arctic,” based in ottawa. a menu by chefs sheila flaherty and kenton leier (2019) features a variety of berries (see also, braganza 2020). 15 under the excise act, “no person shall possess a still or other equipment suitable for the production of spirits with the intent of producing spirits unless the person (a) is a spirits licensee; (b) has a pending application for spirits licence; or (c) possess the still or equipment solely for the purpose of producing spirits for the purpose or as a consequence of the analysis of the composition of a substance containing absolute ethyl alcohol” (excise act, 2001, c. 22. s. 61). a still is an apparatus used for distilling alcoholic drinks to produce hard liquor (such as vodka, rum, whiskey, etc.), and moonshine is an illegally distilled (or smuggled) alcohol. 16 restrictions on the interprovincial transportation of alcoholic beverages for personal consumption is confusing within federal and provincial law. though irregularly imposed, laws heavily regulate or have rendered it illegal (importation of intoxicating liquors act; mayer 2011; zussman 2019). residents of the northwest territories have higher taxes on their alcohol, so often purchase alcohol within other provinces to bring back home (winkler 2018). since homemade alcohol is not government regulated, typically it doesn’t list alcohol content or otherwise on the label, making it more likely to be withheld at the border. greening tells this story because his berry wine’s passing as a commercial product at the border implies the higher quality of his production. 17 most links first accessed by author during 2017 research phase. all links now posted, unless otherwise indicated, active and accurate as of final publication preparations in december-january 2020-2021. < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship 1st place winner 2013 by: diana garvin food demonstrates how power works through narratives of design. it complicates the idea of an all-powerful government monolith by revealing the local variations of manufacturing, construction, and financing for state enterprises. fascist italy provides a particularly fruitful time and place for the analysis of gender and culture for two reasons: first, because the self-mythologizing tendency of dictatorships boosts the production of material culture and offers a wealth of materials to study, and second, because the period presents a hyperbolic cultural moment that makes subtle phenomena more readily observable to the historian. in mid-to-late 1930s italy, the kitchen emerged as a primary domestic site for regime intervention. with benito mussolini’s invasion of ethiopia in october 1935 and the onset of the league of nations’ economic sanctions against italy the following month, promotion of autarchy, or economic selfsufficiency, meant that female labor such as shopping, gardening, and cooking took on a heightened political charge. on the national level, the regime introduced a raft of policies aimed at rationalizing and modernizing italian industry. by reducing imports and increasing production, the regime believed italy could attain the economic selfsufficiency and increased imperviousness needed in the event of war. popular magazines and books translated these policies into recommended practices for everyday life. autarchy did not originate as a food-based policy. stemming from the league of nations’ sanctions following mussolini’s invasion of ethiopia and the establishment of italian east africa, autarchy promoted the production and consumption of italian goods, both material (linoleum) and abstract (italian labor, italian language). for example, f.t. marinetti introduced italian terms for english and french words, turning the “bar” into a “quisibeve.” but when autarchy entered the home, it headed straight for the hearth. in this article i use italian fascist period culinary magazines and cookbooks such as la cucina italiana < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 and dalla cucina al salotto, as well as kitchen designs from architectural journals such as domus, to illustrate the daily political interplay between individual women and the state in the private sphere. ultimately, i argue that modern kitchen design in 1930s fascist italy evokes bids to rationalize unruly bodies and work. specifically, i examine the interplay of the national and the personal by analyzing how popular cookbook authors such as delia notari, and prestigious designers such as ignazio gardella, translate the state’s concern for autarchy, or economic self-sufficiency, into calls for rationalization, or streamlined production, in individual kitchens. because the kitchen constituted a female workspace for the preparation of raw goods for familial consumption, and because the majority of the family budget went towards food, promoting autarchic eating provided a key means for the regime to encourage italians to participate in this key aspect of fascist politics. the kitchen is the room of the house used for cooking and food preparation, and traditionally some form of hearth would have constituted the center of activity. in 1930s italy, depending on the family’s socioeconomic level, either the woman of the house or a female cook typically tended to this domestic labor. beyond these general commonalities, however, one cannot speak of a typical italian kitchen. during this period both popular and elite publications targeted the kitchen as a household site ripe for modernization. large-scale city and town planning projects, such as the construction of the fascist new towns in the pontine plains and the sventramento (gutting) of rome aimed to promote hygiene and smooth flow through the body of the city. erecting public housing blocks forced state-funded architects to grapple with the question of which material elements should comprise italy’s new, ideal kitchens. they connected specific concrete traits to abstract ideas of backwardness and irrationality. large, dark, dirty, disorganized kitchens emerged as the foes of rationality. although careful not to disparage the well-kept country kitchen, many publications privileged new organization and use of this space by advocating electric stoves over open fires and the eating of family meals in a separate dining room. they prescribed windows for light and ventilation, autarchic materials for ease of cleaning, and electric appliances for saving time. modern kitchens conceived as small, tidy, lightfilled workspaces also required efficient labor practices. both this domestic space and its associated agent, the cook, emerged as targets for modernization. in fact, the cook’s movements in the kitchen received as much attention in these texts as the room’s design. on june 14, 1925, mussolini launched the battle for grain to liberate the italian population from the “slavery” of foreign bread. this campaign focused on increasing promotion and consumption of non-standard grains such as rice, and to a lesser extent on decreasing consumption of pasta and bread. a blend of propaganda, news media, and the arts all < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 carried these messages to the populous. stripping bare to the waist, mussolini cast himself as a virile farm worker to join in sabaudia’s first wheat threshing in july 1935, a bit of political theatre memorialized on the cover of that month’s issue of la cucina italiana. on a literary arts front, mussolini’s famous poem “amate il pane,” “love bread,” encouraged italians not to waste this precious product, while f.t. marinetti’s invective “contro la pastasciutta,” “against pasta,” in la cucina futurista maintained that eating pasta diminished speed, aggression, and virility, all aspects of the marinetti’s conception of the ideal modern italian man. fascist efforts to drive down grain consumption began quite early, in the mid-1920s, while concerted efforts to increase domestic production and utilization of raw materials emerged in a second wave of political and print activity in the late-1930s. many italians, particularly southern italians, resisted the official line that rice offered superior nutrition and flavor due to lingering associations that linked rice and the privations of world war i when the government distributed it as a bread substitute. further, incorporating rice into the southern italian diet ran directly counter to the traditional foodways of the region where pasta predominated and rice was considered an undesirable foreign foodstuff (dickie 2010). fascist intervention in this culinary arena further intensified with the arrival of league of nations’ sanctions in october 1935 (helstosky 2004). one might be tempted to make the argument that rationalism constitutes the means to promote autarchic practices in the kitchen. after all, embracing rationalism and autarchy would likely require changes in architectural design and food preparation practices. they share the common goal of eliminating waste in the kitchen and promoting productivity and economy, albeit on a household scale. but these concepts do not equate, and writers discuss them in different terms. one key difference lies in the respective results of rationalism and autarchy for the nation. while advocating autarchic practices in individual households ultimately aids the italian economy, the promotion of rationalism in individual homes does not offer a similarly obvious benefit on the national level. further, architectural writers engage more often with the goal of rationalization, whereas household manual writers evoke autarchy with greater frequency. however, given the obvious affinity between these concepts, we must ask what larger projects they collectively support. how do rationalism and autarchy link to the question of the body and the national body? foucault shows that power over life centers on a conception of the body as a machine, and that such power is essentially “a right of seizure: of things, time, bodies” (foucault 1977). in the case of the 1930s kitchen, we < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 see the application of power to productive ends rather than deductive ends. while the intensity of these terms may initially seem incongruous when applied to the banality of the kitchen, we must remember that this is the level at which life, and thus power, is situated and exercised. by attempting to influence the design and use of the kitchen, the regime endeavors to seize time and control of bodies move. as such, rationality and autarchy bring the regime’s application of power into the very heart of the home. this treatment imbues food preparation with the form of “life-administering” power. evidence of food’s role as a form of life-administering power emerges from analysis of the leading architecture magazines domus and casabella, as well as housekeeping manuals such as dalla cucina al salotto: enciclopedia di vita domestica. together, these publications articulate the proper design, organization, and use of the italian kitchen in the mid-to-late 1930s according to two different demographic cohorts of writers that divides along lines of gender and profession. male architects tended to write for these magazines as an extension of their design work, whereas women crafted housekeeping manuals largely based on their personal experience of maintaining a home. whereas domus heralds the editorial board’s sympathy to fascism, even including benito mussolini’s lauds of their editor in a special feature, housekeeping manuals and cooking magazines tend to invoke fascism in depersonalized terms to set the scene for autarchic “how to” guides. popular cooking magazines aimed at women, such as la cucina italiana, occupy an extreme position on the spectrum of engagement with fascist politics. while many popular magazines, such as bellezza and la donna italiana, would occasionally include regime-friendly articles such as autarchic fashion spreads, la cucina italiana constitutes a unique case of a hobby magazine’s adherence to state dictates. the founders and editors of la cucina italiana, delia and umberto notari, openly supported the fascist regime by promoting mussolini’s autarchic campaigns with reader contests and letters to the editor. delia notari, not umberto, pushed for the creation of la cucina italiana and controlled the editorial slant of the magazine as director. a widow of engineer joseph magnaghi, delia née pavoni married umberto notari and appears to have shared his pro-fascist politics. during her tenure as director of the magazine from november 1929 to december 1934, she encouraged contributors to incorporate recipes for autarchic eating to support the regime. umberto notari’s adherence to fascist political doctrine appears to have developed in his early 20s, during his collaboration with f.t. marinetti on the magazine poesia. his enthusiasm for social conservatism in general, and fascist racial policy in particular, manifested in many of his publications from la donna ‘tipo tre’ to his signature on manifesto della razza < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 and panegirico della razza italiana. proponents of fascism from the art world such as massimo bontempelli, ada negri, and margherita sarfatti contributed articles as well. many domus magazine articles feature ideal kitchens economically inaccessible to the vast majority of italians, but advice columns addressing women, such as those from architect ignazio gardella, provide directives for rational kitchen design and use that could be more broadly applied. hailing from a family of architects, ignazio gardella graduated in engineering from the politecnico di milano in 1928. together with university acquaintances, he helped create the italian modern movement before turning to rationalism. his work in this realm, featuring autarchic building materials, found early success in several architectural competitions, such as the 1934-38 dispensario antitubercolare di alessandria and the 1944 milano verde plan, featured in the pages of domus. his work sought to economize the cook’s time, space, and effort in the kitchen in the name of abstract goals such as modernism. housekeeping manuals address a far broader socioeconomic group and largely try to help women cope with the effects of fascism, namely the 1935 league of nations’ sanctions that rendered shopping and cooking a daily challenge. while both exclusive and popular magazines, as well as many democratic housekeeping manuals, all demonstrate outward support for fascism, the latter also provide tactics and strategies for negotiating its occasionally negative effects on the household larder. in their differing prescriptions for kitchen design and its everyday use, domus and la cucina italiana tend to point to what michel de certeau would call “tactics,” whereas dalla cucina al salotto resorts to “strategies,” (de certeau 1984). in this culinary context, one might consider tactics the cook’s creative use of the kitchen, whereas strategies suggest a more rigid, prescribed use for the space. along these lines, we must bear in mind that even popular texts such as cooking magazines and housekeeping manuals cannot tell us how italian women actually organized and used their kitchens. such a statement goes beyond the scope of this project and would entail extensive ethnographic research. what they can tell us, however, is how writers and publishers publically performed fascist political affiliation while prescribing actions for the female public to make practicing its policies less burdensome on a daily basis. further, by examining architectural plans for and photographs of ideal kitchens, we can see how abstract calls for modernity and rationalism took physical form in the kitchen. kitchens are designed, in that architects create them, but kitchens also design: their material qualities influence the behavior of those who work within them. managing this space amounts to manipulating the cook by dictating not only the < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 materials and organization of her surroundings, but also how she interacts with objects in this location through the variant series of actions involved in food preparation. the home serves as a process rather than a pure physical form in that it serves as a sort of institution, not unlike a factory or a clinic. on a daily basis, the kitchen conditions the cooking, and the cooking conditions the cook. what might account for these repeated calls for intervention in the kitchen and its daily use? why do writers recommend modernism and rationality as the solutions? recurrent themes of economy and science link these concepts to writers’ characterizations of the modern and rational kitchen as one that saves space, time, effort, and money. in this ideal rational kitchen, the cook’s agency and inspiration vanished. like automatons, they are to take only prescribed steps, thus eliminating all waste. they become one more elettrodomestico, an electronic servant. promoting abstract concepts as panaceas for such concrete issues suggests that there is more at stake in the 1930s italian kitchen then one family’s supper. indeed, the intensity and pervasive rhetoric of this concern for creating a rational kitchen evokes larger political discussions of the day, namely the regime’s call for autarchy. narratives of rationalism in the kitchen domus articles taking the kitchen as a central subject pervasively employ the trope of rationalism but they rarely define it. rather than expressing the architectural style of rationalism, rationalism in this context evokes taylorist dictates meant to save space, time, and money while improving hygiene. in other words, it domesticates rationalism by decreasing its scale of application from the factory to the kitchen by reworking concepts meant to improve factory efficiency to the private home. “parliamo un po’ della cucina, razionalmente,” “let’s talk a little about the kitchen, rationally” goes the title to an authorless august 1937 domus article. this phrasing evokes the recurrent slippage in kitchen articles between advocation for rationalism as taylorized work and the promotion of logic over emotion. the only other space to continually receive this type of treatment is the office, suggesting that this type of rationalism specifically targets places of work for intervention. these articles tend to treat the office as a factory for white collar male workers. in all three spaces--the office, the factory, and the kitchen--the worker disappears. the text uses the noi form, which obscures differentiations between the speaker and the addressee in phases such as, “quanto abbiamo descritto è l’essentiale per la cucina,” “what we have described is essential for the kitchen.” collective pronoun use can alternatively refer to the author alone, as it does in the former sentence, or to < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 “noi italiani,” “us italians,” in a preceding paragraph that exhorts italians to embrace electric kitchen appliances as the germans have. the author takes advantage of the slippery linguistic properties of “we” to increase his authority and evoke collectivity as necessary to his purpose. office articles treat the worker as sex-neutral unless describing a specific position such as typist or overseer. by contrast, kitchen articles always assume a female worker. when the type of work evokes the worker’s gender, gender targeting appears in differing form of address. when speaking of male workers, writers often use hypothetical sentence structures to suggest and entice. for example, the conditional tense predominates, evoking the possibility of choice for the male worker. by contrast, articles regarding female workers use the imperative tense to issue direct commands. this division suggests the view that respect for the worker’s agency depended partially on their gender. while articles called for all workers to rationalize their activities, they approached male and female workers with different language. we also see this discourse divide play out in the focus and content of individual articles. in contrast to articles primarily concerned with the office, the call for kitchen rationalization often accompanies a negative recollection of antiquated kitchen design. writers often contrast these traits directly in the text, pointing out the superiority of linoleum over stone, electric stoves over open fires, small rooms over large ones, wall-flush furniture over central orientation, and white and blue wall-tiling over darker colors. articles concerning the kitchen further include prescribed sets of locationspecific practices for how cooks should move within the space, while office-centric writings do not. gardella frequently advises cooks to maintain an erect posture even while sitting, and to move from table, to stove, to sink so as not to waste energy with extra movements. this differentiation suggests that narratives of rationality in the kitchen involve gender and class elements absent from those regarding office structure, an assumed bourgeois male, and therefore neutral, space. rationalism emerges as a sort of cure for the messiness of food preparation overseen by women, and articles often conflate women with disorder by treating them as an unruly element in need of surveillance and discipline. such rhetoric also evokes the regime’s sventremento (gutting) campaigns in population-dense, working-class neighborhoods which sought to improve the city’s hygiene as though it were a living body. these articles treat the kitchen, a space of female work, as a room particularly prone to irrational practices. irrationality links with the room’s darkness and dirtiness, with unnecessary waste, and with oldfashioned practices and postures. articles prescribe modern remedies, often in the form of autarchic materials and methods, to order this threateningly disorderly space. saving time, money, and space functions as a concurrent goal for the extension of < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 autarchy into the kitchen in architecture magazines. commonalities such as optimizing labor while diminishing and eliminating waste and controlling women’s actions in the domestic sphere link these bids for economization. promotion of economy evokes the need to change individuals’ daily habits for the benefit of the nation. the premise that each italian kitchen functions as a microcosm of the national larder imbues household food choices and preparation with enormous power and symbolic significance. as such, rationalism, economy, and autarchy constitute both strategies and goals, both the means and the ends for controlling this private space of production. in foucault’s words, the regime’s interventions in the home might be described as “a power that exerts a positive influence on life, that endeavors to administer, optimize, and multiply it, subjecting it to precise controls and comprehensive regulations” (foucault 1977:137). because food and cooking directly affect the biological existence of the population, the kitchen emerges as an ideal locus for the exercise of power over the national body, with women bearing the brunt of this bid for control. the kitchen’s invisible service both domus and housekeeping manuals treat the kitchen as a space of invisible service to the rest of the household. the significance of the relationship between the kitchen and the house derives from its evocation of an analogous bond between the house and the nation. power over life in the realm of the kitchen can thus be understood in terms of power over the cook’s actions and power over the nation’s eating habits. in other words, power intervenes at two levels: that of the body as a machine--the “anatomo-politics of the human body” (foucault 1977:139)--and the national body, through regulatory controls of the body as machine. one of these regulatory controls is the seemingly contradictory characterization of the kitchen as a space of seamless, invisible labor that, though segregated from the rest of the house and occupying a low rung in its hierarchy of rooms, nonetheless permits the daily processes of the house to function. in short, these texts treat the kitchen as both vitally important, but utterly lacking in social prestige. it is a space of labor and function, rather than leisure and display. domus editor and architect gio ponti implicitly states that the kitchen and the bathroom hold equally low stature, placing them last in both text and print coverage, that is, when they are shown at all. dining rooms and living rooms predominate at the expense of these functional spaces. as an architect, industrial designer, teacher and publisher, gio ponti’s prolific publications rendered him a towering figure in the field. after founding < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 domus in 1928 and serving as editor until 1941, he left to establish and serve as editor of stile until he returned to domus in 1948, remaining in the post until his death in 1979. as a professor in the faculty of architecture at the politecnico di milano from 1936 until 1961, ponti served as mentor to many young designers and his architectural designs also helped form the modern skylines of turin and milan. smaller in scale but broader in scope, ponti’s product designs could be found in many high style stores. the semi-public nature of the dining and living rooms that ponti designed means that they serve as theatre backdrops, creating a performance space for the family to demonstrate sophistication to their guests. lighting recommendations in an october 1935 article exemplify this tendency to treat these rooms as staging areas. ponti points the ideal orientation of the bedrooms on the eastern side of the apartment block, perfect for morning light. rays hit the dining room by mid-afternoon shining a spotlight on the kitchen’s output, but not on the kitchen itself. this room remains in the dark, literally and metaphorically. ponti relegates the kitchens and bathrooms “a nord esclusivamente, “exclusively to the northern side” (ponti 1935:15) where light cannot penetrate. being backstage, kitchens and bathrooms hold lower stature. they merely support social display by concealing the work and mess involved in food preparation, clean-up, and bodily processes. domus appears to deemphasize these spaces because they are “private,” but what shared characteristic makes them unsuitable for public viewing? for ponti, the answer is functionality: kitchens and bathrooms contain the efforts required to affect glamour in dining and living rooms. after all, glamour by definition suggests effortlessness. by privileging coverage of practically all other rooms over kitchens in both the amount and order of text, as well as in the building architecture, ponti evokes the idea that the ideal kitchen should perform invisible work in service of the rest of the house. kitchen work was hidden due to its associations with the subaltern. because lower-class women typically cooked, cleaned, and served the food in middle and upper-class households, the pervasive cultural distain for the female gender and low social classes attached to the spaces in which they worked, and to the types of labor that they performed. family economy and national economy similarly and more explicitly, ignazio gardella articulates this conception of the kitchen as invisible service to the rest of the house in his inaugural january 1939 column on home economics, “i servizi della casa,” which focuses exclusively on the kitchen. he echoes the sentiment that the kitchen serves as a place of work, “di un determinato lavoro, importantissimo nell’economia della famiglia,” “of a specific work, extremely < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 important in the family economy” (gardella 1939a:56). of course, this phrasing means more than just money. family economy can also refer to the functionality of the family unit. in this article, gardella treats the two as definitions as inseparable, suggesting that improving one benefits the other. in this holistic view, rational kitchen design, coupled with rational cooking methods, thus benefits the family purse. gardella seems to believe that many architects equated associated characteristics such as practicality and functionality with undesirable aesthetics. he responds to this perceived denigration with an impassioned defense of rationalism, and its “incandescenza lirica,” “lyrical incandesce,” per quell’equivoco, c’è chi, quando si occupa dell’arredamento della propria casa, accetta magari per il bagno, la cucina e gli altri servizi, un arredamento moderno (che sarà quasi sempre un brutto moderno di maniera), ma vuole poi per il ‘salotto’ e la ‘camera da letto’ un arredamento un po’ ‘meno moderno’ se non ‘antico’ del tutto. by mistake, there are those who, when they set about furnishing their own house, accept modern furnishings (and it will almost always be an ugly manner of modern) perhaps for the bathroom, the kitchen, and the other functional rooms [servizi], but then want for the ‘living room’ and the ‘bedroom’ slightly ‘less modern’ if not completely ‘old-fashioned’ furnishings (gardella 1939a:4). gardella notes and then argues against this pervasive equation of modernity with service and functionality, as well as antiquity with display and comfort. working rooms such as kitchens and bathrooms receive modern treatment because, unlike living rooms and bedrooms, they are meant to improve work rather than to promote enjoyment. in the context of style and its emotional effect on the room’s inhabitants, functional and decorative rooms often represent binary opposites. gardella suggests that denigrating the modern is a “mistake,” in that modernism too can offer aesthetic pleasure. however, the fact that he must address this issue suggests that many homeowners disagreed. in this paragraph, and in others, gardella along with delia notari, vanna piccini, and others writing on the kitchen, fuses rationalism with modernism. these writers treat the rational kitchen as modern. both descriptors emerge as potentially joyless, unsurprising given their close association with the idea of utilitarianism and work. in characterizing the connection between cooking and finances with labor market terms of work and economy gardella evokes the intimacy of the connection between consumer choices made in private homes and their effects on the national economy. < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 the home often served as a synecdoche for the homeland. this symbolic relationship elevated private choices of italian food product selection to a matter of national importance. lidia morelli went so far as to introduce the 1935 reprint of her popular housekeeping manual dalla cucina al salotto: enciclopedia della vita domestica by addressing how the sanctions affected the vocabulary she could and could not use in her book. she had worked as a linguistics and literature teacher before going on to become a writer and journalist. morelli published the first edition of dalla cucina al salotto in 1905 under the pen name donna clara, but abandoned this practice as her writings on household management rose in popularity and prominence. la stampa, la casa bella (which later became casabella), and petit point all published her work during her lifetime. morelli also enjoyed success as on the radio, taking part in the ironically titled florentine program “abbassa la tua radio, per favore, “turn down your radio, please.” speaking to “the readers of today” in a note dated 18 november 1935 she explains that words such as marmitta norvegese, salsa ginevrina, sformato inglese, pagnottine scozzesi, baking powder, bridge, and tè alle cinque were perfectly permissible “quando un vocabolario estero non voleva dire ‘appartenente a stato ostile e sanzionista,” “when foreign words didn’t mean ‘belonging to a hostile, sanctionist state” (1935:1). in other words, morelli classifies all foreign elements of cookery--from phrases, to habits, to foods--as outdated. her stance towards this attitudinal change is one of consent: she casts the situation as one of moral choice for the housewife, thus elevating the stakes of italian food purchases. directly connecting linguistic autarchy with autarchic cooking, she claims to be pleased that this shift not only resulted in the “innocent rebaptizing” of certain food terms, but also led to newly positive attitudes towards italian products and the culinary industry. for example, in manifesto della cucina futurista, f.t. marinetti suggested that the foreign-sounding bar ought to be retired in favor of his italian neologism quisibeve, “here one drinks.” whether or not these were truly morelli’s opinions or if she merely felt compelled to perform obeisance in this public text matters less than this text’s overwhelming popularity. morelli’s articulation of linguistic questions as being less important than kitchen methods and market choices casts autarchy for the massaia (housewife or country woman) as a set of practices grounded in the material world. interestingly, morelli recommends rationalism as a means to promote autarchy, a practice that bleeds into the simple cleaning suggestions this manual provides. turning the constraints of the sanctions into a personal challenge for her readers, she notes her regret that certain recipes do not evoke the recent turn towards autarchy in the kitchen, meglio sarebbero se più adatte ai tempi, se semplificate o cambiate, secondo < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 un regime fatto più severo. ma confido nel buon senso, nell’ingegnosità delle lettrici per una scelta sensate, per una sostituzione razionale … e razionata. it would be better if [these recipes were] more adapted to the times, simplified or changed, according to a regime that has become stricter. but i rely on the good sense, on the ingenuity of the readers for a sensible choice, for a rational, and rationed, substitution (1935:2). it is interesting to note the ambiguous nature of the word regime, alternately meaning a governmental, domestic, or dietary regime. terms such as adaptation, simplification, and change signal the actions to be taken by the reader in the kitchen, but they also involve a high degree of mental work to shift from simply enacting a recipe’s commands or recreating a passed-down dish. the repetition of sense and sensible, rational and rationed, stands as a bulwark against the wanton wasting of time and goods. rationalism and rationing thus come together in service of autarchy. and yet, morelli devotes far more frequent attention to the benefits of rationalism as a hygienic, or even moral practice, than she does to rationalism as a means to promote autarchy. maintaining a clean home and a clear conscience trump calls for aiding the national economy. ultimately, morelli’s depiction of rationalism as a means to practice autarchy reveals a stronger emphasis on the homemaker’s needs and wants rather than those of the nation. a dedicatory letter following morelli’s note on the sanctions juxtaposes modernity and old-fashioned ways in the kitchen. to open this letter, she claims, “non sono laudatrice dei tempi antichi,” “i’m not one to laud the old days,” despite the nowcommon necessity of “questa vita nuova dal ritmo acceleratissimo,” “this new life of very accelerated rhythm,” to keep up with “nuove mode, nuove gusti, nuovi progressi, nuovi orientamenti,” “new ways, new tastes, new progress, new orientations.” although she does not use the term rationalism, morelli refers to the synonymous phrase scienza pratica as a key element of modernity in the kitchen with an animating effect in the massaia. although one might expect that a manual promoting obeisance to the regime’s calls for autarchy in the wake of the sanctions might address the homemaker as a passive object to be molded by dictates, this is not the case. morelli instead argues in favor of rationalism in terms of its benefits to the reader. these practices render her “attiva, abile, energica, capace di affrontare e di risolvere da sola una difficoltà o un pericolo, “active, able, energetic, capable of confronting and resolving alone a difficulty or a danger.” she ascribes agency to the homemaker. this narrative provides an example of a phenomenon common to nineteenth-century american cookbook narratives examined by andrea newlyn (1999), wherein women present themselves as paradoxically empowered by their relegation to the domestic sphere. according to newlyn, in these < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 cases “cookbooks situate the kitchen as an emancipatory space in which women could transcend traditional identities and control how domestic spaces were deployed” (1999:38). morelli thus characterizes the reader as what newlyn would term as “an agent of reform who restores an otherwise marred domestic landscape” (1999:38). the very title, dalla cucina al salotto, encapulates a dynamic narrative insofar as it evokes movement from one state to another, from the chaos of the private kitchen to the equilibrium of the relatively more public salon. but unlike the writers of domus, morelli begins her consideration of the household in the kitchen before moving into the dining room, the living room, etc. this ordering proves all the more interesting given her acknowledgement of the relative social esteem accorded to both spaces, the salon being a “un luogo ridente, pulito, elegante,” “a laughing, clean, elegant place,” and the kitchen being “semibuio, grigio, e disordinato,” “half-darkened, gray, and disorganized” (morelli 1935:26). to combat this troubling state she advises surveillance, but of an infrequent sort so as not to offend the cook’s sensibilities (suscettività) or to get oneself dirty (insudiciarsi). these two suggestions evoke an uneasy division of authority between mistress and cook over the kitchen space and cooking, a division that refracts definitions of cleanliness and hygiene through the prism of domestic work and social class. engaging in food preparation seems to mark the worker (the cook) and the workspace (the kitchen) as unclean, and thus in need of surveillance to maintain a suitable level of hygiene. morelli suggests that while the cook should constantly work, the mistress should only periodically survey this work. some dirtiness on the part of the cook must be expected given the messy nature of kitchen tasks, but the lady of the house must avoid spending time in the kitchen to avoid personal contamination. however, in inspecting the kitchen, the housewife is to “fa capolino,” “peep in,” (morelli 1935:26) to assess the cleanliness of the room. concern with cleanliness emerges in terms of aesthetics, in the desire to keep the kitchen “nitida e inodora” “clean and odorless” so as to make it a pleasant and clean space. so while the end state of cleanliness is appreciated, it is the constant act of cleaning, or the material itself, that marks a kitchen as hygienic rather than merely “clean.” because the cook’s livelihood marks her as unclean, incessant cleaning provides a sort of ongoing awareness of, and penitence for, the material conditions of this position. this trope’s frequency and its attendant rhetorical intensity point to a fear of sickness originating from this potentially unclean space. morelli goes so far as to recommend that the cook wear “una tunica simile a quella d’infermiera, che la guerra fece entrare quasi in ogni casa,” “a tunic like those worn by nurses, made to enter almost every house by the war” (1935:56). dressing the cook in the style of a nurse turns the kitchen into a sort of clinic. this garment, accompanied with a white cap also modeled on nurses’ garb, < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 promotes hygiene by dint of being easily washable and because their odor-absorbing capacity protects one from nausea. the color white also enabled the lady of the house to make an instant, material surveillance of the kitchen’s cleanliness by displaying dirt. concern for kitchen odors, here and in domus, appears in frequent instructions to open windows and aerate the kitchen. although these texts often describe kitchen smells as unappetizing and embarrassing for the hostess, some manuals, such as morelli’s, conflate this distaste with bodily ailments, thus bridging the gap between questions of taste and health. as feminist theorists janet price and margrit shildrik suggest in feminist theory and the body, “the female body is intrinsically unpredictable, leaky and disruptive” (1999:2). treatment of the kitchen as a potentially dirty, overflowing space recalls the messy, uncontainable female body. to maintain and contain female space and female bodies, manuals recommend medical techniques of surveillance and dress. this move suggests that the kitchen functions as a sort of clinic, where boundaries of private and public may be defined and solidified by architectural plans. but the kitchen is not only a clinic, it is also a battlefield: the cook fights a host of abstract enemies, ranging from dirt to hunger. given the political backdrop of impending war, morelli’s characterization of the cook as a soldier casts the cook in a heroic light and lends gravity to her work. morelli frequently deploys this portrayal in the context of providing the cook with the necessary tools to do her job, be it proper garments or utensils, stating that “allo stesso modo che non si può esigere da un soldato che ben combatta se lo si lascia senza armi, non si potrà pretendere da una cuoca che estrinsechi le sue abilità, se non avrà sottomano le efficacissime armi per la lotta contro la fame,” “in the same way that one cannot expect a soldier to fight well if you leave him without weapons, one cannot expect a cook to express her abilities if she does not have very effective weapons for the fight against hunger” (1935:49). morelli’s analogy heightens the cook’s similarities to the soldier by repeating the word armi twice, rather than relegating weapons to soldiers and whisks to cooks. such an analogy also underscores the multivalent connection between the warfront and home. because many families had a soldier at the front, emotional as well as economic ties stretched across the public sphere and the private home. to aid her in this fight, autarchic materials and rationalist practices help the cook to save time and energy. morelli recommends italian-produced linoleum as a covering for the kitchen table, as it is both impermeable and washable. white walls and cupboards provide a “methodo più moderno e igienico,” “a more modern and hygienic method” (1935:46) to “impedire un viavai ingombrante e un perditempo in cucina,” “prevent awkward comings and going and a waste of time in the kitchen” (30). casting kitchen architecture, color, < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 and furniture as a method rather than as a tool ascribes agency to the space, giving it the power to impede or enhance rationalist and hygienic practices. we see the central importance of time in figure 2, one of morelli’s ideal kitchens. the caption reads, “this kitchen set-up, anything but large and awkward, arranges everything according to its function.” concern for spatial and temporal organization marks this kitchen. the camera angle, centering on the kitchen clock, suggests as much. like a factory’s clock this timepiece set high on the wall marks the rate at which the cook completes her daily work. to make the most of a few pieces of rational, practical, easy to clean kitchen furniture, morelli suggests building a small kitchen, eliminating excessive ornamentation and creating a functional and more hygienic space. as this caption suggests, examples of modern kitchens partially derive their value from contrast against older kitchen design, revealed here as “large and awkward” spaces where function inconveniently followed form. in contrast to the older forms of kitchen design that morelli critiques, appliances take on an increasingly central role in the modern kitchen. they possess quasi-agentive status, suggested in the term elettrodomestici, “electric servants,” which places their role somewhere between that of weapons and auxiliary forces in the war for hygiene. as very few italian kitchens possessed appliances until the late 1940s, morelli’s description of this kitchen’s tools suggests an ideal rather than a commonality. women remain their commanding officers, “così preparata ad attaccare l’ignobile lotta contro l’unto, la servetta – o la massaia – si accinge coraggiosamente e con l’ausilio di armi adatte, a debellare il nemico,” “thus prepared to attack the ignoble struggle against grease, the maid – or the housewife ¬– courageously gets ready, and with the auxiliary of appropriate weapons, to defeat the enemy” (1935:56). although morelli denigrates this act of cleaning as ignobile, her extended metaphor promotes the cook to the level of military general complete with an auxiliary defense at her command. in the modern kitchen, the stove takes the place of the open fire. this shift reflects a more general move from visible to invisible cooking, as the fuel source can now be hygienically enclosed in a smooth, metal container. as this photograph and figure 3 demonstrate, the stove holds chief importance, “tiene – è evidente – il primo posto,” “has, it’s evident, the first place.” in particular, electric stoves with four burners serve as the ideal standard, as electricity burns without a trace as compared to gas or wood. mentioning this attribute first, she also suggests that electricity’s inherent hygiene is reason enough to convert from another type of hearth. she further characterizes electricity as practical and easy to adopt. morelli suggests that form indicates function in the context of stoves, that solid materials and construction assure regular function < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 and steady flame. discussion of old-fashioned wood-burning stoves evokes the context of war due to the rarity and price of newer models. political events once again enter the kitchen through economics, and morelli offers modernity in the form of electricity as the ideal solution, and antiquity in the form of wood as a suitable back-up. both photographs (figures 2 and 3) also evoke how raw materials play a role in linking autarchy with hygiene in the kitchen. morelli, like the writers of domus, depicts material type as the most important consideration in selecting kitchen dishes and utensils, as shown by her kitchen necessities list, and demonstrates similarly intense interest in the use of autarchic materials for flooring, walls, and plumbing. linoleum reigns chief among these, due to its ease of cleaning when contrasted with old-fashioned stone floors. morelli similarly decries the use of copper as unnecessary and outdated, especially when iron can be cheaply had and steel does not oxidize. aluminum receives special attention, “più conveniente … privo d’ogni pericolo, di cui si spiega il grandissimo attuale favore … e si pulisce con la massima facilità,” “more convenient … and without any danger, which explains its current great favor … and one can clean it with the greatest of ease” (1935:47). in “the romance of caffeine and aluminum,” jeffrey schnapp points to the 1930s as the “golden era of aluminum designs for the kitchen and the beginning of fascist italy’s pursuit of domestic autarchy” (2001:245). he further notes how aluminum kitchen products evoked abstract concepts of “lightness, speed, mobility, strength, energy, and electricity” (schnapp 2001: 245). morelli’s description suggests that these characteristics bespeak scientific modernity in the kitchen. she goes on to say that laboratory tests conducted in glasgow demonstrated that no food can alter aluminum utensils. although morelli painstakingly highlights the virtues of linoleum and aluminum, two autarchic materials par excellence for their utility in the kitchen, she makes her argument based on their ease of cleaning rather than their domestic production. indeed, she invokes foreign scientific proof to promote italian materials. given that she speaks of autarchy explicitly in the introductory letter and in photo captions, the omission here seems to speak to the primary importance of what utility these materials offer in the private sphere rather than their economic benefits to the italian nation. for example, a photo of a chrome-nickel blend used in a sink receives the compliment, “e’ orgoglio nostro che li construisca una veneta italianissima acciaieria,” “it is out pride that a very italian, venetian steelworks constructs it” (morelli 1935:48). this exclusion does not, however, undermine the link between the kitchen and the national larder. as noted previously, her introductory letter proves her awareness of and concern for the kitchen in terms of national concerns. rather, morelli’s focus on < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 autarchic materials in the kitchen demonstrates focus on the element of the equation of greatest interest to her audience. what she offers in these recommendations are sensible tips that also serve a national end. purchasing aluminum and linoleum could be seen as patriotic if the reader chose to identify her actions in this way, but morelli does not force the point by drawing this connection in her discussion. in pointing to practicality rather than politics, morelli allowed her readers maximum flexibility to define the extent of their political involvement for themselves. choosing aluminum could be practical and/or political, and morilli left it up to the reader to select her preferred justification. but while dual narratives provide a strategy for negotiating the extent to which the kitchen equals the national larder, morelli does not question the connection itself. regardless of the justification for selecting autarchic materials, this recommendation supports national goals of economic self-sufficiency. this focus on autarchic materials emerges in more strident terms in morelli’s third image of an ideal, upper-class kitchen. morelli says of the photo, “kitchen, this one large and complete, where from the walls in washable rubber material to the glass and metal furniture to the floors in linoleum, everything is a perfect expression of hygiene.” domus frequently featured kitchens, including this one, designed by leading rationalist architect piero bottoni, considered to be an authority on kitchen design. piero bottoni was one of the leading practitioners of rationalism, serving from 1929 to 1949 as the italian delegate to the international congresses of modern architecture, and domus featured many of his kitchen designs in the mid-1930s. these articles, like morelli’s book, generally assume that a cook works in the kitchen rather than the lady of the house. rarely do articles describe this figure in the third person as the cuciniera (cook). domus articles directed to the lady of the house tended to address her in the second person, as we see in the monthly invitations to participate in the concorso cirio of 1935, one of italy’s first national cooking competitions for homemakers. this shift suggests that most domus articles on kitchens, which use the third person to describe the cook, refer to a servant rather than the lady of the house. to an even greater extent than morelli, domus writers tended to focus on how design ameliorates cooking, while obscuring the figure of the cook. while figure 2 also appeared in domus, the caption does not. not only are the materials hygienic, but their dimensions promote health as well. morelli applies findings from the scientific and medical world to kitchen work, noting that one must consider the relationship between the cook’s stature, height, and the work to be done, as well as the need to conduct work while sitting straight rather than standing or bent over. the kitchen above not only provides a stool for work at the kitchen table, but it also places < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 the workspaces in a logical order from preparation at the work table, to cooking at the stove, to cleaning at the sink, to waiting to be served at the final counter under the cupboards. connecting “minore spreco di fatica e di salute,” “less waste of effort and health” (morelli 1935:60), morelli suggests that the taylorist approach to kitchen work evoked by this photograph leads to improved hygiene. the kitchen also moves from an irrational to a rational space through realization of the manual’s directives. conclusion in fascist italy modernity and tradition came together under the aegis of autarchy to highlight what is at stake in the aesthetics of kitchen objects. with the onset of the league of nations’ economic sanctions against italy and the regime’s responding call for autarchy to neutralize this threat, questions of domestic production and consumption assumed a heightened importance. therefore, the promotion of autarchy crossed spheres, encompassing the public via linguistic translations and pushes for increased productivity in factories, farms, and mines, and the private via calls to the home cook to get more out of less. she was to taylorize her movements as if in a factory to get more work out of less physical energy and to make judicious decisions with food products, providing the family with more nutritional energy out of less food. the regime generally did not concern itself with making these dictates explicit. rather, authors and designers translated the regime’s broad calls for autarchy into specific practices for their readership. economic prudence and trendiness also played significant roles in shaping popular aesthetics. within the general frame of obeisance to the regime via promotion of autarchy, designers took variant approaches with regards to how such consent manifests in prescribed actions. while the intensity of terms such as “modernity,” “rationalism,” “autarchy,” and “consent” may initially seem incongruous when applied to the banality of the kitchen, we must remember that this is the level at which life, and thus power, is situated and exercised. by attempting to influence the design and use of the kitchen, multiple demographic groups, including both individual citizens and representatives of the state, endeavored to seize time and to control how bodies moved. < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 magazine cover, photograph of benito mussolini threshing wheat in the fascist new town of sabaudia (la cucina italiana [july 1935]). < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 kitchen photograph (dalla cucina al salotto; enciclopedia della vita domestica [1935, p.13]). < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 piero bottoni, kitchen photograph (dalla cucina al salotto; enciclopedia della vitadomestica [1935, p. 14]) < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 references cited anonymous. 1933. parliamo un po’ della cucina razionalmente. domus. de certeau, michel. 1984. the practice of everyday life. berkeley: university of california press. dickie, john. 2010. delizia!: the epic history of the italians and their food. new york: free press. domus, ed. 1937. il libro di casa 1938. rome: cirio. _____ , ed. “servizio razionale.” domus. oct. 1935, 24-25. foucault, michel. 1977. discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. new york: pantheon books. gardella, ignazio.1939a. i servizi della casa: la cucina. domus january. ---. 1939b. consigli tecnici per la casa. domus may. helstosky, carol. 2004. garlic and oil: politics and food in italy. oxford: berg. morelli, lidia. 1935. dalla cucina al salotto; enciclopedia della vita domestica. turin: s. lattes. newlyn, andrea k. 1999. challenging contemporary narrative theory: the alternative textual strategies of nineteenth-century manuscript cookbooks. the journal of american culture 22 (3): 35-47. pinkus, karen. 1995. bodily regimes: italian advertising under fascism. minneapolis: university of minnesota press. ponti, gio. attrezzature del lavoro. domus february 1939. _____ . avvenire. domus, july 1940. _____ . casa m. a milano. domus, october 1935. _____ . un appartamento risistemato a milano. domus, november 1938. < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 price, janet, and margrit shildrick. 1999. feminist theory and the body: a reader. new york: routledge. schnapp, jeffrey t. 2001. the romance of caffeine and aluminum. critical inquiry 28 (1): 244-269. < garvin, diana. “the italian kitchen as a site for the practice of autarchy and fascist intervention.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3:1 (2014): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2014 notes 1 in dalla cucina al salotto, lidia morelli provides an intriguing illustration that divides middle-class household costs by months of work required for their payment. food requires four and a half months of the yearly salary, whereas the second most expensive bill, rent, requires only two (morelli 1935:figure 71). 2 this poem was widely reproduced across different forms of italian print media in the late 1930s and early 1940s. many household manuals, including almanacco della donna italiana 1941, included a decorative plate of this poem. 3 in contrast to domus’ standard article formats, this text appears as an untrimmed newspaper clipping, “l’elogio del duce al dott. gianni mazzocchi editore della nostra rivista,” domus (jan. 1940):21. 4 this socially conservative notion of work space typified such publications during the 1930s. further, the italian approach largely parallels conceptions of the office in other countries, such as the united states. 5 “questo tempo di ‘sanzioni’ ha veramente un alto valore morale, del quale dobbiamo compiacerci,” “this time of ‘sanctions’ has a high moral value, of which we must satisfy.” 6 she claims, “sono io sono la prima a rallegrarmi che questo abbia fine,” “i am the first to delight in the fact that this has happened.” 7 by 1935, the cover already heralded its distinction of “50 migliaio,” fifty thousand sold. 8 karen pinkus plays upon this haziness in titling her work on fascist period advertising bodily regimes. 9 tending towards hyperbolic terms and phrasing on this topic, morelli weaves the following vignette, “la minuta dei pasti s’indovina al primo entrare. ahimè … l’odore … vi dànno un senso di nausea, di sazietà, di … miseria!” “one guesses the dinner hour upon entering the door. alas … the smell gives them a sense of nausea, of satiety, of … misery! (1935:25). 10 for an example, see anonymous, parliamo un po’ della cucina, razionalmente, domus (aug. 1933):30. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 99-112 © american folklore society 2021 99 research note exploring the many meanings of bangladeshi rice culture by: israt jahan lipa abstract in bangladeshi food culture, rice is the leading staple. it is home food, festive food, or, in hard times, a food of survival. it is not merely that bangladeshi people cultivate rice; their customs, rituals, and daily activities concerning rice serve as a thread that binds them together. rice culture is a common inheritance. in this research note i explore bangladeshis’ long history of not only relying on rice to combat hunger but to celebrate, and to create home and community. drawing on oral interviews as well as published materials, i consider how the conceptualization of rice as a “main staple” or the “only” food during hard times in bangladeshi cuisine underlines changing classed notions of rice’s place in contemporary foodways. keywords: bangladeshi cuisine, rice culture, home food, rice and rituals as the world’s fourth leading producers of rice (chi 2014: 51), bangladeshi people not only cultivate rice, they share customs, rituals, and daily activities surrounding rice that bind them together. this rice culture is not monolithic, however, because while rice is the main ingredient of daily meals, particular varieties, tastes and textures are linked with different income levels and cultural groups. in this research note, i explore the central, but changing, place of rice in bangladeshi culture. i consider its many meanings over time and space as a home food and a festive food and i reflect on the conceptualization of rice as bangladesh’s “main food,” and primary staple during hard times. here i draw on oral interviews that i conducted with ten members of my social bubble during the pandemic (my mother, mother-in-law, sisters, friends, neighbors, and three women who work as housekeepers for family and neighbors), as well as on published sources. the six women and four men i interviewed all live in urban settings; their ages range from twenty-eight to eighty-six years of age. rice production in bangladesh rice production and consumption is intricately connected to bangladeshi history and culture. because rice is cultivated in almost every region of the country, and people consider it their main staple, it has become the most iconic food of bangladesh. the country’s climate and landscape are so favorable to the cultivation of rice, it is hard to find any home where rice is not cooked and eaten. when i interviewed abdullah, a forty-sevenyear-old professional involved in rice production, on february 12, 2021 he underscored how this longstanding dietary dependence on rice has shaped the foodways of bangladeshi people. located on the bay of bengal, bangladesh consists of predominantly rich fertile flat land. agriculture has always been important to the economy and it remains the largest employment sector, comprising about 42.7 percent of the workforce (ray 2012: 711). almost 40 percent of people living in rural areas of bangladesh are directly engaged with growing rice and other agricultural production (sengupta 2010: 83). as a result, rice is key to the national economy and its cultivation is responsible for nearly half (close to 48 jahan lipa, bangladeshi rice culture, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 100 percent) of rural employment which is also a major source of rice cultivation as well as the prime earning source for rural people. the rice sector contributes one-half of the agricultural gdp and one-sixth of the national income in bangladesh (sengupta 2010: 82). as the country’s main crop, rice has a huge impact on employment, food security, and other economic and social forces. each of the twenty-nine ethnic groups in the country has its own distinct ancestral history and cultural traditions but, significantly, rice is the main food across all groups, even if its preparation varies. likewise, rice is central across all religious faiths; it is relied on by muslims who make up the vast majority of the population (97 percent), just as it is by minority hindus, christians and buddhists. rice is the staple food of about 135 million people in bangladesh; it accounts for about two-thirds of the total calorie supply, and about one-half of the total protein intake, of the average bangladeshi (ray et. al. 2016: 8). the cultivation of rice in bangladesh varies according to seasonal changes in the water supply. the largest harvest, aman, occurs in november and december and accounts for more than half of annual production. some rice for the aman harvest is sown in the spring through the broadcast method. it matures during the summer rains and is harvested in the fall. a higher yielding method involves starting the seeds in special beds and transplanting during the summer monsoon. the second harvest, known as aus, is comprised of traditional strains but more often includes high-yielding, dwarf varieties. rice for the aus harvest is sown in march or april, benefits from april and may rains, matures during the summer rain, and is harvested during the summer. finally, with the increased use of irrigation, there has been a growing focus on another rice-growing season extending during the dry season from october to march. where irrigation is feasible, it is normal for fields throughout bangladesh to produce rice for two harvests annually. between rice-growing seasons, farmers will do everything possible to prevent the land from lying fallow and will grow vegetables, peanuts, pulses, or oilseeds if water and fertilizer are available. because rice is cultivated in every region of bangladesh, most people who are engaged with farming produce it as a crop. this widespread cultivation is the foundation of bangladeshi food culture. picture 1: rice cultivation areas in bangladesh (photo from www.ricepedia.org) sharing a bangladeshi rice culture digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 101 for many bangladeshi people, especially in rural areas, a meal is not a meal without rice. amounts vary, and preparation ranges from plain boiled to the festive dish of biriyani, but rice should be on the table. this is true not only at lunch or dinner but at breakfast as well. as the main home food of bangladesh, rice is at the center of the country’s food culture. i interviewed amena on february 15, 2021, a fifty-three year-old full-time homemaker living in cumilla, a city of approximately 300,000 situated in the chittagong division of bangladesh. she explained: in many countries rice may be eaten as a food but the long tradition of eating rice as the main food really denotes the specialty of rice culture in bangladesh. we have learnt it as home food since our childhood and we perceived this dietary tradition from our elders. i think, when the matter comes up on food, bangladeshi people holds a special feeling and emotion towards rice. this emotion actually transmits from our ancestors and today we are practicing this and we will also be responsible to pass this tradition of rice culture to our next generation. thus it becomes our home food and will remain so. amena highlights the transmission of rice culture across generations and how its long tradition in the foodways of bangladesh extends from ordinary meals to holiday feasts. its preparation and shared consumption reinforce reciprocal ties between networks of preparers, as well as relationships between those preparing and those being served. here, many people, especially the economically disadvantaged, eat a platter made up of rice, curry or pulse for breakfast. while the better off have different food items like bread, milk, oats, cakes, and fruits on their breakfast table, the economically disadvantaged often rely on rice for their morning meal. it is the best alternative given limited resources. in the hardest of times, people resort to eating plain rice with only a green chili if they can’t afford the ingredients for curry or any other food items. if there’s nothing else, a small amount of rice will satisfy hunger. sharior, a twenty-six year old who works for an international organization and lives in the capital city of bangladesh stressed to me that as bangladeshis, rice is our staple in good times and in bad times. everyone i interviewed echoed these many associations. they also highlighted rice’s long and deep associations with bangladeshi culture as they described rice as the national dish and talked about rice as “the” staple. they pointed out that when rice is spoken of in bangladesh, most often people are referring to short white rice that is usually boiled and served on its own or topped with small pieces of fried shallots. rice can be prepared in many distinctive ways, however, and regional dishes often contain a particular “exotic” ingredient that is produced locally. it is also served as part of festive culinary traditions— for example wedding parties—or as part of religious practices, such as at eid festival or iftar (food taken after fasting) celebrations during ramadan. on february 27, 2021, i interviewed my grandmother, nahar, who is eighty-five years old and has lived all her life in cumilla. she reflected: i think because of the suitable environment and agricultural land our ancestors were much engaged with the cultivation of rice. when i was very young, we had lots of agricultural lands and my grandfather and father used jahan lipa, bangladeshi rice culture, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 102 to go to the land early in the morning and worked there till the evening. and in most of the lands rice was cultivated because people of bangladesh can’t think of a single meal without rice. even those who were unable to arrange other foodstuffs because of their limited income, they tried utmost to arrange only rice to meet up their hunger. in our food culture, where the richest people would also feel incomplete if they don’t find rice in their dining table there the poorest ones also struggle to arrange rice for their meal… now-adays rich people try to avoid rice [due to] concern[s about] their health, but they also consume a little amount of rice because people think that they can’t survive without rice. whatever food we take, our hunger doesn’t meet up without rice. my grandmother highlights the presence of rice in the everyday meals of a wide crosssection of bangladeshi people and, as her comments suggest, it has a traditional place in national, regional, and local cuisines. in terms of ethnicity, rice carries the meaning of being bangalee, for as masumoto notes in gochisoo and brown rice sushi, “like an additional flavor, meanings are carried with food” (1987: 117). cultural elements, manifest not only physically but also passed on through knowledge, skill or ritual, are equally important to shaping living culture and people express a wide variety of identities through rice culture in different settings. these include gastronomic traditions along with other aspects of material culture like artistic performances, festivals, social practices, oral heritage, and craftsmanship. rice is connected to many aspects of life for as goodman writes, "food is never just something to eat" (2002: 274). the processes involved in preparing, serving, and sharing rice in the context of bangladeshi cuisine might appear simple, but they often carry important social and cultural significance (muthayya et. al. 2014: 12). recipes and dietary practices of rice consumption transmit foodways from one generation to the next. for example, making and eating dishes made from rice as part of a celebration can solidify social bonds, and have helped to establish rice as part of the nation's identity and self-image (paddock 2016: 1041). my own emotional connections to rice run deep. growing up, it was a central part of my family’s food culture; it nourished not only my body but my soul as well. it is a part of how i connected with my grandparents and it is the lens through which i learned about the environment and about the culture around me. i bonded with my mom and grandmothers as i learned how to make rice dishes. just as rice is an integral part of me, i am a part of my food culture. as a folklorist, i now appreciate the ways in which food, local ingredients, and traditions can bring people together—even when nothing else seems possible. as michael owen jones (2007) points out in his analysis of food as symbolic of identity, not only particular foodstuffs, but also the procuring, preparing, and consuming of provisions can figure prominently in symbolic discourses that shape identity, values, and attitudes. countrywide rice production and consumption has contributed to a bengali cuisine that is decidedly south asian, and the creation of rice as a symbol of bangladeshi national identity and shared cultural values. as jones also notes, people have multiple identities: ethnic, regional, gendered, or classed, and these identities are dynamic, subject to challenge and change throughout the life cycle. therefore, eating practices reproduce as well as construct digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 103 identity; in addition, both identity and alimentary symbolism, not just taste or availability or cost, significantly affect food choice (jones 2007: 137). in the socio-cultural setting of bangladesh, rice is a great unifier that connects us across regional and ethnic cultures and generations. no matter the differences that separate them, most bangladeshis have experienced the smell of rice cooking. it is a reminder of a shared food culture and the country’s long tradition of eating rice as the main food that extends across class and caste boundaries. bangladeshis share practices, attitudes, and beliefs, as well as the networks and institutions surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of rice. from hard times to good times: rice as home and festive food as the backbone of daily meals, rice is usually boiled and served with curry, vegetables, pulses and other foods, while when entertaining guests, more elaborate dishes like rice cake, rice pudding, biriyani, and khichuri are eaten. in bangladesh it is usually still the women of the household who prepare food for their families, but across gender and caste almost every person knows how to cook rice. its preparation is quite simple; boil the required amount of water, pour rice into the pot, and cook 25-30 minutes. after the extra water is drained off, the rice is ready to be served. in many homes, it is still considered part of a bengali girl’s education to learn how to cook rice properly, and those who can cook it to a perfect texture are highly appreciated. my aunt nasima, a forty-year-old homemaker who lives in cumilla, stated on 15th february, 2021: mostly women are responsible for handling the kitchen in bangladeshi culture and that’s why rice cooking is the first requirement for any girl which indicates that she is quite efficient in handling the kitchen. this kind of attitude is mostly practiced here just after the marriage of a girl when she first enters into her in-laws’ house. even on the second day after marriage, newlywed girls are asked to prepare anything with rice for her in-laws’ family. she needs to prepare rice pudding or rice cake for her in-laws’ family and serves it in their meal. it is believed here as a custom which signifies that the newly wed daughter-in-law of the house has started her kitchen work with rice made food because it’s our home food, the integral part of our regular food culture. it’s the symbolic food of our bangladeshi cuisine. in times of hardship, rice is not only part of the meal, it can be a meal in itself. rice is considered the main means of combatting hunger among the most disadvantaged. during the hardest times, the only demand of bangladeshi people is to have some rice to mitigate their suffering. rahim, a forty-five-year-old rickshaw puller who moved to cumilla from his village five years ago, commented on march 5, 2021: we all work to afford two handfuls of rice to satisfy our hunger. other foods are supplementary dishes in our regular meals. in fact, in our daily meals we just want to consume rice as it’s our main dish on our table. it’s our struggle to consume rice in our everyday living. jahan lipa, bangladeshi rice culture, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 104 rice’s links to food security surfaced during the covid-19 pandemic. when the whole country was locked down, poverty stricken individuals and families faced the desperate situation of trying to survive. without employment income, many were living in miserable conditions. in response, the government of bangladesh, national and regional nongovernment organizations (ngos), and social welfare institutions worked together to distribute packets of rice to those in need. this was an extension of earlier aid efforts to combat natural disasters when cooked, and sometimes raw, rice was supplied to the people in need of food (zabir et al. 2021: 17,19). the action reflected the belief that rice is the only means necessary to mitigate hunger in hard times. the distribution of rice calmed people’s fears. as long as they could count on a minimum amount of rice, they knew that they would not go hungry. shirin, a thirty-five-year-old woman who works as a housekeeper and lives in a low-income area of cumilla, shared her experience of receiving rice during this covid19 pandemic on march 5, 2021: when the lockdown started, i was very worried about my family because i’m the only earning member of my family. my husband abandoned me two years ago and left me alone with my three kids. since then, whatever i earn by working as a housekeeper is the only means for our survival. i work in five houses and with that money i support my family and bear the educational costs of my kids. but during lockdown i was forbidden to visit any houses and i lost my work. i recall i cried whole day thinking, “how will i feed my kids and what to do?” the whole month passed with the little amount of rice i had in my house and i also borrowed some from one of my sisters. i could give one meal to my kids and starved otherwise. it was a tough time indeed. after almost one and half months, a social welfare organization came to our slum and distributed packets containing ten kilograms of rice and three kilograms of potatoes. they distributed the rice packets and potatoes to every house in our neighborhood. it was really a good day for all of us. we are poor people and no one cares about us so this help was like a blessing for us. and during this pandemic, many poor people like us were helped by government, ngos and different social welfare organizations. we passed our days like this for almost six months and then after the situation became a little more normal, i continued my work as a housekeeper. now i can support my family with the money i get. shirin’s experience is far from singular. in bangladesh, many people live below the poverty line and some rely on begging as their only source of income. it is common for those better off to respond to the poorest by offering them rice, rather than money; the destitute may beg door to door to receive a small amount of rice from each house. handing out money is rare; most often people in need beg for rice, and most often people with the means to help offer rice to them. everyone i interviewed highlighted the importance of rice as the major food source for mitigating hunger, and even preventing starvation, during periods of personal and collective hardship. to have rice in the cupboard, is to have food and to be able to feed yourself and your family. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 105 rice has deep associations with hospitality. there are few, if any, festive occasions or celebrations in bangladesh where rice is not served to guests. rice is prepared in different ways to celebrate various rites of passage and festivals, but it is hard to imagine planning for a festive meal without including rice in some form. from a small, homely gathering to the largest feast, rice is the main ingredient for welcoming guests and is on the menu for occasions, such as wedding receptions, post-funeral rites, circumcision ceremonies, and other social events. sometimes, depending on the host’s financial circumstances, two or three forms of rice are served. in these cases, plain boiled rice might be accompanied by polau, a dish made from scented, thin, short grain rice, and biriyani, a dish of cooked rice mixed with beef or mutton. biriyani is made from a high quality, long grain, scented rice, such as basmati, which is either cultivated in bangladesh or imported from a neighboring country, like india or pakistan. along with basmati rice, there are some other types of rice which are eaten and produced in bangladesh like mini-cut, chinigura, katarivog, nazir-shail, atop, birri-atyash. these are found in local markets varying in price and flavor, which can also be related to social status quo based on the price of the rice. sharior is a twenty-six year-old who works for an international organization and lives in the capital city of bangladesh. during an interview on february 19, 2021, he commented: basmati rice is more costly than other types of rice in our market. so, occasionally, like while preparing biriyani or to serve special guests in our houses, we cook this rice. it cannot be afforded regularly by the middle class, lower middle class and poor people of our country. that’s why generally during everyday meals plain rice is cooked in most of our houses and this special rice is kept for serving guests if possible. but for weddings and different social gatherings biriyani is the most popular form of rice as it is prepared with high quality rice and mutton or beef. in our bangladeshi rice culture, polau and biriyani are festive foods. people love to occasionally enjoy these special forms of rice apart from their regular intake of rice. it actually adds an additional flavor to our rice culture which gives us happy feelings as food of celebration. so, in a word while rice is our home food… it is also our main menu during any festivals and celebrations. along with biriyani and polau, people in bangladesh also enjoy khichuri at family gatherings and on weekends. khichuri is a main dish prepared with boiled rice and pulse. especially, during the rainy season khichuri is cooked with fried fish, especially fried hilsha and beef curry. it is also served with different fried vegetables, mashed dried fish, and fried egg. on february 15, 2021, nasima, a forty-year-old homemaker living in cumilla, remarked: it is a particular pleasure to eat khichuri with fried fish when it is raining outside. this warm food is one way of enjoying the cool weather. this is commonly practiced in the houses of bangladesh. we love to celebrate the rainy season, not daily, but occasionally by cooking khichuri and fried fish fry, fried brinjal and chutney. this food gives us a homely feeling…. sometimes i also invite some of my cousins and relatives to enjoy this food together on a jahan lipa, bangladeshi rice culture, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 106 rainy day. it’s a kind of family get together to celebrate the rainy season and this is commonly practiced especially in urban areas of bangladesh. like nasima, the people i interviewed described rice as the basis of home food in bangladeshi cuisine as well as the key ingredient in dishes that mark celebration. picture 2: biriyani: one of the most popular foods during festivals (photo courtesy sharior, 2021) rice is central to some celebrations that are intertwined with bengali nationalism. for example, ‘pohela boishakh,’ the first day of bengali new year, celebrates the national identity of the bangladeshi people and people all over the country mark the day with great festive spirit. in both urban and rural settings, people prepare rice and fish as a celebratory feast to welcome guests on this day. during the national festival, pani vat (watered rice) is eaten. boiled rice is soaked in cold water and served with fried hilsha, the national fish of bangladesh. this special meal is eaten in homes, and, in the urban areas of bangladesh, is served at hotels and restaurants or prepared by different cultural organizations as a fundraiser. it is common for people to gather outside to celebrate bengali new year and to enjoy this meal with members of their social group as part of the festivities. different types of fried vegetables, pulse, and mashed potatoes, as well as dried fish, are eaten with the watered rice all over the country across religions and castes. sheuly, a forty-four-year-old school teacher living in the capital city of bangladesh, told me on february 19, 2021: without pani vat (boiled rice soaked in cold water) and fried hilsha, we can’t think of celebrating pohela boishakh (bengali new year). this meal is prepared in most of the houses of our country depending on the affluence of the people. we love to start this day by eating this meal as their breakfast and they also eat this meal when they visit others’ houses, meet their cohorts and attend different cultural programs. rice and fried fish fry [are]considered the main meal of this day and here people think that it represents their national identity. historically, in the rural areas of bangladesh…people signified this day as the beginning of the new harvest calendar. but nowadays this day is digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 107 celebrated in a great festive mood in the urban areas of bangladesh. government offices, different cultural organizations, universities and other social organizations arrange diverse cultural programs, food fests and traditional games to help people enjoy the day. overall, it’s a day for all bangladeshi people across the world because those living in abroad also celebrate this day within their houses. it’s a… day for bangladeshis and rice and fried hilsha fish add another ethnic shared notion of bengali cuisine to celebrate bengali nationalism. rice and the passage of time rites of passage, signaling a person’s move from one life stage to another, are associated with rice; rice is a constant companion for bangladeshis on their life journey. for example, when parents first introduce their baby to solid foods, at around the age of six months, it is rice they turn to. in bangladesh it is common for parents to mark this occasion by preparing rice pudding for the baby. they invite relatives to help feed the baby and to share their blessings. picture 3: onno prashon (rice ceremony)(photo courtesy urmila das, 2020) known as ‘onno prashon,’ or rice ceremony, this day is celebrated with a festive mood and lots of guests who visit the house and bring gifts for the baby and the mother. on this significant day for both the baby and the parents, rice is given to the child. in muslim households, the observance is simple; the parents invite close relatives, serve a special meal, and enjoy the day with family members. the ritual is both more elaborate and more popular among hindu believers of bangladesh, however. they perform a special veneration and engage in other ritual activities. in fact, as i learned from hindu neighbors and friends during my childhood, in the hindu religion rice is an integral part of veneration more generally. especially when offering a meal to the gods, it is believed that rice should be present on the veneration platter along with vermillion, fruits, nuts, betel leaves and candles. without rice, the veneration platter is incomplete. i’ve also seen many times that both muslim and hindu believers in bangladesh welcome a newlywed couple with a platter on which rice is the main ingredient. it is customary for jahan lipa, bangladeshi rice culture, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 108 senior women in the family to prepare this platter with a small amount of rice, along with other ingredients like fruits and candles. one of them holds the dish in her hand, touches it to the heads of the newlywed couple, and welcomes them into the house. this custom marks the couple’s first entry into the house after being married. just as rice helps mark stages in an individual’s life, it is also important to calendar customs and festivals that help mark the passing of the year. in fact, there is a festival solely devoted to its harvest. during the late autumn period, newly harvested rice is cut down and in the rural areas of bangladesh a festival is held to welcome the new rice into the home. this festival is called as ‘nobanno’ (the festival of welcoming newly harvested rice in the rural areas in the late autumn period). during that time, rural people of bangladesh make different types of cakes, dried foods and puddings with rice and distribute these dishes within their family and social group. often people living in urban areas return to visit their home villages to participate in this festival and nowadays in urban areas activities are organized by different cultural groups and organizations to celebrate the day. thus, the whole country celebrates this festival centered on rice production and consumption. in bangladesh, rice culture permutates all aspects of life; rice is used to celebrate religious holidays, community events, and family gatherings. in other words, rice is celebrated and respected as an essential part of what makes people bangladeshi, and especially part of the bangalee in ethnic group. class distinctions sharing a rice culture brings people together but it can separate them, and rice can also be explored in terms of class distinctions within the socio-economic context of bangladesh. as mentioned earlier, different categories of rice vary in terms of their economic value and social value. the highest price of rice per kilogram is 150 bdt (1.78 usd) while the lowest range is 30 bdt (0.36 usd). on march 7, 2021, salam, a forty-five-year-old who works in a rice business, stated: the price of rice varies depending on their quality. like the highest quality of rice is fragrant and good to eat as well as looks thin and white. on the contrary, the lower category rice is brown in color and thick in nature. the finest quality of rice demands the highest price range as it is polished very nicely during processing. it costs a lot to polish it in the rice mill to give it the best look and that’s why its price is higher than others. even the seed of this rice is higher in price than the other categories of rice seeds which are not as costly. wealthy people generally buy the finest quality of rice whilst less well-off people struggle to manage the little amount of money they have to buy the lowest quality of rice. because for them, rice is the only means of food to survive and it’s their basic need to satisfy their hunger. although the nutritional content of rice varieties doesn’t range widely, there are many different types of rice with many different qualities to suit different consumer preferences. as salam suggested, quality factors relate to grain length, stickiness, aroma, texture, and flavor. all varieties of rice are processed post-harvest as either white or brown rice, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 109 affecting flavor, texture and nutritive value. milling of rice post-harvest leads to some grains being broken; a higher proportion of broken grains decreases the price since the quality is generally acknowledged to be lower. as explained in a review by champagne: “flavor is the impression perceived through the chemical senses from a product in the mouth” (2008: 448). according to meilgaard et al. (2007), when defined in this manner, flavor includes aromatics and tastes. in line with the varying price range, the social value of rice consumption also varies. just as on 5th march 2021 rahim mentioned, those who eat rice ranging from 70-150 bdt are considered to be higher class than those who eat rice costing 30 bdt. it is common for bangladeshi people to offer the best rice they can afford to guests. my interviews also revealed that in many middleand lower-income houses, two categories of rice are kept: one for the family’s regular consumption and the other for guests. thus, the quality of one’s rice reflects one’s socioeconomic position. more recently, rice consumption has been linked to class consciousness in new ways. in urban contexts, consuming large amounts of rice can sometimes be considered a lower economic practice. this is based on the popular assumption that lower-income people’s diets contain higher amounts of rice than that of more affluent people because rice is the only food they can afford. conversely, the thought is that those who are economically secure will consume less rice because they can buy other foods. people may limit their rice consumption because they worry about the health concerns of eating too much rice, or, alternatively, they may prefer to eat western fast food rather than rice on a daily basis. shairin, a twenty-four-year-old university student reflected on february 23, 2021: now-a-days because of health consciousness and obesity, mostly urban people try to intake a limited amount of rice in their regular life. maybe once in a day, especially during lunch. along with this, the young girls also try to maintain their body figure by consuming less carbohydrates in their daily meals and that’s why to maintain their diet chart. they don’t allow higher amounts of rice on their daily platter. the younger generations love to eat rich fast food rather than plain rice but interestingly they love to eat biriyani and in urban areas there are many restaurants that serve readymade biriyani. because biriyani is considered a food meant for rich people and to celebrate any occasions. this results in some middleand upper-income people restricting their rice consumption; they try to avoid consuming large amounts of rice. as shairin notes, tied to this notion of rice consumption as an indicator of socioeconomic position is a growing concern among some segments of the population with maintaining a slender body. thus, among the young and middle-aged, there are those who restrict their rice consumption because they believe that the consumption of a high amount of carbohydrates will lead to undesirable weight gain. interestingly, this practice of restricting one’s rice consumption is gendered and is more popular among females than males (morgan 2013: 2). because bangladesh is a patriarchal country, the most highly valued female body shape is a slim one; to be female and beautiful is to be thin. thus, along with other meanings of rice, the socio-cultural jahan lipa, bangladeshi rice culture, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 110 implications of consumption and restriction need to be understood within larger national and international trends concerning class and gender. conclusions rice in bangladesh is a symbol of humble beginnings and shared cultural experience; it conjures up images of locality, specialty, and distinction. across bangladesh, rice is transformed from a mundane everyday staple to a food that conveys national distinction. in the socio-cultural context of bangladesh rice is tied to locality, place, and community, and has become a marker of nationhood. an integral part of bangladeshi cuisine and a marker of national identity, rice holds a place of great significance in the regular meals of bangladeshi families. it continues to uphold its historical importance both as regular home food and also as a food of celebrations. in a word, the meanings contained in the procurement, preparation, and serving of rice make it the primary foodways of bangladeshi people across caste groups. it upholds the national identity of bangladeshis both in hard times as the only means of mitigating hunger, and also as festive food during celebrations. representing the local while embracing the national, rice is a quintessential element in its diverse functional and cultural aspects. ____________________________ notes: the names used in this research note are pseudonyms in order to protect the identity of the respondents. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 111 references cited ashley, bob, ben taylor, joanne hollows, and steve jones. 2004. food and cultural studies. london; new york: routledge. carolan, michael. 2020. ethical eating as experienced by consumers and producers: when good food meets good farmers. journal of consumer culture, 1–21. champagne, elaine t. 2008. rice aroma and flavor: a literature review. cereal chemistry, 85 (4): 445-454. chi, janine. 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from discomfort to discourse: comfort food in pandemic australia by: robert james smith abstract: australian examples of the consumption of and attitudes to comfort food are given as useful comparisons in highlighting what is essential to the concept. through print media and informal interviews the article traces the later adoption of the phrase in australia, showing the local reluctance to embrace the concept. a change is then noted, brought on generally by the enforced isolation of the covid-19 pandemic and specifically through the acknowledgement by prominent food writers during one week. subsequently comfort food became largely devoid of its previous moral judgement, replaced by a sense of shared experience which seemed to endorse one’s belonging to the broader community. keywords: foodways, language, food preferences, food consumption, human dynamics, australia comparative studies or examples can assist in demonstrating commonality of features and so can suggest the breadth of a concept. yet no two contexts are fully identical, and attention to those differences may help to identify core features of a concept in a more nuanced way. the question of whether comfort food is a universal concept or whether it is limited to modern western societies (jones & long 2017) elides the many differences which may be between those western countries. australia has been very late in adopting the u.s.a. term comfort food, but seems to have undergone a rapid adoption of it during the pandemic years. the phrase comfort food is now traced in print back to 1962 (oed, online), and clearly the expression was long in use in north america before coming to the notice of the oed scribes. this same oed source cites a 1990 example in print in australia but one which is strongly marked as not australian: “even at fairly formal dinner parties, ‘comfort foods’ have starred—corn soup, meat loaf, cold black bean soup.”. these examples would not be recognized in australia as comfort foods and the overall usage here would seem to be an over-zealous import from american speech. indeed, in australia there was very little adoption of the phrase comfort food, either at that time or for several decades thereafter. for example, also in the 1990s, the extensive and locally authoritative macquarie dictionary (1997) cited only two expressions containing the word comfort and both were euphemisms for bodily functions. it would take another 20 years for the phrase comfort food to appear in this leading australian national dictionary. why so slow? the story of its almost-reluctant adoption “downunder” and how the concept and its language were navigated there may reveal some aspects of what is essential in the phrase. in addition to dictionary entries, this text will rely on print media as well as informal interviews. smith, from discomfort to discourse digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2: 2022 58 through those decades of non-use, the expression and concept of comfort food ran counter to strong national health messages which encouraged freshness and a variety of foods endorsed as nutritional. tips on how to select and prepare these foods included minimizing meat and fats, while including regular seafood with seasonal fruit and vegetables. the “mediterranean diet” was repeatedly praised for its benefit of increasing one’s lifespan. underlying this discourse was a sense of moral judgement—that those who did not abide by it thereby showed a lack of self-control, were prone to obesity, even to a lack of respect for their life and thus likely to be a burden on the australian national health scheme. this highly refined moral judgement superseded the long-time criticism of the high-volume consumption of food—judgement of those who possibly were slaves to gluttony. while comfort food was heard on the media from the u.s.a., such is the nature of global media— looking for extremes and excess—that much of the image of americans presented to australians demonstrated and reinforced the pre-existing negative views on food choices and practices of u.s. residents. an australian would be less inclined to want to be associated with a country which seemingly took too much comfort from its food while justifying it as comfort food. however, popular culture is increasingly pervasive and useful concepts will eventually find a place. when the expression comfort food did appear in the australian dictionaries, its meaning there was quite narrow—any food which gives comfort to an individual, typically warming, traditional dishes such as steamed puddings, stews, etc. (macquarie dictionary 1997). devoid of any hint of excess, inappropriateness, or moral judgement, this definition is almost a synonym for convalescent or invalid fare. it is for an individual who through no fault of their own needs and perhaps deserves some comfort. negative judgements were still there for others and oral usage had largely become gendered, as in “weight-shaming”. judgements centered on a shameful self-indulgence frequently expressed as “a guilty secret,” and if acknowledged was with a shy mix of almost-illicit pleasure and embarrassment. however actual usage of the expression comfort food was still rare. if anyone bravely admitted to consuming it, they would likely to be using it as a synonym for the similarly derogatory home-cooked stodge (“food that is heavy, filling, and high in carbohydrates”). in australia, so marked was the expression that a restaurant would advertise hearty rather than comfort food in their menu item descriptions (lest it be described in a review as stodge). as elsewhere, the pandemic’s initial lockdown prompted an increase in home cooking , as well as in the storage and consumption of ready-to-eat non-perishables. carbohydrates dominated here, e.g. supermarkets’ pasta shelves quickly became empty, but stock-piling also included much food that was seen as an indulgence—sweet or fat and processed, such as ice-cream, cookies, or potato crisps (“chips” in the u.s.). the enforced extended period of solitary or home consumption led in australia to what seems a refocus of the value and place of comfort food. carbohydrates were seen locally not for comfort but as simply a necessity as the base for a meal, and well-stocked pantries gave the reassurance of having a long-term supply of “survival food” (while “warming food” played a minor role, perhaps due to australia’s temperate climate). digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 2022 59 the main refocus was where comfort food came to be more often seen as the indulgence, and that the circumstances of the lockdowns permitted it. having to make exceptional arrangements (for work, schooling, socializing, family events), and with fewer judgemental eyes of others, there was individual licence for indulgence—largely in those pre-processed foods high in fats and sugars. still, public discourse would rarely acknowledge this consumption. alcohol played a similar role with a greatly increased daytime consumption but this did become part of public discourse in a joking and derogatory manner. for example, the comedian sammy j, in implementing home schooling, called the regular teacher to ask for advice such as “what time do you normally start drinking on a school day, 10am?” (abc television, may 7, 2020). while individuals were not so confessional, such broader public discussion seems to have been an enabler for the later accepted discussion of comfort food. at a more individual level, enquiring in 2020 about someone’s preferred comfort food, as i did regularly, was mostly seen as intrusive unless amongst family or close friends. the private practice meant that the expression had become near synonymous with guilty secrets, where one’s former food standards—in taste, quality, class, sustainability (or virtue signalling)—were revealed as being only lightly or insincerely held. it is hard to mark the change, but late in the first year of the pandemic one indicator is the newspaper presentation (dubeki 2020: 4-5) where seven leading chefs and food writers were asked to publicly reveal their guilty secrets, “their deepest, darkest (and most comforting) food secrets.” phrased in this way the article embraces the most judgemental aspect of comfort food. yet in this exercise those whose professional commitment to food might suggest they had most to lose in such revelations, here seemed at ease in declaring their comfort in: chocolate brownies, white chocolate (despite acknowledging it having no actual chocolate in it), tomato sauce (despite acknowledging its heavy load of salt and sugar), crisps (the regular kind which sting one’s tongue), chocolate-coated licorice (but a version not based on palm oil), caramello koala bears, and twix bars. their examples suggest physical satisfaction as the main aim, with an occasional place but not as regular foods. smith, from discomfort to discourse digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2: 2022 60 figure 1: guilty secrets (see dubecki 2020) image from the sydney morning herald, november 10, 2020 figure 2: white chocolate, meat pie, and crisps (see dubecki 2020) image from the sydney morning herald, november 10, 2020 despite the article’s title, two of the three questions in the survey were based on “classics” and so were standard topics for such professional chefs. first there was “go-to twist on a classic,” and then a “classic due for revival.” their responses to the last included: crème digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 2022 61 caramel, custard puddings (which his mother made), chocolate-coated ice-cream, chicken and pineapple, after-dinner mints, steak and kidney pie, and pasta carbonara (without the cream). as if revelling in their revelations of guilty secrets, here the nominated “classics” include two pre-processed foods. across both “classics” sections, six cite family links in their choices, making clear the nostalgia aspect. there is no marked difference in gender (four of the seven are women) or background (three have asian heritage). there is some detail linking to their usual specialized writing— eating tomato sauce off one’s hand is compared to a “caviar bump.” in all, the revelation, enthusiasm, and almost careless adoption of the expression “guilty secret,” here by leading food influencers, implicitly lends licence to others to speak more candidly of their own similar experience. reinforced by the familiar items chosen, this occurs within the context of a shared accessible australian identity. as if to further reinforce the acceptance of comfort food, the same publication followed up five days later with a feature article on the english food writer nigella lawson. this article announced her latest cookbook which was written during the lockdown. we are told that her book “stresses pleasure, decadence, indulgence” to the extent that she would actively dismiss the guilt from guilty pleasure, and this within the context of comfort food. without further unpacking its details, the whole article adds to the message of licence to others, somewhat freeing their own agency in re-creating meaning. whether the two articles in this week marked the turning point or gave impetus to a trend, what i had noticed subsequently was generally more acceptance of discussion about one’s preferred comfort food. it no longer seemed as near-intimate a question, and answers came fairly freely. specific items ranged from the small magnum ice-creams (chocolate-coated, expensive) to the budget chocolate-coated licorice logs (only $2au for a pack of five); from hot potato fries to a meat pie. something had changed in a short time—there was acceptance that comfort food could in part be fulfilling a need to connect and to belong. today a question of your comfort food? is more likely to include responses of pasta and noodles than previously. more strikingly, though, is that such discourse is now largely devoid of moral judgement. the concept does maintain some element of nostalgia but the focus is more firmly on the present and with a feeling of necessity, for relief or pleasure. its use is largely self-deprecating, and confessed with humour. in addition to declaring home practices, it is as if one can reveal one’s participation in the most basic levels of the industrial food system, and this shared experience seems to endorse one’s belonging to the broader community. the small comfort of the food leads to more social comfort. smith, from discomfort to discourse digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2: 2022 62 works cited bourke, latika. 2020. sunday life: queen of indulgence. sun herald [sydney, australia], november 15. https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/queen-of-indulgence-nigellalawson-on-having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too-20201112-p56dyh.html. dubecki, larissa. 2020. good food: guilty secrets. sydney morning herald, november 10. jones, michael owen, and lucy m. long. 2017. introduction. in comfort food: meanings and memories, ed. michael owen jones and lucy m. long. jackson, ms: university press of mississippi. 1997. macquarie dictionary, 3rd ed. north ryde, nsw: macquarie library. 2017. macquarie dictionary, 7th ed. sydney, nsw: macquarie dictionary. oxford english dictionary (online edition). oed.com. accessed 2021. sammy j. 2020. home schooling. may 7. abc tv [australian broadcasting commission. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhutgel-iqc. https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/queen-of-indulgence-nigella-lawson-on-having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too-20201112-p56dyh.html https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/queen-of-indulgence-nigella-lawson-on-having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too-20201112-p56dyh.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhutgel-iqc digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023): 65-72 ©american folklore society 2024 notes and queries food as experiential and reflective learning by: cora mardin and michael a. lange in this hybrid essay and response, third-year undergraduate student cora mardin presents some impressions and reactions to a participant-observation-driven documentary project she completed. afterward, michael lange, one of cora’s former professors, comments on her essay. this format, reminiscent of a conference paper and a discussant, attempts to evoke the conversational nature of academic discourse. it is in the back-and-forth exchanges where learning and teaching happen, whether that is at a conference, between a journal article and a reader, or a teacher and a student. while this special issue’s main focus is on traditional pedagogy – classroom teaching and learning – we would do well to remember that all academia is conversation, both in the moment and across generations. we start with cora’s essay: much goes into our understanding of what we consume even if we don’t always fully realize it. our individual epistemologies and our sense of cultural habitus play a very important role in our preconceived notions of what is a delicacy and what is not (in many cases the two not being far from each other). that is where i started – where we all start, really. with a humble and minuscule understanding of any topic often emerging from our own cultures and the common mindsets, we often do not change unless we make an active choice to do so. i sort of found myself involuntarily making such a choice about food and foodways my first semester of my 3rd year at college, and i slowly began to understand the power of food and food cultures as much more than sustenance, but also as an educational tool. my name is cora mardin, a third year student in the digital filmmaking major at champlain college, specializing in video editing and motion graphics with a minor in digital marketing. in my junior year, i took a course titled “food cultures” as part of my general education curriculum. for this class, we were asked to complete a semester-long project about a food or food culture of our choosing. this project involved asking a question, researching that question, and finally coming to some sort of conclusion, which would then be presented to the class. i decided to research chili con carne, perhaps because of my taste for spicy food, or maybe because of a very conveniently scheduled chili competition at my school. the andy burkhardt memorial chili cook-off is an annual event held at the library at champlain college, where i work, and it was coincidentally happening the following month. in addition to studying the event itself, the deeper question i had in mind for my project was related to chili’s origins and how the original recipe differed from the varieties of chili to be found at the cook-off. i was keenly aware that the chilis at this cook-off were not a mardin & lange, food as learning digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 66 definitive burlington style, but more a sampling of the types of chili made by the faculty, staff, and students at champlain. however, i found – and do find – that concept to be just as interesting. in order to engage with the process more fully, i contemplated what i would be doing at the cook-off. eventually, i settled on two ideas to learn about the origins of chili con carne and see how that recipe relates to the chilis entered into the andy burkhardt memorial chili cook-off: 1) i would make my own chili con carne – one not too dissimilar to the way it was originally prepared in the 1850s – and enter the cook-off myself, and 2) being a film student, i would develop a documentary film to catalog the cook-off in the most efficient and entertaining way possible. to give the whole thing a better sense of structure, i separated it into three parts: background, execution, and examination. with the essential mise en scene of my project covered, i’d like to talk about my initial understanding of chili con carne and how i was able to transform that understanding into a 20-minute documentary. before this project, i had never made chili before. i had a general idea of how chili was made, but i had never been involved in making it myself, so i was aware from the beginning that this would be an educational experience for me, even beyond the initial assignment’s prompt. furthermore, i started out with almost no knowledge of chili’s greater cultural relevance, i merely knew the chili that existed in my experiences growing up in new hampshire. the chili i knew there was a fairly standard regional version of chili con carne, with beans, beef, and peppers. this was the pattern i expected original chili would be like. at the cook-off at champlain college, however, the types of chili that i saw varied quite a lot, to the point that several stretched the definition of ‘chili’. perhaps owing to champlain being in burlington, vermont, an area with a reputation for being open and alternative, many of the chilis in the cook-off included a wide range of ingredients not often associated with the dish (e.g., chickpeas, sauerkraut, kahlua, etc.). i found the amount of variation between the chili i had grown up with and the range of chilis at the cook-off to be deeply fascinating, and it was an important catalyst to my understanding of my research. much of my understanding of chili and, as i later came to discover, food as a whole, came not from text-based research, though, but from the actual making of my chili. in light of my question, i decided to make an 1850s style chili, in the manner of the chili queens. the chili queens were women who first crafted chili con carne and served it in san antonio’s military plaza in the 19th century (jennings). i learned a lot about these women during my research, but what i took away from their story/recipes was their resourcefulness and the sense of community they were quickly able to build. as is true of countless dishes across space and time, the chili queens made their stews with what they had available to them to feed their families. selling their meals, made with what they could afford, to the people of texas was, among other things, another means of providing for family. the chili queens’ digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 67 recipes varied widely because of personal preference, uneven availability of ingredients, and more. inspired by the straightforwardness of their approach, i decided on a very basic recipe for the chili that i would enter into the cook-off. the core ingredients across the queens’ countless renditions of chili, which i wanted to use as a pattern, consisted of beef, peppers, and whatever spices fit your spiciness preference. having never made a chili before, i struggled quite a bit, as might be expected. it’s not easy to do something you’ve never done before, especially when you’re filming yourself as a nominal expert and pretending to know exactly what you’re doing, as was the conceit of my documentary film. in a strange way, this somewhat tricky situation helped me out a lot in the long run. when you are in front of a camera, as i was, if you’re not confident in yourself, people notice. it’s not enjoyable to watch, often difficult to understand, and puts up red flags about your knowledge on your subject/execution. i was not at all confident in my ability to make a chili, but having my camera there and knowing that i didn’t want to feel the chagrin of watching myself muddle through cooking while editing it forced me to, for lack of a better word, pretend. this aided in my ability to learn and to teach others both during the cooking process and later on at the cook off. even now, the idea of this chili, delicious or not, makes me feel pretty good about myself. having a healthy level of confidence about things, even if you’re unsure of them, can make you feel a bit better about trying something new, and you might even surprise yourself. i know i did! the final step in my chili research was to go to the chili cook-off. i did not believe that i could win this event (and i didn’t), but that was never the goal. i did, however, benefit by entering because i now had a shared perspective with the other entrants, which allowed me to have a stronger bond and more empathy toward their processes. as i went around the cook off, interviewing people and trying various chili concoctions, i quickly learned that chili meant something different and unique to each person. for some it was a way they connected with their families, for some a means of creativity and personal escape, and for others they just thought chili was delicious. within all this, i was still able to answer my original question: chili has, in fact, changed a lot over time. though some people did seem to hold light-hearted prejudices about what should and should not be in chili, everyone at the cook-off was able to agree that these changes are welcomed and appreciated for their uniqueness. that being said, i answered much more than just that. chili, and in many ways, all food, allows people the opportunity to express themselves and connect with each other. there were people i met at this event that made their own chilis and held a sort of pride and excitement when i gave them the outlet to talk about them in a meaningful way. on the other side of it, there were individuals, much like myself having never made chili, who were instead using the platform to talk about chili in relation to loved ones, holidays, the comfort chili provides them, etc. it was all very beautiful and touched me in ways i cannot explain. i mardin & lange, food as learning digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 68 was slowly developing a much more concrete idea of what food is actually able to teach me and its greater effect on others that i had not considered before. i think my experience with chili was not always necessarily a good one but more so a meaningful one. i had great difficulty every turn in this process. nothing ever quite felt like it was enough or right or important, but it was. i struggled constantly, but i always overcame it, and the feeling i had at this experiment’s conclusion was a fond one. i never would have expected that it taught me so much to do this project. i learned that what we put into our food experiences is what we get out of them. throughout this process, i discovered many times that, a lot of people have far deeper connections with food than just its taste. food holds the ability to help us understand people: ourselves, our communities, and global food cultures. the choice we must make is in our willingness to learn from food, to let food into our lives and not be closed off to those possibilities of what you could potentially learn both in and out of the classroom. and now, professor lange’s commentary: cora was my student in several general education classes throughout her undergraduate education, although not for the “food cultures” course for which the project discussed was assigned. as a side note, i entered one of the chilis into the andy burkhardt memorial chili cook-off, losing rather handily in both the judges’ eyes and the popular vote. one of the particular joys and fears of being a classroom teacher is that fingers-crossed moment after the semester, when you hope that something that you have taught has lodged in a student’s thinking for longer than exam week. in the scholarship of teaching and learning, as well as fields that study interdisciplinarity, they talk about transference, the ability to take a bit of knowledge from one intellectual context and apply it in another. for the classroom teacher, one of the most obvious forms of transference is when a student takes something from your class and uses it to make new knowledge in another class. with that in mind, several ideas jump out at me as i read cora’s essay. the first is the perpetually tricky cultural concept of authenticity. popular understandings of food are rife with misguided discussions of authenticity, which fight against or ignore the immense fluidity of culture. all aspects of culture flout the artificial taxonomies people like to impose when assigning exclusive places, groups, or identities to the things people think, feel, believe, have, and do. academics are not immune from the seductive surety of authenticity, either, even long after the likes of bendix and bhabha critiqued the notion and provided us with better ways to think. cora’s engages with chili con carne, which has a traceable origin to the chili queens of san antonio, is nevertheless part of a larger complex category of stewed and spiced meat dishes, the edges of which are at best indeterminate. by recognizing that chili con carne has simultaneously a center to its identity and a wide and digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 69 varying boundary around it as a category, cora is acknowledging the constructed qualities of our cultural taxonomies. as much as we might want a nice, neat, clean category called ‘chili’, with-well defined edges, what we have are central nodes of identity and ranges of variation expanding out from them and toward other nodes. the discussion of the documentary side of the project brings up another set of terms that many of us teach in our classrooms, performance and performativity. anyone who uses performance theory of any kind, from goffman through kapchan and beyond, discusses how viewing a culture bearer as a performer can enlighten the communicative and purposeful aspects of engaging in one’s identity. in the case of food, so many acts can be understood through the lens of performance: growing, selling, cooking, eating, preserving. a chili cook-off has another obvious layer of performance involved, as different chilis are cooked and then presented for a very public consumption and competition. cora touches on both the performance of cooking chili as a culinary act and the performativity of making chili for her documentary camera. the self-conscious nature of cooking for a camera is similar to the self-conscious performativity of entering one’s chili into a competition, and cora acknowledges both layers in her essay. when we engage in a cultural act, we perform for ourselves and others. one of the most heartwarming parts of cora’s essay is what follows her discussion of the performative aspects of her cook-off participation. she touches on meaning, which is at the core of how i teach about culture. knowledge is information that is made meaningful, that is situated in what geertz calls our “webs of significance”. the sum of, and interactions among, our bits of knowledge help shape who we are, which becomes the foundation of culture when it interacts with the sums of the many others around us. when the edge of one of our epistemologies, our systems of making knowledge and meaning, comes into contact with the edge of someone else’s epistemology, culture is enjoined. tsing calls these moments of friction, and it is through our systems of meaning making and the friction that results in their contact that people live their lives. i decide what kind of chili i want to make by choosing certain meanings for the moment, and rejecting others. the set of meanings the end up in my pot of chili come into friction with others’ meaning making systems when they taste it. the productive result is a new meaning, in this case quite probably “yuck” or “yum”. on one performative hand, i want people to like my chili. on another, as cora insightfully recognizes, the fact that people are investing meaning in their chili and chili making, and that they and others are making meanings with the result, is what is most important, as well as most fascinating. all of these insights and interpretations are made more possible for cora because she engaged in participant observation, a cornerstone of cultural research for over a century. food provides enormous opportunities for participant observation, as it is something that mardin & lange, food as learning digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 70 is easily shareable, deeply meaningful, and requires much “doing”. simply put, there is a lot of available participation to be had in people’s foodways, and much to observe along the way. it is telling that cora chose to learn about chili con carne through not only the distant, supposedly objective lens of the camera, but also the immediacy of entering the chili cookoff. that kind of emic and etic perspective taking, which is such a common norm in folklore and anthropology as to go unnoticed, is worth pointing out in an undergraduate educational setting. the power of interacting with people in order to learn, to understand their meanings by engaging with them and asking people to share their knowledge and wisdom about those meanings, makes such a project a very valuable pedagogical tool. if equipped with some good theory beforehand, students can learn by doing, not just how to make a pot of chili, but how to be human. the fact that cora talks about the empathy she gained through the enactment of her project tells us everything we need to know about the value of participant observation. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 71 works cited bendix, regina. 1997. in search of authenticity. madison: university of wisconsin press. bhabha, homi. 1994. the location of culture. new york: routledge. geertz, clifford. 1988. works and lives: the anthropologist as author. stanford: stanford university press. goffman, erving. 1959. the presentation of self in everyday life. new york: doubleday anchor books. jennings, frank w. n.d. popular chili queens graced san antonio plazas. journal of the life and culture of san antonio. http://www.uiw.edu/sanantonio/jenningschiliqueens.html kapchan, deborah. 2007. traveling spirit masters. middletown, ct: wesleyan university press. tsing, anna. 2005. friction. princeton: princeton university press. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 11 (2025): 69-71 ©american folklore society 2025 editors and editorial board for digest volume 11 (2025) theresa a. vaughan (lead editor) is associate dean of the university of central oklahoma college of liberal arts, and a professor in the department of humanities and philosophy. she co-edited the encyclopedia of women’s folklore and folklife with liz locke and pauline greenhill, and recently published women, food, and diet in the middle ages: balancing the humours (university of amsterdam press, 2020). her research interests include women and foodways in both the middle ages and today. jessica noe (book review editor) is a doctoral candidate specializing in work at the intersection of performance, narrative, memory, and food within the field of communication studies at the university of north carolina at chapel hill. pulling from the theories and traditions of performance and cultural studies as they find their areas of overlap in communication studies and folklore, her interdisciplinary research focuses on understanding how communities work to articulate a meaningful existence through stories surrounding their performances of group memory and food labor. her dissertation, baked in: women’s role in curating and creating family culture through culinary performance, focuses on the intersection of performance, memory, and female embodied labor practices within an extended family’s food traditions. digest editorial board charley camp teaches folklife studies at maryland institute college of art in baltimore, md. he curated the smithsonian institution exhibition, “key ingredients: america by food,” that traveled to forty-nine states. janet gilmore served as digest’s chief editor from 2016-2021. an emeritus professor in folklore and landscape architecture at university of wisconsin-madison, she built her teaching, research, and outreach practices on foodways, historical and cultural landscape conservation, public folklore project collections access, and decades of experience as an independent folklorist coordinating with numerous non-profit arts and historical organizations chiefly in the western great lakes region and her native pacific northwest. fishing people, maritime workers, folk artists, and farming people led her to publish, present, and contribute to exhibits and festivals that relate to the regions’ foodways and food landscapes—whether indigenous, old immigrant, new immigrant, or refugee. personal interests in food, cooking, and cookbooks, inspired early in her western oregon home, have now come full circle as she explores her mother’s and grandmother’s pacific northwesternupper midwestern food legacies and her nuclear and extended families’ related spatial, landscape, and architectural practices. michael lange is professor in the interdisciplinary core curriculum at champlain college in burlington, vermont. he is the author of norwegian scots: an anthropological interpretation of viking-scottish identity in the orkney islands (2007) and meanings of maple (2017), as well as several chapters and articles in journals such as anatolia, scandinavian editors and editorial board digest: a journal of foodways & culture 11 (2025) canadian studies, the journal of interdisciplinary studies in education, and voices: the journal of new york folklore. he has conducted research in scotland, norway, morocco, and several parts of the us. yvonne lockwood is a folklorist who recently retired as curator of folklife at the michigan state university museum, directed the michigan traditional arts apprentice program and michigan heritage awards program there, curated the public food presentations at the festival of michigan folklife and the great lakes folk festival, and curated “michigan eats,” an interpretive exhibition that the museum now tours. other professional foodways activities include conference participation in the us and europe and numerous publications. a long-time member of the foodways section, she co edited digest for a number of years with william g. lockwood and judged student papers. she has extensive research experience in the former yugoslavia, eastern austria (burgenland), and in the upper midwest, primarily in finnish america, where she currently is researching foodways. she also often curates finnish food demonstrations and workshops at the annual finnfest usa. lucy m. long directs the independent nonprofit center for food and culture (www.foodandculture.org) and teaches in american studies, ethnic studies, folklore, popular culture, nutrition, and tourism at bowling green state university in ohio. with degrees in folklore (ph.d., university of pennsylvania) and ethnomusicology (m.a., university of maryland), she focuses on food, music, and dance as mediums for meaning, identity, community, and power. her publications include: culinary tourism (2004), regional american food culture (2009), ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (2015), the food and folklore reader (2015), ethnic american cooking (2016), honey: a global history (2017), and comfort food meanings and memories (2017). in 2020, she ran a virtual oral history on finding comfort/discomfort through foodways during the covid-19 pandemic, resulting in an online exhibit, virtual symposia, and publications. luanne roth teaches in the department of writing and rhetoric at the university of rhode island where she offers a range of courses, including those related to food writing, food and culture, and food justice. roth’s research gravitates toward folklore, film/media, and food studies. her foodways scholarship appears in the journals digest (“poison is poison”), western folklore (“do the [white] thing”), and food, culture and society (“beef, it’s what’s for dinner”), and as chapters in what's eating you?: food and horror on screen (“you are what others think you eat”), comfort food meanings and memories (“comfort [and discomfort] food”), unsettling assumptions: tradition, gender, drag (“sexing the turkey”), and folklore/cinema: popular film as vernacular culture (“beyond communitas”). roth’s work is driven by an interest in how food behaviors are used to both reinforce and subvert ideologies related to class, ethnicity, gender, and race. https://harrington.uri.edu/meet/luanne-k-roth/ http://www.foodandculture.org/ https://harrington.uri.edu/meet/luanne-k-roth/ editors and editorial board digest: a journal of foodways & culture 11 (2025) robert james smith, ph.d., has an adjunct role as inaugural vice chancellor’s fellow at southern cross university in australia. until recently he was editor for the scholarly journal australian folklore. in addition to foodways, his research interests include contemporary memorial customs and regional folk culture. diane tye, ph.d. is a retired professor from memorial university’s department of folklore where she taught from 1995-2022. she researches intersections of folklore and gender, especially as they relate to foodways. she is author of baking as biography. a life story in recipes (mcgill-queen’s up, 2010) and co-editor with pauline greenhill of unsettling assumptions. gender, tradition, drag (utah state up, 2014) microsoft word bios-digest 7 (2018-2019) update.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 77-78 © american folklore society 2020 authors in digest 7:1 (2018-2019) articles: sue samuelson prize essays sarah t. shultz is a phd candidate in the department of folklore at memorial university of newfoundland in canada. her research interests include foodways, personal experience narrative, culinary tourism, identity performance, and gender studies. she is currently working on her dissertation, which centers on spicy foods as tourist attractions and symbols of local identity in nashville, tennessee, and london, england. sarah has an ma in folk studies from western kentucky university. julia fine received her ab from harvard university in history and literature, where she focused on the food history of the british empire. she presently works as a dumbarton oaks humanities fellow on the folger shakespeare library’s mellonfunded “before ‘farm to table’: early modern foodways and cultures team,” as well as on the dumbarton oaks mellon-funded plant humanities initiative. research essays & notes mira johnson completed an ma in folklore from the university of oregon and served as the program coordinator at folkartpa, pennsylvania’s state folklife program. a regional culture specialist, she has conducted fieldwork with rural and urban folk artists and tradition bearers, particularly in refugee and immigrant communities. as folk arts and education coordinator at the pelham arts center in pelham, new york, she oversaw the folk art performance and workshop series and worked to integrate folk art education into the center’s studio art curriculum. she is currently an officer of the new york folklore society, a lecturer at bronx community college, and a doctoral student in the adult education program at penn state-harrisburg. her dissertation research addresses the role of traditional knowledge in community-based education. david j. puglia, a native of south central pennsylvania, is now deputy chairperson and assistant professor of english language & literature at bronx community college (city university of new york), where he teaches courses in folklore and folklife. he formerly was a lecturer in the american studies program at penn state-harrisburg. a folklorist by training, he specializes in the study of local and regional culture, particularly in the middle atlantic. his books about pennsylvania and maryland culture include south central pennsylvania legends and lore (2012), maryland legends: folklore from the old line state (2014; co-author trevor j. blank), and tradition, urban identity, and the baltimore “hon”: the folk in the city (2018). he has served as president of the middle atlantic folklife association and editor of the scholarly journal new directions in folklore. johanna mörlein is researcher at the university of göttingen in germany. she studied agriculture at the university of göttingen and at the norwegian university of life sciences near olso, norway. since 2010 she has been involved in sensory perception studies on boar taint. when not working in the sensory lab, she is a mother of two and loves to eat avgolemono. 78 authors digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) book reviews marissa francisco farahbod is a phd candidate in folklore at memorial university of newfoundland, where she also received a master’s degree. her undergraduate degree is in english from university of tehran, and she achieved her first master’s in comparative literature and gender studies from king’s college london. she has also worked as a researcher and instructor at university of santo tomas. her current research primarily focuses on ethnic and migration studies, incorporating cultural and culinary heritage. tiff graham tiff graham teaches at otis college of art and design in los angeles, california. she has taught cultural studies, occupational culture, anthropology through a science fiction lens, festivals, american folklore, and a few digital media courses. she holds a phd in culture and performance (university of california los angeles), ms in occupational health (university of toledo/medical college of ohio), and ba in english (university of missouri-columbia). currently she photographs and writes about parades, protest marches, festivals, foodways, costumes, environmental issues, and other topics at www.paradehistory.com. nic hartmann is director of learning & civic engagement at the national czech and slovak museum and library. his research interests have focused on public folklore, occupational folklife, and folklife education. judith lanzendorfer, associate professor of english at the university of findlay in ohio, has worked on projects related to foodways for over 15 years, ranging from the role of food in medieval women’s mystical writings, to eating in fairy tales, to the framing of bread in online baking communities where she is a member. kristin mcandrews has taught numerous courses in art, culture and cuisine, american literature, food and ethnography, food writing, and literature and issues of food in popular culture at the university of hawaii at mānoa, where she is an associate professor in the department of english. in february 2020 she presented “in defense of the apple and a shock of wheat,” at the honolulu museum of art, focusing on the way depictions of food in art tell stories about desire, the landscape, and politics. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 43-65 © american folklore society 2021 43 seed swaps and sunday sauce: lessons about sharing food in hard times by: roshni caputo-nimbark abstract: in times of crisis, which may include perennial poverty and environmental hurdles, unattainable myths and racial stigmatization, or climate change and postmodern anxieties, food sharing stands out as an important source of community resilience. in this article, i argue that by reframing the capitalocentric narrative, one perceives a world of food sharing economies essential for resisting those myriad and often supralocal forces that threaten livelihoods. personal experience narratives of rural peasants in gujarat, india and italian immigrants in brooklyn, new york from the 1940s through the 1960s exemplify how informal food economies operate in hard times. anecdotes about culinary resourcefulness, mutual aid networks, and foodcentred festivities illustrate the significance of economic practices unacknowledged or undervalued in capitalocentric discourse but central to the fostering of community and sustainability, then and now. furthermore, following the diverse economies framework and weak theory, the academic subject is implicated in a politics of prefiguration. keywords: food sharing, hard times, diverse economies, capitalocentrism, weak theory introduction: blackouts and barbecues on thursday, august 14th, 2003, a great blackout swept across the northeastern united states and southern canada. an overhead transmission line in walton hills, ohio, overloaded with dangerously high currents powering fans and air conditioners, sagged into a tree, setting off a chain of human and operational failures that shut down 100 power plants and plunged some 55 million people into darkness. living in new york at the time, i remember hearing about the episodes of claustrophobic panic and intrepid evacuations that played out in subways and elevators, where hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting passengers found themselves trapped inside sweltering, overcrowded cars and shafts. above and below street level, some remained stranded for over three hours before being rescued by the new york fire department. the most fascinating accounts, however, took place in the streets. with folks unable to make purchases, and comestibles perishing in homes, grocery stores, eateries, and bars on this particularly balmy afternoon, neighbourhoods across the five boroughs and surrounding suburbs engaged in block parties of epic proportions, some of which were documented by newspapers, television programs, and social media platforms1 (fuller 2003, chung 2018). in street displays approaching the carnivalesque, residents spanning the demographic spectrum commingled amicably and availed themselves of gratuitous ice cream, pizza, hot dogs, alcohol, cold drinks, and much more offered by local businesses and residents alike. although anxieties about the 9/11 events from two years prior and fears of a second attack were on countless new yorkers’ minds, the predominant tone on the darkened streets was conspicuously celebratory. residents were pulled together by a power outage that spared no one and, at least for a fleeting moment, they reveled in a camaraderie centered largely on food sharing. caputo-nimbark, seed swaps and sunday sauce, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 44 this article is a meditation on food sharing traditions, and the diverse economies and networks of care intrinsic to them, particularly in times of hardship. it highlights those myriad economic practices typically ignored or underemphasized for their incongruence with market logics but which have existed prior to and continue to thrive in spite of capitalist ones. my main objective here is to bring food sharing economies of the past into conversation with the present to reframe the dominant capitalocentric account of food scarcity and austerity toward one of resiliency and possibility. to illustrate how food sharing economies operate amid a variety of struggles, i explore food-related personal experience narratives of two members of my family: my paternal aunt and my mother. i draw on their memories from rural india and new york city of the 1940s-1960s to situate my own contemporary ones, attendant to emic interpretations of struggle and perseverance. whether crisis relates to perennial poverty and environmental hurdles, unattainable myths and stigmatization, or climate change and postmodern anxieties, i argue for the centrality of food sharing in hard times, as well as the continuing relevance of lessons that can be learned about enacting networks of commensality and care when we delink our appreciation of economic diversity from preconceived notions of what constitutes the economy. my argument rests on the assumption that all humans experience hardship of some kind (turner & rojek 2001) and food sharing has always been central to the social and material sustenance of communities (graeber 2011, belk 2010). moreover, humans have an innate drive to promote cooperation, of which sharing and mutual aid are integral components (kropotkin 1902). another assumption is that informal food economies have always existed in hard times but are unacknowledged, devalued, or subsumed within the dominant economic discourse (mitchell 1998), an ontology folklorists have the tools to disrupt by documenting and interpreting sharing economies through weak theory (sedgwick 1997, stewart 2008) and reflexive performance (gibson-graham 2008). i begin with a review of literature related to scarcity, mutual aid, food sharing, diverse economies, capitalocentrism, and weak theory. i then present two personal narratives from the past, which i connect to contemporary food sharing economies in rural newfoundland, where i currently reside, and to the broader diverse economies framework. i conclude with a brief reflection on the future of food sharing. literature review hardship and/or scarcity have always existed in a diversity of forms. poverty, natural disasters, epidemics, conflicts, famines, and systemic inequalities afflict entire communities or regions while ailments, childrearing, family obligations, interpersonal conflicts, and mortality exemplify individualized or localized hardship. sociologists turner and rojek (2001) enumerate the ways that group behaviors and institutions work to offset the effects of scarcity in all human societies. for instance, they view cooperation, reciprocity, and sharing as “the building blocks of social existence” (2001: xiii), whereas ceremonials, rituals, and festivals offer temporary relief from hardship by way of fun and celebratory community-building exercises that strengthen trust and kinship. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 45 numerous scholars have documented how the equitable distribution of food and other goods has been the rule rather than the exception in most premodern societies for whom the sharing of meals and provisions is intimately linked to community resilience in perennially precarious times. for example, henry (1964), who looked at sharing practices among the nomadic kaingáng of brazil, reports how, “in times of hunger the meat is divided among the whole group […] their understanding of reciprocity is in terms of lifelong symbiosis, not in terms of balanced exchanges” (1964: 99,101). similarly, damas (1968) describes the highly structured food distribution networks and village-wide communal eating practices among the copper inuit. mauss (1925) and malinowski (1922) write about the social, economic, and semiotic complexities wrapped up in quasi-collateral food “gifts” among the northwest coast indians and the trobriand islanders, respectively . turnbull, studying the mbuti people of the congo, notes that “the bonds that make two brothers hunt together and share their food are not much greater than those that obtain between a member of a band and a visiting pygmy, even if he is totally unrelated… they expect the same help and respect from all children and they owe the same responsibilities toward them” (1963: 31-32). reflecting the above accounts and his own work in fiji and hawai’i, sahlins (1972) coined the term “generalized reciprocity” to refer to transactions where the reciprocation of a gift is vague, indefinite in terms of quality and quantity, and non-obligatory. following this scholastic tradition, graeber (2011) argues that, based on ethnographic research in madagascar and elsewhere, these early economic systems were entrenched in social currencies based on mutual expectations and responsibilities rather than formal reciprocity and hierarchy. to corroborate his argument, he finds evidence of recorded debts and credits existing among ancient sumerian farmers long before the appearance of money, which itself he determines to predate barter. price (1975) agrees that sharing is an older and more fundamental2 economic practice than gift giving and exchange, yet he notes that in modern societies, food, stimulants, and depressants, even when transacted, possess a special ability to consummate acts of socialization (firth 1970). in his extensive research on modern sharing patterns, belk claims that, unlike economic exchange, “which rarely creates communal bonds with other people,” sharing fosters trust and companionship (belk 2010: 717). the word companion itself comes from the latin com(with) and panis (bread) and “is the consequence of a shared meal of a reciprocity around a table where food is exchanged between people who trust each other because of shared involvement in a ritualistic community” (turner & rojek 2001: 28). “[used in the] creation and maintenance of social relationships, food serves both to solidify group membership and to set groups apart” (mintz & du bois 2002: 109). widlok (2004) distinguishes between “sharing in” and “sharing out.” sharing in is about including others in the “aggregated extended self” (belk 2010: 725) for the sake of shared enjoyment of something perceived as commonly owned, is often ritualized3, and typically involves sharing with neighbours, relatives, “or anyone who happens to be around” (widlok 2004: 61). sharing out is more akin to gift giving and commodity exchange and involves giving outside the boundaries separating self and other. food provisioning in the form of sharing out, such as food banks and emergency food relief, caputo-nimbark, seed swaps and sunday sauce, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 46 may be seen to reinforce the institutionalization of food insecurity by enabling governmental de-responsibilities (poppendieck 1999). scholars have long noted that food sharing occurs primarily within the home4. food encodes feelings of nurturance, love, happiness, and hospitality (lupton 1996), and food sharing is frequently used by mothers to express love and affection (miller 1998). food sharing also extends to nonhumans and to the deceased (e.g. sayers 2013). as belk (2010: 717) points out, because it is an activity more characteristic of the interior world of the home than the exterior worlds of work and the market, and also due to its ubiquity, routine food sharing often goes unnoticed and as a result is understudied. moreover, he sees this research preference as a reflection of gender bias in academia. as i discuss below, the continued devaluing and masking of feminist economies of food sharing are intimately tied to capitalocentrism, a paradigm the proposed framework in this paper seeks to override. notwithstanding cross-cultural evidence for the naturalness of sharing, the 18th and 19th centuries saw a flourishing of new paradigms for understanding human behaviour as guided by rational self-interest and competition, largely influenced by the works of smith (1776) and darwin (1869). among a minority of nonconformists was kropotkin (1902), the russian philosopher and geographer who, in his seminal work mutual aid: a factor of evolution, challenged the dominant narrative about “survival of the fittest” that emerged from social darwinism, pointing instead to overwhelming evidence in human and animal groups of cooperation and mutual aid. ants, bees, beetles, termites, crabs, and migratory birds exhibit mutualism, just as do countless indigenous societies, medieval guilds, labour movement members, and the poor (cf. stack 1974). he claimed that only through the imposition of private property by the state had many mutual aid institutions been destroyed, avowing that, “in the long run the practice of solidarity proves much more advantageous to the species than the development of individuals endowed with predatory inclinations” (kropotkin 1902: 17). predictably, he was imprisoned and sent into exile for most of his life. while kropotkin has remained relevant in his radical questioning of capitalist assumptions and his desire to identify and enhance existing, alternative, and more equitable societies, contemporary scholars are expanding upon his project with a postmodern lens characterized by critical and reflexive performativity of diverse economies. in the late 1990s, feminist geographers j.k. gibson-graham5 developed an epistemological and ontological project6 grounded in a marxist understanding of capitalism’s inherently exploitative and unsustainable prerogatives (harvey 1982). they were concurrently driven by a desire to identify and enact alternatives so as to bring into being a world of economic possibilities untethered by the privileging of systemic or structural determination, which they refer to as capitalocentrism (gibson-graham 1996). this dominant framing of “the economy” has become crystallized in contemporary thought through mainstream economic discourse that, since around world war ii (keynes 1936), sees linear growth as a structural imperative dependent on market transactions and waged labour and measurable by econometrics, which itself is based on metaphors from the rational sciences such as physics and mathematics (mitchell 1998). capitalocentric ideology, moreover, naturalizes commonsense economic behaviour, so that “growth” is intrinsically predicated on digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 47 individuals rationally opting to outcompete one another, as illustrated in the influential “tragedy of the commons” predicament (hardin 1968). even though the word “economy” derives from the greek oiko-nomos, which translates to household-management, it is ironically the oikopart, i.e., childrearing, cleaning, preparing meals, and sharing food, which has been excluded from this new definition of the economy. rather, the household, primarily the domain of women, was considered to be part of the non-economic sphere or the family sphere (mitchell 1998). several feminists have pointed out that the functioning of capitalist production and the conception of the economy as a self-contained sphere depend substantially upon the social reproduction of the labour force and the continued exclusion of the household as a non-economic site of activity, in part accomplished with econometrics7 (vaughan 1997). therefore, attentive to the reification of language through performativity (foucault 1970), the diverse economies project works to destabilize the normativity of hegemonic capitalocentrism “through a proliferative queering of the economic landscape and construction of a new language of economic diversity” (gibson-graham 2006: 56). by dislocating diverse and often noncapitalist economic practices that have been “domesticated, symbolized or integrated” (torfing 1999: 301) within capitalocentric discourse, these othered economic spheres are given ontological sovereignty with space to experiment and develop on their own terms. despite feminist and other research demonstrating that noncapitalist activities such as food sharing, reciprocity, and unpaid housework constitute roughly 30-50% of economic activity in rich and poor countries (ironmonger 1996), a major hurdle in the diverse economies project is credibility. the challenge is to convince people about the real or potential consequences of existing or imagined diverse economic activities, especially given available quantitative evidence that ostensibly marginal economies are in fact more prevalent, time-consuming, and/or productive than capitalist ones. sharing and other economic practices are commonly considered to be relevant “only in times of crisis, when the market can no longer provide for well-being and sustenance, when there is simply no other choice, or they are associated with people ‘on the make,’ ‘grabbing’ at informal and/or illegal economic opportunities” (smith & stenning 2006: 206). similarly, sharing economies in the global south are typically seen in the context of livelihood strategies, whereas in the global north capitalocentric discourse renders them invisible “as they are deemed residual and marginal and hence inappropriate for ‘developed’ societies” (jehlička & daněk 2017: 276). however, the present study reveals that diverse economies including food sharing are in fact omnipresent, existing in a variety of spatio-temporal contexts. folkloristics is in an ideal position to recast this comfortably taken-for-granted ontology. it is through ethnographic research that economic realities on the ground are most comprehensively documented and interpreted, marginal diverse economies like food sharing recentered, and ideas about the common good locally negotiated and enacted. following gibson-graham (2008), for the academic subject who is ready to explore rather than to criticize other economic worlds, to acknowledge the performativity of her scholarship and research, and to relinquish the comfort that accompanies her existing ontologies in order to permit encounters with new ones, it is inevitable that “interdependence and creativity are thrust upon us as we become implicated in the very caputo-nimbark, seed swaps and sunday sauce, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 48 existence of the worlds that we research” (gibson-graham 2008: 8). put another way, ethnographers may engage in a prefigurative politics (maeckelbergh 2011) by creating ordinary spaces, relationships, and structures here and now so as to forge pathways to envisioned and extraordinary future worlds. with this creative and experimental approach, we can also appreciate weak theories as alternatives to strong ones (sedgwick 1997, stewart 2008, gibson-graham 2014). strong theories about human behaviour, such as those propounded in economic discourse and conspiracy theories (latour 2004), seek to “explain away” complexities with an embracing reach, with the flip side being a reductive field of meaning (sedgwick 1997) and the simultaneous enactment and reconstitution of dominant structures, even under the guise of critique8 (latour 2004). weak theories, on the other hand, offer the opportunity to recast existing knowledge about large issues such as the effects of neoliberal global capitalism, and to ratify in its wake locally meaningful and performative ontologies based on observation, careful interpretation, and the yielding to emerging knowledge (stewart 2008). it may connect novel linguistic terminology with emergent socioeconomic roles and identities and attend to the nuance and diversity of economic activities, emancipating them from a “paranoid” capitalocentrism, seeing them rather as evolutive and “reparative” (sedgwick 1997). finally, it may discursively “rescue” (geertz 1973) economic practices from the past in order to reinvigorate present and future economic relations and vocabularies. with all that in mind, i now turn to personal experience narratives about food sharing economies, beginning in rural india in the 1940s. food economies in bhoringada, india, 1940s-1950s anna nokha, to manna nokha if you do not share food, you cannot share thoughts (gujarati proverb) in this section, i present results from an hour-long, semi-structured zoom interview with my paternal aunt, shanta, in march 2021, during which she recalls food sharing economies from her childhood. shanta was born in 1945 in bhoringada, a small hindu village in northwest india, the youngest of four siblings. she spent her childhood there until, due to the absence of schooling beyond the fourth grade and her father’s desire for her to pursue higher education, she relocated to a larger town at the age of ten or eleven where she lived with a maternal uncle9. shanta’s family in bhoringada was poor, like all of the villagers, though not entirely landless. her father, dharmadas, was the temple keeper, or pujari, and owned a small shop and peanut patch. one of his responsibilities as pujari was to host the wandering sadhus, or holy men, at the temple for up to a week at a time while they were on pilgrimage. shanta’s mother10, nanbai, always provided them with two hot meals a day and would make sure they had warm bedding in cold weather. provisioning of food for the sadhus sometimes proved difficult for her parents, especially in the dry season, when ingredients were hard to come by, “in which case my father would go around the neighbours to collect food and often other villagers would offer to help but my father would have to coordinate the tasks.” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 49 while daily life was a struggle for the impoverished villagers, who relied on subsistence farming for their livelihood, shanta stresses how “we really didn’t call [it] hardship because we didn’t know it was hard… but just a way of life.” nonetheless, having enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle in san francisco for the past fifty years, she recalls by ease of comparison and hindsight the relative difficulty of accessing what few resources were available in her village at that time and the quotidian tasks performed by even the youngest of children: “we worked from day one.” women were the predominant workhorses in the village. along with all the cooking, childrearing, and housework, they performed most of the farming tasks from sowing seeds to milking buffalo. harvesting and swapping of seeds was also done by women, a critical task for ensuring a resilient and diverse crop the following year. procuring basic cooking necessities like water and fuel was an ordeal as well. it was typically the children who were required to fetch water from the communal well and to gather kindling or cow dung for their mothers to cook on the fire. she recalls11: the hurdle was, you know, just the lack of resources. kindling wood, water, food, and they’re all interconnected. and, you know, we were put to work to collect it, every little bit that we can find… looking back, we didn’t have electricity at the time, we didn’t have running water, so you have to do everything, you know, by lamp. we had kerosene. often, it was rationed, so we had to be careful not to use it after certain hours, so studying past eight, we were allowed to keep the lamp on for one hour, then we had to turn it off and wait and wake up early in the morning to study... especially in the summer, there wasn’t that much kindling wood … that’s what my mother made a fire to cook the meals, and me and my sister were assigned to go gather it so we had to go in the farmland to find whatever we can find… that was hard because sometimes we came home with not enough and my mother didn’t like that. she didn’t know there was nothing there to collect. we ran out of the cow patties, which we also used as fuel, the dried cow dung. so that was hard. the most difficult period for the villagers was unequivocally the summer months, which lasted from march until mid-june, when the monsoon rains would finally commence. the children only had one month of vacation from school, during which they were put to work making papadum, a crunchy flatbread requiring very little flour, and shelling peanuts: “you have to shell every single one of them using your teeth, right, because at the time they didn’t have machines, so they’ll put the little people to work… i have to remember that the seeds go in one pile and the shells go in another pile and sometimes we would be such a hurry that we’ll mix up the shells with the seeds, and then it will take twice as long to clean them.” although they were required to work quickly and without error, shanta and her older sister enjoyed racing one another to fill the buckets. it was a particularly challenging season because the arable land did not produce food during the summer, and the last one to two months preceding monsoon were the most precarious as food rations were low and wells nearly dried up. she recalls how deep the village well was, “so you had to fetch the water with the rope from the well and it took caputo-nimbark, seed swaps and sunday sauce, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 50 more time and more work.” it was during this period when community members most relied on one another for food and support, and the landless peasants were especially vulnerable for lack of resources: the last month of the summer felt especially long and i remember i would look at the sky to see when the rainy clouds would gather… the most hard-hit community with food insecurity during the dry season were definitely the landless people. so folks like my mother would, you know, invent work for them, so for example quilting and deep cleaning the house to give them whatever little food she had in storage, and the landowning farmers’ wives did the same. i remember the women always did the bartering with services or other goods and they always fed the kids first, even when they were not your own kid. but there was definitely a challenge for the women folks to prepare food during the month before the monsoon because we were like running out of what we had, which would be your dried goods, whether pickles or vegetables or dal, and dal is this split beans. shanta describes how creativity played a large role in guaranteeing food for all members of society, even if the food itself was sometimes less than desirable. when it is a matter of eating food or not, taste and texture become less of a priority than sheer nutritional value: sometimes to be creative we had to use things like fenugreek, that looks like dal but it really isn’t, but turns out, nutritionally that does have a lot of protein. so when we think of spices, we don’t think of protein, right? it’s just a condiment. but fenugreek does have some protein, so we used the fenugreek, which was really, really hell bitter to eat with our millet bread. and my mother told us that this was nothing compared to a drought month when she was a child where they didn’t have any grains left one month and her mom had to make tiny chapatis using tamarind seed powder! if you have seen tamarind seeds, they are as hard as your teeth or even harder, so i don’t know how they ground them. in the days leading up to monsoon, it was considered auspicious to feed the village dogs, sometimes the highest quality food available. “it sounds contrary to common sense, perhaps, but when it didn’t rain they made lot of stuff and gave it to the dogs, you know, so that it will rain. so there was a sharing going on there, too.” food insecurity became virtually nonexistent during and after the monsoon, when even the landless laborers had plenty to eat, and harvests coincided with the most important religious holidays and village-wide celebrations. “nobody was left hungry during holidays and everyone shared sweets, which were a prized commodity.” the first crops of the season were always gifted to the gods at the temple for good luck, and dharmadas, being pujari, had the special privilege of accessing the prasad, or gods’ leftovers. the prasad, however, was readily shared with community members in need, the wandering sadhus, and the houseworkers: digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 51 as much as we weren’t the rich people, we always had somebody who’d come to our house to help us with housework, like doing dishes and stuff, and we’ll share whatever little food we had with them… they probably would have, you know, done the work anyways because it was for the temple keeper, right? yeah, we felt that sharing was the way to go. photo 1: the author’s three paternal aunts: labhu, shanta, and sharda, sharing food and smiles. san francisco, 2001. photo: rick sugarek. celebrations, to which the pujari and his family were always invited, included weddings, engagements, funerals, and bhajan, when the ancestors are ritually fed over a period of two weeks (sayers 2013). these festivities were usually joyful, even the funerals, and almost always accompanied by full days of singing, dancing, and feasting. shanta has especially vibrant memories of bhajan, a ritual she continues to perform every year. it inevitably involves stories about the deceased, for whom elaborate meals are prepared and offered on one’s roof for the crows to carry away to the ancestral spirits: we would have lot of people who would come to our house or we were invited to their house… bhajan is like you sing together or sometimes you have professionals who come and sing with a drummer, but end of the session there’s caputo-nimbark, seed swaps and sunday sauce, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 52 always some food and chai and sharing… sometimes the storytelling will be first and [stories] were told by a brahman that you have invited, you know, and it’s the same story and everybody knows it, but he just repeats it. at the end of the story, there’ll be puja and there’ll be food that we share. it is clear from her recollections that shanta’s village life was one of daily struggle tenuously balanced by grandiose festivities and a strong kinship network. these three fundamental elements were punctuated throughout by an ethic of food sharing, where it was everybody’s duty to ensure that nobody was left without food, not even dogs and spirits. this food sharing ethic extends to family members into the present (see photo 1). in the next section, i turn to another family member whose stories capture a sociocultural reality that is, on the surface, worlds apart from shanta’s but that, on closer inspection, is quite similar indeed. food economies in brooklyn, new york, 1950s-1960s addo’ magnano duje ponno magnà pure tre. where two can eat, so can three (neapolitan proverb) this section is based on an hour-long, semi-structured zoom interview with my mother in march 2021, who, like shanta, recalls diverse food economies from her childhood. my mother, maryann, was born in 1952 into a working-class italian american family in an ethnic enclave of brooklyn. as most of the residents had immigrated or were descendants of immigrants from rural southern italy, it was an unmistakably urban environment with visible agrarian roots. in fact, the neighbourhood was referred to colloquially as pig town because of the pigs that supposedly roamed the streets in the first half of the century. maryann’s father, tony, was pig town’s fruit peddler and he would spend his mornings singing neapolitan love songs and selling his wares, first from a horse and cart and later from his truck. as the story goes, his charming voice was what originally caught the attention of my grandmother, olga, who, lovestruck, restless, and to the chagrin of her parents, eloped with tony and subsequently plunged a couple rungs down the socioeconomic ladder. olga worked several odd jobs and tended to all the cooking and cleaning for their family. tony and olga raised five children together, the youngest of whom was maryann. in our conversations about my mother’s childhood, i am easily transported to her kitchen table watching her mother cook fish on a friday. while olga effortlessly grabs eels with a newspaper and bangs them over the head with a pan, a battalion of snails crawls up the walls in a futile attempt to escape the boiling pot. outside the kitchen, my mother recalls with equally vivid descriptions the host of characters who inhabited her neighbourhood and who seemed to embody a unique syncretism of devout catholicism and paganism. these images nearly always involve informal interactions with food. for instance, she recalls the old ladies perpetually in mourning, dressed in all black while walking either to or from church12: and they would walk down the street-i’d watch them as they walked-and in digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 53 between the concrete, wild dandelion would grow, and they would pick the dandelions, stick the dandelions in their pocket with their little sack or whatever they were carrying, and they’d go to church, and on the way back from church they’d do the same thing. so they were using the dandelions to cook. they were poor. and that would have been typical of what they would be doing if they were in italy. so always in mourning, they would talk italian to one another or to our neighbours, they would pick up the dandelion, they would stick it in their pocket… and that was just a normal, everyday kind of occurrence with people. then, there was the kind old lady, michelina, who lived across the street and would spend much of her time on her front stoop soaking her feet in greens. tony would regularly instruct maryann to bring her a bag of the leftover, wilted greens from his truck to soak her feet in. i include a lengthy quote about michelina here because i think it powerfully illustrates the food-centred, community-oriented, and paganistic world of italian american brooklyn in the 1950s: but he’d always give her something to cook, too. she’d sit in front of her house on the stoop with a basin of water and the greens in it, and she’d sit. she’d just soak her feet because she had, i guess… she was very old, and her skin was really brown from sun. she must have been old when she came to this country because she probably was a child growing up in the shadows of vesuvius, in the hot sun. and she had gray hair pulled always back in a bun and very leathery, you know, brown skin. sweet, sweet woman… and then, of course, every time there was a full moon she’d go crazy… wild hair... and we would worry. we’d say, “oh boy, she’s coming out tonight.” didn’t make a difference what month of the year. she’d come out with a stick and she’d run through the streets and hit everybody’s fence with the stick… oh, and for a woman who couldn’t walk, she ran, she ran… she was shouting all kinds of things. she’d say, “michelina one-two-three!” we’d say, “michelina one-two-three is coming!” and then she’d say all kinds of things in who knows what language, it could have been latin, it could have been anything, and she’d do it the next night, and then finally she’d calm down. then she’d sit there soaking her feet. while acknowledging her fascination with the daily deluge of sights, sounds, and smells from the old world, maryann admits that life for her and her family was full of hardships. they were a family of seven living in a small, run-down house, three to a bed with a single bathroom. rodents were a constant source of fear for maryann, as they would sometimes scurry over her bed or even up the sewage pipe into the toilet bowl. the view from the substreet-level kitchen window was a concrete wall. then, apart from “the day-to-day of having to make ends meet,” her community was eternally confronted by the idea of the american dream, a mythic and largely media-driven account of what constitutes success, with racial identity widely perceived as being paramount to one’s ability to access the myth: caputo-nimbark, seed swaps and sunday sauce, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 54 my family was probably a kind of quintessential example of people who knew, relatively speaking, that america offered more than what we had, yet there were very few ways for people to access the ways to get more when you had limited education, were a member of an ethnic group that was really far behind many others—being an italian american meant that you were handicapped from the standpoint of a definition of success. we were not wasps, we were white ethnics—a term that people are using today-and white ethnic meant that you were relatively deprived in relationship to other white ethnics… so i think that my family, while they may not have been able to articulate that, knew that. and my mother had an image of what it was probably in television land to be a white american wasp, and she was a white ethnic living in an urban, working-class, peasant-turned-into-proletariat brooklyn, with a husband who was a street peddler, far from what you’d imagine as being middle class. and she herself, a woman who tried to make ends meet by working odd jobs, you know, for most of her life, really her whole life. so, scarcity was a real thing, but it was also relative to the concept of the american dream, pretty much. in a word, stigmatization was the source of much of maryann’s struggle growing up, as she was perceived as belonging to a racial identity associated with street gangs and the mafia. she saw ethnic stigma as being intimately tied to “the reality of the lack of upward mobility… being stuck,” and blames it for her parents’ decision not to teach their children italian, a heavily stigmatized language at that time. maryann struggled tremendously in school, where she and other italian kids were regularly seated at the back of the class, bullied, and made to feel inadequate. her self-confidence was so poor and feelings of deprivation so extreme that she dropped out of school at sixteen and sought a rebellious escape through drugs and alcohol. it was not until many years later that she obtained her high school diploma and, eventually, a doctorate in sociology. for most italian-americans in pig town, food was the glue that bound them together, an omnipresent and dependable source of pride and joy. as with shanta, “eating out” never entered maryann’s childhood lifeworld. rather, all meals were prepared by her mother, also a remarkable alchemist of a cook. maryann recalls that the table was a necessary site of moral and cultural edification in a world of chaos and uncertainty, and that food sharing was a daily practice for community sustenance and the enforcement of kinship: you could repair through the sharing. you know, women have always done the work of sharing and caring, because what is the hearth and home? you listen to people’s problems, you feed them, and then you say, “and now what?” and you help them work it out. well, that was a neighbourhood, that was a collectivity, that was what people did, day in and day out. they gossiped, they shared, they repaired, and much of that was really done through food, food rituals of this and that. informal food economies thrived in pig town. tony the peddler habitually threw in a little extra for customers he knew could not afford it, sometimes doubling their eggplant or escarole at no extra cost. he would always gift michelina and other elderly folks some fish, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 55 “because who didn’t eat smelts or sardines on friday?” excess food from his truck went straight to olga’s kitchen: “my mother always made so many different kinds of foods and confectionaries that she would say, you know, ‘bring this to the neighbour’... there was the woman, asun, who lived around the corner, the old italian woman, and my mother would say, ‘bring her this dish of pasta, asun likes this.’” tony even shared vegetable scraps with the pig town cats. “that truck represented everybody’s meal, everybody’s meal.” medical care, not being socialized, could constitute a significant cost for families like maryann’s, so their family doctor would exchange services for cookies or fruit. “he’d say, ‘don’t worry about it, olga. tell tony to drop off a bushel of oranges or apples.’” the local shops operated on credit with many customers, especially those they knew to be on government subsidy, or “on relief.” the butcher always gave scraps to his customers, fully aware of the importance of his contribution to family meals: my mother… always cooked hearts and livers and gizzards. she’d say, “this is what we need. it’s good food.” and we ate it. i didn’t like it, but i mean that was there, it was on the plate. so there was nothing wasted. there was no waste. waste didn’t exist at all... and if my father didn’t sell all of the eels and the snails and the mackerel and the sardines, my mother had to cook it… people came in, people ate, people were always invited, people were always eating. and, you know, it was just the way it was because nothing could be wasted. the concept of waste didn’t exist. you couldn’t throw something away. the italian couple with the candy store on the corner also did their part to make sure there was something for everyone regardless of income: they were italians from the other side who happened to figure out how to open up a candy store. they had this water with sauerkraut in it and hot dogs. what the hell did they know about hot dogs? they were italians. but somehow they figured out that that’s what the germans ate and that’s what the jews ate, and why not have hot dogs? it cost next to nothing. but most people couldn’t afford the hot dogs. so you’d go in there and you’d say, “can i have a mush?” and a mush was give me the piece of italian bread, put the sauerkraut on it dripping with water, and the bread becomes soggy, and for two cents you didn’t have the hot dog but you had the mush. now, why would the dilee family do that? because the dilee family knew that most people couldn’t afford the hot dog. that was their way of sharing. yet, with all the apparent handouts, maryann stresses that in the environment she grew up in, out of pride and face-saving, people would not let on that they were lacking in food and resources. sharing was “indirect” so as to eschew the notion of charity. “it wasn’t a barter system where, you know, people are exchanging goods and services... it was quasicollateral urban brooklyn… but they brought with them the ways of the countryside.” as in bhoringada, religious festivals and celebrations were crucial community-bonding activities largely centred on food and entertainment. countless catholic saints were caputo-nimbark, seed swaps and sunday sauce, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 56 worshiped on their respective onomastico, or name day, in a carnival atmosphere punctuated by music concerts, food vendors, dancing, and games. sundays were full-day affairs where extended families would gather to eat many courses of food, compare homemade wines, sing neapolitan songs, and play bocce ball. a vat of aromatic sunday sauce would always be simmering on the stove, anticipating the imminent hunk of italian bread to be dunked by an impatient passerby. “and it went on for years and years and years in that vein.” not just maryann’s family, but seemingly everybody in her neighbourhood operated likewise, where directly after church would ensue a festive yet relaxed day devoted to food and family: it was like an outdoor picnic in brooklyn, in someone’s backyard… and every family was doing the same thing. every family was doing it. on sunday morning, anybody of my ethnicity in the summertime when the windows were open could smell the same tomatoes and basil and garlic being cooked. everybody was doing it. and everybody was happy to eat their macaroni and then have their coffee and then talk and then sit down and talk. you know, it was just, life centred around food completely… you had nothing to do but eat… so, you know, the idea today that we have to fit in food around scheduling was not existent. food sharing was thus an omnipresent buffer in perennially hard times; it was a reliable source of sustenance and sense of belonging around which ethnic traditions were constantly and intergenerationally reaffirmed. brooklyn provided a social and built environment conducive to the cultural reproduction of food traditions, at least until the 1960s for italian americans. while maryann blames much of the disintegration of foodbased kinship networks on suburbanization and its concomitant displacement of informal food economies by hypermarkets and impersonal stores, her childhood food memories forever serve as a model from which she derives her sense of ethics, especially as it relates to food and family. discussion: a bountiful future of food sharing possibilities in light of contemporary hardships pertaining to climate change and the all-encompassing crisis of modernity, how important is food sharing today? what are its possible roles in shaping an ethically and ecologically responsible future? how might we situate food sharing within the diverse economies framework to delink it from existing narratives of unilinear economic growth and recast it as a crucial enforcer of community and economic resilience in its own right? in attempting to answer these questions, i situate myself within the performative space of a researcher-activist to transpose lessons from my relatives into my own economic worldmaking potential. my findings corroborate evidence cited elsewhere (e.g. bird-david 1990) that economies of abundance are not requisite for sharing13. the environments in which shanta and maryann were born and raised differed drastically, as were the types of hardship they endured. for example, whereas shanta desired very much to study and was an admired student in her class, she was materially restricted by a kerosene rationing that only allowed her an hour each night for studying after completing her farming and household tasks. maryann, on the other hand, felt racially stigmatized by teachers and classmates in her ethnically mixed digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 57 classroom and, as a result, saw herself as incompetent, a feeling that was cyclically reinforced by her poor academic performance. of course, their hardships were not limited to school, and, as both attested to, their families often had to use culinary creativity to make ends meet for their families. whether it was fenugreek dal, tamarind seed chapatis, or fish hearts and gizzards, shanta and maryann occasionally consumed uncharacteristically subpar foods because their pragmatic mothers understood that resources were limited and that the prioritization of nutrition over taste was sometimes necessary. indisputably, the most visible similarities in these two women’s personal narratives are the preeminence of food in community affairs and the unremitting enforcement of kinship through informal food economies. harking back to widlok’s analysis of sharing in and sharing out, it is clear from both these examples that communities were strengthened through the former practice where, by “extending the circle of people who can enjoy the benefits of a shared resource” (2004: 61), the aggregate extended self is enlisted in the local economies of practice. indeed, even where on the surface it may appear as though food was being shared out, as with the bags of greens gifted to michelina or the meals provided for the wandering sadhus, on closer inspection it becomes clear that the donors of food were in fact expanding the domain of common property to include allies in a world of hardships. tony knew that michelina shared an appreciation of the greens from the old world just as dharmadas knew he was obliging the needs of fellow hindu peasants. to share food was as much a duty as an honour and a joy. addressing the crisis of modernity, belk & llamas (2012) contend that, despite cultural lessons about sharing, such as those learned in proverbs and childhood play, in contemporary western society, “sharing in” is becoming relatively uncommon in adulthood. they cite as the main drivers of this shift such modern phenomena as growing attachment to possessions, privacy and fear of strangers, values around individualism and independence, and utilitarianism (belk & llamas 2012: 636). there is an exhaustive amount of scholarship structuring these atomizing phenomena around capitalism and the culture industry (adorno & horkheimer 1972 [1947]). these scholarly works speak to the pervasion of capitalocentrism, buttressed by the neoliberal commodification of affect (clough 2008), evident in the stories we increasingly tell ourselves about desire and success. while i value their analyses, at the present i find it more productive to focus on those emancipatory spaces of hope and possibility rarely discussed in the academic literature. durkheim (1964) saw the desire for intimacy with others as the most important determinant of human behaviour, and it is no coincidence that the sharing of food, especially when it is shared in, is often intimately tied to a sense of communalism. we might ask, then, if kinship has been, in our examples at least, an historic precursor for extending the self or sharing in, how can we think about extending the self by sharing food in larger or more heterogeneous groups? or is it more likely that sharing out will replace sharing in, so that we will see more impersonal food sharing practices such as charities, food banks, and web-based initiatives to the detriment of inclusive and prosocial activities like block parties, supper clubs, potlucks, seed swaps, collective gardens, and community food distribution networks? caputo-nimbark, seed swaps and sunday sauce, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 58 gibson-graham (2006, 2008) advises us, where those prosocial spaces exist, to foreground them so as to cultivate existing and emergent economic discourses and practices centred on community, ethics, and sustainability. likewise, we can locate diverse food economies of the past, through personal experience narratives and ethnographies, to engage them in the present. bring back the seed swaps, the sunday sauce, the festivals, and the interpersonal relations with the poor. draw out the hidden or unacknowledged economic relations espoused by those practices in order to highlight, envision, and prefigure alternative food economies of the future. the relationships i discussed in this article accepted interdependency, regenerated trust, strengthened economic resiliency, and constantly reinforced the timeless ethic of mutual aid. when re-enacted in the present with a postmodern lens to reflexive performativity, new or revived vocabularies can legitimate these diverse economies in order to use them as springboards to perform new identifications, new interdependencies, new notions of economic value, and new ethics. without the confinement of the capitalocentric narratives, food sharing practices can coalesce around a desire for a sustainable future that puts ethics and community before linear growth14 in a diversity of creative ways. the dilees’ customers who purchased a mush in lieu of the pricier hot dog, the landless peasants who helped shanta’s mother with housework in exchange for food, and the street cats and dogs fed by my grandparents in bhoringada and brooklyn may never be seen in an economic textbook. yet, it is precisely these subjects that weak theory highlights when “attending and attuning” (stewart 2008: 72) to co-produced systems of meaning, affect, and economic value. rather than explaining away these practices as predictable representations of grand theories such as capitalism, poverty, or class relations15, weak theory sees them as contingent, dynamic, and negotiable, always with the possibility for surprise and creativity16. it sees the ecological value imbued in maryann’s recollection that “the concept of waste didn’t exist” as an ethical practice that communities can mobilize in the present to address the systemic overproduction of waste. while environmental stewardship from olga’s prudent use of resources was likely an unintended result of her pressing concerns with material survival, weak theory invites us to appreciate, with a postmodern gaze, her small but productive kitchen, animated by women sharing and repairing with food and stories, but conspicuously lacking the packaged, processed foods, overflowing trashcans, and energy-intensive appliances so common in kitchens today. these are the relational details to which weak theory may point our attention to adapt to contemporary, creative contexts. finally, i draw on my relatives’ experiences with food sharing to tie them to my own food sharing practices in newfoundland17. familiar with their nostalgic accounts of a time when kinship was still strong and neighbours regularly interacted and helped one another, but also privy to their general sense of pessimism about the alienating effects of modernity and inspired by the forward-looking prerogative of the diverse economies project, i have undertaken to revive and co-create food sharing traditions that are intentionally unhinged from the logics or illogics of capitalism. my partner and i opened a small eco-hostel a few years ago in rural newfoundland, where guests are invited to pay for a bed or else to exchange help with gardening or other projects for room and board. we are riding a wave digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 59 of growing enthusiasm for local food cultivation and healthy food more generally, which are likely reactions to an increasing threat of food insecurity due to frequent food shortages in local shops, a rise in diet-related health problems, and the effects of climate change. in any case, we see it as an opportunity to enact local food sharing economies. personally, we initiated a community learning garden and have hosted free or by-donation gardening and herbal wellness retreats, harvest potlucks, and a seed-saving workshop. we regularly swap seeds, garden products, and recipes with friends and neighbours, and a visit to somebody’s home is nearly always accompanied by the gifting or exchange of a jar of preserves, a loaf of bread, or garden produce. we participate in a bulk food buying club, quarterly farmers’ markets, and attend potlucks and fundraisers at our community centre18. we prepare organic fertilizers from comfrey, worm castings, humanure, and kelp, and happily share the finished products with interested folks, as well as tips about organic composting, gardening, vegan cooking and baking, preserving, and fermenting. finally, we continue the sunday sauce tradition, where all are welcome to indulge in an all-day eating and drinking bonanza. with a nod toward my relatives’ relational practices, we encourage active community engagement, zero waste production, and respect for our nonhuman neighbours. while generating local interest in diverse food economies that are social, fun, and free or not-for-profit, my community members and i are simultaneously extending our selves, in solidarity against a precarious future of food and in recognition of our emerging sense of trust and kinship. the emphasis on ethics, enjoyment, and empowerment via a prefigurative politics of sharing, reciprocity, and ecological stewardship, with a diminished focus on linear growth and competition, is reframing the notion of a successful food economy in a way that, by dint of its vast assemblage of activities, valorizes care and diversity. members of the community are assuming new roles and identities by engaging in different kinds of economic discourse, learning to articulate new vocabularies, and collaborating with diverse actors in creative and educational projects. of course, these practices are not all foreign; many residents have engaged in food sharing and gardening their entire lives. what is new is the postmodern imperative to recenter these practices as bulwarks in the face of continuous risk posed by climate change and unsustainable dominant narratives. with hindsight as our guide, we can recognize the power of community—enforced through the sharing of food and pleasures—to keep us connected, empowered, and well fed. while i may not habitually feed wandering sadhus or lunatics, there will always be travelers and eccentrics, and if we are willing to inhabit a shared space, we may as well share some healthy meals. conclusion: the great blackout revisited it is tempting to conclude that new york city’s food sharing episode resulted from a common crisis, but what if the deeper motive was an overdue collective desire to extend the self? true, when the power returned and the atms started working, the block parties ended. people went back to business as usual, and it is probable that many neighbours who had commingled freely on that sweltering thursday afternoon never spoke again. while a feeling of impromptu revelry was enjoyed by tens of thousands of people that day, it was so incredibly out of the ordinary as not to be taken seriously. just as the carnivalesque enables caputo-nimbark, seed swaps and sunday sauce, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 60 the status quo through a sanctioned allowance of temporary subversion of norms, the great blackout block parties were a refreshing but anomalous blip inside an outdated but widely accepted story. as i have tried to illustrate in this article, attention to personal experience narratives, diverse economies, and weak theory lets us write different stories. in these new stories, the anomalous blip might even become the new normal, or it might open up possibilities for a diversity of normals. while we cannot physically resurrect 1940s bhoringada or 1950s brooklyn, we can resuscitate their food sharing traditions and use them as blueprints to make new ones. my neighbours and i might swap broccoli seeds grown only in newfoundland or drink rum with our sunday sauce rather than red wine. as our appetite for ethically producing and consuming tasty, local, healthy food expands, so too may our appetite for co-performing those activities and sharing the fruits of our labour. in the present and impending crises, our greatest strength comes from companionship, in the very oldest sense of the word. _______________________________________ notes: 1 one reporter for a nyc-wide culture and news blog, gothamist, wrote: “while they had to endure about 30 hours without electricity, new yorkers turned the blackout into a moment of urban solidarity: citizens started to direct traffic since traffic lights were out; they helped each other out of trapped subway cars; welcomed in stranded colleagues who couldn't get home; restaurants held impromptu cookouts, sharing their food and beer with neighbors.” additional first-hand food sharing accounts from the blackout are related in the comments section of the blogpost. 2 psychologist michael tomasello (2009) studied sharing practices among children in various cultures, concluding that sharing is innate rather than learned. he found sharing to occur in children and chimpanzees before their parents or cultures impose politeness rules and that, starting around age three, children become more selectively helpful, learning and enforcing social norms of politeness in order to be accepted into groups. 3 belk and llamas describe the performativity of food “sharing in” as an interplay of cultural processes and individual psychology. for instance, in one study, a seventh grader is confronted with the initiation ritual of sharing her smoothie with peers and must contain her fear of contagion in order to be accepted into the group: “after that i realized that sharing was cool. it was the ‘in-thing’ to do and i fitted in” (belk & llamas 2012: 634). by sharing in with her peers, this initiate is celebrating “self-extension via an act of communion” (belk 2010: 726). 4 in his book feast: why humans share food, jones (2007) uses archaeology to uncover ancient hearths, tracing the evolution of hunting, cooking, and sharing food from over 30,000 years ago up to the complex eating traditions of today (e.g. douglas 1972). 5 j.k. gibson-graham is the pen name of katherine gibson and the late julie graham, feminist geographers based at university of western sydney and the university of massachusetts, amherst, respectively. 6 for gibson-graham (2008, 2014), the distinction between the epistemological and ontological are collapsed when the former representation of economic diversity achieved with “interpretive skill and a microscopic gaze” (gibson-graham 2014: 149 contributes to the enactment of that diversity through performative ontology. 7 for instance, vaughan (1997: 30) has shown how the gift paradigm, which “emphasizes the importance of giving to satisfy needs” and is “need-oriented rather than profit-oriented,” is in fact an extension of mothering as a practice that resists numerical calculations. for vaughan, the prerogative of expansion of capitalist exchange relations into the affective realms of emotional and nurturing labour is an invasion of feminist economies akin to plunder. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 61 8 much of the groundbreaking work from the frankfurt school, for example, while justifiably critical of capitalism, validates it through an overdetermined attribution of myriad cultural phenomena to capitalism or its corollary, “the culture industry” (adorno & horkheimer 1972 [1947]), without identifying or proposing alternatives. 9 following the lead of my father, her oldest sibling, to pursue studies in the united states, with his assistance shanta moved to new york at the age of nineteen. for the past fifty years, she has resided in san francisco where she raised three children, has been an active member of the food cooperative movement, published four food-related books, and continues to teach vegetarian cooking classes. 10 shanta’s birth mother was, by many accounts, an extremely talented cook and storyteller and “tough as a buffalo.” tragically, when shanta was only four years old, her mother took her own life after losing a daughter. although dharmadas remarried a woman from the next village and this new wife, nanima, was loved deeply by shanta and her three elder siblings, nanbai’s death left a dark void in the family and the village more broadly and, sadly, epitomizes the plight of so many peasants of that spatio-temporal reality. 11 all quotations in this section are by shanta nimbark-sacharoff. 12 all quotations in this section are by maryann caputo. 13 nor is poverty requisite for sharing. a major takeaway from the diverse economies project is that sharing and other informal economies have always existed through time and space, but that they are increasingly masked within mainstream economic discourse. through the cultivation of novel vocabularies, identifications, and collaborative economies, food sharing can become central to our emerging perceptions of economic value. 14 similarly, heldke (2011) discusses our moral imperative to cultivate a politics of pleasure around eating that derives a sense of aesthetics from the many dimensions of food ethics, above all else. 15 for example, maryann positions her family’s poverty and lack of upward mobility in relation to the american dream, an elusive grand narrative grounded in excesses of capital and attained by few. however, weak theory draws attention to the myriad economic relations, food-sharing activities, and food-related festivities in pig town that belie a perceived sense of inferiority, indeed, that reinforce a localized sense of ethnic and/or community pride. 16 it also sees performers of diverse economies often excluded from the mainstream capitalist economy, such as unemployed youth, single parents, retrenched workers, and subsistence farmers, as actually and potentially valuable and dynamic economic actors in their own right. 17 likewise, i plan to gather personal experience narratives in my own community so as to document and recontextualize bygone practices and economic vocabularies, some of which undoubtedly predate capitalocentric discourse but, owing to folklore and memory, are still recognizable by locals. feelings of familiarity and belonging are desirable in the co-(re)production of affective and relational economic practices (wright 2015). 18 critical engagement with diverse institutions, from community development boards to church networks to regional or national organizations, may open up new dialogues and secure access to external knowledge, funds, and other resources. caputo-nimbark, seed swaps and sunday sauce, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 62 references cited adorno, theodor and max horkheimer. 1972 [1947]. dialectic of enlightenment. translated by john cumming. new york: herder & herder. belk, russell. 2010. sharing. journal of consumer research 36 (5): 715-734. belk, russell and rosa llamas. 2012. the nature and effects of sharing in consumer behavior. in transformative consumer research for personal and collective well-being, ed. david g. mick, simone pettigrew, cornelia connie pechmann, and julie l. ozanne, 625-646. london: routledge. bird-david, nurit. 1990. the giving environment: another perspective on the economic system of gatherer-hunters. current anthropology 31 (2): 189-196. cameron, jenny and julie-katherine 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39 (4): 391-411. interviews caputo, maryann. 2021. interview with author. march 2. nimbark-sacharoff, shanta. 2021. interview with author. march 5. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 165-166 © american folklore society 2021 review of: vinegar & char: verse from the southern foodways alliance review by: sarah t. shultz ____________________________________________________________ vinegar & char is an anthology of verse about southern food. the volume commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the southern foodways alliance (sfa), an academic organization that studies and documents the various foods and food cultures of the american south. since poetry is a subjective medium not every line in the collection will speak to each reader, however these works illuminate the spectrum of human experiences in the american south using foodways as a prism. some poems use a combination of lyricism and contrast to capture the feeling of experiencing the agricultural past and more industrialized present of the region simultaneously, while others focus on sensory details to illustrate how taste and texture connect us to specific moments. in the introduction, editor sandra beasley suggests that the goals of sfa, and by extension of the collection, are to widen ideas of what constitutes southern food, and approach the subject with respect and an eye towards acknowledging and bridging economic, racial, and ethnic divides that have long characterized the region. ralph w. eubanks builds on these ideas in the foreword, identifying grappling with history without falling into oversimplified nostalgia as a major concern of the collection. if the two major goals of vinegar & char are to create a more inclusive, multivocal south, and to simultaneously celebrate the pleasures and confront the pains of its past without oversimplifying either dimension, it succeeds in meeting these goals. while it would be impossible to represent every lived experience of the american south today in this collection, beasley has put together a truly dynamic, nuanced portrait of the south that acknowledges both its past and present diversity. despite the slimness of the volume, there is ample space in these pages for fond looks back at family and community traditions, honest critiques of slavery, intolerance, and economic inequality, and many other perspectives that fall along this spectrum. however, the absence of context for the poems or information about how or why they were selected could present difficulties for readers looking to use this book as a primary research source. the poems are organized into three sections, but there is very little information given on how specific poems were chosen beyond the fact that many have been previously featured in sfa publications. there is no discussion of how the themes were chosen and organized. section i explores the gathering and preparation of southern food. processing food for consumption is explored on an individual, intimate scale, in the shucking of an oyster or the slaughtering of a pig, as well as within the larger historical and social contexts of slavery and migrant labor. section ii investigates the connection between food and relationships. the poems use food as a metaphor to explore romantic love, friendship, family ties, employee and employer relationships, small and large communities, and the shultz, review, vinegar & char digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 166 connections between humans and the natural world. because relationships take center stage in this section, the food itself occasionally fades into the background. while this slipping in and out of focus is an accurate representation of food’s place in southern culture, readers interested in exploring its symbolic functions in southern daily life and history may find this section less fruitful for analysis. the poems of section iii are concerned with the different ways that food connects people with one another. while some entries celebrate these connections, others test the limits of food’s ability to create a sense of communitas by illuminating food’s role in systems of inequality. the contributor notes section could be an excellent resource for scholars looking for contemporary works of poetry dealing with foodways of the american south. but if there were also a section in which more context was provided on the content of the poems and their intended purpose within the collection as a whole, it might prove helpful for researchers working on long-term projects or professors looking to integrate these verses into syllabi for food studies courses. the collection may not be a perfect resource for foodways scholars, but its entries can be used in a number of ways. specific poems could be paired with scholarly sources to provide a more varied learning experience for students in introductory foodways courses, for example; researchers doing fieldwork on southern foodways could share poems from the collection with interviewees to facilitate discussion. while vinegar & char may present certain challenges for foodways scholars looking to integrate it into research projects or course curricula, as a collection of poetry it soars. the poems illustrate various ways in which food, frequently characterized as everyday and trivial, can inspire a lyrical response. food inspires poetry because it is linked to memory, identity, and the landscapes we inhabit and dream about. the works selected in vinegar & char depict the south beautifully and realistically. there is something here for everyone who is interested in the connections between food, place, and identity. review of: vinegar & char: verse from the southern foodways alliance review by: sarah t. shultz digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 43-65 © american folklore society 2021 27 a return to tradition: the significance of baking during covid-19 by: juliana young abstract throughout the covid-19 pandemic, baking has been a popular activity for those with more free time at home. news articles about the trend suggest the abundance of free time and the activity’s stress-relieving abilities as the main reasons for baking’s prevalence, but they fail to recognize the broader cultural implications of the baking craze. this autoethnographic article, from the perspective of someone who started baking more seriously during the pandemic, extends the work of food memory scholars such as david e. sutton, and suggests that baking’s ability to create and evoke memories, its physicality, and the personal connections made and maintained through it are each important reasons for the hobby’s popularity during a time of global distress. keywords: autoethnography, pandemic baking, “return to the whole,” prospective memory introduction when lockdown orders began in the early days of the covid-19 pandemic in march of 2020, many people turned to food to pass the time. bread-making quickly became a trend amongst those working from home or laid off from their jobs, which soon expanded into baking of all kinds. much has been written about the quarantine baking craze, both in academic journals and in popular media; a simple web search provides articles about the trend from sources as varied as the atlantic, cnbc, and even the land o’lakes butter company. while some sources extol the virtues of comfort food in times of stress (clifford 2020, gilman 2020), the most common explanation given for baking’s rise in popularity is simply the surplus of free or flexible time that many individuals suddenly possessed (mull 2020); however, the broader cultural implications of the baking craze remain largely overlooked. this autoethnographic exploration of quarantine baking supports meredith e. abarca and joshua r. colby’s observation that although food memories function sensorily and emotionally within the individual, they are ultimately rooted in wider social and cultural currents (2016: 5). building on my own experiences as an individual who started baking more seriously during the pandemic after a lifetime of casual baking, i extend the work of food memory scholars such as david e. sutton, as well as authors of recent articles written on life during the pandemic. i explore baking’s ability to create and evoke memories, its physicality, and the personal connections made and maintained through it in order to understand the wider cultural reasons for baking’s popularity during covid-19. nostalgia, memory, and food when covid-19 first arrived in canada, i was living with a roommate in winnipeg, manitoba, and working full-time at an ice cream shop at a popular tourist location. like young, a return to tradition, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 28 many, my contact with other people was suddenly limited when the virus started to spread and lockdowns began. i was laid off in mid-march and began to receive the canadian emergency response benefit. my immediate family (consisting of me, my parents who live in winnipeg, and my older sister who lives in toronto) spoke regularly through video chat, and when i saw my parents in person, it was outdoors from six feet away; they would bring me things like fresh yeast, homegrown rhubarb, bouquets of flowers from their garden, and almond flour. with more time at home, i started to bake more, and i placed more importance on food preparation and baking—this felt natural to me, as i have always enjoyed cooking and baking in my free time, and now i had more free time than ever before. at first, i made all sorts of things, from sauerkraut to banana cream pie to candied fruit peels. the fresh yeast my parents gave me at the beginning of quarantine likely contributed to my initial baking output, and i was able to use nearly all of it in things like cinnamon buns and brioche before it spoiled. i returned to work part-time in may of 2020 as case numbers decreased, however, and baking became the only consistent food-related hobby i maintained, with cooking generally demoted to a chore since i had less free time. i continued to work a few times a week throughout the summer, and was able to visit my parents at their home to have dinner on their porch most weeks; i often baked for them as well, using up ingredients from my pantry to make things like pear crumble and galette. compared to others, my initial experience with the pandemic was relatively mild even though the situation was distressing, as case numbers in manitoba remained somewhat low throughout the summer. like many, my patience and nerves wore thin as lockdowns were constantly imposed and retracted and covid cases spiked and lowered. my experience in quarantine was further complicated by the fact that i moved to st. john’s, newfoundland and labrador for graduate school at the end of the summer, driving in isolation with my partner across canada to live in a town where neither of us knew anyone. since relocating, baking has taken on an even greater importance in my life as a form of stress relief from both school responsibilities and from the effects of prolonged isolation from loved ones. though my partner cooks most of our meals, i ensure that we always have baked goods in the house, and often experiment with new recipes. while i have always been a nostalgic person, eager to revisit my childhood and the comfort of the past, an unusual nostalgia for “normal life” emerged within me as we entered into the second year of the pandemic. i wash my hands, wear a mask, and adhere strictly to the social distancing guidelines, though i, like many, want to be out in the world without restriction or fear, to travel, to visit with people, and to experience life outside of my computer screen. as a result, i have found myself resorting to physical domestic activities like baking, sewing, and knitting, in an effort to stay grounded in the physical world. as svetlana boym puts it, i am trying to return to “a home that no longer exists” (2010). i believe that baking, more than any other activity, fulfills my nostalgia for a short time, as it is physically and spiritually satisfying and it instills a sense of that “home” in me. i bake not only because i have the time, but because i find comfort and familiarity in the things that i digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 29 make—things like clafoutis, which my mother often made during my childhood; rhubarb and almond cake, from the ingredients my parents brought me outside of my apartment in winnipeg; and gingerbread, which i delivered to my father for his birthday in the early days of the lockdown. in moving away from home, the sense of comfort and familiarity that baking provides has only grown more important to me as i get to know a new city in isolation. anthropologist david e. sutton applies the concepts of “xenitia” and the “return to the whole,” “prospective memory,” and “synesthesia” to the gastronomic experiences of greek migrants and inhabitants of the greek island of kalymnos in his own work, yet these ideas are equally as relevant in the context of baking and memory during the covid-19 pandemic, when many feel disconnected from the world in which they find themselves. in his work on food memories, sutton describes the feeling of “xenitia,” or “absence from home,” that many migrants experience in their new environment. he explains it as “a condition of estrangement, absence, death, or of loss of social relatedness” (2005: 305) that results in a painful desire to “return to the whole” through sensuous, material experiences when migrants encounter insurmountable cultural differences. certainly, the feeling of xenitia and the desire to “return to the whole” are apparent as i reflect on my own life since the beginning of the pandemic; losing a year of normal daily life and social interaction to a global event outside of our control is alienating and distressing, and it seems understandable that we would be “looking for firm ground under [our] feet” (thomassen in sutton 2005: 306). sutton himself notes that xenitia’s socially estranging effects can be relevant not just to literal migrants who have resettled in other parts of the world, but to anyone experiencing the sensation of being “foreign,” whether it be spatiallyor temporally-based. one translation of “xenitia” is “exile” (papalexandrou 2010), an appropriate term to use in reference to the sense of displacement caused by the covid-19 pandemic, as so much of the world has been exiled from itself for the past year. with the feeling of exile comes the desire for familiarity and comfort. in their 2020 article “a humanities-based explanation for the effects of emotional eating and perceived stress on food choice motives during the covid-19 pandemic,” shen et al. note that their survey of american adults found that the stress of the pandemic likely resulted in greater rates of emotional eating, which caused individuals to select foods based on “mood, convenience, sensory appeal, price, and familiarity” over health, natural content, weight control, and ethical concern (2020: 5). with regard to familiarity, they write that, “familiar foods can bring up warm nostalgic feelings that can comfort us. they remind us of who we are, grounding our personal histories in larger historical movements and reminding us of continuity when the future is uncertain” (2020: 10). when i prepare and eat certain foods under pandemic conditions, i recall past instances when i have shared them with people who i can no longer see in person: the weekend mornings of my childhood, when my father made blueberry pancakes; friends’ birthday parties, for which i baked my granny’s hot milk sponge cake; and the beginning of the christmas season, signaled by my great-grandmother’s doughnut recipe. these foods, rooted in personal tradition, are the closest i can get to physically returning to the past, yet young, a return to tradition, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 30 they also call to mind the future, and the possibility of physically reuniting with loved ones. the necessary continuity that food maintains between past, present, and future parallels sutton’s concept of “prospective memory," through which individuals and communities, “plan in the present to remember food events in the future” (2001: 19); during the pandemic, i have made each personally significant recipe with this goal in mind. when the rest of life is disjointed both from past “normal life” and from the unknown future, food events, rooted firmly in the everyday, ensure the perpetuation of traditions. in addition to providing comfort and familiarity, baking is, of course, a fun and relaxing hobby—a way to pass the time when there is suddenly more of it to fill than usual. certainly, many canadians found themselves with plenty of time on their hands as covid19 lockdowns began—in mid-march of 2020, over 500,000 people applied for unemployment insurance in one week, as opposed to the 27,000 applications received in the same week a year earlier (deaton 2020: 144). as the days at home blurred together in the winter of 2020, i found that rather than measuring time with a calendar, i had begun to mark the weeks by the amount of bread my partner and i had eaten; by now, i am well aware when i make bread that the two loaves i bake will last for about two weeks. because it has become such a regular event at this point, i do not recall each instance of breadbaking in detail even though i measure the weeks in loaves; what i do remember are the new recipes i try, whether they be traditional family recipes, like my grandmother’s brownies, or recipes making their rounds in my friend group, like galette. the covid-19 pandemic has reduced the amount of socialization and movement that many of us were used to, meaning that our memories are no longer aided as often through orally retelling stories of our experiences or through the transitions between geographical space that we made more frequently before lockdowns began (hammond 2020). the fact that our days pass by in very predictable ways only adds to this memory fog, as our brains are programmed to prioritize unusual memories over the mundane (grabmeier 2017). as sutton and others have shown, however, taste and memory are closely linked, even sharing the same neural pathways—the hippocampus is crucial in the development of “declarative or explicit memories,” in addition to emotions, senses, and basic drives like thirst and hunger (allen 2012: 152). this explains why food can be so comforting on a physiological level—taking us back to a romanticized past inaccessible by other means— and why baking memories stand out to me amidst the monotony of life in lockdown. in physical isolation from friends and family, i have largely replaced social memories with baking memories: bagels, doughnuts, croissants, coconut buns. baking allows me to simultaneously recall old times while making memories for the future; food is a powerful tool for breaking up the blur of time. embodiment through baking i have noticed, during my last few bread-baking sessions, that i have finally memorized the recipe¹ i use for white sandwich bread after slowly learning the measurements, method, and timing over the past year. aside from food’s ability to call up old memories and to create new ones, food preparation can be a memory-building activity in itself because of its physical nature. you cannot learn to make bread simply by reading the words on a page; you must learn about the weight, the texture, the temperature of the dough as it moves digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 31 through the phases of mixing, kneading, and rising, and your body must absorb these feelings and carry them. baking’s physicality also creates a sense of agency. at the beginning of the pandemic, when store shelves were empty and there was little knowledge about the spread and symptoms of covid-19, it was nice to know that i could still take flour, yeast, sugar, salt, oil, and water and make a loaf of bread. shen et al. recognize this as well, stating that cooking and baking can, “enable us to feel that we still have some control over our lives during a time in which control over many other aspects is uncertain” (2020: 10); they even speculate that the rise in baking’s popularity during lockdown could be explained by this sense of control. i agree that the feeling of agency created through baking is important to the trend’s success, though i argue that it is not a complete explanation. baking’s ability to reproduce positive nostalgic feelings that “speak through our senses […] reflecting visceral selfawareness” (abarca and colby 2016: 7) is just as (if not more) important to baking’s popularity as the sense of power we feel throughout the process. during a time when bodies are highly regulated sites of fear and discomfort, easily capable of catching and spreading a deadly virus, food preparation is an example of positive embodiment that provides physical and emotional comfort and sustenance. laura siragusa writes about her experiences as an italian immigrant making sourdough bread during the lockdown in finland. she describes how she began to focus on her breathing and on the quietness while she kneaded the dough, and notes the range of senses involved in the process: through my hands, my nose, my eyes, i am directly, sensually, and materially intertwined to another living being […] [the starter’s] responsiveness and reaction has agency on how i perform when i refresh him, as i knead harder or softer, faster or more slowly, add water or flour, depending on his texture, which suggests that we attune affectively in these activities. (2020: 90) siragusa’s passage effectively captures the tangible satisfaction felt with successful baking; the practice forces you to focus with every relevant sense on what is in front of you, and to use your lived experience to guide you towards the right dough texture, the right amount of rise. while my own experiences with baking are generally not quite as meditative as siragusa describes, baking still allows me to take my mind off of outside events and live solely in the present, resting my eyes from the strain of the screen and placing my focus on my other senses. part of the appeal of baking, then, must be in the fact that the activity does not require reliance on a screen when so much of life in quarantine occurs online. though using technology can be (and often is) helpful and joyous, engaging with a physical object like dough cannot lead you down the rabbit holes of distressing news stories that so frequently result from online activities. echoing sutton’s assertion that objects, as loci of shared cultural memory, enable a “return to the whole” (2005: 305), shen et al. write, “aesthetic objects and activities engage our senses, focusing our attention on the experience at hand young, a return to tradition, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 32 and taking our minds off of other issues, including the current pandemic situation” (2020: 10). if eating facilitates a “return to the whole” through taste-based food memory, the act of baking is a “return to the whole” through touch-based food memory, removing us from existing worries, forcing us to slow down, and reminding us of the good our bodies can do as we ground ourselves in the present through enjoyable physical labor. the perception of baking as leisurely has remained relatively stable throughout the covid19 pandemic. in pre-pandemic life, the possibility of baking and cooking for fun hinged on the classand gender-based ability to “experience the home as a site of leisure rather than labor,” which, “rests on a relatively clear demarcation of the temporal relations between public and private spheres” (hollows 2003: 240). while the spatiotemporal distinction between work and leisure collapsed for people who began working from home during quarantine (easterbrook-smith 2020: 4), the distinction between baking as leisure and cooking as labor became more obvious in my life. gwyn easterbrook-smith asserts that this distinction between cooking and baking, two activities that seem so similar, is due to “baking’s contingent meaning as predominantly leisurely in the quarantine context” (2020: 4). they propose that baking bread during the covid-19 isolation period serves three purposes: providing physical nourishment, filling free time with “distraction and comfort” (2020: 2), and presenting a new skill to document on social media. because the end product is “incidental rather than central” (2020: 4) to the point of baking during the pandemic, baking retains its status as largely a leisure activity. even during the period in which i was at home all day and out of work, cooking, although necessary for survival, became a recurring chore at times; baking, on the other hand, remained a joyous activity, neither necessary for survival nor required to fulfill daily nutritional requirements, and often not motivated by physical hunger. my interest in baking has only grown over the course of the pandemic, and has increasingly involved yeast and homemade pastry dough, both of which i did not have as much time to learn about prior to lockdown. while my first-time baking efforts are never perfect (and are sometimes rather unsightly), i have never made something inedible. the exactness of baking, which requires specific amounts of ingredients and specific processes and timings, is more calming to me than cooking, which i often find stressful due to its improvised nature and its variability; this is likely why baking remains a fun and incidentally productive hobby as the pandemic wears on. from my position, it seemed as though the entire world slowed down when the lockdown began—friends were sending letters and learning to knit and sew, people had more time for long walks and drives outside of the city, and my parents both had more time at home to work on the garden and built big raised beds where they grew vast quantities of vegetables in the warmer months. for me, and many around me, there was no better time to take up baking, an activity that tends to require large amounts of free or flexible time. of course, my position was one of relative privilege; although i returned to work later in the pandemic at a point when case numbers were low in manitoba, the business i worked for made the wise choice to lay off its employees when the lockdown first began. i qualified digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 33 for the emergency response benefit and it covered my cost of living; i did not need to worry about time or money. however, for many who have worried about time or money during the pandemic, and who have not had much of either, it seems that the baking trend generally has been inaccessible for several reasons. as gwyn easterbrook-smith points out, even having the option to bake depends on whether one has the money for equipment and ingredients, and whether they have their own kitchen with a full oven rather than a hot plate or microwave (2020: 3). even with the proper materials, many people simply have not been able to take on time-intensive hobbies—particularly people (and especially women) who have had to accommodate their children’s homeschooling and additional cleaning duties (nienhuis and lesser 2020: 2), and low-income essential workers who have worked throughout the pandemic with little reprieve. for these reasons, the demographic of individuals involved in the baking craze in canada likely skews towards the upper middle class, or at least towards those for whom cerb or employment insurance² covers necessary expenses. with regard to essential workers, while the personal protective equipment required for many essential jobs—from the full body suits worn by medical workers to the masks and plexiglass protecting food service employees—aids in physical well-being, it simultaneously fragments the senses, privileging vision and hearing and demoting touch, smell, and taste. synesthesia—“the way that the different senses elaborate on each other, rather than being considered separate domains of experience” (sutton 2005: 312)—is severely stunted by this fragmentation, limiting the possibility of “returning of the whole”, and thus the possibility of true and positive embodiment. because workers are seeing less of their friends and family, and thus are having fewer social interactions outside of work in order to limit the chance of viral transmission, the “physical and spiritual pain” of xenitia must also be felt, and the opportunities to “return to the whole” must be infrequent with so little time to cook, bake, and enjoy eating. maintaining connections photo 1. the last birthday cake i made before the pandemic: a chocolate cake for my mother. winnipeg, october 13, 2019. photo: juliana young. young, a return to tradition, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 34 i have baked throughout my life, and while it has largely been on a casual basis, i can recall periods of free time when i spent most of my time baking (and thinking about baking) specific foods: muffins, cinnamon buns, cookies, breads. both of my parents bake as well: my father tends to make the everyday staples like muffins and bread, while my mother generally makes things like meringues and tarts for holidays and other special occasions. my sister is no different, and she has also had the time to bake more during the pandemic. given the significance of baking in my personal family history, and given that baked goods are often social foods, it feels natural to me to share what i make with friends and family. photo 2. a rhubarb and almond cake from the early days of the pandemic. winnipeg, june 21, 2020. photo: juliana young. when the pandemic began, many of us turned to social media to stay connected with our loved ones. easterbrook-smith suggests that the pandemic baking trend arose with this tendency, partially as a way to “demonstrate one’s skill and activities on social media, allowing connection to wider social groups in the absence of face-to-face contact” (2020:2). in addition to its benefits in the realms of memory and embodiment, baking does provide the opportunity for social connection in both personal and public settings. though i do not have an enormous social media presence, my past activity on instagram shows that i tend to post a photo on my “story” (which remains visible on my profile for 24 hours) almost every time i make something that is not white bread or cookies—bagels, brioche, cinnamon buns, clafoutis, croissants, doughnuts, pumpkin tarts, stollen. i will be digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 35 the first to admit that when i post the food i bake on social media, it has the double function of updating my friends and followers on my recent activity and demonstrating my proficiency at a skill that not all possess—“a performance which it [is] possible to fail at” (2020: 4), as easterbrook-smith puts it. when i try a recipe or a baking method for the first time and i am aware that my skill level is not high enough to show off, i couch my post with the invariable phrase, “first try at [type of food]”; this phrase works to deflect criticism by indicating that i am aware that i am not yet highly skilled at making what is depicted, given that it is my first time baking it. since i am posting a photo, my first attempt must have turned out relatively well, ergo it must be impressive that i had never made it before—this train of thought exemplifies the highly curated, performative nature of social media, where one requires personal knowledge of internet customs to execute actions adequately; the fact that i only noticed this tendency when i went back to look at my social media activity for this paper further exposes how ingrained web conventions can become within us. in my own case, then, public social media performance is not the most honest means of connecting with others over food. photo 3. one of many “first tries”: coconut buns for my partner’s birthday. st. john’s, march 16, 2021. photo: juliana young. in analyzing private messages from family and friends during the pandemic, it is clear that the posts i make about baking receive more attention than most of my other instagram stories do. certain friends only reply to my stories when i post photos of baking, which could indicate either that we have a common interest in the process itself, or that, in the words of one of my friends who commented on a photo of the brioche i made, they “really want to eat that bread.” of course, while social media has been beneficial for maintaining contact with loved ones during isolation, interactions on a public platform with different posts constantly vying for attention can only go so deep; we must also consider the ways in which the physical act of baking affects personal connections outside of social media. young, a return to tradition, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 36 throughout the pandemic, my family has maintained regular daily contact through a group chat. while we keep one another updated on covid-19 case numbers and the rollout of vaccines in our areas, the majority of our text conversation revolves around updates on three things: the family dog, household decor and maintenance, and foods we have been making and eating. it would be false to state that food photos alone keep us in contact, as each of these subjects elicits an enthusiastic response from my family members, but messages about food seem to garner the most visceral, engaged replies—“a tragedy!” in response to a photo of an empty ganong chocolate box, or “we’ll be right over” from my father when i have made a dutch baby pancake for breakfast halfway across the country. i suspect that pictures of good food receive such passionate responses both because making something delicious is an accomplishment that we can all relate to, and because when we see the images, we are filled with envy based on our previous experiences with similar varieties of foods. in the case of family, we may also share collective memories of previous experiences, adding further layers of meaning to the foods that we cannot physically share with one another. lin t. humphrey writes that, ‘both the word and the concept of tradition imply power, the power of continuity and stability” (1989: 168); in sharing images of food, we are perhaps trying to maintain some sense of familial tradition while distant from one another, thus distracting ourselves from current global events by reminding us of the seemingly more stable past. david sutton notes that imagining tastes and smells is not as easy as recalling colors or sounds; he states that we often use related images to reference scents (2005: 310), which approximate the feelings that smells evoke yet fail to replicate the synesthetic quality inherent to smells. indeed, we cannot experience embodied memories through sight alone, nor by looking at photos of personally significant foods can we truly feel the comfort that results from their flavors and from the memories that have come to be associated with them. it is deeply important to speak with friends and family and to keep up with them, but i have found that recreating emotionally significant foods is an effective method to experience a closer connection over a physical distance. as jillian gould writes, cooking can bring us back to different periods of our lives that are now past, and can strengthen family bonds across both time and space (2017: 103). the food my mother makes during christmas is an essential part of our holiday tradition, and i cannot remember any christmas without her baking. we do not eat these foods at any other time of the year, so they evoke strong memories for me of my childhood and my parents’ home in the winter, warm and brightly lit, with a fire burning in the woodstove. each year, my mother makes my great-grandmother’s recipe for doughnuts to signal the beginning of the holiday season. it is not christmas without the doughnuts; while my mother bakes other special things like butter tarts and my paternal grandmother’s stollen, the day my mother makes the doughnuts has always been the one time every member of my family, regardless of how busy we are, gathers together in the kitchen to roll the doughnuts in sugar and eat them fresh from the pot. it is an annual ritual, and as humphrey, humphrey, and samuelson note, rituals “function to mediate our passage” (1988: 4) through life. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 37 covid-19 has fractured many cultural and personal traditions over the past year; we have had to either skip them altogether, or alter them so they might continue within a new (and often virtual) context. but as anne kaplan writes, "it is a sentimental fallacy that change is an enemy of tradition… [people] constantly alter traditions to fit their lives; a static tradition is… a dead one” (1986: 3). because i moved to newfoundland, i was unable to safely return home to winnipeg in the winter of 2020 to celebrate the holiday at my parents’ home. i still felt obligated, however, to continue my mother’s baking traditions and to make the donuts for myself and my partner, even though i had only helped my mother make them a handful of times throughout my life. donut-making was redefined in my house as a group tradition this year, as my partner fried the doughnuts in oil once i had prepared the dough. i proved that experiential physical learning is imperative in baking (sutton 2013: 303), as the first batch of doughnuts came out of the pot rock-hard due to the amount of flour i mistakenly added while trying to reach what i believed to be the proper consistency. although the texture was unlike the donuts my mother has made in the past, the flavor was perfect. the first bites of donut created a physical and emotional connection with my family that text and images alone could not provide; the flavor of christmas at home was there, even if i could not be at home. food memories are effective precisely because of their ability to build and strengthen relationships, and to represent whole eras and identities (sutton 2008: 178). sutton describes a greek woman living in germany who laughs and cries upon receiving a package from home containing kalymnian honey: “such moments of wholeness are bittersweet and temporary,” he explains, “a reminder of a homeland the return to which is deferred. yet the soothing fullness also suggests that such moments give the migrants the strength to carry on with their xenitia” (2005: 308). eating the donut, i knew the feeling of “fullness” would not last and that the context of the tradition had changed, yet having a physical, synesthetic reminder of my family gave me something tangible to hold on to as i spent my first christmas in a new city. when i eat donuts with my family next year, i will carry this new memory with me. future and tradition in a letter to a friend one month into the lockdown, i wrote that i felt like a 1950s housewife, both because activities like baking, cooking, and knitting filled most of my days, and because, given that i had fewer places to visit, the domestic spheres of the grocery store and the home had become my primary domain. although i described a simplified caricature of a housewife in my letter, ignoring the difficult and troubling aspects of the role, i believe that there is some truth to the suggestion that many of us have started to take more interest in feminine-coded activities like baking, cooking, canning, and gardening, because all of our time is spent in the traditionally feminine domestic realm. amanda mull (2020) notes that home baking has declined in recent decades largely because women have entered the workforce in greater numbers. with nobody at home full-time anymore, households have turned to grocery stores and bakeries for their baked goods. now that we find ourselves at home once more, it feels comforting to play the stereotypical hospitable maternal role—even if we are just performing for ourselves—because these activities are firmly embedded in our conceptions of home and domesticity. young, a return to tradition, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 38 prior studies show that women globally completed the majority of cooking prior to lockdown (wolfson et al. 2021), even while working full-time jobs. early data on gendered cooking patterns during the pandemic show that women in the united kingdom and the united states still perform a disproportionate amount of daily meal preparation (zhou et al. 2020, swan 2020), so while i do not expect a shocking difference in the gender distribution of domestic tasks in later research on the topic, perhaps the mainstream visibility and popularity of home-based activities during the pandemic will at least lead to a broader and more permanent appreciation of domestic labor within our culture. the increased interest in baking is only a small part of a larger recognition of the importance of home, of domestic labor, and of a more equal work-life balance, spurred by the changes that we have experienced in our daily lives due to the pandemic. while i dream of returning to a “normal life” free of covid-19, staying home for such a long period of time has allowed me to imagine possible utopias based upon my experiences. recent scholarship shows that i am not alone in my imagination, as workplaces have begun to recognize the benefits of reducing weekly office hours and allowing employees to work from home more often even after the pandemic ends (bbc 2020). other research suggests that the “local food” movement is gaining interest and should continue to do so after covid (hobbs 2020:175), which will help to improve food security in urban areas (lal 2020: 873). considering these advances in combination with the increased interest in traditional food preparation activities, as well as pastimes like sewing and knitting, it seems as though people are growing increasingly weary of the disembodying, alienating reality of life under capitalism; recent studies present the pandemic as an ideal time to imagine postcapitalist worlds (mueller, mccollum, and schmidt 2020, rab and kettler 2020). while it would be a stretch to say that these trends will have any effect on our current economic system aside from benefiting it through the purchasing of materials, it is encouraging that these possibilities, based in tradition, are providing alternatives to rampant consumerism. my pandemic experience suggests that the intangible benefits of baking—evoking, creating, and sustaining memory; providing an outlet for positive and grounding physical exertion; and maintaining connections with loved ones—are just as important as the physical results of the process. i believe that these benefits might possibly provide insights into the covid19 baking trend more generally. many people found themselves with more free time than ever before during lockdown, giving them the opportunity to further develop their baking skills; however, we cannot attribute the increased popularity in baking during the pandemic simply to an abundance of time, as individuals could conceivably have chosen any other activity to fill their days. the unprecedented nature of the pandemic has caused many people to feel estranged from others and from “normal” life, and food, given its presence in everyday life, has allowed us to maintain a connection with the “normal.” specifically, baking provides us with a tangible link to the past within the present, and creates new memories during a time when days blur together. although cooking and other food-related activities can provide similar benefits, baking as an inherently synesthetic activity grounds each of our senses in the digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 39 present through the motions of kneading and rolling, and unlike cooking, remains an entirely recreational activity for many. because food is a universal experience, baking can also help us connect with our kin across time and space, collapsing distances and providing the opportunity to continue old traditions in new contexts. life has gone through countless iterations in the past year, changing with each piece of breaking news; the way we think about and interact with food has evolved as well. food has transitioned from the area of fear and uncertainty that it occupied at the beginning of the pandemic—when ingredients were scarce and we were advised to wash groceries with soap and water—to one of comfort and familiarity as food systems have become more reliable and we have learned more about the spread of the virus. it remains to be seen whether baking will persist as a popular activity as vaccination levels rise and more areas begin to reopen. i suspect that some will continue to bake more than they did before the pandemic began, having learned new skills and methods during the lockdowns, while others will hastily return to their busy schedules and acclimate once more to “normal life.” i will continue to bake sandwich bread as needed, and as long as the process remains leisurely, i will find the free time for it. it is my hope that we recall the joys of food and baking in future times of distress and uncertainty, be they personal or global. ______________________________ notes: ¹found here: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/basic-homemade-bread/. ²the canadian government implemented cerb (the canadian emergency response benefit) in april of 2020, which initially provided $2,000 cad per month for up to four months as a taxable benefit to those whose employment was affected by the pandemic. cerb only applied to those who had not voluntarily quit their jobs but were currently unemployed or working less due to the pandemic, made more than $5,000 cad in the previous year, and were earning under $1,000 cad per month; it also applied to those who were unable to work because they contracted covid-19 or were caring for someone with the virus. the program ended in september of 2020, and those who were still unemployed either received employment insurance if they were eligible, or were switched to one of several other new pandemic response programs if they were not. those ineligible for ei include those who quit (without cause) or were fired from their previous job, those on strike, and those who have not worked for the necessary number of insurable hours in the last year. young, a return to tradition, digest: a journal of 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muzhi, ekaterina hertog, kamila kolpashnikova, and man-yee kan. 2020. gender inequalities: changes in income, time use and well-being before and during the uk covid19 lockdown. socarxiv papers. doi:10.31235/osf.io/u8ytc. < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions by: frank m. dugan introduction the notion that humans ascended to civilization in discernible stages was more popular in the past than at present. however, it has long been noted that certain premodern practices have more in common with magic per se than with religion (including “higher” religion of ancient times, e.g. olympian gods of the greeks and romans) and were held by some to precede religion and then coexist with it (harrison 1922, frazer 1955). these magical practices, emphasizing placation or deterrence rather than supplication (prayer) or contemplation (meditation), are termed apotropaic, and remain the subject of contemporary scholarship (wilson 2000). ritualistic practices for warding off harm to crops, or for protection of persons and habitations, survive as vestiges in various modern customs and holidays (dugan 2015a). certain plants were essential for rituals intended to protect not just the crop, but also people and dwellings. beans (vicia faba), for example, were “used to lay ghosts at the lemuria,” and featured in other greek and roman festivals, especially those propitiating the dead (andrews 1949). cakes of barley (hordeum vulgare) were offered to propitiate various chthonic spirits, including pre-olympian snake deities (harrison 1927). garlic (allium sativum), arguably the world’s most well-known apotropaic plant, acquired such functions centuries prior to its clichéd effects on vampires. garlic, one of the earliest domesticated vegetables, is of somewhat uncertain lineage, originating perhaps from allium longicuspis (zohary et al. 2012). in the ancient near east and mediterranean it early acquired a reputation as a medicinal plant, subsuming both magical and culinary uses. this article reveals that by greek and roman times, there was a considerable body of folklore associated < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 with garlic, extending through medieval and premodern times. garlic became distributed throughout the old world, and (after the columbian exchange) the new world. this review is restricted to traditions of europe and the mediterranean (including the levant). contributions from elsewhere (e.g., the americas, iran) are introduced only when strongly pertinent to european traditions. the primary contention of this work is that distinguishing magical, medicinal and culinary aspects of garlic is a recent innovation; that garlic has been strongly perceived as apotropaic throughout its history, and continues to be so in much contemporary lore and usage. second, southern europe and the levant, and northern europe (including the british isles), possess allied but distinct sets of garlic folkways, understandable in the context of the spread of garlic cultivation. a capsule historical biogeography precedes a review of garlic in folkways, including (i) mediterranean and balkan, and (ii) nordic and pre-norman anglo-saxon. related aspects of ethnomedicine and regional cuisine are sketched prior to conclusions, with remarks on limitations of folkloristic classification (types, motifs) for the study of plant lore. historical biogeography prehistory in the levant archaeobotanical materials from the levant date from the neolithic. sometimes remains of garlic may persist as the papery tunic, or as the basal plate, including in kitchen waste (van der veen 2007). finds of onion (allium cepa) bulb scales, and a garlic bulb and cloves were excavated in a chalcolithic context near the dead sea, and remains of what are thought to be kurrat leek (usually considered a variety of allium ampeloprasum) were recovered in early bronze age jericho (leach 1982). “the discovery of garlic in such an early context is particularly important for it could only be grown from cloves or inflorescence bulbils,” i.e., absence of true seed and necessity of vegetative propagation imply cultivation (leach 1982). ancient and classical antiquity < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 the normal absence of seed in garlic has strong implications for interpretation of the archaeobotanical record, as tubers, bulbs or corms do not readily preserve. in europe, archaeobotanical evidence of garlic and onion is rare (badura et al. 2013). garlic must have been common, as otherwise the chances of finding a carbonized clove would have been nearly zero (bakels 2009). vandorpe writes that “findings of garlic are not very common in roman times north of the alps. five findings of carbonised garlic cloves are known … from the graveyard at windisch dägerli [switzerland]…, a grave in augst [switzerland] …, another graveyard in arconciel [switzerland]…, a cellar in the villa in gerlingen [germany]… and the military camp in novaesium [germany]” (vandorpe 2010). even sparser is evidence of a. sativum in archaeobotanical or textual contexts for the british isles. leek (“allium cf. porrum”, attested by archaeobotanical remains) and “wild” chives (a. schoenoprasum, attested in feral populations and centuries-old folklore) are indicated for roman britain (britton and huntley 2011, witcher 2013). leek (but not garlic) receives passing mention in a review of archaeobotany of romano-british gardens (van der veen et al. 2007). fragments of a tablet from the roman fort at vindolanda near hadrian’s wall refer to garlic and garlic paste, probably representing “supplies for the praetorium rather than the ordinary soldier” (déry 1997). neither ‘garlic’ nor ‘allium’ is listed in a review of roman gardens in britain (cunliffe 1981), nor does livarda (2008) document garlic remains in britain. a conservative conclusion is that garlic was present in roman britain, but not yet common and perhaps only imported. in continental europe north of the mediterranean, garlic became absent or very scarce after the end of roman times (livarda 2008). a high proportion of garlic remains in roman europe were associated with burials, and also with temples (livarda 2008). in drier climes, there is definitive evidence even in the absence of charring, e.g., the garlic basal plates and clove from mons porphyrites (egypt, mid-late 2nd century ad) (figure 3 in van der veen 2007). older instances of onions and garlic in egypt include 3rd and 2nd millennia bc (leach 1982). leek (a. ampeloprasum) was also identified from these times in egypt, but apart from finds at jericho and the dead sea above, “there are no unequivocal records of cultivated ‘vegetables’ before 3000 b.c.” (leach 1982). miscellaneous sources on mesopotamian crops indicate that assyrian gardens contained leek, garlic and several kinds of onion (leach 1982). < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 by the time of pliny the elder (23–79 ad) and columella (4 to ca. 70 ad), several species of allium were known to roman gardeners: leeks, two or three types of garlic, chives, and several types of bulb onion. they may have also known shallots (usually considered a variety of a. cepa) and bunching onion, a. fistulosum (leach 1982). prior to these authors, the greek theophrastus (ca. 370–278 bc) described leeks, garlic and several types of onion. carbonized roman-era remains of garlic cloves have been discovered in herculaneum (meyer 1980), and in oedenburg and entrains-sur-nohain, france (badura et al. 2013). charred garlic gloves were excavated from a necropolis on the greek island of limenas (4th century bc) (mégloudi et al. 2007, with photographs, and commentary on garlic in homer, theophrastus, dioscorides, aristophanes, pliny and other ancient authors). there were garlic cloves in a room burned by invading persians at sardis in the mid-6th century bc (nesbitt 1995). due to absence of archaeobotanical remains, it is unknown when garlic was introduced to scandinavia (karg et al. 2015). however, “the old norse word ‘laukr’, meaning onion or leek is common in the first poems and sagas” (leino and hagenblad 2014). ibn fadlādlan, an arab historian, noted that vikings on the volga river had onions onboard their ships (leino and hagenblad 2014). the word ‘lauka r’ appears engraved in runic script on gold bracteates, and there is evidence for plants identified as ‘allium sp.’ in bce denmark and ad 1-400 netherlands (sloth et al. 2012). garlic per se however, is not documented for this period in scandinavia. medieval through premodern times garlic was obviously cultivated in southern and some more northern parts of europe during antiquity. what of medieval europe? there is controversy about the earliest gardening (i.e., vegetable gardening, as opposed to farming of cereals or pulses) amongst “barbarians” during the migration period (ca. 300– 700 ad): rösch claims, “obviously the alamanni [one of the germanic tribes] continued the roman tradition of horticulture without interruption. … but it < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 cannot be ruled out totally that the alamanni only harvested from the abandoned roman gardens and did no cultivation for themselves…but several cultivated allium species of southeastern origin were introduced to central europe by the romans … for example allium sativum, a. cepa or a. porrum” (rösch 2008). the presence of garlic in the carpathian region during the late migration period (~600 ad) is contained in the archaeological record according to the synopsis of gyulai (2006), and is similarly attested as present during medieval times. garlic is described in christian and islamic writings from medieval through premodern times. the plant is attested in moorish spain in at least six period manuscripts (harvey 1992a) and elsewhere by the famed persian polymath, al-biruni (~1050 ad); later garlic was mentioned by the islamic scholar qasim ibn yusuf (~1515 ad) of herat (harvey 1976). of course garlic persisted in the mediterranean where it had been long established. planting of garlic (amongst other specified plants, e.g., leeks, chives and onions) was mandated by statute for family gardens in the italian commune of montagutolo dell’ ardinghesca, ca. 1290 (duby 1998). the breviarum rerum fiscalium (initiated during charlemagne’s reign) lists garlic in the inventories of various carolingian courts (hahn 1996). a contemporary manuscript, the capitulare de villis, written between 792 and 800 ad at the behest of charlemagne and listing plants to be propagated in royal gardens, specifies garlic (‘alia’) as well as leek, onions, chives, and shallots (hahn 1996, pearson 1997, bakels 2009). royal estates of the same era in northern france contained garlic, leeks, onions and shallots (pearson 1997). garlic was surely present in britain by this time, as garlic was repeatedly mentioned in anglo-saxon documents reflecting knowledge prior to the norman conquest (cockayne 1864, 1865, 1866). garlic eventually became well established in medieval europe (fig. 1). although garlic was present in medieval british gardens, there are controversies about other allium spp.: a. oleraceum, a. scorodoprasum and a. vinale, which < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 some authorities consider as natives, but others believe to be introductions (preston et al. 2004). cockayne (1865, 1866) cites several instances of ambiguity regarding identity of plants named in leechbooks. although identity is clear in some instances, in others a given name such as ‘garlic’ or ‘cropleek’ or ‘leac’ might refer, depending on context, to a. sativum, a. oleraceum or a. porrum. modern scholarship echoes some of these concerns, e.g. for ‘cropleac’ or ‘porleac’ (pollington 2000). certain identification of a plant as a. sativum in later manuscripts may also be problematic. a list of ‘herbys necessary for a garden by letter’ entered into a cookery book (british library, sloane ms 1201, “the fromond list” ~1525) contains “one manifest addition, presumptively of later date … common garlic” (harvey 1989). the actual name in the list, seyt mar garlek, probably indicates allium sativum. fig. 1. garlic harvest, from the tacuina sanitatis (14th century). wikimedia. grieg (1995/1996) tabulated british and european archaeobotanical records for garlic in the 13th century, and british archaeological or historical records in 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. from the infirmarer’s garden of westminster abbey (the garden survives to the present as the college garden), garlic was documented in 1323 and 1340 (and leeks and onions in that time period as well), and in 1339-1340, garlic was purchased for planting (harvey 1992b). other records of that time period < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 indicate presence of garlic in other contemporary gardens, royal or monastic (harvey 1992b). an extended work in verse, mayster jon’s gardener’s treatise, comprises “the first coherent account of horticultural technique in our language [english]” (harvey 1985). the surviving version appears to have originated in glastonbury abbey, and has apparent reference to anglo-norman ireland. the work refers to garlic (‘garlek’) as well as onion (‘onynyns’ and other variants in spelling). master john’s work dates to sometime after 1350, to perhaps ~1380 (harvey 1985). badura et al. (2013) listed garlic from beverly, uk (post-roman); and laufen, switzerland (medieval). the authors, whose primary objective was reporting on garlic from a fifteenth century shipwreck, also cited literature (in polish) on the teutonic knights’ perceptions of longevity of garlic and onion in storage. teutonic knight documents from 14th century gdańsk (present day poland) refer to onion, and 15th century documents to both onion and garlic; archaeobotanical evidence for both plants is available from the latter time (badura et al. 2015). folklore garlic in folktales and in folk motifs neither aarne (1961) nor uther (2004) index garlic in their tale type indexes, probably because the plant is never the protagonist of a tale, but garlic does appear in some tales assigned to tale types. thompson’s (1955-1958) six volume guide to motifs in folktales contains multiple entries for garlic. examples in thompson (1955-1958) include the familiar power of garlic to protect against evil (motif number d1385.2.8) as documented in talmudic literature. association of garlic with lower social strata is apparent when a servant asks his master for weaponry of a knight, but the master only gives the servant a stalk of garlic (motif j955.3). there are other garlic motifs indexed in thompson (1955-1958), including a highly prejudiced account, “why jews smell bad” (“they rubbed christ’s body with garlic” < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 motif a1662.1). folklore reflects the biases, prejudices and even cruelty of the folk from which it is collected (bell 2009) and folklore on garlic is no exception. much lore on garlic reflects historical animus of privileged social strata against peasants and other poor persons, or stigmatized social groups. garlic and onion peddler (fig. 2) was intended to illustrate “the lowest type of immigrant–the russian jew,” with “inborn filthy habits” who “only wash when it rains on them” (stephens 1917). that garlic was consciously employed for this sort of vitriol is a harsh reminder of the unpleasant side of folklore, including lore on garlic. fig. 2. garlic and onion peddler. the photograph of a heavily burdened child peddler, potentially evoking sympathy and compassion, was actually intended by the antisemitic author to induce revulsion against the boy’s ethnic affiliation (stephens 1917). garlic and onion are often seen as related (as of course they are). introductions to < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 the folklore of these plants sometimes begin with the cliché of satan’s departure from the garden of eden, whereupon onion sprang from the soil where his right foot first stepped, and garlic arose from where touched his left foot (wilson 1953, grieve 1971, watts 2007), but corresponding tale types or motifs were not referenced. the kinship of garlic with onion is reflected in a latvian tale of their marriage (motif b286.1). there are, however, instances in which garlic (or onion) is central to the plot of a given tale and in which the tale is assigned a type. for example, tale type atu 804 is “st. peter’s mother falls from heaven,” wherein st. peter (or another saint) is given permission to pull his wicked mother up from hell with an onion skin (or twist of garlic, or leek). other sinners grab her feet and she falls back into hell. there are versions worldwide in over two dozen languages (uther 2004, marianthi 2006). another example is “the garlic patch,” from basile’s 17th century pentamerone (2007 translation by canepa). a father of seven daughters is so poor that his only income is from his garlic patch. one daughter disguises herself in male attire (tale type atu 514), cures a rich man’s son, and eventually all seven are married to the wealthy man’s seven sons. folklorist jack zipes (2002) expounded on the centrality of garlic: “garlic marks the man and his family, a stench that he wants to expunge.” garlic is emblematic of and synonymous with low social station. garlic appears in tale types or motifs about wealth conferred on the deserving (and denied to the undeserving). in tale type atu 851, “the princess who cannot solve the riddle,” the princess will marry whoever can pose a riddle she cannot solve. usually the suitor is a peasant boy or shepherd. in subtype 851c (south european variants), she can’t resolve a riddle involving “ajo, majo pico en piedras,” garlic crushed on a stone (goldberg 1993). in “journey to the land of cats” (from palestine, motif-index number j2415.9.1 in macdonald and sturm 2001), a kind old woman is taken to the village of cats, and given a bag of onion and garlic peels to put under her bed. they turn to silver and gold. when an unkind neighbor imitates her, her peels turn to bees and wasps. in a similar motif, the youngest son of a merchant displays no talent for business, but is shipwrecked with a store of onions in a foreign land that has no onions but so many diamonds that the gems are without value. the son trades his onions for diamonds and manages to return home. his jealous < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 older brothers arrive at this foreign land with a cargo of garlic, and the king of the land offers to trade the most valuable commodity in the land for their garlic. the brothers happily accept, and obtain in return for their garlic a full cargo of … onions! (kimmel 1996, from the jewish tradition). the story is assigned to motif-index number j2415.1.0.1.1 “where pebbles are diamonds” (macdonald and sturm 2001). in “the two brothers” occurs a variation on the ‘filthy lucre’ theme, wherein stolen garlic and onions are used to make pills of cooked filth, a “medicine” conferring the power to break a curse that protects buried treasure and enables its theft (dorson 1949). there is no tale type precisely corresponding, but there are many allied motifs involving the humor of excreta and combining such with avarice and money. in this “two brothers” tale, garlic mediates themes of banality and prosperity. conversely, rotten garlic can be a metaphor for mental deterioration. from a collection of insults in portuguese we have: cabeça de alho chocho, roughly, “rotten garlic head” (dodson and vanderplank 2007). an alternative transliteration and translation, also from the portuguese, is cabeça d’alho xoxo “he has a head of rotten garlic” or “he is crazy” (bonoid 2005). older compilations of plant lore addressed garlic, but unfortunately with minimal (sometimes no) attribution. examples include thiselton-dyer (1889), who informed readers that “to dream of garlic indicates the discovery of hidden treasures, but [also] the approach of some domestic quarrel.” on midsummer night, the bolognese, “who regard garlic as the symbol of abundance” buy it as a charm against poverty (thiselton-dyer 1889). folkard (1884) contains numerous references to garlic, but documentation is sporadic: “the seed of garlic is black; it obscures the eyes with blackness and darkness” (folkard 1884, discussing the doctrine of signatures). the designation of the plant is ambiguous, since allium sativum seldom produces seed. also with regard to doctrine of signatures, folkard (1884) conveys this: “garlic (from the anglo-saxon words gár, a spear, and leác, a plant) was, from its acute tapering leaves, marked out as the war plant of the warriors and poets of the north.” < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 magical properties (i): mediterranean, balkans and western asia magical properties of garlic denoted in folklore are ramified and overlapping in function. “garlic was … known in [roman] antiquity for its protective powers… it imparted a warlike spirit or gave apotropaic protection against evil” (gowers 1993). romans, convinced of the power of garlic to banish evil spirits, adorned house walls with pictures of the plant, as attested by many excavations from pompeii (hahn 1996). titinius (2nd century bc) stressed the power of the plant to protect children from a “virose, mammalian strix” that was “plainly chiropterous” (oliphant 1913). this would be a wonderful bit of folklore if vampire bats were indigenous to eurasia, but unfortunately vampire bats are all new world species. romans and persians were famously adversarial in antiquity, but garlic had apotropaic functions in both cultures, although evidence presented here from persia is of later date. matin (2012) documented in persian folklore (including “the zoroastrians of yazd”) that the plant (along with other strong smelling plants like onion and asafoetida, ferula assafoetida) had “magical potential to ward off wicked creatures, like jinns, āls, and fairies.” virgin girls and pregnant women must be protected from “jealous āls and imps.” garlic is also useful against “eye-smiting” (the evil eye) and may be placed over doors or under the pillows of infants (matin 2012). it is used for rain-making ceremonies in certain mountainous locations (matin 2012). the zoroastrians believe in garlic as “a symbol of environmental cleaning, disinfection, bodily health, and eye-smiting protection” and take care that garlic skins, potentially useful in satanic magic, be disposed of properly (matin 2012). conversely, skins may be burned to produce purifying odors (matin 2012). the latter ritual must be carefully conducted to avoid arousing divine anger (matin 2012). apotropaic functions are especially visible in balkan folklore. in addition to protection against witches, garlic was useful for their detection. according to serbs in sumadija and near the croatian border, witches are said never to eat garlic because of their intolerance for the odor (vukanović 1989a). counterintuitive to this notion is the contention that if certain rituals are followed in planting and harvesting garlic, witches may be detected by their < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 requests for the plant. these rituals are arcane, including planting garlic in a snake’s head, harvesting the garlic on easter, st. peter’s day or the feast of the annunciation, and then wearing it to church (vukanović 1989a). in serbia, because it is on christmas and easter that witches are most inclined to eat people, it was prudent for persons to rub themselves with garlic in order to repel these cannibals (vukanović 1989b). rubbing children with garlic on these days should be accompanied by a verbal charm indicating that only after a witch has counted all blades of grass and all leaves on trees (a virtual impossibility) can the child be eaten (vukanović 1989b). additional protections were placing garlic on the windowsill on st. thomas’s day, eating it before bed, etc. as before, the witch is given an impossible task (in this case counting all stars in the sky and all grains of sand in the sea) before being allowed to do mischief. children rubbed with garlic may be further protected by turning a broom upside down behind the door, or placing a spit with an eggshell above the door, etc., to prevent the entry of a witch or incubus (vukanović 1989b). newborns are especially vulnerable, hence placement of garlic (and knives or scissors! and matches!) in or under cradles, or under the pillow (vukanović 1989b). fathers in couvade were allowed garlic and a comb (but apparently not knives or scissors) when they lay with the child in bed (vukanović 1989b). depredations of witches were regarded as real. for serbian gypsy women who have lost a child, čvorović (2013) documented the mothers’ affirmation of innocence and the blaming of witches. “as in many other european folk beliefs, garlic is considered the best defense against living or dead strigoi [romanian witches]” (eliade 1975). “the most effective protection against the fairies is garlic and mugwort, that is, the same magicomedicinal plants that are in the bag tied atop the ‘flag’ of the căluşari [a society of romanian ritual dancers]. the căluşari chew as much garlic as they can stand, and, in the course of the cure, the leader spits garlic on the patient’s face” (eliade 1975). witches, strigele in murgoci (1926), meet in the mountains, dance, and say, “nup, cuisnup, in casa cu ustoroi nu ma duc” (nup, cuisnup, i won’t enter any house where there is garlic). murgoci (1926) gives strigoi (fem. strigoica) as the most common name for vampires, with moroii “perhaps the next most common.” there are other terms as well, with overlapping meanings, “used as if all were birds of the same feather.” < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 in bulgaria, bands of dancers analogous to the căluşari were called rusaltsi or kalushari (barber 2013). barber (2013) weaves an intricate (and controversial – see cash 2013) hypothesis: that certain, putatively ancient, forms of dance in eastern europe reflect transfer of fertility from woodland and river nymphs to peasant farmers and their fields. what is of interest here is the recurring apotropaic use of garlic. other herbs used, in conjunction with garlic or separately, included wormwood (artemesia spp.) and lovage (levisticum officinale). all were protective against potentially dangerous female spirits. garlic, most often combined with wormwood, was carried in a pole or “flag” specific to a given troupe (as in romania, above), or sometimes worn, carried in the hands or chewed. garlic and wormwood repelled such spirits, whilst roses, birch, parsley and others attracted them. pieces of garlic used by căluşari dancers were believed to be especially potent for curing, and were preserved throughout the year (wilson 2000). garlic warded off additional dangers, nautical, natal and legal: “you see it [garlic] … in every sailing-vessel as a preventive against shipwreck” (spencer 1851). this was an old tradition, as both greeks and turks might hang bunches of garlic over the stern as an apotropaic measure (watts 2007). use against the ‘evil eye’ is addressed in detail below. in romanian belief, stealing during pregnancy could incline the unborn child to become a thief. however, “the mother … can provide protection to her unborn ‘thief’ child if she gives birth …while holding two cloves of garlic in her hands, so that he will never get caught” (hulubaş 2011). without impugning the future integrity of the infant, pregnant women in lorraine (france) might eat plenty of garlic if they desired a boy (watts 2007). magical properties (ii): northern europe from roman iron age denmark (bornholm) an amulet box containing remains of allium was excavated from a woman’s grave. the plant was probably not garlic but related a. scorodoprasum (sand garlic) (karg et al. 2015). apotropaic uses of garlic in pre-conquest (prior to 1066 ad) anglo-saxon traditions include incorporation into a talisman to prevent a man from being ridden by “a mare < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 or a hag” (i.e., a nightmare or a witch) (cockayne 1865). similarly, garlic may be used in “a salve against the elfin race and nocturnal goblin visitors” and may protect “women with whom the devil hath carnal commerce.” it is best not only to use correct ingredients, but to put them under a church altar, and sing masses over them or to repeatedly perform the sign of the cross (cockayne 1865). these same practices, differing in details, are related by grendon (1909) and rohde (1922). the plant was also used to expel demoniae from “fiend sick” persons, by concocting a drink (consumed from a church bell) with this and other herbs, and with use of holy water, psalms, prayer and the giving of alms (cockayne 1865). although separated from the above rituals by centuries, a similar apotropaic use of garlic is apparent against a skogsrå (succubus). every night, the skogsrå would come to the house and steal away a woman’s husband, who was powerless to resist. but one night the woman met the skogsrå before she could enter the home, and solicited her advice about “a bull who never came home at night.” the skogsrå helpfully replied that the beast must be fed with garlic, tar, and grass from the north side of a chimney. when this remedy was applied to the husband, the spell was broken. the skogsrå ruefully admitted that the wife had tricked her (lindow 1978, from a version collected in 1931 from a swedish crofter born in 1840). pollington (2000) stated, without attribution, that garlic “could be worn to protect against the walking dead on all hallows eve.” use of garlic to protect infants from malign forces has been indicated above for mediterranean regions. garlic was also among objects (holy water, crosses, the bible, or iron objects like scissors, knives or nails) that when placed near an infant could prevent its abduction by fairies in the british isles (buccola 2006). similar traditions are evident in later germanic or nordic belief, e.g., placing garlic together with a sharp instrument in the cradle protected an un-baptized child from fairies (henderson 1879). similarities to practices in southern europe are obvious. apotropaic functions of garlic are evident in new world folklore too. in < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 a survey of north american folklore on the evil eye, it was found that “use of garlic is principally apotropaic” (hand 1980). such use (including against witchcraft) in north america includes garlic worn as an amulet or carried as cloves in utah (salt lake, midvale, magna, vernal), ohio (hand 1980, 1983) and by italian-americans in new york city (berger 2012). magical properties (iii): the evil eye within a given region, multiple botanicals may be used protectively against the evil eye. sometimes botanicals may derive from different traditions. in tuscany, use of buxus (boxwood) and juniperus spp. (juniper) is plausibly traced to germanic folklore via the longobards (lombards), whereas use of foeniculum vulgare (fennel) and allium sativum is probably from grecoroman tradition (pieroni and giusti 2002). this use of garlic is widespread and apparently of considerable time depth in the mediterranean and levant. in spanish salamanca (in a “witches’ village” of local tradition), rue (ruta montana) was most commonly used to deter witches, but garlic was also used against the evil eye (gonzález et al. 2011). rue (ruta graveolens) was primary against the evil eye among the sephardim, but garlic was commonly employed (zumwalt 1996). indiscrete compliments may provoke the attentions of the evil eye, so such compliments were often followed by, “let it go to the garlic” (zumwalt 1996). cloves might be integrated into necklaces (fig. 3), usually with blue beads, or placed under the pillow, by windows or doors, carried in a pocket, or sewn into a shirt to protect infants (zumwalt 1996). analogous use of garlic against the evil eye was specified for wallachian and bulgarian children by 19th century travelers (campenhausen 1808, and st. clair and brophy 1869, respectively). < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 fig. 3. baby with necklace of cloves, from zumwalt (1996). (the children of alberto cohen, turkey, c. 1930; beit hatfutsot photo archive, tel aviv, courtesy of rachel altalef via morit-legacy of turkish jewry) in greece, even the word ‘garlic’ was laden with apotropaic function against the evil eye, and would be exclaimed in the event of inappropriate public praise of a child (mccartney 1992). similarly, garlic was suspended from the branches of trees if compliments were inappropriately bestowed on orchards or gardens (mccartney 1992). garlic on one’s person, under the pillow or on a bonnet had apotropaic powers against the evil eye used against “new-made mothers” or children (hardie 1992). garlic plus fennel was placed by a healer (a benandante) under the pillow or by the bed, so witches would not molest a sleeping child < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 (ginzburg 2013). also, garlic with fennel and other plants was used by a benandante to treat the sick (ginzburg 2013). the 17th century italian benandanti professed to be christians, were notoriously anti-witchcraft and anti-witch, but themselves were held suspect by authorities and eventually persecuted (ginsburg 2013). garlic was an accompaniment of incense to counteract the evil eye against infants in lebanon (harfouche 1992). garlic might be incorporated along with other substances (e.g., pepper, bread crumbs, pieces of a child’s caul, salt) into an amulet, or for protection of an animal, tied to the tail (murgoci 1992). however, wearing garlic might be insufficient to ward off the evil eye of a powerful curse (pitré 1992, for italy). maclagan’s (1902) attempt to locate the evil eye in the acallan na senórach (medieval irish, 12th century) is not altogether convincing, but the evil eye can be documented in folklore from much later periods in the british isles. garlic is not mentioned in maclagan (1902). dundes (1992) noted “the evil eye complex in the celtic world” but provided little documentation other than the cyclops-like balor, who had a single eye and stole cattle; garlic is not mentioned in dundes (1992), whose primary analyses consisted of freudian gymnastics of heroic proportions to establish equivalence of eyes (evil or otherwise) with breasts and genitals. however, garlic could be worn, together with other articles in an amulet, against the evil eye in 19th century ireland (mooney 1887), or hung over the bed for the same purpose in scotland (abercromby et al. 1994). although use of garlic against the evil eye was detected in the british isles in the 19th century, the practice was much less pervasive than for southern europe and the levant. magical properties (iv): garlic against vampires although creatures allied with death and feeding on humans occur in various ancient or medieval traditions, “the word vampire postdates the middle ages” (petzoldt 2002). in british tradition the use of garlic against creatures explicitly specified as vampires is late, only “since the publication of bram stroker’s dracula in 1897” (alexander 2002), although ‘vampire’ appeared in print in english as early < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 as 1741 and probably derives from serbian upirina “ghost, monster” (petzoldt 2002). according to simpson and roud, “it is often assumed that the concept of the vampire was unknown in england until imported (in glamorized form) by 19thcentury novelists” but various vampire-like creatures occur as early as late 12th century (simpson and roud 2000). the oxford english dictionary traces etymology of ‘vampire’ to slavonic sources in central europe and the balkans. voltaire (a skeptic on these matters) remarked that vampires were not found in london or paris; the locus classicus of vampire stories was 18th century belgrade (barber 1987). deterrence of vampires by means of garlic has become a cliché, but has a basis in genuine folkways. murgoci (1926), cataloging uses of garlic against the vampire in romania (multiple late 19th century sources), noted that garlic may be placed in the mouth of a dead person who might potentially become a vampire. among the south slavs, “it is known that a man is a vampire if he does not eat garlic.” vampires fight with (or ride on) hemp brakes, devices used to process hemp into fiber, and may visit houses and ask for them. if they enter, inhabitants should place needles on the house threshold, accompanied by garlic. this traps the vampire in the house until it “gets out the needles and removes the garlic … thus proving she is a vampire (strigoica)” (murgoci 1926). murgoci noted that especially on st. andrew’s eve, st. george’s eve, before easter and before the new year, windows should be shut and “anointed with garlic in the form of a cross, [with] garlic put on the door and everything in the house, and all the cows in the cowshed should be rubbed with garli.” (murgoci 1926). since vampires enter by chimneys and keyholes, these apertures must be rubbed with garlic. in greece and macedonia the general name for vampire is vȃrcolac, but in romania the term only exceptionally means a vampire, and usually denotes a werewolf; garlic has efficacy against wolves and various evil spirits, too (murgoci 1926). tying a clove around the neck of “the leading ewe” putatively would deter wolf attacks on sheep and similarly, if fed to poultry, would deter weasels (watts 2007). one suspects these methods (or rather, the livestock) would not survive rigorous testing. < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 johnson (2001) concisely reviewed the use of garlic in destroying vampires (“cut off the head and fill the mouth with garlic”) or averting them (wreaths of garlic flowers, garlic crosses in windows, rubbing of livestock with garlic, placing of garlic in chimneys or keyholes). reviewing the “classical aversion of the vampire to garlic,” maas and voets (2014), speculated on contributions to the myth from certain compounds in garlic that induce a heme-degrading enzyme, thereby exacerbating porphyria, a condition involving defects in synthesis of heme and resulting in anemia. other possible diseases potentially contributing to the vampire myth are rabies and pellagra (maas and voets 2014). a short but entertaining list of uses of garlic against vampires in modern film and literature is provided by vickery (1995). magical properties (v): plant lists from witch trials counterintuitive is the notion that garlic not only deters witches, but it may be used by them. garlic is among plants referenced by documents from witch trials in poland, and used in tonics against coughs and colds, worms, to treat mouth sores in cattle, and of course for apotropaic purposes (against witches). it was also used to increase dairy production (ostling 2014). field garlic (a. vineale) had similar uses. ostling (2014) purports to join others who contend that “the persecuted female healer joins the myth of the midwife witch in the dustbin of history.” actually, more than sixty plants are documented from these trials (ostling 2014), so it is the case that persons using plants were caught up in the witch craze. however, most collectors of plants were not persecuted for witchcraft, in large measure because they were the economically important source of plants for apothecaries throughout europe (dugan 2011). allium schoenoprasum ssp. sibricum (siberian chive), but not garlic per se, was an ingredient in a potion prepared by woman condemned as a witch in finnmark, norway in 1626, and the same plant had apotropaic functions (alm 2003). in russia, in the town of dobry, a woman tried for witchcraft in 1690 possessed “a little knot” with a garlic clove and two wax seals, and other everyday plant items (kivelson and shaheen 2011). by the time of the witch trials, association of the plant and other allium spp. with witches seems to have had roots in both northern and southern europe. “the romans … left dishes of garlic at the crossroad shrines of < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 the witch-goddess hecate” (gowers 1993). the woman’s grave with an amulet box containing remains of allium in denmark (karg 2015) is probably germane here, as were pagan scandinavian rituals involving severed penises of stallions wrapped in allium leaves; the church, personified by st. olaf, took a dim view (shenk 2002). medicine synoptic treatments of garlic in medicine are so numerous that only a few are addressed here. typical of much literature is shah (2014), useful for breadth (from ancient mesopotamia and egypt to the modern era), but exemplifying credulity regarding efficacy against cancer or other diseases. other reviews also document scope of use, but are skeptical of efficacy, e.g., block (2010) on treating tuberculosis via inhalation of garlic oil. several in vitro studies demonstrate effectiveness of garlic extracts against drug-resistant strains of mycobacterium tuberculosis (dini et al. 2011) but conclusions are typical: “it is appropriate to further investigate” (dini et al. 2011). less skepticism is evident for claims on antiparasitic properties, e.g. block (2010) on garlic against intestinal parasites in vitro. historical context in antiquity, certain foods were “on the borderline between foods and drugs … for example, onion and garlic and many aromatics” (wilkins and hill 2006). according to the classification of the famous greek physician galen (born 129 ad), “these plants are possibly not nutritious foods (trophai), for they are all opsa, like onions, garlic, leeks, wild leeks and all sharp plants” (wilkins and hill 2006). aristotelian philosophers attempted to define the differences between drugs and foods (although the hippocratics avoided this separation), and in fact garlic exemplified a “food-drug continuum” although it was “primarily an item of diet” (totelin 2015, with explications of the role of garlic in various hippocratic writings, in galen, pseudo-galen, and others). the egyptian codex ebers (the ebers papyrus, ca. 1550 bc) recommended garlic < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 against abnormal growths, circulatory diseases and parasites (rivlin 2001). biblical reference to garlic (numbers 11:5) specifies only that after leaving egypt, garlic was amongst the foods remembered by the jews, although rivlin (2001) states that they “were fed garlic and other allium vegetables, apparently to give them strength and increase their productivity.” rivlin (2001) also contends that garlic was used to bestow strength on athletes during the earliest olympics (“one of the first … ‘performance enhancing’ agents”) and that garlic was used for the same purpose by roman sailors and soldiers. since garlic was considered by the greeks to bestow strength, it was eaten by greek soldiers before battle, and smeared onto (or fed to) cocks before a cockfight (wilson 1953, gowers 1993). the same practice survived in central europe for increasing the pugnacity of cocks, dogs and ganders (watts 2007). “wild forms (e.g. allium scorodoprasum l., allium ursinum l.) also have similar properties and were used in the past” (badura et al. 2013). “pliny lists as [garlic’s] natural enemies snakes, scorpions, or perhaps all beasts, shrew-mouse bites, poisons like aconite and henbane, and dog bites” (gowers 1993). indeed, garlic was something of a cure-all in greek and roman medicine, being useful for “cleaning” the arteries, treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, liver disorders, animal bites, seizures, as an antidote to poison, etc. (rivlin 2001). a tendency among physicians to regard garlic as a panacea long persisted, e.g., the physician s.f. geoffroy, writing in 1761. by 1829, however, j.f. osiander introduced a note of skepticism by considering garlic as a folk medicine (hahn 1996). garlic also bestowed potency. “according to pliny, garlic mixed with green coriander made a man lecherous … and it has kept its reputation for being a food of love” (gowers 1993). this aspect long persisted. gowers writes that “chaucer’s summoner [in canterbury tales] relished garlic, onions, and leeks, and was as hot-blooded < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 and lecherous as a sparrow” (gowers 1993). garlic was not only regarded as enhancing male sexual performance (as in the plays of aristophanes) but was a treatment for male sexual impotence (mcmahon 1998, in analysis of impotence and virility in the satyricon of petronius). it could also comprise part of a love charm: “three beans and three bulbs of garlic and a few pieces of dried coal and a dead frog” placed under the threshold (ogle 1911, for magyar folklore). another facet of garlic’s relation to sexuality has provided aficionados of greek drama with amusement. gowers notes, “when the women [in aristophanes’ thesmophoriazusae] admit … that they have been eating garlic to disappoint their husbands, this conceals another confession: they are trying to hide the taste of another kind of garlic, the phallus” (gowers 1993, on innuendo in aristophanes). the tradition (if you wish to call it that) continues today. combining ‘garlic’ with ‘penis breath’ on google generates hundreds of records, most in the context of intended humor. the frequent mention of garlic in the plays of aristophanes (ca. 446-388 bc) has not escaped the attention of allium specialists, who have noted that uses in these plays also include medicinal (strength-giving, or as a plaster for treating skin maladies like boils, or as a cure for a problem with eyelids). but most references to garlic in aristophanes focus on sex, such as the use by women above to disguise having had sex, or contrariwise, use by women to avoid sex, as during the athenian women’s festival of skira. this festival is background for aristophanes’ lysistrata, in which women attempt to overthrow male domination. allium is one of dozens of genera documented in lists of materia medica over two millennia, from hippocrates (ca. 460 – ca. 370 bc) through 1865 (de vos 2010). allium appeared in 10 of 12 selected works containing unambiguous lists of “simples” (plants often used individually as a remedy), and some wild or ornamental allium spp. appeared in four such works. garlic is also prominent in “modern < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 simples – herbs and supplements on medline plus” (www.nlm.nih. gov/medlineplus/herbalmedicine.html). the clear implication is one of longevity of use, with implications for future use (de vos 2010). also germane to materia medica are materials from the 11-14th centuries, and now at cambridge (uk). originating from the ben erza synagogue in old cairo and mostly in arabic, these documents indicate that garlic was specified for “cleanses the throat” and efficacy against intestinal worms, coughs, toothache, diseases of the eye, skin diseases, and utility as an emmenagogue (lev 2007). in anglo-saxon lore, garlic had efficacy against maladies of ears or teeth, gastrointestinal problems, womb disorders, blemishes, boils and swellings, and other ailments. use was often accompanied by talismans or prayer (cockayne 1865). verbal charms and other accompaniments were sometimes prescribed: bloodletting and/or cupping for infection of tonsils and the “dry” diseases, holy water and miscellaneous prayers against cysts and blemishes (cockayne 1865, 1866). an amulet containing garlic was recommended for digestive problems. ingestion of garlic with other herbs, plus making the sign of the cross and singing specified hymns was a cure for “elf hiccup” (possibly anemia) (grendon 1909). however, garlic does not seem to have been used in a manner that addressed the major causes of diseases in leechbooks (flying venom, elf shot, worm). on the continent, where the traditions of galen and doctrine of signatures were well established, st. hildegard of bingen [1098-1179] gave garlic a prominent role in medicine and she concluded that “raw garlic was more effective than cooked garlic” (badura et al. 2013). garlic was held to beget yellow bile (along with phlegm, blood and black bile a cornerstone of galen’s humoral theory) (york 2012). from 15-16th centuries serbia is the chilandar medical codex. garlic is referenced twice for liver diseases or haematuria, a. porrum (leak) twice for ear pain, and a. ursinum (bear’s garlic) three times < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 as an antidote to snake bite or for haematuria (jarić et al. 2011). in medieval and renaissance europe in general, garlic was held useful against constipation and other digestive disorders (including parasites), toothache, kidney disease, the plague(!), prevention of heat stroke, and easing of childbirth (rivlin 2001). paracelsus (1493-1541) recommended garlic against plague (hahn 1996). also in medieval and premodern times, garlic was used to diagnose pregnancy by “placing a clove of garlic in the vagina: if the woman could taste the garlic in her mouth in the morning she was not pregnant, since there was free passage through her womb” (wilson 2000). such attitudes on the general efficacy of garlic eventually made their way into modern practice, e.g., john gunn’s home book of health (1878) where garlic “was recommended as a diuretic, for treatment of infections, as a general tonic and for asthma and other pulmonary disorders (rivlin 2001). in world war i, raw garlic juice was applied to wounds as a precaution against sepsis (watts 2007). the best way to ward off colds is to wear around the neck a piece of garlic, “an old wives’ tale still current in england” and observed as far away as lebanon (harfouche 1992). use of garlic against colds, whooping cough and other respiratory ailments persisted well into the 20th century in britain, ireland and north america (watts 2007). in appalachia, a region where a good deal of old lore from european migrants has been documented, garlic, onion and ramp (a. tricoccum) have been recorded multiple times for use against high blood pressure, respiratory ills and other ailments (cavender 2006). in north america, garlic was used to magically prevent disease (including infections and smallpox) by being hung over the door, tied around the neck, or placed under the pillow (hatfield 2004). also in american practice, as in europe, properties of the plant can be supplemented with charms or prayers. some such therapies are not for the faint-hearted. one treatment for susto (a psychosomatic condition) < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 calls for “insertion of a piece of garlic into the anus on nine nights; if the garlic absorbs, the patient … will experience relief after the ninth night. prayers and candles burning at saints’ images are often part of the cure” (granger 1976, for spanish-speaking people in southern arizona). “wild garlic” was used against rabies in ozark lore, either supplementing or supplanting ‘madstone’ (a kind of talisman applied to the bite) in humans and animals (randolph 1933). the belief that garlic was effective against rabies can be traced to europe, as stories of cures by garlic were documented in the balkans (hahn 1996). veterinary plant remedies for livestock and poultry parallel uses in folk medicine in that garlic (and onion) were regarded as panaceas. however, traditional animal health practices are fast disappearing in italy and elsewhere. pieroni et al. (2004) provided a concise list of citations for european field studies and noted more extensive studies elsewhere, e.g., for africa and asia. in southwestern serbia, veterinary plant uses are remembered but neglected due to availability of modern drugs. however, garlic or onion were formerly used against respiratory problems in horses or (in a typical conflation of medicine and magic) rubbed against the udders of cows to protect against evil eye (pieroni et al. 2011), purportedly a common cause for diminished milk production in both women and livestock (berger 2012). garlic was especially used as a vermifuge in folk medical and veterinary practice. in italy, such uses persisted in the second half of the 20th century. garlic and/or other allium spp. were employed against afflictions of the gastrointestinal tract, against parasites, kidney and respiratory diseases, skin problems (including treatment of wounds), and nervous and locomotor disorders in a variety of animals, including chickens, turkeys, pigs, sheep, cattle, horses and donkeys (viegi et al. 2003). in catalonia, and < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 in the balearics, garlic was applied to stings and wounds of both humans and livestock (bonet and vallès 2007, carrió et al. 2012). in sardinia, cattle, horses, sheep and chickens were treated with garlic for infections and intestinal worms (bullitta et al. 2007). european veterinary ethnobotany is not confined to the mediterranean, although studies from more northern countries are less abundant. from the netherlands are instances of garlic used in livestock or poultry as a vermicide, an insect repellant, for cough, or as a blood cleanser (van asseldonk and beijer 2006). garlic was used for de-worming livestock in nordic countries (waller et al. 2001). analogous uses are widespread outside europe, e.g., alyemeni et al. (2010) for saudi arabia; and multiple studies for south asia, e.g., pande et al. (2007) for uttaranchal state, india. garlic and health, a “reality check” of science versus folklore block writes, ““garlic teases us. garlic-derived compounds display remarkable in vitro activity and simultaneously show low toxicity to mammalian cells … testing in rats and other laboratory animals reinforces the in vitro studies” (block 2010). typical was the study of kendler (1987), on cardiovascular effects, finding “some evidence to suggest that use of certain formulations of garlic … is accompanied by favorable effects … in normal subjects and in patients with atherosclerotic disease … [but] further clinical and epidemiological studies are required.” somehow, confirmation of benefits in humans has been consistently elusive in double-blind randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials (block 2010) although some intriguing results are occasionally obtained (mulrow et al. 2000). even in popular media, there were categorical denials that, in spite of folklore, garlic will cure anything. thosteson notes, “it is as hard < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 to suppress the many claims made for it as it is to suppress its odor … garlic has no medicinal value” (thosteson 1978). science writings can be equally emphatic. pittler and ernst claim, “the evidence based on rigorous clinical trials of garlic is not convincing” (pittler and ernst 2007, in a review of randomized, double-blind trials on common colds, cancer, arterial disease and other ailments). the authors conclude that reported effects, even when real, “are small and may not be of clinical relevance” (for elevated cholesterol) or “effects are too small to be clinically meaningful” (for elevated blood pressure) (pittler and ernst 2007). jacobs and gundling (2009, discussing josling 2001) cited “promising preliminary data” showing “fewer colds (24 vs 64, p<0.001), and shorter symptom duration (1.5 vs 5, p<0.001) compared with the placebo.” but jacobs and gundling (2009) concluded, “there is insufficient evidence to refute or recommend the use of garlic for this indication at this time.” skepticism regarding the many popular claims can be summarized in a quote: “the plural of anecdote is not data” (roger brinner, in block 2010). nonetheless, some particular aspects of folk belief seem confirmed. garlic appears to possess efficacy against certain nematodes in horses (peachey et al. 2015). culinary history ancient the greeks were acquainted with garlic, and it was greeks from whom the romans learned its use (hahn 1996). the romans transmitted garlic to gaul and germany (hahn 1996). garlic was, at least initially, a luxury food in central europe during the roman period. badura et al write,”as in the case of onions, garlic was dispersed across europe after the roman legions moved north, and later spread by the jews, as well as by monks, as food and medicine” (badura et al. 2013). among the ancient greeks, garlic was popularly consumed in a salted broth, although the soup “was detested by the aristocracy” < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 (hahn 1996). in roman cooking, “garlic had plebian overtones” (corbier 1999). horace, in his epodes, wrote a literary tirade against garlic breath (gowers 1993). nonetheless, there is evidence that garlic was routinely used in roman cooking (fig. 4). fig. 4. garlic bulb with spices, detail: fragment of a fresco panel with a meal preparation, 100-150 ad, courtesy of the j. paul getty museum. medieval garlic is mentioned in fragments of a teutonic cookbook from medieval königsberg (badura et al. 2013): bandura et al claim, “certainly, a. sativum was known and used in medieval poland.” there are indications that garlic was used for provisioning crews of ships. the garlic found in a medieval baltic ship wreck “may have come from the higher parts of the ship’s stern, where the food for the crew was stored” (badura et al. 2013). period literature indicates attitudes. catalan franciscan writer francesc eiximenis (late 14th century) invented a letter from a < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 rich priest to a doctor. the priest complains of loss of appetite but describes an exceedingly rich diet. the physician responds by mocking the priest’s humble origins, and recommends that the priest eat the diet typical of his youth when he was a mere peasant: barley, bread, onions, garlic, a little salted meat, and water (freedman 2007). thus we’re informed that garlic was traditionally regarded as peasant food in late medieval catalonia. this sentiment is echoed elsewhere for late medieval french cuisine: “garlic was thought to be suitable only for the crude stomachs of peasants” (flandrin 1999). the reputation of garlic as a food for the lower classes persisted into the renaissance. to serve garlic or onions at a banquet “will not … be honorable, for besides the stink they bear, they will suggest that the diners are rustics” (from a period source, quoted in albala 2007). according to laurioux, “the most detailed descriptions we have of medieval dinners come from satirical and comic literature” (laurioux 1999). such literature provides clues to the status of garlic: “defeated champions are sautéed in garlic” (and whores roasted in a tart sauce, “black friars” fried in fat, perjurers have their tongues fried in butter, etc.) (laurioux 1999). with respect to plants: “the least noble plants were those that produced an edible bulb underground (such as onions, garlic and shallots)” (grieco 1999). occasionally we see from period literature that garlic features in stereotypical views of other peoples. kislinger states, “according to both nicetas choniates, in an account written in 1204, and eustace of salonika, a latin would sell his soul for a fillet of beef, or salted pork and pureed beans, dressed in a garlic sauce” (kislinger 1999). all this putative prejudice against garlic did not deter its occasional consumption in haute cuisine. garlic was used to flavor sturgeon or combined with truffles in recipes for renaissance banquets (albala 2007). culinary aspects merge with the pseudo-medicinal. four thieves vinegar (wine vinegar, garlic and herbs, including “wormwood, < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 rue, mint, sage, and rosemary, as well as a variety of additional herbs” – a popular condiment with over 43,000 records in google) wards off plague and protects against the spells of rival witches (renoux 2005, alas without attribution). according to hahn (1996), the four thieves were apprehended by police in marseille in the plague year 1721 while looting the sick and the dead; they told police that garlic mixed with wine and vinegar had protected them from infection. premodern and into the modern era garlic in cuisine or as a market vegetable is documented in art, but especially in oil paintings from the renaissance forward. examples include joachim beuckelaer, vegetable vendor, later 16th century; jusepe de ribera (1591-1652), old man with onions (ragged clothing, a garlic bulb in foreground); baltazar gomes figuera, still life with fish (midto late 17th century – a string of garlic is nearly as prominent as the fish); willem van mieris, the greengrocer, 1731 (fig. 5); edouard manet’s still life with bag and garlic, c. 1862; vincent van gogh, still life with bloaters 1887 (the garlic bulb is as prominent as the herring). in these paintings, garlic connotes the plebian or the common, as in diego velasquez, christ in the house of martha and mary,1618. garlic can also imply vulgar sexuality, as in bartolomeo passerotti’s allegra compagnia (ca. 1577), wherein garlic is placed prominently in the foreground with symbols of vulgarity and intoxication. so too, with onions, e.g., annibale carracci’s the bean eater (c. 1583), in which scallions are prominent alongside the graceless diner and his dinner. market and kitchen scenes, often with moralistic themes, are informative on the social history of food plants, especially so in the realism of late renaissance and early modern periods. < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 fig. 5. the greengrocer, willem van mieris (detail). even this romanticized portrayal shows affiliation of garlic (upper left) with common folk. wikimedia. of british cooking, “well-done meat and soggy vegetables were well-established norms before 1800, as was an aversion to garlic” (otter 2012). block’s (2010) concise review of “anti-garlic” movements, notes an american opinion of 1796, “garlicks, tho’ used by the french, are better adapted to the uses of medicine than cookery….the english also despised southern european cooking, characterizing it as greasy, reeking with garlic, and swimming in olive oil. olive oil and garlic in combination [were], of course, almost hilariously dreadful” (howes and lalonde 1991). writing of english restaurants, hahn (1996), noted “even restaurants that offer french cuisine use garlic only in very small quantities.” < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 fig. 6. from a vintage postcard (1921) promoting a theatrical production (courtesy alex lowe© 2010, cardmix, ltd., www.cardmix.co.uk) of french gastronomy, “all the garlic-laden dishes from the south of france should remain where they belonged” (ferguson 1998, citing opinion from 1825). these sorts of opinions long persisted in british and american cooking (fig. 6). of alliums in general, “popular as these strong flavours are, especially among the southern latin races, it would seem that persons of refined taste have always held aloof from them” (in block 2010, from a british work of 1914). the evolution of garlic cuisine in the united states is traced by adema (2009), from its status as un-american and largely < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 associated with ethnics, especially italians, to its use by celebrity chefs (julia childs and others), general acceptance, and popularity. gilroy, california, bills itself as the garlic capitol of the world, and holds an annual festival with delicacies, tourism and even a garlic queen pageant (adema 2009). conclusions this review and others (dugan 2008, 2015b) document folktale types and motifs in which plants or fungi are intrinsic, but folklore specific to these organisms better conforms to alternative categories, independent of folkloristic classifications. there is no tale type, nor even a specific motif, for garlic lore per se. although folk taxonomy of plants and animals parallels to considerable extent scientific classification (berlin et al. 1973), and although folktales about animals comprise one of the primary categories for tale types, there are no analogous folktale categories for plants or fungi (aarne 1961, uther 2004). tale types at 307, at 363 and at 365a specify vampires, but aversion of these creatures to garlic is not recorded in aarne (1961) or uther (2004). garlic has a higher profile in thompson’s (1955-1958) index of folk motifs, but motif-index d2071 evil eye (thompson 19551958) does not directly address garlic’s apotropaic function, although other apotropaic measures are specified, such as swinging a cat over a child’s cradle (d2071.1.2). folkloristics has its own taxonomy, rarely parallel to biological taxonomy of protagonists or organisms comprising subject matter of folkways. tales involving garlic are dispersed amongst multiple tale types and motif numbers, but folkways for garlic can be assigned to alternative categories: apotropaism, provision of power or potency, or association with things or people plebian, common or despised. all these aspects address content in tales, motifs and beliefs and practices for magic. theoretical frameworks such as distinctions between emic and etic (dundes 1962) are often implicit but have not been analyzed here, and nor are attempts made to analyze structure (morphology) sensu propp (1968). < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 like the plant itself, lore about garlic propagated northward from the mediterranean and balkans. however, lore from southern cultures appears not to have co-migrated to the north with the plant, but to have lagged. for example, the term ‘evil eye’ (against which garlic was so extensively employed in balkan and mediterranean environs) does not seem to occur in leechcraft (cockayne 1864, 1865, 1866, grendon 1909, rohde 1922, pollington 2000). scholarly works indicate the evil eye only from much later periods, often not until 19th century, in the british isles and finland (dundes 1992). likewise, vampire lore caught up to, rather than accompanied, distribution of garlic germplasm. although garlic could be used against other undesirable supernatural creatures in early anglo-saxon lore, use against creatures specifically denoted as resurrected from the grave and craving human blood was absent in published literature until the 19th century. no instances of garlic used against elf shot, flying venom or worm, primary causes of disease in anglo-saxon leechcraft (rohde 1922), could be located. although worm could cause ‘tooth wark’ against which garlic was sometimes used, worm was not mentioned in the instance in which garlic as a therapy was specified (cockayne 1865). in each case (elf shot, flying venom, worm) numerous other plants comprised therapies (often along with charms or prayers). garlic was, however, indicated as germane to the humoral theory and doctrine of signatures as noted above. malign beings against which garlic was used in leechcraft were variously termed mares, hags, witches, succubi, elves, daemons or devils, but no instances denoting something specifically vampire-like (blood-feeding creatures from the grave) were located in leechbooks. it would seem that the blood-feeding vampire arrived in britain (and probably northern europe in general) only subsequent to the < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 time of the leechbooks, with the cliché of deterrence by garlic established in britain only in late victorian times. from the abundance and ubiquity of vampire lore (including their aversion to garlic) in the balkans and proximate countries in late 19th century folklore collections, it seems that this lore was long established there. the termination of roman control in britain, gaul, and central europe was accompanied by diminution of archaeobotanical evidence for garlic in those areas. one might tentatively posit a hiatus in cultivation of garlic (and perhaps horticulture in general) in northern europe during the migration period, but evidence for horticulture (including for garlic) is stronger in subsequent times, and southern folk themes eventually infused northwards along with christianization. simultaneously, medical lore in northern europe became less dominated by anglo-saxon concepts (elf shot, flying venom, etc.) and more by the doctrine of signatures, theory of humors, and other components from galen and the hippocratic tradition. garlic continued to be used “medicinally” (including with components of magic, especially accompaniments of prayer or verbal charms). throughout europe and the mediterranean, and indeed in regions of the americas, it is readily apparent that for centuries magical, culinary and medicinal aspects of garlic (and other plants) remained merged rather than distinct. the contemporary concept of nutraceutical does not quite approach this integrative (it would not be too biased to say confounding) perspective of the premodern mind. magic was pervasive. that the world is permeated by unseen and often malign forces that can be deterred, coerced or placated by magical means was a common outlook prior to (and for many, well past) the enlightenment (wilson 2000, swan 2005). belief in witches and vampires in the balkans, for example, “survived till the end of the nineteenth century, and even some traces … remained in the first decades of the twentieth” (vukanović 1989a). vukanović < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 writes, “apotropaic customs and rites …are rooted in the remote and primitive past … having been preserved …up to the present day” (vukanović 1989b). similar conservatism applied elsewhere in eastern europe (worobec 1995). even in britain, people continued to believe in witchcraft as a cause of illness well into the nineteenth century, and traditional healers (“cunning-folk”) were employed in administering herbal cures augmented with magic (davies 1999). such conservatism was not confined to europe. about life in early twentieth century ozarks, randolph wrote: “the old belief in witchcraft is rapidly dying out … many of the old folks, however, still believe that certain women can call up the devil” (randolph 1922, with incidents of putative witches and witchcraft). analogous, intriguing research exists for the southern appalachians (gainer 2008). more disturbing than intriguing are hand’s (1983) accounts, from informants, of mob burnings of suspected witches in utah. persistence of the belief that garlic possesses special properties should come as no surprise. evidence-based studies do not seem to have much diminished the common perception that garlic cures or wards off respiratory infections, acts as an aphrodisiac, or even deters cancer and coronary diseases. (‘garlic’ + ‘natural cure’ generates 360,000 records on google.) i am well acquainted with several persons who ingest garlic regularly because they believe it is effective against common maladies. however, other beliefs have proven less resistant to modernity. vampires that wear lipstick and werewolves that drive cars now abound in novels and films, but i am not acquainted with anyone who hangs garlic over their door, window or chimney, or wears it as an amulet. perceptions of garlic can be viewed as exemplars of change: simultaneously conservative and adaptive, with apotropaic remnants in folk medicine and expanded horizons in cuisine. < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 acknowledgments the author thanks jade d’alpoim guedes, kim hummer, and barbara hellier for constructive comments on the manuscript. literature cited aarne, a. 1961. the types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography, translated and enlarged by stith thompson. helsinki: suomalainen tiedeakatemia. abercromby, j., i. barclay, g.h. skipwith, h.b. smith, h.c. fairfaxcholmeley, s. smith, j.l. andrè, r. venning, and w.h.d. rouse. 1894. an unpublished scottish lullaby. folklore 5: 336-351. adema, p. 2009. garlic capital of the world: gilroy, garlic, and the making of a festive foodscape. jackson: university press of mississippi. albala, k. 2007. the banquet: dining in the great courts of late renaissance europe. champaign: university of illinois press. alexander, m. 2002. the sutton companion to british folklore, myths & legends. phoenix mill, u.k.: sutton. alm, t. 2003. the witch trials of finnmark, northern norway, during the 17th century: evidence for ergotism as a contributing factor. economic botany 57: 403-416. < dugan,frank m. “seldom just food: garlic in magic and medicine in european and mediterranean traditions.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 alyemeni, m.n., h. sher, and l. wijaya. 2010. some observations on saudi medicinal plants of veterinary importance. journal of medicinal plants research 4: 2298-2304. andrews, a.c. 1949. the bean and indo-european totemism. american anthropologist 51: 274-292. badura, m., b. możejko, and w. ossowski. 2013. bulbs of onion (allium cepa l.) and garlic (allium sativum l.) from the 15th-century copper wreck in gdańsk (baltic sea): a part of victualling? 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landscape, legacy and identity. landscape history 34: 5-26. worobec, c.d. 1995. witchcraft beliefs and practices in pre-revolutionary russian and ukrainian villages. russian review 54: 165-187. york, w.h. 2012. health and wellness in antiquity through the middle ages. santa barbara: abc-clio. zipes, j. 2002. seven brooms. marvels & tales 16: 283-289. zohary, d., m. hopf and e. weiss. 2012. domestication of plants in the old world, 4th ed., oxford, uk: oxford university press. zumwalt, r.l. 1996. “let it go to the garlic!” evil eye and the fertility of women among the sephardim. western folklore 55: 261-280. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 5-25 © american folklore society 2021 5 lead article finding comfort and discomfort through foodways practices during the covid-19 pandemic: a public folklore project by: lucy m. long with jerry lee reed, iii, john broadwell, quinlan day odum, hannah m. santino, and minglei zhang. abstract: this article describes an international oral history project run by the nonprofit center for food and culture on how individuals found both comfort and discomfort through foodways during the covid-19 pandemic. the project expanded the concept of comfort food to include the range of activities included within foodways and also explored the variety of meanings attached to the concept, emphasizing that both “food” and “comfort” are culturally and socially constructed. the project resulted in an archive of documentation from over 65 interviews, a virtual symposium, and an on-line exhibit. the exhibit and resources on comfort food, folkloristic approaches to foodways, and oral history methods are posted on a free website (www.foodandculture.org). as such, the project is an example of public folklore presentations of folkloristic concepts and materials. it also illustrates public humanities in its exploration of the meanings of comfort foodways during the pandemic. this paper describes the findings from this project and discusses their implications for insights into individuals’ experiences around foodways practices during the pandemic. the lead author designed and directed the project; the additional authors contributed in its development, conducted interviews, participated in the symposium and exhibit, and offered commentary and insights on this paper. keywords: comfort, foodways, covid-19, pandemic, public folklore introduction when covid-19 was recognized as a public health threat in the u.s. in early march of 2020, one of the responses in popular media was a turn to comfort food. defined colloquially and somewhat tautologically as food that “affords solace or comfort” (oed), the genre seems a logical way to address anxieties about health, mortality, economic futures, and social isolation as well as the numerous minor inconveniences caused by the pandemic. observations of accounts on social media platforms, popular food media, and personal experiences suggest that the concept resonated with a large portion of the american public who embraced comfort food preparation and consumption as pastime and therapy during the pandemic. at the same time, there were numerous accounts of discomfort around food. the usual foodways practices attached to procuring, preserving, preparing, presenting, consuming, and even disposing of food were disrupted. some, such as shopping, http://www.foodandculture.org/ long, et al., finding comfort and discomfort, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 6 posed very real dangers of exposure to the virus, while others brought concerns about adequate food supplies. shortages of certain items—for example, pasta, yeast, and chicken—fanned such fears and also posed challenges to maintaining eating and cooking habits and preferences. also, the turn to comfort food for some caused weight gain, a major source of discomfort referred to online as “the covid-19.” these less than comforting aspects of food seem not to have a place within the genre of comfort food, even though there was some acknowledgement of them in the public discussions of comfort food. in order to obtain a fuller picture of individuals’ experiences of both comfort and discomfort around food, i1 developed a virtual oral history project2 based on folkloristic approaches to foodways, the total network of products, practices, contexts, and performances involved in eating.3 sponsored by the independent nonprofit, center for food and culture, the project resulted in a website with resources, an online exhibit, a virtual symposium, and community workshops.4 the goal of the project was to document lived experiences around foodways during the pandemic, but it also unexpectedly served a role as a public folklore and humanities project in that it made the general public more aware of the meaningfulness of food. responses to the interviews and public presentations demonstrate that participants gained an understanding of folkloristic approaches to food and also gleaned perspectives from the project that they then applied to their own lives. this paper describes the findings from this project and discusses their implications for insights into individuals’ experiences around foodways practices during the pandemic. in addition, it draws on auto-ethnography and observations of commentary from social media5, food publications, and news outlets to suggest expanding the category of comfort food to include all practices, contexts, and performances connected to food. it also suggests the need to encompass a more nuanced understanding of comfort. it then uses the concept of liminality as an interpretive lens for explaining the popularity of comfort foods during the pandemic. comfort food as an american food genre the project was built on the popularity of comfort food in the media during the pandemic, and while the purpose was to document individuals’ lived experiences of comfort and discomfort around foodways, it also suggests a critique of the concept itself and what it represents about american food culture.5 the phrase “comfort food” is not an analytical one, but is drawn from common usage. it seems to have been first employed in print in 1966 by dr. joyce brothers who used it to explain the increase in obesity in the u.s. she claimed that americans were eating unhealthy foods in response to stress. these comfort foods tended to be high in fat, sugar, salt, carbohydrates, and calories so that their consumption negatively impacted body weight and physical appearance. the category implies a morality attached to food that then carries over to the individuals consuming them so that indulging in such digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 7 “bad” foods implied a lack of self-discipline and self-esteem. a need for comfort, however, was justification for eating such foods, relieving the individual of responsibility—and judgment—for their behavior. in 1977, phyllis richman, food writer for the washington post, used the phrase in reference to southern cooking, bringing it into popular parlance and solidifying its characterization as high in fats, sugar, and salt. this also paved the way for entire food cultures (particularly african american, jewish american, and midwestern) to be characterized in this way, both justifying a perceived lack of nutritional and health consciousness and excusing those cuisines for not following “mainstream” nutrition norms. the food industry has since turned “comfort food” into a marketing category that specifically plays on the need for solace as an excuse to eat foods otherwise considered inappropriate or unhealthy (jones 2017, long 2017). cookbooks have proliferated with the phrase in the title with the implication that readers can expect recipes that throw out dietary concerns. medical sociologists, psychologists, and nutritionists began studying the phenomenon in the early 2000s, defining comfort food as “…food consumed by individuals, often during periods of stress, that evokes positive emotions and is associated with significant social relationships” (locher 2002). these foods brought comfort by fulfilling needs for nostalgia, convenience, physical comfort, indulgence (locher et al. 2005, romm 2015, wagner et al. 2014), and belonging (troisi 2011). in 2017, folklorists and anthropologists published qualitative studies of comfort food as a cultural construction, recognizing that the meanings of food are created, adapted, and manipulated for varying purposes according to specific contexts (jones and long 2017). this project shifted focus from comfort food products (specific ingredients and dishes) to the processes surrounding them, highlighting the potential for activities, that are oftentimes overlooked, to be recognized as opportunities for socializing, solace, and meaning-making. this shift also allowed us to recognize ways in which individuals mobilized their own definitions of comfort. findings from this project suggest that foodways practices have the potential to satisfy additional needs, ranging from temporary ones for entertainment and distraction to ones that alleviate anxieties of a deeper existential nature around the meanings of our lives and the nature of our place in the universe. methodology the project generated over sixty-five virtual interviews conducted and recorded via zoom. materials from the interviews were then used to create an interactive online exhibit. documentation also included written responses to the questionnaire sent to my email address or to the website, and written and verbal comments during the online symposium and community workshops on the subject. community workshops were conducted virtually and were held by a public library, university classrooms, a church, and a public folklore center. the last included a chef giving a long, et al., finding comfort and discomfort, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 8 food demonstration and discussing how the dish represented comfort in her native american culture6. participants came from across the u.s. and at least six other nations: ireland, new zealand, england, colombia, china, and israel. they were contacted through online listservs of academic institutions and scholarly societies as well as through social media formats targeting the general public.7 this means that the participants were self-selected volunteers, many already interested in food. none seemed to be foodinsecure, and their willingness to volunteer their time to the project suggests that they were in relatively stable situations.8 the research team also interviewed family members, co-workers, and friends. relationships between researcher and participant could be noted but was not given a statistical analysis. respondents were asked to describe their ethnicity, race, gender, class, age, region, occupation, religion/political affiliation/ethos, and any other salient identities or situations they felt impacted their relationship to food during this time. this information can be used to identify factors shaping individuals’ and groups’ access to food as a medium for comfort, but is not discussed here. the virtual interviews used a questionnaire organized around the concept of foodways dividing the discussion into products (ingredients, dishes, meals), the various practices involved in eating (production, procurement, preservation, preparation, presentation, consumption, clean-up), and concepts (attitudes and beliefs pertaining to food and eating); performances of identity, values, belonging, or power through food. the actual interviews could be non-linear, allowing participants to focus on those components of foodways they found the most relevant. at the same time, all components were presented, nudging interviewees to think about and recognize that these activities were connected to food. individuals were asked to describe both discomforts and comforts they experienced in each component. finally, participants were not given scholarly definitions of comfort food, nor of comfort itself. we were interested in how individuals interpreted and used those concepts without our explanations of their history.9 this approach resulted in the description of a wide range of emotions, inconveniences, fears, and anxieties being assuaged through foodways activities. discomforts and comforts in foodways practices the oral history interviews asked for descriptions of each individual’s comfort foods, but they focused more on foodways practices than products.10 this essay follows that focus as well. the descriptions that follow are illustrations of the range of discomforts and comforts that were experienced. the responses are not contextualized here although consent forms include details such as gender, age, occupation, religion/ethos, educational background, race-ethnicity, and geographic place of the participant during the interview. also, the specific living situations of individuals seemed to be of particular significance since that tended to shape access to ingredients, storage, cooking equipment and space, and commensality around digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 9 eating. whether or not living quarters were shared and with whom also was a significant factor that needs more attention. production refers to producing or raising the raw ingredients that became food. it includes practices such as farming, gardening, domestic livestock, and beekeeping. while none of the participants worked in farming as an occupation, many said they had previously raised some of their own food, more for recreation or taste rather than out of necessity. the pandemic made them think more seriously about these practices, partly because of shortages of certain items early in the pandemic, such as pasta, beef, yeast, and flour (severson and moskin 2020), and concerns about the viability of the industrial food system. the outbreaks of covid-19 among workers in food processing industries brought questions about food safety as well as the ethics of that system. home and community gardens were very common, and several respondents were looking into raising “backyard chickens,” beekeeping, and building greenhouses. they also said they frequently participated in social media discussions about those topics. one expressed discomfort in her frustration that they were not able raise their own food: “i really wish i could but unfortunately i live in a tiny apartment with a tiny balcony. although i may grow small things like herbs…” (banu o., cfac-llbo-10/2/20)11 while gardening in particular was recognized as a way to protect against discomforts caused by the breakdown of the industrial food system, it also was acknowledged as comforting on deeper levels. numerous individuals spoke of it connecting them to the seasons and to nature. my own experiences corroborated this since the limitations around travel meant that i was home enough to plant, tend, and harvest a small garden, something i usually am not able to do. procurement refers to practices around obtaining ingredients or cooked food. it includes shopping, fishing, hunting, and foraging as well as procuring food from other sources, such as friends or restaurants. shopping for groceries caused significant discomfort for many respondents, particularly early in the pandemic when little was known about the virus, and scientific data on whether surfaces and food packaging were safe was not yet available. interviewees had many thoughts on how to handle shopping bags and produce to alleviate the discomfort of fear of exposure to the virus. “the precautions that i took included leaving the produce in the balcony for a few hours and then removing them from their bags and placed in the refrigerator… for packaged products that can be cleaned with soap and water i cleaned them in that manner.” (banu o., cfac-ll-bo-10/2/20) long, et al., finding comfort and discomfort, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 10 spending time inside a store seemed dangerous and discomforting. mask mandates were inconsistent around the world, and not all customers or employees could be trusted to respect the six-feet (two-meter) distance deemed safe. one individual pointed out that safety concerns caused her a good deal of discomfort and impacted her daily routine, which was then discomforting: “…we had to have a bigger chunk of time dedicated to grocery shopping because everything took longer, the queue to get in, and at the till...” (ana c., cfac-hs-ac-7/26/20) ordering food delivery or pick-up from supermarkets or restaurants was a common solution to allying fears of covid contamination from going into public indoor spaces. to reduce risk, some interviewees also began consolidating their shopping with friends, neighbors, or family. one person would take orders, shop, and deliver items, oftentimes placing bags outside a door so that the person inside could retrieve them with minimal physical contact. the individuals would then stand far apart and shout out a conversation. along with these visits being a welcome respite from the isolation many were experiencing, they affirmed a social network and strengthened relational bonds. other individuals stated that in order to avoid indoor spaces, they began frequenting outdoor farmers’ markets where available. this not only supported local producers, but also turned the events into social occasions. a neighbor told me at our weekly market that it was the only time she saw other people, and she looked forward to it all week. it was comforting to her to be able to interact with others in real time and space. not surprisingly, the shortages of specific ingredients created discomfort for many, sometimes forcing individuals to visit numerous venues or pay higher prices by ordering online. one participant observed that those who suffered food allergies or other dietary restrictions felt particularly challenged during this time. they found it difficult to obtain some items, and the discomforts they felt about going into stores kept them from seeking out foods they needed. others ended up finding comfort by sharing what they had with neighbors and friends, which then affirmed social networks. a number of virtual as well as neighborhood groups developed around such needs, leading to a sense of comfort through the new community. “as a hearth cook, i was surprised that things once rarely in demand are now hard to get–yeast, canning equip and pectin. and just have to laugh when thinking what will be next. at the very beginning someone in our county started a facebook page for hard-to-find things, and to post when seeing something at a store; and now there are almost 14,000 members.” (p.b.r., email to author, 9/2020) digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 11 another result of the uncertainty about supplies was that some individuals began rationing their food. one mother who was now preparing meals three times a day said that she began assigning ingredients to each meal. like others, she began making careful use of leftovers, incorporating them into other dishes. while the uncertainty of future availability of food was stressful, she noted finding comfort in the feeling of control over those supplies. another individual told how planning meals had led to weight loss, something they found to be a comforting “silver lining” to the pandemic. prepared food could still be ordered for take-out or delivery from restaurants (while some allowed limited indoor seating). a common reason given for doing so was to vary the routine, while others wanted to support local businesses. “…i feel like i’ve actually eaten out more because of the hardship that i know the businesses are going through. so normally i would cook, like, ninety-eight percent of my meals at home, but i think we’ve been going…once a week.” (amanda t., cfac-qo-at-7/16/20) giving financial support to local businesses was a source of comfort in that it made individuals feel that they could make a difference in a small way in the face of the pandemic in which they felt ineffective. a social media group in my area was started specifically to connect potential customers with those local restaurants offering carryout. this initiative was presented as one small step individuals could take to make a difference during the pandemic. similarly, another participant told how developing a project purchasing meals from local restaurants and donating them to the local community brought her a form of comfort: “and i think that we started it as a way to-i don't know, deal with our own guilt for not being affected by it … i'm like in this incredible state of privilege…and it just felt so strange to know that all these people are so affected by it. but it doesn't affect me, and so, therefore, what can i do to help uplift others.” (amanda t., cfac-qo-at-7/16/20) some individuals mentioned that the convenience and aesthetic pleasure of eating someone else’s cooking felt indulgent, especially when they knew other people could not afford the expense. while feeling discomfort over the inequalities it reflected, that indulgence gave them physical comfort. the pandemic actually served as an excuse for them to frequent restaurants more than they usually did or could fit into their budget. preservation refers to methods, spaces, or equipment used to preserve foods. interviewees expressed surprise at being asked about this aspect of foodways. while it was historically a significant part of everyday life, the modern world and industrial agriculture have made appliances for food storage—as well as extended long, et al., finding comfort and discomfort, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 12 shelf life of food through additives and techniques—so common that they tend to be invisible in our thinking about food. the pandemic challenged that complacence and made participants in the project aware of preservation as a significant source of both discomfort and comfort. disruptions in the supply chain and hesitations about shopping meant that some individuals were now dependent on food they had preserved previously or could procure and then safely store. one participant described her discomfort: “at the beginning there's everybody had that fear, you know, that the supply might be…, so wewe got like…. canned foods and frozen food to last longer.” (ana c., cfac-hs-ac-7/26/20) refrigerators, freezers, cupboards, and pantries could only hold so much, and some individuals had limited space. one response was to purchase an additional refrigerator or freezer, but undertaking that expense was not available to everyone, and freezers were in demand in some areas of the u.s. one approach, as described below, was to focus on necessities that did not require cold storage. to our surprise, that included water: “…the only thing that i really went crazy and stocked up was water. … i made sure that all the dry goods that i usually use (e.g. pasta, rice, lentils, chickpeas and canned tuna) were all up to par and that i had enough for at least 3-4 months’ worth.” (banu o., cfac-ll-bo-10/2/20) even those individuals with plentiful storage expressed discomfort about not knowing exactly what items were there. speaking from my own experience, a first step to relieving this concern was to make an inventory of what was in freezers, refrigerators, and cupboards. i, and others, then felt comforted both by the knowledge that there was enough food to last shortages and shutdowns and by the sense of being able to create order in the midst of the chaos created by the pandemic. another response, observed both on social media and in the oral histories, was to turn to various methods for preserving foods: canning, drying, pickling, or making jams and jellies. home canning became so popular in the u.s. that the lids for canning jars were quickly bought up and unavailable by mid-summer. suggestions began circulating on virtual platforms for alternate ways to preserve food than canning, and participants in the project mentioned freezing and drying excess garden produce. when respondents obtained good results, they found it comforting to know not only that they had food on hand, but also that they could achieve those results themselves. friends in informal conversations joked that they should have listened better in home economics classes or paid attention to their grandmothers who had knowledge of and skills to perform a variety of preservation techniques. a meme digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 13 circulating on facebook pointedly observed that these “old-fashioned” skills were now being appreciated, an observation that seemed to offer comfort tinged with revenge for those who felt their homemaking skills had previously been belittled by modern trends. preparation refers to practices around cooking, such as techniques, selecting recipes, and developing menus. it also includes the spaces in which preparation occurs and equipment or tools used. one participant used the pandemic as an occasion to bring out cooking equipment that hadn’t been used in years. “i took out my two crockpots. they probably weren't used for 15-20 years. i took out an omelet maker that i had, so it's the kind that you put the eggs in and you cook the eggs. then you flip it over so it turns out to be an omelet, just like the kind you see at hotels. i took out this little machine that chops onions and i took out a roaster, so i'm calling this, you know, taking items out of hiatus.” (carlys l., cfac-qo-cl-7/29/20) a majority of the interviewees pointed out that the stay-at-home mandates resulted in food preparation now occurring throughout the day. while some relished the practice, others found it a source of discomfort due to a lack of culinary skills, equipment, space, time or specific ingredients. one mentioned the frustration of spending time on cooking and then having the dish not taste the way they had hoped. others found the constant meal planning and preparation tedious. several described how cooking was turned into an obligation rather than a domain of artistry and imagination. “after…some weeks i'm just like ‘i can't stand my own cooking anymore.’ you know, i don't cook from scratch; i usually buy some meats and pop them in the oven or the grill—that kind of stuff, so it's not like very elaborate meals. but still, i was sick of doing it.” (ana c., cfac-hs-ac-7/26/20) others found that food preparation actually provided structure to otherwise shapeless days, and was comforting in the routineness of the activity. some described the sensory, social, and spiritual comforts they found cooking. the physical processes of cooking engaged their attention and gave a form of respite from the realities around them that she found comforting. “i tried a million new recipes, learned a lot of new techniques, but only with the ingredients and equipment i have on hand. so if there wasn’t a certain ingredient i substituted or omitted it.” (banu o., cfac-ll-bo-10/2/20) long, et al., finding comfort and discomfort, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 14 bread making and baking, seemed particularly comforting to people, an observation shared by many in the general public, judging from the celebration of it on social media. the resulting loaves fulfilled needs for hunger but also seemed to give a sense of comfort in a number of ways—satisfaction from mastering culinary techniques, from being able to control the entire process from start to finish, and admiration and enjoyment of the aesthetics of the finished product.12 a similar kind of satisfaction was found by many in trying new recipes. as with the example below, that satisfaction was oftentimes multilayered, reflecting concerns about using up ingredients, having enough food, and recycling. “but, but and the other thing is it like in terms of my recipe meanderings, i discovered this like there were certain things that i've always tried to find, and one is like what to do in soured milk again, it's part of the conserving recycling thing, and i found this great recipe, which i deduced is was from the depression because the woman said her mother made it in the 30s and early 40s, so i just assumed. and, it's so and it's like this amazing recipe which calls for a cup of sour milk, and a half of a cup of vegetable oil and that's it for the wet ingredients, and the dry ingredients are just white flour, sugar, spices, and if you want, you throw in some chopped walnuts. it is the absolute most simple cake, and it's amazing, and the fact that i'm making this thing from the depression also enriches that, you know, i mean, it's sort of like it's so appropriate on that level.” (emily s., cfac-jr-es-6/30/20) sharing of skills, recipes, and even ingredients became the basis for socializing for a number of participants. they would send recipes to each other and give advice or tips on making the dish. several described how cooking was the topic of virtual gatherings with family and friends, and one recounted how requesting a recipe helped her reconnect with a family member and gave her a sense of connecting with her own past—both of which she found comforting. similarly, people told of cooking the same dish at the same time as friends, using a recipe given by a family member, or watching the same youtube video to learn how to make a dish. these activities turned cooking into a social activity and comforted through the sense of community and companionship they offered. “…early on at the beginning of a lockdown, we couldn't see my mother in person because she was still working and interacting with people. and we were all trying to be really careful and she didn't want to accidentally infect us or something. so we started this tradition of spaghetti saturday and for spaghetti saturday, we would get on video chat about six thirty on saturday and we would cook pasta dishes, whatever we wanted in our respective kitchens while we were on the video chat. so my whole family, her and then we would prop her screen up at the table, just like she was sitting in a chair at the table.” (sarah g., cfac-hs-sg-7/31/20) digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 15 the sense of community that emerged around shared food preparation also became a physical reality for some. three friends described how they shared a sourdough starter, each adapting it to their own tastes and supplies on hand. they then held a small socially-distanced gathering where they brought the resulting loaves to consume with each other. although i was not part of the initial round of sourdough starter, i was at the gathering and able to taste the bread. the individuals involved then agreed to participate in the oral history project, affirming that while the bread itself was a comfort food, the sharing of the starter and then the sharing of its consumption gave even more comfort. presentation includes activities such as setting the table, selecting dishware, “plating” food, and creating table decorations. this did not seem to cause much discomfort, and several individuals stated that it was actually a relief to not spend time or effort on such things. another, however, said she missed creating the artistic presentations that usually accompanied social events around food. she found it comforting to attend to how she presented the dishes she made for herself; it helped to frame the event as a meal. the popularity of photographs posted on social media of finished dishes and meals suggests that such comfort was fairly common. concerns about supply systems and sustainability shaped one participant’s approach to presentation. while not seemingly tied to comfort, her choices eased some of her anxieties about the future. “i am not so keen on presentation so i kept my usual simple presentations for food. but i did pay attention to use less plates, to create less dishes and save water, which is something i am still continuing to do.” (banu o., cfac-llbo-10/2/20) consumption refers to actual eating styles and techniques as well as the contexts in which the eating occurs and the intentional use of it for socializing. this last aspect seemed to be the most significant. numerous interviewees spoke of how isolated they felt when public eating establishments closed and precautions were advised in social gatherings, even in private homes. it made them realize how much of their social lives had revolved around food; and the lack of those opportunities was emotionally stressful. eating together virtually became a popular way to deal with the isolation, and that sometimes combined sharing recipes and cooking together before the meal: “and we would all eat together and talk about, you know, we tell her what we made. she’d tell us what she made. and it was really fun. we would do a different sauce every saturday. so it'd be like, oh, what do we have? or what seasonings or let's put anchovies in this week…” (sarah g., cfac-hs-sg7/31/20) long, et al., finding comfort and discomfort, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 16 some individuals went to great lengths to share food safely—building outdoor spaces in their yards, redesigning interiors to allow for physical distance between people, or planning communal gatherings in which participants brought their own meals and had their own eating spaces. these creative strategies extended to a variety of virtual occasions for sharing food and drink together, for example, happy hours with “quarantinis,” themed meals shared virtually, ordering delivery from the same restaurant or even ordering the same dishes, online pub quizzes, and preparing and consuming a shared recipe during a virtual video visit. the pandemic seemed to highlight the role of food in holiday and life-cycle celebrations, and the inability to meet in person for these events was a major source of loneliness and stress. interviewees described virtual gatherings and other creative solutions to replace the usual celebratory meals. a number told of variations on rituals or even inventing new ones that could be done in these new contexts. one friend posted on her facebook page: “birthday slumber party with katie. she's making her favorite cocktail, a femme fatale. st. germain, vodka, pineapple juice, house sour, habanero salt. takeout supper from maya. i'm so grateful for all you facebook friends keeping this extrovert afloat in tumultuous times.” (paddy b., quoted from facebook with permission) some individuals adapted ritual holiday meals, sometimes calling up family or friends to share menus, recipes, or techniques. the food itself was comforting in the continuity it represented with their past, and the virtual interactions attached added layers of meanings and emotional comfort. “so we do usually do an easter with my mom and we did that…it varies from year to year what we have, so there's not something we have to have for easter. so this year she brought eggs from her chickens, which we colored, and then we made little egg salad like sandwiches for easter. and it was very lovely. i mean, in other years, we might have had some ham or … side dishes and more of a hot meal, like a more traditional easter meal for this area for pennsylvania. but, you know, i just felt like we have our own eggs and we can make this very simple thing and that's fine.” (sarah g., cfac-hs-sg7/31/20) the ability to observe these celebrations with food gave some individuals a sense of resilience and comfort. adapting usual rituals to the pandemic circumstances or inventing new ones in spite of the pandemic reassured individuals that life would continue and that they had the ingenuity to survive. a frequent comment was that they planned to continue these new traditions after the pandemic was over. while not everyone enjoyed these virtual or socially-distanced alternatives nor found them comforting, many did. one individual actually felt the pandemic had https://www.facebook.com/katie.michaelsrichard?__cft__%5b0%5d=azwkecvfuzdu3skhdqk0649zomroblvr7liu6ptpvkz3f5c7rsbqwba_hhs7keg3fhxgajfa2locew_xljxifzlkitxic9fstk6b1mglo5ctlj3xdogl3igo8jqaa8lll1w&__tn__=-%5dk-r digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 17 improved her social life. she was physically disabled and previously had not been able to meet with friends in restaurants. since no one was going to restaurants during the shutdowns, she was now able to join virtual meals with them. consumption also includes the physical techniques we use to eat. one individual pointed out that the time spent sitting in front of her computer caused her physical discomfort, so that she purposely stood up when she was eating. others described eating food directly out of containers or not using the expected silverware, partly to cut down on the amount of cleaning up that would be needed. some felt discomfort from the lack of defined mealtimes. snacking continuously throughout the day became common for some, a trend corroborated by the increase in sales of snack food. the snacks tended to be on foods typically thought lacking in nutrition but offering comfort, which meant that their consumption led to weight gain—the “covid-19” people joked, but something that definitely brought discomfort. the lack of set times for eating and the lack of rituals that framed those occasions as meals during the shutdown was a relief to some individuals, who had felt chained to them, but others felt a lack of structure to their day. meals had previously structured many peoples’ days in ways that they had not realized. they had divided up the work day, defined family time, and provided (sometimes, forced) occasions for interacting with others or for simply a change of activity. “grazing,” on the other hand, tended to make the days feel amorphous, and brought attention to the importance of the meal not only as a social convention but also a psychological one. at the same time, the change in routine could cause discomfort from the socializing that was now forced upon some people. one participant who felt she was weathering meals with her entire family offered these insights: at: “we usually eat them [meals] together at the dinner table.” qo: “has that held up during quarantine?” at: “yeah, although i would say i'd almost prefer to just eat them with my partner.” qo: “do you feel overly exposed to your family right now?” at: “yes (laughs). i do and we all work from home, right. my dad is here all the time, my brother doesn't have a job, he's here all the time. my partner works from home and i work from home. it's a lot.” (amanda t., cfac-qoat-7/16/20) clean-up/disposal includes practices around unused ingredients, “waste” from food preparation, leftover food from a meal, and cleaning up after eating. most interviewees did not consider food disposal an issue, although one who lived in an apartment building felt discomfort when she had to use an elevator to take out the trash and was concerned about getting too close to other people. others said long, et al., finding comfort and discomfort, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 18 that they were now making a point to compost, something that they then found comforting in the idea that they could also nourish a garden. dealing with leftovers, however, was a source of discomfort for a number of participants. individuals mentioned that some family members refused to eat leftovers, so they had to disguise them in some way, eat the leftovers themselves then prepare something new for the others, or even throw them out. also, leftovers sometimes took up much needed refrigerator or freezer space. at the same time, other individuals said they discovered creative uses for leftovers, recycling them into new dishes, or adding new spices. their ingenuity gave them a sense of resilience and control that was comforting. from discomfort to comfort it was clear from the oral history interviews as well as from observations of social media and our own personal experiences that there were a wide range of stresses, anxieties, and fears around foodways practices during the pandemic that were experienced as discomfort. while aspects such as procurement and consumption tended to be the most visible, others that were usually thought of as routine chores or as pleasant hobbies could also cause stress. home gardening was seen as a significant source of produce in case of disruptions in the supply chain, leading to stress about the success of that garden; cleaning up after eating became a tedious and discomforting task when it had to be done three or more times a day; not having room to fit food items into an already packed refrigerator or freezer caused distress; and the lack of formal meal times made the day feel disquietingly unstructured. at the same time, it was also evident that people were finding comfort in foodways practices, not just in the consumption of items perceived as fitting into that category. activities such as preparing food, growing it, getting recipes to work out well, baking bread, viewing a row of newly canned tomatoes, and so on, were comforting in themselves. perhaps more significantly, a number of those comforting activities grew out of discomforts. planting a garden might have initially been a way to ease concerns about the safety of shopping or the reliability of the supply chain, but tending plants and harvesting food gave a sense of grounding that individuals described as comforting. shortages in certain ingredients led some individuals to share and barter with their neighbors. a yeast shortage early in the pandemic initially dampened bread making enthusiasm, but individuals began sharing suggestions and recipes for alternative rising methods—sourdough, baking soda and baking powder-based quick breads, salt rising bread, flat breads such as mexican tortillas and indian naan. the newfound knowledge and skills seemed to be comforting. in some cases, communities—both virtual and physical—developed the sharing of skills, equipment, or food items. the passing along of sourdough starters created social networks, perhaps even a sense of family relations through a genealogy of “offsprings” from someone’s starter. other participants agreed that they found comfort by taking active roles in their communities. ordering takeout from local restaurants was a way to lend financial digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 19 support; shopping for an elderly neighbor helped keep them safe from contracting the virus; making meals for busy friends affirmed a social network but also contributed in a tangible way to insure others’ wellbeing. several individuals told of becoming involved in larger food activism projects helping supply food to those in need or working for more equity in the food system. helping in these ways gave them a sense of significance in that they could make a difference. by comforting others, they comforted themselves. these observations suggest the usefulness of expanding comfort foods to comfort foodways. the shift from product to process recognizes the potential for activities that are usually overlooked to become sources of comfort. it also allows for the recognition of the varied ways in which individuals use and make meaning through food practices. out of the discomforts being experienced, some individuals found comfort. rather than being passive victims of the pandemic, they acted with creativity and resilience. expanding the needs met by comfort foodways one theme that was clear from the virtual interviews was that a wide range of stresses, anxieties, and fears associated with the pandemic were being experienced as discomfort. previous researchers identified the needs fulfilled by comfort foods as being nostalgia, indulgence, convenience, physical comfort (locher 2002, locher et al. 2005), and belonging (troissi and gabriel 2011). this project suggests that all of those needs were being met for some individuals through foodways, if not through the consumption of dishes or ingredients thought of as comfort foods. recipes for childhood favorites were dug up or retrieved from fading memories; taking three hours out of a busy workday to tend sourdough starter, knead dough, and bake bread was, for some, an indulgence they rarely could afford; for others ordering take-out was both a way to support local businesses and put dinner on the dinner in a timely manner. letting soup slowly bubble on the stove all day steeping the house with aroma was a physical comfort not usually possible when work had to be done outside the home, and sharing recipes via facebook groups or meals through a virtual platform reminded people that they belonged to families or friend groups. additional needs described in this project included entertainment, distraction, control, agency, connectedness, and significance. some people found the lockdowns and the long days at home boring. they welcomed various foodways activities as entertainment and recreation (as in re-creation). it gave them something to do. for others, it distracted them from the fears and anxieties associated with the pandemic. the stream of news stories about it made it difficult at times to think about anything else, and some people found respite from that news through participating in various foodways activities, whether by choice or not. pandemic foodways addressed other, deeper needs, such as fears about life and death, loneliness and feelings of isolation, loss of a sense of structure and routine with the days seemingly running together, and concerns about one’s economic, long, et al., finding comfort and discomfort, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 20 professional, or social future. these anxieties were more existential in nature, with individuals feeling they had no control over their own lives, much less the broader world. the usual rules of working and living, including eating for nutrition and health, seemed meaningless as well as ineffective in the face of such precariousness. individuals again described finding comfort for these anxieties by participating in foodways practices. an activity like cooking or gardening was an opportunity to have control over the process of creation from start to finish, and the final products were a tangible reminder of one’s own efficacy or agency, something that was in question during the pandemic. other practices, such as cleaning storage areas, preserving foods, or planning menus gave some people a sense of control over their immediate futures. gardening gave individuals a feeling of “groundedness” and spiritual connection with the earth and seasons. the numerous forms of virtual commensality that emerged helped ease the loneliness many experienced, comforting by fulfilling the needs for belonging, but also contributed a sense of connectedness that oftentimes reached into an individual’s past—and even suggested a future after covid-19. furthermore, addressing the discomforts of others seemed to give some individuals a sense of significance that their own existence still mattered. as one participant stated: “i think [it gave me] comfort in knowing i can work from home and make a difference in the community. i think i would've felt really lost without something to do. i know i would've invented something, you know, to occupy my time. i think knowing that there's such an increase in food insecurity right now and that we're implementing a tangible solution, i think, has brought me so much comfort. and just given me purpose, i have to get out of bed because i have so much to do for this project.” (amanda. t., cfac-qoat-7/16/20) there are undoubtedly other needs fulfilled by foodways that can be described as giving comfort or “relief from stress.” acknowledging the additional ones mentioned here moves food in general to a medium through which we can address the much deeper existential anxieties that have been highlighted by the pandemic. the situations it has created are not just inconvenient, physically uncomfortable, or fleeting needs to indulge or reflect on our pasts. they are life-or-death moments in which we are confronted with our powerlessness and insignificance in shaping our own mortality. that foodways practices have emerged as a domain through which individuals are working through such issues speaks to food’s power and potential. comfort foodways and the pandemic as liminal spaces the concept of liminality offers an interpretive lens for explaining the popularity of comfort foods and comfort foodways during the pandemic. it refers to rituals in which individuals or groups transition from one stage to another. the time in between is liminal; the older established rules are suspended but the rules of the new stage do not yet apply (turner 1969). from this perspective the pandemic has digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 21 uprooted, suspended, and even challenged many of our previous norms of behavior and conceptualizations about life in general, not just food. we will eventually move into a post-pandemic world, but the rules for the new norm are not yet known. comfort foods similarly can be seen as liminal in that they are a response to an (ideally) temporary emotional state which in which the normal guidelines for healthful and moral eating are suspended (long 2017). it makes sense that individuals would turn to consuming foods and participating in foodways they might previously have felt they needed to limit or avoid. the pandemic has created an opportunity to look at these activities differently, without the taint of judgment attached to them.13 as a liminal time, the pandemic can be an occasion for exploring a potential new order. while this liminality in itself has oftentimes been stressful, it offers the potential to develop new relationships with food. foodways activities that were previously routine chores are now recognized as providing opportunities for participation in larger social networks as well as for performance of identities, values, and relationships. the mundane routines of our everyday food lives are now appreciated as meaningful reflections of our survival and as potent moments for aesthetic expression and engagement. perhaps these new relationships will be permanent, encouraging us to find comfort in all food and foodways. conclusions—the project as public humanities and public folklore14 while the finding comfort/discomfort through foodways project was initially developed in order to document lived experiences during the pandemic, the public programming represented both public humanities and public folklore. as humanities,15 it offered an understanding of food as a cultural domain in which individuals acknowledge and construct meaning. it brought attention to activities not usually recognized as being meaningful, such as shopping, organizing a refrigerator, or putting away leftovers; demonstrating that such everyday types of things could carry memories, histories, and relationships. as public folklore, the project introduced folkloristic theories and methodologies to the general public.16 it expanded the usual notions of food as just the stuff we eat to include foodways as a total system of practices, processes, and contexts around which individuals interact with food. this focus on personal experiences sets the project apart from most studies of food systems, and responses suggested that individuals felt they gained perspectives that helped them use food to address some of the physical and emotional impacts of the pandemic. as one participant observed, the pandemic in general made them more aware of the food system. “i think we'll all begin to appreciate what's involved in getting food in its raw form to our supermarkets and to our farmers markets, a lot more now that we know how, having lived without some of those things that we really appreciate [that it’s a lot] of work and value beyond the tangible form…” (nancy s., cfac-hs-ns-8/7/20) long, et al., finding comfort and discomfort, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 22 this project identified some of the discomforts and comforts felt around food during the covid-10 pandemic. it offers a foundation for further research in a number of areas: on comfort food itself, on the role individual aspects of foodways in finding comfort or discomfort, and on effective strategies used to deal with discomforts experienced due to the pandemic. perhaps most significantly, it can identify obstacles, whether structural or situational, that keep some individuals from finding comfort through foodways. notes: 1 “i” in the paper refers to long, the lead researcher and developer of the project. “we” refers to the research team along with long and is used for activities and observations in which all members participated. partial funding from the association for the study of food and society, ohio humanities, and chicago-based private foundation supported a team of graduate student researchers, based in four states within the u.s. (tennessee, north carolina, ohio, pennsylvania) and in ireland. their names are listed as co-authors. jerry reed, iii was assistant director of the project and helped with administration as well as setting up the virtual symposium. two of the students were trained in public history, one in folklore, one in sociology, and one in communication studies. prior to conducting interviews, we did sessions on folkloristic approaches to fieldwork and interviewing. quinlan day odum and john broadwell developed resources on public history, while hannah santino offered resources from anthropology and sociology. 2 we called it an “oral history” rather than an ethnography since we were unable to fully document individuals within their usual social and physical contexts. 3 “foodways” is frequently used to refer to traditional ways of eating, but within the field of folklore it is both a theory and a method for approaching food as a holistic system that connects individuals inwardly to their own pasts and identities as well as outwardly to larger social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental structures. for more on the concept, see long, 2015. 4 the online exhibit, questionnaire, and other project materials can be viewed on the website of the center for food and culture: www.foodandculture.org. 5 facebook, twitter, instagram 5 i do not offer a critique here, but i tease it out in another paper. 6 this program was organized by sally anne steiner at the folklore village in dodgeville, wisconsin (https://folklorevillage.org). since it was initially scheduled for early november, i suggested we invite a native american chef so that we could address the discomforts felt by many native americans around the celebration of thanksgiving. a video recording of the session is available through the folklore village. 7 formats included linkedin and facebook pages for the center as well as for some of the individual researcher. listservs included those sponsored by the public folklore section and foodways section of the american folklore society, and one run by the association for the study of food and society 8 the project documented some demographic data but not enough to fully address the social position of respondents. the experiences of individuals who were food-insecure, working two or even three jobs, or suffering from financial instability would probably be very different from those recounted here. we want to make sure that the observation that many of the individuals interviewed were able to create comfort from their discomforts is not misunderstood as a superficial optimism reflecting social privilege. some of the findings suggest that economic privilege actually did not automatically offer more comfort, but more http://www.foodandculture.org/ https://folklorevillage.org/ digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 23 research is definitely needed in this area (for example, an individual who had to move in with her family felt that she would have been too lonely on her own). thank you to readers diane tye and theresa vaughan for pointing out the need for clarification. 9 we treated comfort food as a “native” or emic category rather than an analytic one. emic categories are those in use within a community rather than an official one imposed by outside authorities. 10 the implicit morality is still attached to the genre, but there is growing recognition that comfort food differs according to individuals’ identities. judging from social media, this current culinary relativism seems to be expanding the food industries’ definitions of comfort food. 11 interviews are identified by the date on which they occurred. cfac in the citation refers to center for food and culture. the first set of initials refers to the interviewer; the second set refers to the interviewee. most of the interviews were virtual and recorded via zoom, however, several participants wrote out their responses and sent them by email to the project director. 12 an article by the author and theresa vaughan addresses this phenomenon. see “kneading comfort, community, craftsmanship: home baking during the coroniverse,” in revision for vernacular responses to the pandemic, edited by ben bridges and diane goldstein. 13 also see shen and long, 2020, where i discussed the concept of liminality in relation to emotional eating during the pandemic. 14 comments about the project as public humanities have also been published in the magazine of one of the funding agencies, ohio humanities: pathways, summer 2021. 15 my own approach to the humanities is that they are those disciplines that study the ways in which humans have made meaning of their lives as well as made their lives meaningful. public humanities encourage engagement with the public outside of academia. for more information, see the website for the national endowment for the humanities: https://www.neh.gov/divisions/fedstate/in-the-field/56-ways-do-the-public-humanities. additional discussion can be found on: https://fas.yale.edu/news/collaboration-andcommunity-public-humanities-yale, “folkloristic perspectives on comfort foodways during the pandemic.” 16 public folklore can be seen as a part of public humanities in that it applies folkloristic concepts and methods to projects and audiences outside of academia. for more on the scope and content of public folklore, see: https://www.afsnet.org/page/publicfolklore. western kentucky university in bowling green, kentucky offers a masters degree in public folklore: www.wku.edu. https://www.neh.gov/divisions/fedstate/in-the-field/56-ways-do-the-public-humanities https://www.afsnet.org/page/publicfolklore long, et al., finding comfort and discomfort, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 24 references cited: jones, michael owen. 2017. “stressed” spelled backwards is “desserts”: selfmedicating moods with foods.” in comfort food meanings and memories, ed. michael owen jones and lucy m. long, 17-41. jackson: university of mississippi press. jones, michael owen and lucy m. long, eds. 2017. comfort food meanings and memories. jackson: university of mississippi press. locher, julie l. 2002. “comfort food.” in encyclopedia of food and culture, ed. s. katz. new york: charles scribner’s sons. locher, julie l., william c. yoels, donna maurer, and jillian van ells. 2005. “comfort foods: an exploratory journey into the social and emotional significance of food.” food & foodways 13 (2005): 273-297. long, lucy m. 2015. food and folklore: a reader. new york: bloomsbury press. -----. 2007. comfort food in culinary tourism: negotiating “home” as exotic and familiar. comfort food meanings and memories, ed. michael owen. jones and lucy m. long, 126-149. jackson: university of mississippi press. romm, cari. 2015. why comfort food comforts: a new study looks at the intersection of taste, nostalgia, and loneliness. the atlantic, april 3, 2015. shen, wan, lucy m. long, chia-hao shih, and mary-jon ludy. 2020. a humanitiesbased explanation for the effects of emotional eating and perceived stress on food choice motives during the covid-19 pandemic. nutrients, 12 (9): 2712. turner, victor w. 1969. the ritual process: structure and anti-structure. ithaca: cornell university press. troisi, jordan d. and shira gabriel. 2011 “chicken soup really is good for the soul: ‘comfort food’ fulfills the need to belong.” psychological science 22(6): 747-753. wagner, heather scherschel, britt ahlstrom, joseph p. redden, zata vickers, and traci mann. 2014. the myth of comfort food. health psychology, 33(12) : 15521557. interviews amanda t. 2020. interview with quinlan odum (center for food and culture). august 16. (amanda t., cfac-qo-at-7/16/20) ana c. 2020. interview with hanna santino (center for food and culture). august 26. (ana c., cfac-hs-ac-7/26/20) digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2020) 25 banu o. 2020. interview with lucy long (center for food and culture). october 2. (banu o., cfac-ll-bo-10/2/20) carlys l. 2020. interview with quinlan odum (center for food and culture). august 29. (carlys l., cfac-qo-cl-7/29/20) emily s. 2020. interview with jerry lee reed, iii (center for food and culture). june 30. (emily s., cfac-jr-es-6/30/20) nancy s. 2020. interview with hannah santino (center for food and culture). august 7. (nancy s., cfac-hs-ns-8/7/20) paddy b. nd. quoted from facebook with permission. p.b.r. 2020. email to lucy m. long. september 9. sarah g. 2020. interview with hannah santino (center for food and culture). july 31. (sarah g., cfac-hs-sg-7/31/20) digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023): 1-4 ©american folklore society 2024 special issue: in search of edible pedagogies introduction by guest editor: michael a. lange (mlange@champlain.edu) food is often extolled as a paradigmatically useful topic for studying people. its supposed universality (“everybody eats!”) provides a handy shortcut through the thorny underbrush of cultural variation and the useful kinds of relativism that one must carry into the studying of people’s beliefs, habits, thoughts, and actions. but as is so often the case in research and the making of new knowledge, shortcuts are fraught and laden with dangers. the supposed universality of food, i.e., the claim that everybody eats and therefore food is a universal and universally useful tool, only make sense through an ontological lens−“food is x definitionally,” or even “eating is x definitionally.” the only problem with such a baseline assumption is that any ontology is rooted in a culturally and intellectually situated frame, an epistemology1. it is not that pursuits of ontological understanding are useless, just that ontological truths of any value always fall down when moved around enough cultural contexts, and inevitable variations or violations of their ontological truth value are found. ontological universality is limited in its useful scope; it has a boundary, which sort of ruins its sense of universality. epistemology, with its lack of reliance in universality and the concomitant power struggles of whose reality is really real, offers a chance, a faint possibility, that we might try to say something interesting and useful about people without needing that interesting and useful thing to carry the weight of universal truth. i’ve long found the search for universality in knowledge to be a bit needy and insecure. it is like the loudmouth at the end of the bar or on the campaign trail, who is not confident enough in what they say and so keeps saying it until everyone else nods along. it is a weak position that constantly needs external validation. epistemological approaches, which care about knowledge and meaning as human activities and artifacts, do not need validation from everywhere else that they really are real, and are therefore freed from the craven insecurity of ontological universality. it is through a lens of epistemology that this special issue found its germ. looking at food as a cultural thing, focusing on the knowledges and meanings that surround food, has always been the purview of digest since its inception many decades ago. that focus on knowledge and meaning continues right through to the current iteration of the journal that was resurrected in 2012. folklore and related fields (anthropology, ethnology, cultural and area studies of all kinds) have continually widened the aperture on the lens of epistemology by turning attention from the early days of mostly the material, the ‘stuff’ of folklore (the texts), to the functions and uses of the material (the meanings), through the communities and individuals within them (the knowledge and meaning making processes of the makers and holders), to a reflection on the processes scholars enacted and the scholars themselves (the knowledge and meaning making processes scholars use to make sense of the knowledge and meaning making of others). and of course, any individual can inhabit and encounter all of these layers throughout their day. without the need for putting a universal stake in intellectual ground, epistemology affords a necessary recursiveness and analysis that allows us to engage with the dizzying complexity of being human. the step focused on in this special issue of digest, “edible pedagogies,” is broadening the application of epistemology from the stuff and the processes to the teaching and learning that is one of the fundamental roles of the field of folklore. once a scholar is trained in the material, knows something of actual people, and has tools to analyze cultural processes (their own and others’), teaching is one avenue of making use of such knowledge, to pass on the understandings and the ways of understanding involved. of course, folklore can engage with people in many ways: public advocacy, mailto:mlange@champlain.edu lange, introduction, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10: 1/2 (2023) 2 arts boards, archives, publishing of fiction and nonfiction alike, government, and more. “edible pedagogies” focuses on one path, the teaching and learning about people through food. why food? because, while it may not be quite as universal as it might seem at first glance, it is still useful. what qualifies as food, what it means to eat, what eating is thought to say about a person or people, are all ontological truths that vary across different epistemological frames. but epistemology is excited by the variation and particularity. and food is nothing if not particular, to different people, different contexts, different moments. it is in that very particularity that the value of food as a teaching and learning tool comes clear. the bolstering statement “everybody eats!” does support the value of food as a pedagogical focus, but not in the way it might seem. the value does not come from the “everybody” in the claim, with its reliance on ontological universality, but in the “eats,” which neatly opens up the variability in what it means to eat. i don’t like green beans, my brother loves them. even at that simple level, variability is cooked into the understanding of what it means to eat. quickly following are other pools of variability, such as what gets eaten, who eats what, when and under what circumstances certain foods are consumed or not, and many, many more. because of the vast and easily found variability of food and eating, and because variation is widely experienced and easily acceptable, food is incredibly valuable to teach with, if one’s approach is through an epistemological lens. to be sure, food is not unique in that value. indeed, it could be easily and validly argued that any and every aspect of culture contains the same variability and therefore value as an epistemological teaching topic. “edible pedagogies” is not making a claim that food is the only, or even the most, useful thing to teach with. it is, however, one that all of the contributors to this special issue have engaged in a pedagogical setting, and exploring the manifold ways that food can be used to teach can help us shed some light on our own knowledge and meaning making processes, and how they form both material and method to our teaching. this issue, again like every other cultural artifact, has many contexts and flows of influence that shape it. the contributors in this volume range widely, in experience, in disciplinary backgrounds, in the subjects of their contributions, and in their own roles. because of the focus on pedagogy, everyone here is connected with a higher education setting in some way, but not everyone is exclusively an academic or a folklorist. full-time faculty, part-time faculty, graduate and undergraduate students are all here, as well as people who straddle categories of academia and the public sector. in addition to folklore, contributors come from fields such as anthropology, media studies, fine art, gender and ethnic studies, rhetoric and composition, library science, history, cultural studies, education, filmmaking, and game design. these contributors discuss an impressive wealth of topics as well, from using food and folklore in elementary classrooms through reflections on theorizing in university courses to post-human analyses of food as communication. additionally, reprinted within this special issue is a pdf version of a previous issue of digest from an earlier, print iteration of the journal. the reprinted issue, volume 19 (1999), shows us that recognizing the value of food as a pedagogical tool is not new, and it gives us a chance to look back as we look around us now, to see our tracks while we make new ones. those current tracks include david rous’ short reflection on teaching a course about identity through food and food choices, “how food fits into identity”. his essay tells us as much about his students and what it means to teach them as it does about food, which is indicative of how food is often merely a window. few college courses (at least the good ones) are exclusively about the thing they are nominally ‘about,’ instead using the topic as a vehicle to greater, deeper, or broader understandings. academic publications are often the same, with their topics providing a handy carrier for other understandings, such as what it means to teach undergraduates. from the same school comes another piece about teaching with food, “making the family meal”, by jen berger. this digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10: 1/2 (2023) 3 class focused on hands-on, experiential education, and berger’s version used the hands-on process of making a meal to provide students the opportunity to explore their own familial and cultural backgrounds. the students’ projects were captured in an open-access online assignment, the link to which is included in this issue. this piece shows us a product of teaching and learning with food, saved in a virtual form for us to peruse. three contributions to “edible pedagogies” are collaborative efforts between a professor and one of their students. isaura garcia and sheila bock submit their co-written article, “food and the expressive culture of death: two perspectives,” which examines the use of food within a course about how people make meanings around death and life. that the course under examination, “the expressive culture of death”, is not about food makes their article more appropriate for this special issue, not less so. bock’s course, which examines death as a cultural artifact, asks for students’ observations about what people do for the people left behind by someone who has died. responses reliably elicit the idea of bringing them food, from which bock guides students “to think about how we can find meaning not only in the act of sharing food, but in the form and content of the food itself.” garcia later explores certain meanings attached to the symbolic and ritual consumption of the dead in her own life experiences, applying the theorized understandings gained throughout the course. along with the interesting explorations of how food is used as a teaching and learning tool, from the perspectives of both the teacher and the learner, garcia and bock show how these cultural elements never exist in isolation; one always at the very least opens up windows onto others. death provides an opportunity to explore food. miriam horne and her student zoe campos submit an article about a course taught and taken as well, this time focusing on the rhetoric of recipes. rhetorical analytical tools have long been a part of the field of folklore, as the emphasis shifted from text to context to meaning, so it makes clear sense to see how such tools can be brought to bear on a place where food meets narrative—the recipe. as horne explains, the use of recipes as text material for rhetorical analysis allows, perhaps even demands, that issues of identity be brought to the fore, including power and power relationships. this pair of authors deftly avoids the trap of a too-easy ontological universality, while still recognizing the broad usefulness of food as an entre e into cultural analysis: “because food impacts everyone, it levels the playing field while exposing students to multiple ways of seeing and thinking.” food impacts everyone, but not only are the manners, contexts, and intensities of those impacts allowed to be variable, that very variability is the root of food’s pedagogical value. rhetoric provides a toolkit to explore multiple ways of seeing and thinking, to explore multiple epistemologies. the last piece co-written by a professor and student is an essay penned by cora mardin, with additional commentary by me. this piece is a little different, in that mardin writes about a project she undertook for a class taught by someone else, and the intersection of student and professor here is not through a shared course, but shared participation in a food-centered campus event, the andy burkhardt memorial chili cook-off. originally an effort at a documentary film project on the cook-off as a communal event, mardin’s essay recounts her own experiences and impressions of making food in order to make community. these three co-written pieces engage most directly with the epistemological process mentioned earlier, the reflective analysis of how teachers can use the tools of epistemology to understand our own meaning and knowledge making as we help students formulate, critique, and enact their own growing systems for making knowledge and meaning. by giving perspectives of both teacher and student, the vital moment when epistemologies touch and shape one another is afforded center stage. lange, introduction, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10: 1/2 (2023) 4 in the same vein of collaborative efforts, “keywords: exploring cultural differences through the lens of food,” a grade school curriculum, is included here. “keywords” was created by the joint efforts of lucy long, sue eleuterio, and jerry reed. in the connected reflections on the curriculum by the contributors, the value of food as an epistemological tool is made clear. even though the curriculum is adapted for k-12 classrooms, so there is no need for lofty vocabulary like ‘epistemology,’ the meat and bones of the concept run through the curriculum. the list of keywords that forms the foundation of the k-12 curriculum itself shows us: identity, construction, culture, meaning, systems. that ‘meaning’ is put at the highest level, along with ‘identity’ and ‘culture,’ shows the focus on the human processes of knowledge and meaning making that are at the heart of any cultural enterprise, and therefore can (and perhaps should) be at the heart of any attempt to teach about culture. beiswenger, like horne, looks at a particular genre of text in order to glean cultural knowledge about the text makers and users. in this case, the genre is school lunch menus in central pennsylvania. the menu, like the recipe, gives us a window into the lives of those who use it. and much like recipes can tells us about identity and power, school lunch menus show us categories of class, race, and ethnicity, and how power is displayed across them. beiswenger presents several layers of assignments that revolve around the data set of school lunch menus, and she explains that a major focus of the projects and the course are to help students understand themselves as existing in cultural contexts. it gives them a “chance to be knowers.” and there beiswenger gives us a crystal-clear expression of how pedagogy is a natural extension of cultural fields’ continued use of epistemology as a lens. if we take teaching and learning to be an act of purposeful intersecting of systems of knowledgeand meaning-making, of epistemologies, then all good teaching should in some form or fashion involve or include giving students a chance to be knowers. to engage in the making of knowledge and meaning is an everyday occurrence for pretty much everyone. to engage in that process consciously, knowingly, maybe even purposefully, is one way of understanding what it means to be educated. folklore and the closely knit fields within which it exists (anthropology, media studies, etc.) have an enormous wealth of tools, theories, and techniques to pay purposeful attention to the processes of knowledgeand meaning-making that are fundamental to being human. teaching can use those same tools, techniques, and theories not only to improve its own efficacy, but also to meld subject and process. what we teach and how we teach can inform one another in deep and meaningful ways when we bring these tools to bear on both the what and the how. because of food’s ubiquitous impact on people, which acknowledges the immense variability and possibility of what those impacts can be, it makes a particularly useful vehicle for exploring culture through lenses of epistemology. by looking at a range of takes on pedagogy here, in this special “edible pedagogies” issue of digest, it is hoped that we can reflect on how teaching with, about, and in connection to food can give us insights into who we study, who we teach, and who we are. 1 the basic definition of epistemology being used here is “a system of making meaning and/or a system of making knowledge”. some flavors of academic endeavor call this an episteme. inherent in this definition is an understanding that knowledge and meaning are nearly synonyms, a viewpoint reliant on a geertzian sense of culture consisting of artifacts caught in “webs of significance”. this approach takes information to become knowledge when it is brought into someone’s web of significance, and thereby situated in relation to other things known and understood by that person. only when a piece of information finds purchase at a particular point in someone’s web does it become significant, i.e., meaningful. so, to make something into knowledge is to make it into meaning. sweet bedfellows continuity, change, and terroir in maple syrup by: michael lange the making of maple syrup is an important part of the livelihood and identity of many people in vermont. it is almost impossible for a vermonter to think of their home state without eventually calling to mind images of a stand of maples or a sugarhouse. even for outsiders without personal experience of the state, vermont is consistently linked to images of maple syrup, maple trees, and the maple leaf, even if the bottle of vermont maple syrup on the kitchen table is their only connection to the state. often, the image of maple syrup conjures up tropes of rurality and an old fashioned way of life. a sense of purity and authenticity is connected to the syrup, and eventually to vermont itself. this article explores the connections between maple and the state, and between notions of purity and authenticity. i have been conducting ethnographic fieldwork with sugarmakers all over vermont for the past two years, meeting them in storefronts, in sugarhouses, in kitchens, and in their woods. i have spoken with people running operations of various sizes, from a hundred taps up through the tens of thousands. 1 sugaring is done in every county of vermont, on rigs from an open tub in the back yard to a fifteen-foot tall evaporator in a dedicated sugarhouse. sugarmaking is woven throughout the landscape of vermont, both conceptually and geographically, and maple connects inhabitants from all across the state. my ongoing fieldwork with sugarmakers delves into those connections. i have been asking sugarmakers themselves how purity and authenticity play a role in their own understandings of what they do and what they make. i have been learning from them how they see stasis and change as an inherent part of their lives. in this article, i explore the evolving nature of maple as a part of vermont’s identity in the face of technological, social, and economic change. the sugarmaking process sugarmaking was handed down to settlers in what is now the northeast us and eastern canada by the various native american and first nations indigenous to the area. 2 these groups practiced maple production for centuries before european contact. in vermont, the abenaki are considered the indigenous people of the region, and they are the ones who taught sugarmaking to the incoming settlers. the maple syrup production process, called “sugarmaking” by those in the know, is deceptively simple. sugarmaking involves one ingredient, the sap from maple trees, and one process, boiling. there are many variations within that framework, but the basics of sugarmaking always include these two elements. 3 the sap used for sugarmaking is most often from the sugar maple (acer saccharum), although other acer species (silver maple, swamp maple, red maple) are sometimes used, depending on the region and local environment. the sap of the maple tree typically contains between 1% and 4% sugar in solution. the sap must have its water removed until the liquid is approximately 66% sugar in solution, 4 requiring approximately 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. the sap is collected by boring holes in the maple trees and catching the resulting sap flow in either buckets or a network of tubing. the collected sap is centralized in a sugarhouse, 5 a specially designed building dedicated to sugarmaking, where it is boiled in a large apparatus called an evaporator to remove water and concentrate the sugar. 6 maple sap only flows in enough quantity for sugarmaking at a short time of the year, typically late winter and early spring, in february and march. the flowing of the sap is entirely dependent on immediate weather conditions. sap flows when the air temperature swings between freezing at night and above 40 degrees during the day. this relative unpredictability means that sugarmaking carries few guarantees from year to year in terms of yield. vermont produces the lion’s share of the maple syrup made in the us, averaging better than double the amount from new york or maine, its closest competitor the last four years. 7 the most recent usda census of agriculture, tabulated for 2007, 8 records 1310 total sugaring operations in vermont, with 923 of those having fewer than 2000 taps. sugarmakers gauge the size of their operations by the number of taps, a tap being the physical spout inserted into the tree. multiple taps can be placed on a tree, depending on its size, age, and ability to produce. there is no hard and fast standard, although rules of thumb abound, about how many taps equate to how many trees. sap is measured in fractions of a gallon per tap, so the number of taps is the best benchmark for the size of a sugarmaker’s stand. a sugaring outfit with fewer than 2000 taps would be considered a small operation by most sugarmakers. in 2007, only 135 sugarmakers (10.3%) set more than 5000 taps, but these large operations produced 371,891 gallons (57.7%) of the syrup made in the state. even in the case of some of the largest operations, sugarmaking in vermont is mostly done by individual sugarmakers on a relatively immediate scale. large-scale sugarmaking in quebec is generally controlled by a cooperative and exists on a larger, more industrial scale, but all save the largest vermont producers understand their sugarmaking as a personal process. while there are a handful of producers who employ large numbers of workers, the vast majority of sugarmakers work alone or nearly so, with at most the family and an immediate circle of friends involved. stands of maple trees are not planted in any organized way because a maple tree can only be tapped when it is decades old. it is not a crop with quick turnover from planting to harvest. because the sugarmakers go to the trees, rather than bringing the trees where they would like to be, sugarmaking is conducted mostly in rural areas where the trees grow. historically, sugarmaking by european americans has been undertaken by farmers, who utilized the maple trees near their cultivated fields and pastures, both to extend the productive cycle of the year and to maximize the harvests and income to be drawn from their land. recent increases in price have drawn more people in vermont into sugarmaking as a hobby and income source, so the demographics of the sugarmaker have expanded to include “the ibmer” 9 as well as the traditional farmer/sugarmaker. the demographic shifts aside, in the popular conception, sugarmaking still belongs in a rural setting, performed by old vermont farmers in a traditional manner. the twin idylls sugarmaking is strongly connected with a sense of rural tradition. this connection is not entirely without basis because many sugarmakers in vermont are, indeed, farmers making syrup on their own property, with long family histories behind them. despite the widening of the demographics of sugarmaking, though, the popular image of the vermont sugarmaker is fairly uniform, as is the popular understanding of the sugarmaking process. both exist in a pastoral idyll, where verdant fields abut majestic stands of maple that roll over hillsides. two idyllic tropes are in play here: the pastoral and the traditional. the pastoral idyll holds that vermont is a clean, green, and serene place, 10 while the traditional idyll maintains that vermonters do things in substantially the same manner that they’ve done them for years and generations. the traditional idyll is a far cry from the actual processes of tradition, of course. the popular understanding of tradition as a repeated artifact of the past is given lie by henry glassie, who reminds us that tradition “is a temporal concept, inherently tangled with the past, the future, with history” (2003: 180-181). the pastoral idyll of a clean, green, and serene place stresses the cleanliness of vermont in terms of the purity of its land, its soil, and its products, but this idyll is no less complicated than the traditional (howell 1994). the greenness of the place is indicated by its naturalness and uncorrupted physical environment. 11 the serenity is marked in the harmoniousness of the state, where everything works together in the oikos of the ecosystem. these traits are presented as both the epitome of vermont and the antithesis of modernity, which is mechanistic, artificial, and fractured. both idylls are intertwined, almost inextricable. vermont is green and natural, whereas the modern (understood as represented by new york city, boston, and other urban places) is somehow a departure from a more natural, more authentic place and way to live. the traditional is not simply tied to the pastoral; the two are nearly the same. vermont is a clean, green, place because the people who live there are imagined as living in a non-modern way, without the fractious and corrupting influences of the modern world. vermont is understood as a sort of ecosystem fixed in time (howell 1994: 133). as every good scholar of culture knows, authenticity is a hugely problematic concept. regina bendix explores how authenticity is artificial in her book, in search of authenticity (1997), wherein she argues that a place may construct a narrative historical justification of importance or validity. in a tourist situation, or any situation where those inside an identity and those outside an identity are interacting, the authenticity supplied by a narrative may be employed strategically. 12 there is a pretty straightforward process of romanticization here. i do not mean to imply that such narratives are false, but they are employed strategically to elicit a reaction from the other side of the boundary between the inside and the outside. this is no less true for vermont, where sugarmaking straddles lines between vermont and the outside world. sugarmakers, and to a certain extent, all vermonters, construct a narrative of cleanliness, greenness, and serenity, which bolsters people’s expectations for the state and maple syrup as a product. likewise, they emphasize in subtle and overt ways, the traditional aspects of vermont, that the state does things an older, and implicitly better, way. if vermont is clean, green, and serene, and if it keeps its traditions – if it is authentic – then the maple syrup that comes from the state is worthy of trust as a product of a simpler, more traditional place and way of life. reading the material culture of sugarmaking a quick look at the literature of the maple industry or the material culture of maple syrup demonstrates the ways the pastoral and traditional idylls are maintained. the vermont maple foundation, an independent, non-profit organization that promotes and educates about maple, produces a small cookbook, the official vermont maple cookbook, currently in its third edition. inside the front cover, it proclaims: pure vermont maple syrup is 100% natural and the official “flavor of vermont”. it is a delicious pure food product to cook with and to enjoy. vermont has the ideal climate and soils for growing sugar maple trees […] maple season in vermont is a special time and steam billowing from sugarhouse roofs all around the state is a sign that sap is boiling. from the abenaki to the modern operators of today, vermont sugar makers have been refining the maple sugaring craft for centuries. likewise, a pamphlet produced by the vermont maple sugar makers’ association (the umbrella body for the vermont maple foundation) states that “the tree and the farmer are partners in producing maple syrup” (“the story time of maple in vermont”). these pieces of text emphasize the clean, green, and serene image, using words like pure, natural, ideal, and special, and they stress tradition by moving vermont sugarmaking directly from the abenaki to the “modern operators of today” (although it should be noted that there are plenty of abenaki people living in vermont right now). harmony is evident in the trees and the farmers working together to make syrup. it is not a product of the land, or a product of human labor, but a result of the harmonious combination of the two. the bottles in which maple syrup is packed for sale tell the same narratives of purity and tradition. as can be seen in the photographs, red-checked flannel coats are evident on both bottles. horses draw a sledge and a cart. sap buckets hang from trees. the rustic sugarhouse sits among maples, and both bottles proclaim “pure vermont maple syrup”. one bottle even has the state of vermont itself being tapped, with sap running into a wood stave bucket nestled against the state’s western border. the immediate connection between sugaring and vermont could not be more obvious. the image of a pastoral, traditional idyll is made clear and uncomplicated by these visual depictions. not only are the people inhabiting an idealized landscape of trees and rolling hills, but they are engaging in old fashioned sugaring processes, such as gathering sap by hand and hauling it by horse. the technological and marketing realities the actual processes of sugarmaking in vermont are, unsurprisingly, more complex than the idylls might imply. a great deal of technology has always been incorporated into sugarmaking, as with all agricultural processes. many sugarmakers are farmers, and farmers are often quick adopters of new technology, especially when that technology promises increased efficiency in an occupation with razorthin margins. plastic tubing now replaces most buckets, and sap drains to centralized collection points, instead of needing to be hauled away from every tree by horse and hand. vacuum systems impart a slight negative pressure to tubing systems, urging more sap from the trees, instead of allowing gravity and xylem to do all the work. check valves prevent sap from flowing back into the trees, keeping the bore holes from healing too soon, and reducing infections in the trees. reverse osmosis (ro) rigs concentrate the sap before it ever hits heat, reducing the amount of water in the fluid and reducing the time and fuel needed to boil it down to syrup. sugarmakers all over the state use these new technologies to increase their production, their efficiency, and their yields, while packing their syrup in containers bearing pictures of horse sledges and buckets. there is no hypocrisy on the part of the sugarmakers. they understand the pastoral idyll, and they employ that narrative in selling their syrup. for most sugarmakers, the authenticity of maple lays not in the sledge or the bucket, but in the purity of the two essential ingredients: sap and heat. other trappings may come and go, but those two ingredients do not change. while many sugarmakers have a sense of nostalgia for “the old ways”, they understand that the old ways are just that – old. nostalgia may be fine for dinner table conversation, but not for the bottom line. as one sugarmaker expressed, there’s the technology out there to get half a gallon of syrup per tree, and within reason, i’m able to put that together in my setup here. ideally, the cheapest way is with buckets, wood evaporator, no ro, heck – you could make it in a sugarhouse with no electricity if you want and all that. and that’s fine, you know, and that’s a very traditional way to do it and some people, you know, that makes them happy. and i enjoy parts of that, but i also like the idea, if i can produce 300 gallons of syrup off my land instead of 20, with paying the same amount of taxes, with investing $20,000 to do it, you figure 300 gallons of syrup at fifty bucks a gallon, there’s $15,000 [per year]. (tl-h07012011) 13 the traditional aspects of sugarmaking are always balanced with the bottom line because sugarmaking is not an activity of nostalgia. it is an economic activity. it is a hobby for some, but it is an income source for almost all sugarmakers. whether that means enough money for heating oil in the winter, profit to plow back into their sugaring operation, or just disposable income on the side, i have met no sugarmaker who doesn’t cast at least a casual eye at their production efficiency. indeed, conversations about amount produced per tap and amount produced per unit of fuel are commonplace among sugarmakers. a certain coyness is sometimes involved, with questions about the amount of syrup produced being answered with vague replies, such as “a good bit” or “enough”. however, just as often, i heard sugarmakers exchanging hard numbers with one another when describing their output. an overall sense of friendly competition pervades the sugarmaking community, and they talk to each other of different setups and systems, as well as the success, or lack thereof, they have had with different options and combinations of factors. sugarmakers are acutely aware not just of the efficiencies involved in making syrup, but also the best ways to sell their syrup for the highest prices. again, sugarmaking as a farming activity is made obvious. long gone are the days when farmers paid no attention to commodities markets, both near home and around the world, and sugarmaking is no different. many, many sugarmakers talked to me about the state’s efforts to promote maple and expand to new markets. more than a few talked to me about the rising interest in maple syrup as a product in japan, for example. maple syrup is only made in a small part of the world, and smack in the middle of that maple-producing part sits vermont. this fact is not lost on any sugarmaker. expanding markets outside of that small maple-producing range is a necessary process to keep vermont maple viable. one of the ways vermont is doing that is by reinforcing the valid connection between vermont and maple, both practically and conceptually. vermont promotes its maple with the traditional and the pastoral idylls. the literature and material culture of the maple industry draws heavily on those tropes, in order to meet the narrative expectations of the potential maple syrup consumer. by employing the idyllic narratives strategically, vermont places itself at the center of the maple world in people’s minds. selling syrup is not the only way vermont connects idyllic narratives to income. as tom slayton explains, “much of vermont tourism is based on the pastoral landscape and image that farmers have provided us (at no charge), along with the milk, cheese, apples, and maple syrup they produce” (bellerose 2010: 13). tourism is a significant part of vermont’s economy, and maple producers have made themselves a significant part of vermont tourism. as urry (2002) reminds us, tourists want to see a narrative that meets their expectations, while providing them with the novelty of first-hand experience. vermonters are well aware of this seemingly contradictory desire on the part of visitors. one sugarmaker, who derives his income primarily from tourists visiting his farm and sugarhouse, rather than selling syrup he produces directly, discussed with me at length the necessary tensions between providing the tourist with what they want and giving them a “real” vermont sugarmaker: you gotta sell, but you realize that, at least if you’re me, you realize that too hard a sell is not going to enhance the promotion. you gotta be a back to the earth, vermont stereotype, old hick farmer. so that necessitates putting on a show sometimes. you can’t be hokey with it though, you gotta be real. they’ve got to believe you’re making syrup, you’re just a farmer making syrup here. you want to promote if you’re smart, not just you but vermont, because if we lose the vermont image of maple, we’ve had it. all those things are equally important. (tl-m27052010) there is a conscious appeal to authenticity involved here. he recognizes that tourists want a “more direct, visceral experience” by coming to his farm and seeing the story of maple (robinson and hartenfeld 2007: 166). they want to attach to the pastoral, traditional idyll because it feels more authentic to them. more than simply aping the role of the vermont bumpkin of popular imagination, this sugarmaker is actively re-creating himself as a part of these idyllic narratives for the tourists. his juxtaposition of the “stereotype, old hick farmer” with being real is not a lack of understanding of the seeming contradiction on his part. indeed, it is a sharp awareness of the dual nature of the tourism relationship. he is able to provide the tourist with that old farmer because he is that old farmer. he is playing a role, but he is playing himself and the vermont farmers and sugarmakers he represents, and he knows very well the complexities involved with inhabiting these multiple identities. by maintaining these roles and constructing the narrative in a way that feels more honest, he is doing his part to keep vermont’s maple industry viable. he knows that if the narratives are damaged, “we’ve had it.” if a tourist’s or a consumer’s narrative expectations for pastoral, traditional vermont and maple are violated, then the narrative loses meaning, and that dollar gets spent somewhere else, or on another product. in both instances of change, technological and marketing, sugarmakers have consistently adopted and adapted the new, making it a part of the old and keeping sugarmaking an evolving process. interestingly, the tropes of authenticity that this sugarmaker uses are not unique either to vermont 14 or to sugarmaking. 15 modernizing the market – terroir sugarmakers are constantly balancing between the purity and tradition of their process and product with the economic demands of the market and the industry. rather than simplistically rejecting the old for the sake of the new, they deftly meld the two into a complex understanding of the roles of tradition and modernity. in so doing, they maintain and bolster their product and their own long-term viability. the negotiation of the old and the new, the pastoral and the technological, the traditional and the modern, is not a problematic thing for sugarmakers because it is a constant and a norm. many changes and improvements have been absorbed by sugarmakers since sugarmaking began thousands of years ago. on the technology side, tubing has been around for decades, and ro and vacuum systems for quite a few years as well. pushing markets into far away countries has been a part of sugaring at the highest levels for many years. at each turn, sugarmakers negotiated the new additions while keeping the essential aspects of sugarmaking intact. i would like to turn to one of the most recent changes in sugarmaking, to explore a different type of negotiation with modernity. recently, a collaborative research effort between the university of vermont’s nutrition and food science department and the state of vermont’s agency of agriculture, foods and markets has resulted in a “map of maple.” this research project is an outgrowth of the research of dr. amy trubek, and it has resulted in, among other things, a tasting chart specific to maple syrup. this tasting chart resembles diagrams created for wine, which is no coincidence. dr. trubek has been working with the notion of terroir and applying it to various american food production and consumption processes. 16 terroir is a term from the french culinary world that defies simple definition. the word literally means “land” in french, although it also carries the meaning of “authenticity” when describing agricultural products. the concept encompasses the idea that the taste and flavor qualities of a food are direct reflections of the immediate environment in which it is grown. the mineral content of the soil, the slope, the sun, the moisture in a particular spot, all ultimately become elements in the flavor of a food item grown there. when the french take a bite of cheese or a sip of wine, they taste the earth: rock, grass, hillside, valley, plateau. they ingest nature, and this taste signifies pleasure, a desirable good. gustatory pleasure and the evocative possibilities of taste are intertwined in the french fidelity to the taste of place.” (trubek 2008: 9) the french culinary world has long held the notion of terroir as an inherent aspect of understanding and appreciating food. in many ways, it is only natural to apply the concept of terroir to maple because sugarmakers pay very close attention to the immediate environment of their trees: oftentimes, when we’re in the woods, my brother and i, and sometimes my father, we can talk about different areas, every section of our woods has a different name. we’ve got places like the snake run or the brown bucket run, and that all represents something that was passed down […] the snake run, i think, you know its name probably derives from the little gathering trail, it’s very twisted, it follows a brook, very snakey-like, i think. it’s also kind of a southeast exposure, with a lot of ledge, and in the spring of the year, besides peepers and some other things coming to life, snakes get active. (tlb11062010) sugarmakers know their trees and the land in which they sit. often, a sugarmaker would explain to me the slope, the soil, and the amount of sunlight a particular tree would get at a given time of year or day. even the wildlife living around the trees is part of a sugarmaker’s attention. that level of knowledge, of detail about the trees makes a concept like terroir a natural fit for sugarmaking. if terroir is a taste of place, then sugarmakers’ intimate knowledge of their places has much to offer when trying to understand the tastes of maple syrup. the “map of maple” chart is an attempt to capitalize on just that intimate knowledge. introducing the idea of complex flavor notes and comparative tasting to maple expands the traditional (and legally prescribed) system of grading syrup as it currently exists. vermont maple is divided into several categories: fancy (the lightest in color, and generally the most delicate in flavor), a-medium amber (darker, with a more pronounced maple flavor), a-dark amber (deeper color and denser flavor), and b (the darkest syrup typically sold to the consumer, with a rich, powerful maple flavor). interestingly, the grading is done entirely on the color of the syrup. flavor differences are tendencies and generally correspond, but tasting is not a part of the legal grading process. introducing complex tasting notes to maple syrup serves a two-fold purpose. on one hand, the air of sophistication and elegance that is often attributed to wine, especially to french wine, is attached to maple, raising the profile of the product. on the other hand, finer gradations of difference allow the creation and proliferation of the maple equivalent of the oenophile. in today’s foodie-culture world, with celebrity chefs and multiple cooking-themed cable channels and blogs, both of these processes help to increase the marketability of maple. words that appear on wine labels, such as “grassy”, “buttery” and “floral”, now can be used to describe maple syrup. trubek explains how terroir becomes tasting note in a conversation with a friend named mark, as the knowledge of the food comes to include the knowledge of its provenance: “by now this french orientation has moved far beyond france, and it has become a method for people like mark to explore and explain taste experiences. according to mark, if i wanted to understand the unique terroir found at mas de daumas gassac in the languedoc (one of mark’s favorite vineyards), i need to be where the grapes are grown and the wine is made. i need to go to france” (2008: 9-10). insider knowledge of source and product is prominent in her description, and the connection between the generation of a food item and its resultant flavor is made explicit and concrete. the best way to experience and understand terroir is to visit the place from which the taste comes. the same understanding can be applied to vermont’s maple tourism. as tourists visit a sugarhouse, they hear the story of maple and experience the traditional, pastoral idyll. it is not hard to understand that idyllic narrative as a part of the place. for trubek, experiencing the terroir of a wine is not simply about where the grapes were grown, but also where the wine was made. the sugarhouse is the field where maple syrup is made. a visit to the sugarhouse is, at least in part, a journey in search of terroir. by emphasizing the connection between place and taste, the new “map of maple” is trying to bolster vermont’s maple economy on the world scale. in terms of sheer volume of syrup, vermont can never compete with quebec as a worldwide exporter. the state must market itself and its maple as a specialty, niche product to convince the customer outside the area to purchase vermont, rather than canadian, syrup. quebec’s immense maple co-op system actually helps vermont in this regard, as most quebec maple that is exported is blended to produce consistency and a reliable flavor. the small-scale producers in canada often market directly to the tourist industry, much as vermont’s sugarmakers do, but the majority of syrup exported from canada comes through the quebec co-op. many vermont sugarmakers sell their syrup wholesale to bulk packers, but vermont has nothing on the scale of quebec’s co-op, and many vermont producers sell their syrup directly to the consumer, both locally and abroad. because a higher percentage of vermont’s exported maple is from smaller producers, the sugarmakers could advertise their eastern slope, their lime-rich soil, or whatever is particular to their sugarbush. quebec syrup cannot do this sort of marketing internationally because the syrup from producers across the province is blended together. an easy parallel can be drawn to scotch whisky, with blended whiskies being produced on a larger scale, while single malt whiskies are produced in smaller amounts. blended whisky fans appreciate the consistency and reliability, while single malt aficionados tend to enjoy their particularities and unique aspects. by applying terroir and capitalizing on the current foodie trends, in terms of both health and specialized knowledge, vermont maple can compete and remain viable against the overwhelming economic force of quebec by marketing itself as a niche product through terroir. a mixed reception the reception of ideas of terroir within the sugarmaking community has been mixed, surprisingly enough. while many sugarmakers spoke to me of the potential to help the bottom line by using terroir as a marketing tool, there was sometimes hesitance surrounding this shift. to be sure, some sugarmakers have dived headlong into terroir as a marketing tool. a small consortium of sugarmakers have even launched a marketing campaign under the heading of “vermont terroir”, and a look at their advertising demonstrates the degree to which they have integrated the old culinary notion into their current advertising: …distinctly rich, creamy, buttery, and full of maple warmth. notes of brown sugar and medjool dates back up the sweetness that lingers on the palate. …hints of vanilla, nutmeg, and sweet melon. …the dopple bock of maple syrups. german dark wheat bread, molasses, burnt sugar, raisins, dates, and smoke. …baked apple and golden sugar notes are backed by a subtle but clear maple flavor. clearly, some sugarmakers are utilizing terroir to present their syrup as unique, special, and valuable to potential customers. while the example above is extreme, and the vast majority of sugarmakers are taking a “wait and see” approach to terroir as an advertising tool, it is indicative of the willingness on the part of sugarmakers to adopt that which they see as useful. interestingly, the hesitance i have heard about terroir is not necessarily related to its being a new idea for maple. indeed, terroir is a very old idea, with long tradition of its own, albeit a tradition not native to vermont. that non-native status plays a small part for some, and terroir is almost seen as an invasive species (a concept sugarmakers are keenly aware of, with such threats as the asian long-horned beetle). while not understood as destructive, the foreign concept of terroir is something to be at least wary of. more directly, though, terroir is understood by sugarmakers to be a part of the foodie movement, which is a phenomenon of the city. a parallel is drawn between terroir and the urban outsider who moves to vermont for the “good life” without fully understanding all that life in vermont entails. it is not modernity that makes terroir suspect, but urbanity. the ideas behind terroir are often explained as an already existing part of vermont’s understanding of itself and its maple. the notion is not a threat; it is merely the importation of a foreign version of the notion. the foreignness comes not only from its french heritage, but also its perceived city roots. indeed, frenchness in vermont is not that foreign, with francophone quebec at the northern border, and many people in the state having french ancestry. 17 conclusions vermont sugarmakers have a fine grasp on the intricacies of their state’s and their industry’s identity. many theorists and ethnographers have discussed the groups they examine as employing notions of identity and face in almost unconscious terms. sugarmakers, though, are very conscious of their role in creating and maintaining the integrity of maple syrup, both as a product and as a narrative. sugarmakers across the board, from small backyard producers to large commercial operations, spoke to me of being conscious of the role purity and authenticity play in the quality of vermont syrup. the quality itself and the perception of quality were both vital players in protecting their product’s integrity. the pastoral and traditional idylls are an inextricable and vital part of that integrity, even as modernity and change are persistent parts of maple production and marketing. through it all, sugarmakers have the constant of the syrup’s two ingredients – sap and heat. glassie warns us that tradition is a moving target, but sugarmakers know it, too. the constant tension between maintaining something that is essential and applying innovations that improve efficiency and profitability means that sugarmakers are always negotiating a balance. the balancing act is a constant, too, though. terroir is, in this way, no different from, say, vacuum systems. when vacuum was first introduced into sugarmaking, there were a few early adopters, and the industry watched curiously and cautiously at the results of these early adoptions. terroir has been accepted by a few sugarmakers, but many are waiting in the wings to see what happens. the concept of “organic” has been employed in the foodie world for a while longer than terroir, to the point that it is overused and beginning to lose meaning. organic labeling has become a part of maple syrup as well, although there is much discussion of both the value and the validity of organic certification for one’s syrup. for some sugarmakers, “organic” is simply a marketing term. perhaps there is trepidation that terroir is simply another marketing tool. if this imported french culinary concept helps maple’s bottom line though, chances are it will be incorporated into the traditional and pastoral narratives of vermont’s maple syrup industry and identity. notes 1. the distinction between “commercial producer” and “backyard sugarmaker” is nebulous at best. while there are certainly a few operations that derive the bulk of their income from syrup production, and there are certainly a handful of people who produce syrup strictly for their own consumption, these sugarmakers are a minute fraction of the producers in vermont. the vast majority of producers, regardless of the scale of the operations, sell some of their syrup, even if only to friends and neighbors. many sugarmakers derive income for only a portion of the year, having another money-making occupation (farmer, trucker, college professor, woodworker, merchant, and the list goes on) in addition to harvesting sap. many sugarmakers (hobbyists and retailers alike) spoke to me of sugarmaking as a “way to pay the property taxes” on their land, house, and/or sugarbush. sugarmakers themselves make distinctions mostly on the number of taps they set, and my fieldwork spans the range. thoughts about the meaning of maple to the state are remarkably consistent, regardless of the size of operation. 2. there has been some debate among archaeologists whether native north americans made maple syrup or sugar before contact with europeans. the debate is summarized in thomas, jackson, and guthrie (1999). one of the recent antagonists to the idea of pre-european contact sugarmaking, carol mason, “stressed a more vigorous use of ethno-historic accounts as the sources of information” about native north american sugarmaking pre-contact (thomas, jackson, and guthrie 1999: 14), but decreed that “arguments from folklore are unacceptable” as evidence (mason 1993: 291, quoted in thomas, jackson, and guthrie 1999: 15). as someone who has made a living as an anthropologist, a folklorist, and an archaeologist, i find mason’s arguments interesting but ultimately unconvincing. 3. i have been told by some sugarmakers that, in addition to boiling with heated stones, some native american groups used to concentrate the sap by freezing it and removing the ice, which would be mostly water, then re-freezing the remaining fluid and removing more ice, until the water content had dropped significantly. this same method is described in deerr, reported from the middle of the 18th century: “concentration of the [maple] juice was also effected by freezing and throwing away the crust of ice that formed on exposure” (1950: 515). as far as i know, no one is practicing this method of syrup production in vermont today. 4. more precisely, the syrup needs to be a certain number of degrees on the brix scale, which measures sugar content as a percentage of the mass of a liquid. the exact numbers and percentages of what constitutes maple syrup vary slightly from standard to standard. canada and the us each have their own regulations, while the state of vermont has yet another set of standards, slightly more strict than either country’s rules. 5. other terms for this structure are known, such as sugar shack, sap house, or sugar shanty (in quebec, the term is cabane à sucre, which translates literally to “sugar cabin”). while such terms, including the french-language version, are known varyingly widely among vermont sugarmakers, the term “sugarhouse” is the name given to their structure by nearly every person i interviewed. therefore, it is the term i use here. 6. there are many variations in evaporator technology, as well. oil burners versus wood burners, steam injection, different sizes and styles of flue pans, even steam evaporators that function similarly to giant double-boilers…the variety is impressive. all of the variations achieve the same goal, however: the removal of water from the sap by converting it into steam, while leaving the sugar and other inclusions behind. this is not a technology unique to maple syrup production, of course. deerr (1950) attests the use of evaporators in cane sugar and beet sugar production for centuries. the technology of evaporating the water portion of sugar-bearing liquid is old, and appeared in several places independently, including native north america. 7. production of maple syrup by state, in gallons: 2011 – vermont, 1.14 million; new york, 564,000; maine, 360,000. 2010 – vermont, 890,000; new york, 312,000; maine, 310,000. 2009 – vermont, 920,000; maine, 395,000; new york, 362,000. 2008 – vermont, 710,000; new york, 328,000; mine, 240,000. (new england agricultural statistics, 2008-2011 reports. compiled and issued by the new england agricultural statistics service, in cooperation with the united states department of agriculture. concord, nh) 8. the united states department of agriculture produces its nationwide census of agriculture every five years. the next census is due out in 2013, tabulating data from 2012. because of recent increases in the price for bulk maple syrup, the numbers of producers and the sizes of operations have doubtless increased from 2007 to today. the information in footnote 4, above, demonstrates the large and steady increases in yield in vermont’s maple crop, with 2010 a slight dip across the board. the season in 2010 was universally acknowledged by sugarmakers as a particularly bad year for maple. regardless, many people have become newly involved in sugaring in vermont in the past five years, and many existing sugarmakers have increased their operations during the same period. 9. ibm opened a large production facility in essex junction, vermont in the late 1950s. the plant brought many new workers to vermont, and provided new disposable income for newcomers and locals alike. the ibm worker who decided to take up sugarmaking as a backyard hobby became paradigmatic for the johnny-come-lately to sugarmaking, as opposed to the old-timer, whose family had been sugaring on the farm for generations. 10. i am borrowing this phrase from the head of the orkney tourist board. orkney, a small set of islands off the north coast of scotland, also trade on a pastoral idyll. a peripheral place geographically, orkney relies on that pastoral image to bring in tourists to sustain the economy. the parallels between orkney and vermont, in terms of population density and the understanding of the role of the places in relation to modernity and urbanity, are striking. for a fuller discussion of orkney, see lange 2007. 11. that “green” has become synonymous with “environmentally friendly” is not lost on vermonters. bumper stickers and t-shirts proclaiming “we were green before it was cool” are easy to find in many vermont shops. to be fair, there aren’t many places where “green” is ensconced in the name – the word itself, vermont, comes from the french for “green mountain”. 12. goffman’s discussions of “face” and the presentation of the self are both enlightening here, as are urry’s “tourist gaze” and hewison’s discussion of heritage. 13. ethnographic interviews are cited according to my cataloguing system, to provide anonymity to my interviewees. the choice to keep the people who spoke with me anonymous is mine. while no one i have spoken with has wanted to hide themselves, i have kept everyone anonymous because vermont is a very small state, and sugarmakers are a very close-knit community. i do not want to disrupt those bonds because they are an integral part of the identity of the place. 14. many food industries in vermont, such as cabot cheese and ben & jerry’s ice cream, trade on a perception of the verdant hills and more natural atmosphere of the state. 15. likewise, the images of the sugarhouse and sugaring process are evoked in quebec as much as in vermont: “la cabane à sucre et les travaux du temps des sucres ont été des themes souvent exploités par les représentants de l’art pictural” (dupont 1975: 11). there is much shared culture across the mostly arbitrary border between vermont and quebec, so the sharing of sugarmaking tropes should come as no surprise. quebec’s small-scale sugarmakers, who also market more directly to a tourist audience, try to provide an authentic experience to their customer as well. while i have not yet done any fieldwork among quebec sugarmakers, they doubtless would see much to agree with in my interviewee’s discussion. what constitutes an authentic experience can vary in the two places, though. techniques such as hanging bacon or lard over the evaporator are apparently still practiced by small-scale sugarmakers in quebec. the dripping fat rendered from the hanging meat helps control foaming and boiling over, while simultaneously perfuming the meat with maple aroma and flavor: “cette petite branche était suspendue juste au-dessus de la bouilleuse, et dès que le gonflement du sirop avait lieu, elle avait la vertu d'arrêter le débordement. une petite couenne de lard salé, de même que l'eau, le beurre, le lait ou la crème pouvaient aussi contrôler l'ébullition” (dupont 1975: 77). in vermont, strict hygiene regulation of even the smallest producer means that this technique has been replaced with a newer (perceivable as therefore less authentic) method of using chemical defoaming agents or a few drops of vegetable oil to achieve the same effect. 16. see trubek’s illuminating volume, the taste of place, for a fuller discussion of american terroir. 17. for another exploration of the complicated understandings of frenchness in vermont, see my article, “teaching identity through ethnic jokes: shifting cultural touchstones in the classroom”. works cited bellerose, george. 2010. forty-six years of pretty straight going: the life of a family dairy farm. middlebury, vt: vermont folklife center. bendix, regina. 1997. in search of authenticity. madison: university of wisconsin press. census of agriculture, 2007: vermont, state and county data. issued february 2009, updated december 2009. united states department of agriculture. vol. 1: geographic area series, part 45. ac-07-a-45. deerr, noel. 1950. the history of sugar, vol. 2. london: chapman and hall, ltd. dupont, jean-claude. 1975. le sucre du pays. ottawa: lemeac. glassie, henry. 2003. tradition. in eight words for the study of expressive culture, ed. burt feintuch. chicago: university of illinois press. goffman, erving. 1973. the presentation of self in everyday life. new york: overlook press. hewison, robert. 1987. the heritage industry: britain in a climate of decline. london: methuen. howell, benita. 1994. linking cultural and natural conservation in natural park service policies and programs. in conserving culture, ed. mary hufford. chicago: university of illinois press, for the american folklife center. lange, michael a. 2007. the norwegian scots: an anthropological interpretation of vikingscottish identity in the orkney islands. lewiston, ny: edwin mellen press. ______. 2011. teaching identity through ethnic jokes: shifting cultural touchstones in the classroom. scandinavian-canadian studies 21: 92-100. mason, carol i. 1993. still more on maple sugar: comments. journal of ethnobiology 13(2): 288-292. robinson, jennifer meta, and j. a. hartenfeld. 2007. the farmers’ market book. bloomington: indiana university press/quarry. the official vermont maple cookbook, 3rd ed. [n.d.] south royalton, vt: vermont maple foundation. the story of maple time in vermont. [n.d.] south royalton, vt: vermont maple sugar makers’ association, published in cooperation with the vermont agency of agriculture, food, and markets; the university of vermont extension; and perceptions, inc. thomas, matthew, kelly jackson, and marcus guthrie. 1999. an archaeological overview of native american maple sugaring and historic sugarbushes of the lac du flambeau band of lake superior chippewa indians. state historical society of wisconsin, lad du flambeau tribal historic preservation office, and george w. brown jr. ojibwe museum and cultural center. report for planning grant #55-98-13157-2. trubek, amy. 2008. the taste of place: a cultural journey into terroir. berkeley: university of california press. urry, john. 2002. the tourist gaze, 2nd ed. london: sage publications. vermont terroir. n.p., n.d. web. accessed 24 january 2012. http://www.vermontterroir.com/index.php microsoft word mcandrews diet & disease civ review-galley-4-9-20.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 69-70 © american folklore society 2020 review of: diet and the disease of civilization adrienne rose bitar. new brunswick, nj: rutgers university press, 2018. pp. 234, notes, bibliography, index. review by: kristin m. mcandrews ______________________________________________________________ in diet and the disease of civilization adrienne rose bitar utilizes hundreds of diet books, pamphlets, and food diaries to examine the influence of mythic narratives on diet books in the united states. using an interdisciplinary approach, she explores how folkloric motifs are shaped, engaged, and rehashed in diet lore. as a result, bitar creates a compelling argument about the connections between diets and national identity. through close examination, bitar’s text analyzes diet lore from the inside out. she demonstrates how americans are influenced by powerful folkloric ideas that affect the physical, emotional, and national body. bitar writes that “these diets remember an original, innocent world and mourn the descent of the human race into modern disease” (6). the central argument of the text is that diet narratives reveal the way in which storytelling motifs coalesce and spread through american culture. while the diets presented are different, each one uncovers how our diet nation’s cultural consciousness has been engineered by storytelling. through cultural and narrative exploitation, in the united states the term “diet” has become an unabashed four-letter word. the book is organized in four compelling chapters. in chapter one, “paleolithic diets and the caveman utopia,” bitar shows how these diets pull towards myths and stories that stimulate ideas about how food and culture can be much improved by utilizing a basic or simpler approach to eating. the author explains that the “paleo [diet] myth redefines a new type [of diet] of refined, slow pleasure,” with a “peaceful vision of gender relations” that “overturns scholarly thinking about brutish caveman masculinity” (6). while the stories about these diets venerate “pre-agricultural diets” they give minimal practical advice about the supposedly basic fare. in chapter two, “devotional diets and the american eden,” bitar says that “fall of man and fall of a once-blessed nation” are melded into one narrative that shames americans into changing “their way of life and improve the health of a nation” (52). she likens them to “the tradition of the jeremiad” in how the diets “their way of life and improve the health of a nation” (52). the chapter focuses on how suffering and selfdenial are primary themes of diets such as “pray your weigh away” and “garden of eating” varieties, and finds that the type equates the pleasure of eating with lust and fattening foods with defilement. nevertheless, bitar points out how “imaginative and complex” the faith-based diets are, commonly describing the “aesthetics of food,” and encouraging adoptees “to imagine a material vision of the garden of eden” (73). 70 mcandrews, review, diet & disease digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) in chapter three, “primitive diets and the ‘paradise paradox,’” bitar investigates the significance of nineteenth century literary theories on the health and diets of pacific islanders. she shows how colonial narratives both eroticize and blame natives for their poor diets, specifically targeting the shintani diet. particularly popular in hawai’i, the diet was developed for obese and diabetic patients. in order to engage dieters—mostly local people—the narrative of the diet drew from traditional folkloric stories that reflect thematic moments in colonial literature. bitar finds that the narrative erases diversity and “localizes people to a fixed place,” and broadly “constructs the islands as a paradise, peopled by indulgent innocents, isolated from the larger world and the advances of time” (94). i appreciated bitar’s close reading of these particular diet narratives as they do “ignore the serious issues of sovereignty, race, and inequality because they are dreams, myths, the hopeful stuff of stories” (95). the final chapter, “detoxification diets and concepts of a toxic modernity,” was quite enlightening as detoxification through numerous means is incredibly popular in contemporary american culture. bitar argues that these diets are “utopian and optimistic, offering hope for a better body and a better world.” in the “discourses of toxic” she explains how “many americans have dreamt of health and purity in a world too often seen as sick and ugly and sad” (148). in today’s political reality, this “wistful vision” might make americans yearn that, if only this diet lore were true, then perhaps we could detoxify the current us administration by putting politicians on juice fasts to cleanse the meanness out of them. while diet and the disease of civilization overall is an enjoyable and informative read, i did find the book’s invocation of the slow food movement and michael pollan’s the omnivore’s dilemma too easily and incompletely associated with diet lore and the narrative of the edenic: i would like to have seen fuller consideration of slow food’s and pollan’s groundedness in social, food, and animal justice. ultimately, however, i found bitar’s arguments on diet lore in the united states artful and captivating, and they provide important lessons for the reader. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 135-137 © american folklore society 2021 135 review of: sameness in diversity: food and globalization in modern america laresh jayasanker. oakland, ca: university of california press, 2020. pp. xiv + 269, introduction, bibliography, index. review by: claire schmidt laresh jayasanker’s analysis of the impact of globalization on american food rests on a simple thesis: as post-1965 immigration patterns increased choices available in the daily american diet, globalized market forces caused those choices to homogenize through increasingly small numbers of food purveyors. sameness in diversity is first and foremost a history: a cultural history of american food, and a business history of the globalized food industry. jayasanker’s approach consciously avoids the trite lament of the ways american corporate food has disrupted “authentic” non-american food traditions (mcdonaldization 5); instead, he focuses on the way constantly evolving ethnic foodways—particularly latin american, indian, chinese, and italian—have shaped twenty-first century american purchasing and eating. jayasanker begins by outlining the premise that food is a lens through which to understand culture, and that american culture is driven by the twin forces of sameness and diversity. he approaches this paradox through four themes: 1) food purveyors (grocers, restaurateurs, and cookbook authors) as translators; 2) foreign corporate collaboration with american corporations and homogenized foreign cuisine in the american context; 3) globalization in the american suburb; and 4) “authenticity” as a contested but highly valued experience in the face of disorientation of globalization. the introduction shows u.s. immigration history, making the point to which he returns throughout the book that in 1970, only 4.7 percent of americans were foreign-born—the lowest rate in nearly 200 years (6). chapter 1 describes the consolidation of fruit and vegetable trade in and out of the u.s. as globalization made shipping far cheaper while creating demand for new and unfamiliar products in new markets due to economically-driven migration patterns. jayasanker lays the groundwork here for his emphasis on consumer valuation of both variety and consistency. chapter 2 continues the study of consolidation and globalization in grocery stores, and the big four in the u.s. (kroger, safeway, albertsons, and walmart). chapters 3 turns the focus to the theme of translation and the role supermarkets played in marketing “ethnic” food, from chun king and chop suey (started by an italian in northern minnesota) to la choy and its partnership with rosarita, the line of processed mexican schmidt, review, sameness in diversity digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 136 foods. jayasanker draws on industry publications like progressive grocer to evaluate the strategies employed by grocery stores to educate consumers and provide exciting experiences that felt familiar, clean, and safe. supermarkets broadened their range of products to meet both u.s.-born and foreign-born desires for both excitement and continuity, while at the same time they narrowed their suppliers. this shift is also reflected in changes to american restaurant to accommodate a changing america. chapter 4 focuses on the “ethnic” restaurant—particularly the menu—as a means of translating diversity. jayasanker analyzes pre-and post-1960s menus and phone book listings to paint a picture of the rapid shift in american dining out, customer preferences, and common knowledge. the next step in translation is the american cookbook as historical source and diversity translator. in chapter 5, jayasanker focuses on cookbook authors madhur jaffery, julia child, jane grigson, claudia roden, and elizabeth ortiz as successful cultural translators. their multinational backgrounds and ability to communicate across boundaries made cuisine accessible to americans. he emphasizes the role played by publishing house alfred a. knopf and editor judith jones in translating foreign foods, techniques, and traditions for american home cooks. jayasanker focuses on the two major goals of ethnic cookbooks: using ingredients readily available in the u.s. and having “unusual and varied” recipes for a foreign cuisine (93). throughout this chapter and the book as a whole, jayasanker focuses on mangoes and cilantro: in the 1960s as foods requiring explanation, comparisons, and description and in the 2000s as unremarkable and familiar mainstream ingredients that have been successfully translated into american food. in the final chapters, jayasanker focuses on three cuisines. in chapter 6, he charts the history of indian restaurants in the u.s., from nostalgic colonial outposts (1960s), to invocations of the differently nostalgic mughal empire (1970s), to diverse indian cuisines (2000s). chapter 7 tracks the history of chinese restaurants in the us, ending with the ubiquity of p.f. chang’s, while chapter 8 tells the story of tortilla manufacture and distribution from the 1940s to the early 2000. while the author engages racism in every chapter, the bulk of his analysis of racial prejudice and food is saved for the conclusion, titled “what is an authentic taco?”. he describes his initial hope that food could transcend racism. he writes, “my thinking went like this: perhaps when we eat the food of ‘other,’ we are less likely to be prejudiced against that group” (143). it is also in this final section that jayasanker confronts the role of immigrant labor in the american food system and performance in staging authenticity. schmidt, review, sameness in diversity digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 137 the seven chapters themselves comprise 150 pages, while the remaining 120 are extensive notes for each chapter along with a weighty bibliography of primary sources. jayasanker’s methodology incorporates archived material, including primary texts (menus, phone books, industry newsletters), newspaper articles, and academic food studies sources. folklorists will appreciate jayasanker’s recognition of and reminders that tradition is invented, culture is dynamic, and romanticized notions of static others uphold colonial discourses. since jayasanker is a historian, folklorists will find few of their fellow folklorists cited in the notes and references. that said, jayasanker’s work is of great value to foodways scholars whose interests include the suburban, the mainstream, and the historical. sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship honorable mention 2011 grandma’s gone global recipe transmission from the kitchenette to the internet by: jennifer rachel dutch when tiffany h. posted her grandmother’s recipe for donuts on the website allrecipes.com with the notation “my grandmother passed this delicious recipe for making doughnuts along to me, and i thought i would share it,” (tiffany h. 2001), she entered into a tradition of recipe sharing that has persisted for generations. with roots in the oral story-telling traditions of the kitchen, the practice of writing down recipes for other cooks to enjoy fulfills more than just the task of providing the ingredients and instructions for producing tasty dishes; recipes become vehicles for sharing stories, communicating identity, and reaffirming ties with the community. culinary historians, foodways experts and women’s studies specialists now recognize that women’s recipe collections have much to say about their creators’ lives beyond just what they cooked. by tracing patterns of language, teasing out underlying narratives, and piecing together the stories in which recipes are embedded, scholars create a fuller understanding of women’s lives. here i extend scholarship that uses recipe collections to explore women’s lives in order to discover if the same patterns of sharing recipes and stories persist when women turn to new media, like the internet, to exchange recipes. recipes, stories, and recipes-as-stories culinary historians and foodways experts have long recognized the significance of food to tradition, culture, and memory. as charles camp argues in his book american foodways: what, when, why, and how we eat in america, “food matters culturally because it expresses, reflects, and enacts values which are both openly attested to and privately held” (camp 1989: 23). people eat every day. they eat with friends and family. they eat during holidays and special occasions. food celebrates. food becomes a marker of memory. food becomes a link to identity. because eating is so central to life, food carries meaning beyond its tastes, textures, and smells. floyd and forster note in “the recipe in cultural context” that “personal histories, or pasts, constructed through memory, or the process of remembering with others, are often centered on food: favorite childhood dishes, special family occasions, first attempts to cook, celebration meals and so on” (floyd and forster 2003: 7). recently, scholars have embraced the idea that recipes also communicate information about the women who record, use, and share them. for example, in her book, baking as biography: a life story in recipes, diane tye reveals the complex interweaving of the foods her mother cooked and her mother’s life story. in so doing, tye reveals that cooking was not merely something her mother did, nor was cooking something that wholly defined her mother. instead, tye’s recounting of her mother’s story through recipes powerfully demonstrates the ways in which her mother actively used food and cooking as a way to make connections with others; communicate caring; and leave a lasting legacy for the future. and tye’s mother is not alone in her use of recipes as part of her life story—a truth reinforced in the book storied dishes: what our family recipes tell us about who we are and where we have been, edited by linda murray burzok in which dozens of women share stories, and recipes, in a way that reinforces the deep connection between the foods and the meaning in their lives. these recipes-as-stories reveal that just like food, recipes carry meaning, tell stories, and reflect the identities of the individual women and communities that produce them. anne bower argues that while recipes can be seen as “…something formulaic—a prescription or chart that allows preparation of a particular food…” they are actually more than just a list of ingredients and the instructions for preparation and they “…can go beyond the formulaic in both content and form…it can make us laugh, give us a sense of the world from which it originates, incorporate some history or an inkling of the personality of its writer” (1997: 7-8). for women, writing, exchanging, and using recipes represent opportunities to share their sense of themselves, their families, and their communities. one way they do this is to surround recipes with personal, recollections, memories, family histories—bits of narration within and around the recipes that communicate both the importance of the recipe and the key aspects of their lives. as janet theophano asserts, “connections to people, places, and the past are embedded in the recipes women kept and exchanged, transformed, and adapted to their changing world” (2002: 8). according to theophano, “the stories cookbooks tell are about life and its sustenance in different eras and in different places; they are about enjoyment and desire, family and friendships, stability and change, and the contentment and longings of lives lived and worlds remote from our own” (2002: 10). women use recipes to share their stories. it is up to those of us who receive, read, and use them to decipher those stories. share and share alike—recipe transmission traditions recipes do not exist in a vacuum. as susan leonardi declares, “even the root of recipe-the latin recipere-implies an exchange, a giver and a receiver. like a story, a recipe needs a recommendation, a context, a point, a reason to be” (1989: 340). floyd and forster expand on this idea, noting that “the root of the word recipe, the latin word recipere, meaning both to give and to receive, reminds us that the instructions that appear to tie down the form of a dish to be shared exist in a perpetual state of exchange” (2003: 6). this social context, the passing back and forth of knowledge between women in the form of recipes and stories, is what transforms recipes from a simple list of ingredients and directions for combining them into a marker of community and identity. as leonardi writes, “…the recipe's social context gives it far more significance than that of a mere rule for cooking” (1989: 344). recipes become a key element in creating bonds between women and within families and communities. recipe transmission is perhaps most intimate in the kitchen. miriam meyers writes, “…as a communication center for the entire household, the kitchen serves as a locus of communication…” (2001: 37). here a cook can pass on recipes to a curious observer. meyers describes the process of learning to make her mother’s biscuits, not by reading a recipe, but by watching: my mother made beautiful southern biscuits regularly. i sat in the kitchen talking with her as she spooned what seemed to be a random amount of self-rising flour into a special bowl, scooped a piece of fat from a can and placed it in the center of the flour, poured in buttermilk, and worked the mass with her fingers. when the dough was “right,” i watched her shape the biscuits, then place them on a greased baking sheet, http://digest.champlain.edu/vol1/article1_1.html#95 blackened from many years’ use. i could make those biscuits today easily, though mama never taught me formally. being in the presence of my mother, talking with her as she made biscuits, “taught” me…so this is the way many women learn—by being in the kitchen (2001: 56). two elements are the keys to meyers' story of learning how to make biscuits from her mother. first, she learned through observation. her mother “taught” her to make biscuits through demonstration. this is recipe transmission at its most basic form. as mcdougall notes, “in the past, watching and listening to others was the method of transferring skills from one person to another, from one generation to another, in a communal oral setting. recipes have not always been written down but have been passed on through speech and demonstration as women cook together” (1997: 108-109). second, and just as important, is the fact that meyers and her mother talked while she cooked. this emphasizes how deeply recipes are tied to the act of speaking and to telling stories. as traci marie kelly reveals, “for many women, sitting around a table or standing around a kitchen counter becomes a space where their stories are told. for generations, oral storytelling has brewed while dinners have simmered. not only do we learn the secrets of a good piecrust of the special ingredients in hunter’s stew as we listen in the kitchen, but we also lean the important stories that make up the lives of these women. there is power that we get from telling our stories through our recipes.” (2001: 252). by telling stories while cooking, the processes of sharing recipes and creating narratives become intertwined. the link between written recipes and oral tradition can often be seen in the language of the recipes themselves. as mcdougall points out “the translation of an oral form into a written discourse results in a form and style that reflects orality. although recipes appear in textual form, the recipe is presented to the reader through a speaking voice, the “i” of the cook, with the reader occupying the position of listener or follower of instructions or guidelines” (mcdougall 1997: 109). writing recipes down does not necessarily strip them of their ties to spoken language. moreover, written recipes also reflect traditional ties to storytelling that are present in the kitchen. recipes not only serve as instructions, but also as a way to capture and share memories, stories, and histories. as kelly notes, “these recipeswith-memories are a natural extension of storytelling, with the recipes acting as a kind of “cue card” giving the memoir a structure and a template to embellish. some women have appreciated the “canvas” of the kitchen, using that space to create nourishing meals, memories, and art. these works are rich sources of autobiographical assertion because they present the lives of women through their own voices, rendered from a room that has been, truly, a room of their own” (2001: 252). for centuries, women have told stories while cooking. it is only natural that these stories would accompany the written record of their recipes. written recipes allow widespread transmission among family members, friends, and even strangers. and, in many instances, stories accompany the recipes. in her article, “‘family liked-1956’: my mother’s recipes,” sharon jansen describes how her mother used recipes to tell stories. writes jansen, “usually my mother's recipes come folded up inside her letters, which describe the dish, when she made it, who she made it for, how they liked it. and always what they said to one another who is fighting with her husband over what, whose son or daughter is expecting a baby, who has the most annoying neighbors” (1993: 67). the recipe is the catalyst for jansen’s mother to tell her stories. it is a point of contact between two people, and an opening for communication. written recipes not only allow for transmission across vast distances, they also allow those living in the present to reach back in time and remember women who are no longer alive. the box of handwritten recipes mixed with clippings from magazines and newspapers becomes the record of a woman’s life. in her article, “speaking sisters: relief society cookbooks and mormon culture,” marion bishop describes how her grandmother’s written recipe collection provides her with a continuing connection to her grandmother: i also received a small wooden box from my paternal grandmother with thirty-five of her favorite recipes typed neatly on four-by-six cards. at the end of each recipe that was her own, my grandmother signed her name; if the recipe had come from a friend or neighbor—often women in her ward—their typed names were included next to the title. for a time, i was possessive of these recipes, not sharing them, and clutching them close to me as a substitution for my grandmother and the warm meals that were half a country away. then, my grandmother became ill. i realized that after her death, i wanted to eat her rolls at my sister-in-law’s home on thanksgiving, her texas cake at friends’ birthday parties, and i began sharing her recipes—always taking care to write her name across the top of each copy. when she is gone, her recipes will give many of us access to her, through aroma, taste, and texture (1997: 94-95). recipes become the tie that binds—the link between mothers and daughters, grandmothers and grandchildren, the close-by and the far-away, the living and the dead. as colleen cotter notes, “in a satisfying way, we are all bound by our language, history, family, food, and community. recipes in many ways can reflect that.” (1997: 51). even when a member of the family passes away, recreating her recipes becomes a way to maintain her presence at family gatherings and everyday meals. some recipe transmission moves beyond the intimate relationships of friends and family to include a wider audience of community members and even strangers. for example, compilers of community cookbooks not only share recipes, they also recreate narratives. as marion bishop elaborates, “…stories are sometimes encoded in recipe names…at other times stories—or parts of stories—are written into the texts of individual recipes…by including such story-telling phrases in their recipes…women reveal information about their personal practices and preferences. then too, for the reader-user of these cookbooks, a recipe may serve as a token or symbol of memories and stories…in this way, oral histories and the recipes work together to breathe life into the women whose names accompany the recipes” (bishop 1997: 98-99). once again, the recipe has become the vehicle for a story. this time the narrative speaks of an entire community of women. even when the recipe stands alone in the community cookbook, or is surrounded by only limited narrative elements, it is often possible to tease out a larger story about family, community and/or the lives of women. romines argues that in the methodist community cookbooks her family collected, “…the daily texture of private kitchen life is brought to the page with an almost formulaic anonymity, the language of the recipe. that dignified, standardized language seems to have been important and validating to the women who employed it. it confirmed their unwritten community, the body of skill and knowledge they shared but did not include on the page (for everyone, of course, knew what it meant to “can cold”)” (1997: 87). what seems at first glance to be the dry language of recipes speaks to romines of the underlying identity of the community. the methodist women who read and used the cookbooks reaffirmed their ties to each other because they understood the language of the recipes. anne bower confirms, “…these cookbooks tell stories—autobiographical in most cases, historical sometimes, and perhaps fictitious or idealized in other instances. the discourse of the discrete textual elements and their juxtapositions contribute to the creation of these stories, which quietly or boldly tell of women’s lives and beliefs. in community cookbooks women present their values, wittingly or unwittingly (we often can’t know which)” (1997: 2). whether intentionally or unintentionally, community cookbooks reflect the identities of the women who submitted their recipes. in a reflection of the growing role of the internet in modern american life, the process of recipe transmission has taken to cyberspace. with a proliferation of websites, blogs, newsgroups, and listservs dedicated to cooking, the world wide web seems to offer women almost limitless possibilities for sharing recipes with a global audience. and yet, if the purpose of these internet sites is to provide easily accessible and searchable databases of recipes for the eager cook, embedding those recipes in personal stories, reflections, and narratives might seem out of place. one might suspect that contributors who share recipes would consider narratives as irrelevant or at least not directly related to the list of ingredients and directions required to complete the recipe. yet even a quick perusal of online recipes reveals that recipe transmission as a form of storytelling persists. on the internet, just as in the kitchen around a bubbling pot of stew or within the pages of a community cookbook, women surround their recipes with narratives. some websites attempt to foster a sense of community but even without encouragement, or when offered little opportunity to include narrative elements in the recipes they post online, users find ways to include personal anecdotes, family stories, and narrative notations in the recipes they share with a world full of strangers. they continue to tell their life stories through recipes. to demonstrate the ways in which recipe-sharing websites extend and support the recipe-as-story tradition, i plucked twenty-five recipes from three recipe-sharing websites for a total sample of seventy-five recipes. with a plethora of possible websites, i narrowed the field by eliminating sites that drew on recipes mainly from magazines, commercially produced cookbooks, and television programs such as recipes.com, foodnetwork.com, and myrecipes.com. instead, i focused on websites that encouraged users to post their own recipes, using their own language. with this focus, i selected allrecipes.com, recipezaar.com, and ccooks.com. allrecipes.com and recipezaar.com are both community-based websites meaning that they require users to register with a screen name and login in order to take advantage of most of the features of the site. clicking on the “join for free” link on the allrecipes.com homepage brings up a box that reveals if you join the community you will be able to “save recipes to your recipe box; rate and review recipes; create a shopping list; submit your own recipes, and more…” (allrecipes.com). the same is true for recipezaar.com which declares “sign up for recipezaar to share photos, show off your cooking chops, and connect to an enthusiastic and helpful community. it's free and easy” (recipezaar.com). once signed up and logged in, users are encouraged to actively participate in the online process of sharing and commenting on recipes. recipes posted to allrecipes.com and recipezaar.com are linked to the contributor’s user name. accompanying every recipe is a box where the recipe’s originator can share commentaries about the recipes. moreover, there is also ample opportunity for other users to give their feedback in the “reviews” section of each recipe—a component that is well-utilized on both sites. these features combine to create a vibrant atmosphere and the sense of community reminiscent of face-to-face recipe-sharing. cooks.com offers a much different experience. it is more of a database for recipes than a recipesharing community. as the website notes it is “a convenient and reliable way to store all your recipes! throw out those recipe boxes and clipping files where you can never find what you’re looking for. never lose your favorite recipes again! they’ll all be searchable here at cooks.com recipe database and search engine” (cooks.com). in fact, users do not need to log in to post their recipes on the site. this means that the source of the recipe remains anonymous unless the contributor decides to take advantage of the “submitted by” feature to include his or her name which seems rare. acting more as a storage site and searchable database, cooks.com is not concerned with fostering relationships or building communities. moreover, while cooks.com has a “talk food, join the discussion!” feature that allows other users to post reactions to the recipe, this feature seems to be infrequently used. and yet, even in the restrictive atmosphere and format of cooks.com, users managed to sneak in narrative elements and stories into their recipes. for example, the anonymous contributor who posted the recipe for “grandma’s macaroni dish,” declares “grandma (to all us kids in the neighborhood) made this for saturday lunch when we played with her grandchildren, the ames' kids” (cooks.com). this short notation added to the body of the recipe in a space that is intended for only cooking instructions conveys this user’s childhood memory and sense of the “neighborhood.” since each website includes thousands upon thousands of recipes that have been posted by users, i narrowed the field by using the search term “grandma.” since grandmothers have played such a critical role in the traditional processes of oral and written recipe transmission, it is fitting that “grandma’s” recipes would show up in great numbers online. using the search term “grandma” resulted in returning 200 recipes on allrecipes.com, 426 recipes on recipezaar.com, and a whopping 2590 recipes on cooks.com. the vast majority of recipes contain very little apparent “storytelling” beyond the recipe itself. in most cases, the user simply uploaded the recipe and did not comment on the contents. in other cases, the commentary was a brief explanation of the content of the recipe and possible variations and not a “story” in the technical sense of the word. however, it is important to remember that even these bare-bones recipes have stories to tell. as colleen cotter reveals in her article “claiming a piece of the pie: how the language of recipes defines communities,” recipes that consist of just the list of ingredients and directions for combining them can provide “stories.” as cotter argues, “by looking at the language and structure of a recipe, we begin to see how a recipe can be viewed as a story, a cultural narrative that can be shared and has been constructed by members of a community” (1997: 52-53). cotter herself conducted a linguistic analysis of pie crust recipes to demonstrate how their language told stories. while the same type of deep reading would be possible for the recipes posted on recipe-sharing websites, that undertaking falls outside the scope of this paper. instead, i selected twenty-five recipes from each site, purposely choosing examples that contained narrative elements. from grandma to me to you: recipe transmission and stories in the global age scholars point out that women in the 19th and early 20th centuries used recipes and recipe collections as a way to express themselves because they had very few opportunities to “speak” (newlyn 2003; theophano 2002). while the same cannot be said for women of the late 20th and early 21st centuries--women in america today can participate in the public sphere and make their voices heard-the tradition of using recipes-as-stories continues online. it serves the same functions as when recipes are shared orally, on paper, and in recipe collections: recipes help the women who write, share, and use them to share memories and connect with family histories. they strengthen ties that help to create communities, including online communities. recipes serve as touchstones for important memories. for elizabeth mcdougall, the cookbooks she inherited from her grandmother and mother are not only a legacy of her cooking heritage, but also tangible reminders of the key tastes and smells of her childhood. mcdougall writes, “when i read through these cookbooks, memories of eating resurface as i remember all the get-togethers in the church basement, at the community center, or at the curling club. cooking is a big part of my relationship to these people” (1997: 106). online, women also share important recipes and the memories that they evoke. for some, the idea that recipes serve as signifiers for memory is obvious. angic declares in her comments for the recipe “grandma solberg’s summer snack squares” that “these are a chewy, no-bake bar that my grandma used to make me as a snack when i would play all day in the summer. it goes without saying that they bring me fond memories” (angic 2008). angic shares her favorite recipe with the online community, but it is the memory of her grandmother making them that emerges as the important message. the same is true for diane martin. her recipe for “grandma’s blackberry cake” is both a connection to her grandmother and a memory of the time they spent together. martin exclaims “"i remember going blackberry picking with mom and grandma. even at 70 years old, grandma could pick 3 gallons of berries before i had my pail half full. grandma made up this recipe with her mom, and it's been passed down for five generations now” (martin 2008). for martin, posting the recipe becomes the occasion to share the story of picking blackberries with her grandmother. cookbookcarrie’s recipe for “grandma nancy’s oatmeal cake” also carries memories, not just of her grandmother baking the cake, but of her grandfather’s mischief enacted to ensure that he secured the majority of the cake for himself. cookbookcarrie relates that “grandma used to bake this cake, only to have the whole thing disappear. she finally found out my grandpa was taking it to his shop and hiding it in a drawer to snack on as he worked. it looks complicated, but it isn’t, and the flavor is worth it. every time i eat it i think of my grandparents and smile!” (cookbookcarrie 2003). these online contributors not only post a recipe, they share significant memories that go along with the recipe. in this way the recipe becomes a link to the past and the person who once made it. as long as the recipe continues to be made, the person who it came from will never truly be gone. for marion bishop, a snickerdoodle recipe stands in for joyce eck, a friend who died in 1987 (bishop 1997: 89). joyce may no longer be alive, but for bishop she lives on through her recipe. writes bishop, “as a young girl, i visited her kitchen; through her recipes, i now invite her into mine” (1997: 103). sharing recipes online also becomes a way to keep the memory of a loved one alive. the anonymous poster who shared “grandma’s ginger cookies” on cooks.com conveys both the recipe and her love for her grandma. she writes, “grandma worshek gave me this recipe when i was a young girl. we used to have tea and cookies often, just her and me. i loved those private parties and i loved her very much” (anonymous n.d.). writing in the past tense indicates that grandma worshek is no longer around to share those cookies over a cup of tea. by posting her recipe online, the contributor ensures that her memories, and some material evidence of her grandmother’s life, are kept alive. posters of recipes online often acknowledge that they are participating in a long tradition of recipe sharing. this is what marion bishop identifies as a “feminine culinary genealogy—a matrilineage based not just on a woman’s name but also on her kitchen, her act of cooking, and her body” (1997: 102). that is why when singersandy posts “grandma cornish’s whole wheat potato bread,” she pays homage to the line of women from whom she inherited the recipe noting that "this is the recipe that my husband's grandmother made for her family, my mother-in-law made for hers, and i have inherited the fun of making this bread for mine” (singersandy 2000). even though she is related to these women only by marriage, they are still part of her culinary genealogy through their recipe for bread. as bishop argues, “not only are women creating and affirming identity through connection, they are fostering new kinds of connections that suggest altogether new ways to configure community and family: for me to remember a recipe is to remember the woman it came from, how it was passed on to her, and where i can situate myself within my culinary female family” (1997: 103). moreover, singersandy has now included a worldwide audience in her recipe’s lineage. on march 2, 2001, user martha blair added herself to this culinary heritage by declaring in her review of the recipe that “i've been attempting to bake bread for the past 25 years with varying success. i've tried recipe after recipe and i believe i've finally found gold. no doubt this will be a main stay [sic] in our home. the results of my first batch was overwhelmingly successful. i can't even begin to explain how pleased i was. this recipe is definitely the best!” (singersandy 2000). a recipe found online is now integrated into another baker’s culinary story. posting recipes online allows contributors to foster relationships and widen their community circles. in this way the “feminine culinary genealogy” stretches beyond familial ties to include a much broader audience. when clarevh posts the recipe for “grandma osborne’s applesauce cake,” she reveals that “my mom says that her mom got this recipe from grandma osborne, which means it is a very old http://digest.champlain.edu/vol1/article1_1.html#43 http://digest.champlain.edu/vol1/article1_1.html#13 http://digest.champlain.edu/vol1/article1_1.html#13 recipe. unfortunately, no one knows exactly who ‘grandma osborne’ was... fortunately, she left us a moist old-fashioned applesauce cake” (clarevh 2004). whoever she may be, the mysterious “grandma osborne, has left a culinary lineage that now includes not only clarevh’s mother and clarevh herself, but a potentially global audience of online users of recipezaar.com. other times, users connect their own heritage with the recipes offered online. on january 1, 2008, diane s. responded to gwen johnson’s posting of her “grandma’s lemon pie” on allrecipes.com: i have been looking for a lemon pie recipe similar to the legendary one my husband's grandmother used to make; unfortunately, she had never written it down, and her secret is lost. this pie comes very close to hers. i used fresh lemon juice and added the zest as well (as grandma had). i used 1/4 c. cornstarch, since many other recipes with equal liquid measurements called for it (i didn't want it to turn out rubbery). i decided to try another meringue recipe, since i already had a sore arm from the constant stirring involved in making the filling. this is very labor-intensive; i can see why making lemon pies has fallen out of vogue. the results are worth it, however; i made it for company, and they raved about how good it was (johnson 2008). diane s’s discovery of gwen johnson’s grandmother’s recipe for lemon pie allowed her to reconnect with her own recipe heritage that otherwise would have been lost. for members of online recipe-sharing communities, posting their family and personal recipes online falls directly in line with the tradition of sharing recipes orally and in writing. when puppies777 posts “grandma lee’s stuffing” on recipezaar.com, she acknowledges the process of transforming the recipe from her mother’s practice of cooking it in her kitchen, to a written form for her own daughter: “this is the stuffing my mom, lena always made for thanksgiving. she never wrote it down but i helped her so many times i didn't need to see it in writing. my daughter, sam (17) is not into cooking. however i wrote it down and perfected it so she'll be able to make it some day [sic]” (puppies777 2007). puppies777 then draws in the online community by providing definite instructions to assure that the recipe will turn out the way it should by declaring “couldn't be easier. couldn't be yummier…bell’s poultry seasoning is a must!” (puppies777 2007). chef53kathy engages in the same process when she shares the recipe for “grandma helen’s cinnamon apples” on recipezaar.com. she acknowledges the chain of transmission that brought the recipe into her hands and then incorporates the online community into that chain. chef53kathy declares “my grandmother made these for us every year during the holidays when we would visit her in illinois. all of the grandkids loved them. i'm happy to share the recipe with my zaar [sic] cooking buddies” (chef53kathy 2006). by including her “zaar [sic] cooking buddies” in the line of transmission for her grandmother’s recipe, chef53kathy assures that the recipe will never be lost. while posting recipes online may give users the sense that their recipes will never disappear, as templates for the creative performance of cooking, recipes are always in the process of being changed, altered, and adapted. as marie drews points out, “…recipes call to be interpreted and reinterpreted, set and reset. like drama, they need to be performed if they are to enable remembrance, resistance, and persistence in the present” (2008: 69). even the act of transmission results in changes to recipes. transforming oral or written recipes to online versions is not necessarily an easy process. sometimes key information is missing or difficult to convey. user ksduffster points out both the positive and negative impact translating recipes to an online form in her posting of “grandma star’s pot pie (chicken & dumplings) recipe on recipezaar.com. she writes, “this is my polish grandma's recipe, taught to her by her mother. she never wrote down recipes, which forced us to spend even more time with her, learning her recipes (no one ever complained about that though), but also had the unfortunate (for you) effect of none of us writing down the recipes either, so most measurements below are estimates” (ksduffster 2007). while the fact that her grandmother never wrote her recipes down had the positive impact of encouraging her grandchildren to spend time with her, it also had the negative effect of making the recipes difficult to duplicate for an online audience. joan kasura got around this handicap by translating the recipe “grandma’s apples and rice” into a workable version. kasura declares "like most women of her generation, my husband's grandmother was a 'no-measure cook'. this recipe of hers suffered as it was handed down, so i made an effort to work out the kinks. finally, my husband pronounced the results as good as he remembered, and we declared it the 'official' recipe” (kasura 2008). in these cases, the very act of documenting, and thus recreating, recipes also alters them. online recipe-sharing communities reveal the truly dynamic nature of recipe transmission. in the reviews and responses to posted recipes, community-members describe their own experiences of making the recipes and reveal the ways in which they adapt and alter them to suit their own needs and tastes. this underscores the true nature of recipes—they are not a stagnant document and are instead a representation of an action--cooking. as cotter observes, “…the recipe is a written reduction of an actual event” (1997: 71). but it is an event that welcomes interpretation and change. susan leonardi confirms, “like a narrative, a recipe is reproducible, and, further, its hearers-readers-receivers are encouraged to reproduce it and, in reproducing it, to revise it and make it their own. folktales, ghost stories, jokes, and recipes willingly undergo such repetition and re-vision. unlike the repetition of a narrative, however, a recipe's reproducibility can have a literal result, the dish itself” (1989: 344). if a recipe represents the act of cooking as presented by the writer, recipients reproduce that act. and, since cooking is a dynamic process, recipients transform the recipe to meet their own tastes and needs. that is why when pdgrant posts her response to the recipe “apple pie by grandma ople” on february 1, 2009 she not only describes how much she liked the recipe, but also includes the ways in which she altered it to fit her own tastes. she writes: i’m a novice cook to be sure. i am a junior at the university of alabama and just discovered that i can cook just as easily as my mother does by following some key recipes from this website. this recipe in particular has changed my life. this is the most amazing pie i've ever tasted in my life, and it isn't that particularly hard to make. i took several people's advice by adding 1 tablespoon of vanilla, a dash of nutmeg, and a dash of cinnamon. additionally, i put the apples in the bottom of the pie crust and poured the hot syrup on them, then put the lattice on top. after that, i made a separate glaze that consisted of brown sugar and cinnamon. i poured it on hot, perhaps too hot and it [sic] seeped right through the lattice. note that it should be hot though, otherwise it will clump on you. i cooked it at 350 for an hour and a half. the crust was more crisp, and the apples were softer as a result. i definitely suggest the granny smith apples over other types of apples (moshasmama 2000). even though she is a self-described “novice,” pdgrant feels that she has the right to alter the recipe for her own needs because she has now appropriated the recipe and made it a part of her own life story. this same type of scenario is repeated again and again in comments to recipes posted online. users change, alter, and adapt recipes according to their own tastes and needs and then share their opinions with the rest of the online community. the process of constantly changing recipes is integral the tradition. as janet theophano recounts, “change is constant. the accidental or deliberate modification of centuries-old recipes takes place with the passing of each generation, with the movement of people from one locale or continent to another, with periods of crisis or scarcity such as war or natural disaster…human ingenuity will create facsimiles of those old favorites and experiment with new recipes” (2002: 50). the give and take, and the ever-changing nature of recipe-transmission, is what gives the process its dynamic nature and helps the tradition of sharing recipes-as-stories remain vibrant and important even in the 21st century. conclusion: keeping recipes alive and cookin’ as this brief exploration shows, online transmission replicates many of the same processes and meets many of the same needs as when cooks share recipes orally or in writing. in surrounding their recipes with narrative, online recipe sharers reproduce the dynamics that have always underlined recipes and recipes-as-stories; they continue to rely on recipes to make connections, build relationships, and foster a sense of community. if, as traci marie kelly claims, “to share a recipe is to share a part of one’s self…”, then recipe transmission is both an act of trust and intimacy (2001: 266). yet, at the same time, posting recipes online for an anonymous global audience becomes the ultimate public performance. by contextualizing online recipes with individual reflections, family histories, and other cherished memories, contributors transform a very public activity into a more personal one that creates, or at least attempts to create, a personal relationship with the audience. just as written recipes cross the boundaries of time and space, connecting women from different generations and in different locations, online recipe-sharing helps users to connect with each other. recipe-receivers accept the recipes they select and sometimes make them part of their own life-stories. understood in this way, online recipe sharing is just one more link in the chain of recipe transmission. for as long as there have been cooks, there have been recipes and as long as there have been recipes, women have used them to tell stories. as online recipe posters, modern women continue an age-old practice of sharing recipes, stories, and recipes-as-stories. references cited allrecipes.com. 2010. homepage. http://www.allrecipes.com. angic. 2008. grandma solberg’s summer snack cake. recipezaar.com. 14 january. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/grandma-solbergs-summer-snack-squares-278716. http://digest.champlain.edu/vol1/article1_1.html#95 anonymous. n.d. dee’s grandma’s biscuits.” cooks.com. http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,164,155188-245203,00.html. anonymous. n.d. grandma anna’s old fashioned sugar 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cookbooks. in recipes for reading: community cookbooks, stories, histories, ed. anne l bower, pp. 105-117. amherst, massachusetts: university of massachusetts press. melanie b. 2009. grandma ishman’s date pinwheels. recipezaar.com. 29 september. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/grandma-ishmans-date-pinwheels-392578. meyers, miriam. 2001. a bite off mama’s plate: mothers’ and daughters’ connections through food. westport, connecticut: bergin and garvey. misskittylaine. 2010. grandma’s pizza ala da boys. allrecipes.com.. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandmas-homemade-pizza-ala-da-boys/detail.aspx. momofaddy. 2008. grandma’s butter noodles. allrecipes.com. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandmas-butter-noodles/detail.aspx. moore, lorna. 2008. grandma’s rice dish. allrecipes.com. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandmas-rice-dish/detail.aspx. moshasmama. 2000. apple pie by grandma ople. allrecipes.com. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/apple-pie-by-grandma-ople/detail.aspx. mrs jb. 2010. grandma lee’s meatball soup. recipezaar.com. 18 january. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/grandma-lees-meatball-soup-408864. nancyanne. 2005. grandma love’s biscuits. recipezaar.com. 6 june. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/grandma-loves-biscuits-124773. neuhaus, jessamyn. 1999. the way to a man’s heart: gender roles, domestic ideology, and cookbooks in the 1950s. journal of social history 32.3: 529-555. newlyn, andrea k. 2003. redefining ‘rudimentary’ narrative: women’s nineteenth century manuscript cookbooks. in the recipe reader: narratives, contexts, tradition, ed. janet floyd and laurel foster, pp. 31-51. burlington, vt: ashgate. nicoler1. 2005. grandma sophie’s smashed potato salad. allrecipes.com. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandma-sophies-smashed-potato-salad/detail.aspx. nussel, jill. 2006. heating up the sources: using community cookbooks in historical inquiry. history compass 4.5: 956-961. pastawithgarlic. 2005. grandma’s gnocchi. allrecipes.com. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandmas-gnocchi/detail.aspx. pink panda. 2009. grandma larson’s snickerdoodles. recipezaar.com. 29 december. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/grandma-larsons-snickerdoodles-405521. puppies777. 2007. grandma lee’s stuffing. recipezaar.com. 2 july. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/grandma-lees-stuffing-238367. recipezaar.com. 2010. member sign-in and registration. recipezaar.com. http://share.recipezaar.com/registration/login.esi?dest_url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.recipe zaar.com%2fmembers/myprivate.php. rigsby, susan. 2003. grandma’s suet pudding. allrecipes.com. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandmas-suet-pudding/detail.aspx. romines, ann. 1997. growing up with the methodist cookbooks. in recipes for reading: community cookbooks, stories, histories, ed. anne l bower, pp.75-88. amherst, massachusetts: university of massachusetts press. sarah. 2009. grandma maggio’s spaghetti sauce. allrecipes.com. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandma-maggios-spaghetti-sauce/detail.aspx. secret agent. 2007. grandma addie’s fried corn. recipezaar.com. 20 december. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/grandma-addies-fried-corn-273072. sim, marilyn vandoren. 2001. grandma vandoren’s white bread. allrecipes.com. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandma-vandorens-white-bread/detail.aspx. singersandy. 2000. grandma cornish’s whole wheat potato bread. allrecipes.com. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandma-cornishs-whole-wheat-potato-bread/detail.aspx. sisk, pat. 2007. grandma meg’s raisin pie. allrecipes.com. 2007. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandma-megs-raisin-pie/detail.aspx. smart red. 2003. grandma shufelt’s potato candy. recipezaar.com. 15 december. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/grandma-shufelts-potato-candy-78951. steph577. 2005. grandma’s polish perogies. allrecipes.com. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandmas-polish-perogies/detail.aspx. sue. 2000. grandma flo’s shipwreck. allrecipes.com. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandma-flos-shipwreck/detail.aspx. theophano, janet. 2002. eat my words: reading women’s lives through the cookbooks they wrote. new york: palgrave. the_swedish_chef. 2009. grandma lyna’s best pie crust. recipezaar.com. 10 november. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/grandma-lynas-best-pie-crust-398725. tiffany h. 2001. grandma’s doughnuts. allrecipes.com. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grandmas-doughnuts/detail.aspx. tye, diane. 2010. baking as biography. a life story in recipes. montreal & kingston: mcgill-queen’s university press. unclemitch. 2002. grandma mitchell’s biscuits. recipezaar.com. 28 february. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/grandma-mitchells-biscuits-20914. queena frye. 2008. grandma b’s cranberry salad. recipezaar.com. 1 december. http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/grandma-bs-cranberry-salad-340411. < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant by: robin patric clair, kai kuang, ziyu long and jasmine e. tan restaurants, especially those with an ethnic theme, provide far more than an eating experience; they speak of culture, history, and relationships. as lucy long points out, ethnic restaurants are part of a culinary experience that “reflect complex networks of cultural, social, economic and aesthetic systems” (1998:181). this may be true of all restaurants, in that all restaurants attempt to create an atmosphere of one kind or another and have cultural and historical groundings, but an additional aspect of the ethnic restaurant is their creation of the other. ethnic restaurants are “representative of the other” and provide a “negotiated” view of cultures via “culinary tourism” for the clientele (long 2004:21). whether the existence of such restaurants are driven by economic survival of immigrants (barbas 2003), business practicality (rosdahl 1995), or the desire for safe adventures into other cultures (long 1998, 2004) could be debated, but one of the most intriguing aspects of such endeavors is the discursive creation of and reliance on authenticity, particularly the clientele’s “search for authenticity” as “a fundamentally emotional and moral quest” (bendix 1997:7). authenticity for ethnic restaurants generally has been defined by western standards as supplying traditional food and ambience, but the meaning of authenticity may be more complex (appadurai 1985; barbas 2003; bendix 1997; gaytán 2010; girardelli 2004; lu & fine 1995; maccannell 1973; molz 2004), especially given the evolving clientele in a globalized and postcolonial world. with transnational travel and immigration at record highs, clientele may range in their connection to the ethnic restaurant or in their experience of other cultures. many scholars have focused on the survival of the ethnic restaurant, especially with regard to how the food should be tailored for customers. for instance, rosdahl suggests that ethnic restaurants exist in an ever more competitive market and have focused on specializing food without much < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 consideration to other aspects of authenticity. writing of ethnic restaurants in the heartland, he noted the changing nature of competitiveness: now, however, our market has plenty of ‘chinese’ and ‘mexican’ places. i put these words in quotes because these terms have gotten to be generic when it comes to food. so, to carve out a niche ethnic restaurants have to specialize in foods from certain parts of asia or certain states of mexico (1995: n.p.). this may be true, but authenticity depends on more than food; ambience, music, serving style and more come into play (lu & fine 1995; molz 2004). it is equally important to consider how authenticity unfolds for various participants and what its meanings are for them. for varying reasons, several scholars (e.g. barbas 2003; lu & fine 1995; rosdahl 1995) have focused on chinese-american restaurants to explore the complex and changing constructions of authenticity in the united states (barbas 2003). rising immigration is one reason. recent statistics suggest: approximately 3.79 million chinese are living in the united states, 2.2 million of whom were born in china, according to the un department of economic and social affairs (un-desa). this number has doubled since 2000, and is mainly attributed to china’s growing middle and upper classes, who have left in droves to pursue education and business opportunities abroad (us immigration fund 2015: n.p.). the growing number of chinese immigrants may mean increased competition for chinese restaurant owners but also more opportunities for them to capture a growing chinese clientele. originally, chinese restaurants in america catered to chinese immigrants, but over time as they served varying ethnic populations within the u.s., they eventually began catering to a western palate (barbas 2003). today, with the growing number of international students and chinese immigrants coming to the united states, the pendulum may swing back, but because food is dynamic (that is “authentic” chinese food as it is conceived in china is changing) so will the meanings of authenticity. thus we discuss the philosophical background of the meaning of authenticity before proceeding to our study. < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 authenticity, aura and the desire for closeness authenticity is a concept that has come under increased discussion in the postmodern and postcolonial era (see bendix 1997 for an overview). drawing from benjamin’s (1970) classic work on art in an era of the mechanical reproduction, postmodern scholars have explored reproduction as an attempt at re-creating authenticity dependent on the profound desire for origin or the original. according to benjamin, not only can the reproduced never exist in time and space of the original, but the very notion attempts to claim permanent time and space for the original. the original is seen as “authorial” and that which holds “authority” (1970: 218). thus the authentic has a sense of privilege. in addition, the replication “depreciates” the original or “detaches” from the authentic (benjamin 1970: 219). benjamin suggested that this thinking could/should be carried beyond “the realm of art” (1970: 219). and it has been applied quite widely. for instance, bendix (1997) extended such theories to folklore, from poetry to politics. others have applied them to restaurants as expressions of cultures and people (e.g., lu & fine 1995; molz 2004). benjamin further proposed that the original holds an “aura” that is desired and the reproduction is an attempt to bring the aura “closer” to oneself. in past studies of ethnic restaurants, this concept generally has been associated with one set of cultural members attempting to hold the other close and at times has been discussed as hegemonic and colonizing (see barbas 2003); few have researched the desire for the authentic from the perspective of the insider culture, which of course depends on one’s standpoint. for example, gooch (2015) explained the history of the transplanted chile pepper from the west indies to new mexico and explored how the transplanted chile takes on its own “terroir,” altered aspects based on its new surroundings (e.g., soil, climate). gooch suggested the same metaphor can be applied to people. in other words, transplanted people may also develop altered identities that include new tastes. but they may also desire a sense of home. one might ask: when the authentic seems distant but is desired, how does the traveler far from home regain the aura of the original culture from which they came? this notion problematizes both the definition of authenticity and the standpoint from which it can be discussed. molz called authenticity a contentious term (2004: 227) and bendix described its relation to diversity: cultural scholarship aware of the deceptive nature of authenticity concepts may < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 turn its attention toward learning to tell the story of why humans search for authenticity and why this search is fraught with such agony. a vast gulf separates the negotiation of pluralist diversity and the legitimation of multicultural difference. authenticity validates the latter; acknowledging the constructed and deceptive nature of authenticity leads to cultural scholarship committed to life on a planet characterized by inescapable transculturation. (1997: 227-228). both scholars are referring to the self’s search for authentic experiences regarding the other; we believe it is equally important to apply this notion to the self’s search for self. although in this case, self is flipped for other. that is to say, ethnic restaurants and especially chinese–american restaurants offer fertile ground for such studies with a growing chinese population in america seeking experiences of home. authenticity as a discursive practice in ethnic restaurants how restaurants create an “authentic” image of culture has been of paramount interest to researchers from various disciplines (e.g., clair et al. 2011; long 1998, 2004; molz 2004; robinson 2007; wijaya, king, nguyen, and morrison 2013). as long points out, this authentic image is a negotiated identity that is grounded in “interactive, communicative events [set] within a larger conceptual symbolic system” (2004: 32) and its construction is “dynamic” (2004: 33). according to gaytán, investigating ethnic restaurants, especially for identity and authenticity, “provides the opportunity to determine and communicate one’s place as an individual in an increasingly global marketplace” (2010: 314). ethnic restaurants may provide a place for immigrants to feel at home, a place with which they can identify. however, with respect to chinese-american restaurants, lu and fine (1995) pointed out that it is also possible the construction of “authenticity” is more of a persuasive strategy to lure non-chinese customers and may give a false impression to the local non-chinese community. we would add that at the same time such restaurants might be unattractive to the chinese immigrant. in this sense, authenticity as a discursive practice or a rhetorical strategy becomes even more complicated. according to lu and fine (1995), the idea of restaurants as rhetorical or discursive practices can be traced to karnow’s work which suggests that even the names of chinese restaurants (e.g., jade lion, pearl river) “are strategies designed to < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 reinforce the desire of diners for exotic experience” (1995: 539). this is also known as a “naming” strategy meant to provide a sense of similarity for the participant (long 2004: 38). molz (2004) also highlighted the role of décor, menu, claims on the menu, and ingredients as part of the rhetorical staging. such discursive strategies are counter to the very notion of authenticity defined as “reliable, trustworthy, of undisputed origin, genuine” (oxford 1982). but as bendix (1997) pointed out, the original is never within grasp and the reproduction is always artificial to some degree. a “disingenuous” name that sounds genuine may satisfy some customers, but the more knowledgeable diners are about a culture, the more difficult it may be for a restaurant to satisfy their demands for authenticity. in addition, in the current era of diversity and inclusion, authenticity is in a state of constant flux. customers may not seek a “pure” authenticity but be looking for forms of hybridization and food fusion. authenticity, hybridity, and commoditization in ethnic restaurants the following two studies examined intersections of authenticity, hybridity and commoditization. the first explored the role of hybridity and authenticity in chineseamerican restaurants and the second, and more recent, focused on hybridity and authenticity in five non-chinese-american ethnic restaurants. looking at these studies in more detail helps to position this current study of a chinese-american restaurant. first, in 1995, lu and fine conducted a study of four chinese-american restaurants in a southern u.s. college town. the restaurants primarily served a non chinese clientele and fit within one of two categories: consumption or connoisseur-oriented. because the clientele were non chinese-americans, the owners americanized the food. even if they had not felt the need to cater to their clientele’s tastes, they would have had to adapt the food to the american context due to the lack of chinese vegetables: “bamboo shoots, hotbed chives, garlic bolt, waxgourd,” and the need to substitute with local vegetables: “carrots, broccoli, snow peas, green peppers and mushrooms” (1995: 541). even if these could be shipped to the restaurants, the costs would have been exorbitant. these modifications and others bring authenticity into question. lu and fine operationalized authenticity as the amount of deviation in food, recipes, décor and other relative features from what most believe to be authentic or original. the authors suggested that demands for authenticity come from americans (non chinese in this case) who are seeking the cultural experience < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 “really lived” by natives (lu and fine 1995: 539). however, because it is impossible for restaurant owners to create dishes and a dining experience identical to the homeland due to a number of factors including economic, geographic, and the dynamic nature of culture, they opt to create a “staged authenticity” (maccannell 1973). lu and fine discovered that the restaurants generally negotiate a middle ground by cooking traditional chinese dishes and changing their flavorings to suit the mostly non chineseamerican clientele. they also found that the meal format is changed somewhat, at least in the fine dining experience. whereas at a restaurant in china the food comes all at one time (much like the serving of an average family meal at home in the u.s.), in american fine dining restaurants the meal is brought in stages. the american-chinese restaurants modified their approach to match fine dining practices in the u.s. (also see long 2004). the authors discussed these two main indicators of authenticity as cultural capital, a means for restaurant owners to draw clientele into four restaurants—two consumption-oriented (i.e., fast-food) and two connoisseur-oriented (i.e., fine dining) (lu and fine 1995). of course, the clientele had varying levels of knowledge about culture and food and therefore had very different goals in mind. consumptionoriented customers were especially attracted by low prices, fast service, and the americanized chinese food. the connoisseur-oriented clientele were more concerned with the authenticity of the food; they preferred dishes that were less sweet or salty as the more americanized versions. they sought the “chinese” experience. interestingly, the owner of one of the connoisseur-oriented restaurants was more concerned about consistency than anything else and subsequently drew from a “coca cola” model to ensure stability. that is to say, even if the cooks changed, the food would not. as lu and fine noted, the owner’s “good reputation” depended on this consistency (1995: 546). the authors concluded that “the social construction of authentic ethnic food is bounded by social, cultural, and economic constraints” (lu and fine 1995: 547). they added that for diners to accept the negotiation of authenticity, the restaurant must balance what might be regarded as the “real” chinese experience in china and what will be acceptable to american tastes. the clientele must feel as though they have had a cultural experience while not being turned off by flavors that are so foreign as to be distasteful. the authors supported the notion that modifying the cultural experience should not be denigrated but rather viewed as innovative; the ability to set one’s self apart while fitting in is praiseworthy. < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 finally, lu and fine concluded that ethnic restaurants “carve out an economic niche by means of …a display of the ethnic culture that is simultaneously seen as ‘authentic’ and within the bounds of cultural expectations (1995: 535).” in short, the four chinese restaurants constructed an authenticity characterized by adaptability and variability. fifteen years later, clair et al (2011) undertook a study of five ethnic restaurants in a small college town. they defined authenticity in a similar fashion to lu and fine (1995), focusing mainly on food and décor. in addition, they explored how restaurant owners created identity for the respective ethnic groups and how they engaged the local culture. the authors framed their study according to postmodern practices. accepting that cultures are dynamic and changing, they expected to find varying levels of “authenticity.” they explored aspects of hybridity and addressed the commoditization of cultures after having noted such anomalies as fazoli’s restaurant, an italian restaurant which is owned by a japanese corporation. they highlighted that ethnic restaurants are discursive practices that speak of identity and to both ethnic and local cultures. clair et al. (2011) found that the restaurants’ constructions of authenticity, hybridity, and commodification acted as discursive means to create different cultural identities, including irish-american, italian-american, korean-american, middle easternamerican, and mediterranean-american. the study noted that values and criterion related to authenticity varied across restaurants. for example, the korean restaurant owner highlighted freshness of food as the key to healthy food and authentic korean dining while the irish-american restaurateur focused on “authentic” décor (e.g., tables and stools shipped from ireland) and his family stories of ireland. the italian restauranteur did not attempt to “name” the food on the menu in a stereotypical italian way, but rather named the dishes after the owner’s children’s names. hybridity existed in some restaurants. for example, the korean-american restaurant also served chinese food because the owner liked it. the middle eastern restaurant owner served pepsi products in decorative tin cups. he decorated the restaurant in middle eastern décor (tapestries and colorful pillows) but also showed off local baseball trophies from teams that his restaurant sponsored, which is an american practice. hybridity challenges stereotypes of what food is allowed to be served and how the appropriate décor for ethnic restaurants. for example, a mediterranean restaurant was owned and operated by a mexican-american couple and did a superior business to the same-themed restaurant that was owned and < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 operated by a man of middle eastern origin. in addition, the owner of the italian restaurant turned out to be of spanish descent. marketing also at times commodified ethnicity. the irish restaurant owner marketed his ethnic identity by initiating the town’s first st. patrick’s day parade which just happened to start on one side of town and end at his restaurant door. stereotypes and expectations were both reinforced in some cases and completely toppled in other cases (clair et al. 2011). the findings from the clair et al. (2011) study supported a paradoxical postpostmodern narrative; hybridity was not always hidden, stereotypes were sometimes challenged, and occasionally the owners commodified their own heritage. in one restaurant the owner openly discussed using frozen americanized versions of certain foods. thus, restaurant owners’ efforts to construct authenticity by reproducing a “pure,” original or disguising any imperfections may be disappearing in an age of hybridization and food fusion, just as some stereotypes are disappearing. in short, restaurateurs have agency; they can redefine both reproduction and authenticity. past studies often have incorporated limited conceptualizations of authenticity, based primarily on food, food format, or décor. but other understandings of authenticity exist. for example, the minor notation in the lu and fine’s (1995) study, that one owner was more concerned with his reputation than anything else, may speak volumes about cultural authenticity. this restaurateur established his reputation through consistency. reputation may be just one of several cultural indicators or values of authenticity. perhaps, for chinese restaurant owners, reputation should be added to the characterization of authenticity. and as clair et al (2011) indicated, strict rules governing constructions of authenticity seem to be giving way to other factors that determine new definitions and goals. these studies suggest that additional research is necessary. in general past research has focused on perceptions of authenticity as constructed by an outsider culture while more recent work is indicating a dynamic change in what constitutes authenticity and the desire for authenticity by both the insider and outsider, self and other. yet it is still unclear how the self seeks authenticity, or creates authenticity, especially in and through the ethnic restaurant and how that search might be culturally defined. ethnography < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 focusing on ethnic restaurants, one finds establishments that not only have a rich history (heldke 1997, 2000) but also a strong connection to cultural exchange and community development (barbas 2003). following in the footsteps of those who rely on anthropological methods to study and understand food and its connection to identity and authenticity (e.g., brown and sherry 2003; clair et al. 2011; diner 2001; gaytán 2010; girardelli 2004; gvion & trostler 2008; liu and lin 2009; lockwood & lockwood 2000; lu & fine 1995; min 1984; mintz and du bois 2002; ray 2006; roden 2000; zanger 2004; zubaida and tapper 2000), we conducted an ethnography of a chinese-american restaurant. how we, the authors, came together as a team unfolded over time. robin, the first author, initiated the study and conducted the majority of the fieldwork for the ethnography, but sought help from kai, ziyu, and jasmine in terms of translation, perceptions, and cultural understanding and they began joining robin on trips to the restaurant and later helped with writing the article. we, the authors, apologize for the awkward shift from first to third person in the following case narrative but with multiple authors this may provide the reader with further clarity as to how the study was conducted. rationale for chinese restaurant focus in general a chinese-american restaurant was selected from the pool of ethnic restaurants to focus this study on for several reasons. first, as previously mentioned there is a growing chinese immigrant population to the united states who will seek chinese food (and ways to establish entrepreneurship or jobs) and which has led to expansion in the numbers of chinese restaurants in the u.s. in 1995, there were approximately 30,000 chinese restaurants in the u.s. (lu & fine 1995). by 2004 there were 36,000 (luo 2004) and by 2007 there were approximately 40,000 chinese-american restaurants (adler 2007). adler noted that by 2007 there were more chinese restaurants in the u.s. “than the number of mcdonald’s and taco bells combined” (2007: n.p.). if this astounding number of restaurants is not enough in itself to support the choice, then it should be noted that chinese-american restaurants have a history that dates back to the 1800s and which has received scant attention (for an exception see barbas 2003) more specifically, according to luo, chinese-american restaurants and their identity formation are understudied: “excerpts from mr. spiller’s collection [of chinese-american restaurant menus dating as far back as the 1800s and including < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 close to 1,000 menus] are the centerpiece of a new exhibit at the museum of chinese in the americas in chinatown about a rarely examined phenomenon: the chinese restaurant in america” (2004: n.p.). in addition, noting that “authenticity” is one of the prime rhetorical strategies that ethnic restaurants use to establish an identity and maintain an economic base and durability within a community, lu and fine argued that chinese restaurants should be studied for their unique feature of “primarily serving an external public” (1995: 536). however, with the burgeoning chinese population in the u.s. today, this is no longer the case. chinese restaurants today may need to provide “authenticity” that will be judged more and more by a knowledgeable chinese market. asserting that the chinese-american restaurant has come full circle, once again serving a chinese population, requires a knowledge of this history as well as the contemporary situation. an extensive and detailed history has been provided by barbas (2003) which noted that chinese restaurants in america developed in the late 1800s to serve a chinese immigrant population and that non-chinese americans sought these restaurants in search of an authentic experience. barbas’s work also pointed out the political and economic history of the chinese immigrants and the role that the restaurant played. specifically, chinese laborers in the 1800s held jobs in every market segment in the u.s. but by the twentieth century racial discrimination, propelled at first by unions, forced chinese workers to more and more constrained working choices (barbas 2003). restaurants became a refuge and a means to economic survival, but the chinese needed to cater to the tastes of non-chinese americans in order to survive; that is, dishes became hybrid creations in the interest of economic survival. barbas’s historical overview is a detailed and scholarly work, worth the read; however other sources on chineseamerican restaurant history are also available. for instance, popular books include coe’s (2009) book, chop suey: a cultural history of chinese food in the united states, which provides an explanation for why the jewish american population embraced eggrolls and chow mein, and lee’s (2008) book, the fortune cookie chronicles: adventures in the world of chinese food, which features a discussion of the history of the fortune cookie. each of these histories are fascinating, but they do not take up the contemporary discussion of the complicated and shifting meaning of authenticity for the contemporary chinese restaurant. < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 choosing and entering ru jia (as if, like home 如如) the college town in the united states where this ethnography is set has roughly 30,000 permanent residents and an additional 40,000 students. many of these students are international; the university is known for its large international student population, especially of chinese students. there are approximately 25 chinese restaurants located here and in a nearby sister city with a resident population of approximately 67,000. they serve a wide range of dishes from americanized fast food and buffets to regional cuisines including hunan, szechuan and others. robin selected ru jia (a pseudonym) as the restaurant of study based on the recommendation of several chinese college students who deemed it the most “authentic.” what they meant by that was yet to be determined. nevertheless, relying on the criteria for authenticity established by lu and fine (1995), the restaurant had markers of “authenticity”: the name was chinese, not americanized and the owners relied on chinese dishes, served the food all at one time, and are from china. thus, robin began the ethnographic case study with a phone call to the owner of ru jia. the phone call was met with confusion at best. robin explained to the voice on the other end that she would like to stop by to bring a letter explaining the study and asked the owner if it would be possible for herto come and observe and conduct interviews. she was told, in awkward english, by the woman who had answered the phone that the owner was not in. robin asked when the owner might be in and after several missed meanings, the woman on the other end finally said, “he’ll be back on saturday. come saturday.” robin arrived at the restaurant on saturday. she sat in a booth while the woman behind the counter worked. realizing that she would need a translator, robin requested help from jasmine ee lingtan, a singaporean graduate student fluent in mandarin chinese who later became the fourth author. jasmine had been to the restaurant before and agreed to meet robin there. while waiting robin attempted to introduce herself to the woman behind the counter, but she soon realized that she would need to wait for her translator. when jasmine arrived she explained to robin that the woman behind the counter was one of the owners. the woman is respectfully referred to as the “lady boss” or the “lady in charge” by the chinese and taiwanese students who frequent the restaurant. < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 in robin’s attempt to introduce herself to the owner while waiting, she had explained that she had come to speak with the owner. the woman behind the counter informed her that he was not there. robin felt like saying, “but you said he would be here on saturday,” but decided that was no way to begin a relationship, especially if there are cultural differences. at that moment robin was also unaware of the lady in charge’s status as part owner. jasmine and robin studied the lunch menus—one menu was for chinese clientele (hard cover and written in chinese characters) and one menu was for both chinese and non-chinese customers, written with both chinese characters and english translations. jasmine described some of the dishes and robin made mental notes. robin chose an americanized-chinese lunch—broccoli, chicken and rice with a uniquely tasty sauce. her food came first and the lady in charge, who robin later learned goes by the american name of jessie, placed a plastic fork and a set of chopsticks in the middle of the table. robin opened the chopsticks and began to eat at jasmine’s insistence that she not wait for the rest of the food to arrive. jasmine ordered a soup with noodles and meat. when her food arrived it came with a plastic spoon, but she also needed chopsticks. that is when they realized jessie assumed that as a non-asian robin would use the fork and as a singaporean graduate student, jasmine, would use the chopsticks. stereotypes go both ways. it took more than a month into the study for jessie to provide robin with chopsticks as if it were a natural thing to do. by the end of lunch, they felt comfortable enough to approach jessie about the study. jasmine translated the letter of introduction as robin stood by indicating her interest and occasionally filling in information. jessie took the letter. she did not agree to the study, but she promised to consider it. she never mentioned the owner being away or when he would return. robin and jasmine learned later that the co-owner was in the kitchen cooking at the time. after visiting on a regular basis for a week, robin was able to get jessie to sign the agreement for the study. robin completed the rest of the human subject paperwork and within a few more weeks she had permission to move ahead. ethnographic observations, interviews and field notes: a tale of the field observations of ru jia took place over a three month period and included lunches, < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 dinners and afternoon visits to ru jia. each of robin’s early visits lasted two to three hours and she noted her observations in field journal notes and typed them at the end of the day. the first set of observations focused on the physical place, the ambience created through decoration, the food, and jessie and her interactions with the clientele. backstage, as goffman (1959) would describe it, was not under study, as the focus was on the restaurant’s creation of authenticity for the clientele. unrecorded interviews were conducted with customers on the premises. initial observations ru jia is a storefront restaurant which robin eventually learned has been in operation since 2002. the business is owned by jessie and her husband who cooks; her sister-in-law also assists. jessie is from fujian, north of guandong and neither she nor her husband had operated a restaurant in china before coming to the u.s. the booths in ru jia are salmon-colored and made of plastic. the table tops and chairs that are in the middle of the restaurant are bright red. and the floor tile is a rich terra-cotta. matching lamps of a deep-red hue hang above the counter where food is ordered and prepared. customers place their order at the counter and jessie brings their meal to them. as mentioned earlier, the term “lady boss” was used by the students to address the female owner. when robin directed jasmine to ask her what she would like to be called, robin also asked jasmine to apologize for her initial mistake in not realizing that jessie was one of the owners; robin had thought she was too young. jessie was flattered and told them to call her by her americanized name that she likes (jessie is a pseudonym for it ). “i like it too,” robintold her and added “that is my niece’s name.” she smiled. jessie is an exquisitely beautiful chinese woman. she is young (around 3035 years old) and has hair that flows to her waist with contemporary soft side bangs. she handles the front region of the restaurant, taking orders, delivering food, clearing dishes and ringing sales. she laughs easily and talks, in chinese, with customers. jessie floats about from table to table delivering food and never looks frazzled even though at times the restaurant becomes quite busy. there are five booths — one has nothing on it in the way of condiments, one has pepper, one has soy sauce, one has a salt shaker, and one has red pepper. jessie keeps these flowing from one customer to the next. there are three tables that seat two < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 people and three tables for four people, plus the booths mentioned above, which seat approximately 20 people. the restaurant seats 38 people comfortably and on several occasions we have seen it completely full. the wall hangings include chinese scrolls, chinese paintings, and european impressionistic paintings. the chinese do not often hang artwork and so to do might have been to make their non-chinese american clientele more comfortable. the soft pastel impressionist prints seemed to my eye, the most out of place and yet they were subtle and pleasing. for the most part, the decorations are simple and reminiscent of china with “laughing, waving kitty” and a jade dragon statue on the counter. over the course of several visits robin tried different foods and discovered that the restaurant serves both americanized and chinese dishes. the portions surprised her as they are extremely large even when they are chinese dishes. for example, a favorite or at least a commonly ordered dish by chinese students is the soup with noodles and meat. the students are often sent home with at least a quart or more in a container when they leave. on one visit robin took four other people with her and ordered enough crab rangoon (an americanized novelty) for everyone to try as the chinese students had never had crab rangoon (nor have most of them ever had a fortune cookie). when she asked jessie how many crab rangoons are in an order because she would like to feed the group, jessie made extra, increasing the size of the dish so that everyone could try one. the very notion that crab rangoon was on the menu speaks to an adapted form of authenticity since crab rangoon was “likely invented in the united states” (history crab rangoon, 2016, n. p.). on another occasion when robin went to the restaurant with kai and ziyu, who were graduate students at the time. robin ordered spring rolls (not commonly served in the regions of china where kai and ziyu are from). that day robin only ordered one spring roll as the other two had ordered large dishes of food for themselves. jessie changed robin’s order so that three spring rolls arrived at the table, enough for everyone. at another time, robin was struck by a story kai and ziyu shared. they had invited american students home to dinner and were surprised that after they placed the dishes of food on the table, the american students lifted them and began passing them around. this was supposed to be a chinese dinner and the chinese practice is to share by placing the platters of food in the middle of the table. the american students’ behavior seemed inappropriate until the hosts reconsidered that this was their way of sharing. and of course sharing was the point, even if the < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 chinese cultural practice was lost on the american students. the american students, unlike the chinese students, had never taken an international etiquette class. interviews over robin’s first visits to the restaurant, she tried to build a relationship with jessie. for example, on her fourth visit she brought her husband and introduced him to jessie. they had practiced how to say, “hello” and “thank you” in chinese and when they greeted jessie with a buoyant, “ni hao,” she smiled generously at their attempts. on robin’s next visit she could not help but to tell jessie how beautiful she looked, dressed in a long, black, print skirt and black, spangled top. she smiled shyly, accepting the compliment with some embarrassment. on other occasions kai and ziyu came with robin to the restaurant. they allowed robin to interview them for the study and later she asked them if they would like to be coauthors. before being offered a coauthor position, here are some of there responses to robin’s interviews with them. kai, the second author, told robin that on her first day in town she registered for classes, obtained her i.d. and ate at ru jia. ziyu agreed that this was the first restaurant where she ate. and ziyu told robin that when jessie the lady in charge served her a meal, she said, “you’re new here, aren’t you?” ziyu nodded. jessie added comfortingly, “you’ll get used to the food.” when robin asked what she meant by that, ziyu explained that even though jessie and her husband try to offer the students food from “home” that they would have grown up with in china, and advertise it on the menu cover as “authentic,” it is impossible to replicate exactly. this is due to many reasons, including the fact that jessie and her husband are not from the same region of china as many of the students and because american vegetables are not the same as those grown in china. “cucumbers in china are slender with small seeds and the celery is different, many things are different,” kai explained. this points to the challenges chinese restaurant owners face when trying to make food that is familiar or palatable to the local consumer (long 2004). here the owner apologizes for her inability to manipulate the food to make it taste more like the original because the local produce constrains her (see also molz 2004; lu & fine 1995). nevertheless, ru jia is the most home-like of the restaurants in the local area and jessie helps to welcome and comfort newcomers. the ru jia restaurant is advertised in the < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 “chinese student” orientation packet and jessie has developed a relationship with the president of the student organization. while other chinese restaurants target americans with americanized names and food, ru jia targets the international chinese, singaporean, and taiwanese students. their efforts have been successful because international students clearly make up a significant percentage of their clientele; for example during the interview with kai and ziyu, robin noticed a group of about eight taiwanese students arrive and pull tables together to enjoy lunch. when robin asked kai and ziyu, “what about non-americanized chinese restaurants?,” they both explained that one of the other chinese restaurants in town with a very good reputation for serving delicious and “authentic” food had become “too popular.” that restaurant had grown to be in such demand that the owners hired mexican servers. now kai and ziyu no longer wanted to go there. they explained that the mexican or mexican-american servers could not speak to them and that they served “without emotional attachment to the culture.” this was in keeping with molz’s observation that customers are looking for ethnically consistent servers (molz 2004). however, this comment goes further, suggesting that kai and ziyu re not only looking for ethnically consistent servers, but servers who could make an emotional connection. so kai and ziyu no longer went there. they found ru jia “more intimate” in contrast to some of the other restaurants that seemed “more business-like.” they valued this over other aspects, such as the décor, which they did not experience as completely authentic at ru jia. for example, chinese restaurants do not usually hang framed works but kai and ziyu did not find this practice at ru jia too distracting. instead they referred positively to the “waving cat. ” the statue of a cat that is waving, whose origin seems to be japanese, beckons one to come in and is considered a symbol of good luck (see maneki-neko, 2016). like other chinese students they knew, kai and ziyu found the waving cat cute and it made them smile. in contrast to the décor, they mentioned that the way the food is served contributed to their sense of authenticity. diners at a table all draw from the same plate rather than pass the food as americans do. other elements combine the familiar and unfamiliar. for example, kai and ziyu reported that while coca cola is common in china, the coke machine, a self-dispensing unit, is not and ru jia has a self-dispensing coke machine next to the counter where orders are placed near the cash register. at the time of the fieldwork, ru jia was kai and ziyu’s first choice in local chinese restaurants even if it did not entirely eliminate their feelings of homesickness. they appreciated jessie’s easy manner and obvious concern for them and feel that all of the students respect < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 her. finally, ru jia offers discounts to the students making it an even more affordable option and they can count on the restaurant being healthy, safe, and friendly. all of these aspects—décor, food and serving methods, and feelings of hospitality and warmth--reflect erving goffman’s (1963) concept of “framing” which long (2004) identified as significant in culinary tourism. and perhaps more notably, it speaks of particular constructions of authenticity, identity and home (see gooch 2015). during an interview jessie indicated that she begins her day at 10:30 am. the number of customers whom she serves varies during the day and evening hours. they close the doors to the restaurant at 10:00 pm on week nights and stay open until 11:00 pm on weekends. they are open seven days a week. she enjoys helping newcomers to the area and giving them directions, advice, and introductions to others. the staff is too small to allow them to participate in community food festivals, but they do engage with students as much as possible. for instance, they interact with students from various countries and areas including the people’s republic of china, taiwan, malaysia, and hong kong. the restaurant sells spring festival gala (a small festival held at the university to celebrate the spring festival, which is also known as the lunar new year) tickets for the students and the students, in turn, via word of mouth and orientation packets, spread the word about ru jia. this quiet form of publicity (xuanchuan) is in contrast to the strategies of some of the other chinese-american restaurants in the area that have recently resorted to hiring students to pass out fliers to all the professors on campus. during robin’s visit to the restaurant with kai and ziyu, they witnessed jessie chatting amiably with a man at one of the booths. kai explained that he was the president of the chinese student organization at the university and that jessie told her he has been helping the restaurant owners negotiate their contract with their landlord since his english is so much better than their english. jessie speaks a dialect common to fujian (also spoken by taiwanese, according to kai and ziyu. and thus students from very different cultural backgrounds and disparate political persepctives, sit easily in jessie’s restaurant and chat amiably with her. ru jia has survived an increase of chinese restaurants in the area and has created a niche based not only on food, but relationships. it offers the clientele far more than a specific cuisine or an exotic ambience; it offers an authenticity that is based on concern, care, cultural connection and more. < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 authenticity and the allure and aura of home the construction of authenticity can go well beyond the ingredients, cooking, food format and décor which have been highlighted in many past studies. for example, lu and fine mention reputation as being important to one restaurant owner’s understanding of authenticity; he uses the strategy of consistency to maintain his reputation (lu and fine 1995). kuang argues that publicity, reputation and relationship are key concepts for the chinese in terms of public relations (2010). these concepts are intertwined with ru jia’s construction of authenticity and are integral to its success. in this study, relationship (guanxi) surfaces as a key expression of what makes a culinary experience authentic. to neglect the relational part of sitting down to a meal with people is to forget the soul of the situation. even if one dines alone, which was not uncommon to see in ru jia, jessie makes welcoming conversation with the solo customer. the reputation of ru jia then is linked not only to the “authentic” food, but also to the sense of “authentic” relationships. when international students like kai and ziyu found that the mexican wait staff in the other chinese restaurant were unable to emotionally engage with them, that is to say, they could not relate to their experiences, the reputation of that restaurant began to decline through word of mouth. in short, the other restaurant may provide “authentic” food, but because they have grown too large, or too popular, their ability to maintain “authentic” relationships with the clientele (guanxi) has been compromised. in contrast, ru jia maintains strong and healthy relations with its target clientele and even though it must apologize for its food not being identical to what a student would eat at home in china, it comes close. more importantly, jessie shares the students’ longings for food from particular regions of mainland china and sympathizes with their homesickness. and the clientele return that relational care. the president of the chinese student association has made strong enough ties with the owners of ru jia that they trust him to negotiate their lease with the landlord. relationship is further exemplified through sharing. in american dining, couples, especially married couples, often share meals but the dining experience is not designed around this concept. the american version of dining out is generally conceived of as an individual culinary experience with shared conversation. of course, there are exceptions—for example, appetizers are sometimes designed to be shared and pizza is often shared. but in fine dining even these conventions are broken as when small oven-roasted pizzas are served for one person. the < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 importance of sharing became clear after the day robin told jessie that she wanted to share the crab rangoon with everyone at the table. after that she always brought enough for everyone. sharing is not confined to chinese culture but americans share differently: they may buy for everyone, pass plates, and offer a taste of their food to friends to try. but americans also view reaching across platters as impolite while the chinese see taking from various platters as sharing. arguably, sharing is crucial to the construction of authentic relationships (guanxi). the ethnic restaurant might be considered a fractal of the larger culture from which it comes. relationship, reputation and image are at stake, and all are negotiated through presentational discourses. jessie acts as the ambassador of relationship (guanxi) for the restaurant. she is always smiling, poised, and welcoming to her clientele. she creates relationships and presents an image of the restaurant that adds to its reputation for authenticity. the relationships that she fosters with the clientele and within the international student community are central to the restaurant’s success; they allow the business’s reputation to expand. jessie does not allow ru jia’s popularity to interfere with her commitment to those relationships which are the core of the restaurant’s construction of authenticity. jessie’s belief that relationship should be at the heart of both ru jia as an enterprise and as an experience of authenticity offered to customers is not shared by everyone in the restaurant industry. for example, the italian restaurant association is calling for a certification process in order for restaurants in other countries to claim that they are authentic italian restaurants. the requirements include using a certain portion of italian ingredients and wines and hiring italians to cook and serve (clair et al. 2011). if this proceeds, the association will have to keep in mind that while ingredients, cooks, and servers are important, there are other aspects that define culture, including relationship. there are also important messages here for researchers. authenticity needs to be carefully conceptualized in future studies of ethnic restaurants. relying on food, food format and décor as the determinants of authenticity misses the richness of the culture behind the ethnic restaurant. researchers may begin with the obvious (the goal is economic; the product is food and ambiance, even image, the cultural experience as others have said), but they should explore the less obvious as well— the cultural expressions of ethnic essence. authenticity has been commoditized and co-opted by eating establishments who use a cultural image to create a food < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 product and service simply to make a profit (clair et al, 2011), but sometimes authenticity also has been reduced to its simplest elements by researchers. it is a complex phenomenon and should be studied in future scholarly endeavors as such. furthermore, past studies have most often focused on the ethnic restaurant as an experience of the exotic with the guest culture being addressed as the ones who are in search of authenticity, that is, from the “tourist’s” point of view. yet, in this globalized world we must recognize the “post-tourist” perspective which suggests that the “self” may be aware of the strategies of authentication and may not care; they may have more “liberal …boundaries” (molz 2004: 72). increased ease of global travel and extended stays in other countries means that the other quickly takes on the face of “self,” reducing the emphasis on “tourism” and highlighting the “search for home” and the nostalgic lure of the distant and desired. some diners are reaching out a sense of belonging and attempting to create aspects of “home” through “authentic” culinary experiences. conclusion the ethnic restaurant is an orchestration of the practical as well as the aesthetic, political, economic, historical, and cultural dimensions of dining. in the case of the chinese-american restaurant, it has come full circle in america. in the past, chinese-american restaurants served primarily chinese immigrants and were tucked away in chinatowns across america. they expanded to cities, suburbs, and rural areas over the years and targeted non-chinese populations (barbas 2003). today, chinese immigrants can once again find chinese restaurants in america meant to cater to them and with the goal of providing an authentic experience that consists of more than food, format and décor. here authenticity is conceived of in terms of reputation (shengyu), image (xingxiang), publicity (xuanchuan) and, most importantly, relationship (guanxi). < clair, robin 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(accessed on???). goffman, erving. 1959. the presentation of self in everyday life. new york: anchor books. ---. 1963. behavior in public places: notes on the social organization of gatherings. new york: free press of glencoe. gvion, liora, and naomi trostler. 2008. from spaghetti to meatballs through hawaiian pizza to sushi: the changing nature of ethnicity in american restaurants. the journal of popular culture 41: 950-974. heldke, lisa. 1997. let’s cook thai: recipes for colonialism. in food and culture: a reader, ed. c. counihan & p. van esterik, 327-340. new york: routledge. ---. 2000. let’s cook thai: recipes for colonialism. in pilaf, pozole and pad thai: american women and ethnic food, ed s. innes, 175-193. amherst: university of massachusetts press. (version used by barbas, 2003). kuang, kai. 2010. lecture on international public relations. purdue university. west lafayette, in. april 22 < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 “history crab rangoon.” 2016. wikipedia. retrieved from https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/crab_rangoon (accessed march 4, 2016) lee, jennifer b. 2008. the fortune cookie chronicles: adventures in the world of chinese food. new york: hachette book group. liu, haiming, and lianlian lin. 2009. food, culinary identity, and transnational culture: chinese restaurantb in southern california. journal of asian american studies 12: 135-162.lockwood, william g., and yvonne r. lockwood. 2000. continuity and adaptation in arab american foodways. in arab detroit: from margin to mainstream, ed. n. abraham, & a. shryock, 515-549. detroit, mi: wayne state university. long, lucy m. 1998. culinary tourism: a folklorist perspective on eating and otherness. southern folklore 55: 181-204. ---. ed. 2004. culinary tourism. lexington: the university press of kentucky. lu, shun, and gary alan fine. 1995. the presentation of ethnic authenticity: chinese food as a social accomplishment. sociological quarterly 36: 535-553. luo, michael. 2004. as all-american as egg foo yong. new york times. september 22. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/22/dining/22chin.html (accessed on may 12, 2010). maccannell, dean. (1973). staged authenticity: arrangements of social space in tourist settings. american journal of sociology 79: 589-603. “maneki-neko.” 2016. wikipedia. retrieved form https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/maneki-neko (accessed on march 4, 2016). min, pyong gap. 1984. from white-collar occupations to small business: korean immigrants’ occupational adjustment. sociological quarterly 25: 333-352. mintz, sidney w., and christine m. du bois. 2002. the anthropology of food and eating. annual review of anthropology: 99-119. molz, jennie germann. 2004. tasting an imagined thailand: authenticity and culinary tourism in thai restaurants. culinary tourism, ed. m. l. long. 53-75. lexington: the university press of kentucky. < clair, robin patric, kuang, kai, long, ziyu, tan, jasmine e. “authenticity, personal relationships and the aura of home: the case of the chinese american restaurant” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:1 (2016): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2016 oxford english dictionary. 1982. oxford: oxford university press. ray, krishnendu. 2006. ethnic succession and the new american restaurant cuisine. in the restaurant book: ethnographies of where we eat, ed. d. beriss and d. sutton, 97-114. new york: berg. robinson, richard n.s. 2007. plain fare to fusion: ethnic impacts on the process of maturity in brisbane’s restaurant sector. journal of hospitality and tourism management 14: 70-84. roden, claudia. 2000. the new book of middle eastern food. new york: alfred a. knopf. rosdahl, nils. 1995. ethnic restaurants carve niche in competitive north idaho market. the spokesman review. august 30. http://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/ aug/30/ethnic-restaurants-carve-niche-in-competitive/ (accessed january 12, 2015). us immigration fund. 2015. chinese immigration to us continues to rise. http:// visaeb-5.com/chinese-immigration-to-us-continues-to-rise/ (accessed on april 3, 2015). wijaya, serli, brian king, thu-huong nguyen, and alison morrison. 2013. international visitor dining experiences: a conceptual framework. journal of hospitality and tourism management 20: 34-42. zanger, mark h. 2004. italian american food. in the oxford encyclopedia of food and drink in america, ed. a.f. smith. oxford: oxford university press. http://www.oxford-americanfoodanddrink. com/entry?entry=t170.e0425 (accessed october 19, 2009). zubaida, sami, and richard tapper. 2000. a taste of thyme: culinary cultures of the middle east. new york: taurus parke paperbacks. the phrase chinese-american restaurant may be less accurate than chinese restaurant in the u.s., but it may also reflect the idea that the chinese restaurant by sheer global positioning is already altered in some ways that may be different from chinese restaurants in china or any other country (e.g., chinese restaurants in korea or italy.) occasionally, i shorten the expression to chinese restaurant but i am still referring to restaurants in the u.s. unless otherwise noted. sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship 1st place winner 2010 “she said she’d never even had fried chicken!” fried chicken, humor and race in bob roberts by: claire schmidt fried chicken carries a great deal of cultural baggage in the united states. as such, it often serves as a vehicle in american popular media to talk about race (and sometimes class). from d.w. griffith’s the birth of a nation (1915), which features white actors in blackface eating fried chicken and throwing the bones in the us house of representatives, to lee daniels’ precious (2009), which shows the eponymous teenager stealing and eating a bucket of fried chicken, fried chicken has been a folk (and film) motif with a host of meanings, many of which are racially charged. the 1992 film bob roberts (starring, written and directed by tim robbins) makes use of the motif of fried chicken in a racist joke. tim robbins’s reasons for employing this particular joke may be complex; this paper outlines some possible meanings. first i will discuss the function of fried chicken jokes in american popular culture, and the way this joke functions as an instance of conversational humor. next, i will discuss the motif of fried chicken in the context of the different cultures at work in the film. finally, i will suggest some possible reasons for robbins’s choice of the fried chicken motif in the film. ultimately, i contend that through unlaughter at this joke, robbins is claiming that for black people, race is more important to identity than political ideals, and that the republican party of the late 20th-century has no room for social change or resistance. before i begin, it is necessary to give a brief synopsis of the film. bob roberts is a fictional documentary and dark comedy about a pennsylvania us senatorial race run by charismatic conservative candidate and folksinger bob roberts. roberts (played by robbins) is a charming, clean cut republican who writes and performs folk songs in the style of early bob dylan. the songs attack drug users, welfare mothers, the separation of church and state, and call for the ever nebulous “american family values.” his campaign is financed by shady corporate dealings but has cultish popular appeal among conservative voters. the film follows the campaign through the election and uses the plot to make points about american politics, as well as the paradoxes of american conservatism, race, class, and the justice system. midway through the film, a group of bob roberts supporters are gathered in the campaign tour bus after the “miss broken dove” beauty pageant, judged by candidate bob roberts. (broken dove is a bob roberts-run charity for children born drug addicted, but is also suspected to be a cover for illegal financial crimes and drug running.) in a political move for the campaign, the beauty pageant has been won by a black woman. however, it is a white woman, the runner-up, who is invited back to the tour bus to meet the campaign staff and the candidate himself, to the obvious exclusion of the nominal winner. when asked about her opponent, the runner-up responds by saying of the woman who won the contest (miss philadelphia), “she said she’d never even had fried chicken!” the white characters all laugh uproariously at this joke. at this moment, the sole black man on the campaign, franklin dockett (harry lennix) a young, conservative financier, turns away from his white colleagues. he does not laugh. it is the second time in the film that the race of this character has been highlighted. 1 clearly, the folk motif of fried chicken is being employed to negotiate race and group boundaries in the film. fried chicken & humor the comment about fried chicken is intended to be received as humorous, and is what linguist and humor scholar neal norrick describes as “conversational joking.” that is to say, although the comment doesn’t employ the formal and structural elements of the joke, it functions in similar ways to a joke. as noted by elliot oring and alan dundes, jokes can fulfill multiple social functions simultaneously because they are inherently complex, ambivalent and ambiguous. the laughter produced by jokes helps both the joke teller and her hearers to navigate complicated social situations through humor. in this case, the joke is funny to the group of white people because it proposes an apparent incongruity (a black woman who has never eaten fried chicken) that is recognizable to most of the listeners (according to white imagination in the film, black people are linked to fried chicken). if the incongruity were not recognizable, the joke would not be funny to the white characters. 2 the joke works for the white audience in part because it allows for the expression of racial hostility couched in joking terms. as freud (in his relief theory), gershon legman, alan dundes and others argue, humor can often be a mechanism for expressing aggression in a socially acceptable way. the white campaign workers have indicated their distaste for black people throughout the movie but until this scene have carefully couched their racism in relatively socially acceptable language. the joke seems to act as a release of tension for the characters, as, for political reasons, a black woman (miss philadelphia) has been chosen to win the beauty pageant in order to court the urban vote. the strain of publicly respecting this black woman has put psychological pressure on the white campaign workers and laughing at the white woman’s joke about the black woman may function to “blow off steam” accumulated during the evening of feigned tolerance. for these white characters, the pressure of conforming to socially acceptable speech and behavior finds release in a joke. this is exactly the sort of release that bascom describes in his “four functions of folklore” (1954). the joke also allows the group of white people to collectively affirm their own white identities while expressing their feelings of superiority (proposed by hobbes [1640] in part 1 of the elements of law, natural and politic) and other humor theorists as a major motivation for joking and laughter). reinforcing the stereotype of black people loving fried chicken helps the white characters to reaffirm their group status as not black. by laughing at the joke together, the group reinforces three ideas: 1) white people know what black people are like better than black people themselves do; 2) black people are all the same even though they attempt to disguise this fact; and 3) black people want to be white, but never can. the shared laugher after the joke confirms that all laughing parties know something of intrinsic truth about black people—that they like fried chicken. the shared laughter also demonstrates group superiority: even though miss philadelphia says she’s never eaten fried chicken, the group of white people on the campaign bus accept this statement as absurd. she is black, so denying that she eats fried chicken is interpreted as just another sign that she wants to be white, but never can be. clearly, on this campaign bus, being white is superior to being black. these shared beliefs expressed through laughter at a conversational joke reinforce white, upper class, conservative group identity (to the exclusion of the single black man on the bus, which i discuss below) through stereotype about the other. according to freud in jokes and their relation to the unconscious, mutual laughter indicates a “far-reaching psychical conformity” (1905:203), which in turn demonstrates an unbreachable psychological divide between the white and black characters in the film. the genre of the joke also allows the white characters to deploy a hostile stereotype without revealing undue racial hostility that would break the social norms of their group. according to john mcleod, stereotypes are deployed as a means to arrest the ambivalence of the colonized subject by describing him or her in static terms. but this fixing of the colonized subject position always fails to secure the colonized subject into place. hence, stereotypes must be frequently repeated in an anxious, imperfect attempt to secure the colonized subject in the discourse of colonialism (2000:53). by awarding miss philadelphia the title of “miss broken dove” in the beauty pageant, roberts has had to see the woman, the colonized subject, in ambivalent terms. he has had to manage his own internal fear, hostility and hate of black people, while simultaneously publicly stating through the competition’s outcome that a black woman is more beautiful and intelligent than a group of white women. the beauty pageant has put racial categories, as they are understood by roberts’s campaign staff, into uncertain, ambivalent terms. laughing at the joke about fried chicken removes the ambivalence from the black beauty queen and defines her in static, racialized terms: black=loves fried chicken. by employing the stereotype of fried chicken, the white audience is able to temporarily allay their anxiety and to reify the black woman within the discourse of colonialism. the joke removes the problematic ambivalence and fixes racial categories in the psyche of the white campaign staff. while bob roberts is situated firmly in the category of white, liberal, low-budget and high-brow films, the motif of fried chicken in humor dealing with race in america is certainly not unique to bob roberts. many black comics have used the motif of fried chicken in humor to talk critically about race and culture. consider, for example, dick gregory’s routine about segregation in southern restaurants, fried chicken, and masculine violence of the kkk: last time i was down south i walked into this restaurant and this white waitress came up to me and said, ''we don’t serve colored people here.'' i said, ''that’s all right. i don’t eat colored people. bring me a whole fried chicken.” then these three white boys came up to me and said, ''boy, we're givin' you fair warnin'. anything you do to that chicken, we're gonna do to you.'' so i put down my knife and fork, i picked up that chicken and i kissed it. then i said, ''line up, boys!'' 3 this particular fried chicken joke from january 1961 (published by documentarian robert b. weide in 2012 and referenced on www.dickgregory.com, dick gregory’s official website) and its success before a southern, white audience is widely agreed to have facilitated gregory’s rise to national cross-cultural popularity, beginning with his long-term booking at hugh hefner’s playboy club in chicago in 1961. white audiences appear to respond to jokes about fried chicken, even those made at the expense of white figures. this may indicate that the fried chicken motif functions as a tool for negotiation of ideas about race in different cultures. it is interesting that gregory’s interest in foodways and politics extends well beyond the stage and into his ongoing food activism and businesses. much more recently, tyler perry’s house of payne features a fried chicken prayer (see broussard 2008 and perry 2011) that draws on elements of traditional black preaching in order to critique certain elements of classed black public behavior. in his stand-up film, for what it’s worth (2004), comedian dave chappelle discusses the taboo on watermelon and fried chicken among some african americans. while chappelle dismisses this refusal to eat fried chicken, he dwells on the differences between mainstream white and mainstream black foodways: “people only see the surface. they see the division in our foods. just cause i eat chicken and watermelon, they think that that’s something wrong with me. let me tell you something, if you don’t like chicken or watermelon, something is wrong with you, motherfucker, there’s something wrong with you. where are all these people who don’t like chicken and watermelon? …the only reason these things are even an issue is because nobody knows what white people eat. you’ve been very good at keeping that shit a secret amongst yourselves. i study white people! you don’t know that. i’m writing a paper on you…not even for school, just to do it, for independent research…spending my money, that’s why i’m working so hard. i follow you around grocery stores! they freak out! i’m just try to peek in their cart, they always say “get away from my cart, nigger, what are you looking at? chicken and giblets are over there. you must be lost. these are vegetables.” chappelle’s dismissive attitude toward those who avoid eating chicken and watermelon is paired with a self-motivated academic inquiry about white foodways. chappelle draws attention to the public and political scrutiny aimed at black foodways, and points out that white foodways are not political in the same way that black foodways are. chappelle also undermines the position of the white academic by inverting the gaze of scientific inquiry. positioning himself as an impartial observer, chappelle appropriates academic language and stance, highlighting the frequently inappropriate white obsession with black culture and foodways, while calling attention to the economic disparity played out in the traditional foodways of white and black folk groups. his discussion of foodways turns to the difference between “grape drink” and “grape juice” and claims that white culture has kept juice a secret from black people because of its superior nutritional content. by publicly embracing fried chicken and watermelon in a humorous performance context, chappelle is able to discuss the taboo and to point out institutionalized racism. while it is questionable whether entertainment like this can result in real political change, it is apparent that comedy can be a vehicle for negotiating and discussing food politics in a “safe” but public way. origins of the fried chicken motif there is a difference between the practice of eating a piece of chicken that has been fried, and the folk motif of fried chicken with all of its racialized baggage. the motif has its origins in real practice, but it is important to make the distinction between the motif and the practice. a quintessentially american dish – most commonly associated with southern cooking, sunday family dinners and summer social events – fried chicken is eaten by vast numbers of americans from widely diverse backgrounds and in every state of the union. the ubiquity of kentucky fried chicken restaurants in america and the bourgeoning popularity of kfc abroad, particularly in china and africa, attests to the popularity of the dish among different ethnic groups. however, in the film bob roberts, the motif of fried chicken is clearly most strongly associated with black american culture. i would argue, then, that the fried chicken alluded to in bob roberts is a type of soul food, and that the fried chicken motif has its roots in slavery. just because fried chicken has been stereotypically associated with black foodways does not mean that it is a simple, uncomplicated motif. food is deeply important as a component of culture and meaningmaking. as turner notes, “food choice is part of the ordering process by which humans endow the environment with meaning and feeling” (1993:143). as an important category of soul food, fried chicken can be a symbol of ambivalence in black food culture. soul food as a culinary genre is not uncomplicated either; in fact, it is a site of tension in the negotiation of blackness between widely disparate black folk groups. doris witt interrogates the “multiplicity of competing discourses about…‘soul food’” in her article “soul food: where the chitterling hits the (primal) pan” (1998:259). witt argues that “[t]he intrarracial debate over soul food was so fraught…neither because it was about blackness and filth, nor about black poverty and filth. the debate was fraught, i want to claim, because it was about black femaleness and filth” (1998:261). i will return to this point shortly. witt’s article focuses on chitterlings as the quintessential fetishized soul food “encoded as a site of dietary dissension among african americans” (1998:262) (as so powerfully explored in ellison’s the invisible man) but some of her discussion of soul food can be extended to include a discussion of fried chicken. as witt notes, soul food lies at the heart of the “ongoing debate among african americans over the appropriate food practices of blackness” (1998:259). if soul food constitutes the appropriate food practices of blackness, then the conflicting messages about whether or not fried chicken is taboo for african american people indicate that there is no consensus on this matter, and that humor is one way of publicly debating what constitutes appropriate food practices of blackness. fried chicken has been a fulcrum for anxiety in black american groups, as turner explores in i heard it through the grape vine (1993) and “church’s fried chicken and the klan” (1987). according to turner, there is a persistent rumor in black communities that the kkk owns the church’s chicken franchise, and that it puts chemicals in the chicken to sterilize black men. this rumor has endured, in part, because fried chicken functions simultaneously as, on the one hand, a reminder of home, family and community, and on the other hand, a reminder of slavery, racism, and stereotype. to reject fried chicken can be to reject culture, but to embrace fried chicken can be to embrace stereotype and white hostility. describing the context of the rumor, turner explains that “church’s created a new, public context for the sharing of what had thus far been considered communal foods—and foods, moreover that carried with them strong symbolic associations. nor are these associations necessarily positive” (1993:143). fried chicken is associated with slavery and poverty, as well as with church picnics and home cooking. according to the greenwood encyclopedia of african american folklore, “soul food refers to african american foodways, particularly those culinary traditions thought to have been derived from the black atlantic slave trade and u.s. chattel slavery” (2006:1219). these culinary traditions employed inexpensive food items and fresh produce and cooking methods that trace back to africa. fried chicken, falling within the category of soul food, is inexpensive; unlike beef cattle or even hogs, chickens can be raised on minimal resources and they don’t take up much space. furthermore, according to the greenwood encyclopedia of african american folklore, african american traditions of deep fat frying trace back to african foodways (2006:1219). leroi jones (amiri baraka), in his 1962 essay “soul food” (originally published in home in 1966) writes, “people kill chickens all over the world, but chasing them through the dark on somebody else’s property would probably insure, once they went in the big bag, that you’d find some really beautiful way of eating them” (1962:102-3). this conflation of beauty and food aesthetic with dire need and theft, reflects the over-burdened nature of fried chicken. the anxiety that led, in part, to the church’s chicken rumor, is at work in the film bob roberts. in bob roberts, the joke about fried chicken revolves around the denial of fried chicken by the black woman, and the white listeners’ disbelief and laughter at that denial. what makes the denial necessary (and automatically dismissed by the white characters) is the persistent link between black people and fried chicken in the american popular imagination. as turner notes, “american popular culture has long perpetuated a stereotype in which blacks are portrayed as inordinately fond of foods that can be eaten without utensils—fried chicken and watermelon. given these circumstances, it is not surprising that blacks want to approach these foods cautiously” (1993:305). this caution is mocked by the racist campaign staff in bob roberts. gender and food are linked, and it is important to remember that in bob roberts, the joke about fried chicken depends on the black woman’s denial of fried chicken. psyche williams-forson has written extensively about the connections between black women and fried chicken (see for example williamsforson 2000 and 2006) and maintains the co-existence of subjugation and affirmation in traditional food. it is significant to point out that robbins locates soul food, and the denial of soul food, in the body of a black woman, by making it an object of ridicule for a group of white people. just as ralph ellison locates the desire and denial of chitterlings in the black male body, 2 bob roberts locates the denial of fried chicken in a woman’s body. miss philadelphia’s denial of the dish is gendered, as is her entire (very short) role in the film. miss philadelphia’s role is focused on her exposed, sexualized, female body, which is made into a public site for discussion and evaluation by her participation in the beauty pageant. the judges and contest participants, including bob roberts, are encouraged to pass judgment on her beauty and intelligence. miss philadelphia speaks no lines as the pageant audience (as well as the audience watching the film) stares at her swimsuit-clad body; after they gaze upon the woman herself, she is referred to next only in terms of refusing to “own” fried chicken. her denial of fried chicken reinforces stereotypes about what beautiful women, regardless of race, eat and do not eat at the same time her denial, made to a white counterpoint, is clearly marked by racial tension. while the joke depends on the stereotype of fried chicken and blackness, the white characters are demonstrating their own understanding of the motif of fried chicken. the practice of eating fried chicken does not seem important for the fictional white campaign workers in the pennsylvania senate race. for them, eating fried chicken is probably not associated with strong feelings about family, home or identity, but may simply be a fast food commodity or an old-fashioned picnic dish. for some white folk groups, fried chicken is a link to a nostalgic vision of a national past, imagined or historical. in 1929, southern writer abbot c. martin wrote, “it is incredible how our love of fried chicken is bound up with our love of country. to disparage fried chicken is to disparage the thrill which comes when the band plays “dixie” or the elusive tenderness which comes at the sight of an old confederate flag” (1929:35). however, martin’s nostalgia connects fried chicken to a southernness that is dependent on slavery. throughout his essay on fried chicken, martin dwells on the abject, returning again and again to grease and other distasteful subjects, while he lauds attachment to southern fried chicken in the face of “better” french cooking. his national and personal identity seems to depend on consuming certain folk foods from his childhood and on the association of those foods with racial relations, specifically the racial hierarchy imposed by slavery. martin defines himself in opposition to the abject, in the form of fried chicken and other folk foods. in bob roberts, the motif of fried chicken operates differently than it might for a group of conservatives born and raised in the south: roberts’ white campaign workers, apparently residents of pennsylvania with no regional attachment to the practice of eating fried chicken, view the motif of fried chicken not as an actual regional foodway but as a stereotype. what does the motif of fried chicken do for robbins? unlaughter (see smith 2009) is a significant factor in the bob roberts scene with the fried chicken joke. franklin dockett, the only black character present, does not laugh at the white girl’s joke. his unlaughter sets him apart from the group of white characters. as norrick notes, “joking allows participants to recognize their respective affiliations and to align themselves in terms of them or in spite of them” (1993:5). in the joke scene, dockett does not align himself with his white colleagues; despite his affiliation with the campaign, he does not join their laughter. dockett clearly recognizes the deployment of the stereotype and seems to be hurt by the words. in the film it is not clear if the joke is explicitly aimed at dockett. however, as smith suggests, “the contemporary importance that is placed on the sense of humor…fuels strategic uses of humor performances to provoke humorless responses and, in so doing, to heighten social boundaries” (2009:150). certainly, given the repeated demonstrations of racism in the roberts campaign, it is not unlikely that the joke and laughter was intended to provoke a humorless response from dockett, and thus publicly emphasize the racial boundaries between those who laughed and he that did not. if the joke is not directed at dockett, then the group of white campaign workers is disregarding his presence, perhaps even removing him from the colonized landscape. even if the white characters do not call attention to dockett’s unlaughter, robbins as filmmaker certainly does. by emphasizing dockett’s unlaughter at the fried chicken joke, robbins seems to suggest that race is more important to (or for) black people than political affiliation or belief. although dockett dresses just like everyone else on the campaign, although he is depicted as speaking fluent german while managing the campaign’s money market accounts, and although he appears deeply devoted to the republican party, robbins paints dockett’s allegiance to his political ideals as secondary to his allegiance to his racial categorization. thus, robbins argues through the film that for black people, identity is first and foremost tied to race, before political or social ideals. additionally, by exploring dockett’s character as i have outlined above, robbins may be suggesting that the contemporary republican party, with its emphasis on capitalism, has no room for social resistance. by using the joke with the fried chicken motif and by emphasizing dockett’s subsequent unlaughter, robbins implies that there is no room for black people to effect change within the republican party. dockett’s unlaughter is not powerful enough to alter the campaign workers’ attitudes in fact, his unlaughter appears to go entirely unnoticed, leaving him apparently powerless. his resistance to the racist joke has no effect on the prevailing social order. dockett has chosen to “grin and bear it” in order to be a part of the campaign. throughout the film dockett seems to have accepted his role as a token in the campaign. one must wonder, then, if robbins is self-conscious enough to recognize that not only is dockett (like miss philadelphia) a token in the campaign, but he is also a token in the film. through dockett’s character – one of many archetypal characters in the film (the radical journalist, the ditzy political wife, the left-wing comedian) – the audience is shown the experiences of black people in general. perhaps because of the type of story robbins has chosen to tell, stereotypes can be a vehicle for meaning. in the united states, the motif of fried chicken carries enormous social weight and racial implications. when i ask my students about fried chicken stereotypes, only about half of the white students recognize this stereotype and perceive it as negative and harmful. this inevitably comes as a shock to the black students in my class, who tend to be painfully aware of the contested nature of fried chicken in african american life. on april 6, 2012, rush limbaugh, while criticizing mary j. blige’s appearance in a burger king commercial, asked, “do black people not eat fried chicken anymore?” the answer to that question is complicated, as comedians like dave chapelle continue to point out. just as we make meaning through practice of cooking and eating, we make meaning in the ways that we depict and talk about food. the over-determined nature of african american people’s relationship with fried chicken ensures that the motif will continue to be a fulcrum for racism and consequently for racist jokes while simultaneously providing an opportunity for social critics to interrogate racism through the use of humor. references cited bascom, william. 1954. four functions of folklore. journal of american folklore 67(266):333-49. broussard, brandon (writer) and perry, tyler (director). 2008. labor paynes: part 1 [television series episode]. tyler perry's house of payne. atlanta, georgia: tbs. chapelle, dave. 2004. grape drink. for what it’s worth, directed by stan lathan. culver city, ca: sony pictures home entertainment. dundes, alan. 1987. cracking jokes:studies of sick humor cycles & stereotypes. berkeley: ten speed press. ellison, ralph. [1952] 1995. the invisible man. new york: vintage international. freud, sigmund. [1905] 1976. jokes and their relation to the unconscious, ed. james strachey and angela richards. london: penguin. hobbes, thomas. [1640] 1969. the elements of law, natural and politic. new york: barnes & noble. jones, leroi. [1962] 1998. soul food. in home: social essays. hopewell, nj: ecco press. kfc. 2012. about us. kfc.com, april 20. www.kfc.com/about. legman, gershon. [1968] 1975. the rationale of the dirty joke: an analysis of sexual humor. new york: simon and schuster. martin, abbot c. 1929. patriotism and fried chicken. the sewanee review 37(13):4-37. mcleod, john. 2000. beginning postcolonialism. new york: st. martin’s press. myles, theodore. 2012. dick gregory. http://www.dickgregory.com. norrick, neal r. 1993. conversational joking: humor in everyday talk. bloomington: indiana university press. oring, elliott. 1992. jokes and their relations. lexington: university press of kentucky. ------. 2003. engaging humor. urbana: university of illinois press. perry, tyler. 2011. payneful visit [television series episode]. tyler perry's house of payne. atlanta, georgia: tbs. robbins, tim. 1992. bob roberts, directed by tim robbins. santa monica, ca: miramax film corporation. smith, moira. 2009. humor, unlaughter, and boundary maintenance. journal of american folklore 122(484):148-171. turner, patricia. 1987. church's fried chicken and the klan: a rhetorical analysis of rumor in the black community. western folklore. 46(4):294-306. ------. 1993. i heard it through the grape vine: rumor in african-american culture. los angeles: university of california press. weide, robert. 2012. dick gregory: the color of funny. whyaduck productions, inc. http://www.duckprods.com/projects/dickgregory. williams-forson, psyche. 2000. suckin’ the chicken bone dry: african american women, history and food culture. in cooking lessons: the politics of gender and food, ed. sherrie inness, pp. 200-214. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield. ------. 2006. building houses out of chicken legs: black women, food, & power. chapel hill: university of north carolina press. witt, doris. 1998. soul food: where the chitterling hits the primal pan. in eating culture, ed. ron scapp and brian seitz, pp. 258-287. albany: suny press notes 1. earlier, tv journalist kelly noble, (lynne thigpen) asks him, “did you have to check your skin at the door to work for these people, brother?” the man responds by asking her why black people shouldn’t be financially successful. 2. see oring 2003 for a discussion of incongruity. 3. for a further discussion of dick gregory’s exploration of race through comedy, see weide 2012 for his prelude to his in-progress documentary, dick gregory: the color of funny. 4. according to kfc.com, kentucky fried chicken’s official website, “more than 12 million customers are served at kfc restaurants in 109 countries and territories around the world. kfc operates more than 5,200 restaurants in the united states and more than 15,000 units around the world.” 5. see witt 1998. witt explores the abject, filth, chitterlings and queer desire in “where the chitterlings hit the (primal) pan.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022): 85-94 ©american folklore society 2022 research note the liminalities of scones: comfort food, the pandemic, and other excuses for indulgence by: hannah m. santino and lucy m. long abstract: the authors explore their relationship to the scone, a ubiquitous baked good found in ireland and the united kingdom. by reflecting on times of being together in ireland and the important role that scones have played during their times together, the authors consider the multi-layered liminality of consuming scones. they have played a role in culinary tourism, comfort foodways, formal teas and informal consumption in the home. they also consider how covid-19 has impacted their perception of scones and the social contexts in which they are consumed. keywords: baking, comfort food, culinary tourism, foodways, ireland there is no doubt that the covid-19 pandemic was a time of liminality—a “betwixt and between” time in which the future was uncertain and the usual rules for living were suspended (turner 1967: 97).1 some of those rules were connected to food— what we ate, how much of it, when, and why. this meant that calories did not seem to matter, nor did “unhealthy” amounts of carbohydrates, sugar, salt, and fats—all characteristics of what has come to be called comfort food. this category in the u.s is more than simply food that brings comfort (jones 2017, jones and long 2017). it is a rhetorical strategy that can be used to justify consumption that would otherwise have moralities attached to it. this consumption is closely tied to feelings of shame—shame over the apparent lack of self-control and discipline in indulging in the “pleasures of the flesh.”2 it is also liminal in that it is supposed to be temporary, occurring only in times of stress, emotional need, or depression, and is meant to aid a return to the assumed, albeit idealized, norm of cheerful, energetic, upbeat life (long 2017, 2022, long, et al. 2021). it is possible, though, for a food to be consumed within a number of liminalities, not all of which are tied to the idea of shame. these layers add complexity to the idea of comfort food, drawing upon food’s potential to carry multiple meanings. we explore this idea here by considering our experiences of scones in ireland as comfort food during the pandemic. we found that as the pandemic continued, other liminalities came into play—culinary tourism, family reunions, holiday celebrations—all of which gave permission to indulge in these sweet pastries that were slathered with butter, clotted cream, and jam. we present this as a reflection and photo essay, rather than a research article, and use our experiences to muse on the power of food to comfort in a multiplicity of ways. long & santino, liminality of scones digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 86 figure 1. scones in a petrol station, cork, ireland, november 2022. photograph by lucy long. scones in ireland and the british isles, where they originated, are similar in shape and texture to what americans call biscuits. they are round, cut from rolled dough, then baked until they are lightly browned with a flaky texture. basic ingredients are wheat flour, sugar, butter, eggs, and cream or milk, with baking powder as the rising agent.3 white flour is standard, but whole wheat (called “whole meal” in ireland) is also common. they might have sugar sprinkled on top or an egg wash, but not always. varieties include “plain,” with no additions to the dough, while currant and fruit scones include dried currants or currants and other dried fruits (raisins replace currants in the u.s.). scones come in different sizes with smaller, daintier ones generally used for formal teas, but the size of scone one purchases is also personal preference. figure 2. scone at “tea” in hotel restaurant, limerick, ireland, november 2022. photograph by the authors. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 87 they are usually cut horizontally, so that they can be spread with a combination or choice of butter, clotted cream, or jam. scones with a lot of topings are usually too unwieldy to bite into when the halves are placed together, so the top and bottom can be eaten separately. figure 3. scone, clotted cream, jam, and butter. limerick, november 2022. photograph by the authors. scones in the u.s are firmly associated in the public imagination with british and irish food culture, albeit the more aristocratic classes in which afternoon teas served on fine china would be an expected occurrence. this imagery adds to our own response to them, since both of us like victorian literature and british television shows, both of which seem to feature those rituals. in ireland, the consumption of scones includes such formal contexts, but scones are also an everyday snack, usually offered along with varieties of biscuits (cookies) any time of day at home or out and about. they are sold in every bakery and usually offered at every café, typically eaten with tea (with milk; sugar is optional). they can be purchased ready-made in every supermarket and petrol (gas) station, and are packaged for easy home use. they also can be made at home, but are a bit of a mess since they require rolling out on a floured surface. most people we have spoken with say they prefer to buy them. figure 4. fruit scones sold in petrol station, cork, ireland, november 2022. photograph by lucy long. long & santino, liminality of scones digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 88 aside from the imagery of scones from literature and films, our actual relationship with them began years before the pandemic in northern ireland in the early 1990s when we lived in the town of bangor in county down for a year. hannah was nine months old when we moved there and was the reason for attending “mums and tots” groups held weekly throughout the city. these were sponsored by different churches, and we did the rounds, attending catholic, presbyterian, baptist, and anglican ones, crisscrossing what the northern irish call sectarian divides. tea and scones were the standard refreshment. the tea was always served with the milk poured in first, and digestive biscuits (similar to thick graham crackers) or other sweet choices were offered to the children. this was lucy’s introduction to scones, and they immediately became a comfort food, associated with respite and camaraderie. she also found it comforting to meet with friends at a bakery café for tea and scones, especially on rainy days, and visits in homes almost always included an offer of tea and scones. these were usually served for the mid-morning break, “elevenses,” as well as in the afternoon for “tea.”4 these contexts left tasty and fond memories, so that she felt nostalgia through them for both the time and place. when hannah moved to limerick in the republic of ireland in 2015 to attend graduate school, she did not have the same memories of scones, but had associations of them with proper british teas as described in victorian literature or shown in television series like downton abbey. also, as a student on a tight budget, she did not make them part of her experience there. lucy visited her in 2018, and one of the first things we did was go out for tea and scones. this became a tradition. it would be a time for us to catch up as well as rest from the walk into town or to the university. it became an occasion, a ritual, set apart from the store-bought scones that we purchased to eat at home. figure 5. bin of scones in supermarket, westport, ireland, november 2022. photograph by lucy long. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 89 the pandemic put a temporary stop to travel and to our scone tradition. as soon as we were able to, we resumed it. by the fall of 2022, the pandemic seemed to be receding, or at least under control with vaccines and scientifically established treatments. travel was possible, but restrictions were still in place. in october of 2021, lucy visited again for the first time since covid restrictions were put in place. it had not really been that long since we had seen each other in early january of 2020, but the pandemic gave us a sense of both timelessness and urgency— everything had changed, but nothing had actually happened since people couldn’t go anywhere. we bought scones at the local dunne’s supermarket, but also had tea and scones every chance we had. one of those was a bike ride along the greenway from waterford to dungarvan on the southern coast. the bike ride itself was a new experience as well as a special occasion, so it made sense to mark it with tea and scones at an outdoor cafe in the slightly chilly autumn weather. figure 6. scones, outdoor café, waterford, ireland, october 2021. photograph by the authors. another memorable occasion for scones during this visit was while touring newgrange, a 5200-year-old burial site north of dublin. we were all tourists in that space, voyeurs of another time. the excellent tea and scones served in the café of the visitor’s center grounded us in their familiarity, but were also permitted as an indulgence by the liminality of being tourists. the pandemic was still very present, with social distance protocols and mask requirements in place, so this also felt like the beginning of a return to normalcy. long & santino, liminality of scones digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 90 figure 7. scones and tea, newgrange, ireland, october 2021. photograph by the authors. in the spring of 2022, lucy was able to return to ireland with the excuse of attending two conferences on food studies, the first in belfast, and the second in dublin. testing for covid-19 was required for airline travel, and masks were required in most places, but there was a palpable feeling of relief from the pandemic. we celebrated the first visit by going for tea and scones at a local hotel restaurant. this was a fancier and more formal venue than usual, but it felt like a special occasion, both a reunion and a sense of safety in now eating in public spaces that was not there in the previous visit. after that initial occasion, scones did not play as large a part in these visits, partly because of the need to focus on preparing for the conferences. also, lucy was involved in research on soda bread as culinary heritage, so that tended to be the emphasis of our forays in culinary tourism. we did, however, enjoy tea and scones on several other occasions when we had time to sit and relax, most notably, after touring the book of kells at trinity college in dublin, before lucy went off to her conference and hannah returned to limerick. somehow, scones and tea seemed like the appropriate response to this most irish of exhibits, but it also framed the occasion as a farewell, bringing comfort in spite of the coming separation. the most recent experience of scones occurred in november of 2022. a birthday and soda bread research was the excuse for the visit, but we also planned to attend a tea at a downtown restaurant. these teas require reservations and are quite expensive; definitely framed as special occasions. a tier of sandwiches, pastries, and finger foods are served. scones were also served, but were smaller than usual. the sandwiches, similarly, were the small dainty kind, made of white bread with the crusts cut off that are known in the u.s. as “tea sandwiches.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 91 figure 8. scones at “tea” in hotel restaurant in limerick, nov. 2022. photograph by the authors. the occasion was both a celebration for hannah and an exploration in culinary tourism to see what these highly advertised events actually were. we also were thinking of scones in terms of liminality for this essay, but were more aware of the consequences of indulging in these comfort foods. after lucy’s last trip to ireland, she had had to purchase clothes a size larger! we were very cognizant of that previous result of prior visits and did not purchase any scones to take home as we had in the past. even so, we did take advantage of several more opportunities for enjoying them, all of which were special occasions. that included a visit to a new bakery-café in limerick specializing in soda bread. also, lucy had tea and scones while visiting friends in westport and achill island on the west coast of ireland and popular tourist destinations. scones, during this most recent trip, did not seem as special as before. the occasions for consuming them still were, but the visit itself was less of a vacation—and therefore more liminal—than a research trip. also, we were all working during the visit and could not take time off like we had done in the past. ireland, itself, was starting to feel more familiar and less liminal to lucy, while it was simply “home” for hannah. being there, then, was no longer an occasion—a justification—for eating something laden with calories. we also wondered if our tastes had changed, perhaps become more refined, since most of the scones we had seemed ordinary, unlike the delightful and somewhat novel indulgence of the past. they still provided comfort, but that comfort was more in the rituals around consuming them than in the pastry itself. long & santino, liminality of scones digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 92 figure 9. scone, sodalicious bakery-café, limerick, ireland, november 2022. photograph by the authors. this account of our experiences with scones suggests that a number of liminalities can intersect through one food. in this example, those include the covid-19 pandemic, culinary tourism, visiting family, and even scholarly research. scones were also the centerpiece of “going out for tea,” a ritual that in itself was a liminal break during normal routine activities. our “journey” through the pandemic highlighted those different liminalities and added layers of meanings to them. it also shifted our relationship with scones. they still potentially offered us comfort in the numerous memories they carry for us, but comfort itself no longer seems to be needed in the same way. people are still getting sick with covid-19, but most cases seem to be mild. life, for the most part, has returned to normal, and the liminality of the pandemic can no longer be justification for consuming too much of something that can have negative health impacts or for spending money unnecessarily for special occasions out. this normalcy, however, feels different from the one before the pandemic. we see a continued sense of precarity, a recognition that we never really know what the future has in store and that all the planning we do for it can be erased by forces larger than ourselves. it makes sense, therefore, to emphasize living in the present, doing the things now that have been put off for the future, or pushed aside as impractical, too expensive, or inconvenient. we see this in the popularity of “revenge tourism,” of fulfilling one’s “bucket list,” of a renewed consumerism. after all, why save for tomorrow when tomorrow might never come? among these new rules seems to be ones around food and eating. bread has returned to the american diet after being shunned for its carbohydrates prior to the pandemic (long and vaughan 2023). dining out at restaurants also seems to have become extremely popular, as is culinary tourism and travel, in general. this new normalcy may also have changed the role of shame in comfort food, loosening the morality that was previously attached (long 2022). did shame around eating return with the end of the liminality of the pandemic? for us, not really, but concern for health did. we (lucy, in particular) had experienced the consequences previously of too many scones, but we also did not feel the need to digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 93 indulge. by the latest visit, the various liminalities represented in scones had all come to feel like everyday life. although we recognize that frequent trips to ireland would not be the norm for many americans, adult children frequently move far away from parents. scones still carry for us a treasure house of memories and meanings, but they had now shifted primarily to a treat for ritual eating marking special occasions, rather than comfort during pandemic times. figure 10. plain, fruit, and currant scones, bakery, limerick, november 2022. photograph by the authors. 1 the concept of liminality originated with arnold van gennep (1909/1960) to describe the condition in a rite of passage between the old and new states of being. 2 shame is recognized by scholars as a culturally-constructed emotion linked to the socialization process, that it surrounds different things in different groups and that it is intentionally used to encourage conformity to that group’s values. see norbert elias, 1978. 3 recipes for scones are prolific on the internet, and many of these differentiate between the cakelike american ones and the irish-british ones. one that we like is from the kerrygold butter company (https://www.kerrygoldusa.com/recipes/irish-scones/). also see: https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/irish-scones. notice that both websites specify irish scones. some claim that they have less sugar than english ones. 4 coffee and muffins tended to be served in the morning for and muffins were being marketed as american and healthier than scones.) https://www.kerrygoldusa.com/recipes/irish-scones/ https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/irish-scones long & santino, liminality of scones digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 94 works cited elias, norbert. 1978. the civilising process. new york: urizen books. jones, michael owen. 2017. ‘stressed’ spelled backwards is ‘desserts’: selfmedicating moods with foods. in comfort food meanings and memories, ed. michael owen jones and lucy m. long, 17-41. jackson: university of mississippi press. jones, michael owen and lucy m. long, eds. 2017. comfort food meanings and memories. jackson: university of mississippi press. long, lucy m. and theresa a. vaughan. 2023 (forthcoming). kneading comfort, community, craftsmanship: home baking in the coroniverse. in behind the mask: vernacular culture in the time of covid, edited by ben bridges, ross brillhart, and diane e. goldstein. logan: utah state university press. long, lucy m., jerry lee reed, iii, john broadwell, quinlan day odum, hannah m. santino, and minglei zhang. 2021. finding comfort and discomfort through foodways practices during the covid-19 pandemic: a public folklore project. digest: a journal of foodways and culture (special issue: food in hard times) 8(12): 5-25. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/digest/article/view/33644 long, lucy m. 2017. comfort food in culinary tourism: negotiating ‘home’ as exotic and familiar. comfort food meanings and memories, ed. michael owen jones and lucy m. long, 126-149. jackson: university of mississippi press. long, lucy m. 2022. how the pandemic redefined comfort food: american individualism, culinary relativism, and shifting moralities. popular culture studies journal. 10(1): 1-18. turner, victor. 1967. the forest of symbols: aspects of ndembu ritual. ithaca: cornell university press. van gennep, arnold. 1960. the rites of passage. chicago: university of chicago press. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/digest/article/view/33644 hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 the way of the croissant: traditional perspectives on a traditional pastry1 by: rachel hopkin abstract this investigation draws on concepts that have shaped the discipline of folklore since its inception to exact a fresh encounter with a transnationally popular item of viennoiserie: the crescent-shaped pastry known as the croissant. their application to this ephemeral foodways item sheds light on the croissant’s roots, dissemination, and distinct permutations. i discuss the origins of the pastry in the light of historic-geographic methodologies; its diffusion and evolution with reference to scholarship on tradition bearers, oikotypification, intertextuality and the role of the individual in perpetuating a tradition; and matters of its commodification and authenticity through consideration of how tradition functions in the modern age. finally, through an autoethnographic approach, i draw on personal experience to consider one way in which croissant consumption may be traditionalized. key words: croissant; food consumption; food performance; pastry; tradition; transmission introduction these days, i am highly conscious of my croissant-consumption, but i don’t remember the first one i ate. i was probably a toddler and on one of many family holidays in france, since the combination of having francophile parents and being brought up in the southeast of england—and therefore just a short trip away from the land of boulangerie—meant that my early years were marked by almost annual trips across the channel. initially, i would have eaten croissants in the utterly unconscious manner that aligns with the hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 very first stage of honko’s “folklore process” (2013 [1991]). the folk group was my family and—although my parents were surely aware that croissants were something apart from our everyday world—i would not have “noticed, recognized or emphasized” the pastry because it would have been simply “an organic part of everything that” happened (2013 [1991]:39). my level of awareness would have evolved though, and perhaps by the time i reached five or six, i had arrived at stage three of honko’s process and become one of the many “external discoverers” of this particular pastry, at least to the extent of recognizing that the croissant was something that seemed to be french. my croissant-eating process is now well into honko’s concept of “second life of tradition” (2013 [1991]:48). every time i enjoy a croissant these days, i recycle material “in an environment that differs from its original cultural context” (2013 [1991]:48). after all, i am no longer a child and have not been on holiday with my family to france for many years. instead, when i now choose to eat a croissant of a morning, i am performing a small act of homage towards a lovely aspect of my childhood. i am intentionally acknowledging a connection with the past and with my familial cultural inheritance, and doing so in a manner that serves me in the present and is constitutive of my current life experience. i have meaningfully traditionalized my experience of the pastry, even invented a tradition for myself, and done so in a way that speaks to many themes that recur in the contemplation of tradition itself. as a result, i have gained, in honko’s words, an “understanding of tradition even in a way that might not be possible by a genuine performance” (2013 [1991]:48). i will share more on my traditionalization of croissant-consumption later. first, though, i want to explore “the way of the croissant” using lenses afforded by select folkloristic understandings of the word “tradition.” given that interrogating the term is, in and of itself, an acknowledged tradition within folkloristics (glassie 1995, noyes 2009, “introduction” to cashman et al. 2011), there is no shortage of lenses from which to choose. this paper draws on concepts that have informed the discipline of folklore since its inception. it is notable that the majority of folkloristic theories and approaches regarding tradition have been generated in the course of studying oral and written texts. here i apply them to an ephemeral foodways item and consider how they serve to shed light on this transnationally popular item of viennoiserie, hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 in particular on its roots, dissemination, and on distinct permutations. although iterations of the croissant are probably available on every continent in the world, the pastry is most commonly associated with france. because its provenance is nevertheless contested, i first examine how historic-geographic methodologies can assist in evaluating varying origin claims for the croissant. next i make reference to scholarship on tradition bearers and oikotypification to conjecture about the pastry’s diffusion and evolution, an area of inquiry to which a consideration of intertextuality also contributes. these concepts, along with discussion of the role of the individual in perpetuating a tradition, go on to assist my analysis of specific croissants. i then show how scholarship on heritage making, commodification, authenticity and traditionalization proves salient to croissant study. besides utilizing academic texts, i draw on my personal study (and consumption) of numerous iterations of the pastry, my fieldwork interviews (although i directly cite only one of these in this paper), as well as relevant newspaper reports, and websites. my order of business begins by establishing precisely what i mean when i use the word “croissant.” definitions, patterns, rules, laws, and the croissant recent evaluations of “tradition” usually allow for at least three basic understandings of the term: a process, a product, and/or a construction or attitude (see, for example, noyes 2009, kaplan 2013:124).2 a croissant fits most readily into the category of “product” but beyond that, how can it be classified? in pondering this, i exhibit a concern that has absorbed folklorists for decades, including early scholars like edwin hartland who understood the discipline to be “a science of tradition” (quoted in bronner 1998:12). for example, olrik sought to establish the “epic laws” governing folk narrative (1999 [1908]), propp laid out essential elements around which the russian fairy tale was shaped (1999 [1928]), and dundes mapped a “structural typology” of north american indian folktales (1965 [1963]). abrahams brought similar efforts to bear on “process” (1976) and also sought to account for this enduring folkloristic preoccupation with hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 demarcation. it is, he wrote, by naming certain patterns of expression that one is able to “talk about the traditional forms and the conventional contents of artistic representation, as well as the patterns of expectation which both the artist and audience carry into the aesthetic transaction” (193). what then of patterns of expression and expectation when the traditional form in question is a croissant, with a baker the artist, and a consumer the audience? or perhaps it is better to describe them as “maker” and “user” respectively since these are the terms abrahams deemed more appropriate for forms of material culture (213). the croissant itself conforms with abrahams’ outline of a static form since the user usually need not directly interact with the maker (though perhaps could if the maker were within easy reach of the point of sale). however, if the pastry in question were a mass-produced iteration whose maker or makers were so “far removed from” the user that personal interaction between them would be all but impossible, abrahams would label it a product “of technology” and not folklore at all (213). continuing in my quest to pin down the patterns which govern and differentiate the croissant from other dough-based fare, i turned to larousse gastronomique, the venerable french encyclopedia of gastronomy, which defines the item as a “crescent-shaped roll generally made with leavened dough” (gastronomic committee 2001:372). it also points out that boulangers “usually sell two sorts of croissants: those made with butter and ‘the others’, which no law obliges them to declare are ‘made with margarine’” (gastronomic committee 2001:372).3 another respected source comes courtesy of the diplomat-turned-food historian alan davidson. davidson— who founded the food journal petits propos culinaires and co-founded the oxford symposium on food and cookery—is also the author of the oxford companion to food. in it, he proclaims that “croissant” is “a french word meaning crescent or crescent-shaped” and “the name traditionally given to a buttery breakfast roll or bread popular in france ” (1999:228). he adds that “croissants are made with a yeast-based dough, rolled to incorporate the butter exactly as is done when making puff pastry” (1999:228). moving on from davidson, i lighted on the influential american cookbook mastering the art of french cooking by julia child and simone beck. hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 child and beck’s view of croissants is both expansive and emphatic: the most delicious of french croissants, to our mind, are those called croissants de boulanger, which are made of risen yeastmilk-and-flour dough that is flattened out, slathered with butter, folded in three, and rolled and folded again three times as though you were making french puff pastry. there are other formulas for croissants, including some which are really puff pastry or brioche dough rolled into crescent shapes. and in some of the quick methods the yeast dough has only a short single rise, resulting in a semi-puff pastry. none of these, to our mind, produces the tenderly layered, puffy, deliciously buttery croissant one dreams of. the old classic method does just this—and why go to all the trouble of making croissants otherwise? (1970:96) with these sources to guide me, along with my perusal of various recipes and, of course, my own extensive experience of croissant consumption, i decided—tongue firmly in cheek—to formulate my own “epic laws of the croissant.” herewith, i proclaim that these four laws taken together can be used to determine the measure of the pastry. a true croissant: (law 1) —is a baked pastry that either takes a crescent shape, or has been straightened in such a way that a whisper of the crescent form remains, even if it is all but silent (this is because, thanks to a convention established by french bakers, croissants aux beurre, or butter croissants, are typically distinguished by the straightened form from those made with other fats, which are rounded); (law 2) —is rolled into said shape from a triangular, flattened piece of yeasted dough, typically of white wheat flour, that has been laminated through repeated folding and rolling with the fat.4 (law 3) —is ideally made with butter, though other fats—generally margarine—are often substituted.5 (law 4) —is associated with france (even though hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 that association may be purely symbolic). the philology of the croissant the folkloristic engagement with discerning rules, delineating patterns and distilling structures necessitates access to multiple examples of whichever item or genre is under consideration and so has both fueled and been fueled by the collection of data. this was never truer than during the first half of the 20th century when the historic-geographic method was in vogue. rooted in the philological study of the origins, development and diffusion of languages, the historic-geographic method was developed and primarily used as a means of approaching the texts of folk narratives, but it also was applied in early folkloristic studies of foodways with scholars recording modes of production, recipes, ingredients, and utensils (long 2015:12). however, the croissant does not, alas, appear to have fallen within the purview of food scholars who espoused this methodology and thus we lack an index of early sightings, tastings, and mentions of the pastry. as it is, convincingly rigorous scholarship regarding the croissant’s origins is surprisingly hard to come by. meanwhile so many conflicting stories exist about where the croissant is supposed to have first appeared, they could almost be considered a tale type in their own right. a slim history of the pastry by australian journalist david halliday begins with a mention of the earliest known representation of the crescent form as carved onto a sumerian ivory cylinder c. 2450 bc (2010:2), though halliday contends that the “first glimpse of the croissant” was not spied until almost two millennia later in c. 500 bc, courtesy of the crescent-shaped breads baked in ancient greece to honor the moon-goddess artemis (2010:6). he then states that “austrian scholars from the museum of vienna” confirm that “crescent-shaped pastries” known as a kipfel or kipferl date back to 13th century vienna (2010:10-11). allegedly made by bakers who wanted to pay homage to duke leopold vi for his involvement in the fifth crusade, the pastry’s shape was a reference to the sickle-moon symbol that was associated with the byzantine empire which was one of the targets of that holy war. it is these which halliday designates as “the first croissants” though he clarifies that they were actually “simple glazed bread rolls and almond biscuits” (2010:11-12). hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 larousse gastronomique tells a different story, asserting that the croissant: . . . originated in budapest in 1686, when the turks were besieging the city. to reach the center of the town, they dug underground passages. bakers, working during the night, heard the noise made by the turks and gave the alarm. the assailants were repulsed and the bakers who had saved the city were granted the privilege of making a special pastry in the form of a crescent in memory of the emblem on the ottoman flag (gastronomic committee 2001:372). given the influential status of the french classic culinary reference book, it is perhaps not surprising that this version of the story has been oft repeated, not least in james trager’s food chronology (1995:141). however, trager also offers an alternative, the provenance of which is unclear. for the location, we return to vienna, but the year is 1683 rather than the 13th century. many of the other details trager offers bear distinct similarities with the budapest version: vienna was under siege by the turks; viennese bakeries were located in cellars; bakers who were working through the night “heard digging and hammering sounds, realized that the turks were trying to tunnel beneath the city’s walls, and (. . .) sounded the alarm”; the turks were driven back and when the siege finally ended, the heroic bakers created a celebratory crescent-shaped pastry called a kipfel to mark the occasion (1995:139-40).6 as a folklorist, i am of course as interested in oral sources as textual ones. whilst working on this paper i chanced to meet a ph.d. student by the name of trisha myers whose research is focused on the ottoman empire. i immediately asked her what she knew of the origins of the croissant. her response, which she later confirmed in an email dated april 3, 2015, was as follows: in the context of the new franco-ottoman alliance [which had taken place in 1536] françois i ordered the creation of a pastry/ food in the shape of a croissant to celebrate the friendship between the ottomans and the french to be consumed at some kind of celebration upon the arrival of an ottoman delegation. this version was new to me and i did some research to see if i could find it repeated elsewhere. i was led to a recipe book by baking and pastry chef michel suas, the founder of the san francisco baking institute. suas hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 mentions the 1683 vienna origin story—though refers to the resulting pastry item as a hörnchen rather than a kipfel—but also states that, “in the culinary inventory of patrimoine français, mention is made of a cake in the shape of a croissant served during a banquet given in paris by the queen of france in 1549 to commemorate the alliance of françois ier with le grand turc” (2009:330). no citation details are given for this patrimoine français and as yet i have been unable to find out anything else about it. none of these sources offers much detail about the pastries mentioned in the discussion of the croissant’s origin beyond their being crescent shaped. bearing in mind my “epic laws of the croissant,” i found this opacity unhelpful; after all, form alone does not a croissant make. i was delighted to find that alan davidson shared this opinion, for he writes that there “is more to the croissant than shape” (1999:228). in the oxford companion to food, davidson makes no mention of the 16th century france origin story but does refer to those of 17th century vienna and budapest, albeit with a variation: in each case it is just a single baker who denounces the tunneling turks and then asks for “no reward other than the exclusive right to bake crescent-shaped pastries commemorating the incident” (1999:232). however, both stories appear in a section headed “culinary mythology.”7 meanwhile, under the entry “croissant,” davidson narrows down the pastry’s provenance to some time between the latter half of the 19th century and the early 1900s. his reasoning is based on two key areas of evidence: (1) that croissants are found throughout france, and (2) that the earliest printed references to the item are found in french texts. among the sources he cites are payen’s 1853 publication of des substances alimentaires which contains a reference to “les croissants;” the first edition of littré’s french dictionary which appeared a decade later and wherein the croissant was defined as “a little crescent-shaped bread or cake;” and the first “true croissant recipe,” which was published in 1906 as part of colombie’s nouvelle encyclopédie culinaire (1999:228). davidson’s argument thus conforms very neatly to the parameters set out by historic-geographic methodology and it was also the one i found most persuasive. as a result, although scholarship based upon the tenets of the historic-geographic method rather fell out of vogue in the mid 20th century (with notable exceptions and defenders; see, for example, goldberg 2010), i am convinced it continues to have value as a research tool in studies of food origins and dissemination. hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 croissant “bearing” and oikotypification my next scholarly port of call is the work of one of the earliest critics of the historic-geographic method, carl von sydow. in particular i want to focus on his insights regarding tradition bearers and oikotypes. for illustrative purposes, i shall take one of the non-gallic croissant-origin stories outlined above and—since the croissant forms part of a broader genre of french bakery items made with yeast, sugar, butter, and eggs labeled viennoiserie (suas 2009:305)—i am going to opt for the 1683 vienna version. if the viennese kipfel (or hörnchen) really were the proto-croissant, then who bore it westwards and how did it come to be so popular in france? according to james trager, the figure we have to thank was austrian archduchess marie antoinette upon her move to versailles in 1770 ahead of her marriage to the french dauphin, later to be crowned louis xvi (1995:170). if so, perhaps the initial popularity of the foreign aristocrat smoothed the acceptance of this particular culinary tradition, given that the culture of her native land was otherwise generally more likely to inspire fear and contempt amongst the french people (kaiser 2003). self-styled and selfpublished “french bread historian” jim chevallier has another bearer in mind: an austrian ex-army officer by the name of august zang (2009).8 the entrepreneurial zang opened the boulangerie viennoise in the late 1830s on paris’s then-fashionable rue de richelieu. his establishment quickly became immensely popular. baking rivals took note and versions of the kipfel began to appear in bakeries across paris and beyond. over time and in a manner that fits von sydow’s theory, an oikotype emerged that was appropriate to the new location and which transformed what had originally been a “hard roll” (bourguignon 1996:397). french pâtissiers added yeast and copious quantities of butter (or butter-substitute), layering fat and dough into a characteristic lamination, from which the familiar flaky croissant eventually emerged. it would go on to “become a traditional french breakfast treat” (trager 1995:170), as well as “one of the most familiar french pastries to those living outside france, ubiquitous in bakeries through the world” (suas 2009:330).9 hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 intertextuality and the croissant in 1995, henry glassie described tradition as a “volitional, temporal action” (409) which brings “about the creation of the future out of the past. a continuous process situated in the nothingness of the present, linking the vanished with the unknown” (395). into the spaces that open up between these pasts, presents, and futures comes the concept of intertextuality and, more importantly, intertextual gaps. intertextual gaps occur when a fresh interpretation of a generic form deviates from past performances—often through reaction to aspects of the present context—and thus becomes an emergent expression (bauman 2004:7). the dimensions of these gaps can vary substantially and there is no doubt that where the croissant is concerned, “deviations abound” (suas 2009:330). i shall therefore restrict myself to the brief examination of one particular iteration which i experienced courtesy of pistacia vera. photo 1. pistacia vera, april 2015. photo: rachel hopkin. hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 pistacia vera is based in columbus, ohio (photo 1) and is, according to its website, a “pastry kitchen and café.” every day, pistacia vera’s carte du jour offers a “rye croissant” which in many respects corresponds with my “epic laws of the croissant”: it has a typical shape, it is yeasted, layered, flaky and buttery, and the fact that it is described as a “croissant” alone is sufficient to establish a symbolic connection to france (photo 2). however, the flour is made, at least in part, from rye. moreover, the pastry is topped with caraway seeds before baking. both rye flour and caraway seeds are staples of many central european bakery items but why would they appear in this particular context? my surmise is as follows: pistacia vera is located in the columbus neighborhood called german village. as its name implies, german village is a district that was settled by an influx of immigrants from the central european region now known as germany during the mid 1800s (conte 1994). this rye croissant is therefore effectively making intertextual links to two different genres—french viennoiserie and german brot—and my conjecture is that the latter functions as a means of acknowledging, paying homage even, to the history of pistacia vera’s location. photo 2. pistacia vera rye croissant, april 2015. photo: rachel hopkin. hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 the individual and the croissant: artist, performer, consumer the pistacia vera rye croissant also appears to show how an individual can shape a tradition. the establishment’s founder and head chef is spencer budros and if it was he who devised this particular culinary riff on two pre-existing dough-based traditions, presumably he was drawing on his training and experience, on his imagination and his individual taste, on recyclable elements from a relevant past, along with materials available to him in the present, to enact a fresh pastry synthesis that both maintains and changes the croissant tradition. the importance of the individual in the maintenance of a tradition and its ongoing evolution rose to prominence during the so-called “performance turn” in folkloristics. among the characteristics of that scholarly paradigm shift were a redirection of focus from texts to contexts, an awareness of the responsibility borne by the performer, and an understanding of the audience’s ability to shape any given rendering. hymes’ “ethnography of speaking” was an important constituent of the performance turn and led to what lucy long terms the “ethnography of eating.” central to an “ethnography of eating” approach is the “food event” concept where all choices made represent “the enactment of the individual’s history and identity responding to the specific context” with any meaning conveyed or understood thereby being “contingent on the situation” (long 2015:284). in their introduction to a 2011 collection of essays (and festschrift for henry glassie) that is appropriately entitled the individual and tradition: folkloristic perspectives, editors cashman, mould and shukla explain why folklorists attend to the embodied particular: in order to interpret and to generalize—to earn conclusions— folklorists gather information from specific individuals because tradition is enacted only through an individual’s act of creative will. this starting point—the study of tradition through attention to the individual—is not merely a methodological necessity (one must start somewhere), but more significantly a matter of philosophical conviction (2). hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 a few pages later, they compare the individual within a tradition to claude lévi-strauss’s bricoleur: “a crafty recycler who constructs new possibilities out of available handed-down raw materials, meeting present needs” (4). photo 3. michelle kozak after a busy morning at clintonville farmers market, may 2015. photo: rachel hopkin. to illustrate how some of these ideas work in practice, i shall draw on a series of email communications which took place between myself and michelle kozak during march 2015. michelle is the chef/proprietor of the ohiobased pâtisserie lallier and since 2009 she has provided “french pastries and desserts” to numerous businesses in the city of columbus, in addition to maintaining a personal presence at a number of local farmers’ markets (photo 3). on the “about us” page of the pâtisserie lallier website, the text indicates michelle has a personal connection to the land of the croissant: in france, pastry shops are known as pâtisseries, and many times these stores take the name of the chef who founded them. michelle’s grandfather’s family, the lalliers, came to this country from france in the 1800s. despite her ancestry, michelle herself did not visit france until she was hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 in her late teens, though she had already enjoyed the croissants of a local columbus french-style bakery. once she reached adulthood, her career took a number of different turns. she had been working as a banker with chase for almost a decade when she decided to take a four-week intensive basic pastry course at le cordon bleu cookery school [lcb] in paris. i asked her if her having french forebears had influenced that decision but she demurred. instead she explained that her interest was: . . . separate from the family because i don’t think i really knew about the french heritage so much until later in life after my love of that language and culture had already been formed. i am also polish, scottish, english, german, irish, and growing up polish was what stood out. my dad’s father and four uncles were all born here, but they were raised speaking polish so i was more familiar with that culture. however there were a number of other factors that did have an impact: many members of michelle’s family, including her grandparents and her mother, enjoyed cooking, and she picked up her initial interest from them; she had spent a couple of years in lausanne, switzerland, where she became fluent in french and fell in love with the language; her grandparents ran a grocery store for around 30 years (lallier food center in leavenworth, kansas) and her father was also an entrepreneur, so she too had been looking for ways to form her own business. michelle had taken one cookery class in columbus but it proved to be an unsatisfactory experience and she began wondering about the next step. after hearing about lcb from a colleague, she explored the courses that the school offered. the pastry course was the one that most appealed partly because she has “a sweet tooth” and also because she “didn’t want to have to work with certain types of protein/animals for the cuisine classes.” she participated in her first lcb course during the summer of 2009, returned twice for further study, and in 2011 she received her pastry chef diploma. on michelle’s return from her initial visit to lcb, she found she had to practice extensively before she was able consistently to produce pastries she judged adequate. her earliest croissants “seemed heavy and didn’t have the lighter texture that they should, and there was so much butter hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 on the baking sheet after they had baked.” she continued with a process of trial and error and also carried out some text-based research. in time she learned that “the butter wasn’t incorporated well enough through the dough turns and also the croissants hadn’t proofed long enough.” that michelle undertook lengthy training, then worked diligently alone in order to reach a level of mastery that corresponded to the standards she had been taught—and tasted—in france, as well as those she herself held, indicates that she took seriously her responsibility for performing the croissant tradition. in addition, as her transition from banker to baker progressed, she had to ensure she was producing croissants that her ohio audience would deem “competent” and “appropriate” at the very least. throughout her efforts to meet both demands, michelle told me she has always adhered to the ingredients specified in the original lcb croissant recipe yet has managed to exercise certain changes: i have experimented with times to let the dough rest before/ during/after butter incorporation (lamination), proofing times, and baking times/temperatures. i found that longer proofing times (longer than what they told us at school) work better. early on i used to have some problems with the croissant . . . sometimes toppling over when proofing and/or baking. for that i made the base a little longer, and it corrected the problem. in addition, michelle has developed a number of variations on the croissant theme that she regularly serves alongside the plain versions (photo 4). she added almond croissants to her menu early on “because that was always my favorite when we ordered croissants from [the local french bakery] in high school.” she described how she came to introduce several other elements: a couple of years ago i saw an episode of one of the america’s test kitchen episodes on pbs where they were making croissant cinnamon rolls called morning buns. i tested the filling with my croissant dough, and we really loved it. i started selling those at the farmers’ market in the summer of 2013. over time i had also gotten requests for savory croissants, so last summer i tested some different flavors and liked best the hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 combination of olive tapenade, roasted red pepper and feta. i started making it in the traditional croissant shape, but then found that it was easier to wrap up all of that filling if i used the pain au chocolat shape. the oranais croissants with the apricots and pastry cream have been a favorite of mine when i have travelled to paris, and i had a customer asking about them last summer, so i’m hoping to experiment and add those soon. such activity indicates that michelle is indeed a bricoleur in the sense that she can creatively and innovatively recycle a range of “materials”—materials in the form of her own memories, taste-preferences, and encounters with new ideas, combined with audience interaction and suggestions—yet still maintain elements of earlier croissant-making practice. she thereby upholds the past, shapes the future, and both creates and re-creates in the present the tradition of which she is both bearer and constituent. photo 4. patisserie lallier butter croissant, may 2015. photo: rachel hopkin. hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 the croissant—tradition and modernity during the course of our correspondence, michelle commented to me that although she had much enjoyed the croissants offered by the french-style bakery of her high school years, their products had not been the same following a change in ownership of the establishment. on her last visit she found that “their croissants didn’t really look like croissants. i think they use commercially made dough.” if true, the bakery would be by no means alone in selling mass-produced pastries. in a 2012 article in the daily telegraph headlined “croissants ‘dying out’ in france,” henry samuel reported that survival of the “true french croissant” was threatened by exponential growth in sales of “industrially made” iterations that could be heated up on site and sold as “home-made,” and goes on to claim that those: . . . makers of the true french croissants complain they cannot compete with the lower prices of industrially made fare, which are sold at around 20 centimes apiece in bakery catalogues.10 “i make my patisseries myself but i’m losing money,” warned sophie, a baker in a chic quarter of the 1st arrondissement [of paris]. “it’s not on. while they haven’t resolved the problem of the cost of home-made croissants, lots of bakers will call on the industry,” she said. “commercially made,” “industrially-made” . . . such terms fairly drip with disdain for products of technology, of mechanization, items which come about lacking meaningful contact with the human hand; expressions of “modernity,” in other words. “folklore is predicated on the death of tradition,” states diarmuid ó giolláin (2000:8) in recognition of the discipline’s romantic roots. however, in the 21st century, the majority of folklorists understand their subject to be “thoroughly embedded in modern life” (blank and howard 2013:1) and in a state of constant regeneration. something which took place in france during the late 1970s serves as an illustration of how this applies to the croissant. at that time, the country was dealing with the onslaught of american style fast food which in turn prompted massive efforts to counteract the foreign fare (davidson 1999:228). part of the pushback involved the establishment hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 of so-called croissanteries across the country. these new eating places specialized in croissants that were split open lengthwise and garnished “sandwich fashion, with every imaginable filling from ham to chestnut cream” (davidson 1999:228). this multifaceted innovative adaptation of the croissant actually “strengthened the french attachment to what is considered a national food” (davidson 1999:228) even though it necessitated the large scale commercial production of croissants which—as the daily telegraph article quoted above indicates—is now being blamed for the demise of the pastry. as it turns out, a thorough reading of the telegraph article indicates that the situation is less dire than its grim headline implies since the author goes on to describe that french “makers of true home-made croissants” are also finding ways to adapt: pierre couderc, a baker in the 19th arrondissement of paris, has placed a large sign in his window that reads: “all our products are prepared on site. they have not been chosen from a catalogue and delivered frozen by the industry.” discerning customers can taste the difference, the bakery’s croissant-maker-in-chief eddy le tourrier insisted. “our croissants are not rubbery, nor are they full of air. they are consistent and at the same time light, unctuous and crispy when they come out of the oven” (samuel 2012). it appears then, that even in the face of mass-produced croissants, hand-made croissants—and the way of the croissant more generally—will continue. the croissant, invented traditions and notions of authenticity although those mass-produced croissants feed the hungry customers at french croissanteries and inspired an increased national identification with the pastry, are they considered authentic? and if not, then what is the measure of an “authentic” croissant? historian james g. ferguson poses this very question in an article entitled “is this the real thingtm?” and asks if there exists an “undiscovered template from plato’s bakery” or some other fail-proof means of establishing the standard against which all others may be judged (2006:178). hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 unable to find one, he instead offers an anecdote. a friend of his had just purchased a baguette from a pâtisserie in dijon, burgundy. on exiting: . . . she was accosted by an older man for buying bread made in a machine. it wasn’t a flute from an enormous department store or even one from a local miniature grocery shop. it was a piece of french bread purchased from a frenchman, with french money, at a french establishment. apparently those conditions were not enough to ensure french authenticity (2006:178). are french bakers quoted in the telegraph article therefore making claims of authenticity when they speak of their products being hand “prepared on site?” the concept of authenticity is bound up with that of tradition because the latter is often wielded as a strategic means of establishing the former (glassie 1995:40), which has led to concerns that “authentic” folkloric traditions may be used as legitimizing forces to underpin particular ideologies. this issue was tackled in the pages of the influential edited volume the invention of tradition which set out to show that traditions, through the forging of tenuous links to the past, could effectively be “invented”—institutionally and otherwise—to serve partisan viewpoints in the present (hobsbawm and ranger 1983). what are the implications of the notion of invented traditions for the croissant’s status within france where its popularity expanded during the course of the 20th century to such an exponential degree that it is now considered “one of the most definitively french symbols in the world” (halliday 2010:xi)? it even entered the discourse when the “gastronomic meal of the french” was nominated for inclusion in unesco’s “representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity,” despite the fact that the pastry is typically served at breakfast and, even when it is made into a sandwich, it still plays no role in the lengthy multi-course meal described in the formal nomination.11 that minor detail did not prevent the new york times from publishing an article about the nomination which was headlined “time to save the croissants” (sciolino 2008). is the croissant’s traditional status within the land of the gauls fatally compromised by the persistent rumors of its roots lying elsewhere? it has hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 certainly led some to mock. for example, david halliday writes, “we have good news for those people who want to order a croissant without genuflecting to all things french or sounding like a pretentious faux-french imbecile. the croissant is not originally french” (2010:xii). in a similar tone, an article published on a website devoted to “features, advice, information and news about and from france” is titled “croissants–a great french icon?” and its first line declares that “the flaky, buttery delicious crescent-shaped pastry called a croissant is a french icon and yet . . . it isn’t really french” (marsh, n.d.). such derision calls to mind hugh trevor-roper’s pompously scathing (if also amusing) excavation of the genesis and evolution of the scottish kilt, which he variously locates in almost any place but scotland (1983). if the authenticity of the croissant is doubted because it may have originated outside of france, its potential precursor may be tarred with a similar brush. after all, the kipfel/kipferl/hörnchen complies with many of the facets of “invented tradition” as set out by eric hobsbawm in his introduction to the invention of tradition. it was, after all, constructed in response to an official command, then more or less “formally instituted” as a culinary vehicle through which the rulers of vienna (or budapest) could mark, celebrate, commemorate, and generally prolong the afterglow of their triumph over their ottoman enemies, thereby allowing them a means of maintaining “continuity with a suitable historic past” (1983:1). overall the invention of tradition regarded invented traditions in a poor light, with its contributors associating the concept with malfeasance, manipulation, subterfuge, deception, and ignorance. however, a year after its publication, anthropologists richard handler and jocelyn linnekin responded by asserting that all traditions are inventions. their argument, simply put, is that traditions are neither genuine nor spurious but exist only in our interpretations of them. an invented tradition therefore is not an anomaly but the rule since “to do something because it is traditional is already to reinterpret and hence to change it” (1984:281). as a result, the value of a tradition “does not depend upon an objective relationship to the past” and “the origin of cultural practices is largely irrelevant to the experience of tradition; authenticity is always defined in the present” (1984:286). hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 on that basis, it would seem that—regardless of whether the croissant’s roots lie in sumer, ancient greece, austria, hungary, or anywhere else—if french bakers and consumers find value in interpreting the croissant as being an authentic symbol of their country’s heritage, culture, and cuisine, as well as meaningful in their formation of their own identities in their act of making, displaying, eating, or digesting it, then so it is. the croissant and traditionalization the idea that tradition, as spelled out by handler and linnekin, is essentially a matter of interpretation in the present, albeit connected to some form of reference to the past, is not unlike dell hymes’ concept of “traditionalization,” namely that the historical antecedents of a given tradition are not so important as its place in social life. according to hymes, we all make efforts to “traditionalize” aspects of our experience: in a given case, the namings of situations that recur, the ritual arrangements that are recreated, may be idiosyncratic. but the traditional begins with the personal. its distribution in history, in a community, is important, but secondary, not defining. something partakes of the nature of the traditional already when the effort to traditionalize has brought it into being. for that one or few, it answers to the notion. (1975:354) that explanation gives me, i hope, license to offer my own personal and idiosyncratic eating of croissants as an instance of traditionalization in action. in the introduction to this paper, i explained how i enjoyed many family holidays in france as a child and my memories of those times are almost uniformly idyllic. the significance of the hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 country for me lies in its being the location of that early happiness even though it later became one of the seven countries, spread over three continents, in which i have lived during my adult life. i seem to have been almost addicted to inhabiting new places, finding somewhere new to explore every 18 months or so on average. between 2010 and 2012, i was in kentucky and studying for a masters in folklore at western kentucky university. there, as i learned about the nature of tradition and traditionalization, i realized my fragmented and multi-sited existence, while exciting and stimulating, had been a poor proving ground for nurturing and maintaining traditions of my own. i was almost always far from my family and although i like to think i am reasonably good at making friends, inevitably those who were physically closest to me in any given base were also the ones of most recent standing. between kentucky and my current home of columbus, ohio, i lived in las vegas, nevada. i moved there for a job, arrived ten days before its official start date, and spent the time exploring the city and its environs. one of my stops was at the bellagio hotel on the strip where my attention was caught by its palio café. for some reason, it triggered memories of french eateries in menton, a town on the mediterranean coastline which my family had visited during three summers. (i later discovered that the bellagio was designed to give visitors the illusion they are at italy’s lake como, which is not so very far from menton.) i went back the following day specifically to enjoy a croissant breakfast like those i would have eaten as a child— although the palio croissant had the dimensions of a full-grown hedgehog and therefore was several times the size of the ones i remembered from france. i enjoyed the meal and the illusion the place evoked of being on the riviera. on leaving, i decided to visit the bellagio’s small art gallery, where an exhibit of works by monet was on show. to my delight i found that one of the paintings depicted a panorama of menton! the next day, i went hiking on mount charleston, which is about 45 minutes to the northwest of vegas, where memories of the riviera once hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 again overwhelmed me—the topography and the flora were so similar to those of the mountains behind the french town. when i moved to nevada i had hoped it would be for more than 18 months, and even that i could set a new precedent by building a home there in the deep sense of the word. perhaps then, it was a combination of the family memories—which happened to be tied to france and were stoked by certain encounters in this new city—along with my recently acquired folkloristic knowledge, that led me to traditionalize my croissant-consumption. it also helped, of course, that i find the pastry—at least when well performed—utterly delicious! i returned to palio many times, then started to visit a few other cafes around town. over time, i began to make it a conscious activity to seek out new croissants to try for breakfast. i soon found i was sampling so many iterations, i needed to record my observations and so began to talk about my “quest for the best croissant in the west.” i also made efforts to find croissants whenever i traveled. when i moved to ohio to start my ph.d., my endeavor transmuted into the “quest for the best croissant in the midwest.” tom mould offered a reassessment of traditionalization in 2005, perceiving it as a conscious process in which performers draw on items they deem traditional within an interpretive framework that allows them to construct “a conservative dialogue against the modern” (289). but this is not the purpose it serves for me. i don’t traditionalize my croissant-eating to critique modernity. nor do i want to revisit even the nicest parts of my childhood. however, in drawing on resources available to me now but influenced by my memories and tastes, i have found a practice that requires no hard work (bar the pain experienced when i encounter a disappointing croissant), which enhances my inhabitation of the present and literally enables me to savor my experience of life. hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 other than eating croissants, my traditionalization involves other components. they include: researching new sources; introducing friends and dear ones to “croissants i have loved” (photo 5); communicating with purveyors about their ideas vis-à-vis good croissants; throwing parties where croissants are served; giving croissant-themed gifts (photo 6); writing this paper even. my croissant traditionalization is transportable, often delicious, and a lot of fun. it is also strangely meaningful and i imagine this is because, to paraphrase henry glassie on the subject of authenticity, my “individual commitment” to my croissant quest brings with it “social association” (1995:401). photo 5. folklorist martha sims with croissant from salt lake city’s tulie bakery, visited on author’s recommendation, 2015. photo: brian lovely. hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 photo 6. m.j., jr., son of folklorist sheila bock and historian michael j. alarid, with croissant rattle author sent as a gift. october 2015. photo: sheila bock. as for the croissant’s continuing traditional evolution—based on its history i can only imagine that more variations, more hybrids, and more pushbacks of a conservative nature lie ahead. i would certainly love to see more scholarship on its history. as for me, it’s not inconceivable that at some point in the future, i may decide to seek out scones or brioches. but even if that does happen, i suspect it will only be a matter of time before i return to “the way of the croissant.” hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 notes (1) i thank jasmine stork, whose turn of phrase in a different context inspired the title of this paper. (2) in the cited 2009 paper, noyes argues for an additional mode to the three mentioned in the body of my paper, namely “the transfer of responsibility for a valued practice or performance” (233). in a synthetic 1984 article, benamos outlined seven ways in which folklorists have used the term “tradition”–lore, canon, process, mass, culture, langue, and performance. oring has since argued that six of these (i.e. all but process) relate to product (2013:24). (3) margarine was invented by frenchman mège mouriès in 1869 in response to a competition organized by the emperor napoleon iii. at that time, the franco-prussian war was underway, butter was scarce and expensive, and the goal of the competition was to find a cheaper substitute (davidson 1999:478). (4) laminated doughs are formed by blending the basic ingredients with only a small proportion of the fat. the resulting mixture is then rolled out and the remaining fat is spread over the top. the fat is then incorporated by successive foldings and rollings out of the dough, a process which produces the characteristic laminated dough layers. (5) when margarine first appeared (see note 3), it was an instant commercial success but also provoked widespread disdain as a “cheaper and inferior substitute” for butter (davidson 1999:478). croissants made with margarine are generally considered to be inferior to pur beurre iterations. (6) trager adds that “some historians say that the bakers produced the kipfel in anticipation of a turkish victory” as opposed to celebrating their defeat (1995:140). hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 (7) davidson attributes the dissemination of these croissant origin “myths” to alfred gottschalk who gave the budapest story in his entry for the croissant in the 1938 first edition of larousse gastronomique and then offered the vienna version in his own later and single-authored history of food. aside from “the origins of the croissant,” the oxford companion to food’s “culinary mythology” section contains five other socalled myths, including “effect of searing meat” (apparently, contrary to popular understandings, searing meat does not seal in the juices) and “marco polo’s supposed introduction of pasta from china to the western world” (documentary evidence indicates pasta was being served in italy prior to 1295 which was when marco polo returned from the far east). (8) the quoted description of chevallier comes from his page at academia.edu, accessed on 4/18/2015 via https://independent.academia.edu/jimchevallier. (9) examining other figures who helped further the croissant’s status as an internationally-enjoyed pastry lies beyond the scope of this paper. however, future research might examine potential “passive tradition bearers” such as charles dickens and henry james, since both referred to the item in their writings. james described croissants as “so softlycrusty crescent rolls” in his 1913 autobiography a small boy and others (as quoted in chevallier 2009:53), whilst dickens mentioned their having become staples in parisian cafes by 1865 (halliday 2010:107) and later wrote of “the dainty croissant on the boudoir table” (dickens 1872:61). (10) twenty centimes is approximately the equivalent of 20 u.s. cents. (11) the “gastronomic meal of the french” was inscribed on unesco’s “representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity” in 2010. according to the unesco website, the meal consists of a “fixed structure, commencing with hopkin, rachel. 2016. “the way of the croissant.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5:2: n. pag. © american folklore society 2017 an apéritif (drinks before the meal) and ending with liqueurs, containing in between at least four successive courses, namely a starter, fish and/or meat with vegetables, cheese and dessert.” (see http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/en/rl/gastronomicmeal-of-the-french-00437, accessed january 5, 2017) references cited abrahams, roger. 1976. the complex relations of simple forms. in folklore genres, ed. dan benamos, 193-214. austin: university of texas press. bauman, richard. 2004. a world of others’ words: cross-cultural perspectives on intertextuality. oxford: blackwell publishing. ben-amos, dan. 1984. the seven strands 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giolláin, diarmuid. 2000. locating irish folklore: tradition, modernity, identity. cork: cork university press. olrik, axel. 1999 [1908]. epic laws of folk narrative. in international folkloristics: classic contributions by the founders of folklore, ed. alan dundes, 8397. new york: rowman and littlefield. oring, elliot. 2013. thinking through tradition. in tradition in the twenty-first century: locating the role of the past in the present, ed. trevor blank and robert howard, 22-48. salt lake city: utah state university press. pâtisserie lallier. http://patisserielallier. com/ (accessed april 19, 2015). pistacia vera. http://www.pistaciavera. com (accessed april 19, 2015). propp, vladimir. 1999 [1928]. the structure of russian fairy tales. in international folkloristics: classic contributions by the founders of folklore, ed. alan dundes, 119-130. new york: rowman and littlefield samuel, henry. 2015. croissants ‘dying out’ in france. daily telegraph, june 27. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ 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invention of tradition, ed. eric hobsbawm and terence ranger, 15-42. new york: cambridge university press. unesco [united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization]. 2015. http://www.unesco.org/culture/ ich/index.php?rl=00437 (accessed april 19, 2015). microsoft word contributor bios-digest 7-2 (2019-2020) draft.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 173-174 © american folklore society 2021 authors in digest 7:2 (2019-2020) articles: sue samuelson prize essay ema noëlla kibirkstis is a phd candidate in folklore at memorial university of newfoundland. her doctoral research is on the narratives of taste of the trappist beer brewed at orval abbey in southeastern belgium. other research interests surround vernacular homebrewing practices and counter-hegemonic place-making. research essays samantha castleman is an academic consultant in houston, texas, working to help high school students find and apply for the college that will be the best fit for their professional goals. she has a phd in folklore and literature from university of louisiana at lafayette. her research primarily focuses on interactions between the body and culture, specifically how alterations to the physical form may be coded positively or negatively according to social expectations. her hope is that this type of investigation will one day allow for a broader conception of what counts as an “acceptable” body in mainstream consciousness. noah arney is a faculty member and career services coordinator at thompson rivers university. he has a bachelor of education in secondary teacher education from the university of british columbia, a ba in english with an extended minor in theatre from the university of the fraser valley, and he is currently finishing his master of education in educational research at the university of calgary. he has been active in the reenactor community for nearly twenty years, primarily in the society for creative anachronism, and has been cooking from pre-seventeenth century recipes for over ten of those years. his area of focus is sixteenth century english food and food preservation. he writes about his experiences recreating pre-modern food and sixteenth century rapier at his website www.bakerspeel.com. amuse bouche annima bahukhandi is an assistant professor of psychology at indraprastha college for women, university of delhi. she completed her mphil in sociology from the department of sociology, delhi school of economics, university of delhi. her research interests traverse interdisciplinary boundaries between psychology and cultural anthropology. she is particularly interested in issues related to migration, refugees/ diasporas, foodways and personal narratives. book reviews kathleen fleming is a first year master’s student in the department of folklore at memorial university of newfoundland. she obtained her ba from memorial, where she completed a double major in folklore and english. she is interested in how food and foodways become incorporated into legends and belief systems. 174 authors digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) rosalind v. rini larson is a phd candidate in the department of folklore and ethnomusicology with a minor in french linguistics at indiana university, where she also received her ma in folklore and her dual ba in folklore and gender studies. her research interests center upon foodways, francophone culture and language, and oral history. she is currently at work revising her dissertation about the tradition of fricassee soup at church picnics in vincennes, indiana, and its connections to community and identity, in preparation for her defense this spring. judith lanzendorfer, associate professor of english at the university of findlay in ohio, has worked on projects related to foodways for over 15 years, ranging from the role of food in medieval women’s mystical writings, to eating in fairy tales, to the framing of bread in online baking communities where she is a member. lucy m. long directs the independent non-profit center for food and culture, bowling green, ohio, and is adjunct assistant professor at bowling green state university where she teaches folklore, food studies, ethnic studies, and tourism. she has edited and authored numerous foodways publications, including culinary tourism (2004), regional american food culture (2009), ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (2015), ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world (2016); the food and folklore reader (2015); comfort food meanings and memories (2017), and honey: a global history (2017). during the covid-19 pandemic, she has been running a virtual ethnography of “finding comfort and discomfort through foodways,” which has resulted in a virtual symposium, an online exhibit (www.foodandculture.org), and on-going research and publications. sarah t. schultz is a phd candidate in the department of folklore at memorial university of newfoundland in canada. her research interests include foodways, personal experience narrative, culinary tourism, identity performance, and gender studies. she is currently working on her dissertation, which centers on spicy foods as tourist attractions and symbols of local identity in nashville, tennessee, and london, england. sarah has an ma in folk studies from western kentucky university. katrina wynn is currently a part-time stay at home mom and part-time public library worker after finishing up her five-and-a-half-year contract position as manager of the northeast archives of folklore and oral history at the university of maine. she held that position since graduating from western kentucky university with a ma in folk studies. katrina was a co-convener of the american folklore society’s foodways section for six years and has been a member of the section since starting graduate school. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023): 79-91 ©american folklore society 2024 research note food as lens for exploring key concepts in cultural differences: a curriculum project— introduction to the project by: lucy m. long abstract: this essay presents a project using food to explore key concepts central to understanding cultural differences: identity, construction, culture, meaning, systems. food is both universal and particular, so talking about it is an effective way to help students gain both intellectual and emotional understandings of some of the issues around cultural differences. the project was based on the author’s experiences in university classrooms as well as in public folklore. it was then adapted for k-12 teachers, first by a public folklorist and further developed by a project assistant completing a master’s degree in popular culture and education. the curriculum was shared with k-12 educators and is available to download for free on the website of the independent nonprofit center for food and culture (www.foodandculture.org). this introduction to the project is followed by an essay discussing educational theories by the project assistant. the curriculum itself is also included. keywords: identity, foodways, curriculum, cultural difference introduction food is a window into a culture’s histories, belief systems, geographies, traditional practices, and customs. as such, it is oftentimes used in the classroom and home to teach about specific cultures. it offers a way for students to learn facts in a visceral and experiential way, helping them remember those facts as well as understand how and why they might be significant. one educator states in the introduction to an online resource on “introducing cultures through international cuisines”: children learn best about different people and languages through first-hand experience. they are sensory beings who learn through the experiences of touch, see, smell, hear and taste. it can be challenging to incorporate all five senses into a cultural lesson. or is it? not when you let children experience new cultures through cuisine. (yeros and tayloe, n.d.) numerous other examples of using food in this way can easily be found on the internet, and many of these offer excellent ideas and accurate information.1 educators also frequently use food, particularly international or “ethnic” foods, to go beyond just the learning of information to creating appreciation and respect for other cultures. for example, the dairy farmers of canada’s registered dietitians state in their introduction to suggestions of activities for children: http://www.foodandculture.org/ long, food as lens digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 80 food is an important part of culture and can provide a connection to a person’s family or country. as a teacher or early childhood educator, you can expose children to diverse food traditions. celebrating food enjoyed by people around the world allows everyone to take part and feel included. it will also create a sense of community and foster connections. (oct. 31, 2022) (https://dairyfarmersofcanada.ca/en/teachnutrition/maritimes/healthykids/food-nutrition/discover-culture-through-food) similarly, an article from the salvation army’s caring magazine, points out that food functions as a universal language, illustrating the history and culture of the place it represents while opening minds, raising awareness and encouraging diversity. and in teaching kids about other countries, many turn to food, leading young minds on a path of empathy and tolerance. (lopez, 2018) using food to teach children respect for other cultures now seems to be widespread.2 it is also being incorporated into university settings where it is framed as a medium for learning cross-cultural competency or the more measurable skills for cultural intelligence, "a person's capability to adapt as she interacts with others from different cultural regions" (earley 2003). one professor described using food in his global business education classes for this purpose: the inclusion of food in cultural teaching creates a tangible awareness of other cultures. the goal is to reduce the student’s ethnocentricity and increase cultural sensitivity. the use of food as an approach to understanding culture utilizes the cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions (early & ang, 2003). the students learn (cognitively) about food, become sensitive (affectively) to cultural differences through the experience, and hopefully enjoy the food (behavioral). (sterkenburg 2013) folklorists have long utilized food for these various purposes in public programs, museums, and educational settings (bowman 2016; hamer 1999; long 1999; higgins and rogers 2018; rahn 2006), and the field of folklore and education offers insightful theories and strategies.3 folklorists also have explored how their folklore and education practices can work directly towards addressing social justice, both in promoting cultural understanding and in advocating for specific changes in institutions and society (hamer 2000; kodish 2011; mills 2020; rosenberg2019; westerman 2006).4 in 2020, the journal of folklore and education published a special issue on teaching for equity: the role of folklore in a time of crisis and opportunity” (vol. 9). guest editor, selina morales, issues a call to action that resonates with many working with food in education, both formal k-12 settings and community-based public programs: we must commit, in the world-building profession of teaching, to the hard and essential work of centering equity in our practice. folklife is all around ttps://dairyfarmersofcanada.ca/en/teachnutrition/maritimes/healthy-kids/food-n ttps://dairyfarmersofcanada.ca/en/teachnutrition/maritimes/healthy-kids/food-n digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 81 us, and it is one powerful, dynamic and multidimensional tool we can use to teach toward equity. (morales 2020) the project the curriculum project described here builds upon the work of folklorists and educators but takes it a specific direction, proposing that food be used to explore basic concepts central to cultural difference. a better understanding of those concepts is then transferred to issues and conflicts around those differences. race and ethnicity tend to be highlighted as the bases for conflicts in the u.s., but educators will find themselves in settings in which other factors need to be addressed as well, including gender, class, religious or ethical beliefs, region, age, and even personality or tastes. the units in the curriculum, therefore, focus on concepts that are relevant to all types of differences, providing frameworks for understanding the complexity and nuances of cultural processes in general that can then be applied to specific groups and circumstances. this curriculum project grew out of my own experiences teaching “introduction to ethnic studies” at a public state university in the eastern midwest. i had long taught folklore, popular culture, american culture studies, and international studies to both undergraduate and graduate students. that had included courses on cultural pluralism, regional foodways, food and culture, and specific ethnic groups, and i had frequently included food as either subject or medium for exploring theories and methods. also, as a folklorist, i did extensive research on ethnicity, particularly in relation to foodways traditions, and had worked in numerous public folklore contexts designing programs and giving presentations. when i was asked to teach an introduction to ethnic studies class in the fall of 2014, i eagerly accepted. i thought it would be a good opportunity to brush up on the scholarship and also to engage with critical race theory. i discovered a whole new universe. ethnic studies is social science-oriented, focusing on groups that have historically been marginalized by the dominant euro-centric (also, male and protestant) culture of the united states. the interdisciplinary field has a strong applied vision to create a more democratic and inclusive society by presenting diverse narratives and by uncovering economic, political, and cultural structures that have enabled discrimination (sleeter 2011). folklore, or folkloristics, on the other hand, is a humanities discipline, exploring, in my own words, “the products and processes through which individuals create and affirm meaningful connections with their past, place, and other people” (long 2015). these meanings are expressed through personal variations of traditional practices and are both community-based (collective) and dynamic (open to change). folklore scholarship on ethnicity has tended to focus on how ethnic groups were defined and maintained through their expressive practices and how ethnicity is used as a resource for creativity, social interaction, and performance of self.5 ethnic studies literature challenged me to actively address the role of power in shaping cultural practices and to acknowledge the inequalities that exist. long, food as lens digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 82 the ethnic studies textbooks6 were excellent, but there were certain foundational concepts that students struggled with, such as: the idea that race was a social construction; that identity was both a social role and a personal perception; that the word “culture” could refer to a variety of things; that meaning was fluid and malleable; and that racism was part of a system maintained, oftentimes unintentionally and unconsciously, by various institutional structures. these “key words” (williams 1976) were used in much of the teaching materials as well as by society in general, and, as we explored these concepts in class, students were oftentimes confused about them. i found that reading scholarship on ethnicity and race through the lens of folklore offered ways to enable students to better understand those words, not just on an intellectual level, but at an emotive one as well. furthermore, since my specialty is foodways, i started using food to illustrate these ideas. food offers a universal subject for conversation since everyone has experienced it, and, whether they recognize it or not, they have emotional attachments to food on a personal level. when these emotional responses are elicited, they force individuals to recognize that identity and values are embedded in food, in the same way that our identities and values are tied to larger cultural and social issues. differences in those experiences can oftentimes be ascribed to taste or to factors beyond one’s control, so that it is a relatively “safe” arena for exploration that allows for open discussion. i then began developing strategies for introducing these concepts in class. i drew from previous work i had done on using food to teach concepts of culture (2001) and folklore theories and methods (1999), but this application was new, partly because the subject matter tended to be sensitive as well as politically charged. i found that i oftentimes needed in class to begin with some of the terms being used. these could be thought of as “key words,” but they needed to be understood in the context of ethnic studies. i found that students were oftentimes hesitant to admit disagreement or lack of understanding, usually out of fear of being perceived as racist or insensitive.7 we then explored the concept through discussions of the nature of food, emphasizing the emotional reactions individuals might have. once the concept seemed to be understood, i transferred it to back to race and ethnicity. students seemed to find this approach useful, particularly appreciating the opportunity to express their own experiences and opinions as well as confusion about how to live in an inclusive way while also maintaining their own individuality. for example, race is oftentimes described as a “social construct.” students (and many adults) find that nonsensical since they can see skin color and therefore assume that racial categories are visually objective. food similarly seems to be an objective and self-evident category, yet definitions of what can be food differ across cultures. approaching food as “matter considered appropriate for ingestion” enables us to see that it is a fluid and dynamic construction, shaped by history, culture, power, and personal experiences (long 2015). that understanding can then be digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 83 applied to race, demonstrating how, why, and by whom the category was constructed—and exploring how and why it continues to be part of our worldviews. this strategy was successful in the ethnic studies classroom. students responded positively to it, and seemed to gain understanding of the class materials. we also used the exercises as an occasional excuse to share food in class, something that was a welcome break in routine. i was also asked to present these keywords in workshops at the university and for community members. again, audiences responded positively. with the assistance of k-12 educational professionals, i then adapted the ideas to younger students. a grant in 2017 from the american folklore society enabled folklorist and education specialist, susan eleuterio, to develop assignments and write core standards for selected concepts. this curriculum was then shared with educators and scholars through workshops and conferences. in the fall of 2019, jerry reed, a graduate student in folklore and popular culture with training in education, began developing additional activities. the final project focuses on selected keywords: culture, identity, construction, meaning, and system. assignments and explanatory materials were created around each of these terms. an introduction for educators explains how to use the curriculum and suggests further reading. the full project with guidelines for teachers, assignment sheets, assessment tools, and lists of references and resources is available for free on the website of the nonprofit center for food and culture (www.foodandculture.org). the curriculum units a. culture—to understand cultural differences, we need to clarify what we mean by cultural. “culture” can refer to several different ideas—a group of people; their way of life and beliefs, their traditions, their artistic expressions, and a “lens” for interpreting reality. can we identify which definition is being used when we see differences? food culture can have all the meanings that the word “culture” carries, but it most commonly refers to a group of people who share a way of eating. it includes the practices, attitudes, and beliefs as well as the networks and institutions surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of food. activity 1: student culture chart—helps students see the range of activities, events, and institutions involved in their own culture. activity 2: students’ food culture—introduces students to describing distinctive features of their own food culture. b. construction—race is frequently said to be a “social construct,” but what does that mean when skin color and other physical characteristics seem to be objective and visible? such categories seem to be a natural reflection of the world, but they are not simply ways to describe people. they exist because they are useful to us in http://www.foodandculture.org/ long, food as lens digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 84 some way. the category of race, unfortunately, has been a way to justify mistreatment and exploitation of large groups of people. food similarly seems to be an objective and self-evident category, yet definitions of what can be food differ across cultures. that’s because it is culturally, socially, and personally constructed as “matter considered appropriate for ingestion.” that construction is fluid and dynamic, shaped by history, culture, and personal experiences. activity: food preferences—introduces students to the idea of construction and how they developed their own perceptions of what is food and which foods are tasty. c. identity—the word “identity” in contexts of cultural differences frequently refers to individuals as members of a racial or ethnic group. what is the relationship, though, between who we are and our skin color or family background? how can we be both individuals and members of groups? why does it matter so much how other people see us? a folklore approach to identity sees all of us as having multiple identities made up of our race, ethnicity, nationality, region, class, gender, age, religion, beliefs and values, occupations, personal interests, personality and our various social roles. we highlight different aspects of our identity in different situations, but some contexts do not let us choose which aspect we want. food choices express our identity whether we intend to or not. activity 1: food identity collage poster—students describe their own identities and match those with the food they eat. activity 2: reading identity through food (sandwiches)—students describe their favorite sandwich, then explore how those ingredients reflect or express their identity. d. meaning—what does it mean to recognize cultural differences? what do we mean by “meaning”? how do we communicate with each other so that each participant understands the other? how do we present our identities, our cultures so that they are understood in the way we want them to be? what is “understanding?” we frequently communicate meaning through symbols, rituals, and art. symbols are as objects and actions that stand for something else. rituals are recurring symbolic activities or events, frequently recognizing and celebrating significant beliefs and values. art frequently expresses our emotions and feelings. all three are used to tell other people and ourselves what things mean. food is oftentimes used as a symbol. it also frequently plays a significant role in rituals. it also can be the subject of art, but it can also be used to express creativity and imagination. activity 1: symbol: apples—introduces the concept of symbol by exploring the variety of things an apple can stand for in american culture. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 85 activity 2: ritual: holidays, birthdays, school traditions—introduces the definition of ritual and the different types of rituals that are possible by having students describe a common food symbol for birthdays—the birthday cake. activity 3: art: design in fruit displays, drawing fruit—explores the idea of expressing creativity and imagination through arranging displays of fruit and by drawing fruit. e. systems/structures—discussions of cultural differences frequently refer to systems and structures, as in “systemic racism” or “structural inequality.” what do those phrases mean? this unit explores those ideas through the idea of foodways, the network of processes, contexts, and conceptualizations around food and eating. foodways illustrates how systems work: all the parts are connected, so that if one part is changed, it affects the others. that helps to explain why social change can be so difficult. also, various external forces (structures) as well as internal ones (structures) keep the system going. activity: the foodways of a meal—introduces students to the idea of systems and structures by having them describe the foodways of one of their meals. this illustrates how all the parts work together as a system to create that meal and how various structures (external and internal forces, such as a parent) keep that system (the meal) going. there are obviously more concepts and key words that are relevant to understanding how and why groups of people are able or unable to co-exist equitably and peacefully. each of those can also be explored through food, and each teacher may find that certain terms are more relevant to their situation. the assignments are meant to be flexible, allowing for selection and adaptations of each unit. there also are other approaches that may overlap and offer similar ideas for teaching about cultural difference (e.g. loode 2011), but this curriculum is distinctive in that it incorporates humanities understandings of food that encourage teachers and students to recognize foodways as a dynamic and creative form of culture in which we all participate. the curriculum does not directly address issues around food security—dependable access to healthy food at affordable costs. these issues are tied directly to the histories of the place of particular groups in a society and frequently reflect larger systems of discrimination. food activists have created more public awareness and have pushed for long-term, systemic changes that give communities a say in what foods are available to them and how they are distributed (alkon 2012; alkon and agyeman, 2011). the concept of “food sovereignty” is very much in line with folkloristic approaches to social change that emphasize the importance of solutions coming from the people involved rather than “top-down” from experts who do not live in the community. this curriculum contributes to this work by helping us better understand the ways in which food connects us to our pasts, our places, and other people. there are times long, food as lens digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 86 when change is needed, but if those changes disrupt our sense of connectedness, the changes will probably not last. food can help us get at our underlying beliefs and values and also help us identity how and why we feel emotional attachment to certain practices and products. exploring these keywords through food will hopefully lay the groundwork for making much needed social change. a final word of caution: food has long been used to characterize individuals and groups in negative ways (jones 2007). this is not merely a matter of insensitivity to people’s feelings. food imagery actively creates an impression of a group that can then have devastating consequences. postcards of african-american children happily eating watermelon in a field communicate the message that those children are little “savages” in need of civilizing influences by white american society. more dangerously, drawings, songs, and stories of african-american adults stealing watermelons establish the idea that african-american males are dishonest, lacking in self-discipline and character, and dangerous. in both cases, the impressions are then used to justify actions towards controlling those groups (baron, carson, and bernard 2014; garth and reece 2020; harris 2012; tompkins 2012; williamsforson 2006; williams-forson and wilkerson, 2011; zafar 2002). it is very important, then, for educators using this curriculum to be aware of these histories. food ultimately is to be consumed, and comparing a group of people to food can objectify them, suggesting that they also exist for others to use and exploit. we must always be attuned to the power of food to divide and set apart people as well as to bring them together. exploring the keywords involved in discussions around cultural differences can help us channel that power in positive ways. 1 see for example, https://busyteacher.org/18131-how-to-teach-about-food-and-culture.html; https://www.primroseschools.com/blog/3-ways-to-celebrate-cultures through-cooking/; https://www.participatelearning.com/blog/sharing-culture-through-food/; https://dumplingschool.com/2021/05/14/how-to-understand-a-culture-through food/. 2 see for example, adcock 2019. 3 see the journal of folklore and education (https://jfepublications.org) as well as its prior incarnation as a newsletter, c.a.r.t.s for examples and discussions. pioneers in folklore and education are the philadelphia folklore project and citylore, based in the new york city. the organization local learning now specializes in the field. an overview of the broader field of folklore and education is found in pryor and bowman, 2016. also relevant is hamer 2000. 4 an excellent online resource not specific to folklore nor food, but incorporating folklorists’ input is “talking about race,” developed by the smithsonian’s national museum of african american history and culture (https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race). 5 foundational theories for folklore and ethnicity include fredrik barth (1969), anya royce (1982). ethnic foodways have been a significant topic for folklorists (brown and mussell 1984; lockwood and lockwood 1991, 2000; stern and cicala 1991). 6 the primary textbook used for most of the classes was markus and moya (2010). cultural pluralism classes taught through american cultural studies relied on the more history-based takaki (2008). 7 i used several strategies to enable students to speak freely and anonymously. i handed out note cards they could use to write questions or comments on. i would then read these and lead a discussion around them. also, students had questions based on the readings that they were to write responses to on-line. these were not shared with the class, so students were able to express their own opinions—and emotions—on these. i realize they were aware of my potential approval or disapproval that might affect their grade. https://busyteacher.org/18131-how-to-teach-about-food-and-culture.html https://www.primroseschools.com/blog/3-ways-to-celebrate-cultures-through-cooking/ https://www.participatelearning.com/blog/sharing-culture-through-food/ https://dumplingschool.com/2021/05/14/how-to-understand-a-culture-through https://jfepublications.org/ digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 87 long, food as lens digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 88 works cited adcock, maria. 2019. culture in the kitchen: teach kids about different cultures through food. bicultural mama. october 17. 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ethnic and regional foodways in the united states: the performance of group identity. knoxville, tn: university of tennessee press. center for food and culture: www.foodandculture.org earley, p. christopher. 2003. cultural intelligence: individual interactions across cultures. stanford, ca: stanford university press. garth, hanna and ashanté m. reese, eds. 2020. black food matters: racial justice in the wake of food justice. minneapolis, mn: university of minnesota press. hamer, lynne. 2000. folklore in schools and multicultural education: toward institutionalizing noninstitutional knowledge. journal of american folklore 113 (447): 44–69. https://doi.org/10.2307/541265. hamer, lynne. 1999. eating in school: food and multicultural education. digest: an interdisciplinary study of food and foodways 19: 2-7. harris, jessica b. 2012. high on the hog: a culinary journey from africa to america. new york: bloomsbury usa. 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state university press. lockwood, yvonne r., and william g. lockwood. 2000. continuity and adaptation of arab-american foodways. in arab detroit: from margin to mainstream, ed. nabeel abraham and andrew shryock, 515–549. detroit, mi: wayne state university press long, lucy m., ed. 2015. the food and folklore reader. new york: berg. long, lucy m. 2001. nourishing the academic imagination: the use of food in teaching concepts of culture. food and foodways 9 (3-4): 235-262. doi:10.1080/07409710.2001.9962113 long, lucy m., ed. 1999. special issue: eating across the curriculum. digest: an interdisciplinary study of food and foodways. vol. 19. loode, serge. 2011. navigating the unchartered waters of cross-cultural conflict resolution education. conflict resolution quarterly 29 (1): 65-84. lopez, vivian gatica. 2018. cooking our way to understanding. caringmagazine.org. march 29. (https://caringmagazine.org/why-food-is-one-of-the-best-ways-to-teachkids-about-culture/) markus, hazel rose and paula m. l. moya, eds. 2010. doing race: 21 essays for the 21st century. new york: w.w. norton. mills, margaret a. 2020. introduction: defining and creating (a) new critical folklore studies. journal of american folklore 133 (530): 383-391. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.133.530.0383 pryor, anne and paddy bowman. 2016. folklore and education: a short history of a long endeavor. journal of american folklore 129 (514): 436-458. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.133.530.0383 long, food as lens digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 90 rahn, millie. 2006. laying a place at the table: creating public foodways models from scratch. journal of american folklore 119 (471): 30-46. rosenberg, jan. 2019. intercultural education, folklore, and the pedagogical thought of rachel davis dubois. new york: palgrave macmillan. royce, anya peterson. 1982. ethnic identity: strategies of diversity. bloomington, in: indiana university press. sleeter, christine e. 2011. the academic and social value of ethnic studies: a research review. washington, dc: national education association research. sterkenburg, daniel r. 2013. teaching cultural awareness through food traditions. business administration faculty presentations 21: 13. https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/business_administration_presentations/21. stern, stephen and john allan cicala 1991. creative ethnicity. logan, ut: utah state university press. takaki, ronald. 2008. a different mirror: a history of multicultural america, revised edition. new york: back bay books/hachette. tompkins, kyla wazana. 2012. racial indigestion: eating bodies in the 19th century. new york: new york university press. westerman, william. 2006. wild grasses and new arks: transformative potential in applied and public folklore. journal of american folklore 119 (471): 111-128. williams, raymond. 1976. keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society. new york: oxford university press. williams-forson, psyche. 2006. building houses out of chicken legs: black women, food, and power. chapel hill, nc: the university of north carolina press. williams-forson, psyche and abby wilkerson. 2011. intersectionality and food studies. food, culture & society 14 (1): 7-28. , yeros, julie and deborah tayloe. n.d. introducing cultures through international cuisine. globe trottin’ kids. (https://www.globetrottinkids.com/introducingcultures-through-international-cuisines/). zafar, rafia. 2002. the signifying dish: autobiography and history in two black women’s cookbooks. in food in the usa: a reader, ed. carole m. counihan, . new york: routledge. https://www.globetrottinkids.com/introducing-cultures-through-international-cuisines/ https://www.globetrottinkids.com/introducing-cultures-through-international-cuisines/ digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 91 key concepts exploring cultural differences through the lens of food k-12 curriculum guide center for food and culture lucy m. long, susan eleuterio, and jerry reed (partially funded by american folklore society) table of contexts introduction unit i: culture unit 2: construction unit 3: identity unit 4: meaning unit 5: systems/structure appendix image by lucy m. long introduction food is a window into a culture’s histories, belief systems, geographies, traditional practices, and customs. as such, it is oftentimes used in the classroom and home to teach about specific cultures. it offers a way for students to learn facts in a v... numerous other examples of using food in this way can easily be found on the internet, and many of these offer excellent ideas and accurate information. educators also frequently use food, particularly international or “ethnic” foods, to go beyond ju... food is an important part of culture and can provide a connection to a person’s family or country. as a teacher or early childhood educator, you can expose children to diverse food traditions. celebrating food enjoyed by people around the world allows... one professor described using food in his global business education classes for this purpose: sloane, tallen. 2017. review of food cults: how fads, dogma, and doctrine influence diet. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 67. © american folklore society 2018 review of: food cults: how fads, dogma, and doctrine influence diet kima cargill, ed. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield studies in food and gastronomy, 2017. pp. 252, index, contributors. by: tallen sloane food cults: how fads, dogma, and doctrine influence diet, edited by kima cargill, is a comprehensive volume of essays that document and analyze fringe communities of extreme eaters’ ideologies and behaviors throughout the world. these communities are defined as cults in the broadest sense of the term to encompass a spectrum of exclusive fringe food movements that leverage promises based in cultural fears. from juicing and elective restrictive diets to media-fueled gluttony and marijuana categorized as a vegetable, essay topics in food cults demonstrate the dynamism of community eating rituals and reveal the fleeting promises of longevity, fertility, happiness, thinness, and countless other cultural ideals that perpetuate cult belief. researchers, folklorists, mental health professionals, and omnivores intrigued by socio-cultural analyses of polarizing attitudes towards our foodscape would benefit from this collection. additionally, open-minded raw-food vegans, ardent juicers, paleo lifestylers, gluten-free advocates, sourdough fermenters, and cooking fanatics would find this collection pleasurable, if sometimes challenging, due to the authors’ invitations to question cult rhetorics. cargill, a psychologist whose expertise lies in uncovering deceptive techniques that the pharmaceutical industry utilizes to promote consumption of their products, subtextually reveals her critical background throughout the compilation. her introduction synthesizes the broad expanse of food communities by providing an inclusive definition for the term “cult,” so often misconstrued with the likes of the jonestown, guyana, american peoples temple agricultural project cult and such other notorious groups. cargill sees cults as serving as communities to “explore the mechanisms of group and individual identity, the distortion of nutritional science, the ways in which food behaviors express our anxieties, and how dietary practices organize us sloane, tallen. 2017. review of food cults: how fads, dogma, and doctrine influence diet. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 68. © american folklore society 2018 psychologically” (3). the first collection to bring together various works on fringe food communities throughout time and space, food cults offers readers a fascinating insight into commonalities across these groups. as important as the definition is for the compilation’s coherence, the essays within demonstrate the fantastic power of small group collective anxieties, ritual practices, and identity politics. each of food cults’ fifteen ethnographic and analytical essays invites readers to delve into the mindset of a specific group’s members. the essays are organized from the philosophical and cerebral, such as “the psychology of food cults” (cargill), to the historical, such as “food practiced in early christianity” (brazinski), and then segues into the restrictive and contemporary, “juicing: language, ritual, and placebo sociality in a community of extreme eaters” (veissière and gibbs-bravo) and “contemporary superfood cults: nutritionism, neoliberalism, and gender” (sikka), for example, ending with a macrocosmic, global view of how communities define food, specifically good food, such as in “‘herb is for the healing of the nation!’: marijuana as a consumable vegetable among ghetto muslim youth of maamobi in accra, ghana” (botchway and prempeh). the collection’s central focus concerns how these cults form identity around collective anxiety, group dogma, and belief generated within a specific group. for example, in “of bananas and cavemen: unlikely similarities between two online food communities” (maxfield and rissing), fruitarians and primal dieters find common ground in legitimizing “dietary choices and . . . pursuit of a lean, muscular bodily aesthetic,” while both groups’ manipulation of science in the quest for “one true diet” asserts moral superiority over each other even though they cite the same theory (141). researchers seeking a grounded counterpoint to online forums and social media would deeply benefit from this carefully chosen collection of essays about exclusive food attitudes and actions that are culturally entrenched and globally enacted. former and current food cult members might recognize behaviors in these pages that challenge their chosen doctrine. folklorists interested in smallgroup dynamics, the evolution of religion, secular ritual, and identity politics would find this compilation fascinating. omnivores, cookbook aficionados, culinary historians, and librarians interested in diversifying their food literature would benefit from this set of social criticism. mental health practitioners working with extreme eaters or loved ones who are concerned about extreme eating behaviors could find this a helpful addition to their library. while not an overt critique of individual cults’ ideologies, food cults introduces a healthy sloane, tallen. 2017. review of food cults: how fads, dogma, and doctrine influence diet. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 69. © american folklore society 2018 dose of skepticism and critical review to the complicated conversation about healthy bodies and healthy communities. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 31-55 © american folklore society 2020 the chocolate easter egg in south central pennsylvania: cracking a seasonal tradition by: mira johnson and david j. puglia abstract: each february, south central pennsylvania residents see signs for chocolate easter eggs sold by local churches. an old recipe, the chocolate easter egg became a widespread community tradition in the mid-to-late twentieth century in response to dwindling church attendance and revenues. this locally invented regional easter egg tradition became so successful, it has literally built churches. in this research note, we report on results from fieldwork in the middletown area that led us to consider the production of chocolate easter eggs as a food event. we apply camp’s multi-activity, multi-themed food event concept to the church productions’ physical manifestations, social organization, use of occasion, and strategies. we see the church-made chocolate easter egg as an emergent dauphin county confectionary tradition whose importance exceeds mere consumption, creating a sense of communitas in participating congregations and communities, orienting them to the calendar year, and providing opportunities for christian outreach and fundraising. keywords: chocolate, egg, church fundraiser, easter, spring customs, pennsylvania months before easter in dauphin county, pennsylvania, jewel-colored treasure troves of foil-wrapped, chocolate-covered, peanut butter eggs, and their humbler cousins in wax paper packets, appear beside cash registers at gas stations, card shops, and pizza joints. beyond the region, the reese’s peanut butter egg and the cadbury crème egg dominate the easter season, but in this corner of south central pennsylvania, chocolate eggs hand-dipped by retirees at local churches are coveted easter basket fare (see photos 13). growing up in middletown, pennsylvania, in the 1990s, co-author mira johnson has enjoyed church-made chocolate easter eggs as long as she can remember. arriving in middletown in 2010, co-author david j. puglia immediately embraced the community’s chocolate easter egg custom. curious about the depth and breadth of this regional foodway, we embarked on library research, fieldwork, and interviews to understand and document the traditional behavior surrounding the south central pennsylvania churchmade chocolate egg. our first stop was the definitive works on pennsylvania dutch1 culture by leading pennsylvania folklorists (bronner and brown 2017; glassie 1969; shoemaker 2000; weaver 1997, 2002, 2013, and 2016; yoder 2000), followed by the likeliest regional culture journals, none of which produced any results for chocolate eggs.2 in his authoritative eastertide in pennsylvania, folklorist alfred shoemaker wrote extensively on the egg as symbol in pennsylvania easter traditions, including egg trees and scratchcarved easter eggs (2000 [1960]: 49-70), but never mentioned the chocolate easter egg specifically. british folklorist venetia newall also wrote extensively on the symbolism of the egg at easter, but did not mention chocolate eggs (1971). we also searched the archives of pennsylvania folklife and ethnography and the mac barrick collection of 32 johnson & puglia, chocolate easter egg, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) folklife and regional history, which yielded results on other south central pennsylvania easter customs, but nothing on the chocolate easter egg. photo 1. chambers hill united methodist church’s milk chocolate and dark chocolate peanut butter egg in foil wrapper. middletown, march 12, 2016. photo: mira johnson. in our review of local cookbooks,3 we found home confectionary recipes that may have anticipated the chocolate egg tradition such as bonbons, buckeye candy, chocolate balls, peanut butter balls, peanut butter cups, peanut butter patties, chocolate potato candy, and belgian pralines. all of these candies shared at least two of three characteristics with the chocolate peanut butter egg: a soft peanut butter center, a chocolate coating, or a hand rolled production process. we discovered the best representation of this confection in local news media: brief, annual pieces on church-made chocolate easter eggs penned by journalists. drawing local journalistic attention since at least 2009, the patriot news, the newspaper of record for the capital region of the state, has covered the chocolate peanut butter egg each winter in at least one story, if not more (e.g., gleiter 2009). often the stories are full-page features, with multiple photographs showcasing a particular regional church and its chocolate egg production. if pennsylvania folklorists had not yet realized that the eggs were a regional seasonal event, local journalists certainly had. as simon j. bronner has noted, historically american folklorists have demonstrated a preference for traditions originating in the eighteenth and nineteenth century (1998: 972), thus comparatively overlooking emergent twentieth century traditions. we hypothesize that the gap in the scholarly literature is due to the chocolate easter egg being an emergent, twentieth century tradition in south central pennsylvania. in order to further our research, we decided to enter the field and pursue our questions through interviews and ethnographic data. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 33 photo 2. ebenezer united methodist church’s milk chocolate peanut butter egg in plastic wrapper. middletown, march 12, 2016. photo: mira johnson. photo 3. geyers united method church’s peppermint patty and dark chocolate peanut butter egg in parchment paper wrapper. middletown, march 12, 2016. photo: mira johnson. although we first encountered the chocolate egg tradition in middletown, pennsylvania, we realized that chocolate eggs were also a church tradition across dauphin county and neighboring york, lebanon, cumberland, and lancaster counties in the south central pennsylvania region.4 we chose to focus our fieldwork on middletown, pennsylvania, however, because we have an intimate knowledge of 34 johnson & puglia, chocolate easter egg, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) the location, having lived there for a combined eighteen years. although chocolate easter eggs can be found beyond pennsylvania, south central pennsylvania has an especially large number of participating churches, and middletown has a high concentration of the egg-producing churches (four) in a single town (see maps 1 and 2). based on our mapping of churches that actively participate in the chocolate egg tradition in south central pennsylvania, the greater metropolitan area immediately surrounding harrisburg has the highest concentration. in addition, a legend circulates that one middletown church, interestingly one that no longer participates in the tradition, introduced the chocolate egg to dauphin county (epler et al. interview, 2016; leisey interview, 2016).5 map 1. pins on this google map indicate known active chocolate easter egg churches across dauphin county and the surrounding counties in south central pennsylvania. capitol region of pennsylvania, 2018. image: mira johnson using google map base. our first contact was nancy swartz, lifelong resident of middletown, active local church member, and longtime consumer of chocolate eggs. she proved a gateway to contacts at other local churches that led us ultimately to work with three: geyers united methodist church, middletown presbyterian congregation, and ebenezer united methodist church. while all three churches have middletown postal addresses, they provide a diverse sample, with middletown presbyterian located in the heart of downtown middletown, and ebenezer and geyers each located four miles outside of town amid farmland and suburban homes on the north and south ends of town, respectively. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 35 map 2. although church-made chocolate easter eggs can be found across the united states, there are an especially high concentration of egg-producing churches in south central pennsylvania. eastern united states, 2018. image: mira johnson, using google map base. in this research note, we report on the results of this fieldwork, which led us to propose that the chocolate easter egg is an example of a “multi-activity, multi-themed” food event (camp 1989: 74). as charles camp explains, the significance of observing food events is “that by examining the intricate, varied, and often surprising ways in which food presents itself as part of our social proceedings, we can appreciate the full symbolic range and power of food in american life” (55). we use camp’s concept of the “food event” (55-81) to examine these churches’ chocolate egg productions’ physical manifestations, social organization, use of occasion, and strategies (58-59). camp’s concepts enhanced our understanding of what jack santino calls the “material culture of the holiday” (1996: 29) and thus the human behavior associated with it. with these insights, we hope to show how this emergent dauphin county confectionary tradition’s importance exceeds its mere consumption: the chocolate egg tradition orients south central pennsylvanians to the calendar year, creates a sense of communitas in the participating congregations and beyond, provides an opportunity for christian outreach, and offers tremendous fundraising opportunities for local churches. physical manifestations we began our field study by examining the “physical manifestations” (see photo 4)— foodstuffs and cooking processes—of the food event (camp 1989: 58). as a foodstuff, the decadent chocolate treat has many names: “chocolate eggs,” “chocolate easter eggs,” “candy easter eggs,” “peanut butter eggs,” “church eggs,” “surprise eggs,” “philadelphia cream cheese eggs,” and, sometimes, just “eggs.”6 36 johnson & puglia, chocolate easter egg, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) photo 4. comparison of five peanut butter chocolate eggs. clockwise from left, presbyterian congregation of middletown, geyers united methodist church, ebenezer united methodist church, chambers hill united methodist church, and seven sorrows church of the blessed virgin mary. middletown, march 12, 2016. photo: mira johnson. one might ask why parishioners choose to make chocolate easter treats in the form of an egg. other symbols evoke the easter season—bunnies, chicks, or flowers—and other shapes hold chocolate and filling—chocolate cups, chocolate balls, chocolate bars, or chocolate patties. in pennsylvania’s chocolate easter egg tradition, we find the foodway’s form follows function (greenough 1958) in some respects—its oval shape is easier to fashion by hand than most other shapes and it most easily supports the chocolate covering. yet the oval shape also conveniently resembles an egg, a longstanding symbol of easter and the spring season. a traditional easter icon laden with a myriad of christian and pre-christian symbolic layers, the egg typically represents fertility, material wealth, rebirth, resurrection, and the eucharist (newall 1971, see also santino 1994: 102-111). an ideal easter symbol, the egg shape is easy to teach to volunteers, including children and the elderly, and forms rapidly through rolling and dipping. the egg form is also economical. as a geometric ovoid, the egg shape boasts one of the best surface area-to-volume ratios of any geometric shape, allowing for a generous-looking surface that actually uses the least amount of the most expensive ingredient, chocolate, relying on the cheaper filling to make up the bulk of the product. some churches have experimented with other candy, such as chocolate-covered lollipops, but those designs proved cumbersome because removing lollipops from molds without breaking them required additional skill and time (leisey interview, 2016). the egg recipe allows a wide variety of filling flavors, broadening customer reach and popularity. churches can try novel flavor combinations, and fads do emerge. dark chocolate covered peanut butter has surged in popularity, due to positive press for dark digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 37 chocolate’s health benefits, and white chocolate covered peanut butter has also found a following (leisey interview, 2016). in our review of the chocolate egg’s basic ingredients and variation, we found all participating pennsylvania churches offer the basic peanut butter chocolate egg, and each church has expanded into additional chocolate types and fillings. some churches prefer to specialize in a few flavors, such as ebenezer united methodist church, which limits its product line to milk chocolate with peanut butter, coconut cream, or buttercream. others, such as middletown presbyterian and seven sorrows catholic church, expanded to include white chocolate peanut butter and dark chocolate variations on peanut butter, buttercream, coconut cream, and mint. some new flavors prove more popular than others, and failures do happen. for example, geyers church piloted a fruit and nut chocolate egg, but abandoned it after poor sales (epler et al. interview, 2016). each church covets its own “secret” recipe, but the basic ingredient lists are all very similar. the recipe for the classic milk chocolate peanut butter egg, for example, is 10x or 6x sugar (also called powdered or confectioner’s sugar), margarine or butter, milk, cream cheese, chocolate, and peanut butter. because the pennsylvania department of agriculture’s regulations require churches to list all ingredients on the packaging, the amounts and sources of the ingredients and the production process are the recipe’s secret. while the chocolate eggs are homemade, the chocolate is not. the middletown churches procure many tons of chocolate, notably from a single local chocolate company. the two most mentioned chocolate companies in our interviews were wilbur chocolate and the hershey company, both south central pennsylvanian institutions. only wilbur receives church business today. in fact, every church willing to disclose their chocolate distributor told us wilbur was their chocolate of choice (blaydon, epler et al., and leisey interviews, 2016; sue gleiter 2015b). geyers church, for example, had originally selected hershey as their chocolate vendor because one of its parishioners was a hershey employee. but decades ago hershey discontinued small-scale chocolate distribution, and geyers switched to wilbur, which manufactures in nearby lititz, pennsylvania (epler et al. interview, 2016). every church group we spoke to expressed pride in the quality and purity of their chocolate. although we never learned the culprit, each church also expressed disdain for churches that increase profit margins by substituting chocolate paraffin wafers for pure chocolate bars, a choice that some say inflicts an unappealing waxy taste. while every church relies on the same types of ingredients, each has its own “cooking process” (camp 1989: 58)—which includes recipes, proportions, and production processes—that makes its chocolate eggs unique. as diana shugart of st. paul evangelical church in carlisle, pennsylvania, explained, “what makes [our] eggs special from others out there is not just the recipe, but the process and the effort the volunteers put into making each one” (madison 2014). similarly, jay epler, the senior mixer for geyers church, told us that mixing requires an intuition born of experience—“a little bit of this, a little bit of that”—until the filling reaches the desired consistency (interview, 2016). consequently, even jay does not know his exact recipe, but rather feels his way to it. 38 johnson & puglia, chocolate easter egg, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) geyers church actually has a written chocolate egg recipe, but their parishioners disagree over how secret the recipe is. some told us it was locked in the church vault, while others said it was tacked to the kitchen wall for anyone to see. but even if a secret recipe was held under lock and key, the geyers chocolate egg’s essence is bound to an “active tradition bearer” like jay epler (von sydow 1999 [1927]). the intuitive aspect of the recipe is why it is important for traditional practitioners like jay to share their methods with apprentices, as jay now does with two younger church members. otherwise, the secret of geyers’ eggs would disappear when jay retires from leading the mixing. during egg-production season, the churches work on tight, efficient schedules, and while each church operates independently, the cooking process is similar (blaydon, epler et al., and leisey interviews, 2016). churches hold their first chocolate egg meeting in december or january, and production begins six to ten weeks before easter, depending on the church’s ambition (dan gleiter 2014, sue gleiter 2018b, madison 2014). as with the christmas shopping season, some churches complain the start date creeps earlier each year due to competition (see santino 1994: 6, 176-177). the church crews work hard for one and a half to two and a half months, but all agree egg production ceases during holy week, the final week before easter. volunteers can be found in the kitchen mixing, rolling, dipping, trimming, and wrapping two to three days a week, often monday, tuesday, and wednesday, although this schedule varies by the size of the operation. retirees dominate the chocolate egg crews (blaydon, epler et al., and leisey interviews, 2016; madison 2014). participants who work day jobs often limit themselves to one day per week, while retired and elderly volunteers subject themselves to a rigorous schedule, working late into the night one day and rising early to begin again at 8 a.m. the following day. while local stores sell the churches’ chocolate eggs daily (for example, see photo 5), churches do bulk distribution on saturdays. when the grueling egg season ends, churches celebrate with a potluck. ironically, chocolate eggs are usually not found at the feast.7 the “organization of tasks” (camp 1989: 58) in chocolate egg production assigns particular jobs to church members, and these identities stick. volunteers have a sense of their best skills and proficiencies, and memories of past mistakes linger. participants are split into mixers, rollers (the “holy rollers”8), dippers, trimmers, and wrappers (blaydon, epler et al., and leisey interviews, 2016; klaus 2011; sauro 2014; sue gleiter 2015b and 2018b). mixing is considered the most masculine job, as it requires strength to lift large bags of ingredients. mixing is also highly respected, as it requires an intuition gained through years of practice for adding ingredients and achieving consistency. dipping, perhaps unexpectedly, is considered the most exacting job. dippers require precision and an instinctive “feel” for the art of dipping. a poorly dipped egg will look messy, and an overdipped egg, in addition to wasting chocolate, will not fit in its wrapper. wrapping is for the very old and very young, or those who are less able to take on the more physically demanding jobs. that is not to say wrapping is not strenuous. it requires tedious repetition of small movements for hours on end. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 39 photo 5. middletown pharmacy & gifts seasonal display of chocolate eggs. the top four rows are seven sorrows. the middle row is presbyterian congregation of middletown. the bottom three rows are ebenezer united method church. each bin holds a different variety of chocolate egg. middletown, march 12, 2016. photo: mira johnson. once the egg is dipped, trimmed, and wrapped, the most onerous job remains: sales. the sales directors cold call local businesses and encourage them to sell their chocolate eggs, often at cost, and at times in competition with other churches’ eggs already on their counters. in addition, they keep track of hundreds of bulk orders, with nothing but 40 johnson & puglia, chocolate easter egg, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) a volunteer workforce and, in most cases, hand-written account books. we noted that, in the churches we researched, while the volunteers mostly consisted of a mixed group of retired men and women, all sales directors were women (blaydon, epler et al., and leisey interviews, 2016). social organization examining the “social organization” (camp 1989: 58) of this tradition revealed women’s significant role in the church chocolate egg event. as santino notes, women have long played a role in coordinating holiday celebrations, particularly through foodways (santino 1994: 25). bake sales and culinary philanthropy have been grounded in the realm of women’s work in america, dating back at least to the nineteenth century (see gifford 2016; women’s philanthropy institute 2010). at that time, women were actively discouraged from participating in the public sphere, but they did work on behalf of causes they were passionate about. fundraisers such as bake sales, fairs, variety shows, and cookbook sales were deemed within the domestic sphere, allowing women to step covertly into commerce—establishing bank accounts, finding suppliers and outlets, and ultimately managing the use of funds raised. while no longer facing the same restrictions as in the past, american women have carried these traditions in philanthropy into the present day. women in middletown churches follow this trend, and there is a local tradition of church women’s groups raising funds through food, such as the queen esthers of st. peter’s lutheran church. the queen esthers were the female counterpart to the church’s male bible study group, the arthur king bible class. both groups served at gender-segregated gatherings for bible study, socializing and fundraising. it was the queen esthers who oversaw the fundraising projects of the church, including bake sales, church and community dinners, and fastnacht (doughnut) sales on fat tuesday before the season of lent. similarly, other middletown churches had their own women’s groups, for instance, the dorcas class at the riverside chapel methodist church (swartz interview, 2016). the male-female binary is an emic categorization recognized by these churches and the participants we interviewed (blaydon, epler et al., leisey, and swartz interviews, 2016). over the past several decades the gendering of these fundraising responsibilities has become less distinct as most of the separate men’s and women’s groups have combined for joint bible study and fundraising efforts. however, this history has left its mark on food-based fundraising events such as the chocolate egg, where women still oversee most aspects of production and finances and are more represented among the volunteers (epler et al. and leisey interviews, 2016). notably, while men and women take part in all aspects of egg production in the churches we researched, we found that there still remain ideas of certain tasks being gendered “male” or “female.” for instance, a common theme in our interviews was that “mixer,” the job where volunteers work with industrial-sized standing mixers to combine ingredients, is masculine, because workers need to be strong enough to lift the large bags of ingredients (blaydon, epler et al., and leisey interviews, 2016; sue gleiter 2015b; klaus 2011). yet the concept of normative gender roles expressed in this distinction is directly contradicted by evidence, as we learned from each church that both men and women take part in all aspects of the egg digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 41 process, from mixing to rolling to dipping to wrapping, and all aspects of sales, from marketing to delivery. our interviewees speculated that women began as leaders in these food-fundraising endeavors because they were more likely to be at home, more likely to have culinary skills, and more likely to have broad social networks for connecting with local businesses (blaydon, epler et al., leisey, and swartz interviews, 2016). in subsequent generations, they explained, more women entered the workforce, leaving less time to devote to volunteer church work. consequently, chocolate egg leadership roles shifted from stay-at-home mothers to retired parishioners, an important chocolate egg volunteer demographic today. this shift has led to concern over who will assume leadership positions in the tradition, as the current crop of retirees becomes too old to participate (epler et al. interview, 2016). beyond its historic importance as a leadership opportunity for women, chocolate easter egg production also offers a sense of communitas for all volunteers by fostering a heighted sense of group cohesion (cf. humphrey 1988). a recurring theme for chocolate egg volunteers in our interviews was the joy of making the eggs every year. central pennsylvanian winters can be harsh and isolating. chocolate egg production gets volunteers out of the house and back to having fun as a group during winter’s bleakest stretch. as diana shugart of st. paul evangelical lutheran church explained, “the peanut butter egg production not only helps the church make some extra funds for the community, but also helps to keep some of the older members busy and moving” (madison 2014). volunteers claim the camaraderie and fellowship felt during egg production are unmatched the rest of the year (epler et al. interview, 2016; see also sue gleiter 2015b).9 in fact, chocolate egg production is so beloved that the legend of one particularly persistent octogenarian has become a permanent part of geyers church lore. one winter morning, the elderly woman was so excited by the thought of making chocolate eggs that she left her house without her car keys or house keys. when she realized she was locked out of her car and her house, she drove her riding lawn mower two miles down the road to make eggs (epler et al. interview, 2016). perhaps less dramatic but equally committed, full-time employees will take days off just to participate. tim stein, one of geyers church’s volunteer coordinators, estimates more people volunteer to help with chocolate egg production than actually attend geyers church (epler et al. interview, 2016). this heighted sense of community that the participants feel is demonstrated annually by the volunteers’ commitment to attending and participating in the chocolate egg-making event. just as the egg tradition has deep social significance for the producers, it also proves to be socially meaningful to its consumers, who experience a sense of communitas through the purchase and consumption of chocolate easter eggs. the heightened sense of community is potent enough to reach beyond the churches’ kitchens to people who do not identify as formal members of the church, but do identify as part of the broader middletown community that holds this egg tradition. for south central pennsylvanian residents, there is an observable shared sense of anticipation and excitement as egg season rolls around each year (see photos 6-8). once fat tuesday has passed and locals have gorged themselves on fastnachts, pączki, and king cake, residents begin the lookout for chocolate eggs to appear at local registers. finding the first eggs of the 42 johnson & puglia, chocolate easter egg, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) season is an exciting moment suggesting that easter and spring are on the horizon. while some are happy to buy their eggs haphazardly, whenever and wherever they feel a craving, there are many who profess an allegiance to certain church eggs, traveling out of their way to buy their favorite “brand” (swartz interview, 2016, see also sue gleiter 2015b, 2018a). the comment section of the regular “best chocolate easter egg” poll in pennlive, the shared online platform for regional newspapers, is perhaps the best example of consumers’ passionate commitment to their favorite church eggs and provides an opportunity to perform their identities as members of a particular church community, a broader christian community, or a town or regional community (for example, see sue gleiter 2015b). photo 6. ebenezer united methodist church electronic scrolling billboard displaying chocolate egg varieties and the phone number to order. middletown, march 12, 2016. photo: mira johnson. this confectionary tradition sticks with pennsylvanians as they move beyond the keystone state’s borders. as pennsylvania’s emigrants cannot easily find “authentic” chocolate eggs elsewhere—and would be otherwise forced to settle for mass-made substitutes—customers phone in orders from across the united states. in addition, local pennsylvanians send chocolate eggs to all parts of the world. for example, geyers church’s tim stein mentioned families shipping chocolate eggs to pennsylvania troops stationed in iraq and afghanistan (epler et al. interview, 2016; see also sauro 2014). sales director susie epler in 2016 shipped chocolate eggs to california, idaho, florida, michigan, and georgia. as she took phone orders, she learned most customers were former pennsylvanians with family connections to pennsylvania, some specifically to the area immediately surrounding geyers church (epler et al. interview, 2016). digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 43 photo 7. a geyers church road sign announcing “candy easter eggs” with phone number and bulk discount information. middletown, march 12, 2016. photo: mira johnson. photo 8. a sign announcing the chocolate egg season outside middletown pharmacy & gift shop at 436 east main street. middletown, march 12, 2016. photo: mira johnson. 44 johnson & puglia, chocolate easter egg, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) occasion in his schema of a food event, camp suggests examining the frequency and significance of an “occasion” to understand its role in the seasonal celebrations of a community (camp 1989: 58). as one of dauphin county’s regular food event occasions, the chocolate egg’s “frequency” is both annual and seasonal. like holidays in general, the chocolate easter egg orients the community to the calendar year. as santino explains, holidays, like the seasons, are “deliberately cyclical”—"the cycle repeats and the year goes around, always connected to the past, always moving toward the future” (santino 1994: 111). holidays provide a “symbolic syntax of the year” (santino 1994: 17), preparing us for the turn from one season to the next, from winter into spring, reminding us of our passage through time, through the year, and through life. the egg tradition is one that occurs in the winter, but is forward-looking, preparing for the coming of easter and spring. much like halloween candy corn or christmas candy canes, chocolate eggs are a seasonal treat. in fact, the patriot news has come to refer to this time of year as “peanut butter egg season” (sue gleiter 2018a). while a few pennsylvanians mentioned freezing chocolate eggs for later, the passion for their consumption clusters from february through easter. the chocolate egg is a cold-weather candy, one whose temperamental key ingredient, chocolate, would be more difficult to handle, distribute, and consume during warmer times of the year. a rich, decadent winter delight, the chocolate egg appears in many ways the opposite of another seasonal pennsylvania treat, the fastnacht (shoemaker 2000 [1960]: 1-8). in the fastnacht, practical pennsylvanians put their excess lard to efficient and tasty use, creating homemade doughnuts before the skimpy weeks of lent begin. chocolate eggs, on the other hand, are decadent and sugary treats sold and eaten during the lenten season. considering the unveiling of the seasons, santino notes, “people are as concerned with a changing of the seasons as they are with the season they are in at any given moment” (santino 1994: 7). a few interviewees remembered chocolate eggs as originally destined for children’s easter baskets (blaydon and swartz interviews, 2016, see also sue gleiter 2009). whether or not that was the case, profits and desirability have made offering and consuming chocolate eggs commonplace weeks and even months before easter. interviewees less concerned with this irony point out that protestants, whose churches originated the tradition in the area, do not practice the ascetic catholic lent (leisey and swartz interviews, 2016), in which “the faithful are asked to make personal sacrifices in remembrance of the sacrifice christ made on the cross” (santino 1996: 103). pennsylvanians have made these eggs a regular indulgence during the supposedly abstemious period of lent. (in)frequency also plays a role in the demand for chocolate eggs, since selling is limited to a couple months per year, which keeps supply low and demand high. for these fortunate south central pennsylvania churches, demand during lent for the chocolate eggs is such that customers will scour multiple shops hunting for their favorite flavors or “brands” (sauro 2014, dan gleiter 2014, sue gleiter 2015a, 2015b, 2018a, 2018b), and churches can expect their stock to sell out by easter, if not a week or two before (sue gleiter 2009, leisey and swartz interviews, 2016). for example, in geyers church, we digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 45 found men and women arriving at 8 a.m. on a saturday morning, picking up huge batch orders of chocolate eggs (see photo 9). photo 9. wilma epler, jay epler, and tim stein distribute bulk orders early saturday morning for geyers united methodist church. middletown, march 12, 2016. photo: mira johnson. the chocolate egg’s “significance” is religious and regional, although its religious significance appears secondary to its regional significance. as noted earlier, ecclesiastically, the egg is a traditional christian symbol of easter and the resurrection (newall 1971, santino 1994: 102-111) and notably it is the churches that sustain the annual chocolate egg tradition. one might expect this annual tradition to spread farther, as it generates between $10,000 to $200,000 (tax-free) per church over a ten-week span. but the success requires a local enthusiasm difficult to emulate. equally as important as the churches’ tradition of making the eggs is the local community’s tradition of yearning for, buying, and consuming the eggs each lenten season (for example, see sue gleiter 2012, 2015b, 2018a). santino examines how the candy industry changes packaging sequentially for marketing its products according to the seasons (santino 1996: 31-34). similarly, the churches have tapped into regional foodways serialization, which relies on an anticipated regional foodway to help demarcate the seasons of the year. locals agree. for example, sue gleiter, the food editor for pennlive, recently declared “no candy signifies easter in central pennsylvania more than peanut butter eggs” (2015b). strategies chocolate easter eggs are not only sweet seasonal treats, but from production to consumption, the chocolate egg is also used as a “strategy” (camp 1989: 58) in the middletown community to accomplish religious and economic goals. santino 46 johnson & puglia, chocolate easter egg, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) acknowledges commercial holiday enterprises have a profound economic impact in the united states, but cautions folklorists not to dismiss them for that reason alone. rather, he argues we should view this profound economic activity and this vast material output as evidence of american holidays’ great cultural importance (santino 1996: 30). the seasonal chocolate egg event combines the strategic church activities of fundraising and christian outreach.10 locals credit calvary orthodox presbyterian church on spruce street in middletown, pennsylvania, as the chocolate egg fundraiser originator in the 1960s. the idea then spread to other local churches (epler et al., and leisey interviews, 2016). for example, in the 1970s, geyers united methodist church’s susie epler, then a young stay-at-home mother, brought the chocolate egg idea to her congregation as a strategy to fund an urgently needed new church building. she and another parishioner, wilma epler, toured the calvary orthodox presbyterian church’s egg-making operation, borrowed a chocolate egg recipe from one of their own parishioners, and began their own eggmaking venture in susie’s kitchen. their early humble sales increased annually, reaching 162,000 eggs sold in 1978, the church’s most lucrative year on record. in 1983, ten years after constructing their new church building, the congregation had paid its loan in full, largely funded by what geyers church historical records call “the easter egg project.” the egg project is so central to the church that it is included in the church’s official history.11 chocolate easter egg sales had literally built the new geyers church. chocolate easter egg fundraisers continued to spread through the south central pennsylvania church community in the 1970s and 1980s. some customers buy eggs to support specific churches, while others are happy to support the local christian community in general, and still others just enjoy chocolate eggs. to support the churches, some businesses will sell the chocolate eggs at cost, taking no profits for themselves and donating all proceeds to the churches. others will gladly sell the eggs at a mark up—from a nominal 10¢ to a considerable 50¢—earning for both the church and themselves. fundraising can also be contentious among local church communities. some non-participating churches in the south central pennsylvania region shun the chocolate egg tradition as a forbidden form of fundraising (epler et al., leisey, and swartz interviews, 2016). while churches require funds to operate, the dissenting churches’ expectations are that sustaining donations should come from church members, not from peddling products. this sales model raises questions about the relationship between churches and capitalism. while the churches are legally nonprofit organizations, the chocolate egg endeavors, nonetheless, can earn sizeable profits that will help carry them through leaner times of the year. like savvy business operations, the churches heed customer preferences. for example, geyers church responded to customer complaints about how their intense mint filling overpowered the thin chocolate shell (epler et al. interview, 2016). the congregation tweaked the recipe, shifting from an egg to a patty shape, thereby increasing the chocolate to mint ratio. now these mint patties are a popular contender with the chocolate peanut butter egg. other churches have experimented with other easter candies—for example middletown presbyterian tried chocolate lollipops molded into easter shapes but discontinued them after finding them more difficult to make and slower to sell (leisey interview, 2016). seven sorrows catholic church digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 47 combines egg sales with a second fundraiser, a fish fry every friday of lent, a popular local event even among non-catholics: while diners wait for their fish, the parishioners do a brisk trade in chocolate eggs. the question of whether churches consider themselves to be in competition receives sly grins. some say no; others admit to a friendly rivalry. none are willing to admit cutthroat competition, even with hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake (blaydon, epler et al., and leisey interviews, 2016).12 the egg project proceeds contribute to various charitable causes, including mission work (dan gleiter 2012, sue gleiter 2012), youth groups (sauro 2014), scholarships (sue gleiter 2015b), church-run schools (sue gleiter 2018b), community organizations (madison 2014), and the churches’ general funds (sue gleiter 2018b, madison 2014). while the profits could be crucial to saving a church building or adding accessibility features to retain and grow membership,13 the entire venture is seen as “for a good cause” so stomping out competition would be frowned upon. the churches engage in limited advertising in local papers and the occasional friendly write up. in 2016, one church caused a stir by running a local radio commercial (leisey interview, 2016). on the other hand, churches do not concern themselves with slippage and debts. sales directors learn to expect chocolate eggs to “grow legs and walk off” and to accept occasional accounting peculiarities, like a $90 return on one hundred $1 eggs (leisey interview, 2016). the chocolate easter egg project is run as a business, but should not be mistaken for a for-profit business, a distinction the churches are careful to point out. while the sales representatives, the lingo, and the paperwork are reminiscent of the business world, these are retired nurses and schoolteachers, farmers and homemakers, learning on the fly, hoping to help the church, and realizing that the operation must run efficiently if they hope to be successful in this bustling and competitive church industry. it is important for the church to maintain that these activities are not a business, but strictly a fundraiser for charity and church expenses, for legal reasons. interviewees told us that in recent years church fundraisers have increasingly come under the scrutiny of the state, and they suspect that the growing number of churches in the region that participate in egg fundraisers are becoming an attractive potential source of tax revenue (epler et al., and leisey interviews, 2016). the chocolate egg fundraisers can also act as a form of christian evangelism. geyers church’s sales director susie epler’s outreach strategy is to encourage anyone who purchases chocolate eggs also to visit the church and help make eggs. geyers has noticed that those involved with chocolate eggs in any way, whether dipping them or picking up a box, are more likely to participate in other church activities. in this way, the chocolate egg is an accessible entry point to the church. unique to geyers, the church includes its service information on the packaging (see photo 10). in addition, the chocolate eggs highlight the christian community during the holiest time of the christian calendar by their symbolic placement beside registers in local shops, making them more visible. this network of involvement expands throughout the community to include egg-making volunteers, shopkeepers, and customers, connecting and including all participants to the churches, even if they are otherwise not a part of middletown’s christian community. 48 johnson & puglia, chocolate easter egg, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) photo 10. geyers united methodist church’s message affixed to the top of every box (20 eggs) order. middletown, march 12, 2016. photo: mira johnson. conclusion: the yolk of tradition chocolate easter eggs are a local tradition in south central pennsylvania, which we have documented specifically in the middletown area of southern dauphin county. local interest far exceeds scholarly attention at the moment. we argued that the scholarly oversight of chocolate eggs was likely due to its status as an emergent tradition, arising later than the nineteenth century, and becoming more robust since the 1960s. upon closer inspection, chocolate eggs proved to be not just a candy but an entire food event, one even more important to the community than we originally hypothesized, branching into a variety of community-building functions. while it was originally the chocolate egg itself that caught our attention, by necessity our interest quickly expanded to include the production process, sales, marketing, and competition that occurs annually behind a cordial veil of christian charity. we are interested in hearing others’ experiences with church-made and homemade, filled chocolate eggs in other parts of the united states and would gladly welcome more access to church cookbooks, home cookbooks, church records, or any sources that include chocolate eggs or church food preparation practices for fundraising. the repetition and variation apparent in the tradition demonstrates the folkloric nature of this confection, yet there are forces at work that are more representative of the american capitalistic system that integrates aspects of “the traditional” with the american entrepreneurial spirit. large-scale production, churches, local businesses, and commerce meld with traditional practitioners, home recipes, and local taste to form a notable dauphin county food event. our findings add to the large existing literature of digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 49 pennsylvania and pennsylvania dutch foodways, putting the chocolate easter egg in its rightful place beside the fastnacht, shoofly pie, and pork and sauerkraut. in the future, we would like to deduce the exact parameters of this phenomenon. we see three pathways for future chocolate egg research. first, more research is needed on the development of the chocolate easter egg recipe from its purported predecessors (such as opera fudge and fondant eggs), and its relationship to its commercial cousin, the reese’s peanut butter easter egg.14 which came first—the reese’s or the church egg? second, this research revealed to us that there is a wealth of data waiting to be mined on the complex networks that local churches construct to tie communities together, many of which are created and fostered through food. from monthly church dinners, to seasonal foodways fundraisers, to food banks to communion bread bakers and bakeries, these networks stretch to surprising places. third, more research should be undertaken on how the chocolate egg ties into church fundraising events, church volunteerism and productions, and monastery “commercial” food production, in pennsylvania and beyond. in addition to the folkloric findings, we hope this research demonstrates the hard work and dedication that these huge undertakings require from committed volunteers and the impact they have on their communities. these little eggs can hatch big schemes! references cited scholarly secondary sources bronner, simon j. 1998. following tradition: folklore in the discourse of american culture. logan: utah state university press. bronner, simon j., and joshua r. brown, eds. 2017. pennsylvania germans: an interpretive encyclopedia. baltimore, md: johns hopkins university press. camp, charles. 1989. american foodways: what, when, why and how we eat in america. little rock: august house. glassie, henry. 1969. pattern in the material 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https://www.pennlive.com/eastshore/index.ssf/2011/03/steelton_fire_department_makes_and_sells_easter_eggs_as _fundraiser.html madison, samantha. 2014. st. paul church creates peanut butter-and-chocolate eggs. the sentinel, april 15. https://cumberlink.com/entertainment/food/st-paul-churchcreates-peanut-butter-and-chocolate-eggs/article_dd405230-c4ec-11e3-93460019bb2963f4.html tugend, alina. 2016. donations to religious institutions fall as values change. the new york times, november 3. f5. sauro, sean. 2014. edible easter eggs are bound for troops in afghanistan. perry county times, april 19. https://www.pennlive.com/perry-countytimes/index.ssf/2014/04/easter_eggs_in_afghanistan.html (accessed march 3, 2019). https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/03/chocolate_easter_eggs_by_the_t.html https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/03/chocolate_easter_eggs_by_the_t.html https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/02/peanut_butter_egg_sales_flouri.html https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/02/peanut_butter_egg_sales_flouri.html https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/02/peanut_butter_eggs_go_up_in_pr.html https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/02/peanut_butter_eggs_go_up_in_pr.html https://www.pennlive.com/food/index.ssf/2015/02/peanut_butter_eggs_candy_eggs.html https://www.pennlive.com/food/index.ssf/2015/02/peanut_butter_eggs_candy_eggs.html https://www.pennlive.com/food/index.ssf/2015/03/easter_candy_best_peanut_butte.html https://www.pennlive.com/food/index.ssf/2015/03/easter_candy_best_peanut_butte.html https://www.pennlive.com/food/index.ssf/2018/02/best_peanut_butter_eggs_contes.html https://www.pennlive.com/food/index.ssf/2018/02/best_peanut_butter_eggs_contes.html https://www.pennlive.com/food/index.ssf/2018/03/best_peanut_butter_eggs_1.html https://www.pennlive.com/east-shore/index.ssf/2011/03/steelton_fire_department_makes_and_sells_easter_eggs_as_fundraiser.html https://www.pennlive.com/east-shore/index.ssf/2011/03/steelton_fire_department_makes_and_sells_easter_eggs_as_fundraiser.html https://www.pennlive.com/east-shore/index.ssf/2011/03/steelton_fire_department_makes_and_sells_easter_eggs_as_fundraiser.html https://cumberlink.com/entertainment/food/st-paul-church-creates-peanut-butter-and-chocolate-eggs/article_dd405230-c4ec-11e3-9346-0019bb2963f4.html https://cumberlink.com/entertainment/food/st-paul-church-creates-peanut-butter-and-chocolate-eggs/article_dd405230-c4ec-11e3-9346-0019bb2963f4.html https://cumberlink.com/entertainment/food/st-paul-church-creates-peanut-butter-and-chocolate-eggs/article_dd405230-c4ec-11e3-9346-0019bb2963f4.html https://www.pennlive.com/perry-county-times/index.ssf/2014/04/easter_eggs_in_afghanistan.html https://www.pennlive.com/perry-county-times/index.ssf/2014/04/easter_eggs_in_afghanistan.html 52 johnson & puglia, chocolate easter egg, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) cookbooks and church materials frey village. c. 1980s. the frey village cookbook. np. geyers united methodist church. nd. church history. np. groff, betty, and diane williamson stoneback. 2001. betty groff cookbook: pennsylvania german recipes. atlanta, ga: rb books. middletown presbyterian congregation. 2006. favorite recipes. kearney, ne: morris press cookbooks. presbyterian women’s association middletown, pennsylvania. c. 1960s. home cooking secrets of middletown. np. redcay, ruth. 1960. amish dutch cookbook. ephrata, pa: science press. st. peter’s lutheran church. c. 1943. kitchenology. np. interviews blaydon, harriet, ebenezer united methodist church. 2016. interview with authors. march 11. epler, jay, wilma epler, susie epler, and tim stein, geyers united methodist church. 2016. interview with authors. march 12. leisey, mary, middletown presbyterian congregation. 2016. interview with authors. march 13. swartz, nancy, st. peter’s evangelical lutheran church. 2016. interview with authors. march 11. notes 1 we use the term “pennsylvania dutch” to refer to a hybridized new world cultural group of shared heritage immigrants mainly from the rhineland area arriving in the united states in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, distinct from other waves of immigration from other parts of germany. at the time of immigration, what we now refer to as germany was a complex of small, divided territories known as the holy roman empire, including parts of modern-day germany, switzerland, and france. we use the term pennsylvania dutch, as opposed to pennsylvania german, because this was the emic term used by the descendants of early immigrants to refer to themselves (bronner and brown 2017: ix-x). 2 folklore scholars have long devoted attention to pennsylvania traditions, especially as practiced by pennsylvania dutch. publication venues abound in the region for such idiosyncratic studies, including pennsylvania dutchman, pennsylvania folklife, and digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 53 the many publications of the pennsylvania german society. but unlike the extensive coverage of fastnachts, shoofly pie, and pork and sauerkraut in these publications, chocolate eggs have not yet made it between these covers. similarly william woys weaver, the doyen of pennsylvania foodways, never mentions the chocolate egg tradition in his pennsylvania dutch country cooking (1997), sauerkraut yankees: pennsylvania dutch foods & foodways (2002), as american as shoofly pie (2013), and dutch treats (2016). nor does the topic receive consideration in yoder’s discovering american folklife: essays on folk culture & the pennsylvania dutch or bronner and brown’s pennsylvania germans: an interpretive encyclopedia (2017). 3 in fact, we found several recipes in local church cookbooks from the 1940s and 1960s for opera fudge and peanut butter candy, which interviewees suggested were antecedents of the chocolate egg recipe (presbyterian women’s association, c. 1960s: 31; st. peter’s lutheran church, c. 1943). a few women told us they continued to make chocolate eggs at home, although it is less common because it is a difficult and timeconsuming confection to make in small batches. geyers church’s susie epler, for example, makes a homemade chocolate egg with marshmallow fluff filling. our search of more recent local church cookbooks found that several chocolate egg recipes and similar fudge recipes continue in parishioners’ kitchens (middletown presbyterian congregation, 2006: 83, the frey village cookbook, c. 1980s: 138). these local cookbooks had more chocolate egg-related materials than did the well-known, more widely-circulated pennsylvania cookbooks (groff and stonback 2001, redcay 1960). 4 numerous churches in areas bordering south central pennsylvania also seem to be cultivating a church-made chocolate easter egg tradition, such as altoona first grace brethren church, (altoona, pa), bethesda united methodist church (philadelphia), trinity united methodist church (catonsville, md), and centenary united methodist church (shady side, md). 5 the legend relates to calvary orthodox presbyterian church, 10 spruce street, middletown, pa. 6 one reason this tradition is overlooked may be the ambiguity of the name. despite the many descriptive names mentioned earlier, most of these still require the pennsylvanian customer to be familiar with the tradition. an “easter egg” could mean a hen’s egg or a chocolate egg. a “chocolate egg” could be mass-produced. a “peanut butter egg” describes the most popular variation rather than the product itself. a “candy easter egg” ignores the fact these creations are made of chocolate rather than a sugar-coated candy shell. a “church egg” would be poor marketing as those unfamiliar might think the church is selling hens’ eggs, a product that many pennsylvanians do, in fact, sell. 7 mary leisey, middletown presbyterian egg sales director, equates this to local legends about hershey factory workers (interview, 2016). as one of the largest historical employers in dauphin county, legends of life at work in the hershey factories are common among residents. one story is that, told they could eat as much chocolate as they desired, by their third day, hershey employees report never wanting to eat chocolate again. on the other hand, jay epler, a geyers church mixer, got a hankering and downed a chocolate egg during our interview. 54 johnson & puglia, chocolate easter egg, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019) 8 sue gleiter (2018b) also mentions the “holy roller” pun. “we’re the ‘holy rollers,’ joked judy schaffner, one of the volunteers, as she rolled filling for the eggs.” variations of this christian wordplay arose repeatedly in our interviews. 9 susie epler (epler et al. interview, 2016), chair of her church’s social committee, emphasized that people believe this to be true but also pointed out that the belief is patently false. there are many events year round that provide equal opportunities for fellowship and camaraderie. 10 according to giving usa, church contributions are down 50% since 1990 (tugend 2008). similarly, according to a research study by empty tomb, the percentage of a congregant’s income donated to a church has declined from 3.1% in 1968 to 2.4% in 2010 to 2.3% in 2011 (burgess 2013). see also “the egg church” 2011 for a story about chocolate eggs specifically as a response to declining revenue. 11 the church’s official history reads: the church began making easter eggs in 1970 as a fundraising project for the building program. when the new church building was built there was a debt of $145,000 in 1973. in 1983 the loan was completely paid, greatly assisted by the easter egg project which began in various homes the first year, moved to the parsonage basement, then to the basement of the old geyers church. the biggest year on record was 1978 when 162,000 eggs were make [sic] using over three tons of sugar. the egg project continues to this day. (geyers united methodist church) 12 in 2016, presbyterian congregation of middletown self-reported producing 22,588 chocolate eggs (leisey interview, 2016). ebenezer self-reported making approximately 33,000 chocolate eggs (blaydon interview, 2016). seven sorrows reported making 64,000 chocolate eggs, intentionally overproducing to be able to donate 1,000 chocolate eggs to the local food bank (fun egg facts, 2016). 13 geyers church, for example, hopes to install an accessible restroom and an elevator with its chocolate egg profits (epler et al. interview, 2016). 14 most people will be familiar with the mass-produced and ubiquitous reese’s peanut butter egg, and it is tempting to assume that the church-made peanut butter egg is simply a homemade version of the commercial variety because they share ingredients, form, and name. indeed, church egg production and local chocolate manufacturers have been connected from the beginning. in addition to distributing chocolate to churches, hershey’s subsidiary, reese’s, developed the best-known, mass-produced peanut butter chocolate egg, the reese’s peanut butter egg, in 1967 (see liebig 2013). in that year, reese’s released its new creation to a limited pennsylvania test audience. following overwhelming success, it released its peanut butter egg nationally the following year. hershey published the announcement in a trade magazine in 1967. see liebig (2013) for a facsimile of the original announcement. according to local legend, the “popular” reese’s chocolate egg derives from the “folk” pennsylvania chocolate easter egg made in digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7: 1 (2018-2019): 55 pennsylvania home cooks’ kitchens for generations (swartz, and epler et al. interviews, 2016; see also klaus 2011). some speculate hershey took the idea after observing the success of the church chocolate egg production process. wilma epler, one of the early participants of the pennsylvania church chocolate egg tradition in middletown, remembered two mysterious men visiting geyers church to watch her dip chocolate eggs. she later asked who the men were, and found out they were reese’s employees. whether they were there to check on the competition or spy on the recipe or production process is uncertain. wilma does remember as they left, they said, “well, she’s doing it right” (epler et al. interview, 2016). to the participants who we interviewed, the originator of the tradition is immaterial. there is no perceived competition between the commercial and church-made variety. only the latter is seen as an important regional foodway, one that is cherished by the community, eagerly anticipated annually, and gleefully announced each year by local media (for example, see sue gleiter 2009, 2012, 2015b, and 2018a; klaus 2011). keywords: chocolate, egg, church fundraiser, easter, spring customs, pennsylvania our first contact was nancy swartz, lifelong resident of middletown, active local church member, and longtime consumer of chocolate eggs. she proved a gateway to contacts at other local churches that led us ultimately to work with three: geyers united... physical manifestations social organization occasion strategies conclusion: the yolk of tradition scholarly secondary sources newspaper and online sources cookbooks and church materials interviews microsoft word review-farahbod-every nation-digest 7-1-galley-4-8-20.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 73-75 © american folklore society 2020 review of: every nation has its dish: black bodies and black food in twentieth-century america jennifer jensen wallach. chapel hill, nc: university of north carolina press, 2019. pp. 248, bibliography, index. review by: marissa francisco farahbod __________________________________________________________ every nation has its dish by jennifer jensen wallach is an intriguing work that centralizes the importance of foodways to the study of group identity construction. laying emphasis on the fact that the study of food choices and food habits provides an entryway into a significant yet elusive kind of historical knowing, wallach eloquently elaborates on the nuances of black identity construction in the twentieth century. she uses a plethora of examples from relevant literature and introduces readers to the lives and works of numerous african american activists, writers, and dedicated food reformers. throughout her work, wallach demonstrates the ways in which cultural and political meanings are embedded within the ritual of mealtime: the comestibles, the ways of eating, and the places where one eats. thus, the performative act of dining and the heavily symbolic act of accepting or rejecting a meal can reveal much about values, social hierarchies of class and race status, and heritage. the author demonstrates how, in the era of post-emancipation, food practices became a significant tool for african americans to distance themselves from the debasement of slavery by revealing their transition through food choice, dining etiquette, hygiene, and meal regularity. every nation is divided into seven chapters that serve as a thought-provoking survey of african american identity formation through food behavior. her initial chapter, “creating the foodways of uplift,” is dedicated to examining the highly performative and race-conscious food practices of middle-class african americans in the movement for racial uplift. wallach introduces readers to food reformers and respectable eaters who deliberately distanced themselves from culinary practices that were tainted with representations of poverty and slavery. these middle-class reformers had the privilege to opt for factory-produced food (also known as pure foods) that was symbolic of modernity and cleanliness. however, while these practices were designed to gain the unlikely approval of white americans, they simultaneously created social hierarchies among black community members. in chapter 2, “booker t. washington’s multifaceted program for food reform at the tuskegee institute,” wallach provides a detailed history of washington’s program for food reform at the tuskegee institute in alabama. to washington, for whom food choices and food habits were an important vehicle for social uplift and assimilation, the creation and management of food systems by and for black people was a dream to which they could aspire. wallach elaborates on the challenges and apprehensions that washington faced as the principal of the institute and his ultimately elusive dream of self-sufficiency. 74 farahbod, review, every nation has its dish digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) “w.e.b. du bois, respectable child-rearing, and the representative black body,” chapter 3, reveals the anxieties felt by african american food reformers as specifically set forth in du bois’s writings. wallach’s helpful excerpts from du bois’s work tangibly reveal his frustrations, if not obsessions, over his daughter’s health, as well as his own. for du bois and his like-minded contemporaries, morality, manhood, and character were linked to good health and slimness, which could be achieved through good food practices. in chapter four, “regionalism, social class, elite perceptions of social class foodways during the era of great migration,” wallach discusses how, throughout the uplift movement, an important agenda for middle-class respectable eaters was to refrain from consuming food with racialized associations. instead they ate what was performatively american in order to transcend negative stereotypes. however, the staple foods of working-class african americans living in poverty in the south remained the “three m’s diet” of meal (corn), meat (pork), and molasses (sweetener). far from succumbing to the middle-class desire to abandon food choices that were symbolic of a history of violence and resistance, these african americans maintained their southern food roots, labeling them “soul food” in the 1960s and reclaiming their culinary heritage. by then, however, soul food ingredients such as corn and pork had been rebranded and reframed as patriotic food choices. with the aim of conserving staples of middleand upper-class american diners, such as beef and wheat, cornmeal and pork had been advertised during world war i, linked to the ideology of nationalism, and their customary symbolic associations forever changed. wallach covers this theme brilliantly in chapter 5, “world war i, the great depression, and the changing symbolic value of black food traditions.” wallach moves to meaningful food choices made by african americans after the civil rights movement, in chapter 6, “the civil rights movement and the ascendency of the idea of a racial style of eating.” she explains how much is revealed about exclusion, racism, and second-class citizenship in america when patriotism, nationalism (which she broadly describes as a feeling of belonging), and first-class citizenship are symbolized in the consumption of certain foods that are denied to some citizens. wallach treats this topic in depth especially with regards to the civil rights movement and the symbolic significance of coca-cola and hamburgers that were both globally and locally associated with american culture. she relates numerous stories about such food denials to african americans in the era prior to the 1964 civil rights act. most notably she tells how mohammad ali, despite winning an olympic gold medal for the us in 1960, was denied service when he asked for a coke and a burger at a kentucky restaurant after he had returned home. the author concludes with “culinary nationalism beyond soul food,” focusing on the history of black culinary nationalism in america. her survey reviews activism in the promotion of pan-african diasporic soul food, in the rejection of soul food as a marker of black identity, in the rise of vegetarianism, and in building a new national black culinary identity. throughout this very well-researched work, wallach displays her profound knowledge of african american history and foodways, presenting the experiences of generations of african american activists and reformers. helpful illustrations farahbod, review, every nation has its dish digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 75 make the narrative more tangible to readers, although some historically important photographs do not find their way into the pages of this book (such as the photograph of diane nash and other student activists drinking coca-cola in a newly desegregated diner). notwithstanding wallach’s vivid descriptions, the visual impact of such culturally significant photographs would have made the work as a whole more powerful. every nation has its dish is a compelling work that examines and decodes food practices, habits, and choices to reveal the ways in which individuals and groups construct and reform social, political, and cultural identities. wallach’s work serves as a strong introduction for students and scholars interested in african american foodways in the twentieth century. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 139-141 © american folklore society 2021 139 review of: hot hot chicken: a nashville story rachel louise martin. nashville: vanderbilt university press, 2021. pp. ix + 215, acknowledgements, introduction, conclusion, epilogue, notes, bibliography, index. review by sarah t. shultz hot chicken—a spicy fried chicken brined in hot sauce, dredged in additional spices and oil after frying, and served on a slice of white bread topped with dill pickle slices—exploded into the mainstream in 2007, when the first annual music city hot chicken festival was held in nashville’s east park at the behest of then-governor bill purcell. hot chicken’s uniquely spicy flavor and strong associations with nashville have made it a major culinary tourist attraction. hot chicken was created in nashville’s african american community during a time when the city was deeply segregated. as hot chicken’s popularity has increased, questions about who should be able to claim ownership of the dish have circulated, with accusations of cultural appropriation following the predominately white restaurant owners who have made the most money off of this culinary trend in recent years. some of this discourse surrounding hot chicken was started by the author, rachel louise martin, herself. she wrote a searing article for the bitter southerner in 2015 called “how hot chicken really happened.” in this article, martin attempted to trace hot chicken as far back as possible in nashville’s history, and linked the meal to the city’s history of segregation and urban development. hot, hot chicken is a continuation of this article, which appears mostly unchanged at the beginning of the book as the introduction, where martin first presents her argument that the city’s racial and class divisions have been “built...into our government, our schools, our food, our very landscape” (7). over the course of eight chapters, a conclusion, and an epilogue, martin traces the history of five waves of urban renewal in nashville, tennessee, and attempts to show how these major structural changes may have affected members of the families who are said to be the inventors of hot chicken: the founding prince family, as well as members of the matthews family, who originally worked with the princes before opening their own hot chicken restaurant. the introduction does not provide much detail about the research methodology martin used to complete the book. throughout the text she refers to searching historical records and occasionally provides quotes from andré prince jeffries and dollye matthews, the two women who are heirs to prince’s hot chicken and bolton’s spicy chicken and fish, the two oldest hot chicken restaurants in town. providing a more detailed account of her research methodology and the intended goals of the book in the introduction would be helpful for historians, foodways scholars, and critical race theorists looking to understand the scope of her work. shultz, review, hot hot chicken digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 140 the first chapter begins prior to the end of the civil war, and locates members of the prince family living on a slaveholding estate called wood park before and after emancipation. martin suggests that the woman who was likely the great-grandmother of thornton prince iii, who owned the first hot chicken restaurant in nashville, probably worked as a cook for the sayers family, who owned wood park. in this chapter, martin introduces one of the major themes of her work: the difficulty inherent in knowing anything for certain about african american history prior to the midnineteenth century, as black lives and businesses were deliberately left out of the public record well into the 1950s. the following seven chapters move chronologically, detailing five waves of urban renewal efforts that took place in nashville and attempting to place members of the prince and matthews families within this larger historical framework. the conclusion and epilogue explore how the current state of gentrification and a round of devastating tornadoes that ravaged the city in march of 2020 continue to exacerbate segregation and inequality in nashville. each of these urban renewal projects was targeted at a predominately african american neighborhood, many of which had a connection to refugee camps settled by self-emancipated people during the civil war. martin does an excellent job of describing how systemic inequality in nashville led to the conditions that caused these neighborhoods to be targeted for urban renewal in the first place, and in illustrating how these projects negatively impacted the communities they were supposed to help. detailing the number of times the princes and mathews were forced to move their homes, relocate or even temporarily close their restaurants over the course of the one hundred and sixty years that have passed between 1860 and the present day drives this point home effectively. educators looking for a source that will illustrate concepts of critical race theory and structural inequality in a way that is engaging and maintains an emphasis on the everyday experiences of the people who are most affected by this inequality will find hot, hot chicken very useful. chapters four, five, and six, which detail how civil rights leaders included the issue of urban renewal in their protests against inequality, as well as their attempts to challenge these projects in court, are especially strong in showcasing how these development and renewal projects exacerbated racial inequality even when their implementers may have intended otherwise. martin focuses more on the story of nashville than on hot chicken as a local dish and attraction for culinary tourists, although there are some insights about hot chicken and southern cuisine in general throughout the book. chapter four describes thornton prince iii’s first hot chicken restaurant, the “bbq chicken shack,” as appealing to customers because it provided both nostalgic home style cooking and cutting edge industrial foods like white bread and pre-packaged pickle slices, which would have been a novelty in the 1950s. martin also suggests that the meaning of hot chicken has changed over time, from a symbol of a lost history following the housing crisis of 2007, to one of belonging for the large numbers of newcomers who have moved into the area over the past decade. more analysis of the symbolic meanings of hot chicken would be welcome, as would shultz, review, hot hot chicken digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 141 further insights into the debates on ownership of hot chicken and issues of cultural appropriation that are raised in chapters seven and eight. hot, hot chicken: a nashville story, offers a comprehensive analysis of how decades of urban renewal and zoning projects in the city led to more and more drastic levels of segregation between nashville’s white and black residents, as well as among its rich and poor. choosing to focus on members of a few select families who were and continue to be affected by these changes at every turn makes this work accessible and compelling, and the choice to have those individuals be the creators of hot chicken, a trendy dish with a controversial place in current discourse, ensures that people will read the story who may not otherwise have been interested in the history of nashville’s neighborhoods and infrastructure. because martin takes care to provide both state and federal historical context for each urban renewal project she focuses on, hot, hot chicken is a valuable contribution to studies of structural inequality across the united states, not just in one city in the middle south. < holler, jess lamar reece. review of: “kentucky’s cookbook heritage: two hundred years of southern cuisine and culture.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 review of: kentucky’s cookbook heritage: two hundred years of southern cuisine and culture. john van willigen. lexington: university press of kentucky, 2014. 299 pp.; includes notes, reference, index and annotated bibliography. by: jess lamar reece holler (western kentucky university) although university of kentucky professor emeritus of anthropology john van willigen coyly reminds us that “one does not really eat tradition; one eats food,” the line between the two is often delectably hazy (149). van willigen’s kentucky’s cookbook heritage: two hundred years of southern cuisine and culture (2014) is an impressive tour-de-force of the history of kentucky’s cookbook culture. the book takes up the complex process by which certain foods assume regional icon-status. van willigen pays equal attention to print culture, foodways, and social and technological contexts for food writing, and his enthusiasm for historic cookbooks’ power to index wider changes in food culture pervades the book. kentucky’s cookbook heritage, however, is also a book that’s as much about gaps as it is about continuities: while focusing primarily on the print culture of cookbooks, van willigen nonetheless gently interrogates the complications involved in attempting to reconstruct historic foodways from extant documentary sources. kentucky’s cookbook heritage is devoted to a series of inter-woven close readings of particular cookbooks, authors, and genres, from the single-authored celebrity cookbook to the iconic comb-bound community cookbook to popular louisville courier-journal food columns. it uses these close-readings as springboards for a larger consideration of food culture and social history. chapters are organized chronologically and centre on time period and trends that include lettice bryan’s 1839 the kentucky housewife, the post-civil war era, the turn-of-the-century, the great depression, mid-century convenience crazes and bicentennials, and recent sustainability-themed volumes. throughout, the author is keenly interested in the timely question of contemporary local food culture. he explores < holler, jess lamar reece. review of: “kentucky’s cookbook heritage: two hundred years of southern cuisine and culture.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 the fascinating ways that kentucky’s cookbooks, which by necessity started out as “local,” have tracked the emergence of a “distant” food culture in the 19th and 20th centuries – one that has only recently returned to home-grown priorities. van willigen is especially attentive to the way that the history of cooking technology has shaped and been shaped by cookbooks. early chapters interweave discussions of the format of recipes and cookbooks with fascinating histories of open-hearth cooking and the rise of gas and coal stoves. later chapters trace the rise of standard measurements, refrigeration, hydrogenated fats, and, yes: even the coming of jell-o and spam. van willigen also attends to gender, class and race-making as a part of changing domestic service technologies in kentucky homes. traces of food as technology also appear throughout. van willigen, for example, uses the preponderance of eggs in the earliest kentucky cookbook recipes (many averaging over a dozen) to illustrate the startling fact that eggs have literally grown in size over time. other antiquated food technologies like pearlash and saleratus--predecessors of baking powder with now-extinct aftertastes all their own--also come alive in rich social context. van willigen even tells today’s readers – now, don’t act like you weren’t wondering -where one can procure a good vintage-style wood-burning stove (62)! the result is a work that combines diligent, engaging history with a keen sensory experience. kentucky’s cookbook heritage truly shines in its consideration of cookbook genres and recipe format. van willigen traces the rise and transformation of once-popular sub-genres like the women’s charity cookbook (and its close relative, the community cookbook) alongside more contemporarily forms like the single-authored celebrity cookbook or restaurant-themed collection. van willigen takes pains to chart the influence of attribution, anonymity and collective authorship on kentucky foodways and the canonization of a pantheon of iconic kentucky foods. the question of the social implications of “block” format recipes versus the now-standard spatial separation of ingredient lists from procedures (popularized, as van willigen argues, not by fannie farmer, but by her predecessor, mrs. d.a. lincoln of the boston cooking school, in 1884) runs throughout. the author’s most virtuosic moments come, however, when he traces the influence of national expert-led “domestic science” cultures in the early 20th century on the print and material technologies of kentucky cookbooks. van willigen likewise glows in his excavation of visionary new deal-era works progress administration foodways print projects like the pack horse library recipe compilations and the kentucky edition of the unfinished but recently revenant federal writers’ project “america eats!” national < holler, jess lamar reece. review of: “kentucky’s cookbook heritage: two hundred years of southern cuisine and culture.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 foodways initiative. one of the book’s strongest suits is its frequent inclusion of period recipes from featured cookbooks to illustrate van willigen’s larger social histories. although van willigen notes that his historic recipes “have not been tested,” their prominent presence certainly invites spates of historic cookery, and adds an immediate and tactile dimension to the reading experience (201). kentucky’s cookbook heritage also comes equipped with many gorgeous full-page and half-page reproductions of original covers van willigen’s touchstone cookbooks. regrettably, though many of van willigen’s discussions focus on the material culture and layout of historic kentucky cookbooks, few facsimile recipes are included. scholars of race-and region-making in the american south may wish van willigen’s discussions of racial representation in kentucky cookbooks to go deeper and stay longer, but, on the whole, the book manages to synthesize a remarkably diverse number of historical narratives, constellated around evolving genres of kentucky cookbooks, in a compelling and digestible span and format. in sum: kentucky’s cookbook heritage is brightly written for an intelligent, involved general audience. it should have value both for home cooks interested in the history and politics of regional foodways and for historians who cook. the book should also appeal to folklorists, americanists, and scholars of popular literature and food culture. these readers may be especially interested in van willigen’s thoughtful treatment of the politics of tradition and the creation, circulation and commodification of regional cuisine in national and global markets. that’s not to mention, of course, the obvious appeal for fans and residents of the commonwealth. the most tremendous offering of van willigen’s kentucky’s cookbook heritage, however, comes after the main course. van willigen has lovingly compiled a powerhouse annotated bibliography of kentucky cookbooks spanning the last two centuries. van willigen’s bibliography is especially attentive to access: wherever possible, he notes a library or archive in kentucky that houses a copy of a particular cookbook. the bibliography also diligently tracks many early volumes’ availability through googlebooks, the internet archive, and other digital repositories. don’t be surprised if kentucky’s cookbook heritage starts you scouring ebay and estate sales for prime mid-century (or earlier) editions, whether you have an icebox or not. < holler, jess lamar reece. review of: “kentucky’s cookbook heritage: two hundred years of southern cuisine and culture.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 kentucky’s cookbook heritage is a delightful, chock-full survey of the region’s cookbook cultures and traditions that combines smart argument, local color and ample human interest. van willigen’s cast of characters--and their labors of love and contexts of cookery, both rescued from the apparent kitchen-less-ness of the archive--are as clear, distinct and enticing as the iconic kentucky recipes they helped to create. the book is a must-read on any southern foodways shelf. and, just in case the inspiration for some chicken fricassee à la 1899 strikes, throw a working copy on that shelf near the oven while you’re at it. historical food ads < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 it’s the cake talking theorizing the recipe memoir by: tara brabazon recipes – captured on paper and in analogue mode are frequently marked by residues from ingredients, cooking, experience and expertise. drips, drops, mistakes and successes leave their dregs on cookbooks and individual recipes. in this article, i deploy unobtrusive research methods (kellehear 1993), revealing a history of these residues. when opening a recipe book, researchers can see which pages were (well) read and which were never opened. notes, additions and corrections can be tracked. digitization has transformed this process. mobile phone applications provide recipes and blogs sharing successes and failures. it is – ironically – an undercooked genre but one that provides opportunities to renegotiate the relationship between family and popular culture, information literacy and food literacy. the recipe memoir offers a window into an array of intricate social, cultural, gendered, classed, rural, regional and national histories. as clementi has shown, the recipe memoir may encase histories of migration and genocide (clementi 2014). blogs publish recipes to track the movement “from child to chef” (arrouze 2014). most frequently, the genre is used to understand a family as it moves through time and space, how continuities are bent, bruised and reshaped through changes to work, leisure and landscape (ellsworth 2010). recipe memoirs can, to cite jane dixon, “explain the production of tastes for foods and food practices” (2002:80). interdisciplinary innovations are also present. diane tye revealed baking as biography (2010). it is also history and historiography, geography and cultural geography. it weaves through popular and unpopular culture. while expansive histories of the agrarian and industrial revolutions can be traced through ingredients and the recipes that fed the factories, the recipe memoir creates a tapestry of textures, stories, memories and tastes that are not definitive, causal or easily accessible for a researcher. this emerging genre has profound potential to reveal the “lipstick traces” (marcus 1989) – the ephemeral textures, colours and sounds of culture. greil marcus’s evocative title, lipstick traces, has been summoned with intentionality < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 in this article. instead of asking e.h. carr’s old question “what is history?” (1961), it is time to rephrase this enquiry in a way that captures the role of digitization in forgetting and remembering, while also acknowledging the insights of mobility studies (urry 2007) and popular memory studies. greil marcus captured the tone of this new enigmatic trajectory for history and for historians: what is history, anyway? is history simply a matter of events that leave behind those things that can be weighed and measured: new institutions, new rulers, new winners, new losers, or is history also a matter of those things that seem to leave nothing behind, nothing but the mystery of spectral connections between people long separated by place and time. if the language they are speaking, the impulse they are voicing, has its own language, might it not tell a very different story from the one we’ve been hearing all our lives? (marcus 1989: 6) recipe memoirs are an ideal space, place and genre to track and trace these “spectral connections” between people who may never have met, or who do not share the present. marcus has described chronology as “the way history is cheapened and restricted” (1995:5). every moment that passes sees the destruction of alternative views, interpretations and source material. the notion that historians make a past built on factual evidence that is a mirror of the time from which it emerges is delusional at best, and politically blind at worst. the disappearances of history, the source material that does not survive through time, results in a profound narrowing of the past realities that are possible to access. recipes – particularly in an era of digitization and applications – may be shared, but the diversity and localism of family memories through food is rarely captured. old cookbooks are discarded. houses are sold. families fragment. ingredients transform. the recipe memoir prioritizes epistemological discussions about the nature of history and its relationship with folklore. the impact of women’s history and social history has changed the way historical methods are constituted. the hierarchy of historical research has allowed the main sources of evidence to remain parliamentary papers, newspapers, journals of political organizations and diaries. similarly, the research strategies through which these conventional sources are being accessed display little knowingness of contested subjectivities, multiple readerships or the complexity of text/context relationship. greil marcus showed the impact of dismissing this type of evidence, particularly for the marginalized and dispossessed: < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 there are people who act and speak but whose gestures and words do not translate out of their moments – and this exclusion, the sweep of the broom of this dustbin, is a movement that in its way is far more violent than any toppling of statues (1995:17-18). to blandly place faith in the written document over the popular cultural trace is to perpetuate an inequality and oppression that is wide in its magnitude and dense in its consequences. women, as much as indigenous and black communities, gays and lesbians, the working class and youth, have been sliced from time, space and historical evidence (spivak 1988; hooks 1989). to construct a history of the ephemeral – the shadows cast by “authoritative” source material requires a range of interpretative techniques that are beyond the parameters of both history and cultural studies, but requires a nuanced dialogue between the two. through changing the genre, mode and modality, a new type of interpretation can emerge. the recipe memoir is radically contextual and profoundly interdisciplinary. at its most basic, a recipe memoir requires an understanding of social history, oral history, family history, feminist theory, men’s studies, food studies, popular memory studies and – increasingly – internet studies. but complex theorizations of globalization, industrialization, post-fordism, urbanity and sub/urbanity are also necessary. these characteristics of the recipe memoir are emerging, even though the dissemination on and offline is diverse. a recipe, often shared between the generations, is the key element. ingredients are listed and discussed. methods of preparation and serving are offered (melissa’s recipe memoir 2014). from this simple list of instructions, more complex meanings are revealed, accessing the social, cultural, sociological and sensory meanings encircling food. most significantly, they capture the memory – often a nostalgic memory – of a family and time that has passed. frequently, recipes provide a code to interpret the (social) semiotic system (kress 2010) of a household, a marriage, children and a family. community and family, popular culture and popular memory, dialogue and transform. this article opens out the recipe memoir, demonstrating its potential in capturing diverse and often unwritten histories in new ways. at its core is a recipe memoir from my family: chocolate goo. the narrative of this recipe is clear. the history and historiography that punctuate this chronology are more complex. the original recipe has been lost. digitization has enabled the survival of the original through pixels rather than pages. through an oral history interview – carried by a podcast – the context around this recipe has been discovered, revealed, published and distributed (brabazon 2014). where is the goo? < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 tara brabazon: what does it taste like? kevin brabazon: just like chocolate goo (brabazon 2014). the facts in this case seem clear. in 1963, my brother stephen brabazon, at nine years of age, was taught how to swim by a neighbour. mrs. smart, along with my parents and brother, lived in yokine, a rapidly expanding perth suburb geared for families. to this day, the best known features of yokine are its shopping centre and a golf club. therefore, from this conventional – and indeed emerging – suburban life of australia, a recipe was shared. it was not passed from my grandparents, but through a neighbour. therefore, this recipe memoir commences in suburban perth. the burgeoning suburbs have been “a problem” for urban planners and creative industries practitioners in australia, but they are a conduit for a recipe memoir. this undervalued genre is sourced from an undervalued location. for example, charles landry was brought in by form, the perth-based not-for-profit organization, for a two year consultancy to provide “expert” commentary about the city’s future. he presented a distinctive cultural mapping of the city: last weekend i criss-crossed over 350 kilometres of perth from the eastern suburbs to the western in search of a speck of urbanity. i do not denigrate the delights of suburbia, but perth has 98% of it. the suburban washes over metro perth like an endless patina as the swathes of asphalt covered to get there dull the senses. how about 80% suburbia and 20% of the truly urban to start with? you see a touch in subiaco, east perth, fremantle and mount lawley. but where else? (2007) charles landry moved from east to west looking for urbanity. the suburbs he valued are affluent, older and gentrified. yokine is not listed. the repercussion of such analytical attacks is that it perpetuates classism and inequality and demonizes the suburbs. over the last decade, the poorest of citizens have moved to the extremities of cities. the affluent have clustered in the suburbs within a twenty minute car trip to the cbd. the affluent and educated affirm the value of urbanity, while the majority of the population occupies the middle and outer suburbs. bernard salt stated that “the problem i have is that city planning, and more often australian culture, appears to be determined by those whose lives are based in the inner city, and not by the silent majority of average australians who live in the suburban heartland. perhaps it’s time to listen to what the latter have to say about the kind of lifestyle they want to lead in suburbia” (2008:28). the < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 texts that emerge from the suburbs – often also coded as feminine, popular cultural and ephemeral – are similarly discredited. the recipe memoir is trapped in this discourse. the suburbs frame family memories of food. in the case of chocolate goo, the mode of transmission was my brother, who was so impressed by the “cake” that he transcribed the recipe to pass to his mother. here is a scanned copy of the original (see figure 1). figure 1 chocolate goo recipe, written by stephen brabazon, scanned by kevin brabazon this recipe is now 51 years old. this document captures a popular mode of “running writing” in the 1960s. this “authenticity” feeds into miller and deutsch statement that “evaluating primary sources is generally a matter of asking a number of questions. the first question to ask is, is it genuine? is the document or artifact authentic?” (2009:85). in this case, with a digitized artifact, such a question is important. yet this scan has perpetuated browning and ageing paper, stains and also unidentified and recognized pencil marks logging information that is unclear in both original and purpose. it holds an important role in the family for many reasons. firstly, stephen, as a nine year old, enjoyed eating this cake. doris, stephen’s mother, was having trouble finding food that he enjoyed. as doris stated, “he wouldn’t eat. i was struggling to make < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 him eat” (brabazon 2014). she reported that he “came home and told me he’d got a recipe” (brabazon 2014). this movement of a recipe was remembered because it only happened once. the idea that he would enjoy a food so much that he would copy it and pass it to his mother was rare. this story also dipped into a history of childhood and food that is rarely discussed or textualized. often, the focus is on school food, empowered through institutionalization (robert and weaver-hightower 2011). figure 2 chocolate goo (photograph by kevin brabazon) these stories are often lost, unless an act of historical reclamation takes place. often new evidence has to be constructed in the present about the past, particularly through oral history. oral historiography is an inexact process, particularly with older interviewees, but beneficial in terms of evidence created and personal connections revealed (ehlman, ligon and moriello 2014). when accessed through media applications such as skype, the mode of information captured, even when the interviewee and interviewer are geographically dispersed, is sensory, sensitive, affective and effective. it can also be conflictual and incorrect. yet the errors are in themselves important. oral historiography demonstrates that all histories are histories of the present. jeff miller and jonathan deutsch were incorrect to state that, “the novice food studies scholar working in a historical area needs to remember not to fall into the trap of presentism” (2009: 79). there is no method, mode or theory – with the exception of reified empiricism to deny the current context of contemporary writing and interpretations of food, war, fashion or genocide. historians are managing the imperfect reference materials that have < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 survived into the present. most recipes, practices and behaviors are lost to written, let alone archived, records and can only be reclaimed imperfectly through men and women retelling their pasts and their family stories through the frame of the present. a fine example of this process is michal bosworth’s oral history, emma (ciccotosto and bosworth 1990). in this case, the life story of emma ciccotosto is punctuated by food, cooking and recipes. she is not conveying “reality” to michal bosworth, but offering a subtle and moving refrain while retelling her life. to pretend that such a past of food and family exists in a vacuum untroubled by the present is naïve empiricism. all texts that survive are read through the present. history is not “about” facts, but interpretation. the strength of my oral history podcast with my parents – although flawed in both technological and methodological terms – is that an array of early food behaviors in western australia were revealed, particularly encircling rural life during the depression. while stephen brabazon was the conduit for sharing the recipe through a written document, and the context around it was gained through oral history interviews with his parents, the chocolate goo would have remained unmade if it was too complex or time consuming. both doris and kevin brabazon were in full-time work in 1963. doris completed all the cooking, but her time was torn between household duties, family responsibilities and paid employment. jean-louis flandrin described this change as “over the past two centuries, women have had less time for these traditional responsibilities” (1999:436). the notion of “traditional responsibilities” is indeed a traditional rather than a feminist ideology. but the key point raised through the oral history with kevin brabazon was a recognition of the shifts in the behaviour of his mother (from the 1930s) and wife (from 1950). his mother’s days were dominated by cooking. his wife had to manage multiple responsibilities and a lack of time available for food preparation. she was assisted through the management of this complex daily timetable by emerging domestic technology (sheridan 2002). the early 1960s was a pivot for many of these changes. yokine as a suburb was growing. further, 1963 was a special year, one that kevin described as “the year of the beatles” (brabazon 2014). therefore, multiple popular cultural memory-triggers encircled this recipe. but its simplicity is important because it connotes the changing priorities of femininity and shifts in the pattern of family life. when prompted in a podcast, doris could list the ingredients and methods without hesitation. at the conclusion of her retelling of the recipe, doris used the phrase “end of story” (brabazon 2014). what she meant by this statement is that the cooking process was quick, simple and effective. but the simplicity of this recipe is also the start of a different story. < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 making the story ingredients and preparation methods are not the end of a recipe memoir. food travels. meanings change. also, naming protocols are significant. the “goo” signifies that this foodstuff is not a cake, fudge or biscuit. it has a texture similar to flapjacks, with coconut, rather than oats, providing the texture. the ingredients are basic: self-raising flour, cocoa, coconut, sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla essence. these ingredients of baking have – outside of structural periods of scarcity like depression and wars – a wide and diverse availability. most have a colonial origin (nutzenadel and trentmann 2008) and reached familiarity and entry into popular culture through baking cultures of the twentieth century. chocolate goo carries forward the histories of both chocolate and cake. as sarah moss and alexander badenoch argued, “chocolate is complicated” (2009:7). theobroma cacao grows naturally within 20 degrees of the equator and below 300 metres in altitude (moss and badenoch 2009). therefore the nations that consume the most chocolate do not grow it. chocolate entered europe through spain, but in the 18th century it was consumed as a breakfast drink (moss and badenoch 2009: 41-42). in 1828, chocolate transformed with the van houten press, selling machines to cadbury in 1860, fry and sons in 1866 and hershey in 1893. the challenge with chocolate – in grasping both its history and present ideologies is well revealed by moss and badenoch: that ambiguity, or rather series of ambiguities, offers a good summation of many of the current places of chocolate in our lives and indeed throughout much of its history. it remains a puzzling mixture between familiar and exotic, global and local, guilty pleasure and overlooked injustice (2009:119). the question is what happens when chocolate is put into a cake. the complexity intensifies. the history of the cake is similarly convoluted. as nicola humble argued, “cakes are very strange things, producing a range of emotional responses far out of keeping with their culinary significance. they are simultaneously utterly unnecessary and absolutely crucial” (2010:8). cake through its history has overlaying relationships with bread, biscuits, muffins and puddings. gingerbread, pancakes and oatcakes demonstrate the variations in the definitions of cake. teacakes are bread. tea breads are cakes. the separation emerged in the 18th and 19th century, when yeasts were used in bread and cakes were raised through eggs, particularly beaten egg whites. the chocolate goo recipe has a single beaten egg and no yeast. it is part of a history of post-war baking which humble revealed is when, “baking went down-market, becoming the province of popular women’s magazines and cookery pamphlets, which continued to place great < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 emphasis on the baking of cakes and biscuits long after more upmarket publications had ceased to do so” (2010: 6). the language is dismissive and pejorative. when women and magazines popularized baking, the ‘upmarket’ chefs moved to more complex preparatory rituals. but food has changed. baking has been revived. programs such as ace of cakes make cake construction edgy, risky, skillful and masculine. such a revival/reclamation shows that doris brabazon’s flippant “end of story” comment, which conveyed the ease at which the chocolate goo could be made, is not a strength within a particular gastronomic discourse. similarly pinterest captures, and disseminates, pictures of perfectly formed baked delights. therefore social media has increased the performativity and mastery of baking. it is removed from a domestic, every day, suburban practice. much has changed in the ideology of baking since 1930 (tye 2010). indeed, when remaking this recipe, the ingredients display the marks of transforming food practices in the twenty first century: organic (lyon 2006) and ecological. the eggs i used to remake the recipe were not laid by caged birds, but free range. indeed, a qr code on the base of the package allows consumers to view live footage of satisfied and mobile chickens. these eggs are then branded as “ecoeggs.” for ten eggs, (not even a dozen), the retail price is a$6.89. figure 3 ecoeggs (photograph by tara brabazon) of all the ingredients in this recipe, the production and consumption of chicken and eggs have witnessed the greatest change (ellis 2007). self-raising flour is seemingly straight forward. however it now features two mitigating adjectives: “unbleached” and “healthy.” it is also “vitamin enriched.” for one kilogram, the supermarket price is a$3.28. < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 figure 4 the healthy baker (photographed by tara brabazon) sugar is “low gi cane sugar.” this sugar is “better for you.” it is also not white. white food, particularly sugar, activates a specific signifying system. as warren belasco stated, whiteness meant blandness. the two main seasonings of white middle-class culture were white salt and sugar, with white saccharin making gains along with the other white powders that went into plastic foods and their wrappers (1989:49). the critique of this ideology emerged from the counterculture. brownness in rice, bread and sugar critiqued whiteness. class, food and culture became more complex. yet from the 1970s through to the present, science – or pseudoscience – affirms low glycemic indices carried through the countercultural ideology of brownness. the price for 750 grams of logicane is a$3.57. < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 figure 5 low gi (photographed by tara brabazon) coconut is “fine” and “desiccated.” the iconography of the coconuts are green even though the desiccation is white. for 250 grams, the cost is a$2.57. figure 6 fine (photographed by tara brabazon) the cocoa powder is dutch, with an array of languages and consumers featured on the reverse of the packaging. the heritage of van houten, as the first firm to build effective equipment for the manufacture of cocoa, is summoned. this history is costly, with 250 grams requiring a$7.51 from the consumer. < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 figure 7 cacao (photograph by tara brabazon) this is distinct from the other cheaper choice that was available. cadbury – as a brand (bradley 2008) – is associated with packaged chocolate sweets and also the colour purple, which emerged in the packaging during the 1920s (chrystal 2012). it is cheaper than van houten, with 250 grams costing a$5.90. figure 8 cadbury’s nostalgic purple (photographed by tara brabazon) no other languages are featured on the package. instead nineteenth century colonial iconography of gentrified ladies and gentlemen are the background for a colourized and intense cocoa. < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 the vanilla extract is ‘natural’ and, conversely, concentrated. the price for 200ml is a$11.38. figure 9 ‘natural’ (photographed by tara brabazon) adjectival choice in food packaging walks the line between actuality and aspiration. rachel laudan offered a corrective to the celebration of the “fresh” and the “natural,” believing that these words until very recently were not trusted (2001). fresh food went bad. preserved food survived. similarly, butter is unsalted, natural and features “no artificial ingredients.” this “natural” product – for 250 grams – costs a$3.76. figure 10 unsalted butter (photograph by tara brabazon) < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 the changes between this recipe transcribed by stephen brabazon in 1963 and the ingredients prepared by his sister in 2015 capture the transformations to food production and consumption. choice has increased. information about those choices on food packaging has increased. yet taste is not measurable or verifiable, particularly when peppered with memory. is the resultant mixture any better than that cooked without the mitigating adjectives of low gi, eco and natural? figure 11 mixing goo (photograph by tara brabazon) what makes chocolate goo interesting in terms of cooking is that the resultant mixture is dry, only moistened and bound by an egg, butter and a trace of vanilla. the texture of the coconut is visible. while the goo is simple to make, the deskilling of baking reduces the time and expense of making a cake even further. there was a reason i placed the price in australian dollars of these “authentic” ingredients. while readers may be operating in a different currency, these prices enable a direct comparison with the cheaper and quicker options available to buy a packaged chocolate cake. < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 figure 12 deskilled cooking (photograph by tara brabazon) with the addition of one egg to this packet, a cake can be made. the packet costs a$5.36 and is much cheaper than taking the time and effort to make a chocolate goo. further deskilling emerges through the purchase of a pre-made cake. this situation is what jean-louis flandrin described as “‘ready-to-eat’ industries” (1999: 436). these industries emerge from a modern food system where shortages are rare. variety and choice are common (beardsworth and keil 1997). the sustainability of this system remains debatable, particularly with regard to health (beardsworth and keil 1997). felipe fernandez-armesto described part of this process as the “industrialization of chocolate” (2001: 224). convenience is an ideology that masks the separation in both time and geography between production and consumption. figure 13 pre-made, pre-bought chocolate cake (photograph by tara brabazon) < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 this 500 gram cake costs a$5.00. the plastic container is removed and it can be served. this mode of convenience has a context. the changes to work, families and femininity are mapped over the transformations in production, shopping, storage and baking. digital goo our generation, like those that went before, must learn how to manage the relationship between past and present, tradition and change (flandrin and massimo 1996: 553). this analogue history of recipe survival has been enabled through digitization. it was shared between neighbours six years before i was born. the original piece of paper has been lost. the entire cookbook in which the piece of paper was placed is lost. before it was either misplaced or displaced, i had asked kevin to scan this recipe. i was in the united kingdom teaching a first year course in 2008 titled creative industries. evaluating charles leadbeater’s living on thin air, i wanted to demonstrate the value of ideas rather than products. therefore i used the chocolate goo recipe to teach this principle. here is an extract from the lecture. the new knowledge economy is not based around the creation of ideas, but the commodification of ideas. leadbeater explains this idea through the example of the chocolate cake. we are going to take some time here with the chocolate cake, because if you get this – the rest of the course is a piece of cake. leadbeater made the following statement think of the world as divided up into chocolate cakes and chocolate-cake recipes. a chocolate cake is what economists call a rival good: if i eat it you cannot. a chocolate cake is like most products of the industrial economy: cars, houses, computers, personal stereos … the chocolate-cake recipe is like many of the products of the knowledge economy. software, digital codes and genetic information are all like powerful recipes which control how hardware – computers and bodies – work. we are moving into an economy where the greatest value is in the recipes, rather than the cakes. so a chocolate cake can be sold only once. < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 but the recipe can be commodified and sold over and over again. here for example is my mother’s famous recipe for the best chocolate cake in the world in the family – we call it ‘chocolate goo’ it is a combination of cake and fudge. it is magnificent. i am sharing this with all of you today. but once we’ve eaten the cake, it is gone and you will have no idea how it is made. it is a brabazon secret. but if i sold you the recipe for it that is the real value of the cake. so intellectual property rights and copyrights over fashion designs, lyrics, music, writing and images are where the money can be made. these are issues of law, not creativity. therefore, even within this early modelling of creative industries, the product – the goo – has a singular value. the recipe has the lasting value. for students, this was a tangible strategy to teach the primary principle of creative industries: the value of ideas, not products. this article demonstrates the movement of ideas more widely than can be expressed in a particular model for economic development. configuring a recipe memoir creates a textured history that moves beyond undulations of continuing and change, and into popular memory. parts of the past jut and transform into our present. because kevin was in western australia and i was living and working in the south east of england, digitization was the only strategy to move this recipe between countries. now this scan, and the podcast about this recipe, is all that remains of this moment of food memory. this recipe memoir also moves from analogue to digital platforms. from < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 these residues, a lipstick trace of the past is assembled. this personal narrative delves into transformations of rurality, urbanity, femininity and work. sidney mintz stated that “we need to know more than we do about the history and sociology of our own food practices” (2006:3). similarly, there is a necessity to understand the relationship between food and memory, taste and knowledge. a recipe memoir allows scholars to, as michael carolan suggested, enter “into the subjects of food and food politics by way of the lived experience” (2011:7). such an analysis is even more important with dessert. as michael krondl revealed, “when you talk about dessert you step away from analyzing basic human needs to a conversation about culture” (2011:3). chocolate goo is the start of this conversation about how western australian food moved and moves beyond the state, and from analogue to digital platforms. whether authentic, eco or healthy, a chocolate trace of suburban history is carried in, on and through a recipe memoir. < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 references cited aarrouze, eric. 2014. child to chef. http://childtochef. com/ (accessed on january 10, 2015). beardsworth, alan and teresa keil. 1997. sociology on the menu: an invitation to the study of food and society. london: routledge. belasco, warren. 1989. appetite for change. how the counterculture took on the food industry, 1966-1988. new york: pantheon. brabazon, tara. 2005. from revolution to revelation. aldershot: ashgate. brabazon, tara. 2014. an oral history of western australian food with kevin and doris brabazon. tara brabazon’s podcast. libsyn. http://traffic.libsyn. com/tarabrabazon/an_oral_history_of_western_australian_food_with_ doris_and_kevin_brabazon.mp3 (accessed on january 10, 2015). bradley, john. 2008. cadbury purple reign: the story behind chocolate’s best-loved brand. chichester: john wiley. bredekamp, horst. 2003. a neglected tradition? art history as 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planet chicken: the shameful story of the bird on your plate. london: hodder and stoughton. ellsworth, phoebe. 2010. eating in st. helena a recipe memoir: a generation’s family favorites. napa: createspace. fernandez-armesto, felipe. 2001. food: a history. london: macmillan. flandrin, jean-louis and montanari, massimo. 1996. food: a culinary history from antiquity to the present. new york: columbia university press. flandrin, jean-louis. 1999. food: a culinary history from antiquity to the present. new york: columbia university press. hopler, jay. 2002. watching the detectives. journal of social history winter: 455-466. humble, nicola. 2010. cake: a global history. london: reaktion books. kellehear, allan. 1993. the unobtrusive researcher: a guide to methods. sydney: allen & unwin. kneafsey, moya, rosie cox, lewis holloway, elizabeth dowler, laura venn and helena tuomainen. 2008. reconnecting consumers, producers and food: exploring alternatives. new york: berg. kress, gunther. 2010. multimodality: a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. london: routledge. krondl, michael. 2011. sweet invention: a history of dessert. chicago: chicago review press. landry, charles. 2007. city thinking can develop the full picture of perth.” the west australian. february 24: 5 laudan, rachel. 2001. a plea for culinary modernism: why we should love new, fast processed food. gastronomica february: 36-44. leadbeater, charles. 2000. living on thin air: the new economy. london: penguin. lyon, kristen. 2006. environmental values and food choices: views from australian organic food consumers. journal of australian studies 87: 155-166. < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 marcus, griel. 1989. lipstick traces. london: secker and warburg. ---. 1995. the dustbin of history. cambridge: harvard university press. melissa’s recipe memoir. 2014. http://melissasrecipmemoir. blogspot.com.au/ (accessed on january 10, 2015). memoir.com. 2014. recipe memoirs. http://writeyourmemoir.com/ tag/recipe-memoirs/ (accessed on january 10, 2015). miller, jeff and jonathan deutsch. 2009. food studies: an introduction to research methods. new york: berg. mintz, sidney. 2006. food at moderate speeds. in fast food / slow food: the cultural economy of the global food system, ed. richard wilk, 2-12. lanham: altamira press. moss, sarah and alexander badenoch. 2009. chocolate: a global history. london: reaktion. nutzenadel, alexander and frank trentmann. 2008. introduction: mapping food and globalization. in food and globalization: consumption, markets and politics in the modern world, eds. alexander nutzenadel and frank trentmann, 1-20. berg: new york. robert, sarah and marcus weaver-hightower. 2011. school food politics: the complex ecology of hunger and feeding in schools around the world. new york: peter lang. rousseau, signe. 2012. food media: celebrity chefs and the politics of everyday interference. london: berg. salt, bernard. 2009. it’s time for the burbs to be heard. the australia. august 13: 27-28. spivak, gayatri chakravorty. 1988. “can the subaltern speak? “in marxism and the interpretation of culture, ed. cary nelson and lawrence grossberg, 271-313. urbana: university of illinois press. hooks, bell. 1989. talking back. boston: south end press. tye, diane. 2010. baking as biography: a life story in recipes. montreal: mcgill queens university press. < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 urry, john. 2007. mobilities. cambridge: polity. yokine. 2014. city of stirling. http://www.stirling.wa.gov.au/about-the-city/suburbs/pages/ yokine.aspx (accessed on january 11, 2015). < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 notes 1 a key genre of the website memoir.com are recipe memoirs. please refer to http://writeyourmemoir.com/tag/recipe-memoirs/ 2 for a discussion of how popular memory studies intervene in theorizations of history, particularly when attended by cultural studies, see my monograph t. brabazon, from revolution to revelation (2005). 3 importantly though, hierarchies of “evidence” still exist, even in social history. jay hopler, when researching the literature of contractual murder, tells of her relationship with pulp fiction: “the stories themselves were shallow and formulaic; the characters were cardboard cut-outs that meandered from one almost-sexual encounter to another and, no matter what the plot was or where the story was set, someone inevitably ended up unconscious in an alley behind some strip bar or juke joint … the mammoth book of pulp fiction confirmed what i had always suspected – pulp fiction was worthless” (2002:460). she later realized that by moving away from text-based models of literary criticism and granting the audience of these books a context and space through cultural studies methods, the genre gained meaning in a particular time and place. hopler’s article is an outstanding “journey piece,” capturing how even the most liberal of social historians were able to discount “evidence” because a history degree provides few skills in audience analysis. 4 even when utilizing photographic and filmic sources, a notion of cultural value is deployed in a way that excludes other ways of reading visual culture. for example, please refer to horst bredekamp (2003). this research, while appearing to incorporate a wide range of visual culture, offers singular readings of “art,” wherever it may be found. 5 managing nostalgia in recipe memoirs is important. when summoning a recipe a particular version of family, home, femininity and masculinity can follow. moya kneafsey, rosie cox, lewis holloway, elizabeth dowler, laura venn and helena tuomainen warned that, “nostalgia is a powerful emotion, which can be tapped into successfully by marketers seeking to capitalize on our capacity for idealizing the past,” from “contextualizing ‘alternative’ food relationships,” in reconnecting consumers, producers and food: exploring alternatives (2008:310). < brabazon, tara. “it’s the cake talking” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 6 podcasts are an under-discussed element of food media. while blogging and – to a lesser extent – twitter are discussed in the literature, the relationship between sonic media and food, and podcasting and food, are rarely mentioned. for example, please refer to signe rousseau’s food media:celebrity chefs and the politics of everyday interference (2012). food for decoration an ethnographic note on semana santa in the p’urhépecha community of santo santiago de angahuan, michoacán, méxico by: mintzi auanda martinez-rivera in 2010, mexican cuisine, and specifically that of the state of michoacán, was included in unesco’s intangible culture heritage list. 1 notably, community building was highlighted as an integral part of this culinary tradition. although food in the p’urhépecha community of santo santiago de angahuan contributes to the creation of community, its meanings are broader. in this research note, i describe the use of food items, such as breads and fruits, as holy week (semana santa) decorations inside the church and iurhixu (chapel) during holy week 2009. located 7,677 feet above sea level, and thriving under the shadow of the volcán paricutín, santo santiago de angahuan is a small p’urhépecha community of aproximately 4000 people in the sierra p’urhépecha in the state of michoacán, méxico.3 since the birth of the paricutín in 1943, researchers, scientists, and tourists have traveled to angahuan to enjoy the majestic view of the volcano and the sierra. but the paricutín is not the only tourist destination in the community: the church of santo santiago, named for the community’s patron saint, and the iurhixu, are two other points of interest for tourists and researchers alike. built in the 1570s, the architecture of both structures is a clear example of mudéjar art, which is a mixture of islamic and christian art that was developed in the iberian peninsula and later used in early colonial structures in the americas. in the early 1940s, famed mexican art historians francisco josé rhode and manuel toussaint were the first researchers to write specifically about the church and the iurhixu. since then, numerous scholars have traveled to this community to study the church, the iurhixu and the community’s vernacular architecture, in addition to their traditions and cultural practices (see rodríguez et al 2000 and gomez ivoff 2004). the church and the iurhixu are always beautifully adorned for the community’s special celebrations such as santo santiago (july 25), the assumption of the virgin (august 15), the virgin of guadalupe (december 12), or christmas. decorations consist of flower bouquets, pine-needle garlands, curtains, or of traditional arts and crafts items, such as rebozos (shawls). they are generally made with seasonal flowers, fruits or natural materials. angahuan has a cargo system; this is a socio-cultural-religious organization system that aids in the planning and distribution of labor and economic responsibilities. the church and the iurhixu, each have a set of cargueros (the church has eight couples as cargueros and the iurhixu has six couples as cargueros), who are responsible for the preparation and organization of the different rituals and celebrations that take place during the year. they are also in charge of the decoration of the church and the iurhixu. although the carguero couples are responsible for the church and the iurhixu, in reality their extended families play a key role in supporting and helping them with the organization, preparation and celebration of the many rituals. thus, the decoration and preparation of the church and the iurhixu can be said to be community-wide events. i arrived in angahuan in february 2009, prepared and eager to conduct my year-long research stay in the community. i have lived in angahuan every summer since 2006, but i was looking forward to participating and documenting the full calendar year cycle of events, including planting, harvesting, holy week, the day of the dead and christmas celebrations. while i am familiar with p’urhépecha forms of celebrations (i grew up in the p’urhépecha area, an hour and half away from angahuan), i never cease to be amazed by the beauty and elaboration of angahuan’s decorations and ornamental arrangements. for each of the main rituals celebrated during holy week (mainly from thursday to easter sunday) the church is decorated differently. a full elaboration of the many rituals and events celebrated during holy week in angahuan deserves its own full-length manuscript, so i will limit myself in this ethnographic note to describing the decorations of the church and iurhixu for the holy thursday mass. during the afternoon of holy tuesday in 2009, i walked to the main plaza, the community’s center, together with two of my host sisters. angahuan’s center follows the traditional colonial layout: the community’s main plaza is surrounded by the church, the hospital (now the chapel and convent), governmental offices (civil registry, and jail) and the school. the main plaza has a fountain (which is no longer in use), a pergola, and small green areas, and it is at the heart of the community’s social life. while my host sisters attended a meeting in the church, i headed towards the iurhixu. in the days leading to holy week, my host sisters had described to me the traditional way of decorating the church and the iurhixu for the holiday so i was incredibly excited to see them. over forty people were diligently working on the iurhixu’s decorations. in the patio outside the chapel, a group of men were preparing a huge cross, decorating it with large watermelons. another group was working inside the chapel creating a wooden structure that went from the ceiling to floor in front of the altar and was covered with green leaves. on the floor, i saw big clusters of plantains, which had been smoked to prevent them from rotting. when i arrived that afternoon, the main structure was already in place, and the workers were starting to hang the clusters of plantains, covering the inside of the green leaf structure. on one side of the chapel a group of women were tying loaves of bread to a long plank of wood for another set of decorations. the loaves of bread had different shapes, and were decorated with images of flowers, chalices and other catholic symbols. in another corner of the chapel i saw a pile of coconuts and more watermelons tied together to form long garlands. i also saw baskets full of mamey (pouteria sapota, a fruit native to southern mexico) and smaller plantains, also smoked and ready to be used to decorate the chapel. after greeting my acquaintances, taking pictures and hanging out for a little bit, i crossed the street towards the church. in contrast to all the movement in the iurhixu, i was surprised to find that there was almost no decorating taking place at the church. this is not to say that the church was empty, because it was full of people attending meetings for different church groups or working in the parish, but the decoration activities had been halted for a couple of hours to allow a group of women to pray the rosary. despite the hiatus in active work, preparations were well underway. walls of green leaves stood side by side, framing the doorway of the church and creating an entrance to the main aisle. each wall was an empty square frame with a huge cross in the middle. the frames were already decorated with green leaves, and the crosses, similar to the ones in the iurhixu, were covered with watermelons. the rest of the church was almost untouched. but the cargueros were not worried; they still had another day to get the church and the iurhixu ready, as the decorations did not have to be in place before thursday’s last supper mass. i was not able to return to the plaza again until early afternoon on thursday when the different rituals for the “last supper” mass began. by that time all the decorations were in place. i first walked to the iurhixu. the entrance was decorated with a rectangular figure made from purple flowers. a big crucifix sat next to the chapel’s entrance, already decorated and ready for the via crucis, the stations of the cross. each of the three upper corners of the cross held a circular funerary wreath (similar to those used for the graves during the day of the dead) made with purple and red flowers. each wreath had an image in the middle: the two corner wreaths had images of the crucified hands of jesus christ, and the upper wreath had the placard inri. a huge garland, made from assorted fruits (plantains, coconuts, mamey, and passion fruit), red and purple flowers, leaves, and small straw baskets, hung from the lower part of the cross. at the feet of the crucified image, a cluster of dry purple corn, along with two dried beehives and four huge watermelons, completed the cross’s decorations. the cross was later carried by four young men as part of a manda (promise) during the via crucis. the inside of the iurhixu was breathtaking. the frame of the wall covering the altar was covered with green leaves while the insides were filled with the plantain clusters. planks of wood decorated with bread marked the wall’s borders. the huge cross, decorated with watermelons, was positioned in the center of the wall, and the long garlands made of coconuts, watermelons and mamey, dangled from the corners. in the upper middle part of the wall, two angel-shaped breads flanked a large circular bread with the inscription jhs. the lower part of the wall was decorated with more garlands made with smaller fruits, such as avocados, oranges, mamey, passion fruit, peaches, and small ribbons made of bread and candy. the walls were decorated with triangle banners made of purple and white flowers. all the benches had been taken to the church, so the floor was covered with a “carpet” made of painted sawdust. with the different colored sawdust, the organizers had created flower patterns that finished in a large chalice. twelve traditionally decorated clay pots flanked the “carpet.” the clay pots (six at each side) were filled with flowers and other endemic plants. from the iurhixu, i walked to the church. a stage was set in the church’s atrium with an altar for the masses. because during this time of the year mass is too full to fit all the attendees inside the church, the benches of both the iurhixu and the church had been set up in the atrium. the church, like the iurhixu, was also beautifully decorated. the two walls were fully covered with leaves, clusters of plantains, and bread. garlands made of coconuts and watermelons also decorated the walls, and similar to those of the iurhixu, the bottoms of structures had smaller garlands made with bread ribbons, passion fruit, and candy. i also noted a corresponding set of twelve clay pots with flowers and endemic plants along the bottom of the wall. at the top of the structures, an arch made with large circular breads welcomed everybody into the church. inside, the church was simply decorated. purple cloths, symbolizing the passion of jesus christ, covered all the images and figures. the main altar was covered with a huge white curtain, which hung from ceiling to floor. the top of the curtain was painted with angels and images of the holy sacrament. in front of the altar a small shrine had been constructed. this was basically a small wooden house-like structure that contained the holy sacrament. on each side of the shrine, flower bouquets and candles completed the altar’s decoration. after the via crucis, mass and the reenactment of the last supper, the aguadoras, or water bearers, began to hand out fruit-flavored water (or aguas frescas) to the attendees. the aguadoras are young women and young men who carry clay pots filled with different fruit-flavored water (made with rice, oatmeal, hibiscus flower, strawberry, watermelon, lime, etc.) and are tasked with serving it to all the people present. while the aguadoras shared their waters, the church, little by little, filled with parishioners. people moved into the church slowly, kneeling at the decorated-wall entrance, and shuffling on their knees until they arrived at the front of the church. some people said the rosary while they crossed the church or made personal prayers. at the entrance of the church, a group of older women sat down surrounded by baskets full of bread and fruits (mainly plantains and some watermelons). as people left the church the women gave them a piece of bread or a fruit. the decorations were removed from the church and the iurhixu early on saturday, after the rituals and mass remembering christ’s crucifixion. after the via crucis and the re-enactment of the crucifixion on friday, parishioners held an all-night vigil over the “body” of christ at the iurhixu. all the work that went into creating the huge and intricate walls and all the food decorations for the church and the iurhixu were only used and appreciated for twenty-four hours. the immense work, creativity and effort exerted by the cargueros and their families produced an incredibly ephemeral piece of art. food decorations are common throughout mexico during the day of the dead celebrations (see brandes 2006 and charmichael and sayer 1992), but the practice is less common during holy week. while i have limited myself in this ethnographic note to describing the decorations of the church and the iurhixu in santo santiago de angahuan during holy week 2009, i suggest that further analysis would reveal significant underlying meanings. the way in which the church and the iurhixu in santo santiago de angahuan are decorated clearly reflects a p’urhépecha aesthetic—the use of particular colors and motifs. the way space is used also bears the culture’s stamp. for instance, all the food used as decoration is not grown in the community. because of its cold and humid climate, and its altitude, angahuan does not produce coconuts, plantains or watermelons. these foods come from the lowlands and are in season during lent, making them both accessible and affordable. i believe that one possible explanation is that the use of these fruits is a remnant of the pre-colombian trade routes. however, ethno-historical research must be done in order to confirm this claim. by looking at the manner in which the church and the iurhixu are decorated we see how food can transcend its original meaning and purpose (as food), to become an item of aesthetic beauty and cultural identification. finally, i dare to hypothesize that through their use of food as decoration, members of angahuan transform a space that is inherently colonial into a p’urhépecha space. notes 1. for more information on the inclusion of mexican cuisine in the unesco intangible heritage list, please refer to the official unesco website http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00011&rl=00400 2. the p’urhépecha (formally known as tarascans) are mainly located in the state of michoacán. prior to the spanish conquest, the p’urhépecha empire was larger than the mayan empire, and they were one of the few empires that the aztecs could not conquer. after almost 500 years of colonization, the p’urhépecha have been able to maintain their language, culture and land. 3. the state of michoacán is located in the center-west coast of mexico. the capital of the state, morelia, is 4 hours west of mexico city, and angahuan is 3 hours away from morelia. references cited álvarez rodríguez, gloria a. 2000. templo de santo santiago apóstol. los artesanos michoacanos : los cielos historiados en tablas pintadas. morelia, michoacán : gobierno del estado de michoacán. 169-77. brandes, stanley. 2006. skulls to the living, bread to the dead: the day of the dead in mexico and beyond. malden, ma: blackwell publishing. charmichael, elizabeth and chloë sayer. 1992. the skeleton at the feast: the day of the dead in mexico. texas: university of texas press. gomez ivoff, cristina. 2004. arquitectura: reflejo de sitio. la troje purhépecha. ma thesis. polytechnic university of catalonia, barcelona, spain. rhode, francisco josé. 1946. angahuan. anales del instituto de investigaciones estéticas 4 (14) : 5-18. toussant, manual. 1945-46. angahua. journal of the society of architectural historians 5: 24-6. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 131-133 © american folklore society 2021 131 review of: eating in theory annemarie mol. durham, nc: duke university press, 2021. pp. 208, acknowledgments, notes, bibliography, index. review by: ema noëlla kibirkstis annemarie mol’s eating in theory distances itself from western philosophical tradition by asking “what if our theoretical repertoires were to take inspiration not from thinking but from eating?” (3). as a dutch ethnographer and professor of the anthropology of the body at the university of amsterdam, this book is an exciting addition into philosophical anthropology and food studies. the main body is separated into chapters named after the active themes of being, knowing, doing, and relating. diverging from customary centrism, mol demonstrates that focusing on “human metabolic interactions with the world” (3) allows for a different, and perhaps more accurate, understanding of human experiences of eating. eating in theory will not make you feel hungry. often when i read about food ethnography or even food philosophy, i become obsessed with travelling to the time, place and dish described; that i too will be thrown into a moment of intense reflection or nostalgia based on a single bite, or come to understand how someone is what they eat. mol’s writing affected me very differently; i began to think more critically about how i experience the world through eating. i was introduced to the philosophical and humanistic perspectives on eating by hannah arendt’s the human condition, maurice merleau-ponty’s the phenomenology of perception and emmanuel levinas’s totality and infinity. in these works, eating is often viewed as a human necessity rather than deeply embedded with meaning. eating and food are often ranked as insignificant, as mol highlights in caroline korsmeyer’s analysis on plato and aristotle, which ranked taste as a lower sense experienced within the body, whereas sight and sound are higher senses for being “more rational and cognitive” (52). this hierarchy of the senses, however, is constructed, and as a person who undoubtedly experiences the world around me through taste and food, neglects the immeasurable variety of the human experience of eating. from these works, mol uses her own fieldwork research and autoethnographic accounts to recenter and reconsider what we know about eating. these accounts are italicized within the text, and truly stand out and visually guide the reader through the transition from fieldnotes to analysis. for example, within the second chapter, “being,” there are a variety of example to consider. mol transports us to a rehabilitation clinic where brain-damaged individuals are helped to regain their ability to swallow. in “knowing,” she recounts a time when she thought she was drinking decaf coffee but a rush of caffeine corrected her assumption. in “doing,” she tells of a hypnotherapist’s clinic focused on helping people with long-term constipation. and in “relating,” she introduces an ethnographic experiment she conducted with friends on discerning the sensorial experience of eating a hot meal with kibirkstis, review, eating in theory digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 132 fingers instead of with utensils, ultimately realizing the similarity between the food and the eater. these accounts are relatable and striking, truly highlighting the gaps in food-related ethnographies (an ethnography of indigestion, anyone?). throughout the book, we find scattered “sidelines” in the margins. mol explains that these are “stories about eating that i import from the works of others. this is to compensate for the limits of my own, narrowly situated, fieldwork” (10). being based out of the netherlands, mol introduces glimpses of studies from across world relevant to the theme at hand. these sidelines are typed in a different font from the main body, run for many pages but skip a page to be superimposed when flipped through, and add additional perspectives and analysis to the topics at hand. physically, it renders the reader hyperaware when reading the book. pausing after a paragraph in the main text to read the sideline and flip ahead to finish the sideline, then turning back to the main text was a different type of reading experience. sometimes i would slip up and accidentally keep reading the main body, then have to go back and reset myself. i found this experience akin to peeking through the doorway of the kitchen to catch a glance and whiff of what your mother is cooking for dinner. this technique allowed me to see what was ahead while rendering me conscious of my own body’s relation to the book. the reading itself was an embodied experience. the only subject matter i wish mol would have expanded on is the contentious subject of food and risk. though briefly touched upon in regards to eating and health, and the author’s own experiences with celiac disease, i think mary hufford’s take on risk perception would be an interesting addition to this examination of eating. within the chapter “doing,” we are introduced to a “young man with a spinal cord injury” (84) who is undernourished—fred. he argues that the times when he is expected to eat and the type of food he is served are unfit for him (84-85). this passage reminded me of my own friend who is lactose intolerant, yet as a teen when she would come over to my house would insist on having full-dairy ice cream. she would rush home 20-30 minutes later in agony, but would repeat this habit time and time again. mol highlights this in her own example that fred’s eating is deemed a task to allow him to become properly nourished, needing to adapt and change based on fred’s specific tastes and needs. however, i am curious about the conflict between assessment of risk involved in discerning what is acceptable on behalf of the medical professionals attempting to assist him (“what about allowing him to order in pizza?”) and himself, who would rather be malnourished than eat the “horrible nutritious yogurt drinks” (84-85). risk is an overlying concern when it comes to issues of eating, especially to those with diseases which render eating a more cumbersome task. in the case of fred or my friend, they are well-aware of their conditions and nutritional protocols, but the decision making, risk assessment and eating are ultimately of their own volition—often, as humans do, completely subverting what it ‘logical’. eating in theory proves to be not only brief and approachable, but exciting and thoughtprovoking for foodways scholars. reminiscent of sarah pink’s work on sensory ethnography, mol introduces the reader to exciting new approaches in studying food and eating. through thoughtful fieldwork passages and engaging analysis, mol teaches us to view the world through eating, relating it to larger issues of overconsumption and kibirkstis, review, eating in theory digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 133 ecological sustainability. the once deemed ‘lower’ sense of taste and the act of eating dismissed as unimportant, prove to be an easily relatable and engaging way to observe the world around us. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022): 95-102 ©american folklore society 2022 research note discomforting foodways: reflections on the challenges faced by individuals during the covid-19 pandemic by: jerry l. reed iii abstract while serving as the assistant project director for the center for food and culture’s oral history project, comfort/discomfort through foodways, jerry reed became particularly interested in the general concept of foods of discomfort, be it through dietary restrictions or the lack of comforting contexts around food. using data collected during the project, he reflects on the nature of discomfort food, and how it was understood and challenged by respondents to the project. interestingly, participants of this project found these discomforts easily overcome. this article explores the implications of this finding. keywords: folklore, food, comfort food, oral history, covid-19 introduction since the beginning of the pandemic, scholars have jumped at the opportunity to research and reflect on the many ways that covid-19 has impacted more than just our daily lives, but also our psychological well-being and even our fundamental beliefs about the world. food, the ever-centric part of culture that it is, was highly impacted in so many different ways: obtaining food safely and during various shortages; being able to eat food with others; and a turn to comfort food as seen on social media and other platforms are a small sample of the observed impacts. the concept of comfort food here refers to foods that are “typically linked with home, tradition, nostalgia, and positive feelings” (jones and long 2017: 3), a particularly american idea that stems from psychology around stress and health, linking together unhealthy foods, guilt, and stress relief. however, there is folk knowledge in many cultures that promotes food in general as good for comfort and overall mental health, as is illustrated by one center for food and culture (cfac) interview “…my grandmother was an immigrant from the azorean islands… her favorite saying was coma, coma, teu mal é a fome which is eat, eat, your problem is hunger, which you know, you’ll hear that from jewish families to italian families” (sue e., cfac-jr-se-6/25/20). striking a balance between finding foods of comfort and foods of necessity, while avoiding the dangers of covid-19 along with other pre-pandemic, food-based challenges an individual might encounter could clearly be a problem that others were facing. food is not always the comfort it is made out to be either, as much of the previous research on comfort food often explores. jones and long (2017) make note of the relationship between the fatty, carb and sugar heavy comfort foods often found in the western world and rising obesity levels (4), and tucker (2017) finds many stories and connections within indonesian foodways that exemplify how even traditional comfort foods can be filled with backgrounds of discomfort, exclusion, and identity divides within the culture: reed, discomforting foodways digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 96 simple peasant food, then, evokes a familiar split and an ambivalence in indonesian identity; indicating poverty and backwardness in a fast-growing and forwardlooking country on its way to ever-greater affluence and economic relevance in southeast asia and the world on the one hand, and a cherished past of agrarian values on the other, where there is nothing fancy to be found, but nothing unhealthful either, in honest, locally sourced nourishment. (222) while working as the assistant program director for comfort/discomfort through foodways, an oral history project undertaken by the center for food and culture (long et al. 2021), i became particularly intrigued with this concept of food causing discomfort rather than comfort while preparing to conduct our interviews. as someone with only a minor food-based immune issue (lactose intolerance), i had become curious about how others with more severe issues were handling food access during the pandemic, especially amidst the numerous reported shortages and the tales of insufficient food substitutions from grocery delivery services. the data produced by the project varied greatly between individuals, eliciting reflections on food challenges due to dietary needs and the nature of discomfort food. in this piece i propose a definition of discomfort food and then reflect on my experiences interviewing and collecting data for this project. the resulting findings illustrate some of the challenges a small number of individuals faced, and suggest further research questions. discomfort food before exploring the data produced by the cfac’s project, i would like to reflect on the nature of discomfort food, as it was this concept that first led me to start thinking about the challenges of food allergies and dietary restrictions. working backwards from the concept of comfort food set by jones & long (2017), foods that evoke positive feelings often of nostalgia or relief from emotional or psychological stress, we can look at the positive feelings and associations of comfort food and easily propose that discomfort food is just food that makes the individual feel bad or is food associated with a negative context. we know, however, that food is even more complex than just the act of eating and either enjoying it or not. while tastes towards certain cuisines, textures, and even appearances vary from one individual to another, distastes can lead to a variety of physical reactions. food is more than the act of eating. consuming food is a social event for many people, and how people interact with others around food often produces the same comforting feelings without really being about the food itself. for example, children in the school lunchroom have unique social interactions because they choose to exchange food with their peers as a prosocial interaction (reed 2020). in the same cafeteria, minority students may find comfort and community by sitting and eating their individual lunches with peers from similar backgrounds (clack, dixon and tredoux 2005; tatum 1997). considering this pro-social aspect of food, the community and belonging that commensality can provide, discomfort food then may lack positive interactions entirely, or perhaps contain anti-social aspects. covid-19 produced several new contexts that affected the ways in which situations around food could elicit discomfort. some participants in this study were unable to access common digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 97 comfort foods due to shortages, some had worries about obtaining food that fit in with dietary restrictions, and others found discomfort in the new contexts of eating separately from others. as one respondent mentioned in a cfac interview, “i don’t think i’m in the minority when it comes to saying the concept of sharing meals with friends or other intimates over video chat is both alien and maybe partially unsatisfying. but i’d say i am in the minority when i would say it’s so unsatisfying to me, the concept, that i don’t even want to try.” (brady d., cfac-jb-bd-6/8/20). illustrated here is one of the forms of socializing that was popularized at the start of the pandemic in 2020—eating with friends and loved ones over a video call—a concept that was very alien to many folks at the time and was initially off-putting as well. virtual socializing was just one way covid-19 changed food contexts: delivery services, food shortages via supply chain and hoarding, and a valid concern for health safety in obtaining food all played a part in the interaction between the consumer and their food. reflection on cfac data even before covid-19, folks with dietary restrictions were fully aware that the entirety of the comfort food category was not for them: i have a number of medical conditions, chronic medical conditions that restrict the way, the kinds of food i have to choose to eat. i really have to eat to live as opposed to live to eat, so, you know, whereas i think for some folks, you know macaroni and cheese is like a wonderful comfort food, and for me it would kill me, so i can't touch that. (jan r., cfac-jr-jr-6/24/20) with this awareness and acceptance, the concern of how someone with such dietary restrictions would be able to get the foods that they can safely eat during a time of scarcity would be understandable. worth noting here is that throughout the cfac interview materials, even with many folks noting substantial scarcity in stores, no one had mentioned dietary concerns due to availability of foods. even the folks with the most restrictive diets were able to continue finding foods that they were able to consume. one way to deal with scarcity of suitable foods was explained by one respondent: “my son and his family live upstairs, i’m in the mother -in-law suite, and so what i did find what is handy is since the quarantine started, we ended up borrowing or asking for food items for my son and viceversa, if i was short on eggs or milk.” (gloria e., cfac-jr-ge-7/21/20). early shopping time restricted to people over the age of 60, gardening, preservation, and food delivery all helped sustain those with dietary restrictions and other health concerns during the covid19 pandemic. in larger cities, some respondents were able to find foods that were in short supply in larger stores, such as flour, in their smaller neighborhood markets. general health concerns were seen throughout the cfac interviews, and steps to mitigate them were mentioned. “i’ve been trying to eat immunity-boosting foods just to help my family stay healthier, but also mixed in with, you know, stuff that we normally eat.” (clara p., cfac-jb-cp-7/6/20). sometimes respondents were not as focused on eating healthy foods but felt guilty about their choices, “i’m very conscious of that i am not eating as many vegetables as i should, and i feel really badly about it. so, i’ll make a salad for dinner. i haven’t had greens for, gee, two or three days, that’s horrible, so i’ll make a big salad and then go a couple days without salad again…” (yvonne l., cfac-jr-yl-8-13-20). reed, discomforting foodways digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 98 the general discomfort around food all centered on the same themes in our interviews: socializing and interpersonal connections. food is far more than just what we eat. food serves as an expression of our identities, both personal and social, and it works to bind groups together (belasco 2008). while some were averse to trying to socialize over long distance video calls with friends and families, others found it to be a welcome experience: i'm jewish and there's a jewish holiday in the spring where you’re supposed to eat [blintzes]… [her sister’s] daughter had been bugging me for a long time for the recipe, but to explain how to make the crêpe thing is a little hard… now this invention of zoom, like why didn’t we think of facetime or zoom before, i don’t know, but i gave her a cooking lesson… and then she and i made blintzes together, it was so much fun. (hanna g s., cfac-jr-hgs-7-8-20). other anxieties and discomforts around food focused on procurement, but also swiftly abated. “…i haven’t set foot in a store since march 14th, but we have an enormous amount of curbside availability… we have curbside food. we have curbside liquor. we have curbside home store, like, you know, home repair type stuff” (emily s., cfac-jr-es-6-30-20). looking forward based on the data collected during the cfac’s interviews, many of the discomforts potentially caused by covid-19 around food were easily overcome by participants. those at higher risk found safer, alternative ways to obtain their foods, while those with dietary restrictions were still able to continue to find suitable nutrition with ease despite some food scarcities due to panic hoarding. data within the cfac is limited, and wider ethnographies and surveys are needed to fully understand the larger impacts that covid19 has had on specific cultural groups’ experiences around food. additionally, with some exceptions, the data collected was american-centric, and thus a look beyond the us borders is needed in order to get a more global perspective. it is difficult to conclude from this limited data whether the experiencing and addressing food discomforts is tied to the identities of the participants. the assumption would be that economic class would be a factor in procuring food, since having more money would give more choices to participants and enable them to find ways around potential obstacles. this is seemingly the case within the data collected in relation to the areas in which the participants lived. even the interviewers with limited access to a store with fresh produce were able to afford both travel to stores at a further distance and growing a garden on their property. community building over food during the pandemic is worth a much deeper and explicit study. interviews in the project indicate how people have used telecommunication technology like zoom or skype to socialize or continue food traditions (see: hanna g s., cfac-jr-hgs-7-8-20), with both success and enjoyment but also discomfort and perhaps even disillusionment (see: brady d., cfac-jb-bd-6/8/20). socialization around food has deep impacts on community and belonging, changes around the nature of eating together with others could be greatly impacting community bonds. looking at how children digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 99 socialize during their school lunchtimes shows the importance of shared mealtimes for their social development (reed 2020). for those concerned about how children have been affected by the pandemic, this is going to be a topic that needs to be explored. many diverse studies are going to be needed to fully understand the cultural impact of the covid-19 pandemic today and its repercussions for the future. this merely illustrates the need for these studies to continue to better understand the full picture of these challenges. reed, discomforting foodways digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 100 works cited belasco, warren. 2008. food: the key concepts. london, uk: bloomsbury academic. clack, beverly, john dixon, and colin tredoux. 2005. eating together apart: patterns of segregation in a multi-ethnic cafeteria. journal of community & applied social psychology 15(1): 1-16. jones, michael o. and lucy m. long. 2017. comfort food: meanings and memories. jackson, ms: university press of mississippi. long, lucy l., jerry lee reed, iii, john broadwell, quinlan day odum, hannah m. santino, and minglei zhang. 2021. finding comfort and discomfort through foodways practices during the covid-19 pandemic: a public folklore project. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8(1) 5-25. reed, iii, jerry l. 2020. you are what others eat: informal economics and social hierarchy in middle schools. master's thesis, bowling green state university. ohiolink electronic theses and dissertations center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1587302015966842 tatum, beverly. 1997. why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?: and other conversations about race. new york, ny: basic books. tucker, annie. 2017. haunted tongues and hollow comforts: examples of culinary conscience in 100indonesian fiction. in comfort food: meanings and memories, ed. michael o. jones and lucy m. long, 212-229. jackson, ms: university press of mississippi. interviews brady d. 2020. interview with john broadwell (center for food and culture). june 8. (brady d., cfac-jb-bd-6/8/20) clara p. 2020. interview with john broadwell (center for food and culture.) july 6. (clara p., cfac-jb-cp-7/6/20) emily s. 2020. interview with jerry reed (center for food and culture) june 30. (emily s., cfac-jr-es-6-30-20) gloria e. 2020. interview with jerry reed (center for food and culture.) july 21. (gloria e., cfac-jr-ge-7/21/20) hanna g s. 2020. interview with jerry reed (center for food and culture.) july 8. (hanna g s., cfac-jr-hgs-7-8-20) jan r. 2020. interview with jerry reed (center for food and culture). june 24. (jan r., cfac-jr-jr-6/24/20) http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1587302015966842 digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 101 sue e. 2020. interview with jerry reed (center for food and culture). june 25. (sue e., cfac-jr-se-6/25/20) yvonne l. 2020. interview with jerry reed (center for food and culture). august 13. (yvonne l., cfac-jr-yl-8-13-20) <gilmore, janet. “stuffed baked northern great lakes whitefish, lake superior lake trout...” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 stuffed baked northern great lakes whitefish, lake superior lake trout or the venerable wild-caught pacific northwest coast coho (silver) or chinook (king) salmon (although chums (pinks) and sockeyes (red) will also do) by: janet gilmore during my teen years in eugene, oregon in the 1960s, a family friend regularly went sport fishing for salmon off the oregon coast. when he was successful, he sometimes offered my family a nice big whole salmon, a cause for a summer celebration.1 stuffed and baked, this magnificent fish was truly delectable—although in more recent years, split and roasted over an open fire according to jamestown s’klallam elaine grinnell’s traditional method has topped all salmon taste experiences.2 among commercial fishing families in michigan’s upper peninsula, baked whitefish is also a treat, often anchoring a meal for a special occasion, when guests visit from afar. below, i offer a recipe for baked whitefish recorded from eileen behrend of the ingallston area north of menominee, michigan in 1989.3 eileen grew up in a commercial fishing family with deep roots in the tradition, and she has spent her married life in a fishing family, on green bay’s western shore. her recipe for stuffing and baking a good size northern lake michigan whitefish is very close to the one i have followed based on my childhood experience. when i get a fresh, whole big-bodied fish like lake michigan whitefish, lake superior lake trout, or a wild-caught salmon from the pacific northwest, i generally use irma rombauer’s recipe for baked fish in the 1946 edition of the joy of cooking (new york: bobbs-merrill, 230) as my crutch, yet what i do is as much in opposition to the recipe as according to it. eileen’s recipe below is much like what i do, and so i will present a kind of recipe by “trilog” below, showing what eileen says she does, and noting my variations and some of rombauer’s. <gilmore, janet. “stuffed baked northern great lakes whitefish, lake superior lake trout...” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 fish size: rombauer: scrape, remove the entrails, and clean: a fish weighing 3 or more pounds. janet: a whole fish of at least three pounds and up to around five is a good bet.4 temperature: eileen: …when i bake fish i bake it …probably like 400 degrees instead of just the 350, and get ‘em nice and brown and crispy on the outside. janet: rombauer’s recipe calls for 350 degrees, and i sometimes use that recommendation, yet i recall a written recipe of my mother’s for baked salmon that says 400 degrees, and i suspect that temperature will more effectively dry out the fish to the proper texture. preparation: eileen: …i take the fish that i’m going to bake and clean it out, and i put stuffing in, just regular bread stuffing with a lot of onions, and salt and pepper and sage in…sometimes i tie the fish together, sometimes i don’t, if it’s a nice big whitefish it usually doesn’t need it. and i lay it just on a baking pan, large pan, and i put a couple, some strips of bacon over the top of it, and bake it in a hot oven just until it’s done. <gilmore, janet. “stuffed baked northern great lakes whitefish, lake superior lake trout...” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 janet: i like a whole dressed and scaled fish that retains the head, tail, and fins, but whose cavity is well cleaned of entrails and blood against the backbone. i make sure to wash the fish well inside and out, and pat it dry. then i prefer to rub the fish’s exterior well with olive oil, top and bottom, and place it on a large sheet of aluminum foil on a low-sided baking sheet (like a jelly roll pan that is approximately 16-17” long, 11-12” wide). i arrange the fish crosswise and make sure that the heavyduty foil extends sufficiently beyond the pan and the fish to support the head and tail hanging slightly over each corner of the pan. stuffing: i agree with eileen’s stuffing recipe that features bread, lots of onions, and a minimal amount of herbs and/or spices. i use rombauer’s recommended dressing i as a guide, “a fine but plain and unsophisticated dressing,” she says, for a fish of 3 pounds [increase for larger fish]. combine: 1-1/2 cups bread crumbs [i recommend a fine-textured, somewhat dry sourdough white or light rye bread] 2 tablespoons chopped onion [i recommend much more liberal use of onion, perhaps sliced instead] 1/2 cup chopped celery [i omit the celery as too strong a flavor for the delicacy of whitefish, say, while eileen tells me that she also often adds celery] 2 tablespoons chopped parsley [if she has it on hand, eileen says] 1 or 2 beaten eggs [eileen does not use eggs at all] season these ingredients well with: 1/2 teaspoon salt [i omit] <gilmore, janet. “stuffed baked northern great lakes whitefish, lake superior lake trout...” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 1/8 teaspoon paprika [i comply, eileen uses sage, black pepper, or other herbs and flavorings, according to her mood and what’s on hand] 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional) [i usually comply; eileen does not] use enough: milk, melted butter or soup stock to make a loose dressing. [eileen and i mostly skip this step, preferring drier stuffing] fill the fish. sew the sides together with a coarse needle and thread. [like eileen, i stuff the fish loosely and mass any extra along the opening to the cavity. i do not sew the stuffing into the fish.] baking: i loosely shape the foil around the head and tail, leaving the rest of the fish open to the oven. eileen meanwhile prefers a fish without head and tail. eileen: usually, i would say, it takes a couple hours for say a four pound fish. it just depends on the size of the fish. janet: rombauer recommends 15 minutes per pound of fish at 350 degrees, so if you choose the higher temperature, be watchful. i do not use bacon on the top of the fish like irma and eileen do, nor do i baste the fish during baking as rombauer recommends. testing for doneness: eileen: <gilmore, janet. “stuffed baked northern great lakes whitefish, lake superior lake trout...” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 i just poke it with a fork or lift up the edge of it, and if it’s white opaque all the way through, then it’s done. you can usually tell by the brown-ness on the outside. it doesn’t get brown and crispy until the fish is done. the inside stays softer. janet: i also poke the fish, at the fullest part of the body, using the point of a small paring knife. i look for an opaque, flakey, and dry texture. if the area poked fills with liquid, the fish is not yet done. serving: the foil acts as a handy lift to transfer the fish to a serving platter, if presentation on one is desired. if the bottom of the fish has been adequately slathered with olive oil before the stuffing is added, the entire fish might yield to transfer from the foil onto a platter. there are tricks for cutting baked fish into appropriate serving chunks relatively free of bones, but these methods depend on the fish, its size, and family aesthetics, and conveying them here resists written description. enjoy that baked stuffed fish! janet gilmore and eileen behrend, with a little help from irma rombauer—and dorothy gilmore <gilmore, janet. “stuffed baked northern great lakes whitefish, lake superior lake trout...” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 notes 1 the family friend, chuck hayes, was also our appliance repair person at the time. according to 2014-2015 conversations with my mother, dorothy gilmore (now in her 90s), chuck had gone offshore fishing for salmon with a friend for years, but he always got seasick. since his seasickness lasted for a day after he brought home the fish, he’d bring it directly to my mother so she could cook it while fresh, typically the next day. chuck and some mutual friends would join us then in enjoying the stuffed, baked fish. my mother cannot recall the first time she baked a stuffed, whole salmon, and suggests many influences, including the wedding gift of rombauer’s joy of cooking in 1948. besides friends celebrating whole salmon planked in celebratory feasts, she attributes my dad’s high country trout fishing and taste for fish as contributing—and not so much her norwegian-american heritage. by the late 1950s, she recalls that she had enough experience and confidence in the dish to offer a baked, stuffed salmon as the centerpiece for an “early american” themed potluck dinner. my parents’ rotating dinner collective of artist and architect friends brought side dishes associated with new england food traditions, like baked beans and clam chowder, expressing surprise at pacific salmon on the menu. my mother enjoyed the tease! when i asked her by phone how to bake a stuffed fish, once i was cooking on my own in the 1970s, she directed me to rombauer’s recipe and the flexibility of the stuffing guidelines. 2 see elaine grinnell biography, interview script and sound recording on “the cultural conservancy” website at http://www. nativeland.org/raft/grinnell.html (access february 28, 2015). 3 festival of michigan folklife fieldwork, michigan traditional arts program, michigan state university museum, east lansing. eileen kleinke behrend (b. late 1930s) has lived her entire life a quarter mile from lake michigan, on the western shore of green bay, north of menominee, michigan. she is swedish and norwegian on her mother’s side, cape cod yankee (fishing people) and german on her father’s. her father fished for a living and she helped him with his work whenever she got the chance. after she married fisher-logger david behrend in the 1950s, she contributed to their business over the years, fetching parts and supplies and going out in the fishing boats when she got the chance. long active in the commercial fishing business, she learned to handle and dress fish, and tell when it is fresh. from her mother, she learned to cook and preserve fish in many ways, when she was growing up. after she married, she cooked fish, and more varieties of fish, more often, since her <gilmore, janet. “stuffed baked northern great lakes whitefish, lake superior lake trout...” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 4:1 (2015): n. pag.> © american folklore society 2015 husband enjoyed eating fish more frequently than her family did. behrend has been active in developing the west shore fishing museum on m-35 north of menominee, an organization dedicated to keeping great lakes commercial fishing history alive. 4 in recent years, i’ve successfully used two smaller whole whitefish, arranging them on their sides with their bellies facing each other, which i stuff and then push slightly together with extra stuffing placed between. i’ve also used two large whitefish fillets successfully, placing one skin side down, distributing the stuffing on top, and covering it with the second fillet, skin side up. inspired by andreas viestad’s “fried herring with apple, bacon and celeriac” recipe from the “new scandinavian cooking” tv show and website, i’ve found a bacon, turnip, celeriac, chiogga beet, apple, and carrot stuffing, mixed with a medium dice of tasty sourdough bread crumbs, quite delicious when using the two whitefish fillet option. see http://www.newscancook. com/recipes-by-chef/fried-herring-with-apple-bacon-and-celeriac/ (accessed february 28, 2015). through the middle ages. santa barbara, ca: greenwood. microsoft word fleming-review-baking-3-9-21-final.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 169-170 © american folklore society 2021 review of: baking, bourbon, and black drink: foodways archaeology in the american southeast reviewed by: kathleen fleming baking, bourbon, and black drink: foodways archaeology in the american southeast, edited by tanya m. peres and aaron deter-wolf, is a well-organized volume that takes the reader on a historical journey through the foodways of the southeastern united states. over the nine chapters, the contributors examine different aspects of past foodways, such as the ways that people gathered, prepared, and consumed their food. the book also offers insights into how foodways were used to mark political and social status, as well as the issues surrounding food security. overall, the book’s content demonstrates the importance of understanding the past of a culture in order to offer insights into its present. while the archeological focus may be unfamiliar to many folklorists, two chapters in particular may be useful. the first is “archaeology of the whiskey foodway in kentucky,” by nicolas laracuente. as the chapter title suggests, laracuente explores how people prepared whiskey, but does so in a way that is easy to understand for nonarchaeologists. for example, laracuente discusses how the rise of industrial whiskey distilleries affected creating the drink at home. particularly intriguing for folklorists, laracuente includes some of the legends that surround the industry, such as how the drink “blind tigers” got its name, or how the jameson distillery was created. the inclusion of these legends shows the important role that stories play in understanding local foodways. another chapter that may prove interesting for folklorists is “detangling histories of hominy: a historical anthropological approach,” by rachel briggs. briggs shows how food relates to many areas of daily life. she also ably demonstrates how the history and beliefs of a group of people will affect their willingness and ability to adopt new foods and ways of cooking into their foodways, and how food can be used as a way of examining relationships between people. for example, briggs notes that during an outbreak of pellagra during the twentieth century, primarily euro-american males were affected. however, of the few cases reported in african americans, the majority were women. when protein was scarce, african american women did without due to the common folk belief that men needed more protein than women. briggs’ findings highlight how different social and ethnic groups prepare and consume the same staple food in different ways. gender and ethnicity played a significant role in how these different groups prepared and consumed food. this chapter underscores the importance of exploring foodways adaptations which can provide insight into the ways that diets have changed over time as well as how gender and ethnicity shape values, traditions, and food practices. other chapters in the collection are informative but may prove less accessible for those without some familiarity with archeological inquiry. for example, in the first chapter of 170 fleming, review, baking, bourbon, black drink, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) this collection, “social substance: integrating analyses of ceramic, plant, and animal remains from feltus,” megan c. kassabaum explores evidence for feasting ceremonies from the feltus site in mississippi, coming to the conclusion that this site was indeed an important gathering spot during the woodland period. kassabaum’s findings demonstrate that understanding how space was used in the past can provide insight into how its importance changed over time. similarly, the chapters “splitting the bones: marrow extraction and mississippian period foodways,” by tanya m. peres, “turkey foodways: the intersection of cultural, social, and economic practices in the mississippian period southeast,” by tanya m. peres and kelly ledford, and “the prehistory and history of black drink” by thomas emerson, offer insights into the archaeology of mississippi foodways. in the remaining chapters, digest readers may find useful insights into how the foodways of the american southeast have evolved over time. in “prehistoric foodways from the dust cave site,” stephen carmody, kandace hollenback, and elic weitzel show that during the pleistocene period in dust cave, alabama, the diet shifted from an animal-based diet to a more plant-based one in order to adapt to changes that were brought on by climate change. in “cooking connects them: earth ovens as prehistoric places during the woodland period,” lauren walls and scott keith review how earth ovens were used during the woodland period in tennessee and georgia, and argue that examining the use or abandonment of these ovens over the centuries can offer insight into the social structures of the people at the time. these findings add to the strength of the collection as a whole because they demonstrate how foodways in the american southeast have evolved over time. finally, neil wallis and thomas pluckhahn focus on the remains of ceramic vessels from the middle to late woodland period in florida and south georgia in their chapter “culinary and social requirements of middle and late woodland swift creek pottery.” overall, these chapters show that, while staple foods may stay the same, the way they are prepared will continue to evolve over time. taken altogether, the chapters underscore the fact that studying how foodways have evolved in the past may offer some indication of how they will change in the future. for folklorists with an interest in archeology and historical foodways, this well-written and well-organized volume may prove useful. storm days playing with food and time by: diane tye folklorists have explored the many ways that food connects us to the past and how it articulates family, ethnic and regional identities (see brown and mussell 1984) but what of its temporal connections to the present? unlike holidays that have long histories of very particular food rituals associated with them, such as turkey at thanksgiving or fruitcake at christmas, storm days—those days when schools and offices are shut down because of a snow storm—are connected to a variety of foods rather than codified by a particular dish. the foodways that characterize these snow days—which usually amount to three or four days during a winter in st. john’s, newfoundland—contrast to other holidays. they highlight procurement, consumption, and most significantly, preparation, rather than elements such as presentation that are usually associated with ritual meals (yoder 1972 in long 2000). taking up anthropologist david sutton’s position that foodways have much to teach us, not only at ‘loud’ ritual occasions but in the pragmatic, ritualized aspects of everyday life (sutton 2001:28), in this research note i reflect on the meanings of food prepared and consumed by twenty-four people during a storm day in st. john’s, newfoundland on march 7, 2012 (see list of foods at end of research note). eighteen replied to an email query i sent out on march 8th to faculty, students and staff of the folklore department at memorial university asking what they had eaten during the storm the day before. a similar question posted on facebook garnered four replies. finally, i also draw on two callers to “crosstalk,” an open line show on cbc radio aired march 7th. both were children who described food they had eaten or prepared during the storm. roland barthes writes that when we buy an item of food, consume or serve it, we do not manipulate a simple object in a purely transitive fashion; “this item of food sums up and transmits a situation; it constitutes an information; it signifies” (1997:21). here i draw on the eating experiences of these twenty-four people (identified by pseudonyms) to ask what the food prepared and eaten on storm days signifies and in particular what it tells us about the relationship of food to time. embracing timelessness the beauty of a snow day is, of course, that everything is cancelled; there is nowhere to go and no outside commitments to keep. unable to leave your house, and often with the next day’s responsibilities either met or temporarily suspended (i can’t finish my paper because all my books are at the university), the day belongs to you rather than those who usually buy your time. with the demands of goffman’s front region temporarily lifted, you can set your own agenda in ways that privilege back region pleasures: sleeping in, staying in your pajamas all day, or reading a book just for fun. for a day, as one ten-year-old claimed, “you don’t really keep track of time” (crosstalk 2012). this breakdown in routine results in one of the greatest gifts of the snow day, time slows down. food and food-related activities contribute significantly to an altered sense of time. in his classic essay on the symbolic representation of time, anthropologist edmund leach suggested that the modern notion of time embraces repetition. leach writes, “every interval of time is marked by repetition; it has a beginning and an end which are ‘the same thing’” (1963:126). our inner biological or circadian clock may be mainly entrained by the repetition of light/dark cycles but it is also strongly affected by the repetition of daily feeding cycles (mendoza 2006:127). the sense that time slows down on a snow day can be linked in part to an abandoning of the usual meal structure. for example, martha described her family members as being “on their own” for breakfast and lunch followed by “a simple meal” for supper. further freedom can come with the consumption of unconventional meals: paula’s lunch was doritos— “lots of them.” if we did not know already, mary douglas’s famous essay, “deciphering a meal,” taught us that doritos do not constitute a meal. douglas persuasively argued that a meal conforms to a formula: a stressed main course and two unstressed courses (1997:43). doritos do not fit the formula; they are lunch but not a “real” lunch. edmund leach also noted that people see themselves positioned in the time process as oscillating between opposites: day and night or life and death (1963:126). on snow days, the normal emphasis on dinner as the day’s most significant meal is disrupted. for several of the people i spoke with about the march 2012 storm, breakfast, the first meal of the day, rather than the last, was what they invested most time and effort in. anna described a storm day as “a good excuse for a ‘weekend breakfast,’ pancakes, bacon, eggs, etc.” cathy and michael detailed the preparation of elaborate breakfasts. cathy reported, “i decided that a storm day was a good day to make special breakfast (because you can take your time with food prep and eating, on storm days), so i made chocolate crepes. with bananas and yogurt and chocolate shavings. deeelicious! my other thought when i woke up was to make french toast but i’ve made that more recently than crepes, and i wanted to make something i don’t usually make.” michael wrote: “i made red river cereal with raisins and dried apricots, and yogurt (this takes too long to prepare for a usual weekday breakfast, and my wife is not keen on it anyway, so i’d say this counts as storm-related). and my usual toast and marmalade, and of course the usual strong coffee, without which nothing can happen.” these breakfast meals challenge mary douglas’s formula of what constitutes a proper meal. what is this meal? is it breakfast? lunch? supper? as well, eating breakfast later in the day than one would normally may contribute to a sense of time slowing down and of a day that is just beginning even though hours are passing. much of what is eaten on snow days mirrors the preparation of breakfasts in that it is more time consuming than what would be prepared on a usual weekday morning. for example, michael also made a beef stew, nina cooked up a pot of chili, and cliff prepared a version of his favorite cuban dish, spanish-style chickpeas. he did this in a crockpot, starting the meal at 9:00 am and eating it for supper at 7:00 pm. often food preparation on a snow day is slow. play within a larger context of timelessness, snow days create opportunities for play: bounded, voluntary, free, and satisfying activities that contrast to everyday responsibilities (see huizinga 1950). there is time to do a crossword puzzle, watch a movie, or even play monopoly. for some, food becomes part of this play. time-consuming dishes like home-made pasta transform food preparation into recreation. jennifer described spending part of the day on a labour intensive lasagne sauce because as she notes, “the storm day bought me some time i didn’t expect to have,” while maggie’s room-mates devoted three hours to making home-made ravioli. others engaged in recreational baking. anna claimed, “i almost always bake something during a snow day” and several people spoke of often baking bread. during the march snow storm, brenda made a cake which she served with blueberries, partridgeberries and yogurt; alice made a batch of chocolate chip cookies “because she had time” and eve baked oatmeal chocolate chip muffins. eve, the mother of a one-year-old actually spent most of her day in the kitchen producing a series of elaborate dishes: “by 9:00 am i was resigned to being trapped in my kitchen for the rest of day. i say kitchen because we have an open living room/kitchen space which is now essentially one giant playroom for sarah. i can’t read, i can’t watch tv, but i can bake and cook while still keeping an eye on sarah.” in addition to muffins, eve prepared a lentil nut loaf complete with home-made bread crumbs and made an israeli couscous salad with roasted tomatoes and zucchini which had marinated in a dijon vinaigrette. she also roasted beets. although eve’s daughter was too young to help, others baked as a shared activity: maggie’s room-mates worked together to produce the home-made ravioli while an eight-year-old girl who phoned in to the open-line radio show, crosstalk, was looking forward to making muffins with her mother that afternoon. eve jokingly suggested that “the blizzard set me into some kind of survival cooking mode” but slowly made food does recall an earlier way of life. there is a sense in which people, like michael with his homey beef stew that he claimed not to have made in many years, are playing at a more labour intensive type of home-making than they usually engage in. it speaks to the commemorative function of food identified by barthes: “food permits a person…to partake of the national past,” barthes wrote. he continued, “food frequently carries notions of representing the flavorful survival of an old, rural society that is itself highly idealized. in this manner, food brings the memory of the soil into our very contemporary life” (1997:24). much of the food prepared during the march snow storm was simmered, baked or roasted. it as if this food, or even the smell of food baking or slowly cooking, provides psychological protection against the elements; in lévi-strauss’s terms, the roasting might bring us closer to nature, the power of which cannot be denied on a snow day. “mon pays, ce n’est un pays, c’est l’hiver” (my country is not a country, it’s winter”) penned québec songwriter gilles vigneault in his song that has achieved the status of a canadian national anthem. vigneault relies on the winter as a metaphor for aspects of canadian life, including the cultural isolation of northern quebec in the 1960s. but he also summons up positive connotations; he promises to remain faithful and hospitable like his father before him who built a home there. it is an approach echoed by adam gopnik in his 2011 massey lectures, “winter: five windows on the season,” where he explores the central theme that “winter started as this thing we had to get through; it has ended as this time to hold on to” (gopnik 2011). gopnik’s “windows” include the recreational winter, the recuperative winter and the process of remembering winter. the meal in the crockpot connects the cook and/or those who eat it in a playful way to earlier generations of canadians who have met the challenge of winter blizzards. it breaks down usual barriers of time to create commonality across centuries. the food helps to create a sense of communitas not only among members of a household who share it but among all those through canadian history who battled extreme weather. we are in this together. it also contributes to an altered sense of time, and perhaps a sense of timelessness in that these are not the foods of our time. in contrast to the fast, industrial, convenience, ready-made, or prepared deli foods that characterize food consumption patterns in 2012 (see jabs and devine 2006), storm day food harkens back to an earlier time when food was made from scratch and at home. the dishes prepared and eaten on storm days help to create a time out of time. nurturing snow day food also makes temporal connections with more personal and less remote pasts. consistent with linda kulman’s observation that people associate the consumption of simple foods with nostalgia (kulman 2000), several people prepared simple food that signified their childhood. judith made a breakfast dish for her husband and young child that she called "hole in the middle." she described it as “fried toast with the center torn out and a fried egg in the hole lots of butter!” jean reported, “i ate a peanut butter and banana sandwich on toast (which i rarely eat because i'm not a fan of bananas but it’s one of those foods that makes me feel like a little kid being taken care of again!)” others made fried potatoes, a fried ham sandwich, and pasta with cheese, which although they did not link specifically to childhood may well have been connected to it. this may have been true for judith as well when she ate several slices of home-made molasses bread and for the three people who baked chicken: crispy coated baked chicken, shake n’ bake chicken and baked chicken breast. certainly there are childhood favorites among the dishes people described “usually making” on a storm day: shepherd’s pie, beef pot pie, macaroni and canned tomatoes, and other forms of pasta. snow day food takes people back in time. it supports david sutton’s argument that the transitory and repetitive act of eating is a medium for the more enduring act of remembering that is intricately connected to identity (sutton 2001:2). sutton contends that food creates the experience of synesthesia (the crossing of experiences from different sensory registers: taste, smell, and hearing) that allows individuals to “return to the whole” (sutton 2001:17). snow day food becomes an articulation of who we are, or maybe more accurately who we were but don’t want to forget. on the march 2012 storm day, an element of indulgence characterized much of the food and drink people consumed: chocolate crepes, fried scallops, brie and crackers, cupcakes, a nip of port, hot chocolate, tea with vanilla sugar, and coffee laced with liqueur. it is common to stock up on groceries the day before a winter storm is forecast—although power outages lasting more than a few hours are not usual, they are certainly possible—and stores are usually crowded. this means that cupboards are often well stocked with appropriate storm day foods. as susan noted, “it is customary in my household that if we are expecting to have a snow day we stock up on junk food—chips, dip, munchies for the day and usually have pizza or hamburgers and fries or something like that.” it would be interesting to track eating habits over the course of a winter’s worth of storms to see of the nature of supplies purchased for a snow day change. the march storm at the focus of this paper was obviously very late, the last of three or four that year and susan, as well as one other person in the group i’m drawing on, specifically mentioned they had not stocked up with the usual vigour. nonetheless, the liminality of the storm day that means you are free to do what you want when you want to do it, extends to food (see jabs and devine 2006 for discussion of time and food choices). most people described making and eating food that they enjoyed and regarded as special in some way. because freedom and pleasure is found in snow day food, it provides insight into how context affects what constitutes “good” food or “comfort food” (murcott 1993). at first glance, storm day food seems to challenge the findings of earlier studies that report a gendered breakdown in terms of what is considered comfort food (men prefer warm, hearty meal-related foods such as casseroles and soup while women opt for the more snack related foods such as chocolate and ice cream) as well as age preferences (younger people prefer snack-related comfort foods compared to those over fifty-five years of age) (see wansinki et al 2003). those findings certainly do not describe what the twenty-four people here ate during the march 2012 storm. on the other hand, these storm day experiences do support the idea that consumers continually incorporate manufactured products into “family traditions” (wallendorf and arnould 1991). during this blizzard, at least, both men and women and eaters of all ages combined modernity (in the form of store bought cookies or candy) with tradition (in the form of beef stew or baked chicken). what we consider family leisure, such as holiday celebrations, is actually a form of women’s work (see bella 1992). women often invest huge amounts of labour in recreating holidays because of their benefits for family identity. in contrast, snow days emphasize the importance of nurturing the self as much as strengthening familial bonds. rather than contained in one single dish, snow day food emphasizes desired qualities and characteristics: the hot, the sweet, the baked or complex flavours slowly cooked. this food can nurture relationships with others in the home and with one’s past; its procurement, preparation and/or consumption are relational. it can also represent a time of personal freedom. as food that allows for both pause and play, it is restorative, feeding the soul and preparing bodies for return to the everyday world. conclusion storm day foodways function with the same temporal complexity as pravina shukla observed that clothing and adornment does for men and women in india. it allows individuals “[to] position themselves at once in different temporal realms, some broad and historical, others intimate and personal” (shukla 2005:4). in the foods prepared and eaten during snow storms modernity and tradition merge; foods remembered from childhood include home cooked dishes and commercial foods and indulgences stretch from the refined nip of port to a home-baked cake to the purchased bag of doritos. an example of roland barthes’s argument that “food has a constant tendency to transform itself into situation” (1997:26), the food prepared and eaten on storm days is more about process than an actual dish that has become codified as snow day food. it is more about what the food signifies big and small— relaxation, childhood, home, the past, canada—than the actual signifier: cupcakes, chicken, or chili. through aspects, from method of cooking (roasting, baking, frying), temperature (warm or hot), and speed of preparation (slow), to meal structure (relaxed, breakfast or slowly prepared cooked dinner), and the food itself (high fat or high carbohydrate, complex flavours), these foodways connect us synchronically to those who share our home, diachronically to others who came before us, and symbolically to canadians who have been shaped by the same harsh elements. its lack of temporal fixedness mirrors the liminality of the storm itself that separates us from the rest of the world and temporarily frees us from time. seen as an expression of critical nostalgia (cashman 2006), food prepared and served on snow days speaks of the need for taking time for each other and for ourselves. foods eaten on storm day, st. john’s, newfoundland, march 7, 2012 breakfast holes in the middle chocolate crepes with bananas, yogurt and chocolate shavings red river cereal with raisins and dried apricots and yogurt, toast and marmalade and coffee bacon and eggs boiled egg and whole wheat toast pancakes french toast family members on their own. lunch nice salad soup and sandwiches scallops, pea pods, and fried potatoes, cheese and biscuits diva delights peppy pecan crisp bread and almonds pasta with cheese brie and rice crackers fried ham sandwiches with yogurt toasted peanut butter and banana sandwich family members on their own chili supper beef stew, bread and red wine. cake with blueberries/partridgeberries and yogurt home-made ravioli pasta with bacon, mushrooms, peppers spanish-style chickpeas in crockpot with garlic, onion, chipotle peppers, shredded sweet potato, cumin and spinach shake n’ bake chicken with basmati rice, fried broccoli, carrots, opinions, mushrooms, green and red peppers crispy coated baked chicken with mashed potatoes and corn chicken breast, salad, asparagus perogies with fried onions, fried pork and sour cream lentil nut loaf (with homemade bread crumbs); israeli couscous salad (with roasted tomatoes and zucchini marinated in dijon vinaigrette) snacks oranges chocolate covered almonds, popcorn purity jam jam cookies muffins sweet chili heat doritos cupcakes carrot sticks home-made molasses bread toasted with butter and molasses drinks nip of port hot chocolate disaronno in coffee two cups of coffee and a cup of tea with new home-made vanilla sugar hot chocolate food people “usually” make and/or consume “munchies like chips, dip etc and junk food like pizza or hamburgers and fries for supper” shepherd’s pie or a beef pot pie macaroni and canned tomatoes; lipton’s chicken noodle soup; breakfast sausages; cereal, and pretzels chili (one person had made it so many times they call it “storm chili”) toast and tea home-baked bread drink or two “comfort food”: cake or brownies, something warm and comforting usually pasta; weekend breakfast, eg. pancakes, bacon, eggs etc. “i usually bake something” references cited barthes, roland. 1997. toward a psychology of contemporary food consumption. in food and culture. a reader, ed. carole counihan & penny van esterik, 20-27. new york & london: routledge. bella, leslie. 1992. the christmas imperative. leisure, family, and women’s work. halifax, nova scotia: fernwood publishing. cashman, ray. 2006. critical nostalgia and material culture in northern ireland. journal of american folklore 119: 137-60. crosstalk. 2012. cbc radio. radio noon. march 7. douglas, mary. 1997. deciphering a meal. in food and culture. a reader, ed. carole counihan & penny van esterik, 36-54. new york & london: routledge. goffman, erving. 1959. the presentation of self in everyday life. garden city, new york: anchor books. gopnik, adam. 2011. winter. five windows on the season. toronto: house of anansi press. jabs, jennifer and carol m. devine. 2006. time scarcity and food choices: an overview. appetite 47.2: 196-204. kulman, linda. 2000. pass the jell-o! desserts of yesteryear take the cake. us news & world report july 30. http://www.usnews/culture/articles/000807/archive_014493.htm (accessed june 7, 2013). leach, edmund r. 1963. two essays concerning the symbolic representation of time. in rethinking anthropology, 124-136. london: the athlone press. lévi-strauss, claude. 1997. the culinary triangle. in food and culture. a reader, ed. carole counihan & penny van esterik, 28-35. new york & london: routledge. mendoza, j. 2007. circadian clocks: setting time by food. journal of neuroendocrinology feb: 127-37. shutkla, pravina. 2005. the study of dress and adornment as social positioning. material history review 61: 4-16. sutton, david e. 2001. remembrance of repasts. an anthology of food and memory. oxford & new york: berg. vigneault, gilles. 1965. mon pays (my homeland). soundtrack for la neige a fondu sur la manicouagan. directed by arthur lamothe (1965). montreal, quebec: national film board. wallendorf, melanie and eric j. arnould. 1991. ‘we gather together’: consumption rituals of thanksgiving day. journal of consumer research 18.1 (jun): 13-31. wansinki, brian, matthew m. cheney and nina chan. 2003. exploring comfort food preferences across age and gender. psychology and behavior 79.4-5: 739-47. a letter from the editors: dear readers, we are excited to bring you issue two of the new series of digest. just as in the first issue, the papers here represent directions of emerging foodways scholarship; all of the articles and research notes in this issue are contributed by graduate students or recent graduates. in bringing together a range of diverse food communities including gullah, chinese american, southeastern louisianan and italian canadian, and in considering the complex intersections of traditional and popular culture, the authors document and celebrate the complexities of food traditions that mingle and morph to create new forms with new meanings. they also record the challenges of moving forward to create sustainable models; the often flamboyantly elaborate groom’s cake of southeastern louisiana weddings that cherry levin writes about stands in stark contrast to the modest seeds nurtured by an earlier generation of italian immigrants described by cristina pietropaolo. yet the papers here hold clues to the future, from anna ralph’s model for feeding philadelphia’s homeless to the recognition that emerges from nancy yan’s exploration of the regional dish, wor sue gai, and katie white’s examination of gullah foodways, that food’s deep connections to identity travel across space and time. importantly, the papers speak of hope and justice. the amuse bouche section in this issue picks up some of these themes in somewhat playful ways, embodied in historical food ads, photographs of spicy chicken feet and temple oranges, and a recipe for sweet orange marmalade that originated in a british manor house kitchen. this issue marks the end of caitlin bethune’s time as editorial assistant. caitlin’s contribution to these first two issues has been invaluable and we will miss her sharp eye. this issue also sees a change in our web designer. emily snyder’s work on the initial issue was excellent, and we thank her as she moves on to new challenges. we would like to welcome jolee main to the digest team. her design skills have kept our journal looking professional and beautiful in the current issue. michael lange and diane tye, editors a letter from the editors: dear readers, articles and research notes in this issue of digest explore the interconnections of food with both space and time. we begin with mary magoulick’s documentation of early 20th century foodways in southern indiana. in 1993 this paper won the sue samuelson prize for foodways scholarship but because the journal went through a hiatus, it was not published. we are happy to present the article here in a slightly revised form. magoulick takes the reader back in time through the experiences of several southern indiana women. erika derkas extends the examination of deeply-rooted agriculturally-based foodways to another state and another cultural group in her exploration of the meanings of chile to hispano culture in northern new mexico. at the same time she points to the complexities that emerge with the commodification of culinary tourism. ty matejowsky also takes up the subject of complexities as he reflects on the challenges that emerge when a fast food outlet becomes involved with a community garden project in orlando florida. in the research note section deana weibel and katie kujala take the reader to rocamadour, france where religious pilgrimage and the local production of goat cheese come together and jeff howard constructs the development of the slow food movement in italy as a form of applied folklore. the last two notes are set in st. john’s, newfoundland, canada. the first, by diane tye, explores ways in which residents use food to play with time during those days when a winter storm brings daily life in the city to a stand still. the last report surveys the cereal aisle in a major grocery store, reflecting on the ways that folklore, popular culture, and marketing intersect. the amuse bouche section draws together several ads from paul smith’s collection of historical documents and ephemera with contemporary food photos and a recipe for a cajun dish, rice dressing, which is the center of dustin knepp’s family holiday celebrations. the issue concludes with three reviews that shift focus from the local to the national to the global: a food biography of new orleans, a social history of american food and culture, and an exploration of italian, mexican and chinese world cuisines. we want to thank erin whitney, a ma student in the department of folklore at memorial university, who took over the responsibilities of assistant editor for the issue; we appreciate her help. michael lange and diane tye, editors digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 143-145 © american folklore society 2021 143 review of: cook, taste, learn: how the evolution of science transformed the art of cooking guy crosby. new york: columbia university press, 2019. pp. xi +185, preface, bibliography, index. review by: jacqueline thursby in this text, guy crosby proposes to “…explore the evolution of science and how it has transformed the art of cooking right up to the present” (xi). he presents an informed and accessible work of art in itself, with the purpose of raising consciousness about healthy and consistent scientific food preparation for today’s home and professional cooks. crosby, who is affiliated with harvard’s school of health as well as a science editor for several popular food-related magazines, has assembled another work for serious culinary readers and cooks as well as providing clear writing for the less experienced. he has revealed basic nutritional history and methods in an understandable and friendly discussion, not without an occasional touch of light humor. to this reviewer, his discussion is as gripping as a good novel—a page turner, but one that clearly informs. historically, food and the process of bringing it to its peak perfection before serving and consuming is ongoing. discoveries for culinary improvement have been both accidental and deliberate, lost and found, created and recreated; in the present day, many long-asked questions about food are being answered. these questions include: “what is really going on here?” or “why was this so good last time but not this time?” answers are being pursued and answered in culinary science laboratories and gourmet kitchens around the world and answers are disseminated through a variety of food-related media. crosby begins with a frontispiece reproduction of the painting, the marvelous sauce (circa 1890) by georges vibert (french, 1840-1902). it visualizes a moment in time when delight in a flavor was shared—a gift to the senses across social and cultural boundaries. cooking, tasting, and learning about foods are universal pleasures, and the author is one among many food scientists helping all serious cooks, amateur or professional, to learn consistently to produce excellent dishes. the text unfolds with divisions of chronological history, discoveries and development of various foods, and scientific, biological, anthropological, and culinary investigation into what preparation methods consistently succeed. using text pages of varied but consistent colors, the reader can easily choose their order of reading. some pages delve more deeply into science and technical discoveries, others are lighter and discuss contemporary and past practices. several chapters include illustrative recipes through which the justdiscussed scientific principles can be tested. in less than 200 pages, crosby leads the reader from the discovery of fire and cooking, and the evolution of human culinary skills, to the final paragraphs of the text which remind us that, “the science driven changes in the way we cook will help reduce the risk of thursby, review, cook, taste, learn digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 144 developing chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke obesity, types of diabetes, dementia, and many forms of cancer” (166). chapter 1 (2 million-12,000 years ago): discussing the evolution of humans and food, crosby tells us that “both taste and smell appear to have evolved for survival and may be among the earliest senses developed although not all modern-day species react to the same tastes and smells” (2). this leads to an informative discussion of the multiple tastes we humans can discern, and why. chapter 2 (12,000-1499): crosby discusses the agricultural revolution, but goes beyond referenced history. it includes a cogent explanation of gluten: what is it? how is it formed? how can those sensitive to its presence in the body enjoy wheat and other grains without becoming ill? chapter 3 (1500-1799): early scientific experiments begin to lead to creativity in cooking. presently, food science departments and classes are appearing in more colleges and universities. these are rooted in the home-centered classes of the past, but the recognition of food as a legitimate science began was beginning to emerge in this period. experiments, both successful and unsuccessful, are described, and progress continued regardless scientific setbacks. crosby explains that there are many necessary and unnecessary steps taken today in daily food preparation. knowing the basic common chemical structure of such common foods of waxy potatoes and mealy potatoes, for instance, and their behavior under varied temperatures and variations, teaches the cook about optimal choice and procedure. chapter 4 (1800-1900): the discovery and science of atoms led to a new understanding of the basic elements that underlie our food. in the preface of this text (xii), crosby mentions the impact of the william blake poem “auguries of innocence” on him, and how it opened the realization that atoms upon atoms are what build the structure of matter. the concept, he explains, enhances using the ingredients with the understanding of how they are acting and interacting upon one another. chapter 5 (1901-present): here, crosby reminds the reader that taste and flavor are different responses to food. taste, for instance, may give the sensation of sweet or salty, but that neglects the fragrance or aroma which gives the sensation of flavor its full impact. this chapter also includes a discussion of terroir, french for a “taste of place.” foods grown in one region may taste and look different because of variations in soil and climate. “for this reason,” crosby writes, “french wines are named for the area grapes are grown rather than for the variety of grape, as is done in the united states” (98). this extends to other foods such as honey. cheese, and olive oil. chapter 6: this chapter recognizes key figures and well-received books and publications concerning developing and practicing culinary science that have helped set healthy cooking principles on fire. it includes clear explanations concerning the health impact of various ingredients and tips for how to choose the best foods at the market. thursby, review, cook, taste, learn digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 145 chapter 7: crosby contrasts good and bad carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, including various oils. this chapter continues to provide information and insights helpful to home and professional cooks. i would highly recommend this text to those serious cooks interested in consistency and optimum nutrition in food preparation. it is not so scientific as to be opaque, but does reference more detailed studies for the reader to pursue if desired. tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 18. © american folklore society 2018 abstract taking museum exhibitions, publications, and restaurants as a focus, this essay explores how food is used and represented in museums in singapore, revealing a wider story about nationalism and identity. it traces the transition of food from an element of exhibitions, to a focus of exhibitions, to its current position as an appendage to exhibition. the national museum is a key site for national meaning­making and we examine the colonial natural history drawings of william farquhar in several iterations; how food shortages during the japanese occupation of singapore during world war ii have been used for nation­building; and hawker food as iconography and focus of culinary design objects. issues of national identity within a multi­ ethnic society are then highlighted in the context of the national kitchen restaurant at the national gallery of singapore. key words: singapore, museums, hawker food, memory, nation building introduction from berlin’s deutsches currywurst museum to seoul’s museum kimchikan (formerly kimchi museum), food is increasingly taking center­ stage in museums. food also makes regular appearances in conventional museums and galleries, be that the julia child exhibition at the national museum of american history in washington, d. c., or an exhibition on food cravings at london’s science museum. new zealand’s giant kiwifruit is just one of very many giant tributes intended to attract tourists. the southeast asian city­state of singapore is well known as a foodie destination and it should come as no surprise that there has been a growing interest, in the last decade, in including food and foodways as content in singapore’s cultural institutions. singapore is a complex site of culinary tourism, where people engage in what lucy long describes as “the intentional, exploratory from natural history to national kitchen: food in the museums of singapore, 2006­2017 by: nicole tarulevicz and sandra hudd tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 19. © american folklore society 2018 participation in the foodways of others” (2010:21). in this sense, we too have been culinary tourists in singapore over our many years of researching, visiting, and eating in this diverse place. while we have both written elsewhere about museums in singapore (hudd 2015, tarulevicz 2013), our combined interest in this essay is in the construction of cultural knowledge about singapore. the exhibitions and texts we discuss here sit on the cusp of work and leisure, and are ones we have visited, sometimes just once, sometimes repeatedly. for us, these museum exhibitions and culinary experiences have a lot in common: they allow a visitor to experience both the museum and a meal, and thus a “taste” of another place, time, and/or culture. taking singapore’s exhibitions, museum publications, and restaurants as our focus in this essay, we trace the transition of food from an element of exhibitions, to a focus of exhibitions, to its current position as an appendage to exhibition. we begin by looking at (1) the natural history drawings of singapore’s first british resident and commandant, william farquhar—and the ways in which they have been exhibited—on their own, in food­focused exhibitions, and with various non­food­focused exhibitions. next, we move to (2) the 2009 national museum of singapore (nms) publication, wartime kitchen: food and eating in singapore 1942­1950, which illustrates an important chapter in singapore’s national culinary narrative and the cultural production of knowledge by the museum that is not limited to time­ period exhibitions. moving on to the food gallery (3), part of a now defunct living gallery permanent exhibition at the nms, we highlight tensions in creating exhibitions for both local and international visitors. then, we consider (4) a community museum exhibition of hawker centers that connects directly to the local. we next visit (5) a short design­focused exhibition from 2013, “makan time! tuck in to good design,” one of the last food­focused exhibitions at nms that serves as a transition point and suggests a move away from food as content in exhibitions. finally, we look at (6) the national kitchen by violet oon restaurant at the new art museum, the national gallery of singapore, which shows a new direction in the relationship between food and cultural institutions. singapore is geographically small at just 719 square kilometers. with a population of a little more than five and a half million, its chinese majority (76 percent) coexists with malays (15 percent), indians (8 percent) and, in the words of the state, “other” minority communities (1 percent), forming a tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 20. © american folklore society 2018 diversely ethnic and culinary national community. because of its limited land and access to water, singapore relies heavily on imported food, yet has made eating an important source of identity­making (tarulevicz 2013). despite early attempts at agriculture in tropical equatorial conditions, singapore’s reliance on its port for comestibles has been a reality for more than a century. singapore’s colonial history as a free port for the british east india company—where trade items were exempt from customs duty—helped the colony emerge rapidly as a center of vibrant exchange in goods and cultures. that colonial inheritance is celebrated in many of singapore’s cultural institutions and is comfortably expressed in culinary terms. singapore’s expulsion from a brief marriage to malaysia (1963­1965) and consequent abrupt transition to independent nation was accompanied by a sustained raft of nation­building activities, which include the use of food as a form of “non­political” nationalism. hainanese chicken rice, for example, is upheld as a dish which symbolizes ethnic harmony—it is chinese in origin (coming with hainanese immigrants) but infused with local influences, such as the chili sauce which accompanies it. food and foodways have provided a popular metaphor for cultural diversity. while there is no one food that is as clearly singaporean as balut is filipino (see magat 2002), food is central to singaporean identity. rojak, for example—a mixed salad of cucumber, pineapple, jicama, and onions, with a sweet and sour dressing, topped with chopped peanuts—is often used as a metaphor for the nation. like the salad, singapore is a mixture of different ethnic groups all in the same bowl but separate, brought together by the “dressing” of a common nation, simultaneously diverse and united. at the asian civilisations museum in singapore, the metaphor has been widened to describe singapore’s place within the region: a projected digital image of a woman explained that “the major foreign cultures [in singapore] are like the rojak sauce, seasoning the local cultures, but in the end each culture keeps its unique identity” (levitt 2015:106). culinary tourism can happen within a nation too, and as bill ellis’s (2009) example of late nineteenth and early twentieth century american ice cream parlors reminds us, there can be liminal food spaces which are zones of interaction, allowing for culinary tourism at home. while international tourists may be the most profitable visitors, locals also come to partake in the culture of other ethnicities and to taste the culture of the past. tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 21. © american folklore society 2018 the national museum of singapore the national museum of singapore opened in december 2006, but its institutional origins and some of its holdings can be traced to the 1887 raffles library and museum. under various names, including the singapore history museum, it displayed singaporean history to both local and international audiences. it has been joined by a raft of other cultural institutions—the asian civilisations museum, the peranakan museum, and the national gallery of singapore—to name just a few that are presently drawing attention to singapore’s gustatory history. architecturally, the nms, like much of singapore itself, juxtaposes the colonial with the ultra­modern. when built in the 1880s, it symbolically stamped empire on the colony, both in its domed and pillared neo­ palladian style reminiscent of the british museum in london and in its emphasis on collecting, classifying, and displaying objects. such museums in empire were both a form of symbolic conquest (hooper­greenhill 1992:18) and a means of shaping the way the colonial center imagined its dominion (anderson 1983). after singapore’s independence in 1965, the nms played an integral role in imagining and shaping the new nation with its deliberate emphasis on public education, science, and industry specifically to “stimulate patriotism, public­spiritedness and the importance of increased productivity” (tan 2010:125). like all national museums it played a role as a site in which “symbolic and narrative imaginings of territorial nation states are produced and expressed” (thompson 2012:55). this historical evolution of the national museum of singapore reminds us that all museums do ideological work. as historian randolph starn noted, “. . . museums are not neutral. while they collect and conserve, classify and display, research and educate, they also deliver messages and make arguments” (starn 2005: 70­71). they provide a physical space that art historian carol duncan has described as “a stage setting that prompts visitors to enact a performance”—the museum’s sequenced spaces and the way exhibits are arranged and displayed, the lighting and architecture “provide both the stage set and the script” (duncan 1995:1­2, 12). in this way, the placement of objects and even the descriptive labels are significant, since vision is socially constructed and the words we put next to images affect how we understand that image (berger 1972). displayed objects are made meaningful by the interpretive frameworks of the display as well as the historical and cultural position of the curator and visitor. museums tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 22. © american folklore society 2018 become custodians and creators of heritage and, as barbara kirshenblatt­ gimblett (1998:150) reminds us, “heritage is not lost and found, stolen and reclaimed. it is a mode of cultural production in the present that has recourse to the past.” natural history drawings botanical prints and drawings commissioned from unnamed chinese artists by william farquhar, the first british resident and commandant of singapore (1819–1823), were some of the first food­related images to appear in singapore’s museums. the drawings have been used in stand­ alone exhibitions, including the singapore history museum (see tarulevicz 2004), they have been repurposed and used in a range of displays (see discussion of the living gallery to follow), and they are the focus of a key nms publication, natural history drawings: the complete william farquhar collection, malay peninsula, 1803­1818 (2010). the book brings together, for the first time in print, all 477 drawings of flora and fauna commissioned by farquhar. it describes farquhar’s interest in the natural world around him—an enthusiasm shared by many british colonial officials who collected exotic material for museums “back home.” the collection and classification of fauna and flora of the colonies, particularly those with potential economic value, was a symbolic stamping of british authority on the colonies; in fact the first exhibition of the complete drawings at the museum in 2007 was called “the empire of nature” (lim and ong 2016:35). farquhar is widely connected with the colonial era in singapore, being associated with stamford raffles and the founding of singapore as a british east india trading post in 1819. the drawings are now displayed as if they were quintessentially singaporean, but they were in fact commissioned and collected by farquhar in malacca before he came to singapore. he sent them to the royal asiatic society in london in 1827, where they languished until being put up for auction in 1993. they were purchased for $3,000,000, singaporean by singaporean philanthropist goh geok khim, who donated them to the museum (cheah 2016). there is a sense of the paintings having “come home” from exile, of a former colony reclaiming what was rightfully its own. the drawings in the book sit between a chapter on farquhar as colonial figure and, significantly, a chapter that acknowledges and explores the techniques of the unnamed chinese artists who painted the images. such tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 23. © american folklore society 2018 artists have often been absent from histories. just as colonialism by its very nature appropriated and “owned” the resources of others, so too have the natural history drawings been “colonized,” becoming wholly “farquhar’s drawings.” the typical museum visitor viewing the drawings may remain unaware that they were actually drawn by chinese painters. farquhar’s artists were probably painters from guangzhou in southern china, and the chapter discusses their skills as well as the challenges they faced in adapting the classic style of chinese painting to the western preference for naturalism and the unfamiliar technique of linear perspective (dozier 2010:321­324). we can see these chinese and naturalism qualities in the drawing (see photo 1) of a dark­handed gibbon in a mangosteen tree, where the fruit, typically smaller than an apple, is drawn larger than the animal’s head. farquhar did not record the names of the artists, a common erasure practiced on many talented artisans in the colonies, but the chapter represents an attempt to highlight and reclaim their place in history. while still entwined with the colonial west, the commissioned chinese artists made their own contributions to the history of the region. the book divides the drawings into plants, birds, mammals, reptiles and invertebrates, and fish. food is not a specific categorization. among the plants, however, are a range of edibles such as pineapple and ginger, and photo 1. “dark­handed gibbon”/ungka tangan hitam/hylobates agilis. william farquhar collection. courtesy of the national museum of singapore, national heritage board. tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 24. © american folklore society 2018 spices like nutmeg, cloves, and peppercorns. as well, there are several drawings of fruits still unfamiliar today outside southeast asia: such as durian, jackfruit, rambutan, and soursop. in the other categories, there are food sources such as ducks, partridges, spiny lobsters and, presumably in a nod to the centrality of india in the empire, the curiously named bombay duck (harpadon nehereus), which is not a duck at all, but a fish. in an ambitious, technologically­driven 2016­2017 reuse, “story of the forest” animates (“brings to life”) and re­colors 69 farquhar drawings within the nms’s glass rotunda. visitors descend a spiral walkway, past a constantly changing panorama (see photo 2). first, various colored flowers move through space, gliding and falling. when the visitor enters the forest, animals, birds, and fish appear, moving and disappearing. finally in the lower rotunda, a visitor may lie on the floor and view the falling flowers above and the trees and animals around. in this “magical” world, a tranquil and beautiful landscape more garden of eden than forest, most of the trees are fruit trees, colorful birds fly by and roost in the branches, the fish swim lazily, and the animals, including some bambi­ like deer, appear and slowly wander through. just as colonial botanical gardens acted to turn unfamiliar and hostile landscapes into the familiar, here the original jungle seems colonized and “westernized,” conquered and tamed into a less­threatening and peaceful forest glade. there is no tropical heat and humidity, no scavenging for food, no hunting and death. a pokémon go style app, which visitors are encouraged to use, makes any hunting clean and virtual: enhance your visit at story of the forest by going on “hunts” to “capture” the different flora and fauna that call the glass rotunda home. upon successfully “capturing” these animals with your phone’s camera function, you will be rewarded with valuable insight into the illustrations from the william farquhar collection which inspired the creation of these digital animations, providing you with both an immersive and educational experience. (http://nationalmuseum.sg/our­exhibitions/exhibition­list/story­of­the­ forest?sc_lang=en) photo 2. “spirit of the forest” exhibition, section of panorama. national museum of singapore, 4 january 2017. photo: sandra hudd. tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 25. © american folklore society 2018 in contrast, a separate but related exhibition, “desire and danger,” continues the repurposing of the farquhar collection to explore “the complex and sometimes uneasy relationship between man and nature.” it features “creatures that arouse appetites and instill fear, and exotic plants sought for their ability to induce pleasure or pain.” a wall panel explains that: plants with pretty flowers and leaves may contain deadly toxins. seeds that harbour poisons may make delicious meals when properly cooked. reptiles and marine creatures that bite and sting may contain biochemicals that can kill us—or cure our maladies. this exhibition has a distinctive colonial feel, with a selection of the natural history drawings on the walls, wooden display cabinets and cases, stuffed animal and bird specimens, blowpipes and spears. dinner plates and cutlery sit between a wooden fish and the skulls of birds and a bear; there is an ornate silver betel holder for storing the mix of betel leaves and areca nut or tobacco that were chewed as a stimulant; and funnel­shaped medical­ looking devices allow the visitor to pull a lever and smell a fragrance such as galangal (see photo 3). photo 3. “pull gently to smell galangal,” “danger and desire” exhibition. national museum of singapore, 4 january 2017. photo: sandra hudd. tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 26. © american folklore society 2018 this is not the first time that smell has been employed in singapore’s museums. in fact, food smells, complemented with farquhar illustrations, were a feature of the food gallery exhibition discussed next. in the “desire and danger” exhibition, smell is used to make the jungle seem closer, and the dangers to the colonial settler real. remembering the wartime pantry food, danger, and desire are familiar themes not limited to the museum proper. in 2009 the nms published wartime kitchen: food and eating in singapore 1942­1950, covering the three years of the japanese occupation of singapore during world war ii and the post­war recovery. this period of major disruption, of violence, death, and trauma for singapore’s population, was also a time that still stands in stark contrast to singapore’s more usual role of a trading port with ready access to a wide range of food products. for the first time the doors to the global pantry were closed, a potential disaster for a small island with limited food production. despite the introduction of rationing and price control, food supplies dwindled quickly, prices escalated, and a black market for food sprang up. in response, the japanese administration implemented the “grow more food campaign” to encourage self­sufficiency. seeds were distributed, model market gardens were established, and school children and office workers tended vegetable plots. yet this population had limited experience in growing food, the soil was poor, and fertilizers were not available. tapioca grew where other crops failed, and could be made into flour as well as cooked in a variety of ways, but it contained little protein and had to be carefully prepared to avoid poisoning from the naturally occurring cyanide in its tubers. people were inventive, often subsisting on a diet of broken rice grains with sweet potato or tapioca and perhaps some salted fish added to the mix, but meals were monotonous and lacked protein. as detailed in the national archives of singapore’s syonan years 1942­ 1945: living beneath the rising sun (2009), the daily struggle for survival sapped energy and was compounded by the constant fear of harassment, arrest, or torture. reminiscing about previous meals and imagining food feasts sometimes provided a temporary escape from ongoing hunger during the occupation. wartime kitchen noted the use of the imagination in the internment camps, which largely housed europeans and eurasians, when recipes were discussed and sometimes written down in hand­made recipe tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 27. © american folklore society 2018 books. p.c.b. newington, a prisoner in changi prison and the sime road camp, started a gourmet’s club called “good food” which met weekly to discuss a menu—ingredients, cooking method, servings—and everyone “dined sumptuously in imagination” (wong 2009:95). he compiled the recipes into a cookbook, as did ethel mulvany, who was “interned” as a canadian civilian. she and other women in the prison met and imagined that they were setting their tables at home and serving their favorite dishes. they discussed recipes that they remembered and these were then handwritten and compiled in two old ledgers. after the war, mulvany compiled 400 or so of the recipes as the prisoners of war cookbook: this is a collection of recipes made by starving prisoners of war when they were interned in changi jail, singapore (e.r.m. 1946). the title, particularly its emphatic “made by starving prisoners of war,” situates these recipes at a bleaker end of the intersection of food and memory: unlike the fonder memories of a mother’s recipe collection (tye 2010), these are clearly “hunger memories” (sutton 2001:166­168). jewish prisoners in the terezin concentration camp in czechoslovakia during the world war ii era also recalled and discussed favorite recipes as a way of managing hunger in what they described as “cooking with the mouth,” and what culinary historian cara de silva has argued was also “an act of psychological resistance” (1996: xxiv, xxvi). military historian suzanne evans has suggested that mulvany and her fellow prisoners, in a similar way, used their “culinary imagination” as a survival tool, as the time they spent together discussing food enabled them to escape to a make­believe world where food was plentiful and life was normal. she noted mulvany’s comment that, after the “tea parties,” “many of us slept with the feeling of having had a meal” (evans 2015:43). several of the prisoners’ recipes are included in wartime kitchen and we can see that, already by the mid­1940s, recipes were being modified from their english roots to reflect the southeast asian ingredients and food practices. in this way, “mrs redfearn’s tomato chutney” includes chili and ginger, while “foogartti” can be made with slices of boiled cabbage or cubed chinese radish or snake gourd, revealing malay and south indian influences. evans notes that other recipes in the original book had more direct linkages to britain, with many referring to british royalty, such as “king george cutlets” and “palace chocolate cake.” patriotic gestures by the prisoners were banned in the jail and evans suggests that the women surreptitiously expressed their loyalty to britain through the inclusion of tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 28. © american folklore society 2018 these recipes in a way that would not be noticed by the guards (evans 2015:47). in effect, a simple cake recipe could become a political statement of resistance and survival. the 2015 nms museum exhibition, “singapura: 700 years,” included designer smells created by saine gong, founder of je t’aime perfumery (today online, april 12, 2015). the japanese occupation section included a scent called “fear,” whereas she had initially experimented with the smells of death and torture. visitors could sniff an exhibit and experience the smell of fear, which was described as having notes of ammonia, ketones, and plant­based musk. they could also experience the smell of the “8­cent meal,” with notes of passion fruit, coconut milk, and vanilla beans, representing the types of meals provided by the social welfare department during the post­war years, although most were meals such as chicken curry and rice, with long beans and spinach, served with tea. smell was used in the exhibition not in the normally comforting sense of evoking delicious food, but rather to reinforce the message of hardship and deprivation. the focus on food shortages during the japanese occupation was continued in the six­part documentary dvd series, eat to live: wartime recipes (zehnder and zehnder 2013). each episode, approximately twenty minutes long, was comprised of newsreel footage, interviews with survivors, and commentary from a singaporean sociologist vineeta sinha. each also featured a chef re­creating and updating a dish from the time. the food, in effect, acted as a bridge between the past and present, reminding viewers of what was eaten then, but making the past seem relevant to their own lives today by suggesting they too could re­create the meal themselves. remembering the food shortages of the occupation serves a broad nation­ building purpose. the first episode in the series concluded by asking, “what is it like to ache and long for food? today we simply don’t know what hunger is.” the food scarcity of the war years contrasts with the consumption of singaporeans today: in the successful and affluent nation today, food is again plentiful, singaporeans love to eat out and to discuss food, and shopping has been described by sociologist chua beng huat as a national pastime (chua 2003). the segment reminds singaporeans that life was not always so good—and thus of the competence of the peoples’ action party which has governed since independence. the last episode in the series reinforces the need for citizens to be disciplined and to safeguard their success: it concludes with the words “it takes more than food to survive in tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 29. © american folklore society 2018 adverse times. from the war survivors we learn that it is blind hope and sheer willpower that sustained them.” this message reinforces the narrative of the vulnerability of singapore because of its small physical size and its sub­text that survival is dependent on the “soft authoritarianism”—the willpower—of the government (tarulevicz 2009). although the different ethnic groups—chinese, malay, indian, and european­eurasian—were treated differently by the japanese, the videos and the book further the cause of nation­building by portraying a narrative of common suffering, a time when all ethnic groups were united against a common enemy. the war kitchen theme was updated at the national museum of singapore in its 2017­2018 exhibition, “witness to war: remembering 1942.” as part of the wider exhibition, visitors could watch cooking demonstrations of wartime meals, order dishes such as pork and pineapple curry with rice or gula melaka blanc mange from a “witness to war” set menu at one of the museum restaurants, and buy “peacetime kitchen: war recipes restored,” a set of 12 recipe cards. these developments highlight the continuing significance of the war years to constructions of singapore’s national history and to what c. kurt dewhurst, in his 2011 presidential address to the american folklore society, described as the role of museums “as places where public memory is made more visible, and especially for realms of memory dealing with difficult histories and issues” (dewhurst 2014:251). street food from 2006 to 2014, the nms housed a permanent exhibition consisting of four living galleries—food, fashion, photography, and film. the food gallery focused on singapore’s street food from the 1950s to the 1970s. the food gallery section was described by the nms as a “playful and hands­on experience for visitors striving to learn more about the island’s cuisine,” targeting visitors who do not know about the island’s cuisine, most likely tourists (lenzi 2007:96). hawker food, local street food, dominated the food gallery, as it does the food culture of singapore. the street was not actually present in the exhibition, but street and iconography of street peddlers dominated. in addition to information about specific dishes, the exhibition provided a brief social history of hawkers and hawker food, touching on issues of class and race. local food, hawker food, street food—these terms are synonyms for a tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 30. © american folklore society 2018 cuisine, a style of eating and specific dishes that have come to stand for singapore’s national cuisine. brand singapore relies heavily on food, specifically hawker food (tarulevicz 2013). hawker centers function differently for different audiences. for tourists, they are simultaneously a “distinctive attraction,” and a safe, clean, and cheap avenue for the consumption of local culture. for singaporeans living abroad, hawker centers are a “locus of memories,” a by­word for home, both as space and lifestyle. american journalist and food writer calvin trillin’s characterization of singaporeans as “culinarily among the most homesick people i have ever met” encapsulates this sense (trillin 2011). hawkers once walked the streets of singapore—they were largely itinerant and would bring food to the door of homes or place it in a pulley basket. despite being popular with residents, hawking was unpopular with officials. some streets spontaneously became night markets where itinerant hawkers would congregate and sell food and beverages. but hawkers were also sources of disease: from contaminated water came water­borne diseases; from refuse came flies and rodents. these real public health concerns were compounded by tropical conditions. itinerancy intensified the potential for spreading disease and tropical conditions heightened the problems. the post­independence government won the war against itinerant hawking in 1968 by launching a nationwide registration process for hawkers, issuing temporary licenses and relocating hawkers away from the street and into newly constructed hawker centers. the process continued over a few years and for the majority of singaporeans who are born after independence, street food on the street is more imagined than remembered. the centers had amenities such as sewers, drainage, water, electricity for lighting, and overhead coverage. attention was given to locations in both urban and residential sites, so they were still easy to access. hawker centers have become the locus of memories and meaning­making around hawker food, yet it is the historical street­ness of the food on display in the food gallery that was striking. a peddler’s tricycle, trollies, and other icons of mobile food all formed part of the exhibition, almost making it seem like this kind of street food was still available. in a different kind of temporal blurring, at the end of the food gallery exhibition, reproductions of botanical prints and drawings from the william farquhar collection were displayed in a modified form—printed onto jars. in contrast to the rest of the food exhibition, the jar section was not about tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 31. © american folklore society 2018 meals and specific dishes but was about ingredients, something tourists are in fact less likely to encounter. the tensions between which past, and nostalgia for what, reflect the multiple audiences for the exhibition. singaporean visitors might be nostalgic and see the exhibition as doing nation­building work; international visitors might see it as selling a version of the nation they are consuming as tourists. reflecting the continuing interest in hawker food, our museum at tj (a community­style museum in taman jurong) curated an exhibition in january 2017 called “eat at tj: our hawker centres and food heritage.” taman jurong was an early industrial estate developed post­independence to drive economic sustainability and was the site of the first state­ sponsored, purposely­built hawker center—which signaled the transformation of street food into a description of cuisine not location. in preparation for the museum exhibition, oral histories were recorded from local residents and hawkers, and photographs were taken of various hawker stalls. in tracking the evolution of the local hawker centers over time, it aimed to “explore areas such as the hawker culture prior to the establishment of hawker centres, hawker centres as a social space for the local community, and food as a form of cultural identity that defines singaporeans” (national heritage board and people’s association 2016). photo 4. jurong hawkers centre, exterior. singapore. 1 february 2017. photo: sandra hudd. tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 32. © american folklore society 2018 eating at hawker centers is promoted as an activity for tourists (henderson, ong, poon, and xu 2012), but also as an activity that defines what it means to be singaporean. the focus of the exhibition was on the jurong hawker centers as an integral and important part of the local community—important not only for the food itself, but as a social space for the community where residents can meet and feel connected. many hawker stalls are family businesses and the exhibition explored the issue of generational change. one younger hawker shared his experience of taking over his father’s minced meat noodles stall in 2004, when the regulars, who had previously come specially for his father’s cooking, did not want to try his noodles. “it took me 10 years of hard work for the old customers to accept me,” he claimed. in a different twist, the son of another hawker couple running a fish soup and congee (rice porridge) business was helping with the stall, but had also set up his own stall selling muffins. bakery goods such as muffins have not traditionally been sold in hawker centers and represent new entrepreneurial responses to café culture among young people—now the hawker center can potentially offer both traditional and “hip” foods. thus, the exhibition included jars of smells for laksa leaf, curry, pandan leaf—and muffin. the hawker centre 3.0 committee recently presented a report (2017) to the government on how hawker centers might evolve and be supported in the future, given that the median age of hawkers is 59 years. as an article noted in the straits times newspaper, the attitude of many young people is “why slave in a cramped and hot hawker stall when you can make pronouncements on the five best hokkien mee stalls in singapore on a laptop?” (straits times, february 4, 2017). committee recommendations included more “incubation” stalls where young people can try out hawker life, and the encouragement of more non­traditional food. the young hawkers at the amoy street food centre, for example, have re­imagined the traditional kaya toast as a black sesame, key lime crème, and matcha coconut toast, available with taro milk coffee or tea. makan time in january 2013, the design collective “little thoughts group” staged a local food­inspired exhibition at the national museum of singapore entitled “makan time! tuck in to good design.” running for just two weeks, the tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 33. © american folklore society 2018 exhibition was concurrent with the permanent street food exhibition already discussed, and it did some of the same work in defining national food and linking food to national identity. “makan” is a malay word meaning “to eat,” thus “makan time” is thus literally “time to eat.” culturally this phrase, widely used by restaurants, foodie websites, and in popular culture, is thick with meaning. it evokes eating local food, although not exclusively malay food, and speaks to the casual way in which the food is eaten. an article published in the local magazine her world in 2011, for example, used the phrase in its title, “singapore recipes: it’s makan time,” telling readers they could “learn to whip up a feast of local favourites” and, to clarify exactly what that meant, “we share six such singapore dishes” (her world 2011). as an exhibition title then, “makan time” resonated, and its paired phrase “tuck in to good design” connected design objects to literal consumption. alongside the design objects of culinary vessels, equipment, and repurposings, three large photo­boards contextualized food practices. the first, at the start of the exhibition, included the title and the broad themes of the exhibition. with four images, the most dominant is a man casually dressed in shorts, singlet (tank top), wearing slippers (slip on sandals), while he sits at a wooden table on a stool, slurping from a bowl with one barefooted leg on the stool next to him. this “every man” takes up half of the display board. a fruit stand, a chicken­rice stall, and two men sitting at another table sharing drinks and a meal make up the other images—symbolizing the sale and consumption of local food. the second photo­board’s eight images again connect the sale of food to its consumption but also add in the theme of waste. hawkers and vegetable vendors cohabit with consumers, packets of glutinous rice, empty cups, a table of dirty dishes, and a sweetened condensed milk can repurposed as an ashtray. the leavings of consumption connect directly to the content of the exhibition, which includes recycled items, repurposing, and intentional waste reduction. singapore’s geographic limitations—size and resources—mean that waste products need to be taken seriously. the final photo­board is also a collage of eight images, dominated by cooked­food vendors, roast pork, soups, and so forth, but also including edible chinese medicinal herbs being sold. these colorful large boards provide a living context for the design objects, which, with some exceptions, are mono­ colored and slightly austere, in the way an empty bowl, even a beautiful one, may tell a less interesting story than one filled with tasty broth, silky noodles, and redolent vegetables. tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 34. © american folklore society 2018 empty vessels are in fact the focus of the first installation, “embers: kopitiam’s ashtray,” which took a series of empty metal cans repurposed as ashtrays in kopitiams (local coffeeshops) as its focus. with these dented, twisted items that have holes in their lids, designer anthony chin conveys the “after life” of the cans, showing how an item of packaging has become “an integral part of our food culture” (chin 2013). cigarettes, new and used, are tucked into the cans to make their reuse explicit. designer ng pei kang expresses his concern for waste prevention in his piece “aunty, ta­pao no plastic” as an alternative to a plastic bag, and conveys to vendors the message of take­away food with no plastic (ng 2013). kang’s alternative is made of recyclable corrugated cardboard, designed so food vessel and handle are one and the triangular design can carry multiple items. chopsticks can be poked through the handle and small bags of chili sauce tied on as well. the packaging is displayed with fake food but its use is also imagined in more embodied form with some photographs. as we saw in the street food exhibition, there is a collection of dishes that have come to represent local singaporean cuisine, such as hainanese chicken rice and hainanese breakfast. these two dishes are celebrated in the exhibition, but in quite different ways. at the core of hainanese chicken rice is a master stock, used to poach the chicken, cook the rice, and serve as a soup. slices of chicken are anointed with oil and stock, cucumbers and coriander leaves (cilantro), and served with condiments, including chili sauce. the chicken of the titular dish is the focus of cassey chen’s pendants, which come in silver and porcelain to represent the poached chicken (chen 2013). in porcelain, the whiteness of the poached chicken’s skin is emphasized, the most distinctive feature of the dish, the one visitors to singapore tend to find less familiar—flaccid pale skin rather than browned and crisped. as a piece of art and jewelry it makes a statement, drawing attention to the culturally distinctive, celebrating an iconographic singaporean food. the hainanese breakfast of kopi (coffee) or teh (tea), served with kaya toast (toasted bread with butter and coconut jam) and two half­boiled eggs, with soy sauce and black pepper, is also iconic. as lai eng argues in her analysis of kopitiams, hainanese coffeeshops may be “credited with introducing to the public hainanese, western and hybridised hainanese­western foods, many of which have now become iconic or favourite singapore foods” (lai 2016). lee leong chye has created a tray to honor this hybridized breakfast, entitled “our humble breakfast.” a key component of the design is the tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 35. © american folklore society 2018 elevation of the toast on wooden fins which keep it from “becoming soft and soggy.” indentations on a wooden board provide spaces for the eggs, cup and saucer, soy sauce, and pepper. wood used as a substitute for the ubiquitous plastic tray provides a more traditional aesthetic, echoed by the reproduction heritage cups and saucers. the saucers are deep and provide a shallow bowl for the eggs, the cups are heavy, stable, and the cups and saucers are for sale in the museum gift shop. visitors are instructed how to use the tray: “so go ahead . . . crack the eggs in the saucer, add the sauce and pepper, then dip the crisp kaya toast and enjoy. when you’re done, everything just goes back on the tray” (lee 2013). erene teo’s “koocook: the perfect breakfast helper,” is focused on taking the hainanese breakfast experience out of the kopitiam and into the home. the hybridity here is not between western and hainanese culinary traditions but between contemporary design practice and traditional utensils, what she calls “a whimsical design approach to traditional utensils” (teo 2013). she notes that while the half­boiled eggs are very common, they are much harder to make than customers assume. she has designed a tool to allow half­boiled eggs to be made at home if one does not have a “kopitiam uncle” (a colloquial term for a male employee in an old­style coffeeshop) on hand. with multiple steps (add room temperature eggs into the vessel, pour boiling water over them, set the timer, lift inner bowl out, roll eggs into bowl) the koocook is both a tool and a celebration of the labor of the kopitiam uncles—making clear how a seemingly simple task is more than it appears. taking a different approach, celia law’s “soup instinct” is a soup pot designed explicitly to encourage home cooking, something that is increasingly only a special occasion affair for many (sinha 2016). she states that her purpose in designing the soup pot “is to allow people to learn and know more about the benefits of herbal soup,” and she envisions the target audience as “young couples” who are interested in increasing their skills and photo 5. “our humble breakfast” by lee leong chye. “makan time! tuck in to good design” exhibition. national museum of singapore, january 2013. photo: nicole tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 36. © american folklore society 2018 can “enjoy home cooked food with minimal effort after a long day at work” (law 2013). there are multiple components to the installation: the external cast iron pot, the porcelain inner, a bamboo ssteamer, a lid that doubles as a bowl, a separate miniature chest of drawers for herbs. law uses design complexity to make the task simple, whereas teo’s breakfast helper uses design to emphasize complexity. in contrast to the majority of the exhibition, jason goh’s “moyee,” the last installation (see photo 6), is the most whimsical (goh 2013). drawing on his childhood imaginings of a rogue fish ball, inspired by a story grandmother intended to stop him playing with his food ( “if you keep playing, the fish balls will turn into a big hairy monster and eat you up!”), goh brings the fish ball to life as a rolling chair. the chair thus provides comfort, with its furry exterior, fun through the roly­poly design, and amusement with the giant tongue. the furry chair is mediated by a story­board accompaniment whose six frames tell the story of a boy using his chopsticks to stab his fish ball, then being scolded by his grandmother, photo 6. “moyee” by jason goh. “makan time! tuck in to good design” exhibition. national museum of singapore, january 2013. photo: nicole tarulevicz. tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 37. © american folklore society 2018 while the fish ball transforms from injured and pained food item to hairy and angry giant fish ball that seeks vengeance by consuming the author of its transformation. the irreverence of this piece is perhaps no coincidence. in some ways, the “makan time! tuck in to good design” exhibition signaled a broader shift in how food was seen in singapore’s museum spaces—food was retreating out of exhibitions and into gift shops and restaurants. national kitchen the “national kitchen by violet oon” at the new national gallery of singapore epitomizes exhibitions transitioning toward interactive educational experiences. as irina d. mihalache argues, the museum restaurant is “an interdisciplinary space of informal learning, where the menu and the food are multisensorial ‘lessons’ in history and culture” (mihalache 2016). the national kitchen restaurant is not explicitly connected to exhibition content beyond its status within the national gallery, rather it is designed to represent “singapore’s history as the crossroads of the world” (oon website 2017). violet oon, restaurateur and former food critic, is of peranakan ethnic heritage—descendants of early chinese immigrants who came to the malay archipelago and singapore, intermarried with malays and indonesians, and maintained their chinese names and some cultural practices while speaking malay and often dressing in malay styles. the women were known as “nonyas” and thus peranakan cuisine is often known as nonya cuisine (ong 2016), a fusion of peranakan chinese and malay cuisines, generally emphasizing the application of chinese culinary techniques to malay flavors. in nonya cuisine, a dish like bak chang, while similar to chinese glutinous rice packages, can be made with peaflower and southeast asian flavorings such as pandan leaves. the restaurant reflects this peranakan heritage, aesthetically and in the menu. the space is decorated with distinctive peranakan tiles and ceramics, as well as old photographs of family members. the traditional marble­ topped tables, rattan overhead fans, waitstaff in black and white formal uniforms, and a bar with a barman shaking cocktails add to this sense of a nostalgic earlier colonial time. historically, peranakans were an elite group in singapore, often working as clerks or overseers in british firms, and this background is reflected in the inclusion of several british colonial dishes. the classic singapore sling, a drink concocted for european women in the tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 38. © american folklore society 2018 famous colonial raffles hotel, is on the menu, as is an interpretation of coronation chicken. there are also eurasian dishes such as chicken and prawn bostador (minced chicken and prawns in a spicy sauce with green chiles) that represent the distinctive mix of european and asian culinary traditions that emerged from those of european and asian heritage (see braga­blake 2017). most dishes, however, are classic peranakan, such as buah keluak ayam (spicy stew of chicken and buah keluak nut), nonya achar (mixed vegetable pickle), and kueh beng kah (tapioca cake topped with gula melaka syrup and coconut milk). the name of the restaurant suggests that the visitor will experience a national cuisine, one that includes dishes from all ethnicities in singapore. culturally, peranakan food, despite its mix of chinese and malay, is read as chinese. as chua beng huat and ananda rajah note, for non­peranakans, the cuisine “resonates on the register of chinese cuisine, as a marker of chinese ethnicity, in spite of the hybridization.” the key reason they suggest is that although there are malay flavors, there are chinese ingredients, most notably pork, a product not permissible for the majority of malays who are muslim. the cuisine thus “remains a ‘chinese’ cuisine because of the presence of pork” (chua and rajah 2003:95). nonetheless, while peranakan cuisine exists as a marker of chinese culture for singaporeans, it also occupies a place as a marker of creolization—an early fusion culture, a kind of acceptable mingling that codifies ethnic categories in a palatable manner. the power of this cuisine lies in its metaphorical value, reflecting both the cultural mix of singapore’s peoples as well as the “cultural legacies of the straits chinese communities” in the region (lee 2001:2). the name of the restaurant, “national kitchen,” needs to be understood in this ideological context. while criticized for using traditional perankan ingredients in unconventional ways, such as serving buah keluak as a sauce for spaghetti—which purists argue is a foreign, introduced ingredient out of place in peranakan cuisine—others counter that peranakan cooking, as a mix of malay and chinese, has always borrowed from other cultures (lam 2017). conclusion in a nation where the diversity and quality of food is central to national identity and the marketing of the nation, food’s representation in major tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 39. © american folklore society 2018 museums is a revealing site of meaning­making. the ways in which food is displayed in singapore’s museums tell wider stories about the nation, ones in which food is strategically employed to appeal to multiple audiences, not only of value in and of itself but also as a lens through which tensions and strengths play out. farquhar’s natural history drawings are inherently colonial but have also been reinvented using contemporary digital technology, juxtaposing the colonial and the modern—just as singapore itself strives to retain and reinvent aspects of its colonial past in a constantly changing globalized city­state. the deprivations of world war ii are now long past but strategically remembered as a time when the port was effectively closed for food importation, a period of food deprivation now used in the service of nation­building and remembered as a time when the populace suffered and overcame together. as the new nation developed, itinerant food hawkers were regulated and gathered into centers, reflecting an ordering of society that continues today. hawker food, a source of national obsession, has made regular appearances in the museum, variously explained and celebrated for local and international audiences, taking both starring and supporting roles in different exhibitions. in the “makan time” exhibition, artists sought to elevate the lived everyday material culture of hawker food, or in some instances subvert it. tensions between the everyday and the celebratory, the traditional and the creole, were also evident in our final example of the national kitchen, a museum restaurant, which reflected a move away from the exhibition of food, to food as an extra educational re­ enactment and embodiment. writing about the life of the philippines food writer doreen g. fernandez, barbara kirshenblatt­gimblett (2003:60) notes that she wrote to “create sensory reverberations in the reader that would trigger memories and spark historical insights” through ethnography with food producers, vendors, and cooks, as “living archives of culinary knowledge.” in kirshenblatt­gimblett’s words, “foodways were her living archeology of sedimented practices,” that is fernandez, like the museums of singapore, was interested in shared history and culinary cultures. fernandez may have been interested in “culinary cultures that make history edible,” and the museums in culinary culture that make history visible, but for singapore’s museums today, food is both mainstay and extra. while we have charted a series of transitions in singapore’s exhibition content and style over the past decade, food is likely to continue to find a regular home in singapore’s national institutions—given the centrality of food to singapore itself. tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 40. © american folklore society 2018 references cited exhibition materials chen, cassey. 2013. go chicken pendant. in “makan time! tuck in to good design” exhibition, january. national museum of singapore. chin, anthony. 2013. embers: kopitiam’s ashtray. in “makan time! tuck 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2010. the national museum as maker and keeper of singapore history. in the makers and keepers of singapore history, ed. loh kah seng and liew kai khiun, 122­136. singapore: ethos books and singapore tarulevicz, nicole and sandra hudd. 2017. from natural history to national kitchen. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 6: 44. © american folklore society 2018 history society. tarulevicz, nicole. 2004. between forgetting and remembering: singaporean history and the singapore history museum. in objects in performance: material culture and the arts in southeast asia, singapore, ed. fiona kerlogue, 31­45. london: horniman museum, critical museology and material culture series. ­­­­­­­­. 2009. history making in singapore: who is producing the knowledge? in themes for thought on southeast asia: a festschrift to emeritus professor nicholas tarling on the occasion of his 75th birthday: special issue of the new zealand journal of asian studies 11 (1): 402­425. ­­­­­­­­. 2013. eating her 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19, 2018) digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 125-128 ©american folklore society 2021 125 amuse bouche mandelbroit by: jillian gould abstract: using mandelbroit (aka “jewish biscotti”) as a springboard, this short personal history reflects on the life of the author’s mother, in all her complexity. keywords: baked goods, baking, daughters, families, family narratives, judaism, mothers, recipes mom had many regrets. from not going to university and pursuing a career, to not buying the house across the street on the ravine lot, to not marrying joe lebovic. occasionally, she also would lament that she should have set up a business to sell her mandelbroit. in our circle of family and friends, she was known as a terrific baker: brownies and chocolate chip shortbread; banana cake and peach pie. her mandelbroit, however, were legendary. toasted almonds, coconut and dried cherries. not too sweet, so nice with tea or coffee. in our kitchen, the cookie jar was always full. mandel translates from yiddish as almond, and broit is bread. these biscuits also are known as mandel bread, mandelbrot, jewish biscotti, or simply biscotti, but for us, they were always mandelbroit. mandelbroit go into the oven as two logs (or “loaves”), which are cut into slices after the first bake. mom’s recipe has less flour than other versions i’ve seen, so the dough can be quite sticky, and it spreads; not really loaf-like. nevertheless, the magic of heat changes all that, and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar for the second bake, they come out toasty and crunchy and delicious. my mother’s parents, david and rose (kraft) moran, were born in eastern europe—bubby came from kryzhopil, near odessa, while zaidy’s town was closer to poland. they came to canada with their respective families as young teenagers, after the russian revolution in 1917. both were employed in the garment industry in downtown toronto: david was a tailor, and rose worked in a factory. david and rose had three children: harry (b. 1927), lil (b. 1930), and my mother (b. 1942). when my mother was born, rose and david were approached by a neighbor who asked if they would name their baby after the neighbor’s deceased relative. the request was in line with a jewish naming custom to honor family members who had died. i imagine the neighbor and her husband either didn’t have children, or they were not having more. thankfully, my mother would say, lil convinced her parents that yetta was not a suitable name for her new little sister, and instead suggested marilyn. mom was forever grateful. pretty and fun and open and carefree, the name marilyn suited her. while she narrowly missed getting an “old world” moniker, i think her signature cookies, and the yiddish name for them, kept her close to her parents’ immigrant roots. mandelbroit are heimish (homey) and unpretentious, just like she was. gould, mandelbroit, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 126 when i think about my mother, i also think about her mother (my bubby), my aunts and cousins, and my sister – a chain of women who informed me: how i prepare for holidays, light sabbath candles, set a passover table, and also how i make mandelbroit. mom was all enthusiasm: parties and simchas1, concerts, dance, and theatre. she loved being in new places, and experiencing life through many lenses. my dad said he was so impressed because she read the russians. also, because she was very beautiful. he said when he picked her up for their first outing—it was a blind date, jerry cooper set them up—that he saw mom’s picture on the mantel and thought: i hope that’s her! it was, and as my dad told the story, it was love at first sight. my father was the only child of a fastidious father and a doting mother. whenever he dated someone who wasn’t jewish, he’d lie about her name and tell his mother: “i’m going out with rochelle schwartzberg,” even if her name was peggy wilson. but when he started to date my mother, he used her real name: marilyn moran. “that’s not jewish!” his mother yelled. “an irish!” he insisted she was jewish, but his mother didn’t believe him. on their third date my parents went canoeing. when he told his mother, she raised her finger in triumph: “aha!” she shrilled. “jewish girls don’t go in boats!” my mother liked to do her own thing. she wore leather pants in the 1980s and insisted that a pontiac trans am would be an acceptable car for our family of five. as the youngest, i had to sit on the bump in the middle—my older brother and sister on either side. i hated it, but for a few years anyway, it was how we rolled. my father would say: “marilyn is a genius in the art of living.” vilde chaye. wild animal. mom’s hair in the morning was wild. sometimes in the afternoon as well. dad called her vilde chaye and said her father would say the same thing. sometimes it seemed like mom was a wild animal. she would yell and scream: “i’ll break your neck!” “i’ll break your head!” “i’ll give you a lickin’!” i never got a licking, but her temper could rage. i pushed her buttons. and yet even though i remember these tempestuous moments, she had such warmth and love; she was my mama bird, laughing and talking on the phone with her many friends while she baked. the cord was pulled as far as it would go; she’d talk and laugh and listen and whisper. always in the kitchen, always baking or cooking. sometimes she baked in the middle of the night, or was it early in the morning? she baked while we were sleeping. she was a wonderful baker and host—parties and people and food, so much food. her cooking matched her baking skills: quiches and meatballs and brisket and chicken soup. her kitchen, though, was always a mess. papers everywhere: the toronto star, the new yorker, grocery flyers, the bayview post, the canadian jewish news, bar mitzvah and wedding invitations, letters and bills long overdue. recently my friend hanna remarked on how she appreciates the practice of cleaning up as one cooks, “the way our mothers taught us,” she said. but my mother never taught me that. i learned so much from watching her, but not how to clean up. i think of her life and all the contradictions. the love we saw between our parents, as well as the way they fought and yelled. they were married for nearly fifty years, and it was all digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 127 there: deep love and vicious words, support and anger, exasperation and despair. the parties and friends and hosting, as well as a kitchen in chaos —every counter covered— shoving papers in bags before the guests arrived; moving the mess into the laundry room, so full you could barely shut the door. i think of a fridge with chopped liver and pastrami and pickles sharing shelf space with bacon and bologna. i recall screaming and slamming doors, and i recall love and hugs and my thoughtful, caring mother. when i was pregnant with my first child, i called my mom to share the ultrasound news. “it’s so nice your first baby will be a girl,” she said. “that way you know you’ll always have a daughter.” i think of those words now, as i reflect on our lives—so grateful for the value she placed on the mother-daughter relationship, and also what might be in store for me: the drama, the shouting, but most of all, the love. mom didn’t make other cookies often: “too much patchekerai” (too much fuss), she’d say. i also don’t like to make cookies but i love to make mandelbroit. now they are my signature cookie. anyone who knew my mother knew her mandelbroit, and i wanted them to be my recipe as well. i bring them to class and meetings and parties. i bring them on airplanes. i make them weekly. each step of the recipe, there she is: my mother in all her complexity. i wonder, what did mom think about when she made these biscuits? did it mean something? did baking jewish connect her with her mother? her yiddish roots? my recipe is different from hers. in my mother’s version, chocolate chips were negotiable, but not in my house—chocolate chips are the only way my kids will eat them. as i think about this difference, i also think about change: family dynamics and relationships, families over time, lives lived and remembered, windows into mothers and mothering, life without a mother. baking mandelbroit is something i do because it’s a part of me. some weeks they are stacked in the cookie jar and i’m the only one who eats them, other weeks they are happily devoured by family and friends. i continue to make them however, even if no one wants them. i make them to remember. here are the recipes. hers and mine: marilyn gould’s mandelbroit (the original) 1 cup of vegetable oil or canola oil 3 eggs 1 cup of sugar (or a little less) 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 cup chopped almonds or walnuts 1 cup of coarsely crushed "special k" cereal 1/4 cup of shredded coconut. (this amount can be adjusted to taste.) 1/2 cup of cranberries, dried cherries, or chocolate chips gould, mandelbroit, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 128 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract cinnamon beat the eggs, add the sugar, then add alternately the dry ingredients with the oil. add vanilla extract, coconut, almonds, dried fruit, and cereal. using your hands, shape the mixture into two thick rolls and line them on a well-greased cookie sheet. leave room because they spread. bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. take it out of the oven and slice it diagonally—the slices are half an inch thick—and place on their sides, cut side up. sprinkle cinnamon and put back in the oven for 15 minutes until they are a little golden. cool and enjoy! my version: 1 cup of vegetable or canola oil 3 eggs 1 cup of sugar (or a little less) 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 cup chopped almonds or walnuts (optional) 1 cup chocolate chips 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract cinnamon sugar (ratio ¼ cup sugar + 1 tablespoon cinnamon—will make plenty for next time) beat the eggs, add the sugar, then add alternately the dry ingredients with the oil. add vanilla, almonds and chocolate chips. using a spoon and a rubber spatula, shape the mixture into two thick rolls and line them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. leave room because they spread. bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. take it out of the oven and slice it diagonally -the slices are half an inch thick (maybe more) -and place on their sides, cut side up. sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar (about 1 tablespoon) and put back in the oven for 15 minutes until they are a little golden. cool and enjoy! notes: 1 (yiddish) – joyous lifecycle events such as weddings or baby namings. this piece was developed from a writing prompt in molly wizenberg’s “food and memoir” online workshop (july 2020)—thanks to molly for helpful feedback, as well as to family, friends, and colleagues for reading and sharing their thoughts—especially jonathan gould (my brother), hanna griff-sleven, and diane tye. i was nervous about capturing my mother on the page, but i hope her warmth shines, and that the reader will understand her “in all her complexity” (thanks for the words, diane!). microsoft word editor bios.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 175-177 © american folklore society 2021 editors & editorial board members, digest 7:2 (2019-2020) editors janet gilmore, lead editor, retired fall 2020 as professor in folklore and landscape architecture at the university of wisconsin-madison, where she focused on foodways and cultural landscapes. pacific northwestern, western great lakes, and upper mississippi river fishing people, maritime workers, folk artists, and farming people led her to publish, present, and contribute to exhibits and festivals that relate to the regions’ foodways and food landscapes—indigenous, old immigrant, and new immigrant. personal interests in food, cooking, and cookbooks, inspired early in her western oregon home, have now come full circle as she explores her mother’s and grandmother’s pacific northwestern-upper midwestern food legacies. theresa vaughan, co-editor, is professor in the department of humanities and philosophy and assistant dean of the college of liberal arts at the university of central oklahoma. she co-edited the encyclopedia of women’s folklore and folklife (with liz locke and pauline greenhill), and her recent research combines her interest in women’s folklore with foodways and the medieval world. her book balancing the humors: dietary recommendations for women in the middle ages was published in 2020 by the amsterdam university press. jennifer dutch, book reviews, is an independent folklorist whose research focuses on the intersection of innovation and tradition in food production and consumption, particularly related to cooking at home and on youtube. her book look who’s cooking: the rhetoric of american home cooking traditions in the twenty-first century was published by the university press of mississippi in 2018. previously she was assistant professor of english and chair of the english department at york college of nebraska. she received her phd in american studies from pennsylvania state university, harrisburg, and master’s degree in english from the university of new hampshire. editorial board members m. dustin knepp is an associate professor at california state university, bakersfield. current chair of the modern languages and literatures department, he directs the interdisciplinary studies programs on campus. his research investigates the intersection of food and culture in latino life, with particular attention to tamales and holiday food traditions and their impact through familial generations and in the historic record. he also served for a year as a local food critic, sampling and reviewing restaurants and food scenes in bakersfield. dustin has published his research across a variety of traditional and digital platforms, and he has contributed to food scholarship through various articles and written contributions, a digital trilingualenglish/spanish/ kaqchikel food dictionary, and a short video documentary featuring bakersfield’s community tamalada. michael lange is professor in the interdisciplinary core curriculum at champlain college in burlington, vermont. he is the author of norwegian scots: an editors & editorial board digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 176 anthropological interpretation of viking-scottish identity in the orkney islands (2007) and meanings of maple (2017), as well as several chapters and articles in journals such as anatolia, scandinavian-canadian studies, the journal of interdisciplinary studies in education, and voices: the journal of new york folklore. he has conducted research in scotland, norway, morocco, and several parts of the us. yvonne lockwood, folklorist, recently retired as curator of folklife at the michigan state university museum, directed the michigan traditional arts apprentice program and michigan heritage awards program there, curated the public food presentations at the festival of michigan folklife and the great lakes folk festival, and curated “michigan eats,” an interpretive exhibition that the museum now tours. other professional foodways activities include conference participation in the us and europe and numerous publications. a long-time member of the foodways section, she co edited digest for a number of years with william g. lockwood and judged student papers. she has extensive research experience in the former yugoslavia, eastern austria (burgenland), and in the upper midwest, primarily in finnish america, where she currently is researching foodways. she also often curates finnish food demonstrations and workshops at the annual finnfest usa. lucy long, director of the independent non-profit center for food and culture, bowling green, ohio (phd folklore, university of pennsylvania), is an adjunct assistant professor at bowling green state university where she teaches folklore, food studies, ethnic studies, and tourism. she has edited and authored numerous foodways publications, including culinary tourism (2004), regional american food culture (2009), ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (2015), ethnic american cooking: recipes for living in a new world (2016); the food and folklore reader (2015); comfort food meanings and memories (2017), and honey: a global history (2017). during the covid-19 pandemic, she has been running a virtual ethnography of “finding comfort and discomfort through foodways,” which has resulted in a virtual symposium, an online exhibit (www.foodandculture.org), and ongoing research and publications. luanne roth teaches in the department of writing and rhetoric at the university of rhode island, where she is teaching a range of courses, including those related to food writing, food and culture, and food justice. roth’s research focuses on folklore, film/media, and food studies, along with other related curiosities. her food studies scholarship has appeared in the journals digest (“poison is poison”), western folklore (“do the [white] thing”), and food, culture and society (“beef, it’s what’s for dinner”), and in such volumes as what’s eating you?: food and horror on screen (2017,“you are what others think you eat”), comfort food meanings and memories (2017,“comfort [and discomfort] food”), unsettling assumptions: tradition, gender, drag (2014,“sexing the turkey”), and folklore/cinema: popular film as vernacular culture (2007,“beyond communitas”). roth tends to be drawn to “the seedy underbelly of tradition”—how food is used both to reinforce and subvert ideologies related to gender, class, ethnicity, and race. https://harrington.uri.edu/meet/luanne-k-roth/ digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 177 robert smith, adjunct associate professor at southern cross university in lismore, australia, was editor for the scholarly journal australian folklore until recently and he has been active across all areas of folk culture in australia. of his broader interests, in addition to foodways, his research includes contemporary memorial customs and regional folk cultures. diane tye is professor in the department of folklore, memorial university. she researches intersections of folklore and gender, especially as they relate to foodways. she is author of baking as biography. a life story in recipes (mcgill-queen’s up, 2010) and co-editor with pauline greenhill of unsettling assumptions: gender, tradition, drag (utah state up, 2014). katrina wynn is currently a part-time stay at home mom and part-time public library worker after finishing up her five-and-a-half-year contract position as manager of the northeast archives of folklore and oral history at the university of maine. she held that position since graduating from western kentucky university with a ma in folk studies. katrina was a co-convener of the american folklore society’s foodways section for six years and has been a member of the section since starting graduate school. review of: a tortilla is like life: food and culture in the san luis valley of colorado. carole counihan. carole. austin: university of texas press, 2009. pp. ix-253. review by: cynthia egan-kiigemagi memorial university of newfoundland community, food and women’s ethnic identity is the focus of anthropologist carole counihan’s ethnographical book; a tortilla is like life. counihan interviews nineteen women over an eight year period about their personal experiences of growing up in a predominantly hispanic community. counihan’s food centered life histories reflect the diversity and commonality of the women within the community. she asserts that, “food is a powerful voice and sparks meaningful memories in many people” (7). this is embodied in the women of antonito in the southern san luis valley of colorado; their close association to the land, farming, and historical substance living patterns is expressed and defined through food, ethnicity, place and gender. determining whether a group has full citizenship and sense of “cultural belonging” within a larger dominant anglo culture can be both treacherous and rewarding for an outsider. in her book, counihan approaches her fieldwork with the knowledge that racism and conflict have colored the landscape of the people she is working with. therefore, she makes a concerted effort to show respect for the individual and the group as a whole, with particular attention to individual confidentiality and cultural diversity. her intention is to offer a forum to the women of antonito that allows them to articulate in their own voices the rich cultural tapestry that is mexicano life in the san luis valley. early on in the book, counihan focuses on the concepts of personal hispanic identity in the wider definition of what is hispanic culture. she notes the wide and variable definitions of ethnic heritage through the diversity of terms that the women use to define themselves. terms such as mexicana and spanish, or mexicanamerican and chicano, offer a glimpse into the diversity of individual cultural expression within the premise that common identification is essential to cultural citizenship (43). her interviews with four of her primary informants reflect the cohesiveness inside the [almost] monoculture of antonito in contrast to the wider conflicts with the outside world, where the women experience both prejudice and discrimination. counihan explores the natural environment, with a particular focus on water, and how it affects individual and community. historically water is considered to be a contentious issue among farmers and families, and is acknowledged historically as the basis for survival for mexicano culture in the southwest. water and land is intricately woven into food production and tradition for her informants; this is particularly true for the older women who remember gardens that sustained their families’ through difficult periods. historically, hispanic families chose areas for their farms and homesteads that were in proximity of rivers which allowed for irrigation of the land. these landed settlements became the source of family histories. land ownership represents a source of pride and cultural tradition for many mexicano families, and this is reflected in the attitudes of the women and their connection of land, family and food. counihan presents the women’s views on traditional diet, and its association with the land and environment. she focuses on the older women in the study who still remember subsistence living conditions where much of their time was taken up with food preparation for the family. the informants focus on the foods that offered the most sustenance, such as meat, beans, potatoes, breads, and foods that were gathered from the wild. family gardens provided a diversity of fruits and vegetables, and according to one informant, “whatever came out of that garden is what you ate the next winter” (83). women’s gardens could be a source of pride as well as sustenance for the family. cultivated grains provided the breads that were the backbone of the diet. two other foods central to the diet, that added both flavor and color were the green and red chili. counihan feels there is a need to focus more on woman’s botanical knowledge. this knowledge, “contributed to biological and cultural diversity” (89). unfortunately, this knowledge has diminished with subsequent generations, leaving a chasm between past and present traditional food ways, as well as local hispanic culture. counihan focuses her interviews on gender, food and work. as times have changed, generations of antonito women have seen their roles change from caretakers to providers. due to low populations and “frontier conditions,” gender roles have fluctuated and diversified to allowed women a broader role in sustaining the family. domestic chores moved back and forth between the public and the private domain. some women chose to work outside the home in typically “female” centered professions such as housekeepers, cooks and teachers. this created conflicts between gendered centered expectations for women as mothers and wives, and the sense of individual independence that these jobs provided for the women. one informant, helen ruybal, discussed how she resisted the gendered stereotype of marriage and family, putting a career as a teacher ahead of traditional expectations. such choices allowed the women a certain autonomy and status that early hispanic women had never achieved; however, it also could also set them apart from their communities as non-conformists which created a tension among the generations. many of the women interviewed embraced the idea of physical “man’s work” and reveled in the ability to provide for the family as well as a man. one of the primary ways women established their dominant position in the family was through food work. physical labor was always an intensive part of food preparation. canning, drying, gathering and storing food was a never-ending task for early antonito women. historically preservation was vitally important, and women would spend intensive physical effort on maintaining their stores through the long colorado winters. food preparation could also bring families extra needed money through the sale of tamales or tortillas. counihan further examines women’s agency, action, and women’s ability to express themselves through creative cooking. according to counihan; “agency is critical to the concept of cultural citizenship” (114). this agency is reflected in the when, where and how of cooking, which speaks of both diversity and flexibility in domestic roles. relationships are built on, or negotiated through food within antonito society, and this concept is reflected in all aspects of counihan’s research. relationships varied depending on the individual; however, food was and is a central theme in the development and sustainability of connections within the family and the community. within the antonito community, household meals foster attachment, family values and traditions, thus preparing future generations for socialization in the community, and their extended environment. communication is part of this socialization and family meals lend themselves to the continuance of tradition and stories. as one informant, martha montdragon reveals, “i could always remember we could share our stories while we were eating” (140). this time of sharing maintained a feeling of family that extended into the larger network of social relationships. the women’s stories create a rich portrait of closely familial ties and social contexts that hispanic women express both creatively and individually. mealtime is presented as multi-layered and dense with meaning and connection. counihan investigates the notions of sharing and generosity within antonito society. complex relationships outside of the family often centered on food, fellowship and reciprocity. in the early years, work exchange and food sharing were encouraged by the community, and to a large extent, were essential for the continuation of the local culture due to physical and financial hardships. this give and take allowed for a larger communal bonding within antonito society. hospitality also required that households offer food and drink to a visitor. counihan states, “offering something was a way to bridge social separation and to emphasize equality” (155). caring for each other was essential to familial and social survival. food, death and poverty are the topics of her final chapters. these subjects are intricately tied with nurturing, loss and collective responsibility. times of crisis are seen by the antonito community as a period for collective compassion and sharing. death in many cultures is often associated with the life affirming sustenance of food, equally for the dead and the living. it was both comfort and transition for the bereaved, and allowed the community to share in the grieving processes. red chili seems to hold a special place of honor among the mexicano community, and can frequently be found at funerals and weddings. gifts of prepared food were brought to the grieving families, and shared communally between the days of death and burial. another type of food preparation associated with death is the farewell dinner. this allowed the public and the family to say good-bye to the deceased through traditionally prepared feasts. counihan refers to van gennep’s theory of the rites of passage (1960) in reflecting that post-funeral meals are, “…among the most important rites of his third stage of passage— incorporation” (177). these meals allow the surviving members to re-establish relationships, and show continuing solidarity as a group. finally, the topic of poverty is discussed by counihan’s informants. southern colorado, and particularly conejos county where the town of antonito is located, has experienced crippling poverty and unemployment over the years. food sharing allowed for those unable to fend for themselves to eat. cheap traditional foods such as beans, potatoes, vegetables and tortillas were made available to families in need, as were school lunch programs and food banks. most farming families did well, but those who had lost the main bread winner or suffered from a partner being sick or addicted to alcohol, experienced deprivation. according to one informant, teddy madrid, it was not uncommon to take in a desperate relative, or to give them flour and beans to make their situation easier (185). giving was a traditional natural form of food distribution, and represented a form of status for the giver within antonito society. children and the elderly suffered the most during these times and to give was to ensure the continuity of mexicano culture. counihan’s book is well written and will appeal to a wide spectrum of readers. the voice of the women she interviewed comes through in a very thoughtful way. her interpretation and commentary is insightful, allowing the reader a view of an underrepresented ethnic group. personally, i enjoyed the way that counihan approaches her subject both with depth and sensitivity. counihan adopts a fairly hands off attitude with respect to theory and interpretation, thus giving the book a less formal tone. she displays a conscious understanding of her topic by allowing both subject and history to speak for itself. i would have enjoyed a more in-depth commentary on the folklore of foodways; however, this is my own bias, and the lack thereof does not detract from the overall study. i would recommend this book to those whose interests lie in foodways, gender studies, ethnography and folklore. a tortilla is like life would be a good addition to any reading list, and a beneficial resource for those who desire to understand the complex associations of gender, food, culture and ethnicity. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 83-98 © american folklore society 2021 83 bread, berries, and fish: food and fairy encounters in newfoundland by: karin murray-bergquist abstract: this article investigates fairy lore in newfoundland through the identity marker of food. i consider perceptions of the environment as rigorous or bountiful in stories of fairy encounters, particularly in regard to scarcity and staple foods. taking particular note of geographical variations in the narratives surrounding fairies and food, the article will explore contrasting environments and investigate the concepts of locality, scarcity, and abundance that may influence the way fairy stories are told. from supernatural solutions, to dangerous illusions, this article will view the ambiguities present in fairy lore through the lens of newfoundland foodways. i will compare the folklore of other regions, particularly the british isles, with the traditions of newfoundland, and examine which influences are particularly evident, and how they have been changed to fit the local beliefs, culinary culture, and geography. keywords: fairies, food, folklore, landscape, newfoundland introduction in ballad, belief, and folktale, food and the supernatural have a complex relationship, and this is frequently visible in instances where fairy food plays a part. this article investigates fairy lore in newfoundland1 by exploring food as an identity marker. in asking whether fairy narratives speak of remedying lack of food, or of causing harm by food, i consider perceptions of the environment as rigorous or bountiful in stories of fairy encounters, particularly in regard to scarcity and staple foods. the focus on contrasting environments—wild and tame, forest and garden—that barbara rieti notes in strange terrain (1991) is central to exploring the themes of need, locality, and abundance that influence fairy encounters. this paper will draw heavily on rieti’s work, which describes several types of encounter narrative, the explanations that have been posited for fairy sightings, and the geographical and environmental connections within this body of lore. in fairy tales, food often takes on a supernatural connotation in times of desperation. for instance, berries prompt magical conception in the newfoundland version of “peg bearskin,” (tye and greenhill 2020). consequences ensue when instructions are not properly followed, but the giving of the food itself does not imply treachery.2 this story does not explicitly involve fairies in the sense of a type of otherworldly being, but it does fit with rieti’s definition of fairy as adjective, that is, an otherworldly quality (1991: 54). such an example highlights the connection between fairy food and need, and involves elements of both help and danger. murray-bergquist, bread, berries, and fish, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 84 in this article, i compare folklore of newfoundland with that of other. the body of fairy folklore of the british isles, an area that has had significant influence in the province’s history, also frequently presents food from mysterious sources in an ambiguous light, with “fairy butter,” for example, appearing occasionally as a gift and occasionally a danger.3 eating fairy butter that is freely offered can be positive, while refusing it is fatal. fairies can also prevent humans from churning butter of their own (westwood and simpson 2005: 242, 774). it is worth noting that tales of fairy butter do not seem to have appeared in newfoundland. then there are downright interdictions against it, as found in ballad as well as belief, in which food eaten in the fairy realm gives fairies power over a person, and means that they remain under enchantment.4 human food may also be kept as a talisman, eaten as sustenance, or become enchanted by the fairies. in newfoundland, there is a story about a man going into the woods with a sandwich, being lost and taken by fairies, and then coming back out but having his sandwich burned for safety’s sake; food was tainted by association (rieti 1991: 202). food can be transformative or it can be transgressive. etiquette and social mores coincide with ventures into unknown environments, desperate attempts to regain control over one’s destiny, or exchanges of objects and services between worlds. where fairy food is concerned, in folklore from the british isles as well as newfoundland, it is often outdoors in wild places that may be familiar but seem strange; it is not purely nourishing but also bears spiritual significance. fairies and food overlap in domestic settings as well, often as an intrusion beyond boundaries. in this paper, i examine the contrast between these stories, alongside the contextual information presented by those recalling the stories. due to the difficulty of conducting fieldwork in the circumstances imposed by the global covid-19 pandemic, i was forced to rely on published literature and archival materials available online. drawing primarily on the published work of barbara rieti (1991), peter narváez (1991), and archival sources in the memorial university folklore and language archive (munfla), i explore recurring themes in the folklore on fairy food in the newfoundland context, and the interactions of fairies and humans in this regard. this study attempts to build on those existing analyses by focusing on the connections between environment and staple foods in the newfoundland fairy tradition. it relies primarily on accounts of firsthand encounters with the fairies, accounts of encounters said to have transpired in previous generations, as well as sayings or proverbs, and less on folktales or legends, though i make some comparison to these genres in newfoundland and to a lesser extent the british isles. the role of scarcity and necessity in shaping fairy lore around the subject of food—particularly contradictory accounts—is examined closely to determine if there is a link between them. finally, i discuss fairy food as it features in individual narratives, and community dynamics or foodways. i will focus on bread, fish, and berries, not only because they are significant to the idea of fairy stories, but because they are foods that hold an important place in newfoundland foodways. fairy landscapes there is great emphasis placed on environment in fairy narratives and it is one of the conditions that creates the possibility for fairy belief (narváez 1991: 340). rieti’s strange terrain is the main source on the role of the newfoundland landscape in fairy narratives digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 85 and for examining, for instance, fairy interference with farming (rieti 1991: 70-71). the fairies did not seem to have an aversion to farming so much as an enjoyment of making humans’ lives difficult. their presence in several farming-centric narratives is often a mildly antagonistic one, and sometimes a more serious threat. the “fairy blast,” a sudden gust of wind, could be a nuisance that required cleaning up strewn hay, or something that caused physical harm or death (rieti 1991: 72). one of the stories recounted illustrates both the shortand long-term effects of the blast. a woman in colliers (unless otherwise noted, all place names mentioned will be in newfoundland) was taken up by the fairy blast while raking up hay, and both she and the haystacks went missing for a day before being found safe. she was so shaken that she never spoke afterward (rieti 1991: 71). it seems that fairies in newfoundland did not actively engage in farming, and occasionally caused problems for the farmers themselves, appearing mostly as visitors to the farm, but sometimes driven in their resentment by a desire to return regularly to the same place. for instance, a piece of ground known as “the fairy patch” on one farm near avondale was the site of a “fairy squall,” where the hay was suddenly lifted onto the nearby hill (rieti 1991: 68). bride power’s memoir notes that in her youth in marysvale, the fairies were “in on the farms” and led people astray (power 2018: 24). the landscapes they inhabited were, as narváez describes, liminal spaces that belonged neither to the familiar nor to the unknown (1991: 338). landscape is central to the perceived identities of fairies, and as such, there is a tie between the foods associated with fairies, the places where they dwell, and the way they are viewed. how they came to inhabit these landscapes may also be important, as the origins of the fairies and their presence in particular locations are explained differently throughout newfoundland, with variations caused by religious belief, individual storytelling style, and location of the storyteller. one account mentions the fairies being banished to the woods, after having made too much trouble when they lived near the human community (rieti 1991: 62). those accounts of fairy origins that refer to them as fallen angels occasionally make a distinction between those that fell in the sea, becoming mermaids, and those that fell on the land, becoming fairies (rieti 1991: 22). rieti elaborates on the contrasting relationships between the fairies and the human world in terms of landscapes that they inhabit. wild and tame are indeed contrasted in imagery and influence, but the food lore of fairies complicates the picture by including both wild and manufactured foods, in roles that never quite settle into one thing or the other. my interest is in the effect of these landscapes on the food interactions with fairies and how their food is perceived. this ties into how fairies are viewed more broadly, whether as threatening or potentially providing unexpected help. it is also crucial to look to the emotional responses to fairy narratives and fairy encounters (both stories that are not personal experiences, in which the tellers do not have personal connections to the events, and those in which they do). the emotional response to stories of fairies is as important a consideration as that of the physical landscape. recurring references to fairies as being part of the past may indicate a separation from these stories, or a nostalgic attitude that does not always accord with the actual degree of belief expressed, either in the past or the present, but rather a general interest in the stories for their narrative and historic value (rieti 1991: 2). murray-bergquist, bread, berries, and fish, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 86 while rieti’s interviewees do not tell stories of looking for an encounter with fairies, she notes that in some cases they “like to think” that they had a brush with the good people, preferring that interpretation over any other, and telling it accordingly (1991: 97). therefore, it is possible that the emphasis will be less on shortage or scarcity, at least in the community context, and more on nostalgia. the sense of need may be present in stories concerning fairies and food, but it may not be the need brought on by a hard winter. rather, a need to frame the past in a certain way is expressed in the narratives. holly everett’s study on berries reframes a food associated in many accounts with fairies and danger as a food of tradition, bounty, and connection, hard-won by gathering the wild fruits in the barrens or the woods, but worth the effort and made more significant by it (everett 2007: 35). stating that the fairies were a part of the past rather than a current danger may belong to the same process of mediation, placing the more difficult parts of the past at a further remove, a safe enough distance to tell stories about them and feel that they are a valuable tradition, and allow them to satisfy “the desire for a good story” (rieti 1991: 97). some accounts involved the significance of a drink of water (rieti 1991: 103). water, as will be explored later, has a complex role in stories about fairies. a mug is offered in one account described by narváez, and not accepted by the human recipient, an encounter that took place by a pond, implying that the drink would have allowed the fairy to obtain influence over the person (1991: 350). this is worth mentioning as it contradicts rieti’s similar accounts, in which a person drinking from a stream with a dipper avoids falling under fairy influence by way of the dipper, an object made by human hands, acting as an intermediary between fairy and human realms (rieti 1991: 202). both of these would be classed as fairy encounters, as they took place within the communities in which they were told. these accounts feature fairies near fresh water, and an exchange between humans and fairies that has an ambiguous meaning. the role of salt water will also be examined below. bread: hearth and communion the most frequently cited food item in regards to fairy folklore in newfoundland is bread (see rieti 1991). this is not surprising as bread was central to food culture in the province throughout much of its recent history. diane tye argues that bread is even more of a staple than cod in newfoundland (2011: 1). as a staple, bread makes its way into every aspect of society, both physically, as something present at every meal and baked within the home, and symbolically, as part of the eucharist (2011: 1). it was used medicinally, but also had a more supernatural connotation as a form of divination (2011: 28-30). it was, as well, present in proverbs related to pathfinding and avoiding getting lost, perhaps countering the fairies’ predilection for misleading people: “you’re eating your path” was an oftenheard admonition to those consuming bread in the woods, implying that the bread is less for sustenance than for symbolism (2011: 32). rieti attributes the pivotal role of bread in relation to fairy folklore to several possible sources (1991: 75). the view of bread as a deterrent was present in marysvale and long pond in the latter half of the 20th century, with the rationale, “the fairies must have been afraid of bread, because they couldn’t touch you then or couldn’t take you” (power 2018: digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 87 25). it could be that the religious implications of bread are behind its key role in protection from the fairies. however, it could also be viewed as a symbol of that which is made by humans rather than gathered from the wild, something that allowed it to serve as a tie to the familiar world (rieti 1991: 76). a story collected by narváez uses both bread and berries as sustaining foods for someone led astray, though the individual ate only a crumb of bread per day and picked berries as well, perhaps implying that the role of the bread was more spiritual than physical (narváez 1991: 345). a personal communication of mine via a facebook post confirmed that the interpretation of bread as a food used to distract the fairies is still known in newfoundland; the idea is that it prevents them from taking one captive: “i was told it was so that you had something to offer them rather than take you or take your child. bread or silver in your pocket.” (21 january 2021). another participant in the conversation volunteered the advice that one should never eat fairy food, as it gave the fairies power over one’s person, stating “i was always told if you kept a piece of bread in your pocket it would help keep the fairies away?” (21 january 2021). the former is a belief frequently found and referenced in rieti’s fieldwork, as in the account of individuals being taken because they could not pay “the bread ransom,” while the latter is widespread in literature, and occasionally also in folklore, as rieti notes (1991: 81,130). aligning with the idea of bread as escape, but using a motif that is not explicitly present in the newfoundland tales i consulted, british folklorist wirt sikes makes reference to a story in which water nymphs taunt a man. they tell him that by eating bread (presumably specifically baked by humans), he has made it harder for him to catch them (1880: 40). it is a statement that, like many of the accounts from newfoundland, does not explain exactly why bread is held in such high esteem, though in both of these cases it seems to act as a barrier between fairy and human, whether the human is pursuing the fairies or vice versa. an indication that bread was similarly viewed more as a deterrent than a distraction to fairies in newfoundland comes from some of the storytellers interviewed by rieti, who specified that to banish spirits, salt was preferred, but to banish fairies, people could use bread (1991: 78). often the role of bread was more as a general protective measure than a way of speeding or slowing the steps of the person who carried it, but these examples illustrate its role in preventing fairy encounters. the relationship was rarely simple and straightforward, however. fairies had bread of their own, both in newfoundland and elsewhere, with its own effects on humans who ate it (rieti 1991: 81). in a british account compiled in the late 19th century, bread offered by the fairies could also be a clever impostor: “wirt sikes in british goblins relates a breconshire belief that gifts of fairy bread by the tylwyth teg, if not eaten immediately in darkness, will prove to be toadstools in the daylight” (british fairies blog; sikes 1880: 120). that fairy food, if it is not outright dangerous, is at least not what it may seem, is a belief also reflected in a breton tale on the dangers of fairy food for humans (spence 1917). mushrooms are associated with fairies in newfoundland as well, though without the mention of their being turned into bread, nor reference to their edibility (rieti 1991: 208). there is perhaps an implication in sikes’s reference that the true power of human bread is its non-illusory nature, and such stories might have influenced newfoundland belief (sikes 1880: 120). murray-bergquist, bread, berries, and fish, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 88 in newfoundland, the fairies’ relationship to bread can sometimes stand in contrast to the wild-cultivated divide noted by rieti, as occasionally it serves as a place in which the fairies are profoundly involved in cultivated or domestic foods. tye notes that the practice among catholic women was to cross their bread before letting it rise (2011: 19). in ireland, likewise, crossing the bread to let fairies out is still a custom practiced when baking soda bread, and mentioned in multiple recipes and articles about the food (personal experience august 2017, mcdonnell and prendergast 2018, mangan 2016). the continuation of this tradition may have taken on different meanings over the years, but the idea of a fairy intrusion into the bread, especially as something to be warded off within the domestic setting, differs from the interpretation of bread as a deterrent to fairy attacks. gender also influences the division of domestic and wild and may affect the meanings of both bread and berries, as will be explored in more detail below. women were in charge of baking bread throughout much of newfoundland’s settler history, and the knowledge of baking travelled with them as they married and moved to new communities. this stands in direct contrast to the unfamiliarity of berry grounds that a woman might find herself in after marriage, and makes bread, perhaps, a comfort food in its production. the emotional associations of bread could be profound, and rooted in early childhood because for many newfoundlanders, “it was also closely tied to memories of mothers and grandmothers” (tye 2011: 24). on the other hand, women who could not bake were sometimes judged harshly, especially after they married, and were under pressure to learn (tye 2011: 24-25). if home baked bread in newfoundland cuisine was a confirmed staple, perhaps concerns over perceived “cheats” such as quick breads also played into beliefs surrounding the deceptive bread of the fairy folk. different interpretations of the connections between fairies and bread—aversion, religion, distraction—give dimension to the different interpretations of fairy origins, particularly their different religious implications and the place of the fairies in a christian schematic. there are several stories on the origins of fairies, and those attributing them to fallen angels may explain the bread problem as an aversion rooted in their fraught relationship with christianity (rieti 1991: 22-23). however, other interpretations, such as fairies as ghosts or as indefinable spirits, leave room for the possibility that bread was a bribe, a means of distracting the fairies, or a form of sustenance that protected against fairy food, particularly if the latter was an illusion. today, bread continues to hold meaning in newfoundland folklife, and while most people no longer bake bread at home every day, it remains a staple (tye 2011: 34). of course, eating bread rarely takes place on its own, and a delicious jam is usually wanted—made with local berries. berries: the dangers of the wild because, as rieti (1991) and narváez (1991) note, many fairy encounters take place when people involved are picking berries, the customs and perceptions surrounding berrypicking must be examined in relation to food security. the social role of wild food from the forest and bog in a society that was otherwise agrarian and also dependent on the fishery is foundational to understanding the encounters that took place on berry picking grounds. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 89 the disorientation expressed in the stories could well have reflected the challenge of getting one’s bearings in an unfamiliar landscape, as was the case for many women when they married (rieti 1991: 94-95). it is perhaps berries that best reflect the idea of a liminal landscape in the fairy context. it is also berries that, in the sources consulted, are most explicitly tied to hard times. narváez refers to the way that “material inducement during hard times often drove berry pickers into realms of danger” and suggests that this contributed to the social role of berry-picking (1991: 342). berry-picking supplemented a family’s diet, and the products resulting from it aided their income (narváez 1991: 342; everett 2007: 19). yet the stories of berry-pickers and fairies focus on the initial stage of this process, the gathering of food in the wild, rather than the preparation of berry preserves or the sale of berries within or outside the community. fairies do not seem to have interfered in these activities. perishable and seasonal foods may also take on significance in the landscape of supernatural narrative. fairies can be seen as filling absences, “always going but never gone,” as rieti notes, quoting w.b. yeats, taking the role of the ephemeral and temporary but not extratemporal (1991: 1). fairies do seem to be perennially — pun intended — associated with seasonal food, likely as a side effect of their being similarly tied to wild food. fairies are associated with berries, yes, but not necessarily with jam or preserves. the role of fairy landscapes as liminal places is significant to berry-picking on both the individual and community levels. perhaps the contrast between fairy and human places is matched in significance by the contrast between a wilderness seen as barren and one that is seen as bountiful. a liminal landscape may still fulfill the role of a landscape as provider. tye and greenhill’s study of berries in “peg bearskin” as a connection between familiar and fantastical, as well as a fulfiller of wishes, reflects this theme (2020: 103). the meanings of foods and the stories associated with them can change. as with many foods whose histories are related to scarcity or need, the newfoundland berry has now become associated with bounty (everett 2007: 9). it is worth interrogating the meanings of berries today, and the change in their constructed meanings both to newfoundlanders and to outsiders. the associations of the newfoundland berry are not uncomplicated. as a tradition that is still practiced, but that is no longer a necessity for most families, berrypicking occupies a space similar to bread, in that it is now used to entice visitors and to make products of a certain level of luxury, but belongs to a different physical space than what is baked on the hearth. narváez sketches out the relationship between berries and economic hardship. the importance of berries in the commercial sense rose in the 1930s due to the availability of freezer facilities, allowing them to be sold on a grander scale (1991: 342). while rieti’s (1991) participants often do not explicitly connect the practice of berry-picking with shortage or scarcity, it is interesting to contrast the view of berries as a staple necessity with that of berries as a draw for tourists. for one thing, the practice of gathering them in the wild is directly contrasted, by tourism guides, with that of processing them and turning them into delicacies like jam. both are seen as age-old traditional arts (everett 2007). the attraction of the local jam, to the tourist, is the knowledge that the ingredients are directly murray-bergquist, bread, berries, and fish, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 90 gathered from the land, which is framed as challenging but generous, and that they did not have to do this themselves. dale jarvis records the story of a woman, well-liked in her community, who was lost in the woods and missing for several days. she returned with an unusual story of being sustained by fairies (2005: 47). rather than wild food, as one might expect, the fairies had brought her the oranges that the searchers set out for her to find. what makes this story distinct is the fact that the missing woman was sustained by human food, provided by the searchers but attributed to the fairies, who were more often associated with wild foods grown in newfoundland than with exotic fruits. while ambiguous, the story could be understood as the fairies finding the signs of possible help, and bringing them to her, although their motivations remain unknown. it does not seem that she interpreted their gifts as signs of human help, nor that she believed their actions to have been motivated by wishing her to stay with them. if food indicates something about the moral alignment of those eating it, what implications does fairy food have? in the story recounted by jarvis, the woman is a valued member of the community; in other stories such as one concerning a woman who kept to herself and wandered strangely due to the mental strain of having an illegitimate child, it seems that fairy explanations are given to behaviors that make people outsiders, and might be used as an excuse to alienate them (rieti 1991: 114, 120). as narváez, rieti, and tye and greenhill all note, stories about berry-pickers’ encounters with fairies could be used to cover much more unsavory stories of assaults on the part of community members (narváez 1991: 355, rieti 1991: 120, tye and greenhill 2020: 101). yet the range of such stories demonstrates that they served multiple purposes, and those in which humans are unexpectedly kept alive by the unknown or liminal beings in an uncertain landscape would certainly bear comparison with those featuring more hostile encounters. the morality of the fairies is as ambiguous as the implications of eating their food, and whichever way one approaches the question, there is no simple answer. along with illustrating the fairy landscape, stories of people unexpectedly fed by fairies demonstrate the balance of power within that space. to feed others, especially those in pressing need, is to be the one in control of the situation. this fraught dynamic is also reflected in the newfoundland folktale “peg bearskin,” where the berries become the means of conception in desperate straits and great need (tye and greenhill 2020: 102). those who returned from the forest after such experiences, even if they had been nourished temporarily, sometimes suffered lasting effects from the time spent among the fairies (narváez 1991: 351). if berries were the bounty of one liminal space, fish was the product of another. yet within the body of folklore related to fairies in newfoundland, they occupy much less space. fish: the unspoken and absent food the cod fishery was the mainstay of newfoundland life for generations, so it is surprising to see how little it is reflected in stories of fairies, and how sparse the references to fairy belief are in the maritime context, as opposed to ghosts, for example. some of rieti’s participants digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 91 referred to fairies being ghosts, and the shipwrecked dead are said to have “strong fairy affinities,” but many treated them as separate entities, even when describing similar phenomena (rieti 1991: 26, 82). reluctance to tell of sailing lore when telling narratives of fairies, as reported by michael fagan and cited by rieti, may be one reason for this absence. perhaps they are separate narrative events even if they share some traits. a more detailed comparison between the landscapes in which these stories took place would be necessary, however, in order to draw out precisely the ways in which ghost and fairy narratives differ or converge (rieti 1991: 27). “the hollies,” a name for voices heard in adam’s cove, is a term i first encountered while researching for the ghost ship map of newfoundland and labrador, and is associated by one of rieti’s interviewees as a fairy sound, though still associated with the dead (munfla 68-022e 003 ms; see murray-bergquist 2020, rieti 1991: 82). the story of the mysterious light near greenspond, known as paddy poor’s light,5 is attributed to a lost schooner rather than something non-human, and billy the wisp, a similar mystery light located near partridge’s cove pond, is unexplained, but is similar to many ghost ship legends in that the mystery light is said to be a token of bad weather (murray-bergquist 2020). it is in the realm of mysterious lights that rieti notes the most overlap between ghost and fairy accounts (1991: 26), though i would argue that those found near the coast are more likely to be attributed to lost ships. ghosts are not the sole supernatural beings that appear in newfoundland sea lore. other folkloric entities, such as mermaids and selkies6, are present as well and are related to fairy folk (rieti 1991: 232). these are beings with rich bodies of lore often separate from other types of fairy stories, but it is worth mentioning their connection with food by way of the fishery and the seal hunt, as many of their stories, around the coasts of the british isles, were told in fishing communities, which one might expect to influence the newfoundland record (thomson 2000). in particular, the balance between the worlds of land and sea was seen as important, and to offend or harm a magical creature within it could be dangerous (westwood and kingshill 2012: 284). yet they are regarded as distinct for the most part from the context of fairies in the newfoundland folkloric world (rieti 1991: 81). rieti notes that the lack of narratives about fairies in or around the sea in her study is a significant absence (1991: 80). she does refer to a few stories, such as a stranger helping a short-handed crew take in fish, and crucially, disappearing once he comes to land (1991: 81). there are some examples of fishers being involved in tales of fairies that were set on land in newfoundland legend (jarvis 2005: 53). on the whole, fairies appear to be rooted in the landscape, an observation emphasized by rieti as well as narváez, and that would merit further contemporary fieldwork with a specific focus on geographic associations of such stories (rieti 1991: 113, narváez 1991: 340). comparing the situation in newfoundland with fairy folklore in the british isles, which might have been expected to influence the former,7 fairy boats were not an unknown occurrence in ireland. one of lady gregory’s interviewees in the late 19th-early 20th century notes that “they [the fairies] go out fishing like ourselves” in ireland (rieti 1991: 232). likewise, stories of encounters with fairies could occur at sea (chadbourne 2012). while fairy narratives are by no means a monolithic tradition in either location, their similarities in other ways raise the question of why this difference in environment should be present. narváez notes that fairies and berries were linked in some european folklore and attributes the centrality of berries partially to a murray-bergquist, bread, berries, and fish, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 92 carry-over from that context. it becomes all the more anomalous that fairy encounters at sea, and the stories of fairy boats, are so absent (1991: 340). the first point to examine would be that of how the work cultures of fishing and berrypicking differ. a crucial difference in this case is the question of privacy. an individual experience is a less common phenomenon in fishing, and disappearing for multiple days is not possible. most fairy encounters recounted by rieti seem to involve a single person separated from a companion or companions, or a small group of people led astray (1991: 185). there is also a gender difference, in which fishing was generally a male activity, and berry-picking primarily a female one (narváez 1991: 341). the social roles of berry-picking and fishing, while superficially connected and holding a few more profound similarities such as seasonality and the danger of the environment in which they took place, were perhaps sufficiently different so that to compare the two may not be fruitful in terms of occupational folklore. fishing was not absolutely absent from fairy encounter accounts— there is a mention of trout fishing, via a story in which a girl in the woods was found after being fairy-led (rieti 1991: 64). in one account recorded by narváez, a girl taken by fairies is found on the other side of a wide river, without a memory of how she got there, adding to her sense of disorientation (1991: 350). notably, this takes place in the woods, and in fresh river water rather than the salt ocean. the forested inland environment is, as mentioned earlier, associated with the fairies more than any other type of landscape. based on this, it is important to examine the question of this apparent gap in the fairies’ presence, and possible causes of it, from the point of view of the physical environment. the role of fairies in regards to fishing may be related to salt water, or water in general. if salt was used to banish spirits, as in one account in which salt, water, and religious invocations were combined to banish fairies who had been troubling a man, perhaps salt water was regarded as an environment they would not inhabit (rieti 1991: 78). while some accounts made the distinction between banishing fairies and banishing spirits, as separate entities affected by different forms of banishment, others specified salt as one of the items that would affect fairies adversely (rieti 1991: 76). the presence of fairies near water in general is worth investigating for multiple reasons, and it is important to examine both fresh and salt water while making the distinction between the two. first, there is the belief about fairies and witches being unable to cross running water (see british fairies blog; westwood and simpson 2005: 72). second, there is the importance of water as a familiar environment in newfoundland. as an island, newfoundland is defined by water, bounded by it, and shaped in many ways by its residents' relationship to it. an aversion to water, fresh or salt, is not seen as a central part of coastal fairy lore in scotland and ireland, and the changeable, unpredictable nature of the environment is even seen as a reason for fairy narratives to take place near the sea, with the contrasts present in the seascape reflecting those of the fairies themselves (narváez 1991: 340). the use of the word “fairy” as an adjective, rather than a noun, is occasionally present in interviews cited by rieti; one participant is quoted as defining the adjective as “like seeing a ship on the ocean that wasn’t really there” (1991: 54). this does not necessarily mean that fairies, as separate entities, were present, but that the word could refer to anything uncanny that one witnessed, that existed without a clear explanation in the rational world. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 93 the lack of fairy folklore recounted in relation to cod might also be accounted for by the prevalence of other narratives related to the fishery, which have taken greater precedence. the cod moratorium of 19928 drastically changed the relationship between newfoundlanders and fishing. yet this in itself could have served to draw out fairy narratives and beliefs, if any existed. the perception of the sea as bountiful despite its dangers, the “once plentiful cod fishery” remembered, might have intersected with fairy belief in its construction of the past (thomson and ahluwalia 2012). as with berries, contemporary narratives surrounding cod occasionally blend a sense of pride in a rugged environment with a view of its goods as potentially luxurious products. this is reflected, for example, in the name of the specialty food company cod sounds that evokes a time when cod “sounds” or swim bladders were one of the few extremely inexpensive parts of the fish (long 2016). in searching for links between fairy lore, food lore, and scarcity, fishing represents an intriguing avenue, as it is perhaps the most obvious one when discussing shortages. particularly, the discussion of fairies and cod alike as part of the landscape of the past, and the way in which this past is revisited through folklore, might be a fruitful direction for future research. neither rieti nor narváez makes much mention of fairies in folksong, and while balladry is a major source for older forms of fairy belief including that of food (see jacobs 1891), recent fairy narratives have taken the form of personal experience accounts or legends. in this aspect as well, the vanished past diverges: cod on the one hand, fairies on the other. it appears that fairies were, if not entirely absent, certainly not a major part of fisheries folklore. of all areas in which further firsthand research on fairies could be illuminating, this is one that should perhaps be pursued, as an absence of published material may not indicate an absence of stories. another avenue worth investigating would be in the memorial university of newfoundland folklore and language archive. in my own experience with munfla, researching ghost ships, i found very few accounts of fairy encounters in the maritime context. however, this does not necessarily mean that such stories do not exist; a more dedicated study of the topic might reveal more connections. tangentially, fishbones were among the objects reported to have come out of mysterious injuries attributed to fairy darts (rieti 1991: 141,144, 204). while perhaps one could not read too much into this, as the objects tend to be those found in and around people’s houses anyway, like straw and sticks, it is one of the few places in which fish or related products appear in this context. it also illustrates the perception of fairies turning the items of everyday life into dangers. there is perhaps one parallel in the way stories of cod and fairies alike are told: they belong, in many tellers’ conception, to a previous time, though the former has this status for concrete and evident reasons, while the latter is more numinous. exchange and gift the story of the woman sustained by oranges, recounted by jarvis, is an intriguing and unusual example of exchange (2005: 47).9 if not exactly reciprocal, it is certainly one that involved both humans and fairies taking an active part in the redistribution of food. intriguing is the fact that the woman went out to go berry-picking, but it was not berries, as one might have expected, that sustained her during her absence. the fairies evidently were murray-bergquist, bread, berries, and fish, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 94 not reluctant to interact with human food, or to help her without asking for anything in return. the oranges also had no ill effects, unlike stories in which humans sustained by fairies suffer upon their return. it would be interesting to pursue the question of whether eating human food could restore a person who had suffered from an encounter with the fairies, something touched upon with changelings. these last are fairy children, or sometimes adults, who change places with ordinary humans, often behaving in ways that marked them as unusual, and suffering ill health. stories like these could explain sudden changes in the physical condition or behavior of individuals (1991: 44, 46). it is here that i will raise another question relevant to the subject of scarcity and need. do fairies ever eat human food? in the context of the british isles, stories such as the medieval english legend of the green children, a boy and a girl found at woolpit, anglia, use their initial aversion to human food to highlight the otherness of the folk, and they begin to lose their distinctive green coloring after eating it. the boy died young, however, the girl survived to adulthood, eventually marrying. (westwood and simpson 2005: 707). the children could also prevent butter from forming. this theme found in english folklore is not, to my knowledge, present in newfoundland (westwood and simpson 2005: 242, 262, 273). one interviewee in rieti’s study offers an answer to the question, saying “‘just as you never eat their saltless food, they never eat human food with salt in it’” (1991: 76). the role of salt, therefore, could also be crucial in examining such overarching themes as exchange between worlds, and the preservation of food or its perishable status. furthermore, if, as stated earlier, there is a significance to salt water being part of the reason for the fairies' absence from the fishery, salt-preserved cod would be far from their tastes. in the sources given by rieti, fairies are occasionally interested in bread, though bread is more usually cited as a protection without mention of the fairies eating it. the perils of fairy food are twofold, with the danger of accepting food from the fairies contrasted with the risk of offending them if the food freely offered is rejected. the traditions in this regard are widespread, but it is worth looking at ones that may have had an impact on newfoundland. an account collected in ireland in the early 20th century by evans-wentz notes the rule that if one is taken by the fairies and eats with them, one will never return (1911: 47). however, the story that tells of a man refusing a gift of fairy butter, causing the death of himself and his horses, indicates that this is a dangerous act in itself (westwood and simpson 2005: 242) both of these are accounts from the british isles, but they each have their echoes in newfoundland. one woman who is taken by the fairies and refused to eat their food was returned to her world but left with a permanent speech defect (rieti 1991: 70). in another account, three children who are taken to an island by a mysterious boat eat fairy bread; two die young while a third never recovers her wits (rieti 1991: 81). the implication is that any encounter with the fairies is bound to leave one altered. in another account, a man refuses to eat fairy food, even when captured and offered several chances to take it. no definite retribution is noted, so the rule does not appear to have been constantly observed (rieti 1991: 83). hospitality, something i was frequently told was a reason to come to newfoundland, is also relevant to fairies, though an explicit link between the two is generally absent from the stories cited by rieti. despite the view that the fairies represent wilderness environments, their views on etiquette appear to digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 95 be surprisingly strict. however, while some trends can be seen in culinary interactions with fairies, the variety of encounter and interaction is what stands out. conclusion: fairy food and scarcity fairy food, as conceived of in newfoundland folklore, is an intriguing and telling field of interest. in approaching this article as a study of food shortage and need, i found myself frequently surprised by the absence of this connection where i expected it to be, and its presence where i had not foreseen it. while i found other aspects of the intersection between fairies and food in newfoundland to be indicative of other forms of hardship or crisis, a link between newfoundland folklore of fairy encounters and community food crises will require more primary research to fully identify and understand. stories in which the fairy folk played an antagonistic role generally did not focus on food as the primary factor in the encounter. on occasion, the fairy food could save a person from starving, but at a cost to the individual. in the end, evidence of a link between scarcity and fairy food is tenuous based on the sources i consulted. what does stand out, however, is the lack of concern over scarcity or food shortage that is exhibited by the fairies themselves, who never seem to be on the verge of starvation. they may assist the lost by providing them with sustenance, or hinder those gathering berries, but their own status in relation to food is not explored. perhaps the nearest hints as to the fairies’ relationship with human food are in the changeling stories, where the changelings rarely eat or at least do not eat very well, one of the hints that they are not human (rieti 1991: 127). in other cases, changelings eat too heartily, which along with their poor table manners gives them away, however, and so once again this is an unresolved matter and one that indicates a complex relationship (rieti 1991: 130). changeling lore in newfoundland was often connected with or used to explain odd behavior, with one storyteller stating “they’re always saying that about the odd ones,” in reference to their being possible fairy changelings (rieti 1991: 46). there are many places in which knowledge of the dangers of the environment is important in stories of fairy encounters, yet some narratives do emphasize how well the people led astray know the area. this is another element that demands further attention, especially in contrast with the lack of stories pertaining to a maritime environment. links with tension and social disruption are certainly clear and present. in addition, foods linked with danger are always interesting in the context of folklore, representing a tangled web of meanings that may illuminate the social frameworks from which they stem. what is also evident is a sense of looking back on times when the landscape was seen as more dangerous. even the emphasis on the threat posed by the fairies, as for instance in the cbc article describing the dangers of newfoundland fairies, nonetheless confers a special status on the landscapes where fairy encounters could take place (bulman 2019). the change in perception of wild foods such as berries is important to this study, as it also reflects major shifts in the perception of “wilderness.” the descriptions of the past as a simpler time, when despite poverty, people were well provided for, does not necessarily indicate a desire to return to the previous way of life on the part of the storytellers. the ability to temporarily escape the present through stories is distinct from the desire to murray-bergquist, bread, berries, and fish, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 96 return to another way of life. the popularity of a temporary escape to the wilderness in order to avoid the tyrannies of the urban or village environment is encapsulated in the view of berries, for instance, as symbolic of that goodness. perhaps the need for these stories is more complicated than we think. the connection between food and scarcity, as hinted at earlier in the ambiguities of “peg bearskin,” is not a straightforward contrast between abundance and lack. it can serve as a way of responding to anxieties about food security, as is seen in the role of bread as a finite shield between the fairy and human worlds. the symbolic role of a food item made within the home, and viewed as a staple for generations, is weightier when contrasted with the twisting paths of the wood. while fairy belief on the island is no longer as strong as it once was, fairy stories continue to be told, and in my own experience, told to outsiders as a point of pride in the beauty of newfoundland. it is not a simple nostalgia that emerges from these narratives, nor a complete desire to break with the past. rather, it is a reckoning with the difficulties and dangers of life in rural and remote parts of the island and a way of finding where mystery may have been fabricated to cover ugly truths, and where it might have existed on its own, possessing its own beauty which was perceived as being entwined in its wildness. danger takes two different forms in views of the past as well as interpretations of fairy narratives. the first is of the perils of the environment, in which there is also a sense of fascination from our more sheltered and less dependent perspective. the second is that of human cruelty in which there is only sordid ugliness. the foods that this article explores, bread, berries, and fish, have a similarly multifaceted relationship with the past, representing by turns a sense of community and independence as well as isolation and repression. neither fairies nor food ever represent a single thing, but together they form a picture of many contrasts that nonetheless coexist in a coherent and ever-unfolding body of lore notes: 1 the name of the province is newfoundland and labrador; however, i will be investigating sources from the island of newfoundland, and so will refer to it as such. 2 in the story, the woman is shown three berries, two sweet, one bitter, and instructed not to eat the bitter one. this instruction goes unheeded. the sweet-tasting berries allow the birth of two conventionally beautiful girls, while the bitter-tasting one is the berry that produces peg, who is big and hairy and considered unattractive (tye and greenhill 2020: 102). 3 this is a food made by the fairies and found in some english legends, and subsequently explained as various species of the fungus genus tremella. 4 for an example of this, see childe rowland. 5 for exact locations, see ghost ships of newfoundland and labrador (maphub). 6 in coastal irish and scottish lore in particular, selkies are seals who can shed their skins and appear as humans. 7 according to the 2016 census 259,460 individuals out of a population of 519,716 (49.9%) in newfoundland and labrador claim descent from the british isles. 8 changing fishing technologies led to overfishing, causing the newfoundland and labrador northern cod fishery to be shut down (thomson and ahluwalia: 2012). 9 the story tells of a woman who was popular in her community, and had gone berry-picking, but not returned. searchers went out and left oranges in the woods in hopes that she would find them, and when she was located, quite well, a few days later, she said that it was the oranges that had helped her, but that it was fairies who had brought them (jarvis 2005: 47). digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 97 references cited bulman, andie. 2019. risking abduction by fairies to modernize a 1905 newfoundland blueberry cake. cbc news. accessed: february 20th, 2021. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/bynl-andie-bulmanblueberry-cake-folklore-and-recipe-1.5262393. chadbourne, kate. 2012. the knife against the wave: fairies, fishermen, and the sea. béaloideas 80 (2012): 70-85. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24862871?seq=1. evans-wentz, w. y. 1911. the fairy faith in celtic countries. london: oxford university press. everett, holly. 2007. a welcoming wilderness: the role of wild berries in the construction of newfoundland and labrador as a tourist destination. ethnologies, 29 (1): 29-40. https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/ethno/2007-v29-n1-2-ethno2401/018745ar/. jacobs, joseph. 1891. childe rowland. folk-lore, 2 (2): 182-197. jarvis, dale. 2005. wonderful strange: ghosts, fairies, and fabulous beasties of newfoundland and labrador. st. john’s: flanker press ltd. kruse, john t. british fairies (blog). “the perils of fairy food.” february 17th, 2020. https://britishfairies.wordpress.com/2020/02/17/the-perils-of-fairy-food/. accessed: march 13th, 2021. -----. “fairies and bread: the significance of baking in fairyland.” september 27th, 2020. https://britishfairies.wordpress.com/2020/09/27/fairies-and-bread-the-significance-ofbaking-in-fairyland/. accessed: february 15th, 2021. -----. “fairies and flowing water.” october 7th, 2018. https://britishfairies.wordpress.com/2018/10/07/fairies-and-flowing-water/. accessed: february 19th, 2021. long, matt. 2016. exploring the quirky side of traditional food in newfoundland. landlopers. july 26. https://landlopers.com/2016/07/26/food-in-newfoundland. mangan, kathleen m. secrets of the soda bread masters. bbc 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http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20160920-secrets-of-the-soda-bread-masters http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20160920-secrets-of-the-soda-bread-masters https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/recipe/brown-irish-soda-bread murray-bergquist, bread, berries, and fish, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 98 murray-bergquist, karin. 2020. ghost ships of newfoundland and labrador. https://maphub.net/karinmb/ghost-ships-of-newfoundland-and-labrador. narváez, peter. 1991. “newfoundland berry pickers ‘in the fairies’: maintaining spatial, temporal, and moral boundaries through legendry.” in the good people: new fairylore essays, ed. peter narváez. new york: garland. power, bride (as told to dale jarvis). 2018. marysvale memories: the stories of bride power. st. john’s: heritage foundation of newfoundland and labrador. rieti, barbara. 1991. strange terrain: the fairy world in newfoundland. 1991. st. john’s: institute of social and economic research. sikes, wirt. 1880. british goblins: 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jennifer and sophia kingshill. 2012. the fabled coast: legends and traditions from around the shore of britain and ireland. london: random house books. westwood, jennifer and jacqueline simpson. 2005. the lore of the land: a guide to england’s legends. london: penguin books. https://maphub.net/karinmb/ghost-ships-of-newfoundland-and-labrador https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34704/34704-h/34704-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30871/30871-h/30871-h.htm https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/remembering-the-mighty-cod-fishery-20-years-after-moratorium-1.1214172 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/remembering-the-mighty-cod-fishery-20-years-after-moratorium-1.1214172 scotch cookies: memories of a family recipe by ellen power when i was a child growing up in newfoundland, the weeks leading up to christmas were marked by a sudden disappearance of the kitchen counter. it was buried under layers and layers of scotch cookies, each row nestled on its own sheet of parchment paper as the cookies waited to be iced. scotch cookies are the type of shortbread cookie that my nova scotia-born mother has baked every christmas for as long as i can remember. (we joke sometimes that they’re distinguishable from normal shortbread cookies because they’re even richer and even worse for your health.) they look pretty unassuming: a creamy yellow circle with a dot of icing in the center and a speck of gumdrop on top. the circular shape is not necessary: my grandmother used to make them in all sorts of different shapes, according to my mother. but in all the years my grandmother mailed her scotch cookies to us in the christmas parcel, i don’t remember them being anything other than circular. one year when i was in elementary school, my mother decided to cut her scotch cookies out as tiny stars—but the sheer fussiness and the extra time involved for the new shape brought us back to circular cookies from then on. my mother has now inherited her mother’s cookie cutters, and this year the family was very thrown off at the sight of diamond scotch cookies in the cookie tin. it just seemed wrong! we’re not exactly sure when or how the scotch cookie recipe came into the family. it’s been around in my mother’s family for at least two generations. my mother thinks it might have come from my greataunt’s in-laws, but that’s mostly speculation. regardless, in two generations those cookies have ingrained themselves in the christmas traditions of my mother’s generation and now mine. i couldn’t imagine a christmas where i didn’t have a scotch cookie or two for a (dubiously healthy) holiday breakfast all through the 12 days. the scotch cookie recipe itself doesn’t seem particularly noteworthy at first glance. like most shortbread cookies, the main ingredients in scotch cookies are sugar, butter and enough flour and egg yolk to hold them together. [for an example, see: granny’s shortbread cookies.] the secret lies in the flavoring. unlike most shortbread, our scotch cookies rely on three different extracts: vanilla, almond and lemon. we don’t know if this is really the reason why our scotch cookies are so addictive, but we do know that friends and family who’ve tried them once will slyly find a way to get their hands on some during every christmas that follows. after the dough is assembled and left to rest, the cookies are cut out into one-two inch circles (depending on which cookie cutter we find first in the drawer) and baked until they just hint at being golden on the bottom. my mother complains that my grandmother always got this part perfect—mom’s, on the other hand, are apparently too brown on the bottom (she says she just doesn’t have the patience for exact timing). i personally can’t taste a difference, but i know my mother will keep trying for the scotch cookie holy grail of brownness as long as she keeps baking them. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/9563/grannys-shortbread-cookies/?event8=1&prop24=sr_thumb&e11=shortbread%20cookies&e8=quick%20search&event10=1&e7=recipe&soid=sr_results_p1i2 the last step is to affix the tiny piece of gumdrop to the top using a dab of icing. after that, they’re ready to be packed up in round tins that go to relatives or friends’ christmas parties. the scotch cookies for home are always the last to be done, since there are so many that need to be mailed to family first. when i was younger, my mother used to keep track in her personal cookbook of how many scotch cookies she made a year. one awe-inspiring entry reads “16 dozen in a night!!” (her exclamation marks). my mother estimates that at peak production years, she was making up to 80 dozen each year. in the past few years, though, she’s cut back on her usual cookie-making frenzy. my grandmother died in early december of 2010 and my mother flew home to nova scotia for the funeral. she arrived back just before christmas, with no time to make any scotch cookies other for than the household tin. after that christmas, my mother announced that she was going to scale back production dramatically, in honour of my grandmother (who had always found the necessary christmas preparations exhausting and stressful). now the annual scotch cookie count rests at a nice sensible 12 dozen. it’s proven harder to break the habit that she imagined, though… the household tin has been overstocked for the past couple years. i haven’t tried my hand at scotch cookies yet (other than lending a hand with icing). i figure that there’s no rush in taking up the scotch cookie mantle when i already have a nearby source for them. it’s a different matter for my father’s relatives who live in a small community in another part of the province. they were used to receiving a tin every year and so never bothered to ask for the recipe to bake for themselves. but they began to go into withdrawal when they stopped getting scotch cookies after the great production cut-back. this year my mother and i were bombarded with facebook messages asking for the recipe. it’s not a family secret, but my mother still paused for a moment of reflection before she finally hit the “send” button that would post our scotch cookie recipe on that community facebook page and immortalize it on the internet. it was strange later on to see facebook photos of scotch cookies that weren’t ours, lying in their creamy yellow rows on someone else’s counter. i was originally intending to include the scotch cookie recipe here, but it seems like that my family might not be ready to send it out to a wider audience just yet. it has turned out to be harder than we thought to send this taste—so important to who our family is—out in the world on its own. review of: the taste of place: a cultural journey into terroir. by: amy b. trubek. review by: nicholas hartmann memorial university of newfoundland according to author amy trubek, the french term terroir is a word that is incredibly difficult to define outside of a french context; whether looked at in relation to geography, soil or locality, terroir is a vital keyword in the study of food, especially in france, where much of the nation’s ideology is firmly rooted in the image of a farmer. a professor in food sciences and formerly an instructor at a major culinary institute, trubek strives to better understand the term terroir and its meaning to food both inside and outside of france; her book the taste of place: a cultural journey into terroir does that while also giving us a better idea of the importance of taste, and the ways it is determined, within specific cultures. in order to provide some historical and cultural context, trubek uses the first chapter, “place matters,” to demonstrate how terroir reflects reality. stressing that physical traits of a place, as opposed to those who cultivate the place, are the major factor in defining terroir, trubek argues that french cuisine is a major definer of global notions of taste, and those who create it were among the first to regulate how food of a specific region must be defined. trubek goes on to describe the role of the rural frenchman as a major factor in the regulation of such cuisine, as well as how such notions of taste are not only ingrained at an early age, but also serve as a way for people to determine their roots and their identity. for those interested in notions of nostalgia and self-identification, this chapter is well-connected to such ideas as they are discussed within folklore. discussions regarding the local and the global, as well as the understanding (and, quite often, misinterpretation) of terroir are part of the second chapter “wine is dead! long live wine!”, which discusses the above in relation to the controversial attempt by robert mondavi to develop a winery in the languedoc. this chapter succeeds in demonstrating that scientific aspects of terroir are far from encompassing while emphasizing that local knowledge and understanding of a region and its people are also important to the notion of terroir. the same notions apply in the third chapter, “california dreaming,” which looks comparatively at the role of terroir, as well as wine, within the state of california in order to demonstrate that such developments are affected by american ideas surrounding quality, taste, and experience. trubek’s discussion of california wine, and the obsession with its more quantitative attributes, are related to issues of sustainability, class, and cultural myths surrounding a movement fixed on creating a better food world for americans. an example of a chef’s role in the latterthis time within the state of wisconsinis the core focus of the fourth chapter, “tasting wisconsin: a chef’s story.” looking at madison-based chef odessa piper’s role in the development of a regional cuisine, trubek brings up the duality of the desire for agrarian utopia and the demand of a consumer market that, quite often, only has large supermarkets from which to acquire their food. through collaboration with farmers and a slow (yet steady and year-round) process of introducing people to the foods of their region, piper’s inspiration is a solid example of how neither chefs nor growers are exclusively responsible for the creation of terroir. this connection carries on seamlessly in trubek’s fifth chapter, “connecting farmers and chefs in vermont,” which examines the role of the vermont fresh network in developing farmer-chef dialogue while encouraging the consumption of local products. this chapter is heavily based on examples, focusing on the fresh network’s holistic approach to promoting vermont food and emphasizing the importance of understanding the contexts of both farming and cooking. the chapter succeeds at displaying the importance of adopting ideas from larger food worlds into smaller-scale, more sustainable efforts, but it does seem to be somewhat of a repeat of the past chapter in terms of its points. the final chapter, “the next phase: taste of place or brand?,” discusses issues of commodification and market economics in relation to food, pointing out the concerns of lack of knowledge surrounding the food we eat while emphasizing the reality that pointing out terroir-rich food creates a brand image. trubek emphasizes that such images create other images and often perpetuate utopian notions surrounding agriculture. this chapter is quite frank about the importance of commerce in the shaping of both food practice and terroir, and its basis in market realities makes the book seem a bit less utopian than other major food literature. trubek discusses movements such as slow food in a fair and holistic manner. this results in a better understanding of the politics of terroir for the reader. such politics are important for this book’s intended audience. the taste of place will find a good audience with food scholars, chefs and anyone interested in the issues surrounding foodways. regarding an everyday audience, however, the frequent use of untranslated french terminology and the advanced tone of some of the book’s writing might not appeal to everyone. if anything, this is a book for those already involved in the study and/or production of food, yet it has the potential to make a huge impact that, eventually, can be spread to other audiences through other means. 1940 egg cup by: callum latta eggscellent. photo by callum latta, 2012. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) ©american folklore society 2021 151 editors for digest 8:1/2 (2021) diane tye (guest editor) is professor in the department of folklore, memorial university. she researches intersections of folklore and gender, especially as they relate to foodways. she is author of baking as biography. a life story in recipes (mcgill-queen’s up, 2010) and co-editor with pauline greenhill of unsettling assumptions. gender, tradition, drag (utah state up, 2014). theresa a. vaughan (lead editor) is assistant dean of the university of central oklahoma college of liberal arts, and a professor in the department of humanities and philosophy. she also directs the center for the advancement of the liberal arts. she coedited the encyclopedia of women’s folklore and folklife with liz locke and pauline greenhill, and recently published women, food, and diet in the middle ages: balancing the humours (university of amsterdam press, 2020). she has recently enjoyed collaborating with lucy m. long on comfort foodways during the covid-19 pandemic. jessica noe (book review editor) is a doctoral candidate specializing in work at the intersection of performance, narrative, memory, and food within the field of communication studies at the university of north carolina at chapel hill. pulling from the theories and traditions of performance and cultural studies as they find their areas of overlap in communication studies and folklore, her interdisciplinary research focuses on understanding how communities work to articulate a meaningful existence through stories surrounding their performances of group memory and food labor. her dissertation, baked in: women’s role in curating and creating family culture through culinary performance, focuses on the intersection of performance, memory, and female embodied labor practices within an extended family’s food traditions. digest editorial board janet gilmore served as digest’s chief editor from 2016-2021. an emeritus professor in folklore and landscape architecture at university of wisconsin-madison, she built her teaching, research, and outreach practices on foodways, historical and cultural landscape conservation, public folklore project collections access, and decades of experience as an independent folklorist coordinating with numerous non-profit arts and historical organizations chiefly in the western great lakes region and her native pacific northwest. fishing people, maritime workers, folk artists, and farming people led her to publish, present, and contribute to exhibits and festivals that relate to the regions’ foodways and food landscapes—whether indigenous, old immigrant, new immigrant, or refugee. personal interests in food, cooking, and cookbooks, inspired early in her western oregon home, have now come full circle as she explores her mother’s and grandmother’s pacific northwesternupper midwestern food legacies and her nuclear and extended families’ related spatial, landscape, and architectural practices. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) ©american folklore society 2021 152 m. dustin knepp is professor at california state university, bakersfield. he serves as chair in the department of modern languages and literatures and teaches on themes related to latin american and latino cultures, border life, and foodways. his research investigates the intersection of food, culture, and latino identities, with particular attention to holiday food traditions and their impact through familial generations and in the historic record. some of his scholarship has appeared in ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (ed. lucy long, 2015), the cincinnati romance review, the journal of the american studies association of texas, and digest, of which he previously served as a coeditor. michael lange michael a. lange is professor in the interdisciplinary core curriculum at champlain college in burlington, vermont. he is the author of norwegian scots: an anthropological interpretation of viking-scottish identity in the orkney islands (2007) and meanings of maple (2017), as well as several chapters and articles in journals such as anatolia, scandinaviancanadian studies, the journal of interdisciplinary studies in education, and voices: the journal of new york folklore. he has conducted research in scotland, norway, morocco, and several parts of the us. yvonne lockwood is a folklorist who recently retired as curator of folklife at the michigan state university museum, directed the michigan traditional arts apprentice program and michigan heritage awards program there, curated the public food presentations at the festival of michigan folklife and the great lakes folk festival, and curated “michigan eats,” an interpretive exhibition that the museum now tours. other professional foodways activities include conference participation in the us and europe and numerous publications. a long-time member of the foodways section, she co edited digest for a number of years with william g. lockwood and judged student papers. she has extensive research experience in the former yugoslavia, eastern austria (burgenland), and in the upper midwest, primarily in finnish america, where she currently is researching foodways. she also often curates finnish food demonstrations and workshops at the annual finnfest usa. lucy m. long directs the independent nonprofit center for food and culture (www.foodandculture.org) and teaches in american studies, ethnic studies, folklore, popular culture, nutrition, and tourism at bowling green state university in ohio. with degrees in folklore (ph.d., university of pennsylvania) and ethnomusicology (m.a., university of maryland), she focuses on food, music, and dance as mediums for meaning, identity, community, and power. her publications include: culinary tourism (2004), regional american food culture (2009), ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (2015), the food and folklore reader (2015), ethnic american cooking (2016), honey: a global history (2017), and comfort food meanings and memories (2017). in 2020, she ran a virtual oral history on finding comfort/discomfort through foodways during the covid-19 pandemic, resulting in an online exhibit, virtual symposia, and publications. http://www.foodandculture.org/ digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) ©american folklore society 2021 153 luanne roth teaches in the department of writing and rhetoric at the university of rhode island where she offers a range of courses, including those related to food writing, food and culture, and food justice. roth’s research gravitates toward folklore, film/media, and food studies. her foodways scholarship appears in the journals digest (“poison is poison”), western folklore (“do the [white] thing”), and food, culture and society (“beef, it’s what’s for dinner”), and as chapters in what's eating you?: food and horror on screen (“you are what others think you eat”), comfort food meanings and memories (“comfort [and discomfort] food”), unsettling assumptions: tradition, gender, drag (“sexing the turkey”), and folklore/cinema: popular film as vernacular culture (“beyond communitas”). roth’s work is driven by an interest in how food behaviors are used to both reinforce and subvert ideologies related to class, ethnicity, gender, and race. https://harrington.uri.edu/meet/luanne-k-roth/ robert james smith, ph.d., has an adjunct role as inaugural vice chancellor’s fellow at southern cross university in australia. until recently he was editor for the scholarly journal australian folklore. in addition to foodways, his research interests include contemporary memorial customs and regional folk culture. diane tye is professor in the department of folklore, memorial university. she researches intersections of folklore and gender, especially as they relate to foodways. she is author of baking as biography. a life story in recipes (mcgill-queen’s up, 2010) and co-editor with pauline greenhill of unsettling assumptions. gender, tradition, drag (utah state up, 2014). katrina wynn is a public library clerk after finishing up her five-and-a-half-year contract position as manager of the northeast archives of folklore and oral history at the university of maine. she held that position since graduating from western kentucky university with an m.a. in folk studies. katrina was a co-convener of the american folklore society’s foodways section for six years and has been a member of the section since starting graduate school. https://harrington.uri.edu/meet/luanne-k-roth/ microsoft word bahukhandi-social life of ghee-final-2-9-21-220ppi.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 151-157 © american folklore society 2021 the social life of ghee: butterly tales of ghee-making at home and everything else in-between by: annima bahukhandi abstract: author explores food memories of her paternal grandmother making clarified butter (ghee in hindi) to suggest what its cooking process and consumption can tell us about class, caste, and gendered eating in her home as well as in traditional indian kitchens and culture at a macro level. keywords: food memories, ghee, garhwali, social class, gender the ubiquitous quote attributed to freud, “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” may be applicable to a great many joys and ills of the world but food is definitely not one of them. food is far bigger than the sum of its nutritive parts—it is as personal as it is political. its appearance, flavor, aroma, and texture all tell diverse stories which are at once indicative of a culture, cuisine, region, and at the same time also deeply personal, like “secret” recipes passed down generationally in family kitchens. for some time now cultural anthropology and food studies have both looked at the role that food history and consumption patterns have played in different cultures. today more than ever, it is clear that as we consume food we are rarely ever just consuming “energy” or “calories,” we are also consuming a certain culture, partaking in a heritage, and creating food memories. looked at more critically, food memories and food stories can be exceptional heuristic tools for understanding the ways in which a culture or a family organizes itself. pierre bourdieu, in his seminal work distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste (1984), looked at the patterns of food consumption among french people and illustrated how distinctions in taste signified one’s class within french society. foods of the lower classes, for example, were marked by larger-sized baked dishes and breads alongside heavier meats that would provide sustained energy for long work hours. foods of the rich, on the other hand, featured more expensive cuts of meat, species of fish, and more investment in wines—all favored for their lightness and taste rather than heaviness and ability to satiate. in this short piece i explore food memories of my paternal grandmother making clarified butter, or ghee as it is referred to in hindi, to suggest what its cooking process and consumption can tell us about class, caste, and gendered eating in my home but also in traditional indian kitchens and culture at a macro level. i broadly follow bourdieu’s contentions, while focusing on intimate kitchen tales and the ways in which they are illustrative of larger cultural currents. amongst my most vivid but also polarizing food memories of childhood are fresh clarified butter or ghee being cooked at home and my grandmother busy managing the process. i call it polarizing because as much as i savored the taste and flavor of the final product, the process of it, especially the cooking of ghee, gave off a smell that made me want to curl up my nose. my grandmother, spearheading the gheemaking process, found my nostril pinching highly offensive and would give me an earful, reminding me endlessly how good ghee was for our health. today clarified butter has become well known globally due in large part to its popularization in the health and fitness world, where it is touted for its nutritive benefits relative to regular butter. however, the work of making clarified butter from milk is an age-old routinized practice undertaken mostly by women in traditional indian households, representing one of many ways in which milk is consumed and savored in indian bahukhandi, social life of ghee, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 152 culture. my grandmother (c. 1918-2004), like many other women of her generation, routinely undertook this task every few weeks with diligence. for her it became even more important as a practice that connected her to her own roots living in the hills where vegetables were scarce. there, food meant grains, lentils, and a whole lot of milk products—milk, fresh cream, churned buttermilk, yogurt and ghee. i grew up with my parents and my grandmother, who must have been in her seventies when i was five or six. my grandmother had spent a large part of her life in garhwal, the himalayan region of north india in the state of uttarakhand. it was only when my father and his elder brother decided to come to new delhi for their college education did she witness the taste of metropolitan city life, a stark contrast to the quiet life of the hills. my grandmother was a quintessential garhwali1 woman, extremely active for her age and blessed with the sturdiest hands that i can recall. as a child, i often compared her to other non-garhwali women and grandmothers around and wondered why she did not relax more and delegate domestic duties to my mother instead. however, she often reminded us of the hard life of the hills, where the day started by taking the cows for grazing and milking, to cleaning the house, collecting firewood and water, and also feeding the entire household. this routine, she opined, was the secret behind the coarseness and fine lines all over her palms and heels. as someone who had heard many stories of the life of the hills from my grandmother and my father but never having visited our ancestral house, i was often left to fantasize what this life may have looked like. i asked her and my father, “what did you people eat at home?” they typically responded “we didn’t have much food, but we had plenty of cows and sheep so we basically lived on milk, curd [yogurt], butter and ghee with rotis [thin flatbreads made of wholewheat flour and cooked on a pan] and rice.” every time i heard this reply, the closest imaginary visualization i had of this life was of the cartoon heidi and how she and her uncle lived in a small village in switzerland, grazing cows and drinking their milk with cheese and bread. the process of ghee-making was an everyday affair wherein the fresh cream (known as malai in hindi; photo 1) that rose to the top of freshly boiled milk was removed photo 1: bowl full of malai ready for ghee-making. may 2, 2020, new delhi. photo: annima bahukhandi digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 153 and put in a separate bowl every day over the course of several weeks. when the bowl was filled with enough cream, up to the top after two or sometimes three weeks, it would be removed for the ghee making process. the five-year old me enjoyed watching and sometimes partaking in this step the most. my grandmother sat on the floor, both feet shoulder-length apart, with a large stainless steel pot between her legs as she forcefully moved a wooden whisk, mathani/madani (in hindi; photo 2), back and forth in concentric motions between the palms of her hands. she did this for half an hour or more until the cream would separate into two components—a milky white freshly churned butter or makhan, and a slightly sour buttermilk. this movement now takes much less time and effort using modern-day food processors, however my grandmother for the entirety of her gheemaking life remained a purist and shunned our food mixer, choosing to spend her energy and time on her trusty madani only. photo 2: mathani or madani, a common indian kitchen tool used specifically for churning fat from milk or to make drinks like buttermilk frothy. may 11, 2020, new delhi. photo: annima bahukhandi. i often interrupted her churning sessions to get a chance to use the wooden whisk and try my hand at the process, however five minutes into the activity i found myself too tired and declared the activity a health hazard. she then carefully removed the freshly churned butter and put it in a wok for the third step, heating (photo 3). some of this fresh butter was often saved and enjoyed for the next couple of days on top of paranthas (thick flatbreads that usually have a variety of stuffing inside them like cheese, potatoes, cauliflower, for example, and are pan-fried making them crispy on the outside). the rest of the fresh butter went on to cook slowly on the stove, the creamy white of the butter slowly changing to a faint beige shade, finally giving way to ghee’s characteristic golden color. as more and more golden liquid emerged on top, the milk fats burned and stuck to the bottom of the wok. the golden liquid (photo 4) was dutifully collected and stored away in a jar, its aroma filling the entire house. the smell of the clarified butter routinely traveled to neighboring apartments and neighbors knew which house had a share of fresh ghee made that day. bahukhandi, social life of ghee, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 154 photo 3: malai boiling in the wok. note the golden-colored ghee separating from the fresh butter on the edges. may 2, 2020, new delhi. photo: annima bahukhandi. photo 4: freshly made ghee ready for consumption. may 02, 2020, new delhi. photo: annima bahukhandi. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 155 i write about ghee in this detailed way not simply to celebrate its centrality to indian kitchens but also to illustrate the ways in which this revered food was rationed among many groups and how its consumption was also highly divisive, indicating one’s rank in social hierarchies, including caste. within traditional hindu society, upper castes have characteristically had access to ghee as cows were considered holy. the higher one’s caste status, the greater the chances of owning cattle or receiving milk products for religious or consumption purposes. lower castes, especially the shudras castes and dalits2 were traditionally so poor due to systemic discrimination that they could neither afford vegetables nor milk products, especially ghee, which was always more expensive. their cooking used lard or animal fat instead. therefore, if you entered a traditional hindu home and you were offered food cooked in ghee, you could recognize in the bourdieuan manner the family’s caste and class status. my father and my grandmother’s memory of having ample milk products during their days in the hills also indicated that despite their modest financial background, they were rich in terms of caste status. they were born into upper caste brahmin families and had plenty of cattle to rear and access to better food and educational opportunities than others in their village. but while my grandmother and her family had access to milk and milk products aplenty, i was still witness to how she rationed the amount that each person received, especially the ghee. she reserved ghee mostly for older male members of the family. while store-bought, commercially-produced ghee (a luxury available in cities back then but very common to find in commercially produced versions now) was used for cooking dishes, the home-made kind deserved only to be added on top of rice and cooked lentil dishes. she put out rice and yellow dal (cooked lentil stew/gravy) each afternoon for us children, adding a dollop of ghee on top. a “quintessential garhwali meal,” she’d call it. but for herself, she reserved the store-bought version which was considered inferior due to use of dubious ingredients like vegetable oils, animal fat, and colour enhancers. photo 5: unclarified milk fats that stay at the bottom of the wok after the ghee is sieved out. may 02, 2020, new delhi. photo: annima bahukhandi. one of the most striking memories that i have of her exhibiting the labor of love that is typical of women all over the world, cooking for the family, is how she used the unsaturated milk fat solids that were the burnt brown-colored remnants of the gheemaking process (photo 5). most often these remnants are thrown out as they have a bahukhandi, social life of ghee, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 156 strong nutty and greasy taste consisting of unclarified milk fats that are very filling. my grandmother, however, put it to another ingenious use. she scraped off all the unsaturated milk fat stuck to the bottom of the pan to use as a stuffing inside a parantha. she then had for herself a large, very buttery, very nutty, often burnt but delicious parantha that she savored with a mango or lemon pickle, and yogurt on the side. photo 6: my re-creation of how my grandmother’s stuffed paranthas appeared. served here with yogurt and two kinds of pickle-lemon on the far right and mushroom on the left. may 3, 2020, new delhi. photo: annima bahukhandi. i found my grandmother’s paranthas too buttery and burnt for my palate then and often asked her why she ate the burnt leftovers instead of throwing them away. she told me that in the chilling winters of the hills even the leftovers as a form of stuffing were able to provide immense energy and warmth to the body. since the ratio of ghee produced to that of family members to feed was always lopsided, eating the milk fats was her way, like many other women’s, of sacrificing their share of food for the health and nutrition of their families. she further reminded me that since there were no cows in the city from which to collect large amounts of milk and butter, homemade ghee was all the more a luxury. commercial brands were known to add lard and vegetable fats to enhance the life and appearance of their ghees. today in the west, there is much emphasis on sustainability and minimizing of food waste. however, sustainability has long been practiced in indigenous kitchens all over the world for generations where food has had to be rationed depending on the number of mouths to feed, the status of specific foods, and the social positions of the consumers. the use of burnt milk fats as stuffing for paranthas fits perfectly in today’s narrative of zero food waste and sustainable use of food products. however, for my grandmother and other women like her, creating recipes like these was the one way of ensuring that they could enjoy ghee without guilt or reprimand from others. the stuffed parantha was my grandmother’s way of bypassing the patriarchal digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 157 chain of food consumption and allowing herself the richness and taste of ghee albeit vicariously through its burnt remnants—without interruption and beyond judgment. references cited bourdieu, pierre. 1984. distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste. translated by richard nice. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. notes 1 we use the spelling “garhwali” and not “garwali” to designate the region, because its pronunciation is a cross between “r” “h” and “d,” more like “gardhwali” in hindi and the local tongue. 2 traditionally hindu society has followed a caste system which classifies people into four distinct groups: brahmins, kshatriyas, vaishyas, and shudras. each group corresponds to a rank which not only includes one’s occupational status but signifies a set of qualities, color, class, and lineage. while the brahmins were respected for their knowledge and intelligence, the kshatriyas were revered for their bravery and fighting skills. the vaishyas represented traders and merchants while shudras were responsible for the majority of labor-intensive jobs such as agriculture and cattle breeding. there was also another group which was outside the four-rank caste system called “untouchables” or dalits. dalits were considered casteless and were responsible for carrying out menial jobs like cleaning and scavenging. they carried out the most fundamental jobs that ensured a smooth functioning of the hindu society but bore the ire of all the rest of the castes who shunned dalits in an effort to raise their own status. the shudras were not discriminated against as much as the dalits but did not enjoy the same privileges as the brahmins and kshatriyas. for instance, the shudras who were agriculturalists and herders milked cattle and grew vegetables to provide for the needs of the upper castes. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 67-81 © american folklore society 2021 67 authentic-ish: ramen, culinary tourism, and canadian foodways by: ainjel stephens abstract: originating from a food shortage in japan, ramen—or japanese noodle soup—has become a sought-after dish across canada. canadian ramen restaurants add their own twists, combining the traditionality of japanese ramen with canadian culture. using local ingredients and tastes, they describe their food as “authentic” or “japanese inspired” rather than “traditional.” through an autoethnographic examination of two ramen restaurants—one in atlantic canada, the other in ontario— i explore ramen’s transformation from a food of poverty to a desirable form of canadian ethnic cuisine. drawing on lucy m. long’s concept of “culinary tourism,” i consider how ramen restaurants function as tourism not only for consumers of ramen, but also for the people who cook and serve it. ramen may be “just noodles and soup,” but as culinary tourism, it conflates and contests socioeconomic status, cultural identities, and racial identities in complex ways. keywords: culinary tourism, canadian foodways, ramen, ontario, atlantic canada “we’ve never had ramen before. what is it?” over the past two years, i have worked as a server in two different ramen restaurants across canada, and at both, this question is the one i am most frequently asked. the second most commonly asked question is “is it always this busy?” while the first question requires a more thoughtful response, the answer to the latter is easy: yes. despite being located in distinctively different regions—one in ontario, the other in atlantic canada—both ramen restaurants are incredibly popular within their geographic communities. it was the success of these two restaurants that first made me question why ramen has become such a favoured culinary experience for canadians. on one hand, ramen restaurants are “ethnic,” allowing canadians to engage with japanese culture and foodways. on the other hand, both businesses i worked at are primarily owned and operated by fellow (white) canadians, meaning that they are both japanese and canadian. it is this blending of cultures that initially caught my interest and made me ask the same questions as many of the guests: what is ramen and what makes it a desired culinary commodity within canada? in order to understand the appeal of ramen to canadians, first we must understand its history and significance. to phrase it simply, ramen is a type of japanese noodle soup. generally, ramen consists of a wheat noodle served in a broth flavoured with oil and salt with an assortment of toppings such as pork and vegetables. originally referred to as “shina soba” (chinese noodles), by the twenty-first century ramen has come to represent japan, “permeat[ing] virtually all features of contemporary japanese life” (kushner 2012: 227). indeed, ramen has developed a significant cultural presence within japan. satomi fukutomi describes how ramen has become an object of “connoisseurship,” with internet forums discussing and ranking the best places for ramen across the country (2010: 257). socially, ramen is a dish of contention, with japanese people debating and discussing what elements and restaurants make the best ramen. barak kushner asserts that ramen is a significant part of japanese culture and identity with the claim “ramen is japan” (2012: stephens, authentic-ish ramen, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 68 227). in the same way that sushi has become a global symbol of japanese identity (see sakamoto and allen 2011), ramen is perceived globally as synonymous with japan. ramen has a short but important history that also makes it a food of hard times. although chinese-style noodles, the basis for ramen, were present in japan during the meiji era (1868-1912) thanks to the presence of impoverished chinese students in japan (ayao 2001: 67), it was not until post-world war ii that ramen gained significant popularity. this increase in popularity was not due to adventurous culinary desires, or even acculturation, but rather due to necessity. the focus on rice as patriotic led to an “extreme food shortage” both during and after the war, resulting in mass starvation (kushner 2012: 175). the lack of rice culminated in the united states of america exporting wheat to japan, that was then transformed into cheap and filling foods such as noodles and bread (2012: 199). noodle dishes, namely ramen, were sold in push-cart stalls on the black market since the government was moderating the distribution of food (solt 2010: 186). furthermore, these carts were also frequented by korean and chinese labourers and were primarily operated by foreigners (2010: 196). thus, ramen, a dish that has become significant to the way that japan defines itself, originated as a foreign food eaten out of poverty and starvation. the “instant” form of ramen holds symbolic meaning for many canadians outside of its japanese context. originally invented by ando momofuku in 1958 as a way of alleviating the aforementioned mass starvation in japan (kushner 2012: 188-9), instant ramen emerged in north america in the 1970s as an “inexpensive, convenient, and last-resort staple food,” especially among students (kim and livengood 1995: 206). indeed, the “styrofoam cups of dehydrated noodles have become ubiquitous” to many north americans as what ramen is (1995: 205-206). ramen has a cultural history as a food of poverty, and these connotations continue today. in her study of the internet meme “#whitehousedinners” that emerged after president donald trump served fast food in the white house, sheila bock states that these memes referenced “foods generally eaten by necessity due to limited budgets, not always by choice—including top ramen,” with top ramen being a popular instant ramen brand (2021: 32). within the popular imagination, ramen is mocked as a meme, and reduced to a food eaten when nothing else is economically feasible. in the canadian context, ramen is symbolic of not only japanese culture, but also of “hard times” when money is short, and when food that is cheap and fast is valued above food that is tasty or culinarily adventurous. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 69 figure 1: an example of a “#whitehousedinners” post on popular forum website, reddit. despite these cultural and historical connotations of ramen as poverty food, ramen restaurants in canada highlight that ramen is a food of exotic taste, rather than simply a cheap, calorie-dense meal. these canadian restaurants draw on notions of nationality and class to engage in what lucy m. long refers to as “culinary tourism.” culinary tourism is how food is used as a means of exploring cultural others (long 2004: 20). with ramen, both racial and socioeconomic identities can be reflected and explored through this dish. food is a means of communicating “identity, relationships, ideologies, and emotions” meaning that consuming the food of the other through culinary tourism can work as a means of reflecting one’s own identity or attempting to understand the identity of the other (2004: 45). with the complicated history and cultural presence of ramen, how do canadian ramen restaurants function as culinary tourism? how is a food of poverty transformed into a sought-after culinary experience within canada? through several interviews conducted with my present and past coworkers—cooks and servers in two ramen restaurants—as well as a ramen “connoisseur” (to borrow from fukutomi), and through my own autoethnographic observations as an employee, i reflect on how canadian ramen restaurants function as culinary tourism not only for their guests, but also for their staff. through this tourism, ramen has developed multiple symbolic meanings, transforming from ethnic japanese cuisine rooted in poverty into a distinctively canadian, highly sought-after dish. it is important to note that both ramen restaurants i am discussing, oni ramen in ontario and noodle king in atlantic canada,1 are primarily owned and operated by white stephens, authentic-ish ramen, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 70 canadians. debates on cultural appropriation, colonialism and foodways are complicated, and while it is important to keep these in mind while discussing culinary tourism, they are beyond the scope of this paper. rather, i seek to understand notions of hybridity regarding the identities and meanings of foods such as ramen. the whiteness of the workers at these restaurants reflects the demographics of the communities where they are located.2 additionally, it is not unprecedented for ramen to be made by non-japanese people. in 2007, ivan orkin opened a very successful ramen shop in japan and part of its initial popularity was due to the fact that he was a white american foreigner running a ramen shop in tokyo (orkin 2013: 65). indeed, the japanese seem very receptive to foreigners creating and consuming their cuisine; in terms of sushi, the government has “authenticated” various sushi restaurants globally and also acknowledges that the consumption of ethnic food is a form of “soft power” (sakamoto and allen 2011: 108, 115). the fact that ramen at both oni ramen and noodle king is primarily made and consumed by white people allots space for questions of authenticity and the role of culinary tourism, while also highlighting the importance of hybridity and fusion in our globalized world. slippery definitions at its core, ramen is noodle soup, but there is a widespread lack of consensus on what constitutes this dish. okumura ayao, a ramen scholar, remarks that there is no industrial standard for the “thickness or ingredients of ramen noodles” other than that they are “yellowish” in colour (2001: 66). likewise, barak kushner states that “fundamentally, ramen is a dish where the noodles are usually made from wheat and swim in a flavorful soup” (2012: 6). the word “usually” is key here, implying that ramen does not have to be wheat noodles. with these two scholars, neither has a definitive definition of ramen, nor do these descriptions seem to coincide beyond the fact that ramen must contain “noodles.” matt3, one of the chefs i interviewed from oni ramen in ontario, describes ramen as being “about the noodles” which he states are a “wheat flour noodle” that is “alkaline” in nature. paul, another chef from ontario, similarly describes ramen as “just an alkaline wheat noodle,” while also acknowledging that “what you do with [ramen] is really up to you.” for both chefs and scholars, then, the noodle is considered the essential part of ramen. indeed, when the broth is mentioned, it is mentioned in passing, with paul noting that ramen “normally consists of broth” but that the broth can be “on the side or in it.” the focus on the noodle is understandable, as it is the wheat noodle that was introduced to japan post-war and thus developed into ramen as we know it today. seemingly, then, ramen is defined by its noodle. interestingly, customers and servers describe ramen slightly differently, focusing less on the noodle and more on the broth. jill, a frequent visitor to oni ramen, describes ramen as a “noodle soup” that can be either “hot or cold.” erica, a server at noodle king in atlantic canada, told me that ramen is a “soup” that is also “distinctive from soup” as it contains both “broth” and “noodles.” when i describe ramen to guests, i often ease them in by describing ramen as “just noodles and soup.” matt remarks that when customers are apprehensive about trying ramen, he tells them that ramen is “just fancy chicken noodle soup and everybody loves chicken noodle soup.” indeed, i have observed that often customers will order and then confirm “that comes with noodles, doesn’t it?” while noodles may be integral to those who make ramen, to those who consume it, ramen appears to be digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 71 perceived primarily as a soup rather than noodle dish. perhaps the focus on “soup” is an appeal to familiarity. soup is a common dish in north america, familiar to nearly everyone. indeed, matt’s definition of ramen as “chicken noodle soup” takes this foreign dish and likens it to one north americans commonly turn to when they are sick, or outdoor temperatures are frigid. matt acknowledges that nearly every culture has soup in its cultural repertoire, and that chicken noodle soup is “a universal part of human experience.” focusing on ramen as a soup, and a noodle soup at that, then, fits it within larger cultural culinary repertoires and turns ramen into something familiar and comforting rather than exotic and othering for customers. referring to ramen as “chicken noodle soup” highlights another important aspect of ramen: its status as a comfort food. comfort foods are foods that are “associated with a generic or stereotypical but mythic national past grounded in the home and family” (long 2017: 126). another way we can think about comfort foods is as nostalgic cuisine. for many nonjapanese people, their first experience with ramen is instant ramen (kushner 2012: 4), and my participants suggest that this often occurs in childhood. everyone reported first encountering ramen in the instant form as a child. erica, for example, remembers that she thought instant ramen was “the best thing [she] ever ate” when she was “like six [years old].” erica laughed as she told me this, implying that although she liked instant noodles back then, she does not enjoy them to the same degree now. similarly, jill remembers frequently eating instant ramen in their childhood. jill’s mother taught young jill a recipe for instant ramen that they could make for themself that required boiling the instant noodles in chicken broth and adding green onions, a recipe that jill laughingly said was “terrible.” paul recollects that in “elementary school” his fellow classmates would “eat the noodles raw and uncooked,” something that today he finds disgusting. finally, although matt does not have a memorable experience with instant ramen, he states that his first time having ramen was “certainly instant ramen” when he was a teenager. although this instant ramen might have been enjoyable when they were children, no one i interviewed finds it tasty now. this may be due to the fact that instant ramen is rather cheap, denoting it—as we have seen above—as a food of poverty. as a food eaten out of necessity, instant ramen may remind individuals of more difficult times in their lives, rendering the food unappealing. yet, this poverty food is still comforting as it brings back fond memories of childhood. the relationship between poverty and comfort food is not new. for example, in her analysis on boloney in newfoundland, diane tye remarks that while boloney is symbolic of childhood poverty, it continues to be “eaten selectively as purposeful and positive reminders of past time and places” for many adult newfoundlanders (2017: 159). although tye describes adults preparing boloney according to their childhood memories, ramen is elevated from one-dollar instant ramen to casual dining restaurant fare. through this elevation, ramen becomes more gastronomically pleasing while still being able to maintain feelings of comfort through the “ramen” name. ramen for canadians is a comfort food that is eaten “selectively”—not as one remembers it, but still with connotations and memories of childhood. “authentic” tourism stephens, authentic-ish ramen, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 72 the appeal of ramen, then, is that it is simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar. ramen appeals to one’s memories of having “instant ramen” during youth, or perhaps of having “chicken noodle soup” on a cold winter day. at the same time, ramen is also “japanese,” making it foreign and unique. the lack of consensus on ramen allows for it to be interpreted regionally in japan, as each area has its own variation (fukutomi 2010: 260), but it also allows ramen to be adapted into a culinary tourism framework. with culinary tourism, customers use food to “perform a sense of adventure, curiosity, adaptability, and openness” to cultures outside of their own, allowing them to “taste” the other (molz 2007: 78-79). at the same time, tourism seeks to offer a “negotiation of novelty and familiarity” (long 2017: 130). in this sense, culinary tourists desire adventure alongside familiarity; they want foods that are different enough to pique their curiosity while maintaining enough familiarity to not appear inedible according to their cultural norms. with ramen, culinary tourism is two-fold: it crosses national borders as well as economic borders, as it is desired ethnic food that is also a symbol of poverty. the familiarity and cultural meanings of instant ramen to canadians provides restaurants the opportunity to thrive as culinary tourism destinations, where fresh noodles and japanese techniques and ingredients are used to create what would be identifiable as, yet adventurously different from, canadian chicken noodle soup. both oni ramen and noodle king are able to use the familiarity of ramen to ease customers into their cuisine, but they also attract those with more adventurous palates through constructions of “authenticity.” upon entering the website for noodle king, bold letters greet you, stating that the restaurant is “authentic, not traditional.” as folklorists know, authenticity is a slippery word. shun lu and gary alan fine remark that “authenticity is a locally constructed folk idea” (1995: 538), highlighting how definitions of authenticity vary depending upon one’s own culture and expectations. food culture is dynamic, meaning that authenticity is constantly in flux, changing alongside variations in taste, ingredients, and techniques (clair et al. 2016: 2). in this sense, “authentic food” has no objective meaning and all notions of authenticity are subjective. notions of “authentic” ethnic cuisine are created within one’s own culture, not in the foodways of the “ethnic” culture in question. for most ethnic restaurants to be successful, they must perform the “illusion of authenticity,” and “accommodate local needs while retaining characteristics of ethnic tradition” (lu and fine 1995: 541, 543). authentic cuisine, then, depends on cultural expectations of ethnicity and respect for the norms of one’s own cultural foodways. to be authentic rather than traditional means not to recreate japanese ramen, but rather to negotiate the familiar with one’s assumptions of what japanese ramen should be. with the lack of consensus on what constitutes ramen, authenticity becomes even tricker to create. can there be an authentic ramen when the rules are unstable and in flux? in order to create this “illusion of authenticity” that culinary tourism depends upon, ramen restaurants focus heavily on atmosphere rather than strictly upon food. atmosphere and environment play a large role in culinary tourism as they help to create the illusion of travel. restaurants often evoke the country of origin of their cuisine through use of decorations to give way to “imaginative travel” (molz 2007: 81). even the architecture of the restaurant can be used to demonstrate ethnic identities and cultural difference (li 2020: 279). in his analysis of chinese restaurants in newfoundland, mu li remarks that chinese restaurants have digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 73 become a “tradition” in that customers anticipate the same sort of décor and menu at every chinese restaurant (2020: 280). taking this point further, we can argue that culinary tourism requires not only “authentic” food but also an “authentic” atmosphere that evokes difference while still fulfilling the expectations of the customer. what ramen culinary tourists desire is not necessarily décor from japan, but décor that evokes cultural beliefs of what japan is. restaurants, then, must provide not only authentic food, but an authentic experience, and this experience is achieved through the creation of an environment that is different enough from “canadian” restaurants to evoke a sense of exoticism. when you walk into oni ramen in ontario, it immediately feels different from most north american restaurants. the restaurant is small and holds limited seating. a long l-shaped bar runs along the kitchen, which is entirely visible, while two small tables are attached to the wall in the back and a large “kommunal” [sic] table sits in the front window. the restaurant accepts no reservations, and all seating is first come, first served. as soon as you walk in, you are greeted by a cashier/server standing behind the bar. you give your order and pay upfront as the only menu is on a large board to the left. after ordering, you are free to select your own seat, and without individual tables, it is very likely on a busy night that you will be seated next to a complete stranger. if you are seated at the bar, then you have a full view of the kitchen, and are encouraged to watch the cooks make your food. if it is not too busy, the chefs may engage in conversation with the customers as their food is being prepared. this serving experience is unlike many north american restaurants, where the kitchen is often hidden from the view of the customers, and they are served tableside. the unfamiliarity of this serving style evokes difference and the design of the restaurant immediately informs customers that within the space of the restaurant, they are “elsewhere.” both customers and staff are receptive to the feeling of difference within the ontario restaurant. jill, a frequent customer and close friend, claims that they “love” the restaurant not because of the food but because “of the authentic-ish atmosphere.” in particular, they enjoy the “little bar area for slurping your noodles,” describing it as both “cute and cozy” before stating that the restaurant has “nice food” as well. what is particularly interesting is that jill perceives the restaurant as “authentic-ish.” clarifying this term, jill states that the restaurant is “as authentic as you can get it in [city], ontario.” this comment draws attention to the fact that even when customers are aware of the impossibility of authenticity, it does not necessarily hinder their experience. limitations, such as availability of asian ingredients and produce (clair et al. 2016: 15) as well as cultural norms regarding restaurants, prohibit them from experiencing ramen the same way one would in japan, rendering the experience authentic-ish. indeed, customers often seemed confused by the serving style at oni ramen. whereas in japan the expectation is that diners vacate the restaurant as soon as they are finished, rendering ramen a form of “fast food” (fukutomi 2010: 265), many oni ramen customers stay and chat for long periods after finishing eating, making turnover quite slow. in addition, signs around the restaurant remind customers to order before taking their seat, a concept that first-time visitors find difficult to follow. although ramen is fast to make, many do not perceive it as “fast food” and they anticipate a sit-down restaurant experience. “authentic-ish” describes how ramen style is different enough to feel unfamiliar, foreign, and exciting, while still acknowledging stephens, authentic-ish ramen, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 74 that the restaurant makes way for cultural serving norms of other local eating establishments. at oni ramen, one cannot engage in the same ramen experience as one would in japan, but through the bar seating, the idea of japan ramen shops is emulated—it is “authentic-ish.” among staff, oni ramen is not described as authentic, but as providing an experience outside of everyday norms. matt, a sous-chef, states that there is a “real special energy to the shop as a physical location” and that there is a “certain magic to it.” while he remarks that the space is “small,” he also calls it “intimate,” implying a sort of community formation within the space. in the winter in particular, matt notes that the narrow space of the restaurant lets customers feel others as they walk by, making it a “community space.” the magic of the restaurant, then, is partly due to the fact that the japanese-style seating fosters a sense of community within the restaurant. this space differentiates inside from outside; inside a community can flourish due to the difference of this space from other canadian restaurants. paul, a former head chef, notes that the japanese-inspired serving style can create confusion for customers, however. for example, unlike most canada restaurants, tipping is discouraged at oni ramen. according to paul, the mindset of the restaurant is “don’t worry about tipping because we’re not going to serve you. the cooks are going to hand you your food.” in this sense, the restaurant is competing within the wider fast-food market but, as paul indicates, the difference is “you [can] watch the cooks cook your food.” although neither cook points out the attempts to evoke authenticity, they do remark that the restaurant is significantly and positively different from other local restaurants. for these ramen cooks, to eat at the ramen shop is to enter a place that is unique from other places they have worked. this difference evokes japan, through narrow bar-side seating, serving style, and the lack of expectation regarding tipping. these ramen shops allow not only customers but also staff to experience a form of culinary tourism through the style of the restaurant. unlike oni ramen, noodle king in atlantic canada has north american style serving, where patrons are served tableside and the kitchen is not visible from the dining room. at a previous location, noodle king attempted bar seating similar to oni ramen, but they found the location was too small, and most customers were not responsive to this serving style. however, other decorative elements are used to fulfill expectations of japan. like oni ramen, menus are not given to guests. instead, a large blackboard covers the wall and displays the daily menu which changes based upon ingredient availability. no reservations are accepted and the customer turnover rate is high. with few tables and un-cushioned seating, the restaurant emphasizes that ramen is a “fast food” in the sense that you are expected to eat and then leave (fukutomi 2010: 265). erica, a long-time server, states that the idea behind the restaurant is that it is a place for people who want to “eat and go” without the “whole sit-down thing.” according to her, the restaurant was designed to be an alternative to “fries” and other fast food for “people who worked in kitchens.” serving hearty noodles quickly for workers is precisely why ramen thrives in japan: originally, ramen stalls were frequented by blue collar labourers and students (kushner 2012: 161, ayao 2001: 67). in japan today, ramen restaurants see businesspeople, primarily men, as their most frequent customers (fukutomi 2010: 264). thus, oni ramen and noodle king digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 75 both evoke an unfamiliar dining experience for many canadians that represents forms of culinary tourism for guests as well as staff. other elements in both restaurants create a sense of exotic dining through customer expectations of japan. if ethnic restaurants have “traditions” that customers expect in terms of décor and ambiance (li 2020: 280), then oni ramen and noodle king fulfill them. both restaurants have “lucky cat” and other asian trinkets on display by the cash register and serve their food with chopsticks instead of forks. both sell sapporo beer, a popular japanese-style beer, and noodle king serves warmed sake as well. rather than translating ingredients, the restaurants use their japanese names: noodle king serves either shoyu (soy) or miso (red bean paste) ramens, whereas at oni ramen, bowls can be served with negi (green onion) or nori (seaweed). additionally, both establishments serve wakame (seaweed) salad and gyoza (japanese-style dumplings) as sides. most customers do not speak japanese yet these restaurants use japanese terms to describe their food. as erica notes of the staff, “we’re not japanese. none of us are japanese; none of us speak japanese.” the target audience is not japanese customers because, as matt states, they are not an “ethnic restaurant aimed at feeding nostalgia of the culture from which that dish originates.” thus, the japanese terms are not used to benefit cooks and servers, or to attract japanese immigrants, but rather entirely for the experience of the culinary tourist. if the majority of customers do not speak japanese, then an important reason behind the use of japanese terms is their evocation, of opening a door in canada and entering a space that is foreign, adventurous, and exciting. thus, these ramen restaurants present themselves as culinary tourism destinations through not only serving foreign foods, but also through the creation of an atmosphere that feels japanese without being entirely unfamiliar. as jill characterizes it, these restaurants serve an “authentic-ish” experience within the confines of their own cultural norms. ramen as canadian what is of particular interest is that while culinary tourists such as jill highlight the authenticity of the food and atmosphere and how it fulfills their idea of japan, workers in these restaurants do not address nor debate authenticity. initially, when i set out to conduct my interviews, i anticipated that the staff who are, as previously mentioned, predominantly white canadians, would be excited by the concept of “authentic” japanese food and ingredients. this enthusiasm, i predicted, would provide a sort of culinary tourism experience for the staff through working with these ethnic ingredients and cooking techniques. instead, what i found was that the workers were not overly concerned with authenticity. significantly, erica, matt, and paul all described the ramen served in their restaurant as “japanese inspired,” not as “authentic.” the use of the term “inspired” rather than “authentic” allows for more interpretation and more play with what constitutes ramen. important to culinary tourism is the creation of the idea of authenticity, but ethnic restaurants are always “in-between space[s]” as they are both reflective of the culture of origin of the food as well as their own local culture and place (turgeon and pastinelli 2002: 251). in their research on ethnic restaurants in quebec, laurier turgeon and madeleine pastinelli note that the majority of restaurant owners “offer a cuisine adapted to quebecers’ tastes” that combines the exotic with the local (2002: 257). furthermore, lu and fine state that “ideally” ethnic restaurants provide food that is “authentic” but stephens, authentic-ish ramen, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 76 “practically” this food must be “americanized” in order to suit the tastes and foodways of north american customers (1995: 539). by using the term “japanese-inspired,” ramen restaurants are perceived by the staff as hybrids of japanese and north american culture, where canadian tastes are inspired by japanese ingredients and techniques, rather than simply a reproduction of japanese cuisine. as noted earlier, ramen is a dish of hybrid origins, originating as chinese soba and then adopted by japan. both matt and paul highlight this hybridity. when asked to describe ramen, paul emphasises that ramen comes from “lo mein” which is “a chinese type of alkaline wheat noodle” (“mein” translates to “noodle” and “lo” refers to the tossing method of preparation). throughout our interview, paul stressed that the only essential ingredient of ramen is “wheat noodles” to the point where he argued that gluten-free ramen is impossible due to the necessity of wheat. wheat is not native to japan, nor is ramen, according to paul, yet ramen is still thoroughly a japanese dish as it “comes from japan.” it appears that built into ramen, by definition, are notions of hybridity and cultural adaptation. likewise, matt similarly expresses notions of cultural adaptation surrounding ramen. when asked about the ramen served at oni ramen, matt states that “ramen is a japanese version of originally a chinese dish so we’re very much influenced by that japanese inflection of that dish.” this adoption process can then be applied to canadian ramen, which is an “inflection” of japanese ramen. through this process, matt seems to imply that the ramen he makes is not a re-creation of japanese ramen, but a canadian version that has been adopted from japanese traditions. matt even compares ramen to pizza, stating that both dishes have been “heavily adopted” from their country of origin, so much so that they become forms of “global cuisine.” with ramen in particular, matt settles on the fact that ramen is both “japanese cuisine” and “canadian cuisine as well.” for both chefs, then, ramen is not japanese cuisine, but japanese-inspired cooking; they center ramen as a thoroughly hybrid and adaptable dish. even erica remarks that the cuisine she serves is “japanese fusion” with “other asian-cuisine influences” making noodle king ramen “asian-inspired” cuisine. indeed, both restaurants serve chinese-inspired ramen called tantanmen, as well as a noodle king’s rad thai, which is a play on the popular thai dish “pad thai,” or the korean-inspired seoul food at oni ramen. the canadian ramen cooks and servers i interviewed placed less emphasis on ramen’s evocation of japan and concentrated on its combination of inter-cultural culinary techniques, ingredients, and traditions. for ramen shop workers, notions of hybridity and fusion are not focused on asian cultures, but rather on how ramen reflects local culture. the slogan for oni ramen, matt recites, is “japanese-inspired, locally influenced, and house-made.” although “japanese” implies foreign and exotic, “locally” and “house-made” bring the dishes closer not simply to canadian cuisine, but to the cuisine of one’s own community. although there is some debate as to whether or not canada has its own cuisine (jacobs 2010), these ramen restaurants contribute to the creation of a regional cuisine within their own communities. one way that these restaurants help create local cuisine is through the ingredients used in their cooking. matt notes that “in japan, a lot of ramen involves seafood,” but since seafood is not a native ingredient to their location in ontario, they do not use seafood as it “doesn’t digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 77 reflect the time and place we are in.” seafood may be traditional to japanese ramen, but to use seafood would render the food at oni ramen inauthentic within their local region. authenticity, then, is not so much about replicating japanese cuisine, but about creating a dish that is reflective of its place of origin, which is not japan but rather ontario. paul expressed a similar perspective, stating that japanese ingredients “don’t lend themselves to winters in ontario” so the dishes served revolve around ingredients that are locally abundant in ontario such as tomatoes, corn, and mushrooms. according to paul, who used to do the ordering of provisions, “everything we could, we bought locally, and if we couldn’t, we bought the best we could get.” paul likens the quality and locality of the ingredients to that of a “fine dining restaurant” despite the fact that ramen is the “furthest thing” from fine dining. this comment is particularly revealing, because paul also likens ramen to mcdonalds and subway when discussing how ramen is an economically good deal, because with limited funds, you can have a filling meal that is within the same economic range as fast food chains: “i don’t even think you can get a subway combo for under twenty dollars.” for paul, ramen may be a form of fast, cheap food—bringing it back to its origins as a food of hard times and its cultural perception as a food of poverty—but by using local ingredients, the restaurant is elevated to being akin to fine dining. ramen is perceived as both fast food and fine dining, meaning that individuals who cannot afford to eat at expensive restaurants are offered the opportunity to experience their local community through food, in the same way diners at upper end restaurants do. it is local ingredients, then, for both paul and matt, that transform ramen from a japanese dish or a dish of poverty into a culinary destination reflective of local canadian culture. economically, this stance towards purchasing local ingredients of high quality makes sense, as ingredients sourced locally would most likely be cheaper than ingredients that have to be imported or specially ordered. there are limitations to what foods are accessible as well, based on geographic location. the proximity to global hubs such as toronto and ottawa makes most ingredients easier to source in ontario than in atlantic canada. to use local ingredients may be more fiscally feasible, but with communities such as toronto’s chinatown so close by, using local ingredients is also a carefully selected choice. for noodle king, sourcing ingredients is made more difficult due to limitations regarding what is farmed locally. erica notes that noodle king cannot produce traditional japanese-style ramen due to the fact that “you have to be able to get the groceries” and their location makes it difficult to obtain the “groceries you normally get consistently” at other ramen restaurants. like japan, noodle king is coastal, meaning that seafood products are frequently used in their ramen. in this sense, noodle king ramen is similar to many variations of japanese ramen; however, produce that is readily available in japan, such as shiitake mushrooms, is difficult to source in atlantic canada. for noodle king, the use of local ingredients is less a choice and more a necessity due to product availability. the limitations regarding ingredients, however, are not treated as a hinderance, but rather as an opportunity. because noodle king has no set menu, food and cocktail offerings change daily, depending on ingredient availability. the rotating selections reflect the local community: one cocktail is named after a nearby street, another after a well-known musician-turned-farmer. both restaurants turn local ingredients into “ethnic” food, bringing ramen a bit closer to a local, rather than foreign, cuisine. stephens, authentic-ish ramen, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 78 ramen as community to be locally-influenced is not limited to produce and ingredients: it also means to be engaged with and influenced by one’s own community. although the atmosphere of these ramen restaurants evokes japan, for the workers, they function not as tourist destinations but as community hubs through a culinary tourism lens. both matt and paul acknowledge that the community has a great influence on the menu at oni ramen. matt says that the restaurant “make[s] a strong effort to cater to” the needs of the “large local vegetarian population,” and paul agrees that it caters specifically to the local vegans and vegetarians. on the current menu, out of thirteen variations of ramen, six are exclusively vegan or can be made so. ramen is not normally a vegan dish, as the broth typically contains meat bones and is “based on meat flavours” (kushner 2012: 6). to make and promote vegan ramen means that the restaurant is responding to the needs and desires of their local customers. importantly, both matt and paul perceive the vegan ramens as specifically “catering” to the local vegan community. for these cooks, the adaptability of ramen allows them to craft dishes specifically for their own community. in this sense, ramen becomes as reflection of the local more than an evocation of japan. furthermore, the physical restaurant space is perceived by the workers not as a foreign culinary destination, but as a local communal space. erica describes noodle king as a “comforting” restaurant, saying that going to noodle king is “very similar to going to your mom’s house and having her make something for you.” part of the reason for this level of comfort and familiarity is due to the fact that noodle king functions as a “hangout” where both the staff and the customers “have fun.” when i asked why she liked working at noodle king, erica responded that she “really like[s] our customers and they’re fun to talk to.” she then told me that most of the staff have been caught dancing in the restaurant, and that one time she walked in and there was a “dance party” happening in the dining room among several customers. for erica, the joy of ramen is not necessarily the food, but the communal and convivial aspect of the restaurant, and how her job allows her to interact with the customers in a fun and fulfilling way. as a server, erica highlights how the ramen restaurant is a community-based space where the focus is on the enjoyment, comfort, and familiarity between both customers and staff. in ontario, a similar, community-based attitude is expressed, as paul told me the target audience of the restaurant is “almost anyone.” he explained that the restaurant is a “kidfriendly” space at lunch and on sundays, and he named the wide variety of people who frequent the restaurant, such as high school students, young adults, older couples, families, and prominent city council members. matt, perhaps, summarized it best, stating that “the target audience is very clearly everybody who lives in [city].” indeed, the restaurant even participates in a program called “tasty tours,” where small groups experience a culinary tour of the area, stopping at local restaurants to get a taste of the local cuisine. the restaurant, then, features prominently within the community, and works to facilitate a community space. when i worked at oni ramen, i would encounter the familiar faces of frequent regulars daily; some customers i came to know by name and memorize their orders. when i talk to the staff i worked with, we often discuss customers such as the local baker, dave, or matthew-the-barber, or the “garlic guy.” although none of us wore name tags, customers came to know our names in the same way we learned theirs: once, i was at digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8:1/2 (2021) 79 a local bar, and a woman i did not recognize came over to me excitedly and asked if i worked “at the ramen restaurant.” another time, a woman approached me for directions because she “remembered me” from the ramen restaurant. even jill, a frequent ramen eater, said that “half the fun of [ramen] is who you’re talking to when you eat it,” which includes other customers seated along the bar as well as the kitchen staff. through the focus on the local community, accomplished through using local produce and suppliers, addressing dietary needs and desires, and facilitating “fun” restaurant atmospheres that encourage discussion, ramen restaurants work as community spaces. for the staff in particular, the appeal of working at these ramen restaurants is not found in the ethnic ingredients or the foreign food techniques they employ, but rather in the ability to engage with and explore one’s own community. in this sense, then, ramen may be perceived as a form of ethnic culinary tourism, but it is also a culinary tourism of one’s own geographical place—of one’s own place in the community and world. conclusion ramen, then, functions as a fusion of local community life within an increasingly globalized world. on one hand, ramen is ethnic cuisine, but on the other, ramen demonstrates how foods can be adopted by other communities and cultures and transformed into distinctive foodways with their own meanings and local significance. the lack of strict definition and rules regarding ramen allows for cultural adoption, where communities both within japan and within canada are able to come up with their own regional variations that reflect their geographical place and community. many canadians know of ramen as a food of hard economic times, whether as students, as was the case with matt, or as children growing up in less affluent families, as is the case for myself and for paul. despite these seemingly negative connotations, ramen has been transformed into an affordable yet gourmet form of cuisine within canada, where it is valued not as a cheap calorie-dense meal, but as a food that facilitates community. perhaps the reason why noodle king and oni ramen elect to reflect their community through ramen is due to the fact that this food emerges from hard times; it is about coming together and sharing a meal despite hard times. although i continue to tell customers and friends that ramen is “just noodles and soup,” it clearly has complex meanings and is deeply significant. perhaps it would be best to tell my guests, when they ask what ramen is, that it is as much canadian as japanese, as much local as global, as much dependent upon here and now as its long cultural history and personal meanings. this hybridity opens up space for continued discussions regarding canadian cuisine, as well as how food and culinary tourism offer significant avenues for exploring one’s own identity, community, and place in the world. notes: 1 to protect the privacy of these restaurants, as well as the staff and owners, i have used pseudonyms for both restaurants and have generalized locations. 2 according to the 2016 canadian census, approximately 7% of noodle king’s local community is composed of visible minorities. of these, 0.04% identified as japanese. compared to oni ramen’s community where 18.8% are visible minorities, and 0.14% identified as japanese. source: https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/censusrecensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?lang=e 3 all informants have been given pseudonyms. https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?lang=e https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?lang=e stephens, authentic-ish ramen, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 80 references cited ayao, okumura. 2001. japan’s ramen romance. japan quarterly 48 (3): 66-76. https://search-proquest-com.qe2a-proxy.mun.ca/scholarly-journals/japans-ramenromance/docview/234912694/se-2?accountid=12378 bock, sheila. 2021. fast food at the white house: performing foodways, class and american identity. western 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allen. 2011. there’s something fishy about that sushi: how japan interprets the global sushi boom. japan forum 23 (1): 99-121. doi:10.1080/09555803.2011.580538 solt, george. 2010. ramen and u.s. occupational policy. in japanese foodways, past and present, ed. eric c. rath and stephanie assmann, 186-200. urbana: university of illinois press. turgeon, laurier and madeleine pastinelli. 2002. “eat the world”: postcolonial encounters in quebec city’s ethnic restaurants. journal of american folklore 115 (456): 247-268. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4129222 tye, diane. 2017. “newfie steak”: boloney as tradition and play in newfoundland. in comfort food: meanings and memories, ed. michael owen jones and lucy m. long, 150-162. jackson: university press of mississippi. vaikivai [screenname]. fancy ramen with cheese sticks. digital image. reddit. may 23, 2020. https://www.reddit.com/r/whitehousedinners/comments/gpand6/fancy_ramen_with_ch eese_sticks/ interviews: bonser, jill. 2021. interview with author. february 17. jones, erica. 2021. interview with author. march 1. smith, matt. 2021. interview with author. february 23. stevens, paul. 2021. interview with author. february 28. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4129222 https://www.reddit.com/r/whitehousedinners/comments/gpand6/fancy_ramen_with_cheese_sticks/ https://www.reddit.com/r/whitehousedinners/comments/gpand6/fancy_ramen_with_cheese_sticks/ from a manor kitchen by: martin lovelace my great-aunt emily lovelace, “auntie nimmo” (1875--1967), cooked for wealthy families in dorset, england, including the colfoxes (the uppermost local gentry) at their delapre estate in bridprot. her manuscript cook book, in various hands, shows recipes emily used regularly, and gathered from other cooks: a wonderful procession of cakes, chutneys, jams, fancy desserts, and full menus “for the partees.” after her marriage, aged 36, to harry parsons, an ex-royal navy artificer, the couple served at the gentlemen’s club in bridport where harry was steward and emily cooked. as a little boy i knew her as the only lively one among her ailing sisters whom she took care of in later life. i recall her caraway seed cake, a taste which i have always loathed. recently i attempted one of her recipes for marmalade, attributed to one aunt martha. it required much soaking and boiling, and unusually called for a proportion of sweet oranges along with the sevilles. it made marmalade that to my taste was too sweet, even insipid, but of a gorgeous bright orange colour. it was unlike the dark and cloudy oxford style that i usually make but i’m sure it looked just the thing on a silver salver. 1. emily parsons with her young great-nephew 2. emily’s manuscript cook book 3. pages from emily’s manuscript cook book 4. menu for a 1903 supper 5. "for the partees,” jan. 2nd-4th, 1903 6. recipe for game pie 7. recipes for tomato chutney and furniture polish 8. recipe for emily’s “aunt martha’s marmalade” 9. martin with bottled marmalade 10. oxford-style and emily’s more jelly-like marmalade sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship honorable mention 2011 from rosy to regrettable mixed nostalgia and the meanings of jell-o salad by: clare forstie regular visits to my midwestern grandparents’ home have provided ample opportunity to sample both a revered and maligned american food-like substance: the jell-o salad. my immediate reaction (like that of many of my generational peers) when seeing olives suspended in lime-green jell-o, has been: “ew, gross!” on the other hand, when discussing the subject of this paper, friends and family have offered heart-warming reminiscences about the presence of jell-o salad at family and community events. it seems that this once-ubiquitous dish provokes responses that run the gamut from horror to adoration. these responses have prompted me to ask: why is there such an extreme range of reaction to the food? why do jell-o salad proponents, consumers, and detractors recognize this dish as a distinctly “american” food? what makes it american, and why do many care about it now? exploring the ways in which proponents and detractors understand jell-o salad as an american and regional dish tells us something about how “americanness” is created and why everyday foods matter. part of my goal in conducting this research is to investigate how the meaning of food is significantly tethered to the contexts in which it is displayed, consumed, and discussed. jell-o salad is variously culturally located throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, and it plays a variety of roles; in other words, there is no fundamental “truth” to a jell-o salad. it is critical to recognize that, while jell-o salads were a fascinating and colorful product that likely reached its peak of popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s, jell-o salad as an example of our food history—as an american cultural text—is as much a part of american identity today as it was in 1950. furthermore, the discourse around jell-o salad between jell-o’s one hundredth anniversary in 1997 (see: kraft 1997: 4) and 2008 is explicitly linked to discourses of nationalism and regionalism as well as class and gender. given that the meanings of jell-o salad have changed as surely as its ingredients, what is its significance now? i explore the conflicting narratives offered by kraft, inc., current holder of the jell-o brand, as well as cultural critics, asking how is the jell-o salad as a cultural text “read” by these two types of “readers,” and how do their stories contrast or help constitute “americanness?” kraft’s american jell-o story jell-o’s parent company, kraft, presents a horatio alger-style story in its advertisements and in its official cookbooks. the company consciously constructs this story in much the same way as the industrial organic food companies described by journalist michael pollan. he argues that these companies use a “supermarket pastoral” narrative (pollan 2007). the story kraft presents, like the story created by “big organic,” is a literary endeavor that features a traditional tale of achievement and connects consumers to an imagined america of simple, wholesome family “values.” in kraft’s jello cookbooks, the story of its cultural evolution parallels an american rags-to-riches tale, from “an inauspicious beginning” (kraft 1997) to brand-name recognition and implicit financial success. according to kraft: looking back 100 years ago, jell-o was little more than a brand name and an unfulfilled dream. today, if placed end to end, the 299 million packages of jell-o gelatin dessert produced in a year would stretch more than three fifths of the way around the globe. and the jell-o brand now includes extensive lines of pudding mixes, no bakes, snacks and yogurts—fun products which meet the needs of families today (1997). clearly, kraft uses jell-o’s success to present a familiar american narrative: one of humble beginnings and explosive, diverse achievement. this achievement is further reinforced in more recent kraft jell-o cookbooks. for example, in the 2001 collection cookbook, kraft notes that for more than 100 years, jell-o has adapted to changes in lifestyles and eating habits— becoming a brand recognized by 99 percent of americans and used regularly in nearly every home in america. with more than 125 varieties of snacks and desserts that can help make every day just a little sweeter, it’s no wonder that jell-o is “america’s most famous dessert™” (kraft 2001). in its cookbooks kraft reminds consumers of america’s story of cultural achievement and assimilation by describing jell-o’s humble beginnings and subsequent fame and ubiquity as “america’s most famous dessert.” by including the “history” of the jell-o brand in the introduction to its cookbooks, kraft hints that consumers literally ingest a distinctly american success story every time they take a wiggly, sweet or savory bite of a jell-o salad. unlike the “supermarket pastoral” narrative that features an “american family farmer” (pollan 2007: 137), the american narrative that kraft creates features the jell-o brand as the “hero,” rather than a generic individual, as in pollan’s farmer. the brand is the actor “adapting to changes” and functioning as the aforementioned “most famous dessert.” the brand itself “has” a history, “the jell-o story.” (kraft 2001: 4). this strategy effectively erases the jell-o production process and connects consumers directly to the jell-o brand. by presenting the jell-o narrative as the history of a brand, consumers are shielded from the product’s ingredients—namely boiled animal bones (wyman 2001)—by images of shimmering, colorful, jell-o brand desserts. kraft’s jell-o brand “hero” allows consumers to make and eat the results of a successful, distinctly american narrative while avoiding the messy implications of gelatin production. kraft also communicates traditional american values as part of the jell-o narrative, echoing the ideals represented, interestingly, by big organic (pollan 2007: 137). pollan quotes a whole foods marketing consultant whose comments could describe the experience of a jell-o consumer. by buying and making jell-o, she feels as though she is “’engaging in authentic experiences’ and imaginatively enacting a ‘return to a utopian past with the positive aspects of modernity intact.’” (2007: 137). for kraft, this “utopian past” includes values of family, community, and tradition that its jell-o narrative makes explicit to consumers. for example, kraft notes in the celebrating cookbook that “molded gelatin dishes, with their decorative shapes and garnishes, appeared at many a meal for family and guests, as salads, relishes, and gorgeous desserts—each one served with great pride.” (kraft 1997: 20). kraft encourages consumers to visualize creating and presenting “gorgeous” jell-o desserts to family and friends, perhaps at a holiday gathering. furthermore, consumers can expect to feel a sense of pride as family members ooh and ahh over the “decorative” dish. kraft creates a personal jell-o tradition for consumers, one in which recipes are recreated as part of a collective, idealized american past. kraft emphasizes the imagined “us” by stating that many of us recall favorite jell-o [sic] salads and desserts from our childhood. this chapter contains classic recipes, most of which have been around for at least a generation or two or have been frequently requested... try these time-tested creations on your family and guests. you’ll soon discover why these are still consumers’ favorite recipes (kraft 1997: 76). kraft implies that jell-o consumers can either recreate or create (for the first time) traditional, or “classic,” recipes and, by doing so, they participate in long-standing, intra-generational community customs. at the same time as kraft’s jell-o narrative actively constructs an american past, kraft, as the aforementioned whole foods consultant suggests, seeks to keep “the positive aspects of modernity intact” (pollan 2007: 137). specifically, kraft’s narrative moves from a focus on the value of “convenience” to a late 20thand early 21st-century focus on health. while americans no longer need to be convinced that “convenient” is better (the ubiquity of fast foods proves that food production industries have been successful in that campaign), they do need to be convinced that “convenient” foods are healthy, or, if they aren’t, that it’s still ok to consume them. in kraft’s vision of “modernity,” there is room for both “healthy” jell-o salads and jell-o salad “indulgence.” on the one hand, kraft’s cookbooks bear the imprint of the health concerns of the 1990s, employing labels that suggest that “fat free” and “sugar free” are healthy. several jell-o salads are marked as “fat free” (sugar content notwithstanding): “gazpacho salad” (kraft 1997: 22), “sunset fruit salad” (kraft 1997: 24), “sparking berry salad” (kraft 1997: 34), and “melon salad” (kraft 1997: 38). furthermore, jell-o salad recipes in kraft’s celebrating cookbook feature the newly-created “jell-o [sic] brand sugar free low calorie gelatin dessert,” which “is prepared in the same way” as “regular” jell-o (kraft 2001: 9). finally, the celebrating cookbook includes nutritional information per serving for each recipe, marked by an apple, which is intended to signify “healthy” to the savvy consumer. the modern elements of kraft’s jell-o narrative ply the consumer with promises of a “fat free” or “low calorie” (read: healthy) food. on the other hand, as journalist linda kulman illustrates, the jell-o narrative contains a contradictory message about america’s need for decidedly unhealthy “comfort foods” (2000: 76-77). kulman connects consumption of “simple” foods (notably jell-o salads) with nostalgia for the simple, the sweet, and—significantly—the fattening. yesteryear foods are used to define a contemporary america in need of a dip into the past. implicitly, america is seen as too obsessed with calories, and the kraft cookbooks communicate this mixed message as part of jell-o’s modern narrative: at the same time as kraft employs “fat free” language (and illustrations feature brightly-colored, fresh and healthy-looking produce), kraft uses words that signal “comfort” and “calories.” for example, the jell-o collection cookbook features the slogan “i could go for something jell-o,” which marks jell-o (and jell-o salads) as a food craving and not a part of a healthy meal. this cookbook in particular focuses on the “indulgence” (kraft 2001: 2) of jell-o and describes how jell-o can “make each day just a little sweeter” and “answer the call for something sweet” (kraft 2001: 3). thus, the shimmery confines of this wiggly food product encapsulate the paradox of american convenience food as “healthy/not healthy,” and kraft in its american jell-o narrative maintains consumers’ access to modern “healthy” foods as well as the modern “need” for indulgence. jell-o salad consumers, in turn, reflect and recreate this american narrative. first, consumers reinforce the core values of family and community as they create the dish in specific, ritualized contexts. consumers produce jell-o salad at family and community gatherings, for example, as folklorist sarah newton suggests: jell-o dishes, from a simple sheet of lime jell-o with bananas to towering, layered, whipped-creamed creations, have signaled to countless americans times of gathering or celebration—funerals, potlucks, family reunions, church suppers, baby and wedding showers, christmas and thanksgiving (1992: 251). these celebrations and holidays fit squarely within kraft’s constructed narrative of jell-o salads as american icons of family and community. marketing researchers melanie wallendorf and eric arnould remark on the ubiquity of jell-o salads at thanksgiving rituals, as well, stating that “at thanksgiving, the congealed mass represents both the transmutation of a mass-produced consumer product into an element of tradition and the congealing of family differences into a bounded, molded whole” (1991: 28). jell-o salad consumers make this american narrative by producing and consuming jell-o salad in these contexts. finally, kulman describes jell-o salad as an artifact of the american past (featuring family and community); she describes the “new” obsession with “retro” desserts (like jell-o salads) and explains how elite restaurants are producing “comfort” foods “from a box” for interested diners (2000: 76-77). as one chef suggests, contemporary chefs who produce jell-o salads offer consumers “a way to connect with the past” (kulman 2000: 76-77). whether by preparing the jell-o salad for family and friends or simply by ordering jell-o salad in an elite restaurant, consumers can literally ingest a memory, a feeling of pride, a sense of indulgent “comfort,” and (significantly) align themselves with a specific, kraft-articulated version of the american past. in accordance with its limited appearance in elite restaurants, jell-o salad is most popular among working-class americans. cheap, colorful, flexible, and super-sweet, jell-o salad offers opportunities for home cooks to express their creativity and provides a way to economically employ leftovers (inness 2001). roland barthes, commenting on “ornamental cookery” in the french working-class magazine elle, notes that “this is an openly dream-like cookery [in which] consumption can perfectly well be accomplished simply by looking” (1972: 79). in its cookbooks, kraft presents jell-o salad, defined as an american working-class dish (inness 2001), as “dream-like”. given the cookbooks’ large, full-page photographs of glistening, rainbow-colored jell-o salads, it seems possible to consume jell-o salad “simply by looking,” as well. as affordable, “easy,” quick, and visually stunning foods, jell-o salads are meant to appeal specifically to working-class americans. while kraft presents the american narrative of jell-o as a unifying national narrative, its sweetness and hyperfeminity carry more cultural weight as elements of southern foods. kraft highlights jell-o’s sweetness by suggesting that its cookbooks’ recipes “are sure to answer the call for something sweet... when you can go for something sweet, creamy, fun or festive... [sic] remember to go for something jell-o” (kraft 2001: 3). as sherrie inness argues, jell-o salad’s “sweetness” marked it as a traditionally “feminine” food (2001). furthermore, the “south,” is explicitly celebrated in the official story, which claims that “congealed’ salad molds have long been party and buffet dinner favorites of southern hostesses” (inness 2001: 42). while this national narrative is meant to be all-inclusive, jell-o salad’s appeal seems bound to working-class and southern american contexts. the contested jell-o narrative whether or not americans actually believe the narrative offered by kraft is up for debate. jell-o salad’s critics object vehemently to kraft’s idealized picture of american life-via-jell-o. in sharp contrast to kraft’s “rosy” american narrative, critics describe how the shiny beacon of jell-o salad reminds them of the false, horrific, damaging, and deadly aspects of the mid 20th century. american cultural critic james lileks sharply remarks that the jell-o salad images he (re)presents in his gallery of regrettable food are ...the commercial bones of the past, what we’re left with. they’re mostly lies that promise happiness and, of course, they can’t deliver it... even then, no one believed something just because the corporate cookbook said so (2001: 4). here, lileks makes this “corporate” narrative visible, suggesting that kraft’s narrative was composed of “lies” they “can’t deliver.” furthermore, cultural critic wendy wall notes that jell-o is “criticized as helping to dumb down women’s work, ruin the environment, tame appetites into blandness, promote a vapid consumerism and mock nutrition, [and] has been blamed by critics for the demise of an array of values” (2006: 48). as wall suggests, jell-o operates as a cog in the machine that grinds out the downfall of american cuisine. if kraft and jell-o salad proponents present jell-o salad as the manifestation of an american narrative of success, family, and community, jell-o salad critics offer a contradictory national narrative of america as broken, citing the horrific history of jell-o salad as evidence. critics use disturbing images from american history to construct this counter-narrative. lileks, commenting on the “snowy chicken confetti salad,” states: “little boy, fat man, meet white guy. between the atom bomb and the hydrogen bomb, there was this one: the gelatin bomb” (2001: 44). here, the jell-o salad is called into service as a representative of the atomic and hydrogen bombs and reminds jell-o salad consumers of the horrors of world war ii. in fact, lileks makes a tongue-in-cheek connection between jell-o and the wholesale destruction of “western civilization” on his website “the decline and fall of western civilization as seen through the medium of jell-o” (www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/jello/). wendy mcclure, weight watchers critic, references frightening images of suburban uniformity. she asks viewers, “could it be that the soup cult has left its compound and moved to the suburbs? where they serve beautifully arranged platters of molded asparagus salad to innocent housewives? who ingest the salad spiked with the mind-altering drugs that rob them of their free will?” (2006: 26). finally, the satirical publication the onion uses a jell-o salad to invoke images of the september 11th attacks on the world trade center by posting a fictitious article about “conceptual terrorists” molding a jell-o salad around the sears tower in chicago (2007). these critics employ jell-o salad in much the same manner as jell-o proponents: to promote a particular narrative of the american past, although the “americanness” they present leans more toward apocalyptic fantasy than toward the “rosy” image constructed by kraft. some jell-o critics, like jell-o proponents, connect jell-o salad with a more innocent time, suggesting that american life has become too complicated and “fake.” lileks in his introduction challenges readers by asking why “...we laugh at the past? at least they had real food with real ingredients. we have nutrasweet, simplesse, and fat substitutes that require the words ‘anal leakage’ on our snackfood packages...” (2001: 12). irrespective of whether we mark jell-o salads as “real food,” lileks promotes the idea that the jell-o salad as a representative of the past also embodies a “real” or more authentic time. furthermore, lileks solidifies the connection between jell-o and a worry-free time explicit when he comments: “just think: this kid with the mikey coif is now old enough to start worrying about his prostate. but he had no worries then! not with jell-o” (2001: 97). as sarah newton, writing about jell-o folklore, notes, even garrison keillor famously connects jell-o salad to the “unsophisticated but sincere mid-western life and culture. it is jell-o-and not the sophisticated cuisine of barely cooked tiny green beans and dried porcini mushrooms that is the wholesome staple of the american heartland” (1992: 255). jell-o salad critics link this maligned food product to american simplicity. garrison keillor also describes jell-o salad as a distinctly midwestern, specifically minnesotan, food. like jell-o salad proponents, critics view america through the lens of regional identity and construct jell-o salad as a midwestern, not necessarily southern, dish. in fact, geographer barbara shortridge responds to this equation of minnesota to jell-o salad in her survey of minnesotan foods titled “not just jello [sic] and hot dishes: representative foods of minnesota” (2003). lileks explicitly connects jell-o salad to the midwest, as well; referring to a picture of a foamy-topped jell-o salad-in-a-glass, he remarks “stare at this photo long enough and it really starts to bother you... it’s what happens when you feed lsd to iowans, perhaps. this is as surreal a juxtaposition as their minds can create” (2001: 90). clearly, jell-o salad represents a particular geography of america to detractors—one of the midwest. critics respond most strongly to jell-o salad as a kind of not-food, using the grotesque to mark jell-o salads as examples of “wrong” american food. lileks comments on the sensual facets of the jell-o salad, from its lurid appearance to feel to taste. in his introduction to gallery, he remarks that to modern eyes, the pictures in the book are ghastly, florid, gorge-tweaking abominations—the italian dishes look like what happened when a surgeon gets a sneezing fit during an operation, and the queasy casseroles look like something the dog heaved up on the good rug (lileks 2001: 10). lileks further identifies “another brain mold, this one spattered with indigestible seeds. you know, when something bears such a close resemblance to a human body part, it would make sense not to surround it with red pulpy slices. watermelon? sugared muscle tissue? you make the call [sic]” (2001: 46). wendy mcclure’s comments also emphasize the unattractiveness and inedible qualities of the jello salad: “did you know that some molded salads can blend into their surroundings to escape predators, just like chameleons? observe the spinach and egg mold as it begins to take on the appearance of the formica countertop” (2006: 2). finally, the aesthetic connection between jell-o salad and unamericanness is made visible in the aforementioned article in the onion in which the sears tower is reported to have been made into a gigantic jell-o salad as an act of “conceptual terrorism (2007). lileks’s grotesque comparison of jell-o salads to body parts, mcclure’s critique of jell-o salad as ugly not-food, and the onion’s representation of jell-o salad-as-terrorism offer a powerful commentary on what american food is not supposed to be: garish, sleek, shiny sites of “aesthetic terrorism.” beyond their horror at jell-o’s aesthetics, jell-o salad’s critics also challenge kraft’s health claims by proposing the jell-o salad-as-unhealthy trope, thus reifying the modern american connection between food and health. lileks, significantly, compares various jell-o salads to inedible body parts (as described above). he emphasizes “fat” in a plate of mini jell-o salads, or, what he calls “lanceable boils with fat sauce” (2001: 158). in some cases, too, jell-o salads are described as not simply unhealthy but lethal: again, lileks describes a jell-o salad-like pie in which “an mri scan shows that the nodes of oversaturated cherry jell-o have spread throughout the delicious, refreshing pruneflavored foam. prognosis: dessert!” (2001: 91), thus making a link between jell-o salad and cancer explicit. newton cites a college informant who “expressed her distaste for the family’s ‘congealed salad’ by calling it ‘slime mold’” (1992: 258). like sylvester graham’s perception of some american foods as polluting (nissenbaum 1980), jell-o salad critics perceive the food item as grotesque—as unhealthy—and reinforce the power of cultural discourses of american food as a source of (un)health. jell-o salad as a gendering tool at first blush, jell-o salad critics and proponents alike leave the gendered nature of jell-o salad “labor” —the process of producing a finished jell-o salad—intact. the jell-o cookbooks authored by kraft continue in the tradition of connecting women with the production of food (shapiro 2004, inness 2001, and schenone 2003). illustrations of “gelatin consistencies” show well-manicured, younglooking, white women’s hands engaged in “checking” the consistency of a bright red jell-o mold (kraft 1997: 11). those same hands appear to demonstrate the “un-molding” (kraft 1997: 13) process, as well http://digest.champlain.edu/vol1/article1_2.html#5 as “easy garnishing tips” (kraft 1997: 16-19). furthermore, kraft, by connecting the labor of jell-o salad with terms like “easy,” “fun,” “speedy,” and “can be served either way” (kraft 1997) go a long way toward answering the question “do women like to cook?” (shapiro 2004: xix). as shapiro argues, “before the question could even be asked, it was answered with a powerful ‘not anymore.’ the ones speaking up so convincingly were the advertisers” (2004: xix). kraft certainly provides the “not anymore” response in its cookbooks. a close read of the kraft cookbooks also illustrates the “paradox of modern life” articulated by schenone: food companies understood that if their products took away all labor and work, women would no longer care about cooking at all. and so, countless advertising campaigns reminded women of their emotional connections to food, even if the products came in boxes and tins. manufacturers encouraged women to express their love and creativity with food by making time-consuming dishes using their products. in a strange paradox of modern life, the new world of commercial foods promised freedom and then reminded women that they were not so free (2003: 274-75). jell-o salads described in these cookbooks continue to reinscribe the role of women as household food producers and jell-o salad consumers, a process that began and accelerated in the 1950’s (inness 2001, newton 1992). for example, the terms used to describe jell-o salads—including “shimmering,” “shimmery,” “gorgeous,” “elegant,” “pretty,” and “beautiful” (kraft 1997: 20-28)—are themselves gendered, designed specifically to “speak” to women. women are the expected cookbook consumers and, thus, jell-o salad producers. while horrified at what barthes calls the “frenzied baroque” and “incongruous artifice” (1972: 79) of jell-o salad, critics don’t challenge the cultural narratives of sweetness and femininity. critics reinforce the feminine connection to preparation and presentation. schenone describes the jell-o salads as “pastel colored with fruity perfumes, gelatin was a pretty, shimmery thing, a decorative object as much as a food. pliable in spirit and texture, it could form itself to the trends of any generation—not unlike the stereotypes of women” (2003: 320). lileks, for example, reinforces these gendered images of jell-o production. all of the jell-o “cooks” represented in lileks’s publications are (again, not surprisingly) women, and he soundly decries their role in producing the horrifying aesthetics of jell-o salad. in a section titled “swanson’s parade of lost identity,” lileks describes the unnamed chicken-based jell-o salad recipe belonging to myrtle, one of the “lost women of swanson” (2001: 157). her “contribution is one of the least appetizing of the batch—one of those puke-in-a-bowl-andshove-it-in-the-icebox surprise dishes that occur with alarming frequency in the gallery. garnish with shaved things; serve with whipped lard” (lileks, 2001: 161). furthermore, grammy-winning composer, william bolcom, presents a veritable cornucopia of feminized jell-o salad dishes in his ironic song, “my lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise” (bolcom 1994; see appendix a for full lyrics). as in lileks’s gallery, bolcom’s song is meant to be sung, announcement-style, by a stereotypic arguably midwestern woman, at a ladies’ meeting in which attendees have prepared a variety of gastronomically unthinkable dishes (including jell-o salads, of course). in these criticisms, the aesthetics (appearance, flavor) of jell-o salad are soundly critiqued, but women’s role as the creators of these dishes remains intact. jell-o salads, even to their critics, are firmly connected to feminized food production through explicit narratives about food provision/labor and gender. interestingly, jell-o salad critics don’t question the gendered production of jell-o salads. some critics take pains to link the horrors of jell-o salads to the specific women who produce them, arguing, in a sense, that these women bear the brunt of the blame for the horrors of jell-o salad in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. lileks, for example, employs the voice of an imagined child who complains that “[mom] just gets so enthusiastic about the strangest things... then when she finally settles down and makes jell-o, it’s always something weird. it’s so embarrassing to have your friends come over and get this; you could just die” (lileks 2001: 89). furthermore, both lileks and mcclure emphasize the fact that their moms didn’t—or wouldn’t—prepare these awful recipes. in her dedication, mcclure writes that her book was compiled “for my mom (who never makes these recipes)...” (2006: n.p.). here mcclure implies that her mother functioned in the appropriate gendered role, “protecting” her family from the horrors of a “diet” jell-o salad (among other weight watchers items). mcclure reinforces the notion that jell-o salads were created by mothers, and that there was a risk that hers might have produced such a product—to which she felt compelled to reassure readers that this was not the case. lileks, similarly, begins the preface to his gallery with the description of the neighborhood “welcome wagon” visiting his mother when he was a child in fargo, north dakota. as his story goes, his mother was presented with a cookbook sponsored by the north dakota state durum wheat commission (2001: 9). he ends his preface by asking, “did my mom believe that any of these things would make her life perfect? of course not... mom just looked at the pictures. the recipes kept her slim and lovely for one reason: she never made them” (lileks 2001:14). again, mothers are the implied labor force behind the family’s food production. good mothers “should” protect their families from hideous (and potentially unhealthy) food. for both jell-o salad proponents and critics, then, jell-o salad functions as a vehicle for reinforcing the gendered nature and product of food labor: as the kraft cookbooks illustrate, women remain the expected producers of such celebratory fare as jell-o salads (and other foods), and, as jell-o salad critics suggest, women remain the expected producers of not-jell-o salads. either way, women provide the domestic food labor and are responsible for ensuring the family’s health through the food they produce. conclusion significantly, the answer to the question “what is it about jell-o salad?” relates to the ways in which jell-o salad calls forth narratives of america’s history, values, and gendered hierarchies and either reinforces or challenges these narratives. while interpretations of this still-ubiquitous dessert run between triumphant and proto-apocalyptic, it’s clear that an american narrative of jell-o salad speaks to consumers and critics alike. kraft conveys multiple meanings of “americanness” via the slippery, shiny, mixed-media domes of jell-o salad, to which devotees and critics vehemently respond. simultaneously, critics’ responses both challenge and reinforce these meanings. kraft seems to have taken critics’ cultural hints, rebranding jell-o as, first, a visually-appealing food product and, second, a historically-, seasonally-relevant, “classic,” “original,” and fun dessert (kraft 2012). kraft now emphasizes jell-o’s aesthetics over its edibility, as its website asks readers: “do you shake it, bounce it, jiggle it or just eat it? jell-o [sic] gelatin is the colorful snack that taught the world to jiggle” (kraft 2012). here kraft emphasizes jell-o’s colorful and jiggly quality, rather than its flavor, minimizing its status as food by employing the term “just.” furthermore, it’s worth noting that in the chronological progression of kraft cookbooks explored for this paper, jell-o salads are rapidly disappearing as voices like lileks, mcclure, and more health-focused food critics gain cultural traction. on kraft’s website, jell-o salads have almost completely disappeared, replaced by recognizable individual-serving desserts like cupcakes, “cookie balls,” “pudding squares,” and various “bites” (kraft 2012). jell-o salad molds are relegated increasingly to “special” occasions like holiday celebrations where they continue to operate as a marker of a shared family/american past (wallendorf et al. 1991). in this paper, i have shown how a maligned/revered food like jell-o salad still holds a great deal of cultural currency even if it is consumed less frequently today than it once was. even the disappearing jell-o salad elicits strong responses both supportive and critical of the value of such nostalgic or loathed food. in either case, cultural products’ disappearance from the dinner table does not signal the death of their meanings. rather, jell-o salad’s circumscription in ritual and memory both by corporate producers like kraft and by cultural critics continually reinscribe the meanings of such foods in americans’ cultural imaginations. investigations of similarly criticized or romanticized foods promise to yield further insights into how everyday foods from the past and present constitute americans’ identities and sense of nation, family, community, health, and gender. references cited barthes, roland. 1972. mythologies. new york: hill and wang. bolcom, william. 1994. “my lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise.” keepers: morning show favorites. minnesota: minnesota public radio. heldke, lisa m. 1992. foodmaking as a thoughtful practice. in cooking, eating, thinking, ed. deane w. curtin and lisa m. heldke, pp.203-229. bloomington: indiana university press. inness, sherrie a. 2001. dinner roles: american women and culinary culture. iowa city: university of iowa press. kraft foods, inc. 1997. celebrating 100 years of jell-o brand. lincolnwood, il: publications international. kraft foods, inc. 2012. “jello.” http://www.kraftbrands.com/jello/products/gelatin/ (accessed may 2012, 2012). kraft foods holdings.2001. jell-o brand collection: 3 cookbooks in 1. lincolnwood, il: publications international. kulman, linda. 2000. pass the jell-o! desserts of yesteryear take the cake. u.s. news & world report 129 (5) (aug. 7): 76-77. lileks, james. 2001. the gallery of regrettable food. new york: crown publishers. lileks, james. “the decline and fall of western civilization as seen through the medium of jell-o.” http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/jello/ (accessed september 30, 2008). mcclure, wendy. 2006. the amazing mackerel pudding plan: classic diet recipe cards from the 1970s. new york: riverhead books. newton, sarah e. 1992. ‘the jell-o syndrome’: investigating popular culture/foodways. western folklore 51 (3/4): 249-267. nissenbaum, stephen. 1980. sex, diet, and debility in jackisonian america: sylvester graham and health reform. westport, ct: greenwood press. the onion. 2007. conceptual terrorists encase sears tower in jell-o. october 15. http://www.theonion.com/content/news/conceptual_terrorists_encase_sears (access ed november 15, 2008). pearse, holly a. 2008. as goyish as lime jell-o? jack benny and the american construction of jewishness. in jewish cultural studies, volume one: jewishness: expression, identity, and representation, ed. simon j. bronner, pp. 272-290. oxford and portland, oregon: the littman library of jewish civilization. pollan, michael. 2007. the omnivore's dilemma: a natural history of four meals. new york: penguin. shapiro, laura. 2004. something from the oven: reinventing dinner in 1950’s america. new york: viking. schenone, laura. 2003. a thousand years over a hot stove: a history of american women told through food, recipes, and remembrances. new york and london: w.w. norton & company. shortridge, barbara g. 2003. not just jell-o and hot dishes: representative foods of minnesota. journal of cultural geography 21 (1): 71-94. wall, wendy. 2006. shakespearean jell-o: mortality and malleability in the kitchen. gastronomica: the journal of food and culture. 6 (1): 41-50. wallendorf, melanie and eric j. arnould. 1991. “we gather together”: consumption rituals of thanksgiving day. the journal of consumer research 18(1) (jun): 13-31. wyman, carolyn. 2001. jell-o: a biography. new york: harcourt, inc. lyrics to “my lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise” words and music by william bolcom ladies, the minutes will soon be read today. the garden club and weaving class i’m sure have much to say... but next week is our culture night, our biggest, best event, and i’ve just made a dish for it you’ll all find heaven sent: it’s my lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise with slices of pimento, (you won’t believe your eyes,) all topped with a pineapple ring and a dash of mayonnaise, my vanilla wafers ‘round the edge will win your highest praise. and missus jones is making scones that are filled with peanut mousse; to be followed by a chicken mold that’s made in the shape of a goose. for ladies who must watch those pounds we’ve found a special dish: strawberry ice enshrined in rice with bits of tuna fish. and my lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise (truly a creation that description defies) will go so well with missus bell’s creation of the week: shrimp salad topped with choc’late sauce and garnished with a leek. and missus perkins’ walnut loaf that’s crowned with melted cheese was such a hit last culture night, we ask: no seconds please! now you must try her hot dog pie with candied mushroom slices... those ladies who resigned last year, they just don’t know what nice is! but my lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise, i did not steal that recipe, it’s lies, i tell you, lies! our grand award: a picture hat and a salmon sequined gown for any girl who tries each dish and keeps her whole lunch down. i’m sure you all are waiting for the biggest news: desert! we’ve thought of things in molds and rings your diet to subvert. you must try our choc’late layer cake on a peanut brittle base with slices of bananas that make a funny face. around the edges peppermints just swimming in peach custard, with lovely little curlicues of lovely yellow mustard! if all this is too much for you, permit me to advise more lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise! (i’ve made heaps!) review of: eating right in america: the cultural politics of food and health charlotte biltekoff. durham: duke university press, 2013. 208 pp. review by: emily j.h. contois brown university while food studies scholars all too often quote jean anthelme brillat-savarin’s proclamation, “tell me what you eat and i will tell you who you are,” the judgmental tone of his now famous aphorism communicates the fear that resonates within many an american eater. big mac or organic kale, fast or slow, fat or thin, unhealthy or healthy, what one eats and the shape and size one’s body takes powerfully communicate (or perhaps betray) who one is, at least according to reigning social ideals. when we talk about “eating right,” we are never discussing only nutrients, calories, or vitamins; healthy weight statuses, disease risks, or longevity. we can only ever be talking about the selves that we desire to be and to become—selves available only to those with the resources necessary to attain them. charlotte biltekoff, once a chef at greens in san francisco and now assistant professor of american studies and food science and technology at the university of california, davis, addresses these issues in her new book, eating right in america: the cultural politics of food and health. in this history of american dietary reform, biltekoff argues that dietary choices are a near constant source of anxiety due to the “ongoing expansions in the social significance of dietary health and the moral valence of being a ‘good eater’” (5). progressing chronologically, biltekoff chronicles in successive chapters the ideals espoused by four dietary reform movements—the progressive era domestic science movement, the nutrition education components of the world war ii home front food program, the mainstream alternative food movement, and the anti-obesity campaigns that continue to reign. as a rich canon of books dedicated to american food culture has been developed over the past thirty years, others have written on the four dietary reform movements that constitute the narrative arc of biltekoff’s text. for example, laura shapiro in perfection salad (1986) and harvey levenstein in revolution at the table (1988) each historicize turn-of-the-century domestic scientists, who sought to align american eating habits with pragmatic scientific principles. texts such as amy bentley’s eating for victory (1998) demonstrate how world war ii shaped american foodways. warren belasco’s appetite for change (1989) tells the story of the 1960s countercusine so completely that no other book project has needed to attempt it. and julie guthman’s weighing in (2011) is one of the most recent and well-received works exploring obesity within the context of neoliberalism. what makes biltekoff’s text important, however, is how she places these four dietary reform movements in conversation with one another, identifying moments of overlap, continuity, convergence, and symbiotic growth. she reveals how even though the dietary advice imparted and the social, cultural, and political context that fuels it may change, the underlying message remains constant. for biltekoff, dietary reform is always about fashioning good citizens, a focus garnered from reformers’ published and unpublished writings and the materials through which they communicated their nutrition advice to both acquiescent and resistant audiences. from this evidence, biltekoff demonstrates how the purview of dietary reform movements extends beyond calories, vitamins, organics, and the body mass index, as they endeavor to mold good citizens through good eating. in this way, eating right in america is a text with a mission. no matter how desperately they seek dietary prescriptions, this book does not seek to instruct americans on how to eat right. rather it encourages readers to embrace the process of “rethinking…exactly what it is we think we know about dietary health” (5), an endeavor that is as disorienting as it is illuminating. in this exercise, the empirical certainty of nutrition science is exchanged for the less stable but more dynamic understanding of dietary advice as a social and cultural construction. in this way, dietary advice— whether based on caloric efficiency, essential vitamins, knowing where your food comes from, or achieving a “healthy weight”—embodies social ideals. within this line of analysis, biltekoff respectfully critiques the now well-known writings of gyorgy scrinis and michael pollan, arguing that nutritionism tells only part of a more complex story, as it does not address how eaters conceptualize good selves and understand other people—the additional social work that dietary recommendations accomplish. drawing from robert crawford (at times rather heavily) and john coveney, biltekoff also undertakes a larger theoretical project to “illuminate…the cultural politics of health, the historical dynamics of class, and the process of social normalization,” as well as to “provoke a dialogue about what health really means to us and what its pursuit should look like” (4). with social class a central feature of her narrative, she also hopes to “cause readers to think about dietary health as a privilege” (4). in its interdisciplinary approach, scope, perspective, and aims, this text draws multiple fields into energetic discussion. a history positioned at the intersection of food studies and fat studies, the text also pushes both fields further, urging food studies scholars to consider questions of health, as well as the biomedical focus of good eating in america. she also suggests that studying fat in concert with food, health, and identity can illuminate the broader context surrounding the vilification of fat bodies in america. the text also engages critical nutrition studies and science and technology studies as it interrogates scientific knowledge production in historical perspective. this historical exercise reveals that dietary advice so strongly influences american eaters in part because it is the progeny of science— which throughout the course of the twentieth century came to be considered an irrefutable cultural arbiter of truth—and social ideals, which embody american hopes, desires, and ways of being. of course, one cannot help but notice the absence of attention in the text to the 1950s and 1960s, a time marked by a reform effort led by the food industry itself, which sought new domestic markets for wartime foodstuffs, from spam to powdered orange juice. eventually winning the hearts and stomachs of a generation of american housewives with “packaged-food cuisine” (shapiro: 56), the convenience products of the food industry—not to mention the rise of car culture, fast food, and suburban supermarkets—altered american eating to the extent that it fueled the reactionary efforts of the alternative food movement, where biltekoff picks up her somewhat fractured narrative. to conclude, however, this well-researched, effectively organized, and accessibly written book deserves a broad audience and will be of particular interest to scholars of food studies, fat studies, reform movements, and twentieth century american social and cultural history. for in the end, eating right in america achieves its mission to encourage readers to reconsider what we think we know about nutrition science, dietary advice, and health, as well as how they operate within american culture. this is a book to press eagerly into the hands of any nutrition student or dietetics professional, so that they may first consider and then transform the social messages that are included in the dietary advice that they impart. biltekoff also challenges us all, as consumers of dietary knowledge, to engage the skills of “dietary literacy” (155) to think critically about how dietary advice and cultural values are always intertwined, with every bite that we take. references cited shapiro, laura. 2004. something from the oven. reinventing dinner in 1950s. america. new york: viking. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 159-160 © american folklore society 2021 review of: rooted resistance: agrarian myth in modern america ross singer, stephanie houston grey, and jeff motter. fayetteville: the university of arkansas press, 2020. pp. 261, bibliography, index. review by: rosalind v. rini larson ____________________________________________________________ in rooted resistance: agrarian myth in modern america, ross singer, stephanie houston grey, and jeff motter provide a riveting historical and rhetorical account of “agrarianism,” a philosophy that hinges upon the inherent virtue of pre-industrial family farming as a way of life, and of the connectedness among people and with the land that it fosters. agrarianism underpins a powerful social and political discourse, which they call “american agrarian myth.” linked to a democratic political vision since the era of thomas jefferson’s influential writings on the yeoman farmer as the ideal democratic citizen, american agrarian myth not only asserts the exceptional moral, social, and political virtue provided by pre-industrial family farming, but the exceptional character of americans as a people empowered and shaped by the collective experience of agrarian life. american agrarian myth is deployed most commonly today in the service of legitimating consumer products or political figures, yet it continues to be a contested and ambiguous rhetorical space that retains power and widespread appeal for the american public, both rural and urban. the authors explain that “rooted resistance examines this reservoir of myth as a source of trusted social truth and persuasive commonplaces” (6). the case studies discussed in this volume reveal how the new agrarianism that functions as an ethic of resistance entwined with this myth can be coopted by corporate or industrial interests just as easily as it can be deployed to the ends of social justice or environmentalism. despite this vulnerability to distortion, the richness and ambiguity of american agrarian myth are the basis of its transformative potential to appeal to and unite diverse parties within american culture in the face of multiple imminent and interconnected global crises, including climate change and food insecurity. in their own ambitious words, the authors conclude by considering “the prospect of a new-agrarian identity informed by myth and spreading across the world, capable of dismantling the industrial food system and culture of death at its root” (33). setting the tone for the agricultural metaphors that crop up in this work, the authors titled the sections of their book “part i: seeds of resistance” and “part ii: threatened harvests,” in which they introduce key figures and movements in the history of modern agrarianism and then illuminate the way those early influences fostered articulations of new agrarianism across various ideologies, respectively. the seven case study chapters spread among parts i and ii feature diverse manifestations of american agrarian mythmaking from world war i to 2013, tracking patterns and revealing “the complex relations between agrarian myth and the discourses of industrialism and consumerism” (15). opening part i near the beginning of the 20th century, chapter 1 focuses upon the way american food propaganda during world war i—under the leadership of u.s. food administration head herbert hoover, u.s. committee on public information head george creel, and u.s. national war garden commission head charles lathrop pack— 160 larson, review, rooted resistance digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) drew upon american agrarian myth to mobilize food production on the home front with enormous success. chapter 2 profiles the postwar effects of this wartime expansion for american farmers by conducting a close analysis of the use of american agrarian myth in the writings of the american country life association, an organization whose mission was to advocate for rural citizens and farmers as essential to democracy. chapter 3 explores american agrarian myth in the rhetoric of the southern agrarians, another organization advocating for the existential importance of american farming and farmers, this time with a regional twist that simultaneously tried to renew an idealized southern identity. despite the internal contradictions of idealizing an agrarian agricultural past that was in fact defined by plantation-based slave labor, the southern agrarians made a lasting contribution to american agrarian myth in the form of imagining agrarianism as a form of resistance to industrialized modernity. chapter 4 profiles the father of organic farming, jerome i. rodale, and how his landmark work pay dirt (1945) evokes and contributes to american agrarian myth through adapting the biblical genre jeremiad to provide a prophetic vision of contemporary american agrarianism. part ii brings us into the late 20th century, starting with chapter 5 about the famous case of the south central farmers of los angeles profiled in the documentary film the garden; the authors argue that the film adapts american agrarian myth to new communities (latinx farmers) and contexts (urban spaces), opening up new opportunities. chapter 6 refocuses on how contemporary american agrarian myth has been co-opted by corporate interests, chronicling the rise and dramatic fall of chipotle’s “food with integrity” branding campaign, rhetorically analyzed by way of several widely viewed videos. chapter 7 presents the dodge ram commercial “so god made a farmer,” aired at the 2013 super bowl, as the final case study, examining how the ad expertly draws on and reimagines modern american agrarian myth through words and images that appeal to urban majorities despite internal contradictions. rooted resistance presents an ambitious project of knowledge building, critique, and social advocacy by way of painstakingly detailed rhetorical history and incisive analysis, whose ultimate goal is no less than to reveal the revolutionary potential of new agrarianisms to remake and save the world. written from a decidedly non-folkloristic perspective—by scholars of rhetoric writing at the nexus of communication studies and food studies about discourse they call “myth”—the volume achieves its interdisciplinary goals in offering a great deal of interest and value to folklorists and other humanities scholars who consider public discourse crucial context rather than a primary subject. as a folklorist studying a foodways tradition only tangentially related to farming life, i see incredible resonance between the american agrarian myth as an ethic of resistance, as described in this book, and the individual and collective identities expressed through the fricassee soup i study. i imagine that other folklorists studying food in today’s complex moment of accelerating climate change, growing social justice awareness, and seemingly irreversible agricultural industrialization might also find some salient rhetorical context for understanding the social meanings of the traditions they study in rooted resistance. review of: rooted resistance: agrarian myth in modern america review by: rosalind v. rini larson microsoft word review-hartmann-rich brew-digest 7-1-galley-4-8-20.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 65-66 © american folklore society 2020 review of: a rich brew: how cafés created modern jewish culture shachar m. pinsker. new york: new york university press, 2018. pp. ix + 369, notes, index. review by: nic hartmann ____________________________________________________________ whether in university towns or large metropolitan areas, café culture has long been a space for intellectual discussion, social change, and community gathering. neither work nor home, the café has been described as a “third place.” in the world before globalization commodified the concept of this third place and turned it into a standardized product, the café became simultaneously the middle ground and signifier of local and regional culture. as shachar m. pinsker illustrates in a rich brew: how cafés created modern jewish culture, cafés did more than just establish a third place: they shaped religious communities, cultural movements, and creative activity within the jewish world. a café, according to pinsker, was “rarely considered a jewish space,” but nevertheless shaped jewishness from a very early point in history (6). combined with being a symbolic space for the development of modern urbanness, the café, according to pinsker, is a place where tradition and variation emerge, carrying both a symbolic past and a sense of “otherness” with them (7). rather than organizing his book thematically by keywords or cultural concepts, pinsker divides a rich brew into chapters that demonstrate the power of café culture in specific hubs of the jewish world. starting with the relatively young community of odessa (founded in 1794), pinsker’s analysis of café culture within the city clearly highlights that odessa—as a young, multiethnic, and diverse city with a large population of newcomers from around the world, including a large population of jews—is unlike other cities of the russian empire. in focusing on odessa’s dichotomous ways as a city of both deeply devout jews and of corrupt, vice-laden individuals, pinsker successfully highlights odessa’s status as a european-looking, modern russian city that lured many people to its opportunities, especially its cafés. the discussion of a sociopolitical understanding of the fall of the russian empire, combined with turn-of-the-century pogroms and the rise of the soviet union, draws the reader into the book’s essence: the idea that politics and social change cannot be separated from café culture. pinsker’s approach remains the same as it proceeds to the discussion of café culture in warsaw, vienna, and berlin: asking how café culture shapes, and is shaped by, social, political, and cultural forces. the various chapters also highlight the challenges of understanding jewishness as both religious and ethnically-based, exploring how the intersections of religion and ethnicity shaped popular understandings of jews and their café culture. excerpts and anecdotes from literature, theatre, and art of the time bolster the discussion, bringing to light the cultural power of regional culture in a broader understanding of jews, non-jews, and the concept of the “other.” this exploration continues in two chapters that focus on communities of exile outside europe; although the other hartmann, review, rich brew digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 66 chapters successfully discuss the role of cities in providing jews with new places to live (such as warsaw), the sections that focus on new york city and tel aviv-jaffa demonstrate the determination of jewish communities to establish their cultural presence abroad. for new york city, pinsker demonstrates how cafés helped jewish people negotiate their status as exiles and refugees, and the simultaneous emotions of community and solitude that arose from being away from their homes. nostalgia and optimism continue as themes in the chapter on tel aviv-jaffa, where café culture was part of a radical transformation from a largely arab community to a new jewish city that became a european city away from home. pinsker also highlights how, just like in new york, younger generations of jews with less connection to a homeland shied away from the café culture of the earlier generations, and assimilated more into the community at large. the sense of otherness that built café culture was greatly reduced when the new generations were no longer the other but were accepted as part of the bigger society. the focus on examining individual cities is one of the book’s strongest points, as each chapter is a mini-historiography of class, religion, ethnicity, and gender. more than anything, however, a rich brew is an examination of the role of nostalgia for home in shaping everything from café discussions to creative output to historical reflection. a welcome addition for anyone interested in the role that coffee culture can play in contextualizing religion and ethnicity, a rich brew also serves as an interesting counter-narrative to studies of history within larger cities, such as odessa and vienna, which have long been places where other, more dominant populations have been able to tell their stories. fire, food, and earth: the tahitian ‘ahimā’a sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship first place by: eric césar morales as is the case with colonialism around the world, when tahiti encountered european powers in 1767, later to be ceded to france as a colony in 1880 (al wardi 2009:196), the culture underwent massive transformations. while undeniably much was lost, there are cultural pockets of tahiti that are anachronisms of sorts, active pushbacks to the full force of modernity; nowhere is this more palpable than in the traditional food. ‘ahimā’a1 translates as fire-food, and it refers to the underground oven where tahitian recipes are prepared for an extended period of time. in it, the much beloved local food, mā’a tahiti, gains its characteristic flavor and smoky scent. the practice of cooking this way would have followed the well-worn path that colonialism established, becoming an olfactory memory diffusing into the airs of history, if not for the decision that the scent of the food needed to be preserved. to better understand the role the ‘ahimā’a plays in tahitian society and what is to be learned by how it navigates modernity, this article will provide an overview of tahitian foodways as well as the changes brought by colonialism and industrialization. i will argue that when the ‘ahimā’a faced modernity, instinctive decisions were made as to what truly characterized the food tradition, what must be preserved, and what from the outside world could and should be included– defining the parameters of the tradition allowed it to maintain continuity while modernizing. in this article, i utilize both archival and field research to articulate the ways in which food was cooked in the ‘ahimā’a in ancient compared to modern times as well as the impetuses of the changing foodscape. field research was generated over four different visits to tahiti where i stayed with a local family in the small agricultural community of papeari, 50 kilometers from the capitol of pape‘ete. here, i was put into contact with numerous subjects for extended interviews. regularly hitchhiking to the main city also provided additional impromptu, randomized, and informal interviews for further context on the changing food traditions. my approach to fieldwork pulls from folklore, and my write-up of food processes is influenced by readings on food studies. interpretation of the collected material is grounded in theories of folklore, influenced by literature from pacific studies and post-colonialism. ancient foodways tahiti is the largest landmass of the society islands, which along with the tuamotu archipelago, gambier, marquesas, and austral islands, make up french polynesia; the term, “tahitian,” is commonly used as a metonym to refer to inhabitants of the various atolls. the country is located within the larger geographic region of polynesia, an area of the pacific that encompasses over 1,000 different islands, including the primary regions of cook islands, easter islands, hawai’i, new zealand, sa̅moa, and tonga. these various archipelagos have a similar cuisine based on a shared set of ingredients: the primary starches are taro, breadfruit, yams, cassava, and sweet potato; the main sources of protein come from seafood, pork, and fowl; other staples include coconut, bananas, mango, papaya; and various other shoots, leaves, fruits, and nuts accompany the diet (serra mallol 2010:33; haden 2009:11). generally very healthy, traditional polynesian foodways were low in fats, salts, and simple sugars, while being high in fiber. throughout polynesia, traditional methods of food preparation involved raw food marination, cooking over an open fire, and, of course, steaming, smoking, or baking food in an underground oven. while in tahiti this oven is called an‘ahimā’a, variations of it are known as an umu or ’umu in the other nations (haden 2009:90). to construct the‘ahimā’a, first a pit is excavated, usually about one meter deep and 130 centimeters to 150 centimeters across, although it can be made smaller or larger as to necessity. dried coconut husks and coconut shells form a bottom layer, as a type of kindling, since they ignite faster. dried local wood is then placed above this–any unprocessed wood suffices, but some families prefer to use the local ironwood tree, ‘aito, of the specific genus casuarina equisetifolia,2 because it is capable of burning for an extended period of time at extreme temperatures. large basalt lava rocks, ofā‘i ‘ahimā’a, are added on top of the wood so that they may heat through, becoming a type of charcoal.3 only rocks that are especially porous are selected, for it allows them to withstand the heat; otherwise they would explode. once the fire is lit, it burns for roughly two hours. whole, fresh banana leaves, about two meters long, are gently wafted over the stones until they begin to wilt, allowing the stems to be easily separated from the length of the blades and for the blades to bend without tearing. after approximately 15 are removed, the stems are then beat against stones to make them more pliable. when the flames have burnt down, the stones are raked with a piece of wood to be made level with each other, and then the stems are placed over the stones, with the hottest stones requiring the most. these stems act as buffers that keep the food from burning, a temperature control of sorts, as the amount one uses determines how fast or slow the food cooks, taking anywhere from two hours to an entire night. for an extremely large‘ahimā’a, whole banana trunks may even be flattened and used. the food to be cooked goes on top of this, the blades of the banana leaves on top of that, and then the pit is covered with sand. the combination of the coconut, the banana leaves, and the wood all add to the flavor of the food. traditional foods made by this technique include, but are not limited to, po’e (banana– fē’i or taro pudding), pua’a (pork), pāhua (the giant clam: tridacna gigas), and fafa (taro leaves: xanthosoma brasiliense). a good example of the type of preparation this food takes is found in one of the more celebrated dishes, fafa,4 which is often referred to as tahitian spinach. in ancient tahiti, it was made with the basic ingredients of taro leaves, coconut milk, pork, and limes. preparing it was a considerable expenditure of time, necessitating the collection of all of the ingredients, as well as the bark from a branch of the pūrau tree (hibiscus tillieaceus), and three fresh banana leaves. first, a young branch is cut from the pūraū, and the green bark is peeled off then torn into long cords. four to six cords are placed perpendicular to each other with one shared nexus point. the banana leaves, which need to be in one complete piece and contain no tears, constitute the equivalent of a cooking dish. they are placed on the cords at complementary angles, forming a six-pointed star. about 36 taro leaves are cut at the stalk, washed, and then the blades are cut from the stems. the blades are then individually rolled lengthwise, folded, and sliced into 2.5 centimeter strips. the skin of the stems is then peeled away, and the remaining portions are chopped into 2.5 centimeter pieces as well. half of these pieces then go on top of the banana leaves–half of the strips on top of that. layered on next is approximately 500 grams of uncooked, diced pork belly. the remaining taro leaves cover the plate and are topped off with the rest of the stems. the juice from two limes is squeezed on top, and then the milk from one coconut is added to the mix. the uppermost banana leaf is then folded together by gently lifting one side of the leaf and placing it over the food and then the adjoining side. this is repeated for each leaf underneath. to complete the packet, the uppermost cord is tied together. then the same is done for each following cord. the finished product is then placed in the ‘ahimā’a to bake. this recipe at these quantities generally fed a family of five, but as constructing the ‘ahimā’a was such a labor-intensive process, numerous other recipes tended to be prepared at the same time and the resultant food was eaten for three days, along with locally grown fruits. additionally, neighboring families would take turns preparing mā’a tahiti to share some of the burden. large communal feasts were then a central component of the ‘ahimā’a and provided a venue for forming interpersonal relationships or maintaining ties with extended family. foreign influence european colonialism, and the accompanying arrival of asian immigrants of many ethnicities, introduced new ingredients to accommodate foreign preferences. this led to the proliferation of wheat, rice, sugar, red meats, and cooking processes, such as the use of oils to deep fry food (haden 2009:20). a wide assortment of fruits and vegetables were also brought into the islands, such as brown onions, shallot onions, cabbages, carrots, lettuce, durian, tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, pumpkins, and capsicums (haden 2009:75). one of the most popular recipes utilizing many of these new ingredients is a salad dish of marinated raw fish with lime. it is known by the french name of poisson cru or the tahitian e‘ia ota.5 perhaps the most significant western contribution was the introduction of canned goods. items such as canned tuna, spam, or corned beef, became ubiquitous; that they kept well in the tropic heat made them perfect for long ocean voyages. due to the insufficient land for cattle grazing and the expense of fresh beef as an import, the eventual tinning of beef also meant that early westerners in polynesia could avoid adapting to the local foodways. it thus enabled them to maintain an attitude that privileged european foodways. polynesians, however, actively integrated corned beef into their traditional recipes, enjoying its taste and valuing its function as a symbol of the west. its presence is palpable in every island grouping. new zealand, for instance, manufactures its own corned beef, which is exported to the cook islands and samoa, due to strong immigration flows between them (alexeyeff 2004). tahitian corned beef, known as punu pua‘atoro, is usually cooked with onions and eaten with baked breadfruit, known as‘uru. the individual brands sold in french polynesia often promote themselves as having been made in fenua (local land), but with minimal grazing land for cattle, in most cases, only the processing of the meat occurs in french polynesia with the meat arriving mainly from new zealand. some brands, such as, punu pua’atoro api, are completely manufactured and processed in france and then exported to tahiti. one of the greatest changes to local foodways from colonialism was the influx of asian immigrants to work in mining and agriculture industries, such as plantations for copra, vanilla, cotton, and sugar (levy 1973:xvi). the coolie trade across the pacific provided a steady stream of indentured laborers, which consisted primarily of people from southern china, indonesia, and the philippines. the chinese, however, constitute the most recognizable ethnic minority in french polynesia, having generally arrived in two waves: in 1865 a scottish planter by the name of william stewart was given permission from the french colonial government to bring in 1,000 indentured laborers from hong kong to work on his cotton plantation; and in 1924, a direct steamship line from hong kong to tahiti facilitated further immigration. while young men were the first to immigrate, after their period of indentured servitude, many chose to remain in the islands, marrying locals and creating their own families. after immigration and indentured servant labor laws loosened, whole chinese families made the voyage. they often started small businesses importing/exporting goods or in retail stores, many of which continue to operate and occupy a niche between european importer-exporters and native polynesian producers (tung 2005:742). currently, chinese have largely assimilated into tahitian culture, with many speaking both french and tahitian, but their most enduring cultural tradition is their food. they introduced such common plates as chow mein, chop suey, char siu barbeque pork buns, cantonese pastries, and staples like soy sauce, rice, and glass noodles. these foods, like corned beef, have usually been given local tahitian names. the changing foodscape with the rise of colonialism and western influence, many traditional forms of tahitian culture began to disappear, often by active interference from religious evangelism. for instance, tahitian dance, known as ‘ori tahiti, was banned in 1820 by missionaries who considered the movements to be licentious. they wrote that “between battles time was spent in orgies of lewd dancing” (ferdon 1981:1) and objected to the religious purposes of the dance (moulin 1979:11). the traditional form of tattooing, tatau, was banned in the 1820s (kuwahara 2006:88) and even the tahitian language was not allowed to be taught in schools until the 1990s. the ‘ahimā’a and mā’a tahiti, however, were never an active focal point in european colonialism as the food was not an affront to religious mores; rather, its deterioration was collateral damage. the introduction of new foodstuffs altered or replaced much of the local fare and industrialization became a game changer, greatly affecting how people could procure and prepare ingredients. fafa perfectly encapsulates the new circumstances mā’a tahiti found itself in and provides insight as to how far modernization can go before things are considered truly lost. due to the desires of locals, foreign ingredients, such as diced chicken thighs, onions, garlic, oil, and salt and pepper, were added to the dish. this current incarnation, known as poulet fafa, even derives its name from both the french and indigenous ancestry of the country, with poulet being the french word for chicken. cost of the local and new ingredients, however, can make this dish very impractical. up until the 1960s, the majority of the country relied on subsistence agriculture, so access to these ingredients was readily available. in 1954, however, algeria began its eight-year struggle for independence, so france started looking for a new place to test their nuclear weapons, setting their sights on french polynesia, specifically the islands of moruroa and fangataufa in the tuamotu archipelago. in 1960, in order to facilitate their weapons testing, they opened the first large-scale airport, l’aéroport international tahiti faa‘a. capable of landing large jets in faa‘a, and located roughly six kilometers from pape‘ete, the airport provided a platform from which to open up mass tourism to tahiti. with the military presence and the growth of tourism, the surrounding area developed at an unprecedented scale. locals migrated to the new metropolitan area for work or access to a lively nightlife (kahn 2011:70), thus diminishing the number of people remaining in rural areas and working on family farms, known locally as fa‘apu. by living in the city, free access to the ingredients for dishes, such as fafa and po’e taro, disappeared. conversely, purchasing these ingredients became more expensive, considered “luxury items” than meals based around canned imports which are more likely to be government subsidized as essential foodstuffs (serra mallol 2007). for an example, three dozen packs of taro leaves cost 500xpf6 each, running up to 1,500xpf. the necessary coconut milk is 500xpf, chicken another 600xpf, pork 600xpf, and garlic and onion an additional 100xpf each. luckily, one can generally find the requisite banana leaves from publically available areas, but the overall price would be 3,400xpf to feed a family of five for one meal. a can of corned beef at 390xpf, on the other hand, along with an onion, maybe some lentils, rice, and a baguette, can feed a larger family for multiple meals at a fraction of the cost. additionally, with half of french polynesia’s population living in pape‘ete, even if they could afford the ingredients, they do not have the land or zoning rights to dig an underground oven or burn a fire for an extended period of time due to understandable smoke concerns. a workaround to make fafa then is to utilize a baking dish, aluminum foil, and a kitchen oven. but the scent is different, lacking the smoky aroma of banana leaves, coconut husks, and earth, and the taste is dryer, blander. it is like comparing canned coconut milk to fresh; while the two products are basically the same, the former is a poor substitute when you are used to the latter. conversely, even for those remaining in the countryside with access to some of the local ingredients, the cost and effort is still prohibitive. this leaves the traditional mā’a tahiti to be prepared and eaten only at big familial events, such as weddings, where the cost and work is shared. with mā’a tahiti no longer functioning as a regular part of tahitian social life, knowledge of how to build and cook with an ‘ahimā’a has greatly diminished. defining and perpetuating tradition how to negotiate modernity while maintaining tradition is a situation that all colonized populations struggle with to some extent or another. james clifford notes: “as new modes of individualism, universalism, exchange and communication have restructured bodies, societies, and spaces, the traditions that indeed persist need to be seen as particular combinations of heterogeneous elements, old and new, indigenous and foreign” (2013:61). in this sense, maintaining tradition is not about stagnation, desperately clinging to every artifice of the old ways even when they become impractical, but about finding a balance. as folklorist henry glassie once eloquently stated, “tradition is the creation of the future out of the past” (1995:395), so the question then becomes: what aspects need to be carried on in order to maintain continuity between the past, the present, and the future? in the case of mā’a tahiti, locals are generally united in the opinion that not only should the core food ingredients be consistent, but also the fire. for tahitians, fafa cooked in the oven is bland; all the ingredients are there, but the scent is missing, that smoky aroma that defines the food. without the‘ahimā’a, it is no longer mā’a tahiti –it is no longer fire food. one of the core ways that tahitians have thus negotiated modernity in respect to their traditions is to update the cooking process without losing the flame. in contemporary times, the ‘ahimā’a is dug, then fortified with cinder blocks or cement, and is covered with a metal sheet, layers of felt cloth soaked in water, and a large piece of plywood, the latter materials being used to better seal in the smoke. porous basalt lava stones and local wood, however, are still used, except a large piece of wood is stuck in the center, and the layers of coconut kindling, wood, and rock are placed around it. the wood spike is then removed, and lighter fluid is added to the center–once the fire is lit, it even resembles a minivolcano. additionally, some make use of a metal cage to place the food in so as to more easily pull out the entirety of the finished product in one go, further simplifying the process. going back to the fafa recipe, other changes are also present in the preparation of the food itself. for instance, a small sheet of aluminum foil is placed on top of the banana leaves and under the taro leaves in order to keep the juice from dripping onto the fire, and rather than strip a branch from the pūraū tree, twine is used to tie up the packets of food. in this way, then, the tools of a society in the midst of industrialization are used only up to their ability to facilitate existing practices rather than fully replace them. fafa cooked with these methods still uses the same basic ingredients and has the same smoky taste. very few families, however, are able to continue making mā’a tahiti, due to the aforementioned reasons: the cost and necessary land for the‘ahimā’a. in the small community of papeari, located 50 kilometers from pape‘ete, near the isthmus of the island, where the large section of tahiti nui gives way to the smaller section of tahiti iti, there is a family by the name of tere. throughout the community, it is known that the mother and father, vaihere and jiri, have an‘ahimā’a –a modern one, made with cinderblocks and cement. in each agricultural community in tahiti, perhaps only three or four of these exist, and everyone knows who the owners are. the tere family, however, gathers every saturday afternoon, and they prepare numerous dishes of mā’a tahiti to be sold at a roadside stand on sunday morning. they are rare, however, couched in a fortuitous position. the extended family still owns a small fa‘apu where they pick the local ingredients, they live next to the lagoon so they have access to a supply of fresh fish, and their parents and grandparents never moved into the city and let the knowledge slip away. they have a steady stream of customers who visit them every sunday, the day after payday, but this job really is not done for financial benefit –although this job really is not done for financial benefit. to prepare the food to be sold on sunday, saturday entails a trip to the fa‘apu to harvest the local ingredients, as well as trips to the grocery store to buy the pork, chicken, and spices, or for materials, such as twine and individual plastic trays. it also involves fishing as well as bottling the necessary seawater to make the fafaru, a type of fermented fish product known for its strong odor but loved and acknowledged as an acquired taste by many locals. after all the work to get the ingredients and then cook them, the financial output is not substantive. ten plates of fafa can be prepared, sold at 500xpf each, ten plates of po‘e also at 500xpf each, and seven of fafaru at 600xpf. after subtracting costs, the financial payout per hour of time is minimal, but the family’s access to the food remains regular, their children learn and maintain the old process, and the locals can keep remembering the scent and taste of the food, continuing to desire this version, keeping it from being replaced by the kitchen oven. one man, who comes to the stand every sunday, remarks that this fafa tastes exactly the same as his grandmother’s did. poulet fafa is a product of both old and new, ancient and modern ingredients and cooking processes, but what defines it remains the same–it maintains continuity. that cultural memory that resonates will keep the fire within the food, defining and delineating the tradition for tahitians. although tourists come in droves to tahiti and desire to engage in culinary tourism, the tourist gaze of cultural productions is indiscriminate (urry 1990) and does not distinguish oven baked fafa at panpolynesian luaus as being any less tahitian than that made with the ‘ahimā’a. as folklorist barbara kirshenblatt-gimblett explains, “tourism and hospitality industries design experiences, including culinary ones, within the constraints of the tourist’s time, space, and means,” as well as desire (2004:xi). in that regard, the day’s long process to make fafa in the ‘ahimā’a is inconvenient for most tourists in tahiti to watch. additionally, the two versions, oven and flame, are equally new tastes to them, both satisfying most desires for culinary tourism. to have the type of cultural cache to elicit interest from tourists, the ‘ahimā’a would thus need to have more prominence in the cultural imaginary of the tahitian tourism industry to justify the time and expenditure, or it would need to appeal to a niche market. one thing, however, has never changed when eating mā’a tahiti –neither forks nor any equivalent are used, just one’s fingers (levy 1973:31). fafa, for instance, is wet, almost gelatinous as it pools around your fingers. rich or poor, it is the same–you pinch your fingers around the pulp that remains of the taro leaves, ensuring that it is fully saturated with coconut milk, and you lift the dripping morsel to your mouth, to repeat until satiated, licking or sucking on your fingers as you wish. if after your plate is done, and you want but one more taste, pinching a bit from the serving platter has no taboo, or tapu, as the tahitian word is originally pronounced. there is no intermediary between you and the smoke filled taste, and worries about spreading germs have no voice. it is as intimate and communal of a family meal as possible. with the ingredients plucked straight from the land, cooked within the land by a process carried on as far back as cultural memory exists, this is the way tahiti tastes. photo 1: preparing the fire (jiri tere). photo 2: starting the fire. photo 3: wilting banana leaves (jiri tere). photo 4: adding meat to the fafa (vaihere and jiri tere). photo 5: adding lime (jiri tere). photo 6: wrapping the fafa (vaihere and jiri tere). photo 7: wrapped product (vaihere and jiri tere). photo 8: raking the stones (vaihere tere). photo 9: baking the product (vaihere and jiri tere). photo 10: selling the fafa (vaihere tere). photo 11: preparing the fire (jiri and kaunui tere). references cited alexeyeff, kalissa. 2004. love food: exchange and sustenance in the cook islands diaspora. the australian journal of anthropology 15(1): 68–79. al wardi, sémir. 2009. twenty years of politics in french polynesia. the journal of pacific history 44(2): 195–208. clifford, james. 2013. returns: becoming indigenous in the 21st century. boston, ma: harvard university press. ferdon, edwin n. 1981. early tahiti as the explorers saw it, 1767-1797. tucson, az: university of arizona press. glassie, henry. 1995. tradition. journal of american folklore 108: 395-412 . haden, roger. 2009. food culture in the pacific islands. food culture around the world. santa barbara, ca: greenwood press. kahn, miriam. 2011. tahiti beyond the postcard: power, place, and everyday life (culture, place, and nature). seattle, wa: university of washington press. kirshenblatt-gimblett, barbara. 2004. foreword. in culinary tourism: material worlds, ed.lucy long, xi–xiv. lexington, ky: university press of kentucky. kuwahara, makiko. 2006. dancing and tattooing the imagined territory: identity formation at heiva and the festival of pacific arts. journal of central asian studies: area research reports 9: 79-109. levy, robert i. 1973. tahitians: mind and experience in the society islands. chicago, il: university of chicago press. moulin, jane freeman. 1979. the dance of tahiti. papeete, tahiti: c. gleizal, editions du pacifique. serra mallol, christophe. 2010. nourritures, abundance et identité: une socioanthropologie de l’alimentation à tahiti.piare, tahiti, french polynesia: éditions au vent des iles. tung, yuan-chao. 2005. chinese in tahiti. in encyclopedia of diasporas, ed. melvin ember, carol r. ember, and ian a. skoggard, 742–750. boston, ma: springer. urry, john. 1990. the tourist gaze: leisure and travel in contemporary societies. theory, culture and society series. london, uk: sage publications. notes 1all tahitian orthography and translations are provided by vaihere durietz tere, a native tahitian woman. 2this wood is also used for making the local slit log drums, known as to’ere, due to its strength and musical resonance. 3children are often the ones asked to gather these rocks for the family as many find it enjoyable scavenging for them. 3while the specifics of this dish are particular to tahiti, cognates of it can be found in other polynesian groupings, such as the cook islands rukau, tongan lū pulu, sa̅moan palusami, and hawaiian luau. while these other dishes often use corned beef as the primary protein, they are similar in that they also combine onion, coconut cream and taro leaves, wrapped in either banana or cordyline leaves, or hibiscus bark and steamed. 4while islanders easily incorporated western foods and preparation practices, they also maintained their traditional form of eating in abundance despite now living a much more sedentary western lifestyle. this has led to significant health concerns of obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure, issues that were relatively unknown pre-contact. 5while currency exchanges vary, one french polynesian franc–xpf is roughly equal to one american penny. “his fig tree came in the mail”: growing an italian garden in toronto by: cristina pietropaolo seeds are something we carry with us. they are agriculture; they are part of our human heritage… seeds are intimately bound to our existence, [and] so long as people have been migrating, seeds have been migrating with them. food is very intimately tied to our own identity and who we are. so when we move to a new place, we want to find the things we are familiar with. (stimac 2012) last summer, my mother telephoned to ask me if i would like any of the vegetables she and my father grew in their toronto backyard garden. would i like some fava beans? tomatoes? what about eggplants and peppers? a few hours later, returning to ottawa from a weekend visit to our parents, my sister arrived, bearing plastic shopping bags full of garden vegetables from our parents' backyard. i used them in my cooking for the next week, often preparing dishes my grandmothers had made for me as a child. as i cooked, i thought about the legacy of not only recipes, but of the backyard vegetables themselves, and what a vital part of my family’s life they are. in the summer of 2012, i decided to interview members of my family to find out more about their relationships with their backyard gardens. i spoke to a great aunt and uncle, and to my mother about her parents' gardening, because i wanted to know mainly about that generation of italians and what gardening meant to them. my grandparents, great uncles, and great aunts were among the thousands of predominantly southern italians who immigrated to toronto during the 1950s and 1960s. after the second world war, italy, like much of europe, was devastated. many began looking further and further afield for work, including many southern italians. by and large, the majority of those italian immigrants were contadini, a word that loosely translates as peasant, although it is more accurate to say “subsistence farmer,” in that they made their living off the land. my own family – grandparents, great uncles and great aunts—were contadini. my mother and her parents came from a region of italy called molise, where their hometown sat on a plateau at the base of a mountain. they lived in a hamlet surrounded by countryside, where the soil was moist and rich because of the rivers that flowed above and underground. my paternal great uncle and great aunt came from calabria, further south. they had a small house in the village, still there today, and walked to the land they worked every day, a distance measured by the time it took, according to my great uncle raffaele, to smoke one cigarette. the soil in this region was drier than further north, but mineral rich. like many rural people, the contadini had a deep relationship with the land and their livelihood was agriculturally based. when they immigrated, they brought with them their rural traditions, perhaps most notably, their love of gardening. although this activity has received little scholarly attention, for many contadini gardening was an integral part of their lives in italy that survived their cross-atlantic move to canada. furthermore, this early generation of italians has begun to decline over the last ten years, and it has become important to me to try to collect the history of their canadian gardens. for the contadini, gardening offered several things. literally planting seeds in the earth, l’orto, or the vegetable garden, provided a link to both the new home in which they were invested, and to the old home which was never to be forgotten. in a new urban setting, this tangible connection to the land and to home was a necessity, both economically and emotionally. furthermore, the connection between the garden and the table is implicit, and toronto contadini only had to go as far as their own backyards to gather fresh herbs, vegetables, fruit or even a fig. they created small paradises in their backyards, taking pride in the new country in which they worked and to which they were becoming adapted. all the while they maintained a connection to the land in their private garden retreats. today, these backyard gardens are a part of the fabric of the multicultural city of toronto. seeds – underground, aboveground if everything is supposed to begin with a kernel, then i would like to humbly begin this research note by addressing seeds and the inheritance they came to represent for the contadini. seeds were the beginnings of the connection between italian immigrants in canada with their homeland in italy. many backyard vegetable gardens were established relatively quickly –within a year or two of arriving in canada– because all that was required was a little bit of space, and of course, seeds. my mother giuliana, emigrated from molise as a child in 1956. she recalls that in canada at that time the seeds available in stores were unknown entities of unfamiliar varieties, just as strange as the alien produce found in canadian grocery stores. in italy, seeds were usually shared and traded among family and neighbours, and to purchase seeds was an expensive undertaking. continuing in this tradition, the contadini wrote home to italy. seeds for peppers, tomatoes, basil, parsley and beans arrived surreptitiously through the mail, carefully folded into letters. it helped that the growing season in italy is ahead of canada’s. this made it easier and timelier to access seeds from italy, despite the transatlantic distance. giuliana remembers the highly anticipated arrival of these letters: “i do remember that the way they would fold the letters was really interesting. i suspect because it created a nice little pocket for things [like seeds]. and boy, you would treat those seeds as precious” (2012). seeds were treasured because there was not an endless resource in canada as there was in italy (colalillo 2012). the transplanted contadini had to create their own supply. from year to year after every harvest, seeds were carefully preserved, dried on window ledges and countertops, and stored in pill bottles, film canisters and folds of paper, to be used the following spring. these seeds are now cherished with a new emphasis. today many of the seed varieties are regarded as “heirloom seeds,” which is to say that they are not commercially produced. but the significance of the word “heirloom” in this context is important. i also spoke with roberta stimac, director of the withrow park farmer’s market, herself a gardener, and originally from croatia. she provided the following definition of an heirloom seed: there are…a couple of different definitions. one…says that it’s any seed variety older than fifty years. but…in its more intimate meaning…heirloom seeds are…seeds that are being handed down from generation to generation…from a grandparent to a child to a grandchild and so on and so forth, just like a quilt or your family’s china or a grandfather clock... (stimac 2012). for the contadini in canada, the seeds were a new type of inheritance: an emotional and cultural inheritance rather than a measurable inheritance of land or property. the contadini sought to re-create other elements of their native land as well. fig trees, grape vines and even oleander cuttings were typically planted several years after immigrating, when households and gardens were more established and settled. sometimes, these cuttings were transported back to canada through luggage: by this time, many immigrants were able to afford a trip home to visit the old country, and subterfuge was applied in order to smuggle in cuttings, though some were successfully sent through the post as well. raffaele, who emigrated from calabria to canada, talked about his bush apple. “the bush apple, i brought from italy on december 26 1974. i packed it in my shoes, inside the suitcase. i had maybe four or five cuttings, less than ten inches [each]” (2012). more difficult to conceal in the mail, it often took these larger and more elaborate elements of the garden several attempts to properly take root and flourish. despite best efforts, some vegetables proved to be too difficult to grow in canadian soil or climate. tortanelle, a type of fuzzy and spiral shaped cucumber, is a fickle plant that usually requires more sun and water than a toronto summer can provide; chickpeas never took at all. the crowning jewel of many toronto italian gardens is the fig tree. today it is more commonly found in the city than one might think despite the fact that a fig tree is not for the casual gardener. it is labour intensive and must be cared for judiciously. to survive toronto winters it must be buried to lie dormant under burlap and garden debris before being resurrected in the spring. diodato opted to construct a greenhouse around his fig tree; he also funneled in extra heat by putting making a connective hole between the basement and the greenhouse. above all else, the fig tree signifies commitment and success in the garden, perhaps an appropriate analogy for the success of the contadini in canada. recycling – hockey sticks for tomato stakes my great uncle raffaele and his wife, my great aunt palma, emigrated from calabria in 1966. they now live in toronto’s northwest corner on stafford road, where they have a medium sized backyard, the site of their third vegetable garden since arriving in canada. they observed that gardening in toronto differed from gardening in italy in two major ways: firstly, water has to be paid for in canada, whereas in italy, water for gardening could be freely accessed via wells, streams and brooks in the fields. in a corner opposite the vegetables, raffaele installed three large rain barrels to cut down on the water bill, years before rain barrels could be purchased at garden centers. two sit side by side, connected by a thin tube so that water flows to the second after the first gets too full. the third rain barrel sits by a covered woodshed, collecting rainwater from another small gutter installed along the side. his watercollecting system is perhaps more elaborate than most, but reflective of the economy contadini continue to practice, despite their successes in canada. the second, and more dramatic change they experienced was the reduced space in which to work. no longer surrounded by fields, contadini like raffaele and palma found themselves in downtown homes faced with the new concept of a “backyard.” in order to intensely cultivate their yards with minimal expense, they began to recycle items–everything from salvaged construction materials to broken hockey sticks meant for the trash–and adapted them by finding uses for them as gardening tools and equipment. the key element was to make the most of their limited space. raffaele and palma’s backyard is a far cry from the land they worked in italy, which covered hectares, but it is also much larger than their first backyard garden in a downtown toronto home, which spanned only 6 feet by 8 feet. photo 1: palma and raffaele. when i talked with them, they emphasized that gardens had to be planted “sensibly,” in order to maximize the available space. for instance, they do not plant potatoes, since the crop takes up too much of the space. palma took me on a tour of their garden in which they grow a veritable cornucopia, despite the restrictions of space. the garden boasts four different varieties of tomatoes (including the all-important san marzano, the best type for sauce-making). each tomato plant is staked to economize on space, and raffaele made the tomato stakes himself. zucchini, grown for their flowers and fruit, form an arch over the doorway of a homemade shed in a corner and then grow along a skeletal arbour fashioned from metal grates meant for laying concrete floors. raffaele was one of the many contadini who worked in construction, so when material was being discarded, he brought it home, to be repurposed for the garden. romaine lettuce grows like a sea around two modest but thriving fig trees, taking up every inch of available space. bean seedlings grow in re-used styrofoam containers, ready to be planted as soon as the peas along the fence have been harvested. the bright purple flowers of eggplants shyly peek through large green leaves in re-used white plastic buckets, which once held sand and gravel for mixing concrete. hot peppers, still young, grow steadily, though they won’t be ready until they are a bright red colour. herbs including basil, parsley, sage and rosemary grow quietly by the foundations of the house in small patches where the warmth of the concrete and brick will ensure that they survive beyond the first autumn frost. spreading crops, like potatoes, are generally not suited to these backyard gardens because they require too much space. instead, every effort is made to encourage the garden to grow “up,” to save space. in corners of the backyard are potted flowers, brightening the garden in pinks and purples. photo 2: tomatoes. photo 3: stakes. photo 4: shed. photo 5: young fig, close up. photo 6: beans. my grandfather diodato immigrated to canada in 1953 at the age of 31. his wife concetta, and their two daughters joined him three years later. diodato has more grapevines in his backyard than the average contadino, but it took several years to reach that point. when the toronto transit commission expropriated their house in 1958, diodato relocated his family to a bungalow in toronto’s northwest end on romar crescent. although the house was significantly smaller than the space to which they had been accustomed, the selling point for him was the house’s huge backyard. he transformed more than half of it into a vegetable garden which included a shed built from salvaged sheet metal. diodato used his creativity and engineering know-how to construct other ingenuities for his garden. old rubber tires were turned into decorative planters for herbs and annuals, or were moulded into wedding cake-like tiers to hold strawberry plants. his daughter, giuliana recalls: he made these circle trellises [with recycled materials] for pole beans to conserve space. two metal hoops with a long pole in the middle connecting the two. you put the beans in the ground, and then tie string from the top hoop to the bottom hoop for the beans to climb on. i don’t know where he got the idea, but…they eventually sold that kind of contraption in magazines, and i showed it to him once, and he said, ‘huh, they copied my idea’ (colalillo 2012). diodato’s grapevines grow along the low fences between his property and that of his neighbours. when the old lead water pipes in the house were replaced with copper, diodato re-used the old pipes (and others collected from curbside garbage) to construct a trellis for some of his grapes. even today, over fifty years later, these grapevines grow along the back wall of the house over large patio stones creating a shady arbour in the summertime. they still produce grapes that ripen in late summer, ready for making wine in the autumn. rebar, old glass windows, roof shingles, discarded wood, anything that might be useful: these are the things that contadini claimed in order to build their gardens. the backyard an extension of the home typically, the contadini were accustomed to walking to their land every day in order to work it. because of the way land inheritance developed in italy, plots of land were often scattered around the village for miles in different spots, rather than being in one central area. although the contadini lived close to the land, the garden was separate from the home. in toronto however, gardens are just out the back door, easily accessible, and easy to survey from windows facing the backyard. the garden is an extension of the home: for several months of the year it represents one more room in the house. in the house on romar crescent, concetta’s kitchen has a large picture window installed by diodato after they moved into the bungalow. grapevines grow just below the window, and over the tops of the leaves, the garden can be easily seen. in the summer, when the house is too warm for socializing, informal entertaining is taken outside, to the back of the house, underneath the grapevines, where coffee and conversation are enjoyed. over the years the grassy part of the garden acted as a park for grandchildren who splashed in inflatable pools, or played badminton over the laundry line that was permanently installed in the yard. the garden was also where concetta and diodato enlisted the help of their grandchildren in planting and picking the vegetables. if one arrived for a visit, and no one appeared to be indoors, then it was a safe bet that they were in the garden. during the summer and fall months, the garden was also like having another refrigerator or cellar; one only had to go as far as the backyard for herbs and vegetables necessary to prepare lunch and dinner. when i arrived at palma and raffaele’s home in july 2012 for our interview, palma immediately offered delicious freshly fried zucchini flowers, picked from her own backyard garden that morning. palma and raffaele have two kitchens in their home but the upstairs kitchen remains largely unused and is showroom pristine. they spend most of their time in their finished basement, which includes a second kitchen, living room, the laundry room and the cantina, or cellar. palma noted that she prefers her basement kitchen because everything is within an arm’s reach, and that “from the window, i keep an eye on the garden” (2012). in this sense, for palma, the garden becomes an object of visual pleasure, always in her line of sight, like a photograph on a wall. it is important to note that palma and raffaele’s house also has a small covered patio, built adjacent to the living room upstairs. in the summer, it is occupied by plastic patio furniture, but in the winter, this patio is converted into a greenhouse as flowers, plants and lemon and olive trees are hauled inside for the season. by early spring, seedlings are grown in an assortment of containers, in the safe, warm environment of the temporary greenhouse. it seems that for some contadini, the meanings of the garden has changed over time. these meanings are complex to unpack because for the contadini i spoke with and know, the garden has always been as much a thing of pleasure as it is work. during the early years of immigration, the garden had an economic function, and although the scale of the garden may have been much smaller than what they knew in italy, preserves were still made and stored. less produce was purchased at the store because of what the garden provided. however, as the italian community grew more settled in toronto, and little italy emerged along college street, the economic need for a garden decreased. the garden’s role shifted towards a form of entertainment. raffaele explained, “the garden is recreational. some prefer to go to the social club and play billiards. i like to spend time in the garden. for us, it’s the tradition, but more than that.” palma continued, “it is what we grew up with, it is what we know how to do” (2012). for raffaele and palma, as for many contadini, it is unimaginable not to have a garden. not to have one would mean to disconnect from the land. for them, the desire to maintain a link to the land is essential. a tavola – at the table & beyond the vegetable garden is the soul of the home, but the kitchen is the heart. the sunday lunch table is the culmination of all of the work and effort put into the garden, especially in the summertime. for many italians, sunday lunch is the most important meal of the week, and extra time is taken in preparing it, in the knowledge that this meal is one in which the whole family gathers. the food is displayed, eaten, digested, and that little bit of heritage, culture and connection is shared and consumed—often with a glass or two of homemade wine. certainly, a number of ingredients on the typical italian-canadian table are store-bought; ingredients like cheese, bread and pasta are time consuming, and made from scratch only for special occasions, if at all. however, the vegetables are more often than not from the backyard garden: peppers, lettuce, eggplants, tomatoes, beans, onions, garlic and leafy greens all freshly picked just hours before, or retrieved from cool cantinas in the basement. there is pride taken by both the gardeners and the cooks in the amount of food that was prepared for the table, and there is pride too, in the fact that much of the produce came from the backyard garden. and even more than the pride, is what the produce symbolizes: a link with the past to pass onto canadian grandchildren. an italian garden is presented on a canadian lunch table. for italians like my grandparents and my great aunts and uncles, it is a cultural expression, a symbol of success and survival in canada. in vancouver, my cousin has transformed his tiny urban backyard into a vegetable garden, mimicking those early italian gardens in toronto. every year in downtown ottawa, my sister faithfully grows tomato plants in large pots on her balcony, accompanied by flowers and herbs. my mother and father make a point of setting aside time to do the garden in their backyard each year, with a new dedication in an effort to uphold the tradition and heritage of their parents. in the late summer and fall, we gather to help make the tomatoes and wine. these are the efforts of different generations; perhaps less time and space is devoted to the garden, but to these efforts of labours of love. in italy, there were stories about the cuccagna, or the land of plenty. the cuccagna is a paradise where no one ever goes wanting, and rich foods like cheese and meat are plentiful, and rivers of wine flow through the land (del giudice 2001). a correlation between the cuccagna and canada is easily made after considering what the new country represented to those italian immigrants. canada was not a “gastronomic utopia” (del giudice 2001), to borrow a phrase, but it represented a land of economic opportunity, where the streets were allegedly paved with gold. and it was through the evolution of the backyard garden that the contadini managed to turn their adopted land into a closer version of the cuccagna, one in which the tastes and smells of their beloved foods come alive from the garden to the table. the grapevine might provide a representative analogy for the immigrant and garden experiences of contadini like palma and raffaele, and my grandparents. if italian grapevines were planted straight into the canadian soil, they often froze, and perished. in order for the italian grapevine to adapt, it had to be grafted onto the ontario concord, a hardier vine indigenous to the region. perhaps a parallel can be drawn between the literal growing of roots in a garden and the metaphorical immigrant language of transplantation. contadini created an italian-canadian paradise in the backyard, through a combination of tradition, nostalgia and memory. by consuming the produce when it was ready to be harvested, that connection was literally taken into oneself. furthermore, gardening perhaps provided a way for contadini to wrest some control over their lives, particularly in those early and more tumultuous years of immigration. finally, the vegetable garden allowed the contadini a continuance of culture and tradition, to potentially be transmitted to subsequent generations. while it remains to be seen if the backyard garden of the contadini survives into succeeding generations, it remains important to many older italians in toronto because it recreates vestiges of the “old country,” and echoes a way of life fundamental to their being. references cited colalillo, giuliana. interview with author. july 4, 2012. del giudice, luisa. 2001. mountains of cheese and rivers of wine: paesi di cuccagna and other gastronomic utopias. in imagined states: nationalism, utopia, and longing in oral cultures, ed. luisa del giudice and gerald porter, 11-63. logan, utah: utah state university press. klindeinst, patricia. 2006. the earth knows my name: food, culture, and sustainability in the gardens of ethnic americans. boston: beacon press. pietropaolo, raffaele and palma. interview with author. july 6, 2012. stimac, roberta. interview with author. july 7, 2012. microsoft word fine-new-folger & foodways-digest 7-1 edited.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019): 63-64 © american folklore society 2020 before “farm to table” early modern foodways & cultures project at the folger library by: julia fine the folger shakespeare library in washington, dc, home to the world’s largest collection of early modern english manuscript recipe books, launched its multidisciplinary, $1.5 million mellon-funded before ‘farm to table’: early modern foodways and cultures project in 2017.1 drawing on the work of historians, anthropologists, geographers, literary critics, artists, and more, this five-year project investigates how food shapes—and was in turn shaped by—culture, migration, violence, trade, and geopolitics. it focuses on the period from 1450 to 1800, a moment in history when european acts of colonization and conquest gave rise to a new kind of global foodways. since its inception, before ‘farm to table’ has embraced a collaborative working model, with a multidisciplinary team of scholars designing a wide range of programs in order to probe the function of food in the early modern world. these projects have taken many forms: workshops; lectures; an interactive performance art piece in the folger’s historic reading room; an exhibit in the folger’s great hall, highlighting the unsung heroes who shaped the food culture of britain and america; collaborations with humanitarian chef josé andrés; and a traveling exhibition that will take place in washington dc in the fall of 2020. this exciting program, focusing upon the contributions of people who were marginalized in the early modern period, will see folger materials installed at local restaurants, cultural centers, and advocacy organizations like busboys and poets, a restaurant group which advocates for social justice and community activism. recently, the before ‘farm to table’ team hosted a graduate student workshop on “eating through the archives,” which invited over 20 students from institutions around the world to come to the folger and discuss the challenges and gratifications of multidisciplinary approaches to food. what can we learn when practitioners of spanish literature, the history of science, and postcolonial studies compare notes on food? what are the best approaches to researching and understanding food in the past and the present? what do “foodways” mean, and how do they move, react, and change? questions like these structured the workshop and fueled its discussions. in one breakout session, led by jack bouchard, students explored how to study travelogues, maps, artwork, and ephemera to find depictions of non-elite, marginalized people and reveal their experiences and relationships with food. another session, led by heather wolfe and elisa tersigni, taught participants how to read not only the words inscribed in cookbooks written hundreds of years ago, but also their materiality: close study of bindings, folds, paper, and stitching can deepen our understanding of a book’s historical 64 fine, before “farm to table,” digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:1 (2018-2019) and literary framework. one particularly memorable session featured a roundtable by health equity advocates ambrose lane, jr. and laura maccleery and culinary historian michael w. twitty. the panelists unpacked the long and fraught history of sugar in the americas, and urged the students to think of a “history of a particular commodity and its history on bodies as a social justice story,” that pervades the present day. through programs like “eating through the archives,” before ‘farm to table’ works to stress the need for multidisciplinarity in food studies, the importance of reexamining and contextualizing the notion of foodways, and how critical it is to apply global frameworks to the study of food cultures. the team continues with these efforts, as well as others, as they undertake future projects: writing articles on the hidden colonial history of english condiments; convening a conference on “food and the book,” featuring chef and food-writer tamar adler; and creating an open-access, searchable corpus of the folger’s early modern english handwritten recipes, which anyone in the world may view. before ‘farm to table’ is led by david goldstein, amanda herbert, and heather wolfe, and includes three postdoctoral fellows, jack bouchard, elisa tersigni, and michael walkden. jonathan macdonald acts as the project coordinator, and julia fine is the dumbarton oaks humanities fellow attached to the project. 1 see https://www.folger.edu/history and https://www.folger.edu/before-farm-to-table-early-modern-foodways-cultures (access april 22, 2020). newfoundland tea buns by: alanna wicks in october of 2011 i documented my father, lloyd wicks, making tea buns from a recipe that belonged to my great-great grandmother and that members of her family have been using ever since. when i asked my father if he would make a batch of the tea buns in our family kitchen the way he always does so that i could record the process, he was thrilled to have the recipe documented. although in newfoundland, biscuits, or tea buns as they are usually known, are a popular staple in many kitchens, in my family they are considered special. not only are they delicious, they are integral to the tapestry of my father’s family. they embody some of my father’s childhood memories and because, in turn he made the buns for me, they now are tied to my own memories of growing up and of belonging to our family. my father recalls his mother, julia wicks, baking tea buns for their family when he was a child. my father and his siblings have many fond memories of my grandmother’s baking, including coming home from school to warm, fresh out-of-the-oven bread which they ate with butter. however, their mother’s baking of tea buns is their most treasured memory. my favorite memories of the tea buns are connected to my father, rather than my grandmother. as a child growing up in st john’s, newfoundland in the 1990s, my mother or maternal grandmother always prepared my meals. they also did the baking. this changed when i was sixteen and my father retired. he became more involved in the family’s food preparation. since then, the one item he has perfected and is most proud of, are tea buns. warm and sweet, they remind him of his childhood and of his mother. he has made them so often, they now also hold nurturing associations for me. because the recipe goes back to my great-great grandmother, i like to think that i belong to the fifth generation of my family to grow up savoring the taste of these tea buns. the recipe came into my immediate family when my grandmother, julia, gave it, along with many others, to my mother when she married my father. as far as i know, my parents have always kept my grandmother’s recipes in the same large black folder that holds them today. with the exception of adding a few special ingredients like coconut or cheese from time to time, my father has not changed the recipe. as long as i can remember he has baked the tea buns in our kitchen with the same ingredients, tools, and techniques that his mother, and her mother before her, used. making tea buns in this way is a family tradition that i cherish and will continue myself as i grow older. 1. the tea bun recipe is written in my grandmother’s handwriting. lloyd has a quick look at the ingredient measurements even though he knows them by memory. ingredients: 4 cups flour, 8 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs (beaten), 1 cup butter, 1 cup milk (add to eggs). 2. the ingredients are laid out. the red flour and sugar tins belonged to my grandmother and she used them when baking. 3. carnation brand evaporated milk has always been used in the recipe. it is never substituted with fresh milk. lloyd says it’s the secret ingredient. 4. the margarine is added to the flour. the wax paper that surrounded the margarine is kept to grease the pan for baking. two eggs are added to the evaporated milk in a glass. this is stirred and later added to the flour. 5. the margarine and the dry ingredients are rubbed together by hand. lloyd claims this is the most important part and that “it’s all in the wrist.” 6. the milk and egg mixture is added to the dry ingredients. in the background of the photo is a glass placed in the flour tin. this glass is later used for cutting out the tea buns. 7. the wet and dry ingredients are mixed together by hand until they are well combined. in this photo my father is reminding my mother of how much i used to enjoy eating the unbaked dough as a child. i still do. 8. before cutting the buns out and putting them in the oven, my father always tears off some dough to give to me. i will always have this memory of my father. 9. the rest of the dough is formed into a rough ball and flattened out on a floured cutting board to be cut into circles. 10. my father uses a drinking glass to cut out the dough into circles for baking; he rarely, if ever, uses a cookie cutter. so that the dough does not stick to the glass lloyd places it in the tin of flour after cutting a couple circles and then continues to make the rounds. 11. the dough is cut out and placed on a round baking pan. there does not need to be any space between the buns. 12. the dough cut outs circle the pan until it is full and ready to go in the oven. 13. the oven temperature is set to 450 degrees and the tea buns are baked for ten minutes. then lloyd turns the oven down to 400 degrees and bakes the buns for five more minutes. when i asked him why he turns down the oven, he said it was what his mother did when she baked the tea buns. 14. while the tea buns are in the oven my father, my fiancé, and i have a conversation about the age of the recipe and how long my father has been baking them. my father enjoys telling people about the recipe and sharing it with them. 15. when the tea buns are out of the oven they are allowed to cool for a few minutes. then they are ready to enjoy, usually with some butter spread on them and a cup of tea. sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship 1st place winner 2011 'the real of the real' kyoto's heirloom vegetables and articulations of authenticity 1 by: greg de st. maurice photo 1: kamo eggplant selection in a basket imagine that you enter a restaurant in kyoto, japan that specializes in seasonal dishes featuring local produce. it is summer and you wish to sample a local variety of eggplant: the kamo nasu. you order broiled kamo eggplant topped with a special miso paste. at last, you think, you will get to try the real kamo nasu. not so fast! the server returns to your table with a basket and indicates that you are to choose between three different kinds of kamo nasu. which is the most authentic? the kyo brand eggplant from kameoka city? the one with the label for kyoto city’s seasonal vegetable program? or the one grown by a farmer in the kamigamo neighborhood where the variety is said to have been long cultivated? this essay is concerned with social scientific understandings of authenticity. using kyoto’s heirloom vegetable industry as a case study, i argue that for social scientists, authenticity may be usefully approached as the product of a discourse. treating authenticity as the product of a discourse acknowledges that although the “authenticity” of a tradition or object may be socially ascribed in the present, it is not an arbitrary process but in fact is ascribed according to culturally determined criteria. based on participant observation in kyoto as well as interviews with farmers, chefs, local government officials, food experts, and consumers, i argue that kyoto’s food industry highlights four main criteria in its articulations of authenticity: origin, content, process, and continuity. this production of authenticity has transformed kyoto vegetables into value-added craft foods by stimulating in consumers an appetite for the “authentic” taste of a place that has become a nostalgia-laden national touchstone. 2 authenticity matters concern for authenticity has come to permeate everyday life in ways that are becoming increasingly visible to consumers. in their business manual, authenticity: what consumers really want, james h. gilmore and b. joseph pine ii tell the story of a saturday shopping trip on which fictional characters eddie and brenda cross paths with “authentic” products such as hanes authentic tagless t-shirts, real bacon bits, cnn headline news (“real news. real facts”), coors beer (“real rocky mountain beer”), prego hearty meat sauce (“authentic italian sauce”), and a barbie volkswagen new beetle (“trunk really opens! real key chain too!” (2008:32-33). gilmore and pine do not overlook the ways in which authenticity has become important for industries like entertainment (the rise of “reality tv”), education (its articulation is far from limited to “virtual” schools), and tourism (they cite barbados’s slogan “experience the authentic caribbean” (2008:34-39). authenticity has become one of the main criteria according to which consumers and producers distinguish between similar offerings. consumers may be willing to pay a higher price for something they deem more authentic—a pair of designer jeans, fair trade ethiopian coffee, or acupuncture from a certified practitioner—but consumers are only willing to pay so much more for authenticity, and it is clear that other factors matter in their decision-making. people certainly purchase knock-off designer goods, download pirated movies, and eat fruit out of season. the ultimate arbiter, the one who decides what is authentic at any given time, and how much this authenticity is worth, is the individual, mediated by the above-mentioned socially articulated criteria. this particular surge of claims to “authenticity” may be relatively recent, but the word itself is far from new; the oxford english dictionary dates it as far back as 1340 ce. it has a fairly wide variety of related meanings, its list of synonyms in roget’s thesaurus includes “authoritative,” “convincing,” “genuine,” “good,” “original,” “real,” “true,” and “unquestionable.” the concept of authenticity resonates in the legal, ethical, commercial and philosophical realms and is core to many books in the business, self-help, and philosophy genres. 3 authenticity is an essential concept in art, cuisine, and other fields in which experts and connoisseurs with discerning “tastes” have learned to tell the “genuine” apart from the imitation. as a topic of study, authenticity matters to social scientists such as folklorists, anthropologists, and area studies scholars, though it has often been passed over in the pursuit of tradition and history. in the past three decades, social scientists like richard handler have found the concept of authenticity to be of great import to contemporary social life and to social science itself. handler writes that “the same constellation of cultural ideas which allows a soft drink to be marketed as the ‘real thing,’ with the suggestion that those who choose it thereby gain a real or authentic existence, underlies the anthropological search for cultural authenticity” (1986:2). scholars of culture and heritage—whether they study american buddhism, african lineage systems, or south american indigenous musical genres— must reflect on what traditions, ideas, and things they and the people they study consider to be culturally authentic. to social scientists, also, then, authenticity matters. the authenticity of food because of the powerful symbolic significance of food, its ability to affect an individual’s state of being, and because its frequent consumption is necessary if one is to stay alive, food has become one of those consumer goods for which authenticity is most articulated. indeed, “[a]uthenticity signals reliability and quality from a consumer’s perspective” (tellstrom, gustafsson, and mossberg 2006:136). but because not all foods resonate symbolically or are perceived as having transformative potential, authenticity is not equally important for all foods in any given society. in her research on appalachian foodways and the “foodscape” of asheville, north carolina, lucy long notes that because of moonshine’s hillbilly associations and illegal status, culinary tourists have not sought it out as much as they have local wine, despite moonshine’s deeper local history (2010:17). in order for something to be perceived as authentic it must be recognizably different from other like things. it must possess what barbara kirshenblatt-gimblett calls the “value of difference” (1995). indeed, gilmore and pine state that “nothing kills authenticity like ubiquity”; the starbucks franchise, for instance, has grown so much—with multiple branches, sometimes on the same city block, selling not only starbucks coffee, but also starbucks music and starbucks candy—that its image as purveyor of “real” quality coffee has suffered (gilmore and pine 2008:2). in japan, authenticity matters when it comes to certain products: hokkaido melons, which are far from ubiquitous as each plant only produces one melon; rice, because it has long been imbued with the capacity to stand for “japaneseness” (ohnuki-tierney 1993); and vegetables, which can transmit diseases, chemicals from pesticides and fertilizers, and also radioactive substances like cesium. when it comes to other foods, however, authenticity is less of a concern: in my experience, few japanese people are concerned about whether the hamburgers they bite into are “authentically american,” and many may not have criteria for evaluating cheese in terms of authenticity. consumers, not without the encouragement of marketers, often look to origin as a determiner of authenticity. this is nothing new; sausages and cheese have been marketed by origin since medieval times (tellstrom, gustafsson, and mossberg 2006:132). one modern example of a place that we associate with “authentic” origins is fiji, which, having “capitalized on its image as a ‘virgin ecosystem’ far from polluting civilization, now sells over us$90 million worth of water a year” (wilk 2006:306). bottlers of fijian water have identified ways in which water from fiji seems “authentic” and have highlighted this authenticity in their marketing with great success. approaching “authenticity” the approach of western philosophers has heavily influenced social views of authenticity, both academic and otherwise. significantly, philosophers have largely dealt with authenticity by delineating what is inauthentic. one of greatest contributors to the western understanding of authenticity is rousseau, who believed that civilization was antithetical to authenticity, and that the latter could still be discovered in “simpler cultures” (lindholm 2008:9). lionel trilling also defined the authentic by opposition: with the social (like rousseau), and in particular social norms; with the mechanical; and with the monetary (like sartre) (gilmore and pine 2007:88). in his seminal work, “the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction” walter benjamin opposed authenticity with reproduction (1968). the idea that authenticity may be identified by contrast and opposition will be a recurring theme. the social science literature contains several approaches to the study of authenticity. the first is what i call the “essentialist” approach, which views authenticity as an innate quality that changes little over time. richard handler and jocelyn linnekin trace the essentialist (or “naturalistic”) approach in anthropology back though shils, kroeber, sapir, durkheim, and maine, at least as far back as edmund burke (handler and linnekin 1984:274). for essentialist scholars, authenticity is either inherently present or completely lacking, and it becomes important to distinguish between the authentic and the inauthentic. edward shils, for example, proclaims that while societies are continuously changing, “each society remains the same society. its members do not wake up one morning and discover they are no longer living in, let us say, british society” (1981:163). tradition is that core that maintains a sense of unity over time. because of this, shils feels able to distinguish between authentic and fictitious traditionality. in different language, eric hobsbawm places traditions into one of two categories: either genuine or invented (1983:8). behind historian robert hewison’s critique of what he terms the uk’s “heritage industry” lies a similar view of “tradition” and “authenticity.” one characteristic passage reads: “the look back in nostalgia has become an economic enterprise, as the commercial interests of manufacturers and advertising have recognized. this nostalgia is in part one for a lost sense of authenticity, a nostalgia that consumes ploughman’s lunches and campaigns for real ale” (1987:29). hewison takes issue with the promiscuous use of the term “heritage”—generally used for economic and political purposes—because he believes that this word promotes sham history, affirms values out of line with twentieth-century democratic progress, and paralyzes society by enchanting it with visions of a phantasmagoric past (1987:10). this perspective is essentialist, setting up, as it does, a contrast between on the one hand what is true, authentic, traditional, and historically accurate, and on the other hand, what is inauthentic, historically inaccurate, and untraditional. george ritzer argues from a largely essentialist perspective as well. in the globalization of nothing, he contrasts those people, things, places, and services that have “something” (i.e. have distinctive substance) with those that have “nothing” (i.e. are centrally controlled and lack distinctive content). thus community banks are contrasted with credit card companies, personal bankers with telemarketers, and personal loans with credit card loans (ritzer 2004:10). the village pub is something; mcdonald’s is nothing. ritzer admits that authenticity is hard to pin down: “a natural site like mt. everest might be considered clearly authentic, but in fact it has been profoundly affected by pollution… and by the now quite large number of people who have attempted to climb it” (2004: 203). litter, corpses, and a base camp with plans for a cyber café: none of these seem in line with what the “authentic” everest should look like. ritzer comments that “even something as remote as mt. everest is no longer unequivocally authentic and if mt. everest cannot be considered authentic then what can?” (2004:203). ritzer suggests that we think of authenticity as one end of a continuum, with inauthenticity at the other pole. thus we can make sense of both paris, france and the paris casino-hotel in las vegas, neither of which may be entirely authentic or inauthentic. in conceptualizing authenticity and inauthenticity as poles on a continuum, ritzer diverges from the essentialist tenet that authenticity is either wholly present or entirely absent. nonetheless, i characterize him as an essentialist because he presents himself as an expert with the authority to characterize things according to their authenticity or inauthenticity, relative though it may be. his book, after all, is premised upon the idea that the difference between things with “nothing” and things with “something” may be discerned with certainty. essentialist definitions of “authenticity” and “tradition” are very much anchored in western common sense (handler and linnekin 1984:273). i would not disagree with ritzer or hewison that people treat things as though they had immutably authentic or inauthentic essences. though commonsense definitions may serve quite well as shorthand in everyday speech, scholars examining such social phenomena should not take them for granted. it is useful, rather, to question commonsense assumptions and examine the alternatives. handler and linnekin propose what i term the “symbolic constructionist” approach as a superior alternative to the essentialist approach. they find that “traditions thought to be preserved are created out of the conceptual needs of the present. tradition is not handed down from the past, as a thing or a collection of things; it is symbolically reinvented in an ongoing present” (1984:280). ironically enough, in their study of food culture and authenticity tellstrom, gustafsson, and mossberg conclude that although the image of local tradition can significantly enhance the market appeal of food products, this need not be a “real and indisputable” authenticity, since experiential authenticity is what consumers seek (tellstrom, gustafsson, and mossberg 2006). gilmore and pine take this idea even further, arguing that nothing is ontologically authentic, but that anything can be experientially so (gilmore and pine 2007). let us consider how this is possible. handler and linnekin’s examination of hawaiian culture leads them to the understanding that “the varying definitions of authenticity that have resulted from this pursuit [of hawaiian tradition and cultural identity] reveal that ‘traditional’ is not an objective attribute of cultural practices, but a designation that is always assigned in the present” (handler and linnekin 1984:282) hawaii’s food culture features as a prime example, in particular luau dishes, which are linked to past practices in the popular imagination. even discontinuities may be framed as continuities: instead of eating the kumu (red fish), participants in today’s luaus feast on lomilomi salmon, imported red salted salmon handled with one’s fingers and eaten with tomatoes, crushed ice, and scallions. handler and linnekin observe that “very few modern hawaiians are aware that lomi salmon is probably a surrogate for the kumu fish; indeed, for hawaiians today this historical relationship is irrelevant, and lomi salmon is just as traditional, just as meaningful, as kulolo or laulaus” (1984:282). similarly, a luau is not a luau without slack-key guitar and ukulele playing, and it matters little to their hawaiianness that these instruments were at one time imported. indeed the value of such items as “traditional symbols does not depend upon an objective relation the past” (handler and linnekin 1984: 286). the symbolic constructionist approach, then, is based on the tenet that distinguishing between authentic and inauthentic traditions is disingenuous because authenticity is not a verifiable essence, but rather a symbolic attribute established in the present. the story of camembert cheese illustrates this well. it was the mythic story of its inventor that transformed this french cheese into a national symbol. in the eighteenth-century, the story goes, marie harel, a farmwoman from the town of camembert, was taught how to make the famous brie cheese by a priest who sought refuge with her family. she followed his recipe, but using a mold for livarot cheese, and sold her newfangled cheese in neighboring villages. enter emperor napoleon iii, who sampled this “camembert” in a train station and thereafter made it part of the royal diet, even gracing mme harel’s grandson with an invitation to his palace at the tuileries (boisard 1992:22). so what are we to do when scholars reveal that most of this story is unverifiable and that camembert probably existed before mme harel? perhaps what matters is the symbolic significance of camembert and the myth of its origin, not whether the legends behind its creation are true. linnekin correctly argues that “symbolically constructed traditions are … not inauthentic; rather, all traditions—western and indigenous—are invented, in that they are symbolically constructed in the present and reflect contemporary concerns and purposes rather than a passively inherited legacy” (linnekin 1991:447). indeed, boisard’s account tells us more about the twentiethcentury france that elevated camembert to a national symbol than it does about the “authentic” story of the cheese. here we glimpse another problem with essentialism: it omits the voices of those for whom authenticity and tradition matter, those who argue about whether a particular thing should be seen as authentic, and it ignores the meaning that people attribute to things. if, as essentialists assume, authenticity is something that professional “experts” can gauge, then those who are inside the culture—for whom authenticity cannot be “objective”—are sidelined. take the extreme example of allan hanson, who has argued that two maori traditions, the io cult and great fleet, were fabricated by european anthropologists eager to find similarities between europeans and pre-contact maori and thereby reinforce their theoretical leanings, particularly those related to diffusionism and great migrations. because of his research, hanson has been accused of being the prototypical western (essentialist) scholar who patronizingly dismisses indigenous beliefs and traditions as inaccurate and inauthentic. hanson protests, however, that he does not believe in an essence of tradition or authenticity. authenticity cannot be discovered or proven – only articulated, debated, and contested. authenticity, then, far from being an innate characteristic, is socially ascribed. thus if the maori claim the io cult and great fleet as meaningful maori traditions, then those traditions are not inauthentic. as hanson tells us, “the fact that culture is an invention, and anthropology one of its creative agents, should not engender suspicion or despair that anthropological accounts do not qualify as knowledge of cultural reality” (hanson 1989:898). whereas an essentialist like hobsbawm separates genuine traditions from invented ones, hanson views all traditions as invented. handler and linnekin similarly reject the “false dichotomy between tradition and modernity as fixed and mutually exclusive states,” instead defining tradition as “an interpretive process that embodies both continuity and discontinuity” (handler and linnekin 1984:273). they aver that traditions are neither genuine nor spurious, for if genuine tradition refers to the pristine and immutable heritage of the past, then all genuine traditions are spurious. but if… tradition is always defined in the present, then all spurious traditions are genuine. genuine and spurious—terms that have been used to distinguish objective reality from hocus-pocus—are inappropriate when applied to social phenomena, which never exist apart from our interpretations of them (1984: 288) indeed, handler and linnekin shed light on the problematic elements of perspectives such as hewison’s. their research on “tradition” in quebec and hawaii, like the examples of the camembert and the io cult, also illustrate how what any society counts as “tradition” is socially created. the symbolic constructionist approach allows us to include the perspectives of the actors themselves. it fails, however, insofar as it treats claims of tradition or authenticity as though they emerged arbitrarily and spontaneously from nothing. in symbolic constructionism it seems as though anything can be perceived as authentic or traditional in a given culture, and little attention is paid to the difference between what the actors themselves see as authentic and inauthentic. by approaching authenticity as a discourse, however, we can place disparate claims to authenticity in relief, contrasting them with each other, while acknowledging their historico-cultural context. by doing so we maintain the symbolic constructionist understanding that authenticity is a value attributed in the present, while gaining a stronger grasp of how authenticity is articulated and contested in a given situation. discourse and essence are intrinsically opposed to each other, an understanding we can glean from foucault: we must not imagine that there is a great unsaid or a great unthought which runs throughout the world and intertwines with all its forms and all its events, and which we would have to articulate or to think at last. discourses must be treated as discontinuous practices, which cross each other, are sometimes juxtaposed with one another, but can just as well exclude or be unaware of each other (foucault 1981:67) cultural theorists follow foucault in using the term “discourse” as “an amalgam of the meanings derived from the term’s latin and french origins and influences (a speech/conversation) and a more specific theoretical meaning which sees discourse as the general domain of the production and circulation of rule-governed statements” (mills 2004:8-9; italics mine). the importance of rules/norms will be relevant to our analysis, although in the case of authenticity the word “criteria” seems more appropriate. sara mills points out that foucault views discourse as productive (2004:17). among other things, a discourse may produce concepts and effects. we may think of authenticity, then, as the product of discourse, both as a general concept and in terms of particular claims that are accepted, rejected, modified, and even co-opted. approaching authenticity as a discourse rather than as an essence does not condemn us to viewing authenticity as arbitrary, insignificant or meaningless. on the contrary, approaching it as a discourse requires the recognition that authenticity matters greatly and differently to various actors. hence the demand for advice from experts on the discourse of authenticity such as gilmore and pine, authenticityconsulting, and businessweek contributor sohrab vossoughi. linnekin writes that “however effectively scholars deconstruct authenticity and reveal it to be an intellectual red herring, the concept remains nonetheless entrenched in popular thought and is an emotional, political issue for indigenous peoples, particularly for those who are engaged in a struggle for sovereignty” (linnekin 1991:446). if authenticity matters culturally, then it is worth examining, and the analytic of discourse enables us to do so while including multiple voices and paying attention to cultural values. kyoto’s vegetable industry all of the different brands of kamo eggplant—each with producers, retailers, and marketers that claim to have authentic produce—are considered to fall into the larger category of kyō yasai. kyō yasai is an undefined term that simply means “kyoto vegetables” and encompasses everything from the shishigatani squash to the newfangled kyō temari tomato. since it remains undefined, legally speaking, it could arguably be applied to any vegetable grown in kyoto. despite the term’s fluidity, kyō yasai are attributed an aura of elegance and mystique that is linked to their mythico-historic origins in the heian era (794-1185 ce), when kyoto was the imperial capital and traditional japanese culture began to flourish. after world war ii, as the global circulation of food and agriculture became more pronounced, standardized vegetable varieties—particularly inexpensive foreign imports—became increasingly common and several of kyoto’s heirloom varieties became extinct. in response to this, and what was perceived as a local agricultural industry under assault, kyoto prefecture created an official definition for “traditional kyoto vegetables” or kyō no dentō yasai in 1988. this term refers only to varieties that have a local history dating to the meiji era (1868-1912 ce) or prior. 4 kyoto’s prefectural government has also assisted with the creation of a prefectural brand for produce that was originally limited to vegetables. kyoto city, in an attempt to assist those farmers within the city who do not participate in the kyo brand, has instituted the kyoto seasonal vegetable program (kyō no shun yasai purogurammu), a smaller project that supports farmers who grow varieties that range from the manganji sweet pepper to broccoli and sweet potatoes. http://digest.champlain.edu/vol1/article1_5.html#21 on the whole, “traditional” vegetables from kyoto now fetch much higher prices than similar varieties from other prefectures. at a wholesale vegetable market in tokyo, i saw four cartons of sweet peppers that illustrate this trend. whereas peppers from yamagata prefecture were selling for 600 yen, and peppers from kumamoto for 800, a case of slightly misshapen kyoto manganji peppers went for 1500 yen, and a better-looking bunch 3000 yen. the retailer explained that in japanese cuisine the highest grade vegetables come from kyoto. “these peppers are totally delicious. the sweetness really comes out. they’re not at all like bell peppers,” he told me. the price difference he attributed to the strength of the kyoto brand and its effective advertising. origin although the label “kyoto vegetable” appears to set up place of origin as the defining trait of this group of vegetables, the term “kyoto” signifies different places to different people. the word “kyoto” means capital and its use in branding and marketing nostalgically references the imperial capital of heian times. the logic of nostalgia in japan and how it links urban and rural areas is worth examining. in japan, nostalgia for one’s hometown (furusato)—whether this means one’s place of birth, where one grew up, or a place of one’s choosing—creates a demand for products and services that may regularly satisfy and sustain that longing. furusatokai (“old village associations”) that sell self-consciously “local” produce to urban consumers via parcel post is one example of this, as john knight shows (1998). the village, a member of a furusatokai tells knight, is seen by urbanites as “the real home, the place of ‘real tastes’” (knight 1998:164). it might seem peculiar that kyoto, then, associated as it is with urban culture, could tap into this market for agricultural products that temporarily satisfy pangs of nostalgia. kyoto, however, is seen as the birthplace of japan’s cultural heritage, including traditional cuisines (see hosking 1996) and is known within japan as nihon no kokoro no furusato (brumann 2009:278). kyoto marshals its cultural capital and markets itself as the ultimate furusato, thereby whetting appetites for products—and produce—redolent of tradition. indeed, this is what makes kyoto one of the most recognizable place-based brands in all of japan (see nikkei research 2011 and brand research institute, inc. 2010, for example). for chefs and food experts, origin also contributes to the “taste of place” or “terroir,” especially the positive influence of its temperature variations and the quality of kyoto’s soil and water. one of my interviewees, an agricultural researcher who has also worked for a vegetable distributor, claims that kyō yasai are high quality vegetables that were brought to the imperial capital for the emperor and thereafter developed into unique varieties as they were grown in conditions eminently favorable for agricultural production. other sources, including agronomist takashima (2003) similarly identify climate, soil, and water as key factors that make kyoto’s produce particularly tasty, though as i explain later, the issue of taste is a complicated and as of yet relatively unarticulated one. kyoto prefecture promotes the kyoto brand using kyoto as shorthand for the prefecture, differentiating its produce from that grown in other japanese prefectures and abroad. the prefectural government publishes recipes and information on the nutritional value of kyō yasai in pamphlets and on the internet. the prefectural newsletter, delivered monthly to all households, always includes a recipe in which the main ingredient or secret ingredient is a kyo brand vegetable. during seasonal campaigns, samples of dishes made with kyoto vegetables are given out in local supermarkets and tokyo’s upscale department stores. kyoto city assigns origin to specific neighborhoods of kyoto city and supports farmers from those neighborhoods who cultivate designated vegetable varieties. many of these vegetables’ names are derived from the place they are purported to have first been cultivated. the kamo eggplant, for instance, is said to have been grown in the kamigamo neighborhood longer than other places. for kyoto city, the next best alternative to assigning origin to a neighborhood is designating the city as a whole as the origin of kyō yasai. thus the shōgoin cucumber may be seen as authentic even though the only farmer i know who grows it does so in kamigamo and not shōgoin. kyoto city encourages the local consumption of locally grown produce by publishing information and advertisements and by running vegetable stands throughout the city—most notably in subway stations. the kamigamo heirloom vegetable research organization is a group of about 20 farmers who take turns growing and harvesting seeds for the kamo eggplant. one member, y-san, explained that the kamo eggplant they grow is “the real of the real” because it comes from the right neighborhood (the one with the longest history of growing it), as do the seeds and the farmers themselves. the discourse in which these articulations of authenticity are produced is attuned to the taste consumers have developed for place-based authenticity. according to a recent poll, one of the most appealing characteristics of kyō yasai for consumers in kyoto is the fact that they are locally produced, a possible indication of the effectiveness of kyoto’s marketing and educational efforts (kyoto prefectural agricultural research institute 2007). local chefs also discriminate according to place of origin. one chef at a renowned local restaurant told me that authenticity mattered to his boss and his customers and that a “real kyō yasai” was grown in the “right place” from seeds “from long ago.” content seeds hold the genetic material that supposedly carries the “essence” of the varieties themselves. but seeds are not enough to ensure authenticity based on content. the story of the momoyama daikon illustrates this. though farmers stopped growing this local variety of japanese radish decades ago, researchers at kyoto prefectural agricultural research institute continued to cultivate it in order to ensure that its genetic material would not be lost. one city farmer whose family had never grown it became interested in growing it and was able to get seeds from the institute. when he presented his radishes at one of the local agricultural fairs, however, he was criticized because his radishes looked unlike the “prototypical” momoyama radish. he then received assistance from another farmer who knew what the radish variety had looked like in the past. for several years they planted these radishes, picking out only those that were close to the ideal until they were able to harvest an entire crop of radishes that resembled “authentic” momoyama radishes. farmers understand that over time a vegetable variety will change and they take precautions to minimize the degree to which this happens. many farmers in kyoto city’s kamigamo area harvest seeds from their own superior specimens. but cross-pollination, changes in local climate, and changes in consumer tastes have resulted in vegetables that deviate from the “ideal” form. the karami daikon, for instance, does not possess the intensely sharp taste once characteristic of this variety and for which it was named (nakamura 2007). local agricultural fairs provide an opportunity for circulating knowledge of authentic appearance and evaluating local produce accordingly. kyō yasai are held to particularly rigid standards. at one fair i attended, a farmer won a prize because his takagamine peppers were closer to the ideal than those of his peers, whose specimens appeared to have mixed with the manganji pepper. photo 2: the head judge at a local agricultural fair examining a takagamine pepper. appearance—and especially shape—is a key criteria for evaluating the authenticity of kyō yasai based on content. indeed, appearance is what gives kyō yasai varieties their rarity value. when vegetable varieties are selected for the kyo brand, they are judged according to the degree to which they reflect kyoto’s “mysteriousness.” for this reason, the shishigatani squash passed with flying colors. though farmers and agricultural experts widely admit that it is far from tasty, the scaly brown hourglassshaped squash is marketable because of its history and its distinct appearance. indeed, this squash is often placed with other vegetables outside restaurants that serve local cuisine even when their menus include no dishes featuring the squash. taste is relied upon to a lesser degree in determining authenticity. the kamo eggplant, for instance, is touted as having tough skin and firm flesh. one chef said it has an applelike flavor for her. on the whole, however, those i interviewed—even experts—were inconsistent as to what specific varieties of kyō yasai taste like and why they are so delicious. perhaps this is due to a lack of a ready vocabulary for differentiating between the taste of similar varieties. this also indicates that kyoto’s food industry seems to have been less successful in circulating knowledge of taste than it has in articulating the authenticity of local produce. if anything, interviewees seemed to think that save for exceptions like the shishigatani squash, authentic kyō yasai would inevitably be more delicious than their counterparts from other prefectures. process process may be the criteria according to which kyoto vegetables have changed the most, particularly over the course of the past century. even those farmers whose families have cultivated these vegetable varieties on the same land for centuries, who harvest and plant their own seeds, and who seek to reproduce vegetables that have an appearance close to the “ideal,” are without doubt modern farmers. indeed, the very appeal and designation of these vegetable varieties as “traditional” is a modern (or postmodern) phenomenon. only in recent times have once tasty but “ordinary” local varieties become rare enough that a nostalgic eater may even consider them “exotic.” freshness, safety, and purity contribute to a sense of natural authenticity. kyoto’s seasonal vegetable program advertises all of these things. its directory of shun yasai farmers even contains several pages of graphs and charts that reveal the extent to which vegetables possess greater amounts of vitamins and minerals when they are in season. 5 one farmer i spoke to who is by all appearances a “traditional” farmer is k-san. he grows rare vegetable varieties not because there is a financial incentive to do so, but in order to keep them in existence. he harvests his own seeds, even for the kamo eggplant. and yet he too employs modern farming methods. like most farmers, he grafts the kamo eggplant onto a sturdier variety. he explains, “my farming is not 100% organic. that would be impossible.” continuity running down the middle of a kyoto brand poster is a list of “past customers,” including historical figures of national importance such as ono komachi and sakamoto ryōma. the text ends with an ellipsis, implying that those who eat kyoto vegetables today may also join the elite list. this sense of continuity (of origin, content, and process) is a key ingredient to the authenticity of kyō yasai; the further back in time the continuity of one of these criteria may be traced, the more authentic it is said to be. photo 3: kyo brand vegetable poster continuity is very meaningful to small-scale farmers whose ancestors grew some of the same varieties on the same land. several farmers i spoke to grow varieties of cucumber, eggplant, and beans that at most one other farmer grows. they choose to continue cultivating these varieties despite the marginal profits involved because these vegetables might go extinct otherwise. thus many of these farmers have additional sources of income, such as real estate. it is also common for women farmers to take up the distribution routes their foremothers used to sell their produce to regular customers (see, for instance, tamura 2006). despite the historical impetus for continuity, however, the way a vegetable is cultivated is reflective of the present. farming practices have changed with the availability of chemical fertilizers and insecticides as well as novel organic techniques. these vegetables are also used in innovative ways: consider kamo eggplant jam, horikawa burdock root stuffed with wild boar, and mizuna salad, which has established itself as a common dish, though mizuna was traditionally added to hot pots, not eaten raw. continuity does not always wholly appeal to everyone. not only are japanese consumers known to have an appetite for trends and goods only available for a limited time, but consumer demand inevitably changes over time. 6 dr. nakamura yasushi has argued that changes in consumer preferences over the last half-century have resulted in kyoto vegetables that are on the whole less flavorful than they used to be (nakamura 2007). similarly, the women who give out samples of kyoto vegetable dishes in tokyo’s upscale department stores may proclaim, “these are fine specimens of kyoto’s traditional summer vegetables!” or “introducing the taste of kyoto!” but their recipes are adjusted to suit the palates of tokyo residents, who are accustomed to more strongly-flavored home cooking. conclusion the kyoto vegetable case study i presented illustrates the usefulness of treating authenticity as the product of a discourse. there is no divide that separates with certainty things that are “authentic” from others that are “inauthentic” because authenticity is socially ascribed and culturally specific. nonetheless, i argue that authenticity is neither randomly attributed nor without social significance. on the contrary, it is the product of a discourse based on criteria that are commonly accepted as socially meaningful. claims of authenticity for kyoto vegetables—the collectivity, individual varieties, and those specific crops grown by certain farmers—touch upon origin, process, content, and continuity as important criteria for evaluating authenticity. barbara kirshenblatt-gimblett has observed that heritage is both “a mode of cultural production in the present that has recourse to the past” and “a ‘value added’ industry” (1995:369). the case study of kyō yasai illustrates both of these points; by whetting consumers’ appetites for authenticity and tapping into national images of kyoto as the nostalgia-laden imperial capital, kyoto’s vegetable industry has made kyō yasai into value-added craft foods. these strategies have been economically successful. in the context of a japan that has opened its doors to cheap imports of produce from abroad, it is significant that unlike most of the other prefectures in the kinki region, kyoto’s vegetable production has increased over the past 30 years (kyoto prefectural agricultural research institute 2007). 7 the success of kyō yasai has spurred the creation of other prefectural brands for produce. it has also prompted farmers in other prefectures and even other countries to grow kyō yasai varieties. though the varieties themselves are usually consistent with traditional kyoto varieties, and the farming methods are consistent with traditional kyoto farming methods, kyō yasai varieties grown outside of kyoto cannot duplicate the authentic taste of kyoto – a taste rich in history and nostalgia. it is the perceived authenticity of the kyoto vegetables as marketed through various channels —posters, food samples in tokyo, and culinary tourism in kyoto—that has turned kyō yasai into value-added craft foods. as one farmer succinctly puts it, “if you grow a kyoto vegetable in california, it’s not a kyoto vegetable anymore.” this is neither to say that authenticity has been established once and for all nor that kyoto’s farmers will prosper hereafter. since authenticity is not an immutable essence to be discovered but a socially determined value that is the product of a discourse, it is not clear that authenticity will always be an important factor japanese consumers take into account when they buy vegetables, nor is it certain that any of the varieties of kyō yasai —much less the collectivity as a whole—will still be considered authentic vis-à-vis similar vegetable varieties in years to come. references cited barker, hugh, and yuval taylor. 2007. faking it : the quest for authenticity in popular music. new york: w. w. norton. benjamin, walter. 1968. illuminations. new york: harcourt. boisard, pierre. 1992. le camembert: mythe national. paris: calmann-lévy. brand research institute, inc. 2010. chiiki burando chōsa 2010. chōsa kekka: motto mo miryokutekina shikuchōson ni sapporo-shi ga kaerizaki! todōfuken de ha hokkaido ga 2 nen renzoku 1 i. http://tiiki.jp/corp_new/pressrelease/2010/20100908.html brenner, helene g., and laurence letich. 2003. i know i'm in there somewhere: a woman's guide to finding her inner voice and living a life of authenticity. new york: gotham books. brumann, christoph. 2009. outside the glass case: the social life of urban heritage in kyoto. american ethnologist 36(2):276-299. eversley, shelly. 2004. the real negro: the question of authenticity in twentieth-century african american literature. new york: routledge. fad marketing's balancing act. 2007. businessweek.com, august 6. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_32/b4045055.htm foucault, michel. 1981. the order of discourse. in untying the text: a poststructuralist reader, ed. r. young. london: routledge. gilmore, james h. , and b. joseph pine, jr. 2007. authenticity: what consumers really want. boston: harvard business school press. handler, richard. 1986. authenticity. anthropology today 2:2-4. handler, richard, and jocelyn linnekin. 1984. tradition, genuine or spurious. the journal of american folklore 97(385):273-290. hanson, allan. 1989. the making of the maori: culture invention and its logic. american anthropologist 91:890-902. hewison, robert. 1987. the heritage industry : britain in a climate of decline. london: methuen. hobsbawm, e. j., and t. o. ranger. 1983. the invention of tradition. cambridge: cambridge university press. hosking, richard. 1996. a dictionary of japanese food : ingredients & culture. rutland, vermont.: charles e. tuttle co. kirshenblatt-gimblett, barbara. 1995. theorizing heritage. ethnomusicology 39(3):367380. —. 2004. intangible heritage as metacultural production. museum international 56(1-2):5264. kito, yayoi. 2005. dentō shokuzai no ryutsu ni miru "seitōsei" no tayōka: kamonasu no jirei bunseki kara. b.a. thesis, kyoto university. knight, john. 1998. selling mother's love?: mail order village food in japan. journal of material culture 3(2):153-173. kyō no furusato sanpin kyōkai (kyoto hometown product association). 2010. burando suishin jigyō 20 nen no ayumi. kyoto prefectural agricultural research institute. 2007. kyōto fu nōgyō sōgō kenkyūjo shiken kenkyū seiseki hōkokukai hōkoku yōshi. lindholm, charles. 2008. culture and authenticity. oxford: blackwell pub. linnekin, jocelyn. 1991. cultural invention and the dilemma of authenticity. american anthropologist 93(2):446-449. long, lucy m. 2010. culinary tourism and the emergence of an appalachian cuisine: exploring the "foodscape" of asheville, nc. north carolina folklore journal 57(1):4-19. mills, sara. 2004. discourse. london: routledge. nakamura, yasushi. 2007. interview by author, kyoto, japan. 25 august. nikkei research. 2011. chiiki burando senryaku sa-be-. http://www.nikkeir.co.jp/service/branding/area-brand.html ohnuki-tierney, emiko. 1993. rice as self: japanese identities through time. princeton.: princeton university press. ritzer, george. 2004. the globalization of nothing. thousand oaks, calif.: pine forge press. shils, edward. 1981. tradition. chicago: university of chicago press. takashima, shiro. 2003. kyō no dentō yasai to shun yasai. osaka: tombo. tamura, urara. 2006. furiuri toshi ni ikuzuku yasai gyōshō. in fieldwork he no chōsen, ed. k. sugawara. kyoto: sekai shisōsha. tesstrom, richard , inga-britt gustafsson, and lena mossberg. 2006. consuming culture: the use of local food culture in branding. place branding 2:130-143. wilk, richard. 2006. bottled water. journal of consumer culture 6(3):303-325. notes 1. the author would like to thank sarah womack, theresa miller, keith brown, and richard scaglion for their comments and proofreading of various manifestations of this research. thank you also to caitlin bethune and diane tye for their very thorough reading of this manuscript and their editorial suggestions. 2. i use the term “value-added” to refer to those products or services to which the value of “pastness, exhibition, difference, and where possible indigeneity” (kirshenblattgimblett 1995:370) is emphasized and for which consumers are expected to pay more. in the category of “craft foods,” meanwhile, i include those foods that are produced, marketed, sold, and consumed as possessing rarity value (especially in comparison to mass produced foods) because of distinctive production methods, provenance, ingredients, and the like. 3. in addition to those texts i discuss in this essay, other examples are brenner and letich 2003; barker and taylor 2007; and eversley 2004. 4. this group consists of 37 vegetable varieties and three additional varieties that almost make the list. 5. kujō scallions possess over two times the zinc, and spinach and shungiku almost three times the vitamin c, for instance. 6. on japanese consumers’ appreciation of trends and limited edition items see, for instance, businessweek.com 2007 article “fad marketing’s balancing act.” 7. 52 tons of kyō yasai were brand certified in 1989. by 2008 that number had grown to 2, 313 tons (kyo no furusato sanpin kyōkai 2010). according to farmers i have interviewed, this is true for non-brand produce in kyoto city as well; whereas the kamo and yamashina eggplants were on the decline forty years ago, now it is relatively easy to get a hold of both varieties. one should note that though brand sales remain strong, the past five years have shown a decline in kyoto prefecture’s gross agricultural product. poison is poison folklorist/parent seeks curricular antidotes to the myth of the first thanksgiving by: luanne roth “poison is poison, and ingrained oppressive cultural attitudes are at least as hard to antidote, once implanted, as are imbibed cleaning fluids” (dorris 1978: 78). many food rituals, especially those that are repeated annually, involve the recounting of a sort of master narrative that is designed to be etiological. the american holiday of thanksgiving contains one such origin myth. 1 the story of the “first thanksgiving” tells about the pilgrims and the wampanoag indians celebrating their friendship by sharing the harvest feast in 1621. the myth is pervasive throughout culture, manifesting in written, oral, visual, and cinematic forms. although the myth is based on fiction, legend, and public relations rhetoric, rather than historical fact, a plethora of institutions actively perpetuate it, including textbook authors, teachers, children’s literature authors, television/filmmakers, advertising specialists, greeting card designers, website producers, and parents. in counterpoint to an interpretation that “imagines the nation as a fixed, monolithic, and self-enclosed geographic and cultural whole” (kaplan 1998:583), in this essay i look—from the perspective of a parent and folklorist—at several specific cases in which american cultural representations of thanksgiving reinforce stereotypes that can do real damage. 2 in 2005, at a public school in the middle of missouri, my son’s kindergarten class learned about the voyage of the mayflower and the thanksgiving feast of the pilgrims. while volunteering in the classroom shortly before the holiday, i noticed children making “war cries” and “tomahawk chops” while cutting out paper teepees. later that day, my son brought home from school the following memo: unit a feast. please remember that unit a will celebrate thanksgiving with a feast monday morning, november 21. your child may bring a treat to share with the class. try to think of something to share that may have been at the first thanksgiving. fruits, vegetables, bread, or nuts would be good choices. please send in food ready to share. […] please come help us set up, serve, and/or clean up if you are able. bring your cameras. the students will be wearing costumes we have made at school [emphasis added]. the story of the first thanksgiving as a folklore process is traditional because it exhibits “continuities and consistencies through time and space” (georges and jones 1995:1). more than a quarter of a century ago, i myself learned the story of the first thanksgiving in an elementary school in south dakota. i, too, learned it with pilgrim and indian costumes, hand-shaped turkeys, and theatrical reenactments. according to historian elizabeth pleck, schoolteachers began teaching this myth – with its costumed reenactments – during america’s progressive era (1890-1920), as “an exercise in cultural power, providing children with a dominant set of symbols,” in hopes of assimilating the waves of immigrants that threatened white america. school children were seen, in this light, “as cultural conduits, bringing home ideas about celebration, national history, and cultural symbols learned at school” (pleck 1999:779-80). the myth of the first thanksgiving – essentially unchanged from its original form – is still being taught as history in the public schools today, despite the preponderance of evidence to the contrary (siskind [1992] 2002:48). although an “ideology of stability” surrounds the holiday, actually, the rituals associated with thanksgiving have been actively negotiated over time (wallendorf and arnould 1991:23). what obligation does a folklorist—armed with the truth about the invention of the thanksgiving myth—have to respond to this sort of situation today? the american folklore society’s professional code of ethics states: “because folklorists study issues and processes that affect general human welfare, they are faced with unusual complexities and ethical dilemmas. it is a major responsibility of folklorists to anticipate these and to plan to resolve them in such a way as to do least damage to those with whom they work and to their scholarly community” (“afs statement on ethics” 1988). this code, of course, is open to some interpretation and was clearly written with ethnographic informants in mind, not my son’s school. in my capacity as folklorist, i am bound by this code of ethics; however, does it still apply to me in my capacity as concerned parent? surely other folklorists have grappled with this sort of situation before. determined to do the “right thing,” i leapt into action. assuming the extant curriculum was the result of a lack of accurate information, i gathered historical accounts, along with age-appropriate lesson plans that present accurate historical evidence as well as alternative points of view (see larson 1979 and 1986; ramsey 1979; seale, slapin, and silverman [1995] 1998). i presumed that, if i merely provided clear documentation, along with an array of easy alternatives respectful of different perspectives, the teachers would surely want—or feel compelled—to change the way they approach the holiday. i met first with my son’s teacher, and later with the principal, outlining my concerns and offering examples of the alternative curriculum i had collected. the principal smiled politely and nodded continuously until i finished my impassioned plea. she then said something vague and noncommittal about the teachers “valuing their traditions” and choosing the “best educational activities” for our students. with tears welling up in my eyes, i begged of her “at the very least, don’t make the children dress up as pilgrims and indians. it’s so offensive.” continuing to smile, the principal gently escorted me out of her office. a few days later, i received a letter from my son’s teacher, taped onto the folder of curriculum they returned to me. the letter explained that the unit a teachers had reviewed the situation and wanted to be sensitive to my concerns. they showed me a list of activities planned and offered to remove my son from any activities that made me feel uncomfortable. 3 pulling my son out of the classroom, however, was not the point. i wasn’t trying to shield my son; i wanted a paradigm shift, so that none of these students would be taught a racist myth as actual history. in my enthusiasm to spread the truth, however, i ran up against the power of tradition that, in this case, operates like a brick wall. the next day, my son stepped off the bus wearing an “indian vest” –a brown paper bag torn for fringe and decorated with markers. when i inquired, he stuck a feather into his hair and said (in a voice meant to convey intellectual inferiority), “i-am-a-na-tive-a-mer-i-can.” this was an elaboration of the role he had played earlier when his class made costumes to reenact the first thanksgiving myth. is there a way out of this quagmire for people concerned about the postcolonial ethics of thanksgiving and representation of american indians? one chapter of my dissertation tackles this question, considering case studies in which people challenge thanksgiving ideology (roth 2010). this essay reflects on one of those case studies – the valiant, if naïve and ineffectual, efforts of a folklorist/parent to create fissures in the dominant thanksgiving ideology. i said little the following november, other than grumbling to friends and colleagues, who were accustomed to my diatribes, and instead poured myself into my dissertation research, figuring i would save the world later. i had assumed too hastily that my advocacy effort had been a complete waste of time. to my surprise, several small, but significant, revisions were made to the thanksgiving memo. feast 2006. we will celebrate thanksgiving with a feast on the afternoon of tuesday, november 21st. we ask that students bring a healthy snack to share. we especially welcome snacks such as: cut fruits or vegetables, popcorn, raisins, corn bread or cheese. we will need volunteers to help us set up, serve, and clean up. we will begin setting up at 1:00 and plan to begin the feast at 1:15. if you are able to volunteer, please send a note to your child’s homeroom teacher. at first glance, the memos look more or less the same, but upon closer inspection, i see several changes worth mentioning. for one thing, the words “first thanksgiving” were removed from the 2005 memo, along with any reference to costumes or cameras, leaving me to wonder if my (perhaps awkward) intervention may have prompted the 2006 version. i wanted to believe that perhaps this signaled a shift, albeit a miniscule one, in the discourse surrounding thanksgiving. for another, the celebration event went from being open to all parents to requiring a note to volunteer. is it just parental paranoia, or could this have been intended to keep a meddling folklorist at bay? when i volunteered that year (after submitting the necessary note), i was disheartened to find that the only obvious change had, in fact, been the memo; the rest of the celebration was unchanged. as the kids filed into the auditorium, wearing pilgrim and indian costumes, teachers and parents gushed over how cute they looked. as painful as it was to see my son dressed as a grocery bag indian two years in a row, i have to admit that, as a parent watching the event, it was also cute. it was hard not to smile and, indeed, all of the other parents were smiling and taking photographs. this is an example of how colonialism and racism can wear an innocent face, and hide the sad and ugly truth. far from honoring american indians, these activities add insult to injury by encouraging children to “play indian” in order to celebrate the colonization of the americas (see dorris 1978; ramsey 1979; loewen 1991; harvey et al. 1995; reese 2006). hidden beneath the veneer of paper costumes, the myth of the first thanksgiving perpetuates falsehoods and a self-serving version of american history. with a few notable exceptions, the mainstream media, along with government and businesses, persistently present thanksgiving’s benefits http://digest.champlain.edu/vol1/rn1_2.html#6 http://digest.champlain.edu/vol1/rn1_2.html#6 from the point of view of the european settlers/invaders. since 1970, activists have sought a paradigm shift when approaching the holiday, hoping to challenge popular misconceptions (see dorris 1979; seale et al. 1998; villaneuva 2004). 4 although historical evidence actually does not support the feel-good message of friendliness and sharing that is inherent in the myth of the first thanksgiving, not enough progress has been made to expand social awareness and historical accuracy. many schools do not acknowledge the ethics of thanksgiving, preferring instead to cling to the myth of the first thanksgiving that has been conveniently perpetuated for over 150 years. the exceptions, which attempt to critique thanksgiving ideology, are often characterized by the mainstream as radical. although i do not have access to nation-wide school curricula, from what i can tell, there seems to be a range of thanksgiving curricula in use today—from mildly innocuous to objectionable. for example, janet siskind writes about two schools in new jersey. one was a parochial school, in which the teacher had researched the foods allegedly eaten at the so called “first thanksgiving” and taught such spelling words as: turkey, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin pie. she taught about the indians helping the pilgrims, and acknowledged “the later battles as being due to the resistance of indians to their lands being seized.” the school itself was decorated with turkeys, “each feather bearing a prayer.” the other school was not decorated with turkeys. instead, “the teacher played native american music and knew a great deal about eastern groups. in an impromptu assembly, she showed slides of living native americans and asked the children to remember their ‘indian forefathers’” (siskind 1992 [2002]: 57; see also reese 2006). if the history of the early thanksgivings continues be taught in schools, then it should be taught from more than one perspective, and the painful truths that historians have brought to the fore about relations between wampanoag and pilgrims being marred by distrust and betrayal should be candidly addressed. curriculum could focus on the fact that, before the arrival of europeans in the seventeenth century, there were once an estimated ten million american indians thriving on the lands north of mexico. if the small band of pilgrims losing a third of their members (57 out of 102 people) during the first winter is noteworthy, as the authors of many history text books seem to believe, what of the nine million american indians who died from the plague brought by europeans? students could be asked to consider the point of view of the nine million, for whom the myth of thanksgiving likely has mournful associations. one elementary school in columbia, missouri, took this approach. after reading howard zinn’s a people's history of the united states (1980), eryca neville (a graduate student at the university of missouri at the time) and her sister jonette ford (a fifth-grade teacher at west boulevard elementary school) decided to do something drastically different. neville had been examining general education requirements and reflects: “i respectfully submit that they [students] aren’t taught history. they are taught propaganda. and it is reinforced at the higher education level” (neville 2010). hoping to challenge this biased view of history, the sisters joined forces. neville’s college-level social studies methods class started working with ford’s fifth-grade social studies class in order to curate the exhibit “american history through indian eyes” in 2005. the fifth graders studied civil rights history, with the college students spending half of their time assisting the fifth graders with their research projects. one area of the exhibit involved the myth of the first thanksgiving. the collaboration was so successful that the two teachers have continued to use this classroom museum model. both college and fifthgrade students reported feeling betrayed upon learning of the history to which they had never before been exposed. these west boulevard elementary exhibits sought to provoke cognitive dissonance, for example, by including a wanted poster of christopher columbus that called him a thief and rapist. 5 the end of the exhibit was called, “we are still here,” countering the stereotype of the disappearing indian. the exhibit garnered a lot of positive publicity, and was well attended by students, teachers, parents, and community members. while similar exhibits have occurred at this school since, this approach to curriculum does not appear to have spread to other schools within the columbia public school system. as these different examples show, school curricula have the power either to intensify colonial ideology, or to broaden children’s awareness of the complexities of history and the diversity of human experience. although alternative curricula are readily available, and schools could provide an antidote to the poisonous nature of the thanksgiving myth, institutions like schools are homeostatic systems. paradigm shifts, especially those impacting beloved traditions, do not occur without significant resistance, and the reaction to attempts to challenge curricular traditions can be intense. one parent, michelle raheja, learned this the hard way. her situation demonstrates what is at stake in the negotiation over representation and the consequences of challenging a beloved tradition. in the fall of 2008, raheja sent a private e-mail to her daughter’s kindergarten teacher at condit elementary school, in claremont, california, expressing concern over a forty-year-old non-continuous tradition with the neighboring mountain view school, in which the children take turns dressing up as pilgrims and indians, meeting half-way for a thanksgiving feast. "it's demeaning," raheja (whose mother is a seneca) wrote. "i'm sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or jews (and friendly nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation's history" (quoted in mehta 2008). the issue made it to the claremont school board, which decided to continue the feast, but to disallow the costumes out of respect for native american heritage. few expected the backlash from other parents. many parents ignored the school board, sending their kids to school in costumes as a form of protest. "i think it's ridiculous,” complained kimberly rogers, a pro-costume parent. “it's a longstanding tradition and the kids really enjoy it, so we're going overboard" (quoted in mcmillan 2008). school officials did not remove the costumed kids. additionally, parents on both sides of the issue protested outside condit elementary, with pro-costume parents accusing the school of capitulating to political correctness and the anti-costume parents accusing the school of perpetuating stereotypes. at the feast, one parent dressed as an indian and "did a war dance” around raheja’s daughter, telling the girl to "go to hell" (woods ii 2008; see also raheja 2011). "what's offensive is there are harmful stereotypes that represent a harmful legacy of history that has been denied to indigenous people in this country. the true history of thanksgiving is one of a massacre," said klee benally, who opposes the costumes (quoted in mcmillan 2008). "i'm not saying that i necessarily agree with everything that happened was right. there are many things that happened," said one pro-costume parent. "but when those traditions are harmful to the community, why continue them?" benally replied. “i don't understand why getting together to share a meal is harmful at all. this is why america is great, that we all can get together, different cultures, different ethnicities, we get together, and we share a meal together," said kathy brands, a pro-costume parent (quoted in mcmillan 2008). nervous about the rising tension, school officials called the police to monitor the situation. raheja received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls, many supportive, but many others filled with hateful epithets and racist jeers: "they go from being anxious about political correctness to calling me (an epithet). they don't know my daughter's name, but they've said hateful and disgusting things about my daughter" (quoted in schmidt 2008). one caller hoped that raheja’s daughter would get beat up at school, while “another celebrated genocide of native americans” (mehta 2008). on the blogosphere, the discourse took an even sharper, more vindictive and racist tone (see raheja 2010: 221-32).6 understandably, many educators are reticent to teach the whole truth to very young children. the colonization of the americas was not a noble affair and, admittedly, confronting the myth of the first thanksgiving takes the shine off of the venerated national holiday. fortunately, one easy way to rid thanksgiving of its colonial taint is by shifting curriculum away from “pilgrims and indians” altogether. if teachers want holiday curriculum to impart a feel-good message about friendship and sharing, they should avoid connecting pilgrims and indians to the holiday. instead, curricula could be developed around values and traditions celebrated around the globe, such as agriculture, harvest, family togetherness, and gratitude. to me, as a foodways scholar, some of the most obvious alternatives to the first thanksgiving myth lie in foodways activities, which can introduce the children to questions and experiences that render the motif of pilgrims and indians irrelevant. some examples include: paper plate meal. students describe the menu of their family’s typical thanksgiving meal (or another traditional family meal, if they don’t celebrate the holiday), coloring the meal on a paper plate, and then writing and talking about it. plow to platter, field to fork. students learn about food systems, tracing the route taken by each food item to their tables. older students could watch such documentary films as harvest of shame (1960), food, inc. (2009), and fresh (2009), to spur discussions about the problems facing different the food system and possible solutions to those problems. auto-ethnographies. students conduct ethnographic studies of the thanksgiving meal, taking detailed notes about the acquisition of food, food preparation, pre-meal activities, family stories, as well as the actual meal, dessert, and post-meal activities. reviewing these notes, students begin to appreciate the role that ritual plays in their own lives. older students could use their own family’s meal to examine gender dynamics, the division of labor, and meal rituals. by sharing their reports with others, students are exposed to the diversity of traditions included in this holiday. “protecting children from racism,” says michael dorris, “is every bit as important as insuring that they avoid playing with electrical sockets. poison is poison, and ingrained oppressive cultural attitudes are at least as hard to antidote, once implanted, as are imbibed cleaning fluids” (1991:78). above all, he adds, “no information about native people is truly preferable to a reiteration of the same old stereotypes, particularly in the early grades” (1991:78). rather than reproducing stereotypical images of “pilgrims” and “indians,” we need curricular alternatives. “the antidote to feel-good history is not feel-bad history,” reminds james loewen, “but honest and inclusive history” (1991:82). since the mainstream presentation of the holiday is so singularly biased toward the colonizer, “it is particularly important that the schools stress the other perspectives” (ramsey 1979:54). as a parent and a folklorist, i feel a personal obligation to confront the transmission of negative stereotypes through narrative and ritual. in the case of a school curriculum that unwittingly promotes falsehoods, ethnocentrism, and negative stereotypes, folklorists have an ethical obligation to put their considerable skills to work, offering information that might counteract the eurocentric version of the history our children learn. even modest advocacy attempts can have a ripple effect. as folklorists, we can provide an antidote through a curriculum that broadens children’s awareness of the complexities of history and the diversity of human experience. references cited afs statement on ethics: principles of professional responsibility. 1988. afsnews, new series17 (1). http://www.afsnet.org/?page=ethics, accessed 3/26/12. appelbaum, diana karter. 1984. thanksgiving: an american holiday, an american history. new york: facts on file publications. dorris, michael. 1978. why i’m not thankful for thanksgiving. in rethinking columbus: the next 500 years, ed. bill bigelow and bob peterson. milwaukee: rethinking schools. georges, robert a., and michael owen jones. 1995. folkloristics: an introduction. bloomington: university of indiana press. harvey, karen d., lisa d. harjo, and lynda welborn. 1995. teaching about holidays. in how to teach about american indians, ed. karen d. harvey, lisa d. harjo, and lynda welborn. westport, conn: greenwood press. james, wampsutta (frank b). 1970. thanksgiving: the national day of mourning. http://www.nativevillage.org/inspiration/thanksgiving%20the%20national%20day%20of%20mourning.htm, accessed 3/25/12 larson, chuck. 1979. there are many thanksgiving stories to tell. in rethinking columbus: the next 500 years, ed. bill bigelow and bob peterson. milwaukee: rethinking schools. ---. 1986. introduction. in teaching about thanksgiving, ed. john burrows. the fourth world documentation project, http://www.202tech.com/thanks/temp.html, accessed 8/5/05. loewen, james. 1991. plagues and pilgrims: the truth about the first thanksgiving. in rethinking columbus: the next 500 years, ed. bill bigelow and bob peterson. milwaukee: rethinking schools. mcmillan, rob. 2008. thanksgiving costumes banned at school. abs local news 11/25/08, http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=6525441 , accessed 12/1/08. mehta, seema. 2008. insulting stereotype, or harmless holiday feast? district agrees to drop costumes from kindergarten thanksgiving party. some parents insist it's political correctness gone awry. los angeles times, nov. 25. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/nov/25/local/me-thanksgiving25, accessed 6/24/2009. neville, eryca. 2010. personal communication. oct. 27th. pleck, elizabeth h. 1999. the making of the domestic occasion: the history of thanksgiving in the united states. journal of social history 32(4): 773-89. ramsey, patricia. 1979. beyond ‘ten little indians’ and ‘turkeys’ alternative approaches to thanksgiving. young children 34(6): 28-32,49-52. rajeha, michelle h. 2010. epilogue. in reservation reelism: redfacing, visual sovereignty, and representations of native americans in film, pp. 221-40. lincoln: university of nebraska press. reese, debbie. 2006. those thanksgiving lesson plans, http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2006_11_21_../archive.html, accessed 7/10/10. roth, luanne k. 2010. talking turkey: visual media and the unraveling of thanksgiving. ph.d. dissertation. university of missouri. schmidt, rob. 2008. playing indian for thanksgiving: claremont parents clash over kindergarten thanksgiving costumes. http://newspaperrock.bluecorncomics.com/2008/11/playing-indian-forthanksgiving.html, accessed 10/23/10. seale, doris (santee/cree), bevery slapin, and carolyn silverman (cherokee), eds. 1998. thanksgiving: a native perspective. berkely: oyate. silvey, janese. 2010. americans hang on to thanksgiving myths. columbia daily tribune, nov. 23. http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/nov/24/americans-hang-on-tothanksgiving-myths/, accessed 11/25/10. siskind, janet. [1992] 2002. the invention of thanksgiving: a ritual of american nationality. in food in the usa: a reader, ed. carole m. counihan, pp. 41-58. new york: routledge. smith, andrew f. 2006. the turkey: an american story. chicago: university of illinois press. teacher and student resources for american indian perspectives on thanksgiving. national museum of the native american. http://www.americanindian.si.edu/subpage.cfm?subpage=education&second=thanksgivin g, accessed 12/04/2009. villanueva, ricardo. 2004. the day of mourning/pilgrim progress in plymouth, usa. in theatre and empowerment: community drama on the world stage, ed. richard boon and jane plastow, pp. 155-87. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. wallendorf, melanie, and eric j. arnould. 1991. ‘we gather together’: consumption rituals of thanksgiving day. journal of consumer research 18(1): 13-31. wampanoag life after 1620, http://www.bostonkids.org/educators/wampanoag/html/wafter.htm, accessed 7/10/10. we shall remain: after the mayflower. 2009. dirs. chris eyre and rick burns. pbs series. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/the_films/episode_1_trailer). woods ii, wes. 2008. woman surprised at e-mail backlash. http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_11091249, accessed 7/10/10. zinn, howard. 1980. a people’s history of the united states: 1492 to the present. new york: perennial classics. notes 1. beyond debating the reasons why i refer to the story for the first thanksgiving as myth and not, for example, as legend or actual history is the subject of another article. interested parties may refer to sources that address the history (e.g., loewen 1991; siskind [1992] 2002; pleck 1999; roth 2010). 2. this essay is excerpted from the conclusion of my dissertation, talking turkey: visual media and the unraveling of thanksgiving, which addresses three case studies in which individuals attempt to challenge representations of the master narrative and the prevailing thanksgiving ideology (roth 2010). 3. other things they were learning that day included less objectionable topics, such as the mayflower’s journey, native americans tribes in missouri, hunting and harvesting, and a native american game. 4. for example, in 1970, on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the pilgrim landing/invasion of wampanoag land, a speech by wampsutta (frank b.) james was suppressed by the commonwealth of massachusetts. in response, supporters organized the first day of mourning event (see james 1970; villanueva 2004). 5. the section that received some of the strongest pushback was the exhibit that critiqued indian stereotypes, which included the popular children’s books little house on the prairie (wilder 1932-1943) and the indian in the cupboard (banks 1980), which are part of fourth grade curriculum in the columbia public schools. “somebody stole the materials from the exhibit because they did not want it to be taught!” neville says. besides the anti-indian rhetoric embedded within some of these comments, raheja was most startled by the fact that the e-mail she wrote to her daughter's teacher was circulated without her permission to other parents and to the media, along with her name: “what it does is it effectively silences any parent in the future who has legitimate concerns with the school because who would want to be the target of this much hate over something that was actually so small?” she says, adding that the matter “could have easily been taken care of within the confines of the school” (quoted in mehta 2008). raheja’s experience is a reminder of the power of tradition and its ability to suppress challenges to it. i watched nervously as similarly vitriolic comments rolled in response to a front-page story, “americans hang on to thanksgiving myths,” appeared in the columbia tribune on thanksgiving day (see silvey 2010). spicy chicken feet photographer: ryan davis finding folklore in the cereal aisle by: heather king selling cereal has changed over the years. when dry cereal or ready-to-eat cereal was first retailed, advertising was on the paperboard packages. radio advertising in the 1920s and television advertising in the 1940s and 1950s increased the consumption of cereals. by 1993 kellogg's, general mills, nestle, quaker oats and post produced and marketed approximately 173 cereals (highlights, www.wikipedia.breakfast) and were spending $762 million on television ads as part of a more general advertising effort that resulted in literally “cerealizing america” (scott and crawford 1995:xiv). trends also emerged. in the 1960s sugar was a major selling point (usually in fruit flavours) with some examples being “sugar pops,” “sugar smacks,” “sugar stars” and “cocoa krispies”. in the 1970s box designs were meant to attract children while the writing on the boxes was directed at mothers. prizes in cereal boxes were a draw for children; they were discontinued due to safety issues in the 1980s but reintroduced in the 1990s. scholars such as michael owen jones, bruce giuliano and roberta krell suggest that the multidisciplinary nature of foodways demands a varied approach (1983:xii) and in this research note i adopt a similar approach to exploring the intersections of folklore and dry cereal. today cereal boxes communicate messages that are both direct and subtle. they target children and/or adults through the use of recognizable symbols that originate from popular culture, folklore and foodways. according to roger griffin and stanley sacharow, the goals of communicating these messages have to do with the basic principles of package development which are 1) to sell the product, 2) to attract attention, 3) to create a desire for the product and 4) to increase repeat sales sometimes with incentives such as a free gift reward (1978:212). in this research note, i survey the folklore influences on cereal boxes as found in a grocery store aisle in st john’s, newfoundland. the people i spoke with in newfoundland also reported using expressions that originated as cereal advertising slogans. this illustrates what paul smith refers to when he indicates that information in narrative form can flow back and forth from popular culture and folk culture through the channels of advertising and merchandising and vice versa (1991:127). my preliminary research note supports this claim, suggesting that there are many direct and indirect interactions between folk, popular culture and advertising mediums (see: smith 1991:147; rohrich 1980:114-5). origins the word cereal comes from the name of the roman goddess of agriculture ceres (mcgee 2004:453) and refers to edible seeds/grains that originated from wild plants of the grass family. there is evidence of grain eating from the mesolithic era, but the first wild grains were domesticated in the neolithic age when hunter gatherer societies changed to agriculture or to cultivating crops for a food source (flandrin et al 1999:15; scade 1975:56). due to this development in the neolithic era, grass/cereal plants became a major food staple and this continues to be true today. today grains/cereals are a large part of north american’s daily food intake. as infants cereal is our first introduction to solid food, and from there onwards, cereals increase significantly in what we consume on a daily basis. according to mcgee, there are three basic categories of grain/cereal: major, minor and pseudo-cereals. the major and most common grains are wheat, oats, barley, rye, rice, and corn while millet and sorghum are classed as minor cereals. amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa are not from the grass family but are used like cereals and thus are classed as pseudo-cereals (mcgee 2004:482). “cereal” also refers to products made from these grains. the most common forms of this food staple are breakfast cereals but scade notes that cereals form the largest part of human diets because, in addition to processed cereals, other forms of food like bread, pasta, noodles, couscous, tortilla, pita and flat-bread are classified as cereal as well (1975:2, 51). hidden forms of cereal are added to processed foods such as instant pudding, pie fillings, soup mixes, sugar confectionery, and used as binders in meat products (scade 1975:54). for this research note, however, the focus is on processed cereals, meaning dry ready-to-eat breakfast foods. it is believed that the very first cold breakfast cereal or ready-to-eat cereal in the new world was created by the native american indian tribe, the hopi (gay and gay 1996:44-5; kadish 2004:1-10). according to gay and gay, the cereal was a corn wafer known as “piki” and it is still made by the hopi today. it was dr. james caleb jackson who created and sold the world’s first ready-to-eat cereal “granula,” which had to be soaked overnight to be edible (bruce and crawford 1995:6-8). gay and gay report that in 1893 henry d. perky created “shredded wheat,” the first ready-to eat cereal available through retail (1996:31, 44-6). however, according to scott bruce and bill crawford, dr. john harvey kellogg of the institute of the medical and surgical sanitarium of battle creek, michigan was the forefather of dry cereal in america and the flake cereal that he invented in 1894 is the precursor to cereals we eat today (1995:22). kellogg’s cereal was created out of his seventh day adventist religious beliefs and treatments that derived from his medical background; it was his solution to the rampant problem of dyspepsia in america. kellogg understood that a person’s diet affects their health and in treating his patients through diet control, he included grains as part of the regime. he believed that sex was the source of social evil and that the cause of aggression and sexual impropriety was inherited by blood, by gluttony and by diet or the consumption of meat (kellogg 1882:284, 290, 292). in other words, diet was a medical and a moral issue that required food sanctions such as no meats. kellogg looked for a way to make grains into a more edible form. after he met with henry perky in 1894 about his invention of “shredded wheat,” kellogg was inspired to make a flake cereal (bruce and crawford 1995:21-22). the idea came to him one night when he was abruptly awakened from his sleep for a phone call. the next day in the experimental kitchen of the institute, the development of a cereal flake began. an exhausted kitchen crew unintentionally left a batch of wheat to soak overnight. when this batch was baked the next morning, it formed the perfect flake that they called “granose” (bruce and crawford 1995:49-50). in the beginning, these cereals were made only for dr. kellogg’s patients and it was his younger brother, will keith kellogg, who turned the idea into big business. his decision to use corn led to the development of the corn flake in 1898 and on february 19, 1906, the battle creek toasted corn flake company became incorporated (bruce and crawford 1995:51). it is ironic that today’s sugar laden cereals were born out of what was originally intended to be a health food. dr. kellogg’s convictions, which formed the underlying principles for the development of battle creek, came out of principles of vegetarianism as laid out in the early 1800s by sylvester graham, namesake of the graham cracker (bruce and crawford 1995:23). significantly, charles william post, founder of post cereal company, was a patient of kellogg. the four major cereal companies of today, kellogg's, post, quaker oats, and general mills came into being in the late 19th century. bruce and crawford refer to john harvey kellogg as the forefather of dry cereal and the great-grandfather of the self-help movement, to charles post as the grandfather of advertising, and to henry crowell of quaker oats as the god-father of merchandising (1995:14, 65). the development of ready-made cereal occurred as a result of the coming together of ideas of health reforms, alternative religions, business innovations and technologies, and coincided with the development of several social movements, like temperance, vegetarianism and the self-help movement (belasco 2000:256). over the years dry cereal processing has evolved to include cereal forms that are flaked, puffed, shredded, baked, sweetened, flavoured, coloured and enriched with vitamins and minerals (scade 1975:51). a modern element added to cereals is the addition of dried fruits and flavour combinations. it is from these processes and from variations on these processes that today’s cereals are derived. folklore and the cereal aisle on october 7, 2005 i surveyed a cereal aisle in sobeys howley estates, a large grocery store located in the east end of st. john’s, newfoundland, canada, and one of many typical large national grocery chains across north america (photo 1). the store stocked 79 cereals under the major brand names of post, general mills, kellogg's and quaker. the number is high because cereal companies add new flavours yearly. for example, honey bunches of oats comes in regular, honey roasted, with strawberries and with almonds; cheerios has multi-grain and eight other flavours, like apple cinnamon, honey nut or berry burst. this constant variation may be part of a marketing plan directed at children, and charles camp notes that children revel in what is new, novel and hybridized (1989:108). cereal producers seem to understand this as they devise different ways to present variants of the same product. quite frequently, “new” is predominantly displayed on such new improved products. it also has to do with “built-in obsolescence” trends started in 1950s and 1960s (may bender 1975:15). photo 1: the cereal aisle. cereal boxes are designed with different formats and colours, depending on the intended target audience of either children or adults. those designed for children typically are filled with more detail, and look extremely busy (photo 1). to entice children, a number of cereals had games, activities and gifts included in the boxes. for example, there were series of cds that included trivial pursuit. another had robots watches. camp states that play is a way of embellishing the culture of food (1989:108) and there are strong elements of play and fun associated with children’s cereal. for instance, quaker cinnamon life cereal had a contest to create images out of the cereal encouraging children to play with the food in creative ways. it thus associates food with pleasure. contest winners are essentially treated as celebrities or heroes having their picture shown on the box side panels. rice krispies provided patterns to make edible shapes out of their cereal, and the front of captain crunch cereal boxes had in bold letters, “fun and play.” children’s fruit flavoured cereals tended to be sugary, suggesting a cross between candy and food. the lines demarcating what is food have been blurred by some parts of the food industry and this is apparent for cereal products. companies use elements of play and fun to promote their cereals because it is a solid selling point attractive to children. cereal themes, text and images kellogg's kellogg's has several lines of cereals that can be categorized by themes. there are healthy cereals that focus on high fibre and weight loss. all bran buds, all bran original, all bran strawberry bites and all bran flakes fall into this category. they have a red heart motif which as a folk symbol of love can have many meanings. kellogg's uses it as a symbol to denote a product that is heart healthy. the all bran and the strawberry bites boxes have wheat shafts that in folklore symbolize the staff of life and wholesome goodness. the raisin bran box has a stylized sun, a ritual symbol that has been worshipped by many religions, and means power and warmth. strawberry bites has a proverbial-type slogan, “make bran your friend,” that personifies bran and portrays bran as a hero who can save you from health problems. special k was developed in 1955 because of dr. john harvey kellogg’s dream to create a health food or miracle food in the face of the popularity of sugary cereals at that time (bruce and crawford 1995:112). the bright red k probably represents kellogg's. however, it is possible that the idea for this cereal may have been in the spirit of k-rations because it was lightweight, small in volume and high in nutritional value. the meaning of k in k-rations is unknown. it started as a wwii army provision (bruce and crawford 1995:99). eugene mckay who created rice krispies for kellogg's, also helped develop wwii k-rations (bruce and crawford 1995: 99). special k now is available in soya, carb-fit, special k red berry and vanilla almond, and its advertising is associated with weight loss specifically targeting women. for example, there is a silhouette of a slim female figure on the package of regular special k (photo 2). photo 2: silhouette in the background kellogg's has a few other cereals that are designed for the health-conscious. the company offers a number of muslix cereals and other cereals that are promoted as meal replacements. kellogg's vector has a large “v” spanning the entire front of the cereal box. v is also the traditional sign for victory or the victor, or champion (photo 3). kellogg's vector is an official sponsor of canadian olympic athletes in training. the ad slogan is “fuel up” which infers if you eat this cereal you will become a powerful human machine, or a hero, like athletes. a close cousin to vector is tony’s turboz, which uses the corporate character of “tony the tiger” as an energy powerhouse because he eats turboz. tony signifies “greatness,” power, and strength. he is the all-american male stereotype. sometimes he is the symbol of a family man. other times he is a sports jock affiliated with football, basketball and baseball, games that are truly traditional american symbols. in their own right, these symbols have their special folklore specific to these sports. the newest element is sponsorship for the kids help line. the personified tony is paired with the social ideal of helping others. photo 3: nutrient dense meal replacement. the health appeal of certain cereals targets adults through using ideas of wholesomeness. an example of this is corn flakes that are available in three kinds: honey crunch, banana crunch and the original corn flakes. the original corn flake has been around for almost one hundred years. these boxes are plain except for the stylized classic rooster named cornelius who has been a corporate character since the beginning of the company in 1906. a rooster is a folk motif for multiple cultures, and is a barnyard symbol associated with mornings and delivering the morning wake-up call. he is a reference to wholesome, country living that you can have vicariously by eating corn flakes. according to gillian dyer, kellogg wanted to connect the rooster image to corn flakes and build on the rise and sunshine element (1982:120). dyer also considers sunshine to be an emotive association linked to the product (1982:152). these images are like cultural icons that are relatively easy to grasp. it was interesting that a red maple leaf, that is symbolic of canada, was used on some of the corn flake boxes to announce the newer nutrition labels. this indicates the level of institutional involvement with nutrition education. the next category of cereal is one that targets both adults and children by combining fun and nutritional appeal. kellogg’s rice krispies uses the corporate characters of the snap, crackle and pop elves that are easily recognized because they resemble the elf characters in the folktale “snow white and the seven dwarves.” in addition, three elves illustrate the law of three which is one of axel olrik’s laws of folk narrative (olrik 1909). the chocolatey marshmallow rice krispie squares has a free gift inside of a kidz counter. the gift in cereal boxes, like any free gift, is meant to motivate children to get their parents to buy more cereal and to collect all versions of the prizes. there are also footprints on the rice krispie box meant to encourage kids to be physically active. the “kidz count” mission or statement suggests being physically active, but it may also imply that children are important and valued in this culture. thus, there can be many layers of meaning associated with these images. kellogg's sugar-coated mini-wheats also falls into the fun and nutritional category of cereal. the sugar is meant to entice the consumption of what would normally be a bland unappealing food. mini-wheats come in original, brown sugar and maple flavours. the mini-wheat (mw) hero is personified as the product and the product’s character. mw uses a spoon as a paddle to canoe through a bowl of miniwheats rapids. the maple mini-wheat is the whole-wheat version of the cereal, featuring a bottle of maple syrup and a maple leaf on the box. the syrup bottle’s shape readily denotes a folk symbol, in particular for french canadian culture. frosted flakes and cinnamon frosted flakes are in the category of sugary cereals marketed toward children. as noted above, cereal companies have blurred the lines between what is food and play and these foods can be classed as candy or dessert. the cereal companies have responded to the recent accusations that the current problem of childhood obesity is due in part to the consumption of junk cereals or fast foods, and frosted flakes is now available in a one-third less sugar version. tony the tiger is the corporate character for this product associated with the well known ad slogan, “they’re grrrreat!” the tiger is a sports icon, and sports teams often use it as a mascot. the back of the frosted flakes cereal box shows tony participating in active sports but there are a number of puzzles and mazes provided there as well that encourage less active type of play and in a sense gives mixed messages. the froot loops cereal created in 1964 falls into the category of sugary cereals. the current box in the supermarket has elements of folk culture and popular culture. it is available in a one-third less sugar version. the corporate character is toucan sam, known as uncle sam, since he has two nephews. significantly, the namesake is an american icon embodying national pride and us army recruitment; pairing of such symbols is common in ads (richard 1992:29-46). linking froot loops with uncle sam ensures recognition of the cereal. the playful character of sam has a nose for recognizing the froot loops fruit flavours. inside each cereal box there is a free robots watch, from robots the movie, thus tying the cereal to popular culture. there are five versions to collect ensuring repeat sales. kelloggs corn pops, another sweet treat, offers the same prize with the wording “collect all five” on the box front and centre. ads are written with word economy in dialogue form (meider and meider 1977:309). “collect all five” is a direct command, or an imperative. quaker all quaker products are easily identified because the logo itself is a stereotypical motif for the quaker culture. the symbol represents purity and is the classical symbol for oats. quaker puff rice and puff wheat, two of their oldest brands, have always had low salt, sugar and fat content. no adjustment has been made to these cereals in order to fit modern demands. most of the quaker products have the heart check symbol signifying their health benefits. the most popular cereals are life oat bran and life cinnamon swirl. however, quaker brand cereals have a unique way of ensuring product loyalty for their life cinnamon swirl. they have a contest “design the box” where children can make a design out of the cereal and enter it in the contest (photo 4). if they are picked as a winner, their design becomes the box cover and their picture is featured on the box side panel. in this manner, the winner truly becomes a celebrity or, in a sense, attains hero status. this activity encourages children to play with food in a creative way and thus associates food with pleasure. the slogan “kids love life” is both a double entendre and proverbial, an example of expressive folk culture and in itself is a positive metaphor for meaning in life. also, captain crunch, the one sugary cereal that quaker produces, has bold letters on the front of the package: “fun and play.” the use of the element of fun and play remains a major way to attract children to these products. photo 4: design a box contest and playing with food. general mills whole grain oat cheerios were originally created for military personnel, but in 1941 they were retailed to the general public (bruce and crawford 1995:98). today, there are at least eight variations of the cereal: original, toddler, multigrain, apple cinnamon, honey nut, frosted, triple berry and berry burst (photo 5). the original cheerios are now sold in a box with a red heart bowl, and another small red heart in the lower corner, indicating support for the “heart and stroke, mother and daughter walk” campaign. when the heart motif is paired with “mother,” it is a powerful cultural symbol of love and it has an emotive effect. again, fitness is stressed. the cheerio apple cinnamon cereal has a large red apple in the background (photo 5). it is a proverbial reference to “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” signifying health. the bright red apple is also a motif in the folktale “snow white” and in the legend of “robin hood,” in which good triumphs over evil, an excellent metaphor for cheerios. the toddler cheerios has a toddler’s cereal bowl on the box front and a mail-in offer for the popular culture storybook the disney character “baby einstein.” this reflects the value that culture has on the importance of education. it suggests that cheerios are the kinds of food chosen by parents who want their young children to thrive. the multigrain and the apple cinnamon cheerios have a free cd-rom offer. the package features popular culture characters sponge bob square pants and dora the explorer geared to younger children—and for older children basketball hero michael jordon with the nba logo and popular culture trivia games. the hard sell approach of “collect all 6” is front and centre of the box. the cd promotion saturates the boxes of other cereals such as cinnamon toast crunch, french toast crunch, lucky charms, lucky charms whole grain, reese puffs, and the nesquick bunny. there are two versions of each, one with the cd and one without, which impresses upon you that this is a limited time offer. photo 5: apple for health. the lucky charms cereal, which has been around for four decades, uses folklore motifs. the frosted oat cereal is itself shaped into familiar folk motifs that are related to good luck. for example, there are rainbows, pots of gold, shooting stars, horseshoes, and four leaf clovers or shamrocks. as an icon of irish culture, lucky the leprechaun, is appropriately dressed in green, the colour is symbolic of the eire isle and the colour of irishness. lucky the leprechaun is linked to the irish folk belief of fairies and magic. if you eat the cereal, it is implied that vicariously you become part of that magic. the general mills reese puffs cereal directly references sugar and candy. reese is a manufacturer of candy and even the bowl on the front of the package is in the form of a reese’s pleated candy bar cup. this cereal makes a bold statement for candy over food, as does the nesquick bunny and count chocula cereals. the count character imitates the dracula character in popular culture and while children may perceive the count to be a hallowe’en figure, he is also a folklore figure. post post has five cereals that share one central element in the graphics of the package. these are grapenuts, original shredded wheat, spoon size shredded wheat, 100% bran and spoon size wheat and bran. the common element is a yellow heart and a green ribbon banner which implies that this product can reduce the risk of heart disease (photo 6). like the other brand names, the heart is used to stress the product's health benefits and the motif is common in folk cultures and rituals. the ribbon banner implies the product is a winner, as ribbons are symbolic of awards and denote a champion. some boxes have the symbolic wheat shaft, the representation of the staff of life. the uncomplicated designs on these boxes are geared toward adult consumers and there are no corporate characters, fun elements, or free prizes. one exception is wheetabix cereal. the adult style box has many wheat shafts and a mail-in offer for an mp3 player. in contrast, post’s sugary cereals, like alphabits, sugar crisp, and honeycombs have playful presentations that target children. the alphabits letter-shaped cereal lends itself to creative food play, as children can make words from it. photo 6: hearts as health symbol. as consumers, adults tend to seek what is familiar and, unlike children, sometimes avoid the clutter of newer things (camp 1989:108). adult cereal boxes are more simply presented and geared toward health, nutrition and weight loss issues. the bran cereals have heart symbols in some form indicating this is for heart health and for reducing heart and stroke risks. according to roger griffin and stanley sacharow, humans have physiological and psychological reactions to colour (1978:218) and generally the adult cereal boxes use subdued colours such as white, soft yellows, dark blue, and dark purple, suggesting a serious approach. in advertising, white is perceived as female and dark blue as male. cereal-related eating habits and memories after completing the cereal aisle survey at sobeys supermarket i spoke with nine people from the avalon region of newfoundland and several expatriates now living outside the province about their cereal-eating habits. they referred to cereal in relation to their childhood and that of their children’s. the respondents were gordon (age 63) and michael (age 22) of placentia; murray (age 40), bob (age 56) and charlotte (age 48) of logy bay; jack (age 40) of torbay; lori (age 38) of st. philips; and expatriates faye (age 58) and wendy (age 47). michael, a young academic, named kellogg’s vector as his favourite cereal. as a child he and his brother ate kellogg’s just right, shreddies, cheerios and kellogg’s raisin bran. they were allowed coco puffs and froot loops as a special christmas treat. as a student in residence at memorial university, he mixed three to four sugary cereals to eat when he did not like the dining hall desserts. when alone at breakfast, he likes to read the back of the cereal boxes—particularly the nutritional breakdown--while eating. he described it as something like waiting-room behaviour; he does it to occupy his mind. he considers it as something most people tend to do. his comments are in line with bruce and crawford’s observation that box literature has the ability to inspire some writers (1995:262). gordon shared a personal experience narrative from when he was seven years old living in point verde (near placentia, newfoundland) in mid 1950s. he responded to a kelloggs corn flakes mail-in offer for red binoculars for which he had to send in box tops with a quarter. he recalls the excitement of picking up the parcel from the post mistress who only opened the post office in her house when people came to get their mail. the binoculars were made from cheap plastic but to him it did not matter that the paint flaked off easily. the childhood thrill of receiving mail remains with him. as a child, he ate corn flakes for breakfast with a blend of half hot water and carnation evaporated milk (tinned milk was a food staple during this time period in relatively isolated newfoundland communities), and sprinkled with sugar. he still eats it this way for breakfast minus the sugar. murray (a st. john’s resident originally from lockport, nova scotia) indicated he never ate ready-to-eat cereal growing up because he hated the milk mixed from skim milk powder and water that his mother made for them. he remembers his uncle murray having a large orange bag of puff rice from which he ate a large bowl every day with hot milk and sugar. the hot milk shrank the rice and made it mushy. murray began eating ready-to-eat cereal at university in the 1980s. he too recalls using it as a snack food, and having baked party mix of cheerios, chex, pretzels and garlic powder. today, he eats raisin bran. his daughter liked sugary cereals as a child, but he and his wife allowed it only as a special christmas treat. his daughter and his wife now eat vector. wendy has two sons. cereal is her youngest son’s favourite food. she indicated he would eat cereal for every meal if she allowed it. his absolute favourite is oatmeal in any form, hot or cold, at anytime. when he was little, he referred to it as “oatme” and the family still affectionately refers to it with his term. according to her, it is great that cereals with cd games are not the worst kind to eat, because it does not result in confrontations with her children. the boys love playing games like trivia, so game cds are perfect. she avoids buying sweet cereals as they make her son hyperactive. these cereals are reserved for traditional or special times like christmas, or at grandmas’ cottage where they have froot loops or lucky charms. wendy believes there is something sinister about cereals like count chocula that turn milk either brown or pink. to her, the colour transfer makes it obvious these foods have additives and are not good to consume. jack has two daughters who are seven and eight years old. sugary cereals are the norm and are eaten daily for breakfast. one daughter prefers lucky charms, the other froot loops, and both like the new dino egg quaker cereal. lori from st. phillip’s does not give her sons sweet cereals as it makes them hyperactive. they prefer whole grain cereals that stay crunchy in milk, as they dislike soggy textures. if they dislike dinner, she gives them cereal as a meal replacement, or uses it as a bedtime snack. the quaker dino cereal is a favourite. lori described the cereal as looking like opaque egg candies, but when you add hot water, the outside dissolves and little candy-like dinosaurs are revealed. because it is made of oatmeal, she considers it is not bad for them. dino eggs sounds like an interactive product that engages children. it must seem magical to children transforming oatmeal into a fun/play item. interestingly, lori referred to it as “candy eggs”. charlotte sheppard of logy bay grew up in torbay, in a household of 11 siblings. they ate hot cereals for breakfast and cold cereal as bedtime snacks. she spoke of rolling up her sleeve and “diving” into the cereal box to find the prize. as siblings, they fought amongst themselves for the prize. her husband bob originally from cormack, newfoundland, recalls eating mostly hot oatmeal for breakfast as a child. when their daughters were young, they ate ready-to-eat cereals and this marked a notable generational change in the family’s eating habits. i found many examples of ad slogans or catch-phrases for cereals that became part of folk expressive culture. robert sheppard remembered “tall up with corn flakes.” it suggests eating cornflakes made you grow tall, and was a kellogg’s ad campaign from the mid-1960s (bruce and crawford 1995:187). when i asked gordon about eating corn flakes, without prompting he said “ooooh that’s corny,” but he did not know its origin. the phrase was part of a 1962 ad campaign promoting the idea that kellogg’s had the corniest corn flakes. it was in response to a general mills rival version of corn flakes, and kellogg’s ran a series of corny puns in radio ads to counter the competition (bruce and crawford 1995:167). the phrase was popular in north america. michael also recalled a trix cereal ad “silly rabbit, trix are for kids,” and reported using the phrase as a sarcastic or cynical way of making a comment on something. the nouns can change, but it is said in the same sing-song way as on the tv to convey a mocking message. he said the term is used in his peer group. his example was “silly michael (rabbit), grants are for profs.” although no one in his peer group uses the phrase in this way, he has heard it used as a slur or insult about a person’s gender, sexual orientation or race. he also noted that if something was on tv in 1980s it is cool to refer to it in 2005. faye jones, an expatriate, often heard her mother-in-law say “he is feeling his cheerios today,” in reference to faye’s father-in-law. it means someone who was sexually frisky, or tipsy from alcohol. some understand it as an expression of a young man “sowing his wild oats,” or to refer to sexual promiscuity. the roots of this expression are located in the history of cheerios that were earlier called “cheerioats” and designed for military personnel; in 1943 general mills coined the term “he’s feeling his cheerioates,” (bruce and crawford 1995:98). there was a familiarity with other cereal-related expressions used to convey ideas that respondents shared with me. for example, the term “crunchy granola,” was something everyone in the study understood to refer to a personality type; it denotes an earthy person, an intelligent nerd, or a creative eccentric. murray said he knew the term “he had his wheaties this morning,” indicating an energetic person. apparently frank sinatra attributed his sexual virility to eating wheaties every morning, but general mills prefers sports celebrities to promote wheaties (bruce and crawford 1995:169). murray reported hearing the saying, “who pissed in his/her corn flakes,” especially at work to refer to an upset person in a crabby or sour mood, but he never uses it. interestingly most people i talked to were familiar with this expression, but noted they did not use it. when i gave the corn flake example to prompt their memories murray offered another variation: “what did you put in your corn flakes this morning?” which means someone in an energetic or lively mood. finally, as a child, i remember playing the “wish corn flake” game although no one else i spoke to, other than my siblings, seemed to remember playing this game. if you found an extra large flake in the corn flake box it was a wish corn flake. you make a wish before eating it and the belief was that your wish came true. even though this was a small cross section of nine people, some patterns emerged. for example, the older respondents ate dry cereals hot and mushy, or hot oatmeal for breakfast. it was important to start the day with a hot meal and to end the day with a cold snack. for the younger consumers, cold cereal was the preference over hot; it can be eaten as a meal replacement or a snack before bedtime, as well as a breakfast food. except for one exception, the parents did not like to give their young children sugary cereals; these were considered special treats for special occasions and were sometimes regarded as part of family traditions. it is also interesting that the adults have taken advertising slogans and catch-phrases and created their own expressions that are meaningful. again, this demonstrates a flow of exchange from advertising to folklore and from folklore to advertising, as outlined by smith in his sequential model (1991:127, 129). conclusion the study of advertising and cereal is far more complex than can be explored in a brief research note. originally cereals were introduced as a way of treating health problems. with commercialization, ready-to-eat cereals developed into a product often laden with sugar, often specifically targeting children, and today many are a far cry from their roots as a health food. although still marketed as a breakfast food, cereal is eaten as a snack, bedtime lunch, dessert, or for a special treat on a special occasion. cereals today with lower sugar content have come full circle, representing a return to the idea of eating as a way of controlling many health problems. ready-to eat cereal can be both healthy and unhealthy; it often represents a convenient and fun food. contemporary cereal boxes can send mixed messages. for example, being physically active and having a healthy diet is stressed on some products yet the same company may be selling varieties of sugary cereal that are low in nutrition. that said, cereal manufacturers successfully blur the lines of fun and food in ways that are very entertaining and keep consumers coming back for more. cereals are “edible entertainment” (bruce and crawford 1995: 263). advertisers of cereal also offer young consumers something that many find irresistible: the possibility of becoming a hero, or at least of feeling important. when gordon received a mail-in offer from kellogg's in the 1950s in point verde, he felt special. for a child at that time in his community, receiving mail was an important event. the reward was not only a toy but a feeling of importance that went with it. it is probably equal to how the children feel as winners of the “design the box” competition and getting featured on the life cinnamon swirl cereal box. cereal companies promise children that celebrity status is possible and attainable. these tactics are successful in part due to marketer’s incorporation of folklore symbols and ideas. in turn cereal-related eating habits, advertising motifs and expressions have become a familiar, albeit often unselfconscious, part of people’s lives. references cited belasco, warren. 2000. future notes: the meal-in-a-pill. food and foodways 8 (4): 253271. bender, may. 1975. package design and social change: an american management association management briefing. new york: amacom. bruce, scott. 1995. cereal box bonanza: the 1950’s identification and values. cambridge: collector books. bruce, scott and bill crawford. 1995. cerealizing america: the unsweetened story of american breakfast cereal. boston: faber and faber. camp, charles. 1989. american foodways: what, when, why and how we eat in america. little rock: august house. collins, gordon. telephone interview with author. november 15, 2005. collins, michael. e-mail communication with author. october 14 & 17, 2005. dyer, gillian. 1982. advertising as communication. london: methuen. flandrin, jean-louis, massimo montanari, and albert sonnenfeld, eds. 1999. food: a culinary history from antiquity to the present. new york: columbia university press. gay, kathlyn and martin k. gay. 1996. encyclopedia of north american eating and drinking: traditions, customs and rituals. santa barbara: abc-clio. griffin, roger c. and stanley sacharow. 1978. principles of package development. westport: avi publishing. highlights in the history of american breakfast cereals. www.wikipedia.org/wiki/breakfast_cereal (accessed oct. 04, 2005). hupmann, murray. personal interview with author. december 1, 2005. jones, faye. e-mail communication with author. october 5, 2005. jones, michael owen, bruce giuliano and roberta krell, eds. 1983. foodways and eating habits: directions for research. los angeles: california folklore society. kadish, lesley v. 2004. reading cereal boxes: pre-packaging history and indigenous identities. journal of american popular culture 3 (2):1-10. kellogg, j. h. 1882. plain facts for old and young. burlington: i. f. segner. mcgee, harold. 2004. on food and cooking: the science and lore of the kitchen. new york: scribner. meider, wolfgang and barbara meider. 1977. tradition and innovation: proverbs in advertising. journal of popular culture 11 (2): 308-319. moosang, wanda. telephone interview with author. november 12, 2005. orlik, axel. 1965 (1909). “epic laws of folk narrative.” translated and reprinted in the study of folklore, ed. alan dundes, 129-41. englewood cliffs, new jersey: prentice-hall. richard, alfred c. 1992. postum, post toasties and patriotism. advertising and popular culture: studies. in variety and versatility, ed. sammy r. danna, 29-46. bowling green: bowling green state university popular press. rohrich, lutz. 1980. folklore and advertising. in folklore studies in the twentieth century: proceedings of the centenary conference of the folklore society, ed. venetia j. newall, 114-15. totowa, nj: rowman and littlefield. scade, john. 1975. the value of food: cereals. london: oxford u p. sheppard, bob. personal interview with author. november 22, 2005. sheppard, charlotte. personal interview with author. november 18, 2005. smith, paul. 1991. contemporary legends and popular culture: “it’s the real thing.” contemporary legend 1: 123-152. review of: congotay! congotay! a global history of caribbean food candice goucher. abingdon, oxon & new york: routledge, 2015. pp. 239, bibliography, index. review by: rachel finn archivist/librarian & independent researcher, new york food is always a fascinating and tangible way of tracing history or social movements, examining culture, and understanding people. a particular dish, recipe, or ingredient can often shed light on the historical events, the movements, or even the people who have created or are tied to them. candice goucher’s congotay! congotay! a global history of caribbean food proves all of this. this slim, engaging volume tells the sweeping story of caribbean food (and colonialism, and enslavement) and serves as an excellent example of how to write a richly complex food history. in the introduction, goucher writes that the book will “map[s] the contours of caribbean history and, by association, the cultural and social dimension of the planet’s largest narrative of globalization” (xviii). the largest narrative of globalization to which she is referring is, of course, the colonization of the americas and the caribbean which spurred the transatlantic slave trade and, after official and reluctant criminalization of chattel slavery by european colonizers, the coerced migration of millions of south and east asians to these lands after the legalized end to slavery. the social and cultural dimensions refer to the transfer of recipes, ingredients, food processing and agricultural knowledge, as well as the role of all of these things in the lives of african, asian, and european immigrants (and to a limited degree native americans) in their adopted lands. the book itself is organized into six chapters that are in turn broken into multiple sections that sketch out for the reader a very clear and thorough picture of caribbean foodways and the multicultural elements and common history that comprise it. the author takes care to highlight the diversity of nations that make up the geographical region and also the ethnic diversity of the people themselves. she points out that africans and asians represented many different ethnic groups but created a new culture melding elements from many different cultures (including native american and european ones) to form new afro-caribbean and indo-caribbean identities that were distinct from the ones they had left behind. elements of all of these groups are reflected in food and cooking techniques. starting with the voyages to and from africa and europe, goucher starts with an exploration of the development of maritime cookery citing it as one of the foundational elements of caribbean foodways and itself a product of the intermingling of tastes, ingredients, and cultures that globalization stimulates. she mentions techniques such as long stewing (itself an element of classic continental african cooking), which allowed maritime cooks to easily feed large numbers of people on long transatlantic voyages, and ingredients such as salted fish and meats that were preserved for as provisions and played an important roles in the predominance of salted fish and meat in caribbean cooking. pungent spicing, and african foodstuffs, such as chilies and yams were included to appease human cargo but also made food on the transatlantic voyage more palatable and more nutritionally sound. more importantly, goucher points out that they defined maritime cooking and made their way – as new and recycled components-into the culinary repertoire of the african cooks who would control kitchens throughout the caribbean for centuries. from the 1600s onward, those africans would further develop their own cooking practices and by the time indian and chinese indentured workers began arriving in the middle to late 1800s, a strongly african-influenced cuisine, with less pronounced traces of european and maritime food culture, defined eating and cooking throughout the caribbean after exploring maritime cookery, goucher dedicates subsequent chapters to african food and cooking and adaption to the new caribbean environment. she explores the important and brutal role of sugar in the development of caribbean food culture when she covers the arrival of south and east asian indentured workers and their contributions to the culinary mix of the region. in a section called “feeding the spirits” the author covers african food practices and belief systems related to them and asian-caribbean religious food uses in indian and chinese cultures. here it becomes clear that food plays an important role in nourishing body and spirit. from there goucher explores food in the context of caribbean family, sexuality, and social interactions. throughout the book, the author uses culinary and cultural terms specific to countries that are considered part of the caribbean. she deftly weaves together a narrative that places plantation cooking, the various roles of food in obeah, vodun, santería, rastafari and other creolized religious cultures, carnival celebrations, and family and everyday life in appropriate context of countries within the french, english, spanish, and dutch-speaking caribbean. the study is comprehensive and provides expansive evidence of the commonalities that link these the food cultures-and by extension the general history—of these countries and the diverse elements that set them apart. the inclusion of a limited number of regional recipes for dishes mentioned in a particular section or chapter makes the book interactive for those who may be so inclined. the commentary accompanying the recipes helps to reinforce the idea that most are common throughout the caribbean but reflect variations specific to a particular country or cultural group within the region. this is a comprehensive study that delves deeper than many other works into the subject by placing the human faces of colonialism, enslavement, and indentured servitude at the center of the story, and specifically the black and brown ones whose food cultures unwittingly transformed the global culinary landscape. it provides a complement to two recent collections of essays, food and identity in the caribbean edited by hannah garth (2013) and caribbean food cultures: culinary practices and consumption in the caribbean and its diasporas edited by wiebke beushausen et al (2014), that offer reflections on particular aspects of caribbean food culture, as well as richard wilk’s book home cooking in the global village: caribbean food from buccaneers to ecotourists (2006). wilk provides a history of caribbean food but his focus is on belize and he offers less of an intimate portrait of african and asian people and their respective places in shaping caribbean food throughout the region. in congotay! congotay! the subject matter is treated respectfully and honestly. it is an anthropological history that manages to avoid an overtly anthropological gaze. the book weaves socio-historical complexities of race, ethnicity, and class while managing to maintain its focus on the caribbean and frankly the dominant african and asian cultural and culinary influences. it is a welcome addition to foodways studies literature on caribbean food, globalization, and colonialism and will be accessible and engaging for everyone from students to advanced researchers. new mexican chiles sentinels of hispano identity and cultural heritage by: erika derkas strolling down the walkway of the albuquerque international airport, one is overwhelmed by the variety of quaint crafts that represent new mexican culture. the commodification of both native and hispano cultures is displayed throughout the airport and in the city’s tourist shops that pepper the landscape of historical sites. native heritage is sold as kachina dolls, navajo blankets, turquoise jewelry, and indian fry bread. dispersed among these native crafts are souvenirs of a separate sort those that symbolize the native hispano culture. most celebrated among hispano products is chile, in more recent times this is most often green chile. hispanics make up 47% of new mexico’s population (pew research 2011) and particularly when tourists travel north of albuquerque, where some of the larger hispanic concentrations are located in the high-country’s northern regions above interstate 40 (u.s. census data 2010), they find themselves confronted by a host of chile items in the form of ristras (strings of drying red chile peppers), christmas lights, earrings, salsas, burgers, beer, soaps, and wax candles, and other commodities. all of these products have become more readily visible in response to a rise in tourism, however, their cultural influence goes far beyond tourism. chile has been cultivated in new mexico for at least four centuries (bosland and walker 2004) and some chile lines have been bred and handed down through generations. symbolically linked to both the land and a distinctive new mexican identity, green chile (capsicum) appears as a cultural heirloom that defines northern new mexican cuisine and as one respondent stated, “is seen in part to be what makes northern hispano new mexico culture unique.” as both food and decoration, chile is a preeminent ethnic emblem for what gonzales (2007) terms nuevomexicanos, or northern new mexican hispanos. over the last several decades, there has been an explosion in research on food, identity, gendered relationships, and cultural heritage. scholarship documents the centrality of food, consumption, and preparation in expressing and maintaining various aspects of identity (see narayan 1997, schenone 2004, avakian and haber 2005, abarca 2006, counihan 2009, 2005). as narayan notes, “questions of how people connect what they eat to their personal, social, and political identities, of how they use what they eat to distinguish themselves from others within and outside specific social groups, and of the role ‘cuisine’ plays in the scripts of ‘nation’ and ‘national identity’ are quite revealing” (narayan 1997:161). by considering chile, this paper contributes to this ongoing research on food and identity through its exploration of hispano in the specific region of northern new mexico. to explore the ways in which hispanos symbolically use and relate to green chile and how green chile is incorporated into a sense of ethnic identity, i conducted semi-structured telephone and face-to-face interviews with people living in rural northern new mexico, albuquerque, and southern colorado. a snowball sampling procedure was used to contact participants, whereby one contact provided names of others of hispano heritage willing to discuss the topic. a total of 24 interviews were conducted in 2011 and 2012 with participants between the ages of 24 and 72 who identify as being part of a hispano culture. the semi-structured interview guide contained 20 open-ended questions related to green chile and hispano culture. qualitative content analysis was utilized to systematically examine the interviews and newspaper articles from local papers (the las vegas optic, green fire times, santa fe new mexican and the documentary film genetic green chile) that added secondary supportive data. data from informal interviews and over ten years of participant observation of funciones, fiestas, lent rituals, and ‘topic related’ conferences/workshops were verified by speaking with key informants, including artists, teachers, retirees, local residents, business owners, and scholars specializing in new mexican history. examples of topic related conferences include one held at the university of new mexico in 2012 titled, “impacts of genetically engineered crops on the freedom to farm in the u.s. and abroad,” as well as a 2012 workshop at the onate cultural center on seed saving and presentations made by cuatros puertas, a non-profit culturally based seed bank, on green chile and genetic engineering. northern new mexican ethnic identity ethnic terminology has been often political, and always fluid, over new mexico’s history. although spanish and native populations have mixed since the time of spanish conquest and colonization, the various native pueblos/nations and the local hispano settlements remain distinct cultures. today many hispanos in northern new mexico remain staunchly committed to the notion that they comprise a distinct group, different from mexicans, mexican-americans, latinos, or chicanos, the term of selfidentification bejarano found used most often used in southern new mexico along the u.s.-mexico border by people of mexican ancestry who were born in the united states (bejarano 2005). that northern new mexicans self-identify as a regional ethnic group unlike any other “hispanics,” is based on two reasons according to nostrand (1984) and gritzner (1974). first, the spanish colonists began moving northward from mexico into the regions of present day northern new mexico as early as the 17th century (gritzner 1974). this arrival occurred earlier and more directly from spain than did tejanos or califorñios, bringing with it early cultural forms connected to iberian customs (nostrand 1984), some of which have remained consistent and have been preserved. however, as phillip b. gonzales argues, this is a rather simplified characterization of hispano identity. a more complex understanding would attend to the “political aspects of culture, the individual encounters of hispanos with outside mexicans, the reshaping of ethnic culture by urbanization, and the cultural significance of ethnic resistance to anglo domination which hispanos have shared with mexican-americans throughout the southwest” (gonzales 1993b:562). after colonization, northern new mexican hispanos remained relatively isolated from outside contact while their numbers increased. simultaneously, so too did attributes which became indigenous to the people and some of these remain visible, although ever-changing, to this day. these include vestiges of a castilian dialect of spanish known only to new mexico (espinosa and espinosa 1909:53). for instance, archaic words such as facer (rather than hacer) for ‘to do’ or ‘to make’ or cajete rather than the more standard baño for a metal washtub were documented by f.m. kercheville in the 1930s (1934:43). in its early history, the region remained relatively culturally and geographically isolated due in part to the fact it boasted few natural resources to attract anglo-americans. as well, land grants tied up huge parcels of land while the threat of violence from native american tribes kept european immigration down (debuys 1985). along with these factors, the perception by outsiders of the supposed poverty and ignorance of the area left it relatively untouched and thus allowed for the preservation of hispano culture. one example of isolation is the early development of the moradas, which are small chapels for the hermanidad de nuestro padre jesus nazareno worship, more popularly known as the penitentes in new mexico. the penitentes are most commonly associated in the popular imagination with the reenactment of the crucifixion. the often repeated assumption about the brotherhood is that it formed in the 19th century as a men’s religious society in order to maintain and perform the catholic rituals at a time when the catholic diocese was unable to send priests to the region (weigle 1976). the brotherhood continues to exist and change, enduring as a unique contribution to new mexico’s culture and politics. in many ways new mexico still remains insular and sits on the margins of mainstream american life. popular culture penetration at times only heightens feelings of regional ethnic identity as it tends to occur with the invasion of hollywood’s movie industry and the gentrification and displacement that follows with hollywood stars buying large tracts of land (like patrick swayze, val kilmner, carol burnett, and julia roberts to name a few). a more contemporary sense of marginalization may lie with the lack of recognition by outsiders, especially those from the east coast, that new mexico is an american state. new mexicans find the ignorance of outsiders who believe that new mexico is still part of mexico disdainful as one of my respondents remarks, “i get so angry that some people still don’t even know that new mexico is a state.” another respondent recalled reading a story around the time of the atlanta, georgia olympics whereby a resident of northern new mexico was attempting to purchase a ticket over the phone. he states, “the sales representative insisted that she couldn’t sell the guy a ticket since that would be for the international sales office.” hispano lifeways and culinary traditions embody a commingling of spanish, native peoples, angloamericans, and african americans among others as a result of the legacy of three centuries of first spanish and then mexican rule. hispanos adapted to the harsh physical environments of the area and acculturated much of the non-hispanic population to the hispano lifestyle. thus, there are many people in northern new mexico today who, though not originally descended from the spanish or native americans, are identified as hispano and/or who participate widely in hispano culture because their families have been integrated throughout numerous generations (e.g. cassidy, regensberg, ilfeld, johnson, gandert, branch, laumbach, bonney). this is the case for both anglos and native americans alike. for example, wright and campbell’s (2008) study of the geographical landscapes of hispano villages, found that las trampas originated as a border fort between the spanish in santa fe and the apache and comanche lands. the town was partially made up of genizaros (captured native people who were forced to adopt spanish culture) who withdrew to the frontier. although it is impossible to absolutely define the term hispano, it has been suggested that a hispano identity includes a roman catholic religious orientation, a rural heritage, emphasizes family relations over those of non-familial based associations, and encompasses individuals who speak or understand both english and northern new mexican spanish or have close relatives who do so. these orientations are reinforced by the rural nature of northern new mexico that offers a supportive, extended-family atmosphere where residents personalize their relationships and forge strong ties to place (jakle 1999). the interface of ethnicity and region, of blood and soil, has been tacitly recognized in state politics since the late 1800s throughout new mexico. hispanos received land grants from the spanish and mexican governments beginning in the 17th century. a connection to the land, actually a passion for the land that takes on a living and breathing reality through the people who speak about it, is central. hispano lifeways in northern new mexico developed in response to this deep connection to the land. that this passion may seem an anachronism in the industrialized united states of today is clear enough. northern new mexico and parts of southern colorado remain the homeland for many hispanos living in the diaspora. even though in the 1940s hispanos in large numbers migrated to cities, often relocating in the regional urban centers of the upper rio grande such as albuquerque where wages were higher and jobs more plentiful, they remained intensely loyal to their rural villages (smith 2002). for instance, for some hispanos it is of utmost importance to be buried in their home community (smith 2002). smith (2002) documented that among mortuaries providing services to local hispanos in espanola, new mexico and pueblo, colorado, between 15-20 percent of the business revolves around those who wish to be interred in their hometown cemetery. northern new mexico hispanos share the concept of homeland, familiarized by tuan (1976) and later expanded upon by other social geographers and sociologists as an exploration of the attachment to place (see nostrand 1992, nostrand and estaville jr. 1993, 2001, gonzales 2007). they demonstrate the “geopiety,” that tuan (1976) argued to be an intersection of devotion to place and one’s native land or country exemplified in a reverence for home. tuan further argued that homeland is “an archive of fond memories and splendid achievements that inspire the present; place is permanent and hence reassuring to man… the more ties there are [to a place], the stronger is the emotional bond” (1977:154,158). one illustration of this deep devotion to place is seen in post death migration that is closely associated to the attachment individuals feel for “place” (rowles and comeaux 1987). although some culture groups bond with a place more readily than do others, the most important ingredient in the development of a homeland is this deep emotional attachment to a place (arreola 2001, conzen 2001, jett 2001, jordanbychkov 2001, nostrand and estaville 2001, schnell 2001). as richard muir concludes, “often the significance of place and the meanings associated with [that place] lie at the core of a person’s identity” (1999:274). hispano culture both has been shaped by and shapes the geographic region. regional foodways developed in response to a physical environment that is relatively unsympathetic, especially in terms of agricultural development. the growing season is short in the northern region of new mexico due to high elevations, extreme water limitations, and arid soils. locals developed innovative techniques to adapt, including water systems called acequias. the origins of the acequias can be traced back to spanish and native american sources while its development was closely associated with the spanish settlement of the southwest and was continued under the mexican and american regimes (hutchins 1928:261). many acequia associations remain active to this day, with the continuation of annual ditch cleaning events, echoing nineteenth-century cultural rhythms (rivera 1998). acequias irrigate ‘long lots,’ which are narrow agricultural fields, most characteristic of new mexican cultivation (wright and campbell 2008). according to j. b. jackson (1952) the ribbon-shaped pattern of agricultural new mexican fields that kept farmers close to their land and the acequias is inherently hispano. seed saving, cultivating foods that thrive in local environments, and developing food preserving techniques that create foodstuffs unique to the area are still present, despite contemporary conveniences. these practices include steaming green corn in an horno, a wood fired outdoor oven, if available and drying it to create chicos (dry roasted corn); jerking the meat of elk and deer to make carne seca; cooking blue atole (blue corn meal porridge) with red chile to make chaqegue, especially popular with the older generations; drying beans; canning jellies made from wild fruit like capulin (choke cherries), ciruelas (plums), and freezing and drying fresh chile and storing it in the form of ristras and powder. unlike mexico where corn tortillas predominate, especially farther to the south than the borderlands, in northern new mexico flour tortillas are much more common. partially this is due to the difficulty in producing large quantities of corn, whereas the grassy plains and arid climate of the north makes it well suited for cattle ranching and irrigated wheat farming (pilcher 2001). jeffery pilcher writes, “whenever irrigation permitted, the settlers cultivated the european grain wheat, although the expense of mills and ovens often forced women to grind the grain on metates (stone and mortar grinders) and cook it in the form of tortillas rather than bread” (2001:262). these conditions also made it less conducive for growing a variety of vegetables, herbs, and in particular chiles. beginning in the 20th century, hispano culture in northern new mexico was affected by attempts to impose english language education (u.s. commission on civil rights 1974), mass media, the railroad, and both wwi and wwii. hispanos found themselves not unlike new arrivals of the old world to the united states. although the new world of the outsider offered many opportunities for a more convenient lifestyle, it simultaneously threatened their traditional and very meaningful cultural heritage. local customs were often superseded by the more “sophisticated” practices of outsiders (nostrand 1980). even the erection of fences undermined the traditional communal land usage of small ranchers on the las vegas land grant of san miguel county and were contested by the las gorras blancas of the late 1800s (romero 2006). there were 362 land-grant claims filed by hispanos and chicanos in new mexico and yet the u.s. government only confirmed portions of 128 grants (wright and campbell 2005). in the end, hispanics and native peoples retained a slight portion, 4 million acres, of the 33 million acres of land grants. animosity still boils over this deception, especially in the hispano homeland of northern new mexico (briggs, briggs and van ness 1987, ebright 1989, nostrand 1992). ethnic revivals and resistance movements occurring throughout the united states in the 1960s and 70s reached deep into northern new mexico. men like reies tijerina and rudolfo “gorky” gonzales fortified the la raza unida movement and programs, heritage festivals, and publications that sought to strengthen the spanish component of hispano identity. tijerina’s hispano grassroots movement in northern new mexico, the alianza federal de las mercedes, contested the failure of the u.s. government to honor the treaty of guadalupe-hidalgo. the treaty was written to protect the rights of hispanos and their land and was signed by mexico and the united states (zentella 2004). many of the publications and festivals continue to this day although some observances are waning. these include funciones (village saints’ day), posadas (locally hosted dinners for christmas travelers), fiestas and mantanzas (community parties, pig/sheep or goat roasts), lent rituals, including praying the stations of the cross every friday during lent at local moradas (places of worship established by hermanos), holy week processions to a calvario hill (holy destination site of procession) (lamadrid 2007) and the pilgrimage to the chimayo santuario among others. the chimayo santuario chapel is a cultural and spiritual touchstone for the region’s hispanos -this is the destination site for the largest pilgrimage in north america that takes place for good friday (wright 2002). given its history and cultural practices, northern new mexico fits zelinsky’s definition of a timehonored region: regions are relatively self-contained, endogamous, stable, and of long duration… an intimate symbiotic relationship between man and land develops over many centuries, one that creates indigenous modes of thought and action, a distinctive visible landscape, and a form of human ecology specific to the locality. although the usual process of random cultural mutation, the vagaries of history, and some slight intermixture of peoples, and the diffusion of innovations of all sorts presents the achievement of total stasis or equilibrium, or complete internal uniformity, it would not be unfair to characterize such a traditional region as one based on blood and soil. in the extreme, it becomes synonymous with a particular tribe or ethnic group (zelinsky 1973:110-111). the symbolic use of green chile emerges as central to claims made for northern new mexican identity as a distinct hispano identity and northern new mexico as a cultural region. chile peppers in new mexico the history of mexican food is long and varied with multiple cultural influences. the chili pepper plants that were introduced in the 14th century by the portuguese have become a popular spice in mexican cuisine. however, the culinary artists of old mexico experimented with blending different chiles to make renowned mole sauces. as one of my respondents, agnes montoya states, “mexican cuisine incorporates cilantro and other spices and herbs while here in new mexico it mostly plain, ‘good ole’ garlic.” in contrast, new mexican hispanos perfected the cultivation and cooking of a single chile, the green chile. one respondent stated that, “as long as i can remember i’ve heard about chile, who makes the best chile in the family, whose chile to stay away from at gatherings…its always been about chile.” applied liberally to anything from pizza, bagels, fudge, and even beer, green chile is found everywhere. one young woman from mexico commented, “you guys put green chile on everything, all the time.” green chile is much more than just a spice, condiment sauce or decoration; in many cases it really is more of a staple as reflected in one woman’s statement, “chile is a staple for northern new mexico food. we usually have chile as a side dish for most meals.” several varieties of chile are grown in new mexico, including the new mexican type, cayenne, paprika and jalapenos. however, central to this study is the new mexican type cultivars that extend from new mexico 6-4’, numex big jim, sandia, numex r naky, numex conquistador, numex joe e. parker, and arizona-20 (bosland and walker 2004). green chile is a seasonal crop so for most of the last 400 years it was only available a few weeks out of the year. therefore, red chile, preserved as ristras, was the standard form of chile for most of the year. this is changing, however, and despite the fact that canning was not widely practiced among the women i interviewed, as many expressed concern about the possibilities of botulism, the advent of technology such as freezers, has meant that green chile is more readily available year round. the difference between green and red chile is that the green chile is simply harvested earlier in the ripening process than the red chile pod. red chile tends to have a milder flavor. new mexicans have their own preferences when it comes to purchasing chile for home consumption, choosing among chile varieties with names like “big jim,” “mira sol,” “socorro,” “rio grande,” “sandia,” “chimayo,” “hatch,” and “mesilla valley.” oral tradition suggests that in 1598 the celebrated and lambasted conquistador, don juan de onate, traveled into what is now known as new mexico bringing along the green chile pepper from mexico (new mexico green chile company 2010). jose pacheco contends, in one interview that “since a great deal of exchange occurred prior to onate between the northern region and what is now known as mexico, the green chile pepper arrived much earlier.” for certain, it has grown in new mexico for at least 400 years (votava, baral, and bosland 2005). the new mexican green chile peppers originated in the rio grande valley and are now grown throughout the state. much of the credit for improving chile cultivation is given to the century old chile program at new mexico state university. less acknowledgement is given to local indigenous seed saving that many hispanos have been practicing for generations. the major commercial production takes place in the southern part of the state, concentrated roughly along what has been coined, “the chile trail.” in the west the trail begins in hidalgo, luna, and dona ana counties, the state’s three largest chile producers. as the trail continues past hatch, texas is the next site, where it is strictly “chili” spelled with an “i”, which represents a dish made and created by anglo-texans, and does not refer to the plant. chiles for local sales are a relatively small part of the total commercial chile acreage, but chile is a good cash crop for some small growers (bosland and walker 2004). starting in 1970, chile became an important cash crop for farmers whereby most are grown under contract to be sold to processors (dudley 2010). symbolic representation: natural item and item as food northern new mexico hispanos are one of the primary heirs to the cultural and technological knowledge pertinent to the production of green chile foodways in the united states. in hispano northern new mexico green chile exists both as part of nature and part of culture as it understood not just as food but also as a seed that is pure, handed down through the generations, and thus a conveyor of local knowledge. seed saving has been a constant throughout the region as the “seeds are considered sacred,” as isaura andaluz of cuatro puertas stated during her interview. according to agnes montoya, “the seeds are important because if you get them from way back when, then you know you have the real thing. nowadays, a lot of chileros have mixed the seeds." in spite of some polluting of the genetics of green chile seeds, many hispanos continue to protect the heirloom seeds of green chiles which creates a food with great symbolic meaning. given the reverence of the land and nature, hispanos understand green chile as both a living object and as a prepared food. the dual role of the green chile as natural object embedded with local cultural knowledge and a pervasive food item in hispano life is partly responsible for this food’s success as an ethnic emblem. the way of life, the resilience of the people in an arid harsh environment, and their connection to the land, creates symbolic meanings communicated by green chile as a symbol of resistance to modern forces that threaten to undermine cultural heritage. the green chile can be manipulated symbolically both as a natural item and as a food and thus the meaning expressed by the image of the chile as natural item is different from the meaning expressed by chile as a food item. for this reason, the chile possesses a broad range and flexibility as an ethnic and regional emblem. the natural aspects of the chile’s quality that make it an especially appropriate ethnic emblem are its tenacity and hotness. as mentioned earlier, northern new mexico offers a rather challenging growing environment and yet the chile has prospered. the resilience of the chile in response to the environment parallels the resilience of those who settled here and thus serves as a symbolic image of a forceful people. as also noted above, northern new mexican hispanos possess a rich cultural heritage that persists in spite of its marginalization in the state, national, and global economy, racial oppression and appropriation, and displacement from the land (wright and campbell 2005). green chile is an appropriate hispano symbol given that land and water are traditionally fundamental to hispanos, not only because they sustain life but as concepts around which this distinct culture emerged (debuys 1985, ebright 1994). “here in new mexico we interface with nature, interface with traditional culture; we have a different experience, and a lot of it is reverence,” according to miguel santistevan (dudley 2010). for this reason, land loss whether by annexation, confiscation, poverty, or environmental conflict, constitutes an injurious and disempowering detriment to the very essence of hispano culture (zentella 2004). many challenges impact the culturally significant foodways of ethnic groups. these challenges often prompt groups to re-establish their connections to heritage and cultural continuity. the love of green chile and its iconic symbolic representation of hispano ethnic identity and cultural maintenance is demonstrated in the resistance struggle that threatens green chile production on a number of fronts. as a result of the north american free trade agreement (nafta), and heightened border security, new mexico’s green chile commercial harvest has been cut by two thirds and half of the commercial jobs in the industry have disappeared. it is important to note that the labor shortage and other production problems are suffered almost exclusively by large industrial farming operations in the southern region of new mexico (dudley 2010). in contrast, organic farmers and traditional family and subsistence farmers have enjoyed chile price increases and note that the seeds that have continued to adapt and have pushed production per acre up by 75% from 1992 to 2009 (save new mexico seeds 2010). moreover, green chile production has offered modest incomes to growers or middlemen selling door to door. during one interview, lila candelario pleasantly remembers traveling with her father thomas maes, throughout the southern regions buying sacks to sell to neighbors in the north. jose pacheco recalls the time when his dad, “farming the chamita area sold ristras to the general store for one dollar a ristra.” the struggle to maintain small localized family green chile production has encountered opposition from what is identified as corporate imperialism in new mexico and which threatens local control over new mexican green chile. specifically the push to create genetically modified green chile at new mexico state university (nmsu) is at the center of this struggle. in 2007 state legislatures signed a memorandum protecting green chile from genetic contamination of native seeds, thus supporting the farmers’ rights to maintain their seeds uncontaminated in light of genetic engineering to take place in new mexico. however, shortly thereafter, nmsu was awarded one million state dollars to research genetically engineered (ge) green chile. the introduction of ge green chile is to take effect in 2012-13. the physical nature of green chile enhances the power of the chile-as-food in regards to being an ethnic marker. for many hispanos chile encompasses the culture of northern new mexico and this was stated by a woman from the las vegas area in the following response to the question, “is there any particular food that you think represents the culture of northern new mexico: 'definitely chile, anything with chile.'" chile, as a complex food symbol, is manipulated in different ways to determine and impregnate it with ethnic boundaries. this includes the roasting process, culinary preparation and ability to withstand its hotness. roasting green chile each year from august to september, owners of grocery stores, roadside stands, and small fruterias in northern new mexico faithfully roast green chile. on display are the home-made open black wire cages that are turned while a propane flame heats the chiles to the point of blistering the thick outer skin. the gushing sound of propane gas is followed by the snap, crackle, and pop of roasting chiles as the skins begin to swell up, allowing the pod to be peeled to expose the chile flesh. chiles are purchased in various quantities, from just a few pounds to 50 pound sacks; many people will purchase numerous sacks to take them through to the next season. one woman fondly states, “it was just awesome to see my mom get together with all of her sisters and enjoy themselves while roasting, like, five sacks of chile.” although in more contemporary times individuals sometimes request a roasted sack of red chile as well as green, most often the roasted chiles bought at the black wire cages will be green chiles of many varieties and degrees of hotness. they have a thick flesh that is propagated for good flavor. roque maes commented that while he was growing up in the 1940s and 50s, however, “green chile was not the most popular chile that existed in northern new mexico because there were no modern conveniences like refrigerators. green chile is seasonal and red chile is more likely to be saved as ristras used in cooking, red chile was used more often especially during the winter.” due to its thick flesh and outer skin the chile must be roasted just long enough and then steamed in a heavy plastic bag so that the steam can further roast the chiles and make peeling an easier task. the peeling process is not terribly complicated if the chile has been roasted for the right amount of time. when the skin blisters it simply sheds from the flesh, otherwise it remains adhered to the surface and much of the chile is wasted. today, chile is generally placed in freezer bags immediately after roasting and steaming. otherwise it will sour and many people also dry green chile as a form of preservation. some prefer the convenience of roasting chile on-site in a propane roaster while others roast their own on homemade apparatuses, estufas (wood burning kitchen stoves) or gas grills. for one woman the smells brought back fond memories as she stated, “roasting chile reminds me of being young and my mom and aunts would get together since early in the morning and roast and peel green chile on our grill all day.” participation in chile roasting requires a degree of specialized cultural knowledge in order to achieve the final product. chiles roasted at the stands are bagged and lugged home for the final part of the process which often serves as a time of family bonding. as corilia ortega reminisces: ford had nothing on my mom. she would set up an assembly line starting with three vandejas (large stock pots) filled with cold water, where the first person began squishing the chile down into the cool water to rinse, quickly turning the water black and thus requiring a constant replenishment of fresh water. at the second vandeja the older sisters would remove the stems and continue rinsing. my mom was anal about it, at the last stage of rinsing, chiles picked from the third vandeja would be peeled by my sisters and landed up in in yet another individual bowl. the less interesting task was given to the youngest girl, me, where i would bag the chile amongst a mound of ziplocks and many towels that sopped up the dripping hotness. my mom made sure that the chiles were lined up side by side in the bags like little soldiers laid in waiting, and then stacked in the cleared corner of the storage freezer. red or green? for hispano new mexicans this is a philosophic question, for the heart and soul of new mexican cuisine is the chile, and this question is the official state question. when ordering new mexican dishes at restaurants, patrons are asked if they prefer red, green, or christmas, a unique new mexican term for the combination of the two chiles. this is reflected in one elderly man’s statement, “red or green? chile represents all of new mexico. especially the way that it is prepared in this state.” chile is prepared as a dish to be eaten with everything from eggs and potatoes to burritos smothered in red, green or “christmas.” it is also served in a variety of forms such as freshly chopped or simply prepared as a mixture of chopped or powder with water and thickened by a roux to form a sauce or stew. chile, as it is known in new mexico, constitutes a variety of dishes where the main ingredient is fresh green chile, or a sauce made from rehydrated dry red chile pods, known as chile caribe. the spanish spelling of chili with an ‘i’ is understood as something more like a soup or stew, made with meat and various other ingredients, and seasoned with a mixture of powdered chile, and other spices. the new mexican spelling of ‘chile’ with an ‘e’ represents something much more than ground beef, beans, and cheese. as a response to the question, “what food do you think represents northern new mexico?” one women states, “well this would probably be categorized under the entire state, but it would be chile.” the state’s iconic pepper constitutes the essential ingredient for both chile verde and chile colorado, which can be served thick as a sauce or with broth and vegetables as a stew although in the latter case the green is more common. at times the labels, carne con chile verde or chile verde caldo (used more by old timers) distinguishes the fresh from the sauce as cruz flores states. cultural syncretism and cultural borrowing even foods that are not traditionally recognized as hispanic may become so through the introduction of chile. cruz flores tells of his mother’s rodillos now infamous within his family circle: my mother spent many working hours with an upscale lebanese family who introduced her to stuffed cabbage rolls made with lamb and rice. my mother substituted hamburger for the lamb and introduced the mixture to a profusion of powdered red chile to make what the family now refers to as rodillos. rodillos now have come to represent a celebrated traditional dish served over the decades on new year’s eve. the dish is enjoyed by family members and all who have been introduced to it. “the kids now request the dish for christmas and thanksgiving, next you know we will be eating it for fourth of july,” cruz laughs. agnes montoya smiles when telling of her children’s latest culinary adventure; “for christmas they tried a new recipe of homemade tamales with green chile, chicken, and mozzarella cheese. different but very good for a change.” cultural boundaries the hotness of the chile is often used as an ethnic boundary between hispanos and others as well as within hispano groups. depending on seasonal variables, such as rainfall and temperature, the chile will be milder or hotter than previous years. however, the commercial pods bought at the local market will likely be mild to medium in heat as they tend to cater more to tourists or newcomers and therefore the spiciness is toned down. outsiders or newcomers who acquire a love of chile and purchase sacks for home consumption may become the subject of humorous stories. witnessing or hearing of an outsider or tourist accidentally rubbing their eyes while peeling chile is the butt of many jokes and stories. and on the other hand, hispanos in the diaspora are at times tested by family members on their hispano authenticity; those returning home will be put to the test to see if they can still withstand the level of hotness of the new mexican green chile. cultural acceptance and appropriation new mexico has gained international fame as a tourist site and many outsiders are eager to become acquainted with the “exotic” local foodways. although few tourists have the opportunity or desire to purchase vast quantities of green chile to roast, numerous tourist-oriented restaurants introduce newcomers to the culinary novelty of new mexican cooking in a thoroughly american commercial setting. in such establishments, the hotness or spiciness of the chile is toned down to suit the less seasoned palates of many tourists and is often served in small quantities by staff who graciously explain the red, green, and christmas distinction. in more expensive restaurants, dishes are available that rarely if ever grace the table of the average local: piñon crusted trout with green chile chutney; pan seared hatch green chile colorado rosen lamb rack; or sweet avocado green chile ice-cream. in all of these dishes chile is disguised more as a spice, sauce or condiment, rather than a principal food. thus, in the heavily advertised new mexican restaurants, where tourists and their dollars are welcome, the loosening of ethnic boundaries is reflected in the setting and the food. to the outsider, these restaurants are different enough to be interesting, but not so different as to be threatening or not enjoyable. smaller, out-of-the-way, “authentic” restaurants also exist where the clientele is more local, spanish is more commonly spoken, the food is hotter, the menu more limited, and the setting less formal. although such restaurants welcome outsiders who happen by, only the more adventurous are apt to feel comfortable in what is obviously “insider” territory. some locals joke that hispano new mexico lies over the chile curtain (as opposed to the tortilla curtain popularized by t.c. boyle’s novel with the same name). hispano new mexico is separated gastronomically from anglo-americans, where green chile is occasionally peppered in gentrified dishes, representing an exotic adventure into the “land of enchantment.” throughout the region of northern new mexico people express a great deal of pride in their cultural heritage and subsequently their local foodways especially through the numerous major festivals and minor fiestas. these celebrations feature new mexican cuisine for the benefit of locals and tourists both. most small towns celebrate their local saints at village funciones or fiestas during which a great deal of food is shared and sold, most of which feature green chile, including green chile enchiladas, green chile stew, “smothered” burritos, green chile powdered popcorn, and jerky. the state fair at the new mexico fair grounds, the largest of all the state’s fiestas, offers the annual burger cook off, dubbed the governor’s green chile cheeseburger challenge. the new mexico state tourism department went so far as to create the new mexico green chile cheeseburger trail as a tourist attraction. conclusion micro-level studies of cultural festivities and everyday occasions revolving around eating offer a window into symbolic representations and ethnicity for as roger abrahams writes, “ethnic or regional identity can be acted out within the home by eating certain foods prepared in special ways” (1984:20). this is often an unconscious process in the absence of alternatives but when newly introduced foods come into the picture the process of choice becomes symbolic. thus, in looking at the poetics of food we can appreciate more fully how foodways are utilized in forms of exchange other than just meeting dietary needs. in this article i have argued that the green chile, both in it natural form and as a food item, is symbolically representative of the unique hispano identity of northern new mexico. there it is held as a rich ethnic emblem of reverence for the land, ethnic pride, and resilience. even though there is a realization that the sales of green chile to non-hispanics will probably remain low, attempts are being made to expand the market. the new mexico department of agriculture (nmda) began its “get your fix” green chile promotion to introduce new mexico green chile to residents throughout the united states. the marketing and development staff at nmda works with grocery stores in different cities to help set up the chile displays and educate consumers about the many uses of green chile. in 2010, the “get your fix” green chile promotion was featured in retail stores in several texas cities, washington, d.c., las vegas, nevada, virginia, and long beach, california, just to mention a few. for decades chile has been the heart and soul of hispano culture and the pride of the regional foods. with technological changes, green chile became especially prominent and with promotional efforts, its importance as a cultural symbol only promises to grow. this article is dedicated to lila candelario whose stories will live in our hearts always. references cited abarca, meredith. 2006. voices in the kitchen: views of food and the world from working-class mexican and mexican american women. college station: texas a & m press. abrahams, roger. 1984. equal opportunity eating: a structural excursus on things of the mouth. in ethnic and regional food-ways in the united states: the performance of group identity, ed. laura keller-brown and kay mussell, 169-182. knoxville: the university of tennessee press. arreola, daniel d. 2001. la tierra tejana: a south texas homeland. in homelands: a geography of culture and place across america, ed. richard l. nostrand and lawrence e. estaville jr., 101-124. 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will the average american consumer buy sushi from a gas station? with the explosion of food culture, enthusiastic “foodies” are seeking out food trucks and trailers. will the next new “hit” move from the truck and be in the gas station? i was curious to explore these questions, and after moving from a smaller populated, small town state (mississippi) to a large state both in population and area (texas), i was also interested to compare stores in denser populated regions to those in mississippi where i had already done research. lay of the land since relocating to texas, i continue research started at university of mississippi. while earning a master of arts in southern studies, i spent a year traveling the state, conducting oral histories for my thesis on mississippi gas stations, with an emphasis on mom and pop entrepreneurs. through postcard archives, travel books, maps, and these oral histories, i discovered how communities in the state are changing. where agriculture once supported many small town economies, main street is no longer thriving and the gas station or country store may be the only place left for residents of an area to get food or meet up for news and gossip. with food profit margins narrowing, many of these businesses are in danger of closing or are boarded up. my original hope of gas stations being the savior of the southern “meat and three,” or at least being able to see this tradition in its "natural habitat," were soon dashed. instead, i found that the country kitchens and stores still in business have creative owners who quickly adjust in order to stay in the game and keep people coming in. for example, a few miles outside university of southern mississippi, in petal, is gas station and corner store, mak's. hungry locals search through a haze, where smoking is still allowed and behind a large stack of pepsis is the hot food. to the left are aisles of bait and tackle in addition to guns and ammo, and on the right, beyond the dining booths, is the typical convenience store inventory. down along the mississippi coast, a favorite of locals and visitors alike is fayards in ocean springs. similar to mak’s, this small grocery looks like a typical gas station with a canopy and a few pumps in front of a boxy convenience store. only those in the know would stop to further investigate. customers choose from franchise fried chicken, bait and tackle, a made-to-order kitchen counter, meat market, and an ice cream parlor. while eating shrimp po boys next to the bait and tackle may not be to everyone’s liking, the kitchen and meat market are the draw. on the other side of the state in centreville, is vine brothers, a fourth generation family-owned business, where their unique tagged meat processing brings in hunters from all over and contributes a quick profit uptick over the hunting season for the family business. since 1980, they boast processing over 120,000 whitetail deer. unlike other game meat processors where one may get a combination of a number of hunter’s kills, customers using vine brothers know that the meat the bring in and carry out is from their doe or buck they killed in nearby fields. competition among gas stations is heavy. survival of this type of family business means owners must change and diversify, adjusting to its customer base. wal-mart’s murphy oil and texas chain buc-ee’s have brought the box store model to the corner gas station, making the future of these multi generational businesses grim. before beginning my research on gas station food, i had not stepped inside a filling station in over a decade. the power of point of sale at the pump had been ingrained in me since my early years of driving. even while living in california, the state deemed “king of car culture,” i rarely felt the pull of snacks, drinks, or the miscellaneous items that was just behind the glass door of the office. so how does the corner store entice people to stop, get gas, and mosey on into the store? there are many strategies. my local (and last stop before home) gas station in oxford, mississippi used a sign board to place mythical and epic predictions during football seasons, often called the “freeze report” after ole miss’s coach hugh freeze. the home team always won on the board. cars and trucks zipped in and out near this three way stop located on a county road near the edge of the city limits. although positioned at a busy apex, a contributing factor to the store’s activity was that barbecue was sold out of one side of the store and bait and beer was available before heading out to the nearby lake. gas stations definitely display regionalism while complying with the standards laid down by large franchises. similar to “the freeze report,” one of my favorite signs in savannah, georgia was from the 3g (gas, goods and grub) that stated "now open 25 hours.” my friend shared this on social media and commented, “sorry savannah, you only get 24.” although there were few historical postcards of gas stations over the years, the social media documentation in this century continues with the many tongue in cheek, play on words titles of stations. my uncle in arkansas shared a picture of a live chicken at the pumps while fueling. while not exclusive to the region, it’s not something one sees every day. during my research phase of my thesis, i vacationed in key west, florida for new year’s where i observed the corner store selling a “cup of luck" (black eyed peas and rice) inside for new year’s day. outside, they had an advertisement for a 16 oz coca cola beverage and a fresh cuban mix sandwich for seven dollars. both items where not a surprise due to location with the southern foodways new years tradition and the state’s large cuban population. the trend of kitchens in gas stations is new but so is the repurposing of former gas station buildings. what happens to these structures as a city changes? gas stations evolved from oil gas shacks to filling stations to convenience stores. oil companies adjusted to changing regulations and shortages by following trends, from the fall and rise of free maps and full service attention to competition for the cleanest restrooms, to other customer loyalty programs including green stamps and collectable gimmicks. as architecture changed from stations looking like homes (pure oil), and roadside attractions (coffee pots, dinosaurs and even igloos and shells) these building reflected a changing industry. as cars became more computerized, many stations ceased repair business and reinvented revenue with a convenience store attached. buildings were often left empty as franchises left regions or oil companies consolidated. in a growing trend, new food and drink establishments are moving into and becoming repurposed gas stations. for example, a los angeles corner starbucks’s recently opened in an old gas station. the company chose the location/project through its local initiative program to refurbish city and cultural landmarks. hollywood customers now drive by an art deco coffee drive thru in a repurposed gas station where for years a chain link fence and a boarded up building stood. just as food trucks can revitalize a community, so can repurposed gas stations. these functioning and repurposed gas stations have great locations where customer traffic is at a premium and history and tradition contribute to customers returning to these locations in both a rural/small town setting (mississippi) and urban (my current texas research). changing trends: millennials and fast casual the growing tendency of people, especially millennials, to buy groceries in places beyond traditional grocery stores has made the food industry take notice. whole foods and midwest grocery chain mariano's cook/prepare food in the store and this has expanded to having mini restaurants or kitchens within the store. wal-mart continues to experiment with smaller bodega-like stores in cities and has cornered the market on cheap gas under murphy oil, a gas company that sits on many walmart properties. the company now wishes to take on the gas station convenience store with an experimental station in bentonville, arkansas that includes what they call a "local butcher/meat market." while most murphy oils on wal-mart property have canopy and kiosk construction, the bentonville experimental store looks like the family owned stations in my research. there are a few winds filled with savory and sweet smells that may soon kick-up a tornado in how americans eat in the 21st century. influencing this trend are the millennials. defined as consumers ages 18-34, they are the largest of six key generational groups. their influence through social media makes up for any lack of buying power. success stories in the industry are taking note and adjusting (unsigned 2014a). while many articles state the current dining trend is “fast casual,” the case is complicated in that in actuality, consumers are trading up and down from traditional mid-20th century establishments like mcdonalds. this trend is a move from the baby boomer’s idea of gas station (clark griswold) to the millennial’s perception of a convenience store, where it is as much of a destination as the local food trailer or taco truck (horovitz 2015). this hi-lo mentality is helping feed the fire of what convenience store spokesperson jeff leonard hopes will be the growing trend of gas station food (rosenwald 2013). those food enthusiasts searching for the best in food truck and trailers will continue by filling up their gas tanks and tummies at the gas station. this march, u.s. consumers hit a “spending milestone” and so “for the first time on record, americans were spending as much dining out as [in] traditional grocery stores” (perry 2015). this statistic is one of a few signals that the recent merger of kraft and heinz may be one of survival versus domination. over the past ten years, traditional grocery stores lost 15% of the market share to farmers markets, dollar stores and convenience stores. grocery stores have started to shrink in floorspace over the last three years, a sign of the return to the bodega and green grocer (barclay 2015). americans’ grocery habits have changed over the years as well. currently, customers buy less and make more trips. this behavior interpreted as shoppers are buying more fresh and less boxed and packaged food (lutz 2015a). while known for “big box”, wal-mart has been adapting for years in trying to find space in densely populated urban areas. adjustment to an urban environment means less choices and more premade items, customers buying fewer items at a time, and people on the go and using different modes of transportation (berliner 2015). what is the millennial demographic wanting and demanding? many in the industry look to chipotle as an example of success. this consumer group wants customization of their food, so burritos and bowls at a particular price point is what many now expect. they also want delivery of their dishes and online and use of mobile application ordering. millennials not only want to order and pickup food without human interaction, most of their influence is through reviews and mobile engagement on social media. the industry also sees this demographic as having to cater to a “restless palate” with an ever changing menu and creative twists on familiar favorites. millennials also look at the business story of sustainability and local sourcing. in a time where young people are taking longer to move out of the house or live on their own, many are looking for a place to be able to hang out with their friends for an extended amount of time and socialize. beer and booze is another priority with millennials. many of these places have significant drink sales and restaurants are taking note with shared drinks and the creation of pitchers and punch bowls that a group can imbibe and share. as far as fast casual, sales saw 115 percent increase (see fromm 2014). in a forbes december 2014 article, jeff fromm broke down six ways service brands look to engage with millennials in 2015. it comes down to unique flavors, fast casual imitation, customization of orders, automated or mobile interaction-often including point of sale, a sustainability story, and a place to get your drink on. with a noticeable difference between mississippi and texas gas stations, i used a modified version of fromm’s categories to compare repurposed and working gas stations in texas including chain restaurant rudy’s, watauga gas station chef pointe, repurposed gas stations station cafe in san antonio and austin’s stinson’s. photo 1: rudy’s counter service. photo 2: beef jerky aisle at buc-ee's. photo 3: buc-ee's new braunfels location. photo 4: distinctive buc-ee's storefront. unique flavors from new fusion flavors or a variety of asian hot sauces that find their way into dishes, millennials are looking for flavors that pack a punch, and many chefs are serving food that wakes up all parts of the tongue. rudy’s barbecue may not have unique flavors but they have a consistency and a menu that returning customers can trust. customers line up and snake around to the visible kitchen and counter with piped railing like line management at an amusement park. the staff hollers greetings as new customers file in or someone confirms they have never eaten at rudy’s before. newbies are treated to samples before diving in with their orders. this gas station and barbecue chain features an interior decor and pumps outside that harken to its beginnings in the original country store in leon springs, where rudolph (rudy) aue started serving barbecue in 1989. rudy’s vice president of operations, pete bassett, comments: in every case the meats are seasoned with the house dry rub, slow-smoked using nothing but oak, which rudy's claims burns slower than mesquite, and served with house barbecue "sauces" on the side...there is a lot of texan flair at rudy's, which makes sense since most locations are in texas, but none are as important as the counter itself…. meat is cut to order and can be seen behind the counter. [it’s] placed on paper and served with bread, diners sitting at tables with red checks. there is more choice or diversity of meat, brisket is the main draw, but turkey, pulled pork and sausage are a draw as well (bassett 2015). bassett shares that the secret to company consistency is “promoting within” much like roadside gas and eatery stuckey’s did in the 20th century. bassett also explains that the company has “basically ten meats, ten sides, and five desserts. we haven't added items and we don't take any items away. we just do the same thing every single day which makes consistency a little bit easier” (bassett 2015). in the past, rudy’s was usually on a major thoroughfare, catering to a transient and local clientele, but the company is beginning to move away from pumps and gas to stand alone restaurants because they find they cannot compete with giants like murphy oil and buc-ee’s. rudy’s feels it has always looked at food first. bassett notes: actually if you have a good restaurant site you are going to have a good fuel site just because you are going to have the traffic flows and the traffic counts. some people look for a food site first and a fuel site second, which is what we did. some of our franchise partners actually reversed it and looked for a fuel site first and food site second. the results are the same, no matter what you say you're looking at you are looking for lots of traffic going by every day. we never really considered fuel as a revenue source because it was more so what got us started in the early days (bassett 2015). when it comes to unique flavors and quality, watauga gas station chef point continues to make newspaper and magazine food lists and gain attention from television shows. when chef and owner franson nwaeze and his wife paula were looking to start their business, getting loans was easier with the unfinished gas station property they found. he enjoys the whimsy of the restaurant being in a gas station. nwaeze is proud of the kitchen’s use of quality produce and a rotating menu that reflects his love of food and recipes. unlike rudy’s, the pumps and conoco sign will be out front for awhile. he describes the place as an “april fool”: the sign that was in front of the store that says ‘homemade burgers.’ when people walk in, they'd be surprised. not only do you get burgers, you get top quality seafood. you know, sea scallops and shrimp, you can't find in a gas station, you can't find in most restaurants either. we do duck, we do lamb, we do everything. you don't expect to find in a place [like this] (nwaeze 2015). the station cafe and pump room, a repurposed gas station and corner store located in san antonio’s historic king william cultural arts district, has less of a rotating menu than chef pointe. the shop started with pizza and then expanded to sandwiches, salads, and soups. pizza is still served but the menu board now reflects a wide range of choices, including bread baked on premises and homemade deserts that cater to a local clientele. photo 5: station cafe hours the way jon and stacy roe want it. photo 6: station cafe deli counter. imitating fast casual “fast casual” is the trend of the moment in the united states. positioned “in between” fast food and a restaurant, fast casual offers the promise of higher quality food but not full table service. rudy’s (multiple locations), station café (san antonio), and stinson’s (austin) all have a counter where customers order up. unlike the other establishments interviewed, owner john thompson of stinson’s sees their set up as a “practical solution.” sticking to its roots in austin food trailer culture, the kitchen is a trailer parked out front on the corner of the property next to the converted canopy. a television is where the pumps used to be and picnic tables are in the breezeway where cars once passed though. customers place orders in the old office, and full bar and tables are where the bays used to be. unlike the subdued colors and sounds of the coffee/wine bar of stinson’s, rudy’s embraces the fast casual from days before the term existed. rooted in texas barbecue tradition, from deer head trophies on the wall and red checkered plastic table cloths, the barbecue stand ephemera and cues are in the place. customers get their own condiments and drinks and like many family barbecue stands, there is a wash station to help customers take care of sticky fingers. station cafe started in what is now known as the pump room. owner stacy roe reminisced about the early days in the repurposed gas station and that their purchase of the deli counter was a game changer, since customers could see all that was offered in the original shop. the business has expanded to two buildings, the station and the store next door. from community dining and only two tables in the beginning of the business, the roes now have ample space in the kitchen and customers have more choice of where to sit. the new place still has a large deli counter where customers order off a giant menu board. chef pointe is different in that diners walk past the cooler stocked with drinks and the station counter to pay for gas and incidentals. a hostess station and bar is just inside where a full rotating and special events menu can be ordered. like stinson’s in austin, watauga’s chef pointe also has a trailer for catering events but owner franson nwaeze stresses that it’s a “mobile kitchen” over a trailer. nwaeze’s passion and investment in quality products continues in his mobile kitchen where the trailer is equipped to cook almost anything. customization the gas stations and repurposed stations i visited are not working on a scale or model like the chipotle restaurant chain that often sets the industry standard for customization (at chipotle customers can order a bowl or burrito and choose items for a certain price point). variety and choice are important nonetheless. for example, rudy’s and stinson’s both have a set menu but enough choices to keep customers returning. station cafe has a large menu offering soups, salads, hot and cold sandwiches and pizza. many of the sandwiches are spicy or have bold flavor and owners jon and stacy roe offer vegetarian and vegan choices. franson nwaeze, owner of chef pointe, the largest restaurant of the texas businesses i looked at, promises he will cook for anyone. he regularly accommodates customers with food sensitivities and fulfills requests for gluten-free and vegetarian options. photo 7: repurposed gas station, filling station with station cafe directly behind. going mobile fast food chains such as dominos pizza, chipotle, and taco bell, are experimenting or have successfully implemented phone apps that make it possible to order, pay, and have meals delivered with very little human interaction. others restaurants are following suit. for example, new york celebrity chef david chang sees this as a new viable concept and his newest venture, maple, is a $26 million “quest to reinvent delivery [with] healthy, affordable, chef-worthy meals in the land of sad desk lunches” (kessler 2015). while the local places i included in my research are not currently taking orders or purchases through an app, each business has a social and traditional media presence. rudy’s website allows customers to order and ship across the country. they provide a unique care package, letting loved ones, especially those in the military, have a taste of home. rudy’s also has technology integration in the stores with electronic tablets on the tables and a camera and closed circuit television featuring the meat being cut to order. stinson’s main web presence is on facebook, paying for sponsored posts and twitter, keeping locals informed of what is happening at the company’s three austin locations (stinson’s just expanded to a space at camp mabry and a trailer near a local hospital). san antonio’s station cafe and pump room and watauga’s chef pointe are exploring the power of yelp and other restaurant/services rating phone apps millennials like to use. in addition to social media, both businesses have had traditional media presence on television and in magazines and have published recipes of best selling dishes. while they do not let reviews dictate their menu or business plan, they are aware of how a negative review can be easy to post. franson nwaeze of chef pointe reminded me that everyone has a bad day, service people and customers: people read reviews and they miss out on good restaurants. you don't do that, go try for yourself. have a clear mind when you walk in. come and sit down and eat. make your own judgment. don't read all those [reviews] and deprive yourself of great meals somewhere out there (nwaeze 2015). story in his forbes article, fromm emphasizes the importance of a sustainability story to millennials. these texas “mom and pop” establishments in my research highlighted their origin stories with less focus on sustainability. station café and pump room in san antonio and stinsons in austin are both repurposed gas stations, while chef pointe and rudy’s continue to have pumps out front. chef point likes the idea of pumps. when it was easier to get a loan and purchase a place, franson nwaeze and wife paula merrell found an unfinished gas station that became the conoco station they now own. while part of the story has to do with the limits of the financing they could get, with the success of chef pointe, they would not change anything at this point. i'm glad we have gas station, it's a big advertisement piece. people are just surprised. we have tons of people that walk in here to get gas or cigarettes, and instead of smelling hot dogs and cigarette and all that, [they say,] ‘wow that's a restaurant.’ there's menu, there's choice of drinks and so forth… we didn't want a gas station, i didn't even want a café, i wanted a place to do catering [laughs]. it didn't turn out that way, thank god it didn't. now we're busy, we can do catering for so many numbers of people, up to a thousand, sometimes more. so we can do anything here (nwaeze 2015). while rudy’s pumps have been a reminder of the humble beginnings as a country store, many locations will remove the pumps for extra parking spaces and future stores will not be in the oil business. although some barbecue snobs scoff at rudy’s, it was a place many local austinites suggested to me on my quest for gas station food research. as far as a country store growing into a regional chain, it seems as if growth and expansion was an interest from early on. chain restaurant fuddruker’s phil romano moved to leon springs after selling the hamburger chain and starting up the very first macaroni grill. next to that macaroni grill was a gas station and in 1989 he started selling brisket out of that store next door. sides like creamed corn and beans and the addition of sausage were next and rudy’s country store and bbq developed so it was definitely a gas station before barbecue. romano’s relationship with brinker helped rudy’s grow into multiple stores and franchises in the dallas area around 1994 but two years later brinker decided not to exercise their right to option and the company closed the two outlets in dallas. leon springs was back to the one store where the company began again in 1998 with the first company expansion being in new braunfels. we started off real slow. we opened one store in 1998 and our second store in 2000. we opened a couple of stores in 2002. we just did one or two stores a year for the first early years, which enabled us to really build our management base and our employee base. we promote primarily ninety percent from within. most of all of our managers have been hourly employees to start (bassett 2015). rudy’s now has locations in five states of texas, new mexico, arizona, colorado and oklahoma. at the station cafe and pump room, the operation started in what is now the pump room, a tap room serving a variety of beers; customers purchase food from the station cafe next door and bring it over or vice versa. since its origins in the gas station, the business is now two places sitting next door to one another. jon had a history in the restaurant business and knew if he were to stay in texas, he’d have to open up his own shop: we'd been looking to start a restaurant for a long time. since we didn't have any money we were looking for something that was going to be very inexpensive to get into; inexpensive to convert to what we needed it to do. we ran across this building one day (roe 2015). conversion began in august of 2006 and the station cafe opened december 20th of that year, just days before the birth of the couple’s first child. the old gas station they leased in a historical district had the basics for a tight budget renovation and no room for expansion like enclosing under the canopy. there was enough electricity, water and sink and bathrooms outside. they built counter tops and the old indoor space was half kitchen and half dining room with limited seating of two tablesone seating two and another seating four. the seating expanded by putting a few picnic tables outside. when the business opened stacy had just had their first child and john was a one man operation doing food preparation, serving, register, and dishes. they decided on pizza by the slice: i cooked ahead of time and then they were wrapped in paper so i was able to grab the paper, put them in the oven and then use a spatula to get them out and didn't have to touch anything with my fingers. the salads were all pre-made before lunch (roe 2015). since then, the place has expanded but the roes continue to run this family business on their own terms; they are open only on weekdays to allow themselves family time on the weekends. like the station cafe and chef pointe, it’s a family affair at stinson’s. john thompson and his wife sheridan wanted to emulate a neighborhood bistro where locals could get coffee in the mornings and return in the afternoon and evening for wine, beer and a bite to eat: we love coffee, we love great wine, we like to eat. combining, i've been giving thought to this idea of a café for over 20 years and refining my thoughts on what it should look like, what it should feel like. this is really where we ended up (thompson 2015). the converted gas station seems to be the anchor business, while a second shop was closed and sold in the time of this research and another two spots were in the works and have since opened. unlike the other two couples that are in the trenches with day to day operations in the kitchen, the thompsons are more on the money side: i joke about being a recovering lawyer. i practiced law briefly, and i was an investment banker. i got out of that a number of years ago and have been doing development and financing projects. i've done a lot of hotels and leisure locations. i've done some casinos. we've been a part of developing a lot of restaurant concepts or brands that are already there and putting them in hotels and casinos and that kind of thing. i've never been more involved in that, so i've never been in the weeds of running one of these places (thompson 2015). similar to station cafe’s neighborhood vibe, thompson’s idea of the local bistro at this location is working: we always had our eye on this location. we love the corner, the right side of the street for traffic coming into town. then this building itself was kind of iconic, it was the old cutler automotive. i think going back to the 40s it was originally maybe a gas station then it became an auto repair shop and that's what most people think of it as is this cutler automotive auto repair shop. then it's been sitting empty for several years in the midst of one of the nicer neighborhoods in town. we can't tell you how many people have come up and said, "we are so glad you did something with that (thompson 2015). drinking up going out and “getting your drink on” seems to be a priority with millennials. since many twentysomethings are living with parents or roommates, going out and socializing in a public space is important. for example, this demand has been a contributing factor in the bar and restaurant chain buffalo wild wings’s decision to catapult its recent growth and success. it is a place where guests feel welcome to stay for hours, can play trivia or watch sporting events, and drink and eat. (lutz 2015b) the beverage industry has taken notice of the focus on social drinking and taken these cues to where many bar menus now have pitchers or punch bowls that a whole table can sit, socialize, and share. pete bassett of rudy’s relates “our beer sales are less than ten percent of total sales so that tells you that you are getting families in. it tells you that you just have people coming in to eat barbecue. here in the south, here in texas, i always tell people that barbecue is a great business to be in because us texans, we just love barbecue” (bassett 2015). stinson’s and station cafe could both be considered “brew and brews” where it is an all day business of coffee brewed in the morning or afternoon and beer “brews” served later in the day. chef pointe has a full bar. even with the bars, these establishments are not yet serving the highly handcrafted cocktails millenials may find in other urban bars. so for these mom and pops businesses, beverage may be a great contributor to profit but it is the food that is the main draw for these gas stations and repurposed stations. reflections national association of convenience store spokesperson jeff leonard looks to be getting his wish in that more people are getting out of their cars and into the store. while at a recent social gathering, i introduced myself and told two people about my research of mississippi and texas gas station food. the woman lit up at this and verified that her work in marketing was looking at this movement. ‘it’s big” is what she told me. after looking at two different states, one where the kitchen is business and community survival, and the other, where a trailer culture is already accepted, i agree that this trend “is big,” or at least a trend. while these oral histories and research have become case studies in small business with a food concentration, it does show that eating local and keeping local dollars in the community has even trickled into the corner gas station. when gas station convenience store chains like quick trip are renovating kitchens and revamping menus into less prepackaged food with a shelf life beyond nuclear oblivion to healthier options, gas stations survive until the next trend. whereas the recent drop in stock value and layoffs at whole foods prove that businesses noticed demands and now consumers have more options in getting the food they desire. austin may see more movement from the trailer to brick and mortar gas station convenience store in the near future. with pending city ordinances on air quality, barbecue places may move out to the suburbs or move inside and change cooking methods. austin’s trailers are also being pushed further out from downtown as more high-rises and cranes sprout every month in a rapidly growing city. while my hope at the beginning of my research was that gas stations would be the savior of the hot lunch and the southern “meat and three” meal did not pan out, in texas, especially austin, gas stations may be a refuge in the near future for trailers and food innovators that cannot afford the loans or the risk of a brick and mortar space. by leasing a kitchen in a gas station, there is less risk and one is already in a great location with a transient customer base that turns over at a constant rate. at the end of my research on gas station food, i am struck by how much gas stations have changed over the years. in the past, their architecture could be programmatic; they could draw a crowd with a flashy design--like a wigwam, doughnut or coffee can--or they could be modeled like a house like to fit into neighborhoods and appease neighbors. gone are the days of s&h stamps and collectible promotions. “secret kitchens” or just good, fresh food looks like how this decade’s gas stations will draw in customers. although all the texas stores researched do not really follow trends of millennials where craft cocktails, customization and mobile apps drive fast casual, chef point’s franson nwaeze is a business entrepreneur similar to the mississippi mom and pops in that he is an innovator and quick to adjust when things are not working (trend or not, chef point is paying attention to behaviors). aware of this list of millenial demands or not, nwaeze thinks automation and less human interaction will continue: i think the next phase of gas stations is going to be, [that there] will be nothing inside, maybe something inside with no cashiers. you walk in, you pump your own fuel, you get your thing and you self check out (nwaeze 2015). hopefully great fresh food and human interaction will stave off this future prediction. references cited barclay, eliza. 2015. grocery stores are losing you. here's how they plan to win you back. npr the salt. march 30. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/03/30/395774725/grocery-stores-are-losing-youheres-how-they-plan-to-win-you-back ( april 19, 2015). bassett, pete. 2015 interview with author. april 10. berliner, uri berliner. 2015. why wal-mart is betting big on being your local urban grocer. npr the salt. april 4. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/04/04/396890106/why-wal-mart-is-betting-bigon-being-your-local-urban-grocer (accessed april 19, 2015). fromm, jeff. 2014. on trend: six ways foodservice brands will engage millennials in 2015. forbes. december 29. http://www.forbes.com/sites/jefffromm/2014/12/29/ontrend-6-ways-foodservice-brands-will-engage-millennials-in-2015/ (accessed april 18, 2015). horovitz, bruce. 2015. millennials crave convenience stores most of all. usatoday. february 4. http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/02/04/millennialsconvenience-stores-fast-food-restaurants/22872685/ (accessed april 20, 2015). kessler, sarah. 2015. behind the scenes at maple, the david chang backed, delivery-only restaurant of the future. fast company. april 28. http://www.fastcompany.com/3045380/mostcreative-people/behind-the-scenes-atmaple-the-david-chang-backed-delivery-only-restaur ( accessed july 1, 2015). lutz, ashley. 2015a. american’s changing grocery habits are a huge threat to kraft and heinz. business insider. 26 march. http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-arebuying-more-fresh-food-20153?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=business%20i nsider%20select&utm_campaign=bi%20select%20(tuesday%20thursday)%202015-0326&utm_content=biselect (accessed april 19, 2015). lutz, ashley. 2015b. buffalo wild wings’ secret to success has nothing to do with the menu. business insider july 28. http://www.businessinsider.sg/buffalo-wild-wingsentertainment-strategy-2015-4/#.vhr9gc6f9fu (accessed july 30, 2015). nwaeze, franson. 2015. interview with author. april 24. perry, mark j. perry. 2015. chart of the day: retail sales at grocery stores vs. restaurants. american enterprise institute. 5 mar. http://www.aei.org/publication/chartday-retail-sales-grocery-stores-vs-restaurants/ (accessed april 20, 2015). roe, jon and stacy. 2015. interview with author. january 27. rosenwald, michael. 2013. gas station restaurants are becoming the next big thing in cuisine. washington post sept 28. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/gas-stationrestaurants-are-becoming-the-next-big-thing-in-cuisine/2013/09/28/a49a6124-26e9-11e3ad0d-b7c8d2a594b9_story.html (accessed february 23, 2014). thompson, john. 2015. interview with author. febuary 26. unsigned. 2014a. millenials remain influential for restaurants. frsmagazine. october 29. http://www.fsrmagazine.com/marketing/millennials-remain-influential-restaurants (accessed april 20, 2015). unsigned. 2014b. 11 facts about american eating habits. https://beta.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-american-eating-habbits (accessed april 25, 2014). digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022): 133-135 ©american folklore society 2022s review of: cheffes de cuisine: women and work in professional french kitchen rachel e. black, university of illinois press, 2021. pp. 227, acknowledgement, prologue, glossary, introduction, conclusion, notes, bibliography, index. review by: nadia sarwar despite women's dedicated, skillful, and ever-growing engagement with french culinary art and tradition, they have remained le deuxième sexe (the second sex) in terms of priority, recognition, and achievement in french professional kitchens. in her book, cheffes de cuisine: women and work in the professional french kitchen, rachel e. black asks, “if more women than ever are entering the profession, why are they so deeply underrepresented at the top ranks of the profession?” (2). illustrating how french professional kitchens are highly gendered spaces, black asserts that the occupational contexts of the french culinary industry have largely been influenced by “gender, nationality, sexual orientation, and race” (2). to document women’s role in french culinary practices, black records the stories of “exclusion and empowerment” (11) of local women chefs from lyon, a city renowned for its heritage of french culinary traditions. black analyzes the “heterogeneity and multiplicity of identities and experiences of women working in kitchens in lyon” (13). her ethnographic investigation encapsulates the voices of women culinary professionals from the past and present using archival data, oral history collection, interviews, and participant observation. in addition to conducting interviews with twenty-seven culinary professionals, including one key participant, black herself worked in professional french kitchens to learn culinary skills and kitchen language. black’s ethnographic endeavours were largely designed to better understand the persistence of gender inequality in french culinary practices, the factors that restrain women from being in the top-ranked positions in the culinary profession, and the ways women define and negotiate their identity within such a malecentric occupational context. the question, “what was it like to be a woman in a professional kitchen in france?” (84) frames black’s investigation. theoretically, her study is informed by feminist literary criticism, and, to a much lesser extent, by crenshaw’s theoretical approach to intersectionality. in chapter one, black discusses lyon’s culinary culture in both historical and present contexts. she brings together the legends surrounding the first generation of women chefs and analyzes how those legends allow contemporary female culinary professionals to “give meaning and value to their work” (25) but at the same time restrict their culinary practices. she argues that although the legends of mères lyonnaises serve an important function to minimize the gap between “public and private lives” (48), they also strengthen genderbiased culinary culture. this chapter thoroughly examines the historical development of lyon’s culinary industry. in chapter two, black explores the gendered division of labor in lyon’s historic restaurants (popularly known as bouchons). her interviews with the women working in bouchons reveal that women in lyon’s professional kitchens often play secondary roles to men. building on her argument in the first chapter, black adds that the gender performances enacted in bouchons are highly influenced by the traditions believed to be followed by the sarwar, review, cheffes de cuisine digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 134 mères lyonnaises: “women’s work is not necessarily legitimate because of what women are doing now but because it fits into a narrative structure that was valid in the past…” (81). it was common for women to take on an imposed motherly persona in professional kitchens and black argues that such gender stereotypes restrain women chefs’ creative practices in many ways. in chapter three, black examines how gender-biased apprenticeship in french culinary school shapes women’s experiences and empowers men over women. drawing on her own apprenticeship experiences, black explores the disadvantaged position of women in french culinary culture. in this chapter, she points out how women are viewed as gendered bodies and considered ineligible for most of the work in professional kitchens, in addition to facing challenges in securing admission to top-ranked culinary schools. amid all these injustices, black finds a ray of hope in the women who “are trying to shift these structures and create kitchens in which everyone can work together and flourish” (199). chapter four is based on the author’s interviews with tabata mey and audrey jacquier, two women culinary professionals who have successfully reached the height of the culinary profession. black briefly discusses the influence of race, class, and ethnicity beneath these success stories. however, she finds both tabata’s and audrey's stories fascinating since they “show that some women do have a competitive spirit and a strong desire to prove themselves on the same stage as men” (145). based on the experiences of these two wellestablished female chefs, black argues that women’s participation in leadership positions is important to challenge the patriarchal hierarchies embedded in culinary workplaces. black ends the chapter in a positive light referring to the role of contemporary media in constructing a favorable image of women culinary professionals. chapter five features a compelling focus on the women who are creating new structures in the french culinary industry while subverting and challenging the masculinized norms of professional kitchens. this chapter centers on women from different generations who successfully implemented innovative culinary practices while incorporating feminization, collaboration, empathy, supportiveness, and patience in those kitchens. black argues that these women have been reshaping lyon’s culinary history while questioning patriarchal structures, challenging traditional kitchen practices, and embracing diversities in culinary practices. black concludes the book with mixed feelings regarding the present and future of the french culinary industry and women’s position in it. she is hopeful since more women are joining the culinary profession these days and reclaiming spaces in the culinary world. however, she is disappointed with the fact that women’s “achievements are not recognized or celebrated in the same way as men’s success” (179). since women chefs still occupy marginal spaces, black discusses the importance of empowering women in the french culinary industry by creating favorable spaces and ensuring various social support systems in culinary practices. if positive changes are enacted in lyon’s professional kitchens, black hopefully asserts, “for the gastronomic capital of france, the future is quite possibly female” (196). sarwar, review, cheffes de cuisine digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 135 cheffes de cuisine: women and work in the professional french kitchen is the outcome of black’s extensive fieldwork. the theoretical framework of the book is largely focused on feminist literary criticism and undertakes very little intersectional analysis. as a result, some aspects of the discussion, such as her analysis of the influence of race, class, and ethnicity on gendered identities, are not well developed. however, this easily read book incorporates a rich ethnographic account of french culinary history and tradition and thereby minimizes any gaps in the author’s use of outside scholarship by paying serious attention to women’s lived experiences in professional kitchens. black’s book is a valuable addition to folklore scholarship, women’s studies, food studies and other related fields. for students, researchers and individuals across various disciplines interested in foodways and french culinary history and tradition, this book would be a good read to explore women’s professional kitchen work. works cited beauvoir, simone de. 2015. the second sex. london, england: vintage classics. crenshaw, kimberlé. 1991. mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics and violence against women of color. stanford law review 43(6): 1241-1299. jordan, rosan a., and susan j. kalčik, eds. 1985. women’s folklore, women’s culture. philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press. i never promised you a learning garden critical reflections on the ill-timed launch and uncertain future of a fast food outreach project in orlando, florida by: ty matejowsky in this article, i consider the complexities and contradictions that characterize the recent launch of a chipotle mexican grill community outreach project in orlando, florida from both a reflexive and autoethnographic perspective. specifically, i document a local gardening advocate’s efforts to develop and operate a chain-affiliated learning garden near the campus of the university of central florida (ucf) where i work as an associate professor of anthropology. over subsequent pages, relevant biographical information collected through interviews and other data elicitation techniques is presented alongside my own personal observations in an effort to more fully delineate the actors and events at the center of this burgeoning and recurrently problematic partnership. paying particular attention to the various challenges that have beset the collaboration almost from its outset, this work adds critical depth to current understanding about new directions in community and urban gardening. it similarly probes the efficacy of these local approaches both for project stakeholders and the wider community. while findings presented in the following sections are arguably as theoretical as they are data-driven, they, nevertheless, provide new insights into what happens when corporate fast food aligns itself with local food interests as a form of public outreach. at a deeper level, they help unpack some of the discursive dimensions that characterize ethical food consumption amid the foregrounding of individual agency and other neoliberal solutions to food issues related to the public good. in many ways, this work highlights some of the tensions that characterize recent academic debates within cultural food scholarship about the utility of individual agency in (re)shaping or descaling aspects of today’s industrial food economy into something more environmentally sustainable and nutritionally sound (koch 2012:3). significantly, it appears that food scholars are of two minds when it comes to assessing the effectiveness of such individual activism in response to the entrenched hegemony of the global agro-food apparatus. some argue that informed consumers are vital to correcting or effectively mitigating ongoing asymmetries within various sectors of industrial food production including corporate fast food (halwell 2004, lockie 2002). shopping at farmers’ markets, buying organic products, and supporting community agriculture are but some of the approaches that “citizen-consumers” can utilize to affect real change within the agro-food system (johnston 2008). others question the utility of such consumer activism as it is increasingly articulated within corporatized contexts (koch 2012:3). that is, rather than pursuing individual agency as a viable means to ameliorate problems within the current food system, these scholars call for a reengagement of the state through increased regulation and more active involvement promoting the public good (roff 2007). out of these debates emerges a real need for reflexive and (auto)ethnographically based studies that examine the lived experiences of those engaging corporate entities as they work towards of a transformed and more locally responsive global food system. chipotle and ethical food consumption the role of the state in promoting the public good has steadily eroded over recent decades as neoliberal ideologies that emphasize individual agency, markets, and private interests over government-based solutions to ongoing social concerns continue to gain ground within the u.s. and other parts of the world. various segments of the global political economy have been affected by this prevailing hegemonic regime including the industrial food sector (mcmichael 1994). as corporations and other private enterprises become more assertive in shaping the discursive conditions through which notions of ethical food consumption are articulated (kolleck 2013), state interests are rendered seemingly less accountable in championing such matters of public good (soper 2007). by the 2010s, state involvement in the agro-food system has declined to the point where consumers now arguably privilege “corporate knowledge” on what constitutes ethical consumption over other more traditional sources (johnston and szabo 2011). this privileged position, however, does not preclude a reassertion of state intervention over corporate food interests as recent developments within the u.s. fast food industry suggest. in response to mounting public pressure and the looming possibility of new government regulation, many leading restaurant chains have taken modest to significant steps over recent years to shed their image as purveyors of questionable food sourcing practices and unhealthy eating habits. consumers and policymakers have become increasingly attuned to the ill-effects of corporate fast food at both the individual and societal level, thanks in part to the mainstream success of critical exposés such as journalist eric schlosser’s fast food nation: the dark side of the all-american meal (2001) and filmmaker morgan spurlock’s super size me (2004). this newfound awareness about fast food’s contributive role in rising “globesity” (matejowsky 2009) and widespread environmental degradation (robbins 2011:199-201) has, among other things, compelled quick-service eateries like mcdonald’s to alter or refocus aspects of their operations to better align with shifting public sentiments. whether it is offering healthier dining selections in popular kids’ meals, showcasing calorie information on restaurant menu boards, or phasing out controversial sales tactics such as over-augmenting portion sizes for nominal price increases (i.e., “supersizing”), today’s fast food industry has made appreciable strides, however calculated or dubious, towards rehabilitating its public image amid ongoing levels of scrutiny. against this backdrop of market repositioning and corporate strategizing, it is important to recognize that not all quick-service eateries have necessitated such major rebranding efforts. in fact, some restaurant chains have emerged well ahead of the curve when it comes to crafting a positive public identity based around ethical business practices. perhaps no quick-service restaurant exemplifies this tendency better than chipotle mexican grill, a fast casual taquería launched in 1993 by culinary institute of america graduate steve ells and known for its assembly-line production of gourmet-style tacos, burritos, and salads. with over 1,400 outlets operating across north america and europe, the denver-based chipotle is widely recognized as an industry leader committed to natural and organic ingredients, sustainable food sourcing practices, and fair labor standards (bittman 2013). such perceptions persist even as some disconnect remains between the company’s principled stance of “food with integrity” and its track record of managing the day-to-day logistics of a successful restaurant chain. while chipotle has sometimes fallen short of its well-publicized corporate ethos, especially with regards to supply chain labor issues (klein 2011), its innovative approach to producing fast casual mexican food demonstrates that quick-service eateries can still earn sizable profits without relying exclusively on industrial agribusiness and america’s factory farm system. the restaurant’s progressive business model resonates with many non-traditional fast food customers, especially those urban, web-savvy college types who also appreciate the restaurant’s austere postmodern aesthetic and sometimes quirky promotions. in much the same way that supermarket giant whole foods market both “articulates a discourse of ethical consumption” (johnston 2008) and maintains a loyal following of health conscious and environmentally-minded shoppers who do not mind paying a little extra for natural or organic products, so too does chipotle retain a dedicated base of consumers who crave relatively inexpensive on-the-go meals that do little to compromise their leftleaning political sensibilities. in short, by offering a quick casual dining alternative to the seemingly identical corporate burger joints that continue to dominate the industry, chipotle fills a viable market niche for those for whom conventional fast food is too boring, too tasteless, or too heavily enmeshed with the interests of agribusiness and factory farms. chipotle’s ability to differentiate itself from the competition in this way appears essential to the company’s long term success. the company posted upwards of $3 billion in corporate earnings for 2012, with fourth quarter sales up 17% from the same period in 2011 (bittman 2013). even as the field of fast casual mexican eateries continues to expand nationwide, chipotle is able to project a coherent brand identity that relies on ethical business practices almost as much as it does tasty food and fresh ingredients. while its more immediate rivals such as qdoba, baja fresh, taco cabana, el pollo loco, and moe’s southwest grill vie for market position by offering similar types of cuisine in comparable restaurant settings, their commitment to local food sourcing, organic and natural ingredients, and family farms does not approach that of chipotle’s. so, even while america’s top-selling mexican fast food brand taco bell now emulates aspects of chipotle’s culinary prowess by creating artisan-style burritos and other fare that approximate chipotle’s more sophisticated menu items (brash 2012, choi 2013), the “live más” chain does little to surpass or even match chipotle in terms of embracing sustainability. chipotle’s forward-leaning cachet is articulated in various ways beyond those directly related to restaurant food sourcing and production. for example, the chain actively collaborates with like-minded organizations and individuals who share a common commitment to healthy and environmentally sound food practices. chipotle has thrown its marketing muscle behind a number of causes or undertakings related to food sustainability at the national level. in 2008, the company helped promote the critically acclaimed documentary food, inc. which exposes the dark underbelly of america’s industrial food system and serves as a veritable touchstone for today’s slow food movement. chipotle not only distributed promotional material for the film in their restaurants, it also sponsored free theatrical screenings of the movie in over 30 major u.s. cities. more recently, chipotle partnered with an ohiobased non-profit that promotes school nutrition and sustainable agriculture, “veggie u,” to debut a comprehensive educational program that integrates experiential scientific exercises about food sourcing and vegetable gardening into existing elementary and special-needs curricula (fast casual.com 2012). in such ways, chipotle, again not unlike whole foods market, creates a space where important information about alternative food movements can be readily accessed by consumers (johnston and szabo 2011). at the local level, chipotle also engages in public outreach by supporting community events and ventures that are consistent with its “food with integrity” principles. this includes sponsoring inrestaurant school fundraisers, student essay contests, and neighborhood harvest festivals. potential collaborators can pitch their ideas to company representatives through an online application on the corporate webpage. if approved, chipotle provides applicants some type of material support or endorsement, usually with the understanding that the resulting partnership may be publicized in company marketing. in many ways, chipotle represents the most logical choice for grassroots-level projects seeking small infusions of capital or corporate name recognition. surely among all of the u.s. quick casual and fast food eateries operating today, no other restaurant chain has more credibility with those in the local food movement seeking capitalization than chipotle. it is probably not that much of an overstatement, then, to suggest that chipotle effectively serves as the go-to corporate sponsor for nearly all homegrown slow and ethical food events. one cause in which the chain has taken an active interest lately is community gardening. the conversion of vacant or underutilized land into productive spaces for vegetable cultivation, especially in urban areas or near chipotle restaurants, is something the company increasingly embraces as it parallels chipotle’s commitment to family farms and fresh produce. while by no means ubiquitous, chipotle sponsored community gardens have recently cropped up in several large and mid-size u.s. cities including dallas, louisville, denver, and st. paul (real school gardens 2011). these agricultural plots are utilized primarily for educational purposes and do not supply chipotle restaurants with fresh produce, as such practices would violate safety laws based around routine food inspections. similarly, much, if not most, of the labor that goes into community garden construction and maintenance does not come from chipotle employees, but is rather provided by local volunteers. a number of online profiles documenting these gardening projects’ development and featuring color photographs and commentary have appeared on various social networking sites such as facebook (daily city 2013). creating community gardens in this way seems equally advantageous for all parties involved. for chipotle, these ventures reinforce the company’s brand identity as the ethical and sustainable bellwether of quick-casual restaurants. for its local collaborators, the gardens not only offer a quaint venue for educating consumers about food origins, they also help foster community ties among participants as plots require continual upkeep, irrigation, and harvesting. when considered in tandem, it is easy to see how this kind of public outreach represents a win-win situation for chipotle and its urban gardening counterparts. yet, these increasingly publicized collaborations may lack genuine consensus as relations among stakeholders are also shaded by a certain degree of nuance that effectively belies such upbeat appraisals. in broader sense, they may reveal how state promotion of the public good on issues related to ethical food consumption has ceded ground to prevailing neoliberal ideologies whereby privatized and corporate interests are accorded greater currency in knowledge dissemination within the agro-food system. however mutually beneficial dealings between chipotle and its community gardening partners ostensibly appear, they are also subject to various kinds of growing pains. efforts to implement these learning projects, much less ensure their long term viability, are often susceptible to competing agendas that, if not directly at odds with one another, are certainly not always perfectly aligned. the subtle frictions that arise out of such incompatibilities, particularly those related to the collaboration’s future direction, can accrue and eventually stymie whatever forward momentum the ventures initially experience. in many ways, these minor rifts reflect the understated tensions that can emerge when corporate fast food intersects, however tangentially, with community agriculture at the local level. negotiating this sometimes complex interplay raises some intriguing research questions for anthropologists, folklorists, sociologists, food scholars, and others interested in understanding how such seemingly disparate domains as quick-service restaurants and local food interests can coalesce and diverge over a common cause. questions worth considering include how do fast casual eateries like chipotle engage local groups in this type of community outreach or vice-versa? how do the complementary, if sometimes competing, interests of both sides develop over time, and who benefits the most from these unfolding partnerships? what, if any, are the drawbacks for local food groups for partnering with corporate chains at the grassroots level, given the industry’s longstanding association with unhealthy eating habits and unsustainable business practices? how do these projects ultimately impact the wider community in terms of enhancing food knowledge, health, and well-being? when considered altogether, these questions not only offer a viable starting point from which to begin exploring the new learning garden, they also call attention to the role of “consumer engagement with the corporatized arm of ethical consumption – a realm of concern to food scholars as alternative agricultural initiatives are absorbed (both materially and symbolically) into corporate institutions” (johnston and szabo 2011). background as a matter of disclosure, my familiarity with this particular chipotle location probably owes more to the fact that one of my former neighbors used to work there as a line cook than any regular patronage on my part. while i eat there rather infrequently, i still appreciate chipotle’s “food with integrity” ethos and really enjoy their fresh menu offerings, especially the grilled steak tacos. that said, my campus commute along university boulevard takes me right past this east orlando chipotle almost every day. with a clear street view of the learning garden effectively obscured by the restaurant’s bustling parking lot and mostly redbrick construction, i only first became aware of the project one evening in early february 2013, while dining with my family at a steak 'n shake located directly next door. from the vantage point of our red cushioned booth, i noticed what appeared to be some new development in a vacant lot behind the chipotle. my view through the restaurant’s plate glass window was partially obscured by several parked cars and palmetto shrubs so i was initially unsure what had been constructed. perhaps it was a special expansion of the chipotle parking lot or more likely the groundwork for a new outdoor seating venue. whatever this development entailed, it scarcely resembled anything previously established in this part of suburban east orlando with its various working or middle-class neighborhoods, at least in terms of aesthetics or possible functionality. after dinner, my wife and i decided to amble over with the kids and take a closer look. a quick walk-around inspection revealed 12 raised garden beds enclosed by a simple wire fence. these individual plots were neatly arranged in four rows of three along a freshly laid carpet of shredded cypress mulch. with the notable exception of a blue plastic rain barrel stacked atop some cinderblocks in a corner nook, the garden’s symmetrical layout and handcrafted fixtures were all but elegant in their rustic simplicity (see photo 1). i noticed that, unlike other urban agricultural spaces that i have seen, this one did not incorporate found and recycled objects such as old tires or wooden shipping pallets in its design. rather, all building materials looked new, if only slightly weatherworn in appearance. best i could tell, the modest tufts of leafy winter greens that sprouted out of the dark garden soil were the only produce currently under cultivation (see photo 2). with a rich earthy aroma of organic compost tingeing the cool evening air, i quickly became intrigued by how this garden came to be, especially what possible role chipotle played in its development. photo 1: chipotle learning garden, march 2013. photo 2: raised garden beds with winter greens, chipotle learning garden, march 2013. what sparked my interest was not so much the surprise of finding a productive green space quietly nestled among the various chain eateries, retention ponds, and interchangeable office plazas that line this stretch of university boulevard. rather, my curiosity was piqued by the fact that this agricultural effort seemingly mirrored aspects of my ongoing ethnographic research in the provincial philippines detailing the globalization of local foodways. over the past several years i have documented manifestations of corporate fast food and community gardening initiatives in several urban centers across north-central luzon. among other things, this work has compelled me to consider how such operations emerge and retain their viability within various socio-cultural contexts including the u.s. in this way, the location of this chipotle gardening project, only a mile or so from where i work, seemed too fortuitous not to explore it in more detail. no garden-variety learning garden as luck would have it, a local daily ran a feature on the chipotle learning garden in its online edition about a week later (the daily city 2013). my wife emailed me the link and i was surprised to find that the article was only a few paragraphs long. despite its brevity, the piece was quite informative, especially since it contained an embedded three minute video detailing the project’s construction and underlying rationale. professionally shot and edited, the video serves as much as a mission statement for the learning garden developers as it does a calling card for chipotle’s community outreach efforts. when considered in retrospect, it is easy to see how viewers would perceive the project as having an auspicious future. amid the soothing sounds of delicate acoustic guitar fingerpicking and images of compact bulldozers clearing brush and debris from the vacant lot behind chipotle, i learned the following details from the video. first, the gardening project was conceptualized by “a local folkus" and constructed with the help of “my yard farm.” the former is an organization that, according to its website, is “dedicated to showcasing the work of musicians, artists, business owners, farmers, and other folks in the central florida area” (alocalfolkus.com 2013). the latter is an orlando based firm that assists local businesses and homeowners with the planning and installation of vegetable garden plots in underutilized urban or suburban spaces. second, the garden itself is comprised of organic fill soil and fertilized with mushroom compost. third, garden plots are kept continually moist through a gravity-fed irrigation system that collects rainwater in a plastic barrel and distributes it without electricity to the raised beds through a network of pvc pipe and drip soaker hoses buried only a few inches beneath the soil. fourth, the garden bins are constructed out of untreated cedar wood that is both rot resistant and designed to last upwards of ten years. significantly, the video also includes commentary and sound bites from the project’s creator, john riley, a community gardening advocate and natural foods entrepreneur of sorts who, among other things, launched several local initiatives and events in greater orlando related to his “a local folkus” organization, including the winter park harvest festival and the east end market (ibid). the latter is a multi-million dollar development entailing the conversion of a former two story office complex into a neighborhood market and cultural food hub in which central florida artisans and farmers can rent space to ply their wares to consumers. probably what intrigued me most from the video were riley’s comments about the learning garden’s overall purpose: to create a place where people can dialogue about… [food] issues. what does ‘food with integrity’ mean? [the learning garden is designed] to give chipotle and… ‘a local folkus’ an opportunity to bring people into a space where we can show documentary films, where we can bring schools in for workshops, where we can do garden demonstrations. but [ultimately our goal is to] create a place where community engagement [can occur]. we have lost a lot of that in our hectic, fast paced world. but to take a chance to unplug and…get your hands dirty and really…wrestle with some of the issues of…sustainable farming and growing seasonally…gives [us] a much more profound respect for how food comes from field to plate. our goal here is to basically make that a physical reality and we are super excited to be able to partner with chipotle and ‘my yard farm’ to make that whole thing happen (buffington 2013). after watching the video, i felt doubly compelled to find out more about the learning garden and chipotle’s involvement with it. since riley is quite tech savvy about promoting all of his local gardening efforts, maintaining a considerable social media presence on sites like facebook and twitter, it was fairly easy to track down his contact information and email him my request for more information about the learning garden. impressively, riley got back to me in less than a day saying he would be happy to chat but that he was currently attending the georgia organics conference and had plans over the next few weeks to check out birmingham, alabama’s local food scene and meet with representatives from southern living magazine to discuss some of his work. if anything, his busy schedule confirmed my hunch that he was a real mover and shaker within orlando’s natural food community. after a few more email exchanges, we agreed to meet for an informal tour of the learning garden one friday afternoon in early march 2013. our appointment coincided with ucf’s spring break, so not much was happening around campus or along university boulevard’s belt of quick casual eateries. who is john riley? the weather was clear and surprisingly cool when i left campus to meet riley at the nearby chipotle learning garden. i arrived to find him unraveling a knotted water hose in the restaurant parking lot. smartly attired in a patagonia fleece, jeans, and desert boots, his understated appearance and stubble beard called to mind a dressed down matt damon or brad pitt. in many ways, riley seemed to personify the forward-leaning, food conscious urbanite that chipotle actively targets in its marketing and restaurant operations. the gardening equipment loaded in the back of his late model ford pickup suggested nothing if not a hands-on approach to urban farming and a strong commitment to d.i.y. community engagement. over the next few hours riley revealed details about his local roots and educational background as well as some of the influential events that steered him towards urban agriculture and natural foods advocacy. a graduate of winter park high school, riley received a b.a. degree from furman university, a private coeducational liberal arts college in south carolina, in 1998. twelve years later he earned an m.a. in digital media from ucf. besides an ongoing interest in playing music and competing in triathlons, he has also traveled extensively overseas with trips to almost 40 countries including malaysia, china, and indonesia. with many varied interests and an extensive network of local contacts, riley was well positioned to pursue any number of community outreach projects in the greater orlando area. the fact that he ultimately pursued urban agriculture may reflect his ability to match a newfound sense of conviction with many of his skills and talents. it was michael pollan’s the omnivore’s dilemma: a natural history of four meals (2006) that inspired riley to try his hand at organic gardening. starting off small, he grew his first tomato plant from seed at home after reading this soon-to-be-classic. he then moved on to other cultivation projects over subsequent months, before shifting his energies to something more profound. riley, never one to dream small, began conceptualizing a local food event that would eventually become the winter park harvest festival. his interests lie in making gardening appealing to everyone from “the penny loafer crowd to those who have full arm tattoos.” with no comparable festivities in this part of central florida, riley was able use many of his local business connections to carve out an important niche within the regional organic food scene. the winter park harvest festival was launched in 2010 and has grown every year to become an important fixture on the greater orlando social calendar. this success reflects his “big picture” entrepreneurial approach to local food advocacy. as he would later tell me, “i like to throw a lot of shit against the wall and see what sticks.” after introductions, i followed riley to the restaurant’s patio area where he turned on a water spigot partially hidden behind some shrubbery along the building’s edge. he then hurried over to retrieve the now gushing tube from the asphalt and begin filling up the garden’s blue rain barrel. once the streaming hose was firmly installed in the near empty container, we began walking around the site, discussing the recent challenges he has faced in keeping the project operational some six weeks after its initial debut. as we chatted i noticed that the undeveloped property just beyond the garden’s perimeter was strewn with trash and intermittent piles of unused mulch and soil, as if no one had tidied the place up in a while. riley informed me that up until the january 2013 site renovation, the lot behind chipotle served as a frequent campsite for local transients. aside from the litter and materials left over from construction, the garden itself appeared fairly well-kept, although some of the plants seemed in better shape than others, possibly reflecting the lack of manpower to oversee operations. open space in the garden’s center is sizable and, according to riley, designed to accommodate benches and tents. since the space is primarily designed for educational purposes, riley has yet to determine what to do with the winter greens currently under cultivation, although donating them to second harvest, a local food bank that serves distressed central florida families, remains a distinct possibility. while i snapped pictures and jotted down notes, riley did some weeding and other odd tasks around the garden, continually checking his iphone and sometimes answering calls or texts about ongoing “a local folkus” projects. clearly, he maintains a busy schedule, something he readily concedes by admitting to having “many plates spinning at once.” since i originally envisioned our first meeting as something of a fact finding mission, i had not really prepared formal interview questions for riley. basically, i wanted to get a feel for him as a possible ethnographic informant and determine whether or not the chipotle venture held real research potential. riley’s passion for the learning garden as well as his other orlando-area initiatives quickly convinced me that the undertaking did indeed have promise and that my best approach was probably to just let him speak. this decision proved astute as he soon brought me up to speed about the project’s background and current status. according to him, chipotle agreed to capitalize the agricultural space with $6,000 of its own funds. riley was well-situated to pursue such collaboration, both for his success as a local gardening advocate as well as the surprising amount of sway he already maintained over the site. the ground leases for many of the commercial properties located along university boulevard, including those on which the chipotle restaurant and neighboring logan’s steakhouse now stand, are held by riley’s family. since they also control the undeveloped acreage immediately behind the taquería, the transformation of some its underutilized parcels into a functional learning garden seemed promising for riley, albeit not a foregone conclusion. the construction of a restaurant-affiliated garden at this location appeared mutually beneficial for various reasons. not only did it reflect the chain’s “food with integrity” philosophy, it also paralleled other chipotle’s community outreach projects around the country. moreover, it provided groups like “a local folkus” an attractive and functional setting to engage locals in east orlando about issues related to food sourcing and sustainable production. rather than approach chipotle online through its community outreach application, riley was able to pitch the learning garden concept to the company in a more personalized way. through his work with “a local folkus,” riley had established a working relationship with chipotle vis-à-vis the chain’s ongoing sponsorship of the winter park harvest festival. in particular, he developed a strong rapport with the chipotle representative whose job entailed overseeing restaurant operations in florida and across the u.s. southeast. their successful promotion of this annual event over a three year period helped cement the burgeoning partnership, laying the groundwork for future collaborations that reflect shared philosophies about organic foods and urban agriculture. since riley and the chipotle representative got along so well professionally, they began contemplating new and innovative ways to expand this working relationship over the long term. riley informed me that his decision to expand the partnership with chipotle into something beyond their previous festival sponsorship was partially inspired by an animated chipotle advertisement that debuted at the 2012 grammy awards. the “back to the start” commercial featured a willie nelson cover of the coldplay song “the scientist” and depicted the gradual transformation of a small family farm into a giant industrial factory farm before progressively reverting back to the original family operation. he showed me the two minute spot afterwards on his iphone as we dined inside the restaurant. beyond this well-received marketing effort, riley was similarly influenced by chipotle sponsored outreach projects in other major u.s. cities. one was the chain’s collaboration with “truck farm tampa,” a community organization in nearby tampa, florida dedicated to promoting natural foods and urban farming at area schools through a mobile garden in the back of an orange pickup truck. the objectives of this educational program which include raising awareness about food origins are almost identical to riley’s learning garden initiative. another was chipotle’s annual “cultivate: food, ideas, and music festival.” this free public event is staged each summer in san francisco, denver, and chicago and attracts thousands of d.i.y. farmers, food conscious urbanites, innovative artisans, and indie musicians to celebrate healthy and environmentally sound food practices in a festive atmosphere. the success of these chipotle-affiliated ventures seemed to bode well for his proposed gardening concept. by late fall 2012, the idea of a community learning garden on the vacant property had effectively taken shape. riley noted that the project’s original goal was “just to get it built and figure out the operational aspects later.” this is almost precisely what happened as riley secured the chipotle funding and with the help of his “my yard farm” colleagues designed and constructed the agricultural space over several days in january 2013. the learning garden’s smooth installation which was documented rather optimistically in the three minute online video belied unforeseen developments that quickly called the project’s future viability into question. indeed, the positive expectations that characterized much of the agricultural space’s planning would over time prove largely premature. chipotle initially pledged around $200 in monthly wages for someone to oversee the agricultural plots. in effect, the chain would pay a garden hand to weed, irrigate, and maintain the space. this fell through when the chipotle representative with whom riley initially worked unexpectedly left the company for another job. her abrupt departure, just as operations were getting underway, effectively brought learning garden activities to a standstill and placed the project, as riley states, “in stasis.” without a detail-oriented person in upper-management to advocate his vision about how the plots could best serve the interests of chipotle, “a local folkus,” and the wider community, the learning garden’s future direction assumed a much less certain footing. similarly, with his collaborator no longer around to help translate his aspirations about public outreach to company higher-ups, it seemed chipotle was poised to disregard its initial investment in the project. as things currently stand, riley is searching for ways to move forward with chipotle to get operations back on track. it seems that the main sticking point involves questions about who will manage the garden over the long term. riley is interested in securing more external funding in this regard or possibly rallying volunteer help from the nearby ucf community. the latter option appears somewhat more feasible as the university is riley with student groups and organizations whose unpaid labor could go a long way towards rehabilitating the project. while the possibilities of providing such service learning opportunities to students holds potential, riley has yet to find a viable ucf connection to broker such an arrangement. with his immediate attention focused on the fast approaching launch of the $3 million east end market, the chipotle learning garden has become increasingly relegated to the backburner for riley. when i asked him if he is hopeful that the chipotle project will ultimately succeed, he confirmed that he was indeed optimistic since he “has enough social capital” in greater orlando to make sure that it doesn’t fail. in a follow-up email, he reiterated such sentiments by stating that the “media buzz” generated by the east end market’s successful opening in fall 2013 could be effectively leveraged “to get some renewed interest in the chipotle garden” (email to author, june 14, 2013). as if to illustrate the challenges riley is now facing in breathing new life into the learning garden, a college-age chipotle employee approached us as we were concluding our informal tour to nervously ask if riley could stop watering. evidently, customers were complaining that the hose filling up the blue rain barrel was only partially attached to the spigot, spraying the much of the outdoor seating with water. he directed us over to the side of the restaurant where, sure enough, a pair of mop-wielding wage-earners was awaiting the chance to attend to the patio which by now appeared drenched by artificial rainfall. riley quickly switched off the valve. this awkward exchange compelled us to continue our chat inside the eatery over veggie burritos and iced tea. as we ate, riley acknowledged that the complexities and contradictions of partnering with a fast casual corporate chain like chipotle were not lost on him. such self-awareness and individual reflexivity assumed particular depth as he readily admitted that some company practices are neither fully sustainable nor really all that appealing to environmentalists or local food activists. basically, he stated that the shared interests between corporate chains and local gardening advocates like himself will never perfectly align. despite these admitted incongruities, he is still committed to “moving the ball down the court,” viewing inaction on his own part as little more than a cop out. he drew very real distinctions between chipotle and its fast food competitors, noting that at least the quick-casual taquería had embraced sustainable and environmentally conscious food from its inception, unlike chains such as mcdonald’s, who were arguably compelled by public sentiment to adopt more pro-social practices. with our meeting concluded i headed back to campus to type up my field notes. the overall impression that i took away from this initial encounter with riley was one of appreciation for his big picture approach to urban gardening and community engagement. taking the initiative and seizing opportunities as they arise seems an essential aspect of his entrepreneurial style. similarly, the ability to cultivate relationships with a variety of volunteer and commercial interests including corporate restaurant chains to develop projects and events that inform the public about the benefits of local foods and organic cultivation demonstrates a real knack for realizing his personal vision. in many ways, his background and business ties in orlando and elsewhere leave him well positioned to get such schemes up and running. doubtless, it takes someone with considerable initiative and grit to seek out new opportunities for promoting these issues, especially in communities where such undertakings are largely uncommon. yet, i could not help but wonder if he risks becoming overextended with so many projects operating concurrently and at various stages of development. whether or not his “if you build it, they will come” approach to the chipotle learning garden will ultimately succeed was something i could not anticipate at this juncture. growing pains my daily commute along university boulevard throughout spring and issue 2 revealed little or no activity behind the chipotle restaurant. not only were there no grand opening or ribbon cutting ceremonies to commemorate the learning garden’s launch in the days and weeks that followed its construction, the space has, thus far, failed to host any community events or activities. even online there has been a conspicuous lack of fanfare surrounding the endeavor, with no updates or information from “a local folkus” or chipotle about recent developments in the project’s status. by nearly all outward appearances, it seems that efforts to get the learning garden fully operational have proved ineffective. when i stopped by the eatery to see how things were progressing in july 2013 some four months after meeting riley, i was ill-prepared for the excessive overgrowth of intrusive plant life that awaited me out back (see photo 3). perhaps it was the inescapable effects of the oppressive summer heat, but the garden appeared decidedly less manicured with noticeably more weeds and fewer signs of tending. if anything, i was surprised by how much work and cultivation the plots now seemed to require. none of the raised garden beds had been harvested of greens and the mulch floor that blanketed the space was difficult to discern amid the dense clumps of weeds that pervaded the entire enclosure. even the “my yard farm” banner attached to the wire fence near the garden’s gate appeared soggy and warped from prolonged exposure to the elements. possibly the only real hints of progress were the large mounds of wood bark recently deposited on the garden’s overgrown periphery. photo 3: chipotle learning garden, july 2013. despite my initial sense of optimism, it now seemed that the impasse confronting the learning garden collaborators had firmly taken root with no foreseeable way to capitalize on its construction other than riley’s expectation that favorable east end market publicity will subsequently resurrect the project. i suspect that this lack of forward progress can be attributed to a variety of factors rather than any one single issue. of the two partners, it seems that chipotle is the less committed as the company’s decision to green-light the agricultural space presumably entailed considerations not wholly aligned with community outreach. rejecting a venture like this runs the risk of undermining the chain’s tenant status in the aforementioned ground lease agreement. with such an outcome arguably too impolitic to fully pursue, it seems reasonable to suspect that company support for the project was partially predicated on maintaining smooth relations with the owner of the property on which the restaurant stands. in this way, its start-up capitalization may have only seemed a small outlay for retaining such goodwill. once the garden was built and the chain’s involvement initially publicized online and in print, chipotle appeared to reevaluate its “a local folkus” affiliation, especially after the manager with whom riley had originally collaborated left the company. her unexpected departure effectively recast the learning garden into something of a pet project that only she seemed prepared to champion. without her to assertively promote the agricultural space, detail its ongoing development to chipotle colleagues, and shepherd it through the growing pains that arise amid new public outreach initiatives, the garden’s future assumed a much less secure footing. so much so, in fact, that subsequent communication between project collaborators became sporadic at best. it probably goes without saying that her pivotal role in the garden’s approval and advocacy for riley cannot be overestimated in light of the struggles that have plagued the project following her exit. beyond chipotle’s apparent aversion to further collaboration, the current impasse confronting the learning garden presumably owes something to riley’s continued involvement in multiple local projects. by dint of his ongoing work and volunteer commitments in and around orlando, it seems almost inevitable that some of his obligations would take precedence over others. in this case, the learning garden has been persistently eclipsed by riley’s responsibilities overseeing the winter park harvest festival and east end market; a situation further complicated by the fact that he lacks viable partners or assistants to whom he can delegate various tasks. these large scale ventures have perhaps deservedly occupied most of his attention given their significant capitalizations and prominence in central florida’s growing organic food scene. yet, if the continuing difficulties besetting the riley/chipotle collaboration are any indication, it is that more modest undertakings such as promoting and managing the learning garden also require a comparable amount of effort by all invested stakeholders. no less problematic is the learning garden’s location some distance away from riley’s established sphere of influence in the more affluent winter park. both the harvest festival and east end market, along with many of his volunteer commitments, are situated in this former resort enclave which is known for its upscale shopping districts, rollins college, and scenic homes nestled amid a series of picturesque lakes and navigable canals. most of riley’s success has been concentrated in and around this exclusive orange county suburb. by contrast, the chipotle agricultural space is located over ten miles away in a former vacant lot that lacks clear curbside visibility for drivers on university boulevard and seems rather far removed from winter park’s ambience and aesthetic charm. with work and volunteer obligations that only sometimes require his presence in the ucf area, riley cannot keep as watchful an eye on the learning garden as he does other projects. had the opportunity to develop the learning garden emerged at a time when riley was not so fully occupied by his other professional commitments or in a space more proximal to his winter park base of operations, things might have progressed along an entirely different trajectory. similarly, had the east orlando chipotle partnered with a nearby school or community-based organization such as the y.m.c.a. as they have in other cities (real school gardens 2011), the project might have generated more initial success. conclusion in many respects corporate fast food and community gardening exist on opposite ends of a long and complex continuum. on the one extreme is the american fast food industry, which has come under increasing scrutiny for its questionable food sourcing practices, promotion of unhealthy diets, and contributive role in advancing “globesity.” recent public criticism of these ill-effects has, among other things, compelled industry players to rethink aspects of their operations, with some chains pursuing new directions in corporate marketing and community outreach. so far, chipotle mexican grill has felt little pressure to revamp its overall image, as it remains one of today’s most progressive and socially engaged restaurant brands. yet, its links to industrial agribusiness and factory farms persist, despite chipotle’s well-publicized commitment to natural ingredients and sustainability. on the other end of the spectrum is the loosely knit web of family farmers, entrepreneurially-oriented organic food producers, gardening cooperatives, community advocates, and health conscious consumers that comprise today’s local food movement. despite a lack of consistent state support, their grassroots efforts continue to attract growing numbers of followers in communities across the u.s. and elsewhere. as a deliberate return to simpler modes of food production, this non-corporate model eschews the hierarchical supply chains that insulate consumers from industrial food manufacturers just as it readily embraces sustainable practices including community gardening and urban agriculture. ostensibly, support of locally produced food provides better access to fresh produce at the community level and fosters more personalized interactions between farmers and their customers. while such ideal outcomes are not always so straightforward in reality, they do help explain local food’s rising popularity over recent years. similarly, they also anticipate the beginnings of a more paradigmatic shift away from the hegemonic food system that continues to dominate the global economy. however incompatible corporate fast food and community gardening appear at the local level, there are instances where they converge and coalesce around common objectives. essentially both are couched within neoliberal frameworks whereby market solutions and individual agency effectively undermine the potency of state solutions to persistent problems related to the global food system. as the unfolding case of the chipotle learning garden in east orlando attests, community outreach offers a viable context for complementary interests from these distinctive domains to raise their respective public profiles through collaboration. for a forward-leaning chain like chipotle, sponsoring this type of initiative not only reinforces its “food with integrity” ethos, it also infuses restaurant operations with a deeper sense of mission. besides leading the competition in crafting tasty and relatively inexpensive on-the-go mexican cuisine, part of chipotle’s corporate clout stems from its documented support of such non-profit endeavors. just as these commitments situate the restaurant brand within a broader framework of public engagement that is variously recognized as both ethical and efficacious, they also cast the relative absence of state involvement in such issues into rather stark relief. for community gardening interests like john riley’s “a local folkus,” chain-affiliated partnerships hold genuine promise by creating opportunities for outside capitalization. the launch of these collaborative efforts assumes new levels of public credibility when such funding is considered alongside the publicity derived from its now popular brand associations. the fact that a well-known company would deign to support such agricultural undertakings can help elevate a project’s standing for many within the wider community. efforts that might otherwise go unnoticed can suddenly accrue a greater deal of cachet when juxtaposed with the corporate logos and other trappings of popular restaurant chains. if anything, they reinforce the growing power of private interests in foregrounding food issues related to ethical consumption and the public good. whether or not these collaborations are positively received within the more insular and perhaps politicized confines of the local food scene is probably another matter altogether. the initial enthusiasm that characterizes these burgeoning partnerships may fail to anticipate the growing pains or sudden rifts that can ultimately reverse whatever forward momentum they originally experience. as chipotle learning garden operations now languish in apparent stasis, it becomes evident that these associations are probably more tenuous than would otherwise be assumed. lack of sustained commitment from either side can easily derail or upend prospects for long term success without an invested stakeholder to effectively manage project details. indeed, if what transpired in east orlando provides any real indication of how fast food community outreach efforts can stall or fail to achieve their prime objectives, it is that, barring a binding contractual agreement between project collaborators, factors such as timing, personalities, and geography can all influence how these partnerships ultimately unfold. at this stage, it seems that neither chipotle nor riley are able to devote the requisite time and energy to restore the project to some semblance of its initial potential, much less fully transform it into a showcase of urban agriculture and public engagement in this part of orlando. without an unexpected breakthrough, the complex interplay that developed between collaborators over recent months renders the prospect of a resurgent learning garden in the foreseeable future into something of an open-ended question. with no definitive resolution on the horizon, it is hard to predict whether or not this gloomy outlook is only temporary, or leaves open some possibility of a relaunch in the months or years to come. likewise, it is difficult to anticipate which party would be the first to broach some kind of renewal effort, however tentative, should the project regain sufficient currency. future research that compares these kinds of top-down approaches to urban gardening with those where local communities are involved in such efforts at their inception may reveal new ways to sustain these projects over the long term. suffice it to say, the learning garden signifies something of a missed opportunity not just for riley and chipotle but also for the surrounding community of mostly college students and working or middle-class families. in an area of orlando where strip malls and fast food eateries predominate, a space dedicated to the promotion of organic farming, healthy eating practices, and enhanced food knowledge represents a vital if not long overdue community asset. once up and running, the venue would help publicize these issues by providing a focal point for sustainable community development as adjacent neighborhoods remain largely devoid of such amenities. in a more far-reaching way, it would serve as an important resource for larger community efforts that strive to empower individuals and households through educational opportunities and skill-based training. perhaps the biggest drawback related to the learning garden’s still unfulfilled promise as a model of community outreach is that those it was meant to serve are denied the chance to encounter urban agriculture in such a new and experiential way. with few opportunities for local urbanites to detach from the demands of everyday life and reconnect with nature by getting their hands dirty through simple vegetable cultivation, this dormant resource stands as a vivid reminder of what can happen when the interests of corporate fast food and those of the local food movement fail to properly align in collaborative community outreach. unfortunately, since the public never really got the chance to experience the learning garden in a direct way, it is unlikely that they will greatly miss its presence. arguably, as the promotion of ethical consumption and other agro-food issues related to the public good are increasingly abdicated to private sector interests, it is underserved communities and households who remain most vulnerable to the vagaries of this prevailing neoliberal model of development. acknowledgements the author wishes to thank dr. vance geiger, martha heine, and lorena parker matejowsky for their valued contributions to this work. 1. “reflexive ethnographies range along a continuum from starting research from one’s own experience to ethnographies where the researcher’s experience is actually studied along with other participants, to confessional tales where the researcher’s experience of doing the study becomes the focus of the study” (ellis and bochner 2000). autoethnographies entail “a form or method of research that involves self-observation and reflexive investigation in the context of ethnographic field investigation and writing” (maréchal 2010:43). 2. in this article, i adhere to catherine broom’s definition of the public good which understands this concept as “an imagined and communal space in which goods valued by society become collectively owned and shared through respectful and open contestation and negotiation” (broom 2011). 3. here and throughout this article the term “ethical” qualifies those practices and products that are variously believed to promote both social justice and sustainable environmental practices (cf. johnston and szabo 2011). 4. according to the u.s. census bureau, the zip code in which this chipotle restaurant is located is predominately “white,” with a sizable “hispanic” population. perhaps unsurprisingly given its proximity to ucf, the median age is 26 years old. the average household income is $46,087 (u.s. census bureau 2013). 5. this is a pseudonym. 6. besides spearheading the winter park harvest festival, he is also involved in numerous orlando area enterprises and events that promote natural foods and sustainable farming. these include acting as the urban agriculture liaison for “keep winter park beautiful,” a local program dedicated to promoting green spaces and urban aesthetics, and serving on the advisory board of edible orlando, a homegrown magazine that covers central florida’s organic food scene. beyond these volunteer responsibilities, riley also works full-time in commercial real estate with his father. the family firm developed the mall at millennia, a sprawling upscale shopping center located in west orlando along the busy i-4 corridor. he even moonlights as an adjunct instructor of urban agriculture at rollins college in nearby winter park. riley’s various commitments, i would later find, made follow-up interviews somewhat difficult to schedule. 7. later, i discovered that “back to the start” was chipotle’s first national television ad. the company has almost completely eschewed conventional marketing techniques over its 20 year existence (morrison 2012). in fact, it was only then that i realized that i had never seen a chipotle television commercial as the chain does not rely on this advertising format to promote its restaurants; an achievement few major fast food eateries can claim. 8. he mentioned the fact that only 40% of the restaurant’s pork is free range with the rest coming from factory farms. references cited a local folkus. 2013. http://alocalfolkus.com/ (accessed february 21, 2013). bittman, mark. 2013. yes, healthful fast food is possible. but edible? new york times magazine. april 3. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/magazine/yes-healthful-fastfood-is-possible-but-edible.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0 (accessed april 4, 2013). brash, michael 2012. burrito battle: taco bell vs. chipotle. msn money. december 4. http://money.msn.com/investment-advice/burrito-battle-taco-bell-vs-chipotle (accessed march 19, 2013). broom, catherine. 2011. the erosion of the public good. the implications of neoliberalism for education for democracy. citizenship, social and economic education 10(2):140-146. buffington, brent, director. 2013. chipotle learning garden. 3 minutes. orlando: red harbor media. choi, candice. 2013 healthier taco bell: chain hoping to recast greasy food image. huffington post. april 10. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/10/healthiertaco-bell_n_3055059.html?utm_hp_ref=business&ir=business (accessed april 12, 2013). daily city. 2013. chipotle learning garden in orlando displays food with integrity principle in physical form. daily city.com. february 21. http://www.thedailycity.com/2013/02/chipotle-learning-garden-nearucf.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed%3a+orlandoar tsblog+%28thedailycity.com%3a+orlando+city+%2b+culture%29 (accessed february 22, 2013). ellis, carolyn and arthur bochner. 2000. autoethnography, personal narrative, reflexivity. research as subject. in handbook of qualitative research. second edition, ed. norman k. denizen and yvonna s. lincoln, 733-768. thousand oaks, ca: sage. fast casual.com 2012. chipotle backing veggie u with classroom program. fast casual.com. august 16. http://www.fastcasual.com/article/199065/chipotle-backingveggie-u-with-classroom-program (accessed march 25, 2013). halwell, brian. 2004. eat here. reclaiming homegrown pleasures in a global supermarket. new york: norton. johnston, josèe. 2008. the citizen-consumer hybrid. ideological tensions and the case of whole foods market. theory and society 37:229-270. johnston, josèe and michelle szabo. 2011. reflexivity and the whole foods market consumer. the lived experience of shopping for change. agriculture and human values 28:303-319. klein, daniel. 2011. are chipotle and trader joe’s really selling food with ‘integrity?’ the perennial plate. huffington post. october 27. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danielklein/tomatoes-chipotle-trader-joes_b_1034201.html (accessed october 24, 2013). koch, shelley l. 2012. a theory of grocery shopping. food, choice and conflict. new york: berg. kolleck, nina. 2013. how global companies wield their power. the discursive shaping of sustainable development. in the handbook of global companies, ed. john mikler. 134152. oxford: john wiley and sons. lockie, stewart. 2002. the invisible mouth. mobilizing ‘the consumer’ in food productionconsumption networks. sociologia ruralis 42(4): 278-294. maréchal 2010. “autoethnography” in encyclopedia of case study research (2)43-45. albert j. mills, gabrielle durepos and elden wiebe, editors. thousand oaks, ca: sage. matejowsky, ty. 2009. fast food and nutritional perceptions in the age of “globesity:” perspectives from the provincial philippines. food and foodways 17(1):29-49. mcmicahel, philip, ed. 1994. the global restructuring of agro-food systems. ithaca, new york: cornell university press. morrison, maureen. 2012. chipotle leaps forward with ‘back to the start:’ online video gets so much social-media traction it becomes chain’s first national tv ad. advertising age. november 26. http://adage.com/article/special-report-marketer-alist2012/chipotle-leaps-forward-back-start/238415/ (accessed june 28, 2013). pollan, michael. 2006. the omnivore’s dilemma: a natural history of four meals. new york: penguin press. real school gardens. 2011. real school gardens and chipotle join forces to ‘feed the soul,’ http://www.realschoolgardens.org/news/11-0308/real_school_gardens_and_chipotle_join_forces_to_%e2%80%9cfeed_the_sou l%e2%80%9d.aspx (accessed august 29, 2013). robbins, richard h. 2011 global problems and the culture of capitalism. fifth edition. upper saddleriver, new jersey: pearson. roff, robin jane. 2007. shopping for change? neoliberal activism and the limits of eating non-gmo. agriculture and human values 24(4):511-522. schlosser, eric. 2001. fast food nation: the dark side of the all-american meal. boston: houghton mifflin. soper, k. 2007. rethinking the ‘good life.’ the citizenship dimension of consumer disaffection with consumerism. journal of consumer culture 7(2): 205-229. spurlock, morgan, director. 2004. super size me. 100 minutes. hollywood: samuel goldwyn films. u.s. census bureau. 2013. http://www.census.gov/main/www/access.html (accessed october 24, 2013). a letter from the editors: dear readers, hello, and welcome to the new digest! the publication of the foodways section of the american folklore society has been re-launched as a fully online academic journal. we will be publishing two issues per year, with content including peer-reviewed articles, research notes, and reviews of relevant media, as well as images, photo essays, recipes, and creative pieces. additionally, we have stored copies of the old versions of digest in our ../archives section. our focus remains on presenting pieces that deal with food, culture, and identity, but the move to an online journal increases our reach while providing us with unprecedented flexibility. the digest site is open-access, so no passwords or signups will be required. if you would like to be sent an email reminder when a new issue comes out, submit your name to our mailing list with the link [insert link]. we will never give, sell, or otherwise provide your contact information to anyone. the new digest is the result of collaboration between the department of folklore at memorial university of newfoundland and the professional programs at champlain college in vermont. this innovative cooperative model divides the work between the two campuses, maximizing the resources and skills of both. the content editorial work will be handled at memorial, drawing on the knowledge and experience of the folklore faculty members and graduate students. the layout, design, and publishing work will take place at champlain, where the skills of professional majors such as graphic design, web design and programming present the journal’s content in an attractive, functional, and professional form. the editors of the new digest are diane tye and michael lange. diane tye is associate professor and head of the department of folklore at memorial where she researches and teaches across a number of areas, including foodways, women’s folklore and research methodology. she is author of baking as biography. a life story in recipes (mcgill-queen’s, 2010). michael lange is an anthropologist and folklorist in the interdisciplinary core curriculum at champlain college. he teaches a range of courses in several fields, including working closely with the graphic design program. his own research interests include academic culture and identity, narrative in scotland, scandinavia, morocco, and cookbooks and sugarmaking culture in vermont. he is author of norwegian scots (edwin mellen, 2007). editorial assistant is caitlin bethune, a masters student in the department of folklore at memorial. we want to thank emily snyder, recent graduate from champlain college, who did the graphic and web design that allowed us get underway. thanks also to luanne roth, chair of the foodways section for her assistance and to ben staple for scanning the back issues. among the articles in this first issue we are happy to include the work of several recent winners and runners up for the sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship. it seems appropriate that as we look forward with the re-launch of digest in its new format, we recognize outstanding student papers that point to the future of foodways scholarship. so, we welcome you to the new digest, and we hope you enjoy and find use in our revamped journal. tell your friends and colleagues about digest, and please consider submitting a piece to us for future publication. enjoy! michael lange and diane tye, editors review of: truly texas mexican: a native culinary heritage in recipes by adán medrano lubbock: texas tech university press, 2014, pp. 186, bibliography, index. review by: mm pack austin, tx the region of north america now known as texas has always been a crossroads of food cultures. the earliest inhabitants were primarily nomadic groups with trading connections ranging from arizona to georgia, into central mexico and up the mississippi river valley. in the 16th-century, spaniards and mestizos migrated into this northernmost province of colonial mexican territory; they were joined in the 19th century by northern europeans and africans arriving via the american south, anglo settlers from the midwest and upper south, german and czech farmers brought by enterprising impresarios. all these cultures, seeking land and opportunity, contributed to the state’s culinary traditions and the foods that texans eat today. adan medrano’s truly texas mexican is a book of history, context, and recipes that focuses on the segment of texas food traditions rooted in the cuisines of original native american inhabitants—both north and south of the rio grande—who intermingled with and were ultimately absorbed by early immigrants from colonial mexico. his thesis is that the foods of pre-hispanic peoples coupled with ingredients, influences, and flavors introduced early from points south constitute a regional mexican cuisine equivalent to other regional mexican cuisines like those of oaxaca, puebla, and michoacán. medrano names this cuisine texas mexican and stands firm that it is not the same as tex-mex, the popular and widespread concept of mexican-influenced texas food. he contends that tex-mex represents only a limited and anglicized facet of the larger, far older regional cuisine. he posits that texas mexican is the home cooking for descendants of early native american/hispanic residents (also known as tejanos, mexican-americans, and chicanos), while tex-mex refers specifically to the dishes developed in early 20th-century texas restaurants that catered primarily to anglos and steadily became popular in other parts of the us. (in the 1980s, diana kennedy described such as “an overly large platter of mixed messes” (1989:xiii) and was appalled by the liberal applications of molten processed cheese.) medrano’s terminology differentiation is useful and should probably be more widely adopted. the term tex-mex wasn’t even applied to things culinary until the 1970s; before that, it was all simply called “mexican food.” today, the oxford english dictionary defines tex-mex as “a texan style of cooking using mexican ingredients.” joe s. graham, in the texas history association’s handbook of texas, characterizes tex-mex foods as “a combination of indian and spanish cuisines, which came together to make a distinct new cuisine.” both definitions use tex-mex to describe what medrano says ought to be called texas mexican. so what, exactly, constitutes texas mexican cuisine? in the varied terrains and climates of texas and northern mexico, native americans ate freshand saltwater fishes and shellfish, hunted deer, bison, turkey, quail, and rabbit, and foraged for native pecans, sweet mesquite beans, prickly pear cactus fruits and paddles, wild berries and plums, and quelites (wild greens such as purslane and lambs’ quarters). ingredients that arrived from far-flung trading connections and then along with early mexican settlers were beans, corn, chiles, squashes, potatoes, avocados, and tomatoes. from the old world via mexico, spaniards brought beef, pigs, goats, and sheep; they introduced wheat, sugar, rice, onions, and garlic, as well as citrus, melons, and many other fruits and vegetables. cooking styles included roasting and baking in earth ovens, grilling, steaming, stewing and boiling over open fires, grinding, fermenting, drying, salting, and smoking. these elements all contribute to the blended cuisine that medrano, a san antonio native with family connections in the northern mexican state of coahuila, grew up eating at home, along with his neighbors and most of the tejano population. many of the book’s recipes include extensive headnotes, almost mini-essays that are short histories of specific ingredients and cooking processes; two good examples are avocados and the preparation of corn. in addition to two introductory chapters that cover big-picture context and history, chapter 3 is a short list of kitchen tools and ingredients; newcomers to this cooking might have benefitted from some more of this. piloncillo is included but canela is not; dried chiles are described but fresh ones aren’t. and, perplexingly, the nixtamalized corn masa in the index and history chapters is listed as “corn flour” (term not in the index) within recipes. the book’s 100 recipes are grounded in traditional ingredients and preparations, which the author characterizes as lighter, subtler, more healthful, and far more varied than their sometimes similarly named tex-mex counterparts. the recipes also reflect cia-trained chef medrano’s own tastes, preferences, and family traditions. not all the ingredients used in the cuisine are included in recipes— no mesquite beans, prickly pear fruits, or quelites, for example. he excludes game and offal dishes as well as open-fire cooking, because “the subjects merit books unto themselves.” he does, however, pull in a few recipes from other regions of mexico and include some newly developed dishes (like grilled clams in tequila broth) that are “created in the spirit of the texas mexican flavor profile to indicate how our cuisine is evolving and creating new combinations of european and meso-american new world ingredients” (medrano, 2014:4). truly texas mexican aims to define and shine a light on a largely ignored cuisine, reclaim culinary territory for its practitioners and their ancestors, and interpret that cuisine within the multi-cultural context that is modern texas. both texans and curious cooks from elsewhere can enjoy these recipes while appreciating how indigenous ingredients and migration patterns contribute to the region’s foodways. references cited graham, joe s. tex-mex foods. handbook of texas online. texas state historical association. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lgtlt (accessed february 10, 2015). kennedy, diana. 1989. the art of mexican cooking. new york: bantam. oxford english dictionary http://www.oed.com/view/entry/200001 (accessed february 14, 2015). digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022): 55-65 ©american folklore society 2022 research note pickled eggs and natural dyes: food as active memory by: meaghan collins abstract: food and grief are often closely connected. many people prepare favorite foods of passed loved ones as part of a healing process—a way to remember. re-creating beloved recipes can help bring memories to life. but how can we re-create those memories in the kitchen while also learning to live without the individuals we’ve lost? i argue that sometimes, to navigate grief, discovering new cooking techniques can help the mourning process. in an interview conducted in 2021 with toronto resident gaïa orain, i learned how she began to pickle eggs using natural dyeing techniques as a coping mechanism for the death of her mother. while gaïa’s mother was an avid cook, pickling eggs was not her recipe. it was something gaïa learned on her own and has since come to embody her mother’s essence and a way for gaïa to actively remember and honor her while simultaneously developing a sense of autonomy. keywords: grief, memory, pickled eggs, natural dyes, family, nostalgia how can we recreate and honor the memory of someone we love who has died while simultaneously learning how to live without them? how can we move forward without forgetting their presence in our lives? the answers to these difficult questions may be as numerous and varied as the people asking. for some people, memories of loved ones are manifested and embodied through the act of preparing and making food. jillian gould writes: “our kitchen stories connect us to one another; the memories and narratives we share can be just as powerful as the food itself" (2017: 105). this research note reflects on how food has helped my friend, gaïa orain, find answers as she grieves the loss of her mother. gaïa orain was born on april 27, 1986. after finishing high school in london, ontario, she moved to montréal in the early 2000s and then to new york city to complete her mfa in product design from the school of visual arts. after living most of her adult life outside of ontario, she decided to return to the province, to toronto, a couple of years following the death of her mother, véronique orain. i hadn’t seen gaïa for several years, so her moving to toronto was a welcome surprise for me. when she moved into an apartment around the corner from me, our renewed friendship was partly founded on a shared sense of loss. gaia was mourning her mother, while i was grieving the end of a relationship and had recently been laid off from a job. i was pushing my way through toronto’s crowded streetcars and busy sidewalks, and with each shaky step, i remember feeling like i was exposing my loneliness and vulnerable state to everyone around me. thanks to gaïa, however, those darks days were interrupted with many evenings of bright and heartfelt conversation, collins, pickled eggs and natural dyes, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022) 56 radiant colors, and delicious food. as she turned to the kitchen to find her path forward, she helped identify the way out of grief for me as well. when we reconnected, gaia was still reeling from the death of her mother, véronique. born in rheims, france, véronique moved to london, ontario in 1984 and it is here that she died at home in 2016. gaïa describes her as a woman who had an “appreciation for color… velvet and purple, harlequin romance and drama... that kind of stuff, you know?” (orain, 2021). she was also an excellent cook. gaïa remembers that she “took great pleasure in spending hours in the kitchen. she would listen to french music… and, i just remember she’d be in the kitchen for hours on end and be quite content there. and was really invested in the process and knowing materials, and also had a confidence of things” (oraïn, 2021). her description of her mother as sensuous and tactile, and self-assured and comfortable in the kitchen, is not far off from how i would describe gaïa. the memories of her mother in the kitchen actively live and weave themselves into how she exists in the very same space. whether intentional, learned, or in active response to her loss, gaïa uses her love of cooking and design to maintain a connection with her mother who is no longer here. that this a grieving process is undeniable. although gaïa says that “grief” sounds “so sad” (orain, 2021), it is present here and gaïa’s experiences show how grieving can take on multiple meanings and behaviors, some of which celebrate life’s vibrancy and joy as much as mourning its loss. part of gaïa’s grieving process is to actively remember her mother through cooking. this involves spending time in the kitchen, sometimes preparing the foods they loved together, while at other times trying new recipes that her mother would almost certainly have enjoyed. through making food, gaïa connects with, activates, and maintains her mother’s playful essence and the relationship they shared as mother and daughter. the kitchen is one of the places where she remembers her mother most vividly, and it is also a space in which gaïa feels most at home. like her mother, gaïa moves with ease in the kitchen. one of the foods gaïa creates in order to feel close to her mother is pickled eggs. gaïa’s recipe for naturally dyed pickled eggs is based on traditional pickling methods, but the natural dyeing agents are her own additions, and they are not consistent. the steps to making her colorful pickled eggs are embedded throughout this research note as representative markers of how food is intrinsic to narrative. both food and narrative are shaped through actively acknowledging memory as an ongoing and evolving process. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022) 57 photo 1. pink pickled eggs with fresh herbs. toronto, january 2022. photo by gaïa orain. used with permission. the first step is as follows: so, pickled eggs: i prefer jammy in the middle, so… [you can] get them a week old, or get them fresh… i think the jury is kind of out on that, if you get eggs that are a week old, fantastic. and then you want to bring your pot to a boil and then plop them all in. and i set my timer for nine minutes. eight can be too jammy, ten can be too stiff. so, you boil your eggs for nine minutes and as soon as the timer is off you chill them. (orain, 2021) while a tiny space in her one-bedroom harbord street apartment, the kitchen is immaculately equipped with a gas stove, shelves upon shelves of mason jars full of vibrant powders and textures, kitschy glassand cooking-ware, and freshly cut flowers everywhere in multiple vases. she invited me for snacks and wine shortly after she arrived in toronto, so i came over with a bottle of my favorite spanish red and she provided the rest. this was also the first time i tried her pickled eggs. i am trying to remember my initial impressions of the dish as i write this. i can visualize vivid jewel tones: hard-boiled eggs with fuchsia exteriors, golden egg yolks. a blob of velvety-yellow curried mayo on the side of the plate, for dipping. they were perfectly salty and sour and paired unusually yet deliciously with the spanish tempranillo. and, perhaps what was most memorable, and certainly most striking, was the presentation: bright pink eggs presented on blue and purple serving plates, illuminated by a few soft lights in the apartment. night had just fallen as i sat at the little kitchen table, drinking wine from my comedically-large glass goblet, watching gaïa whip up more plates of cheeses, hummus, and endives for us to savour. collins, pickled eggs and natural dyes, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022) 58 barthes writes that, “food serves as a sign not only for themes, but also for situations; and this, all told, means for a way of life that is emphasized, much more than expressed, by it” (barthes, 1961/2013: 28). gaïa was introduced to pickled eggs not by her biological mother, but by her stepmother, barbara ackerman. it was 2018, shortly after gaïa moved to toronto. having lived in new york and montréal for most of her adult life, away from family, her relationship with barbara was still developing. but gaïa noticed that “[we] both connected well in the kitchen” (orain, 2021) and that their shared love of cooking brought them closer together. they were each preparing to attend separate new year’s eve events and gaïa was looking for gluten-free snack options to bring to her friend’s party. growing up in a jewish family, barbara’s cooking style was influenced by pickling traditions and incorporating savoury flavours into her meals, so she suggested that they try their hands at pickled eggs. step two: so, you run them under cold water until everything is cool and then immediately crack them so that the water can help separate them from the shell... you crack it, but you don’t remove the shell so that the water can get between the eggy and the shell membrane. there’s something about the chilling that helps... i guess when you’re heating a hot thing, cold water contracting... something around that makes sense. and then i let those hang out in the fridge or the freezer if there’s space but there usually isn’t, for not a timed amount. then i’m preparing the brine. (orain, 2021) gaïa had never made pickled eggs before, but when she googled “pickled eggs,” she realized that she could incorporate natural dyes and colors into the recipe, turning the traditional pub treat into something that is also aesthetically delightful. as a textile artist with a background in design, she recognized an opportunity to incorporate colors and textures into a seemingly simple recipe, and a chance to connect with her stepmother and get playful while in the kitchen. it was also an opportunity for her to embody the memory of her mother’s essence in the place that she and véronique love so much: the kitchen. growing up with a french mother, gaïa did not encounter pickled eggs as part of the orain household menu. rather, gaïa remembers her mother producing french-inspired dishes, such as leek pizza. actually, véronique’s leek pizza was not pizza at all, at least from a traditional, italian perspective. it was made from phyllo pastry, caramelized leeks, feta cheese, pine nuts, sundried tomatoes, olives, and herbs de provence. according to gaïa it is important not to scrimp on the herbs de provence; she warns not to buy the “cheapy stuff, for two dollars, [because] there’s probably no lavender in it” (orain, 2021). gaïa tells me that she never liked leeks as a child so her mom created this tart that she called “pizza” to entice her to eat it. her enticement worked because gaïa has been eating and making it ever since. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022) 59 gaïa regularly makes a leek tart with her godmother, ann harley, although she has made several modifications. for example, she substitutes the heaps of butter for a healthier choice of olive oil and switches phyllo for gluten-free flatbread. ann was one of véronique’s best friends and when gaïa and ann get together they make the dish and share anecdotes and stories of gaïa’s mother. they actively remember véronique by recreating one of her favorite foods while simultaneously enjoying and reliving some of her experiences. food and narratives intertwine. gaïa reflects, “i think it’s something people always forget about grief, is that, telling people about the person they lost is really wonderful. i don’t know all the ways in which she lived. i have a perspective on my experiences as a child but, i love hearing about how she showed up as a friend or remembering what they had” (orain, 2021). at the same time, ann and gaïa’s relationship strengthens as they share their personal memories about véronique during the process of making and eating one of her dishes. she is embodied in the familiar taste and stories. in this process of remembering and recreating a meal, véronique’s energy is ignited and felt deeply by both. gaïa explains how difficult it was to record her mother’s recipes, including the one for leek pizza, because she never used traditional measurement methods. instead, the making of a dish was embedded in a sensory process and in her surroundings. gaïa says, “chasing my mom for her details was always hard, like... this gloop of this and a handful of that, we get them from this place...” (orain, 2021). her approach echoes david sutton’s description of his research participant georgia vourneli cooking in her greek kitchen: “at no point in the process does she employ measuring spoons or cups. in this case the ingredients themselves become ‘tools’ and perform the role of ‘measuring’ other ingredients. in a sense the use of ingredients as tool can be seen as part of the structuring of the cooking environment itself as a mnemonic, or memory-jog” (2013: 309-10). although gaïa playfully mimics her mother’s use of phonetic sounds or vague descriptive words to verbally represent recipe measurements, she often utilizes similar language when describing how to make her pickled eggs. she declares, “i’m not one to measure things but i’ll eyeball the vessel that i’m going to pickle in and then imagine that half of it will be occupied by eggs, and then that’s how much liquid i need, which is half white vinegar, half water, and then a good handful of kosher salt or rock salt...” (orain, 2021). perhaps gaïa learned this sensory technique from her mother or perhaps she has a natural aversion to measuring, but for whatever reason, like her mother, she now relies on tactile memory to create and describe familiar recipes. this mirrors jillian gould’s experience of watching her mother and grandmother cook. for things they made regularly, recipes were not written down but “embodied” (gould 2017: 104). similarly, gaïa and her mother’s embodiment of their recipes have meant that over the years these dishes came to represent much more to them than mere food or sustenance. for mother and daughter, the act or process of preparing food is primary. their confident method of making food without needing to write down recipes draws on both their corporeal and emotional memories. each time gaïa reaches for a “handful” of salt or “eyeballs” how much vinegar she will need, she physically and emotionally remembers her mother’s way of making food. there is no need for tablespoons or cups because the recipe is engrained within her mnemonic storage space, and those memories charge and flourish each time she whips out another carton of eggs. as she mixes herbs and spices into her pickling brine, she also unconsciously collins, pickled eggs and natural dyes, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022) 60 observes her mother in their old kitchen in london, ontario, listening to french music, excitedly and gracefully losing herself in the process of cooking. step three: i’m not one to measure things but i’ll eyeball the vessel that i’m going to pickle in and then imagine that half of it will be occupied by eggs, and then that’s how much liquid i need, which is half white vinegar, half water, and then a good handful of kosher salt or rock salt... and i’ve never really measured but i’ll ask myself, what do i have on hand? so, if i have beets... now i have a bit of a witch’s cabinet full of weird things, so i have beet flour, i have pea flower which is the flower that makes things blue... i’ve used hibiscus or sorrel that can also make really bright colors... people might shy away from it, but it doesn’t really impact the taste because what you’re tasting is salt and vinegar, and there’s also going to be pickling spices. (orain, 2021) symbolism not only affects how people perceive events, it influences their actions (jones, 2011: 4). pickled eggs were not something that véronique made or consumed. rather, she typically preferred the traditional dishes of her french homeland. however, for gaïa, the playfulness of making brightly colored pickled eggs, from sourcing natural dyes to navigating how to create the boldest shade of burgundy with purple carrots (orain, 2021), embodies her mother’s whimsical and epicurean qualities. it is the dyeing process that is perhaps more significant to gaïa than the pickling because it provides an opportunity to channel her mother’s energy and exercise her artistic abilities and playfulness into the recipe. the dyed eggs are symbolic of her mother’s sensorial and curious approach to life and the joy that she actively sought while in the kitchen. gaïa manifests such sensibilities each time she makes and shares a new batch of pickled eggs with her loved ones. the experience of preparing, eating, and sharing the recipe for pickled eggs generates and solidifies an ongoing connection with her mother. when gaïa was growing up, the act of cooking—whether it was watching or participating in the kitchen—bonded her with her mother. it was a connective, interactive force that strengthened their relationship. while véronique is no longer physically present there remain foods, such as gaïa’s pickled eggs, that symbolize and manifest her bright and generous energy, morphing and modifying into deep jewel tones with the care and changing ingredients that gaïa pours into each batch. and for gaïa, pickled eggs are “something i make to share or to delight” (orain, 2021). they are meant to be eaten with other people, a way to connect and share experiences. other than eating them with gaïa, the only time i can remember seeing pickled eggs was in small pubs in england and at one bar in toronto called the communist’s daughter. i spent a significant amount of time in that place, yet i never ordered a pickled egg off the menu. i always opted for a bag of chips to go along with my pint. the large, cloudy jar of lifeless eggs that sat behind the bar never appealed to me. perhaps if the brine had added natural dyeing agents, such as fuchsia beet or blue pea flowers, i would have felt more compelled to digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022) 61 try one. taking something ordinary, like an egg, out of its usual context evokes intrigue because it’s unfamiliar and exciting. a bright pink or lavender hardboiled egg is extraordinary. in many parts of the world, decorating eggs with bright colors and patterns is commonplace. for instance, the hutsels, the ethno-cultural ukrainian group that reside in the carpathian mountains, have been decorating eggs for centuries (nepyivoda, 2016). but within a torontonian, north american context, the oddity of a colorful egg invites curiosity because it is new and unique. it encourages play. step four: my favorite so far has been purple carrots; it makes a beautiful burgundy. and then you can do good old turmeric for yellow eggs but don’t get attached to the vessel they’re in because it will dye... even metal, and definitely any kind of plastic. and then a hodgepodge of spices i have, a mix of pickling spices... i think like cumin, pepper, and coriander seed, bay leaf, who knows. (orain, 2021) part of what makes the experience of eating gaïa’s pickled eggs unique is that she intentionally pairs the eggs with matching plates for added aesthetic delight. laura shapiro writes about women and cooking at the turn-of-the-century and the dawn of american food magazines. she notes the historical importance of color-coding meals and how cookingschool students in the united states were taught to match everything on the table, from flowers to table decorations to menu items: “color-coded meals enjoyed a surge of popularity among ambitious home cooks as well as cooking students, and ideas were traded back and forth in the pages of food magazines... color-coordinated meals were praised for being artistic as well as pragmatic” (shapiro, 1987: 84). shapiro argues that to further the creation of a pleasant dining experience, color-coding meals was also a way to take more control of the “messy, unpredictable business of the kitchen” since the “turn-of-the-century kitchen was a matter of guesswork even for the experienced” (1987: 84-85). gaïa’s pickled eggs mirror the pragmatic aesthetics of the early twentieth century woman that shapiro describes, as she consciously creates colorcoded dyes and flavors. however, she embraces the unpredictability of her recipes each time she develops something new in her mind. the uncertainty of the event is part of the process. for her, incorporating play into how she navigates the world and embracing unpredictability is critical. she reflects, “i think [play] is something that we forget to do as we get older. we get really invested in sober aesthetics and performing adulthood that we forget play is intrinsic to... being? the cat still plays, you know?” (orain, 2021). gaïa’s playful approach to life is a direct influence from her mother. for example, growing up, véronique and gaïa’s favorite holiday was “the king’s party,” or “la fête des rois,” a french tradition celebrated on january 6th when people honor the epiphany, or the arrival of the three kings after jesus’ birth. on this day, mother and daughter would engage in “crafts, cake, crêpes, and... hilarity and process, like somebody finds a little porcelain jesus or who knows what in their cake... you find something in your pie, and you get to take the queen or king with you and then you get to be the ruler for the day” (orain, 2021). at the collins, pickled eggs and natural dyes, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022) 62 end of that sentence, gaïa started laughing. for many adults who are not familiar with the tradition, the idea of “becoming the ruler for the day” might sound silly or even uncomfortable. gaïa probably recognizes this as she nostalgically remembers engaging in the activities with her mother, but it doesn’t stop her from continuing the custom. performing and celebrating the king’s party has had a lasting impression on gaïa. in our interview, she continued to tell me that while living in brooklyn, she would throw a “queen’s party” for all her female-identifying friends each year. she would serve cheese, decorate her apartment, and carry on many of the traditions that she learned from her mother, such as hiding a fève, or ceramic figurine, in a baked galette des rois for her guests to discover. she adapted the premise and traditions of the king’s parties to create a fun and safe space for the women in her life. while her brooklyn parties were not mirror reflections of the traditions she and her mother enjoyed in london, ontario, the underlying theme remained the same: both acted as subversive deviations from the banality of the everyday by indulging in a little bit of cake and folly—because, why not? maclean, russell, and ryall argue that play is constantly becoming and changing and that it “enacts anything but a stable, authentic state” (2021: 2). gaïa likes to challenge “the way you’re supposed to navigate things” (orain, 2021) by incorporating play into her cooking. colorful eggs, dyed with anything from hibiscus to sorrel to purple carrots create an element of delight. colorful eggs symbolically challenge and question societal norms in gaïa’s canadian context. dyeing eggs is a tradition in many cultures, such as decorating easter eggs (or, psyanka) in ukraine as a spring ritual and to honour nature’s rebirth and with the advent of christianity, “the rebirth of man” (nepyivoda, 2016). however, gaïa’s eggs are not intentionally influenced by such cultural practices. the beautiful colors she creates make seemingly ordinary items (hardboiled eggs) extraordinary, edible objects. after learning about pickling eggs, she realized that she could enhance the recipe by utilizing her background in textiles. she comments, “i thought... this is what i learned in textiles. you know, binding color to a protein with turmeric, paprika, and maybe something else like sumac, or whatever... it was kind of like... textiles 101 dyeing, and you can use vinegar to bind that color” (orain, 2021). she recognized that she could apply her practical artistic skills to the brine technique, altering the standard pickling ingredients to create something unusual, and perhaps challenging to social culinary norms. i never asked gaïa if she would ever consider making standard, colorless pickled eggs but i suspect that she might respond by asking what the point of that would be. if you can have something beautiful, something to deviate from life’s seriousness, why take that away? after all, as gaïa observed, “[one] can tell when life isn’t pleasant because there is less play” (orain, 2021). part of gaïa’s motivation to generate and incorporate play and humour into her world is to serve as a coping mechanism for her grief. she comments, “it’s also important to find humor and play because death is sad, but death is an essential fact of life... seeking out joyfulness or finding ways for joy... helps me navigate being a human in the world, whether that’s covid or having a dead mom” (orain, 2021). when barbara, gaïa’s stepmother, first suggested that they make pickled eggs as a new year’s eve party snack, gaïa’s instincts were to see how she could turn the recipe into an event. she wanted the bonding digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022) 63 experience with barbara to be memorable. i would argue that her desire to add color and creativity to the recipe was gaïa pulling from remembered experiences in the kitchen with her mother. perhaps she wanted to recreate the experiences that she shared with véronique—delightfully moving throughout and playing in the kitchen. making the experience less informal was perhaps more comfortable for gaïa, and by doing so she was channelling her mother’s energy into the space. focusing on dyeing the eggs provided gaïa a task in the pickling process. instead of simply watching her stepmom prepare the recipe as she passively followed instructions, she contributed something interesting and meaningful. most importantly, she invited her mother’s spirit into this new experience, helping her to feel less intimated by the developing relationship with barbara. michael owen jones writes that food “oftentimes plays a role in nostalgia, carrying or evoking specific memories, not only of the food itself but also of the relationships and contexts associated with it" (long and jones, 2017: 7). while the pickled eggs were then new to gaïa, discovering that she could add vitality to hardboiled eggs through color and natural dyeing processes evoked the vibrant and unprecedented connection she had and continues to have with her mother. the pickling egg process reminds gaïa of her mother and forces her to pause and actively remember her mother’s way of doing things, at the same time it informs both her own navigation in the kitchen and pickling recipe. to remember, one has to build, or rebuild (bahloul, 2003: 128). gaïa’s pickled eggs were not her mom’s recipe. she learned this tradition through barbara, who suggested the recipe on a whim, based on her jewish upbringing and culinary traditions. but “all of [her mother’s] behaviours and ways of navigating the kitchen are there... i keep the parts of her that i really appreciate by embodying how she approaches things, even if it’s not one of her recipes” (orain, 2021). as gaïa creates her own autonomy by devising new pickled egg and natural dye concoctions, she connects to her mother while taking a slightly different path. the process of pickling and coloring eggs is something that véronique likely would have enjoyed, but the recipe is part of gaïa’s own repertoire. when she engages in her mother’s favorite activities, such as cooking and incorporating pleasure and play in the kitchen, she actively remembers her mother while also constructing agency for herself. part of her grieving process is to take the parts of her mother that she loves and then rebuild them into something new and unique to her own experiences, a modified foundation for her to stand on. it is a foundation deeply rooted in her mother’s traditions and energy, and it also has ample room to take those roots in different directions and thrive. food and the act of cooking not only bring her closer to how she remembers her mother, but also to parts of her she did not know. gaïa mentions that when cooking leek pizza with ann, her godmother, she “love[s] hearing about how she showed up as a friend” (orain, 2021). gaïa learns of an unknown véronique—a woman who existed outside of her family framework, and this provides additional layers of connection to her mother and strengthens her new, confident, and autonomous foundation. she is becoming closer to her mother while also learning to journey through life independently. as gaïa learns more about the person she loved and loves so dearly, by absorbing the stories and manifesting them into her own memories and experiences, she eases the pain of her grief. as she collins, pickled eggs and natural dyes, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022) 64 navigates the kitchen, choosing new spices or vinegars for the eggs or thinking of interesting colors to create, she channels her mother’s actions and behaviours. she is learning how her mother might behave in the kitchen while producing new recipes by engaging in the activity of cooking herself. step five: so then i put them in a big jar and let them hang out on the counter. and then once they reach room temperature, then i put them in the fridge. sometimes i leave them out for a day. i like to make a dijon-aise or a béarnaise, essentially it’s like eggs on eggs. it’s an egg-based sauce, a mayonnaise or aioli—always egg based. the most popular, these are party hits... is mayo with a good curry powder in it. it’s cumin-y, it’s yellow. right, so if my eggs are super pink and then i have this very yellow, yummy sauce... i’ve also done a pesto-y one, cracked pepper, béarnaise, or like... goodness knows. but most times they’re purple-ish eggs with a curried mayo. (orain, 2021) gaïa reflects, “i think [cooking] is something that connects me to all of the women mentors in my life” (orain, 2021). making beautiful, delicious food is essential to how she interprets the world and is pivotal to her lifeforce. the act of cooking has strengthened and deepened her relationships with three women role models: barbara, ann, and véronique. and it is véronique who is the thread running through each relationship. while sharing stories and memories of véronique, ann and gaïa make one of her favorite dishes, leek pizza. gaïa and barbara initially made pickled eggs together as a way to bond. from there, gaïa capitalized on what she recognized as an exciting opportunity to exercise her creativity by coloring the pickled eggs. perhaps unintentionally, she also kindled a unique connection with her mother’s essence, embodied in the playful process of dyeing and making the hardboiled eggs. grief is not linear nor is it something that ever ends. there are steps to take that can soften it, however, even for a few fleeting hours. for gaïa, dyeing and pickling eggs reshapes her grief into something more manageable. her process of making food reminds her of her mother and sharing the process with others is a way to connect and manifest her mother’s energy while firmly moving forward in her life. each time she steps into a kitchen to make anything at all, gaïa embodies elements she adored about her mother, including her confidence and skill as a cook, the pleasure she took in life, and her playfulness. dyed pickled eggs remind her of the person she loved most in this world but she has also made them her own. this mirrors how the journey forward is hers alone. as she puts it: “when we lose somebody who is foundational to how we navigate the world, it’s also important to find [a] way[s] in which you are autonomous from it… how it informs it” (orain, 2021). digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022) 65 works cited bahloul, joëlle. the architecture of memory: a jewish-muslim household in colonial algeria 1937 – 1964. cambridge: university of cambridge press, 1996. barthes, roland. 2013. “toward a psychosociology of contemporary food consumption.” in food and culture: a reader 3rd ed, ed. carole counihan and penny van esterik, 23-30. new york: routledge. gould, jillian. 2017. “hungry for my past: kitchen comfort with fried bread and eggs.” in comfort food: meanings and memories, ed. michael owen jones and lucy m. long, 99-113. jackson: university press of mississippi. jones, michael owen. 2011. studying organizational symbolism. newbury park: sage publications inc. jones, michael owen and lucy m. long., eds. 2017. comfort food: meanings and memories. jackson: university press of mississippi. maclean, malcolm, wendy russell, and emily ryall. 2021. play, philosophy and performance. new york: routledge. nepyivoda, ganna. 2016. “bazaar artist: rebirthing the tradition of pysankas.” cultural survival quarterly vol. 40, iss. 1 (march 2016): 26. orain, gaïa. 2021. interview with author. november 13. shapiro, laura. 1987. perfection salad: women and cooking at the turn of the century. new york: first owl edition. sutton, david. 2012 [2006]. cooking skills, the sense, and memory: the fate of practical knowledge. in food and culture: a reader 3rd edition, ed. carole counihan and penny van esterik, 299-319. new york: routledge. sutton, david. 2008. a tale of easter ovens: food and collective memory. 2008. social research 75 (1) (spring 2008), 157-180. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022): 75-77 ©american folklore society 2022 review of: tasting qualities: the past and future of tea sarah besky. oakland: university of california press, 2020. pp. 236, index, bibliography. review by susan eleuterio in this interesting and sometimes challenging book, sarah besky, an assistant professor of anthropology and international and public affairs at brown university, documents her ethnographic exploration of quality in terms of tea, or, as she states: “what makes a good cup of tea?” (1) with the focus on “what is good?” her work led me to examine the tea boxes and bags in my cupboard and to think—i am embarrassed to admit—for the first time in decades as a tea drinker, about the people who grow, harvest, judge, package, and sell tea. i suspect, like many americans, i was much more aware of the political, environmental, and cultural practices connected with coffee production; taught to at least wonder about the quality and origins of coffee by corporations such as starbucks and by commercials dating back to my childhood in the 1950s. other than learning about the boston tea party during the american revolution, i never thought to think much about the production of tea. besky notes that she began with trying: “to understand how international agricultural certifications like organic, fair trade, biodynamic, and rainforest alliance affected the way that tea was valued,” (3) in kolkata, india. discovering that these factors weren’t meaningfully impactful, she set about to observe the tasting and auctioning practices for a variety of teas. along the way, she witnessed the computerization of tea auctions beginning in 2008. she divides the results of her ethnographic work into chapters on the production and science of quality, tasting, valuing, auctioning, selling, marketing, and blending tea, in particular the cheap black ctc (cut-tear-curl) tea favored in india for chai. in her final chapter, she examines the enduring nature of both the search for quality and india’s tea plantations, which began under british rule. referred to in this text as tea 2030, i discovered several of the teas in my cupboard (photo 1) advertised their producers’ membership in the ethical tea partnership https://www.ethicalteapartnership.org/mission/ (accessed february 7, 2022) whose mission is to achieve its “vision of a thriving, socially just and environmentally sustainable tea sector through its 50 members.” besky has also written the darjeeling distinction: labor and justice on fair trade tea plantations in india, which she references at times in terms of the people who grow and harvest tea. in further examining tea in my kitchen, i realized that bigelow makes an attempt at personal connection by naming the person, “judy m,” who packed the tea, along with encouragement to recycle. (photo 2) as a folklorist, i was most interested in what besky describes as the “embodied” (and as she notes, gendered) practices connected with tea production; the frequently female (and essentially indentured) workers who grow and pick the tea, the male tasters who value the tea, and the (primarily) men who, until just a decade ago, brokered and bought the tea at outcry auctions in person. using both archival research and field work, she narrates the sometimes discouraging but also fascinating history of tea production in india beginning https://www.ethicalteapartnership.org/mission/ eleuterio, review, tasting qualities digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022) 76 during england’s domination during the height of colonial power and ending with the contemporary digital revolution, which is still ongoing. through this, she explores the changes over time to how tea is grown and sold in india. i began reading this book expecting a comfortable tale. besky herself lures the reader in her introduction with the visuals of a nice cup of tea,” but quickly dives into her thesis that the “dependable and standardized” expectations of tea drinkers (and consumers) are the result of a “hidden, complex process that traverses the history of european colonialism, postcolonial economic debates, and the development of modern industrial food science” (12). she notes that the concept of quality in food and beverage production (and parenthetically adds that “quality matters in a variety of contexts ”) depends on standardization, power relations, markets, and “materials as more than passive objects,” pointing out that “substances like tea (and sugar and milk , for that matter) play an active role in their own qualification” in terms of such physical concepts of bitterness, sweetness, and what is considered to taste “good,” using artisanal cheese and pork as examples (1012). in a surprisingly compact volume, besky reviews decades of history, including experimental, scientific, economic, and agricultural research and changes in all aspects of the tea industry in india. beginning with the practices of the east india company, which held its first auction sale in calcutta in 1861 (5), she thoughtfully examines the role of indian tea plantations, stating “the plantation has endured well beyond its colonial origins in large part because quality has also endured as a subject of experimentation” (183). her description of “sick” plantations, where workers have literally starved, makes one shudder to think about the true costs of our desire for a “good cup of tea.” at the same time, her conclusion that “experiments with quality do not always lead to destruction, but they do not easily lead to liberation either,” (183) sums up the tricky nature of change in food and beverage production. this is not a comforting book, but it provides a significant contribution to not only the issue of quality in terms of tea but a thorough documentation of how tea has been grown, processed, sold and packaged in india and for much of the world market. eleuterio, review, tasting qualities digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:1 (2022) 77 photo 1: ethical tea partnership caption on bigelow tea box. february 2022. photo by susan eleuterio photo 2: “packed with pride by judy m.” bigelow tea box. february 2022. photo by susan eleuterio digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 113123 © american folklore society 2021 113 research note kasha: the mighty buckwheat groat by: dana e. modell abstract: buckwheat kasha is what comes to mind when i think of food in hard times. kasha is an omnifarious word in russian food culture, describing a food category that encompasses many dishes that have a porridge like consistency. eaten at and as any meal, kasha can be served in a variety of ways. it is hearty, easy to prepare, filling, and nutritious. inexpensive (both in the u.s. and in russia when my family lived there) and easy to obtain, it has a long shelf life. in this paper i explore the role of kasha in my family’s foodways. considering kasha within the framework of survival/survivor food and refugee food practices, i reflect on how those practices inform my experience/relationship to kasha. keywords: buckwheat, kasha, survival, comfort, hard times, refugee introduction during the food and culture graduate course offered in the department of folklore at memorial university of newfoundland and labrador in winter 2021, bridging the first and second year of the covid-19 pandemic, we were asked to consider the question of food in hard times. in response to this prompt, a remarkably simple russian jewish food, buckwheat kasha, came to my mind. wanting to understand why kasha, something i do not even particularly like, is so doggedly attached to my conception of food in hard times, i set out on an autoethnographic journey. what is kasha? in its most basic preparation, buckwheat kasha is made with water and toasted buckwheat groats. the term “kasha” relates to any porridge type dish made of grains or seeds in both russian culture, and more generally in the yiddish language; michael wex specifies, “the ‘unmodified’ word kasha refers to buckwheat kasha” (2016: 114). a staple food in russia and in diasporic ashkenazi (central and eastern european) jewish cuisine, buckwheat kasha can be served in many ways, cold and warm, savory and sweet. it is eaten as a side dish or as a main dish, at any time of day, breakfast through supper. memories of kasha my family (mother, father, and grandmother) came to the united states from the former u.s.s.r. in 1980 when i was four years old. we were able to emigrate and were granted refugee status because we are jewish. our passage took us from st. petersburg (then called leningrad), through vienna and rome, to new york city. some months later, we moved to boston. i remember eating spaghetti with fresh, raw tomatoes in rome, and our usual “home” foods (foods we had eaten when we lived in russia) in queens. my paternal grandmother and my mother were the main cooks in our family. in our house and in the houses of my parents’ russian jewish friends, “home foods” reigned, with occasional intermingling of new foodways learned in the u.s. modell, kasha, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 114 my mother made kasha on the stove. she used a pot with a heavy and tight-fitting lid. after the buckwheat groats had been boiled briefly in water, she would take them off the stove and let the kasha rest. i recall her talking about this quite clearly. “picture this'' she told me, “you have to put the pot in a warm dark place, a quiet place where it won’t be disturbed or tipped over, also where you can keep all of the heat and moisture in. in russia, we would put the kasha in a bed, under the down comforter, and leave it there for an hour or two. it is nice and warm there. then the kasha is ready.” this seemed fantastical, and the best kind of endorsement for making and eating kasha, which, in terms of tastes, i considered a basic and boring food. “we don’t do this here?” i said. “well, i do sometimes. or other times, i just make it the whole way on the stove.” she said. i remember she made kasha right then and there, that same day, and we put it in the bed to steam after it had boiled a bit. i think i was twelve at the time, but i felt like a little kid on a childhood adventure. the kasha tasted much better and reminded me of feather beds and white cotton bed linens (podadyalnik). the soft, nutty aroma was more enticing, and i felt a commitment to this dish that i had not felt before, an investment. after all, it had gone through all these journeys, from a little seed all the way to steaming in bed and now ready to be eaten. all the way from russia to the u.s. we had nurtured it. i suddenly wanted to eat this simple, almost boring food that had traveled so far, continent to continent, one bed to another. my paternal grandmother, my parents, and i all lived together until i was twelve. my grandmother had a big part in raising me, and still cared for and cooked for all of us even when we were no longer living in one place. she made kasha all the time. mostly, she made it plain, and then served it with butter, or oil, sometimes milk, like a cold cereal. i do not think she ever made kasha varneshkes (with bow tie pasta and caramelized onions), which is the most common jewish way of serving kasha in the u.s., but she and i talked about it as a curious recipe. her idea was, “why would you combine a starch with a starch?” within that question was the suggestion that chubby jewish girls such as she and i did not need more starches than what already made a good, filling meal. i think she was intrigued by the idea of the starchy extravagance but could not justify it. in my grandmother’s house (as is true in many russian jewish households) any main meal (dinner or supper) would be followed by something with tea (“k’chayoo”). my grandmother was a great baker, so in her house, something with tea would often be a homemade cake (like an apple cake or a cake similar to a blueberry strudel), or at the very least store-bought maria cookies and berry preserves. there should be something “with tea” so, kasha, as a staple, would be on the healthier side. in the present day, my stepmother and father both make kasha, but it is not something that my stepmother serves when there are guests, even if the guests are just family. i don’t remember the last time i had kasha at their house, but i know she makes it on a fairly regular basis. my stepmother has made kasha for me and sent it to our house, because i have a tricky relationship with making kasha. i knew a key part of my exploration of this dish would be talking to her about how she makes this food and her family traditions around it. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 115 in our home, my partner and i do not cook equally. i take on the role of primary cook, and i am reasonably good at it, but i cannot make kasha with any real success. for some reason, the simple preparation of buckwheat, boiling water, and salt evades me to the point that it either does not cook or does not taste like kasha once prepared, ending up soggy and full of water and grit. this failure of embodying my mother, grandmother, father, and stepmother really saddens me. i want to invoke this food tradition and engage with this network of family, of refugees and survivors, yet i cannot make this dish. this failure, and my overall lack of love for the tastes of kasha, left me wondering why this dish came so immediately to my mind when i was asked to think of food in hard times. it turns out, i had not truly chosen it. it had been recruited from memory (see kasstan 2015). it came to my mind and stuck. i am not truly seeking this food; i am seeking its meanings. in the words of abarca and colby (2016), i was looking for a narrative. what i began to wonder about and interrogate in the writing of this paper was, what meanings were i after? what did i need from food in hard times? who eats kasha and who makes it? kasha is a food claimed by diasporic ashkenazi jews, by russians, and more broadly by eastern europeans (see jochnowitz 2014, nakhimovsky 2006). my family left the u.s.s.r in response to oppression, systemic and individual, both historical and contemporary (at the time of our immigration). in this flight, my parents, especially my father, felt it was important to impart in me a sense of jewishness outside of and in opposition to any sense of russianness. i recall many conversations where i would report that “i said i was russian” (within the context of explaining where i was from) and he would respond “you aren’t russian, you are jewish” (also within the place of origin context). this is a difficult thing to explain given the lack of day-to-day religious observance in my family, and at the same time, many people who consider themselves “ethnically” jewish would understand exactly what he meant. this kind of diasporic, ethnic jewishness is often conveyed through food and foodways (see berlinger 2017, cohen 2021, gould 2013 and 2017, wex 2016). alice nakhimovsky, in an article titled, “you are what they ate: russian jews reclaim their foodways,” writes about exactly this conflict of identities. while an in-depth discussion of this conflict is beyond the scope of this paper, what nakhivosky captures best is the shared features between russian and jewish food, and the simultaneous deep divide. she writes that pre-revolutionary jews kept their distance from russian preparations due to jewish food laws, while russians kept their distance due to a “longstanding aversion to markedly jewish foods and smells,” saying that (for example) you could “sniff out” a jew based on their use of garlic (nahimovsky2006: 2). in other words, each culture was positioned (in one case systemically, and in the other religiously) toward the other’s “otherness.” nakhimovsky writes that pre-revolutionary jews, to “join russian high culture” mimicked these “sensory aversions,” while post-revolutionary jews would consider jewish food “family food, not for outsiders” because “jewishness was something you did not advertise in public” (2006: 3). in her review of pre-revolutionary and soviet cooking, daniella steila (2016) finds kasha to be a staple russian food. jewish foodways writers claim kasha and kasha varneshkes as a primary jewish ethnic food (see cohen 2021, wex 2016, silverstein 2019). but what is modell, kasha, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 116 jewish food? jake cohen, a food writer and cookbook author, writes about jewish cooking and identity in the introduction to his cookbook jew-ish. cohen writes that jewish food is ever evolving, yet “the only constant is the desire to hold on to the food of our people” (2021: x). he describes kasha varnishkes (the kasha recipe included in his book) as tasting like ''a big bowl of pasta had a jewish lovechild with a grain bowl” (2021: 119). wex, in his cookbook of yiddish foodways, rhapsody in schmaltz: yiddish food and why we can't stop eating it, describes ashkenazi food as a “vernacular food” with “slight regional variations on a relatively small number of themes” (2016: 118). these themes tend to be ones of making do, inexpensive and hearty ingredients, often chopped and combined, and spiced with what is at hand and easily available. in most cases, the foods are deeply cooked, and all possible parts of the raw materials are used (wex 2016). cohen calls this “old world food” (2021: x). although kasha varnishkes are delicious, they feel adjacent to my experience, but not central to it. they feel “other” to me. i have realized (to my own shame in some ways) that this version of kasha, to me, speaks of a different kind of belonging. eve jochnowitz, in her 2014 dissertation titled, "all you need is a potato: a performance ethnography of the foodways of russian-jewish immigrants in new york," explores this dichotomy of jewishness. kasstan (2015) and gould (2013, 2017) each talk about levels of survivorship and types of immigration. onions, mushrooms, pasta, time, schmaltz, committing to a savory dish (one that cannot also be served as sweet) and a national recognition of jewish cooking (that envelopes a broad cultural fondness by those both jewish and not jewish) all speak to a certain representation that is outside my experience. this kind of cultural “acceptance,” visibility, and adoption by non-jews of an overt performance of jewishness, speaks to a permanence and belonging that i do not understand experientially (see merwin 2008, silverstein 2019). wex writes about jewish food as rebellion, and yet, kasha varnishkes comes from a public tradition of foods. it is a deli food, and a food recognizable to city dwellers, both jewish and non-jewish, where my tradition comes from a place of quiet, necessity, and refugee practices (see nakhimovsky, 2006, wex 2016). because plain kasha (as my family, and other russian jews, make and eat it) would not be recognized in a broader u.s. setting, in my growing up, it was a food that “we” ate that “they” did not eat. my kasha need not taste good. the tastes are secondary at best. it might even get in the way of a food for hard times. most people writing about kasha served plain describe it as bland or unremarkable (see gershenson n.d., nathan 1998). wex writes about jewish food being first and foremost not about tastes but about the bible, dietary law, jewish biblical history, and rules and practices of observance. in talking about matzo, wex explains that it is the symbolism of this unleavened bread, not the taste, that invokes jewishness. he writes “it is the food of real slaves on the run, not wage slaves in repose […] (a) food to sustain you, a food of dire necessity […] it’s a food for the brain, not the belly” (wex 2016: 8). in this case, wex is speaking of the survival of the jews in the desert in their flight from slavery, but this invocation of history is not far from what i began to understand about my thoughts of food in hard times. it is like the narrative cohen (2021) invokes of these “traveling” recipes. my memories are about endurance, dependability, survival, and basic sustenance (see abarca and colby 2016, sutton 2005, 2013). digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 117 food, memory, and survival while interviewing my stepmother about kasha, she shared her recipe for cooking this dish: combine buckwheat groats and water, ratio 1:1 add salt boil 45 minutes to an hour take off heat and let sit until the buckwheat absorbs the water she described the texture of the finished dish being variable, depending on how long it sits to absorb. if you eat the kasha immediately or almost immediately after cooking, it will be mushy, soft, and blended. if you let it sit and absorb for longer, then the individual groats will stand out. she confirmed my mother’s technique of putting the kasha to bed. she called this “under the pillow” [pad-padushkaya]. she said this was done for a number of reasons. first, this dish was initially made in an oven, and so would be naturally left to sit and absorb water. later, in soviet russia, she explained that everything was limited, and you had one stove among many people living in a communal apartment, shared with extended family and with strangers as well (see jochnowitz 2014, nakhimovsky 2006). in order to “economize” on the use of the shared kitchen space, taking the kasha off of the stove as soon as possible and “finishing it” in your own living area (which is also likely shared with immediate or extended family) is more pragmatic. typically, this is done by boiling for the expected time, then wrapping in newspaper and sometimes also a blanket, and then putting it “under the pillow” until the kasha is steamed and finished (rakhlevskaya 2020, 2021). my stepmother also shared a folktale about kasha. it turns out the folktale is so common in russian culture that there are children’s books, cartoons, and songs about it; a band is named after it. the basic story is as follows: there is a soldier who tricks an old, greedy woman into making him a meal. the way he does this is by offering to cook an axe (sometimes he brings it and sometimes he finds it). in some versions he threatens her with it, in others not. the soldier wheedles or cajoles his way into having her add salt, grain or seed, (and in some versions carrots and potatoes) to the boiling water. then, the pot is taken off of the stove. the axe is removed. they eat together. sometimes this is looked at as a collaborative effort, but many versions focus on the soldier outsmarting the old woman. for example, when my father tells a version of this story, there is a distinctive emphasis on manipulating or even strong-arming the old babushka (modell 2020, 2021). in bonnie carey’s translation and adaptation titled baba yaga’s geese and other russian stories, the soldier threatens the old woman with his fists (carey 1973). in carey’s version, and in my father’s retelling, the old woman is quoted saying “i never knew you could make kasha from an axe.” this line appears in most renditions1 (ashliman 2008, modell 2020, 2021). my stepmother tells the tale following the traditional story arc. her telling is almost identical to the most common versions, but her family’s meaning-making is somewhat modell, kasha, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 118 different. the focus is not on outsmarting the old woman, and the woman is not painted as greedy. in her telling, and in the context of her family’s use of this tale, the message was about making do, of accepting that sometimes things are on a make do basis, and that in those times a meal is just thrown together with what is available and what is at hand: a food in hard times (rhalevskaya 2020, 2021). this narrative, these various contexts of this dish, is what i was looking to invoke in a food for hard times. this food sees us through survival contexts: as an “old world” peasant food, when we were living in the pale of settlement2, in the hostile and challenging environment of the u.s.s.r, (jews in soviet russia), and finally in this new place of the u.s. in each of these locations we lived as a dispersed people (see berlinger 2017, jochnowitz 2014, nakhimovsky 2006). in these embodiments, the dish, as well as the maker, was resilient and resourceful. these migrations invoke past, present, and future (see kasstan 2015). also, this food is simple. it requires very little (water, salt, buckwheat, a pot, a heat source). it is attainable. i found my stepmother’s story comforting because it matched my context for this dish. i needed my kasha to have traveled through these places and endured. i thought this would be a research note about food, but it is really about community, memory, and feeling. arguably, those are key themes in almost any discussion of food. what i was after was a story, a narrative; what i want to remember, feel, belong to and connect with during hard times. i realized, when things are difficult, i do not want to feel soft, and i do not want to let my guard down. i want a food that brings me into a feeling and memory of resiliency and hardiness. i want something reliable that connects me to a network of people, both specific individuals, and a broader collection of peoples who have survived. these are communities i directly belong to, jewish refugees from eastern europe, diasporic jewish people, and also communities of imagination. during the covid-19 pandemic, i think we are reaching for a memory of ways to survive by invoking past acts of survival: ancestral, communal, real, and imagined. the work on food and memory evokes a sense of love, of connection, of embodiment, but also, a sense of loss, of displacement, and of sorrow (see gould 2017, kasstan 2015, sutton 2001, 2005, 2013, tye 2010). the recipes of my grandmother are an invocation common among jews; we are connecting a thread that may be continuous but is often brutally cut, or barely held on to, and yet, we do hold on. when times are hard, i want this sense of survival, of going back and going forward, simultaneously. i want the sense that i too, that all of us, will endure. in terms of tastes, i think comfort food has to do with sugar, with salt and fats, and with textures, like smooth and buttery, and temperatures, maybe the food usually being warm. in my family, kasha is eaten with butter, with milk, with oil, or just plain. my stepmother’s cousin eats it with honey! i imagine it may also have something to do with simplicity. emotionally, comfort food relates first and foremost to love, kinship, belonging, and being cared for. the work on comfort food and foodways by diane tye, jillian gould, and lucy long each reflect on these elements of tastes and meaning (gould 2017, long 2017a and 2017b, tye 2010). there are elements of nostalgia and of sweetness. the emotions can be digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 119 fierce, but also soft (sutton 2013). they are emotions to relax into, to wrap around yourself for warmth, and perhaps to be cosseted and consoled by. for immigrants, for refugees, and for survivors, the past can be complex. nostalgia can be bitter more than sweet, and remembrance can be painful, or even dangerous (kasstan 2015, berlinger 2017). i cannot afford this type of softening, or the time machine of loss. in the end, food in hard times, to me, means a food for endurance. it is something reliable and simple. as wex describes, it is a food to travel through the desert with (2016). my kasha is an embodiment, and also a concept; it is a food of networks. tastes are not so important. maybe taste is even a distraction. yet taste cannot completely be ignored. kasha tastes like rye bread, like pumpernickel, like my family food, like survival, and, maybe, like triumph. it is such a simple food, yet it endures. notes: 1 the likely atu number for this story is 1548, as it is similar to “stone soup” stories. 2 the jewish virtual library describes the pale of settlement as the geographical area where jewish people were allowed to settle, within the borders of russia, spanning the late 15th century through world war i. this geographical area changed over time, and reflected an overall approach toward controlling peoples and their movements. the restrictions on jewish people in this context included where they could live, where they could work, and what professions they could practice. yiddish was the common language spoken by the jews living in the pale of settlement. modell, kasha, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 120 references cited: abarca, meredith e. and joshua r. colby. 2016. food memories seasoning the narratives of our lives. food and foodways 24 (1-2): 1-8. doi: 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https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/kasha-varnishkesssesess-at-wolffs-in-new-jersey-40010 https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/kasha-varnishkesssesess-at-wolffs-in-new-jersey-40010 modell, kasha, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 122 silverstein, barbara. 2019. kasha and knishes are rooted in jewish history. the canadian jewish news. june 28. https://www.cjnews.com/food/kasha-and-knishes-are-rooted-injewish-history. sorokona, anna. 2001. seven types of russian porridge to kickstart your day. russian kitchen. february 4. https://www.rbth.com/russian-kitchen/329409-russian-porridgebreakfast sutton, david. 2013. cooking skills, the senses, and memory: the fate of practical knowledge. in food and culture : a reader, 3rd edition., ed. carole counihan and penny van esterik, 299-320. new york: routledge. -----. 2005. synesthesia, memory, and the taste of home. in the taste culture reader: experiencing food and drink, ed. carolyn korsmeyer, 304-316. new york: berg. -----. 2001. remembrance of repasts: an anthropology of food and memory. materializing culture. new york: berg. steila, daniella. 2016. food and cooking in revolutionary and soviet russia. journal of interdisciplinary history of ideas 4 (8): 5.1-5.19. titon, jeff todd. 2003. text. in eight words for the study of expressive culture, ed. burt feintuch, 69-98. urbana: university of illinois press. tuomainen, helena margaret. 2009. ethnic identity, (post)colonialism and foodways: ghanians in london. food, culture & society, 12 (4): 525-554. tye, diane. 2010. baking as biography: a life story in recipes. montréal: mcgill-queen's university press. vallianatos, helen and kim raine. 2008. consuming food and constructing identities among arabic and south asian women. food, culture, & society. vol.11 (3): 355-373. walker, barbara m. 2018. the little house cookbook: frontier foods from laura ingalls wilder's classic stories. new york. harper collins. wex, michael. 2016. rhapsody in schmaltz: yiddish food and why we can't stop eating it. new york: st. martin press. interviews: modell, mark. 2021. interview with author. march 16. modell, mark. 2020. interview with author. november 24. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 123 rahlevskaya, veda. 2021. interview with author. march 16. rahlevskaya, veda. 2020. interview by author. november 24. vallianatos, helen and kim raine. 2008. consuming food and constructing identities among arabic and south asian women. food, culture, & society. vol.11 (3): 355-373. wex, michael. 2016. rhapsody in schmaltz: yiddish food and why we can't stop eating it. new york: st. martin press. modell, mark. 2021. interview with author. march 16. he can have his cake and we will eat it too the role of the groom’s cake in southeastern louisiana wedding receptions by: cherry p. levin while a small group of folklorists, anthropologists and cultural historians have explored the place of the wedding cake in cultural history (see: jeaffreson 1873:200-209, baker 1974:41-43, douglas 1991:249275, charsley 1987, 1988, 1992, seligson 1973:97-102, woloson 2002:155-186), fewer have focused on the role of the groom’s cake. among those who have, some such as english folklorist margaret baker, regard it as a thing of the past. according to baker, “the separate groom’s cake was commonly seen in america until about thirty years ago and, precut by the caterer, was packed in white satin, initialed heart-shaped boxes and carried home by guests as ‘dreaming bread’” (1977:111). claims of the groom’s cake demise are premature, however. the tradition is not only alive but flourishing in the southern part of the united states as i discovered as part of my investigation of louisiana plantation weddings. i attended over fifty weddings and receptions in southeastern louisiana between 2009 and 2012 and from venues in the large urban areas of new orleans and baton rouge to sites in small rural towns that follow the undulating turns of the mississippi river, the majority of the wedding receptions of racially and economically diverse louisiana brides and grooms shared one significant, constant feature: the presence of a small chocolate groom’s cake displayed alongside an imposing wedding cake at the culmination of a highly structured, ritualized wedding meal. almost all of the wedding receptions i attended highlighted these two distinct types of cake. the small chocolate theme-based cake or “groom’s cake” was served alongside the “wedding cake” or what was once termed the “bride’s cake” a multi-tiered stacked cake decorated in a light frosting with pastelcolored flowers or a more modern type of flowing fondant frosting. just flipping through the pages of bridal magazines now available on newsstands reveals recent wedding cake trends toward elaborately artistic, exotic colors and inventive, imaginative details.i such contemporary publications indicate the influence of visual media on a bride’s choice of cake design. the ultimate goal for many brides is to consciously mirror and deliberately incorporate details inspired from the lace, beading or patterns from their wedding gown into the cake design. this supports wendy a. woloson’s claim that a visual and symbolic relationship established between the wedding cake and the bride in previous centuries continues today (2002:175). building on woloson’s argument, serving two cakes at a wedding, one for the bride and one for the groom, not only suggests social and familial relationships but also conveys subtle messages about gendered roles in american society. i contend that celebratory cakes communicate important messages about gender, economic and social status, especially when considered in connection with the ritual aspects of a wedding feast. since the victorian period in the united states, the trend has been for the american bride’s cake to lighten and whiten and the groom’s cake to be omitted from the wedding feast, with the exception, as i point out, of the american south. there, in contrast to the ornately decorated muted tones of the wedding cake, the conventionally smaller and darker theme-based groom’s cake is clearly a performance of southern masculine identity in the overtly feminized space of the wedding. unlike the wedding cake that conceals or only hints of the bride’s personality under layers of swathed frosting, the southern groom’s cake openly affirms individual masculine characteristics and male personality in the otherwise controlled space of wedding ritual. the groom’s cake on display in southeastern louisiana wedding receptions is a signifier of juxtaposed gendered roles celebrated in the heteronormative expression of the traditional white wedding. the groom’s masculine attributes and interests are reflected from the bride’s feminized perspective as she is the one who typically chooses the groom’s cake. thus, the presence of two cakes at southern wedding receptions forms a distinctive foodways that suggests a form of encoded commentary on southern constructions of feminine and masculine gendered roles. when chosen by the bride, the groom’s cake may reflect and/or celebrate the groom’s successful performance of hegemonic masculinity or underscore notions of the groom’s virility by playfully critiquing aspects of his masculinity. in this paper, i begin by placing the presence of cake at weddings within a historical context. i then proceed to an analysis of ethnographic data derived from my investigation of southeastern louisiana wedding receptions where the presence of a groom’s cake is part of a long southern tradition based on customs derived from english practices. and, lastly, i describe the literary origins of a regional oikotype currently reflected in the armadillo groom’s cake that commonly appears in southeastern louisiana wedding receptions. cake as a code of social relations as simon charsley observes, the paradoxical presence of any cake at a wedding “makes sense to all involved with it; yet whether it has meaning of any kind is commonly doubted” (1992:5). for anthropologists, as charsley notes, the wedding cake is problematic because it “tests the boundaries of ‘food.’” he argues that celebratory cake may “be regarded as a food, yet it is not consumed for its nutritional value nor even, often, for the pleasure of its eating. it is expensive, but not a luxury.” celebratory cakes, high in empty caloric content, offer a modicum of nutritional value through calories derived from raw ingredients that have been heavily refined or chemically reconstituted by heating techniques. charsley claims that what little evolution there has been in the meaning of the cake has been driven by technical changes in the cake’s materiality. even today, the place of wedding cake in contemporary wedding receptions represents a shared or common significance through highly symbolic and subjective meanings for all involved. as rebecca mead explains, many brides are pressured by the “traditionalesque” and justify their actions on the basis of tradition that reassures them “that [their] choices will be sustained by more than [their] will alone” (2007:66). popular american bridal magazines commonly contain at least one section dedicated to cake trends in each issue, conveying the cake’s centrality to the wedding reception. perhaps not surprisingly, then, it is my experience that most attendees at american wedding receptions expect a wedding cake. as a result, many brides serve wedding cake, not because they are aware of latent historic or symbolic meaning, but because they wish to fulfill their guests’ expectations. in the south, these expectations extend to a groom’s cake. i found that most guests at southern weddings also expect a chocolate groom’s cake and their expectations are reinforced by southern bridal magazines that feature cleverly constructed, multi-tiered chocolate groom’s cakes alongside ornate wedding cakes.ii in southeastern louisiana and throughout other parts of the south, the family’s socioeconomic status is showcased through the type of cakes that are displayed along with the manner in which the cakes are presented. for example, economic and class indicators are apparent in the contrast between an elaborate four-tiered fondant-covered cake served on an expensive raised silver cake plate and a twotiered buttercream frosted cake with colored, piped frosting presented on a disposable cake board made from silver-covered cardboard. the cost differential between these two cakes, that might be well over one thousand dollars, would be recognized by many wedding guests. when viewed from the various perspectives of anthropological theorists, the wedding reception can be understood not only as a feast of inclusion, or in van gennep’s terms, a rite of incorporation (van gennep 1960), but also as a rite of conspicuous consumption that is in part constructed through food and drink. alessandro falassi defines these rites as “prepared in abundance and even excess, made generously available and solemnly consumed in various forms of feasts… an eloquent way to represent and enjoy abundance, fertility, and prosperity” (1987:4). the entire wedding meal, which culminates in the cake itself, may be seen as an indicator of social class and taste and at times, the parents of the bride may assume much of the expense for their daughter’s wedding because they feel that the family is on display. as bourdieu argues, “the style of meal that people like to offer is no doubt a very good indicator of the image they wish to give or avoid giving to others. . .” (1984:79, see also delamont 1983). just as in the example above of the two wedding cakes, social and economic images are readily apparent in the price differential between a reception where guests are served a plated dinner and a reception where guests line up for a self-serve buffet. another example of class indicators may be seen in the food selection; serving filet mignon is more costly than chicken breast. reading such factors supports structural anthropologist mary douglas’s argument in that when food “is treated as a code, the message it encodes will be found in the pattern of social relations being expressed. the message is about different degrees of hierarchy, inclusion and exclusion, boundaries and transactions across the boundaries” (1991:253). although, in this situation, douglas is writing about food in the private home, her concepts apply to food served in what she terms “a life cycle celebration.” different types of cake are an integral part of these types of celebrations. moreover, an array of rules controls not only the selection of the cake(s) to be served but also govern how the cake(s) are cut. cake cutting at a wedding depends on the inclusion and exclusion of boundaries. the cake cutting ritual creates a visual and sensory perception of social unity not just between the bride and groom but for all of those present at the wedding. according to charsley, the cake cutting “makes possible a whole series of events” that begins with photographic opportunities and ends with sections of cake taken home for future celebration not only by the couple but also by certain wedding guests (charlsey 1992:11-12). because the cake cutting ritual signals a set of socially imposed power dynamics within the newly created husband/wife relationship, rigid rules pertaining to the cake are unstated but understood by all present. only the bride and groom are allowed to initially touch or to cut either of the cakes. the large wedding cake is the first cake to be cut. the cake knife, often a wedding gift marked with the couple’s initials or decorated in their wedding colors, is held in the bride’s dominant hand with her new husband’s hand over hers. as they cut the first slice together, the piece is plated. then, the couple shares the cake by feeding one another (sometimes smashing) in front of the happy audience of on-looking guests. following the mutual feeding, the cake is removed or cut in place and served to guests to include them in the symbolic sharing of the cake. in southeastern louisiana, the groom’s cake is cut in a similar manner. for many weddings guests, the cake cutting ritual signals the finale of a long performance by the bride and groom and their families. pieces of cake may be sent home to guests unable to be present at the wedding or to children too young to attend. in this example, the cake becomes a token of inclusion and functions to expand the community created by the wedding. i have noticed a recent trend that left-over cake is now being taken home with the bride’s parents with the ultimate aim of being served at the post-wedding family brunch. woloson views the power dynamics expressed in the cake cutting ritual as sexually symbolic when she writes of the victorian bride: because the cake and the bride were as one, what was done to the cake physically was done to the bride metaphorically . . . since the wedded couple now cut the cake themselves, the act [of cutting through the thick layer of frosting] represented the breaking of the bride’s hymen by her husband, the consummation of the marriage, and the larger power dynamic between the wedded couple (2002:177). in the south today the inclusion of a groom’s cake in the cake cutting ritual displaces much of the overt sexual symbolism suggested by woloson. because we cannot advocate that the modern groom, in cutting his cake in a manner similar to his bride, is somehow signifying the loss of his virginity, i suggest that we view the two cakes from a more historical perspective. historical origins of the wedding cake the presence of cake as part of wedding ritual is the symbolic equivalent of a much older representation of abundance and fertility. the marriage rite of throwing or inundating the bride and bridegroom with grains, nuts or fruit is, according to edward westermarck, “a primitive indo-european practice extending from india, indo-china, and the indian archipelago in the east to the atlantic ocean in the west” (1922:471). this practice of literally showering the couple with wheat, grains of barley, or rice appears cross-culturally and is still a part of wedding practices in the united states although pelting the newlyweds with rice as they exit the church following the ceremony has fallen out of favor.iii the presence of a cake-like ceremonial loaf can be traced to greco-roman weddings where the greek bride and groom shared a sesame seed cake as part of the wedding ritual while a barley loaf was broken over the elite roman bride’s head. in one instance, consuming the seed cake symbolized the marriage and in the other, a loaf was broken over the bride’s head. in his description of the numerous modes of marriage practiced in classical society, westermarck notes, “the roman confarreatio, the patrician form of marriage, needed the presence of the pontiflex maximus, the flamen dialis, and ten other witnesses (1922:436).iv in other words, this type of roman marriage was sponsored by the presence of both religious and civic authorities. jeaffreson provides this account of the roman confarreatio: whilst she gave her right hand to her spouse the ancient roman bride, married in accordance with the practices of confarreation, held in her left three wheat-ears, just as the english bride in later centuries bore in her hand or on her head a chaplet of bearded spikes of wheat (1873:201). to explain this type of marriage further, susan treggiari, in her study of roman marriage, describes a type of sacrificial cake made from the grain far, or farreum that was carried before the bride with intention of sacrificing it to jupiter farreus (1991:21-24). marcia seligson offers a more postmodern, gendered interpretation. she writes, “after sharing a wedge, the groom broke the remainder over his bride’s head, signifying both the breaking of the hymen and the dominance of male over female” (1973:97). in contrast to the more vigorous breaking action in the roman marriage, the simple act of eating a sesame seed cake symbolized the union between the bride and groom in greek wedding feasts. westermarck observes that cross-culturally, for the bride and groom, “partaking of food in common . . . is a means of sealing their union by an act which has naturally been suggested by one of the most prominent features of married life; the husband’s sharing of food with his wife” (1922:452). a twentieth century spin on this would suggest that the wife shares food she has prepared with her husband or, perhaps, the overarching point is simply that the food sharing is mutual. using a combination of greek literary sources supplemented by athenian vase paintings or lekanis decorated by the eleusinian painter between 360 and 50 bce, john h. oakley and rebecca h. sinos use archeological evidence to point to the “prolific nature of the sesame seed, in the sense that it comes in such quantities; apparently it was believed to transmit this desirable quality to the new couple” (1993:23). while the act of breaking of loaf over a couple’s head is distinctive from ingesting a seed cake, both actions are examples of sympathetic magic described by sir james george frazer (1922:12). in the former action, the couple is metaphorically showered with a basic (and hopefully bountiful) food supply while in the latter; they are literally internalizing the grain to be fertile themselves. in one instance, the laws of similarity apply and in the other, the laws of contiguity are relevant. what is important to note here is that, in either action, the relationship of grain to abundance and fertility cannot be overlooked or under-estimated. as mannhardt writes in mythologie forschungen, there exists a “feeling of a sympathetic connection between mankind and seed-bearing grasses and the comparison between the fruit of the body and of corn” (quoted westermarck 1922: 478). in light of this sympathetic association, it is no wonder that cakes at weddings are thought to contain magical properties. that the roman custom of breaking the loaf over the bride’s head was practiced later in parts of england is clear in westermarck’s reference to the english practice of breaking a large cake over the heads of the couple in siston, gloucestershire at the beginning of the eighteenth century. likewise, in northeast scotland, an oatmeal cake was broken over the bride’s head. but, as westermarck notes, over time the oatmeal cake evolved into a “thin cake of shortbread, called the bride-cake” (1922:476). woloson references “ceremonial crackers of biscuits made of wheat, symbolizing abundance and plenty” which were thrown over the newlywed’s heads as they crossed the threshold into their new home (2002:168). she interprets this traditionally english action as a form of community support as she observes, “everyone present shared in eating this communal nod to future success. breaking the crackers over the couple’s heads, the community overtly sanctioned the union and recognized it as beneficial to the welfare of the whole society” (2002:168). numerous folklore compilations cited by westermarck refer to this practice throughout the british isles and speak to the connection between grain and abundance symbolized through the presence of bread, crackers, biscuits or cake in the specific context of wedding ritual (westermarck 1922: 464-84). westermarck concludes that “it is an unwarranted assumption, then, that the custom of throwing grain, seeds, or dried fruit at weddings, wherever it is found, originated in a rite the exclusive object of which was to promote fecundity. to ensure prosperity and abundance and to avert evil may have been equally primitive motives for it” (1922: 484). the evolution of the wedding cake illustration 1. table of shewbread. courtesy of mishkanministries.org. despite the clear connection to greco-roman fertility rites, some cultural critics disagree on the angloamerican origins of the wedding cake. charsley connects the wedding cake to a ceremonial form of sacred bread that evolved through time for use in the wedding feast while jeffreason and woloson ascribe the more secular origins of early wedding cake, described as a “stack of wedding buns covered with a thick icing” to french confectioners who followed charles ii from france to england after the interregnum. charsley describes the early wedding cake as a set of “stacked cakes, styled after the croquembourche, a cone-shaped structure, wide at the base, composed of round choux pastries filled with confectioner’s cream and dripped or spun with hot toffee, that was covered with a layer of hardened white sugar frosting and decorated with entremets or figurines concocted from spun sugar” (1992:20). the croquembourche remains a traditional style for bridal cakes in parts of france and belgium today but is only occasionally served at american wedding receptions. brand argues that the practice of a multi-tiered cake was derived from bridal cakes stacked one on top of another and placed between the bride and groom upon the banquet table. his source, based on evidence from an often quoted manuscript held in the british museum, dates before the english civil wars (1642 – 1651): when i was a little boy (before the civil wars) i have seen, according to the custome then, the bride and bridegroom kisse over the bride-cakes at the table. it was about the latter end of dinner; and the cakes were layd one upon another, like the picture of the shew-bread in the old biblesv (brand 1777:355-6). shewbread was ritually consecrated unleavened bread displayed in the tabernacle for use on the sabbath (see illustration 1). it resembles the squares of matzo bread used commemoratively in modern jewish passover seders today. thus, the historical and cultural connection between ritual and ceremonial loaves symbolizing abundance and plenty continues to be an important part of formal sacred observations that may resonate in the commonly symbolic breaking of communion wafers. from crackers to sweetened cake the conversion of sugarless ceremonial crackers to sweetened cake signals what sidney w. mintz describes as the eighteenth-century “spread of sugar downward and outward” as “sugar lost many of its special meanings when the poor were also able to eat it” (1985:95). on one hand, mintz argues “as sugar became more known, more “homey,” it was endowed with ritual meanings by those who consumed it, meanings specific to the social and cultural position of the users” (1985:122). in speaking of celebratory cakes, he observes, “wedding cakes with their elaborate icings and figures, the use of spices and sweets with meat and fowl at holidays, the use of sweet foods at rituals of separation and departure (including funerals), and a lexicon in which the imagery of sweetness figures importantly all suggest [social and political] continuity” (1985:123). jeaffreson points to the elaborate concoctions of french bakers who coated “small, rectangular buns, richly made with sugar, egg, milk, spices, and currants” with a thick white frosting. as sugar became more common, these cakes were eventually substituted for the unsweetened crackers” (1873:203-7). on the other hand, as woloson observes, in social and gendered terms, sugar “assumed widely shared cultural meanings. by the end of the nineteenth century, it has lost its original meaning as a sign of masculine power and had been endowed with properties perceived as feminine, such as refinement, gentility, piety, and weakness” (2002:10). the similarity between greco-roman ceremonial loaves and seed cakes and early eighteenth-century british wedding cake customs remains clear in john brand’s observations on popular antiquities published in newcastle-upon-tyne in 1777 where he writes: the connection between the bride-cake and wedding is strongly marked in the custom still retained in yorkshire, where the former is cut into little square pieces, thrown over the bridegroom’s and bride’s head, and then put through the ring. sometimes it is broken over the bride’s head, and then thrown among the crowd to be scrambled for. in the north, slices of the bride-cake are put through the wedding ring; and they are afterwards laid under pillows, at night, to cause young persons to dream of their lovers (1777:355). brand follows this citation with a note that “this custom is not peculiar to the north of england; it seems to prevail (in england) generally.” through these examples, two manners of usage derived from greco-roman wedding ritual are clearly proscribed; the first, as an agent to be broken over the bride’s head, thrown at the bride and the groom or passed through a ring belonging to the bride; or to be shared and subsequently eaten as part of the ritual feast. in either usage, the connection to abundance and fertility remains clear. celebratory cakes and their composition from seeds and grains evoke fertility properties that make them useful for divining marriage partners. cake divinations appear cross-culturally on both sides of the atlantic. young, unmarried men and women often placed boxed cake under their pillows to “divine” future mates. louisiana diarist kate stone writing in 1862 makes a specific reference in her civil war journal to placing a piece of what she terms bride’s cake under her pillow to dream of her future husband. the connection between cake and implied abundance for the newlyweds emerges clearly in john r. gillis’ study of british marriages. he provides several different versions of what he terms threshold rites that took place the “moment the couple first occupied a separate dwelling. brides were sometimes lifted across, but the doorstep was also the place for the bride to receive a small cake on a plate” (1985:75). he quotes from richard blakeborough’s wit, character and folklore and custom of north riding of yorkshire published in 1911, where blakeborough describes the use of cake as follows: a little of this she would eat, throwing the remainder over her head, typical of the hope that the couple might always have plenty and something to spare. then she handed the plate to her husband; this he threw over his head, their future happiness depending on its being broken (gillis 1985:93). from this passage, we may see that the two usages of throwing and eating the cake have merged together. in another example, brand references the popular custom of “breaking cake over the newlyweds” once they arrived home following the wedding ceremony at the church.vi baker offers yet another version in her description of a yorkshire wedding where “waiting for the bride’s arrival in yorkshire was an attendant holding a cake upon a plate. the bride ate a little and threw the remainder over her head, ‘typical of the hope that the couple might always have plenty and something to spare’ and then passed the plate to her husband who threw it over his head, to fall, for their maximum happiness, in many pieces. should, by ill chance, the plate not break when it hit the ground, a watchful guest would at once stamp upon it, for it was essential that it be broken and the greater the number of pieces, the greater the couple’s prospects of happiness” (1974:41). again, it is clear that there is a symbolic connection between the cake and hopes for marital abundance. from one cake to two it is difficult to pinpoint with any accuracy just when, where and why the american practice of distinguishing the bride’s cake from the groom’s cake occurred. jeaffreson writes that for english weddings, two cakes were prepared, one as an ornament for the bridal table and the other to be broken over the bride’s head (1873:50). according to baker, the “modern form [of the wedding cake] spread from france in the seventeenth-century [where] there were two cakes, a rich, substantial “fruit-full” groom’s cake and a lighter bride’s cake, gay with spun sugar ornaments” (1873:111).(cairns 2011). the veiled floral messages were derived from kate greenway’s language of flowers published in 1884 and included the bridal rose, oak and acorns to represent strength and endurance. also present were lily of the valley, scottish thistle and irish shamrock along with lavender and, not surprisingly, sweet william. the earliest recipe on record for english fruitcake appears in 1655 (charsley, 1992:54). more popular and prolific is the fruitcake recipe for mrs. beeton’s “rich bridecake,” published in 1861 in her popular english cookbook: 5 lbs. of the finest flour, 3 lbs. of fresh butter, 5 lbs. of currants, 2 lbs. of sifted loaf sugar, 2 nutmegs, ¼ oz. of mace, ¼ oz. of cloves, 16 eggs, 1 lb. of sweet almonds, ½ lb. of candied citron, ½ lb. each of candied orange and lemon peel, 1 gill of wine, 1 gill of brandy. mrs. beeton also included a recipe for ‘black cake,” the british term for groom’s cake, in the book of household management in 1880. this recipe was printed along with instructions that the cake was to be “cut by the bridegroom and given to the bridesmaids, with a glass of wine, before going to the church” (beeton 1880:51). several references to the english practice of stacking two cakes together suggest that the lighter bride’s cake was cut at the reception and the layer(s) of groom’s cake were saved for future use, such as a christening (charsley 1992:23, woloson 2002:170). charsley suggests that the tradition of two stacked cakes, one for the bride on the bottom, and one for the groom on the top, was preferred in america. he writes, “the bride’s would be on the bottom. bride and groom would cut it at the reception, give pieces to each other to eat, and it would be served to guests. the groom’s would be mounted above it and saved for later consumption. subsequently, it has been claimed, the groom’s tended to drop out, as ‘the second cake,’ leaving the bride’s to be regarded as the wedding cake” (1992:23). logically, then, the fruit-laden ingredients of the groom’s cake would allow for longer storage as fruitcakes require a period of aging. the american tendency toward a lighter wedding cake to represent the bride may be seen in antebellum louisiana plantation mistress’ martha turnbull’s recipe for bride’s cake taken from family recipes from rosedown and catalpa plantations: mrs. dougherty’s white or brides cake (martha turnbull) whites of 18 eggs, the weights of 12 eggs in sugar, weight of 9 eggs in flour, & four of butter. flavor with almond (scott, pitts and thompson 2005:142). unlike mrs. beeton’s recipe for wedding cake, there is no fruit in this cake. from the ingredients listed for martha turnbull’s cake, it is clear that woloson is correct in contrasting the highly refined properties of confectioner’s sugar and white flour used for the american bride’s cake. she further argues that “the dark and edifying groom’s cake, was eventually completely supplanted by the white bride’s cake, . . . [which] stood to be appreciated for its beauty alone” (2002:176). the comparison between the american victorian bride and her cake as an “ornamental showpiece,” woloson suggests, “confirmed the status of an entire family, and established the dominance of a husband over his wife by equating her with a decoration whose roles and appearances he could undermine” (2002:175). however, the idea of two cakes resurfaces in an american book on wedding traditions that appeared in the 1970’s. in light of the sexual politics of the time, journalist marcia seligson comments, “what we think of today as the wedding cake is actually the ‘bride’s cake’ – frilly, decorative, not meant to be eaten. the ‘groom’s cake’ was dark, a fruitcake, practical, substantial. the sexist implications rise like yeast” (1973:98). the gendered assumptions reflected in the victorian period and conveyed into the twentieth century along with the popular elaborate, ornamental confectionery work have given way to contemporary american wedding cakes, still tiered and decorated but not in the exaggerated victorian style. the dark fruitcake of the victorian period has evolved into the contemporary tradition of the chocolate groom’s cake that still persists in the southern part of the united states. reading the encoded language of the cakes in contrast to the highly feminized lighter bride’s cake, the chocolate groom’s cake overtly expresses southern male identity and conveys aspects of masculine character and personality in a localized type of improvisation on a traditional form. in southeastern louisiana, the groom’s cake is infrequently served at the rehearsal dinner at the end of the meal either as a prelude or to follow toasting. (in southern tradition, toasting the bride and groom is often reserved for this intimate family gathering instead of the more public space of the wedding reception). or, as noted previously, the presentation and cutting of the groom’s cake is more commonly connected to the cake cutting ritual of the larger wedding cake and is part of the highly anticipated event during the wedding reception. kyleen kiger-smith is a recent food network bake-off contestant and the creative director of fairy dust cakes, a cake bakery located in denham springs, louisiana, which specializes in cakes for weddings. in her experience, the groom’s cake is usually a surprise gift from the bride or less frequently, from the groom’s mother. thus, the sign that signifies the groom in the public/private space of the wedding reception is typically presented through a female lens. once in a while, other family members may pick the groom’s cake. only one of the cakes that i present in this section was selected as a gift from the bride’s parents to their new son-in-law; all of the others were chosen by the bride as a gift for her groom. rarely does the groom participate in choosing his own cake or even have input into what is selected to represent him before the community of wedding guests. additionally, the groom’s cakes that i observed in all-black southeastern louisiana weddings transcended any hints of racial identity by celebrating the groom’s authoritative position and communal respectability. at one such wedding, a two-layered cake commemorated the groom’s marine background. the lower cake was made to represent his dress blues, the distinctive dark blue military jacket trimmed with red and gold insignia. the distinguishing highlight of the cake was the dress frame, or unique marine headgear, made of white fondant-covered rice krispies and completed with a shiny black bill. from this example and others i encountered during my field research, i suggest that the presence of the groom’s cake alludes to a type of southern masculine distinctiveness that supersedes the problematic triad of gender, race and class that often troubles critics of southern culture. in the case of the black marine groom, the bride communally celebrated his masculine dependability and reliability in service to his country. at other weddings i attended, the groom’s cakes reveled in their display of hegemonic masculine characteristics closely tied to an overtly regional identity. the most prevalent theme for southeastern louisiana groom’s cakes portrays the groom as a sports fan or expresses his team solidarity through localized football, baseball, golf or basketball fan cakes. kiger-smith and other area bakers feature numerous cakes in the shape of tiger stadium, the playing field of the enormously popular fighting tigers of louisiana state university, the distinctively shaped pete marovich assembly center, commonly referred to as the pmac, at lsu and other well-known professional sports arenas such as wrigley field and yankee stadium. other fan related grooms’ cakes depict a team cooler filled with the groom’s favorite beer. these cakes appear to serve as commentary from the bride celebrating her groom as a “man’s man.” he participates in conventionally masculine activities: watching a sports game and/or drinking beer while watching the game. other cakes reflect the groom’s status as a team player by depicting his personal football helmet, basketball jersey, baseball cap or golf bag along with his winning golf clubs. these cakes reflect a movement from fan participation to a higher performance of masculine skill and ability. we may view this type of cake as a commentary by the bride who views her groom as a vital player/member of a highly competitive college sports team. yet, at other times, the groom’s cake may be seen as a critique of heterosexist constructions of masculinity. one of kiger-smith’s brides covered her groom’s cake table with artificial turf and placed a photograph of herself in her bridal gown at a putting green alongside a large golf ball-shaped groom’s cake. the couple chose tees and golf balls inscribed with their names and wedding date as favors. when i asked her to interpret this groom’s cake, kiger-smith read the cake and the accompanying display as the bride “truly taking her place in the groom’s life.” to take kiger-smith’s interpretation of the cake one step further, i suggest, it appears that the bride may be subliminally usurping or competing with her new husband’s favorite leisure time activity through the medium of the cake by visually interjecting herself into the space allotted to display his preferential hobby. thus, metaphorically, the potential exists for the cake to signal impending tensions between the bride and her groom’s masculine hobbies or interests that may exclude her or conflict with her control. illustration 2. a crawfish boil. courtesy of kyleen kiger-smith, fairy dust cakes. another popular theme on display in southeastern louisiana groom’s cake designs celebrates specific masculine culinary skills such as the crawfish boil (see illustration 2) that c. paige gutierrez identifies as “men’s work” (1984:175). the crawfish boil is a community gathering where the men cook crawfish, corn and small red potatoes in a large specialized pot while some of the guests drink beer and observe the cooking. as men do the cooking and no plates or other utensils are used, the domestic nature of the crawfish boil relegates women to the sidelines. the cake pictured here celebrates the crawfish boil as a space of plentiful masculine achievement as the prolific contents of the pot spills over to feed those gathered for the event. in this cake, the successful performance of male food preparation is highlighted in the abundance of the crawfish pot that literally overflows its contents over onto the table. the cake in this photograph is entirely edible. the crawfish pot is made entirely of chocolate cake and covered with silvery grey fondant. the crawfish, corn, potatoes and paddle are also made of fondant that has been airbrushed with realistic colors. for this particular cake, the newspaper placed beneath the cake relates the names of the bride and groom and communicates personal details of the wedding. in that respect, we may view the presence of the newspaper as twofold; first it depicts women’s nominal responsibility to prepare the food table by covering it with newspaper and secondly, it publically records the noteworthy event of this new union. i read the crawfish cake as the bride celebrating her groom’s ability to successfully participate in a localized display of masculine culinary prowess. the crawfish cake is a popular style and many different versions of this cake are available from bakeries throughout southeastern louisiana. illustration 3. groom paddling his pirogue. courtesy of kyleen kiger-smith, fairy dust cakes. southeastern louisiana is commonly identified as a “sportsman’s paradise” and hunting and fishing are also the subject of many groom’s cakes. one of kiger-smith’s cakes made for a hunter was topped with wooden doe and buck figurines that the bride appropriated from a family clock. another cake portrays a likeness of the groom paddling his pirogue in a swamp of cypress trees and knees (see illustration 3). the pirogue, long a signifier of cajun material culture and tradition passed down from generation to generation, places the groom firmly in the watery southeastern louisiana landscape. in a larger photograph of the cake, the snout of an enormous alligator is barely visible above the water as it is hiding deep in the muted tones of the swamp. i read this cake as the bride acknowledging her groom’s accomplished ability to negotiate the louisiana swamp in a small boat by himself. this groom is a man’s man, dressed in camouflage, skillfully negotiating the watery landscape of the cypress swamp, armed against the forces of nature with a single shotgun. illustration 4. largemouth bass devouring bride. courtesy of kyleen kiger-smith, fairy dust cakes. illustration 5. fishing. courtesy of kyleen kiger-smith, fairy dust cakes. photographs of two of kiger-smith’s groom’s cakes that i find intriguing are reproduced here. in the first cake, the fish, identified as a largemouth bass, is literally swallowing the bride who is distinguishable only by the hem of her gown and her white high heels (see illustration 4). the popularity of this southern style of sport fishing suggests that the bride sees herself as being swallowed by the enormity of her husband’s passion for fishing. when viewed as coded commentary, this bride’s sense of humor reveals her belief that she is no competition for her groom’s fishing hobby. this cake provides a space for her lighthearted critique of his hobby as almost literally consuming her. even on her wedding day, a day that is all about the bride, the fish is the trophy rather than the bride and the center of this groom’s attention. in the second cake, the groom’s prowess is underscored by the type of his catch (see illustration 5). instead of a trophy fish, he has reeled in a large inner tube. his great physical effort for this catch is conveyed by the posturing and the facial grimaces depicted on the fondant likeness of the groom. i read this cake as the bride’s tongue-in-cheek commentary of her groom’s lack of masculine competence. illustration 6. operation. courtesy of kyleen kiger-smith, fairy dust cakes. additionally, groom’s cakes that celebrate the educational background and scholastic achievement of the groom in the professions of medicine, law, and dentistry are popular. a widespread design is the doctor’s coat replete with a fondant stethoscope and pen. the doctor’s name and the hospital insignia reflect the bride’s pride in her groom’s choice of occupation. on the other hand, the bride may invert her physician husband’s occupation through the selection of a groom’s cake that playfully represents his job performance as a game. created by hasbro, the game “operation” involves the skillful removal of organs and bones from a patient identified as “cavity sam.” the object of the game, to perform successful operations, is transferred to the medium of the groom’s cake pictured here (see illustration 6). the “operation” groom’s cake, a popular cake in photo galleries for many southeastern louisiana bakeries, recreates the “funatomy” removable parts that suggest the groom’s surgical prowess onto an edible cake. in contrast to the masculine educational attainment that these groom’s cakes applaud, the bride’s femininity rather than her scholastic success is celebrated in the space of the wedding. according to emily post’s rules of etiquette, the only place where the bride’s educational background is to be publically mentioned is in the engagement or wedding announcement. in contrast to the intentional silence concerning feminine scholarly achievement, there are prolific variations in the design of groom’s cakes celebrating male academic and financial success. illustration 7. glock pistol. courtesy of kyleen kiger-smith, fairy dust cakes. illustration 8. just for the record. courtesy of maida owens. illustration 9. toilet cake. courtesy of cakecentral.com. some groom’s cakes may thematically depict a career in construction or law enforcement or highlight the tools used by members of these professions. in the cake pictured here, the chocolate cake is shaped like a glock pistol, the most common gun used by law enforcement agencies (see illustration 7). the chocolate cake is covered in olive green fondant and accompanied by a badge, bullets and handcuffs to represent the deputy sheriff’s tools. a photograph of the couple handcuffed together sits beside the cake. we might read this presentation as the bride sharing her willingness to be apprehended by male authority which is represented not only by the groom’s position within the criminal justice system but also by patriarchal interpretations of marriage. through the medium of the cake, the bride may be commenting on her groom’s successful appropriation of powerful objects that are socially sanctioned through his choice of occupation. a freudian folklorist might see this cake as representing the groom’s possession of a well-known phallic symbol, the gun. the bride may select her groom’s musical talent or hobby as the theme of her groom’s cake. various bakeries in southeastern louisiana create groom’s cakes that represent or depict the groom’s favorite musical instrument. of these, guitars, drums, and saxophones are the most prevalent. at other times, the cake may display a special message from the bride to her groom. the groom’s cake pictured here offers a double entendre by framing the bride’s affection for her groom in terms of his hobby of listening to music (see illustration 8). the record may be read literally as a concrete object expressing feelings of endearment but in the context of the communal nature of wedding ritual, this groom’s cake may also be a metonym for the public record of the marriage itself in terms of civic documentation. occasionally, the cake may satirize the groom’s profession, thereby introducing elements of the carnivalesque. the bride or her family may playfully invert the groom’s authority over his bride by making fun of him through his occupation. one such example is a groom’s cake made for a plumber (see illustration 9). created by three large pieces of cake, one for the toilet tank, one for the base and one for the bowl, the chocolate cake is all covered in white fondant. the toilet seat is also fashioned of fondant as is the small piece of toilet paper inadvertently left on the seat. the plunger and tools are made from rolled fondant and air brushed for realistic color. the fecal remains in the bowl are very imaginatively made from tootsie rolls. on a literal level, this groom’s cake serves as a comic reminder that this man is often left to deal with unpleasant things such a raw sewage in connection to his profession. despite its very comic nature and scatological content, some may view this groom’s cake as an expression of sympathy from the bride’s parents who ordered this cake. or, are they, his new inlaws, demeaning him by portraying a very graphic image of his choice of occupation? regardless of bride’s parents’ intent in selecting this cake for their new son-in-law, the toilet cake ritualizes antiritual in the bakhtinian sense of subverting the groom’s authority during the ritual space of the wedding reception in the presentation of grotesque images (see bakhtin 1984). by bringing this common everyday reminder of material bodily function into the space of wedding ritual, our distaste of the repugnant is transformed through laughter. illustration 10. cockroach cake. courtesy of kyleen kiger-smith, fairy dust cakes. one of kiger-smith’s funniest cakes was made for an exterminator (see illustration 10). in this case, a cockroach, the bane of southern existence, lies on his back swilling a brand of beer that is a regional favorite in southeastern louisiana. depicted on his back, this cockroach is not dead but very much alive as he “swills’ beer from a can clutched and wrapped in his numerous legs. this cake may be read as a humorous commentary that the groom has not only “failed” in his job to get rid of the cockroach but that the cockroach has ‘bested” the groom by stealing his beer and eating his pretzels. not only has this pesky insect staved off his own demise but he has also appropriated items that denote relaxation for the groom’s leisure time. even the vases of white roses beside this cake cannot soften this suggestion of the grotesque. the cockroach is made from chocolate cake, covered with fondant that has been airbrushed in realistic colors. the beer can is an actual can that is placed between the fondant-rolled legs of the insect. black licorice was used for the feelers. steel magnolias and the armadillo groom’s cake illustration 11. armadillo. groom’s guide for weddings.com the armadillo groom’s cake in steel magnolias, an off-broadway play written by robert harling in 1985, following his sister’s death, provides a terminus post quem for identifying an oikotype for what has become a groom’s cake trend at louisiana wedding receptions not just in southeastern louisiana but throughout the state (see illustration 11). the play opens as a community of women in natchitoches, louisiana prepares for the wedding of shelby eatenton to jackson latcherie. the film version, produced in 1989 by herbert brown ross, starred sally fields, dolly parton, shirley maclaine, olympia dukakis and julia roberts as shelby, the reigning town belle. as tara mcpherson notes, the film version “opens with the preparations for the young belle shelby’s wedding in full swing and also delineates the ‘proper’ behaviors for southern women, both troubling and embracing the power of decorum and the well-mannered belle” (2003:159). one of the first visual signifiers in the film that suggests the upcoming nuptials is the delivery of an enormous wedding cake. in the opening frames of the film, we see two men stagger under the weight of a gigantic three-tiered pink wedding cake as they carefully maneuver the huge cake from the delivery van into the eatenton home. an extravagant yet traditional bride and groom cake topper completely surrounded by delicate pink roses is clustered on the top tier of the cake. meanwhile, at truvy’s beauty spot, shelby and her mother are commenting the choice of colors for the wedding: shelby. my colors are blush and bashful. i have chosen two shades of pink. one is much deeper than the other. m’lynn. the bridesmaids’ dresses are beautiful... shelby. and the ceremony will be too. all the walls are banked with sprays of flowers in the two shades of blush and bashful. there’s a pink carpet specially laid for the service. and pink silk bunting draped over anything that would stand still. m’lynn. that sanctuary looks like it’s been hosed down with pepto-bismol (harling 1998:18). as this passage reveals, shelby’s overly-feminine pink wedding vision is her pragmatic mother’s nightmare. as mcpherson points out, “shelby waxes poetic about the carefully orchestrated setting she has constructed for her wedding, a girlish fantasy of all things pink, including nine bridesmaids, yards of rosey-hued silk bunting, and a church decked out in her signature shades, blush and bashful” (2003:160). in shelby’s fantasy wedding even the wedding cake is tinged a feminine shade of pink. jackson’s coarse armadillo groom’s cake is presented to contrast with the pink overtly genteel space of shelby’s wedding. at truvy’s, shelby and her mother deliberate on the groom’s cake: shelby. the wedding cake will be by the pool. the groom’s cake will be hidden in the carport. m’lynn. shelby and i agree on one thing. shelby. the groom’s cake. it’s awful! it’s in the shape of a giant armadillo. truvy. an armadillo? shelby. jackson wanted a cake in the shape of an armadillo. he has an aunt that makes them. clairee. it’s unusual. m’lynn. it’s repulsive. it has gray icing. i can’t even think of how you would make gray icing. shelby. worse! the cake part is red velvet cake. blood red! people are going to be hacking into this animal that looks like it’s bleeding to death (harling 1998:19). i suggest that the armadillo cake may be read as harling’s encoded message about social, economic and class distinctions between the two merging families. on a literal level, red velvet cake is considered a southern recipe. yet in this context, the cake color of the groom’s cake, while still a form of the expected chocolate, becomes suggestive of consuming raw flesh. cutting into the blood red cake, or as shelby terms it, “hacking” into it becomes a primal act. the brute nature of jackson’s aunt’s cake-making ability (only the snake is omitted due to lack of counter space) connects the latcherie family to people who are accustomed to living on the land. in contrast, shelby’s people are town folks. it is in this light that we may view the cake as a subtle commentary on differences in economic class and social status. the eatenton family represents a modern version of plantation culture with drum as the planter, m’lynn as the southern lady and shelby as the belle. repeatedly, m’lynn refers to jackson’s family with their distinctive surname as living outside of town. the wedding merges these two distinctly different families together and reading the language of the cakes becomes a way of interpreting harling’s commentary on these distinctions. the consensus in shelby’s family is that the armadillo groom’s cake is, in m’lynn’s southern parlance, “tacky.” in the south, calling something or someone ‘tacky” conveys a pronouncement of extreme lack of taste along with questionable social judgment. during the reception, m’lynn and shelby sequester the armadillo cake in the carport, even using the word “hide” to describe their actions. the fact that jackson has chosen the cake and it is not a surprise gift from shelby is another subtle commentary on his taste; one that m’lynn expands on when she remarks, “jackson is from a good old southern family with good old southern values. you shoot it, stuff it, or marry it” (harling, 1998:20). enumerated in m’lynn’s commentary, southern masculine actions equate marriage with male virility in both hunting and preserving the spoils. in that sense, both the bride and the cake are the groom’s trophies of his hunt. m’lynn, however, has the last word on the cake, embodying mcpherson’s observation that “[t]he southern woman is figured as the keeper of family values, the self-sacrificing core that holds the family in its centripedal orbit, articulating the power of sisterhood and female playfulness to conservative notions of family and femininity” (2003:164). despite their inability to agree on other issues surrounding the wedding, as respectable southern women, it is significant that both m’lynn and shelby agree on the impropriety of the armadillo groom’s cake. in spite of harling’s intention in presenting the armadillo groom’s cake as a socially coded commentary on the lower class status of shelby’s choice of husband, or m’lynn and shelby’s denunciation of the cake as “tacky,” in the decades following the film, the popularity of the armadillo groom’s cake has surged. in wedding receptions throughout the entire state of louisiana, the armadillo groom’s cake is exemplary of the power of oikotypes. a simple internet search for “armadillo groom’s cakes” yields literally hundreds of versions of this type of groom’s cake available in bakeries throughout louisiana. in the april 2012 issue of the baton rouge monthly magazine, country roads, an armadillo groom’s cake was at the center of a lengthy feature article on a local area baker. creating her cake by covering layers of red velvet cake with gray fondant frosting and air brushing realistic markings, the area baker proudly discussed her customized cake creation. for approximately two hundred and fifty dollars, modern brides may purchase their own “tacky,” groom’s cake from this baker or many others throughout the state. conclusion in what may be a survival of the antebellum tradition of “infare,” or the practice of the newly married couple visiting the groom’s family for a reception including a meal and a special cake in the days following the wedding, the chocolate groom’s cake is entrenched in southern wedding receptions today. the presence of two cakes represents a gendered performance of southern identity that is, according to james c. cobb, founded within a group with a “shared sense of a common past” (2005:6). this past reaches back into the antebellum period and touches on behavioral prescriptions demanded by southern ladies and gentlemen. accordingly, the tenants of southern womanhood established during the antebellum period, maintain that a good southern wife is one who submits to the patriarchy by allowing her husband to be the virile master of his environment. when compared with the virginal wedding cake that stands on its pedestal as a pristine display of historically determined virtuous southern womanhood that denotes elegance, remoteness, and beauty, the groom’s cake may be viewed as encoded commentary on hegemonic constructions of southern masculinity from a feminine perspective. the chocolate groom’s cake not only demonstrates the bride’s vision of her groom’s masculine performance but also reveals her comprehension of his positioning within their social sphere. certainly a cake that revels in notions of virility, primal honor and personal achievement must be viewed as a display of feminine pride in southern male identity. or, conversely, a cake that critiques notions of masculine performance must be viewed as a breakthrough of the notions of old south gendered prescriptions. the politics of identity, responsible for fostering the gendered perceptions of what behaviors and characteristics constitute southern ladies and southern gentlemen, is played out in the language of the cakes on display in southeastern louisiana wedding receptions. references cited alabama weddings magazine. 2012. jasper, alabama: pro-motion publishing. bakhtin, mikhail. 1984. rabelais and his world. translated by hélène iswolsky. bloomington: indiana university press. baker, margaret. 1974. discovering the folklore and customs of love and marriage. aylesbury, bucks, u.k.: shire publications. --1977. wedding customs & folklore. london: david & charles; new jersey: rowman and littlefield. beeton, isabella mary. 1890. mrs. beeton’s cookery book and household guide. rpt. adamant media, 2005. --1880. the book of household management. rpt. oxford university press, 2000. bourdieu, pierre. 1984. a social critique of the judgement of taste. translated by richard nice. cambridge, massachusetts: harvard university press. brand, john. 1777. observations on popular antiquities chiefly illustrating the origin of our vulgar customs, ceremonies and superstitions. newcastle-upon-tyne. rpt. london: chatto & windus, 1913. cairns, fiona. 2011. “the royal diary: let them eat ‘cakes’.” abc.news.com. april 27. charsley, simon r. 1987. “interpretation and custom: the case of the wedding cake.” man new series 22.1: 93-110. --1988. “the wedding cake: history and meanings.” folklore 99.2: 232-241. --1992. wedding cakes and cultural history. london and new york: routledge. cobb, james c. 2005. away down south: a history of southern identity. new york: oxford university press. country roads. 2012. “armadillo groom’s cake.” april issue. delamont, sara. 1983. “lobster, chicken, cake and tears: deciphering wedding meals.” in the sociology of food and eating, ed. anne murcott, 141-51. place: gower. douglas, mary. 1991. “deciphering a meal.” in implicit meanings: 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and nostalgia in the imagined south. durham: duke university press. mead, rebecca. 2007. one perfect day: the selling of the american wedding. new york: penguin press. mintz, sidney w. 1985. sweetness and power: the place of sugar in modern history. new york: viking penguin. mintz, sidney and christine m. dubois. 2002. “the anthropology of food and eating.” annual review of anthropology 31.1: 99 – 119. lsu ebsco 10/28/2012 www.//web.ebscohost.com. oakley, john h. and rebecca h. sinos. 2002. the wedding in ancient athens. wisconsin studies in the classics. madison: university of wisconsin press. scott, richard, stella pitts, and mary thompson. 2005. family recipes from rosedown & catalpa plantations. gretna, la: pelican publishing. seligson, marcia. 1973. the eternal bliss machine: america’s way of wedding. new york: william morrow. treggari, susan. 1993. roman marriage: isusti coniuges from the time of cicero to the time of ulpian. oxford: clarendon. van gennep, arnold. 1960. the rites of passage. translated by monika b. vizedom and gabrielle l. caffee. chicago: university of chicago press. westermarck, edward. 1922. the history of human marriage. vol. ii. new york: allerton. woloson, wendy a. 2002. refined tastes: sugar, confectionery, and consumers in nineteenthcentury america. johns hopkins university studies in historical and political science 1. baltimore and london: johns hopkins university press. vintage food ads historical food advertisements from the collection of dr. paul smith, department of folklore, memorial university. notes from the farmer’s market by: allisyn miller digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022): 103-110 ©american folklore society 2022 amuse bouche baked in: what memories are we making with bibingka? by: margot finn as i type this, the mix of onion, celery, and carrot we call mirepoix is softening on my stovetop, and sitting at the ready is a bowl full of the golden liquid strained from the chicken bones and leek tops that simmered all last night, scraps of previous meals squirreled away in the freezer in anticipation of a day much like this one. “summer left like it owed someone money,” tweeted someone cleverer than i who must live in the same hemisphere on this year’s sharp and seemingly irrevocable descent into winter. my toddler has been uncharacteristically irritable and listless today, picking at her lunch and falling asleep on the couch in the middle of yet another screening of my neighbor totoro. her older brother has come home from first grade sniffling for most of the last two weeks. he keeps testing negative for covid, but the friend who’d planned to host a gathering of my book club tonight was not so lucky. so we’re all in need of a little comfort. i don’t remember if my mother ever made chicken noodle soup from scratch, although cans of campbell’s version were a staple of our cupboard as well as cup o’noodles with the spongey, freeze-dried cubes of carrot and corn that stayed chewy even after being rehydrated. she definitely didn’t make bone broth. if her mother or my father’s mother did, i never heard about it, let alone witnessed it. although i now think of making bone broth as among my “farm wife” practices, like saving the grease rendered from bacon and clarifying it for biscuits and pastry crust and baking yeast breads with a sourdough starter i call ezekiel, i didn’t inherit any of these habits from the actual nebraskan farm wives i am descended from. one of them was an excellent cook known especially for her pies, but her crusts always began with the can of crisco my mom also kept in her pantry. the other, actually a rural electrician’s wife, was a reluctant and resentful home cook. the electrician infamously put grape jelly on everything she cooked to mask its original flavor. i suppose i did inherit from my grandmothers the tendencies that made me into the kind of person who acquires the habit of saving leftover chicken bones and leek tops and uses those to brew up liquid comfort for herself and others. both of them married controlling men with bad tempers and were responsible for most of the domestic labor in their homes, including keeping the kids from making their father angry. but a tendency to tolerate, or perhaps seek, relationships with abusive and controlling men isn’t quite the same as a recipe. or is it? will my children save their leftover chicken bones and simmer them? will they learn to do so from watching me, or will they cultivate the habit after leaving home, as i did, perhaps finn, baked in digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 104 having inherited a tendency to try to rescue the lonely? will a can of campbell’s or cup o’noodles be sufficient to evoke the steaming bowls of broth and noodles that we’ll eat together tonight? will the memory of the three of us eating chicken noodle soup in the home i’ve tried to make for us, after absconding from my marriage to their father, be a comfort when they are older? inheritance and identity are complicated enough when it comes to comforts as ubiquitous as chicken noodle soup, the most ethnically unmarked american take on the warm, savory, and usually poultry-based broth used as antidote for everything from the common cold and flu to hangovers and heartache the world over. from greek avgolemono to vietnamese pho, chinese congee to “jewish penicillin,” or in france, to the supposedly restorative broths that give the restaurant its name, this is how we try to feed people in need of comfort. during the pandemic, i started making bibingka with my kids, a kind of cake composed primarily of egg, coconut milk and rice flour that’s traditional to…i’m googling now, because my first impulse is to say indonesia, but no, apparently, the philippines. clearly, although this has become a staple in our household, something my kids adore and which may be among the first things they can prepare on their own, i know nothing about the origins of this food. i do not know how it is typically enjoyed, nor how common or unusual it is in the philippines, whether it’s usually homemade or purchased and if the latter, whether from supermarkets or bakeries or street vendors or all of the above. i don’t even remember where i stumbled on the recipe i first used, but i can tell you the precise day i made it for the first time because i posted the recipe on facebook along with a picture of the dwarf tulips then blooming in the backyard: may 03, 2020, not yet two months into global awareness of the covid-19 pandemic. figure 1: original facebook post by the author. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 105 figure 2: facebook post with recipe by the author. bibingka is (are? i go back and forth over whether the collective form should take an “s”) kin to the puffy oven pancakes i learned to make in high school after first encountering them under the name “dutch baby” at a restaurant specializing in weekend brunch. i discovered a recipe in the battered copy of betty crocker that served as the ultimate cooking authority in our house. especially if there were occasion for a friend to sleep over, i delighted in introducing them to the phenomenon also familiar to home bakers of popovers or yorkshire puddings, wherein a batter with a substantial portion of egg put into a pan generously greased with butter or fatty drippings from roasted meat expands rapidly in a cup-like shape when placed in a hot oven. they emerge, poofed up over the edges of the baking tin, with edges deeply brown and the center still pale and custardy. unlike the dutch baby, whose batter is typically not sweetened itself but either stuffed with apples and cinnamon or piled with powdered sugar and drizzled with lemon juice after coming out of the oven, the recipe i used called for as much palm sugar, by volume, as rice flour. i’ve always just used brown. finn, baked in digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 106 figure 3. ingredients for bibingka. photo by the author. figure 4. browned butter. photo by the author. like all oven pancakes or batter puddings or whatever you want to call this genre of baked object, bibingka deflate quickly after being removed from the oven. the brunch restaurant made a point of rushing dutch babies out to the table while piping hot, so the diner might get to see it in its most impressive form. just so, i always beckon my children to the oven to see our bibingka emerge. we pause the last unicorn or the muppet movie and gather to genuflect to the mysteries of eggs and chemistry and heat. the first pieces, we eat as soon digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 107 as they’re cool enough to lift from the pan. the last ones we’ll have for dessert that evening, or sometimes a leftover wedge or two will make their way into monday’s lunch boxes. figure 5. in the oven, before baking. photo by the author. figure 6. after baking. photo by the author. i wonder sometimes what the teachers at my toddler’s school make of the name she gives this item, if she ever has cause to say it. would they dismiss the unusual word, evocative more of games like plinko and tiddlywinks than something as prosaic as a pancake, as just so much toddler pidgin, or might anyone at the school by chance recognize the name and know to associate it with a baked sweet from the philippines? if either of my children retain sufficient delight at the way bibingka poof up in the oven and wish to share them with future sleepover guests or sweethearts, will anyone ask about or merely infer a false ethnic heritage, perhaps bolstered by the ambiguously ethnic features i inherited from my finn, baked in digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 108 third-generation japanese-american mother? or does the cosmopolitan array of children who attend her bilingual preschool in this university town and the multifarious backgrounds of their potential future breakfast partners render such things moot, everyone’s food and features and family compositions so unpredictable a hodgepodge that they flummox any attempt to ascertain origins and identities by culinary cues? figure 7: sliced bibingka . photo by the author. i wonder, too, what the emotional tenor of the memories the aroma of bibingka may conjure up for them will be. for me, it is indelibly associated with the two of them and the mornings we’ve spent together, just the three of us, especially since i moved out of the only home any of us had known since their births. the smell of the butter browning as the oven preheats and i jab a whisk at any stubborn clumps of brown sugar still refusing to dissolve into the batter is the bridge between the early days of pandemic, when a fracturing marriage with two young children got compressed into the space between four cinderblock walls, and the refuge i eventually sought in rented rooms painted white, with coin laundry in the basement. in the face of realizing that nothing is ever going to turn out how you hoped or planned, it’s something more than mere comfort how reliable it is that if you crack six eggs into a bowl and whisk in ¾ cup each of coconut milk, brown sugar, and rice flour, add a glug of vanilla and generous pinch of salt, and bake it for 50 minutes at 320f in a well buttered pie pan, you will get something delicious that you and your children love to eat any time of day. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 109 figure 8. eating bibingka. photo by the author. perhaps for them, the mere word bibingka will someday evoke crisis and trauma. far from being a sweet reminder of peaceful mornings with me, maybe it will automatically recall the conflict and sadness and fissure between their parents that defined the years when the filipino sweet became a part of our regular weekend baking repertoire. probably it is easier to worry about their future relationship with bibingka than it is to admit that these are obviously just worries about their future relationship with me, their understanding of their childhood and how it shaped them. how will they come to see these years of pandemic and whatever comes after, if there is an “after” to pandemic? how will they see my decision to divorce their father? what meaning will they attribute to its funny name and filipino origin, whose lack of connection to their personal heritage is its own form of personal heritage? i beckon them to the oven. we inhale the aroma of browning butter, vanilla, and coconut. someday that smell may be a kind of time machine, and i can only hope this kitchen remains a place that they might want to visit. finn, baked in digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 110 figure 9: author’s children eating bibingka. sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship second place wor sue gai and claiming local identity by: nancy yan wor sue gai is a local favorite that can be found on the menu in almost every chinese restaurant in columbus, ohio. literally translated, wor sue gai means “wok seared chicken.” while different restaurants may have slightly varying versions, wor sue gai generally seems to be a portion of deboned chicken (breast or thigh) that is breaded or battered, deep fried, and then sliced. this sliced chicken is then served atop a bed of lettuce (generally shredded iceberg lettuce) with a gravy ranging in color from orange to brown that is drizzled over everything. according to steve yee, preparing wor sue gai requires several steps. yee is the third-generation owner and operator of ding ho, one of the oldest chinese restaurants in columbus, ohio. he states: to make the wor sue gai is a very long process. you gotta take a whole chicken and simmer it in the broth for about forty-five minutes. you gotta let it cool down, the chicken, then you gotta debone the chicken. then you gotta bread the chicken, fry the chicken, and that’s a lot of work (steve yee 2007). according to my internet searches for the recipe, chopped or slivered almonds sprinkled over everything also seems to be an essential part of the dish, giving rise to its alternate name: almond chicken or almond boneless chicken. what is particularly intriguing about this dish is the claim that it is a local creation although the exact origin story is a bit murky. “we’re [ding ho and wing’s] one of the original inventors of the wor sue gai, with wing’s on east main. we’re trying to figure out who did or [if] both came up with the original concept of it,” claims yee (steve yee 2007). in continuous operation since 1955, ding ho is a rich repository of memories and information about chinese restaurants in columbus. wing’s is another longstanding chinese restaurant in columbus, located in the east side of the city in an area called bexley. kenny yee (no relation), the owner and operator of wing’s restaurant, agrees that wor sue gai is a dish that “basically you can only get in the state of ohio. it originated in columbus” (kenny yee 2007). unlike many other dishes offered in chinese restaurants, wor sue gai has not been the subject of debate about authenticity. neither restaurant critics nor patrons have questioned whether or not it is truly a "chinese" dish that has traveled from china or whether it was a bastardized creation for the american palate. its purported origin story already places it in america, not china, although its association with things chinese remains. thus, wor sue gai raises some intriguing questions about its identity. in terms of chinese food, most people would likely agree that if a dish was made in america, then it is not really “chinese.” yet wor sue gai is not really subject to those types of questions. while it is understood to have originated on american soil, it retains its association with chinese restaurants, especially since it is generally not found in non-chinese restaurants in columbus. people do not seem to have issues with its level of chinese authenticity or inauthenticity but simply accept that it is found in chinese restaurants. thus, this paper will not define characteristics of chinese cuisine and then attempt to determine whether wor sue gai is “authentic” enough to enter those ranks. instead, i explore the multi-layered and somewhat muddy background of a chinese restaurant dish and examine its implications for claims of authenticity in cuisine. authenticity and folklorists folklorists, as well as many scholars in other disciplines, understand authenticity as a construct. they recognize that cultural practices deemed traditional may have been altered over time by a variety of modifying influences, or have foreign, capricious, or recent origins (bendix 1997, hobsbawm and ranger 1983). for many scholars, then, the notion that authenticity exists is a fallacy. they encourage dismantling the idea of authenticity, claiming that its use has been more harmful than helpful if cultural practices are held to such standards of scrutiny. adding to folklorists’ skepticism of authenticity is its intersections with ethnicity. as regina bendix states, “ethnicity and authenticity have grown to be uneasy partners in areas other than folkloristics” (1997:210). scholars such as bendix point out that the concept is perpetually shifting so that there is no stability. she writes, “authenticity thus proves to be contextually emergent, lacking the essence that human beings have wished to attach to it” (bendix 1997:210). while this may be true, history has forced some ethnic groups into identifying and using authenticity as a means of empowerment. authenticity continues to be a powerful ingredient in the self-realization, identity, and political power of ethnic groups despite its contextually emergent nature. for example, academic disciplines impose standards and ways of thinking that nurture ideas of authentic essentialism in the study of ethnic identity and lawmakers rely on notions of authenticity in deciding which projects to nurture and dole public funds to. these are unavoidable facts in the pairing of ethnicity and authenticity. bendix recognizes the complications and potential downfalls of ascribing authenticity to any cultural expression but she does not seem to recognize its empowering possibilities. in her concluding remarks, she writes that she “advocates laying to rest the use of authenticity within scholarship, and it constitutes my effort to undermine the social and political power of discourses on authenticity” (1997:227). in addition, bendix contends that “rather than giving in to the temptation of constructing new, elusive authenticities, cultural scholarship aware of the deceptive nature of authenticity concepts may turn its attention toward learning to tell the story of why human search for authenticity and why this search is fraught with such agony” (1997:227-228). bendix is correct in thinking that scholars must be aware of the complexities, complications, and deceptions that authenticity may engender, yet we must resist the temptation to dismiss and undermine it because of these potentially harmful scenarios. authenticity certainly has been used to dominate and to disempower, but people also find value in claiming authenticity as a tool of empowerment and resistance. while authenticity can be used to oppress, as eric hobsbawm and terrence ranger have shown in the invention of tradition (1983), it can also be used to legitimate and empower groups that have been historically disempowered. therefore, rather than expunging authenticity as a superfluous aspect of cultural expression, a more valuable way to understand authenticity is to acknowledge and embrace its existence, and to examine how it is being used. rather than disregarding the concept entirely, it might prove more useful to reexamine assumptions about authenticity. we may be better served to accept that there are multiple authenticities and accept it as an unstable concept. as a powerful tool that ethnic groups have used to gain recognition and voice, it cannot be so easily dismissed. such a move would leave ethnic groups with less power to dismantle cultural hegemony. while wor sue gai does not currently hold such political power for any group, it is an example of how authenticity can be viewed as empowering. the story of wor sue gai that wor sue gai was created in columbus is a widely held belief in the city. anecdotal stories and conversations with restauranteurs and acquaintances reinforced the strength of this idea. yet it seems curious that this seemingly common dish would have originated and spread from a city that was not known for having a large chinese population. i am familiar with the names of many cantonese dishes through my research on vintage chinese restaurant menus and my own cantonese background. while i was not specifically aware of this dish, it seemed familiar enough – the “wor sue” transliteration indicated cantonese or the toisan dialect – the languages of most of the chinese population in the united states up to 1965. the “gravy” conjured up the vague orange/brown-color of the sauce often ladled onto egg foo young 1 and other chinese dishes frequently found on vintage chinese restaurant menus. other similar-sounding dishes include wor sue ap/opp (the toisan pronunciation of “gravy duck”) or wor siu ap/opp (roasted duck). the name “wor sue gai” did not seem to indicate any particularly outstanding characteristic or hint at any locality. in fact, it seemed to be just another standard dish, similar to chow mein in ordinariness though perhaps not quite as commonplace. however, after reviewing several chinese restaurant vintage menus from cities across the united states 2, i discovered that while some restaurants offered wor sue ap/opp, none of them listed wor sue gai as a dish, indicating that it was perhaps indeed a more obscure dish than i had previously assumed. it seemed strange that if there was wor sue duck, cooks would not think of making wor sue chicken. documentation of the dish itself is difficult to track. spelling is an issue when conducting research on wor sue gai as there were no standardized transliterations of cantonese used in print. the dish has been spelled variably as “warr shu gai” or “war su gai.” in addition, it may have been listed under other names such as almond boneless chicken. but even under the same name (especially with a more broad name as almond boneless chicken), the recipe itself might be different from what is generally understood to be wor sue gai in columbus. 3 wor sue gai appears on internet food discussion boards such as chowhound. 4 there are several threads where posters seek or reminisce about this dish. for example, one poster states, “i'm a transplant from se michigan. most chinese restaurants in that area serve a dish called ‘almond boneless chicken’ or ‘warr-shu-gai’……. have any of you spotted this dish anywhere in the dc area?” 5 another poster laments, “i have heard this is a detroit dish we certainly ate it in every cantonese restaurant there it does not seem to exist in chicago….. the man needs his war siu gai and he needs it now! can anyone help?” 6 despite the numerous chinese restaurants located in these cities, wor sue gai is not to be found in the cities to which these michigan transplants have moved. the fact that it cannot be found in the chinese restaurants of chicago or dc indicates that, unlike chow mein or fried rice, wor sue gai may not be part of standard chinese restaurant fare as i had originally assumed. the fact that posts about wor sue gai generally involved asking others where they might find it, also indicates the dish has a type of uniqueness, in this case, a regional uniqueness. indeed, all this lends validity to the idea that it might very well be a localized regional dish. it is also interesting to note that several of the posters mention detroit, or more frequently michigan, in relation to wor sue gai, either noting that they (the posters) were originally from detroit or other areas of michigan where chinese restaurants always offered it or speak of the dish as having originated from detroit. other online searches also indicate a detroit connection. one food blogger writes, “tonight i had the guts to try and replicate a chicken dish that is popular in chinese restaurants around detroit, mi. it's [sic] proper name is wor su gai, but my family calls it abc, short for almond boneless chicken” (unsigned 2007). like the posters from chowhound.com, the blogger indicates that the dish in the version that she is accustomed to (in detroit) cannot be found in her current locale: “i can only get this when i visit my family up north. i have been to many a chinese [sic] restaurant around here in atlanta and not one has come close. so when i browsed the web for a recipe i was jumping for joy when i actually found one” (ibid). her recipe is taken from about.com 7 and on the site, there is an introduction to the recipe: “war su gai is a chinese-american dish consisting of deep-fried chicken that is coated with a flavorful gravy and garnished with almonds. although not widely available, it's a specialty in detroit, michigan, columbus, ohio, and no doubt a few other areas” (parkinson n.d.). here we see another claim for its detroit connection as well as a columbus connection. and in a 1991 email, leah smith claims: warr shu gai or almond boneless chicken, like chop suey, is a chinese-inspired american dish. so far as i have been able to determine, it originated in detroit. it was a favorite dish of my childhood there. every cantonese restaurant in the area serves it, but i've never been able to find it outside of michigan. descriptions of it to chinese restaurant personnel elsewhere have been met with blank stares (smith 1991). 8 based on these internet discussions, it would appear that wor sue gai has a stronger association with detroit than columbus. this raises the question of whether steve yee, the owner of ding ho, may be incorrect in his claim that ding ho or wing’s invented the dish. one poster on chowhound.com explains wor sue gai’s beginnings in a way that seems to definitively place detroit as its birthplace: the reason that it developed in detroit is because it was easy to make cafateria [sic] style and many of the cooks at the automotive plants were chinese immigrants, so like most chinese american dishes it was adapted to cooking early in the morning and being ready to compile about 4 hours later. most true chinese dishes are stir fried and served immediately. not conducive to serving cafeteria style. local resturants [sic] adapted to customer demands and started making this adaptation. so there is the connection: detroit=automotive plantscafeteria=chinese immigrant cooks=war su gai. thats [sic] my theory and if pearls [sic] in birmingham michigan is still around pearl could cooberate [sic] that theory (she was the head cook at general motors). lets [sic] hope the recipe doesn't die with the auto industry. 9 there are several fascinating elements to this story. first, the poster links wor sue gai with the detroit auto industry and by doing so, reinforces the dish as american-made – much like the detroit auto industry. another point of interest is the conception of cafeteria food versus chinese cuisine. chinese dishes are stir-fried and served immediately while cafeteria food (read: low quality food) requires advance preparation to be put together hours later. in fact, wor sue gai is a labor intensive dish that involves several steps. it seems an unlikely candidate for cafeteria style food. what is remarkable about this story is not that it provides any definitive or true origin of wor sue gai. in fact, it not a definitive explanation, nor do we know if it is true. what is revealing about this story is that this popular dish, found in several chinese restaurants, is presumed to originate in america. the actual origins of the dish are unknown or not clear, which allows for a creation story that is located in an american context. it is worth noting that in this story, wor sue gai is not presumed to be just a chinese dish; instead, it is a dish created in america by a chinese cook for american tastes and is thus an american chinese dish. much like the ruminations that often accompany chop suey (coe 2009, calvin lee 1958, jennifer lee 2008, liu 2009, yu 1987), information about wor sue gai follows a trope about chinese food in the united states: the belief that much, if not all, chinese food in america is somehow fake, made-up, or bastardized for american tastes. like chop suey, wor sue gai is a popular dish on chinese restaurant menus (at least in columbus and apparently detroit), but it is also seen as having been invented in the united states. chop suey and chinese cuisine until relatively recently, chop suey was found on the menu of almost every chinese restaurant. for the better part of a century, it was touted as the quintessential chinese dish – a mixture of small bits of meats and vegetables in an indeterminate sauce. today, however, chop suey is one of those dishes that many people consider to be an inauthentic representation of chinese cuisine, a dish created by chinese cooks in america for the unsuspecting white american palate, and its presence can mark a chinese restaurant as inauthentic or old-fashioned. there are two main stories about the origin of chop suey. one is that hungry miners wandered into a chinese restaurant and the chef had nothing but leftover pieces which he cooked into a hash called “chop suey” (lee 1958: 27). another is that li hongzhang, a high-ranking diplomat from china, visited the us in 1896 and had his chefs prepare a meal for his hosts in reciprocation for their hospitality. however, unsure that the dinner guests would be amenable to more traditional fare, he instructed they cook american meats and vegetables in a chinese style and named it “chop suey” (lee 1958: 28). alternate versions of the diplomat’s visit claim that he was not accustomed or fond of western so food and so he either went to a chinese restaurant and ate chop suey or had his chefs prepared chop suey for him (yu 1987). but in fact, journalist andrew coe, author of chop suey: a cultural history of chinese food in the united states, maintains that li never did eat chop suey during his visit to the united states. he writes that newspapers, unsure of what li was really eating, widely reported him as doing so, most likely, as he explains it, “because chop suey, the only chinese dish most white americans had tasted, had become emblematic of chinese food as a whole” (coe 2009: 163). 10 a third, lesser known version involves lem sen, a san francisco cook, who insisted that right before li visited the united states, lem invented chop suey at the behest of the owner of a bohemian san francisco restaurant who wanted a dish that would pass as chinese and satisfy the current interest in china due to the diplomat’s impending visit” (coe 2009:176, lee 2008:61). 11 all these origin stories place chop suey in the context of america as an invented dish created by chinese cooks for the american palate. to lend even more credence to the idea that chop suey was an american creation, one often hears stories of chinese from or in china who do not recognize the dish or who have never heard of it. coe tells us that a 1904 boston globe article profiled six chinese students who claimed that they had never heard of chop suey until they arrived in the us (2009:177). after all, it only seemed logical that someone from china would be in the best position to know about chinese cuisine and whether chop suey was chinese or not. however, coe seems to imply that chop suey was in fact a dish that was already being eaten by the chinese as a chinese dish. he cites the journalist allan forman who wrote of an 1886 dinner at mong sing wah’s in new york city in which a lawyer friend ordered in chinese, “chow chop-suey, chop-seow, lanonraan, san-sui-goy, no-ma-das” (2009:158). coe describes the meal as “not a banquet of rare ingredients imported from china but a meal off the menu – the everyday restaurant food eaten by new york’s chinese” (2009:158). and the six students from china who had never heard of chop suey until they came to the united states? two of them hailed from areas close to the yangzi river and the rest from guangzhou. in other words, they were not familiar with chop suey because they were not from the pearl river delta area of china which coe states, “would have an outsized influence on the american perception of chinese food” (coe 2009:100). what coe is referring to is the toishan area/county by the pearl river delta in the southern chinese province of guangdong from which most of america’s chinese population hailed from prior to 1965 due to america’s restrictive immigration laws. thus, chinese cuisine in the united states was essentially the regional cuisine of the pearl river delta. as further proof, coe cites hong kong surgeon li shu-fan’s memoir: i first tasted chop suey in a restaurant in toishan in 1894, but the preparation had been familiar in that city long before my time. the recipe was probably taken to america by toishan people, who, as i have said, are great travelers. chinese from places as near to toishan as canton and hong kong are unaware that chop suey is truly a chinese dish, and not an american adaptation (coe 2009:161). chop suey is indeed a familiar dish from the pearl delta county of toisan. my own family hails from that region and i recall my mother, born in the 1930s, who never cooked anything that resembled an american meal, often prepared what she identified as “chop suey” as one of the dishes for the family meal and it was never considered “american.” in her version of chop suey, celery, onions, daikon, mushrooms, and either pork or chicken were stir fried together with oyster sauce. according to my father, 12 chop suey was eaten in china, but there it referred to a technique that became popular during the 19th century before it became known in america as the name of a specific dish (yan 2012). chop-suey itself it is not a particularly unique or imaginative use of ingredients. it is not like putting bacon and chocolate together where you have savory and sweet combined or the blurring of meat and dessert foods in combinations that are not usually put together. in a culinary tradition that includes the technique of stir-frying chopped meats and vegetables together, it is not inconceivable that a dish such as chop suey could have come from china. chop suey is a very practical type of dish. in fact, as the conversation with my father suggests, chop suey is not even the name of a dish; it is more like a type of dish. the translation of “chop-suey” means “bits and pieces” and the “chow chop-suey” that allan forman and his friend dined on in 1896 means “stir-fried bits and pieces.” essentially, chop suey or chow chop suey is taking whatever you have in the kitchen (perhaps leftovers), cutting it up into small pieces, and stir-frying them together. so if perhaps you are in a chinese (home) kitchen and you dine on a dish of stir-fried sliced pork or chicken or any other meat with chopped vegetables and you ask your host, “what is the name of this delicious dish?” if your host replies, “oh, it’s just chop suey,” what he or she is essentially saying is, “oh, it’s just leftovers” or “oh, it’s just a hash i threw together” or “oh, it’s mystery surprise.” it’s not the name of a dish; it is meant as a general catch-all description of smaller bits of food put together and stir fried. it is a humble food: plain, simple, and economical. it is homestyle chinese food of the toisan chinese; essentially it is peasant food. when americans first began to take notice of chop suey, it was a little unclear what it consisted of. the bits and pieces that make chop suey could be anything, such as gizzards, sprouts, or fish, for as coe writes that “in nineteenth century new york, the definition of chop suey was anything but fixed” (2009:160). because chinese chop suey meant that anything could be thrown together and stir-fried, it could be leftovers or it could be could whatever the cook felt like putting together that day. the theory often bandied about chinese foods becoming americanized because of substitution or adaptation because of the unavailability of specific ingredients does not really apply here because of the chop suey principle of various bits and pieces thrown together. there is no must-have ingredient to substitute. this flexibility is perhaps what allowed chop suey to become known as “americanized.” for example, shiu wong chan’s the chinese cookbook has this to say about a chicken chop suey recipe: “this dish is not known in china. from its name it means simply a variety of small pieces. however, the principles of chinese cooking are the same” (chan 1917:37). 13 chan identifies chop suey as a chinese cooking method and this echoes my own feeling that chop suey as a method, or a cooking principle, is rooted in chinese cuisine. however, for many people, what makes a dish chinese is not the principle but the ingredients. in the case of chop suey in the united states, the burden of authenticity seemed to whether you had the proper ingredients, whatever they may be (and indeed, as coe noted, it was not so clear cut). in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, yes, chinese ingredients and vegetables were not as widely available as they are today and substitutions most likely did occur. but chop suey did not necessarily require substitutions as it was already a flexible dish. it may have, apparently, been presumed to contain a set list of ingredient substitutions (which it did not), and any change or “substitution” would thus be described as “americanized.” chop suey in one form could conceivably be “americanized” if the ingredients are say, chopped potatoes, ham, and cheese cubes stirred fried in wok because they are ingredients that are not usually utilized in chinese cuisine. but if such a dish did exist, it would be less “substitution” than perhaps a deliberate creative endeavor. but if the principles are still the same – chopped bits and pieces stir fried together – it could still be chop suey. coe writes that the idea that chop suey is not chinese had “staying power” (coe 2009:177) despite the lack of documentary evidence for stories of the miners or of li hongzhang’s chop suey adventures during his american visit. he points out that the idea of chop suey as a big hoax continues in popular culture from the headlines of a 1918 philadelphia inquirer that announced “the origin of chop suey is an enormous chinese joke” to jennifer lee’s proclamation that it was the “biggest culinary joke played by one culture on another” (lee 2008:49). he observantly notices that in all these cases of chop-suey-as-fake-chinese-food, it is the american who is the butt of the joke, “too ignorant to recognize real chinese food” (coe 2009:177) and “too stupid to know that they were essentially eating garbage” (ibid:178). he writes that “the punch line about eating garbage suggests a veiled revenge (analogous to the chef spitting in the soup) for decades of mistreatment. call it a myth that conveys a larger historical ‘truth’” (coe 2009:178). coe is onto something in that statement. the persistent labeling of chop suey as fake chinese food for stupid americans may very well indeed suggest an anxiety about the chinese and their mysterious cuisine. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, chinese culture was still something that was unknown and to be feared; it represented a site of fascination and exoticism. but what could be known was chop suey, the somewhat “addictive” dish that the chinese made in their restaurants. one part of the search for authentic chinese food (depending on who you were – a non chinese versus a chinese person) may have been the desire not to be the butt of the joke, to not be the “ignorant” american. despite the “addictive qualities” that made one go to a chinese restaurant again and again for chop suey, you were not taken in by that incredible “hoax.” but the larger historical truth may not be the revenge fantasy that coe seems to think. chop suey is a food of the “contact zone” which mary louise pratt describes as “the space of colonial encounters, the space in which peoples geographically and historically separated come into contact with each other and establish ongoing relations, usually involving conditions of coercion, radical inequality, and intractable conflict” (pratt 1992:6). chop suey as a contact zone food does not mean that it is a hybrid, like the creolization of languages. it is a contact zone food because it raises questions about identity and power relations. the larger historical truth that chinese food in america reveals is perhaps that chinese food often represents this search for the authentic, a direct and verifiable connection to the chinese motherland. back to wor sue gai. the frequent mentions of the detroit connection may indicate to some that wor sue gai did originate in detroit rather than columbus. however, it does not necessarily mean that steve yee or kenny yee are incorrect in their origin stories. it is possible that ding ho or wing’s created the dish and the recipe made its way north to detroit via a restaurant patron who enjoyed the dish or perhaps an associate of the restaurant who later moved to detroit and that detroit embraced it even more than columbus did. while both steve yee and kenny yee are unclear as to who created the dish, ding ho or wing’s, they do believe that it originated in columbus. after all, it does not appear to be part of the chinese restaurant menu lexicon in other cities. in addition, ding ho and wing’s have always offered wor sue gai on their menus, and both are among the oldest chinese restaurants in columbus. thus, the idea that wor sue is a columbus invention is not an unreasonable conclusion to make. efforts to track the origins of wor sue gai are as much about satisfying a simple curiosity about how this popular dish came to be as a desire to understand its connection to china. origin stories are comforting; they can tell us exactly how, where and how something started without the ungraspable nebulosity of the unknown. as jennifer lee wrote about her wish that the story of lem sen inventing chop suey was actually true, “these symbolic characters make the mess of history more streamlined, palatable, and digestible – not unlike americanized chinese food. against a backdrop of chaos, there is a single pleasant narrative” (lee 2008:64). more importantly, in the case of foodways, it tells us how we should treat/view a dish by situating it in the realm of the inauthentic or authentic. origins of food seem to be important, especially for food that doesn’t seem “american” in the context of the united states. knowing the origins of wor sue gai will decide whether it is chinese or “americanized.” if we know that wor sue gai was invented in columbus (or detroit), then we can say that it is not really chinese because it was invented in the united states. then we are not the butt of any joke, armed with the sure-fire knowledge that puts us in on the “know.” conclusion for any cultural expression, it is important to make the distinction about the type of authenticity that is in question. in the case of wor sue gai, authenticity is not about whether this dish is truly part of the cuisine of china. it seems accepted that it is a product of america though an “exact” origin story could confirm the suspicion. when people talk about the authenticity of wor sue gai, however, they are usually not talking about whether it is chinese or not. rather, they are talking about how it is made and whether it is good or not. some people in columbus are passionate about their wor sue gai. one regular diner at ding ho states: what i like about the wor sue gai the best is the chicken – the way it’s cooked and breaded on the inside and they have a sauce. the sauce was over it. and the diced onions. and i like the almonds that they crunch up on them. the almonds are sort of my favorite on it and i always like extra almonds. you know it makes it taste better. i love chicken so well . . . when they make it so moist and it’s just got a different taste. it’s something about the sauce mixed in with the chicken and the onion, with chopped up onions, green onion. it’s something about just the taste that’s just. . .it’s like eating a potato chip. you can’t eat one and i’m saying you sort of get hooked on it, you know. like my son said, last week we come over to here to eat, he said, hey dad, i could eat it every day of the week and i sort of chuckle to myself. it’s the same way i feel from all those years i’ve been eating since the late sixties and seventies. i’ve ate wor sue gai at other places and it’s just really not even close to being the taste.….i just love the taste of wor sue gai (follrod 2013). the process and labor involved in making wor sue gai seems to require several steps that are not as quick and easy as chop suey. steve yee does not use the actual word “authenticity” when he described the process of making wor sue gai, but he has an idea of what “real” or “authentic” wor sue gai is. he observes, “there’s a lot of imitations….whereas a lot restaurants call that wor sue gai and you buy chicken breasts and batter it and deep fry it and call that wor sue gai” (steve yee 2007). his meaning is clear: there is a real wor sue gai and a wor sue gai that is not so real. here, authenticity seems to be conflated/equated with quality or effort. the use of just chicken breasts rather than simmering the entire chicken is a fast food short cut that is obviously not as good as the process he believes is required for wor sue gai. for the short-cutters, wor sue gai is not about process but simply about deep frying battered chicken breasts. and that is the issue yee seems to have with this type of wor sue gai – that the cooks did not really understand what constitutes the dish. for yee, the burden of authenticity lies within the entire process of simmering, deboning, breading, etc in making wor sue gai. for the short-cutters, the element necessary to make the wor sue gai is the battered deep fried chicken breast. what we see here is a differentiation of what people mean by authentic in the very same dish. authentic wor sue gai is about process. in the cases of chop suey and wor sue gai, it is important to note that the flavor of the dish is not contested in terms of its chinese-ness. for the diners who are not intimately familiar with chinese cuisine, an origin story that links it directly to china might be enough proof that it is chinese. the fact that it is served by asian people might also be enough verification. or that the other diners in the restaurant are asian. perhaps it is because diners who are not intimately familiar with chinese cuisine may not know enough to make assessments of authenticity based on flavor and must rely on other cues to validate a restaurant’s authenticity or inauthenticity. in such cases, how can one know what is authentic chinese food? elizabeth rozin states that it is possible to re-create the flavors of any cultural cuisine by identifying and isolating the different flavors (or spices) that are used in combination in any particular culture. she writes, “a flavor principle, then, is the taste that results from a mixture of several flavoring ingredients that are used together frequently and consistently within a cuisine, a taste that can be abstracted and described apart from the basic foodstuffs the ingredients interact with (rozin 1973:3). in order to approximate or at least come close to recreating authentic cuisine from a specific culture, one must understand the flavoring principles behind their dishes. so for instance, if one wanted to prepare a dish that tasted west african, one would use tomato, peanuts, and chili as the primary ingredients. while rozin admits that a dish outside its home origin may not be reproduced with absolute authenticity since ingredients may be slight different or cooking techniques may vary, “with time and effort, authenticity can be achieved” (1973:4). the achievable authenticity is in the flavor even in approximation. rozin comments, “the flavor principle idea proposes that seeming or theoretical authenticity may be a more valid goal and in fact permits mastery of a foreign cuisine without the necessity of conforming absolutely to the limits of that cuisine – in short, liberation from the non-essential and freedom improvise” (1973:4). thus, authenticity or mastery of a foreign cuisine is not so much an exact reproduction as it is an understanding of the underlying flavor principles that make up a culture’s cuisine. what is important is not so much how wor sue gai came about, who invented it, and where it was invented. it may or may not have originated in columbus. it might even be found in other cities besides columbus or detroit. what is important to note is that it is a columbus dish. at the same time, it is also a detroit dish. it is also a chinese dish. it is also an american dish. what wor sue gai tells us is that like any cultural expression, it has multiple layers in its identity and multiple co-existing identities that are not contradictory. what makes it all of these things is not a linear origin story that neatly lays out the birth of an immutable dish. what is important to note is that wor sue gai is all of these things because they all claim wor sue gai. it is a local dish because it is embraced by the people of columbus and detroit. authenticity is not about origins so much as it is about claiming and who claims the cultural expression as rightfully their own. notes 1. egg foo young is an essentially a fried egg patty. two or three raw eggs are mixed with chopped onions and bits of meat such as pork, chicken, beef, or shrimp. sometimes spring onions and/or bean sprouts are added. the mixture is then deep fried and served over rice with gravy ladled on top of everything. the dish also has variations in spelling and may also be spelled as egg fu yung. 2. i own a small collection of vintage chinese restaurant menus that i purchased individually on ebay. the menus were generally dated as being from the 1940s to the 1960s. although the actual date of any given menu can be difficult to verify, the pricing and the types of dishes offered indicate a time period prior to the 1970s. 3. although there may be variations on the spelling, i use “wor sue gai” to reference the dish. 4. chowhound is the discussion board of www.chow.com and describes itself as “community of discerning eaters share information and opinions about cooking and restaurants.” please see http://chowhound.chow.com/boards. 5. jahrjame, 2007, almond boneless chicken in dc area?, nov 1 http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/456433 (accessed july 20, 2012). 6. madd, 2002, iso war siu gai almond boneless chicken, dec 3 http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/111872 (accessed july 20, 2012). 7. about.com provides content on a variety of topics and is owned by the new york times company. more about the company can be found at http://www.advertiseonabout.com/about-us/. 8. leah smith’s 1991 email about wor sue gai appears on several different sites. i found and used her email from the following link: http://kabish.com/recipes/recipes.php?id=147 (accessed july 20, 2012). in addition, portions of her email that identify the origins of wor sue gai have been reproduced in varying forms to accompany reproductions of her recipe which she claims to have obtained from the detroit free press. however, a search of the detroit free press’s website yielded no information on wor sue gai in any of the spelling variations. 9. dave59, 2009 reply comment to thread entitled “please describe almond chicken to me,” june 12, http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/16141 (accessed july 21, 2012). 10. coe also states that the new york journal painstakingly recorded every bite the diplomat ate in public and every move of his four chefs and according to the records, chop suey was not one of the things he ate (2009:163). 11. both coe 2009 and lee 2008 reference the original story that was reported in the new york times in 1904. 12. my father was also trained as a chef in hong kong in the 1950s and opened a chinese take-out in baltimore for over thirty years. 13. actually, the chinese characters printed before the recipe is “stir fried chicken slices” but in english, it was printed as chicken chop suey. references cited bendix, regina. 1997. in search of authenticity: the formation of folklore studies. madison: university of wisconsin press. chan, shiu wong. 1917. the chinese cookbook. new york: frederick a. stokes company. chowhound. http://chowhound.chow.com (accessed july 20, 2012). coe, andrew. 2009. chop suey: a cultural history of chinese food in the united states. new york: oxford university press. follrod, ron. 2013. interview by the author, columbus, ohio. april 14. hobsbawn, eric and terence ranger, eds. 1983. the invention of tradition. new york: cambridge university press. lee, calvin. 1958. chinese cooking for american kitchens. new york: g.p. putnam’s sons. lee, jennifer. 2008. the fortune cookie chronicles. new york: twelve press. liu, haiming. 2009. chop suey as imagined authentic chinese food: the culinary identity of chinese restaurants in the united states. journal of transnational american studies 1 (1):12; available at: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2bc4k55r 28.1. issn: 1940-076. parkinson, rhonda. n.d. war su gai, http://chinesefood.about.com/od/poultry/r/warsuigai.htm (accessed friday, july 20, 2012). pratt, mary louise. 1992. imperial eyes: travel writing and transculturation. new york: routledge. rozin, elizabeth rozin. 1973. the flavor principle cookbook. new york: hawthorn books. smith, leah. 1991. email about wor sue gai. http://kabish.com/recipes/recipes.php?id=147 (accessed july 20, 2012). unsigned. 2007. wor su gai or almond boneless chicken. culinary infatuation (blog). december 28. http://culinaryinfatuation.blogspot.com/2007/12/wor-su-gai-or-almondboneless-chicken.html (accessed friday, july 20, 2012). yan, heung ming. 2012. telephone conversation with the author. july 27. yee, kenny. 2007. interview by the author, columbus, ohio. september 25. yee, steve. 2007. interview by the author, columbus, ohio. september 10. yu, renqiu. 1987. chop suey: from chinese food to chinese american food. chinese america: history and persepctives 1:87-100. old food ads canadian wwi ads from nova scotia amherst daily news: nov. 2, 1917 amherst daily news: nov. 4, 1918 amherst daily news: feb. 5, 1918 amherst daily news: sept. 6, 1917 foodways of southern indiana in the early 20th century winner of the sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship in 1993. a condition of the prize is publication in digest. because the journal was not active in 1993, we are happy to have a slightly revised version of the paper appear now. by: mary magoulick as michael owen jones argues in his 2005 presidential address to the american folklore society, food matters. jones points out that the "procuring, preparing, and consuming of provisions figure largely in symbolic discourse regarding identity, values, and attitudes" and that food reflects our "dynamic . . . multiple identities – ethnic, regional, gendered, or classed," so that we truly are what we eat from various perspectives (jones 2007:129). jones demonstrates persuasively the extent to which food metaphors, references, and images infuse culture on many levels. charles camp expresses a similar sentiment in the 1980s: "food matters culturally because it expresses, reflects, and enacts values which are both openly attested to and privately held" (1989:23). camp also notes a relative paucity of "extensive systematic foodways studies" at the time (1989:17). approximately two decades ago when i first conducted the research that this article is based on, the cultural importance of food was not as well accepted, and foodways was still considered a lesser cousin to most folklore studies (of stories, art, music, etc.). at the time, i knew that farmers from southern indiana, like human beings throughout time and space, had long appreciated food and everything involved in its preparation and consumption. it was integral and fundamental to their community and culture. i originally carried out interviews with southern indiana farm women as a final project for a graduate seminar on material culture (taught by warren roberts) at indiana university in 1993. while the fieldwork was initially conducted with a small team examining various aspects of a nearby farming community, i expanded my scope to southern indiana. i interviewed four women who grew up at a time when farming and local foods played significant roles. these women; bertha may fyffe, mays frances, fern jewell, and mary naylor told me their stories in recorded interviews. they explained their lives (as connected to food) in ways that resonated with and reinforced each other’s stories, and presented lifeways that are less familiar today. all four were friendly and generous with their time and stories, happy to share their early memories centered on food. portraits of the four women are offered below. although today foodways is a more established and rapidly growing field, arguably it still pales in comparison to the popular obsession with and focus on food among the public (although this popularity tends to emphasize gourmet, specialty, or regionally famous foods such as barbeque). in discussing foodways research, lucy long notes how folklorists tend to focus more on "simple" foods, which can also "hold complex meanings" (2009:6). she also writes that foodways is, "the aesthetic domain of activities and practices surrounding that stuff" (long 2009:7). her comments suggest that even now the foodways of earlier generations of americans are only minimally studied. for these reasons, along with the ongoing need for more data on folklore of everyday people, i thought this research (even though from twenty years ago) would still be interesting and relevant for contemporary readers. the interviews i conducted in southern indiana in the 1990s reflect foodways (traditions of growing, preparing, and sharing food) as recalled by local women, from their lives in the early twentieth century, just as the industrial revolution was reshaping america. along with descriptions of how their lives centered around the procurement, preparation, and consumption of food, the four women whose voices i present here reveal many other aspects of their lives as well, which reflect to a great extent the culture of most americans in the early 20th century. these four women grew up in what material culture folklore specialist, warren roberts, refers to as "that old, traditional way of life" (roberts 1993). this farm-centered lifestyle gave way to a postindustrial relationship to food as the 20th century progressed, but some people still grew up at least partially connected to these older patterns well into the 20th century. don yoder explains that "the revolutionary technological changes of the twentieth century, following the industrial revolution, have radically changed cookery and food preparation as well as every phase of everyday living" (1972:346). these changes indeed completely transformed ways of living, yet there are those still alive who remember and reflect on "old foodways," which yoder affirms "were not so bad after all" (1972:347). these women i interviewed in 1993 lived either on subsistence farms or in lifestyles largely supported by homegrown foods in the early 20th century. all had predominantly fond memories of their early lives. even though they were of lower to low-middle economic status, their food memories were not of deprivation, hardship, or anything unpleasant, but of a strong and happy home and community life. they didn’t romanticize their youths. they remembered working hard (sometimes very hard), and they experienced the depression, but they came to realize that even during those difficult times their lives were good, replete with rewarding memories, many of them connected to food. the women fondly recalled things such as the "best cheese" they had ever eaten, or "delicious bacon" after hog butchering day, or treats of homemade popcorn balls shared around a fire at night. everything connected to food stood out as a bright spot in each life reflected upon here, demonstrating how food often represents a touchstone that helps to crystallize memory. in his article on "folk cookery" dan yoder discusses a longstanding and useful method of foodways studies that focuses on: "folk foods, folk methods of food preparation, the use of foods in the home, the storage of food products, the names of dishes, the meal system—every phase of the relation of food to folk culture" (1972:326). my study incorporates all of these ideas although i collapse some of the categories. i organize my study as follows: 1) foods grown and consumed in southern indiana; 2) storage and preparation of food; and 3) food usage and the meal system. this approach provides a foodways-oriented method of comparing proffered descriptions. additional information emerges in these discussions (such as family relationships, gender issues, and celebrations), but the three categories offer a useful introductory framework for an overview of southern indiana foodways. in writing of yoder’s approach, lucy long comments that "yoder’s discussion of foodways as the totality of customs, beliefs, and habits around food is a system in which all activities bear upon each other, and meaning emerges out of those relationships" (long 2009:7). as yoder’s and long’s statements suggest, food-based studies have the potential to reveal much about life in southern indiana a hundred years ago and this present research shows how lives once centered meaningfully around common food traditions that reflected a hard-working but plentifully rewarding life. portraits of the women mays frances (interviewed march 22, 1993) mays frances (née blunk) was 85 years old at the time of our interview, a widow with five children, thirteen grandchildren, and twenty-three great-grandchildren. she grew up in the small southern indiana town of monrovia (pop. 375-400 at the time), in the northwest corner of morgan county. the daughter of an "implement salesman" in a family of five (including two brothers), some of her family had been in indiana at least since the civil war. she graduated from high school and married a man from mooresville, who was a photographer. after their children were grown, the couple moved to a farm on maple grove road, near bloomington, indiana. they farmed this land themselves for about four years. mays was living in bloomington at the time of our interview, but she noted that she still attended church at the maple grove road christian church. she remembered her family being able to raise and produce most of their own food. she believed that they were essentially self-sufficient. on their farms they always had chickens, a cow, and pigs. her family was not wealthy, they did not have a car for instance. they did, however, sometimes have "hired girls," since her mother was frequently too ill to do her work. although mays and her family bought more of their food than my other consultants, they nevertheless considered store bought food, such as hot dogs, a big treat. they did not have enough room to grow much corn but they grew many vegetables in their yard in town. bertha may fyffe (interviewed march 16, 1993) bertha may fyffe grew up in the maple grove road area of southern indiana, and married a man who also lived there. her family had lived and farmed in this area for several generations. at the time of our interview, she still lived in the farmhouse of her husband’s family, which she moved to after their marriage. she no longer was working the farm at the time, and instead rented it out to be farmed. but she still raised a garden for herself. she was a widow with six children, who all lived within thirty miles of maple grove road. she said she saw them frequently. her house was large for one person (she agreed), with a living room, two bedrooms, a small kitchen and a large dining room, where we had our meeting (with two other members of our graduate student interviewing team). since several of us were interested in interviewing bertha, we decided to make it easier on her by interviewing her just once, with all three of us sharing the interview and posing questions relevant to our projects (mine was the only one on foodways). we interviewed bertha on a cold, cloudy day, at around 2:30 in the afternoon. judi hetrick, hande birkelan and i sat around a table, while bertha stood the entire time. she seemed relaxed and she talked freely and laughed a lot during the interview. l. fern jewell (interviewed march 19, 1993) fern jewell grew up on a farm that her great, great grandfather established in the 1800s in owen county, indiana, a mile west of whitehall, near the gross cemetery and school. fern was born and lived on this farm for twenty-four years. her ancestors moved to this region from south carolina, and settled on what they called "little raccoon creek," which ran through the farm. jewell is fern’s married name; her parents were named freeman. she believed their ancestors originally moved to this country from england and holland. she grew up with a fairly small family on the farm, her parents, two brothers, and one grandfather. she was twice widowed and had two daughters and several grandchildren still living in bloomington (at the time of these interviews), and she had a son who died in the vietnam war. fern’s family farm was mostly self-sufficient and thus represents the "old, traditional way of life." she always enjoyed and paid attention to food and foodways, and she spoke in a fluid, natural way that required little prompting. she offered many details and elaborated about her youth and memories of farm life. initially she was nervous about being recorded on tape, so she merely recited things she had thought up in advance to tell me. we had spoken a few days before the interview about many of the things we discussed on tape, and at that time i asked her if i might come back for a formal, recorded interview. eventually, as our interview continued, she relaxed into the process. she was a little hard of hearing, so i had to repeat a number of my questions, and she sometimes repeated a few things or asked me follow-up questions as she answered. i interviewed her in her living room (in the same building where i lived, in a separate apartment of her house). mary naylor (interviewed march 24, 1993) mary naylor was eighty-three years old at the time of our interview and a long term resident on her farm on kinser pike road, near the maple grove road community. a widow with four children, she was the daughter of charles and rose fowler. her father came to indiana from scotland when he was twelve and worked as a stonecutter. her mother was born and raised in steinsville, indiana. mary grew up in this general area, and she attended college at indiana university, receiving a bachelor’s degree in home economics. hence she was something of a professional at food preparation and storage on several fronts. she tended her own garden all her life, and continued to do so when we talked. she had also produced a cookbook of all her and her family’s favorite recipes, which she distributed to her children and ten grandchildren for christmas one year (she also gave me a copy, along with several kinds of cookies she served during our interview). mary was still living in the farm house that she and her husband built, and one of her sons still worked the farm there at that time. as we conducted the interview there, i can confirm that the house is in a beautiful location of rolling hills and big old trees. one could see the vegetable/flower garden and bird feeders from the kitchen and dining room windows, where mary told me she spent most of her time. in 1993 she had been going to maple grove road christian church for about forty-eight years. i met her and three of the other women (all but fern jewell) through the church, where four of us students attended services as a means of meeting members of the community for our fieldwork projects. mary’s answers tended to be short and to the point. she had a wry, understated sense of humor. her little dog andy was also very friendly. the interview began with mary telling me about a number of photographs she had laid out for the interview. they were mostly to do with the church. she also showed me the cookbook she wrote at the outset and continued telling me about various people in the photographs until we eventually got to the subject of food (through one photo of a woman named iris strange, who was the church historian and a good cook). after our interview had terminated (and my tape recorder was turned off), mary told me other interesting things including that her family did a little hunting, though they were usually too tired from farming to do much, she said. but they sometimes hunted rabbits and squirrels, which mary might help skin. she said they didn’t hunt deer, beavers, or coyotes. they also sometimes fished in bean blossom creek (very near her house) and sometimes in griffey lake, which is not too far away. she also told me her grandmother had a recipe that called for "ten cents worth of flour, fifteen cents worth of sugar, etc., and four eggs if they’re running high, and six if they’re running cheap!" in transcribing all these interviews, i indicate as much of the mood of our conversations as possible (indicating laughter, significant gestures, etc. in square brackets), and i attempt to render some minimal "ethnopoetic" transcription when the speech flows or breaks through into performance mode (becomes more rhythmic and fluid). most of the transcriptions are, however, in block prose, indicating that the speech was more explanatory, conversational, or factual. the interviews are nonetheless peppered with local expressions, moments of excitement, and fun stories or events remembered especially fondly. foods grown and consumed in southern indiana warren roberts distinguishes two primary regional foodways categories as "hardwood" and "softwood" (1993). according to roberts, "hardwood regions" depend on pork and grain, because the terrain of forests is better for pigs than for dairy animals (so the staple protein is preserved pork products). in contrast, "softwood areas" favor milk products (and preserved forms of milk, such as hard cheese) because the meadows allow for abundant dairy animals. since everyone i interviewed here had pigs (since pigs can't survive in softwood areas) and since most of these women remembered having very little cheese (nor sometimes even milk), we can classify southern indiana as a hardwood area. they also all remembered growing corn and grain, which is another characteristic of hardwood areas. yet everyone i interviewed also had cows, and some even had goats and sheep. but they did not use their milk primarily to make hard cheese products to sustain them through the winter. dairy cows in southern indiana served two purposes. some of my consultants made butter and/or cottage cheese, and all used milk and cream to drink (at least at times). most of them also sold excess milk or butter to make money. in one case where they did make cheese (though soft rather than the more durable hard cheese), fern jewell remembered fondly her mother making cottage cheese: mary: did you make cheese? fern: oh yes, my mother made a lotta cheese. she waited until the milk was clabbered, soured, and ah, then she… mary: so then you'd just milk the cow and let it sit in a big pan? fern: do what? mary: to sour it, did you just let the milk sit in a pan some… fern: well, we had crocks. mary: oh. fern: that we'd put them in, our milk, and um whenever one of them would sour on us, and they'd just be in chunks, kinda in chunks you know. and then she says, ‘well, we'll just have some cottage cheese.’ she would pour this into a pan, or stirrer, and then she would set it on the back of her wood range, just get it warm enough to, to make it curdle, right. so that after it's been on the stove for a good long while, she would stick her finger in and see how hot it's getting, every once in a while, cause she could test it that away. and then whenever it was ready, she would pour it into a sieve, or ah, colander, what she called it, and let it set and drain, for a good long while, maybe all afternoon. and then she would take the cottage cheese out and put ah, cream on it, and sometimes pepper and salt, or whatever seasons you would want on it, and it was really good, the cottage cheese was. it's better than your boughten cheese. mary: oh, i'm sure. how much would she make at a time? fern: she'd make a big bowl full, for a meal, a good sized bowl full. course, there was three of us children, and our grandfather lived with us, so that made six of us, and they had to have a big bowl full, for us. [laughs] mary: yeah. fern: ‘course, we really enjoyed our cottage cheese, homemade cottage cheese, i don't know how, i guess farmers still make them, nowadays i don't know. i nev, i haven't talked to any farmers lately. [laughs] mary: yeah. fern: to see if they make them. fern's family was unique among my consultants for their cheese-making. but as she stated, other people made cheese around here also, and some may still do so, she imagined. mays frances’s family also owned dairy cows usually. when i asked her whether her family made anything out of the milk, she only remembered them having made butter: mary: did you make stuff ever out of the milk, like cheese? mays: uh, not too much, because we sold it, but ah, always tried to keep out enough milk to have cream for cereal and coffee. . . so we wasn't without milk and cream, and at one time i churned butter, with an old fashioned, what they called ‘the daisy churn’ it was a glass churn, about a gallon. it had a wheel on top and a handle, and that way we got our butter, and at one time i did churn on what is called a "dash churn," a wooden churn, . . .it had a dasher in there and churned with that [up and down motion gestured]. thus mays’s family did less with their milk than fern's, although she had clear memories of their butter churn, a material culture item that produced a relative luxury for the family’s consumption. when i asked mary naylor what she and her family did with their milk, she answered that they only drank what they needed, and sold the rest: mary m: how about, did you have dairy cows, and what did you make from the milk? mary n: yes, well, nothing particular. mary m: butter. mary n: no, we sold our milk. mary m: oh, did you ever make any cottage cheese? mary n: nope. mary m: but you had, you kept enough to drink for yourself? mary n: oh yes uh hunh, and believe it or not i raised four kids on cows’ milk. mary m: how many did it take? did you just have one or two? mary n: oh no, we had ah, i think at one time we had about 18, but they sold them down to about twelve, i think. i expect it's about twelve which we usually [had]… mary m: so you, if you wanted butter you bought it? mary n: oh yes, uh hunh, couldn't be bothered with butter. mary m: did you buy cheese sometimes too? mary n: oh yes, with a crock full of cottage cheese, big crock full. mary m: mmm, sounds yummy, so at the same creamery where you sold your milk? mary n: yeah, mm hmm. everyone i interviewed had dairy cows and used their milk, at least to drink, and often to sell. however, only some did more with the milk, perhaps using it to make butter or cottage cheese, suggesting that other milk products, like cheese, were considered unnecessary to their diet or that milk was worth more to sell than to use themselves. in contrast, and in keeping with a hardwood region diet, everyone i interviewed butchered hogs and used that meat as a primary protein during the winter. everyone had rich stories to tell about hog butchering day but bertha fyffe and fern jewell had especially strong memories of it. bertha's recalled: oh! the neighbors all came in, there was what i call a little ‘clip’ of them, but they all butchered. benny wisnand, ... irish stanger, ... and carl stanger, ... and grandpa, ... those in particular were the ones that did the most butchering, and they'd all get together, now sometimes there might be somebody else, depending on who lived up here where sherzer's did. if somebody else lived up there who butchered, why they'd be in on it too, but there'd be at least them, which'd be, at least seven men, and the women usually came too, about probably five or six women, and uh, they'd be getting dinner, and they'd go out and start butchering their hogs and um, string them up. and they usually'd count on the tenderloin for lunch. they tried to get a hog killed and cooled out enough so they could get a tenderloin for lunch, cause it was on a cold day when they butchered, and then after ah their dinner. ‘course we called the noon meal their dinner, and the evening meal was supper, that's the way the farmers always called it. and ah, the women'd hurry up and do up their dishes, or maybe one or two'd stay in the kitchen and clean up things, and the rest of them'd go down to the wash house. and they had tables and things down there, they'd start bringing, cutting the hogs up, bringing them in. the women'd start cutting, trimming the fat off, cutting them up, and ah, we had a great big, great big kettle, bout like that [gesturing]. it's up at mattie's now [her daughter], and um, we build a fire, great big kettle under it we'd build a fire, and that's what they rendered their lard in. and ah, when they got the fat all trimmed off, cut up, why they'd throw it in this big kettle, and ah, they'd cut out the hams, and the sides, everything trim it all off. and ah, if they got to it, they'd even wrap some of their hams and things like that, for sugar curing. then ah, scrappy stuff, they would ah, throw that in the tub, ‘til the salt came out, and then when they got it all trimmed off, why they'd grind that for their sausage and make their sausage out of that. and the women helped as well as the men, when it came to that part of it, and they'd kindled their fire. ‘course you'd a had fire in there anyway, and we'd kindle them for a little bit a heat, and they'd um, render their lard, and when it got, they thought rendered out enough, why, they'd dip it out, and strain it into, years ago, it was just big stone jars. then they got to where they got some lard cans, tin lard cans, strain it into that, and squeeze the, all the fat out of the meat, and that was your cracklins, and they'd start eating their cracklins [laughs]. so it was just an all day job for all of them. besides the details of hog butchering, this passage contains important information about the strength of the community. hog butchering was a very difficult, "all day job," perhaps impossible without many hands to help. yet in reminiscing about the day, she still exhibited excitement at what a grand day it was with so many in the community coming together to share in both the labor and the meals and "treats" (like fried pork skin cracklins). this supports roberts's assertion that the "old traditional way of life" depended upon and supported the community (f540 seminar notes, 1993). whoever came to help slaughter the hog(s) would in turn be helped when they were ready to butcher. these hog butchering days stand out in her memory as special. fern jewell's memories of butchering day were also detailed: mary: how many hogs would they butcher on one day? fern: well, my father generally just butchered one hog a day. mary: and that would last you the whole year? fern: well, yeah, ‘course, other families might have butchered more, probably did, if they had bigger families. but that would do us through the winter, then, and up in the summer where we had a can, and the meat that we canned, when we opened up, the day that we opened it up, was fresh just like it'd been butchered that day. again, "hog butchering day was a big event," and fern shares an enduring memory of an exciting event. we see again the dependence upon neighbors (both men and women) that was typical of this lifestyle. it is interesting that fern's family of six only needed one hog to get through the winter yet bertha remembered her somewhat larger family sometimes killed "ten to eleven hogs at a time, and it was a big day." it is unclear whether she meant that they killed hogs for everyone who came to help, or whether they killed that many just for their own family, but the former is more likely, since one hog lasted most people a long time. both women remembered that many parts of the hogs were used as food. everyone i interviewed made hams and bacon, by sugar/salt curing, and in most cases by smoking with hickory wood as well. they also all made sausage (with "spare parts" and "scraps"), mince meat pie (with the head meat), and ate the liver first. i did not find anyone who used the hoofs, tail or brain (though in some other cultures this was common; and it may be that since they were children they did not pay attention to all such details – especially if they did not eat those parts). fern remembered as well that the dogs got some of the scraps: "if they was any dogs around, they had a nice feast. they generally was some there to help themselves to, and cats." another important part of hog butchering day was devoted to rendering lard. all of my consultants remembered using lard as their primary source of fat for all of their cooking, baking and frying. lard might be stored separately, or used to seal pork or sausage in its container. bacon grease and other drippings were also saved and used in a variety of ways. the practical, economic use of the whole animal is notable, as is the predominantly celebratory feel of the day. besides pork and its by-products, all of my consultants depended heavily upon vegetables and fruits that they grew and gathered. everyone canned significant portions of their garden crops. this was especially true for tomatoes and green beans but they grew a large variety of foods, and canned as many as possible. fern remembered most about her father's farm: when he [my father] planted in the fields, he would rotate his crops, from year to year, generally maybe two years a corn field, and then the next two years, it'd be a clover field, or maybe a wheat field, two more years, or something like that. and that is not sapping the ground out of ah, just any. if you just keep one crop in, all the time, it would sap the ground out until the corn wouldn't be very big or very nice. in the corn field, we put our pole beans, plant them in there. we'd plant pumpkins in the corn field. in the summer, course we had a big garden, which was, consisted of lettuce, and radishes, and celery, um, carrots, and peas, and green beans, and corn, and tomatoes. of course we canned a lot of those things, to preserve them for the winter. and then in august, why he put out a big turnip patch, with radishes and lettuce sow'd in with them. he just brought, cast the seed. and, we had a lot of turnips then for the winter months, see, and he put out a big patch a potatoes, every winter, which we would, that would be separate from the garden, cause he put out a lot of potatoes; we used a lot of potatoes. and we had to dig those in the fall of the year, o' course, before the ground would freeze, ‘cause the potatoes would freeze if we didn't get them out. obviously, fern's family enjoyed a wide variety of vegetables and she emphasized with pride that her father was a skilled farmer. he rotated his crops properly and planted foods together in beneficial ways, such as letting the beans climb up the corn stalks and putting the potatoes in a separate patch. she painted the picture of this as a good and plentiful way of life. this variety of vegetables was apparent in the memories shared by all of my interviewees. mary naylor also remembered details of what they planted, and of what they gathered: oh, we had uh potatoes and tomatoes and beans and sweet potatoes, and carrots and parsnips and lettuce and radishes and cabbage, everything. mary m: and how much of it did you can? mary n: well, when i was home or when i got married? mary m: well, both. mary n: well, canned green beans, and after we got freezers we froze our corn and our peas and um, papa didn't like mangos so i just put them in as flowers [laughs], and um mary m: but you grew mangos? mary n: yeah, not the fruit mango, the vegetable mango, and uh, cabbage, and i guess i've tried to can about all of it. mary m: wow, you can can cabbage? mary n: mm hmm. mary m: you just cook it up first and put it in? mary n: mm hmm. mary m: and um, did you have fruits too? mary n: oh yes, i still have the same family strawberry plants i had forty years ago! [laughs] i just move them from patch to patch. it gets too weedy i just move it, instead of trying to get the weeds out of it, you move it. mary m: and what else besides strawberries? mary n: oh i've had apples and i've canned peaches and i've canned pears, i canned pineapple way back and plums. mary m: were there other berries that you went out and collected? mary n: blackberries, and raspberries. mary m: do you still can these things? mary n: well, i make jelly out of raspberries, ‘cause i don't like the seeds. and i freeze blackberries now. much of mary's experience corresponds with the memories of the other women. everyone seemed to have canned just about everything they could, and everyone ate many vegetables and fruit, fresh during the summer, stored potatoes, turnips and apples, and canned vegetables during the winter. they also all went out to gather fruits such as raspberries and blackberries, which they either preserved in jams or jellies or canned. although gathering fruit could be difficult, as both mays and fern remembered, fruit seems to have been an important supplement to the southern indiana diet. mays's memories of collecting fruits illustrate its importance: we only had three acres, we lived right in town, but dad had a big garden. and ah, he was going to put out some fruit trees, and mom said, "i want a gooseberry bush." well my father, not being satisfied with one gooseberry bush, he bought six. [laughter] we all got sick of gooseberries [laughter], cause they was the hardest things to pick. mary: oh really? mays: yeah, you know for each gooseberry there was two thorns. mary: ohh. mays: and ah, them things can really stick [laughter] but he raised a big crop of potatoes and onion... mary: did you can fruits too? mays: yes, canned peaches and apples and plums, and course mother did that too. mary: any berries? mays: uh hunh, if someone'll pick them. i won't pick berries. last time i picked berries i had as many chiggers as i had berries and i said "it's not worth it to me!" mary: and then what do you do with the canned fruit? mays: we put them in a, we didn't have a cellar. we had a closet, an inside wall, closet. we put them in there. now i put mine in the bottom of the hall, linen closet. but when we lived on the farm we had a cellar. we'd can them and put them in the cellar. mary: on maple grove road? mays: uh hunh, that'd take care of, you know, they'd keep cool and not get too cold or too hot in the wintertime. mary: how 'bout, did you have any apple trees? mays: yes, we had apple trees and cherry trees, and i can't remember plum trees. we had what they called "transparent apples" and i haven't seen a transparent apple for years. mary: was it really transparent? mays: they were about that big around, and they were real light green and sweet and they were just a delicious raw apple. now a lot of people like those granny smith, and i don't like them, they're too sour… the common thread in all these memories is that there were plenty of vegetables and fruit in these diets. fern's family similarly canned and ate a lot of fruit; including apples, cherries, grapes, plums, and strawberries which they grew, and blackberries and raspberries which they picked. fern told of one time when it was so hot while they were picking that when her mother returned and drank too much water, she was sick from heat exhaustion and could not can the berries until the next day. although it required significant effort (including potentially getting pricked while picking or sick from effort), it appears to have been worth it to most families. most women also remembered pickling cucumbers and beets. southern indiana allowed hard working farmers an impressive amount and variety of fruits and vegetables, which all of these women remembered consuming throughout the year. don yoder quotes james watt raine’s discussion of the perceived poverty and monotony of the appalachian diet, which in many respects is very similar to the southern indiana diet: the average cooking is bad and renders the food unwholesome. […] the range of foodstuffs is far too narrow for good health. ‘bread’ and ‘meat’ are the staples of diet. this means corn and pork. the poorest renter or squatter plans to ‘raise me a crap’ or to ‘raise me some bread’ by which is always meant corn. and usually he slaughters a hog or two for his ‘meat.’ this, salted and sometimes smoked, provides the necessary supply of bacon, ‘ham-meat,’ and lard. a family with a supply of bread and meat faces the winter without anxiety. at least they will not starve. if further provender can be laid up, so much the better. they may ‘hole up’ in the garden a pyramid of potatoes, another of cabbage, and another of turnips, and dig them out when the larder runs low (raine 1924 quoted in yoder 1972:333). raine's view seems very pejorative and yoder counters it by quoting other authorities that document the steady decrease in health of such communities once "superior" outside food is brought in to replace this "restricted diet." in other words, yoder shows that condemnations of the pre-industrial diet like raine’s were inaccurately biased. while southern indiana may have been a better climate than appalachia for some produce, in other respects it seems that most residents here enjoyed the same "unwholesome" diet as described by raine, and shown by yoder to in fact have been quite healthy. this reveals the potential narrow-mindedness of outsiders, even some of those examining foodways. it may also reflect a fairly common bias against rural life in the post-industrial age, when many outsiders were quick to pass judgment on all aspects of rural and farming lifestyles. the women i interviewed shared overwhelmingly positive memories and testimonials of their good lives. they refuted much of the negative assessment of their diet voiced by earlier critics like raine. without exception, and without hesitation, these women affirmed that they had wonderful diets, full of delicious food (for which they give ample specific details), that they never went hungry, and that they never found themselves deprived or unhealthy. in fact, my study indicates that these mostly self-sustaining farmers consumed plenty of vegetables all year round. while they also seem to have eaten a substantial amount of high cholesterol foods, such as lard, pork, butter and eggs, they were not without vegetables or variety. it is thus unclear whether their diet was healthier or unhealthier than that of most americans today. further study, with a different purpose and scope than mine, would be necessary to determine such conclusions. but at least southern indiana farmers were eating plenty of vegetables and fruits, and probably less sugar than most of us today (since they would have had to purchase or trade for it). they consumed virtually no chemical pesticides or fertilizers (since this was before most such were available). in light of this, it seems easy to accept the attitude all the women here proffer in their stories, that their southern indiana foodways merit praise. besides pork, milk, fruits and vegetables, most of my consultants grew and consumed corn, often thought of as a quintessential american food and a prime product of indiana agriculture. they used corn in various ways. mays's family, who lived in town, did not have enough land to grow much corn, certainly not enough for corn meal. mary naylor's family did not particularly care for corn bread although they ate and canned plenty of fresh corn. bertha's family always had corn meal stocked in their "meal room." finally, fern's family loved corn bread, ate it every day, and were fairly particular about which corn to use for their meals; they preferred white corn to grind. in addition to human consumption, everyone used substantial amounts of corn to feed their animals and there was a special variety of "field corn" grown for feeding livestock. only two of my four consultants actually enjoyed corn bread; bertha and fern remembered it fondly. the other two, mary and mays, did not enjoy or did not often make corn bread. they preferred or ate other grain foods, such as oatmeal or "light bread" (store bought wheat bread). perhaps this shows the effects of industrialization since all of my consultants, although elderly at the time of our interviews, were born in the 20th century into an industrialized world. while they remembered many of the old foodways, they nonetheless valued and enjoyed the new ease, convenience and perhaps prestige of some store bought goods. also both mary and mays reported that their fathers disliked corn bread which may explain why they did not come to enjoy it or make it much themselves. in many ways, fern jewell, who grew up furthest from a "big town" and apparently in the most selfsustaining lifestyle of any of my consultants, seemed to have lived more closely than the others to the old traditional way of life. her memories of corn and corn bread are very positive: the corn was for horses, and, our cattle that we had, and sheep and chickens and things that we had on the farm, the corn was. ‘course we used it to grind if it was white corn. and sometimes we didn't have white corn. we'd take it to a neighbor and trade corn, the yellow corn for the white corn, so we could have it for our corn meal. [laughs] mary: uh huh, white corn is more tasty? fern: well, we liked the white corn better than we did the yellow corn, some people liked the yellow corn the best, but which some had planted, they liked the yellow corn to grind for corn meal. we sometimes did, if we didn't get a chance to trade it for white corn, we went ahead and had it grind… and then the evening meal, we generally had beans left from the noon meal, anthen we had corn bread, and we [had] our, ah, milk. we'd eat, big hunks of corn bread in our milk, and eat that corn bread and milk together. mary: mmmm. fern: we liked that real good. mary: yeah it sounds good! [fern and i laugh] fern: oh yes, we had corn bread, we had corn bread every day [laughs]. that was a must around our house. corn was an important part of the crops and diets of everyone i interviewed. but fern most clearly represented what was apparently an old, traditional pattern in indiana and much of the united states, depending on corn to make bread and other staples of meals. although fern may represent an older pattern in foodways, her family, like everyone i interviewed, also used wheat flour in their diets. since roberts believes wheat flour was not available before industrialization to most americans (roberts 1993), this may represent a post-industrial modernization of the southern indiana diet. many of my consultants used wheat flour on a daily basis for biscuits. many of them also bought bread or crackers regularly. wheat flour was used for pie crusts, cobblers, and cakes, which all of my consultants remember having regularly. such desserts necessitated another item that was not grown in southern indiana: sugar. it is hard to know how desserts were sweetened before industrialization. perhaps sugar was always available for trade. but fern jewell described a variety of sweeteners that her family was able to grow and store, including maple sugar and syrup, honey and sorghum molasses: we had, ah, around 300 trees which we tapped for maple syrup. my father would take a drill and drill a hole into the maple trees, and put a spike in, to drip into five gallon buckets, which would make a maple, the sweet water, that he'd carry, or haul, to the sugar house, put them in big barrels, kind of up on a bank, and put a pipe down to his sugar house, to make the syrup. the furnace was a long furnace, and they had two pans on it, on top of it, to boil down the syrup. it'd take fifty gallons of sap water to make one gallon of maple syrup. they had to work about all day, on just one or two gallons of syrup, because it took us so long to boil down. and ah, this was generally in february and march, when the ground is, freezing at night, and it's thawing out through the daytime. and that makes a good run, whenever it's real muddy, the trees would run real good. mary: they've got more water in them? fern: they, well, whenever the ground thaws out, the sap goes up, and then when the sap goes up, of course then the water'll come out, or the, sugar water comes out, if it, [thought not completed]. then we had honey bees, which my father took care of. he had to, ah, rob them once a year. "rob them" means you took the honey outta the hives. so that we could have honey to eat. and then he'd do that earlier in the summer, where the bees would have time to remake honey for the winter, to store for them to eat on. then we had sorghum, which they bring in their cane, which they cut from their fields, and it'd be ground, the cane would be ground, and we'd take the juice off the cane stalks and boil it down like we would the maple syrup, in big pans. i forgot how many gallon of syrup, sap would take to make a gallon of sorghum, but ah…wanna hear about the barn raising… mary: so, was it always your father that got the honey? fern: [she asks me to clarify] how would he get the honey? mary: yeah. fern: he had a smoker, that he would smoke the bees a little bit, so that they wouldn't be a swarming on him, but he'd cover his face and ah, with a cloth, a thin cloth. he hardly ever got stung, but you know, it takes certain people to do that kind of work i guess. mary: yeah. fern: ‘cause, some people would be stung to death, and they couldn't stand those stings. but it didn't bother him if he did get sting'd once in a while. but, ah, he enjoyed working with them, and taking the honey out. their honey was on racks, in the honey hives. you'd pull up the rack and cut out the honey, out of them. ‘cause honey, and the honeycomb, see you get the comb, then they would make more, for their winter store… mary: so when you make sorghum, you know you cut it down and then you boil it, is that how you do it? fern: it was, we'd grind the um, it's sorghum cane is a whole lots like a corn shock you know? mary: mm hmm. fern: and we'd take those shocks and we'd put them through a grinder, and the juice come out of the shock, i mean of the stalk, not a shock, a stalk, and ah, we'd take the juice then and boil it down like we do the maple sugar. we just have these big pans, big pans, they'd be about that high [gestures]. mary: about four or five inches? fern: yeah, something like that, and have four, five pans about that wide. mary: couple feet. fern: lined up and, and we dip them from one to the other. us kids we really had it nice, we had a little paddle, just about as long as this spoon and we could dip off, the foam off the top of that, maple syrup, or this sorghum and eat it. it was real sweet of course, and good. mary: oh, wow. fern: after it almost was done, you know, there was foam up on it. we had a good time, and ah… mary: what did the end product of the sorghum look like? … was it hard? fern: well, like molasses, do you ever? mary: yeah. fern: did you not eat molasses? mary: uh hunh, yeah. fern: did you not eat any sorghum? mary: it's just, is it dark brown like molasses too? fern: yeah, uh hunh, its uh hunh, it's generally dark brown. mary: how do you store it? fern: we have great big long paddles we stir it with, uh, if you, and ah… mary: how do you store it afterwards? fern: we just put them in buckets, and cans, while it's still hot you see, and ah, seal them, and they stay good, then, course sometimes, ah, sorghum'll sugar on us, if we get it too done. sometimes you get a batch too done or something, it'll sugar on us. but you can always take it out and heat it again. so… mary: if it sugars, that means it crystallizes? fern: i guess we cooked it too much. that's what they seemed to think…that it was cooked too long, like you do cook your beans or something [laughs], you know, that away. fern's clear memory and description of the processing of all these sweeteners suggest that this was an important and annual event of life on her family's farm. it seems probable that most people may have been able to thus provide enough various sweeteners for most of their needs in pre-industrial times, at least in this region. everyone i talked to was familiar with these three items as potential sweeteners, and everyone remembered having made at least sorghum, at some time (even mays who lived in town). yet everyone also remembered buying or trading for refined sugar. sugar and flour were not the only foods bought or traded for. herbs, spices, and salt were also routinely needed, and no one i talked to remembered growing any herbs. other special treats were often bought or bartered as well. some of my consultants bought bread, crackers, butter, cheese, candy, chocolate, popcorn, peanut butter, rice and other items difficult for them to produce in southern indiana. others made their own bread, grew their own popcorn, made their own candy, butter and cottage cheese (at least at times). it is difficult to know which traded items would have been available before industrialization. but since all written accounts i have read of pre-industrial selfsustaining folklife (such as laura ingalls wilder, who published in 1920s and 30s, but whose stories reflect her family’s homesteading life in the midwest mostly in the 1870s and 1880s) also mention trading for specialty foods or treats occasionally, we can surmise that throughout the united states trade was a part of life from the time of european settlement. salt in particular would have been necessary to everyone in southern indiana, in order to preserve foods, and i heard of no one here who mined salt. these women grew up in the transitional period when the more convenient and desirable products of post-industrialization were more readily available to them, and they took advantage of these products when possible. but their longest and fondest descriptions of how they produced and consumed food in their youths rest on the locally produced goods. buying foods to supplement that diet was expensive and thus uncommon; trading was more common, but not always reliably possible. once again, i turn to fern jewell as spokesperson for the women’s connection to a traditional lifestyle. she explained the details of how they traded for or bought items either from town or from the peddler: eggs, when we’d get eggs, we'd take them and trade for groceries at the market, or at the grocery store, we ah, done that, sometimes we wouldn't have very many chickens, two or three dozen, sometimes we'd have around three hundred. during depression we didn't have very many chickens. and we'd used our eggs to eat, and trade for the food we'd need, like salt and sugar and things that we couldn't, didn't have on the farm. mary: mm, hmm. fern: things like that, and then, there was one or two summers that we had a peddler come through the country, ah, he had a big truck, closed in truck, and he had groceries on it. ah, my brother and i we'd grab an old hen, and go to the road and trade our hens for groceries, for like you know, like sugar, and flour and lard, if we didn't, most of the time we had our own lard, though, cause we all butchered, and we rendered, rendered lard, from our hogs. mary: mm hmm. fern: and we didn't have much to buy, i mean on, on lard, but we did buy sugar and flour and salt and things like that, spices, if we want spices, like cinnamon, or spice, cloves, or something like that we would trade our hens for that. they, he had a big, ah, cage on the back of his truck that he put his hens in that he got from other people or from us, ah… mary: [laughs] fern: [also laughs] to carry back to where he was going home… mary: wow. fern: he had quite a few things on the truck that we could use, that we would meet him. we could hear him coming from over the hill. it was a real steep hill, over whitehall, he'd have his horn that he had on his [truck]. mary: ohh. fern: and then he had a bell, that he'd ring, and we could hear that bell a long ways, and that'd give my brother and i time to get to the road ‘cause we lived back off the road, a little piece. mary: ohh. fern: now, we could see the road, yet it was, oh i would say, three or four blocks off the road, we lived, and we had to get over to the road to catch him then. he'd be always watching for us. we had big times with that. [grinning] mary: [laughs] fern: once in a while, i don't know whether you ever saw a twin loaf of bread or not? mary: unh unh. [shaking my head no] fern: well they had twin loaf of bread. it'd be dipped in the middle and over like this. [gesturing] you know, a loaf of bread, we'd call it twin loaf. and in this twin loaf they would be a stick a candy, ah… mary: ohh! fern: ah [smiling], once in a while our mother let us get a twin loaf of bread and we had a stick of candy to divide between us, we was really rich, because that was, that was really a treat to us. mary: [laughing] fern: [also laughing] one stick of candy, and my brother and i would divide it! we was so happy over that candy, ‘cause we hardly ever got candy. [laughs] mary: uh hunh, wow. fern: we, really had a good time with that, we made it last as long as we could [we both laugh] ‘cause we know'd we wouldn't get any for a while. again, these memories of a farm-focused lifestyle are happy (as evidenced in all the laughter her story provoked for her). she remembered how special and enjoyable an "outside" treat felt and how precious such items seemed. yet she did not express negative feelings about what from her current perspective might seem to have been a deprived childhood (largely deprived of luxury items). this too is a common feeling among these women. they expressed no remorse or bad feelings about how they lived and ate growing up, rather, it was the opposite. they remembered it as a happy, even golden time in their lives. perhaps we humans are prone to remembering our youths positively, but these women all spontaneously seemed to agree on well they ate, how rich the variety and particulars of their diets were, and how they did not feel the lack of outside, specialty, or mass-produced foods, even though such foods were available and considered special treats. rather than seeing today (where "treats" are the norm and not unusual in any of their lives) as "better" than their childhoods, they seemed to paint a consistent picture of a subsistence childhood that was the better (healthier, happier, simpler) time. the practice of using hens or eggs to buy supplemental food products appears to have been extremely common. all of my consultants agreed upon this point. everyone had hens to lay eggs, and though some eggs were eaten and some were hatched, some were always sold or traded for the groceries i mentioned above. chickens were also eaten and traded. one of my consultants enjoyed chicken more than any other meal on the farm. some of the women also remembered butchering cows or calves occasionally, and some had lambs and goats too. but pork seems to have been the meat consumed most, at least during the winter months. pork, corn, vegetables, fruits, milk, lard, eggs, chickens and sometimes other meat, sweeteners of various sorts (sorghum, maple sugar, honey and cane or beet sugar), wheat flour and occasional delicacies (from outside sources) thus characterize the primary foods of southern indiana's selfsustaining farmer. these farmers also supplemented the foods they grew and raised with occasional foods they got from the wilderness, such as mushrooms, berries (as already discussed), and wild fish and game. most of my consultants did not remember depending much on fish and game. they said that usually the men were too busy working on the farm to go out hunting. but occasionally they would catch some fish, or shoot squirrels or rabbits. no one remembered hunting deer or larger game, and in fact most people did not mention hunting or fishing at all until asked. the food they depended upon was largely the result of their own efforts in cultivating the land and livestock communally; even trade items came mostly as a result of such efforts. it was remembered by the women in their later years to be a happy, although hard, time of their lives. usage, storage and preparation of food most of my consultants stored the majority of their food by canning it. at the time of my interviews, three of my four consultants still canned green beans and tomatoes every year and two of them still tended their own gardens. these women all grew up during a time when canning methods were changing rapidly. in their lifetimes they changed methods multiple times due to improvements in the cans themselves and in other utensils, such as pressure cookers. they all also remembered their mothers and grandmothers using various methods, such as wax seals on tin cans, wax seals on glass jars, etc. bertha fyffe, for instance, remembered several methods when asked about canning: canning, in glass jars, but now mother said the first year that her and dad was married, they had oodles of um, green beans, so just, more than they could use, and so she shelled, shelled out dry beans all winter, she thought, [chuckles] because they didn't know how to can them. but then it wasn't but just a few years till they were canning them. but then, when grandma, she used the tin cans a lot times, to can in. yeah i can remember her having some of them. uh, not very many, but a few of them, and ah then she had the old wax top jars, she'd seal with, and then they went to the zinc lids, and the, rubber band, and, then the top seals, [chuckles] which we have now. mary: did you can things too? bertha: [nodding] mm, hmm. mary: every year? bertha: i usually can beans and tomatoes, that's my main thing that i can, and i usually have a few pickles, and pickled beets, something that a way, ah, i've canned a few cans of squash or apples, or made apple butter, or something that a way you know. i used to can peas and corn, but i don't anymore. the corn i freeze, and since we've been here, i don't have any luck with raising peas. i can't get out early enough, or the ground stays too wet, and i think it's too hot for them to produce here, but i have canned anywhere from forty-sixty pints of peas. [pause] that was a job. judi: how long does it take to can that many peas? bertha: depends, well of course you wouldn't can them all one day, um vary it few days, when they's ready, or maybe you'd have two different kinds, one come on a little earlier than the other you know. but the shelling of them was the biggest job, sitting and shelling them. one year i had so many, we didn't live here at the time, and i had read in a little magazine, where some boy had run them through the washing machine ringer, an old crank handle washing machine ringer. well i didn't have one of those, i tried to do it on my electric ringer. it worked! but it shot peas all over the room. i took a tub, and i lined it with newspaper standing up to catch the peas [laughing] it worked! i had to wash my washing machine ringer. i had so many that i thought i never will get these all shelled [laughs], so that's what i done. and then you, course, at that time, you had to, peas, i forget how long, but it takes peas several minutes to process, especially if you're doing a hot water bath, it takes, oh i've forgotten, at least an hour, hour and a half, at least that long, if you're doing a hot water bath. but pressure, that's what i use most of the time, oh i took, i remember it took corn seventy minutes, in the pressure, so that there's quite a while for the pressure, but it fits so tight, it takes a long time for it to penetrate, to keep it. mary: you put the whole jar in there? bertha: mm, hmm, oh yeah, yeah, just stick several jars around in there. in fact, pressure canner'd hold nine ah pints, depends on your canner, depends on your jars, certain brand of jars you can get ten in! [laughs] as bertha's colorful description (full of laughter) shows, modernization helped the canning process in several ways even if many people would consider any canning old-fashioned today. while some people are choosing to revive canning as part of the local and sustainable foods movement today, this labor intensive practice is not practiced by most americans. although few people continue to do home canning with much more convenient commercial canned goods available, most of the women i interviewed were proud of their canning efforts and continued to can at least some produce at the time we spoke. from my interviews i learned that there are two basic ways of canning: cold packing or hot packing. mays frances explained the difference in methods when i asked her about canning tomatoes: mary: when you're cooking them to can them, do you add anything to them? mays: ah, well you, you peel them, and put them in your pans, and then you put ah, a little salt on the top. a lot of people don't, but i do, because that was the way i was raised. now when mother canned them in ah, tin cans, she put uh, sealing wax around the edge of them and that kept the lid airtight. mary: now did she buy the cans? mays: uh hunh [yes], and bought the sealing wax and it was red, and put it round the edge of it. mary: oh, were they like just big tin cans? mays: well, i think they must have been quart, i really do. [brief pause to think] she didn't cold pack hers. she cooked hers and put 'em in the can and while they was still hot, she sealed them. and set them back. one year she canned one hundred eight cans. and uh, dad's brother would bring milk in, if we just, was between cows, or the cow was dry and we didn't have milk, why he'd bring milk in and trade it for canned tomatoes, so they could have tomatoes too, and my aunt wouldn't can tomatoes, she said they wouldn't eat them, but he always was bringing in his milk to get canned tomatoes. mary: and so when you cold pack them you put them in cold in the jar and then you boil the jar? mays: yes uh hunh, that's the way you cold pack them. now when my mother put them in the tin cans, you had to cook them, and then put them in your cans and then seal them while they's still hot. mary: i see. mays: but ah, you cold pack about, oh not over ten minutes. it is evident that cold packing could only have come into practice after the introduction of "cans" or jars which could be completely immersed and boiled. as mays points out, before then her mother had to cook the food before canning it in order to sterilize it. fern remembered both cold and hot methods of canning a variety of fruits, vegetables and meats. she also offered advice for which methods to use when (showing she valued this knowledge and wanted to share it): after you can them, you heat them and can them, you know. it's better to freeze strawberries. we didn't have freezers, so we had to can them. we done a lot of canning from the garden. especially green beans and tomatoes. tomatoes, we liked both of those real well. so we canned them. we canned some corn, sometime, but we liked the tomatoes and green beans the best mary: now all of this stuff, you cooked it before you canned it? fern: yes, we have to heat them, um, get them real hot, before you can them, because they won't preserve if you don't get them hot. mary: did you add sugar to the berries, or just cook them? fern: no, we didn't add sugar to them when we can them, but we did add salt to our green beans, and our tomatoes, when we can them, but when we opened up the berries, then when we had a can, uh, we had to add sugar to them then. but they seemed to keep real well, and they taste fresh, whenever we… [pausing to think] mary: did you use ball jars for your canning? fern: [asks me to repeat] yeah, we used that. mary: or mason jars? fern: and mason, glass jars that we used, ah, mostly i think it's ball and masons that we used. mary: do you remember before that, using something else? fern: [asks me to repeat] no, um, i remember my grandmother used a jar that you put a wax on top and sealed it, it was a ah, glass, ah, top, and it fit down inside of another little, which you put wax around and seal it. but we used a glass that you didn't have to put wax on. mary: mm hmm. fern: our lids was… mary: after you put the stuff inside and put the lid on, then did you have to boil it again? fern: no, uh, we, cold packed, what we call cold packed tomatoes. we set them down into water and put, well we put them down, the jars. we put the tomatoes in the jars, cold. and then we fill it with water, and then we put on the lid, and then we set them down in the cold packer, which is a great big round, ah, pan, ah, stirrer, it's a great big stirrer, which'd have a rack in it, and we could set seven cans in this rack. they had seven holes for each can, and we'd set down in there and then we would boil it, boil the water. and that meant cold pack, ah, tomatoes, and ah, we'd boil them for about fifteen minutes or less. it didn't take very long for tomatoes. but now for green beans when we'd cold pack them, it took longer to can them, i mean cook them, than it did the tomatoes. and then, when we'd take them out, why you could kind of hear the lids pop, or their lids, and they was sealing when you took them outta this hot water, that we've had to boil them in. we canned them that a way a lot of times, too. later she told me that she no longer canned because it was more expensive to get all this special equipment when store bought canned goods were so cheap and convenient. she also clarified that a "stirrer" was also called a "granite pot." it is what i know as an enamel pot. all the women related that this was a time-consuming activity and they demonstrated that it required special knowledge of techniques and equipment, knowledge they seemed proud to share. many items were canned, every vegetable (besides potatoes and others which could be preserved without canning) from cabbage to peas, from corn to tomatoes. most fruits were also canned. even meat was preserved by canning. the process for canning meat, however, was different. meat, typically pork, was packed in its own fat, which would act as a seal. when needed the meat could be dug out of the fat and just cooked up with the fat. hence small, individual containers (quart or pint sized as for vegetables and fruits) were not needed, and large "lard buckets" could be used. fern explained: now of course we canned meat too, whenever they butcher a hog, we would ah, can sausage, tenderloin and the ribs, and when we cook them first, get them real hot and put the meat down into the jar. after we fill the jar with the meat, then we take the hot, ah, grease off of the meat that we cooked them in, ah, the water that we cooked it in, we pour onto the meat, to help preserve them, then seal them, while they're still hot. that's the best way, you can preserve them better if they're real hot, like that. as discussed earlier, butchering day was important. its role in food preparation is obvious since pork products helped sustain the family with protein throughout at least the winter months. some significant facts regarding pork preparation nevertheless remain. for instance, all of my consultants stressed that pork was always butchered on a very cold day. for fern and mays this meant the "coldest day of winter." fern explained why: we done this on the coldest winter day that come; it come and then dad said, "well it's time to butcher a hog." it's real cold, and he called the neighbors and asked them to come and help him then. uh, course they were expecting it, cause most of them. you see they like to hang this, their hog up out, after they slit it open, down the middle, the stomach, they liked to hang it up and let it cool, the meat cool, and if it's a real cold day, the meat'll cool out faster that a way. it needs, uh, so they like to have cold days to do it in. mays supported these comments when i asked her what time of year her family butchered: "in the wintertime, uh, when a good strong freeze, so that it would cool real quick. you see if it didn't cool quick, it might, ah, oh get. . .spoiled. . . ." in addition to making sausage and canning much of the meat, hams and bacon were also prepared. most people explained their method of smoking similarly. they cured the hams with salt or sugar or maybe both and then smoked them with hickory wood (keeping a fairly constant temperature) for three or four days, and then went out and sliced off from the hams or bacon as needed. bertha explained the curing method, while also joking that their cured meat sometimes might not have met today's standards, although there was clearly nothing really wrong with it: ah the only thing we had for seasoning was our um home cured meat, and we didn't have bouillon or anything like that. and we just, uh, maybe would brown a little bit to give it the flavor. like our beef, we'd uh sear it a little bit, kind of brown it a little, and that'd kind of give it the flavor of your bouillon. and ah, we'd brown it a little bit and um, put some water in to cook that brown off of your whatever you browned it in, you know, until your broth, and um. then for beans, we'd just use um, like a chunk of ham or something like that, which we had our home cured, sugar cured ham, and we'd generally smoke it, with cedar smoke and ah, we'd season our beans or things like with something like that. our bacon, for bacon we sugar cured our sides and smoked them, which was kind of like your bacon, except it wasn't sliced as thin as a lot a your bacon is if you bought it. back then we just used our home cured meat that a way. nowadays people wouldn't even use that because it'd have a little mold on the outside [sarcastically] and they wouldn't use it. they'd throw it all away [we laugh], but if it, course you wrapped it in your paper, ah, usually had newspaper out, coated that all with your sugar, and salt, and stuff which you had to, and cover your ham or your side and whatever with that and you wrapped it up real tight, and you wrapped it up in a cloth, and sewed that cloth tight over it, and hung it up, and that way, that pretty well kept the bugs out, and ah, then you'd smoke it, course you had to have it kinda in a tight place, and keep your little pieces of hickory wood from blazing. you'd have to go in and dampen it once in a while, keep it from blazing, so it'd just smolder along, and uh, smoke it for maybe a couple a days like that. and it had a good flavor, we thought. [laughs] in addition to curing methods explained here, bertha's words help explain seasoning methods. to flavor a dish, one might brown meat or add some cured meat. as with many of these interviews, this one provoked her laughter for what are obviously fond memories. besides canning, some vegetables, primarily beans, would be dried and used throughout the year. fern explained her family’s use of dried beans: mary: did you grow great northern beans? [i repeat at her request] fern: yeah, you could grow them, uh hunh. we had pole beans, which we grow, course we, we bought some beans, for the winter, course we generally, then we had ah, lima beans, which we raised. and of course them are, their bushes are so short, and we try to pick them, it's a big job, back breaking job. [we both laugh] but some of them we would pick green, and have green lima beans and then the rest. a lot of times they get dry on us, and then we go pick them, and then we go put them in a sack and beat them, and ah, that would shell them, help shell them, you see. mary: uh hunh. fern: beat them with a stick or something. mary: so you grew three kinds of beans. fern: oh yeah, we had green beans and pole beans and lima beans, and well, i don't remember, just what, of course pole beans is dry beans, you can get them dry. well, lima and green beans can be dried beans too if you let them stay on the vine long enough, sometimes some of them get away from us and they get big and we would shell them out and "shell o' beans" we called, green beans. she also explained that her mother would cook these beans on washdays, since the stove would already be warm for a very long time on those days anyway: well, we, we liked, ah my mother would have to fire up the range on wash days and get her water hot to wash her clothes you see, and we generally put a big pot of beans on to cook, dry beans, that was pintos or great northern beans, you know, you'd have to cook them just about all morning to get them done. she put a big pot of them on to cook, while her water was heating for her clothes. fern was not my only consultant who mentioned dried beans. mays also ate lima and other dried beans. dried beans were a healthy and easy to grow and store addition to the southern indiana diet. those vegetables which were not canned, such as potatoes, apples, turnips, carrots, onions, etc were stored in a dry cool place, either a basement or a buried pit. several of my consultants described this. fern: see we didn't have no deep freeze or anything like that. the cellar was our ah, where we put the potatoes and things in, to preserve them for the winter… mary: what's a bank cellar? fern: well, it's a hole dug in the ground just like a basement, you know, and then they build up, with the cement blocks, generally, and then they put dirt on the side, of it, and sometimes they put dirt over the top of it, put the roof on, and, and put dirt on it. but some, what we had, we build a house on top of it, a little house on top of our cellar, just, and it was like a basement, but we didn't have no, uh, stair from the house go down to the basement, we went around on one side and they was an opening. the rest of it was under the ground, which they couldn't see out at all. it was covered completely. mary: and you kept your potatoes down there? fern: your potatoes and your canned goods, and, and a lot of things. potatoes and turnips and sweet potatoes and things that we'd raised that ah. and they wouldn't freeze then, and if we thought they was gonna freeze, my father would fix uh, we had a entrance, a little hallway first, they had a door, then a little hallway, you went through it, and it went into the cellar. it had two doors, you know, one at the front of the hall and one at the end of the hall . . . and, my father would build a fire in this hallway, to keep it warm if it gets down real, real cold, cause he's afraid some of them, some of the fruit or potatoes, would freeze. mary: would freeze, mm hmm. fern: ‘course, we had apples that we buried, and ah [laughs] in under the ground and straw and stuff. mary: ohh! fern: and covered them, cause we had a apple orchard and we had a lot of apples, and then we'd go stick our hand in under that cover and dig around there and find us a [we both laugh], or rugs or whatever it was, it was heavy rugs, during the old rugs we put over them, and get us an apple out to eat. mary: so you had apples all winter long… fern: yeah, we generally did. we had, we had a big apple orchard there on the farm, which, i mean not a big one, about a dozen trees, course that's a lot of apples on that. these "bank cellars" were apparently widely used. i remember my own grandmother describing a similar method that was used when she was growing up in the upper peninsula of michigan in the 1910s and 20s. at that time, they kept their root vegetables and apples in their cellar as well (in bins) and occasionally had to clear the rotten pieces out of the bins. mary naylor and mays frances remembered very similar ways of storing apples and root vegetables. the basic pattern seems to have been to keep them in a very cool, dark place, but not to let it get too freezing cold. if it did get too cold, you needed to build a fire to keep them warm. if the goods were buried in the ground, the ground itself would presumably provide ample insulation. yet another ingenious method for keeping food at a desirable and fresh temperature concerns milk. in her usual adept narrative fashion, fern described her family's method without even being asked: and then, we had cows and we always had milk, and, and in order to have cold milk for our meals, we had a dug well that was about three foot deep, and there was a big tub which we could put our um, bucket with a lid on it and a bail that was good, strong, and put our milk in this bucket and drop it down into the well. and it was set in this water, this cold water all day, then we could haul them up, or whenever we wanted we could draw it up from the well and it'd be cold, for our meals that we wanted to use the milk for. mary: wow. fern: and it was just like a refrigerator, it would be cold and nice, its, we really enjoyed our milk, being cold. [smiles] when i asked my other consultants whether they used this method, only bertha remembered something similar. mary said they just put their milk in pans of water to cool it before they got electricity. both she and mays remarked that they could not use a well because it was covered by cement. mays's family, in the town, had an old-fashioned ice box with a fifty pound block of ice delivered each week to keep their food cold. bertha's family also used an icebox but she remembered having heard of keeping milk cold by water: grandma only had a, a big box out there on the back porch. and they’d buy a hundred pound of ice, once a week. and they'd drop it in that box and wrap it up and that would keep their milk from morning 'til night in hot weather, you know, so they'd have cool milk. or if the ice ran out, why she just took her stuff to the cellar, and it wasn't real cold, but it kept it from spoiling… mary: did you have a well? bertha: ahh, we used a cistern mostly here. now there's a well, originally they had a well, and it's under the two back rooms there, where it's at now, but we don't use it. mary: my neighbor was telling me yesterday that … they used to put things down in a pail, and put it down in the well and that would keep it real cold. bertha: uhh, mother said that, ah, before they built these two rooms on back, that uh, there was a little bitty, what they called a well house, that wasn't over the well, but just a little bitty shed-like thinger out here in the back, and it had a trunk. and they'd pump water, cool water through, and set their milk and butter and stuff like that in there, and every once in a while they'd drain it out and pump more cool water into it. she said she remembered grandma, be my great-grandmother, done that, her grandmother done that, but, course it was gone before i came along [laughs]. it is possible that bertha's family used the cistern instead of a well to cool their milk because there was more limestone where she lived and hence it was harder to dig a well but i did not investigate this and cannot say for sure. what is interesting is that everyone remembered somehow using water to cool their milk and that they all remembered some method to keep milk drinkable for some time. these were the primary methods of food preparation and storage. most of these methods seem to have been very effective means for preserving a variety of foods to last throughout the winter (or at least to prolong the life of the food). these methods, such as using the well to cool milk, burying root vegetables and apples to keep them fresh, and using the meat's own fat to seal it, are effective and energy efficient to the point of being ingenious. they no doubt reflect long-standing wisdom passed down through generations (probably since europe in many cases) and somewhat adapted to the environment of southern indiana. our ancestors showed high capacity in growing, using, and preserving food in order to provide a varied and healthy diet in every season. actual cooking methods seemed equally varied. people baked daily, either breads, biscuits, or desserts, and sometimes meats. people boiled vegetables or in the summer ate them fresh. and of course people fried lots of food, primarily meat, but also potatoes and other vegetables. i wondered how often the stove would be on, especially after fern pointed out how special the food was on wash day, since the stove had to be on all day to heat the water then. but when i asked fern about this, i found that the stove seems to have been used all year round: mary: right, and um, then on days when you didn't turn the stove on in the summer, did you just eat raw vegetables? fern: well, we generally had a fire, you know it was a wood stove and we generally had a fire in it every day. mary: oh. fern: to cook some of our meals. but we didn't always have it on all morning, like we did on wash days, we had to keep it going, the fire going, sometimes that was my job to keep the fire going, i had to keep wood in the stove, it was a range, with six lids on top of it, and a fire box was on one end, and the tank of water was on the other end, a reservoir we called it, of water, and that water would get hot there, ‘course it was clear on the other end from that fire box, but it would still get hot enough that we could wash dishes, we always had a tea kettle of water on the stove somewhere, to keep water hot for us to use hot water. the stove was thus used all year round to prepare meals and to wash. as we move into methods of cooking food, we move into the third section of this study, meals. the meal system the meal system was straightforward and logical. breakfast was the heaviest meal generally. this is when meat was most often consumed, along with biscuits and gravy, and eggs. fern's description typifies such breakfasts: and then for breakfast, we had some kind of meat, generally a piece of ham or sausage, and had, mother made big pans of biscuits, milk biscuits, there were really was big… mary: mm hmm. fern: about this big around [gestures]. she made big ones, about that tall. mary: wow, made out of flour, wheat flour? fern: yeah, white flour, and she made these um, biscuits, and then she'd make them, after she'd get her meat fried, she make a great big skillet full of gravy, with the ba-, uh, meat drippings you know, after you'd cooked out the meat and there was the grease, you'd make gravy with it. and then some mornings she would have a big pot of rice cooked, course that takes a long time to cook rice too, it has to swell like beans does [laughs]. mary: yeah. fern: and then she would put cream in it, when she gets it about done, cooked cream and some of them, like sugar on it, and some of them just like the rice with the, with just the cream on it. they all liked it with cream on it. mary: uh huh, did you buy the rice? fern: yes, we had to buy the rice, we didn't raise it, we don't have, of course we can't raise it here. it's not warm enough, i don't think, to raise rice here. the creamed rice that fern described is further evidence of the variety of the southern indiana diet. some of my consultants explained that a big meal in the morning was necessary to sustain everyone for a long day's manual labor on the farm. fern made the food sound delicious and she seemed to have enjoyed these big breakfast (as her laughter supports). mays frances's family, who were not farmers, but lived in a town with a large garden and some livestock, described their typical breakfast: "well, for breakfast it would be ah, bacon and eggs and gravy and biscuits, and mother always made jams and jellies, and of course that was home canned." mary naylor's family's breakfasts were exceptional among my group because they rarely ate meat for breakfast. she explained that this was due to her scottish father's influence. he insisted upon oatmeal for breakfast everyday: mary m: how 'bout, what about your mother? what did she usually make for breakfast? mary n: oatmeal! my dad was from scotland, and he didn't think there was a breakfast if you didn't have oatmeal. mary m: oh, where did you get the oats? mary n: bought them, bought rolled oats. mary m: so did you have a big bag of them? mary n: i don't remember. but we always oatmeal, always had oatmeal, 365 days a year, oatmeal. mary m: how much meat did you eat every day? mary n: oh, i don't know. mary m: did you eat it for all three meals? mary n: usually we didn't have it for breakfast. mary m: uh hunh, no sausage or bacon or anything? [she indicates no]. but lunch or dinner and supper? mary n: usually. papa always had eggs for breakfast. mary m: eggs and oatmeal? mary n: well, that was, i called my husband ‘papa’ [we laugh]. no, my dad always oatmeal, and i don't know what else he ate, i don't remember, probably eggs, i don't know, just, i remember the oatmeal, because i didn't like it. as in other parts of the country "noon meal" was also commonly known as "dinner" and what we now call dinner was referred to as "evening meal," or "supper." my grandmother in michigan who grew up in the same time period also used these same appellations. generally the noon meal, or dinner, for these women consisted of fresh vegetables in the summertime, bread (probably cornbread traditionally), probably something substantial like chili, soup, or beans, and perhaps chicken or other meat. again, hard work throughout the day would require a fairly substantial amount of food for "dinner." mays remembered her mother preparing a typical noon meal: "and then for dinner, she'd cook beans, maybe cook a piece of meat, put potatoes in it." fern remembered her noon meals, especially in the summertime, as being full of fresh vegetables from their garden: for ah, our noon meal, and i'd generally try to get lettuce in and radishes, and onions out of the garden. i forgot about onions, we had onions too in the garden. and then bring them in, wash them clean them up, and if we had carrots, we had that, that would be a noon meal…. we always enjoyed going out and getting lettuce and radishes and carrots. all them was raw, which we eat raw you know out of the garden. and i'd gather a big dishpan full of lettuce about everyday out of the garden, long as we had it. and my father liked it wilted, i did too, we fixed it wilted, we fixed, ah, we liked wilted lettuce to go with our other things that we had. mary: so that means you just cook it up a little bit? fern: well, we ah, fixed a hot, uh, bacon grease and um, well v-i-n-e-g-a-r. mary: uh hunh, vinegar fern: yeah, i can't say it [whispering with a smile]. [we laugh] and uh, make it, put those two things together, and a little sugar in it, and get it real hot and we'd have our lettuce ready, which sometimes we had to cut our leaves because they were so big, and then we poured this over, over the lettuce, and that would wilt it. mary: ohh! fern: make a real good dish for us to have a green, something green to eat, and we'd have that every day in the summertime. mary: wow, what else did you eat in the summertime? fern: well for wash day it was generally with these beans, and sometimes we'd put potatoes in and cook potatoes, after the beans had cooked a good long while then we'd put a few potatoes in with them, and then we'd make a great big pan of corn bread. fern remembered plenty of vegetables for meals, and this was echoed by mary naylor: mary m: yeah, how about lunch? mary n: just depended on what you had. mary m: vegetables from the garden. mary n: always had vegetables from the garden, and ah, my oldest sons were always picky, a lot of things he wouldn't like, but he'd always eat beans and potatoes, so we had beans and potatoes every day. mary m: mmm. green beans this is? mary n: well dry beans too — lima beans, dry lima beans, white beans, brown beans, or dry limas, green limas, whatever you had, and then i would add whatever i made along with ah… mary m: did you make a lot of corn bread? mary n: oh yes we had corn, and ah, raise corn in the garden. mary m: did you sell it or make it into meal? mary n: no, uh hunh. mary m: oh you never made it into meal? you just ate the corn itself? mary n: mm, hmm, just corn, and ah, now i freeze it, i like it better. she also explained at another point: "there’s certain things we like better frozen than canned. i wouldn’t give a nickel for a frozen package of green beans, but i wouldn’t give you a nickel for canned corn." this affirms her strong sensibility for the best ways to prepare and consume particular foods: frozen corn and canned beans are superior (though freezers are of course a post-industrial addition to the kitchen). summer meals for all the women were particularly vegetable rich, as one would expect. the women also confirmed that the pork they had put up during the winter often lasted, as mary naylor put it, "into the summer." but i suspect that the meat was consumed more heavily during the winter and no one was concerned when it ran out during the summer because they were enjoying plenty of fresh vegetables. in the fall they had their root vegetables, apples and other animals (such as chickens). interestingly, though, when i asked what they ate for their meals, everyone’s descriptions rested largely on the summer pattern of many fresh vegetables. these were the bountiful times of richest variety and tastiest meals so it is not surprising that their memories turn first to these best of food times. there is substantial variety in the meals fern described as typical during the summer. though there would not have been as much fresh food available in winter, fern remembered that it nonetheless was still pretty tasty and healthy even in winter, due to their preservation efforts (so those vegetables and fruits in the winter would be canned): mary: how about in the winter? did you have different meals in the winter than you did in the summer? fern: well, just only it was canned goods, instead of getting it out of the garden. you know, we had those, there wasn't too much change in our diet. mary: lots of vegetables? fern: of course we had canned vegetables which we opened, and then berries which we had picked and of course, ah, my mother canned apples too, and she canned cherries if we'd have cherries, or peaches. mary: uh hunh, mmmm. fern: you know, she canned those, and then she canned rhubarb; we had a lot of rhubarb, which we canned a lot of it. and then she canned gooseberries, we had gooseberries which we canned. out on the farm you have a variety of things that you can can, and then use it in the winter. and it just always seemed like a treat when my mother opened up a can of berries for us to have for a meal. she didn't open berries every day. mary: ohh. fern: maybe once a week or every other week. a big jar of berries, and we just always, it was a treat to us, to have them in the winter time like that. obviously there was substantial variety even during the winter because of their hard work at growing and canning during the summer and fall. the evening meal was typically the lightest of the three. all of my consultants agreed that "supper" consisted of whatever leftovers there were from other meals. if more food was needed, they might fry up some potatoes, make more biscuits, fry eggs, or some other such supplement. fern remembered that supper was when whatever milk products they had might be consumed. that was when cottage cheese was eaten (perhaps since it took all day to make it) and that is also when milk might be added to leftover cornbread. fern described their evening meals: and then the evening meal, we generally had beans left from the noon meal, and then we had corn bread, and we had our, ah milk. we'd eat, uh, big hunks of corn bread in our milk, and eat that corn bread and milk together. mary: mmmm. fern: we liked that real good. mary: yeah it sounds good! [fern and i laugh]. fern: it uh, and that was our evening meal then. for wash days, of course other days, we had, we didn't always have to have the range a'goin so long, course we had big pans of fried potatoes, and uh that we liked too, that we fixed, the family all liked that. mays remembered evening meals similarly: "and then we would have for supper what was left from noon, and then maybe if we had enough for the next day, why then for supper maybe she would fry potatoes and make biscuits. and then when light break would come, joe always said he'd like fried biscuits and fried bread and butter and eat by lamplight." mary n. described a similar pattern: mary m: and then how 'bout dinner? mary n: well [laughs] hopefully there's something left, and we had our dinner at noon, because dinner is your big meal, and that was ah, and we had supper, because lots of times it wasn't `til 9:00 at night, and i took what was left over from dinner and added to it for supper, just depending on how much you had left. the meal pattern in southern indiana follows a typical pattern for farmers. as mentioned earlier, families did have some methods, such as well water to cool milk. however, refrigeration was not as widespread and it would have been hard to keep food fresh for more than a day. most food was eaten up in one day if possible. that meant "leftovers" would be leftover from breakfast or "dinner" and consumed completely for supper (with scraps possibly given to animals). it is interesting to know what everyone's favorite meal was. mary naylor said there was nothing special she could pick out as her favorite. she liked everything they had, more or less, and said there was too many of them to pick out a favorite. bertha, fern, and mays were able to remember favorites. but their favorites were not particularly unusual meals, just one of the things they ate regularly that they particularly enjoyed. this is further confirmation that they really valued the lifestyle for its humble, daily routine. for instance bertha enjoyed homemade yeast rolls which her mother made well and beef and noodles which she still made herself: mary: what were some of your favorite meals? bertha: oh, you mean what i prepared? mary: mm hmm, or that your mother prepared. bertha: well i don't know, of course the old homemade yeast rolls was one of my favorites [laughs], when we had them [laughs]. but we would have, um, i always liked the beef and noodles, you know, mashed potatoes with them, green beans, something like that. of course, we'd usually open ah, have beet pickles or cucumbers opened up [from their canned stores] to eat with them. mary: were they homemade noodles? bertha: oh yeah, oh yeah. still today i make my own noodles [laughing], if i have noodles. she also gave us her recipe for noodles. good, simple food came to her mind readily when i asked her what she most enjoyed, and she wanted to share this good food with us. in describing her favorite meal, mays made it clear that it was something they ate regularly: mary: what was your favorite meal? mays: fried chicken, goes with raising our chickens, we had. we ate a lot of chicken, and ah, mother used to make chicken and dumplings and dressing. i believe, of my mother's meals, i think that is the best one that she always made, was chicken and, cause she made dumplings out of the broth of the chicken. she'd boil the chicken, and then she'd take a cup of hot broth and pour in her flour and mix it up with a fork, and roll it out and cut them. mays also gave me a recipe, and as you see, made sure we understand the method for cooking her favorite foods. finally, fern's favorite meal also reflected her family's typical meals: mary: what would you say is one of your favorite meals that your mom made? fern: well, i liked the great northern beans, fried potatoes and onions and lettuce. that was my favorite meal, generally, in the summertime, cause we had lettuce then, and onions you see, sometimes we have a few of the onions left too, that we dry, but not too many, cause we eat [laughs] so many through the summer months. we didn't have many, but we could buy onions of course, through the winter. but that was my meal, with ah, and then popcorn to finish it off in the evening [we both laugh]. with popcorn, fern raised another aspect of the meal system: treats such as snacks and desserts. desserts were fairly common, especially pies and cakes, and fresh, cooked, or preserved fruit. cakes, pies, and preserved fruits typically made an appearance once a week or so and were considered a special treat. but interestingly (since it is now considered a modern phenomenon), everyone also remembered snacking occasionally and this usually meant popcorn or apples in the evening. i have already discussed methods of keeping apples fresh all winter. if anyone was hungry in the evening they were free to go stick their arm through the covers or rugs to get an apple from the pile. apples were also often cooked up into a variety of tasty desserts. besides apples, popcorn was described as a common snack. only fern talked of growing their own patch of popcorn, but several of my consultants remembered snacking on popcorn fairly frequently. they also sometimes made popcorn balls, which they would sweeten with sorghum. fern remembered her family’s evening snacking activities: we ah, we enjoyed our apples, of course, cause mother would make apple dumplings, and ah, pies and cobblers, and then just stewed apples, just cook them, and we'd just eat them stewed. they, we liked our apples, and then raw apples, if we wanted raw apples, and of course my father would put out a big patch of popcorn. mary: oh! fern: and we had popcorn all winter long, anytime we wanted it, every night if we wanted it. my brother he liked a big dish full, pan full of popcorn to eat, for, after we eat our evening meal. oh my brother liked his popcorn real well, but we all liked popcorn. mary: how'd you cook it? fern: we popped it, ah, oh my father had a little wire basket, about this big [gestures], with a handle on it, he opened the door of the heating, our heating stove. mary: uh hunh. fern: it was a wood [stove], which we'd heat the house with. he'd open the door there and he'd pull this, this little popper into the stove and pop the corn over the… mary: ohh. fern: over the coals. mary: open fire, oh. fern: mostly, he liked coals, hot coals, for to pop popcorn. and then we could see through that wire [laughs]. mary: wow. fern: see how much it was a poppin’ [laughs]. do that, one place we lived, after i got gone, we had a fireplace, and he popped it over the fireplace that way, had a handle on his little basket. mary: so it must have been a pretty fine mesh? fern: yeah it was fine, uh hunh, it was a wire, something like screen wire or something that was close enough where the grains didn't fall out. he'd pop it in that. sometime, i remember one time, though, he had a popper that was uh, made of metal, some kind of metal, with a top on it, that had the open top. i mean it as a, screen top, you could see down in it. he had that, popped the corn in it. mary: uh hunh. fern: we all loved popcorn, so, and then we were talking about our entertainments of the evening, what we'd do. mary: uh hunh. fern: [describes mother playing organ, and playing games like checkers and dominoes while eating popcorn] we may not have had very much candy, but we had popcorn, all the popcorn we wanted to eat. mary: did you put anything on the popcorn? fern: well, we liked butter on it and ah, salt, a little salt and butter on it. and then we made popcorn balls too. mary: ohh. fern: with our sorghum, we'd cook our sorghum down, and pour it on our popcorn balls that we'd have, on our corn. and then we'd mash the corn together and make balls out of them. cause they'd stick together, and if we tried to get them before the sor-, sorghum would, ah get too cold. always tried to do it while it's still hot. we had corn, popcorn balls that a way. although no one else remembered such an ingenious method of popping their popcorn, others did remember that they regularly popped and ate popcorn. most described that they usually used butter or lard and salt to season it. besides meals, desserts and snacks, it is interesting to consider what southern indianans typically drank. i was surprised to find that no one i talked to remembered drinking much coffee or tea. they occasionally boiled coffee for breakfast, but not daily, and no one remembered their parents drinking coffee all through the day. my consultants and their families never seemed to drink hot tea. when i asked, they only remembered iced tea and only ever on special occasions, such as the fourth of july or other picnic holidays, because ice was so rare. lemonade might also make an appearance on such days. so far as i could tell, that meant that what most people generally drank was water and milk. conclusion: southern indiana foodways although none of the women i interviewed was rich, the richness of their lifestyle emerged clearly. each made a point of stressing how much they enjoyed everything connected to their food (including holidays, community gatherings and more beyond the family life primarily focused on herein). they also affirmed that they never went hungry; by contrast they painted pictures of the bounty of their lives growing up. all these women remembered having very little money, mainly just what they earned from milk, eggs, and extra produce or livestock. they emphasized that when they grew up during the depression no one had much money and that they did not feel poor. it was clear from their demeanor throughout the interviews, as well as from their words, that they all enjoyed sharing their memories with me. without any of them having heard the others’ interviews, they agreed on many points of how good their lives were. fern jewell summarized the key idea they seemed to share: mary: so were you able to live pretty well through the year just with the food you raised, and gathered? fern: yes, we had enough food on hand, generally to live through the winter months. they just planted that a way, ‘cause we didn't have the money to buy during the depression, unless we had a few eggs to trade in for something, and that generally was for essentials that we couldn't raise on the farm, you know. mary: yes. did you always have enough to eat every day? fern: we had all the food we wanted to eat every day. i never was hungry in my life. there was always enough food on the table. we didn't go away from the table hungry, none of us did. we had enough food to eat; there was always enough food there. mary: well it sounds like a wonderful life. fern: [laughing] well i enjoyed it a lot. fern ended on one of the common threads throughout these interviews and the memories they are based on: laughter. sharing their food memories led each of these women to laugh during many parts of our interviews. michael owen jones explains that everything connected to food and how we discuss it can be symbolic and that we often define ourselves through such food-related messages. he writes, "in social interaction involving food, individuals often make decisions about who they want to appear to be, who they do not want to appear to be, and what the best way to behave is in order to be perceived as they wish" (2007:135). he demonstrates how deeply food influences our culture, our individual lives, and how much we reveal about ourselves and our cultures through our food choices, lifestyles, food-related connections, language, memories, and so on. if we consider the laughter associated with all these women’s food memories and stories as representative of these women’s lives, we can take them at their word that they ate well, lived well, and that they "enjoyed it a lot." references cited camp, charles. 1989. american foodways: what, when, why and how we eat in america. little rock: august house publishers. fussell, betty. 1992. the story of corn. new york: alfred a. knopf. jones, michael owen. 2007. food choice, symbolism, and identity: bread-and-butter issues for folkloristics and nutrition studies. journal of american folklore, 120:129-177. long, lucy. 2009. introduction to special issue: food and identity in the americas, ed. bill ellis. journal of american folklore, 122:3-10. roberts, warren. 1993. class notes from folklore 540, a graduate seminar on folk art and folk craft taught by warren roberts in the spring semester at indiana university, bloomington, indiana. wallach, jennifer jensen. 2013. how america eats: a social history of u.s. food and culture. new york: rowman & littlefield publishers. wilder, laura ingalls. 1953 (1939). by the shores of silver lake. new york: harper & row. world wildlife fund (wwf). 2013. central u.s. hardwood forests. http://worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/na0404 (accessed: 5 august, 2013). yoder, dan. 1972. folk cookery. in folklore and folklife: an introduction, ed. richard dorson, 325-50. chicago: university of chicago press. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022): 1-6 © american folklore society 2022 special issue: folkloristic perspectives on foodways and comfort during the covid-19 pandemic introduction by guest editor: lucy m. long (lucymlong@gmail.com) when the covid-19 pandemic began being publicly acknowledged in the u.s. in early march of 2020, one of the responses was a turn to comfort food. at first glance, this seemed like a logical move that calls for little analysis or even introspection. of course, people looked to food for comfort; they sought comfort wherever they could—relationships, pets (the “pandemic puppy” phenomenon), reading, working through lists of movies to watch, virtual gatherings, and so on. the idea of comfort food, however, is more than just dishes that bring physical warmth or positive feelings. food in the u.s. is fraught with moral implications and judgments around one’s ability to control their appetite. proponants of comfort food developed a rhetorical strategy to justify eating certain ingredients and dishes without shame (jones 2017; jones and long 2017). it has also become a marketing category within the american food industry covering dishes or items laden with qualities considered detrimental to our health—large quantities of calories, fats, sugars, and salt—but that carry a nostalgic and idealized aura of home or childhood (long 2017). the cookbook publishing industry and food news media similarly presented comfort food as a special genre of food, set apart from the usual evaluations of “good” food. these industries both reflected vernacular attitudes and shaped them. as the pandemic up-ended everyday life, our usual rules for behavior were suspended, including the norms by which we judged food and foodways activities. comfort food thus became an acceptable and celebrated way of weathering the uncertainties and fears caused by covid-19. folklorists were not the only ones to notice this trend; the media frequently covered it,1 and nutritionists and other health professionals expressed concern.2 scholars in food studies also noted it.3 folklorists did have a history of scholarship on the subject, however, thanks largely to the inspiration of michael owen jones who initiated a number of panels on the subject at annual conferences of the american folklore society. those panels led a collection of essays published in 2017, comfort food meanings and memories, co-edited by jones and myself. our introduction in that volume reviews the emergence of the concept of comfort food and summarizes the scholarship on it (jones and long 2017). in a way, the pandemic was an unexpected (and unwelcome!) opportunity to further explore the issues addressed in that volume. it at least made us aware of the constructed nature of this genre and that it was more complicated than what it seemed on the surface. it also suggested a lens for understanding the impact of the pandemic—and for narrowing down the massive upheavals it caused. at the same time, folklore emphasizes the connectedness of seemingly small details of everyday mailto:lucymlong@gmail.com long, introduction, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 2 life, and the ways those details can be mediums for individuals to connect with other people as well as their pasts and places. this approach is evident in the attention to foodways—the total system of practices around food and eating—and to the role of aesthetics and power in choices made by individuals. also fundamental to a folkloristic approach are ethnographic inquiries into the meanings attached to and interpreted through these foodways products and practices. food-centric folklorists had a prior foundation, then, for their inquiries into comfort food during the pandemic and they were able to quickly develop projects4 as well as conference papers for the annual meetings of the american folklore society and of the association for the study of food and society5. this special issue draws from that work. it includes research articles and reflection essays, with the latter recounting personal experiences around comfort food during the pandemic. significantly, some of these touch on international and “ethnic” data, raising questions about the universality of food as a medium for comfort, but the particularity of the genre as an american construct. nader mehravari offers an international perspective by examining how the pandemic seemed to highlight a specific dish, tahdig, as a comfort food in persian communities around the world. robert smith similarly reflects on comfort food in australia, concluding that the category lacks the morality attached to food in the u.s. diane tye also places her study outside the u.s., but focuses on pandemic foodways within her own family in canada and how activities around preparing and sharing of food gave them an anchor for imagining the future, especially in light of her father’s experiences of food shortages during the 1930s pandemic. theresa vaughan offers a similar longer view by contrasting and comparing experiences during the current pandemic with those of her family in the equally devastating flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919. hannah santino and lucy long muse on an item in ireland, that is a comfort food to them— scones—and how they actually figure within a number of different liminal situations, not only the “twixt and between” condition of the pandemic. family is closely connected to the idea of comfort food in general, and some of these articles emphasize that theme. along with tye’s article mentioned above, rachelle saltzman focuses on her family, recounting how the labor-intensive preparations of certain traditional jewish recipes connects her metaphorically with her heritage as well as literally with various relatives, both through virtual communications and by the sharing of those dishes. margot finn reflects on how she established a tradition during the pandemic of making a type of “dutch baby” pancake, filipino bibingka, and hopes that it gives her children a grounding that they will carry with them beyond the pandemic. the american approach to comfort food tends to emphasize individuals achieving emotional support or fulfillment, but these foods can also mark people as outsiders or emphasize that they do not belong. jerry reed reflects on how dietary restrictions barred some people from finding comfort through food, emphasizing their differentness from the norm being experienced by others. although the individuals he interviewed were able to resolve the barriers to comfort, reed points out that digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 3 others were not, and we should be aware that not everyone has the ability to find comfort through food. some individuals, on the other hand, intentionally use comfort food to inspire social change. christine j. widmayer describes a community group in minnesota that bakes and gives sweet potato pies to address racial conflict. the pandemic brought comfort food to the forefront. in doing so, it has made people recognize the power of food in general to carry memories, forge and affirm connections, and create a more livable present. although covid-19 seems to now be under control with vaccines and masking, it seems to be with us to stay. it remains to be seen whether comfort food will also continue to play a role in our lives. 1 for a comprehensive listing of articles in newspapers and food media, see articles by long, et al, 2021 and long 2023. long and vaughan (2023) includes references specifically related to bread and baking. 2 for example, one of my colleagues in the nutrition program at bowling green state university, dr. wan shen, developed a study on pandemic-related “emotional eating,” the phrase used in dietetics and nutrition to refer to eating for emotional needs rather than biological or physical ones. after she conducted her survey, she asked me to assist in interpreting her data, leading to a co-published article in 2020 (shen, et al.). 3 food studies journals all began running reflection pieces on food during the pandemic, and some of these essays touched on comfort food. for specific articles published, see food, culture, and society; food and foodways; and gastronomica. 4 one of these projects was the comfort-discomfort foodways oral history that i developed through the independent, non-profit center for food and culture. this project was funded by small grants from the association for food and society, ohio humanities, and a private foundation. i was fortunate at the time to have then-bowling green state university popular culture graduate student jerry reed working with me on another project, and he agreed to stay on to work as assistant director of the project. three other graduate students, john broadwell, quinlan day odum (both from middle tennessee state university’s public history program), and hannah santino (sociology, university of limerick) helped develop the questionnaire and resource materials for the website (http://www.foodandculture.org/) as well as conducted virtual interviews. an additional student, minglei zhang (american studies, penn state university), also assisted with the interviews, and another, iris teeuwen (folklore, university of oregon), designed and built the on-line exhibit presenting excerpts and photographs from the project (https://comfortfoodwaysexhibit.wordpress.com/). the project is described in more depth in long, 2021 and long, et al, 2021. 5 a number of publications resulted from these papers. see long 2022; long 2023; and long and vaughan 2023. http://www.foodandculture.org/ https://comfortfoodwaysexhibit.wordpress.com/ long, introduction, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 4 further reading on comfort food and the covid-19 pandemic brückner, meike, sandra čajić and christine bauhardt. 2022. reflection: food as pleasure or pressure? the care politics of the pandemic. food and foodways 29 (3):, 289-298. doi: 10.1080/07409710.2021.1943612 catela, joana. 2021. reflection: ‘it opened our eyes’: ethnographic encounters during the covid-19 pandemic in lisbon, portugal. food and foodways 29 (4): 378390. doi: 10.1080/07409710.2021.1984558. easterbrook-smith, gwyn. 2021. by bread alone: baking as leisure, performance, sustenance during the covid-19 crisis. leisure sciences 43 (1/2): 36-42. doi: 10.1080/01490400.2020.1773980. fourat, estelle, tristan fournier and olivier lepiller. 2021. reflection: snatched commensality: to eat or not to eat together in times of covid-19 in france. food and foodways 29 (2): 204-212. doi: 10.1080/07409710.2021.1901383 hill-tout, kimberly, claudia hirtenfelder, kiera e. b. mcmaster, and megan herod. 2022. who eats, where, what, and how? covid-19, food security, and canadian foodscapes. gastronomica: the journal for food studies 22 (1): 11–19. doi: 10.1525/gfc.2022.22.1.11 jones, michael owen and lucy m. long. 2017. introduction. in comfort food meanings and memories, ed. michael owen jones and lucy m. long, 3-16. jackson: university of mississippi press. jones, michael owen and lucy m. long, eds. comfort food meanings and memories. jackson: university of mississippi press, 2017. jones, michael owen. 2017. ‘stressed’ spelled backwards is ‘desserts’: self medicating moods with foods. in comfort food meanings and memories, ed. michael owen jones and lucy m. long, 17-41. jackson: university of mississippi press. locher, julie l. 2002. “comfort food.” in encyclopedia of food and culture, ed. s. katz. new york: charles scribner’s sons. locher, julie l., william c. yoels, donna maurer, and jillian van ells. 2005. comfort foods: an exploratory journey into the social and emotional significance of food. food & foodways 13 (4): 273-297. doi: 10.1080/07409710500334509 long, lucy m. 2023. refrigerators, cupboards, and canning jars: emergent meanings and subversive practices in food preservation and storage during the covid-19 pandemic. cultural analysis: an interdisciplinary forum on folklore and popular culture 21 (1). https://doi.org/10.1080/07409710.2021.1943612 https://doi.org/10.1080/07409710.2021.1984558 https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2020.1773980 https://doi.org/10.1080/07409710.2021.1901383 https://doi.org/10.1080/07409710500334509 digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 5 long, lucy m. 2022. “how the pandemic redefined comfort food: american individualism, culinary relativism, and shifting moralities.” popular culture studies journal 10 (1): 56-73. https://mpcaaca.org/the-popular-culture-studies-journal/current-issue/vol-10-no1/. long, lucy m. 2021. finding comfort: foodways and the pandemic. pathways: ohio humanities periodical (feeding ohio: the agricultural issue) 42 (2): 6-9. http://digitaleditions.glpublishing.com/pathwayssummer2021/ long, lucy m. 2017. comfort food in culinary tourism: negotiating ‘home’ as exotic and familiar. in comfort food meanings and memories, ed. michael owen jones and lucy m. long, 126-149. jackson: university of mississippi press. long, lucy m., ed. 2015. food and folklore: a reader. new york: bloomsbury press. long, lucy m. and theresa a. vaughan. 2023. kneading comfort, community, craftsmanship: home baking in the coroniverse. in behind the mask: vernacular culture in the time of covid, ed. ben bridges, ross brillhart, and diane e. goldstein. logan: utah state university press. long, lucy l., jerry lee reed, iii, john broadwell, quinlan day odum, hannah m. santino, and minglei zhang. 2021. finding comfort and discomfort through foodways practices during the covid-19 pandemic: a public folklore project. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 8 (1/2): 5-25. (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/digest/issue/view/2132) the new york times. 2020. comfort food recipes to help you feel better: send in the carbs. the new york times. november 2. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/dining/comfort-food-recipes-electionday.html ong, l.s., h. ijzerman, a.k. leung. 2015. is comfort food really good for the soul?: a replication of troisi and gabriel's (2011) study 2. frontiers in psychology 6 (april): article 314. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00314. romm, cari. 2015. why comfort food comforts: a new study looks at the intersection of taste, nostalgia, and loneliness. the atlantic, april 3. accessed may 15, 2015. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/why-comfort-foodcomforts/389613/. ruthfirst e. a. ayande and jedaidah chilufya. 2021. two african immigrant graduate students reflect on food access, food (in)security, and community during the pandemic. food and foodways 29 (4): 391-402. doi: 10.1080/07409710.2021.1984531 https://mpcaaca.org/the-popular-culture-studies-journal/current-issue/vol-10-no-1/ https://mpcaaca.org/the-popular-culture-studies-journal/current-issue/vol-10-no-1/ http://digitaleditions.glpublishing.com/pathwayssummer2021/ https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/digest/issue/view/2132 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/dining/comfort-food-recipes-election-day.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/dining/comfort-food-recipes-election-day.html http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00314 http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/why-comfort-food-comforts/389613/ http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/why-comfort-food-comforts/389613/ https://doi.org/10.1080/07409710.2021.1984531 long, introduction, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 6 shen, wan, lucy m. long, chia-hao shih, and mary-jon ludy. 2020. a humanities based explanation for the effects of emotional eating and perceived stress on food choice motives during the covid-19 pandemic. nutrients 12 (9): 2712. doi: 10.3390/nu12092712. severson, kim and julia moskin. 2020. food, a basic pleasure, is suddenly fraught. the new york times. march 17. https://nyti.ms/3b5mgbz. siragusa, laura. 2021. reflection: making kin with sourdough during a pandemic. food and foodways 29 (1): 87-96. doi: 10.1080/07409710.2021.1860336 wagner, heather scherschel, britt ahlstrom, joseph p. redden, zata vickers, and traci mann. 2014. the myth of comfort food. health psychology 33 (12): 15521557. accessed may 15, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hea0000068 https://nyti.ms/3b5mgbz https://doi.org/10.1080/07409710.2021.1860336 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hea0000068 long, lucy m. 2023. refrigerators, cupboards, and canning jars: emergent meanings and subversive practices in food preservation and storage during the covid-19 pandemic. cultural analysis: an interdisciplinary forum on folklore and popular culture 21 ... long, lucy m. 2022. “how the pandemic redefined comfort food: american individualism, culinary relativism, and shifting moralities.” popular culture studies journal 10 (1): 56-73. https://mpcaaca.org/the-popular-culture-studies-journal/current-issue/vol-10-no-1/. long, lucy m. 2021. finding comfort: foodways and the pandemic. pathways: ohio humanities periodical (feeding ohio: the agricultural issue) 42 (2): 6-9. http://digitaleditions.glpublishing.com/pathwayssummer2021/ long, lucy m. and theresa a. vaughan. 2023. kneading comfort, community, craftsmanship: home baking in the coroniverse. in behind the mask: vernacular culture in the time of covid, ed. ben bridges, ross brillhart, and diane e. goldstein. logan: utah s... romm, cari. 2015. why comfort food comforts: a new study looks at the intersection of taste, nostalgia, and loneliness. the atlantic, april 3. accessed may 15, 2015. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/why-comfort-food-comforts/389613/. ruthfirst e. a. ayande and jedaidah chilufya. 2021. two african immigrant graduate students reflect on food access, food (in)security, and community during the pandemic. food and foodways 29 (4): 391-402. doi: 10.1080/07409710.2021.1984531 digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 63-66 ©american folklore society 2025 amuse bouche from kraft mac and cheese to yasmeen’s biryani by: farha ternikar i didn’t learn how to cook until graduate school; i had successfully resisted being a good indian daughter. growing up, i had no interest in cooking or chores, until it was a necessity when i was in chicago on a very modest stipend in 1999. a typical student, i survived on kraft mac and cheese and a lot of frozen and fast food. like many desi (south asian american) immigrants who have the pleasure of living in chicago, i soon discovered devon avenue in north chicago or “little india,” home to more than a few dozen indian, pakistani and bangladeshi restaurants, cafes and grocery stores. my first few trips to what we simple dubbed “devon” were with my sister who was living in naperville, and we feasted on nihari (a north indian/pakistani beef stew), paratha (a flaky and layered bread usually made on a tawa, an iron skillet), chicken biryani (a layered rice dish), and chana masala (a chickpea curry). it was during these trips to devon that i started to miss my mother’s cooking. eating at sabri nihari (which was our favorite restaurant at devon) was great, but it wasn’t like eating at home and what was most surprising to me as an american-raised immigrant was not how my love of food and cooking grew in chicago, but how my love of biryani and indian cooking grew. eventually i got married in chicago, and then we’d get takeout on weeknights when neither of us had time to cook. this is also when the long phone calls to my mother began because the longer i lived in chicago, the more i missed homemade food. i asked her what shaan masala packets to use to make basic chicken curries or what spices i should have in my cabinet. my mother yasmeen’s biryani was famous amongst my childhood friends in florida but also my other desi muslim friends from college and graduate school. hena was my closest friends when i lived in maryland right before i started graduate school. both our parents were muslim, but unlike my parents who are from india, hena’s family is originally from pakistan. these distinctions amongst south asian immigrants are important because of how food often brings american indians and pakistanis together, but also because of how “halal” food or meat eating is a distinct shared practice among muslim immigrants. meat biryani, chicken or beef or lamb, is something that i thought every desi mother cooked. i also assumed everyone’s mother’s biryani was as good as mine. though yasmeen would often vary the recipe, it was always a time-consuming endeavor that required at least two ingredients—aged basmati rice and halal chicken. but hena was raving about my mother’s biryani because, although my mother is muslim indian, and her own family is pakistani, she said, “your mother’s biryani is much better than mine or my mother in law’s.” at that time, i was certain that my mother’s biryani was based on a secret family recipe and that she had ternikar, biryani digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 63-66 64 tracked down all the “authentic” spices in the 1980s in florida that her own mother-in-law had taught her to use in cooking biryani from scratch. it was only years later that i realized that my mother’s biryani is not always from scratch. she often uses whatever spices she has around, sometimes she switches up the recipe, and sometimes she too uses shaan masala. like meredith abarca’s term “chiste,” my mother created her own twist on all of her traditional recipes1. maybe my mother’s recipes were never authentic in the way food scholars or “foodies” trace indian recipes back to the regions of gujarat, hyderabad or punjab in india, but it tasted authentic and original to my sisters and immigrant friends. yasmeen’s story of learning how to cook was in many ways less straightforward than my own. when she left india in 1969 to marry my father and move to london, she would learn how to practice cooking among other new indian british couples with very few resources or access to indian grocers. they often used parsley instead of cilantro, or made vegetarian biryani if they couldn’t afford chicken. growing up in tampa, we couldn’t get biryani in restaurants or find recipes easily in cookbooks. our mothers were the keepers of these indian immigrant recipes. my mother’s recipes in particular were taught to her from her mother-in-law who was south indian, her sisters who were north indian, and also from her own experimentation because she was orphaned at a young age. as an adult in the 1990s, i began to appreciate my mother’s cooking because i realized it was “good” indian food. i couldn’t necessarily describe what that meant but it tasted better than my indian or pakistani friend’s mom’s food. and i didn’t care if it was made from scratch, organic or local. what i did come to realize is that my mother’s food was not only good food, but when i finally moved away from home, biryani became my comfort food. as much as i might still crave kraft mac and cheese, i now crave yasmeen’s biryani. and during the pandemic in particular, this is a recipe i came back to repeatedly. yasmeen’s biryani 3 cups of basmati rice 2 lbs. of halal chicken 3 tablespoons of garlic paste 2 tablespoons of ginger paste 1 tablespoon of garam masala 2 cinnamon sticks or 2 teaspoons of cinnamon powder 2 teaspoons of ground cardamom 6 black cloves 5 tablespoons of olive oil 2 large yellow or white onions 2 teaspoons of salt cilantro and lemon wedges for garnish cooking biryani is a 3-step process. the chicken is marinated the night before in the spices. there are two different methods of cooking rice. half cooking the rice then layer the ternikar, biryani digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 63-66 65 chicken and bake it in the oven or cook the rice and chicken fully then layering the two dishes. biryani is known as a special dish because it is known for the layering of chicken with the rice which makes it distinct from pulao rice dishes. my family always serves biryani with raita, a yogurt-based dish with cucumbers, onions, tomatoes and cilantro. my mother yasmeen uses halal chicken. before the 1990s when halal chicken was easily available, she cooked with kosher chicken. i often make this recipe with whatever local or natural chicken is available. she also switched from cooking with ghee to vegetable oil to olive oil over the past 3 decades. lastly, she and my sister both garnish their biryanis with lemon wedges in the final step of preparation. afterward december 2024 i wasn’t sure when i would return to working on this project. my mother survived a stroke this past march 2024 at the age of 73. when i got the call from my sister, i was in pittsburgh on sabbatical, so i had to abruptly pack up in 24 hours, and i chose to spend the rest of spring 2024 semester in tampa caring for my mother. my mother was released from the hospital after two weeks, i slept in the hospital at her side for those weeks. when she did come home, she was originally on a special diet. after a few weeks, she craved her own food, but she couldn’t cook because she had permanent eye damage, and her recovery was slow. so, i was the one who slowly became the home cook. during ammi’s recovery, her friends were dropping off trays of keema, kebobs, biryanis, haleem, nihari, dal and much more. but what i was starting to seriously crave were vegetables in any form. so that’s where my cooking for ammi started. i began to cook with whatever vegetables that were in the house, sometimes frozen or canned, seldom fresh or local or organic. i started by making a really basic aloo matter (potato pea curry). she seemed to approve, then i made green beans, aloo gobbi (potato with cauliflower), and eventually cumin carrots which is something she would never usually eat, and she loved it. and then i finally overheard the conversation on the phone with her and my sister, saba, when she said, “don’t worry farha is really taking care of me she doesn’t leave my side, and she cooks as good me too. i’m even eating sabzi….”. maybe i was never the ideal desi marriageable girl, but through feeding ammi, i become the ideal desi daughter. *this amuse bouche is part of a larger book manuscript, food and faith networks: muslim american women and culinary placemaking (under contract). ternikar, biryani digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 63-66 66 image 1: biryani, photo by the author 1 abarca, m.e. (2023) charlas culinarias (culinary chats): a methodology and pedagogy expanding a food consciousness. food culture & society. 1-13. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022): 121-123 ©american folklore society 2022 review of: the spirit of soul food: race, faith, and food justice christopher carter. urbana, il: university of illinois press, 2021. pp. 208, notes, index. review by: khari chanel johnson the spirit of soul food: race, food, and food justice provides a decolonial analysis of black foodways that imagines an understanding of food justice grounded in an ethics of radical christian compassion. christopher carter, an assistant professor of theology and religious studies at the university of san diego, connects the history of black foodways to food justice and suggests (black) christians endeavor toward a more just food system that benefits black folk. carter explains that for black people, soul food is an expression of identity; it’s how we learn about who we are and where we have been. as a black christian and communication scholar who critically studies food, i was especially intrigued by carter’s arguments. though racism and colonialism have sought to erase identity, our foodways have resisted and survived those oppressions and continue to serve as mementos of our survival. however, the development of us food policy, and thus the food system, has historically been harmful to people of color. carter argues that black folk must continue to find ways to ensure the survival of our culture, history, and people. in order to meet that need, he proposes a “reimagination of black foodways” that centers the radical compassion of jesus christ (x). carter believes that compassion, loving god, and loving one’s neighbor are essential to creating a more just food system that privileges all people, not just white people. this book proposes a “decolonial theological anthropology” or “theoethical way of being human that resists the dehumanizing logic of enlightenment colonial thinking” as a basis for reimaging soul food (xi). carter’s work engages three theologically grounded eating practices that address food injustice: seeking justice for food workers, caring for the earth, and “soulfull eating,” a term that carter coined to address a practice of black veganism that decolonizes soul food and delinks it from coloniality (13). intended as a resource to decolonize black foodways and combat structural racism and food injustice, carter explicitly chooses to direct this book toward black christians (11). because carter has defined his intended audience so directly, his readers must view the work with the understanding that it is, at its core, a book of directives that, depending on the identity of the reader, may vary in applicability. however, there are elements to the book and what it explores that are interesting for a variety of readers to consider. diverting from traditional historical lenses, this book features a historical overview of black foodways and the food system that weaves in carter’s personal narratives and experiences; it is both theory and praxis, incorporating a theological grounding and spiritual formation while providing actionable steps to execute black veganism. the book centers on soul food, which carter believes emerged as “an antiracist response to antiblack racism” (2). thus, he argues, a reclamation of soul food today must consider the problems of how the current food system (re: industrial agriculture and factory farming) marginalizes people of color. each chapter ends with the vegan soul food recipes that johnson, review, spirit of soul food digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 122 carter uses to feed and educate his community about soulfull eating and food justice (ex: red beans and rice, collard greens, gumbo, cornbread, watermelon, and peach crisp). taking these systems of oppression into account, carter proposes black veganism as the solution because it enables a practice of christian social justice that also contributes to food sovereignty for black folk. food justice alone addresses a food system’s inequities that negatively impact black people; however, when black christians reimagine soul food or eating in a way that is more consistent with theological and social values, it ensures the preservation and survival of black folk. for carter, soulfull eating is a proactive practice that demonstrates care for the earth and food workers rather than simply reactively attempting to mitigate the effects of food injustice. an essential part of that proactivity is the claim to black veganism. carter argues that not eating meat reclaims the racist hierarchical anthropocentrism that once viewed blacks as not human or as animals. carter argues that black veganism is a decolonizing project that unlinks black bodies from this racist view and helps to express compassion for god’s creations. the book finds its progression by exploring the topic through the four movements of epistemology: knowing, thinking, being, and doing. chapter one, “transatlantic soul” (knowing), looks at a historical overview of black foodways in the context of colonialism. the chapter traces the culinary contributions of black folk and explores how soul food has evolved from food practices in africa, on plantations, during the great migration, and continues to shift in the present moment. chapter two, “food pyramid scheme” (thinking), focuses on the political economy of food as it relates to the exploitation of labor in the food system and the environmental racism of food policies. chapter three, “being human as praxis” (being), shows how white christianity has justified the oppression of black bodies and thus sets up the theoretical framework for black christians to pursue a social justice praxis centered on food. chapter 4, “tasting freedom” (doing), proposes the theologically grounded eating practices that respond to food injustice and reimagine a soul food that is socially, politically, and spiritually liberating. the spirit of soul food has a few particular strengths that merit reflection. one of the most salient strengths is the text's well-researched and accessibly written quality. because of its approachability, the book would be a useful resource for teaching undergraduates about structural racism in the food system (124). carter clearly and succinctly explains complicated concepts such as racism, neoliberal political systems, coloniality, white supremacy, and decolonization through the lens of black foodways. chapters one or two are particularly appropriate for students in the interdisciplinary fields of communication, food studies, women and gender studies, and black studies. it could also be a valuable book to include on a theology syllabus. the theoretical components of the book are sound, and the praxis components would provoke much debate among students, especially the solution of black veganism to problems of racism and injustice. the book represents a productive decolonial project that posits a reimagination of soul food and asks the reader to consider how we can improvise “traditional” recipes to fit today’s broken food system. in addition, it might make for an exciting assignment for students to test out the recipes and put black veganism into practice. for example, the collard greens recipe calls for raisins and orange juice, which is likely unfamiliar to most people who cook or consume soul food. johnson, review, spirit of soul food digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 123 the novel focus of the book could generate a lively discussion about the feasibility and practicality of vegan soul food in black communities. while veganism is undoubtedly one way to better care for animals and the earth, it is certainly not the only solution to racism and food injustice. however, this often-overlooked aspect of the study of black foodways provides a valuable addition to our understanding of soul food, veganism, food ethics, and restorative justice. the christian lens of compassion is certainly an unconventional approach to address structural racism and the significance of black culinary history but is a significant call for black christians (and anyone else) to progress towards anti-oppressive liberation for humans, nonhumans, and the earth. microsoft word arney-english bacon-final-2-12-21.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 129-150 © american folklore society 2021 pre-seventeenth century english bacon: reconsidering a staple by: noah arney ____________________________________________________________ abstract: this research fills a gap in historical food scholarship by examining 56 medieval and early modern cookery books published between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries in england and western europe to determine methods used in curing bacon prior to the seventeenth century. it affirms important differences in bacon making from our modern versions and suggests how preseventeenth century recipes might taste. key words: bacon, lard, pork, meat curing, cookbooks, middle ages, early modern period introduction bacon was the main meat eaten in england for the entirety of the thirteenth century (woolgar 2006: 91), however little is written of its medieval history. i have not yet discovered an academic overview of what bacon was like before the commercial production of the eighteenth century, except for brief, though competing, references to the creation of pre-modern bacon in the work of food historians peter brears (2008) and ken albala (2003). when brears discusses the creation of bacon in cooking and dining in medieval england, he states only that “there appears to be no evidence for the use of saltpetre, sugar or smoking in medieval meat preservation, only salt,” overly relying on a presumed absence of evidence (148). in contrast, in food in early modern europe, albala appears to lump pre-eighteenth century creation of bacon with later techniques that came to dominate in the modern era (98): smoke dries food, and in combination with a previous soaking in brine, it prevents bacteria from forming and flavours the food as well. the addition of saltpeter (potassium nitrate) to the brine gives many smoked products their pinkish color. pork products such as ham, bacon and sausage were the most common foods to be smoked, but fish and cheeses could be too. like albala, most histories of bacon, both academic and popular, begin with commercial production in the eighteenth century (dikeman and devine 2014: 58, van tonder 2016). the exact nature of the production and form of pre-seventeenth century bacon can be ascertained by comparing cookery books, personal journals, household accounts, and other literature across the european medieval and early modern periods (thirteenth through seventeenth centuries). the deeper understanding of bacon-making before the seventeenth century gained through this primary source analysis can change how we see the culinary history of this ingredient. bacon has been a mainstay of english food since the earliest english cookery books. its production experienced a renaissance during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with an incredible amount of adaptation resulting from late seventeenth-century culinary innovations. major changes in meat curing technologies in the twentieth century have led to our modern concept of bacon, but this modernization and arney, pre-17th century bacon, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 130 innovation separate us from bacon’s historical identity. when we read in “forme of cury” that beans should be eaten with bacon (master-cooks 1390: f12r; pegge 1780: 11), do our modern sensibilites understand what that means? what was bacon like before the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? why does a recipe in noble boke off cookry require the bacon to be soaked before use: “tak a litill lard of salt bacon well sodene” (take a little lard of salt bacon well soaked; napier 1882: 88)? frequent references in pre-seventeenth century sources to bacon as a food associate it with the poor in england (moisà 2001: 83), while other records show it was also eaten in great quantities by the rich (woolgar 2006: 76). it is specifically mentioned, for example, in the records of the earl of derby as a food he ate for breakfast (dobrowolski 1988: 293). bacon’s use by both rich and poor demonstrates that it was a staple for all classes in england throughout the middle ages and into the early modern period. while identifiable as a pork product, however, it was much drier than modern bacon, having more in common with prosciutto, a type of dry cured and aged, but not smoked, ham (dikeman and devine 2014: 550), and there were marked differences in preparation, storage, and use as well. methodology as bacon is generally indistinguishable from other types of pork in the archaeological record (woolgar 2006: 73), i have turned to the written record as a better source of information on bacon. i accomplished my research into english bacon by examining 56 cookery books from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries and analyzing their use and treatment of bacon and preserved lard. i used 38 from the british isles (29 from the thirteenth through the sixteenth centuries, 9 from the seventeenth century) and 18 from europe (fourteenth through early seventeenth centuries), including denmark, the netherlands, spain, germany, prussia, italy, and france. i based my selection criteria on the availability of sources and translations, and found henry notaker’s printed cookbooks in europe, 1470-1700: a bibliography of early modern culinary literature (2010) especially helpful. i analyzed each text for its use of bacon, including the descriptions of the ingredient and methods of preparation. bacon is mentioned 297 times in 35 of the 56 cookery books i examined, from british library (b.l.) ms additional 32085 (hieatt and jones 1986) at the end of the thirteenth century through to the accomplisht cook in 1685 (may 1685), while lard, sometimes indistinguishable from bacon in its creation and use in cookery books, is referenced 548 times in 46 of the cookery books. i then examined the use of bacon in medieval fiction and writings to provide a fuller understanding of its uses and methods of preparation. in addition, i conducted experimental historical re-creations utilizing the same methods i found described in these works for curing and cooking bacon to compare the descriptions of preparation with the descriptions of the final product in various texts. in order to explore this subject, i first expand on the primary sources i selected for analysis and discuss the societal context in which bacon was consumed in england. then i provide a working definition that is broad enough to encompass what bacon was like in pre-seventeenth century england by exploring the earliest literary references to bacon in england, and examine cookery books from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century to determine what bacon of the time was and how it was made. finally i tie my findings to experimentations with bacon along with secondary sources to examine in detail the creation of pre-seventeenth century bacon. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 131 cookery books the cookery books i examined are collections of printed or hand-copied recipes that form part of a larger work or are bound into stand-alone volumes. they frequently “contain medical or household recipes in addition to culinary ones” (kernan 2016: 7), though a cookery book generally is one that is at least two-thirds cookery (notaker 2010: 2). although there are cookery books from before the fourteenth century, it is in the fourteenth century that cookery books become a recognizable genre in england (kernan: 9), as the advent of printing led to a boom in their production. the primary purpose of cookery books was to guide a cook through making an unfamiliar or only slightly familiar dish as aides-mémoires (kernan: 27) as well as being a method of instruction on new recipes; their authors typically assume the cook knows certain processes and does not need all steps spelled out. cookery books also served aspirational purposes, however. with the rise of professionals and the expansion of the gentry in the fifteenth century, these books were a way to learn the eating habits practiced by the nobility and to emulate them (83-84). it is important to remember that cookery books are generally prescriptive rather than descriptive, so although they give us hints of what could be happening in cookery at the time, they are not definitive. not all cookery books were printed. as sarah kernan explains in her 2016 doctoral dissertation “for al them that delight in cookery,” families would frequently have their recipes compiled into a manuscript book that could be passed down through the family or given as gifts (kernan: 9). later in the sixteenth century, printed english cookery books stopped being ostensibly aimed at the nobility and began to target the gentry and professional classes (118), much as the earlier french cookery book le ménagier de paris had been. subsequently, in england, the genre came to be written for women, and by women as family manuscripts (9). in fact, by the last quarter of the seventeenth century (14) the entire cookery book industry was “almost exclusively directed to women” (6). context: the consumption of pork in england pork, as a staple of the lower (moisà 2001:83) and middle classes in medieval england, often made up a significant portion of the meat they ate: the majority consumed in the thirteenth century, and between 20 and 30 percent for most of medieval and renaissance england (woolgar 2006: 73). pigs were considered easy to raise, and pork easy to preserve—given adequate quantities of salt and the ability to store it properly for several months while it cured—making the relative cost of production lower than other meats (ibid). by the later middle ages, written records help differentiate between fresh and preserved pork in recipes. the preservation of pork was mainly done through curing, primarily by dry salting (tannahill 1989: 175-178) and through brining (dawson 1594: 12), though there is little to no evidence of brining being used for bacon before the very late sixteenth century. while common people ate a much higher percentage of pork compared to other meats, the overall percentages are offset by the upper classes eating a wider variety of meats (woolgar: 75-76). based on extant financial documents, pork was most eaten in winter and summer with less eaten in spring and autumn (205), perhaps aligning with lent and the month it takes for the meat to cure after slaughter. this seasonal cycle aligns with thomas tusser’s 1580 edition of fiue hundred pointes of good husbandrie, which mentions easter as the start to when bacon is eaten—with the 40 days of lent perhaps arney, pre-17th century bacon, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 132 decreasing the amount of time in the early spring for consuming bacon—while autumn is when beef is eaten (1878: 71). defining bacon the word “bacon” today refers to cured and smoked pork belly or loin, but the word was much less specific in the past, often being used pars pro toto (part for whole) to refer to both pork in general (horowitz 2005: 57) as well as to cured pork specifically, which would include bacon, salt pork, sometimes lard, and ham. looking at references to both bacon and lard in my research added some specificity to what is sometimes a generalized idea. for example, in the late thirteenth century, the terms used to refer to pork belly in b.l. ms additional 32085 were lard or larduns (hieatt and jones 1986: 863), leading to the term “larding” for wrapping or interlacing meat with fatty pork belly. this definition persisted until the 1650s when the verb “larding” was divorced from the noun “lard.” for example, the english house-wife features a recipe with the instructions to “lard it either with mutton-lard or pork-lard but mutton is the best” (markham 1649: 94), the first time a meat other than pork is used to lard something in the 38 earlier and contemporary english cookery books in this research. the compleat cook (t.c. 1656: 59) follows, where any flesh can now be larded with any other flesh, such as fish. whether or not the pork belly had been cured is not clear, but between written references to salting pork as early as the twelfth century in the british isles (iomairea and gallaghera 2011: 31) and the evidence of salting meat as a pre-classical technology in very common use throughout the medieval period (tannahill 1989: 176), it can be assumed that cooks had the means and inclination to do so. whether the meat was smoked or whether saltpetre was used is discussed later. by the fourteenth century there is written evidence for lard being preserved (probably by salting). in b.l. ms additional 46919, the explicit doctrina faciendia diversa cibaria, written sometime before 1337 and collected in hieatt and butler’s curye on inglysch, the cook is instructed to “soþþen in water cold” (1985: 55), or soak the lard in cold water prior to use, something that would not have been necessary with fresh lard. this recipe further instructs the cook to wrap the roast in the soaked lard, implying that the lard used is more likely fatty pork belly and back rather than leaf lard (visceral fat from around the kidneys and loin of the pig). although “lard” was also often used pars pro toto, a fatty piece of pork with no bones that has been cured was often identified as “bacon” from at least the fourteenth century (horowitz 2005: 57), and in the sixteenth century we see proof that bacon and ham are seen as distinct preparations. for example, english ship rations in the sixteenth century specified that every sailor receive one pound of bacon on mondays as a meat ration (simancas 1588 in hume 1899: 269-275) as opposed to ham or gammon (akin to contemporary virginia ham). this separation of bacon from ham or gammon seems to be based on bone and fat content in addition to location on the pig. in the anatomy of a side of pig, including lard, loin, ribs, belly, and hind leg or ham, a gammon is the side with the ribs, loin, and lard removed but retaining the hind leg (oed online 2020), and it also frequently has the fattier part of the belly removed. essentially what is left is the meatier part of the pig. the cooking for a gammon of bacon is also very different from the use of bacon or lard, in that it is first stuffed and then baked or roasted (dawson 1596: f13r). the reason for the removal of the fattier parts of the pig is that the fat content of bacon or lard makes it more likely to go rancid with poor treatment in less than ideal conditions. because of the similarities in production and use between lard digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 133 and bacon from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries i use the working definition of “cured pork meat from the belly and back” here. modern bacon is significantly different in preparation. in 1755, the first recorded recipe for what was to become modern bacon was published in a new and easy method of cookery in edinburgh (cleland 1755: 42): to make hams or bacon. salt them on a table, and lay a weight on them for two or three days, then to every ham or flitch of bacon, take a pound of white salt, a pound of bay salt, two ounces of salt-petre, and two of petersalt, a quarter of a pound of brown sugar; mix them all together, and warm them pretty hot; lay your hams in a trough, and rub them very well, turn and rub them every day for three weeks; then hang them up to dry by a slow fire, wood, or saw-dust, is the best to dry them with. twenty-five years later, a recipe recorded in the farmer’s wife: or the complete country housewife, printed in london, bears a striking resemblance to cleland’s 1755 cookery book, with the only change being a significant reduction in the amount of saltpetre (hogg 1780: 29). this type of salt-sugar-saltpetre rub stays the same, with a saltpetre ratio of within a 3 to 10 percent range until the twentieth century. for example, the american farmer in the 1850s has recipes at 6 percent (marriott 1853: 193) while the famous wiltshire recipe in 1860 used 8.5 percent saltpetre (beeton 1861: 805). dozens of cure recipes throughout the nineteenth century all fall within this general range and are made in essentially the same way, a practice that continued until the switch to the more efficient sodium nitrite in the twentieth century (north american meat institute 2016: 1). modern cures use between 0.3 and 0.7 percent sodium nitrite, and in general the maximum legally allowed limit in meat in canada is around 2 percent (canadian food inspection agency 2014: c.2). bacon in literature the first use of the word “bacon” in written english predates our existing cookery books. the earliest literary use of the word may have been in the “poem on the evil times of edward ii,” from the early fourteenth century, “for beof ne for bakoun, ne for swich stor of house” (for beef nor for bacon, nor for such store of house; wright 1839: 341). but piers plowman in the late fourteenth century gives us the first reference that can be compared to the working definition: “and ȝut y say[e], by my soule! y haue no sal[t] bacoun” (kane 1988: c.8.306).1 there are seven different lines in piers plowman referencing bacon (wittig 2001: 45), demonstrating that it is a simple yet important food, equated with currency: “may no peny ale hem pay ne no pece of bacoun” (kane 1988: c.8.331). the previously mentioned line about salt bacon shows that at this time bacon is already considered a cured meat, and the third important reference is “a ronde of bacoun” (round of bacon; kane 1988: c.9.148); although it could mean many things, it likely refers to bacon made from the loin of the pig, such as back bacon, rather than from the belly. there is a later reference to the preparation of bacon in chaucer’s nun’s priest tale in canterbury tales (1987: 2842-2845): arney, pre-17th century bacon, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 134 no wyn ne drank she, neither whit ne reed, hir bord was served moost with whit and blak, milk and broun breed, in which she foond no lak, seynd bacoun, and somtyme an ey or tweye, for she was as it were, a maner deye. (no wine drank she, neither white nor red/ her board was served most with white and black/ milk and brown bread, in which she found no lack/ scorched bacon, and sometimes an egg or two/ for she was as it were a manor dairy. [translation by arney]) “seynd bacoun” is mentioned as the most basic of foods. the widow, whose eating habits are being described and juxtaposed against the wife of bath, the monk, and perhaps the prioress, consumes simple fare that includes milk, dark bread, bacon, and eggs. the description of how to cook bacon is of interest here. “seynd” means scorched, broiled, or slightly burnt, implying that she was so poor that the only way she could cook her bacon was by the simplest method, over an open fire.2 this use of bacon is important, because often in cookery books bacon is an ingredient in a larger dish rather than something cooked alone as we see it used in chaucer. appearance in cookery books, thirteenth to seventeenth centuries although cookery books are generally prescriptive rather than descriptive, it is in them where the closest thing to proof exists of how bacon was used, treated, and made. i found references to bacon and lard at least 152 times in the 29 english cookery books i examined from between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, with an uptick of 291 times in the 9 english cookery books researched from the seventeenth century. comparatively, looking at the european continent, i found bacon and lard referenced 399 times in 18 cookery books from denmark, the netherlands, spain, germany, prussia, italy, and france from the fourteenth century to the second decade of the seventeenth century. in this section i summarize this evidence century by century, focusing especially on the ingredient’s characteristics and preparation for culinary uses. bacon is specifically mentioned three times in a french cookery book from the early fourteenth century, enseignements qui enseingnent a apareillier toutes manières de viands (myers 2005). only once does the term refer to how it has been specifically processed, “crisped,” as an ingredient covering small birds as they steam (lines 115-118): “for a gravé of small birds—if you want to make a gravé of small birds, put the birds to cook in a pot all covered with crisped bacon, and add wine and water and pepper and ginger, and keep well covered that steam doesn’t escape that all will be cooked.”3 by comparison, forme of cury is the first english cookery manuscript to refer to bacon specifically, in a recipe for beans (1390: f12r): take benes & drye hem in an ovene & hulle hē wel and wyndowe out the hulfes & waysche hē clene & do hē to seep i god broth & ete hem wiþ bacou digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 135 (take beans and dry them/ in an oven and hull them/ well and winnow out the/ hulls and wash them clean/ and to them to steep in good broth/ and eat them with bacon [translation by arney]) although the recipe does not tell us anything about the look or creation of bacon, it does suggest the ingredient could be seen as a separate side dish, or as a seasoning to add to a serving of the beans. the cookbook also mentions lard ten times, as i have mentioned before, a term that often appears to include “bacon” in the oldest cookbooks i reviewed. “lard” suggesting bacon-like strips and use because of the heat involved, appears earlier in an anglo-norman cookery book from england, vetera statuta, registrum brevium, miscellaneous texts including culinary recipes and a treatise on estate management from the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century: “e puys kaunt il serra achaufé lardez le od long larduns” (and then cook it until it’s hot, lard it with long larduns; hieatt and jones 1986: 863). this passage helps us see lard as a word often used for bacon, but does little for understanding how it is prepared. the french cookery and general household management book le ménagier de paris, published about the same time as “forme of cury” in the 1390s, is the most important early cookery book when it comes to bacon (pichon 1846).4 in the five english, three french, and one german cookery books from the fourteenth century, 50 of the 176 references to bacon and lard are from le ménagier, more than any of the other presixteenth century cookery books i examined. le ménagier has four clear references to the appearance of bacon, and two that help explain how to make it. first, in the description of larding, the author writes that “there is a difference between sticking and larding, for the first is with cloves and the other with bacon” (pichon 1846: general terms). second, there are two descriptions of the bacon itself, “three bacon strips,” (coney soup) and “let the strips be small like slices of bacon” (broth with meat strips). although the descriptions do not explain whether the meat was from the loin or the belly, they do reveal that the slicing of it is not the “rondes” of bacon that are mentioned in piers plowman, implying that the cut used is likely from the belly, which would have more fat and so be better for larding. of two le ménagier references to how bacon is cured, one describes the curing method that continues to be referenced through to the early modern period while the other describes the use of color to judge the acceptability of the product. the passage on how to make chitterling sausages shows that the main process for curing bacon is the salt and stack method, which continued to be used for several centuries: “when these chitterling sausages are thus done and filled, you take them to be salted with the bacon and on top of the bacon” (to make chitterling sausages). in this method the weight of the meat helps press out liquid and speeds the curing process. the more important second instance about bacon color comes from a discussion on how to determine the type of bacon that should be purchased (on the second distinction): note that some hang their pigs in the easter season and the air yellows them; and it would be better for them to keep them in salt as they do in picardy, even though the flesh is not so firm, it seems; nevertheless you get better service from bacon which is fair and white than from yellow, because however good the yellow may be, it is too repulsive and causes disgust when viewed. arney, pre-17th century bacon, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 136 although a discussion of color might seem odd, it explains a great deal. from my experimentation in bacon making, when bacon is cured by packing in salt, the color of the fat at the end of the curing process is white, and the flesh, while firm, is not as hard as after it has been dried. once the bacon has been rinsed and dried for a few weeks, but not smoked, the fat becomes a yellowish color, and the meat itself is tough. the best bacon then, according to le ménagier, has not been dried after salting, but left in salt until the time of use and, as we see later, it is then rehydrated in water. among other informative fourteenth-century cookery books, das buch von guter speise (c. 1350) specifically refers to “fatty bacon” (atlas 1993: 5, cf. adamson 2000), implying bacon from the belly rather than loin because of a higher fat content. also in b.l. ms add 46919 from the first half of the fourteenth century, lard is referred to as being “soþþen in water cold” before use (hieatt and butler 1985: 55), an important step for salted lard and salted and dried bacon, but not needed for uncured meat. the soaking or boiling of bacon before use continues as a theme until after the sixteenth century. the number of cookery books i could find that date to the fifteenth century increases over previous centuries, with the number from england (13) almost that of the previous century. in the 20 books i examined from this period—beyond the 13 from england, 2 italian, 2 french, and one each prussian, german, and dutch—i located a total of 33 references to bacon and 154 references to lard or larding. throughout this period there are references to “good white lard” (chiquart 1420: 52), meaning, as previously noted, it is either fresh or has been salted and not dried. “recipes from the wagstaff miscellany” (c. 1450) gives four very helpful references asking for “ribbys of bacon” (myers 2015: 4), also “clene larde of fat of bacon” (19), “salt lard of porke” (126), and “lard hem with salt” (158), in addition to calling for bacon and lard to be soaked and in one case boiled. in noble boke off cookry, bacon and lard are referred to as being boiled and soaked (napier 1882: 88) and “salt bacon” appears several times. authors also began referencing fresh pork or fresh bacon to show that, although commonly salted, there was still call for fresh; italian authors were especially particular about whether a recipe called for fresh or salted lard or bacon, as in libro di cucina, the fifteenth century venetian cookery book (frati 1899: lxxvii). the majority of sixteenth century cookery books i examined were from the second half of the century, with one important reference to cooking bacon coming from alte kochrezepte aus dem bayerischen inntal, at the century’s beginning. here the cook is instructed to “fry it in a pan like fat bacon” (bach 2005: 11). simply frying bacon was likely still a common preparation, and “fat bacon” is likely a reference to bacon made from the belly rather than the loin. the 1553 german cookery book das kochbuch by sabina welserin, as translated by valoise armstrong, specifies that only the loin and back were considered for bacon: “according to how fat the pork is, one can use less or more, take the bacon from the back and not from the belly” (welserin 1553: armstrong translation, 23). here she also instructs the cook, when making sausages with bacon in them, to “hang them in the parlor or in the kitchen, but not in the smoke and not near the oven, so that the bacon does not melt.” between being instructed to use the less fatty cut of bacon in sausages and to keep the temperature low while they cure, it’s clear that pre-seventeenth century charcutiers understood the problems of bacon fat melting or turning rancid during the curing process (goldwyn 2016). digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 137 two cookery books, published in the late sixteenth century within three years of each other, are most important for directly discussing the production of bacon and lard. the good huswifes handmaide for the kitchin (dawson 1594, 1597) and the good huswifes jewell (dawson 1596) present multiple ways of curing and preserving lard and bacon and one method of cooking. good huswifes handmaide for the kitchin has four recipes for the “keeping of lard,” one of which is clearly specifically for bacon as it refers to not taking the “leane from the fat” (1594, 1597: 11), something that would not be an option with leaf lard, while the other three appear to be methods of keeping leaf lard without it spoiling. the leaf lard recipes are essentially brined, a method which is not recorded as being used for bacon until john harris and the “wiltshire cure” method in the 1770s (bule 2016). the bacon curing instructions in good huswifes handmaide for the kitchin (1594, 1597: 11) are: scald your hogge, and even as you dresse your bacon hogge, so dresse this: then lay it in salt, the space of three weekes or a moneth. then take it vp, and let it hang ther as in maner is no smoke: but when ye thinke it wareth moyst, let it be hanged so lowe that the heate of the fire may come to it: or els put it in an ouen when the breade is drawne out, and when ye thinke it be wel dried, take it out againe til it ware moyst again, and so ye shal keepe it wel enough three quarters of a yeare, and neuer take the leane from the fat but as ye occupie it. these instructions affirm a few principles seen in earlier texts including salting the meat, drying it, and keeping it away from smoke or heat. the good huswifes jewell makes several references to soaking and boiling bacon before use and also gives this method of preparing by frying (dawson 1596: f25r): to frie bakon. take bacon and slice it very thinne, and cut awaye the leane, and bruse it with the backe of your knife, and fry it in sweet butter, and serue it. this recipe, so similar to the method used for cooking in both canterbury tales and alte kochrezepte aus dem bayerischen inntal (bach 2005) implies that frying continued to be a common method for cooking bacon by itself rather than using it as an ingredient in a larger recipe and could be used for dressing a dish as in “enseignements qui enseingnent a apareillier toutes manieres de viandes” (myers 2005). the closet of sir kenelm digby knight opened, published in 1669, describes a method for making bacon in three steps that transitions away from medieval techniques (digby 1910: 212-213). first, rather than buried in salt as was done previously, the meat is rubbed with salt, thus having a much lower salt content, and it is layered with other pork in a tub. second, the author suggests storing the bacon in a cool place, exhibiting a concern about bacon fat going rancid. third and most important, digby’s is the first cookery book to mention explicitly that the bacon is smoked. arney, pre-17th century bacon, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 138 bacon creation the methods used in the creation of bacon are important, as we see that modern bacon is an evolution from pre-seventeenth century bacon. the key aspects to making preseventeenth century bacon, based on its description in literature and in cookery books, are salt, compression, and the method of cooking, whereas the modern evolution of bacon revolves around smoke and saltpetre. pre-seventeenth century bacon was made from the fattier cuts of pork, such as the belly and back, and the preferred location seems to vary across sources though in general bacon meant for larding was always from the belly, and was tough and woody before being softened in water. photos 1-2: fresh pork belly before salting (l) and after salting (r). calgary, ab, march 11 & 28, 2018. photos here & following: noah arney. from the literary and cookery book sources we see that bacon was created by being covered in salt, and likely compressed, until it was dry, then it was removed and either used or hung to dry further. prior to use the bacon was soaked in water to rehydrate it and remove some of the salt, or the salted bacon was used in a dish providing both salt and meat. until the end of the sixteenth century it was not smoked, but by the time it was, smoking it was still rare. saltpetre was not used in the production of bacon before to gain a better understanding of the process of creating bacon, as mentioned earlier, i experimented with various adaptations of the pre-seventeenth century bacon-making methods i had viewed in cookery books. based on the results of those experiments and with the help of key secondary sources, i learned a great deal about the salting, layering, and cooking techniques, and the effects of smoking and adding saltpetre. salting: salting is key to the process of curing meat, and it was used on most meats besides pork, as well as fish, as one of the more common preservation methods. salting allowed for the preservation, storage, and transport of meat without refrigeration, and was in common use from pre-classical times—the curing of pork is well known as early as roman gaul (tannahill 1989: 176). there are several different ways of salting meats: coating in salt, temporary packing in salt, partial packing in salt, and long-term packing in salt, as well as several different brining methods. the primary method for curing bacon, as discussed earlier, was temporary packing in salt followed by drying. the meat was generally stored in a watertight cask, or doliis in latin (ridgard 1985: 29), as is supported by lieber cure cocorum, written between 1420 and 1440, when it specifies: “and do hit in a barel þenne. þe barel staf ful as i þe kenne” (and do it in a barrel then. the barrel stuffed full as possible; morris 1862: 34). this method is faster and more effective than simply drying the meat (james 2009), as the plasmolysis caused by the salt is rapid enough to prevent harmful bacteria from growing and allows the meat to be stored safely. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 139 two different kinds of salt were used: sea salt, then called bay or gross salt, and white or rock salt. sea salt appears to have been the cheaper variety especially in england (woolgar 2006: 182). sea salt was produced all along the coast in western europe and frequently “contained many impurities,” so it was mainly used for curing or was refined by “redissolving, filtering, and evaporating it a second time” (adamson 2004: 26). sea salt “sold for half the price of good white salt,” while rock salt was of better quality, mined then dissolved and refined through evaporation (tannahill 1989: 177). when rock salt was used in salting meat it was normally mixed with large amounts of the poorer quality bay salt to decrease the cost (woolgar 2006: 182-183). from my experimentation, there is no difference in the final product regardless of the salt used. with the more impure pre-seventeenth century sea salt the impurities may have changed the flavour slightly. photos 3-5. salt layering process of packing pork for curing. later experiments also included adding weight for compression. calgary, march 11, 2018. layering for compression: the layering of meat to increase compression and force out more of the water is found in several references but most especially le ménagier de paris, as mentioned earlier (pichon 1846). the layering of bacon to increase compression is still done today, likely for the same reason—“due to the weight of the rubbed meat cuts, the pressure within the pile is higher at the bottom of the container”— resulting “in faster liquid loss and salt infiltration” (heinz and hautzinger 2007: 173). photos 6-7. pork belly drying: (l) after salting, with the loose salt washed off. february 18, 2016. (above) after several weeks of drying in temperature-controlled environment. february 28, 2016. arney, pre-17th century bacon, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 140 cooking: bacon cured using the pre-seventeenth century method typically must be rehydrated and desalted before use—except for when it may be used as the source of salt in the dish. in my experimentations using the pre-seventeenth century methods, i found the cured and dried result hard and woody to the touch, with its outside fat tinged slightly yellow, much as is described in le ménagier (photos 6-7). i found that boiling water sped the rehydrating time from 8 hours, or overnight, to about 60 to 90 minutes, but it also pulled more flavor from the meat (photos 8-9). photos 8-9: rehydration test in an early experiment: before (l), march 28, and after (r), april 2018, calgary. when i tested soaking already cut individual strips with soaking a slab of bacon before it was cut into strips, i preferred the flavor and ease of slicing the bacon when i boiled the slab (photos 10-11). photo 10: rehydration test bacon before cooking.calgary, february 28, 2016. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 141 photo 11: rehydration test bacon after cooking. calgary, february 28, 2016. to cook just the bacon, i followed instructions in the good huswifes jewell to “fry it in sweet butter” (dawson 1596: f25r), finding the result flavorful and a bit salty, but not unpleasantly so (photo 12). when i experimented with adding sugar to the salt during the curing process, i found that the soaking removes the sweetness of the sugar completely, offering no benefit to the taste, much to my disappointment. photo 12. cooking in butter. calgary, april 7, 2018. arney, pre-17th century bacon, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 142 smoking & saltpetre: modern bacon is nearly always smoked and almost always uses a “curing salt” or nitrates, in addition to regular salt. in my experimentation i used curing salt in my earliest versions. the meat was slightly pinker than in my later versions, but there was no other difference between bacon made with salt and nitrates and then dried, and bacon made with just salt and then dried. the use of nitrates decreases the total amount of salt needed to inhibit the growth of clostridium bacteria (jackson et al. 2011: 410), but with the quantities of salt called for in the preseventeenth century version it has little impact. smoking results in a dark brown or black look on the outside, with a nice pink color of the flesh inside, compared to the yellowed exterior fat of the non-smoked version, as noted in le ménagier in the late fourteenth century. while sausages have been smoked for centuries longer than bacon, two sixteenth-century cookery book instructions for sausages that contain bacon as an ingredient specifically caution not to smoke them. in welserin’s 1553 book, the cook is instructed to “hang them [sausages] in the parlor or in the kitchen, but not in the smoke and not near the oven, so that the bacon does not melt” (welserin: armstrong translation, 23), and in 1594 the good huswifes handmaide for the kitchin (11) comes the direction “then take it vp, and let it hang ther as in maner is no smoke.” the reason appears to be that the heat can melt the bacon’s fat, or even cause it to go rancid. the first cookery book referring to smoking bacon appears in 1669 but the first evidence for smoked bacon doesn't come from a cookery book at all. in 1598 john florio wrote an italian-english dictionary called a worlde of wordes. in it he defines the following word: “affumare, to besmoke, to dry in the smoke as baken is, or blote as hearings” (florio: 10). his advice is contrary to that in the good huswifes handmaide for the kitchin that warns against it. perhaps what we see here are differences in the two authors’ audiences. florio was a tutor to earls and their families, and later to the royal family, and was writing for the wealthiest of the nobility, while dawson, the author of handmaide, was writing not for the nobility proper but for “gentry and husbandmen” (fumerton 1991: 241), as well as yeomen, professionals, merchants, and their families. in order to smoke bacon safely, temperature control must be maintained or the meat will turn rancid be ruined. the risk of losing a side of bacon would have been too costly an error for the non-wealthy to risk, whereas the wealthier would have had much more elaborate kitchens to smoke bacon safely and not be financially burdened if the bacon turned rancid—and they would also thus know the delicious flavor and improved color that smoke brings to bacon. similar to peter brears (2008), i have also found no use of saltpetre in english cookery books before the seventeenth century.5 although some have argued that there may have been enough nitrate concentration in the salt used to act as an agent in the curing process (keeton 2017: 86-87), no evidence has yet been put forward to substantiate this claim. food safety before modern food safety methods were created there were many ways of determining whether or not bacon was safe to eat. in epulario, or the italian banquet (1598), giovanne de rosselli mentions “if you wil know when a gammon is good, thrust a knife in the middell of it, and if the knife being pulled out smelleth, it is good: if to the digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 143 contrary, it is not good” (16). this basic smell test is expanded much later in 1780, when the farmer’s wife; or complete country housewife was published, explaining that “if in ten days or a fortnight any of the pieces do not feel hard to the touch, you must rub some more salt upon them. in three weeks the pork will be fit for use” (hogg: 30). the bacon shouldn’t smell “off” at all, especially after cutting into it, and it should be hard to the touch. during my experimentation i used the above methods for determining if the bacon was safe, but i also followed modern food safety precautions. using the packing in salt method for creating bacon, the primary curing process occurs during the first seven days, and the meat loses over 20 percent of its moisture content in the first three days of curing (jin, et al. 2010: 468). after the first week of curing, the temperature control is not as crucial, since the meat’s water activity level is significantly lower, and it should be at the shelf stable stage (canadian food inspection agency 2014: 4.16.3). it thus can be kept at room temperature with adequate protection from the environment. a product that has been packed in salt or saturated in salt is also considered shelf stable (canadian food inspection agency 2014: 4.13.2). thus bacon can be safely cured and dried in the pre-seventeenth century manner without refrigeration, if the meat is kept below 10 degrees centigrade (50 degrees fahrenheit) during the primary curing process, particularly the first week. after the full curing time, three to four weeks based on the good huswifes handmaide for the kitchin (dawson 1594: 11), the meat can be safely removed from the salt and dried at any temperature below 20 degrees centigrade (68 degrees fahrenheit) as it is now shelf stable. conclusions modern bacon curing methods begin their history in 1755 with saltpetre, sugar, and smoke (cleland 1755: 42). medieval and pre-seventeenth century bacon, however, was quite different as can be seen in cookery books and other materials from the medieval and early modern periods in western europe. while it would be identifiable today as bacon, it was much drier, prepared using only large quantities of salt, it was dried after being salted, and was generally rehydrated in water before being used. pork in general, and bacon in particular, were major foods consumed by all classes of people from at least the twelfth to the sixteenth century due to their low cost and ease of preservation. bacon during these centuries was likely made from the loin or belly of the pig, much as modern bacon is, but the curing was achieved by covering it in large amounts of salt, layering it to increase compression, and drawing out all moisture before hanging it to finish drying. pre-seventeenth century bacon would have been shelf stable and could be stored anywhere at or under room temperature. unlike modern bacon there was no use of either sugar or saltpetre. there is no evidence for smoking as part of the process until the end of the sixteenth century and then only by people who could afford the risk of losing the meat in the process. this research focused chiefly on bacon in england with some information coming from france, germany, and italy. further research to investigate whether it was manufactured differently outside of england, and also how it fits into the larger world of charcuterie would be beneficial as well. research in the area of medieval and early modern food security may benefit from this analysis as well, as it explains the methods by which a food we now consider to be prone to spoilage remained such a reliable mainstay of the english diet. in the future, i aim to experiment with pre-seventeenth century recipes that use bacon heavily, such as in larding, to see how the type of bacon used at the time makes the food taste. arney, pre-17th century bacon, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 144 references cited:6 cookery books & manuscripts adamson, melitta weiss. 2000. daz booch von guoter spise (the book of good food). a study, edition, and english translation of the oldest german cookbook. krems. bach, volker, trans. 2005. alte kochrezepte aus dem bayerischen inntal (c. 1500). donaueschinger hofbibliothek cod. 793. bavaria?, germany. stefan’s florilegium, inntal-art http://www.florilegium.org/files/food-manuscripts/inntal-art.html . see also danner, berthilde, ed. 1970. alte kochrezepte aus dem bayerischen inntal. ostbairische grenzmarken: passauer jahrbuch für geschichte, kunst und volkskunde 12: 118-128. beeton, isabella. 1861. the book of household management. england: s. o. beeton. available in free online formats from project gutenberg at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10136. chiquart, maistre, with jehan de dudens, clerk. 1420. du fait de cuysine. translation by elizabeth cook, david d. friedman medieval/cookbooks web pages, 2020, http://daviddfriedman.com/medieval/cookbooks/du_fait_de_cuisine/du_fait_de_c _contents.html and http://www.daviddfriedman.com/medieval/cookbooks/du_fait_de_cuisine/du_fait _de_cuisine.html . cleland, elizabeth. 1755. a new and easy method of cookery. edinburgh: printed by w. gordon et al. new york public library https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433056927241 and hathitrust https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433056927241&view=1up&seq=2 . dawson, thomas [?]. 1594, 1597. the good huswifes handmaide for the kitchin. london: richard jones, printer. digital text and notes by sam wallace, 2006, updated 2011, justus-liebig-universität giessen, https://www.unigiessen.de/fbz/fb05/germanistik/absprache/sprachverwendung/gloni ng/ghhk/handmaide.htm , which is also posted through foods of england 2018, http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/book1594huswife.htm . ——. 1596. the good huswifes jewell. 2nd ed. london: printed by [e. allde] for edward white. digital version from early english books online, proquest 2019, of text at henry e. huntington library and art gallery, e.g. https://www-proquest com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/2240863001/fulltextpdf/576284927c6e445cp q/1?accountid=465 or https://www.proquest.com/docview/2240863001/cac528dd682346bepq/1 . de leone, compiler. 1345-1354. daz bouch von guoter spise. würzburg, germany. translated into english as “ein buch von guter spise” by alia atlas, 1993, from the german transcription in an 1844 edition. medieval cookery. http://www.medievalcookery.com/etexts/buch.html . digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 145 de rosselli, giovanne. 1598. epulario, or the italian banquet. london: adam islip. university of michigan, ann arbor, early english books online text creation partnership, 2011, http://name.umdl.umich.edu/a00309.0001.001 . digby, kenelm, and anne macdonell, ed. 1910. the closet of sir kenelm digby knight opened (1669). london: philip lee warner. available in free online formats from project gutenberg at: project gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16441 . frati, ludovico, ed. 1899. libro di cucina del secolo xiv. livorno: r. giusti. gloning, thomas, transcriber. 1998. enseignements qui enseingnent a apareillier toutes manieres de viandes. in la battaile du caresme et de charnage, edited by grégoire lozinski, 181-187. paris: ancienne librairie honoré champion, 1933. original gloning version, 1304-1314. bibliothèque nationale de france, ms latin 7131, fol. 99va. justusliebig-universität giessen https://www.unigiessen.de/fbz/fb05/germanistik/absprache/sprachverwendung/gloni ng/tx/1300ens.htm . hieatt, constance b., and sharon butler. 1985. curye on inglysch: english culinary manuscripts of the fourteenth century (including the forme of cury). early english text society, ss.8. london and toronto: oxford university press. hieatt, constance b, and robin f. jones. 1986. two anglo-norman culinary collections edited from british library manuscripts, additional 32085 and royal 12.c.xii. speculum 61 (4): 859-882. https://doi.org/10.2307/2853971 . hogg, alex., printing. 1780. the farmer’s wife, or, complete country housewife. london. elizabeth robins pennell collection, library of congress, washington, dc: online catalog, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/pennell.75162 and https://www.loc.gov/item/74175162/. markham, gervase [marchan, gervacé]. 1649. the english house-wife. london: printed by b. alsop, katherine golden bitting collection on gastronomy, library of congress, washington dc: online catalog http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/bitting.28418 and https://www.loc.gov/item/44028418/. marriott, wm. h. 1853. recipe for curing bacon. the american farmer; devoted to agriculture, horticulture and rural life 9: 6 (december): 192-193. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x002234394. master-cooks of king richard ii. c. 1390. the forme of cury. john rylands university library, english ms 7, manchester, england. may, robert. 1685. 5th ed. the accomplisht cook, or the art & mystery of cookery. london: printed at the bear and star for obadiah blagrave. project gutenberg scans of public domain works from biblioteca de la universitat de barcelona, http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22790 . morris, richard, ed. [1420-1440] 1862. liber cure cocorum: copied and edited from the sloan ms. 1986. berlin: a. asher & co. for the philological society (great britain). arney, pre-17th century bacon, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 146 university of michigan library, ann arbor, corpus of middle english prose and verse https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/cme00146 and https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/cme00146?rgn=main;view=fulltext . myers, daniel, trans. 2005. enseignements qui enseingnent a apareillier toutes manieres de viandes [1300], based on transcription by thomas gloning. medieval cookery, 2020, http://www.medievalcookery.com/notes/lessons.html . original gloning version, bibliothèque nationale de france, ms lat. 7131, fol. 99va. ——. 2015. recipes from the wagstaff miscellany (beinecke ms 163), 56r-76v. medieval cookery http://www.medievalcookery.com/notes/wagstaff.txt, based on facsimile of original now digitally available: wagstaff miscellany (c. 1450). england. yale university library, beineke rare book & manuscript library, beinecke ms 163, 2019. https://brbldl.library.yale.edu/vufind/record/3432728 . napier, alexander, ed. 1882. a noble boke off cookry. london: elliot stock. pegge, samuel, ed. 1780. the forme of cury, a roll of ancient english cookery, compiled, about a.d. 1390. london: j. nichols, society of antiquaries. elizabeth robins pennell collection, library of congress, washington dc: online catalog https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbc0001.2010pennell31282/ and https://www.loc.gov/item/44031282/. pichon, jerome, ed. 1846. le ménagier de paris [c. 1393]. translated by janet hinson, with additional notes by hinson, david friedman, and elizabeth cook, david d. freeman medieval/cookbooks web pages, 2016, http://www.daviddfriedman.com/medieval/cookbooks/menagier/menagier.html . see also the good wife’s guide (le ménagier de paris): a medieval household book, translated by gina l. greco and christine m. rose. ithaca, ny: cornell university press, 2009. scully, terrence, ed. 1988. the viander of taillevent. university of ottaway press, 1988. t.c., printer. 1656. the compleat cook. expertly prescribing the most ready wayes, whether, italian, spanish, or french, for dressing of flesh, and fish, ordering of sauces or making of pastry. london: t.c. for nath. brook. katherine golden bitting collection on gastronomy. library of congress https://lccn.loc.gov/44022420, digital form at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/bitting.22420 and https://www.loc.gov/item/44022420/. welserin, sabina, 1553. “das kochbuch der sabina welserin,” handwritten manuscript, augsburg, translated by valoise armstrong, 1998. david d. friedman medieval/ cookbooks web pages, 2016, http://daviddfriedman.com/medieval/cookbooks/sabrina_welserin.html . other primary sources chaucer, geoffrey, and larry d. benson, ed. 1987. the riverside chaucer, 3rd edition. boston: houghton mifflin. della porta, giambattista. 1658. natural magick. london: printed for thomas young and samuel speed. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/a55484.0001.001 digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 147 florio, john. 1598. a worlde of wordes. london: printed by arnold hatfield for edw. blount. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/a00991.0001.001/; for digital version of page, see also https://www.resolutejohnflorio.com/2019/09/19/a-world-of-words/#19read-a-world-of-words-here . kane, george, ed. 1988. piers plowman: the a version. london: athlone press. william langland. late 14th century-16th century. the vision of piers plowman, c version. london. british library. add 35157. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/piersplowman . simancas: april 1588, 21-30. in calendar of state papers, spain (simancas), volume 4, 1587-1603, ed. martin a. s. hume, 269-275. london: her majesty’s stationery office, 1899. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/simancas/vol4/pp269-275 . tusser, thomas, and william payne and sidney j.h. herrtage, eds. [1573-1580] 1878. five hundred pointes of good husbandrie: the edition of 1580 collated with those of 1573 and 1577. together with a reprint, from the unique copy in the british museum, of “a hundredth good pointes of husbandrie,” 1577, ed. william payne and sidney j. h. herrtage. london: published for the english dialect society by trübner & co, 1878. hathitrust digital library copy of university microfilms, ann arbor, authorized facsimile, 1969, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.a0005629381. wright, thomas. 1839. the political songs of england. london: printed by j. b. nichols and son for the camden society. government documents canadian food inspection agency. 2014. meat hygiene manual of procedures. ottawa, ontario: government of canada. https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food-safety-forindustry/archived-food-guidance/meat-and-poultry-products/manual-ofprocedures/eng/1300125426052/1300125482318. heinz, gunter, and peter hautzinger. 2007. meat processing technology for small to medium-scale producers. bangkok: food and agriculture organization of the united nations, regional office for asia and the pacific (rap) 20, http://www.fao.org/3/aai407e.pdf . north american meat institute. 2016. meat curing and sodium nitrite. fact sheet, washington dc: north american meat institute. secondary sources adamson, melitta weiss. 2004. food in medieval times. westport, connecticut: greenwood press. albala, ken. 2003. food in early modern europe. london: greenwood press. brears, peter. 2008. cooking and dining in medieval england. devon: prospect books. arney, pre-17th century bacon, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 148 bule, guise. 2016. the history of bacon. the english breakfast society. http://www.englishbreakfastsociety.com/history-of-bacon.html . dickens, bruce. 1935. seynd bacoun. leeds studies in english and kindred languages 4: 76-77. https://archive.org/details/lse-1935-whole-issue. dikeman, michael, and carrick devine, eds. 2014. encyclopedia of meat sciences, vol. 1. 2nd edition. london: elsevier. dobrowolski, pawel t. 1988. food purchases of a traveling nobleman: the accounts of the earl of derby, 1390-1393. food and foodways 2 (3): 289-308. fumerton, patricia. 1991. cultural aesthetics: renaissance literature and the practice of social ornament. chicago: university of chicago press. goldwyn, meathead. 2014. basic meat science for cooks. accessed 2016, last modified 2019. amazingribs. http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/meat_science.html . horowitz, roger. 2005. putting meat on the american table: taste, technology, transformation. baltimore, md: johns hopkins university press. iomaire, máirtín mac con, and pádraic óg gallagher. 2011. irish corned beef: a culinary history. journal of culinary science & technology 9 (1): 27-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/15428052.2011.558464. jackson, armitra l., gary a. sullivan, charlwit kulchaiyawat, joseph g. sebranek, and james s. dickson. 2011. survival and growth of clostridium 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https://doi.org/10.1080/07409710.2001.9962104. notaker, henry. 2010. printed cookbooks in europe, 1470–1700. new castle, de: oak knoll press. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 149 oed online. 2020. gammon, n.1. oxford english dictionary. london: oxford university press. continually updated at http://www.oed.com. ridgard, john. 1985. medieval framlingham. dover, new hampshire: boydell press. tannahill, reay. 1989. food in history. new york: three rivers press. twemlow, j. a. 1921. the etymology of “bay-salt.” the english historical review, 36 (142): 214-218. https://www.jstor.org/stable/552295. van tonder, eben. 2016. bacon curing—a historical review. earthworm express. may 31. https://earthwormexpress.com/functional-ingredients/bacon-curing-a-historicalreview/. wittig, joseph, ed. 2001. piers plowman: concordance. london: the athlone press. woolgar, c. m., d. serjeantson, and t. waldron. 2006. food in medieval england: diet and nutrition. oxford: oxford university press. notes: 1 piers plowman exists in fifty manuscripts, which fall into three different extant versions, called a, b, and c (langland, late 14th century-16th century). 2 dickens (1935) suggests an alternative translation for “seynd” as “fatty” rather than the common translation of “smoked” or “singed,” basing his interpretation on modern use of the term “seym’dup” in northumberland and the word “saindoux” in french. 3 the original as transcribed by thomas gloning: “por gravé de menus oiseaus – se vos volez fere gravé de menus oiseaus, metez les oiseaus cuire en un pot tout assec ovec charbonnees de lart, e i metez vin e eve e poivre e gingembre, e tenez bien couvert que l’alaine ne s’en isse devant que tout soit cuit” (gloning 1998). 4 although le viandier de taillevent is from the same period it is limited in its description of bacon beyond calling for its use as strips (scully 1988). 5 the earliest english culinary use is in natural magick by giambattista della porta, translated into english in 1658. della porta recommends using it to help create a type of wine slush. an edition of samuel pegge’s the forme of cury does include the ingredient “gret salt of peite” (1780: 112) but this likely refers to bay salt coming from peitou (twemlow 1921: 214-216). 6 all online sources accessed during research and writing-editing phases have been checked and are curent as of january 18, 2021. microsoft word castleman-food shame-final 2-12-21.docx digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 109-127 © american folklore society 2021 pride and food shame in southern appalachia1 samantha castleman ____________________________________________________________ abstract: through interviews with western north carolinians and an analysis of the discourse in online articles, this essay first argues for the importance of foodways research into one insular culinary practice by acknowledging its use in community identity formation. livermush, a square, sausage-like product made of pig liver, face meat, and cornmeal, is closely related to scrapple but only available in the western portion of north carolina. often when locals try to introduce the food to others they are met with disgust, causing shame for the food and the community who eats it. this essay examines food shaming reactions to livermush both in person and in print to detail how capitalizing on these negative judgments has allowed locals to manifest representations of regional pride that are changing the tradition by allowing livermush to be used both as an ordinary food and a reason for celebration. keywords: livermush, pork, thrift, food shame, community festivals, north carolina, regional foods postmodern food studies scholars have often examined questions of identity and how personhood may be influenced by what an individual eats, as food is an important philosophical subject that structures what counts as a person in a given culture (curtin 1992: 4). foodways studies grounded in theories of “the biformity of eating behavior” as both a social and individual activity demonstrate the importance of vernacular food traditions in the creation of community and personal identity, illustrating the relationship between geographic place, food, and community (bronner 1981: 122). as blake, mellor, and crane point out, “place . . . cannot be alienated from the food system as a marker but rather is part of the food system helping to define what foods are consumed and how people value and engage with those foods” (blake 2010: 412, emphasis added). maine lobster (lewis 1999), the pasties of michigan’s upper peninsula (lockwood and lockwood 1999), and louisiana’s crawfish (gutierrez 1992), foods that are still associated with their regional origin when consumed elsewhere, all exemplify ways in which regional cuisine becomes geographically symbolic. similarly, the southern united states as a geographic and cultural region is often cited for its culinary traditions, most notably dishes like biscuits, fried chicken, and sweet tea. while these dishes are considered by many to be the height of culinary excellence, other regional foods that may be less aesthetically pleasing are overlooked to emphasize more approachable items. disregarded culinary traditions are often based in poverty or made from ingredients not widely accepted as appetizing. less appealing dishes are often not awarded the same attention in public discourse as their more tourist-friendly counterparts, but when they are, the focus is commonly in the guise of “extreme” food experimentation that capitalizes on an abject fascination with products that are both intriguing and revolting. foods like tripe that do “not respect borders, positions, rules” (kristeva 1982: 4) of what counts as edible in a given system represent the attraction to the abject, which “turns [rules] aside, misleads, corrupts; uses them, takes advantage of castleman, pride and food-shame, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 110 them, the better to deny them” (15). by experiencing extreme and unknown foods, outsiders may experiment with their own understandings of culture and propriety. food has proven highly symbolic and often figures in public discourse to construct nostalgic visions of heritage. associating local foodways with idealized narratives of “the olden days” in turn encourages regional tourist capital initiatives that profit from visitors looking for a distraction from their modern, mechanized lives. often, however, the traditional nature of these dishes, such as their ingredients or cooking method, are no longer commonly in practice, making the dish appear exotic and challenging to eaters. in addition to heritage tourism, then, consuming traditional foods that deviate from mainstream standards of palatability has in many ways become an extreme sport, creating culinary tourism that emphasizes their unique ingredients or cooking methods. both strands of tourism allow the local economy to profit. foods exoticized as “extreme” by gastronomic media presently include livermush, a dish specific to the piedmont and southern appalachian region of western north carolina. a square, sausage-like product made of pig liver, face meat, and cornmeal that are boiled down into a thick, stew-like mixture and poured into a loaf pan to cool for slicing and frying, livermush is closely related to scrapple (cohen 2015). a common breakfast option akin to bacon or sausage, although more peppery than both, livermush has a dark brown crunchy outer crust with a smooth light brown center and is often served with egg and cheese on a biscuit or toast (see photo 1), although some prefer grape jelly for the combination of sweet and savory flavors. photo 1: homemade livermush biscuit with fried egg on top. lenoir, nc, march 10, 2019. photo: paula castleman. although there are close cultural and, especially in north carolina, geographical similarities between “southern” and “mountainous” regions, there are important distinctions between the two, and the dish should not necessarily be considered a digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 111 “mountain food.” despite its appropriation by those in the southern appalachian mountains, its history is based in white communities, many of german descent, in the state’s flat piedmont region. perhaps due to its lack of visibility, almost no studies have been completed on the importance of this food to the local community. lucy long’s entry on livermush in jonathan deutsch’s we eat what?: a cultural encyclopedia of unusual foods in the united states is attentive to both the history of the dish and its racial specificity that excludes african-american communities (2018: 203). a north carolina native and foodways scholar, long claims that “livermush is sometimes called ‘liver pudding’ and is sometimes confused with other types of liver puddings, headcheese, liverwurst, scrapple, and similar sausage-like mixtures,” placing the food within a larger gastronomic context, and acknowledging the confusion these differing products present. yet this observation effectively conglomerates the differences in food products that vary by ingredient and cooking method, asserting their similarities without recognizing their variances. although a member of the same culinary family, the starch mixed with the organ meat varies by dish, a topic due further examination. that south carolina liver pudding is composed of rice instead of the cornmeal of its northern neighbor, for example, is in part a consequence of differing food production geographies with similarly localized crop reliance. although rice is a gastronomic staple in the marshy eastern regions of north and south carolina, prior to industrialization its availability in the mountains, where corn was more plentiful, was limited. through interviews with north carolinians and an analysis of the discourse on livermush online, i argue for the importance of foodways research into this insular culinary practice by acknowledging its use in community identity formation. i examine both in-person and in-print narratives of food-shaming reactions to livermush to detail how capitalizing on these negative judgments has allowed locals to manifest representations of regional pride that are changing the tradition by constructing a celebratory festival practice. methods this essay draws on fieldwork completed in fall 2017 for a “foodways and literature” course at the university of louisiana at lafayette where i investigated the media rhetoric surrounding my favorite food. i began my research by searching online for the term “livermush” and asking family and friends from north carolina to send me any publications where livermush was mentioned. by narrowing my focus to sources that discussed livermush directly, i compiled a small corpus that informed my study: seven print articles including titles such as “livermush is king” (bashor 2015), “the liver mush mystique” (clevenger 2016), “everything you need to know about scrapple” (cohen 2015), and “every state’s grossest food” (fulton 2017); an episode of bizarre foods, a discovery travel channel reality show in which the host travels to “exotic” locations sampling the local food and experiencing the culture in which it was created (zimmern 2014); and a youtube video called “how to make livermush” based off popular cooking how-to shows. because the published reviews did not strongly depict the relationship between livermush and the community, i found it necessary to give voice to local perceptions of the food. i recorded interviews with seven individuals who i knew were familiar with livermush and who consented to being referenced by name in this project. three of castleman, pride and food-shame, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 112 these, john, jeff, and annie, were interviewed as livermush fans who had left north carolina. a fourth, peter, was suggested to me by another, paula, because he was an outsider who had recently moved into the area. delbert, judy, and paula, who have each lived all their lives in caldwell county, north carolina, were able to provide thoughts from the perspective of locals deeply entrenched in the culture. their specific relationship—paula is delbert and judy’s oldest daughter—further allowed me to investigate the generational nature of the food. my analysis is based on comparing the comments of locals to the rhetoric surrounding the food in popular media. by scanning and comparing the interview responses and media for keywords, i could see that the theme most often emphasized by media outlets is the notion of heritage and family that is relied on to create local livermush festivals and, in recent years, generate tourist capital. the perception of livermush that has led to its festival nature is one carefully constructed by the media, reinventing the tradition into a celebratory one that can contribute to local economic growth. it is not, however, what members of the community find most important: the regional history of economic struggle which they see as the impetus behind the creation of the dish. livermush and interpersonal community building in the words of andrew zimmern, host of bizarre foods, livermush represents a “microregional food tradition” due to its small geographic availability. one north carolina journalist writes, “draw a line through mecklenburg county northwest to guilford and rockingham counties. if you grew up west of that line, you know livermush” (bashor 2015), highlighting the food’s relation to place as described by michael owen jones (2007: 134). this boundary, established by someone familiar with north carolina geography and the livermush tradition (photo 2), sets apart only onethird of the state’s landmass—the western portion of the state that includes part of the piedmont and the foothills and appalachian regions. photo 2. map of north carolina counties with line added by author to represent bashor’s description (2015) of where livermush is eaten. map: amy rudersdorf (2010). the history of livermush is based in piedmont pig farming, where livermush has remained a staple of the community, even as the balance of local industries has changed. the low cost of raising pigs and the myriad uses of their organs and flesh made hog farming not only the predominant source of income in the region, but the most sustainable source of food as well. it was in finding new methods to preserve the meat digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 113 that livermush was created. as industrialized furniture production increased the nation’s need for wood, western north carolina residents who had traditionally worked as farmers had transitioned into the more lucrative lumber sector. the number and size of individual family farms lessened with the formation of the mega-farm system common today, diminishing the importance of hog farming in western part of the state. the lumber industry, and the ancillary industry of furniture making, were important to the economy until 2008. with the global recession, furniture making has moved overseas, leaving the local economy weak. originally livermush was only cooked in the home by farmers and their families, but in the 1920s two family-run piedmont companies, jenkins’ and hunter’s, began massproducing and supplying it to local grocery stores. this industrialization altered the dish’s consumption patterns, making it more readily available to a wider market, but not to the extent of other mass-produced common products like canned goods. most north carolina families now purchase pre-made livermush loaves (see photo 3) to slice and fry in their own homes. in the western part of the state, working class eateries like diners and gas station food stands serve the dish along major highways. while it may be easier for families to cook livermush, since it no longer requires the time or room to boil a pig’s head, neither jenkins’ nor hunter’s supplies livermush outside of western north carolina. their products can be shipped out of state on direct order, but the cost outweighs the economic value of the dish itself.2 although the mass production of livermush is historically linked to piedmont region towns around charlotte, the liminal nature of foothills counties like caldwell, burke, and lincoln, which are located closer to the base of the mountains than they are to the piedmont plateau, means these communities experience a mingling of mountain and piedmont culture and are exposed to both regions’ economic systems. the location of roadside livermush vendors allows the dish to travel along major thoroughfares, away from its home in the piedmont to more mountainous locales. consumers purchasing quick, cheap meals on the run can experience the economic viability of livermush and can tell others of the dish along their route. it seems, however, that livermush has only expanded into the state’s mountainous region. north carolina maps that separate the state into geographic regions make no photo 3. blocks of livermush sold by the pound alongside other breakfast meats like sausage at a local grocery store. lenoir, nc, march 10, 2019. photo: paula castleman. castleman, pride and food-shame, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 114 mention of the foothills; instead, counties that self-identify as such are divided by mapmakers between the mountain and piedmont zones according to their proximity to the appalachian mountains. like the dish itself, many of the communities who eat it are unnoticed in mainstream discourse and annexed into the larger systems around them, muting the specificity of the region. area tourism and the outward migration of the younger generation have marked clearly where the food is eaten and where it is not. with a growing tourist industry based in activities like skiing and hiking, appalachian residents have increasingly come face-toface with outsiders who respond ambivalently to the food, and those who have left the region have to negotiate the shock of learning not everyone eats livermush the first time they look for it at their new local grocery.3 as locals begin to navigate interactions with people unfamiliar with the food, one thing becomes clear: livermush belongs to western north carolina. this regional specificity makes livermush valuable for foodways research. despite the mechanization of its production, diffusion of the food has largely stalled out, due possibly to its “ugly” appearance, as one interlocutor called it, and its distasteful sounding name. the food simply looks and sounds unappetizing and so is often overlooked by those who are unfamiliar with it. for residents who have left the state, consuming the food induces a nostalgia for a geographic place and a specific time, recalling memories of childhood and suggesting the important social uses of the food. the longevity of livermush consumption, which is commonly passed generationally, demonstrates its importance to group identity formation. the habitus that has been created and maintained through family transmission—described by christiane paponnet-cantat as “a set of attitudes ingrained in agents so early that they internalize predispositions such as food tastes that become rooted in their national identity as cultural capital”—is clear when speaking with locals, especially in a subregional sense (2003: 12). while no one seems to remember how they learned about the food, western north carolinians stress livermush as inherent to their culture. passed from family member to family member, it has offered physical and financial stability in otherwise turbulent times. most of those i interviewed emphasized the impoverished nature of the region. this theme is so significant that it is often privileged over memories of initial experiences trying livermush—locals may not remember the first time they ate it, but they can tell you why it was created, and they know it’s usually eaten with family. annie, who now works as a plaintiff’s attorney in coastal south carolina, states, “it would be like asking me the first time i drank orange juice,” claiming no memory of her first experience eating livermush but acknowledging its common appearance as a meal throughout her childhood. delbert and judy, now grandparents in their seventies, echo this sentiment, claiming respectively, “i grew up with it, i don’t remember,” and “that was something we just always had.” their daughter paula notes, “it’s just always been there,” and has become to her an emblem of the value of thrift. this cultural habitus illustrates the importance of family tradition. while locals may not be able to identify when they learned about livermush, family heritage is commonly cited as explanation. annie’s husband, jeffrey, an elementary school guidance counselor, claims his mother enjoys livermush “more than anybody else” in his family, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 115 but also cites his grandmother as a consumer, presenting the multigenerational aspects of foodways. judy echoes this tradition, stating not only did both of her parents eat it, but “they grew up eating it too.” by intentionally connecting the consumption of livermush to family heritage, my western north carolinian interlocuters emphasize its importance to community stability. passing on culinary traditions is one way families socialize children into a culture. as henderson explains, “either explicitly and consciously or implicitly and unconsciously, adults teach children foodways that are often associated with their ethnic identity” (2007: 82). introducing the dish to children at a young age allows parents to provide cost-effective meals for the family and encourage children to internalize the necessity of thrift. such lessons start early. when “i wanted livermush for dinner one night,” around 30 years ago, paula, the oldest daughter of delbert and judy, first served it to her daughter, who was “only a year or two old” at the time. john, a new father in his late twenties, happily admits he’s already introduced his son to livermush despite now living in iowa, and claims “so far he likes it” even if he’s not quite two years old. the accessibility and low cost of livermush that contribute to its popularity symbolize important cultural attitudes like the value of thrift and hard work. livermush sandwiches and biscuits are available in minutes for only a few dollars, requiring little investment of time or money. the locations of its vendors further suggest the relationship of livermush to a community that is struggling economically. unlike fine dining establishments, places that offer livermush are often older family-owned buildings in need of repair. rather than the sensory experience of haute cuisine, livermush is important to the community because it fulfills the necessity of thrift. the cost-effective appeal of livermush was emphasized by my interlocutors. judy informed me that livermush was “an important local food” because it had “saved a lot of people from starving” during regional economic hardships. jeffery similarly referred to livermush as “poor people food” and peter and paula both mentioned the financially destitute nature of the area as a reason for the food’s consumption. while peter only described caldwell county as a “very poor environment,” paula was more specific, characterizing local residents as “low-income, scrambling to get by and fighting to make ends meet.” the two agreed that while livermush had historically been used to benefit from all available natural materials, today it maintains its popularity because mass production has continued the tradition of thrift. although based in a piedmont-area pig farming tradition and the “snout to tail” method of consumption inspired by limited access to resources, the industrialization of the food market has not deterred the transmission of livermush but rather increased its accessibility. the contemporary push for sustainable eating among elite “foodies” has further enhanced the acceptability of animal parts that had previously been considered unpalatable by those with means, allowing its appropriation as a tourist attraction. my interlocuters’ comments illustrate the importance of livermush as a fixture in the community’s foodways and confirm western north carolinians’ comfort with the “strange” nature of the dish. they do not have to negotiate ingredients that may be unfamiliar to outsiders. in an economy blighted by economic downturn and the overseas relocation of furniture production, livermush’s low price has made it a reliable staple of the local community.4 it has become a marker of regional identity mainly because castleman, pride and food-shame, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 116 members of the community have never been without it, even when other elements of the local economy have left the region. this practice has created two populations interested in sustainable eating: people who have historically practiced it as necessity and others who have appropriated it to live an eco-friendly existence by limiting food waste from animal slaughter. while these may be divergent worldviews, both are important philosophies of consumption that together have maintained the livermush tradition into a new century by positioning it as a local food with the potential to attract culinary tourists. the cultural implications of food shame the depiction of livermush in the media is not uniformly positive. descriptions of the dish to those unfamiliar with it are often met with disgust at both its ingredients and its very name. andrew zimmern presented his own analysis of the dish on bizarre foods, a show in which the very title labels the foods he features as odd, exotic, and othered simply by calling them “bizarre.” zimmern, visiting the hunter’s and jenkins’ shops, claims the food has an “indelicate name” (2014: 00:43) and states it “doesn’t look like much to celebrate” (1:00), poking fun at both the name of the dish and its presentation before he ever tries it. zimmern’s commentary, combined with juxtaposing images of locals enjoying the food and the “parts” which make up its ingredients, creates a visual contradiction for viewers who have been trained, via a popular media obsession with certain class-based appearance standards, to privilege their visual senses differently. although in other communities appearance may be regarded differently, in a culture centered around visual entertainment, for a dish to look unappetizing means it should be disregarded. this, however, is not what zimmern’s program depicts. while the dish may not look or sound appetizing, clearly people familiar with it think otherwise. this presentation of livermush as “bizarre” is media food shaming at its most explicit, affecting an audience’s tendency to associate the food with those who eat it. zimmern’s show is premised on finding foods deemed unpalatable by middle-class western societies—mostly in urban communities assumed to be disconnected from the land and the resources it provides—and proving them to be enjoyable. while this argument is not intended to shame the cultures he encounters, it effectively exoticizes both the foods and their cultures of origin. zimmern’s strange foods advocacy is only possible because first, through the titling of the show and his commentary, both the dish and the culture are denigrated. as phenomenological scholar jean-paul sartre claims, shame is directly related to selfhood: “now, shame, . . . is shame of self; it is the recognition of the fact that i am indeed that object which the other is looking at and judging” (sartre 1984: 350). by feeling shame over their food, north carolina residents could attribute the emotion to both their own bodies and the community around them. if the food is dismissed as questionable or inedible, as zimmern seems to suggest, then by correlation those who eat it must have different standards from the mainstream and effectively feel this difference as othering treatment, the very type of behavior locals claim they receive when introducing the food to others. being met with disgusted reactions and asked “how can you eat that?” creates a distinct rift between the two parties. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 117 zimmern’s abject fascination with the ingredients and name of livermush represents the majority of media discourse on the dish, marking its place within the discourse of “extreme” foods tourism, although his program differs from many others in its aim to advocate for culinary experimentation. in january 2017, thrillist.com released an article titled “every state’s grossest food (that people actually love)” that focused on foods the author wil fulton considered to be “offensive.” while food items like “rocky mountain oysters” and “roadkill” are also on the list, livermush was awarded the title of north carolina’s “grossest food.” fulton seemed primarily fixated on its name, stating, “it never had a chance. it’s called . . . livermush. could anything called livermush ever be appetizing? both ‘liver’ and ‘mush’ are so gross on their own, not even a space wants to be stuck between them” (fulton 2017). this comedic assault on the sensory aspects of naming is followed by only two sentences on the food’s ingredients and no description of taste or sensory enjoyment, emphasizing the unappetizing aspects of the dish instead of flavor, the chief characteristic zimmern uses to promote it. despite outright labeling the food as “gross,” which might typically be associated with taste, smell, or even texture, it is the brick-like aesthetic of the food which the author ridicules, stating, “how are you going to adore a food that could double as the foundation of the ymca?” further attributing the food a sense of weightiness that deems it indigestible and unappetizing. articles like fulton’s draw readers in with the fascination of things considered “gross” and the people who consume them. meant to increase website views, articles such as this simultaneously seek to shock readers through the presentation of “gross” topics and connect with them personally by referencing foods they might find familiar. in fulton’s article, the author’s tone plays closer to the entertainment value of disgust than to regional pride, often denigrating the foods he discusses and, by association, the people who eat them. unlike zimmern, however, fulton does not sample any of the foods he attacks but passes judgment from a distance on what he believes to be their disgusting qualities. this difference allows for disgust to be negotiated on bizarre foods but not in articles like “every state’s grossest food.” without culinary exploration, articles like fulton’s shame both the food and the geography associated with it and offer no redemption. zimmern’s show may exoticize the foods and communities he visits, but the host’s willingness to try livermush serves as armchair culinary tourism for viewers, alleviating shame by educating outsiders to a food’s taste and cultural value, ultimately the point of the show. in his work investigating the disgust response, jones claims, citing william ian miller, “‘disgust is a feeling about something in response to something, not just unattached feeling’; it assesses (negatively) what it touches, proclaiming the object’s meanness and inferiority” (jones 2000: 54). this “inferiority” is an ethical judgment premised on stereotypes and power differentials. sartre asserts that disgust “can be explained only by the combination of this physical quality with certain moral qualities,” suggesting that the lived physical reaction of disgust is impossible without a related emotional judgment that is both negative and directed towards one source (sartre 1984: 771). when livermush is labeled as disgusting, a moral judgment, so too are the individuals and communities who create and consume it. in this way, food shame implicitly leads to cultural shame. foods are labeled disgusting when they and the people who consume them are unfamiliar. to feel shame when traditional foods are met with disgust, however unintentional, is understandable. to suggest a food is inedible because of its lack of castleman, pride and food-shame, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 118 familiarity is at heart a fear of contagion and the unknown. unknown foods appear dangerous because they are unknown, and the refusal to consume these substances is premised primarily in the fear of becoming like them and those who eat them— individuals who are stereotyped as lesser because they are willing to eat such rough dishes. these interactions do not necessarily have to be cross-cultural, and in many cases are issues of class within one bounded community. nevertheless, labeling food as disgusting and inedible is a shaming and stereotyping gesture which privileges one group over another by claiming the latter’s consumption patterns do not fit the standards of the dominant party. livermush, a food created by and for those who struggle economically, is unfamiliar both to those outside of the geographic community and those who are not familiar with the conditions of financial hardship, encouraging locals to interpret this action as cultural shaming. while authors who write about livermush cannot see the reactions of readers, such judgments are still palpable, calling forth images of the face-to-face food shaming reactions western north carolinians receive when explaining the food to outsiders. north carolina residents, perceived as conservative, impoverished, and backward, cannot help but interpret the treatment of their unique foods in a similarly derogatory manner.5 the shaming reactions with which locals are met have the ability to cause long-lasting damage to an individual’s self-esteem and community pride. advocating against the use of disgust and shame as punishment in the judicial system, deigh argues that “shame is destructive of the ideals of liberal democracy when it is elicited in the service of enforcing standards that represent what it is to be ‘normal’ and thus stigmatizing those who depart from these standards” (2006: 392). when judging foods, and by relation those who eat them, a person's sense of worth is accordingly at stake. shaming traditional foods is an on-the-ground representation of stigma drawing from inequitable power distribution, and it is the resolve of north carolinians to continue with their tradition in spite of the stigma which converts their practice into a demonstration of pride. locals know how their food is interpreted and are aware of the food-shaming it is likely to instigate, yet they eat it nonetheless, unbothered by the ways the meal has been stigmatized. while livermush consumption contradicts widespread popular judgments of what parts of an animal are considered undesirable to eat and what food should look like, western north carolina locals refuse to allow food shaming to affect their enjoyment of the dish. as demonstrated by zimmern and fulton, disgusted reactions to livermush commonly have little to do with taste; the name of the dish alone can provoke disgust. when asked why people react negatively to livermush, five of the seven individuals i spoke with cite its name as the problem. delbert’s comment, “liver—that’s the word,” is a direct explanation for disgust which was echoed by others in the interview process. john responded, “it just doesn’t sound good,” while paula replied “the word liver in it” was the problem. annie reported, “the name turns people off” and peter, a north carolina transplant, admitted his hesitation to try the food was due to its name. he claims livermush is “combining two words that set off a psychological alarm” because neither liver nor mush are foods he’s keen on eating. despite the reactions the name can engender, no one in the area seems interested in relabeling. there have been no restaurants or manufacturers who have tried to sell the digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 119 product under another name, and i’ve never come across anyone who used a different term for the food. judy explains there is simply no desire to rebrand the food because its name is something familiar to locals and changing the name of the dish would only create confusion. the conservative nature of tradition has meant that, as judy says, “we like the things we’re used to,” and livermush will maintain its insiders’ name despite the perception it gives to outsiders. locals, while aware of this negative perception—a phenomenon not mirrored in scrapple foodways—are not bothered by its occurrence so much as they are encouraged to defend the beloved dish. it is because of this reaction that a renegotiation of food shame into cultural pride can occur. while livermush consumption contradicts widespread popular judgments of what parts of an animal are considered undesirable to eat and what food should look like, western north carolina locals refuse to allow food shaming to affect their enjoyment of the dish. locals i interviewed note that disgusted reactions such as scrunched noses and stuck out tongues sometimes accompanied by gagging sound effects or even the explicit “that’s gross,” are common when they first introduce the food to outsiders. paula claims a co-worker who is originally from new york once “shivered” when she brought up livermush, while john told how his wife, who grew up in iowa, responded with “that sounds disgusting” when he explained the food to her. whether physical responses associated with fear or unease, or moments of literally labeling “disgust,” these initial responses can moderate with time and familiarity. through experimentation and interacting with locals, people who originally distrust livermush, like zimmern and peter, often change their minds about its palatability. peter, a pastor who lived in connecticut for 28 years before moving to caldwell county, has recently tried livermush for the first time. although originally describing the meal as “ugly, sad,” and “disgusting” and claiming he was “brave” enough to sample some, he now states, “if someone put it in front of me i would probably eat it. it’s not the most god-awful thing that i’ve tasted.” peter’s commentary demonstrates the importance of visual and gustatory aesthetics when outsiders first taste the dish, but peter now finds himself less antagonistic as he has become more familiar with it, admitting he would eat it again, even if he considers it “ugly.” reconfiguring shame peter’s commentary as a recent newcomer to the area is informative in other respects as well. having encountered many situations in which locals have spoken to him about livermush, he claims “they have a big smile on their face like they know . . . it’s almost like they know that you’re not going to like it” and wonders if “people know in their minds that to outsiders it’s not going to be something that’s going to appeal to them,” a recognition of the differences in taste that contribute to positive or dismissive judgments. these negotiations demonstrate what barthes refers to as “not only the manifestation of individual, anomic prejudices, but also elements of a veritable collective imagination showing the outlines of a certain mental framework” (2008: 29). for western north carolinians, this framework is often one of jest. livermush is commonly presented to new consumers in a playful manner—as a prank or a dare. introducing the dish this way allows locals preemptively to address the disgust issue and thereby disarm the attack. “pranking” or “daring” outsiders to try the food lowers their expectations and tells them to expect disgust, while at the same time challenging their courage and forcing them castleman, pride and food-shame, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 120 either to sample the dish or accept defeat. by acknowledging and playing with negative feelings towards a beloved food, locals can renegotiate disgust to serve their own ends. bringing these adverse judgments of the food into the culture allows community insiders to interact with cross-cultural discourse to claim and revise perceptions from dismissive to encouraging. north carolina native kelli clevenger’s article, “the liver mush mystique,” is one such example of positive reinterpretations of negative judgments. using descriptions like “deliciously weird” and “poor man’s pâté,”6 and giving instructions to “savor the strangeness,” she advocates for livermush by finding joy in its uniqueness through word play and socially elevated referents (2016). aware of negative perceptions of the food and speaking as an insider, she uses rhetoric similar to those who denigrate it by subverting the power of negative judgment. by labeling livermush in terms that are both negative and enticing—such as “weird” paired with “deliciously”—she claims the term “weird” for herself, removing the power of judgment from culinary outsiders and making livermush distinctly local. referencing her grandmother when discussing the food, she foregrounds the familial aspect of the dish, positing its “bizarre” nature as something to be celebrated rather than mocked, communicating with community insiders and outsiders alike by using family to bridge the gap created by food-induced cultural shame. although clevenger is proud of her dish, she is aware of the comforting effects of family and relies on this motif to create empathy between livermush eaters and people who may judge them negatively. in the resulting discourse created, livermush is appreciated, negative judgments are voiced and dismissed, and stigma against the tradition is neutralized by culinary tourism. this multivocality reaffirms ideas of personhood as they relate to regional foodways based on an individual’s stance in the livermush debate. while not all locals love livermush, that individuals have opinions about the dish serves as a defining element of community. residents either love the dish or hate it; there is no middle ground, yet all are familiar enough to have an opinion. as community insiders choose sides and force newcomers to do the same, community identity is reified, confirming claude fischler’s contention that “human beings mark their membership of a culture or a group by asserting the specificity of what they eat” (1988: 279). both groups demonstrate regional membership in their ability to speak to what livermush is and their feelings about it. food shame, a type of devaluing treatment which specifically targets an individual’s food consumption patterns, directly relates to body shame, as what a person puts in their body is often directly correlated according to varied scientific and folk dietary and medicinal systems to what form that body will take. for example, eating a “natural” diet is thought to improve heart health, weight, and blood sugar and skin, while diets built on fatty and processed foods are thought to impair digestion leading to obesity, increasing the risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and even acne. although little work has been done on the implications of food shaming, daniel martin elaborates three methods of body-shame negotiation—redemption, activism, and rationality—that may help individuals overcome the negative perceptions of their bodies. he advocates that reactions to shame must have the energy to overcome such judgment and empower the denigrated, claiming “shame work” to be “emotional labor aimed at evoking, removing, or managing shame” (2000: 134). digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 121 martin’s activist model of shame negotiation—in which members of the shamed community attempt to combat their stigmatization by educating others about their status and advocating for representation and equal treatment—is applicable to western north carolina’s livermush consumers, offering ways for shamed individuals to reclaim agency through outreach and education. food shame activism among what annie calls “livermush evangelists” operates in a similar way by taking pride in the dish and educating others to its tastefulness. peter relates his first sampling of livermush to delbert’s influence, claiming that until then “it was totally a foreign entity” to him. “everyone was trying to set me up to try it,” he says, “especially delbert.” delbert and peter’s interaction exemplifies how food shaming tensions motivate locals to act with advocacy and education to neutralize negative judgments (bronner 1981: 121). although peter originally rejected the dish, delbert was motivated to educate him hoping to negate culinary shame. delbert’s encouragement was successful. peter reports he chose to eat livermush again a few weeks after this initial introduction: “it’s just been there and now my radar is attuned.” this perception that livermush has “been there” reflects the cultural habitus of the food as established by community locals and demonstrates peter’s status as part of that community. while he may be new, the pastor has been initiated into an important and ingrained aspect of the local culture. it is not his feelings about the way livermush tastes that classify peter as a community member, but rather his awareness of its presence. instances of personal livermush crusading are echoed throughout discussions with north carolinians, yet these interactions are not the only way anti-food shaming activism occurs. media portrayals of the food demonstrate similar reform efforts, as in articles like jason cohen’s “everything you need to know about scrapple” that redefine livermush in terms devoid of disgust by connecting it to a larger gastronomic tradition. by educating readers on “the scrapple universe” of which livermush is a part, cohen aligns the dish to traditional foodways practiced across the eastern seaboard, establishing variations in cooking method and ingredients. cohen takes an aggressive stance on matters of disgust, reprimanding those who would shame consumers that “among people who like food, such scrapple-shaming is both off the mark and out of fashion” (2015). the negotiation of food shame in recent years has transformed livermush from an everyday food to a dish for special occasions. as family members move out of the area, eating livermush has become an event during times of celebration and homecoming. john pointedly equates livermush with special events, claiming, “for me it’s like a holiday . . . . it’s definitely an event for me just because it is so rare and i love it so much.” the value of livermush in this case increases for john because the food is “ordinary,” but only within a specific regional context. “ordinary” matters are given value because they are integral to our everyday lives (curtin 1992: 4), but foods and traditions that are “special” acquire a heightened symbolic importance. for john, the “ordinary” consumption of livermush became a holiday-like occasion because he no longer had easy access to it. livermush is not alone in its symbolically marked space of disgust, comfort, and celebration. in examining turtle soup, bronner speculates how a regional food with its castleman, pride and food-shame, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 122 own disgust negotiations “perhaps becomes a ceremonial food that defines the community, maintains social relationships . . . and provides a framework for interaction essential to the stability of a group” (119). similarly, laretta henderson notes the continuing symbolic relevance of soul food as a historical, regional, black ethnic, and variably valued meal system. even though no longer cooked regularly, in favor of less time-consuming options, soul food appeared in magazines for children in the 1980s as “consistent with the traditional southern black food served on sundays, holidays, and special events” and is therefore still a valuable community symbol (2007: 94). like soul food and turtle soup, livermush has for many become a cultural symbol because of its heightened context during special events rather than its daily availability. more a ceremonial dish for many than a culinary staple, livermush still holds value for the community and helps to maintain social bonds, even when locals have left the area. although the context may have changed, eating livermush still holds importance to people from western north carolina. for john and numerous others who have left the region, livermush is no longer simply a local food, but a symbol of the home and family they left behind that carries connotations of celebration. as peter states, having only lived in the area a few months, “when i think of lenoir, i think of livermush.” a new take on an old food there is no doubt the livermush tradition is undergoing change, and new developments seem to negate food shame in ways that demonstrate cultural pride. the celebratory nature of homecoming livermush consumption has led to activities meant to buffer the state’s dwindling economy. the first annual “mush, music and mutts” festival (see photo 4) began in 1985 in shelby to celebrate the local food tradition and has been photo 4. 2018 flyer for annual mush, music & mutts festival in shelby, nc—the first livermush festival in the state and still the only one funded by state government. image: courtesy of shelby chamber of commerce. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 123 sponsored by the state government since 1987. while originally a small event, the 2015 festival is estimated to have drawn over 15,000 individuals (clevenger 2016) and is the same festival andrew zimmern visited for bizarre foods. negotiating negative perceptions of local food is imperative to maintaining cultural identity. roger abrahams might classify “mush, music and mutts” among festivals that break boundaries regarding culinary experimentation, allowing people unfamiliar with a dish to investigate the rules and expectations of consumption. he argues that in a festival atmosphere, all attendees “become equal-opportunity eaters,” without being forced to fake enjoyment of a dish or use proper table manners in the name of “politeness” (1984: 23). such festivals eschew expectations of proper behavior and encourage experimentation, allowing individuals to bypass judgment for the sake of trying something new and the local community to profit. “mush, music and mutts” provides a space for livermush fans to celebrate their food alongside outsiders experimenting with the dish for the first time. the popularity of “extreme foods” tourism has not eliminated more traditional consumption practices among locals. visitors to western north carolina may see eating livermush as a special event, but its continued availability in grocery stores, diners, and at food stands demonstrates that for thousands in the region livermush is still ordinary. regional tourism has not replaced family tradition but added a complementary strand of discourse. to western north carolinians, the availability of livermush continues to represent the value of thrift, yet when they use the dish as a special event food, they posit livermush as a celebration of regional culture and family heritage. while it may be outsiders—both tourists and locals who have relocated—who have given livermush its celebratory nature, they are not the ones who have created the events that use it as such. after the introduction of the “mush, music and mutts” festival, numerous other events began popping up across the region funded by local communities to attract tourists. these celebrations aim to capitalize on culinary tourism inspired by shows like bizarre foods and demonstrate an intricate negotiation of the ethics of thrift and heritage through which livermush is understood. locals who have introduced livermush festivals understand its unique draw for tourists and use this to support the local economy by refiguring the heritage outsiders see as celebratory into an economically viable product in line with local understandings of the symbolic thrift of livermush. these two systems, while differing in their intent, are inextricably linked, each requiring the other in order to be successful. without the everyday, ordinary use of livermush, tourist-centric connections to heritage would never be viable, yet this perception has also allowed the community to profit, redoubling the importance of livermush to the economy. activist food shaming negotiation establishes livermush as a source of cultural pride and economic value. as more events appear, new tourism initiatives decontextualize it from its origin in the foothills to support a mountain locale enticing to out-of-state tourists, in effect erasing the historical and cultural differences of the mountain and piedmont regions and allowing the dish to be associated with a history that may not be accurate. but accuracy is hardly the point. while livermush may have originated in the piedmont, contemporary tourism initiatives have both broadened the geographic range in which the food is consumed and influenced more positive reactions to it. it is the popularity of livermush festivals which undermines the food shaming reactions the dish often elicits, castleman, pride and food-shame, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 124 encouraging both community pride and economic sustainability. as jane dusselier states, “cuisines are dynamic, emergent, fluid, evolving, momentary, and improvised,” and how tourists and locals alike negotiate meanings of livermush in differing systems will continue to influence both groups’ perceptions of the tradition (2009: 332). references cited: scholarly secondary sources abrahams, roger. 1984. equal opportunity eating: structural excursus on things of the mouth. in ethnic and regional foodways in the united states: the performance of group identity, ed. linda keller brown and kay mussell, 19-36. nashville: university of tennessee press. barthes, roland. 2008. toward a psychosociology of contemporary food consumption. in food and culture: a reader, ed. carole counihan and penny van esterik, 28-35. new york, routledge. blake, megan k., jody mellor, and lucy crane. 2010. buying local food: shopping practices, place, and consumption networks in defining food as “local.” annals of the association of american geographers 100 (2): 409-426. bronner, simon j. 1981. the paradox of pride and loathing, and other problems. western folklore 40 (1): 115-124. curtin, deane w. 1992. food/body/person. in cooking, eating, thinking: transformative philosophies of food, ed. deane w. curtin and lisa m. heldke, 3-22. bloomington: indiana university press. deigh, john. 2006. the politics of disgust and shame. the journal of ethics 10 (4): 383-418. dusselier, jane. 2009. understandings of food as culture. environmental history 14 (2): 331-338. fischler, claude. 1988. food, self and identity. social science information 27: 275-293. gutierrez, c. paige. 1992. cajun foodways. jackson: university press of mississippi. henderson, laretta. 2007. “ebony jr!” and “soul food”: the construction of middleclass african american identity through the use of traditional southern foodways. melus 32 (4): 81-97. jones, michael owen. 2000. what’s disgusting, why, and what does it matter? journal of folklore research 37 (1): 53-71. jones, michael owen. 2007. food choice, symbolism, and identity: bread-and-butter issues for folklorists and nutrition studies (american folklore society presidential address, october 2005). journal of american folklore 120 (476): 129-177. digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 125 kristeva, julia. 1982. the powers of horror: an essay on abjection. new york: columbia university press. lewis, george h. 1999. the maine lobster as regional icon: competing images over time and social class. in the taste of american place: a reader on regional and ethnic foods, ed. barbara g. shortridge and james r. shortridge, 65-84. lanham: rowman & littlefield publishers, inc. lockwood, yvonne r., and william g. lockwood. 1999. pasties in michigan’s upper peninsula: foodways, interethnic relations, and regionalism. in the taste of american place: a reader on regional and ethnic foods, ed. barbara g. shortridge and james r. shortridge, 21-36. lanham: rowman & littlefield publishers, inc. long, lucy. 2018. livermush. in we eat what?: a cultural encyclopedia of unusual foods in the united states, ed. jonathan deutsch, 203-205. westport: greenwood publishing. martin, daniel d. 2000. organizational approaches to shame: avowal, management, and contestation. the sociological quarterly 41 (1): 125-150. paponnet-cantat, christiane. 2003. the joy of eating: food and identity in contemporary cuba. caribbean quarterly 49 (3): 11-29. sartre, jean-paul. 1984. being and nothingness: a phenomenological essay on ontology, translated and with an introduction by hazel e. barnes. new york: washington square press. web sources7 bashor, melissa. 2015. in cleveland county, livermush is king. our state, february 23, https://www.ourstate.com/livermush/. clevenger, kelli h. 2016. the liver mush mystique. paste, january 11, paste media group, https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/01/the-liver-mushmystique.html . cohen, jason. 2015. everything you need to know about scrapple. eater, september 1, vox media, https://www.eater.com/2015/9/1/9211867/scrapple-goetta-livermushwhat-is-it . fulton, wil. 2017. every state’s grossest food (that people actually love). thrillist, january 27, ed. daniel fishel, group nine media, inc., https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/worst-foods-to-eat-states . hanna, jason, madison park, and eliott c. mclaughlin. 2017. north carolina repeals “bathroom bill.” cnn, march 30. https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/30/politics/northcarolina-hb2-agreement/index.html . north carolina history project. 2016. rip van winkle. encyclopedia entry. https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/rip-van-winkle/. castleman, pride and food-shame, digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) 126 rudersdorf, amy. 2010. nc county maps. government & heritage library, state library of north carolina. in agan, kelly. 2012. north carolina’s 100 counties. ncpedia, raleigh: state library of north carolina, https://www.ncpedia.org/node/156 . scalfani, jack. 2017. how to make livermush. cooking with jack show youtube, january 31, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa5hposf5ja&t=64s . zimmern, andrew. 2014. there you have it! livermush explained, bizarre foods with andrew zimmern, season 4 episode 4, may 5, youtube, posted by kurtis, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a49aaqn_zjo . interviews annie and jeffrey. 2017. interview with author, charleston, sc. november 12. delbert and judy. 2017. interview with author, lenoir, nc. november 10. john. 2017. interview with author, iowa. november 9. paula. 2017. interview with author, lenoir, nc. november 12. peter. 2017. interview with author, lenoir, nc. november 18. notes: 1 i owe a great deal of thanks to those who consented to be interviewed for this project; delbert, judy, paula, john, peter, jeff and annie, your friendship and assistance are more appreciated than you know. thank you especially to my mother for providing photographs for this piece and cooking livermush for dinner just to get a good shot. last but not least, thank you to shelley ingram for encouraging me to explore my relationship to livermush, trying it without making a face, and offering comments and edits on each version of this piece. i couldn’t have done it without you! 2 blocks of livermush at the grocery store average about $3 us per pound and offer around 8 servings, making a serving of locally produced livermush cost roughly $.38. livermush biscuits available in diners and food stands average $2 us. to ship one block of livermush costs roughly $60, making a single serving of the dish approximately $7.50, almost 20 times greater than the local grocery store cost. 3 while this statement may seem dramatic, it’s drawn from my personal experience. after moving to kentucky for graduate school, i decided one day i was homesick and went to the grocery store to buy livermush as a reprieve. after walking the meat aisle for several minutes, i asked a shop worker where the livermush was. he looked at me like i was crazy and asked what livermush was. at that moment i learned it wasn’t regularly available in stores outside my home region. 4 although the improvement of local roads increased the accessibility of the mountains and spurred an economic transition from farming to lumber production in the early 1900s, the region became a hub of furniture production until the financial crisis of 2008, considered to be the worst economic downturn since the great depression. on september 15, 2008, investment bank lehman brothers filed for bankruptcy, beginning what became known as the great recession, which continued to affect global markets into the next decade. 5 one of the state’s many nicknames is “the rip van winkle state.” local legends claim, during the 1800s, that north carolina’s economy was “asleep” while states around it were booming with trade. north carolina, it seemed, was stuck in the past (https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/rip-van-winkle/). more contemporary political issues have not alleviated this mentality, either, as shown by the sequence of digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 127 same-sex marriage legislative action and inaction evident during 2012-2018 (see for example, https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/30/politics/north-carolina-hb2agreement/index.html). even by modern standards the state’s political issues seem to be behind the times. 6 “pâté” is a french-derived spread or paste made from chopped up meat, liver, fish, or other animal parts. despite sharing similar ingredients with livermush, pâté is served as an hôrs d’oeuvre and considered a delicacy while livermush is commonly associated with poverty. 7 most links were first cited by the author during early research in november 2017. all links posted were active and accurate as of final preparations of this essay for publication in december-january 2020-2021. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022): 119-120 ©american folklore society 2022 review of: springer mountain: meditations on killing and eating wyatt williams. chapel hill: university of north carolina press, 2021. pp.114, notes, bibliography. review by: taylor jackson a loosely woven autoethnographic account of investigative reporting on meat production, springer mountain: meditations on killing and eating stands out as a richly descriptive investigative narrative by author and food critic wyatt williams. the book follows williams across approximately five years as he insatiably seeks an answer to a simple question: why do we kill and eat meat and what does this tell us about ourselves as a species (24)? a philosophical think-piece strung as a chronological retelling of his investigative journey, each chapter is peppered with narrative vignettes, historic quotes, and facts pertaining to meat production. the poetic and interwoven writing often veils the more pragmatic details of williams’ fieldwork, inviting the reader to wander through the pages in a spiraling momentum, always returning to the central question as each chapter bleeds into the next. parsed into three main chapters, each chapter feels as though it cleanly represents a part of the story – a beginning, middle, and end to the authors questioning. the introductory chapter, titled ‘etymology,’ contends with various historic and cultural definitions and representations of meat, all intentionally partial and incomplete. this fleeting definitional voyage works to establish the affective landscape that carries throughout the rest of the book with smatterings of information alluding to an elusive bigger picture while refusing to be self-evident until much later. chapter one begins in 2011 and moves toward the catalyzing event which begins our story. setting off in georgia searching for a well-known but intentionally evasive chicken farm known as springer mountain, williams soon finds himself consumed by his desire to understand why we kill and eat meat. to answer this question, chapter two explores the question of how we kill and eat. having located and toured springer mountain, chapter two introduces a series of new settings for williams to inhabit: working on the kill floor of a meat packing facility, living in a trailer on a chicken farm, roaming the woods in search of a deer to kill, and herding cows in a pasture. true to the winding style of the book, the stories in chapter two are interwoven with a diverse array of disjunct information that ranges from chilling details of animal slaughter to puzzling historic accounts of vegetarianism. in his concluding chapter, williams brings us to a literal and metaphorical final frontier, one of the northern-most towns in alaska, in search of whale-hunters. set against a frozen and relatively barren backdrop, the burning question—why do we kill and eat meat?—builds in intensity throughout the final pages, as i became increasingly aware of my own anticipation for the big reveal. once i had arrived at the concluding argument, however, i found myself disappointed by a reductive and far less compelling conclusion than the stories that preceded it. we kill and eat meat, according to williams, “because they can tell us who we are” (103). he argues that every time we eat meat, we reaffirmed our identity as predators and our pleasure in jackson, review, springer mountain digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 120 killing and eating through the flavor and satisfaction of the taste (103). though it may be true that we kill because we like the taste of flesh, there is a critical difference between a rich cultural history of whale hunting with minimum environmental impact versus the systemic killing and mass environmental harm of industrial farming for profit. the nuances of killing are evident in his investigative reporting, yet are seemingly absent in the author’s reflections on and analysis of his research. williams seems to evidence a commitment to discussing politics of killing in some instances, such as when he asserts the vilification of whale hunting to be “plainly foolish” (89), and shows clear support for the deep cultural history associated with whale-hunting. yet, in other instances, williams fails to commit to discussing these politics, even when it so clearly feels necessary. this is exemplified by the fact that williams writes about the impacts of climate change on this small alaskan town, lightly alludes to the notion that industrial chicken farming, “accelerates our coming climate apocalypse” (89), and yet fails to meaningfully discuss this in any of the chapters more related to industrialized farming and meat production. as many food scholars would argue, food is always political. the selective inclusion and omission of food politics throughout the text ultimately take away from the author’s final revealing truth, making the end of the book feel more like a shadow to the fleshier body of the previous chapters. argument aside, springer mountain finds its strength in williams’ rich storytelling and accessible, evocative writing style. after finishing the book, i immediately wanted to read it again. williams takes care to neither laud nor condemn vegetarian discourses, instead masterfully assembling information to showcase the paradoxes within those discourses. as i read, i regularly found myself moving between the text and the concluding notes, always craving just a nibble more of each vignette. the author’s storytelling evidences a great deal of time spent experiencing farm facilities, interviewing, reading, and questioning that is sure to be generative for food scholars engaging with topics related to the production and consumption of meat. though sometimes overly self-indulgent, the use of performative writing made this book a very pleasurable read, ripe with metaphors alluding to larger truths about what it means to be human. the question-driven narrative provoked a persistent desire to know where the story was headed and compelled me to keep turning pages. aptly titled as a “meditation on killing and eating,” springer mountain is a richly detailed and thought-provoking work with a general appeal, inviting one to dwell within the human practices of carnivorous indulgence. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022): 111-118 ©american folklore society amuse bouche pandemic pantry in the big woods: a quest for certainty during covid-19 by: sarah conrad gothie in april 2020, google searches for ‘pantry’ surged as people around the world turned to the internet for advice on how to cope during covid lockdowns and prepare for an uncertain future.1 like others who were fortunate to feel food-secure during the pandemic, i embraced the opportunity to work from home and to bake more bread. it was a privilege to isolate with my family in physical safety, but the psychological vulnerabilities of what aisha s. ahmad (2020) calls “sustained disaster conditions” wreaked havoc on my mental state. i am the sort of person who derives comfort not from a rustic loaf of pane, but from a plan. i like to cocoon myself in agendas, itineraries, spreadsheets, and lists. as global and local uncertainty swelled in the early pandemic, i derived comfort by drawing upon my knowledge of food and cooking to plan for contingencies—with mixed results.2 over the years, i had amused myself with thought experiments that imposed constraints on my cooking. what if i had to prepare meals using only the instant pot, or just the waffle iron? if i were limited to five kitchen tools, which five would i choose? early in the lockdown, when we didn't know how supply chains would be affected, i created spreadsheets of all the meals that could be made with shelf-stable ingredients. i ran the gamut of what-if scenarios. if the power grid failed, we had a charcoal grill and a cracked, but repairable, diy pizza oven constructed of wild clay dug from a nearby stream. legume stews and rustic loaves baked in this clay oven could sustain us, but the learning curve would be steep. we had plenty of firewood stacked up; would our fireplace be called upon to roast more than the occasional marshmallow? contemplating these far-fetched scenarios conjured memories of my earliest exposure to self-sufficiency—laura ingalls wilder’s account of living off the land in her autobiographical little house series. a cultural touchstone replete with romantic (and problematic) images of american frontier life, the series depicted domestic provisioning in intricate detail. julie tharp and jeff kleiman (2000) argue that “the technical content” of the books—a description of her mother pressing curds into cheese hoops would be an example—“establishes an air of objectivity, bestowing an irrefutable truth to the experiences related” (57). wilder’s memoirs normalized the frontier myth for millions of young readers. her compelling blend of nostalgic domesticity and expansionist bias may be evident to me as an adult, but, as a child, all i saw was garth williams ’illustration of the attic in the little house in the big woods where laura and her sister mary perched on smooth pumpkins, cradling their dolls beneath rafters hung with savory onion braids and smoked hams. wilder’s books depicted the comforts of being cozy at home, isolated from the threats of an unpredictable outside world, sustained by a well-stocked pantry. how could one not fall back on these ideas during covid lockdown? gothie, pandemic pantry in the big woods digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 2022 112 children tend to read favorite books over and over, and the content of those books becomes firmly entrenched and fondly remembered. clare schmidt (2022) partially attributes her own compulsion to preserve food in jars to the influence of “the classics of white, rural childhood” (102). naming the little house books, l.m. montgomery’s anne of green gables and jane of lantern hill, and others, she notes how these texts “extolled the virtues of physical, domestic labor” (102). i could indulge in imagining a winter’s worth of food in a snug attic, but couldn’t fathom the amount of time and work that produced it, which is why i count the little house books as one of my earliest encounters with fantasy food media. wilder condensed a full day’s work into a few sentences of summary—akin to a time-lapse tiktok recipe. for a 1980’s child-reader like me, with little practical knowledge of the processes she describes, self-sufficiency seemed a lot easier than it was. across the eight books of the series, the ingalls family experienced dramatic swings between food abundance and food scarcity. the solid, snug cabin in wisconsin bursting with buckets of maple syrup and barrels of salted fish stood in stark contrast to the drafty store building where the family sheltered during back-to-back blizzards in the long winter. in this, the darkest of wilder’s memoirs, we see a failure of nineteenth-century technologies: trains, coal, and kerosene—and a return to ‘primitive, pre-industrial skills’ and ingenuity, exemplified by ma ingalls’ fashioning a ‘button candle’ fueled by axle grease (romines 1990: 44). a person who can solar charge a smartphone during a brief power outage can barely imagine what that small spot of light meant to a family confined to darkness in a howling storm lasting for days, but covid presented the possibility of twenty-first century systems failing, and these remembered scenes of coping and survival were what flashed through my mind as i planned my covid lockdown provisions. in the big woods of rural pennsylvania, i designated a walk-in closet in a storage room as our overflow pantry. we already kept a supply of flours, grains, and pastas, and to these i added canned proteins (tuna, sardines, clams, shrimp), canned tomatoes, nut butters, and olive and coconut oils. money earmarked for canceled summer travel was funneled into extra nuts, coconut milk, protein powder, and rolled oats. when i felt unsettled by the memory of the ingalls children grinding seed wheat in a coffee mill to make coarse bread during the long winter (wilder 1940: 194), i reminded myself that our covid spring was nothing like the dakota territory’s severe winter of 1880–1881. with enough chia seeds, we could survive this. the more recent past furnished strategies for stocking the pantry as well. i turned to the recipe box of my grandmother, a homemaker who raised five children in a postwar ranch house, and kept up with the latest in convenient packaged ingredients. her sunday dinner salmon cakes made with canned fish and bread crumbs were a ‘sure thing’ to add to my spreadsheet. at the start of lockdown, we were two months away from the next family birthday, and i took comfort knowing i had everything necessary to bake her chocolate "wacky cake,” a wwii-era dessert made with pantry staples in lieu of fresh butter, eggs, and milk. making her recipes had always felt like a special tribute to her memory, but having a plan and ingredients in stock gave me comfort beyond what cake could offer—the comfort of certainty. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 113 figure 1: marcella muri conrad’s recipe box and handwritten recipe for ‘wacky cake, 2022 photo by the author i had learned the satisfaction of canning seasonal produce from my grandmother and mother, and had honed my hot water bath canner skills while testing recipes for my book about damson plums a few years earlier. inspired by memories of my grandmother’s cellar canning cupboard—an old wardrobe stocked with jars of damson plum butter, peach halves in syrup, and pickles—i pulled the canner out of storage, ordered more jars, and reached for my trusty ball canning complete guide. my only outing beyond the grocery store that first pandemic summer was to marker-miller orchards in winchester, virginia, to buy damsons. i made damson-rose conserve, damson jelly, and my grandmother’s damson plum butter. i made luxurious low-pectin strawberry jam and vivid turmeric-tinted corn relish. by the end of summer, i had jars in every color of the rainbow. having been an enthusiastic food fermenter for a number of years, i went into a fermentation frenzy about a month into the pandemic, making kimchi, carrot ribbons with garlic cloves, and even a kvass3 using foraged wintergreen and white pine. between teaching zoom classes and attending virtual happy hours, i put up huge jars of sauerkrauts flavored with jalapeño and garlic, red pepper and ginger, and the classic caraway seeds. fermented vegetables supplemented the fresh produce we got at our grocery store every three weeks, and we enjoyed them in a number of novel ways; the pleasure of tangy fermented ginger cabbage on a taco is one i would not have discovered without the pandemic. throughout the pandemic, we continued trading our saved food scraps for eggs from my mother’s chickens, but infrequent grocery trips made us more cautious about food waste. before juicing oranges for a braise recipe, i grated the zest and spread it out to dry for future use in steel cut oats. i had dried citrus zest occasionally in the past; suddenly, i had gothie, pandemic pantry in the big woods digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 2022 114 become vigilant about preserving every useful part of the orange. an end-of-season hot dog relish that utilized green tomatoes carried echoes of ma ingalls’ green tomato pickle in the long winter. ann romines (1990) notes that, “ma, usually conventionally modest, boasts uncharacteristically and triumphantly,” as she anticipates the green tomato pickle enhancing baked beans in the coming winter (29-30). reluctant to discard several sad, tooold-for-salad lettuce heads, i recalled reading that romaine could be roasted in the oven. i peeled off the outer leaves, split them, drizzled them with olive oil, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and roasted them. they sweetened up and made a surprisingly good side dish. my ingenuity and competence in the kitchen were a source of pride for me, as they were for ma ingalls. i reveled in my productivity as i hung garden herbs to dry, infused vinegars with tarragon, dill, and rosemary, and arranged rows of jam jars on shelves. lest this instagram-ready account of homesteading veer too far into the realm of fantasy, i must confess that not everything i plunged into a hot water bath was a success. several things i made in large batches were actually quite disappointing. the amaretto cherries, intended for winter old-fashioneds, came out mushy. the pesto variations failed bitterly (literally) because i harvested the basil too late. an homage to a mint jelly my mother and i made when i was a child came out tasting grassy, and the tiny drops of spring green food coloring meant to enhance its shimmer turned it a rather lurid teal. wilder focuses on her mother’s triumphs, but failures must have happened, too. as i fed my canning misadventures to my own mother’s chickens, i reflected that the ingalls family had to eat what they had. when per-person limits on toilet paper and king arthur flour at the supermarket fueled comparisons to wartime rationing across food media, i embraced the trending #victorygarden hashtag. i posted photos of the small plot where i optimistically imagined we could grow all the herbs and lettuces and tomatoes we might need. i conveniently forgot that nineteenth century farmers had tried and failed to cultivate crops in the nutrient-poor shallow, silty loam of the rocky forest where i now lived. bagged soil amendments and an internet full of advice supported the garden in providing some zucchini, cherry tomatoes, berries, and beans. but it was completely unnecessary, since the farm market and the grocery store thirty minutes away continued selling summer produce, just as they always had. as powdery mildew, blight, and blossom-end rot plagued my less-than-victorious garden, it became abundantly clear that my family was being fed not by the land, but by the ease of mail-order dry goods and curbside pickup. gazing down at the hot sauce bottles and peanut butter jars i was scrubbing in a sudsy sink at 11:00 pm one night in april 2020, i felt keenly the strangeness of the moment in which i was living. many of us sensed that this was a time we’d look back on—a time our grandchildren would ask us about. i remember once, i asked my grandmother about her experience on the ‘home front ’during wwii. her response was brief: “we just lived our lives,” she shrugged. in my quest to prepare for the worst, i made things harder than they had to be. i could have, in a sense, just lived my life. supply chains that served our family never failed. we did not need almanzo wilder and cap garland to venture across a whitedout prairie to bring wheat, because we could order flour online from target. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 115 figure 2: washing groceries, april 2020 photo by the author those who could indulge in panic buying and hoarding to soothe their anxieties did so, and pre-pandemic disparities were amplified. the percent of u.s. households with children who were food insecure doubled in the first six months of the pandemic, disproportionately skewed toward children of color, many of whom had relied on in-person school for meals (harvard n.d.). in the face of such data, it’s hard to view cream cheese and champagne shortages as an existential threat. the grocery stores remained full of food for those who could afford to buy it, even if hand sanitizer and clorox wipes ran short from time to time. despite my romantic fantasies of self-sufficient triumph over adversity inspired by abundant pantries of yore, it would be a mistake to compare myself to victory gardeners, pioneer families, or anyone facing genuine hardship. my amateur forays into homesteading were a comfort to me in uncertain times, but the safety net of socioeconomic privilege was always there to catch me if i fell. and yet, i can’t dismiss my efforts as being entirely in vain. planning, canning, and gardening felt proactive, even if some of my schemes were minimally productive. my nostalgic recollections of the little house books furnished me with a script to follow ‘in case of emergency,’ an aesthetic of self-sufficiency to recreate. ma ingalls summoned feelings of security, warmth, and comfort within her family's domestic space as a defense against what was occurring without, demonstrating, in romines’ words,“ the transformative power of housekeeping” (1990: 41). at a time when the unknowns of a fast-spreading global pandemic and the fear gothie, pandemic pantry in the big woods digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 2022 116 of potential sickness, and even death, suffused our waking hours, food became an avenue for me to carve out a small niche of certainty, to regain feelings of control, and to derive comfort through remembered, reclaimed, and recalibrated food practices. 1 ‘pantry’ searches had been rising gradually since search term tracking began in 2004, but spiked noticeably in april 2020 (data from google trends). 2 lucy long (2022) traces the evolution of the term ‘comfort food ’from a mid-20th century justification for consuming ‘unhealthy ’or ‘fattening ’foods to its pandemic-era meaning:‘ foods that comfort ’(57). long suggests that the term has expanded to recognize ways “comfort can be found in the range of activities around food, not only in the consumption of specific dishes or ingredients” (69). in my case, planning was the primary source of comfort, though, of course, i enjoyed eating the foods i made and the opportunities for commensality with my family that lockdown meals afforded. for more examples of food provisioning offering the comfort of control and competence during covid, see stokes and atkins-sayre (2022). 3 kvass is a nutritious fermented drink with a low alcohol content. to make kvass, a base of grain or stale bread is fermented and flavored with fruits, berries, and edible plants. traditional to many countries of northern and central europe, as well as some regions of china, kvass is cloudy, fizzy, and tangy. for more on kvass, see katz (2004), page 120. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 117 works cited ahmad, aisha s. 2020. productivity and happiness under sustained disaster conditions. the chronicle of higher ed. april 13. harvard t.h. chan school of public health. n.d. children’s food insecurity increasing during covid-19 pandemic. news. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-thenews/childrens-food-insecurity-increasing-during-covid-19-pandemic/ iati, marisa. 2021. supply-chain issues and a cyberattack: why your bagel’s cream cheese might be spread a little thin. the washington post. december 16. https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2021/12/16/cream-cheese-shortage-2021/ katz, sandor ellix. 2003. wild fermentation: the flavor, nutrition, and craft of live-culture foods. chelsea, vt: chelsea green publishing. long, lucy m. 2022. how the pandemic redefined comfort food: american individualism, culinary relativism, and shifting moralities. popular culture studies journal 10(1) 2022: 56-73. mcintyre, dave. 2021. a champagne shortage is looming. shop early to keep the sparkle in your holidays. the washington post. october 22. https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2021/10/22/champagne-shortage-holidayseason/ “pantry.” 2022. google trends. https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=us . accessed october 27. romines, ann. 1990. the long winter: an introduction to western womanhood. great plains quarterly 10(1): 36-47. schmidt, claire. 2022. preservation: because i can. journal of folklore research 59(2): 101120. doi:10.2979/jfolkrese.59.2.08 slotkin, richard. 1973. regeneration through violence: the mythology of the american frontier, 1600-1860. wesleyan university press. stokes, ashli quesinberry, and wendy atkins-sayre. 2022. coping through covid cooking: nostalgia and resilience in online communities. popular culture studies journal 10(1): 830. tharp, julie, and jeff kleiman. 2000. little house on the prairie and the myth of selfreliance. transformations 11(1): 55-64. wilder, laura ingalls. 1932. little house in the big woods. wilkinsburg, pa: scholastic, inc. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/childrens-food-insecurity-increasing-during-covid-19-pandemic/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/childrens-food-insecurity-increasing-during-covid-19-pandemic/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2021/12/16/cream-cheese-shortage-2021/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2021/10/22/champagne-shortage-holiday-season/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2021/10/22/champagne-shortage-holiday-season/ https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=us gothie, pandemic pantry in the big woods digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 2022 118 wilder, laura ingalls. 1940. the long winter. wilkinsburg, pa: scholastic, inc digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 67-69 ©american folklore society 2025 book review review of: the truth about baked beans: an edible history of new england meg muckenhoupt, new york: new york university press, 2020. pp. 345, introduction, conclusion, acknowledgments, notes, index, about the author. review by: ruzhica samokovlija baruh meg muckenhoupt’s latest, the truth about baked beans: an edible history of new england, takes the readers on a historical and culinary journey that challenges the longstanding myths and realities surrounding some of new england’s most iconic foods —baked beans, brown bread, clams, cod and lobsters, cornbread, vermont cheese, apples, cranberries, maple syrup, pies, and yankee pot roast. the truth behind their origin, as muckenhoupt suggests, lies at the crossroads of skillfully crafted victorian ideals, the exclusion of immigrant culinary traditions, and the profound transformations brought about by the region’s evolving geography and economy (4). through meticulous research and insightful storytelling, muckenhoupt dismantles the myths to unveil a more accurate, and inclusive narrative of new england’s food. before delving into the histories and traditions of new england’s food, muckenhoupt takes a moment to set the record straight regarding “who was(is) who” in this diverse region. in contrast to the oversimplified portrayal of new england as solely the domain of “stoic pilgrims, passionate minutemen, and thrifty yankee farmers,” she astutely reminds us that the region’s history is far more complex (5). from the initial encounters between the eastern woodlands people and the yankees, to the invaluable knowledge of irish women and african american cooks, and ethnic dishes like fall river pierogi, portuguese caldo verde, and puerto rican rice and beans, muckenhoupt paints a picture of new england as a dynamic melting pot. yet, amidst this remarkable diversity, she rightly points out that many of these contributions remained underrepresented in local cookbooks (45-46). some iconic dishes, such as boston baked beans, have faced even greater injustices, with their origins mistakenly attributed to unspecified native american nations. in chapter two, she asserts the following “even though there is ample evidence that the dish was concocted after the civil war, the potential influence of immigrants (in this case french canadians) and industrial food processing (canneries) has been consistently downplayed or altogether ignored” (48). in chapter three, muckenhoupt directs us from misconceptions to limitations, shedding light on the five constraints that hindered the development of new england cuisine in the late 18th century: urbanization and industrialization, the influence of the “new england kitchen” exhibits, social reformers focused on providing cheap food for the poor, the colonial revival, and the relationship between new england elites and their cooks [64]. while on the surface, these limitations may seem straightforward, the underlying motivations were fueled by far more damaging factors, such as antiimmigration sentiments, racism, gender inequality, and employment disparities. one could argue that the most detrimental was the influence of the colonial revival movement. as muckenhoupt points out, this movement, while idealizing a nostalgic vision of early new england cuisine, obscured its most destructive facet through a deliberate exclusion of non-white ethnic foods from its narrative “a small subset of new baruh, review of muckenhoupt digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 67-69 68 england foods – baked beans, pies, brown bread, boiled dinner – were charged with yankee virtue.” [78] this cultural whitewashing primarily came at the expense of irish immigrant women who often assumed roles as cooks and maids. as muckenhoupt illustrates, the media perpetuated harmful stereotypes about these women, ridiculing their culinary skills and competence and depicting them as awful irish maids, “who couldn’t soft-boil an egg, served ‘undressed tomatoes’ in their underwear, and burnt and ruined anything they touched” [80]. issues of harmful prejudices and exclusions are perversive in chapter four as well, where muckenhoupt examines the historical decline of corn-based foods in new england. one of the key aspects highlighted is the early colonists’ preference for wheat over corn. this preference was rooted in wheat’s association with the upper class in england, showcasing how cultural biases influenced food choices even in the new world. moreover, corn carried a stigma among the colonists, being seen as a grain tainted by primitiveness and uncertainty “corn was also a strange new plant eaten by indians, the unfamiliar people the colonists were displacing, killing, and infecting with smallpox” (100). by the 1840s, corn faced yet another stigma in new england, this time associated with slavery “cornmeal was generally the only grain given to southern slaves” (109). the combination of these cultural discriminations, along with climate change, and agricultural practices, posed serious challenges to the survival of cornbased foods in the region. however, the story of new england’s corn takes an interesting turn. towards the late 19th and early 20th century, influenced by immigrant communities, corn-based dishes began to make a comeback (114). as muckenhoupt observes, cornmeal could once again regain popularity in new england, thanks to the influence of latino immigrant communities “if ‘new england’ cookbooks and food writers become more open to the foods actually eaten by today’s new england residents, perhaps cornmeal will become a northern food once again” (120). this circular story of new england’s corn prompts us to contemplate not just what has occurred but rather the possibilities of how and to what extent the region’s cuisine might have transformed, had corn been wholeheartedly embraced from the beginning. a more accurate depiction of new england’s history unfolds during the intermission, titled “recipes.” within this interlude, muckenhoupt’s mission not only becomes evident but also takes on a deeply noble dimension: to present an all-encompassing and accurate portrait of new england’s edible history through a collection of recipes. this involves acknowledging both the well-known and less-celebrated individuals, groups, and communities that have played pivotal roles in shaping the region’s culinary heritage. in chapter five, muckenhoupt takes us from land to sea, illustrating how new england’s iconic seafood, such as cod, chowder, and lobster, though deeply ingrained into the region’s identity, sees limited consumption among locals today (165). muckenhoupt attributes this shifts not solely to changes in fishing practices, habitat management, and global market dynamics, but also to the fervent idealization of the archetypal “stalwart, grizzled, salty new england fisherman!” (208). the romanticized and heroic portrayal of fishermen in new england culture (209), coupled with the influence of family-owned fishing enterprises (212-213), significantly obstructed the implementation of sustainable fishing regulations, consequently giving rise to processed seafood alternatives like fish sticks. in this dire climate, one notable exception, as observed by muckenhoupt, is the lobster industry in maine “lobsters are thriving, but the cod catch baruh, review of muckenhoupt digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 67-69 69 has collapsed to 5 percent of early twentieth-century levels. whether new englanders will enjoy these iconic seafoods 50 years from now may depend more on today’s fishermen than on tomorrow’s eaters” (199). today, many consumers rarely ponder over the origin behind their favorite dishes. yet, muckenhoupt’s sixth chapter reminds us that the story about the rediscovery and transformation of new england’s maple syrup, cranberries, and apples, is indeed worth telling. some of these transformations are unavoidable, driven by market forces (226) and harsh climate conditions (244). however, others, such as the enduring myth of “johnny appleseed,” serve as a poignant reminder that food is more than mere sustenance; it has always been an integral part of new england’s identity politics, past and present. as muckenhoupt aptly puts it, “instead of a colonizer roaming a ravaged landscape, he’s a faithful, benevolent seed planter, a pomona of the prairie – he didn’t try to actually change how society worked by, say, joining the abolitionists or unionizing farmworkers” (252). in the final chapter, we glimpse the challenges faced by farmers even without chapman’s assistance. cheesemakers, adopting european techniques and marketing strategies to craft and sell locally made, premium cheeses, sometimes find themselves at odds with traditional values and identities “they are practitioners of an extractive industry, akin to oilmen and lumberjacks, exploiting local resources to support cuisine favored by wealthier individuals residing far from these lands” (260). in the truth about baked beans, readers embark on a thought-provoking and enlightening journey through the history of new england’s food, leaving them with a newfound appreciation for its complexity and potential for growth. moreover, it sparks discussions about the future of new england’s cuisine, as it encourages a more inclusive and open-minded approach to embracing the diverse influences that have shaped it. muckenhoupt’s rigorous approach, coupled with occasional sardonic and witty commentary, infuses a breath of fresh air into these tumultuous times. nevertheless, the book does have its shortcomings, notably the absence of visual aids, and the potential for overwhelming readers with its detailed content. in its entirety, the truth about baked beans is a formidable work appealing to scholars and readers from a wide array of backgrounds and interests, destined to stand the test of time. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022): 63-84 ©american folklore society 2022 research note l’dor v’dor: creating comfort and sharing traditions in a disembodied time by: rachelle h. saltzman abstract: during the seemingly endless pandemic years of 2020-21, the very act of making traditional family foods became an obsession for many. it is in the doing, the making of recipes, especially those from deceased family members, that we embody and thus perform our cultural heritage. further, when we gift those labor-intensive foods to distant family members, we not only provide comfort for them, but we also create it for ourselves. keywords: foodways, jewish food, comfort food, pandemic, covid-19, embodiment, family food it is a cultural and religious imperative for jews to pass our knowledge and traditions on to our children and grandchildren, the stories that are told and retold, l’dor v’dor (trans. from the hebrew, “from generation to generation”).1 a conversation with folklorist lucy long a few years ago prompted me to think about “frameworks for exploring food narratives that go beyond just the consumption of food, to acknowledge the ways in which food connects into other domains of life” (long 2020). long was talking about thanksgiving, traditional family foods, and the stories that such holiday gatherings and foods generate—in some ways as opposed to the conversations about decolonization that have consumed so many of us over this admittedly emotionally and politically fraught holiday. i immediately thought of passover, which evokes similar ritual work and involves layers of narratives and the requirement that we retell the story of exodus in every generation. this essay is in response to those thoughts, which started as an elaboration on an assignment in my foodways class on comfort and/or discomfort family foods. it has turned into a folklorist’s reflection on “comfort food as a personal and aesthetic response to the pandemic” (long 2022). as long has said, meaningful foods evoke narratives. nearly all jewish holidays encode jewish cultural history. to celebrate passover and chanukah,2 for example, requires that we recount two of the foundation stories of the jewish people and how we came to survive against all odds. passover, in particular, is replete with iconic foods that serve as metaphors for key concepts and prompts for the annual retelling of the history of how we came to be who we are, as well as ways to encode our own values. the holiday requires that we re-enact and retell the origin narrative (fredman 1981) of the jewish people with a seder (trans. from the hebrew, order). the seder is the ritual meal served in a particular order as outlined in the haggadah, the “guidebook” (see figure 1) that provides instructions and commentaries as well as blessings, songs, and games.3 a seder plate (see figure 2) provides the literal setting for the key food symbols and indicates with pictures and hebrew labels what goes where. such foods provide emotional sustenance because they provide spiritual sustenance; they are imbued with meaning and carry family histories and memories as well as cultural history digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 64 writ large as part of their essence. without them, there is no structure to carry the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, through time and the generations (sherman 2002). there is a cultural imperative to having such foods in our lives and in very specific ways. as we re-enact our peoplehood, we also reproduce our own families and our relationship to the whole—concepts that change but still move from generation to generations, l’dor v’dor. figure 1: haggadot photo by the author digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 65 figure 2: seder plate with symbolic ritual foods photo by the author besides the haggadah, the ritual guidebook for the seder, there are several ritual objects that amplify and serve as prompts for the “official” version. they provide openings for alternative, even contestational, narratives—about the environment, civil rights, our responsibility as jews for tikkun olam (repairing the world), refugees, and more. the seder plate, which provides the literal setting for the key food symbols, can be a piece of high art, a family heirloom, or a child’s craft rendition (see figure 3); it has both virtual images and their hebrew names to indicate placement for the real/symbolic food. as those gathered for the holiday go through each prescribed step of the meal, the haggadah prompts us to point to each food as its role in the tale unfolds. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 66 figure 3: eva’s passover plate photo by the author for individual families, there are myriad variations on just about every element of the passover seder. individuals, families, cultural groups, corporations (most famously, maxwell house®), feminists, and political organizations create their own haggadot (plural of haggadah)—sometimes with explicit but often with implicit motivations (see figure 4). digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 67 figure 4: global justice haggadah photo by the author various versions of a women’s haggadah (broner and nimrod, 1994) started emerging in the 1970s (see figure 5); later additions such as miriam’s cup (of water) (see figure 6) on the seder table in 1994 (companion to elijah’s cup of wine) and then an orange to the seder plate (1980s) illustrate the emergent nature of the holiday (see figure 7). the latter references a modern legend that a rabbi proclaimed in reaction to the ordination of women rabbis that “a woman belongs on a bima [pulpit] the way an orange belongs on a seder plate.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 68 figure 5: women’s haggadah photo by the author figure 6: miriam’s cup photo by the author digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 69 figure 7: closeup of our passover plate with a silver miriam’s cup (next to traditional elijah’s cup of wine) and an orange. photo by the author for my own extended family, seders are redolent with family recipes from lithuania via my maternal grandmother, some from mollie katzen’s the enchanted broccoli forest cookbook (1982), and others from a couple of generations of american-born foodies. they are also the site of family lore from my grandparents’ generation at seders over 60 years ago; then from my parents, aunts, and uncles; and now from my cousins, me, and our children. the requisite ritual four cups of wine inevitably created spills and drips on wine-stained tablecloths as well as on the haggadot, different editions that rarely matched each other for my childhood seders. family members would chime in with stories about previous holidays—in lithuania, at my maternal grandmother’s, at my aunt’s, and, more recently, at my cousins’ home in oregon. after those long ago seders as well as at high holy day meals digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 70 at my grandmother’s, someone would haul out the old photos—from lithuania and from my mother’s, aunt’s, and uncle’s childhoods—all prompts for preand post-immigration family stories about gatherings, family characters, and food—always food, and stories about food. there was even a running joke during those annual seders that involved someone asking my grandmother where the string beans were (ashkenazic jews do not consume legumes on passover because they could ferment); she didn’t have much of a sense of humor and always rose to the bait with annoyance. today, at my cousins’ more politically explicit seder in silverton, oregon, we use revised versions of their 1980s’ homemade and equally stained set of haggadot—full of references to revolution, prayers for resolution of the middle east conflict, pleas for refugees’ asylum, and social justice (see figure 8). figure 8: silverton haggadah photo by the author one of my family’s most emotionally-laden foods is tzimmes. in our tradition, tzimmes is a slow-cooked sweet and savory vegetable stew flavored with flanken (beef short ribs). it traditionally contains sweet root vegetables. in medieval germany, these included parsnips and turnips (marks 2010), then carrots sweetened with honey in the fifteenth century, and other vegetables added over time and space: white potatoes, honey, plums, or apricots in nineteenth-century russia and poland, and sweet potatoes as well as brown sugar and cinnamon once vast numbers of ashkenazic jews fled eastern europe for the united states (nathan 2020). digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 71 my grandmother always made tzimmes for significant jewish holidays—rosh hashanah (jewish new year), for which sweet foods like apples and honey are emphasized to ensure a sweet year ahead, and passover, which necessitates fiber-rich dishes to counter the effects of too much matzoh. tzimmes was always more a special occasion dish—its very name means “make a big fuss” in yiddish. and it can be a very fussy, time-consuming dish to make. i remember from those childhood seders that my maternal grandfather, my uncle, my father (who liked to make trouble), and one of my cousins would play fight over the scarce bits of tzimmes fleisch (literally flesh or meat). tzimmes fleisch carried a lot of symbolic weight in terms of defining our family relationships; after my grandfather’s death, my grandmother would serve it first to her son, my uncle, and then to other family members in order of seniority. my grandmother also made potato kugel (pudding), which was cooked nestled into the soupy top of the tzimmes pot and steamed along with it. according to joan nathan (2020), this was indeed a lithuanian jewish version. ordinarily, potato kugel—consisting of grated potatoes, onions, matzoh meal, eggs, salt, pepper, and chicken schmaltz (fat)—would be baked in the oven along with a chicken or beef brisket. it was special but not as special as the tzimmes, at least for some of the family. my older cousin and i vastly preferred the potato kugel itself—a recipe i made sure to get (see figure 9)—though i found myself in later years figuring out how to make tzimmes—for reasons that will make sense later. figure 9: potato kugel recipe from ida sachs photo by the author my grandmother’s tzimmes never included the traditional prunes, and i was surprised to find many years later that a recipe in katzen’s quasi-vegetarian the enchanted broccoli digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 72 forest cookbook recipe (1982: 204) does include prunes, which work as both a sweetener and as a substitute for meat in terms of flavor and texture. i don’t like prunes, but i thought i’d give this a try and was surprised to find it to be pretty good. i told my mother, who loved prunes, about the fruit’s inclusion, thinking this a great discovery. apparently not! my mother explained that my grandmother never included prunes because my aunt disliked them. for my family, prune-less tzimmes is traditional. many years ago, when i was taking folklore classes in college, i interviewed my grandmother about her foods—the ones she made for her three children, their spouses, and her seven grandchildren who all lived within five miles of each other. she kept her recipes—clipped from the forverts (the jewish daily forward, a yiddish newspaper), hadassah magazine, and various american women’s magazines—in a thick pekl (bundle) wrapped with a rubber band. she stored the bundle in her purse so that the recipes she didn’t carry in her head were always with her when she visited her children and their families on alternating weekends. to capture recipes for the dishes from her mother and others that were only in my grandmother’s head, i’d watch her and write down what she was doing. the tzimmes recipe was one of the unwritten ones. i never saw her making it, and i never thought to ask her about it. that was a source of much annoyance for my maternal aunt, who, over the years, has tried mightily to replicate it. her version is rather soupy and doesn’t include the potato kugel on top. my own mother never prepared it, but since i’ve hosted passover seders over the years and gone to rosh hashanah potlucks, i found myself committed to making it, even though i don’t really like it. but it represents tradition and family holiday meals to me—perhaps more than to others—so making it was a way of carrying on that tradition. my occasional tzimmes is a combination of my taste memory of my grandmother’s with katzen’s ingredients. following my own preferences, i have never made it with meat. i do use prunes—though not all the sweet spices that katzen includes, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and so on—i have stuck to my family’s aesthetic of savory rather than sweet. and i make the potato kugel on top. more recently, i served a deconstructed tzimmes with chunks of sweet potatoes, carrots, prunes, and white potatoes tossed in garlic oil and roasted together with some butter, salt, and pepper, but sometimes it’s just roasted sweet potatoes (see figure 10). digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 73 figure 10: roasted sweet potatoes photo by the author these days, i don’t always make the potato kugel because my husband and daughter don’t really like it. and i don’t do the more complex version that combines tzimmes and kugel when i’ve taken the dish to my cousins, who live over an hour and a half or so away from us in oregon (see figure 11). figure 11: tzimmes with kugel chunks photo by the author i have sometimes made and brought a separate potato kugel, but no one but me seems all that interested in it. my cousin, who prepares a massive seder (see figure 12) each year for dozens (many not jewish), relies on me to make a more or less traditional tzimmes that for her side of the family (her paternal grandfather and my maternal grandfather were brothers). it doesn’t seem to include the kugel that steamed on top of the pot of tzimmes. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 74 figure 12: cousin’s seder table photo by the author in 2020, however, covid-19 changed so much of our lives. at the very start of the pandemic and lockdown, my cousin cancelled our annual passover seder, which had for years been a gathering of four generations of extended cousins (see figure 13). my cousin, who takes great pride in her generous and inclusive gatherings suggested a summer seder—surely the virus would have run its course by then. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 75 figure 13: cousin’s plate with matzah, homemade gefilte fish and beet-sweetened horseradish, and hardboiled egg photo by the author we couldn’t skip passover, and so i found myself making the seder just for the three in my immediate family: my husband, daughter, and me. some honest conversations revealed that none of us really liked tzimmes. instead, we preferred the simpler roasted root vegetables—as long as they were somewhat caramelized. i cooked for several days, and we tried to enjoy the meal, but doing so with such a tiny group felt incomplete (see figure 14). figure 14: our seder table set with my grandmother’s glass passover dishes photo by the author phone calls with distant friends and family to compare notes on what we made and how we celebrated the seder helped to simulate a sense of togetherness, but the calls really weren’t digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 76 enough. we found, though, that the food was critical. the specific dishes, which are symbolic for jews in general, and those other foods, which are symbolic of family heritage for me and my relatives, were necessary for the ritual to be comforting. for me, personally, the potato kugel is the ultimate holiday comfort food; and this particular year, i needed the comfort, so i did make it for myself even though no one else wanted it. alas, i neglected to photograph it. a few more months into the pandemic, and my uncle unexpectedly died—of covid as we later learned. another month, and my mother passed away, the day after her 99th birthday. my brother, daughter, and i were with her at the end, and we spooned her favorite coffee ice cream into her mouth—comfort for us in providing her with this treat and, we hoped, for her, as a sensory pleasure. her death was not unexpected, but it was still difficult; because of the pandemic, her assisted living facility hadn’t allowed to visit her until near the end. over the ensuing months, as it became apparent that the pandemic was not going away anytime soon, i found myself thinking about holiday baking for rosh hashanah, the jewish new year in the fall (see figures 15 and 16), figure 15: apples and honey photo by the author figure 16: apple cake with caramel and walnut topping photo by the author digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 77 and then for chanukah in december (see figure 17). figure 17: latkes photo by the author and what brought me comfort was to cook and bake many of my grandmother’s recipes, like chicken soup (see figure 18) and challah (special braided egg bread for shabbat) (figure 19). figures 18 & 19: chicken soup with matzah balls; challah for shabbat photos by the author i have always observed being jewish via food—both eating and cooking--and the losses of this year made doing so an imperative rather than a choice. i wasn’t thinking about the why; i just knew that i needed to make my grandmother’s holiday treats, the comfort foods of my childhood.4 my grandmother, like many of her generation, did not follow written recipes, though she always had that ever-present rubber-banded bundle in her purse. my digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 78 brother and i each had our favorites—mine were rugelach, rolled up crescents of cream cheese and butter pastry filled with ground cinnamon and nuts plus raisins. my aunt introduced the idea of raspberry jam, and we all embraced it, though my grandmother always complained about it; rolling up sticky dough spread with jam is a messy business, especially in warm, sticky weather (see figure 20). a traditional chanukah treat, she also made them especially for my birthday in june—definitely an act of love to do so during the high humidity summers in the mid-atlantic states. figure 20: rugelach with raspberry jam (left) and cinnamon, sugar, and ground pecans (right) photo by the author my brother’s favorites were mandel (almond) bread, similar to biscotti (see figure 21), and what we called pink and white cookies, basically a butter cookie batter mixed with dried candied fruit, baked in strips, cut into bars, and iced with pink and white frosting (see figure 22). i had the recipes for both of his favorites, but i’d made the pink and white cookies only once before and never made the mandel bread [see figure 23]. rugelach were always my favorite and my specialty. figure 21: mandel bread photo by the author digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 79 figure 22: grandma’s frosty fruity bars photo by the author figure 23: mandel bread recipe by ida sachs photo by the author i took on the personal challenge of baking all these cookies, keeping some for my daughter and husband, sharing some with local jewish friends, and shipping off care packages to my brother and his family, my aunt, and my cousin, who, like my jewish friends, well understood why they were meaningful and appreciated my efforts. as with the laborintensive hamantaschen (trans. from the yiddish, haman’s pockets—circles of rich, rolled dough, filled with a mixture of dried fruits and nuts or a poppy seed mixture, and pinched into three-cornered little tarts) that i make each year for purim (see figure 24), it made no digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 80 emotional sense for me to share with those who didn’t understand the work involved in making these treats as well as the symbolic resonance for our common jewish identity. the meaning would have been diluted into the more pervasive sharing of holiday cookies that happens among many american families in late december. i found immense comfort from not just making these family sweets for myself, my husband, and my daughter, but especially from sharing them with far-away relatives who had experienced the same years of family holidays and the emotional warmth they created. even sweeter was their thanks—my brother texted upon their arrival, “totally awesome. great timing too. i’m tasting the love and warmth. thank you all so very much!” my aunt texted, “your cookies arrived in great condition, and i’ve tasted the mandel bread—excellent!” figure 24: hamantaschen photo by the author the comfort those foods offered was not just from the foods themselves but also from making and then sharing them with others. folklorist chrissy widmeyer (2021) writes about a related concept,5 which she calls “performative intimacy, … the means through which relationships are performed into being” in reference to the group work involved in making family foods and the community work in making and gifting potato pies for a group of african american women—in both cases, sharing and thus performing, reaffirming, and recreating community. african american jewish food scholar michael twitty also embraces the idea; for twitty, food is about family: absent, extended, past, and present. for his digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 81 research on the african roots of southern cuisine, he almost religiously tries to replicate those dishes as his ancestors would have prepared them on southern plantations. to become who we are is to embrace this actual embodiment of making and sharing food, an act made both more difficult and more powerful in the absence of bodies during this virtual world in which we all seem to dwell. our family holiday traditions have changed from the ones of my childhood. it’s no longer the old photos that trigger stories and memories but the foods themselves, even if we don’t always have the same dishes. during most of the pandemic, my aunt, my cousin, and i had phone conversations and zoom meetings to consult about recipes and preparation methods—memories substituting for real life gatherings. but the stories continue, though evoked by different foods now and different issues. to be “strangers in a new land,” as the israelites were during their generations’ long sojourn in egypt, means more to my husband, daughter, and me after our migration to oregon a decade ago. and the ritual themes of the seder conversation—social justice, hunger, and what it means to be jewish in the world today—means we are talking about covid, the unhoused, israel, the elections, and previous seders when we could all be together. these ritual holiday meals and our family foods have sustained us, yet during this endless pandemic time, sharing culturally symbolic or any foods has become challenging. at the same time, the very act of making traditional family foods has become an obsession for many, as it has for me, even though the sharing itself is most often virtual—via photos on social media and comparing recipes on zoom screens. it is in the doing, the making of recipes as well as the sharing of family stories, which enables us to embody and thus perform our cultural heritage, even in the absence of face-to-face contact. and when we gift those labor-intensive foods to distant family members, we not only provide comfort for them (perhaps more so for ourselves), but we also recreate that heritage for ourselves. the narratives are embedded in the foods, stories about our elders and of their migrations, descriptions of times gone by, the tastes and smells encoded in the memories of past meals. with each generation, the story is remade and retold, l’dor v’dor, from generation to generation. we continue to seek relevance as we make our own places in the recounting, and watch our children take over and weave their own threads and food traditions into this creation story, our own virtual palimpsest. note of acknowledgement: huge thanks to lucy long for encouraging, supporting, and gently cajoling me to get this piece done. i’m forever grateful for our friendship, both personal and professional. i also want to acknowledge the creative space that dr. michelle jacob, my colleague at the university of oregon, provided with her anahuy mentoring auntie way writing retreats during 2021 and 2022. my having scheduled time to write along with the encouragement, support, and laughter from michelle and the writing group were critical for writing and revising this piece and the two previous conference papers (american folklore society, association for the study of food and society) on which it was based. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 82 1 from the second commandment given to moses on mount sinai, “though shalt have no other gods before me,” which is iterated in exodus, and elaborated upon in deuteronomy, 6:5-9 (starting with the v’ahavtah), “you shall love adonai your god with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. take to heart these instructions with which i charge you this day. impress them upon your children…” [italics added for emphasis] (tbs-online.org n.d.). and see deuteronomy 4:9, based on deuteronomy 4:9, "and make them known to your children and to your children’s children” [italics added for emphasis] (durff 2016). 2 chanukah commemorates the successful rebellion of the maccabees against the seleucid empire and the greeks in the 2nd century bce and the subsequent rededication of the 2nd temple. 3 while passover commemorates a solemn history, there is much room and even encouragement in the haggadah and during the seder for merriment, joking, and drinking games—the required four cups of wine do rather encourage the irreverent features of passover. and the games, stories, and songs help to keep the children involved and entertained during what can be a long evening. 4 i refer here to the concept of comfort food that michael owen jones and lucy m. long articulate in their introduction to comfort food: meanings and memories (2017). 5 “in another case, i examine how a community group gifts sweet potato pies to build relationships across gaps in their community, engaging in an african american and southern food tradition and using intimate performatives to achieve social justice goals. the group insists that pies must be accepted with an understanding of the dialogue they are meant to initiate. accepting pies when they are given, for instance, to the victims of police violence and the police themselves allows the pies to bring two sides of the community together for discussion” (widmayer 2021). https://www.sefaria.org/deuteronomy.4.9?lang=he-en&utm_source=aju.edu&utm_medium=sefaria_linker digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 83 works cited abrahams, roger. 1984. equal opportunity eating: a structural excursus on things of the mouth. in ethnic and regional foodways in the united states: the performance of group identity, ed. linda kelly brown and kay mussell, 19-36. knoxville: university of tennessee press. baur, joe. 2021. rosh hashanah food: the history of tzimmes. the history of tzimmes | the nosher (myjewishlearning.com). accessed november 30, 2022. broner, e. m. and naomi nimrod. 1994. the telling: including the women's haggadah. new york: harpercollins. dorff, elliot. 2016. from generation to generation. american jewish university. march 6. https://www.aju.edu/ziegler-school-rabbinic-studies/our-torah/back-issues/generationgeneration. accessed november 11, 2022. fredman, ruth gruber. 1981. the passover seder: afikoman in exile. philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press. jochnowitz, eve. 2004. flavors of memory: jewish food as culinary tourism in poland. in culinary tourism, ed. lucy long, 97-113. lexington: university press of kentucky. jones, michael owen and lucy m. long. 2017. introduction. in comfort food meanings and memories, ed. michael owen jones and lucy m. long, 3-16. jackson: university press of mississippi. kalcik, susan. 1984. ethnic foodways in america: symbol and performance of identity. in ethnic and regional foodways in the united states: the performance of group identity, ed. linda kelly brown and kay mussell, 37-65. knoxville: university of tennessee press. katzen, molly. 1982. the enchanted broccoli forest. berkeley: 10 speed press. long, lucy. 2015. green bean casserole and midwestern identity: a regional foodways aesthetic and ethos. in the food and folklore reader, ed. lucy m. long, 191-204. new york and london: bloomsbury academic. long, lucy, 2020. personal communication. long, lucy. 2022. personal communication. marks, gil. 2010. encyclopedia of jewish food. new york: houghton mifflin harcourt. nathan, joan. 2020. “tracing a classic jewish dish throughout the diaspora.” new york times. september 8. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/dining/tsimmes-recipe-roshhashanah.html. accessed november 30, 2020. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/the-history-of-tzimmes/ https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/the-history-of-tzimmes/ https://www.aju.edu/ziegler-school-rabbinic-studies/our-torah/back-issues/generation-generation https://www.aju.edu/ziegler-school-rabbinic-studies/our-torah/back-issues/generation-generation https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/dining/tsimmes-recipe-rosh-hashanah.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/dining/tsimmes-recipe-rosh-hashanah.html digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 84 sherman, sharon. 2002. the passover seder: ritual dynamics, foodways, and family folklore. in “we gather together”: food and festival in american life, eds. theodore c. humphrey and lin t. humphrey, 27-42. ann arbor, mi: umi research press. tbs-online.org. n.d. worship prayer: v’ahatvah. temple b’nai shalom. https://www.tbsonline.org/worship-prayer-vahavtah/. accessed november 11, 2022. twitty, michael. 2017. the cooking gene: a journey through african american culinary history in the old south. new york: harpercollins. widmayer, christine j. 2021. about – christine j. widmayer (cjwidmayer.wordpress.com) accessed november 5, 2021. widmayer, christine j. 2016. “just a dish: power dynamics and gender roles in making hummoth kibbeh.” digest: a journal of foodways and culture 5(2):1-33. https://www.tbs-online.org/worship-prayer-vahavtah/ https://www.tbs-online.org/worship-prayer-vahavtah/ digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021): 129-130 © american folklore society 2021 129 review of: road sides: an illustrated companion to dining and driving in the american south emily wallace. austin, tx: university of texas press, 2019. pp. 175, sources, index of places, 100 color illustrations. review by: charley camp foodways scholars, i would wager, are more conscious than most when it comes to categories and criteria for membership. that may explain why there have been so few food-based guidebooks since the 1930s based upon or attentive to eating. exceptions must include mile-by-mile guides for u.s. routes 30 and 40, coast to coast, and a handful of local guidebooks devoted to a place, or better yet-a road. alas, in these pandemic times, eateries close to reopen as laundromats; grand restaurants as carry-outs. emily wallace makes modest claims for road sides. for starters, most of what she writes and draws is roadside or drive-in food, a category food writers generally ignore. yes, there are exceptions, including the gaffney peach-roadside, yes— visible for about fifty miles—but discernibly inedible. after all, what is an “illustrated companion” that makes no claim to relative completeness? or a volume devoted to “dining and driving” with neither a map nor driving directions to eateries visited and recommended? two technical problems make matters worse: alphabetical listing, by topic (not eatery), and disrespect for the mason-dixon line. yes, i know that no one, i mean no one, locates baltimore in the american south. is it simply my location and age that make this a prickly point? the distribution of eateries by state, by topic, and alphabetically (whew) seems otherwise fair, although jane and michael stern had more to say about several of the same places in their much-missed roadfood books. that’s where the heartache really begins. there’s no evidence that the author of road sides visited each and every eatery included in the companion, and not just because some of the places given mention aren’t eateries—such as the lorraine hotel in memphis, where rev. dr. martin luther king, jr. was assassinated (131), or the cracker barrel chain, nearby wherever you are. i will confess to admiration for the 100 color illustrations in the book (number 100 is a nice drawing of the author), even though some of them have little to do with foods or food signs, but i can’t help wondering if author/illustrator wallace might have better spent her time in the presence of the actual food purveyors included in the companion. that’s because too many of the book’s brief descriptions of eateries are based upon chamber-of-commerce text instead of camp, review, road sides digest: a journal of foodways & culture 8:1/2 (2021) 130 taste buds. finally, i cite a now-ancient authority for this criticism—the society for the north american cultural survey (snacs), which published a photocopied atlas in 1980 that included foodways. snacs received a significant number of criticisms for their prototype from folklorists and anthropologists who insisted that every entry for an ethnic restaurant must be backed up by a meal. the length of time to perform this task set the project back about two years, but the final foodways survey was based not just on the names of restaurants, but what their food tasted like. why do i bring up this ancient anecdote? to make a difficult but necessary distinction. i think road sides is an interesting and unique book that summons the recollection of food and travel—southern food in particular. i doubt that i will consult it before i next travel south, but i do like the pictures. negotiating taste food market research in the hagley library by: ai hisano with the growth of the food industry and the establishment of global food systems, studies have documented how corporations increasingly shaped what people ate, as well as why and how they ate (see for example belasco and scranton 2002, nuetzenadel and trentmann 2008). other work has determined that consumers have continued to exercise enormous influence on their food choices and how food comes to the table (see for example horowitz 2005, wilk 2006). how, then, do we balance the relative influences of producers, advertisers, marketers, and consumers? this research note points to the potential contribution of food market studies to understanding rituals of cooking and eating, the construction of cultural knowledge, and identity formation through the lens of foodways. here i argue that marketing research can serve as a way to comprehend not only corporate initiatives but also the political and cultural constructions of eating and drinking habits and interrelations between producers, distributors, and consumers. provided scholars take into account that marketing companies and their studies are not “value-neutral,” but have biases and are affected by cultural and social circumstances, research on consumption patterns and market climates can reveal the intricacy of power relations between the industry and consumers. my particular focus is two major collections held by the hagley library (wilmington, delaware), the leading business history library and archives in the united states 1: the seagram company, ltd. collection and the papers of ernest dichter. 2 these collections contain hundreds of market studies, principally from the 1950s through 1970s, that include marketing strategies of food companies, consumer attitudes toward various products, and opinions of retailers and wholesalers. i first discuss the seagram papers, which include primarily alcohol marketing studies. then, i focus on market research pertaining to food and drink contained in the ernest dichter papers. these market reports provide important analytical tools for scholars from various disciplines. seagram company, ltd. papers the hagley collections documenting the history of the joseph e. seagram & sons company, ltd. run to almost 1,000 linear feet. these records trace the company’s transformation from a small business to a diversified multi-national corporation. seagram commissioned thousands of market surveys to understand consumer attitudes towards alcoholic beverages, food, and other consumer products. the company also assessed brand preferences and the impact of advertising among different demographic and regional populations. these studies begin in the 1950s and are strongest from the 1960s through the 1980s. although the seagram research reports remain virtually untouched by scholars, they have the potential to vastly widen our understanding of the place of alcohol and drinking both in american life and overseas. they promise to extend the growing number of studies in the last decade exploring the multifaceted traits of alcohol as commodity, food, a social marker, and a public discourse. for example, historians of colonial america and the early republic, such as david w. conroy (1993), peter thompson (1999), and sharon v. salinger (2002), examined the political, economic, and social role of the tavern as a public space while lori rotskoff’s love on the rocks (2002) traced the construction of discourses about alcoholism in the twentieth century. rotskoff described the “engendering” of alcoholism that reflected and reshaped ideologies and norms of masculinity and femininity from the 1910s to 1960s in the united states. to further understand the significance and complexity of drinking culture, we need to consider drinking habits in relation to larger social and historical changes and to other countries, as well as the relationships between administrative policies, public representation of drinking, and alcohol distribution and consumption patterns. attention to market research surveys, such as those in the seagram collection, has the potential to augment directions in recent scholarship to look more closely at drinking habits and socio-economic practices from production to consumption. the seagram papers at hagley include more than 400 consumer research reports and related materials, including correspondence, minutes from marketing meetings, advertisement posters, and magazine and newspaper clippings. since seagram’s headquarters was located in montreal, quebec, canada, the majority of research targeted canadian and united states markets. but there are also international market reports on twenty-two countries and regions. while some include a detailed analysis of the data from interviews and statistics, others are only raw data regarding alcohol sales and consumption, retail prices, market shares of the company, consumer brand preferences, and brand awareness. the consumer studies were conducted by prominent advertising agencies including the gallup organization, j. walter thompson, and institute for motivational research. they offer consumer profiles and attitudes toward different types of alcoholic beverages, including beer, whiskey, rum, vodka, gin, brandy, and wine. scholars can also benefit from the sheer volume of interviews with distributors and retailers. some of the most important themes in these reports are summarized below. the social geography of drinking a number of consumer studies in the seagram papers discuss social and political influences on drinking habits in different geographic settings. they consider the ways in which political control over alcoholic beverages affected distribution and consumption of alcohol, as well as the connection of national, regional, and ethnic identity to drinking patterns and attitudes toward alcohol. these sources illuminate how the alcohol consumption practices reflected the impacts of politics on everyday lives and, reciprocally, how people responded to their political and social situations. in canada, the political climate of the 1960s through 1980s concerned seagram greatly. the development of canadian identity and social and political movements such as the nationalist quiet revolution in quebec played crucial roles in establishing modern canadian society after world war ii. social transformation and political awareness had a significant impact on eating and drinking habits in the country. in addition, many of the seagram studies on canada distinguished between frenchcanadian and english-canadian populations to determine cultural impacts on drinking patterns. their canadian consumer surveys were mostly conducted province by province rather than in a national market. for example, “a motivational research study of attitudes, expectations, and unsatisfied needs in the liquor environment” (analytical research 1974) evaluated the extent to which cultural and social changes affected the current attitudes and practices of quebec canadians toward various types of alcoholic beverages. the report is primarily based on interviews with 200 respondents (68% male and 32% female), and includes questions on their attitudes toward alcohol in general, preference for different kinds of drinks, expectations for liquor qualities and advertising, and the importance of a “canadian” label (domestic or imported) to their choices. this study shows the relationships between social changes and everyday lives, specifically the drinking habits, of individuals and groups of people. in the united states market, seagram extensively surveyed alcoholic beverage use in thirty-three states from the east to west coasts, as well as hawaii (trc 1970-1985). 3 these state surveys amount to thirty-nine linear feet and have seven linear feet of supporting records, including raw completed questionnaires and demographic information. to create these studies, trade research company, the firm hired by seagram, conducted interviews with 100 to 500 retailers every two or three years from the early 1970s to the early 1980s in more than four cities in each state. these studies explored consumption trends and market climates in different places, asking restaurant, bar, and store owners about their impressions of consumer attitudes toward different types of liquor; pricing and discount policies; bottle displays at stores and bars; special holiday packaging; and the impact of political and social issues, such as fair trade laws and other legislation, relating to the alcoholic beverage industry. the reports are quantitative as well as qualitative: they include data on sales, market share, and consumption, along with retailers’ comments on political and cultural situations in their locale. moreover, appendixes attached to each report include detailed information about sales, consumption, retailing, and promotion. for example, southern california reports include surveys, conducted in 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1981 among 540 to 635 retailers in metro los angeles, san diego, orange county, ventura county, santa barbara, and riverside-san bernardino (trc 1971-81). the studies inquired about consumption trends by racial and ethnic groups (“white,” “black,” and “hispanic”) and alcohol consumption by women. among other studies, the 1974 southern california report featured the effect of a wholesaler strike and proposed legislation which included elimination of the fair trade laws, doubling of liquor taxes, and lowering of the drinking age to eighteen in the state (trc 1974). concern with the political situations and impact of fair trade bills was not limited to california. studies of such states as new york, tennessee, delaware, indiana, and maryland also looked at how legislation affected the alcoholic beverage industry. in addition, the delaware and indiana studies aimed to determine the significance of out-of-state business and the percentage of customers coming from neighboring states. examination of political and social conditions in different states provides a larger framework for understanding the development of corporate marketing strategies and the dynamic relationship between politics, culture, and economic activities. these regional studies can also be used to determine alcohol consumption by demographic categories. by juxtaposing the geographic distribution and concentration of certain populations (or communities) with alcohol sales and consumption in a particular region, scholars would be able to map the geography of alcohol purchasing patterns by class, race/ethnicity, and other social characteristics. moreover, these state surveys can be useful to investigate the role of distributors and retailers in the alcoholic beverage trade. it has been difficult for scholars to learn about the attitudes and activities of these traders, even though they have had a significant impact on both sales and consumption of products through their role as mediators between producers and consumers. extensive interviews with retailers and distributors in the seagram studies present essential aspects of marketing activities that scholars have rarely investigated. in addition to geography shaping drinking habits and cultural associations with liquor other studies were more concerned with the influence of the manufacturing origins of alcoholic beverages. “an exploratory study to determine consumer response to country of origin labeling” (e. j. wolf associates 1983) examined united states consumer perceptions of two labels: “imported” and “imported from canada.” the report concluded that consumers preferred a label with a clear indication of a country. because many respondents had positive feelings about other canadian beverages, including beer and whiskey, the country’s name on the label served as a marker of “good” liquor (e. j. wolf associates 1983rrf). the close relationship between alcoholic beverages and geographic origin illustrates the importance of production sites that acquired a connotation of alcohol quality. this commercialization of geography is one of the most important aspects of the interrelations between production, distribution, and consumption of alcohol. alcohol and globalization as domestic competition intensified along with the global expansion of networks of companies, people, and goods, many alcoholic beverage producers saw that expansion into overseas markets was fundamental for corporate growth. teresa da silva lopes’ comprehensive study, global brands (2009), identified the 1960s as the moment when aggressive international expansion took hold in this industry. as lopes argued, the globalization of alcoholic beverages required “marketing knowledge, alliances in distribution, and different forms of corporate governance” to make expansion of national brands into new markets feasible and profitable (2009:2). this form of globalization required corporate managers to understand not only financial costs and benefits but also cultural and political factors in foreign land, as well as the dynamics of business partners and competitors. the market research studies commissioned by seagram can add essential information about the international alcoholic beverage market to our knowledge of globalization. in addition to the canadian and united states research, the firm conducted market studies on every continent from the late 1960s to early 1970s. 4 the objectives and contents of these studies depended on the market. in many european and south and north american countries, as well as japan where seagram already was selling its products, its studies were principally intended to determine consumer brand awareness, drinking habits, the influence of advertisements, and the market share of seagram brands. in nations where seagram was evaluating how to create a new market for its products, the company conducted consumer research to understand the character of the demand for alcoholic beverages and the advertising, bottle designs, and packaging that were most likely to succeed. a somewhat typical study of liquor consumption conducted in new zealand explored drinking habits, brand awareness, images of seagram, and the role of liquor in the country to develop future marketing strategies (j. inglis wright 1978). interviewing 100 men and women in four cities, the report focused more on the social roles played by alcohol and consumer attitudes toward drinking than on statistical data on sales and consumption. according to the study, liquor was “an integral part of the new zealand way of life” and was considered as “a social leveler” that could enhance social conformity (j. inglis wright 1978). meanwhile, new zealanders’ attitudes toward liquor were changing as a result of the liberalization of liquor licensing laws, the extension of hotel drinking hours, and the growth and development of the local wine industry. not all international market research analyzed the social meanings of alcohol and drinking occasions in a particular culture; many focused just on consumer responses to a product with little reference to cultural significances. nonetheless, by closely examining reports in different countries and regions, scholars can benefit from these international studies in understanding the development of new markets and the expansion of the alcoholic beverage business. besides, consumer research in different countries points to geographical differences in alcohol drinking habits and networks of alcohol production, distribution, and consumption that defied national boundaries. gender, race, and age obviously seagram was interested in using market surveys to learn more about who was consuming, and not consuming, their products. along with looking closely at geography, many studies in the seagram papers show alcohol consumption trends by different consumer profiles, including gender, race/ethnicity, and age. even studies not specifically concerned with race or ethnicity include a breakdown of drinking habits by “black” and “white,” and in some cases, “hispanic” categories. advertising agencies also undertook market research that focused on specific groups. for instance, “advertising to spanish speaking americans,” conducted by j. walter thompson (1974), covered not only a demographic profile of the spanish-speaking market, but also these consumers’ social values and culture, differentiating between mexicans, puerto ricans, cubans, and south americans. african americans were another group whose preferences seagram specifically targeted. “profile of the black consumer,” a study conducted by daniel starch and staff, inc. (1973), explored the specific household and personal purchasing habits, spending intentions, and consumer attitudes among african americans. as this report was concerned with lifestyle choices, rather than alcohol consumption per se, it covered consumption of a wide range of goods, such as beverages, diet foods, insurance products, laundry soaps, and automobiles. moreover, seagram’s files also include reports, generated by black enterprise and ebony, magazines primarily targeted at an african-american audience (see earl g. graves 1974). many of these studies are subscriber surveys and detail the alcohol consumption patterns. seagram also carefully crafted its advertising campaigns to appeal to different racial and ethnic groups. a 1981 study evaluated consumer responses to three chivas regal (scotch whiskey) advertisements that featured “white models,” “black models,” and a “universal” image to determine which seagram should use (prs 1981). photo 1: white models. photo 2: black models. photo 3. universal. the seagram papers include reports specifically on female consumers, such as the ladies’ home journal subscriber surveys, “alcoholic beverages and women” (1967; 1972). these studies examined women’s drinking habits, preferred types of drink, purchasing patterns, and their role as hostesses in home entertaining. similarly, other studies on female consumption of alcoholic beverages include women’s usage of alcohol for cooking as well as their drinking and purchasing patterns. “a study of the liquor-buying habits of women” (life 1967) and “special reports on ‘the decision maker’” (fawcett 1967) evaluated the impact of advertising on women, the effectiveness of alcohol advertisement in women’s magazines, and the importance of wives in brand selection. women are mentioned in other studies as well, although not as consistently as distinct racial and ethnic groups. seagram was very concerned about the attitude of young people toward its brands and commissioned a number of market studies to address those concerns. among others, the gallup organization, inc. conducted “a second annual market investigation of alcohol beverage consumption among young people ages 18-29” (1972) to explore young adults’ drinking habits of wine, beer, and distilled spirits. in this study, 1,078 interviews were conducted with college students and 806 with people aged 18 to 29 not attending college. based on the interviews, gallup concluded that “mass social wine consumption grew out of the youth revolt” of the 1960s, and wine consumption, unlike distilled spirits and beer, had a relatively strong relationship to counter-cultural attitudes and behavior such as drug use (gallup 1972). young people’s drinking patterns, however, had changed further by the early 1970s. according to this report, wine consumption became prevalent among a broad spectrum of young people and they were less likely to make the strong association between the establishment and all alcoholic beverages. the report insisted (gallup 1972) that a “general softening of sex roles and definitions” was one of the most essential impacts on youth drinking behavior, thus indicating new social values were significantly affecting the alcoholic beverage market. the segmentation of the market reflected changes in consumer behaviors and preferences, as well as in social values. to develop effective marketing strategies, advertisers aimed to identify primary consumers of particular brands in certain areas. these market studies reveal one company’s cultivation of potential market sectors as well as the changing conceptions of drinking among different groups of people. ernest dichter papers ernest dichter was a vienna-trained psychologist who came to new york in 1938 to escape the nazis. he became a pioneer in the development of motivational research, a marketing tool that used psychological techniques to probe consumers’ desires and responses to market products (schwarzkoph and gries 2010). his extensive papers held by hagley include more than 480 marketing reports related to food and beverages and cover more than 45 food items, dating from the 1950s to 1980s. these studies cover food shopping habits, changes in retail merchandising practices, and consumer attitudes toward food characters/brands such as betty crocker, duncan hines, and sara lee. dichter also conducted research on packaging, including cartons, cellophane, and paraffin containers. in considering a package as “a bridge between a consumer and the content” and as the “emotional identification” of the product, dichter analyzed consumers’ purchasing habits and attitudes toward different food items in relation to their packaging (imr 1951a). as his studies show, the development of package designs resulted from a process of interaction between producers and consumers, with the eventual final package serving as a communication tool between the two. 5 dichter’s reports offer an historical and socio-economic analysis of the data from interviews with consumers and retailers, consumers’ comments on different food items and their eating habits, and his recommendations for marketing strategies to his clients.vi to an unusual degree, his research also provides opportunities to explore the internationalization of food preferences. these studies covered geographically varied markets, mostly the americas and europe, including canada, mexico, australia, england, france, switzerland, germany, spain, as well as the united states. dichter investigated the social and cultural significance of various food products in different countries, cultural barriers against certain foods, and acceptance of new eating habits. while the primary objective of dichter’s research was to determine the current market climate for a certain brand and company, the scope and depth of his analysis were not limited to the volume of sales and consumption or the market share of a particular firm. dichter focused on psychological dimensions of consumption patterns. by probing the “deep psychological motives” behind his interviewees’ attitudes and habits, he aimed to understand “the real significance and function of the product” within contemporary culture (imr 1951b). in market research conducted for diamond crystal salt company, for instance, dichter emphasized the historical importance of salt in the united states and, more generally, its significance as a seasoning for cooking (imr 1955a). another study on beer consumption in south africa developed an encompassing framework geared toward understanding the psychological and practical reasons why people purchased, consumed, and drank beer in a certain way (imr 1964). for dichter, eating habits were not just an individual’s mundane practice of choosing anything edible, but about aspects of their social and private life that include identity, home, and family. while dichter’s marketing research offers valuable primary sources on food and eating habits in different places and time, it is essential to bear in mind the cultural and social context in which dichter undertook his research. during his formative years (1940s-1950s) the male-dominated marketing industry assumed that women were supposed to fulfill their roles as homemakers and make most of the purchases for the family. dichter shared this bias. and similar to others in mid-twentiethcentury market research, he was decidedly western in his cultural assumptions. in his study of tea drinking habits in the united states, for example, dichter compared tea with coffee because he considered the latter as “a direct competitor” of tea (imr 1951c). this may be true in the united states and some other countries, but coffee and tea are not always “compatible.” in many asian cultures, some types of tea were, and still are, regularly served during meals, rather than as an after-meal drink, and thus were not in the same cultural category as coffee. with both its mine of marketing information and cultural limitations, dichter’s research can be valuable to scholars with a wide range of interests and varied research agendas. in the following sections, i explore four research topics relevant to the dichter papers. industrialization and modernization “the decline in the taste of our food began more than a century ago, and has turned into a catastrophic depression in recent years,” john hess and karen hess wrote in their 1972 book, the taste of america (1972:2). the authors decried the rise of the food industry and its impact on the american palate. since then, a number of food studies scholars, environmentalists, journalists, and consumerists have unveiled the darker side of the food business and called for the need to rediscover “real” food and taste. thirty-four years after the publication of the taste of america, michael pollan’s omnivore’s dilemma (2006), a book that restated its main theme, became a bestseller in the united states. as state-of-the-art technology developed varieties of “artificial” food products, including genetically modified foods, the impact of industrial food production on the environment and the human body increasingly gained attention from both scholars and the public. dichter was well aware of the “modernization of the american way of life” in the mid-twentieth century (imr 1957a). he saw the change in the kitchen as “the most revolutionary” in the past generation (imr 1957a). according to his observation, “increased income, more leisure time, greater sophistication in both aesthetic and sensory expectations” were important factors that contributed to changing american people’s taste (imr 1957b). the american public did not necessarily accept “modern” products without hesitation or resistance, even before the “organic food” movements of the late twentieth century. in his studies, dichter found “a paradox of consumption” (imr 1952). on the one hand, more consumers took pride in the great machinery made available through an advanced technology. dichter noted that mass-produced items retained “their rightful place in the constellation of consumer needs” (imr 1957c). on the other hand, consumers became more anxious about the “conveyor belt product” and the trend toward personalized products (imr 1968). even guilt feelings and nostalgia haunted those users. there was also an increasing resentment against the rushed, tense, unhealthy atmosphere of the modern meal. in a study of breakfast cereal, many respondents stated that dry cereal was the symbol of “the resented [sic], hurried, streamlined breakfast” (imr 1955b). while his report indicated female consumers’ growing appreciation for convenient foods and appliances, including frozen foods, baking mixes, and canned foods, dichter detected ambivalence in consumers’ reaction to factory-made, de-personalized commodities and rushed lifestyles. diet and health dieting is one aspect of eating habits and has been a source of recurring interest to many scholars. approaches range from the examination of (white) women’s self-images of their bodies and eating disorders in fasting girls by joan jacobs brumberg (1988) and susan bordo’s focus on the ideological construction of the female body in unbearable weight (1993) to susan yager’s the hundred year diet (2010) that explored people’s preoccupation with diet and weight loss in the united states. although dichter’s research does not discuss dieting as his primary focus, his interviews with consumers and his analysis offer rich information about the social and cultural influences on acts of eating and noneating. as marion nestle revealed in food politics (2002), the food industry played a crucial role in creating a discourse about diet and nutrition by lobbing federal agencies, funding research on food and nutrition, and marketing their products to the public. for dichter, issues of diet and health-conscious trends became important analytical factors especially after the late 1950s. in the following decade, an increasing number of his reports mentioned people’s tendency to be “healthy.” his 1954 study of the rye cracker “ry-krisp” suggested that because the product signified abstinence and even “selfpunishment” in a public image, it had failed to attract many consumers (imr 1954a). the “psychology of diet of modern men and women,” observed dichter, was changing and sales of low-calorie foods were steadily expanding (imr 1954a.). he interpreted these findings to mean that modern consumers were seeking to avoid extremes both of self-deprivation and self-indulgence and instead were striving for a more relaxed moderation and balance. the psychology of dieting was, however, contradictory and complex. in one of his studies about store-baked cakes, dichter reported that in spite of the growth of calorie-consciousness, the market for decorated party cakes had increased in the united states in the late 1950s (imr 1957b). people’s tastes for food were not developed purely by biological needs or physical concerns. idealized lifestyles and family relations also conditioned consumer choice. dichter’s research thus helps us understand not only how advertising firms negotiated popular worries about diet to increase sales of their products, but also how cultural discourses influenced concepts of health and diet as well as selections of food. gender and food dichter’s marketing studies point to a social and cultural construction of ideal womanhood and the role of advertising as a taste-maker that could influence women’s behavior. female consumers, specifically housewives, were important subjects of dichter’s studies. in fact, many of his studies involved products for which women were primary purchasers. the advertising industry at the time regarded women as irrational consumers who were easily swayed by emotional appeals. as daniel horowitz pointed out (1986-87:54), dichter’s view of a female’s central role as the homemaker was closely related to the larger intellectual context in which dichter worked. for some time, constructions of “proper” femininity and gender roles have been an important subject in food studies. among the best known are laura shapiro’s perfection salad (1986) and something from the oven (2004), both crucial works on the politics of constructing gender roles and transforming women’s roles and status inside and outside of the home. kitchen culture in america (inness 2001) and from betty crocker to feminist food studies (avakian and haber 2005) examined the relations between food and gender from various perspectives, especially through such themes as gender roles, industrialization of kitchen, food business, and identity. as these books asserted, food has been an integral part of women’s lives in terms not only of the widely assumed, sometimes imposed, role as a housewife, but also of construction and confirmation of their identity by themselves through provisioning the household. dichter’s reports exemplified how food marketing drove the naturalization of ideal womanhood. his analysis encompassed women’s attitudes toward their own roles at home, transformation of women’s lives and the surrounding environment, and his assumption about women’s roles. as horowitz insisted in his essay, dichter “reconstructed” american womanhood in the postwar united states by classifying three types of women: career woman, pure woman, and balanced woman (1986-87:55). the third category, what dichter called the “modern housewife,” became the primary target of his study and of food advertising. “as a result of intensive postwar education in appliances, packaging, processing, and merchandising,” argued dichter, the modern housewife was “psychologically prepared for almost anything” (imr 1957b). in considering the fact that roughly 60% of married women in the united states were working outside the home, he recognized that the modern housewife could be simultaneously a wage-earner, mother, wife, hostess, household planner and organizer, and a community figure in more than one social organization. while acknowledging women’s negative responses to standardized products as discussed above, dichter concluded that “modern” foods and home appliances had “a builtin psychological attractiveness” to women who would wish to fulfill their multiple obligations (imr 1957b). he further argued that the housewife had learned to feel that convenience factors in food preparation enabled her to heighten her self-image as modern and progressive. while ditcher’s analysis was problematically entangled with social assumptions about gender at the time, respondents’ comments in his interviews also showed how consumers themselves considered, and sometimes took for granted, the association of food with proper gender roles. for dichter, gender was also closely related to the symbolic nature of food. he insisted that foods retained “personalities with a definite sex” (imr 1955c). in his report, “sex of rice,” dichter identified rice as “a strong female,” because it was considered as young and healthy and was also blessed with great fertility (imr 1955c). one of this study’s goals was to determine whether or not there was a personality conflict in uncle ben’s converted rice based on the “sex of rice.” dichter’s interviews indicated that this african american character was considered as “a household retainer, the helper of the woman” (imr 1955c). thus uncle ben’s masculinity represented “no competition with femaleness, nor a clash of authorities” (imr 1955c). in addition, the modern woman accepted the attenuated and friendly authority of an uncle, which connoted “good-will, friendliness,” and “authority, based not on power but on experience and mutual understandings” (imr 1955c). bringing race into his assessment, dichter concluded that american consumers accepted the image of “the nice old colored man as assuming a preponderantly feminine role” (imr 1955c). thus, according to his analysis, uncle ben did not make rice any less feminine than it is generally felt to be. but, warned dichter, “he [uncle ben] should always remain the helper and not the person who takes over the woman’s place” (imr 1955c). uncle ben needed to be seen as the person who would assist, or serve, women in the kitchen than the person who actually cooked. dichter’s analysis of uncle ben may have been legitimate for a food company at the time to promote its brand. for food studies scholars, however, it is important not only to question whether the character’s personality threatened the brand, but also to reexamine the development of uncle ben and the public acceptance of the brand. 7 the very image of “uncle ben” embodied conceptualizations of gender and race: the woman’s role as a homemaker, feminization of non-white men, and white male authority. creation of the uncle ben brand and dichter’s analysis in itself epitomizes the way advertising has contributed to constructing, reiterating, and naturalizing concepts of gender and race in the united states. feeding others food consumption is often imagined as an individual act, when in fact the act of feeding others is one of the central aspects of human culture. looking systematically at the decision-making process of why certain foods are selected, prepared, and then served to other family members can offer significant insights into understanding eating habits and concepts of food in many different cultures. in feeding the family, sociologist marjorie l. devault (1991:12) argued that women were recruited into the “work of feeding” at home because the production of a family as a socially organized material setting required particular kinds of coordinative and maintenance activities. while devault looked at the home, anthropologist daniel miller (1998) observed women who were shopping for food. in miller’s view (1998:15), the act of selecting particular items could be understood as “making love in supermarkets” because of the way purchases reflected social relations within the family rather than individual preferences. as these valuable studies demonstrate, we can better understand patterns of food consumption and purchasing in a family setting by looking closely into this area of our culture. the dichter papers contain important studies on the psychology of feeding and could contribute to a significant expansion of the historical dimensions of food studies. his research on commercial baby foods specifically analyzed women’s psychological concerns about feeding their children: their attitudes towards breastand bottle-feeding, commercial baby foods, and women’s appropriate relationship with a baby. in a study for clapp’s baby food (imr 1962), female respondents tended to consider commercial baby foods as safe and nutritious. although they cited medical doctors as the authority on a baby’s overall physical development, the respondents had confidence in their own judgment regarding the specific feeding routine and food choices for their babies. these “modern mothers,” dichter explained, regarded the baby as an individual with its own behavior and feeding patterns. thus, women had confidence in their own choices and accepted baby food products as part of routine family food purchases (imr 1962). besides infant feeding, the husband and older children were keys to the role of the housewife in preparing meals. the preferences of family members clearly were an important element that affected women’s purchasing patterns. dichter often underscored the role of children in the determination of brand preferences, especially such products as cereal, milk, and processed meat. for example, his study of breakfast cereal uncovered emotional conflict between mother and children (imr 1954b, 1955b, 1957d). children were aware that mother did not willingly approve of their eating some cereal brands just because “advertisers had bribed them with premiums” (imr 1955b). 8 mothers felt they ought to serve children “more nutritious, more wholesome and more honest” types of cereals as part of a substantial mother-prepared breakfast (imr 1955b). the interactions and conflict between mothers and their children examined by dichter complicate the notion of the family as a place of acculturation. pierre bourdieu asserted that the rules and norms of good taste are not “generally inculcated in systems of formal schooling, but rather within the home” (1984:56). echoing his argument, deborah lupton (1996:38) explored family meals as an important site for the construction and reproduction of the contemporary family in western culture and the emotional relationships and power relations within the family. dichter’s studies suggest, however, that the acculturation of taste was an intricate process. while the family still functioned as an important educator of taste for children, parents were not the only ones who provided “taste education.” advertisements also taught children about “good” products. moreover, the authoritative power of parents sometimes yielded to media influences on their children. hence, market research on family feeding and brand selections raises questions about who has the power to decide product and brand selections and to influence the consumption patterns of others in the family. in analyzing dichter’s studies, we can learn how altruistic motives, as well as such factors as nutrition, convenience, price, and flavor, stimulated purchases of certain brands. these marketing reports also indicate ways in which the purchase and preparation of food were intrinsic to gender, class, and family relations. the nature of these reports as advice to food manufacturers, as well as dichter’s own assumption about gender roles, mean that he did not investigate how and why the popular discourse naturalized women’s role as caretakers at home. to fully benefit from these dichter papers, scholars will need to historicize his studies and to interpret them within larger historical and social frameworks. distinction: class, religion, and nation dichter was, in his own way, aware of food’s place in demarcating differences by class, race/ethnicity, gender, and religion. his research reports can be read, then, to develop pierre bourdieu’s well-known work on taste and distinction (1984). for instance, dichter’s studies of kosher food show not only the relations between eating habits and religion, but also the intricate, sometimes contradictory, role of food as a marker of taste. many advertisers increasingly promoted “kosherness” as healthy and safe both to jewish and non-jewish consumers (see imr 1961a, 1963). these reports suggest that differences marked by food were both exclusive and inclusive. appreciation of certain food required economic and cultural capital while drawing a line between those who have and those who do not. on the other hand, the commercialization of religious practices, such as kosher food, distinguished some products from others. at the same time this differentiation of foods won over a wide range of healthconscious consumers regardless of their religious beliefs. dichter’s studies also explored the complicated influence of national identity on food preferences. a particular food’s association as traditionally american or as a foreign import was an important factor in its acceptance. cake mixes “duplicated the most standard and popular of american cake” with the intent of encouraging “acceptance on a basis of familiarity” (imr 1961b). other kinds of food, including gourmet items, benefitted from their association with “the exotic and foreign” (imr 1961b). it was their difference from traditional american fare that attracted consumers. such distinctions between “american” and “foreign” evoke a sense of authenticity and nostalgia, as well as novelty. consumer responses to certain brands and food elucidate the construction of new markets through the process of differentiation from other food cultures. conclusion the marketing studies in the seagram and dichter papers add fresh and diverse perspectives to ongoing interdisciplinary discussions on issues of morality, health, sociability, religion, and identity. not only does the seagram collection help foodways scholars to understand consumer responses to certain types and brands of drinks within and outside the united states, but it also allows them to access influential intermediary activities, including retailers’ perceptions of and reactions to consumers, and businesses such as wholesalers. meanwhile, dichter’s qualitative market research illuminates cultural influences on consumption and avoidance of particular foods, the role of marketing as a “taste-maker,” and the relationships between food, technology, and material culture such as packages. the interrelations between producers, advertisers, and consumers, exposed by these market reports, bespeak the development of taste as a process of negotiation. the marketing studies found in both collections articulate how corporate business activities are closely related to political, economic, and cultural conditions. social situations moreover are not static nor confined within one country or community but are always changing and influenced by other societies. to fully understand the dynamics of global exchanges of information and goods, it is essential to employ various approaches and methodologies across disciplines. while one of the objectives and missions of scholars is to “fill” a gap between scholarly understandings, academic activities are more like oil painting than a jigsaw puzzle: we paint and re-paint a picture on a canvas with different colors and tools over and over, rather than finding a particular piece whose “right” place is predetermined and fixed. only if scholars come together from a variety of disciplinary locations, will we be able to create more intricate pictures of food and drink histories and their roles in society. the hagley collections can help foodways scholars pursue this goal and contribute to deepening and expanding our understanding of eating and drinking cultures as well as of society at large. notes 1. for more information about the library, see http://www.hagley.org/library. the library sponsors conferences and seminars and offers research grants to researchers. 2. records of the seagram company, ltd., 1907-96, accession 2126; seagram museum collection, 1880-1990, accession 2173; and ernest dichter papers, 1936-1991, accession 2407, hagley museum and library, wilmington, delaware. all the seagram and dichter collections discussed in this essay are held by the hagley museum and library unless otherwise noted. these collections include published and unpublished documents, pamphlets, posters, and product samples. this essay covers only a part of the seagram and dichter papers. 3. these states are alaska, arizona, california, colorado, connecticut, delaware, florida, georgia, hawaii, illinois, indiana, kansas, kentucky, louisiana, maryland, massachusetts, michigan, minnesota, missouri, nebraska, nevada, new jersey, new york, north dakota, ohio, pennsylvania, rohde island, south carolina, south dakota, tennessee, texas, washington d.c., and wisconsin. 4. these international markets are argentina, australia, brazil, china, england, germany, hong kong, italy, japan, korea, mexico, netherlands, new zealand, philippines, portugal, puerto rico, singapore, south africa, spain, switzerland, thailand, united kingdom, and venezuela (international market studies, 1962-80). some reports are written in languages other than english. 5. the irv koons collection at hagley is another rich primary source for studying packaging and industrial design. irv koons papers, 1946-96, accession 2132. 6. interviews were mainly undertaken with consumers in many of dicther’s studies, but some research includes interviews with retailers, such as restaurant and retail store owners, and distributors. 7. for the relations between race, gender, and food, see doris witt’s black hunger (1999). 8. in addition to feeding the family, ditcher’s studies on pet foods reveal another aspect of feeding work, including the role of the pet food industry in constructing the relation between pet animals and human beings (see imr 1953; 1955d). references cited avakian, arlene voski, and barbara haber, eds. 2005. from betty crocker to feminist food studies: critical perspectives on women and food. amherst: university of massachusetts press. belasco, warren, and philip scraton, eds. 2002. food nations: selling taste in consumer societies. new york: routledge. bordo, susan. 1993. unbearable weight: feminism, western culture, and the body. berkeley: university of california press. bourdieu, pierre. 1984. distinction: a social critique of the judgment of taste, translated by richard nice. cambridge: harvard university press. brumberg, joan jacobs. 1988. fasting girls: the history of anorexia nervosa. massachusetts: harvard university press. conroy, david w. 1993. in public houses: drink and the revolution of authority in colonial massachusetts. chapel hill: university of north carolina press. devault, marjorie l. 1991. feeding the family: the social organization of caring as gendered work. chicago: university of chicago press. hess, john l., and karen hess. 1972. the taste of america. champaign: university of illinois press. horowitz, roger. 2005. putting meat on the american table: taste, technology, transformation. baltimore: johns hopkins university press. inness, sherrie a., ed. 2001. kitchen culture in america: popular representations of food, gender, and race. philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press. lopes, teresa da silva. 2007. global brands: the evolution of multinationals in alcoholic beverages. new york: cambridge university press. lupton, deborah. 1996. food, the body and the self. thousand oaks, ca: sage. miller, daniel. 1998. a theory of shopping. ithaca ny: cornell university press. nestle, marion. 2002. food politics: how the food industry influences nutrition and health. berkeley: university of california press. nuetzenadel, alexander, and frank trentmann, eds. 2008. food and globalization: consumption, markets and politics in the modern world. new york: berg. pollan, michael. 2006. the omnivore’s dilemma: a natural history of four meals. new york: penguin. rotskoff, lori. 2002. love on the rocks: men, women, and alcohol in post-world war ii america. chapel hill: university of north carolina press. salinger, sharon v. 2002. taverns and drinking in early america. baltimore: johns hopkins university press. schwarzkoph, stefan, and rainer gries, eds. 2010. ernest dichter and motivation research: new perspectives on the making of post-war consumer culture. new york: palgrave. shapiro, laura. 1986. perfection salad: women and cooking at the turn of the century. new york: modern library. ———. 2004. something from the oven: reinventing dinner in 1950s america. new york: penguin books. thompson, peter. 1999. rum punch and revolution: tavern-going and public life in eighteenth-century philadelphia. philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press. wilk, richard. 2006. home cooking in the global village: caribbean food from buccaneers to ecotourists. new york: berg. witt, doris. 1999. black hunger: food and the politics of u.s. identity. new york: oxford university press. yager, susan. 2010. the hundred year diet: america's voracious appetite for losing weight. new york: rodale books. manuscripts analytical research, ltd. 1974. a motivational research study of attitudes, expectations, and unsatisfied needs in the liquor environment. seagram 2173. box 196. daniel starch and staff, inc. 1973. profile of the black consumer. seagram 2126. box 720. e. j. wolf associates. 1983. an exploratory study to determine consumer response to country of origin labeling. seagram 2126. box 720. earl g. graves, ltd. 1974. black enterprise audience study 1974. seagram 2126. box 720. fawcett publications. 1967. special report on "the decision maker. seagram 2126. box 782. gallup organization, inc. 1972. a second annual market investigation of alcohol beverage consumption among young people ages 18-29. seagram 2126. box 721. horowitz, daniel.1986-87. the birth of a salesman: ernest dichter and the objects of desire. unpublished article. dichter 2407. box 203. imr (institute for motivational research, inc.). 1951a. research study on the sales and advertising problems connected with the use of paraffined cartons for butter, ice cream, lard, shortening, oleomargarine. dichter 2407. box 6. ———. 1951b. progress report on a psychological study of the sales and advertising problems of pepsi cola. dichter 2407. box 6. ———. 1951c. how to make more people drink tea – a psychological research study. dichter 2407. box 6. ———. 1952. a psychological research report on the sales and advertising problems of hage’s dairy. dichter 2407. box 8. ———. 1953. a psychological research study on the advertising and packaging problems of canned cat food. dichter 2407. box 10. ———. 1954a. a psychological research pilot study on the sales and advertising problems of ry-krisp. dichter 2407. box 15. ———. 1954b. a psychological research study of the sales and advertising problems of rice chex and wheat chex. dichter 2407. box 16. ———. 1955a. diamond crystal salt. dichter 2407. box 17. ———. 1955b. a motivational research study on present and future psychological trends in cereals. dichter 2407. box 21. ———. 1955c. creative research memo on the sex of rice. dichter 2407. box 25. ———. 1955d. a creative memo on some of the problems of the walter kendall brand of dry dog food. dichter 2407. box 19. ———. 1957a. a pilot motivational study and product test of cook-in-pouch frozen vegetables. dichter 2407. box 35. ———. 1957b. a pilot motivational study of the sales and merchandising problems of antoinette’s party cakes. dichter 2407. box 20. ———. 1957c. a creative memo on what motivates housewives to buy bakery products other than bread. dichter 2407. box 33. ———. 1957d. a psychological research report on the sales and advertising problems of hage’s dairy. dichter 2407. box 8. ———. 1961a. a motivational research study of the major problem areas for rokeach within the kosher food market. dichter 2407. box 62. ———. 1961b. a creative memorandum on the psychology of cake mixes. dichter 2407. box 64. ———. 1962. a motivational research study of the sales and advertising problems of clapp’s baby foods. dichter 2407. box 33. ———. 1963. marketing kosher angel food cake and sponge cake in the new york area. dichter 2407. box 63. ———. 1964. a motivational research study of beer drinking motivations among europeans and africans and their implications for south african breweries. dichter 2407. box 78. ———. 1968. a motivational research study of luncheon meats and wieners. dichter 2407. box 97. international market studies. 1962-80. seagram 2126. box 749-759. j. inglis wright, ltd. 1978. a qualitative probe into the attitudes and behaviour of the new zealand liquor consumer. seagram 2126. box 754. j. walter thompson. 1974. advertising to spanish speaking americans. seagram 2126. box 722. ladies’ home journal. 1967 and 1972. alcoholic beverages and women. seagram 2126. box 778. life. 1967. a study of the liquor-buying habits of women. seagram 2126. box 778. prs (perception research services, inc). 1981. a motivational evaluation of three father’s day advertisements for chivas regal “white models,” “black models,” “universal.” seagram 2126. box 734. trc (trade research company). 1970-1985. seagram marketing survey. seagram 2126. box 648-687. ———. 1971-1981. seagram marketing survey: southern california. seagram 2126. box 648. ———. 1974. seagram marketing survey: southern california. seagram 2126. box 648. who can speak for the homeless? developing a sustainable model for feeding the homeless of philadelphia by: anna ralph on march 14, 2012, philadelphia mayor michael nutter stepped to the podium to announce new regulations concerning the outdoor feeding of the city’s homeless population, effective may 1. by the next day television news affiliates and the associated press had circulated the story throughout the country. it appeared that the city of brotherly love was preparing to turn its back on some of its neediest and most vulnerable, following calloused and self-serving motivations. this early interpretation proved to be an unfortunate exaggeration. the city had indeed taken some unprecedented steps, which had significant implications for the homeless and those who serve them; however, these steps reflected not disdain, but rather concern for the homeless population. for example, in conjunction with the city’s board of health and department of parks and recreation, and citing concerns such as food safety, human dignity, and access to social services, mayor nutter had proposed ending all outdoor feeding of the homeless (and indigent) in city parks. nutter asserted that indoor feeding locations would better serve the needs of the homeless. critics immediately questioned the city’s altruism. some of the main locations where citizen groups typically served the homeless were in city parks near cultural venues that attract tourists. in one area, the city was preparing to open a new $200 million museum at roughly the same time that the new regulations would be implemented. accusations of trying to hide the homeless from sight came from many directions. in response, the city held hearings on the proposed regulations and listened to many expressions of concern as well as some misinformed accusations. it then modified the original proposal to remove some of the initial stipulations. charitable groups could continue to feed the homeless outdoors, provided they meet some new food safety criteria and receive licenses from the board of health. city parks, however, were still off-limits for these food distributions. despite the compromises, two months later this issue continued to be volatile in and around philadelphia. its contentiousness is likely related to the emotionally-charged issues it represents. few things elicit more passionate responses than the topics of food, hunger, the homeless, human rights, social justice, suspicious governmental actions, and religious freedom. much of the controversy centers on whose understanding of the needs of the homeless is most accurate and comprehensive. what are the food needs of the homeless, and what is the best way to meet these needs? to better understand the complex issues embodied in these questions, it is necessary to step back and take a dispassionate look at who the homeless are, what has been attempted to meet their needs, what societal factors complicate the issue, who can realistically speak for the homeless, and how a sustainable and holistic model of providing for the food needs of the homeless might be developed. who are the homeless? a substantial literature is dedicated to defining the homeless, delineating the causes of their circumstances, and proposing remediation. it is not the purpose of this paper to provide an in-depth analysis, or even a summary, of these sources. rather, the following discussion draws on definitions and demographics cited by philadelphia homeless advocacy groups. project h.o.m.e., one of the city’s largest homeless advocacy groups, defines homelessness in the following manner: “a person who is homeless does not have a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence” (project h.o.m.e. 2012). the homeless are notoriously difficult to count. many are tucked away in obscure park areas, vehicles, or abandoned houses. nevertheless, project h.o.m.e. estimates that approximately 4,000 people are homeless in philadelphia on any given day, including only those “who are in shelters or on the streets.” numbers vary seasonally, but in general only about 10% sleep on the streets. of those in the city’s shelters, roughly 20% of individuals and 13% of families are “chronically homeless.” one third of the city’s shelter population is comprised of children (project h.o.m.e. 2012). the number of homeless young adults, aged eighteen to twenty-four, is increasing. people of color, of all ages, are disproportionately represented, with over 80% being african-american. approximately 85% of the city’s homeless are men (moss-coane 2012). the homeless include individuals struggling with substance abuse or mental illness, veterans, victims of domestic violence, and, increasingly, families. circumstances which contribute to the likelihood of homelessness include bank foreclosures, lack of affordable housing, unemployment, decreasing public assistance, and lack of affordable health care (project h.o.m.e. 2012). many do not fit the public’s stereotype of a “typical” homeless person; some are even college-educated (moss-coane 2012). despite the fact that the homeless share a physical space and a circumstance, they cannot be categorized with one tidy general description. because they are so diverse, there is no single solution that will address the concerns of all. their needs may appear to be the same: all need food, a place to live, and the means to support themselves. all are vulnerable and some are on similar journeys. but each is still an individual—with a unique story and perceptions of his or her circumstances and identity. each one looks for a measure of control over their life, degrees of choice, and unique solutions tailored to individual circumstances. what has been done to help? a variety of groups has rallied over the years to attempt to provide the most basic of human needs— food. most of these do not distinguish between distributing food to the homeless and the indigent. many also actively connect the homeless with shelters and with social services to find long-term solutions to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness. there are too many organizations to cite individually, but a pattern of involvement is apparent (see various websites in reference list corresponding to the following). some non-profits offer meals indoors on a daily, or almost daily, basis. the sunday breakfast rescue mission ambitiously provides three meals every day of the year; st. john’s hospice serves lunch every weekday. broad street ministry also serves indoors, but is currently limited to two days per week. others employ a model which incorporates both indoor and outdoor distributions; chosen 300 ministries, an alliance of churches, serves indoors five times weekly but adds an outdoor meal on saturdays from may to october. other groups come to center city weekly or biweekly to distribute food outdoors, usually on the benjamin franklin parkway or in some other city park location. king’s jubilee has been serving dinners on thursdays for over 23 years; philly restart distributes on mondays; food not bombs philadelphia covers sundays and mondays in one location and wednesdays at another one. then there are church, youth, and civic groups who sporadically arrive and pass out food where the homeless are known to congregate. cumulatively, these groups and individuals impact the problem of hunger in downtown philadelphia. but how great is that impact? it is challenging to judge the effectiveness of these programs— outdoor/indoor, daily/weekly, informal/organizational. by what criteria should they be evaluated? in every case, someone who is hungry receives food. moreover, everyone who shares has good intentions; many even try to implement holistic solutions to the systemic problems of homelessness. relationships with “regulars” form and the food providers become “family” for the homeless. the challenge, though, is that no one is really in a position to see what unhealthy behaviors and mindsets are being reinforced and perpetuated—on both sides of the serving table. narrative—new regulations when the city of philadelphia announced its new regulations in march 2012, it was the latest effort in a long history of measures to deal with homelessness. feeding the homeless and the hungry has been a longstanding challenge for the city’s government as well as its citizens and charitable organizations. mayor nutter was quick to praise the efforts of those who had worked tirelessly to make a difference in the lives of the homeless. he thanked them “for the good work they are doing” but added, “we can do better.” part of mayor nutter’s impetus was his own personal conviction that the hundreds he had often witnessed lined up in city parks, “shivering in the cold and rain, huddled in the dark,” waiting for a sandwich, deserved better. “i believe that people regardless of their station in life should be able to sit down at a table to a meal—inside, away from the heat and cold, the rain and snow, the vehicle exhaust and distractions of the street” (city of philadelphia 2012). the new policy initiative he announced was “aimed at increasing the health, safety, dignity and support for those vulnerable individuals who now gain their daily and often less than daily sustenance from well-intentioned people distributing food on city streets.” the initiative involved multiple municipal departments. the commissioner of parks and recreation issued a regulation that banned outdoor feeding in all city parks. the commissioner of public property established a temporary food distribution location on the apron at the northwest corner of city hall, equipped with running water and portable toilets. the board of health drafted a regulation that required any group distributing food to possess an outdoor feeding permit provided by the health department as well as proof of training in safe food handling. groups were also required to submit information concerning a contact person, the location where the food would be distributed, evidence of a licensed facility for food preparation, and possible menus (city of philadelphia department of public health 2012a). in making these changes, each department followed processes prescribed by law. meetings were open to the public and constituents also could request (and be granted) hearings at which they could express their concerns. some of these meetings and hearings were highly antagonistic, especially those at the board of health. since the board of health was most closely connected with the actual food regulations, and since its process was the most contentious, it warrants a more detailed description. the january 12, 2012, minutes of the board of health reveal several items of interest: the board is composed of medical doctors; the group was wrestling with how to regulate public feeding activities to ensure safety in preparation; and great concern was expressed that any improvements in regulation of food quality not “impede or diminish the availability of food.” the minutes also reveal that the board listened to concerns from representatives of several non-profits currently conducting outdoor food distributions. one from chosen 300 ministries described the safe practices her group already followed and expressed concern that any complex regulations might challenge her organization’s ability to maintain its network of 1500 volunteers and the 75 unlicensed church kitchens in which food was prepared. the board members inquired of those in attendance what kinds of regulatory changes could be beneficial and solicited their input. the board decided to hold a special meeting in february to consider a draft of the proposed regulations, which would require a 30-day public comment period followed by a public hearing (city of philadelphia department of public health 2012c). the board’s february minutes show that 85 constituents attended and many spoke. the minutes also indicate that the board passed a draft version of the “regulation of the board of health concerning: outdoor feeding.” it should be noted here that at no point in the minutes or in the draft regulation was there an outright ban on outdoor feeding; rather, additional new requirements were introduced. following discussions with those involved in food distribution, the application form had been streamlined. the major provisions of this regulation required: 1) an application and issuance of a permit (to be displayed at the food distribution site); 2) completion of a four-hour food-safety training course; 3) the presence of at least one trained individual onsite during preparation and delivery of meals; 4) all food to be prepared at inspected facilities; 5) provisions at distribution sites for hand washing; 6) advance information about menus and location of distribution. fees would not be charged for the permits or the training classes (city of philadelphia department of public health 2012a). additional discussion reflected that illnesses related to public feeding had not been evidenced. however, the department would not be aware of such outbreaks unless individuals presented themselves at a hospital, an unlikely scenario. there was also discussion about how the regulation would affect groups like occupy philadelphia. the answer was that the regulation would apply equally there (city of philadelphia department of public health 2012d). the public hearing conducted by the board of health on march 15, the day following the mayor’s public announcement, drew a significant crowd and resulted in a modified draft of the regulations. the most notable changes included: 1. the “certifiable” kitchen requirement was relaxed. food could be prepared in any kitchen, as long as an individual was willing to attest that it had a stove, a sink with hot and cold water, and proper refrigeration, and that it was vermin free and sanitized. these standards would be allowable if the food was served within four hours of being prepared and kept at a proper temperature in the meantime. 2. the length of the safe food handling classes was decreased from four hours to two hours. 3. menus no longer had to include specific details, just a designation of “hot” or “cold” items. 4. the specificity of the distribution location was expanded. for example, the location could be expressed as an intersection with an assumption of a ten-block radius surrounding it. all sites were subject to unannounced inspections (city of philadelphia department of public health 2012b). at its march 22 meeting, despite interruptions from protestors, the board approved the amended version. (see appendix for complete regulation.) since that meeting, the regulations have been caught in the bureaucratic process required for implementation, including passing through the law and records departments. the city parks and recreation department filed papers may 21 that would put the city park ban in effect june 1. rumbles continue to be felt in city council where a councilwoman is still fighting the mayor’s actions and calling for public hearings (dunn 2012, macdonald 2012, newsworks 2012). additionally, a philadelphia civil rights law firm is considering a lawsuit and the city has "received notice of intent to sue” (thompson 2012). in the meantime, though, the city hall apron opened on may 1, with “hand-washing stations, security and trash pickup, for those who want to bring meals to feed the hungry,” and has already been used several times (macdonald 2012). enforcement of the new regulations has implications for two groups: those with permits and those without. those with permits are subject to unannounced inspections but will not face actual fines until health code violations have been found multiple times and their permit is being revoked for a second time. those without permits will not be fined until their third citation. fines will be minimal at $150. mayor nutter expressed hope that those who care about the homeless and hungry would work in “a spirit of peace and of cooperation and of love and of humanity” that would not raise a lot of enforcement issues (moss-coane 2012). the issues the impetus behind the new regulations and the responses from the public have exposed a number of significant issues. at this point it would be easy to step back and conclude that none of this is really about food – that it is actually a public policy issue that happens to involve food. but to reduce the complexities of this situation to such a simple conclusion is to ignore the fact that every part of it defines and impinges on the foodways of the homeless. by definition, “foodways refers to the network of behaviors, traditions, and beliefs concerning food, and involves all the activities surrounding a food item and its consumption, including the procurement, preservation, preparation, presentation, and performance of that food” (long 2004:8). each entity, each policy, each action influences who will be fed, what they will eat, where they will consume it, and how they will perceive it. with this understanding the following issues become significant in considering the foodways of the homeless. responding to the phenomenon of homelessness—the factors which give rise to and perpetuate homelessness are extremely complex and intertwined. anyone who portrays homelessness as a simple problem with straightforward solutions has probably not studied it in much depth. those who grapple with its realities recognize that conflicting philosophical understandings produce differing approaches. homelessness is viewed either as a societal ill which can be eventually remedied and eradicated or as a problem which will always exist. for instance, project h.o.m.e. optimistically claims to “have developed nationally recognized programs that have proven that homelessness can be solved,” and works to remedy the “root causes of homelessness by helping to rebuild low-income neighborhoods and by engaging in political advocacy to bring about positive public policies for low-income and homeless persons” (project h.o.m.e. 2012). organizations’ philosophies regarding homelessness influence their strategies, demonstrating differences in purposes, degree of passivity, assignment of societal responsibility, and expectations of government, non-profits, and the homeless themselves. irresponsible activism and journalism—as with any other headlining story, community activists and journalists framed the issues and events in ways that best served their purposes. from the first draft of the board of health’s regulation, there were provisions for outdoor food distribution to continue, but with increased accountability. yet, many of the headlines flashed around the country via television, print media, and blogs made confusing proclamations like “philly mayor seeks ban to feeding homeless outside,” and “philadelphia decides to stop outdoor feeding of homeless” (mchenry 2012). misrepresentations of the facts abounded, as did inflammatory statements. one occupy philly protester even carried a placard that read, “nutter hate$ the homeless” (occupy philly 2012). these actions served to misinform the public and to fuel the controversy. distrust of government—in anna lappé’s article, “who says food is a human right?” she asserts that u.s. citizens “see human rights as ‘negative’ rights—rights against government” (2011). she adds, “while human rights to health, education, social security or food are guaranteed to a certain extent through legislation, they are still seen as suspect. indeed the protective role of government is denounced as paternalistic and even…as paving the way for totalitarianism” (lappé 2011). much of what the nutter administration has done has been seen as suspect. the mayor has been accused of proceeding in an undemocratic manner, although all stipulations of the home rule charter have been followed. in trying to protect some of its most vulnerable citizens, he received criticism for taking away their rights. charges of discrimination against the homeless have also been leveled. the most glaring and most difficult to reconcile have been accusations focused on the timing of the new restrictions to coincide with the opening of the new barnes foundation along the benjamin franklin parkway. according to the mayor, plans for the new regulations had been in the works for a number of years but could not be implemented until now when the necessary provisions for caring for the homeless were finally in place. however, nothing the mayor said convinced his critics that removing the homeless from view was not a primary consideration. those who planned to defy the ban cited this as their justification in doing so: "we are not moving. we are totally against the legislation. it is clear this is not about a health issue. it is about getting the homeless people off the parkway" (mathew 2012). whether or not there is any basis of truth in these accusations, the reality is that philadelphia is only one of a number of u.s. cities which have taken measures to restrict the outdoor distribution of food (infowars 2012). most of these cities have cited health concerns as their primary motivation. if opponents are looking for a reason to be suspicious of the city’s timing and motivation, there is another correlation, one that seems largely unnoticed. although occupy philly rallied behind the plight of the city’s homeless, it might have actually contributed to the enactment of the regulations which will now limit food access. during the fall 2011 occupy philly encampment, poor sanitation became such an issue that the city eventually evacuated the area and thoroughly cleaned it. the city’s health board realized during its dealings with occupy philly that it had no authority to ensure the safety of food being passed out there (beeler 2012). with the warm weather returning and the possibility of the protest movement reigniting, the timing and intention of these regulations in march 2012 could easily be seen as targeting the freedoms of protestors. human rights—this conflict was framed by many in terms of social justice. the violations of various human rights were cited in protest of the regulations. individuals have a right to food, a right to access, a right to clean food, a right to nutritious food, a right to safety, and a right to practice their religious convictions, among others. the first question should be whether or not anyone’s rights are actually being overlooked or violated. but an even trickier second question concerns what should be done when an individual’s rights seem to be in conflict with those of another. which is more important—a right to access or a right to safety? should a person’s right to freely practice his religious convictions supercede a homeless person’s right to safe food? and who gets to decide? double standards—mayor nutter argued that the health code should provide the same protections to the homeless as to other citizens. those who can afford to purchase their food, whether from a supermarket, a restaurant, or a sidewalk food cart, do so with the assurance that the board of health has inspected it and has deemed it safe. but some of those who provide food to the homeless do not want these extra regulations to apply to their efforts and/or see no need for them. an unnamed visitor to the board of health public hearing actually had either the ignorance or audacity to comment, “the food is safe because it is based on caring and love and helping people. regulation is only needed where there is a profit motive because they will cut corners to make money” (city of philadelphia department of public heath 2012e). this person was not taking into account how compromised the immune systems of the homeless are, how many cases of food poisoning result from family picnics (food made by loving hands), or how most people respond to discovering dried food on their restaurant silverware, a hair in their soup, or unwashed employee hands (all relatively minor infractions). an additional double standard is apparent in the issue of access: people believe the homeless and their benefactors should have free access to all parts of the city, yet the city constantly faces neighborhood rejection of proposed homeless shelters. human dignity—much of what the mayor and other proponents said was framed as an issue of dignity. but what is “dignity” and how is it fostered and measured? in a revealing statement, mayor nutter recounted, “as a black man it is painful, personally painful to me, to walk [or] drive on the parkway, or other areas, and see hundreds of people, many of whom are also african american males, standing in 90 some degree heat, 20 degree cold, in the rain, standing around in long lines, just trying to get a sandwich” (moss-coane 2012). clearly, for him human dignity is coupled with the physical discomfort someone has to face. “we can do better” has become almost a mantra. for him dignity is exemplified when people are served indoors in an orderly, safe, and healthy manner and the social services they need are provided. for rev. bill golderer (of broad street ministries), dignity is defined by a “dining experience” that is provided indoors, where “people are reminded that they are fully human and that they’re deserving of the experience of flourishing—eating in the company of others and being welcomed as friends.” he emphasizes the concepts of hospitality, “being known,” and “belonging somewhere and to someone” (moss-coane 2012). alternatively, adam bruckner, of philly restart, equates dignity with freedom of choice. “we believe that dignity comes through a choice, not by telling somebody where they have to go” (moss-coane 2012). he cites the muslim homeless population he interacts with and their conviction that they should not have to go to facilities which are unequivocally christian; there are other homeless who simply do not want to go inside. like other benefactors, bruckner also describes the relationships that develop among those who serve and those who are served, saying, “we know their names and about their lives….we are their family” (moss-coane 2012). “bill, from villanova,” who called in during whyy’s radio program, provided another perspective on dignity: “i am many years removed from being on the street and being hungry. but i know this in my heart: i [would] find somewhere dry to stand; i [would] find somewhere to lay; but i [wouldn’t] always find something to eat. and after you’ve eaten out of a dumpster, dignity is really, really not a concern….any time somebody can get a decent meal, can get a sandwich, can get a bite to eat, to stop that screaming in their stomach, it is wonderful” (moss-coane 2012). later in the program, bruckner added, “the dignity thing—how can you measure something like that?” (moss-coane 2012). it does seem that there are as many versions of “dignity” as there are concerned activists. what is the evidence of “dignity”? can it only be defined in the negative, as in not standing in long lines or not in the weather? is it not digging through a dumpster for food? is it not having to do something you prefer not to do? or is it the presence of something elusive, such as “belonging” or “family” or “order”? does dignity come when one’s needs have been met? is it a byproduct of successful overcoming—which is realized only when a person is no longer homeless? for each individual the answers to these questions will vary. “dignity” is easy to aspire to on behalf of someone, but difficult to provide. who can speak for the homeless? there are clearly no straightforward answers for meeting the needs of the homeless. although they are usually spoken of collectively, each individual has his or her own circumstances, needs, and desires which must be taken into account. given all the complexities outlined thus far, it is challenging to determine who is most knowledgeable and best qualified to speak on their behalf. everyone involved in the cause has good intentions and honestly believes that they are acting in the best interests of the homeless. but the homeless themselves are vulnerable and wield little agency. they can easily become pawns among dominant groups jockeying for control. decisions made on their behalf are often determined by whoever speaks most loudly. therefore caution must be exercised when listening to the multiple voices. the following is a brief exploration of the potential voices and their contributions or limitations in the conversation: the homeless themselves—an obvious observation is that the homeless surely know their needs better than anyone else. on the surface this is true—but only if the discussion is centered on the needs of an individual or small groups of people. of course their input is valuable. those who are immersed in the system can offer opinions about questions concerning what would make them more likely to seek shelter, what would improve the food offered at shelters, and other such personal topics. but most would have a limited view of the larger picture, the systemic perspective. at the risk of sounding paternalistic, it is also important to point out that many homeless individuals are influenced by whoever is currently helping them. some are easily swayed to join whatever cause their benefactors represent. for example, a homeless person who has just received a meal and been befriended by an occupy philly group may be more likely to believe a placard which proclaims that “nutter hates the homeless.” if the homeless are to be consulted in a way that holds the most potential for serving a significant portion of the population, it will be important to reach those who have come up through the system and are the “success” stories. their insights about what did or did not effectively help them in their own journey would be particularly useful. bloggers—the controversy over where and how the homeless should be fed launched scores of blog posts. some were written by people with some firsthand experiences working with the city’s homeless. others responded to what they heard or read, never having left the comfort of their homes. internet communications are easily accessed; incorrect or incomplete information, as well as deliberate distortions, are often validated and perpetuated. a case in point is an activist from southeast pa who reported that mayor nutter had been unanimously censured by the city council for his actions (king’s jubilee 2012). no record of such a development could be verified. poverty tourists—this is a harsh label, but some well-meaning people deserve the moniker. these are the folks who, through a church or civic group, or as individuals, make an occasional trek down to center city to pass out food. they do so sacrificially, and with good intentions. they come away feeling good, feeling solidarity with the poor and suffering. but this is a self-focused, self-gratifying model of generosity. this good samaritan has no concept of the larger, complex picture which each person embodies. yet he or she comes away with an illusory “expertise” on the plight and needs of the homeless. protestors—many of the same limitations of bloggers and poverty tourists apply also to protestors. groups like occupy philly may spend more time on site, spanning even days or weeks, and start to develop relationships with the homeless of that area. but they can leave at their own convenience. without long-term commitments and regular visits to continue to share food, they run the risk of being yet another self-gratified tourist who forms bonds with the homeless and then disappears from their lives. like the bloggers and poverty tourists, they are quick to share the insights and expertise they gained from their sojourn. regular distributors—some groups and individuals commit themselves and make weekly or biweekly trips down to distribute meals, some even for decades. they usually focus on a particular location where the homeless congregate and see many of the same faces on a regular basis. relationships do form, and they get to know the stories of those they are serving. often their work includes a focus that transcends simply sharing food; they attempt to help move the people they serve toward social services which will be helpful in the long run. this is not to question the significance of what they do; their sacrifices are to be applauded. however, in some ways the sense of connection they experience, that they describe as feeling like “family,” is also a bit of an illusion. even if they are present for one evening a week, there are six other evenings, as well as daytimes, when they are not. the mutuality of the relationships could also be questioned. however, even with all the limitations, this category of voices most certainly has insights about the needs of the homeless. they could speak most articulately, authoritatively, and passionately about the particular group(s) with whom they have worked. however, a challenge might come in knowing how much their observations could be generalized to the homeless population as a whole. immersed advocates—a select number of homeless advocates have made this their life’s work. they live near and serve the homeless and indigent 24/7. one example of this type of champion is sister mary scullion, aptly nicknamed philadelphia’s “mother theresa.” scullion has spent more than 30 years nurturing and feeding the homeless. the organization she co-founded, project h.o.m.e. (an acronym for housing, opportunities for employment, medical care, and education), has been instrumental in dramatically reducing the city’s homeless population, in part by creating affordable housing units. according to one account, “of the homeless people participating in its programs, 95 percent have not returned to the streets, and it is widely credited for having reduced philadelphia’s homeless population by half” (garvey 2012). project h.o.m.e. has become a prototype for other urban programs. when advocates like sister mary scullion speak, others listen. the government—the city does not have the option of not speaking for the homeless. all levels of government carry responsibility for the homeless, just as they do for all citizens. not only does government need to protect and provide for the immediate needs of the homeless, it also is responsible for many of the social services which help to improve their long-term prospects. if the city can connect with the homeless, there are federal, state, and municipal programs which provide food – such as supplemental nutrition assistance program (food stamps) and wic (women, infants and children supplemental food program). assistance is also available for addictions, mental health issues, and medical needs. that said, the city is not responsible only for the homeless segment but for the entire population. governments constantly perform a balancing act, weighing and prioritizing the needs of the many and the few. even if it were so inclined, the city could not legislate completely in favor of the interests of the homeless and ignore the effects of economic development and tourism on the rest of the population. a reality is that visitors to the city also benefit the homeless by bringing in revenue which can, in turn, be used to provide municipal services to those who need them (inquirer editorial board 2012). so, the government will continue to speak and act on behalf of the homeless, but this will always be tempered by its responsibilities toward the rest of its citizenry. toward a sustainable model of feeding the homeless of philadelphia the first question which must be considered when developing a strategy for a sustainable model is this: what is going to be sustained? all solutions are predicated on the way in which this question is addressed. one goal might be simply to sustain the physical bodies of the homeless, ensuring sufficient calories for their survival. a variation could expand this to include uncontaminated food, while another variation could extend into the arena of nutritious food. an additional aim might be to sustain the rights of the homeless to make choices, to determine their own lifeways, independent of interference from government or other outsiders, even if this perpetuates hunger and homelessness. yet another focus could be on sustaining the activists’ rights to follow their individual consciences and convictions, no matter how this impacts the safety or sustainability of the homeless. or a comprehensive approach to sustainability could acknowledge elements of all of the previously stated priorities, but view them as parts of an overall strategy that would work to sustain a process. this process would move the homeless along a trajectory toward mainstreamed independence. no matter what the motivation was for the mayor’s new regulations, and no matter how individuals and organizations feel about the actual regulations, the reality is that everyone who cares about the homeless now has an excuse for conversations to take place. everyone needs to lay down their emotional responses and worst case scenarios: “you now need a permit to do a good deed!” (beeler 2012); “the mayor hates the homeless!” (occupy philly 2012); “providing food to those who are hungry must not be about opening the car trunk, handing out a bunch of sandwiches and then driving off into a dark and rainy night” (city of philadelphia 2012); “taking outdoor meals away from the homeless is a bad idea!” (lucey and brennan 2012); “would it be sanitary, would it give dignity to have homeless people eat out of trash cans and dumpsters?” (mayes 2012); “the ordinance…will inspire violence and aggressive panhandling!” (lucey and brennan 2012). in order to move forward constructively, power struggles and mistrust must be surrendered in favor of collaboration and good will. an opportunity has been presented, and should not be squandered away by reluctance to cooperate. the conversation has been launched. all concerned parties should participate in the dialogue and search for creative solutions to the problems in their midst. it would be presumptuous for me, as a graduate student who has conducted only limited research, to claim enough comprehension of the complexities of this situation to propose a model for feeding philadelphia’s homeless population. however, sometimes naiveté and idealism allow individuals with fresh eyes to see paradigms that those who are enmeshed in a problem may not notice. furthermore, this idealistic grad student is joined by some long-term stakeholders who also indicate a measure of optimism about this juncture. rev. bill golderer of broad street ministries challenged philadelphians to step up and address this problem “with the same creativity that we’ve addressed some of the other things that we’ve wanted to bring forward as a city, that make us a world class city. how we address this problem is going to be defining for who we are as philadelphians.” he added, “but we can’t wait for government to do this. in the same way that we’ve built stadiums and we’ve built museums, we need to see the corporate community, the funding community, private citizens step up to enable the society we want to see” (moss-coane 2012). the key to a sustainable model is greater collaboration— among sectors and within them. one of the mayor’s primary goals is to help the homeless to gain greater access to various social services, and he plans to use food distribution toward that end. whether viewed as manipulative or as wise, his motivation is to “help them get on the right track toward independent, healthy living” (city of philadelphia 2012). to this end, he appointed a task force of stakeholders whose mandate is to develop a strategy to transition outdoor food serving to indoor locations and to consider the impact of this change on the homeless. the stakeholders will include representatives of current outdoor and indoor food service providers, anti-hunger advocates, and members of the city administration (mosscoane 2012). it should also include some persons who have experienced homelessness (project h.o.m.e. 2012). unfortunately, even the task force is a source of contention due in part to the politics of selection, inclusion, and exclusion. however, for this idealized scenario it is assumed that the task force somehow will manage to unite to perform a catalytic role. this group (or a private group with a similar vision) could implement the following potential scenario: establish daily meals in a consistent location--predictability and consistency seem to be elusive for the homeless. while individual groups have regular schedules for bringing food downtown, there does not seem to be an overall strategy that ensures consistent availability of meals. since the city has offered the use of the apron at city hall for up to a year, all organizations serving outdoor meals in that area might voluntarily move their distribution to the apron. schedules could be coordinated so that there is no overlap. if there are not enough groups to cover all seven days of the week, a consistent schedule could be developed so that the homeless know what to expect. no matter what, communication must be as clear and complete as possible. continue networking outdoor and indoor providers—the mayor has already begun to link interested groups. some indoor providers are not operating at capacity, due either to shortages of resources or of personnel, and should be able to expand the services they offer if partnerships could develop. for instance, broad street ministries recently invested substantial funding in a commercial kitchen but only has enough other resources to serve meals twice weekly. link resources with groups who need them—the mayor has also actively worked at identifying churches and other organizations in the downtown area that have kitchens and/or facilities that would be available to groups who need locations for cooking or serving meals. link volunteers with existing providers—critics have voiced concerns that a segment of people who want to help will be closed out of a regulated system. one such example is the idea of a church youth group who wants to “take pizzas to homeless folks in a park” (claiborne 2012). while providing pizzas to the homeless on the apron of city hall or in a food center would not have the same aesthetic, partnership with an existing organization would still allow citizens to demonstrate their concern for the less fortunate. charity offered in this less picturesque setting might also place more of the focus on those being served than on the emotional experiences of the servers. a well-designed and wellpublicized website could provide information to groups about how to get involved. use existing routines and relationships to ease the transition indoors—establishing consistent mealtimes and locations paves the way for the move indoors. if the homeless know that the relationships they’ve established with servers, the regular mealtimes, and the quality of food offered them will follow them (or lead them) as they are encouraged to move indoors, the likelihood of their compliance is increased. this minimizes the number of simultaneous changes represented by a move. solicit funding from additional types of sources—a coordinated strategy that can actually have a serious impact on the city’s homeless population increases the likelihood of investment by corporations, communities of faith, civic organizations, and private citizens. if people feel that they are just putting a bandage on a gaping wound, motivation to give is low. however, when a vision of real transformation—a cure—is placed before them, people may rally to a cause in ways they would not have considered otherwise. capitalize on existing expertise—even as the lines between organizations become more blurred through collaboration, each organization should be encouraged to continue doing those things which they do best. for instance, organizations with years of experience serving indoors could resource groups that are transitioning and using unfamiliar facilities. a group like chosen 300 ministries, which is already an alliance of churches and individuals with a substantial network of volunteers, could use its organizational capabilities to coordinate an entire network of providers. groups like philly restart should be encouraged to continue their efforts to help the homeless secure government-issued id’s. organizations like project h.o.m.e. have years of experience to offer those who want to learn more about helping the homeless gain more independence. maintain some first responders—the mayor’s ideal of serving everyone indoors is probably not realistic. even with the best planning and implementation, there will be sporadic newcomers to the streets and resistors. therefore, some outdoor distribution of food will likely always be needed. the goal, however, will be for these services to point toward the next step of moving inside. the challenge is to conduct outdoor distributions in a way that does not lure those who are already indoors back outside. as far as the resistors are concerned, no one can be forced to go inside; a contingency plan for this population will have to be developed. conclusion the causes of homelessness, and its remediation, remain complex issues. many people have worked tirelessly and significant numbers of homeless have seen improvement in their circumstances. but mayor nutter is justified in asserting that philadelphia can do better, and that there is no good reason that anyone in the city should go hungry. no formula will assure success but an informed, mobilized, caring citizenry can affect change in ways that are yet unimagined. recent policy changes have surfaced issues hidden from the sight of most philadelphians. this juncture will serve to divide or to unite. in the words of rev. golderer, “i think for a long time as philadelphians we would have a low opinion of ourselves. but now, recently, we have built stadiums, we built the kimmel center. we are capable of doing things that we didn’t think we were capable of” (moss-coane 2012). the time to rally and to collaborate has come. appendix regulation of the board of health concerning: outdoor public serving of food: food safety whereas, access to food is an important determinant of health; and whereas, food insecurity is a problem for many philadelphians; and whereas, groups and individuals provide food in outdoor settings for those who are hungry; and whereas, the philadelphia home rule charter and the philadelphia code charge the department of public health with the protection of the public’s health through the administration and enforcement of statutes, ordinances and regulations relating to public health including those dealing with food; and whereas, the philadelphia home rule charter charges the board of health with development of a comprehensive health code with the purpose of preserving and promoting the health of the people of philadelphia through the development of reasonable regulations; and whereas, food safety is a critical component of public health, a regulation to insure the safety of food provided through outdoor public serving of food is a matter of the public’s health; and whereas, the board of health is concerned with reducing health inequities. section 1. no person, group, or organization shall engage in outdoor public serving of food, except as provided in sections 2 and 3. for purposes of this regulation, “outdoor public serving of food” means the distribution of food free of charge to members of the public, in groups of three or more people, on any public highway, on any public sidewalk, or in any outdoor public place; except that “outdoor public serving of food” shall not include the distribution of food as part of a special event recognized by the managing director’s office pursuant to the mayor’s special event policy (executive order 6-93) or a permit of the department of parks and recreation; a special event sponsored by a city agency; the distribution of pre-packaged food as part of a time-limited promotional campaign by a commercial entity; or an unplanned, non-recurring distribution of food. section 2. any person, group, or organization engaging in outdoor public serving of food is required to obtain an annual outdoor public serving of food: food safety permit in advance from the department of public health. the department shall issue a permit to any person, group, or organization who submits all of the following on a form acceptable to the department: (a) the name, address, phone number and (if available) e-mail address of the applicant and a contact person. (b) the location (identified as any location within a ten-block radius of a designated intersection) and the usual day(s) and time(s) at which the applicant will distribute food to the public. issuance of the permit shall not constitute approval of the location by the department. a person, group or organization that routinely provides food in a radius greater than ten blocks shall so note on the application and must make special arrangements with the department in order to facilitate inspections by the department. (c) the type of food items to be distributed (hot or cold) and whether the food will be served within four hours of preparation. (d) a certification that all food service and distribution will be exempt from preparation in an approved kitchen facility, pursuant to section 3(d)(.2), below; or the name and address of an approved facility where the food will be prepared. a facility shall be considered approved if it has been determined by the department to be in compliance with sections 46.501 to 46.731 of the department’s regulations governing food establishments or has been determined by another county’s public health officials to be in compliance with comparable food safety regulations. section 3. no person, group or organization shall engage in outdoor public serving of food unless: (a) the person, group or organization responsible for the operation posts prominently at the food service site during all hours of operation an outdoor public serving of food: food safety permit provided by the department. the permit shall set forth department contact information for patrons to report potential food-borne illness and/or concern about food safety. (b) the food service activity takes place at a day, time and place identified pursuant to section 2(b) above. (c) food distribution is limited to the types of food identified pursuant to section 2(c) above. (d) all food either: (.1) is prepared at the facility identified pursuant to section 2(d) above and such facility retains its public health approval; or (.2) is prepared in accordance with the requirements of subsection (a) below, in a kitchen that meets or contains all of the requirements set forth in subsection (b) below: (a) food that is not prepared in a facility approved pursuant to section 2(d) must be fully prepared no more than four hours prior to service or distribution. any food items which are pre-prepared more than four hours in advance, for example marinated foods, are not allowed due to the potential for growth of microorganisms which can lead to food-borne illness. (b) private kitchen requirements: (.1) hot and cold running water in the kitchen and bathrooms with soap and single service towels. (.2) refrigeration unit maintaining maximum temperature of 41o f. freezer unit maintaining maximum temperature of 0o f. (.3) vermin free building. (.4) an open top container large enough for immersing food service articles for sanitization. (.5) approved sanitizer (chlorine bleach). (.6) stove/oven/range in clean and good working condition for cooking. (.7) stem thermometer to measure food temperature during cooking and transport. (.8) washable, insulated food containers for transportation of the food. (.9) at least a one-compartment kitchen sink. (e) a person who has completed the department’s outdoor public service of food: food safety course, or an equivalent course approved by the department, is on site during the entirety of any food service. (f) no person involved in the preparation, serving or distribution of food engages in any bare hand contact with any ready-to-eat food. (g) temporary hand washing is available at the food service site, except that, where only pre-packaged food is handled or distributed, hand wipes or hand sanitizer shall be sufficient. (h) all persons involved in the preparation, serving or distribution of food properly wash their hands prior to food handling and between glove changes. (i) all foods are completely protected from contamination during transportation, preparation, display, and service. (j) all food is transported and served at the proper temperature. this regulation shall be effective upon declaration by the health commissioner, posted on the department’s website, that the necessary training classes and approval processes have been available for a reasonably sufficient time to allow compliance. references cited associated press. 2012. philly mayor seeks ban to feeding homeless outside. cnsnews.com. march 15. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/philly-mayor-seeks-banfeeding-homeless-outside. beeler, carolyn. 2012. philadelphia may start requiring permits for those who feed the homeless. newsworks.org. february 10. http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/healthscience/item/33820-09cbfood. broad street ministry. 2012. http://broadstreetministry.org (accessed may 19). chosen 300 ministries. 2012. www.chosen300.org (accessed may 19). city of philadelphia. 2012. mayor nutter’s remarks from indoor feeding policy announcement. march 15. http://cityofphiladelphia.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/mayor-nutters-remarks-fromindoor-feeding-policy-announcement. city of philadelphia department of public health. 2012a. philadelphia regulation of the board of health concerning: outdoor feeding—draft 2-9-12. http://www.phila.gov/health/pdfs/ proposed%20reg%20on%20outdoor%20feeding_2_9_12.pdf. ———. 2012b. regulation of the board of health concerning: outdoor public serving of food: food safety. march 22. http://www.phila.gov/health/pdfs/ outdoor%20public%20food%20service%20-%20boh%20reg%20amend%20-%20final.pdf . ———. 2012c. meeting of the board of health, minutes. january 12. http://www.phila.gov/health/pdfs/minutes%20from%20boh%20jan%2012%202012.pdf. ———. 2012d. meeting of the board of health, minutes. february 9. http://www.phila.gov/health/pdfs/boh%20minutes_2_9_12.pdf. ———. 2012e. report of the board of health on the hearing on proposed outdoor feeding regulations. www.phila.gov/health/pdfs/doc.pdf. claiborne, shane. 2012. shane claiborne: barriers to compassion in the city of love. mennonite world review. april 11. http://www.mennoworld.org/blog/2012/4/11/barriers-compassion-city-love/. dunn, mike. 2012. ban on feeding homeless along ben franklin parkway delayed. cbs philly. may 14. http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/05/14/ban-on-feeding-homelessalong-ben-franklin-parkway-delayed/. garvey, michael o. 2011. sister mary scullion and joan mcconnon to receive 2011 laetare medal. notre dame news. april 3. http://newsinfo.nd.edu/news/19169-sister-maryscullion-and-joan-mcconnon-to-receive-the-2011-laetare-medal-2/. infowars.com. 2012. feeding the homeless banned in major cities all over america. march 22. http://www.infowars.com/feeding-the-homeless-banned-in-major-cities-allover-america/. inquirer editorial board. 2012. healthier for the homeless to be fed indoors. philly.com. march 16. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq_ed_board/healthier-for-the-homelessto-be-fed-indoors.html?page=1. king’s jubilee. http://www.shoutforjoy.net/about/ (accessed may 22, 2012). lappé, anna. 2011. who says food is a human right? the nation. september 14. http://www.thenation.com/article/163390/who-says-food-human-right. long, lucy m., ed. 2004. culinary tourism. lexington: university of kentucky press. lucey, catherine, and chris brennan. 2012. nutter’s outdoor feeding ban inspires man to sing in council. philadelphia daily news. april 12. http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/cityhall/nutters-outdoor-feeding-ban-inspires-manto-sing-in-council.html. macdonald, tom. 2012. despite opposition, philadelphia ban on outdoor feeding moves forward. newsworks. april 23. http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/37284despite-opposition-philadelphia-ban-on-outdoor-feeding-moves-forward mathew, shaj. 2012. an outdoor feeding is appetizer for hearing. philly.com. march 16. http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20120316_an_outdoor_feeding_is_appetizer_fo r_hearing.html?ref=more-like-this. mayes, eric. 2012. homeless feeding prohibition under fire. the philadelphia tribune. april 12. http://www.phillytrib.com/newsarticles/item/3654-homeless-feeding-banunder-fire.html. mchenry, keith. 2012. philadelphia decides to stop outdoor feeding of homeless. fnb blog. march 15. http://blog.foodnotbombs.net/philadelphia-decides-to-stop-outdoorfeeding-of-homeless%e2%80%ac-shocking-video/. moss-coane, marty. 2012. philadelphia’s new ban on feeding homeless outdoors (mp3). whyy radio. march 22. http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2012/03/22/philadelphias-newban-on-feeding-homeless-outdoors/. national coalition for the homeless. http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/ (accessed may 22, 2012). newsworks. 2012. philly ban on outdoor food programs set for june 1. may 22. http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/the-feed/item/38868-philly-ban-on. occupy philly. 2012. occupy philly: food is a human right. march 15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9brg2pvdps. philly.com. 2012. inquirer editorial: fight to end homelessness has become even harder. february 11. http://articles.philly.com/2012-02-11/news/31050230_1_end-homelessnesssister-mary-scullion-corbett. philly restart. www.phillyrestart.com (accessed may 21, 2012). project h.o.m.e. http://projecthome.org/ (accessed may 20, 2012). snap (supplemental nutrition assistance program). http://services.dpw.state.pa.us/oimpolicymanuals/manuals/bop/fs/index.htm. st. john’s hospice. http://www.saintjohnshospice.org/ (accessed may 22, 2012). sunday breakfast rescue mission. http://www.sundaybreakfast.org/ (accessed may 21, 2012). thompson, isaiah. 2012. philly law firm considering federal suit against city over ban on feeding homeless outside. philadelphia city paper. may 16. http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/nakedcity/philly-civil-rights-law-firm-co. wic (women infants and children). http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/ (accessed may 23, 2012). sue samuelson award for foodways scholarship first place travelling with yellow mary gullah culture, migration, and the sensory in julie dash’s daughters of the dust by: katie white …[t]o understand a culture, past or present, we should endeavor to understand how a society feeds itself. it is the ubiquity and everydayness of eating that makes understanding it historically so important. the taste and flavor of food play an important part in social relationships, and a food's taste can embody meanings well beyond what is put into the mouth (fitzgerald and petrick 2008:393). this paper will examine ways in which foodways are created and sustained within gullah communities, paying particular attention to the role of the five senses, especially taste, in the transmission and preservation of the culture. gullah people are the descendants of slaves from the senegambia region of west africa who have created and sustained a unique culture, particularly on the sea islands of north carolina, south carolina, georgia, and florida, utilizing memories and rituals from africa in combination with resources found in the americas. i argue that much can be learned from the sounds, smells, touch and sights of food preparation as well as consumption. the following research questions are a guide: how is culture transmitted through food? what can be learned about gender roles, relationships, and power dynamics in gullah culture through a sensory interrogation of foodways? what are some of the tensions around sustainable practices regarding gullah foodways? how do the five senses, particularly taste, aid in the transmission and preservation of foodways? to explore the connections of food and culture retention, there are two approaches of discovery applied here. first, this paper conveys the power of film and/or popular culture to create fictional referents for culture and society. second, this paper explores the role of women in the elaboration and sustenance of gullah culture, particularly through the fictional character of yellow mary in julie dash’s film, daughters of the dust. this film, produced in 1991, tells the story of the peazants, an africanamerican sea island family preparing to come to the mainland in 1902. viola peazant and yellow mary peazant, are both natives of ibo landing and grandchildren of nana peazant. ibo landing is a fictional depiction of the portion of the south carolina sea islands the peazants call home. yellow mary and viola are accompanied by trula, yellow mary’s lover and traveling companion and mr. snead, a mainland photographer who will document the peazant family’s last day on ibo landing. yellow mary and viola, who have spent time on the mainland, are returning to ibo landing to spend time with their family on the eve of the family’s departure from their island home of origin. the film illustrates the tensions between tradition and assimilation experienced by families during the great migration at the turn of the 20th century. by investigating yellow mary’s travels away from ibo landing, a fictive space in gullah culture, as well as what drives her to return home, this project is invested in an exploration of taste and the sensory, sustainability 1 of culture and cultural identity, and migratory patterns of gullah people from the sea islands. it argues that yellow mary assumes the role of what scholar anita mannur refers to as a “culinary citizen,” asserting her place on ibo landing through nostalgic memory (see mannur 2007). it demonstrates how yellow mary is operating as a diasporic body, creating a framework for the larger narrative of migration within the film. to begin to answer my previously stated research questions, i utilize ethnographic evidence to help explain the relationship between sensuality, food, and cultural identity, including the varied tensions that surround our relationships to and around food. to place the sustainability of food back into a conversation around feminist cultural criticism i use audre lorde’s theorizing uses of the erotic (lorde 1984). the lens of sensuality helps to sharpen the image of sustainability that links people to the land, and the land to the past. as an illustration of the tension, movement, and sensuality around food i analyze how food operates in film and literary texts. in particular, i attempt to contextualize the character, yellow mary, from daughters of the dust (dash 1991) as a diasporic body who cites food as a pull factor toward home. to aid in the contextualization i unpack gumbo recipes from the lowcountry to see what sensory elements yellow mary may have been missing from gumbo outside of ibo landing, and discuss how dash’s use of sensory elements such as sounds, gestures, images, and performances, are critical to understanding the history of gullah people and culture. gullah food, culture, and sustainability gullah people were not brought to the americas; rather, gullah culture was born in diaspora. there is some scholarly debate surrounding the reasons why the gullah ended up on the sea islands of south carolina, georgia, and florida (littlefield 1981, opala 1987, carney 2002, morgan 2004). it is clear, however, that enslaved african women from senegambia and sierra leone were brought to charleston and savannah – and eventually sold to rich white planters on the sea islands – for their specialized knowledge of rice cultivation. these enslaved female rice planters were responsible not only for filling the coffers of white plantation owners by toiling in humid rice fields every day during the 14-month rice planting season (morgan 2004:162), but also for educating enslaved males on the rituals of rice cultivation. recent scholarship argues that many of the gullah are descendents of west african slaves, primarily those from sierra leone and other parts of the senegambia region 2 which is part of the “rice coast” of africa (beoku-betts 1995, carney 2002, gabaccia 1998). 3 many of this captured group who were originally destined for the caribbean were later brought to the atlantic sea islands, in theory because they were thought to have knowledge and skill in rice production. slaves aboard british ships were also brought to charleston, south carolina and savannah, georgia, which were main ports of the northern british slave trade, and very close to the atlantic sea islands. in early colonial america, british colonists recognized the coastal regions of south carolina and georgia as fertile ground for rice cultivation, but lacked the specialized knowledge for growing rice in semitropical conditions (beokubetts 1995, littlefield 1981, carney 2002). as littlefield points out, “being familiar with a crop, however, is a different matter from being familiar with the cultivation of a crop” (littlefield 1981:77). arguably the british colonial landowners were not only knowledgeable enough to realize the potential for growth of rice in the region, but also that they had a skilled labor source at their disposal. some early colonial planters desired domestic slaves who had experience working for whites in africa and knowledge of english. as margaret washington creel points out in a peculiar people: slave religion and community-culture among the gullahs: of course most africans possessed no rudimentary english and had no experience with white society. their value was a long familiarity with planting and cultivation of rice and indigo, the quality of which was said to have surpassed that grown in carolina…thus while upper guinea africans may have been preferred because they were tall and considered more manageable, evidence also suggests a more sound explanation: knowledge of agriculture made these africans particularly sought after in coastal carolina (creel 1988, 36). creel’s point about the captured peoples armed with agricultural knowledge creates a picture of africans on the sea islands as more autonomous than those enslaved in the cotton belt: an autonomy enabled by the remote location of the sea islands. 4 the sea islands off the coast of south carolina, particularly st. helena island, lady’s island, and the town of port royal in beaufort county, are gullah country. this area is very close to hunting and fripp islands where julie dash’s daughters of the dust (1991) was filmed. daughters of the dust provides an illustration of ways in which food is ritualized in gullah culture. ritual is present in the actual cooking of food, but also in its preparation. women create community while peeling potatoes, preparing rice, and boiling crabs, much like women in the rice fields of sierra leone constructed community while fanning and pounding rice. 5 daughters of the dust centers on a gullah family on the fictive ibo landing in south carolina at the turn of the 20th century. the matriarch, nana peazant is unhappy that some of the younger family members want to leave ibo landing for the mainland in search of a new, more successful life. she begs them to hold onto their history and their roots by repeatedly reminding them that they owe their ancestors their every breath. the peazant family lives without electricity, running water and other “mainland” american luxuries of that era, but producer and writer julie dash exposes a self-sufficient familial operation. members of the peazant family are clothed well, and they eat well. they rely on a mixture of african and christian spiritual traditions, as well as faith in one another, to maintain their relationships with one another, as well as with their ancestors, tradition, and culture. much like the characters in daughters of the dust, the five gullah women whom i interviewed in 2009 discussed their relationship with food. the information obtained through these interviews fleshed out the history of gullah cuisine and initiated a discussion about the sensory elements of gullah foodways (white 2009). the words and stories of ms. eleanor barker, ms. grace thomas, ms. louis williams, ms. sue hilton, and ms. ellen taylor 6 will inform this paper. 7 my interview with ms. thomas speaks directly to issues of sustainability, as well as to the importance of the senses in gullah foodways. ms. thomas is a local on st. helena island who returned after many years in atlanta to live on the same dirt road where she grew up. she spends her days working in beaufort county schools and her spare time preparing the land around her beautiful home for certified organic farming. 8 she explains that the gullah have always been known for eating with the sun and the moon, meaning they eat what the land provides at certain times of the year. as an organic farmer herself, she argues that organic is not always the best choice. rather, it is more important to eat locally. now, she says, the common consumer can purchase strawberries at all times of the year from california; however, she questions our tendency to pay more for out-of-season products that we enjoy, especially when the carbon footprint is greater because of travel. while it may be healthiest or most traditional, not all gullah people are economically or geographically able to eat organic – or even fresh – fruits and vegetables. gullah ties to the land are articulated through the sensuality of harvesting, labor, and taste. not only does sensuality in this context mean the pleasures of taste, but can also be read in the common traditional phrase “eating with the sun and the moon,” shared in an interview by ms. thomas. literally speaking, this phrase simply indicates that people eat under the sun and by the light the sun gives for crops to grow, and that the moon cycle tells when these crops are ready to be harvested. but a sensual reading touches upon the feeling of warm sun as you walk through your garden or the cool light of the moon as the day ends. this pushes beyond the structuralist reading of sustainability as a cycle of material preservation and into a reading of sustainability that seeks to preserve the cultural poetics of everyday life. local sustainability is key to the maintenance of gullah culture, and is also the cornerstone of ms. thomas’ farming philosophy. to keep her organic farm (certified since 2007) alive – both literally and figuratively – she has welcomed people from the island to buy a share, and whenever she harvests she makes boxes of produce and doles them out to shareholders. 9 this operation became the first community supported agriculture (csa) in beaufort county, south carolina and remains the only organic csa (the summer of food (part 2) 2011). through her farm and the csa, ms. thomas keeps the produce from the land moving and a fair number of families stocked with her fresh vegetables and fruits. this system is similar to the way that she, as well as most of the women i interviewed, grew up. ms. thomas explains that the way she learned to farm as a young child involved the community working as a team with the land. the gullah way of farming combines respect for the sun and the moon with an understanding of the relationship between human beings, animals and the earth. 10 ms. thomas argues that people gain energy from feeling dirt under their fingernails. there is a sense of accomplishment and harmony with nature after an honest day’s work in the fields, but this work also promotes an understanding of the power of the land and those who cultivate it. she mentions that many older gullah people volunteer to work in her field to feel at one with nature. ms. thomas attributes contemporary gullah health problems to a break with tradition and ritual as a result of convenience: i have found that having the farm that a lot of the elderly in the csa want to work on the farm because it is peaceful, a way to unwind. stepping out here everything is lifted. our gullah forefathers and those who passed before us felt the same way, felt that connection, knew that they were there to take care of the land, not destroy it (thomas 2009). ms. thomas believes that to care for the land is to care for the self and the community, but it is important to note that not all gullah people and those living on the south carolina sea islands value the same sustainable methods. while it may be healthiest or most traditional, not all gullah people are economically or geographically able to eat organic or even fresh fruits and vegetables. they may similarly wish to preserve gullah culture, but may not have the means, the time, or the desire to invest in eating locally, producing their own food, and adhering to traditional culinary preparations. when asked about what she ate during the winter months as a child on st. helena island, ms. thomas said that her family ate a wide variety of winter greens – collards, kale, mustard, and turnips – but also subsisted on the surplus of vegetables they canned or processed in august. canning – also known as jarring, because the vegetables and fruits are put in jars – is an all-day process. tomatoes and okra are a popular canning combination, as are figs, which can also be dried. anything that comes out of the field can be canned. the ritual of canning insures that the family’s cupboards will be stocked for the winter with healthy food. “it’s knowledge. you don’t see it much anymore. i think i canned maybe two and a half jars this season. and for convenience i froze them but it has a different taste. vegetables from a jar taste like they just came out of a field,” she says (thomas 2009). whether it is knowledge, ritual, or simply necessity, it is evident that gullah women, like many rural women, have a skill set which sets them apart from contemporary consumers who rely on chain grocery stores such as kroger or harris teeter. their respect for the earth and vast knowledge of its uses provides them with a means of survival and a source of power. food provides a double victory for gullah women, via preparation and cultivation. not only is tilling the ground satisfying, but you know you are also going to end up with fresh food. there is an added bonus of preparing delicious dishes out of food that you have grown or caught in the wild, as ms. thomas explains: when you taste gullah food it’s with such pride and with such love that they put in the food that when you take a spoonful you can feel it… they know that if they put all that they can put into that pot of lowcountry boil, frogmore stew or whatever it was, or a gumbo, they know that when you take that first bite of it, that first spoonful that you are not going to put it down. it just gives them a feeling of self worth and wellbeing (thomas 2009). i asked her if she felt the same way about what she produces from her farm and she was quick to admit a similar satisfaction. after a successful harvest in 2008 she was told by one of her shareholders, “‘so and so says that she ain’t going to buy anything out of the store anymore.’ can’t get any better than that. like when a family member goes fishing and they bring it back to the house to clean it. it doesn’t get any better than that” (thomas 2009). again, ms. thomas offers a romanticized view of sustainability. while food plays a central role in the development of cultural identity, it can also be a contentious topic. 11 however remarkable it is to participate in a spiritual system of reciprocity where people get energy from the earth and follow the moon harvesting cycles, we must also be mindful of those on the sea islands who get their energy from red bull and follow the harvesting cycles of publix, a southern grocery store chain. while not all gullah people represented in this study may feel refreshed by day’s work in the fields or the crunch of an organic apple, it is likely that the majority could agree that food draws people together for better or worse. power, food, and culinary sensory communication to further illustrate the sensory power of food, i argue that the power and fulfillment felt by gullah people, especially women, when close to the earth is what audre lorde refers to as the erotic. for lorde: [t]he erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. it is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire. for having experienced the fullness of this depth of feeling and recognizing its power, in honor and self-respect we can require no less of ourselves (lorde 1984:53). lorde calls women, particularly black women, to hone in on what brings them unadulterated joy. finding the erotic within ourselves increases our capacities to create and for interpersonal communication, which arguably leads to sustainable relationships with others and the self. lorde contends that to refuse the erotic any deep feelings is the same as committing an act of violence toward ourselves: “to refuse to be conscious of what we are feeling at any time, however comfortable that might seem, is to deny a large part of the experience, and to allow ourselves to be reduced to the pornographic, the abused, and the absurd” (lorde 1984:59). similarly, in building houses out of chicken legs: black women, food, and power, psyche williamsforson demonstrates how food is a site of power and a catalyst toward identity formation for black people, particularly in her focus area: maryland, virginia, and the carolina lowcountry. to discuss the empowerment of enslaved populations is tricky, and williams-forson succeeds particularly because she argues that power is heterogeneous in nature, not limited to a single area of society and thus implicit in the process of sharing cultural norms and values. from this perspective power can be defining oneself through exploration – and can be fun! (williams-forson 2006:6). this understanding of power is indicative of williams-forson’s tone throughout the text. she does not perpetuate a narrative of victimization, but rather uses the examples of oppression to create an alternative narrative of resistance and self-actualization through food. in gullah culture, the kitchen is a classroom in which empowerment is taught, albeit indirectly. food is revered as a blend of old and new traditions and as a crucial element in maintaining and disseminating gullah traditions. in the foreword to her cookbook my gullah kitchen (2006), eva segar credits her mother and grandmother for teaching her how to cook. they allowed her to observe their methods and “play cook” alongside them in the kitchen. segar came to cook on her own rather simply: one day, mother came home and said, “sister, you was home all day. how come you didn’t put on the rice? and why didn’t you boil the beans or peas or something?” so i went from “play cooking” to cooking for ten or more people just about every day. i’ve been cooking ever since (segar 2006:9). in segar’s case, cooking was taught by example. she mentions watching her mother and grandmother, but does not indicate how much of the teaching, if any, was done verbally, through recall or through written recipes. segar also fails to mention how the process of cooking is often wrought with frustration, burned dishes, and failure to replicate tastes and memories, all of which may cause cooks to abandon traditional processes or develop new methods. 12 the passing on of gullah heritage occurs through a kind of ritual presence, not just through stories. many of the women i interviewed remember pulling a stool close to the stove to watch their mothers, grandmothers or great-grandmothers cook. the act of watching an elder cook is also an education in proper relations of authority and respect. children learned to yield to the women in the kitchen who were in charge of the stove. watching the techniques and ingredients used by these women often allowed gullah children to be ready to help when called upon. in “we got our way of cooking things: women, food, and preservation of cultural identity among the gullah,” scholar josephine beoku-betts shows that both inside and outside the kitchen, gullah women take very seriously “the task of transmitting cultural traditions to a rapidly declining younger generation” (beoku-betts 1995:550). passing on tradition requires not only hard work on the part of tradition bearers, but also the willingness and receptivity of younger generations. to help transfer her knowledge of farming processes and love of the land to gullah children, ms. thomas has implemented an internship program for school-age children on her farm. the students earn a small stipend in exchange for working in the fields, delivering csa baskets to members, and whatever other jobs are needed to maintain her farm. according to an article written by the coastal conservation league, “what they really get is a good old fashioned course in hard work, not to mention newer lessons, like money management and job application skills” (the summer of food 2011). ms. taylor also began a new tradition on holidays such as christmas in which her grandchildren help her to prepare the large family meal from start to finish – from the harvesting of vegetables and fruits and the dredging for oysters, to dressing whatever meat is on the menu (taylor 2009). ms. hilton distinctly remembers frying chicken with her mother at age four; this is her first memory of helping in the kitchen. before that, she would watch from afar, much like ms. thomas who learned a great deal by watching the women in her family prepare food over the years (hilton 2009). as a vegetarian, ms. thomas has learned to replicate the taste of favorite gullah foods such as hoppin’ john and red rice by replacing the pork with lots of onions, garlic, and a special spice blend she created. “the key to it is the taste buds,” she explains. “my taste buds are still in tune to the taste buds of how my mother cooked and how i cooked before i became a vegetarian. so when i cook i am going to get as close as i possibly can” (thomas 2009). she has been able to come so close to the taste of traditional recipes that she has even fooled her brother. at a recent dinner he remarked, “ah, sis, that was so good, i almost didn’t miss the meat” (thomas 2009). there is more to cooking from memory than is evidenced by ms. thomas’ claim, judging by the information imparted in other interviews, as well as various gullah cookbooks. a multi-faceted sensory curriculum goes into the development of such sensitive taste buds. years of watching, listening, smelling, touching, and tasting have provided the culinary education for ms. thomas and countless gullah women. many people can likely relate to certain foods feeling like home, but not all can replicate such dishes perfectly. beyond cooking for oneself, it is also very difficult to find “home” in familiar dishes when traveling, in exile or simply when the person with whom you associate certain dishes has passed on. in “exiled at home: daughters of the dust and the many post-colonial conditions” (2001), catherine cucinella and renee r. curry argue that [n]o collective "home" – whether geographical, familial, sexual, marital, religious, or racial – exists for the women characters in daughters of the dust. they constantly occupy the many varied post-colonial positions of exile while negotiating moves between "homes" old and new (cucinella and curry 2001:199). adding to this argument, i contend that the women in daughters of the dust (dash 1991). are also searching for home through food or culinary techniques, much like my informants and their families in beaufort county. like other rural, impoverished people, the gullah have simple cooking techniques. technology was limited on the sea islands until the mid to late twentieth century, when the areas began to attract wealthy builders, vacationers and retirees from other parts of the united states. the sea islands, such as st. helena island and daufuskie, were relatively untouched by “outsiders” through the beginning of the 1980s. bridges were not considered a necessity until wealthy white northerners identified the sea islands as a prime spot for vacation. gullah food was not cooked in stainless steel kenmore ovens from sears or chopped on corian countertops. food was raised, hunted or trapped by people on the island and prepared using water from a hand pump (robinson 2003:4). cookbook author sallie ann robinson grew up on daufuskie island in the 1960s and 1970s and had to take a boat to the nearest grocery store. she writes in her cookbook, gullah homecookin’ the daufuskie way: most of our food came from the land – and water – around our tin-roofed home. we tended a big garden, four seasons of the year in daufuskie’s mild weather. we raised chickens, hogs, and cattle in our yard. we gathered berries and trapped or sometimes shot animals in the woods. we fished, crabbed, shrimped, and picked oysters. we didn’t always have a lot, but we always had enough (robinson 2003:4). cooking for robinson was the bringing together of the fruits of a day’s physical labor. “food is life. and the way we lived, life was gathering, growing, and preparing food” (robinson 2003:12). culinary http://digest.champlain.edu/vol2/article2_3.html#31 tradition was more than the passing on of recipes; it was a transmission of knowledge of farming, hunting, and fishing. the preparation called for creative energy. robinson’s writing is about growing up in the mid to late twentieth century, but the ingredients and preparations she enjoys are rooted in slavery times, as enslaved women molded old traditions from sierra leone with new resources found in america. enslaved women had to be creative in the kitchen and recipes were passed down. taste is a matter of opinion and arguably, in the case of the sea islands, tradition. the preservation of gullah culture, then, involves not only the cultivation of certain culinary skills, but also a particular sense of taste. the construction of gullah culture is a sensory experience, in which all senses are engaged. coming home ms. thomas came home to st. helena island not intending to stay, much like yellow mary in daughters of the dust. both women claim not to have had good food while they were away. ms. thomas described her many years in atlanta where she disregarded her gullah culture and did not allow familiar foods and traditions to sustain her: i was into my african culture and that african culture superseded my gullah culture 13 … every now and then a word would slip out and people would ask where i was from, but it was something intangible that i kept that was eating at me and making me want to come back (thomas 2009). dash’s character, yellow mary comes back after approximately ten years away from ibo landing to a less than warm homecoming. she arrives with store-bought cookies in a tin and eschews verbal cuts from her female relatives about her lack of involvement in the kitchen only to articulate her desire for home-cooked food a short while later. while yellow mary is chatting with her female traveling partner, trula, and her cousin, eula, in one of the trees close to the beach, yellow mary says that she hopes the women are making gumbo. she looks back toward the spot on the beach where a group of women are preparing the picnic food. you can almost see her smelling it or even feeling it in the air. yellow mary says, “y’know i sure hope they’re fixing some gumbo. it’s been a long time since i’ve had some good gumbo. (looking up at trula) i had some in savannah, you know, but they didn’t put everything in it. i haven’t had some good food in a long time” (dash 1992:122). food takes on many meanings in this scene. 14 it is sustenance, memory, ritual, and most poignantly, lesbian sexuality, as yellow mary’s gaze is directed toward trula when she says that she has not had good gumbo in a long time. trula is yellow mary’s light-skinned traveling companion. in an interview with bell hooks published in daughters of the dust: the making of an african american women’s film (dash 1992), dash explains that in her research for the film she found that prostitutes of that time, which yellow mary is, were involved with other women. their significant others were often women, yet their customers were usually men. dash comments, “in developing yellow mary’s character [i] realized that she, as an independent businesswoman would not be traveling alone. in fact, she would have a significant other” (dash 1992:66). given the sexual relationship between the two women, i argue that yellow mary’s comment about gumbo has two meanings. first, she is hungry for a familiar, homehttp://digest.champlain.edu/vol2/article2_3.html#42 cooked dish. secondly, trula no longer provides her with what she desires sexually or in terms of a home and what that location implies, for example comfort, family, and stability. leading into her comment about gumbo, yellow mary mocks the traditions and backwardness of ibo landing, as if to create distance between herself and the land only to wish her way back onto it. in her essay “culinary nostalgia: authenticity, nationalism, and diaspora” (2007), anita mannur writes: the desire to remember home by fondly recreating culinary memories cannot be understood merely as reflectively nostalgic gestures…discursive and affective aspects of food are valued over their symbolic and semiotic meaning in nostalgic narratives that negotiate the parameters of “culinary citizenship,” a form of affective citizenship which grants subjects the ability to claim and inhabit certain subject positions via their relationship to food (13). yellow mary is arguably assuming the role of culinary citizen in this instance, asserting her place on the island through nostalgic memory. i argue that yellow mary is operating as a diasporic body, creating a framework for the larger narrative of migration. her voiceover at the beginning of the film sets the tone: “i am the first and the last. i am the honored one and the scorned one. i am the whore and the holy one. i am the wife and the virgin. i am the barren one and many are my daughters. i am the silence that you cannot understand. i am the utterance of my name” (dash 1992:75-76). the words yellow mary utters are adapted from the nag hammadi scriptures, a collection of thirteen ancient codices discovered in upper egypt in 1945 and previously thought destroyed. the selection yellow mary speaks from is titled “thunder, perfect mind” drawn from writings dealing primarily with the feminine deific and spiritual principle, particularly with the divine sophia (the nag hammadi library 2011). according to the gnostic society archives, the divine sophia – or holy wisdom – desired most intensely to know the origin of her own creation (the nag hammadi library 2011). perhaps dash is very deliberately placing yellow mary in the role of divine sophia as she returns home to ibo landing to rediscover her origin. what can be learned about gullah culture, as well as migration and diasporic bodies, from listening to and watching yellow mary navigate the space of ibo landing after some time away? she is someone who has left the island and stayed away for ten years. the notes in dash’s screenplay (1992) list yellow mary as working for a family near edisto island, south carolina, which in the present day is not very far north from the fictional ibo landing. at the turn of the 20th century and before the advent of bridges, edisto island was considered the mainland. according to the screenplay, when yellow mary became pregnant in the late 19th century, she lost her baby, so she used her available breast milk to nurse the white children of the edisto island family. when yellow mary traveled with this family to cuba to look after the babies, she was assaulted by their father. according to the screenplay her travels have taken her to edisto island, cuba, and savannah where she could have easily found rice-based cuisine. what was missing in the gumbo that yellow mary ate in savannah that caused her to crave the gumbo of home? gumbo recipes from beaufort county and savannah do not differ greatly, but it is difficult to find two recipes that are alike. dash writes: [she] was raised on gumbo; in my house it was called okra soup. gumbo has been described as the ‘poor man’s meal,’ or a ‘saturday dish,’ prepared when you emptied your refrigerator at the end of the week. as far as i’m concerned gumbo is a luxury. it takes all day to prepare (to do it right) and the fresh okra required to make it can be difficult and expensive (dash 1992:ix). many gullah cookbooks, however, have okra soup and gumbo listed separately with very different ingredients. virginia mason geraty’s cookbook bittle en’t’ing’: gullah cooking with maum chrish’ (1992) cites okra soup as a mixture of okra, fresh tomatoes, corn, onions, and seasonings, while the main component of her gumbo is smoked side-meat cut in such a way that each person will have several pieces (geraty 1992:6). geraty lived for many years in edisto and now resides in charleston. jesse edward gantt, jr. and veronica davis gerald from st. helena island argue in the ultimate gullah cookbook: a taste of food, history, and culture from the gullah people (2003) that gumbo begins with a brown gravy or roux, which dash and geraty’s recipes do not include. along with meat, gantt and gerald offer crabmeat, oysters, and shrimp as additions. dash and geraty’s recipes seem to require a lengthy simmering process, whereas gantt and gerald’s gumbo needs only twenty minutes to simmer before being ready to serve, which is likely due to the gravy acting as a thickener (gantt and gerald 2003:30). searches for savannah gumbo return many links to celebrity chef, paula deen’s recipe, which is similar to gantt and gerald’s, but has more of a chicken base than smoked pig or turkey. deen’s also includes cayenne pepper, which the south carolina recipes do not (deen 2010). each of the aforementioned gumbo recipes was published in the latter part of the 20th century, so it is difficult to discern what components of a gumbo yellow mary wished for when she was away from ibo landing. as janet theophano argues in eat my words: reading women’s lives through the cookbooks they wrote (2002): although recipes remain nearly unchanged through the years, each new cook adapts some recipes to accommodate altered environments and the changes in fashion, and invents new dishes. change is constant. the accidental or deliberate modification takes place with the passing of each generation, with the movement of people from one location to another, with periods of crisis or scarcity such as war and natural disaster…yet some recipes are not forgiving. cooks may closely follow the original for the purposes of remembrance. to alter even an ingredient would disrupt the evocative, symbolic qualities of a dish (50). theophano’s argument works as a foil for yellow mary or any consumer of food. cooks may be the ones following recipes, but those who are not cooking are often looking for consistency, familiarity, and sensuality when eating specific foods. for example, in ntozake shange’s novel sassafras, cyprus, and indigo (1982), food serves as a bridge to home for sassafras, cyprus, and indigo whether they are making familiar recipes in an apartment in los angeles or new york or lapping up mama’s gumbo when they come home for christmas. “mama, the gumbo is ridiculous.” sassafras was eating so fast she could barely get the words out of her mouth. “mama, you know if i told them white folks at the callahan school that i wanted some red sauce & rice with shrimp, clams, hot sausage, corn, okra, chicken & crab meat, they’d go round the campus sayin, ‘you know that negro girl overdoes everything. can you imagine what she wanted for dinner?’” (shange 1982:48). through sassafras, shange illustrates that food is nuanced. taste is subjective, and the tastes, smells and feelings we crave may not be easily found outside of home. yellow mary’s wish for good food and gumbo lead us to the larger feast scene in the film, which is conducted almost entirely without dialogue. the sights and sounds of food being passed and consumed assume center stage. the central role of food in gullah culture, particularly in celebrations, is implied simply by watching the family prepare their plates and eat. listening to the sounds of this scene is arguably more important than watching. gwendolyn audrey foster (1997) credits dash for evoking suppressed signs and sounds of the past. from the beginning of the film, the viewer is presented with a mélange of gullah culture through sounds, images, and performances. it is the attention to the nuances of rituals, styles, and especially the kinesthetics of gesture, which strongly evokes an afrocentric visual memory making (foster 1997:49-65). viewers are invited to migrate back to the sea islands at the turn of the century to witness common cultural practices that may have made their way north with some of the gullah people who migrated. foster’s essay praises dash for her creative use of time, space, and color to tell the story of the peazant family, focusing on the film and filmmaker rather than issues of migration. dash offers the viewer the type of sensory experience that fitzgerald and petrick (2008) argue is important if we are to understand the history of a people and culture. the five senses the five senses are dramatically shown during the feast on the beach in daughters of the dust (dash 1991). there is no dialogue during this scene, but the viewer is able to imagine the savory smells of the food and see the pleasure of the people sharing a meal together. the wind is whipping and the tide is rolling out on the sea island as the peazant women prepare a delicious meal for their family and visitors. all are all dressed well – white dresses and boots for the women and lightweight trousers, shirts and suit jackets for the men, suitable attire for that time. nana peazant is dressed in blue, the color of her indigo-stained hands. yellow mary, trula and viola have on more sophisticated traveling clothes than the others, distinguishing them as people who have traveled away from ibo landing. the only sounds that can be heard are the clinking of forks against ceramic plates, the crunching of corn on the cob, the shelling of shrimp and the cracking of blue crabs. no words are needed between family members as they pass plates back and forth between bowls and platters piled high with fish and tomatoes. generations of sharing allow them to communicate seamlessly and silently. this scene may be what yellow mary was looking for in her travels. the food that the peazant family is enjoying was likely planted, harvested, caught, or shucked by some of their hands. they have created a sustainable life and home by working the land and also by passing on skills and traditions to one another. as the women prepared the food no recipes were read from a cookbook or even narrated. yellow mary could not find the good gumbo she was looking for because the gumbo she remembers can only be made by peazant women or by people who have watched peazant women make it in their way. this feast scene is demonstrative of the benefits of sustainability in terms of defining home for people. ironically, just as the scene evokes home and sustainability, it also signifies the end of an era and the beginning of a new life for a certain number of peazants on the mainland. as we have seen, investigating sensory elements of history, people, and cultures can help us, pun intended, make sense of the world. current scholarship is invested in the anthropology of smell, hearing, and movement, but least of all on taste (sutton 2001:14). as we saw in the scholarship and in the film daughters of the dust (dash 1991), this paper is the beginning of an intervention i wish to make to illustrate the intersection between sustainability and the five senses, particularly taste and memory, using film, literature, and ethnography as investigative and theoretical tools. valuing all five senses can help to uncover how much of nostalgic memory is constructed from lived experience. what goes into the making of gullah folklore? where, how, and by whom are memories created and what role do each of the five senses play in the creation of memories? what are we missing in retelling gullah history without a reliance on sensory experience? is sensory experience the same as lived experience? these questions will continue to inform my future research. gullah people, such as ms. thomas, assert that love and care can be felt in good food and it is arguably a cornerstone of sustainability for gullah people. veronica davis gerald, author of the ultimate gullah cookbook maintains: love is one of the best kept secrets but main ingredients in gullah food. however, of all the ingredients, it is the most difficult to explain and to pass on in a recipe. for this reason, few books on this food culture attempt to give it consideration. some call it cooking from the heart; others just call it ‘luv’…around the gullah table, it is common to hear someone say, ‘e put e foot en um dis time’ or ‘dey’s a lot of luv in dis food.’ expressions such as these mean that the cook has put so much of her or his energy and spirit into the preparation of the food, that they transfer the food onto the recipient (gerald 2003:19). for the gullah, food is more than a necessity for survival. it is life. since the beginning of the gullah existence food has played a major role in everyday life. gullah food cannot be poured from a store bought package. it must be prepared with love, and perhaps more importantly, with hundreds of years of ritual behind each stir of the pot and pinch of spice added. acknowledgements i would like to thank luanne roth and the review panel for the sue samuelson foodways essay competition for selecting my paper. thanks especially to my advisors, a. lynn bolles and psyche williams-forson for providing valuable guidance on the first drafts and encouraging me to apply, and to diane tye for offering helpful comments on the final draft. notes 1. the most popular definition of sustainability can be traced to a 1987 un conference. it defined sustainable developments as those that "meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs" (wced 1987: section 3.27) http://www.un-documents.net/ocfov.htm. at its core, sustainability means “the capacity for being continued; to endure; renewable” which ties directly into the theoretical fourth pillar of sustainability – cultural vitality. the universal declaration on cultural diversity (2001) states, “cultural diversity is as necessary for humankind as biodiversity is for nature…one of the roots of development understood not simply in terms of economic growth, but also as a means to achieve a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral, and physical existence” (articles 1 and 3). 2. the akan people from the gold coast of africa were also targeted for shipment to the west indies. they were often ring-leaders of slave resistance, both passive and armed. for further information see mair 1975. 3. for further scholarly proof of the gullah-sierra leone connection, see the following: ely, wilson, jackson, and jackson 2007; opala 1987; and shetterly 2006. 4. much scholarship on gullah culture has arisen in the past thirty years thanks to academics and others interested in contributing to the scholarly conversation. judith carney built upon the evidence of the importance of rice in gullah culture noted by daniel littlefield by centering on the role of gullah women in the cultivation of rice. jennifer morgan (2004) contributed her research on the commodification of women’s labor and reproduction on rice plantations. for a recent look at the overview of gullah history and culture, especially on the sea islands, see cross 2008, and campbell 2008. moutoussamy-ashe’s daufuskie island: a photographic essay (1982) – published right before daufuskie was infiltrated by contractors sent to build a luxury resort – provides a unique glimpse at life on the sea islands when the land was gullah-owned. 5. see family across the sea (1991), directed by tim carrier. a unique look at the ways gullah communities and kinship ties were created and sustained under the brutal system of slavery can be found in guthrie 1996. 6. the names have been changed to protect the privacy of the women interviewed. 7. it is important to note that the women i have interviewed do not represent all gullah people when they speak of sustainability practices. in many cases they are exceptional rather than representative of the philosophies in practice on the sea islands. the majority of the women i interviewed attended college in the northeast and three hold advanced degrees. not all gullah people are adopting organic farming practices like ms. reynolds due to cost, time, land use, etc. 8. according to organic farming research foundation in santa cruz, ca, “organic farming refers to agricultural production systems used to produce food and fiber. organic farming management relies on developing biological diversity in the field to disrupt habitat for pest organisms, and the purposeful maintenance and replenishment of soil fertility. organic farmers are not allowed to use synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. all kinds of agricultural products are produced organically, including produce, grains, meat, dairy, eggs, fibers such as cotton, flowers, and processed food products. some of the essential characteristics of organic systems include: design and implementation of an "organic system plan" that describes the practices used in producing crops and livestock products; a detailed recordkeeping system that tracks all products from the field to point of sale; and maintenance of buffer zones to prevent inadvertent contamination by synthetic farm chemicals from adjacent conventional fields. certified organic (e.g. ms. thomas’ farm) refers to agricultural products that have been grown and processed according to uniform standards, verified by independent state or private organizations accredited by the usda. all products sold as "organic" must be certified. certification includes annual submission of an organic system plan and inspection of farm fields and processing facilities. inspectors verify that organic practices such as long-term soil management, buffering between organic farms and neighboring conventional farms, and recordkeeping are being followed. processing inspections include review of the facility's cleaning and pest control methods, ingredient transportation and storage, and recordkeeping and audit control. organic foods are minimally processed to maintain the integrity of food without artificial ingredients or preservatives. certified organic requires the rejection of synthetic agrochemicals, irradiation and genetically engineered foods or ingredients. since 2002, organic certification in the u.s. has taken place under the authority of the usda national organic program, which accredits organic certifying agencies, and oversees the regulatory process. to find out more about the national organic certification requirements and organic program, please go to the usda national organic program website www.ams.usda.gov/nop” (about organic 2011). 9.through the marshview organic csa, locals are invited to invest a certain amount of money in ms. reynolds’ farm, which goes to costs associated with planting, harvesting, and the organic certification. 10. according to cookbook author and daufuskie island resident sallie ann robinson, “there was a season for almost everything: a time to catch different seafood, a time to butcher the hog or cow, a time to plant and harvest each crop, a time for hunting each animal. each nut, fruit, and berry ripened in its own time” (2003:77; see also jenkins 2010:11). 11. see williams-forson 2006:80-113 for her article, “gnawing on a chicken bone in my own house: cultural contestation, black women’s work, and class.” 12. for further information on frustrations in the kitchen see sharpless 2010. 13. given the strong african influence in gullah culture, it is interesting that ms. reynolds could so easily separate them into binaries. many gullah cookbooks refer to african roots of certain dishes. see jenkins’ gullah cuisine (2010), robinson’s gullah home cooking, the daufuskie way: smokin’ joe butter beans, ol’ ‘fuskie fried crab rice, sticky-bush blackberry dumpling, & other sea island favorites (2003), and gantt and gerald’s the ultimate gullah cookbook: a taste of food, history and culture from the gullah people (2003). 14. although food takes on many meanings in daughters of the dust, i am primarily invested in the lesbian sexuality and sensuality in the scene involving yellow mary and trula, her traveling companion and female lover. these two characters illustrate sensual nature of food, place, and memory. references cited about organic. 2011. organic farming research foundation. accessed october 11. http://ofrf.org. beoku-betts, josephine a. 1995. we got our way of cooking things: women, food, and preservation of cultural identity among the gullah. gender and society 9: 535-555. campbell, emory s. 2008. gullah cultural legacies. hilton head island: gullah heritage consulting services. carney, judith a. 2002. black rice: the african origins of rice cultivation in the americas. cambridge: harvard university press. creel, margaret washington. 1988. “a peculiar people”: slave religion and community culture among the gullahs. new york: new york university press. cross, wilbur. 2008. gullah culture in america. westport, connecticut: praeger. cucinella, catherine and renee r. curry. 2001. exiled at home: daughters of the dust and the many post-colonial conditions. melus 26 (4): 197-221. dash, julie. 1992. daughters of the dust. new york city: the new press. dash, julie. 1991. daughters of the dust. santa monica, ca: geechee girls multimedia, inc. deen, paula. 2010. savannah seafood gumbo. foodnetwork.com. accessed december 19. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/savannah-seafood-gumborecipe/index.html. ebron, paulla a. 1998. enchanted memories of regional difference in african american culture. american anthropologist, new series, 100 (1): 94-105. ely, bert, jamie lee wilson, fatimah jackson, and bruce a. jackson. 2007. correction: african-american mitochondrial dnas often match mtdnas found in multiple african ethnic groups. bmc biology 5 (13). http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/5/13. carrier, tim. 1991. family across the sea. columbia, south carolina: south carolina etv. fitzgerald, gerard j. and gabriella m. petrick. 2008. in good taste: rethinking american history with our palates. journal of american history, 95 (2): 392-404. doi: 10.2307/25095625. foster, gwendolyn audrey. 1997. julie dash: “i think we need to do more than try to document history.” women filmmakers of the african and asian diaspora: decolonizing the gaze, locating subjectivity. carbondale, illinois: university of illinois press. gabbaccia, donna r. 1998. we are what we eat: ethnic food and the making of americans. cambridge: harvard university press. gantt, jesse edward jr. and veronica davis gerald. 2003. the ultimate gullah cookbook: a taste of food, history and culture from the gullah people. the gullah house foundation. guthrie, patricia. 1996. catching sense: african american communities on a south carolina sea island. wesport, ct: bergin and garvey. geraty, virginia mixson. 1992. bittle en’ t’ing’: gullah cooking with maum chrish’. orangeburg, south carolina: sandlapper publishing co. hilton, sue (pseudonym). interview with author. january 13, 2009. jenkins, charlotte. 2010. gullah cuisine by land and by sea. charleston, sc: evening post publishing company. littlefield, daniel c. 1981. rice and slaves: ethnicity and the slave trade in colonial south carolina. baton rouge: louisiana state university press. lorde, audre. 1984. uses of the erotic: the erotic as power. sister outsider: essays and speeches. berkeley, ca: crossing press. mair, lucille mathurin. 1975. the rebel woman in the british west indies during slavery. kingston, jamaica: institute of jamaican publications. mannur, anita. 2007. culinary nostalgia: authenticity, nationalism, and diaspora. melus. 32 (4): 11-31. morgan, jennifer l. 2004. laboring women: reproduction and gender in new world slavery. philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press. moutoussamy-ashe, jeanne. 1982. daufuskie island: a photographic essay. columbia, south carolina: university of south carolina press. national organic program. united states department of agriculture. accessed february 25, 2013. www.ams.usda.gov/nop. opala, joseph. 1987. the gullah: rice, slavery, and the sierra leone-american connection. united states information service, freetown, sierra leone. our common future, from one earth to one world. 1987. report of the world commission on environment and development. accessed february 25, 2013. http://www.un documents.net/ocf-ov.htm robinson, sallie ann. 2003. gullah home cooking, the daufuskie way: smokin’ joe butter beans, ol’ ‘fuskie fried crab rice, sticky-bush blackberry dumpling, & other sea island favorites. chapel hill: university of north carolina press. rose, willie lee. 1964. rehearsal for reconstruction: the port royal experiment. new york: oxford university press. segar, eva. 2006. my gullah kitchen. beaufort, south carolina: you should write a book. (www.barbaramartin.net). shange, ntozake. 1982. sassafras, cyprus, and indigo. new york: st. martin’s press. sharpless, rebecca. 2010. cooking in other women’s kitchens: domestic workers in the south 1865-1960. chapel hill: university of north carolina press. shetterly, margie. 2006. priscilla’s homecoming. madison magazine (spring): 38-47. sutton, david e. 2001. remembrance of repasts: an anthropology of food and memory. oxford: berg. taylor, ellen (pseudonym). interview with author. january 13, 2009. the nag hammadi library. 2011. the gnostic society. accessed october 11. http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html. the summer of food (part 2) marshview organic farm. 2011. coastal conservation league. accessed october 11. http://coastalconservationleague.org/the-summer-of-food-part-2. theophano, janet. 2002. eat my words: reading women’s lives through the cookbooks they wrote. new york: palgrave. thomas, grace (pseudonym). interview with author. january 15, 2009. universal declaration on cultural diversity. 2001. unesco. accessed february 25, 2013. http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php url_id=13179&url_do=do_topic&url_section=201.html white, katie. 2009. stirring the pot of creolization: women and the culinary history of gullah communities on st. helena island, south carolina. master’s thesis, san diego state university. williams-forson, psyche. 2006. building houses out of chicken legs: black women, food, and power. chapel hill: university of north carolina press. witt, william c. 2007. soul food as cultural creation. african american foodways: exploration of history and culture. anne l. bower, ed. chicago: university of illinois press. yentsch, anne. 2007. excavating the south’s african american food history. african american foodways: explorations of history and culture. anne l. bower, ed. chicago: university of illinois press. coke bottles photographer: callum latta digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023): 23-38 ©american folklore society 2023 research essay food and the expressive culture of death: two perspectives by: isaura garcia and sheila bock abstract: this piece offers reflections, from the perspectives of a professor (sheila bock) and a student (isaura garcia), on the role that food played in facilitating teaching and learning in an undergraduate seminar on the “expressive culture of death.” this was not a course about food or foodways, but rather a class where foodways served as a productive entry point into students’ understandings of how people create and communicate meaning about not only death, but also life in their social and cultural worlds. highlighting the student perspective in the larger consideration of edible pedagogies offered by this special issue, we hope to make visible the ways in which student learning and engagement can both draw upon and extend beyond the carefully curated plans of the professor in wonderfully generative ways. keywords: foodways, expressive culture, death, student perspective this piece offers reflections, from the perspectives of a professor (sheila bock) and a student (isaura garcia), on the role that food played in facilitating teaching and learning in an undergraduate seminar on the “expressive culture of death.” this was not a course about food or foodways, but rather a class where foodways served as a productive entry point into students’ understandings of how people create and communicate meaning about not only death, but also life in their social and cultural worlds (in both planned and unplanned ways). the piece will begin with the perspective of sheila bock, an associate professor at the university of nevada, las vegas, who will describe her goals for the course and the explicit attention she gave to the topic of food in its design. it will then shift to the perspective of undergraduate student isaura garcia, who shares some of the work she did for one of the class assignments and offers her own reflections on why she found the topic of food to be so compelling within the context of this course. highlighting the student perspective in the larger consideration of edible pedagogies offered by this special issue, we hope to make visible the ways in which student learning and engagement can both draw upon and extend beyond the carefully curated plans of the professor in wonderfully generative ways. a professor’s perspective at the (virtual) american folklore society annual meeting in the fall of 2020, i (sheila bock) attended a virtual death café organized by willow mullins, where several of my folklorist colleagues shared their research and personal reflections at the intersections of folklore and death. listening to the insights of my colleagues helped me find useful frameworks to make sense of my own heightened attention to the topic of death amidst the early months of the covid-19 pandemic and other events happening in the u.s. and world. very much inspired by that death café, i began to put together a syllabus for a class called “the expressive culture of death,” which i taught as an honors seminar at the university of garcia & bock, food and expressive culture digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 24 nevada, las vegas the following year during the fall 2021 semester, and then again in fall 2022. a foundational premise of this class is that, while death is a topic that is often hidden from view and not talked about explicitly in u.s. american contexts (due to a range of historical factors including professionalization and medicalization), death is nevertheless a part of life and a phenomenon that does capture the attention of the living. building on this foundational premise, i designed the syllabus with these questions in mind: how do we create meaning in the face of death? what kinds of expressive culture does death inspire? what insights can expressive culture offer into social and cultural understandings of death more broadly? how does the expressive culture of death create opportunities for reflection, critique, community-building, and political action? all of the students who have taken this class are unfamiliar with the field of folklore, so both times i have taught it, i have spent a good deal of time early on in this 15-week course explaining what i mean when i use the term “expressive culture.” specifically, i explain that i am using this term to reference how social and cultural beliefs and perspectives take tangible form in the things people say, make, and do. i explain that since i am a folklorist, i am most interested in the types of expressive culture that are both informal—outside of (though often interacting with) official, institutional culture—and traditional—shared or repeated within a social group (indicating that it carries meaning to people in that group). to help the students begin identifying some informal, traditional examples of what they have seen people say, make, or do in response to death, i turn to foodways for one of my introductory examples. specifically, i ask students what they have observed community members do for the surviving family members of an individual who has died, and both times i have taught it, more than one of the students has answered, “bring them food.” this opens up a discussion of what functions this act (or custom) serves. for example, students note that the act of bringing food is a break from the “ordinary,” marking the family as being in a state of grieving. it is also a way for others in the community to show that they care for the bereaved family, affirming broader community ties. as part of this discussion, i encourage them to think about how we can find meaning not only in the act of sharing food, but in the form and content of the food itself. for example, while the specific dishes differ based on regional and cultural traditions, most often the food that is shared is a meal, not the chocolates or the elaborately decorated cookies that might be brought as a christmas gift (with holidays being another break from the “ordinary”). the foods shared in the immediate aftermath of someone’s death are typically not “fancy,” but rather utilitarian and comforting – they are meant to nourish and sustain those who are grieving without the expectation of recognition for one’s artistry or skill in the kitchen. these meals are also typically created and shared with an explicit mindfulness of the disruption this kind of grief can bring to daily schedules. there is no expectation that they will be eaten immediately, and ease of preparation is a key component of the meal. and very often these meals are homemade rather than ordered from a restaurant, functioning to help community members feel that they are contributing something not just tangible but more meaningful by putting in both the care and the work to provide a home-cooked meal. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 25 one key recurring concept in the course is the liminality of death, and we give a great deal of attention to how funerary rituals and customs serve as rites of passage that facilitate the transition from one status to another. drawing on ideas introduced in candi k. cann’s introduction to the edited volume dying to eat: cross-cultural perspectives on food, death, and the afterlife (2018), we consider how death inspires two such transitions: 1) the transition of the people who remain alive, who must transition to a life without the deceased, and 2) the transition of the deceased from the realm of the living to the realm of the dead. in the process, i turn to foodways to help illustrate people’s engagement with these transitions. for example, we consider how the deceased can be kept socially alive through the incorporation of specific dishes or recipes clearly associated with them. we also talk about how communal meals served and consumed at funerals strengthen the social bonds of the living, and how familiar foods reinforce communal identities. an example one filipina student shared from her own experiences is how it is common among the filipino families she knows to have a funeral feast served buffet style, and her own grandfather’s funeral was no exception, with “normal filipino party food” including pancit, lumpia, and bbq chicken and pork skewers. beyond reinforcing social bonds and communal identities, she noted that having a feast and spending money on food is a sign of respect for the deceased. in thinking about the transition of the deceased from the realm of the living to the realm of the dead, we also consider the role of food in caring for the dead (an idea that emerges in particular in our consideration of día de los muertos, which isaura garcia addresses in more detail below). drawing from the work of death studies scholar tony walker, candi k. cann describes caring for the dead as “a renegotiation of the status of the deceased person while allowing the living to retain an active and participatory relationship with the dead in their new state” (2018: 4). the same student who described the feast of “normal filipino party food” served at her grandfather’s funeral also offered an example of the role food plays in this renegotiation in her own family’s traditions, noting that in the days following or on the anniversaries of someone’s death, sometimes her family would cook and serve a plate next to a photograph of the deceased family member. finally, as part of our exploration of liminality, we also consider how the ephemeral materiality of food offers a useful way to mediate the “betwixt and between-ness” of the corpse. i present the students with this excerpt from the work of anthropologist jung eun sophia park: food operates as a dialectic revealing the tension that exists between the “clean” purity of the organic life-giving force and the “messy” nature of inevitable decay. food provides great pleasure and necessary energy, but it also includes dirt. food forever threatens contamination and bodily impurity, but it is necessary for survival and is a source of pleasure. as deborah lupton incisively states, “food is a metonym of the mortality of human flesh, the inevitable entropy of living matter.” (park 2018: 47) drawing these connections, in turn, opens up productive avenues to think about the ways in which the body of the dead straddles the border between the familiar and the garcia & bock, food and expressive culture digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 26 threatening, and must be properly “prepared” for culturally sanctioned forms of “consumption.” one of my key goals as an educator is to help my students build a critical lens for looking at the different forms of expressive culture they encounter in their everyday lives. to these ends, i aim to create space for students to draw connections to their own experiences and observations, both during in-person discussions and through informal written responses to our class meetings on the online discussion board. i also design more formal assignments with these pedagogical goals in mind. one assignment, for example, asks students to create a slidecast (i.e., a recorded slideshow of images accompanied by audio narration) that documents and contextualizes their own personal engagement with the expressive culture of death. i keep the assignment intentionally open-ended in terms of topics or genres they might focus on, though the assignment guidelines ask them to do the following: · describe your own relationship to this form of expressive culture (e.g., as an observer, an active participant, an intended audience member, an unintended audience member, a creator, a consumer, a guide for others’ engagement) and (if applicable) how this has changed over time. · offer some examples of your specific engagement with this form of expressive culture, reflecting on the functions this engagement served for you personally. · offer background information about this form of expressive culture based on course materials and additional research · articulate how reflecting on your personal engagement with/participation in this tradition offers insight into the significance of this form of expressive culture more broadly. students have chosen to focus on a wide array of topics for this assignment, including, for example, their participation in death-related humor, their consumption of true crime media, their experiences visiting (and in one case working at) sites of dark tourism, the stories they tell about their experiences of hauntings, how their family has used the space of a local cemetery over the years, and how they reconfigured traditional rituals of grief and remembrance in a virtual format. isaura garcia, whose perspective is presented below, put together a beautiful presentation focused on the relationship between transformation, consumption, death, and food. upon seeing the call for submissions for this special issue on “edible pedagogies,” i immediately thought back to isaura’s slidecast and her thoughtful personal reflections on the intersections between food and death. i recognized it as an important opportunity to engage with the theme of this special issue from a student’s perspective. in what follows, you will find the written script for isaura’s slidecast assignment with select images from the original presentation. after that, we turn attention to isaura’s perspective as she offers some valuable insights into how and why food caught her attention as a form of expressive culture in the context of this specific course. written script for isaura garcia’s slidecast presentation digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 27 transformative aspects of consumption in relation to death as much as we like to avoid thinking about it, death is an integral part of life. one aspect of death that we tend to turn a blind eye to is the consumption of the dead. hearing that, you might think i'm referring to cannibalism–which, yes, is a form of consuming the dead–but that is not necessarily the focus of this video. image 1. recreation of “the last supper” by leonardo da vinci painted onto a plate that hangs above the dining table of the home of the garcia family. text reads “give us today our daily bread” in spanish. photo courtesy of isaura garcia. these first few images depict some of my earliest experiences of consuming the dead–the eucharist. the eucharist, also known as the holy communion, is a religious tradition that i practiced during my time as a roman catholic. i symbolically consumed the body and blood of jesus christ. i did this as a way to transform from a sinner into a devout catholic. according to the encyclopedia britannica, holy communion is a way to strengthen the community, strengthen one's relationship with jesus christ, and focus on the coming glory of heaven (petruzello: 2021). garcia & bock, food and expressive culture digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 28 image 2. photograph of isaura garcia’s first holy communion, taken by isaura valerio, october 31, 2015. permission granted november 29, 2021. while my early experience consuming the dead was symbolic, there are many instances where humans literally consumed the dead. one historical example of cultural cannibalism can be found with the aztecs. the aztecs were an ancient latin american civilization with a cyclical notion of life and death. mark cartwright suggests the idea that human sacrifice was a method of repayment; it was a necessity to survive and thank the gods for the original sacrifice that resulted in the existence of humanity. according to red from overly sarcastic productions, the earth itself was created from the undead remains of the god cipactli and quetzalcóatl stole bones from the underworld to make the first humans, thus making sacrifice a necessary apology to the gods (red 2020). moreover, the patterned nature of the sacrificial rituals was what kept the cycle of life and death going; the sacrifices nourished the gods, the land, and the community as a whole (maestri 2019). according to dave roos, the ritual act of cannibalism in this context was the highest honor, a way to commune with the gods, perhaps even becoming more holy (roos 2018). from these two examples, we learn that consumption is part of our expressive culture of transformation and socialization. these themes began appearing later in my life as i reconnected with my mexican roots and began researching my family's traditions. one of these is the widely known celebration of putting up an altar for el día de los muertos (day of the dead), complete with offerings of fruit, food, and pan de muerto for my departed loved ones. food consumption, especially in social situations, is thought to produce unity, closeness, and trust within a community, and this principle is applied to bringing one closer to the dead. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 29 image 3. día de los muertos ofrenda showcasing images and favorite items of deceased garcia-valerio family members. ofrenda by isaura garcia, november 1, 2019. photo courtesy isaura garcia. pan de muerto is a primarily symbolic food for día de los muertos, whose round shape symbolizes the circle of life and death (nabor 2019). the little ball of bread represents a skull, a heart, or teardrops (depending on who you ask), and the cross-shaped pieces on the bread represent the bones of the dead. in puebla, my family's home state in mexico, pan de muerto is infused with orange blossom essence to express the memories of the deceased (martinez 2020). we both eat this bread and leave it for our family; in a way, we consume them and their memory. we also create and consume sugar skulls, representative of our dead. garcia & bock, food and expressive culture digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 30 image 4. close up of homemade pan de muerto on the ofrenda. photo courtesy of isaura garcia. when i visited the museo de las momias (museum of mummies) in guanajuato, i was greeted by dozens of street vendors selling charamuscas (caramel figurines representing the mummies) which were thoroughly enjoyable. in other areas of mexico, people enjoy capirotada, a bread pudding dish eaten around the time of ash wednesday and lent, a time of religious penitence and prayer (marquez 2021). this dish is representative of the corpse of christ and incorporates cinnamon sticks symbolizing the crucifix, cloves as the nails, and syrup as the blood of christ. it is all covered in a layer of cheese, representing the shroud that covers the body of christ (marquez 2021). of course, mexico is not the only place where food is used as an expressive culture to reinforce spiritual connections. another example can be found in nineteenth-century sweden, where mourners were given swedish funeral confections whose color, fringes, and images told them something about the deceased (troop 2017). according to sarah troop, long and black meant they lived a long life, and if the fringes were white and short, they probably died in childhood (2017). the images on the candies were also symbolic: they could be lambs representing innocence and were often associated with children, or they could include a variety of images depicting or representing death (troop 2017). digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 31 in england, during the nineteenth century, corpses would have small bread placed on their chest, which was thought to absorb the deceased's sins. the family in mourning would then hire a sin eater to eat the bread off of the corpse and cleanse the dead of their sins, leaving them renewed for heaven (doughty 2020; hensey 2019). moreover, according to lisa rogak, some tribes in bali use the same water used to wash a corpse to craft a rice pudding dish shaped to look like a corpse and served to mourners at a funeral, thus increasing the physical connection between the mourners and the deceased (doughty 2020). all of the previous examples i've given are instances of a recurring theme in the expressive culture of death, where we find that the consumption surrounding death, in some way, mirrors the transformative cycle of life and death. life grows out of death, and healing comes after grief. the living die, decompose, and nourish the land that will then feed the still living. people and the relationships we have with them transform us and our lives. i first became interested in the transformative nature of the consumption of death to explain my fascination with cannibalism and how i believe it connects to daily life in more ways than simply consuming flesh. to me, the idea of cannibalizing people and things stems from a need to cope with the overwhelming feelings of grief that come with loss. alas, our time and bodies are borrowed in this world. however, like icarus, humans are defiant creatures. we are emotional creatures, and we continuously build connections with those around us. when we lose them, we refuse to let them go. our grief consumes us; our memories consume us. we do not exist solely in the current moment, for time is relative. we live in fragmented moments. the past, present, and future exist concurrently, so we cannot easily comprehend loss. in this act of defiance, we consume them and their memories and create memorials or food expressing our grief, sorrow, and love for others to consume them too. in this way, we immortalize them and essentially defy death. i am an amalgamation of moments and memories of people i love. i keep these people and memories alive by consuming and reproducing them–they shape me, and i shape them in the transformative circle of life and death. a student’s perspective in the fall of 2019, i (isaura garcia) was a bright and curious incoming honors college freshman at unlv (university of nevada at las vegas), eager to learn and apply whatever knowledge i could gather to make the world a better place. the people around me would describe me as cheery and optimistic, a ray of sunshine. i generally agree with this assessment from an etic perspective, but until this point, i had experienced my fair share of hardships. like other high-achieving students, i struggled to cope with the stress of balancing school with extracurriculars, sports, and maintaining a social life. in myself, this stress manifested itself in the form of depression, suicidal ideation, and eating disorders. due to my struggles with mental illness, i have a complicated relationship with death and all things morbid. i never made a hard-stop attempt, but the idea of “flirting with death” stuck with me well into my formative years, especially as a way to give meaning to life. i never wanted to die necessarily, but instead, i came to view death as a tool or framework that contextualizes life and thus gives it meaning. since then, i’ve been fascinated with everything related to death, though it was an interest i viewed as more of an unfortunate garcia & bock, food and expressive culture digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 32 inconvenience that i tried to hide away. i felt the uncomfortable ugliness of morbidity creeping out of my peripherals at the start of 2020. this paralyzing turmoil culminated during the lockdown period in march 2020, in which isolation forced me to stew in my thoughts and the covid-19 news cycle and come to terms with my troubles and mortality. a year later, i was still grappling with this revelatory experience when i came across the class titled “the expressive culture of death.” my interest in the class was piqued partly because i was becoming more open to the idea of engaging with taboo subjects. i imagine many other honors students felt the same way. however, i am also an anthropology student, fascinated by different and diverse cultures, largely thanks to my experiences growing up in a mexican-american household. though death in america is primarily spoken about through whispers, americans often tend to culturally appropriate the mexican cultural holiday, día de los muertos, the day of the dead, a vibrant celebration of life, death, and remembrance. the contrast between the vivacity of día de los muertos and the overall eerie and hushed attitude toward death in the united states raised questions about how death is conceptualized and approached in different cultures. i love expressing and exploring my mexican heritage, and part of that is participating in día de los muertos celebrations. my cultural background and personal history combined to incite a general curiosity about cultures and death. this course was the perfect opportunity to study both of my interests in an incorporated manner, so i jumped at the chance to take it. like my interest in death, my interest in food is deeply rooted in my personal and cultural background. as i previously mentioned, i’ve had a sour relationship with food that culminated in a continuous struggle with various eating disorders. though eating disorders are not always about food (often being more about control than anything else), they still kickstarted my obsession with food. during the fall 2021 semester (the semester in which i took the course), i was severely struggling with my eating disorders but was aware of it and making a conscious effort to improve my relationship with food. part of my personal healing effort was to engage with my cultural foods. the idea was to turn my focus away from calories and macros and emphasize tradition, history, and meaning associated with tasty cultural dishes. and our explorations of the different forms of expressive culture in this class helped me think about food in more nuanced ways. sustenance, at the most basic level, is a way of warding off death. but food is not simply a way to provide sustenance and keep us alive; instead, it is a tradition. food can be artistic; it can be historical; it can be expressive. it is often a material form of communication. cultural dishes, in particular, go beyond nutrition. they are not merely functional aspects of human societies; they are cultural and behavioral phenomena that should be studied to understand and contextualize a culture. luckily for me, the course was flexible and encouraged discussion among the students, often veering toward whatever topic the students felt inclined to explore that week. in these discussions, my mind often wandered to food, and i thought that i could understand larger concepts when i viewed them through the lens of food or vice versa. at first, i thought it was strange, but as i shared my connections and gauged my peers’ responses, i grew more interested in utilizing food to explore and understand various forms of the digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 33 expressive culture of death. i found that most of the concepts discussed in class could be connected to food in one way or another, and once i figured it out, it was all i could see. of course, one prime example is pan de muerto (a staple food for día de los muertos celebrations), but other rituals or traditions are associated with food. like all of the charamuscas (caramel mummies) sold by street vendors in guanajuato, home of the museo de las momias (museum of mummies). or the tradition of holding a kermés, a type of fundraising event where the families of a deceased loved one sell food to raise money to pay for funeral costs. with this context in mind, my connections to food in a class examining the expressive culture of death make more sense. already armed with a heightened interest in food and culture, i constantly looked for ways to tie the expressive culture of death to cultural traditions surrounding death rituals and food. incidentally, during one of the discussion posts for the course, where we talked about funeral foods and cemeteries, i mentioned the idea of cannibalism. cannibalism is one of the biggest taboos in cultures worldwide. still, i began to notice that many cultural foods and food-related rituals related to death focused on the symbolic consumption of people or memories of people. there are some cultures where food is made to look like corpses or shaped like bones to represent the dead, like pan de muerto. bringing up the notion of cannibalism understandably shocked a few of my classmates, but others engaged with my ideas and provided examples of food rituals that could be viewed as symbolic cannibalism. from this point on, i began to think of cannibalism as a way of mourning—a type of consumption of the person and everything they represented. when it came time to pick a topic for the slidecast presentation, i immediately knew i wanted to do something related to food or symbolic cannibalism. by this point in the semester, i had regularly been making connections between whatever topics we were discussing that week and something related to cannibalism or food. it was almost like a personal challenge to see how often i could make connections between food and death, especially since, at the time, the two concepts seemed completely distant. through my discussions of food and death in this course, i was interested not only in exploring my thoughts on how food and death are related but also in how others conceptualized and interacted with this connection. the slidecast presentation was not simply about presenting a topic related to death; it was also about exploring how you personally engage with a form of expressive culture related to death. since i already knew i wanted to incorporate the idea of cannibalism into my project, i found it difficult to connect to the topic. however, when i looked at expressive culture regarding food, i realized that symbolic cannibalism has always been a part of my life and culture. growing up in a catholic household, i was accustomed to regularly going to church and taking the holy communion, a symbolic representation of the body and blood of jesus christ. for día de los muertos, i regularly made and consumed sugar skulls and pan de muerto, which i made in memory of my deceased family members. without ever really thinking about it, i had been engaging in a dimorphic expression of grief and commemoration by consuming these religiously and culturally significant foods. eating cultural foods symbolic of life and death is a form of reincorporation, of reinforcing social garcia & bock, food and expressive culture digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 34 bonds through communal meals, asserting collective identity, and keeping the deceased socially alive by maintaining their memory through the dishes we consume. with this revelation in mind, i set out to create a slidecast that explained my interactions with food and death and challenged my peers to explore the roles that food may play in their lifelong experiences with death. instead of focusing on cannibalism, i opted to focus on the transformative aspects of consumption. the concept of consumption is mainly about physical foods, but it also refers to how people engage with and “consume” the memories and lives of their loved ones through the consumption of specific foods. food is thought to produce unity, closeness, and trust within a community–all of which holds true when the food in question is related to death. the widespread expressive culture of consumption surrounding death mirrors the transformative cycle of life and death. since taking the class in fall 2021, i’ve found that it has contributed to the ways in which i observe and interact with my day-to-day life. the course taught me how to identify and analyze different forms of expressive culture, which are not necessarily related to death but i find most vivid when in the context of food. after all, food is one of the biggest dividers between life and death, so it makes sense why it is so culturally prominent concerning both realms. historically, food is a significant way to build and reinforce community through its preparation, how it’s served, and how it’s eaten. incidentally, i got a job as a baker in a wellrespected italian bakery, where i became responsible for preparing, presenting, and distributing food. finding myself in an environment focused on preserving italian food experiences and traditions has allowed me to continue engaging with and exploring the importance of food as a form of expressive culture. i never intended to pursue a career in the culinary sector. i simply took the bakery job to help pay for my education. as i mentioned, i am studying anthropology with a focus on cultural anthropology. with this background and the analytical skills i gained in this class, i became more aware of the ties between food and expressive forms of culture. i recognize how a specific cultural group’s relationship with food parallels a culture's ideals. for instance, the italian bakery i work at strives to preserve the cultural ambiance of italy, in which the meal period is valued and cherished as a time for refreshment and strengthening social bonds. this is in contrast to my observations of typical american ideals surrounding food in which meals are often seen as a chore that must be done as quickly and efficiently as possible. previously, i’d planned to move to mexico for a year to study different cultural practices. however, after taking the course and working in a culinary environment, i’ve begun to look into food anthropology and death studies. compared to the united states, mexico has a more vibrant and open cultural dialogue surrounding death. death is present in everything from popular corridos (stories being told in song form) and jaripeos (mexican events involving bull riding and dances) to the globally iconic día de los muertos. i am interested in studying the function of food in perpetuating cultural norms and ways of conceptualizing death. for instance, pan de muerto is a cultural icon representative of día de los muertos. it helps emphasize the cyclical nature of life and death as well as the duality of the body and soul through its symbolic shape. additionally, there is an entire genre of songs in mexico, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 35 typically in the style of corridos, which revolve around death and parties, and typically discuss alcohol as a tool for transcending liminal spaces to connect with the dead. songs like “mi ultima caravana” (“my last caravan”), for example, discuss the singer’s desire to be celebrated in his death and have his loved ones share one last drink with him to remember him by, while other songs like “a traves del vaso” (through the glass”) discuss the darker sides of alcoholism, in which it acts as a way for a grieving person to enter the liminal space and “see” their deceased loved one. coincidentally, shortly after beginning to write this piece in january of 2023, i had a last minute-opportunity to travel to puebla, mexico, to visit my dad’s family and explore some of the local universities that i am considering attending. during my ten-day visit there, i worked with a distant relative of mine who runs a small artisanal bakery near the heart of chiautla de tapia, puebla. there, i learned how to make a variety of local bread from scratch, including my all-time favorite bread, a puffed-up round sweet bread with melted red sugar on top known as a colorada (colored) for its bright red tint. i knew of these from my first trip to my dad’s hometown and immediately became obsessed, but they are not well known outside of the area. even within local mexican stores and swap meets in the united states, not many people know of the coloradas, so i was ecstatic to have the chance to learn how to make them in the traditional way. working in the bakery, i discovered that coloradas do not always have to take the form of a circle, but they can be made in the relative shape of a person. in this form, they are called muertitos (little dead people). they are made to order for those that maintain their familial ofrendas year round, each muertito a physical representation of a deceased loved one. it is worth noting that people tend to ascribe human qualities to foods, another substance that withers away like the individuals they symbolize. images 5 and 6. photos of freshly baked coloradas and muertitos taken by isaura garcia, january 12, 2023. garcia & bock, food and expressive culture digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 36 in conclusion, i find that looking back, death and food have been integral to my life and culture. even something as simple as my favorite childhood bread holds a significant connection to life and death. yet, until taking the class on “the expressive culture of death,” these concepts existed in the periphery of my mind. learning how to identify and analyze expressive cultures in this class allowed me to view food as a tool for learning about and examining how we make and communicate meaning in our lives. perhaps i could have had a similar revelation without the aid of this class but without it, i doubt that the connections i made between food and death would be nearly as strong and clear in my mind as they are now. from this revelatory learning experience, i’ve shifted my goals to focus on studying the powerful link of food as a way to create and perpetuate meaning, particularly (though certainly not exclusively) in the context of death. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 37 works cited cann, candi k. 2018. starters: the role of food in bereavement and memorialization. in dying to eat: cross-cultural perspectives on food, death, and the afterlife, ed. candi k. cann, 1-16. lexington: university press of kentucky. cartwright, m. 2021. aztec sacrifice. world history encyclopedia. november 29. accessed november 30, 2021. https://www.worldhistory.org/aztec_sacrifice/. cubas, ingrid. 2019. conoce todo sobre el origen del pan de muerto mexicano. gourmet de méxico: vive el placer de la gastronomía. october 1. accessed november 30, 2021. https://gourmetdemexico.com.mx/comida-y-cultura/el-origen-del-pan-demuerto/#:~:text=el%20origen%20del%20pan%20de%20muerto%20se%20remonta%20 a%20la,tuvieran%20que%20perder%20la%20vida. doughty, caitlin. 2021. funeral foods from around the world. youtube. march 13. accessed november 29, 2021. https://youtu.be/k50lcpub8zk. henesy, declan. 2019. sinful suppers: sin-eating in england and wales . seconds: food history. november 1. accessed november 30, 2021. https://www.secondshistory.com/home/sin-eating-history. maestri, nicoletta. 2019. the creation myth of the aztecs. thoughtco. november 6. accessed november 30, 2021. https://www.thoughtco.com/aztec-creation-myth-169337. marquez, yvette. 2021 capirotada (mexican bread pudding) + video. muy bueno cookbook. january 30. accessed november 30, 2021. https://muybuenocookbook.com/capirotadamexican-bread-pudding/. martínez, mely, john, rachel, & nolan, c. 2020. day of the dead bread: pan de muerto. mexico in my kitchen. september 25. accessed november 30, 2021. https://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/pan-de-muerto-mexican-bread-of-dead/. nabor, andrea. 2019. cuál es el origen y significado del pan de muerto. el universal. october 7. accessed november 30, 2021. https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/menu/cual-esel-origen-y-significado-del-pan-de-muerto. park, jung eun sophia. 2018. the korean ritual in korean religiosity: young san jae for the dead and for the living. in dying to eat: cross-cultural perspectives on food, death, and the afterlife, ed. candi k. cann, 37-54. lexington: university press of kentucky. petruzello, melissa. 2021. significance of the eucharist. encyclopædia britannica. accessed november 30, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/topic/eucharist/significance-of-theeucharist. red. 2019. miscellaneous myths: the five suns. overly sarcastic productions. april 5. youtube. accessed november 30, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfupalon_8k. https://www.worldhistory.org/aztec_sacrifice/ https://gourmetdemexico.com.mx/comida-y-cultura/el-origen-del-pan-de-muerto/#:~:text=el%20origen%20del%20pan%20de%20muerto%20se%20remonta%20a%20la,tuvieran%20que%20perder%20la%20vida https://gourmetdemexico.com.mx/comida-y-cultura/el-origen-del-pan-de-muerto/#:~:text=el%20origen%20del%20pan%20de%20muerto%20se%20remonta%20a%20la,tuvieran%20que%20perder%20la%20vida https://gourmetdemexico.com.mx/comida-y-cultura/el-origen-del-pan-de-muerto/#:~:text=el%20origen%20del%20pan%20de%20muerto%20se%20remonta%20a%20la,tuvieran%20que%20perder%20la%20vida https://youtu.be/k50lcpub8zk https://www.secondshistory.com/home/sin-eating-history https://www.thoughtco.com/aztec-creation-myth-169337 https://muybuenocookbook.com/capirotada-mexican-bread-pudding/ https://muybuenocookbook.com/capirotada-mexican-bread-pudding/ https://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/pan-de-muerto-mexican-bread-of-dead/ https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/menu/cual-es-el-origen-y-significado-del-pan-de-muerto https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/menu/cual-es-el-origen-y-significado-del-pan-de-muerto https://www.britannica.com/topic/eucharist/significance-of-the-eucharist https://www.britannica.com/topic/eucharist/significance-of-the-eucharist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfupalon_8k garcia & bock, food and expressive culture digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1/2 (2023) 38 roos, dave. 2018. human sacrifice: why the aztecs practiced this gory ritual. history.com. october 11. accessed november 30, 2021. https://www.history.com/news/aztec-humansacrifice-religion. troop, sarah. 2017. swedish funeral candy. nourishing death. october 26. accessed november 30, 2021. https://nourishingdeath.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/swedishfuneral-candy/. https://www.history.com/news/aztec-human-sacrifice-religion https://www.history.com/news/aztec-human-sacrifice-religion https://nourishingdeath.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/swedish-funeral-candy/ https://nourishingdeath.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/swedish-funeral-candy/ digest: a journal of foodways & culture 10:1/2 (2023): 101-103 ©american folklore society 2024 editors and editorial board for digest 10:1/2 (2023) michael lange (guest editor) is professor in the interdisciplinary core curriculum at champlain college in burlington, vermont. he is the author of norwegian scots: an anthropological interpretation of viking-scottish identity in the orkney islands (2007) and meanings of maple (2017), as well as several chapters and articles in journals such as anatolia, scandinavian-canadian studies, the journal of interdisciplinary studies in education, and voices: the journal of new york folklore. he has conducted research in scotland, norway, morocco, and several parts of the us. theresa a. vaughan (lead editor) is interim associate dean of the university of central oklahoma college of liberal arts, and a professor in the department of humanities and philosophy. she also directs the applied liberal arts program. she co-edited the encyclopedia of women’s folklore and folklife with liz locke and pauline greenhill, and recently published women, food, and diet in the middle ages: balancing the humours (university of amsterdam press, 2020). her research interests include women and foodways in both the middle ages and today. jessica noe (book review editor) received her ph.d. in communication studies from the university north carolina at chapel hill. her work focuses on the intersection of performance, narrative, memory, and food. pulling from the theories and traditions of performance and cultural studies as they find their areas of overlap in communication studies and folklore, her interdisciplinary research focuses on understanding how communities work to articulate a meaningful existence through stories surrounding their performances of group memory and food labor. her dissertation, baked in: women’s role in curating and creating family culture through culinary performance, focused on the intersection of performance, memory, and female embodied labor practices within an extended family’s food traditions. digest editorial board charley camp teaches folklife studies at maryland institute college of art in baltimore, md. he curated the smithsonian institution exhibition, “key ingredients: america by food,” that traveled to forty-nine states. janet gilmore served as digest’s chief editor from 2016-2021. an emeritus professor in folklore and landscape architecture at university of wisconsin-madison, she built her teaching, research, and outreach practices on foodways, historical and cultural landscape conservation, public folklore project collections access, and decades of experience as an independent folklorist coordinating with numerous non-profit arts and historical organizations chiefly in the western great lakes region and her native pacific northwest. fishing people, maritime workers, folk artists, and farming people led her to publish, present, and contribute to exhibits and festivals that relate to the regions’ foodways and food landscapes—whether indigenous, old immigrant, new immigrant, or refugee. personal interests in food, cooking, and cookbooks, inspired early in her western oregon home, have editors and editorial board digest: a journal of foodways & culture 10:1/2 (2023) 102 now come full circle as she explores her mother’s and grandmother’s pacific northwesternupper midwestern food legacies and her nuclear and extended families’ related spatial, landscape, and architectural practices. m. dustin knepp is dean of the college of liberal and applied arts at stephen f. austin state university. he teaches on themes related to latin american and latino cultures, border life, and foodways. his research investigates the intersection of food, culture, and latino identities, with particular attention to holiday food traditions and their impact through familial generations and in the historic record. some of his scholarship has appeared in ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (ed. lucy long, 2015), the cincinnati romance review, the journal of the american studies association of texas, and digest, of which he previously served as a co-editor. michael lange is professor in the interdisciplinary core curriculum at champlain college in burlington, vermont. he is the author of norwegian scots: an anthropological interpretation of viking-scottish identity in the orkney islands (2007) and meanings of maple (2017), as well as several chapters and articles in journals such as anatolia, scandinaviancanadian studies, the journal of interdisciplinary studies in education, and voices: the journal of new york folklore. he has conducted research in scotland, norway, morocco, and several parts of the us. yvonne lockwood is a folklorist who recently retired as curator of folklife at the michigan state university museum, directed the michigan traditional arts apprentice program and michigan heritage awards program there, curated the public food presentations at the festival of michigan folklife and the great lakes folk festival, and curated “michigan eats,” an interpretive exhibition that the museum now tours. other professional foodways activities include conference participation in the us and europe and numerous publications. a long-time member of the foodways section, she co edited digest for a number of years with william g. lockwood and judged student papers. she has extensive research experience in the former yugoslavia, eastern austria (burgenland), and in the upper midwest, primarily in finnish america, where she currently is researching foodways. she also often curates finnish food demonstrations and workshops at the annual finnfest usa. lucy m. long directs the independent nonprofit center for food and culture (www.foodandculture.org) and teaches in american studies, ethnic studies, folklore, popular culture, nutrition, and tourism at bowling green state university in ohio. with degrees in folklore (ph.d., university of pennsylvania) and ethnomusicology (m.a., university of maryland), she focuses on food, music, and dance as mediums for meaning, identity, community, and power. her publications include: culinary tourism (2004), regional american food culture (2009), ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (2015), the food and folklore reader (2015), ethnic american cooking (2016), honey: a global history (2017), and comfort food meanings and memories (2017). in 2020, she ran a virtual oral history on finding comfort/discomfort through foodways during the covid-19 pandemic, resulting in an online exhibit, virtual symposia, and publications. http://www.foodandculture.org/ editors and editorial board digest: a journal of foodways & culture 10:1/2 (2023) 103 luanne roth teaches in the department of writing and rhetoric at the university of rhode island where she offers a range of courses, including those related to food writing, food and culture, and food justice. roth’s research gravitates toward folklore, film/media, and food studies. her foodways scholarship appears in the journals digest (“poison is poison”), western folklore (“do the [white] thing”), and food, culture and society (“beef, it’s what’s for dinner”), and as chapters in what's eating you?: food and horror on screen (“you are what others think you eat”), comfort food meanings and memories (“comfort [and discomfort] food”), unsettling assumptions: tradition, gender, drag (“sexing the turkey”), and folklore/cinema: popular film as vernacular culture (“beyond communitas”). roth’s work is driven by an interest in how food behaviors are used to both reinforce and subvert ideologies related to class, ethnicity, gender, and race. https://harrington.uri.edu/meet/luanne-k-roth/ robert james smith, ph.d., has an adjunct role as inaugural vice chancellor’s fellow at southern cross university in australia. until recently he was editor for the scholarly journal australian folklore. in addition to foodways, his research interests include contemporary memorial customs and regional folk culture. diane tye, ph.d. is a retired professor from memorial university’s department of folklore where she taught from 1995-2022. she researches intersections of folklore and gender, especially as they relate to foodways. she is author of baking as biography. a life story in recipes (mcgill-queen’s up, 2010) and co-editor with pauline greenhill of unsettling assumptions. gender, tradition, drag (utah state up, 2014) katrina wynn is a public library clerk after finishing up her five-and-a-half-year contract position as manager of the northeast archives of folklore and oral history at the university of maine. she held that position since graduating from western kentucky university with an m.a. in folk studies. katrina was a co-convener of the american folklore society’s foodways section for six years and has been a member of the section since starting graduate school. https://harrington.uri.edu/meet/luanne-k-roth/ editors and editorial board for digest 9:2 (2022) lucy m. long (guest editor) directs the independent nonprofit center for food and culture (www.foodandculture.org) and teaches in american studies, ethnic studies, folklore, popular culture, nutrition, and tourism at bowling green state university in ohio. with degrees in folklore (ph.d., university of pennsylvania) and ethnomusicology (m.a., university of maryland), she focuses on food, music, and dance as mediums for meaning, identity, community, and power. her publications include: culinary tourism (2004), regional american food culture (2009), ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (2015), the food and folklore reader (2015), ethnic american cooking (2016), honey: a global history (2017), and comfort food meanings and memories (2017). in 2020, she ran a virtual oral history on finding comfort/discomfort through foodways during the covid-19 pandemic, resulting in an online exhibit, virtual symposia, and publications. theresa a. vaughan (lead editor) is assistant dean of the university of central oklahoma college of liberal arts, and a professor in the department of humanities and philosophy. she also directs the center for the advancement of the liberal arts. she coedited the encyclopedia of women’s folklore and folklife with liz locke and pauline greenhill, and recently published women, food, and diet in the middle ages: balancing the humours (university of amsterdam press, 2020). her research interests include women and foodways in both the middle ages and today. jessica noe (book review editor) is a doctoral candidate specializing in work at the intersection of performance, narrative, memory, and food within the field of communication studies at the university of north carolina at chapel hill. pulling from the theories and traditions of performance and cultural studies as they find their areas of overlap in communication studies and folklore, her interdisciplinary research focuses on understanding how communities work to articulate a meaningful existence through stories surrounding their performances of group memory and food labor. her dissertation, baked in: women’s role in curating and creating family culture through culinary performance, focuses on the intersection of performance, memory, and female embodied labor practices within an extended family’s food traditions. digest editorial board charley camp teaches folklife studies at maryland institute college of art in baltimore, md. he curated the smithsonian institution exhibition, “key ingredients: america by food,” that traveled to forty-nine states. janet gilmore served as digest’s chief editor from 2016-2021. an emeritus professor in folklore and landscape architecture at university of wisconsin-madison, she built her teaching, research, and outreach practices on foodways, historical and cultural landscape conservation, public folklore project collections access, and decades of experience as an independent folklorist coordinating with numerous non-profit arts and historical http://www.foodandculture.org/ editors and editorial board digest: a journal of foodways & culture 9:2 (2022) digest: a journal of foodways & culture 9:2 (2022): 141-143 ©american folklore society 2022 142 organizations chiefly in the western great lakes region and her native pacific northwest. fishing people, maritime workers, folk artists, and farming people led her to publish, present, and contribute to exhibits and festivals that relate to the regions’ foodways and food landscapes—whether indigenous, old immigrant, new immigrant, or refugee. personal interests in food, cooking, and cookbooks, inspired early in her western oregon home, have now come full circle as she explores her mother’s and grandmother’s pacific northwesternupper midwestern food legacies and her nuclear and extended families’ related spatial, landscape, and architectural practices. m. dustin knepp is dean of the college of liberal and applied arts at stephen f. austin state university. he teaches on themes related to latin american and latino cultures, border life, and foodways. his research investigates the intersection of food, culture, and latino identities, with particular attention to holiday food traditions and their impact through familial generations and in the historic record. some of his scholarship has appeared in ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (ed. lucy long, 2015), the cincinnati romance review, the journal of the american studies association of texas, and digest, of which he previously served as a co-editor. michael lange is professor in the interdisciplinary core curriculum at champlain college in burlington, vermont. he is the author of norwegian scots: an anthropological interpretation of viking-scottish identity in the orkney islands (2007) and meanings of maple (2017), as well as several chapters and articles in journals such as anatolia, scandinaviancanadian studies, the journal of interdisciplinary studies in education, and voices: the journal of new york folklore. he has conducted research in scotland, norway, morocco, and several parts of the us. yvonne lockwood is a folklorist who recently retired as curator of folklife at the michigan state university museum, directed the michigan traditional arts apprentice program and michigan heritage awards program there, curated the public food presentations at the festival of michigan folklife and the great lakes folk festival, and curated “michigan eats,” an interpretive exhibition that the museum now tours. other professional foodways activities include conference participation in the us and europe and numerous publications. a long-time member of the foodways section, she co edited digest for a number of years with william g. lockwood and judged student papers. she has extensive research experience in the former yugoslavia, eastern austria (burgenland), and in the upper midwest, primarily in finnish america, where she currently is researching foodways. she also often curates finnish food demonstrations and workshops at the annual finnfest usa. lucy m. long directs the independent nonprofit center for food and culture (www.foodandculture.org) and teaches in american studies, ethnic studies, folklore, popular culture, nutrition, and tourism at bowling green state university in ohio. with degrees in folklore (ph.d., university of pennsylvania) and ethnomusicology (m.a., university of maryland), she focuses on food, music, and dance as mediums for meaning, http://www.foodandculture.org/ editors and editorial board digest: a journal of foodways & culture 9:2 (2022) digest: a journal of foodways & culture 9:2 (2022): 141-143 ©american folklore society 2022 143 identity, community, and power. her publications include: culinary tourism (2004), regional american food culture (2009), ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia (2015), the food and folklore reader (2015), ethnic american cooking (2016), honey: a global history (2017), and comfort food meanings and memories (2017). in 2020, she ran a virtual oral history on finding comfort/discomfort through foodways during the covid-19 pandemic, resulting in an online exhibit, virtual symposia, and publications. luanne roth teaches in the department of writing and rhetoric at the university of rhode island where she offers a range of courses, including those related to food writing, food and culture, and food justice. roth’s research gravitates toward folklore, film/media, and food studies. her foodways scholarship appears in the journals digest (“poison is poison”), western folklore (“do the [white] thing”), and food, culture and society (“beef, it’s what’s for dinner”), and as chapters in what's eating you?: food and horror on screen (“you are what others think you eat”), comfort food meanings and memories (“comfort [and discomfort] food”), unsettling assumptions: tradition, gender, drag (“sexing the turkey”), and folklore/cinema: popular film as vernacular culture (“beyond communitas”). roth’s work is driven by an interest in how food behaviors are used to both reinforce and subvert ideologies related to class, ethnicity, gender, and race. https://harrington.uri.edu/meet/luanne-k-roth/ robert james smith, ph.d., has an adjunct role as inaugural vice chancellor’s fellow at southern cross university in australia. until recently he was editor for the scholarly journal australian folklore. in addition to foodways, his research interests include contemporary memorial customs and regional folk culture. diane tye, ph.d. is a retired professor from memorial university’s department of folklore where she taught from 1995-2022. she researches intersections of folklore and gender, especially as they relate to foodways. she is author of baking as biography. a life story in recipes (mcgill-queen’s up, 2010) and co-editor with pauline greenhill of unsettling assumptions. gender, tradition, drag (utah state up, 2014) katrina wynn is a public library clerk after finishing up her five-and-a-half-year contract position as manager of the northeast archives of folklore and oral history at the university of maine. she held that position since graduating from western kentucky university with an m.a. in folk studies. katrina was a co-convener of the american folklore society’s foodways section for six years and has been a member of the section since starting graduate school. https://harrington.uri.edu/meet/luanne-k-roth/ digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020): 167-168 © american folklore society 2021 review of: the food we eat, the stories we tell: contemporary appalachian tables review by: judith lanzendorfer ____________________________________________________________ in the food we eat, the stories we tell: contemporary appalachian tables, editor elizabeth s. d. enghardt collects fourteen articles and five poems on topics ranging from “haute appalachia: wine and wine tourism” to “terrain,” a poem about how food is “home.” enghardt makes note of the contributions’ timeframes—from the 1940s to the present day—and offers that “mountains are here, in the pieces that follow” (2019:3, 5). although time and metaphorical landscape may be used as focal points for interaction among the articles and poems, there are others that develop as well. the role of cultural memory, both real and imagined, emerges from the volume as an important factor in establishing appalachian food, identity and culture. beyond this overarching theme, sub-themes allow the texts to interact and contribute to the idea of cultural memory. two chapters, lora e. smith’s “the household searchlight recipe book” and danielle elise christensen’s “‘good luck preserving’: canning and the uncanny in appalachia,” both deal with cultural artifacts—a cookbook and canning jars—as ways to understand the past. abigail huggins’s “an education in beans” and karida l. brown’s “garden of eden,” both about african american foodways, make extensive use of oral histories as evidence of life experience in the building of culture and identity. brown’s contribution may also interact with other essays in the collection based upon the themes of migration and immigration. contributing to this theme, daniel s. margolies’s “a preliminary taxonomy of the blue ridge taco” focuses on the contribution of migrant workers’ foodways in appalachian culture, while courtney balestir’s “eating to go” explores appalachian migration to the midwest. suronda gonzalez’s “cornbread and fabada: savoring a west virginia story” addresses appalachian spanish foodways, while emily hilliard’s “‘the reason we make these deep-fat-fried treats’: in conversation with rosettes of helvetia, west virginia” centers upon swiss rosettes (a type of florallyshaped deep-fried cooky), and michael croley’s “what you find and what you lose when you seek a new home” focuses on the intersection of taco bell and homemade korean foods. each essay shows how appalachian foodways, often stereotyped as just cornbread and beans, are in reality a complex tapestry of multiple cultures. another thread of discussion concerns processed foods; although most articles focus on homemade foods, what one “buys in” also has resonance in the creation of culture. erica abrams locklear’s “setting tobacco, banquet-style” discusses banquet foods’ premade frozen chicken as a cultural “stand in” for homemade fried chicken. “best pal: big on hot dogs, hamburgers, and quick service,” by emily wallace, addresses the aesthetic landscape of pal’s restaurants, while robert gripe’s “confessions of a spear packer” humorously discusses food contamination issues, via the accidental inclusion of a band-aid in an assembly line pickle bottle. 168 lanzendorfer, review, food we eat digest: a journal of foodways & culture 7:2 (2019-2020) while some contributions use humor, others are more serious in tone, often marking stages of life through food as a central focus of several, including jeff mann’s recollections of childhood in “chowchow.” annette saunooke clapsaddle addresses the role of elders in society in “my great-grandmother is a cherokee…” george ella lyon’s meditation on passing away may be found in “clearing your house,” and rebecca gayle howell’s two poems, “how to kill a rooster” and “how to kill a hen,” focus on the difficulty of death as an ever-present aspect of life. in each of these articles and poems, the reader is confronted by the passage of time and how appalachian identity is formed through literal and cultural memory. although the opportunity for a multiplicity of conversations across sources can be considered a strength of this volume, some audiences may find the lack of obvious groupings and the loose collection of chapters difficult to use and understand. an audience unfamiliar with appalachian culture—from migration due to the collapse of the coal industry to the often insular distrust of outsiders—may not easily see how articles and poems may be read as companions to each other. for this reason, the volume’s organization of may limit the range and use of the text. while the disparate threads in the articles and poems may be distracting to some readers, for those familiar with appalachian culture, or other marginalized cultures, it is clear that there are many spaces where the texts can interact and serve as commentary on each other. sub-themes noted in this review are just four of many ways that the texts can be put into conversation. diversity in text style, methodology, and topic help to underscore the richness of appalachia and may serve as an introduction for the student of folklore to continue to explore and expand the study of appalachian foodways, culture, and identity. the food we eat, the stories we tell: contemporary appalachian tables is an important contribution to understanding the complexity of appalachian culture, which is often caricatured and negatively stereotyped. this edited volume does much to address and correct misunderstandings through an emphasis on the breadth and depth of the regional population’s foodways. mountains are, indeed, in the volume, but memories, both literal and cultural, are as well. review of: review by: judith lanzendorfer digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 ©american folklore society 2025 research essay sue samuelson foodways essay prize 2024 quichihuah ca ininyollo (we do it wholeheartedly): documenting and teaching community through tamales in huastec story and practice by: salma valadez-marquez abstract: in the case of the indigenous huasteca community of veracruz, stories regarding food traditions during the miccailhuitl or day of the dead festival function as a repertoire of memory to transmit knowledge about the community’s cosmovision as well as the significance of certain dishes. chichiquilli are steamed corn cakes wrapped in plantain leaf and stuffed with various meats, sauces, and spices from the huastec region of veracruz, mexico and are a common offering on miccailhuitl altars. the deceased family members, known as the animahtzin then consume the dish, along with a variety of foods, over the two-day holiday. the importance of this dish in establishing and strengthening social relationships within the indigenous community is made evident through an oral story originally intended for children. it is both a cautionary and didactic tale that centers the chichiquillimaking process to delineate the ideal social behaviors for community members during the festival. the purpose of this work is to analyze both how the intersection of food and story reveals the aesthetics of food practices and a community’s social value system, and why this this dialogue is necessary when addressing the problematic history that exists between the folklore field and indigenous cultural practices. through a short story originating from the municipality of chicontepec, in la huasteca veracruzana, i analyze how the stages of making chichiquilli for miccailhuitl transmit collective values that create a sense of identity for the nahuatl community that persists beyond the physical world, and how we can learn from specific examples to participate respectfully and faithfully in the documentation of indigenous practices. keywords: foodways, traditional knowledge, indigenous peoples, indigenous knowledge systems, indigenous religion a common saying in my mexican household states that “tamales se hacen con amor” [tamales are made with love]. initially, the saying evokes the cliché that claims love as the most essential ingredient of any delicious recipe, yet the more i research into the traditions surrounding the variations of the dish, the more i find truth in the saying. love is embedded into the production and presentation of the dish. because of my constant proximity to tamale traditions, as my family and immigrant community originate from central mexico, i have been blind to love’s role within my own practice. my research into a specific variation of tamales, known as chichiquilli in nahuatl, from the huasteca region of northern veracruz1, as well as an oral story originating from the municipality of chicontepec, has provided a lens of reflexivity through which i analyze my own traditions and their social significance. https://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/ethnographicterms/afset018918 https://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/ethnographicterms/afset009384 https://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/ethnographicterms/afset009383 https://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/ethnographicterms/afset009383 https://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/ethnographicterms/afset009385 valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 44 although chichiquilli plays a central role in religious traditions, it is also a quotidian dish in mexican homes. there are many interpretations of the dish depending on region and season, however all tamales are made in a three-step process that includes preparation, assembly, and presentation or consumption. to make these steamed cakes, one uses corn masa, corn dough made from ground kernels that have been nixtamalized or cooked with calcuium hydroxide; meats such as pork, chicken, beef (although vegetarian versions with peppers and beans do exist), and chili sauces. to form a tamal, you spread the masa onto a corn husk or plantain leaf (tropical regions tend to use plantain leaf), add the filling, wrap them tightly with the leaf or with twine and finally steam them until cooked. although this dish appears year-round, it is mostly associated with major holidays, most notably dia de muertos or day of the dead, along with other commemorative customs such as sugar skull and altar making. such traditions have been widely documented and analyzed by folklorists in the united states and in mexico such as margarita de orellana, ruth lechuga, regina marchi; however, one aspect that has been overlooked is the significance of tamales in establishing and strengthening social relationships within a religious framework. a focused study of one region’s tamal tradition can illuminate how the community’s social values derive from their worldview are thus performed through foodways. such insight has not always been a valued contribution in our field. story as inclusion of indigenous voices originally told orally, the story “miccailhuitl: animahtzin techhualpaxaloa [miccailhuitl: when the animahtzin visit us]” is part of cruz’s collection of short stories, tototatahhuan ininixtlamatiliz [stories from our ancestors]. the collection documents various stories, fables and legends cruz grew up listening to in his hometown of lindero in chicontepec. the collection was published in 2015 as a collaborative project between instituto de docencia e investigación etnológica de zacatecas (idiez) (institute of ethnological teaching and research of zacatecas) of which cruz is director and the university of warsaw. the text has a linguistic pedological function as it forms part of idiez’s teaching curriculum, my study however; analyzes “miccailhuitl: animahtzin techhualpaxaloa” as a cultural archive that unites eduardo’s voice with his community’s. this polyphonic voice that transmits cultural knowledge merits our direct attention. the importance of bolstering indigenous voices in relation to indigenous food practices stems from a legacy of exclusion that has haunted our field since its introduction to us academics in the 20th century. rhonda r. dass describes the relationship between indigenous communities and scholars as self-interested eurocentrism where academics, guided by methodologies developed for european immigrants, would periodically return to these communities for professional gain, thus failing to create a thorough and faithful portrayal of the native american (otero and martinez-rivera 2021). mintzi auanda martínez-rivera similarly describes the treatment of indigenous peoples within the academic field as a method to exclude indigenous voices as creators of knowledge (martinez-rivera 2022). dass and martínez-rivera articulate the issue of decontextualization. by this i am referring to the undervaluing, or at times blatant disregard, for a community’s social conditions, history and value system that influence their cultural practices. such methodologies, influenced by colonial frameworks, thus valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 45 contribute to the creation of the indigenous other whose practices remain severed from their humanity. americo paredes offers similar criticism of william madsen’s lack of regard for of his subjects’, texan chicanos, own worldview. madsen, according to paredes, instead asked his subjects to situate themselves within an anglo perspective largely based on stereotypes (martinez-rivera 2022). i do not mean to suggest that looking at the intersection of food and story will undoubtedly yield work that critically engages ideas of racial of ethnic dominance, rather that one method to help us a avoid superficial, self-interested, and extractive critical analyses of cultural practices is to center and prioritize the voice of the other, while reflecting on our own voice. for this reason, i include my own ethnography secondary to my interlocutor’s. i hope that in doing so i am not ironically contributing to the same power dynamic i wish to dismantle, but that it serves as a constant opportunity to check my privilege a white non-indigenous mexican woman and simultaneously apply a new analytical framework to the broader topic of tamales. in the context of food practices, it may be helpful to draw upon richard bauman’s use of “artistic verbal performance” to describe the context, or “physical and temporal setting, his own identity and goals with reference to the situation, the people with whom he is interacting and his competence in the rules of his culture concerning artistic verbal performance” (dorson 1972). i use bauman’s term not strictly in the context of verbal performance such as recitation, but to describe the dual performance of storytelling and cooking that engages memory. per diana taylor’s theories on ephemeral social practices as a repertoire of memory, oral traditions are spaces where knowledge, that cannot as easily exist through formal measures such as texts, is preserved (2015: 55). as lucy long explains, to understand the significance of a people’s food, one must enter the labyrinth of affective memory: “in all these cases, the individual has an emotional attachment to the reference of that food symbol, and therefore to the food itself. those emotions can be positive or negative, but their existence is what makes the food matter to them”(long 2017: 207). stories can, therefore, contextualize foods and dishes within a worldview that reveals nuances. this is critically important in the case of indigenous forms, as through decades of systematic othering these forms of knowledge are often regarded as banal (luu 2019). contextualizing chichiquilli in la huasteca as such, i propose studying the significance of huastec tamales from veracruz known as chichiquilli within the context of miccailhuitl, or day of the dead (literally, feast of the dead) through a short story originating from the municipality of chicontepec, veracruz. the purpose of this essay is to analyze how the four stages of making chichiquilli (preparation, assembly, cooking, and presentation) for miccailhuitl teach and reinforce communal ties. the huasteca of mexico is a geographic region located in the northeast area of the country. it encompasses the states of hidalgo, puebla, querétaro, san luis potosí, tamaulipas, and veracruz. despite the large territory and ethnic diversity, the indigenous populations maintain cultural and linguistic similarities with most communities speaking a valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 46 variation of náhuatl. the story and traditions analyzed for this work come from náhuatl professor eduardo de la cruz who grew up celebrating miccailhuitl in his hometown of chicontepec. the holiday is a two-day affair, celebrated november 1st and 2nd. for náhuatl communites, the first day is dedicated to honoring deceased children, while the adults are celebrated on the second. the purpose of the holiday is to honor and host the animahtzin (animah for singular entity) or the returning souls of the deceased by creating and displaying elaborately decorated altars in private homes, cemeteries and public squares. although the contents of these alters is left to the discretion of the maker, an altar will typically feature drinks, apples, bananas, and citrus fruits along with tamales as one of the central offerings. the making of chichiquilli for miccaihuitl is specifically documented in “miccailhuitl: animahtzin techhualpaxaloa” [miccailhuitl: when the animahtzin visit us]. cruz recalls his mother telling this story when he was about seven years old to explain the significance of the traditions. it opens with a brief explanation of why miccailhuilt is celebrated where we immediately recognize both an emotional and physical link between the living and the animahtzin: “miac quiihtoah quemman ce acahya miqui, ayoccanah mocuapa. cequin quihtoah, techhualpaxaloah pan miccailhuitl, huallohuih ininchan, campa itztoyah” [many say that when someone dies, they do not return. other say they visit us during miccailhuitl and return to the home where they once lived] (de la cruz 2015: 73). the importance placed on the physical home as the center of the holiday indicates a connection between the terrestrial and the spiritual that permeates into the actions and emotions of the individual. the story later goes on to address the preparation of the altar and the offerings: “nochi mopalehuiah, paquih, quichihuah ca ininyollo huan amo mocualaniah yon motehuiah, pampa tlan motehuizceh, animahtzitzin pehuah mocuezoah” [this is why everything is done wholeheartedly without arguing or fighting, because if we do so, the animahtzin will be saddened] (de la cruz 2015: 73). this is the central action of the festival and is what beverly stoeltje describes as “what is spoken, acted or displayed in festival -public or private…” that as a result “…makes demands on participants, requiring their attention. and this concentration of attention heightens consciousness, creating an intersection of individual performance and social reflexivity” (stoeltje 1992: 263). similarly, theodore c. humphrey argues that to understand foods during festive occasions, one must contextualize them: “the important thing here as for any festive event, is to see these foods not as individual entities on a menu, but rather as part of a celebratory, festive context, the purpose of which was to mark an important threshold in a manner heightened by ritual and festive elements” (humphrey 1988: 20). for veracruzanos during miccailhuitl, this intersection between individual actions and spirituality begins with the altar “el altar es el contacto con las animahs, las animahs llegan al altar, no a cualquier lugar” [the altar is the contact with the animah, the animah arrives at the altar, not just any place](de la cruz, interview with author, 2023). because the actions of the individual have a direct effect on the reception of the deceased, it comes as no surprise that this dynamic is embedded into the process of making chichiquilli. preparation stage the preparation stage of making chichiquilli is the family’s initial embodiment of valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 47 communal values. although all variations of the dish can be offered to one’s animahtzin, pork chichiquilli are the most coveted. the procurement, fattening and subsequent slaughter of a pig demonstrate a communal commitment to the festivities. because families must allocate resources such as time, labor, and money to the raising of a pig designated for the celebration, this early preparation takes on a festive aspect. for barbara c. fertig, hog killings in virginia share similar traits: “in fact, it is the work itself that is celebratory and festive. the harmony of working hard together and bonding with old times and old ways, reaffirming family and neighborly ties, and creating a communal opportunity to exercise direct control over at least one small piece of nature”(fertig 1988: 112). the story, likewise, associates the killing of a pig to the communal feast: “cequin tlen quiahxiliah, quimictiah ce pitzotl huan yainon quimactiliah animahtzin. iuhquinon motlamacah, motlaoniltiah yehyectzin” [those who can, kill a pig and offer it to their animahtzin, they eat and drink together cheerfully] (de la cruz 2015l: 75).in practice, this is a process wholly embedded in community. prior to slaughter, a family sets up a ceremony to honor the animal as an offering to their deceased. the pig or chicken is enveloped in copal smoke as the late family member’s name is spoken aloud, thus linking the animal’s fate to the larger social network that includes the world of the animah. it is this bridging between the tangible and intangible communities that assures the animal’s death is as painless as possible. further on in the preparation stage, families take on smaller tasks related to the chichiquilli. for example, someone must take on the task of preparing the plantain leaves by cleaning, deveining, cutting into smaller pieces, and finally soaking them in warm water to make them pliable. likewise, some family members are responsible for processing the meat; toasting the chilis that will be used for the sauce and frying the mixture or guisos together. although the tasks are organized into manageable steps, this is a process that is by no means simple; the laborious task a family undertakes when making tamales is fertile ground for conflict. in my family, it is common to engage in petty arguments and disagreements while making them. as is common in many group collaborations, individual egos often clash with other’s picadilloes, and poor communication can create hurt feelings that turn into resentment. as such, individual opinions on the best method of soaking corn husks or the correct amount of cumin that should be added contribute to an emotionally draining process. during miccailhuilt, however, such egative emotions must be avoided. after all, to be a good host to the visiting animah is to create a joyful environment. regarding the topic, cruz explains: “pues allí los papas piden. se trata de comportarse bien estos dos, tres días porque tenemos visita” [well, this is what the parents preach, it is about behaving well these two or three days because we have company over](de la cruz, interview with the author, 2015) . social responsibility through behavior the demand to behave according to social norms and, as the story urges, to act “ca ininyollo” [from our hearts] is a testament to the spatial and temporal shifts that occur during festivals like miccailhuitl. to regulate our emotions as we partake in traditions is to remove ourselves from the norms of the ordinary (where conflict is tolerated) and enter the “time of out of time” (long 2004: 50), or that constructed social space where the extraordinary (such as the return of the deceased) is possible. for the chicontepec community, this extraordinary time demands emotional selfreflection: “las animah imitan valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 48 todo lo que uno hace en la casa, si tu te peleas, ellos se van a pelear” [the animah imiatate everything one does in the home, if you are fighting, they will be fighting] (de la cruz, interview with the author, 2023). likewise, the physical space is transformed to both host the visitors (via the altar) and reflect their emotions: “mi mama decía que cuando un alma está feliz la cera de vela brilla, resplandece bonito. pero cuando un alma está triste, la cera empieza a colgarse, al caer, eso indica tristeza” [my mother used to say that when a soul is happy, the wax of a candle shines and glows beautifully. but when a soul is sad, the wax begins to drip, and the dripping indicates sadness](de la cruz, interview with the author, 2023). such dynamics can be attributed to the festive aspects of the holiday, as stoeltje affirms: “… festival yokes the social group into the cyclical force, establishing contact with the cosmos and the internal processes of time” (stoeltje 1993: 268). chichiquilli, therefore, are a component of this spatial and temporal shift; they are the sustenance offered to the deceased to maintain them in the collective memory. as arturo gómez martínez argues: “dichos alimentos les sirven para nutrirse durante un ciclo y mantenerse presentes en la memoria de sus familiares, cuando dejan de “recibir los tamales” se pierden en el tiempo, tornándose ancestros sin ningún vínculo con los vivos” [such foods nourish them [the deceased] during a cycle and keep them present in the memory of their family members, when they no longer ‘receive tamales’ they are lost in time, turning into ancestors with no link to the living.] (martínez 2014) the dish’s emotionally nourishing aspect further complicates the subject of memory as the chichiquilli are both the sustenance for the spirits and a vessel of memory for the maker. to make and consume them is to dialogue with the memory of the deceased. as rachelle saltzman explains, beyond the nutrition, food can offer “emotional sustenance because they provide spiritual sustenance; they are imbued with meaning and carry family histories and memories as well as cultural history writ large as part of their essence. without them, there is no structure to carry the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, through time and the generations” (saltzman et al. 2022). similarly, rosalyn collings eves, analyzes memory not as a static receptacle, but as “ a dynamic, evolving body of knowledge and stories that connects us to our pasts and informs our identity as individuals and members of communities” (eves 2005: 281). in the case of chichiquilli, the dish is a form of externalized memory that contextualizes oneself, not only as part of a family unit, but as a part of a collective that transcends this earthly realm. to partake fully in the tradition, one must commit themselves ininyollo or wholeheartedly, by controlling one emotions and actions, to the community. the story “miccailhuitl: animahtzin techhualpaxaloa” [miccailhuitl: when the animahtzin visit us] tells the tale of an incredulous man who rejects the chichiquilli traditions, thus eschewing the purpose of miccailhuitl. it is both a caution to the children of chicontepec and a heightened illustration of huastec community values. preceding the tale, the narrator explains that families must not work on the two days; as the deceased are forced to imitate the actions of their living family, going to work on this holiday is a massive disrespect: “yainon techpohuiliah huehuentzitzin tlan ce acahya tequitiz, quiihtoah amo quitlepanitta valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 49 ianimah huan quiixcahuiltia ma tequiti” [this is what the elders tell us. if one were to work, one does not respect their animah and burdens them with work] (de la cruz 2015: 75). the incredulous man, scolding his wife who had begun with the festive preparations, explicitly rejects the tradition as he proclaims: “axmelahuac huallohuih animahtzitzin” [it is not true that the animahtzin will visit us] (de la cruz 2015: 75) and heads off to work in the field. from the opening of this story, the audience is given an example of the non-ideal huastec man. as cruz comments as he retells the story, in the patriarchal huastec communities, the man of the household dictates the spiritual well-being of the family. despite his wife’s loyalty to the tradition, he has the final say and by refusing to behave according to the customs of miccailhuitl, he severs the link between his living family and his ancestors, a choice that he will ultimately regret. according to the story, after the man works in the field, he rests under a tree by a path where he hears the voices of the animah. as the animahtzin walk the path in front of him, they are gleefully discussing the offering their living families left them: “cequin quihuicah alaxox, pitzotl, piyomeh, refrezcoh, pantzin, chichiquilli; iuhquinon miac tlamantli quihuicah” [many of them have oranges, pork, chicken, drinks, bread chichiquilli and many other things left for them] (de la cruz 2015: 76). to his shock, amongst the animahtzin he recognizes his deceased mother holding only a burning piece of wood known as a tlicuahuitl. this piece of wood is typically used in homes to light the wood-burning stove and, as cruz adds, it imitates the candle found on the altars (de la cruz, interview with the author, 2023). because the man refused to light a single candle, his mother had no choice but to grasp onto the only source of light in her home. similarly, we can interpret the tlicaulhuitl as representative of the man’s lack of faith or as a tangible nothing that stands in contrast with the rich foods the other animahtzin carry. the man, now distraught, calls out to his mother, promising her a chichiquilli feast: “ximochiya, na niconmictiti ce pilpitzotzin, nitlatlaliz tlaixpan huan yainon nimitzmactilia xihuica” [wait, i will slaughter a pig for you, i will place it on the altar and you take it with you] (de la cruz 2015: 76). the man desperately returns home asking his wife and friends to help him make chichiquilli, thus the story now centers the dish both as the man’s atonement and salvation. assembly although the story does not detail the dish’s assembly process, it is understood that with his wife and his community’s help, the man is socially redeemed; as the narrator states: “cihuameh huan tlacameh quipalehuiah tlacatl pampa ya quicuamachilih animahtzitzin quena techhualpaxaloah pan miccailhuitl” [women and men came to help the man because now he understood that the animahtizin do come visit us on miccailhuitl] (de la cruz 2015: 76). based on personal experience, the tamal assembly process is the most labor-intensive stage. usually, families will assign tasks based on social hierarchy, experience, and age. it is worth noting that making tamales is mostly a tradition taught and dictated by women. i broke with these traditions upon inviting male friends to make the dish for our class potluck. i was surprised when my thirty-fouryear-old male friend, who hails from the same region of mexico i do, admitted that he had never been included in the assembly process before, saying “i only helped my grandmother carry in the pots.” although the valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 50 positions are never explicitly designated, it is understood that the matriarch of the family (the mother or grandmother) will delegate the more important jobs (such as stuffing and folding the tamales) to the older girls. similarly, cruz explains that this process is controlled by the mothers or grandmothers, while a few men are allowed to contribute by wrapping twine around the assembled chichiquilli. meanwhile, young children (both male and female) are given corn husks and masa. there is no expectation of them to contribute to the process, but rather as sharon sherman identifies, it is “to bind the children together as active participants and the adults as an encouraging audience” (sherman 2002: 34). this is an immersive education experience where the younger generation learns not only how to make the recipe, but also what behaviors or values make them part of their wider community. such has been the case with cruz, whose mother would retell the story while making chichiquilli. for me, this was my favorite part of the process as it gave my mother and i an opportunity to distance ourselves from modern distractions and share wisdom. often, this came in the form of stories from her childhood. because i immigrated at a young age, my memories of mexico are an amalgamation of fractured images held together by her stories. making tamales was the anchor to those stories not only because the repetitive actions of smearing, filling and wrapping created a therapeutic and rhythmic space where her nostalgia blossomed; but also because i could smell, feel, and taste mexico. she told stories about waking up extra early before school to place a heavy pot of nixtamal over the fogón or hearth and of the smell of fresh lard from her grandmother’s pigs. despite us using maseca, processed dehydrated corn flour, and mazola corn oil, the nutty alkaline smell from the flour and the shine on my hands from the oil linked me to the mexico of my mother’s childhood. communal presentation the communal aspects of chichiquilli culminate in their presentation to the animahtzin. in the huastec region of veracruz, many families will create the altars on the graves of their deceased. they first offer the chichiquilli to the animahtzin, then to the neighbors: “si vas al cementerio a ofrendar a tu difunto, primero pones tu ofrenda. y después de recoger la ofrenda, si hay personas alrededor del cementerio. les das el tamal, ellos te van a dar los de ellos. se intercambian, es una tradición. o sea, se convive con la comunidad” [if you go to the cemetery to offer to your deceased loved one, first you place your offering. and after collecting the offering, if there are people around the cemetery, you give them a tamale, and they will give you theirs. they exchange, it's a tradition. in other words, you socialize with the community] (de la cruz, interview with the author, 2023). thus, the arduous chichiquilli process unites the tangible and intangible huastec communities. the story concludes with a similar lesson. after the man and his community make the chichiquilli, he leaves his wife in charge of the steaming pot while he takes a nap. but he never wakes up; he dies, and his soul takes the chichiquilli to his mother. in this example, the feast takes place in the spiritual realm; nonetheless, the once incredulous and disrespectful man is reintegrated into his community through his actions. in that manner, the dish’s tradition is the crux of social inclusion, without it, the man and the forgotten animah are cursed to a perpetual state of liminality, forgotten from the collective memory, and forced to roam the world aimlessly. valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 51 chichiquilli beyond la huasteca for eduardo, the significance of chichiquiili transcends physical borders. as his work as a náhuatl professor takes him abroad; his efforts to partake in miccaihuitl traditions intensify the practices’ social significance. from his current home of austin, texas, he shares with me some photographs of past celebrations where i am introduced to his family. through the screen, a toddler; eduardo’s son, dressed in the traditional huasteca veracruzana dress with a white linen guayabera, matching sombrero and red neck tie smiles cheerfully back at me. with his mother’s arm gently around his waist, he poses in front of an arch of flowers above a table adorned with drinks, fruits and chichiquilli. next to the boy hangs a small basket with snacks. this, as eduardo explains, is for the boy’s cousin who passed away in childhood. because our work as folklore academics comes from a position of privilege that gives us access to people’s personal narratives as well as their precious cultural objects, i believe it crucial, as stoelje et al. propose, to reflexively analyze our position when documenting practices not only because it brings to surface potential biases, but also because it offers us a more informed perspective through which we can analyze the significance of food practice (stoltje, fox, & olbrys 1999). i have made tamales nearly my entire life as a way to link my past to the construction of my present identity. yet, despite my familiarity with the dish, my work with chichiquilli has illuminated an unexplored corner of my memory where i store the dish. unbeknownst to me, i had engaged with the dish through a lens of colonialism. in my adulthood i have prepped, assembled, and consumed tamales not for myself, as i initially thought, but as a way to assert my “mexican-ness” in an space where such identity has not always been embraced. though this aspect is legitimate and worthy of analysis, it is not a complete dialogue with my own foodways. growing up in a white central mexican community, where our contact with indigenous people was nonexistent, i was fed a problematic discourse regarding indigeneity in mexico. through family stories and well as popular media, i was told the indigenous man was a historical relic through which we could proudly claim heritage, so long as that heritage did not manifest itself as anything other than euro-centric. by this i am referring to the larger and more complex issue of racism and exploitation of indigenous cultural practices. in sum, the mexican state since the post-revolutionary period (1920) has created a celebratory myth of inclusion that promotes indigenous traditions as the essence of “mexicaness” while ignoring (or actively repressing) the same communities’ efforts against social, environment and economic injustices (taylor 2009). now, as i think back to my mother’s proclamation that tamales are made with love, i am burdened with a desire to return. i wish to return to the maternal nucleus that births stories such as “miccailhuitl: animahtzin techhualpaxaloa”, and where the making of a dish like chichiquilli is the ultimate expression of love for the past, present and future. valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 52 figure 1. altar for miccailhuitl in eduardo's mother's home. tecomate, chicontepec, veracruz. photo by eduardo de la cruz. 2024 valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 53 figure 2. altar for miccailhuitl in idiez's work office. zacatecas, mexico. photo by eduardo de la cruz. 2023 valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 54 figure 3. altar with chichiquilli in eduardo's home. salt lake city, utah. photo by eduardo. 2024 valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 55 figure 4. wrapped, uncooked chichiquilli with red chili sauce. zacatecas, mexico. photo by author. 2023 valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 56 figure 5. freshly steamed chichiquilli made with idiez instructors. zacatecas, mexico. photo by author. 2023 1 while huasteca refers to the region, it also refers to the teenek people with the region who do not speak nahuatl. for the purposes of this article, i refer to the to the inhabitants of the nahuatl-speaking huasteca as nahuatl communities valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 57 works cited briggs, charles l. 2012. what we should have learned from américo paredes: the politics of communicability and the making of folkloristics. journal of american folklore 125 (495): 91–110. de la cruz, eduardo. 2015. tototatahhuan ininixtlamatiliz. varsovia: editorial totlahtol. de la cruz, eduardo. interviewed by salma valadez. march 11, 2023. zoom. dorson, richard m. (richard mercer). 1972. folklore: selected essays. indiana university press. eves, rosalyn collings. 2005. a recipe for remembrance: memory and identity in african american women's cookbooks. rhetoric review 24(3): 280-97. fertig, barbara c. 1988. hog killing in virginia: work as celebration. in we “gather together”: food and festival in american life, eds. theodore c. humphrey and lin t. humphrey, 111-124. ann arbor, mi: umi press. gould, jillian. 2021. mandelbroit. digest: a journal of food and culture. double issue: food in hard times, 8(1/2):125-28. humphrey, theodore c. 1988. a family celebrates a birthday: of life and cakes. in “we gather together”: food and festival in american life, eds. theodore c. humphrey and lin t. humphrey, 19-26. ann arbor, mi: umi press. long, lucy. 2017. meaning-centered research in food studies. in food culture: anthropology, linguistics, and food studies, eds. janet chrzan and john brett, 204 217. new york: berghahn books. long, lucy m. 2004. culinary tourism: a folkloristic perspective on eating and otherness. in culinary tourism, ed. lucy long, 20-50. lexington: university press of kentucky luu, chi. 2019. “what we lose when we lose indigenous knowledge.” jstor daily. october 16, 2019. https://daily.jstor.org/what-we-lose-when-we-lose-indigenous knowledge/ martínez, arturo gómez. 2014. los tamales: ofrenda y simbolismo entre los nahuas de la huasteca veracruzana, méxico. anthropology of food 9. n.p. martínez-rivera, mintzi auanda. 2022. doing research of/from/at home: fieldwork research ethics in latinx contexts. journal of american folklore 135(536): 180–89. navarro, marilisa c. 2022. blackness and food resilience: black culinary epistemologies, the slow food movement and racial justice. food, culture, & society 25(2): 201–217. https://daily.jstor.org/what-we-lose-when-we-lose-indigenous-knowledge/ https://daily.jstor.org/what-we-lose-when-we-lose-indigenous-knowledge/ valadez-marquez, tamales digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 43-58 58 otero, solimar, and mintzi auanda martinez-rivera, eds. 2021. theorizing folklore from the margins: critical and ethical approaches. bloomington, indiana: indiana university press. saltzman, rachelle h., laurie danzuka, deanie johnson, val switzler. 2022 (draft). “creating comfort via embodiment in a disembodied time: fieldwork, intention, and cultural practices”. (longer version of conference paper from american folklore society conference, 2021) sherman, sharon. 2002. the passover seder: ritual dynamics, foodways, and family folklore. in “we gather together”: food and festival in american life, eds. theodore c. humphrey and lin t. humphrey, 27-42. ann arbor, mi: umi press. stoeltje, beverly j., christie l. fox, and stephen olbrys. 1999. the self in ‘fieldwork’: a methodological concern. journal of american folklore 112(444): 158–182. https://doi.org/10.2307/541947. stoeltje, beverly. 1992. festival. in folklore, cultural performance, and popular entertainments, ed. richard bauman, 261-271. ny and oxford: oxford university press. taylor, analisa. 2009. indigeneity in the mexican cultural imagination: thresholds of belonging. tucson: university of arizona press. taylor, diana. 2015. el archivo y el repertorio: el cuerpo y la memoria cultural en las américas. santiago: editorial universidad alberto hurtado. accessed march 22, 2023. proquest ebook central. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 67 ©american folklore society 2025 contributors ruzhica samokovlija baruh is a ph.d. candidate in the department of folklore at memorial university of newfoundland. the main objective of her thesis is to explore ajvar, a popular macedonian relish, as a multifunctional and polysemic symbol that operates in distinct, albeit interconnected social, cultural, and political spheres. in delineating these interactions and meanings, the thesis investigates how this popular food functions as a signifier of macedonian identity. samantha ruth brown is a doctoral candidate in the department of geography at the university of oregon. her current research concerns the cultural politics of food in denmark and kalaallit nunaat (greenland), especially in relationship to race and colonialism. hanna griff, ph.d. is part time faculty at the new school in new york city in the culture and media department. she has been teaching folklore and oral history at the new school for about 18 years and was the former director of public programs at the museum at eldridge street. she teaches memoir writing classes at various places in the city and online and is completing her memoir of her time living and teaching in japan. isabel p. b. fêo rodrigues received a ph.d in anthropology from brown university and is currently a professor and chairperson of the department of anthropology and sociology at the university of massachusetts dartmouth. her research and publications primarily engage processes of change and power asymmetries brough about by european colonialism and inequitable globalization, including consumption and commodification of nature, food insecurity and coping mechanisms, cultural and linguistic creolization, and postcolonial resistance to these transformations. she has conducted ethnographic and applied participatory research in the usa, cabo verde, brazil, and ecuador. farha ternikar is the director of gender and women’s studies at le moyne college, syracuse. she has authored “intersectionality and the halal kitchen” in feminist food studies (canadian women’s press/elaine power, editor) and "biryani with the golden girls" in food, culture and society. her forthcoming book is an edited volume with stephanie y. evans: transnational culinaria: women of color and feminist food studies (suny press). salma valadez-marquez is a phd candidate in romance language at the university of oregon. she is specializing in mexican and mexican-american foodways. her dissertation project, "mexican food and lore beyond the fictions we've been fed," analyzes the how food is used to tell stories about migration, displacement and identity. https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3a%2f%2ftransnationalculinaria.net%2f&data=05%7c02%7ctvaughan%40uco.edu%7c8de1b7dbfe5a4084f42208dd6d37b0f9%7c51aa8f262e234b8cbca87cc441adc4df%7c0%7c0%7c638786808359556315%7cunknown%7ctwfpbgzsb3d8eyjfbxb0eu1hcgkionrydwusilyioiiwljaumdawmcisilaioijxaw4zmiisikfoijoitwfpbcisilduijoyfq%3d%3d%7c0%7c%7c%7c&sdata=4lvma%2banpz07vgqlj6udfhfw4t%2bt4o%2bfvjlxjnduopk%3d&reserved=0 maple syrup pecan pie by: jeanne royer, st. albans, vermont ingredients 2 tablespoons butter ¼ teaspoon salt ½ cup white sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs ¼ teaspoon cider vinegar 2 tablespoons flour 1 cup pecans 1 cup pure vermont maple syrup cream butter and sugar. add unbeaten eggs and stir to combine. add flour, salt, vanilla, cider vinegar, and maple syrup. beat mixture well and place in unbaked pie crust. arrange pecans on top to “catch the eye”. bake 40 minutes in a pre-heated 400 degree fahrenheit oven. the above is a recipe from my mother. back in late 1939 and early 1940, my parents’ sugarhouse and sugarbush were about half a mile from our farmhouse. we had about 750 taps. sometimes at the beginning of the sugaring season, the snow was so deep we used snowshoes to tap the trees and gather sap. my mother did the boiling while dad and i gathered the sap with a horse-drawn sled. i really enjoyed maple sugaring time and helping my dad. i also enjoyed making maple sugar cakes and selling them to students and teachers at school. these were the “good old days”, and the experience will forever be very memorable. old time maple syrup tart (tarte au sirop d’erable ancienne) by: helen parent, enosburg falls, vermont ingredients 1 ½ cups vermont maple syrup 2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour ¾ cup heavy cream 2 tablespoons melted butter 3 egg yolks, beaten 1 teaspoon vinegar ¼ teaspoon salt 9” pie shell, baked whisk together syrup, cream, flour, beaten egg yolks, melted butter, vinegar, and salt until smooth. put mixture is a saucepan and place over medium heat, whisking constantly until it starts to boil. boil for one minute longer, continuing to whisk. pour immediately into baked pie shell. allow to cool until set. when sugaring time came around we used to get a ride on the sleigh that carried the gathering tank, that is, before you were old enough to help. the sleigh was pulled by two huge horses. a few years later, i helped by carrying covers to each tree that was tapped, to put onto the bucket that had just been hung onto the spout. a little later in time, i gathered sap by the closest trees to the sleigh using a small milk pail. naturally, there was a lot of spillage, especially carrying the sap to the gathering tank and dumping it in. takes a while to learn all the dos and don’ts when you are small. when we had lots of snow in the woods you would sink in deep to your crotch and hardly get out of it, what with the pail you were carrying with the sap in it. the first week of sugaring you ate supper and headed for bed. then after that, you were able to sit around and play 500 and still get up early in the morning. you have to admit that sugaring is hard work, especially when you are young and learning the trade. we used to argue as to whose turn it was to take dad’s lunch to the sugar house. there, we had bread with reduit, which was sap not turned into syrup yet, or an egg dropped in the pan and cooked. of course, you couldn’t beat sugar on snow! being we were a big family, i learned to cook and bake real young. my mother taught me to make maple pie, tarte au sirop, which her mother had taught her. pepere and memere’s crapeaus (maple dumplings) by: armande tremblay, st. albans, vermont ingredients 2 eggs 2 teaspoons baking powder ¼ cup milk 1 ½ to 2 cups flour (more if needed) ¼ teaspoon salt 4 cups maple syrup beat eggs well, add milk and mix. mix flour, baking powder and salt. add flour mixture to liquid a little at a time until dough is not quite as thick as doughnut dough. heat maple syrup to a soft boil until it thickens a little. drop dough into boiling syrup by spoonsful. turn crapeaus after a few minutes, cooking evenly until centers are done, approximately 6 to 8 minutes. if syrup gets too thick during boiling, add more syrup or a little bit of water. [editor’s note: ‘crapeau’ is a dialect form of the french word ‘crapaud’, which means ‘toad’. ‘memere’ and ‘pepere’ are terms for grandparents.] in the year 1903, my pepere edward and memere rosanna laroche from roxton falls, quebec moved to vermont along with their seven boys and four girls because of the poor economy in canada. they settled on a farm in highgate center. the youngest of the children is still living in highgate at the age of ninety-three. my father omer laroche was sixteen years old when they moved. in 1922, when he was twenty-five, he married yvonne plante from st. ignace, quebec. i was born a year later. as a young girl i remember real well going to my grandparents’ by horse and sled in the winter and horse and buggy in the summer. on christmas each family celebrated at home. we would go to midnight mass and after have family over for reviellon (lunch). on new year’s was the big holiday celebration at pepere and memere’s house for every family. tourtieres (meat pie) and ragout de boulette (meat balls in brown gravy) were the new year’s specialty foods. in the afternoon, singing and violin were enjoyed. also, the men asked their father for his blessing. easter was the other big holiday gathering. in the afternoon the big pan of maple syrup was heating on the wood stove. when the syrup had thickened, we would lick the palette. (a palette is a narrow piece of wood from a chunk of maple about ½ inch thick and three inches wide that was whittled to the shape of a paint brush with a long handle and sanded until it was real smooth.) it was dipped in the hot, thick syrup and we licked it up. it was delicious! now you would think it is not hygienic, but the hot syrup killed all germs. now it’s time for the crapeaus. the eggs were beaten by hand as there was no electricity for mixers. my uncles always seemed to make the best crapeaus. this recipe was brought from quebec with my grandparents and was handed down from generation to generation. now it has been printed and used by many people, especially vermonters who have a lot of french canadian ancestors. the crapeaus are the best when eaten right out of the hot bubbly syrup. they are a big hit at the sugar house parties. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023): 93-97 ©american folklore society 2024 research note food as lens for exploring key concepts in cultural differences: a curriculum project—curriculum activities (applying education theories) by: jerry r. reed, iii i was invited to work on this project by dr. long while i was completing the final year of my master’s degree in popular culture at bowling green state university, ohio. i had also done undergraduate and graduate work in education. dr. long spoke about folkloristic perspectives on food to a class i was taking, and i found her work relevant to my master ’s project on lunchtime exchanges of food items among middle school students. i was interested in continuing working in folklore and education, particularly around issues of social equity and diversity in the schools. i drew from that background as well as my experiences in teaching and interacting with educational professionals to assist dr. long in developing the keywords curriculum further. i also adapted the different units for specific age groups. my approach to this curriculum is to provide activities for conversations around concepts of culture that can then be used to better understand and push back against a long history of institutionalized racism and colonialism that has been perpetuated consistently (and in recent years more aggressively) by american society. diana baird n’diaye (2020) reminds us that a pedagogy of equity, “...is subjective and can be subversive in the best sense of the word. the stories recorded may be joyful, painful, or a bit of both, but they are essential”. a single curriculum will not be the end all for social equity. while we want to create methods for educators to engage their learners in a conversation about culture, we must urge all individuals within these systems, including ourselves, to “explore our implicit assumptions and practice through a critical lens. we cannot name our white spaces if we do not know they exist… staying outside this comfort zone takes vigilance and honesty” (milne 2016: 82). there have been several movements within education which have pushed for developing culturally responsive pedagogies by attempting to utilize the resources of cultural knowledge students already have, particularly minority students, to used in the classroom to make learning relevant (see ladson-billings 1995; wlodkowski and ginsberg 1995). other researchers, like django paris (2012), prefer the phrase “culturally sustaining pedagogies,” stating that the approach: “…requires that our pedagogies be more than responsive of or relevant to the cultural experiences and practices of young people… they support young people in sustaining the cultural and linguistic competence of their communities while simultaneously offering access to dominant cultural competence (95). from this perspective, if we, as educators, are not making conscious efforts to use these methods to preserve our students’ cultures, we are participating in an act of aggression against minority cultures that has been a consistent pattern of educational institutions in the us throughout its history (alim 2007). this curriculum is meant to increase awareness reed, food as lens (curriculum activities) digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 94 of and sensitivity to the complexities of cultural differences, so that educators can better challenge the historical patterns in our society. in addition to making our curriculum relevant, and preserving our students’ cultures, we must ask how we can help our students understand cultural differences that they will inevitably encounter in an increasingly culturally pluralistic society. this may require us as educators to take a step back and examine our own biases and culture, and work to create an openness to being able to learn from our students, or a reciprocal pedagogy “teachers and students learning from and with each other“emotions and desires engaged” -an event that is powerful enough to be narrated” (bowman & hamer 2011: 20). this reciprocity includes providing space for students to teach the classroom, including their teacher, about their culture, their values, and their family. many different identities may pop up in these conversations, jones lists “in addition to gender, class, and ethnicity, the social categories of family and peers relate to identity and food choice” (148). we believe that, because of this connection, food acts as a powerful place in which to have the conversation of cultural pluralism and co-existence. more so, applying a folkloristic lens to food, being able to see that even a small difference in a family history, ethnic lineage, or geographic background can have drastic changes to the culturally relevant foods of an individual allows even a largely non-diverse setting to begin to see diversity around them. even small acts, such as the “proper” way to eat an oreo, can show a diverse body of thinking and demonstrates the influence of popular media, which is further influenced by class, gender, ethnicity, etc. (belasco 2008). this project offers activities and materials to engage students in understanding the diversity they have in their own lives both within and outside their classrooms. we also encourage them to see how, despite a number of differences they may have at various levels, they can find ways to relate and understand each other. the conversations start small, and then build towards larger groups. through activities that allow students to compare and contrast their tastes and family foods, such as the sandwich activity, educators can help nurture a conversation with students about understanding differences. a personal example of such a conversation comes from my own background. i grew up in the midwest, but have a very appalachian family. one of my fondest food memories growing up was going to see my great-grandmother, granny margaret, and smelling her cooking a large pot of soup beans, pinto beans stewed for long hours with onion, bacon, and crushed red pepper. not everyone can relate to my specific love of granny margaret’s soup beans, but most do have some fond memory of a grandparent or similar elder-figure cooking a beloved childhood dish. not even all of my family can relate to this love of soup beans, as another great-grandmother, who was also equally appalachian, had a very different, and sadly, more bland recipe. my family’s appalachian food traditions set me apart from other kids in my midwestern classrooms, making me aware that they represented a different identity. at the same time, our food heritage was not uniform within our family, illustrating—and perhaps confusing me—about the role of individual taste preferences and choices within a group identity. most of us can all relate to this memory in some way, and it can be a stepping off point for discussing much larger issues. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 95 finding common ground in this way can then help students to further understand culture and society, and perhaps even engage in some change for the better. researchers in the field of character education have long called combining morals and practical knowledge with identity and growth (mcgrath 2018). as lickona (2018) points out, identity itself is at the very center of character education, and that educators must figure out how to “… help young persons as they think and craft their own character, as they clarify a sense of who they are…” (54). character education should therefore focus on enabling young people to acquire good judgment and govern themselves in accordance with it” (curren 2017: 30), and food is an ideal medium for such learning. kim et al. (2018) show one example of both character education and a culturally responsive pedagogical lens. their project applied engineering skills to food waste issues in the us, asking through students to identify a food that was culturally relevant to them. they were then tasked with designing new packaging or food waste measures that were more environmentally responsive and protective (31). engaging students to ask how they can help their community by dealing with food waste allows students to apply their understanding of their culture to help preserve their culture and impact the world beyond that. food is a central component of identity, and as such, can be the foundation for social unity and equity as well as the basis for conflict and misunderstanding (belasco 2008: 19). this curriculum offers a foundation for students and teachers to understand their own cultures and see the complexity and humanity of the cultures around them. it is offered in the spirit of folklorist lisa rathje’s words on reciprocal pedagogy: “to embrace reciprocal pedagogy is also to keep on learning. the sharing of tools and strategies through partnerships and reciprocity will help to address the challenge of staying relevant and vital in an increasingly complicated, interconnected world” (77). reed, food as lens (curriculum activities) digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 96 works cited alim, h. samy. 2007. critical hip-hop language pedagogies: combat, consciousness, and the cultural politics of communication. journal of language, identity, and education, 6 (2): 161– 176. anyon, jean. 1981. social class and school knowledge. curriculum inquiry, 11(1): 3-42. belasco, warren. 2008. food: the key concepts. london: bloomsbury academic. bowman, paddy, and hamer, lynne m. (2011). through the schoolhouse door : folklore, community, curriculum. utah state university press. bowman, paddy, amanda dargan, and steve zeitlin. 2016. you eat what you are: foodways in education. c.a.r.t.s. cultural arts resources for teachers and students (special focus: teaching with foodways). 11(1): 3. center for food and culture: www.foodandculture.org. curren, randall. 2017. why character education? impact 24 :1–44. friedman, jonathan. 2023. book bans and the assault on public education. the progressive 86(6): 31–31. hamer, lynne. 1999. eating in school: food and multicultural education. digest: an interdisciplinary study of food and foodways 19: 2-7. higgins, lisa. l. and katherine haag rogers. 2018. eating your homework: one family’s intersections of science, place, foodways, and education. journal of folklore and education 5: 53-63. jones, michael owen. 2007. food choice, symbolism, and identity: bread-and-butter issues for folkloristics and nutrition studies (american 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value of ethnic studies: a research review. washington, dc: national education association research. williams, raymond. 1976. keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society. oxford: oxford university press. wlodkowski, raymond. j., and margery b. ginsberg. 1995. a framework for culturally responsive teaching. strengthening student engagement 53(1): 17-21. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpcc-09-2020-0070 digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022): 125-127 ©american folklore society 2022 review of: the potlikker papers: a food history of the modern south. john t. edge. new york: penguin press, 2017. pp. 370, selected bibliography, index. review by: stephanie m. kaczynski the potlikker papers: a food history of the modern south bills itself as a people’s history of the modern u.s. south told through food. rather than strive for an encyclopedic chronology, john t. edge describes the structure as “an album of snapshots” or “a menu of dishes” to describe the vignettes of people, place, and food woven together to paint a complex picture of the south (3). bookended by a foreword that honors the late john egerton and an afterword that centers southerners’ shared palette amid ongoing regional problems, potlikker papers consists of an introduction followed by five parts, each covering a two-decade time period. in the introduction, edge argues that “food narratives illumine history,” making the case for an understanding of food culture in the u.s. south that traces political movements, economic shifts, social ideals, and, above all, the people cooking, eating, and connecting over southern cuisine (7). in part one, “freedom struggles (1950s-1970s),” edge explores the south during the civil rights movement. chapter one, “kitchen tables,” describes the black women who fed protesters as grassroots conversations took place in their kitchens and clubhouses. chapter two, “restaurant theaters,” details the painful performances of black waitstaff serving segregated white restaurants as well as those restaurants’ resistance to federally ordered integration. chapter three, “poor power,” addresses both the johnson administration’s “national war on poverty” (54) and community-led efforts to feed black southerners, such as fannie lou hamer’s freedom farm. and chapter four, “black power,” focuses on southern black nationalists’ post-segregation efforts to obtain farmland, develop blackowned co-ops, and uplift black restauranteurs. part two, “rise of the folk (1970s & 1980s),” describes the rebranding and exportation of southern culture post-civil rights. chapter five, “landed hippies,” examines hippies from across the u.s. who established countercultural communes in the south’s arable land. chapter six, “faster food,” chronicles southern fast-food restaurants’ efforts to popularize and export southern cooking across the country. chapter seven, “carter country,” discusses how carter’s rise to the u.s. presidency impacted national attitudes toward southern music, accents, and cuisine. and chapter eight, “black pastorals,” describes edna lewis’ recentering of poor southern black food through her philosophy of cooking as an “act of recollection” requiring connection to the land and its seasons (154). in part three, “gentrification (1980s & 1990s),” edge engages the impact of increasing wealth and urbanization on southern food culture. chapter nine, “kingmaker and kings,” tells of new york times food editor and restaurant critic craig claiborne’s popularization of southern chefs and cuisines. chapter ten, “generation grits,” navigates the debate between gourmet food and regional dishes within southern restaurant cuisine. and chapter eleven, kaczynski, review, the potlikker papers digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 126 “cooking school,” details nathalie dupree’s influence on yet another renaissance of southern cuisine. part four, “new respect (1990-2010s),” covers the artisanal renaissance that has reconnected southern farmers and cooks in recent decades. chapter twelve, “artisanal pantry,” details a return to craft production of grits, ham, moonshine, and more. chapter thirteen, “restaurant renaissance,” describes the revival of restaurants both high-end and down-home. and chapter fourteen, “pits and pitmasters,” honors barbecue’s emergence as a “national folk food” (264) and celebrates white and black pitmasters alike. finally, in part five, “future tenses (2010s forward),” edge looks to the present and the horizon. chapter fifteen, “political reckonings,” addresses present-day efforts to reckon with the south’s history of slavery and dispossession, from michael twitty’s response to the paula deen controversy to organizing for migrant farmworker rights. chapter sixteen, “nuevo sud,” recognizes southern food as “‘the original fusion cuisine’” (294) and celebrates indigenous, black, and migrant culinary “creolizations,” both historic and current (300). potlikker papers presents a rich history of a complex region. edge succeeds in making the compelling case for food as an appropriate and illuminative entry point into the intertwined political, economic, and social dynamics continually being renegotiated in the u.s. south. in doing so, edge gracefully embraces the tensions and contradictions of the region. one tension throughout potlikker papers is the desire to understand the south as a cohesive region, particularly in light of the recent renaissance edge describes. edge is not entirely successful in this aim, in part because his writing thrives in particularities—of people, foods, histories, and regions—that challenge sweeping statements about the south or southerners as a whole. certain sections, such as edge’s discussions of the impacts of gentrification and the cultural impact of landed hippies, merit a more critical or at least more nuanced perspective such as that given to edge’s portrayal of post-katrina new orleans. for example, to conclude part three, “gentrification (1980s & 1990s),” edge states that gentrification, while often recognized as a “negative cultural force,” “had some positive effects” in helping the south gain broad consideration and respect (212). in a section that focuses almost entirely on white southerners’ efforts to gentrify and “revive” southern food culture, a deeper focus on the people displaced and dispossessed in the process would have offered a more complete picture, though edge does delve more pointedly into these themes in the book’s later chapters. additionally, more information about methodology would have enriched potlikker papers. edge sets out to write a “people’s history” of the south, and, certainly, a plethora of people grace its pages. yet many of the book’s characters are renowned chefs, restaurant owners, cookbook authors, and food magazine editors. edge might have offered information about how certain people, stories, and themes were chosen as representative of each era, and which people or foods had been erased from the archives, relegated to anonymity. kaczynski, review, the potlikker papers digest: a journal of foodways and culture 9:2 (2022) 127 potlikker papers is an important read for food scholars, but also scholars interested in tracing the political through the quotidian and for anyone searching for a nuanced window into political, cultural, and social elements of the u.s. south. above all, edge’s work offers a beautiful tribute to a complex and changing region as its people continue to grapple with its history, future, and identity. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023): 5-21 ©american folklore society 2024 research essay the rhetoric of recipes: food pedagogy in the pandemic by: miriam e. horne and zoë campos abstract: food is a powerful tool with which to engage students in critical academic work. this paper describes the work of a professor and her student, and their experiences using recipes to study rhetoric. the paper describes three moments of learning: genre and bread baking, power dynamics and key lime pie, and rhetorical appeals in family recipes. the paper also argues that this learning was successful, in part, because food offered a comfortable way into learning after the challenges of the covid-19 lockdown. keywords: rhetoric, recipes, pedagogy, pandemic introduction students, like faculty, are emerging from a global pandemic. they live in a climate of political turmoil and face an increasingly daunting future as the effects of climate change ravage the world. while we hope that traditional higher education will engage young adults in learning how to be informed citizens of their communities and that their coursework will help get them there, students are tired and exhausted (mcmurtrie 2022). in this paper, general education faculty member miriam horne and second-year game design student zoë campos reflect on the experience of food as a pedagogical tool in this challenging time. while using recipes to teach is not a novel idea, the opportunity to use recipes as a pedagogical tool in a vulnerable moment for students and society gave both miriam and zoë pause for reflection on teaching and learning. more specifically, we consider how a food focused general education class called, “the rhetoric of recipes” facilitated students’ critical thinking as they struggled to engage in academic work. context the pandemic the covid-19 virus changed the world as we know it. one of the most profound changes came to the education system as students were forced into online learning. zoë, a transfer student at champlain college in burlington, vermont, describes what the pandemic was like for her learning: not only was my high school experience cut short due to the pandemic, my first years of college started in my bedroom. the most stressful part of the pandemic for me and those that were my age around me was the education aspect. while the world was going up in flames, students were expected to continue to work and learn from home. virtual learning was the biggest learning curve students had to adapt to. many students in my area dropped out of college due to the inability to learn through online teaching. it was not a pleasant time for me and those around me. however, all this changed once campuses were finally starting to open again, which happened for me in my second year of college. it was nerve-wracking to not only have to transfer schools due to the pandemic, but the college i wanted to go to also horne & campos, rhetoric of recipes digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 6 wasn’t worth paying thousands for online classes where i wouldn’t retain much information anyway. upon returning to in-person classes, it was another learning curve i had to overcome. not only did we have to adapt to an online setting, but now we were sophomores in college without ever stepping foot on campus. there was no way to expect what a real in-person college class would be like. it was hard to adjust to campus life post-pandemic, but there was a comfort in knowing at least students were feeling similar everywhere, no matter the school. echoing zoë’s account, the chronicle of higher education reflected on the pandemic, remarking that “being a college student often comes with a set of struggles, like homesickness, poor time-management skills, and impostor syndrome. add a global pandemic to the mix, which has disrupted students’ education, wiped out their finances, and upended their social support systems, and the stage is set for them to experience a wide range of psychological repercussions” (june 2021: 5). as zoë’s experience illustrates, the pandemic meant that college was no longer a place where students learned to socialize and live on their own as they attended classes and worked toward their degrees. instead, it was a space that many students found difficult to navigate as they transitioned back to the classroom. when students emerged from lockdown and returned to in-person learning, many of them, including zoë, were unaware of how to manage these new experiences as the first two years of the college had been online in isolation. the course champlain college is a small 2000-student population professionally-focused school in burlington, vermont. beginning as a business school in 1878, champlain college has set itself apart from other colleges by providing cutting-edge professional degrees like digital forensics and game design. these professional programs boast what is called an “upsidedown curriculum” with students getting hands-on experience in the program in their first year. this professional focus means that the college attracts students who are focused on their professional goals and who struggle to find purpose in their liberal arts requirements. to this end, with the goal of allowing students increased choice in their liberal arts requirement, faculty, the opportunity to highlight their expertise, and, most importantly, the development of interdisciplinary thinking, the new curriculum, called core, sought to engage the students in more meaningful ways. all students, regardless of their major or professional courses, were required to take a series of liberal arts courses carefully designed to introduce interdisciplinarity to traditionally isolated liberal arts subjects. instead of separating history and philosophy classes, core put students from across disciplines into situations in which they had to, for example, draw from history, philosophy, and art, to examine questions of an ideal community. in the context of a lockdown and worldwide pandemic, champlain college launched a fresh approach to its interdisciplinary liberal arts curriculum in its core program. the new core curriculum, introduced in 2020, continued to meet general education requirements and mixed classrooms of students from multiple majors, but moved away from common subject matter and focused more on the production of common interdisciplinary and critical thinking skills. it introduced a structure of two classes per semester: foundations and explorations. each semester, students take a common foundational course in interdisciplinary learning and then have digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 7 the choice of taking a differently-themed class that may align more with their personal interests. for the purposes of this paper, we discuss a second-year, second-semester exploration class, “rhetoric of recipes,” in which students apply a theory, rhetoric, to a cultural phenomenon, recipes. in this specific case, the class was “the rhetoric of recipes.” the general description for this course, labeled core 204 in the college catalogue, reads: in this course, you will explore theoretical perspectives that ask you to interrogate systems of power and power relationships. you will learn the history of those perspectives, including how they, too, have been shaped by multiple contexts and compare with other viewpoints. you will use those perspectives to analyze a specific topic, collection of texts, or cultural phenomena. this passage describes every 204 course, of which rhetoric of recipes is one. it is up to the individual instructor to choose an appropriate theory and the cultural context in which to apply it. the course learning outcomes lend continuity across courses. professors teach the class such that each student is able to: 1. define key terms and concepts associated with certain theoretical perspectives; 2. situate the theoretical perspectives within relevant social, geographical, and cultural contexts; 3. apply theoretical perspectives to a specific topic, collection of texts, or cultural phenomena; and 4. interrogate systems of power and power relationships using theoretical perspectives. the rationale with core 204 sections with titles such as capitalism; collective memory and national crisis: remembering and forgetting; and nazis, emperors, vampires, and masochists: the evolution of racial ideology in austria, how did miriam end up with the rhetoric of recipes? there are five arguments for teaching a course about the rhetoric of recipes: miriam’s background in rhetoric, a unifying topic for a disparate student population, accessibility of issues around diversity, equity and inclusion, the comfort of food, and the opportunity for an engaged pedagogy. first, with a background in composition and rhetoric, miriam wanted to bring rhetoric into the classroom in meaningful ways because it is a critical skill not only in speaking but also in understanding all forms of communication. rhetoric is a tool for lifelong critical thinking. drawing on the work of modern rhetoricians (bitzer 1982, mcgee 1982, richards 1965, burke 1969, lunsford 1979, lindeman 1983), miriam teaches rhetoric as a technique of persuasion and as a socially constructed communicative act. in other words, she communicates to students that to get someone to consider their point of view, they must understand the context in which the exchange takes place, which includes appreciating the audience and the audience's needs and the best tools for persuading the audience given the exigence and particular set of circumstances in which they find themselves. while these aims may be achieved in a variety of ways, miriam wanted something that would engage her students and might, in a world full of complex and challenging rhetoric (us politics, horne & campos, rhetoric of recipes digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 8 climate change, the global pandemic, and more) not lead the students to become angry, frustrated, or fed up with the world in which they live and give up on the work. she wanted them to appreciate the complexity of the world around them and to engage with it through critical eyes. drawing perhaps from her own love affair with chocolate, but also seeing the academic potential in critically thinking around something that is a human need, miriam felt that food would be a soft target and that recipes, in particular, would provide a unique framework for looking at food academically. as a result, she drew on the work of scholars like long (2004), jacob (2005), dutch (2012) lowe swift and wilk (2015), cognard-black (2017) and mastrangelo (2020) who laid a substantial groundwork for looking at recipes rhetorically. these writers looked at recipes rhetorically, as stories, as transmission of information, and as tools of power. this served as a basis for much of the work that miriam did in working with specific learning outcomes for the course in teaching rhetoric and about power differentials through recipes. a second reason for choosing to apply rhetoric to recipes was the challenge of having students from across campus and across different majors with varied backgrounds. as all students take core classes, these courses enlist a variety of majors from education to international business to digital forensics to game design, like zoë. bringing these diverse identities together can be a challenge. part of miriam’s hope in using food as subject matter was to find common ground across disparate groups. vester (2015), who writes about food and identities, supports this line of reasoning, maintaining, “[e]xamining how food advice interacts with gender, class, national and ethnic identity allows a glimpse into how knowledge creates privilege, tastes can marginalize, and how we endorse what we are, or are expected to be, in the act of eating and talking about food” (2). in other words, the complexity of food allows for rich and problematic discussions from multiple perspectives and presents multiple entry points. miriam posited that teaching students how to use rhetoric to understand recipes would equip the students to use and understand rhetoric as a tool for communication with a specific audience in a specific context. she also felt that, for a variety of reasons, recipes would be an appropriate cultural artifact to which rhetoric could be applied. that is, while recipes serve a variety of functions including, but not limited to, storytelling (bosman 2009), building community (bower 1997), political activism (mastrangelo 2020), and personal promotion (denveater 2009), at their most basic function, recipes describe a process for (in most cases) preparing food (though we also explored the ways recipes can be used for medicinal purposes). even those who do not cook understand that the preparation of food usually has steps and procedures. using food recipes, therefore, reaches a broad audience in a population with a diverse student body. therefore, taking a step back and looking at food as a common interest serves to unite even the most disparate group. a third reason for the choice of rhetoric and recipes is that using food recipes as a subject affords students the depth to address complex learning outcomes that include diversity, equity, and inclusion, inherent in which are systems and structures of power—specific mandates of the course learning outcomes. vester (2015) explains how this range of outcomes is possible, writing: digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 9 discourses produce experts, people invested with the power to decide what is right or not… knowledge, privilege, and power intersect in food discourses, pronouncing who belongs by performing appropriately and marginalizing and excluding those who do not from equal access to cultural, political, and financial resources. conversely, food discourses have (albeit limited) democratizing potential: being raised in a culinary culture leaves everyone with a vast treasury of knowledge about the gender, race, and class implications of foodways as well as table manners (of some kind), preparation procedures, regional and national food habits, and diverse clusters of information that may include botanical, zoological, nutritional, chemical, and historical fragments. (2–3) because food impacts everyone, it levels the playing field while exposing students to multiple ways of seeing and thinking. a fourth reason for studying rhetoric and recipes, and perhaps most relevant during a worldwide pandemic, food has a clear connection to comfort and well-being. gregory and wayne (2020), for example, examine the role that food had in boosting the morale of the united states army air force during world war ii, suggesting that the quality of food soldiers received impacted their morale. ziegelman (2010) details the lives of five immigrant families who took on their new american identities in work, fashion, and lifestyle but carefully held on to their traditional ways of preparing food to ease their transition to the new world. we also know that stress often leads to increased food consumption, especially in women (klatzkin, et al. 2019). it is no surprise, then, that food was important to students during the pandemic. they faced unprecedented stress as they dealt with depression, anxiety, and insomnia while their frustration and boredom grew with the lockdown (de pasquale, et al. 2021). miriam and zoë both learned that food— more specifically, recipes, provided an engaging and safe entry into critical thinking, language use, power differentials, and individual perspectives. thus, merging the use of rhetoric and food/recipes provided a framework and rationale for this course. it also introduced the value of food as a pedagogical tool. as a fifth rationale for the rhetoric of recipes, we look at food as a pedagogical tool. experts in education were quick to comment on the challenges for students coming into the classroom both during and after the lockdown. newsletters, conference papers, and disciplinary communities began offering advice. from zoë’s perspective, the most important advice encouraged student engagement. in one collective advice article, for example, glazier et al. (2022), admonished faculty to “ensure that students ‘do’ in every session—write, speak, solve problems, create graphs, etc. design lessons and activities that have students interact and collaborate frequently” (np). in other words, faculty were told to give students opportunities to participate so that the learning they did was meaningful. however, despite widespread attempts to engage students, in a report published in the april 2022 issue of the chronicle of higher education, beth mcmurtrie details an unprecedented level of disengagement among students. language like “defeated, exhausted, and overwhelmed” characterized student descriptions of their experiences. while miriam’s class was far from perfect—and she saw plenty of stressed and exhausted students, for the most part—students appeared engaged and were able to horne & campos, rhetoric of recipes digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 10 participate in class activities in meaningful ways. for example, they made bread, asked questions about power differentials in key lime pie recipes, and were able to use the critical rhetorical strategies they had learned to analyze family recipes. what was the difference between the experiences of students nationwide and those of students in miriam’s classroom? food. while food can be a disruptor (particularly in its absence), it can also be a unifier. the late chef james beard is credited with saying, “food is our common ground, a universal experience.” as such, institutions of education are leaning into food not just as a subject, as seen in food studies that embrace interdisciplinary approaches to food, but also as a pedagogical tool. for example, new york city’s tenement museum has used food tours of the neighborhood to teach the local history of immigration, integration, assimilation, and urban development (steinberg 2012). through exposure to jewish, italian, and irish cooking, and more, participants come to understand how immigrants became “american” through food choices. in a sociology classroom, students were exposed to the food of rural communities in the midwestern united states as they developed civic agriculture (wright 2006). they learned about the food habits of communities in which they were working in order to facilitate sustainable agricultural practices and helped students understand the people with whom they were working in more complex ways than had they simply imposed their agricultural knowledge. natural sciences have also found a place for food. rowat et al. (2014) used recipes to teach students about chemistry and physics. and in world politics, ariel (2019) followed hirsch and tene’s work (2013) and used a simple dish of hummus to help students understand the complexities of the arab-israeli conflict. an exploration of hummus elucidated concepts of borders, culture, and identity. in short, food is not just subject matter but a medium through which to teach theory and (inter)disciplinary understanding. however, while food may be a unifier, it is not a placebo for solving problems. as joy harjo’s poem “the world begins at the kitchen table” describes it, food leads to both love and loss, war and peace, life and death—the good and the bad events and experiences that bring people together. miriam never intended the class to be a comfort or a way of easing students gently back into college pursuits. she designed it as a way to teach rhetoric that would cross disciplinary boundaries and might draw some student interest. what she found, however, was that talking about food—more specifically, recipes—allowed students to engage in intellectual thinking in ways that connected them to home and family, to their identities, to their histories, and, at times, to process some of the struggles of the pandemic. learning moments bread learning outcomes one and three of the course provide guidance for what students should learn about the theory that they need to apply. ● define key terms and concepts associated with certain theoretical perspectives; and ● apply theoretical perspectives to a specific topic, collection of texts, or cultural phenomena. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 11 an important part of understanding rhetoric is understanding genre. genre, according to paré and smart (1994), is “a broad rhetorical strategy enacted within the community in order to regularize writer/reader transactions in ways that allow for the creation of particular knowledge” (146). thus, in the context of rhetoric, genre “seeks to explicate the knowledge that practice creates” (miller 1984: 27). in other words, genre provides a way to understand the social context that drives the creation and structure of a text. it also shows how the text is a response to the situation in which it occurs. to that end, miriam wanted students to understand genre as a key term and concept of rhetoric as per learning outcome one, and to begin to see how it impacts the ways that we read texts (i.e., recipes) as per learning outcome three. to teach students about genre, and to help them understand why texts assume different forms in different situations, miriam had students bake bread early in the semester. this assignment may seem ambitious, as many students have never cooked for themselves, but she chose mark bittman’s no-knead bread recipe (2018), which makes bread-making accessible to even the most novice bakers. she discussed genre in general terms in class and wanted this hands-on experience to help students understand how genre works. in addition to providing a set of ingredients for each student (a lively experience for some who had never cooked or used flour or had never seen yeast), miriam provided the recipe in three formats: a handwritten notecard aged to look like it was well used with only the simplest of instructions, the fully typed instructions that bittman provides on his website, and a four-minute video that miriam created in which she went through the steps of making the recipe complete with the recipe in floating word bubbles beside her head. students were given hard copies of these recipes including a qr code to access the video and electronic versions in their homework on canvas, the learning management system. the goal of the assignment was to get students to think about genre and how genre impacts the way they interact with a text. why did they choose to use the form that they did? when students reported back on their bread-making homework, miriam was surprised that, of the students who actually made the bread, only about one-third used the video for guidance. she had assumed that the tiktok generation would be video dependent. the handful of students who used the recipe card said they wanted a “challenge” and wanted an “authentic” experience. the card appeared to be the “original” recipe and therefore the most accurate. those who used the typed text did so because they thought it was the easiest to follow. the video, they explained, had to be paused. the typed form, they argued, allowed them to easily go back and review the instructions. those who watched the video and used the video for guidance talked about the importance of seeing what they were doing. zoë described the experience as follows: the written recipe didn’t persuade me to want to try this recipe since it was hard to read and used more traditional language. the typed recipe used language that was easy to digest and easy to follow even if it was your first time making bread. the video recipe was the most effective recipe for myself, it used easy language to follow, the visual of actually seeing someone bake the bread made it easier for me, the audience, to believe that i too could bake this bread and it comes out looking good. horne & campos, rhetoric of recipes digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 12 zoë further explained that: the real meat to this assignment was more focused on being introduced to the different forms of rhetoric found on each of the recipe formats and how even if you follow the same set of ingredients, there is still a different style of persuasion happening within each recipe resulting in a different outcome. although zoë admits that, at the time, she did not really understand what miriam was trying to teach them with the three different forms of recipes, in hindsight, with the benefit of a semester studying rhetoric, she was able to appreciate how the different formats or genres of the bread recipe had different ways of persuading the user to act. this was a powerful lesson for zoë because it helped her to understand the complexity of genre and the importance of employing the right genre for the right audience. in rhetoric, we make assumptions about audience (ideally, based on careful observation, research, and experience). zoë learned that form matters—that recipes, like other fields, can have multiple formats and that she does better with some formats than others. after making bread, students were asked to choose a recipe and analyze the context in which it occurred (this was part of a continued effort to teach students that genre has a particular exigence). many students chose family recipes that their parents had emailed them, recipes their grandmothers used to make, recipes that came from the country of their cultural heritage, and so on. although the assignment was challenging, students were willing to engage with it because the recipe had personal meaning for them. one student, who was late returning for the semester because he had just lost his grandmother to covid, wrote about a recipe to which he had an emotional connection and explained how it became a way to process her death. another student used the opportunity to dig into his family history and ask more questions about life for his great-grandparents. zoë explored a particular time in nicaragua and some of the ingredients that would have been available to her ancestors during wwii. the bread and genre assignment introduced the importance of considering the context in which a recipe occurs so that students were able to transfer that frame of thought to a recipe of their choosing. key lime pie learning outcome four in core 204 says: ● interrogate systems of power and power relationships using theoretical perspectives. miriam needed to use rhetoric to help students understand and challenge power. rhetoric exercises power or authority, and learning to recognize that power is critical for active and engaged citizens. during early classes in the semester, miriam encouraged students to see this link, but she approached it too broadly and theoretically and needed a specific recipe that could help students see the power being wielded. to that end, in one class period, miriam asked students to think about power and in small groups to define what they thought the word meant. they came up with definitions that reflected control of one thing over another. the class then reviewed the meaning of rhetoric and then discussed the relationship between power and rhetoric so that they were not passive listeners, but had to create a joint understanding of that relationship. finally, miriam asked them to generate a digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 13 list of questions that could interrogate the power relationships they saw in the rhetoric of recipes. they asked about the context, the author, the intended audience, and the goal. zoë reflected that these introductory steps were useful because they helped focus later discussions and drive questions about key lime pie. she was able to understand, as shown below, that deceptive advertising may act as a form of power over the recipient. image 1: scanned from mccall's magazine, public domain, via wikimedia commons to critique the power or influence inherent in a recipe, miriam started with what students knew about key lime pie. for zoë, prior to this class, key lime was just another flavor of pie horne & campos, rhetoric of recipes digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 14 that she could get at her local diner. miriam asked the students to look at the context in which the recipe was created. the pie's earliest known record comes from 1931. it was promoted by jane ellison, spokesperson for eagle brand borden condensed milk, and had been adapted from “aunt sally’s lemon pie” (parks 2017). miriam showed images of jane ellison taken from mccall’s magazine (1930). she went on to explain, however, that jane ellison did not, in fact, exist; she was a fictional character designed by borden to increase the use and sales of sweetened condensed milk. furthermore, key limes, are not, in fact, native to the florida keys and were largely wiped out in a hurricane in 1926 and replaced by a type of persian limes. few key limes actually exist in florida (parks 2017). with this background—and the relatively simple recipe calling for eggs, sweetened condensed milk, and lime juice—students returned to the discussion of power and their questions about audience and purpose. understanding the context of the recipe shaped how they understood the power differentials. students had not thought about the recipe for food as being an advertising tactic put in place to persuade them to particular action. at first glance, one would not think of key lime pie as being an exertion of power, and yet the experience of the students says otherwise. first, their reaction to the fact that key lime pie is a relatively recent recipe not made with key limes made them feel deceived. second, the idea that a canned milk company would create a fictional character just to find ways to sell more milk seemed somehow to be a violation of the simple and tasty dish they thought was emblematic of the florida keys. they had never connected this food to capitalism. it was this connection that helped them to understand the myriad ways that rhetoric can exert power in subtle ways. learning the origin of key lime pie was a key moment in how students like zoë understood just how powerful rhetoric is. this realization led her to question the ethics of those behind the key lime pie recipe. she found a strong connection to the essential guide to rhetoric, the class textbook, in which keith and lundberg argue that “the power to use rhetoric implies the power to misuse rhetoric” (2008: 22). rhetoric wields a double-edged sword; speakers must treat their audience as they want to be treated. the text further concludes that deception is “a strategic mistake; in the long run, people find out and then don’t trust the speaker” (22). discovering the background of the key lime pie recipe allowed many students to realize just how present rhetoric is—even in a seemingly innocuous recipe. the context of key lime pie includes history, advertising, and politics, all of which work together to frame a piece of americana. even students who have not had key lime pie will likely have heard of it. the commonality of the food brings them together and the context of the creation of the recipe helps them see that recipes are political and powerful. if something so innocuous as key lime pie can be manipulated, what else is being engineered to influence the students? a recipe learning outcome two, which we have not yet discussed, asks students to ● situate theoretical perspectives within social, geographical, and cultural contexts. while miriam addressed this step throughout the course in various lessons, it was not assessed in an assignment in terms of situating the concept of rhetoric socially, digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 15 geographically, and culturally. she had a class period in which she showed the history and ongoing development of the theory, but no assignment for grades was given. instead, miriam asked students to use rhetorical theory to situate a recipe socially, geographically, and culturally. for example, one assignment was a rhetorical analysis of a recipe. students were able to choose whatever recipe they wanted and then analyze it. those who grasped the situatedness of texts were able to analyze the context in which the text emerged, what the author was trying to do, and how the author went about achieving their purpose. zoë’s rhetorical analysis showed how she was able to dig into an unusually written recipe and learn more about the time period in which it was created as well as the strategies the author used. she chose a recipe called mozzarella in carrozza (literally meaning mozzarella in a carriage). this recipe came from a 1950s collection by british author elizabeth david (1954) who was influential in raising the profile of home cooking in england. so strong was her influence that she published eight different cookbooks over thirty-year career that remain in print. her focus was on simple food that tasted delicious—food that she experienced during her years abroad in europe. on her return to england, she found the food distasteful and wanted to share what she had learned. in choosing this recipe, zoë explored food from 1950s britain. she learned that this postwar period saw food shortages, little interest in international foods, and difficulty finding specialized ingredients like parmesan cheese. this close study helped zoë understand the challenges that david faced as she tried to compile her work and situated the work in a struggling post-war rebuilding period. zoë was also struck by the structure of the work. a common recipe format presents a list of ingredients followed by a list of instructions. although this recipe still follows a sequential order, it does so in prose form with limited specific guidance. this departure from the modern conventional form caught zoë’s attention. for example, rather than give a specific cooking time, david (1987) writes, “fry them quickly in hot oil” (180). in her analysis, zoë explained that “david thought that part of the experience of this recipe is to do what each individual person seems right”—encouraging individual action and ownership. zoë also noted that this style of writing allowed david to appeal to the rhetorical strategy of pathos. to support this assertion, zoë quotes david explaining the need to change the cloth for stewed snails frequently or it will become “smelly and dirty beyond endurance” (246). she suggested that the allusion to yucky snails would resonate with wrinkling readers’ noses and therefore their emotional connection with the writer. in her analysis, zoë connects this remark to the class textbook, the essential guide to rhetoric (keith and lundberg 2017), and its description of pathos, which she then uses to justify her claim about stinky snail cloth being an appeal to pathos. though zoë is a busy student with multiple demands on her time, she so enjoyed exploring the david recipe that she took the time to talk about it with miriam during office hours and to revise and resubmit her original analysis. having gone through the process of contextualizing the recipe socially, geographically, and culturally, and examining the purposes and strategies within those contexts, zoë learned to dive deeper into a text, no matter how common it may seem, or, in zoë’s words, how “normal” it might horne & campos, rhetoric of recipes digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 16 appear. before taking rhetoric of recipes, zoë felt that a recipe with a different writing style would not have caught her attention. yet, zoë notes that there is a special moment when a student is able to grasp concepts and dive deeper into what exactly an author is trying to portray. in this case, with mozzarella in carozzo, she saw persuasion happening with the style of writing and language that david used to convince her reader to make the recipe. rather than simply writing a step-by-step recipe, david made the recipes more enjoyable and interesting by writing in a tone that pushes readers to take more risks in following her recipes. writing in a more open-ended way persuades recipe users to take a chance and try something new. however, it was not only the engaging recipes, but also the rhetorical analysis of david’s writing taught zoë how versatile rhetoric can be. through her work in rhetorical analysis, zoë realized that rhetorical strategies were not just relevant to her writing for this class, but also in her game-making classes and her dayto-day life. for example, she recalls visiting a friend's apartment and noticing they had a book titled recipes every man should know. it took just a few flips of the pages to analyze the language the authors chose to use and realize how they tried to cater to a male with no prior cooking experience. additionally, zoë recalls an assignment in a game development class. the purpose of the assignment was to look at how game developers targeted their desired audience and deconstruct whether the game successfully completed this task. the entire deconstruction process was much easier to conduct because she knew what questions to ask, such as, “who are the developers, and what made them choose this specific audience to cater to?” and “why did the developers write in a certain style in order to cater to their intended audience?” and so on. thus, as zoë learned to think about texts themselves as being socially, geographically, and culturally situated, she began to see recipes and other artifacts in ways she had not considered. notably, she was able to apply the skills she gained in the rhetoric of recipes to similar analysis in another class and in a friend’s apartment. conclusion personal experience and the literature alike (ziegleman 2010, vester 2015, gregory and wayne 2020) confirm that food is intricately intertwined with stress and that people turn to food for comfort. the worldwide pandemic hit university students in unprecedented ways as they struggled to make sense of a new stage of university life first from a computer screen and then from isolated dorm rooms. the pandemic also required university faculty to change how they taught and to engage students beyond a lecture at the front of the room. students needed to do. in these circumstances, miriam and zoë found themselves allies. miriam wanted the class to be about rhetoric so that students would understand that rhetoric is an essential skill to function in a complex world. a student like zoë, who is studying game design, a major heavily focused on coding, math, and technology, initially found it hard to imagine how a class named rhetoric of recipes would have an impact on her degree. as the course progressed, however, zoë came to understand rhetoric as ubiquitous. she learned to see it in political speech, in marketing, and, yes, in recipes. it is, she says, “around us all the time whether we realize it or not,” and “the art of being able to dissect anything that is presented to you by asking who the target audience is, who the digest: a journal of foodways and culture 10:1 (2023) 17 author is, what the style of language that an author is utilizing, and many other questions is a very important skill to have.” in short, choosing a recipe to explore, while still academic work, became an interesting and thought-provoking exercise for the students. using food as an academic tool connected them to meaningful aspects of their lives and allowed them to connect their learning to more tangible concerns. through critical study of recipes, they learned to define and use key rhetorical terms, situate rhetorical perspectives while applying the theory to recipes, and examine the power dynamic inherent in a text as seemingly innocuous as a recipe. as others have shown already (ariel 2019, rowat et al 2014, steinberg 2012, wright 2006) food proves a powerful subject for student learning. in rhetoric of recipes, this learning happened through hands-on activities like baking bread to understand why we formulate things the way we do, studying the context of key lime pie to examine the connections between rhetoric and manipulation, and analyzing a recipe of their own choosing to determine purpose and strategy. could students have gained the same set of skills—of defining, situating, applying, and interrogating—with a different theory, using a different text? could this lesson have been conducted without food? the other sections of the core 204 class that ran at the same time say absolutely, yes. there are many ways to teach and learn successfully. however, miriam and zoë contend that the 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windows whose mannequins were clothed in elegant eveningwear, with valentine motifs as a backdrop, and tiny pink valentines scattered on the ground like cherry blossoms. ma would turn to me and say, “you see this, this is all for us.” i believed her. no one else i knew had this perfect day for a birthday. i loved celebrating my birthday in school, there were valentine exchanges and i brought in pink and white valentine cupcakes to share with my classmates at snack time. but, in 1969, when i was in fourth grade there would be no class celebration; there had been a series of blizzards, and we hadn’t gone to school for the past eight days. snow drifts were everywhere, and cars covered in snow were parked in driveways—the town had all but shut down. mummy made us all go outside and play in the morning while she got some peace and did housework. birthdays were not a big deal in my family; we got a got a cake and usually there was a family party with cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles over on the weekend. this year, of course there would be just us 7 (my parents, my two older brothers and my younger sister and my grandmother—my bubbie, who lived with us.) after lunch, my mother turned to me and said, “i think you’re old enough to make our birthday cake. i looked at her in amazement. “yes” she said, “as soon as we clean up from lunch, the kitchen is all yours.” i had just gotten my first badge in girl scouts for cooking. we learned how to measure dry ingredients and wet ones, and to crack an egg on the side of the bowl so that no eggshells got in. our final project was baking our own chocolate chip cookies from scratch. i also helped my mother when she baked, and knew she was impressed with how i organized all the ingredients for the recipe and how well i worked the white sunbeam mix master very carefully, being careful to stop it when using a spatula to scrape the batter from the sides. for a kitchen so rich in activity, it was small. there was a table for four with metal chairs that had swirly white plastic bottoms, and a counter with two high stools, one turquoise, one white for my sister and me. the appliances were on the wall opposite the table. we only ate lunch or breakfast in the kitchen since there was not enough room for us all. usually, it was just us kids for breakfast. my mother oversaw the cereal and milk distribution but did not sit down to eat with us. my father was usually long gone, as he griff-sleven, baking solo digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 59-61 60 would go and check in on his elderly aunts and uncles that lived together in another neighborhood close to our family business: griff furniture. i put on one of ma’s aprons. i chose a cotton one with ruffles around the bib , white and pink, covered with hearts. ma, at 5’2,” had curly dark hair in a halo around her head, big brown eyes and was curvy. she stood by the kitchen counter and watched me assemble the ingredients and measure. she opened the can of hershey’s syrup since the electric can opener was unwieldy. then she left the room. my brothers were outside playing with their gang of neighborhood friends, i could see them outside the kitchen window, making a snow fort. lois, my younger sister was with her friend ricky at his house making creepy crawlers. ma went to the sun parlor to fold linen and watch her soap operas. bubbie, wearing a pink hairnet that covered her short, thin gray hair, and light woolen purple and white polka-dot housedress, her walker parked beside her, sat in the living room on the blue and green cloth armchair, reading her yiddish newspaper with a magnifying glass. as i creamed the butter and sugar and watched the batter turn light yellow, i remember feeling grown up. i added the vanilla, measuring it over the mixing bowl, remembering my mother telling me that spices and flavorings didn’t have to be exact, a little extra made it taste better. after i added the chocolate and poured the batter into the greased heart shaped aluminum pan, i called my mother in to light the gas oven. we put the cake pan in and my mother said, “remember you have to clean up and get ready for the frosting.” i washed the utensils and measuring cups and got everything ready for the fun part. the house started smelling like chocolate cake. bubbie poked her head in the kitchen and nodded, “smells like a birthday,” she sang out. impatiently i waited for it to be done, and then cool. i called my best friend barbie sutherland to tell her i was making my own cake. she was properly impressed. finally, the cake was done and i made the frosting, deciding on a pale lavender background thinking that it would highlight all the jimmies and colored sprinkles and hearts i was going to use. the cake was exactly as i thought it should be, loaded with color and fun and yummy. when i brought the cake to the table for dessert, everyone chowed down appreciatively. i hugged mummy afterwards and thanked her for the best birthday present ever. griff-sleven, baking solo digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 59-61 61 this story is dedicated to the memory of my mother bessie griff who taught me to cook and bake and loved the way i wrote. image 1: original recipe, from the author images 2 & 3: drawings by stephanie woytuk, used with permission bread: performance of identity, gender and belief by: saeedeh niktab etaati from the middle east in neolithic times to europe in the twenty-first century, from adam and eve to the postmodern human, from abraham and lot to elijah and jesus, from the age of watermills to the industrial revolution, from the unleavened bread of the babylonians to the luxury loaves of the north americans, bread, in all its forms and throughout different slices of history and geography, has played a substantial role in people’s lives. its layers of meaning range from the satisfaction of hunger to the performance of religious ceremonies, and its influence ranges from revolutions to migrations, mirroring social, political, and cultural changes. from women to men, bread embodies identity and gender. from its smell to the taste, bread transports its passengers between the realms of reality and fantasy. in this research note, i use three theoretical lenses to analyze bread’s meanings: contextualism to explore its significance in different cultural and social contexts; marxist/socialist theory to frame bread within social, political, and economic changes; and, finally, postmodernism to demonstrate that bread is the embodiment of different voices and bread-making creates space for its makers to perform their gender and identity. here, in addition to published sources, i build upon my own experiences as an iranian persian woman who has lived over twenty-six years in iran and one year in canada. in addition, i draw on three interviews that i conducted with aparna, zaman, and mojtaba in st. john’s, newfoundland and labrador, canada. aparna is a bengali woman from mumbai, india. zaman is a panjabi man from lahore, pakistan, and mojtaba is a persian man from khorasan, iran. both aparna and zaman are phd students at memorial university of newfoundland while mojtaba is a mechanical engineer, working in st. john’s. zaman, mojtaba and i are muslims, and aparna is hindu. zaman bakes naan, leavened oven-baked flatbread, almost every night and different kinds of paratha occasionally for eids (muslim festivals) and parties. aparna bakes aloo ka paratha whenever she misses its taste and phulka, indian puffed flat bread, for religious rituals. mojtaba makes one new kind of bread which is the mixture of tāftoon, persian leavened flour bread, and another kind of persian bread, lavāsh, soft, thin flatbread, every weekend. bread: the intersection of culture, society, and food as mary hufford defines it, “context is a frame of reference created in order to constitute and interpret an object of attention” (hufford 2003:146). as products of an artistic process that are, as richard bauman argues, “situated in a web of interrelationships” (bauman 1983:362), folklore objects have symbolic significance reaching far beyond the explicit content of their texts (ben-amos 1971:11). context is the interpretant of folklore, and the meaning and significance of folklore objects are context-dependent (ben-amos 1993:212). events are those contexts in which people perform folklore in their society (ben-amos 1993:219). hence, according to dan ben-amos, “contextual analysis does not explain folklore; it interprets it, seeking meaning rather than causes” (1993:210). the transference of any folklore text to a different historical, cultural context grants it a new meaning. as ben-amos believes, “because of their transient nature, folklore texts do not have single meaning” (1993:212). therefore, bread as an object of folklore is polysemic, symbolizing various meanings in different cultures. through the application of contextualism, symbolic meanings of bread are revealed in the different contexts of its existence and events of its performance. to this end, based on bauman’s (1983) six-way schema for understanding context, in the next few pages i explore bread in two different contexts: cultural and social. within a cultural context, i first examine bread in a “context of meaning” (bauman 1983:363), providing information about bread in several cultures and communities. second, i explore it in an “institutional context” (bauman 1983:364), considering these questions: how does bread relate to other aspects of cultural life to make up a larger interrelated configuration? where does bread fit within the culture and how does it function? finally, i investigate bread in a “context of communicative system” (bauman 1983:364), demonstrating its relation to other folklore genres. in addition to its cultural context, i discuss the social context of bread. i address the “individual context” (bauman 1983:365) as i take up the question: how does bread fit into a person’s life? bread, is a worldwide staple which anthropologist carole counihan describes as “the nexus of economic, political, aesthetic, social, symbolic and health concerns” (counihan 1999; 29) in many countries. for example, in the north of scotland in the nineteenth century, people looked with much reverence on bread. to trample it under foot or cast the smallest quantity into fire was regarded as nearly criminal. children were trained by parents to avoid the abuse of bread in every way and to look upon it as god’s gift (gregor 1889:198). in congleton, england, bread is still believed by some to have religious importance. the church annually provides harvest feasts to celebrate the safe gathering of the harvest. the first loaf made from the last wheat to be gathered from the harvest is thought to have healing powers, so everyone in the festival is given one piece (marchant, reuben and alcock 2008:37). in sardinia, and all over italy and mediterranean europe, bread has always been the sine qua non,absolutely indispensable or essential, of food. minimal wellbeing was expressed in words “at least we have bread” (counihan 1999:29). in ancien regime france before the revolution, bread was synonymous with life. as historian steven laurance kaplan asserts “[t]he bulk of the people believe that they are dying of hunger if they do not have bread […] it was the healthiest of all foods […] the most essential to life” (1997:1). the loaf of bread contained something more than calories and nutrients. bread was associated with cleverness, wisdom, home, family, love, pleasure, fortune and liberty (kaplan 1997:3). all these connotations have come into french oral genres as well; a wonderful man or woman is “better than good bread,” an ill person has lost “the taste for bread,” an individual who has already enjoyed many years of life “has already baked more than half of his bread,” a person who arouses vain hopes, “promises more butter than bread” and there are many other examples (kaplan 1997:3, 4). however, at the same time, according to kaplan, there were some exceptional french thinkers, such as simon linguet, who called bread “this cruel dependence,” (1997:5) “promising more than it could deliver, manipulating emotions and only partially nourishing bodies, undependable and inconstant yet jealous and demanding undivided commitment” (1997:7). according to folklorist diane tye, in newfoundland, by the twentieth century, bread had become the keystone of family food system (tye 2011:177). in some communities people believed that bread provided protection from the fairies; children were given “bread for road” and “company bread” to ensure their safe return home while adults carried bread crusts in their pockets when “in the woods, picking berries, in fog, at night, or when passing a graveyard” (tye 2011:187). as i have learnt from zaman, in pakistan, the main dish of 80% of panjabis is bread rather than rice. both in urban and rural areas, women bake bread at home at least once a day. especially in the morning, you can distinguish houses of panjabi family from others according to the pleasant smell of aloo paratha. according to aparna, in india, the main dish of bengali people is rice but bread is the side dish of every meal. whether in a big city like delhi, mumbai or kolkata, or in rural areas, on every typical day, women make at least one kind of bread, known as roti at home. while roti can be purchased from bakeries, doing so does not reflect well upon the reputation of the woman and her family. once a year, during the big festival of durga puja, every hindu makes a special dish which includes one particular type of bread, phulka, for the mother goddess, durga. they call this religious act of giving god food po. making phulka for goddess durga is a very special ceremony. first, worshipers must be clean, pure from any dirt. women are forbidden to make it while they are menstruating. when making this holy bread, they have to use different utensils and ingredients rather than the ones for their daily usage. then, when the bread is prepared, they put it in front of durga and pray. finally, they eat and share the holy bread with others. in other festivals and other religious gatherings among hindus, like diwali, people make phulka as well but this time for themselves not for gods or goddesses. in afghanistan, the common word among dari speakers for meal is nān meaning bread. among muslims, bread is known as baraka meaning god’s gift or blessing (shirazi 2005, 293). because of the holy place of bread in the iranian culture, iranians, whether zoroastrians or muslims, treat bread very cautiously. first, they are very careful not to waste any piece of it, and not to step on it. also it is advisable not to throw away bread with other trash; as a result, in many iranian houses, there is a separate garbage bag for bread. when i was a child, i remember my grandmother had a tablecloth especially reserved for eating bread on and she asked my sister and me to try not to throw away any bread crusts or crumbs. at the end of a week, she shook out the tablecloth in the yard for pigeons while saying: “if you share your bread with others, god gives you more blessings”. bread also plays a very special role in iranian oral narratives. one famous example is the very common belief among iranians that if they break a promise or vow, bread as baraka or god’s blessing, will depart from their table. therefore, when they want to give a firm promise, they swear by bread and salt and say: “be haghe ān nān va namaki ke bā ham khordim” meaning “swear to the salt and bread we ate together.” there is a famous legend about bread among rural people from the northeastern iranian province of khorasan. on the first day of nowruz, iranian new year, khorasanis bake a special type of bread in an earthen oven or tanūr. they try to keep the tanūr warm throughout the evening because they believe bibi khur will visit their house. they put the leftovers of their last meal and the bread in the warm tanūr. when bibi khur sees the warm food and the bread in the oven, she will pray for the family and ask god to give them more baraka, bread, during the new year (shirazi 2005:303). in addition to oral narratives, the footprint of bread is traceable in other folklore genres in iran. some iranian shi’i muslim women perform special religious ceremonies around certain foods including bread. to pay tribute to dead holy figures and get help from them, women set a table, called sofreh,on which they put different foods. depending on the kind of sofreh, they select different types of bread. in some rural parts, they themselves make the bread but in other places they usually buy it. after praying and blowing holy words into the foods, they eat the bread and other foods while making wishes. they believe that after prayer, the food acquires supernatural powers because it is blessed by the holy figure to whom the sofreh is dedicated. photo 1: zaman making aloo paratha with his friends for a party while giving me the recipe. “the first step is making, kneading, and rolling the dough.” photo 2: “for the next step, stuff one layer of boiled spiced potatoes between one layer of the rolled dough on top and one on the bottom. don’t’ forget to prepare the filling ahead of time.” photo 3: “press tightly a three-layered bread to give you a whole entity. you are almost there!” photo 4: “fry both sides of bread on a greased pan for about two minutes.” photo 5: “when it becomes golden brown, your aloo paratha is ready! it is usually served with unsalted butter spread on top, but you can have it with yogurt too!” hegemonic and counterhegemonic bread according to gramsci, the absence of socialist revolutions in capitalist democracies is because of hegemony; a dominant class does not just rule a society but leads it through the exercise of intellectual and moral leadership and the unification of the whole society by presenting, as cultural studies scholar john storey says, “its own particular interests as the general interests” (2008:80). according to storey, “hegemony is never simply imposed from the above: it is always the result of negotiations between dominant and subordinate group” (2008:81). folklore actively contests the hegemony of dominant social orders in two ways. first, folklore as a counterhegemonic activity has the capacity for direct contestation. second, it can indirectly limit the total hegemony of parallel products and behaviors emanating from the dominant social order (limon 1983:45, 46). through applying marxist theory and gramsci’s concept of hegemony, bread in its different forms can be investigated in relation to the dominant power structures. throughout history and time, bread sometimes has been like the right-hand man of hegemony, but on the contrary, it sometimes also has been an advocate of subordinate groups and directly or indirectly contested hegemonic power. because of this, bread can narrate history like a sensitive historian, highlighting the social and economic changes in different societies. drawing on sociologist marcel mauss’s (1954) marxist framework, diane tye indicates that bread in newfoundland, as in some other cultures, acts like a total social fact. a study of bread’s production, consumption and distribution reveals social, political and economic meanings (2011:189). mass produced bread on the side of cultural hegemony socialist theorists such as marx, engels and gramsci believed that “human nature is the product of history and society,” and in this way “individualism is created by the production system of the capitalist economy” (quoted in counihan 1999: 25, 26). counihan, in her book the anthropology of food and body: gender, meaning and power (1999), identifies the role of bread in the construction of individualism in the peasant society of sardinia, italy. as she argues, “in the subsistence wheat and bread production, men and women depend on each other for assistance and are unable to make a living without mutual exchange of labor and products. social interdependence declines with the concentration of wheat production on capital-intensive farms and of bread production in a few bakeries operating with wage laborers to make profits” (counihan 1999:41-42). counihan believes bread, in its three stages of production, distribution, and consumption, helped the hegemonic power of modernization and industrialization shift the sardian society toward individualism and independence. another example of hegemony’s link to bread can be found in the history of revolutions. in the article “breadways,” kaplan (1997) compares the powerful role of bread in ancient regime france with the revolution and shows how bread governed private and public life in both epochs. he argues that although the difference in breadways helped the old regime construct distinctions within the french society, the revolution’s main goal was, at least theoretically, to reunite people by challenging their past model of daily nourishment. to this end, the revolutionaries tried to change hierarchical models of consumption through the replacement of “pain de ménage,” homemade bread, with the mass production of “common bread” or as it was called at that time, “bread of the people.” this linked poor and rich in their breadways (kaplan 1997:20). however, this hegemonic force with the aim of the unification of people’s taste was not beneficial for the parisian bakers and bread makers (kaplan 1997:21). ethnic bread as a resistance force against hegemonic taste in contrast to the production of mass produced bread, men and women can challenge the social order and cultural hegemony by making homemade bread. ethnic bread offers a third modality of opposition which is strengthening the internal cohesion of a group and thereby maximizing its solidarity and survival against a dominant social order (limon 1983:47). in this section, i show how making ethnic bread helps immigrants as a subordinate class in the context of a new country like canada struggle against the dominant interests of hegemony in breadways. as folklorist susan kalčik argues, “the earliest-formed layers of culture, such as foodways, are the last to erode” (kalčik 1984:39). when people enter into a new country, they react to food shock in three different ways: they might maintain their traditional foodways, trying to find and eat foods as similar to those in the old country or they accept the new ways and replace it with their old food habits. both processes ease the adjustment to life in a new country. the continuation of the old lifestyle makes the break less abrupt, while the replacement with new alternatives speeds acculturation (kalčik 1984). however, the third way is in-between, the hybridization of old and new foodways leading to construct “creolized” identity. creolization is one kind of identity formation which, according to diaspora scholar robin cohen, “centers on the cross-fertilization between different cultures as they interact” (2010:71). as she explains, “when creolization occurs, participants select particular elements from incoming or inherited culture, endow these with meanings different from those they possessed in the original culture, and then creatively merge these to create totally new verities that supersede the prior forms” (cohen 2010:71). this phenomenon happens in different forms of culture such as food, music and dance (cohen 2010:71). therefore, in the context of a new country, “creolized foodways” come about when immigrants make compromises between and hybrid their desire for old food habits and the new ones of their new country. considering these three kinds of food adjustments, the breadways of aparna, zaman, and mojtaba fit into the last category, the creolization between the old and the new. they adjust their familiar traditional ways of bread making with new ingredients, they substitute the special wheat flour with allpurpose flour, and they find new ways to use new tools such as an electrical stove rather than gas stove or underground oven. mojtaba told me he cannot find anything similar to the iranian bread he grew up with, so he has to make his bread. conversely, both aparna and zaman told me they can find different kinds of paratha (aloo, chicken, palaka, muli and sabzi), naan or any other kinds of their ethnic bread here in stores, such as costco, sobeys and taste east. that said, they still prefer to make bread at home. explaining her reasons, aparna says: making my own bread of any kind [is more] healthy. if you take them from the store they are frozen for many years! some chemical has been added in it. they ship it from india, pakistan and anywhere. how they are going to ship it? […] even if they are making them in canada and the u.s in the store or anywhere, they still add some additions because they are going to make profit […]. the main thing is to get profit. […] if you eat different brands of paratha in the store, the taste is totally the same. every bread has its own taste but all [are] the same. no change. there is something missing. but when i’m making it, if i’m making bread, the taste would be little different. if you get it one particular brand from the store, it will be remaining the same. there is no change, no variety. nothing. they will be the same because they are in the same amount, the same additives, exactly the same weight. but we don’t do it that way. because we try to experience […] if i want to eat spicy paratha, i add more chili or if i want it salty, i add salt. zaman also asserts: most of my friends [pakistani] prepare their bread at home. it’s a part of their meals, regular meals. [….] because first they find it very cheaper, second thing is that they can prepare their own bread of their own requirement. [it is] because of taste, especially if you buy it from the outside, from the market, you cannot add the requirements of your own. some people like to have butter instead of oil. it gives you much better taste. so if you buy it from the outside, you cannot add such kind of things. adding different varieties to bread, it forced them to prepare it at home. as both aparna and zaman mentioned, in canada, unlike in india or pakistan, there is no store or bakery for selling paratha. therefore, everybody has to make it at home in the oven or by using a “paratha maker” machine. aparna believes that each time it is made, paratha in india tastes different, and as zaman says, “you never get bored […] with bread.” according to marxist theorists, from the classic to postmodern, homogeneity and predictability are the main features of products of mass culture in a capitalist society (storey 2008:62). in adorno’s language, capitalist popular culture, popular music for instance, is “standardized” in all its features (storey 2008:65). in jameson’s words, all multinational capitalist cultural products, such as nostalgia film, are “pastiche,” a blank parody and quotation of previous culture (storey 2008:191, 192). postmodernism as the epoch of late capitalism, in baudrillard’s term, is the era of “simulation” and “hyperrealism,” a real without origins or reality (storey 2008:187). although none of the marxist theorists refer to the capitalist food industry explicitly, their concepts are applicable to food products as well. in the above mentioned case, ethnic bread made by immigrants in a new country proves that adorno’s notion of standardization, jameson’s idea of pastiche and the frankfort school’s notion of sampling are not limited to pop music or nostalgia films. sampling can happen with any products of mass culture even foods such as bread. according to my pakistani and indian informants, mass produced paratha lacks the “authentic” taste of its indian-bengali-pakistani original. the commodification and commercialization of paratha and naan devalues homemade versions of them, making them too accessible by turning it into another salable commodity in the capitalist society of canada. using gramsci’s concept of hegemony as the “exploitative and oppressive nature of capitalism” (storey 2008:79), bread, in this context, is “a total social fact” which unveils the “black parody” or “empty copy” of the hyperrealist nature of capitalism. the hegemonic taste of mass produced paratha has been challenged by zaman and aparna who are not yet tasteblind, becoming accustomed to a single taste to the exclusion of others. however, beyond struggling against hegemonic taste, the acts of bread-making and eating represent more meanings in terms of gender and identity which are best captured through the lens of postmodernism. making bread, making their own world as kalčik asserts, “traditional foods and ways of eating form a link with the past and help ease the shock of entering a new culture, thus many struggle to hold on them despite pressure to change” (kalčik 1984:37). anthropologist david sutton introduces the idea of food as a cultural site through which people “reintegrate the past and the present to recapture the totality of the old way of life” (2001:75). through studying greek immigrants in the u.s and the u.k, he shows that they grab the power of smell and taste of ethnic foods as “a firm ground under their feet” that “evoke the memories on which identities are formed” (sutton 2001:74). he writes: “in the migrant context…cooking is not simply an everyday practice, but an attempt to reconstruct and remember synthetically, to return to that whole world of home, which is subjectively experienced both locally and nationally, if not at other levels as well” (86). taking the same approach, diane tye demonstrates that for many newfoundlanders “homemade bread is a vehicle for imaginary travel across space as well as time.” its taste and smell evoke the past, childhood and rural way of life which does not exist anymore, thus leading to individual and cultural reaction to loss (2011:189). in addition, some diaspora studies in the u.s, such as dike’s exploration of moroccan identities through food in boston (2014) and galvin and hauck-lawson’s survey of ethnic bakeries in brooklyn (1991), reassert that in a foreign country, cooking and eating any traditional food associated with home, including bread, helps immigrants connect with their ethnic identities. my consultants reinforce the findings of this published research. aparna, zaman and mojtaba all associate food with their family in particular and with their identity in general. aparna: when i’m eating my own [home-made] aloo ka paratha, i felt my mother made it for me. whenever i make something i can feel the amazing taste of the special paratha my father made for us. […] i can feel it now. i always miss it. mojtaba: it is very nostalgic. when i’m making the dough [for tāftoon], the smell of wheat brings me back to iran’s bakeries where every morning i used to stand in the line to get bread. […] while i flip over the bread on the pan, its smell reminds me of the bread which just came out of the baker’s tanūr [in iranian bakeries]. zaman: when i’m making bread, i remember my mother many times. one of my iranian friends who established an iranian bakery in st. john’s, once, in an informal conversation, explained his motivation for starting this business: i love the moment when i take the bread out from the oven and touch it. i used to eat hot bread every morning in iran. i used to touch bread every morning. you know how meaningful it is for us [iranians] to eat “hot bread which just came out of the oven” for our breakfast. all these quotes show how bread evokes the memory of the senses and helps its makers return to worlds displaced in time and space. when they make their own bread, they are creating their own imaginary and interior world in which their feelings are sheltered and their memories are relived. they are reunited with their roots and the motherland they left behind. as a souvenir from this journey, they bring bread back to the real world in order to make their cultural loss tangible. reconstruction of identity and cross-group cohesion through bread making the notion of identity refers to the concept of a widely-shared individual and social existence leading to a process of affiliation with a community while acting as a confining construct when referring to others (abrahams 2003:208, 209). however, based on roland cohen’s “situational identity” theory (cohen 1978), identity is not fixed, but rather is situated, fluid, and constantly changing. it is reconstructed under different social interactions and conditions over time. the role of food and foodways in the formation of identity as self-perception and other-exclusion is undeniable. foodways as a marker of identity, in anthropologist claude fischler’s words “is a quite central component of the sense of collective belonging” (1988:280) and the self because “human beings mark their membership of a culture or a group by asserting the specificity of what they eat, or more precisely […] by defining the otherness, the difference of others” (fischler 1988:280). likewise for immigrants, as kalčik explains, the use of certain foods in a group becomes a symbol, creating a feeling of group belongingness and community integration. such symbolic foodways strengthen the group’s internal tie or indicate out-group status (kalčik 1984: 47, 48). in the same vein, anne kaplan in her book the minnesota ethnic food suggests that “foodways, identity and one’s chosen past are all tied together and given an urgency and new meaning by multiethnic, multicultural environment in which individual currently live” (1986:154). the notion of identity is very clear for mojtaba. he makes bread for his iranian wife, his iranian friends, and sometimes his non-iranian friends. he calls his bread “100% iranian.” when i was talking to him, he insisted many times, that “you know it better than me, we, just the iranians, know how much we miss tāftoon, lavāsh and sangak-all different types of iranian breadhere.” undoubtedly, for him, bread brings sense of unity with his family and other members of the iranian community in st. john’s. also for me, as an iranian student living in canada, bread is always connected with memories of my family and country. these following lines are selected from my diaries: whenever i wake up in the morning, i realize all was a sweat dream; i’m no longer in iran [...]. there is no family here waiting around the breakfast table for me […]. there is no father here going to the bakery every morning to get hot sangak for breakfast […]. i miss going to tajrish having ash-ereshte and barbari with my friends […] i am missing iran every minute. on the contrary, defining identity gets very complicated for my pakistani and indian consultants. zaman bakes bread with his pakistani friends and sometimes shares it with them and also his nonpakistani friends. on some special occasions, such as eids he makes more loaves and brings them to the parties. he explains: especially the food which we have in pakistani panjab is the same as indian panjab. before 1947, actually india and pakistan were the same countries. in 1947, they broke down. unfortunately, panjab was the province which was divided in two parts. one part was in india and the other part in pakistan. but still all the traditions, customs are the same, specially wedding ceremonies. when i asked “so what is your bread, is it panjabi or pakistani?” he hesitated before answering: “it is both. panjab and pakistan are the same.” aparna described her best experience of making aloo ka paratha here in canada with the help of one of her pakistani friends. she also mentioned that one day, she taught a pakistani-canadian friend how to make paratha. when i asked her the same question, is it pakistani or indian or bengali bread, she told me: no no no, bread is exception. you might see even in india the same foods are being made very differently in different regions but bread is not like that. it is the same bread, the same aloo ka paratha, the same roti, the same luchi in pakistan, india and also bangladesh. […] that’s sad, that’s very bad because as i said religion is the one. i don’t know why they fight why we fight the other approach in food and foodways studies is the exploration of its role in the “intercultural negotiations and the workings of cultural and geographical appropriation” rather than just differentiating people by constructing different identities (turgeon and pastinelli 2002:250). through making, eating and sharing the same aloo paratha, zaman and aparna cross political boundaries and break down social distinctions. despite ongoing conflicts between pakistan and india, bread provides a channel for communication and helps zaman, aparna and her pakistani friends underline their historical cultural unity. bread equips them with one common language through which these politically different but culturally similar nations negotiate. as if by ingesting their bread, they symbolically abolish their old history of hostility. in this way, the notion of identity, according to abrahams, becomes synonymous with a bengali-pakistani-indian group developing a greater sense of common history and set of cultural practices (2003:202). even though aloo paratha reunites pakistan and india or maybe bangladesh, it excludes others. to be desirable indian-pakistani-bengali bread, more hot spices are necessary. neither i nor my french friend could eat it without yogurt. in this way, this bread acts as a shibboleth (noyes 2003:25) marking off india, pakistan and bangladesh from the world and differentiating the outsiders because of their failure to tolerate its taste. bread as a means of self-construction and performance of individualism the daily handling of food in its different stages (shopping, preparing and eating) is an opportunity to show one’s intelligence, skill, innovation and personal signature (sutton 2001:21,129). therefore, eating and making ethnic food is not only the performance of group identity, but it also becomes a means of self-statement and a marker of individualism (kalčik 1984:54). when i asked mojtaba how he made tāftoon without having tanūr here, he explained the new system he designed for controlling heat. he told me by combining two different ways of making tāftoon and lavāsh, he invented a new kind of bread which is neither of them. he says: “you cannot say it is lavāsh or tāftoon, it is my own discovery!” while baking bread, aparna’s strong feeling for her father, zaman’s constant picture of his mother, and mojtaba’s remembrance of nostalgic smell of iranian’s bakeries all bear testimony to the fact that not only eating but also cooking is a highly emotionally charged activity which has a strong tie to the past. the plural expression of different identities through bread making echoes the postmodern notion of multiple voices. considering food as mobile, multivocal, and polysemic (turgeon and pastinelli 2002:250), different kinds of bread are the embodiment of multiple voices. they are tangible signatures of diverse identities. they are talking out loud of their makers’ desires, needs, losses and hopes. they are the means of expressing cultural belongings and self-innovation. despite political fragmentations, they are representing cultural cohesions between nations. finally, they are drawing distinctive lines between different tastes. bread, performance of gender in addition to its strong tie to the past and identity, bread making can also be an example of gender performativity. in earlier generations in newfoundland, as tye explains, bread making was “a measure of successful womanhood” and women were judged by their ability to make bread. bread making was a rite of passage for girls; when they were able to make good bread, it conveyed they became marriageable women (tye 2011:184). moreover, bread making can create a safe space for women to perform femininity. according to counihan’s essay on bread (1999) in sardina, italy, women regularly made bread together. as counihan argues, “the bread makers were typical channels of social communication. while they prepared the dough and baked the bread, they make an x-ray of the town. secrets were revealed; the women judged and absolved or condemned. by working together, women developed and acted out standards for ‘good bread, ‘good work’ and finally a ‘good woman.’ through the act of criticizing others, they collectively reaffirmed local norms and morality” (1999:34, 35). also in iran, as mentioned earlier, bread making is a central part of a religious ritual, sofreh, which helps shi’i women perform femininity. as faegheh shirazi, a historian and scholar of middle eastern studies argues, sofreh, held by women for other women, serves to unify the women offering both comfort and community and is an important part of iranian women’s spirituality (2005:309). according to aparna and zaman, making bread is part of the daily work of indian and pakistani women. from the age of eight or nine, every interested panjabi and bengali girl starts learning how to make bread from their mothers, so when they reach 21 or 22 years old, they have become professional bread makers. it is worth mentioning that bread making in these nonwestern societies is not always an indicator of the imposition of patriarchal power over women who are obliged to do this chore. rather, as aparna and zaman insist, more often than not, women enjoy this daily activity and, if they need aid, it is their husbands’ and sons’ duty to help or even do the job completely. furthermore, if a bengali or panjabi girl has no desire to make bread at all, she is not forced by anyone to learn it. despite all these female spaces, bread making is not a female-specific activity. in terms of occupation, most bread bakers in pakistan, iran and india are men. furthermore, neither zaman nor mojtaba had tried to make bread back home in pakistan and iran. zaman started making bread since he went to the u.k to study, and mojtaba made bread for the first time in canada. since then, zaman has begun to make bread every day, trying not to buy it from the store. when i asked him if, in the future, he gets married to a pakistani girl, he will still keep making bread every day, his answer was: “yes, of course. why not? i will enjoy baking bread for my wife.” even though he grew up in a family where every day his mother baked roti and naan, he does not label bread making as a solely feminine task. conclusion by using the approaches of contextualism, postmodernism and marxist/socialist theory, i have explored various aspects of bread. i have tried to fit these various interpretations together like different parts of a puzzle and to join them together to make one single coherent picture. while overlapping with each other, each of these theories highlights some facts about bread more than the others. providing different frameworks, contextualism is an indispensable part of studying folklore. every meaning of bread as a folklore text has to be interpreted in relation to its cultural and social context. one slice of bread in one culture might mean blessing from god while the same slice is a special gift for goddess in other culture. for one family, bread brings a message of liberty while in the neighbors’ house it is synonymous with cruel dependency. looking through a marxist lens, bread’s sociopolitical mask is stripped off and its relation to hegemonic discourse is unveiled. to be with or against dominant power, bread is either an advocate or opponent of subordinates. in the framework of marxism, bread can renarrate history according to cultural, social and political changes occurred in its production, consumption and distribution. however, it is through postmodernism that bread and its relation to gender and identity is exposed. bread is a means of performing diverse identities while providing a channel for intercultural negotiations. whether women or men, immigrants represent their hopes, desires, losses and thoughts in the shape of bread and through its smell and taste, they travel across space and time to where they are reunited with their homeland. references cited abrahams, roger d. 2003. identity. in eight words for the study of expressive culture, ed. burt feintuch, 198-222. urbana, chicago, and springfield: university of illinois press. bauman, richard. 1983. the field study of folklore in context. in handbook of american folklore, ed.richard dorson, 362-68. urbana: university of illinois press. ben-amos, dan. 1971. toward a definition of folklore in context. the journal of american folklore 84: 3-15. ---. 1993. context in context. western folklore 52: 209-226. cohen, robin. 2010. social identities and creolization.in diasporas : concepts, intersections, identities, ed. kim knott and sean mcloughlin, 68-73. london: zed books. cohen, ronald. 1978. ethnicity: problems and focus in anthropology. annual review of anthropology 7: 379-403. counihan, carole m. 1999. the anthropology of food and body: gender, meaning and power. new york: routledge. dike, m. ruth. 2014. exploring evolving moroccan identities in the diaspora. digest: a journal of foodways and culture 3.1: 10-35. fischler, claude. 1988. food, self and identity. social science information 27.2: 275-292. galvin, seán and annie hauck-lawson. 1991. bread and the artistic process: hand-shaping by heart. digest 11.1&2: 5-9. gregor, walter. 1889. bread. the folk-lore journal 7.3: 195-198. hufford, mary. 2003. context. in eight words for the study of expressive culture, ed. burt feintuch, 146-75. urbana, chicago, and springfield: univesity of illinois press. kalčik, susan. 1984. ethnic foodways in america: symbol and the performance of identity. in ethnic and regional foodways in the untited states: the performance of group identity, ed. linda keller brown and kay mussell, 37-66. knoxville: the university of tennessee press. kaplan, anne. 1986. ethnic foodways in everyday life: creativity and change among contemporary minnesotans. st. paul: the minnesota historical society press. kaplan, steven laurance. 1997. breadways. food and foodways: explorations in the history and culture of human nourishment 7.1: 1-44. katouzian, homa. 2009. the persians: ancient, mediaeval and modern iran. new haven and london: yale university press. limon, jose e. 1983. western marxism and folklore: a critical introduction. the journal of american folklore 96: 34-52. marchant, john, bryan reuben and joan alcock.2008. bread: a slice of history. gloucestershire: the history press. mauss, marcel. 1954. the gift: forms and functions of exchange in archiac societies. trans. ian cunnison. london: cohen and west. noyes, dorothy. 2003. group. in eight words for the study of expressive culture, ed. burt feintuch, 7-41. urbana, chicago, and springfield: university of illinois press. shirazi, faegheh. 2005. the sofreh: comfort and community among women in iran. iranian studies 38.2: 293-309. storey, john. cultural theory and popular culture: an introduction. new york: pearson prentice hall, 2008. sutton, david e. 2001. remembrance of repasts: an anthropology of food and memory. new york and oxford: berg. turgeon, laurier and madeleine pastinelli. 2002. eat the world: postcolonial encounters in quebec city's ethnic restaurants. the journal of american folklore 115: 247-268. tye, diane. 2011. bread for the road: intersections of food and culture in newfoundland and labrador. newfoundland and labrador studies 26.2: 175-196. waldenberger, suzanne. 1995. our daily bread: a look at bible breads. digest 15: 17-19. notes 1 the first version of this paper was presented in a folk 6030: “folklore theories” class, instructed by dr. cory thorne in fall 2015. it has thoroughly benefited from class discussions and revisions. i also want to thank dr. jillian gould, dr. diane tye and kari sawden for their thoughtful feedback. 2 abraham and lot both were visited by angels, and they baked unleavened bread for their guests (marchant, reuben and alcock 2008: 16, 17). elijah was saved from starvation by the miraculous appearance of a cake, baked on the stones. for jesus, bread was the means of demonstration of his divine nature when a few loaves were made sufficient to feed thousands (waldenberger 1995:17). 3 in this context, persian refers to the racial ethnicity, i.e. being fars and different from other races such as kurd, turk, lur, turkmen and other ethnic groups living in iran. it should not be confused with the broader connotation of persian as the culture of people from persia who constituted “persianate world” including what is today called iran, afghanistan, tajikistan extending to parts of north india, uzbekistan, turkmenistan, the caucasus and anatolia (katouzian 2009:9). 4 5paratha or pratha is unleavened flatbread that can be stuffed with some of these ingredients: boiled potatoes ( aloo paratha or aloo ka paratha), chicken (chicken paratha), spinach (palak paratha), horseradish/radish (mooli paratha) or vegetable (sabzi paratha). 5 the persian speakers use the word nān for bread in general. to avoid confusion with naan, as another kind of bread discussed earlier, i use two different spellings. 6 of course in addition to zoroastrians and muslims, there are people with other beliefs and religions who live in iran. however, for the purpose of this paper, i, as a muslim with zoroastrian heritage am just focussing on my observations and experiences as well as those of my consultant, mojtaba, who is also muslim. 7 her actual identity is unknown but according to people’s belief, she is a highly respected spirit who is free to visit people on certain days of the year. 8 mauss in his book, the gift (1954), shows the importance of gifts in social relations in france. he concludes that the fragmentation of social relations in the french society at that time resulted from the increase in market exchange and the decline of gift giving. he coins the term “social total fact” and uses it for gift, the marker of social change. 9 mojtab says: “you know, we [iranians] cannot find tāftoon or lavāsh or sangak here. i don’t like always to eat baguette. actually i can’t. i miss iranian bread’s taste, i have to make them.” 10 tajrish is the name of an old neighborhood in tehran which is famous for its bazar. 11 ash-ereshteh is an iranian thick soup consisting of herbs, noodle and beans, and barbari is one type of iranian flatbread. ©2017 center for food and culture 1 keywords: exploring cultural differences through the lens of food k-12 curriculum guide center for food and culture lucy m. long, susan eleuterio, and jerry l. reed, iii (partially funded by the american folklore society) may 2020 (updated march 24, 2023) table of contexts introduction unit i: culture—p.6 unit 2: construction--p.12 unit 3: identity—p.18 unit 4: meaning—p.24 unit 5: systems/structures—p.32 appendix—p.39 ©2017 center for food and culture 2 introduction cultural differences are a resource adding richness to our lives, but they can also cause conflict when people do things differently from what we’re used to or that are different from what we like or value. we might feel suspicious of people who look different from us, speak in languages we don’t understand, or eat food we find distasteful. we need to talk about such differences in order to understand them—and resolve them— but that is frequently difficult to do. sometimes the terms and phrases being used can be confusing. we think we know what they mean; but other people might use them differently. also, we might be hesitant to express our feelings openly or are sensitive to others’ feelings and unsure how to address concerns, this project uses food to explain and illustrate some keywords frequently used in discussing conflicts and inequalities around race, ethnicity, class, gender, and other characteristics involved in cultural differences. those key words reflect a history of use and are loaded with meanings that easily get lost when they are tossed around. understanding those keywords is a beginning in talking about and understanding cultural differences. why use food? eating is universal, but food is particular to each culture. every group has their own ideas of what tastes good, what foods are healthy, how they should be prepared and served, and what meanings are attached to different dishes. at the same time, we all eat, so we can relate to each other’s needs. food offers a lens for exploring cultural differences, how those differences came about, and why they matter. it also helps us understand some basic concepts and terms. we can then apply those understandings to finding ways to resolve conflicts, find empathy for one another, and collaborate in creating a kinder and more equitable world. ©2017 center for food and culture 3 to the teacher: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) subjects have been identified by both educators and employers as necessary in order to increase national and individual competitiveness in the global marketplace. the skills and knowledge taught through these subjects are integral to functioning successfully within today’s modern society. the center for food and culture feels that education in the humanities is also necessary and should be integrated with stem subjects. the humanities are those disciplines that study the ways in which humankind has sought and defined the meaning and purpose of life. stem addresses how, the humanities address why. food is an ideal subject for studying both stem and the humanities. the lessons offered here use approaches based in folklore scholarship based on ethnography—observing and talking to people about what food means to them. they provide opportunities for teachers and students to examine a component of everyday life—eating--to demonstrate mastery of english language along with other concepts and ideas from history, social studies, science and technical subjects. the keywords curriculum takes a humanities approach to addressing issues around cultural differences. it can be used alongside other subjects or as a distinct set of assignments in or out of the classroom. it addresses the ideas underlying cultural differences, so it should be used in conjunction with materials that provide more content on specific aspects of culture--race, ethnicity, class, gender, socioeconomic class, abilities, age, even personality and personal preferences around sports or music. this means that the ideas can be adapted to specific classrooms and communities. it also means that teachers may need to go to other resources to gain a better grasp of the concepts themselves. they should also need to dig into local cultural resources to find information relevant to their specific circumstances. this curriculum includes 5 stand-alone units that can be modified for different grade levels, abilities, circumstances, and subjects. each unit includes an introduction, a description of activities, connections to cultural differences, and handouts for students. it also includes a list of resources for educators, assessment tools, and relevant curriculum standards. an appendix includes a bibliography along with lists of terms and additional materials for understanding food from a humanities and folkloristic perspective. unit i. culture to begin, we need to clarify what we mean by culture. the word can refer to several different ideas—a group of people; their way of life and beliefs, their traditions, their artistic expressions, and their “lens” for interpreting reality. can we identify which definition is being used when we see differences? food culture can have all the meanings the word “culture” carries, but it most commonly refers to a group of people who share a way of eating. it includes the practices, attitudes, and beliefs as well as the networks and institutions surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of food. activity 1: student culture chart—helps students see the range of activities, events, and institutions involved in their own culture. activity 2: students’ food culture--introduces students to describing distinctive features of their own food culture. ©2017 center for food and culture 4 unit ii. construction race is frequently said to be a “social construct,” but what does that mean when skin color and other physical characteristics seem to be objective and visible. such categories seem to be a natural reflection of the world, but they are not simply ways to describe people. they exist because they are useful to us in some way. the category of race, unfortunately, has been a way to justify mistreatment and exploitation of large groups of people. food similarly seems to be objective and self-evident, yet definitions of what can be food differ across cultures. that’s because it is culturally, socially, and personally constructed as ”matter considered appropriate for ingestion.” that construction is fluid and dynamic, shaped by history, culture, and personal experiences. activity: food preferences—introduces students to the idea of construction and how they developed their own perceptions of what is food and which foods are tasty. unit iii. identity the word “identity” in contexts of cultural differences frequently refers to individuals as members of a racial or ethnic group. what is the relationship, though, between who we are and our skin color or family background? how can we be individuals and also members of groups? why does it matter so much how other people see us? a folklore approach to identity sees all of us as having multiple identities made up of our race, ethnicity, nationality, region, class, gender, age, ableness, religion, beliefs and values, occupations, personal interests, personality and our various social roles. we highlight different aspects of our identity in different situations, but some contexts do not let us choose which aspect we want to emphasize. food choices express our identity whether we intend to or not. activity 1: food identity collage poster—students describe their own identities and match those with the food they eat. activity 2: reading identity through food (sandwiches)--students describe their favorite sandwich, then explore how those ingredients reflect or express their identity. unit iv. meaning what do cultural differences mean? what does it mean to recognize them? what do we mean by “meaning”? how do we communicate with each other so that each participant understands the other? what is “understanding?” we frequently communicate meaning through symbols, rituals, and art. symbols are objects and actions that stand for something else. rituals are recurring symbolic activities or events, often recognizing and celebrating significant milestones in life or the seasons. art frequently expresses our emotions and imagination. all three are used to tell other people what things mean. food is oftentimes used as a symbol. it also frequently plays a significant role in rituals and can also be used to express creativity and imagination. activity 1: symbol: apples—introduces the concept of symbol by exploring the variety of things an apple can stand for in american culture. activity 2: ritual: holidays, birthdays, school traditions—introduces the definition of ritual and the different types of rituals by having students describe a common food symbol for birthdays—the birthday cake. activity 3: art: design in fruit displays, drawing fruit—explores the idea of expressing creativity and imagination through arranging displays of fruit and by drawing fruit. ©2017 center for food and culture 5 unit v. systems/structures discussions of cultural differences frequently refer to systems and structures, as in “systemic racism” or “structural inequality.” what do those phrases mean? this unit explores those ideas through the idea of foodways, the network of processes, contexts, and conceptualizations around food and eating. foodways illustrates how in a system all the parts are connected, so that if one part is changed, the others are affected. that helps to explain why change can be so difficult. also, various external and internal forces (structures) keep the system going. food system refers to the specific system connecting the production of food to consumption. activity 1: the foodways of a meal--introduces students to the idea of systems and structures by having them describe the foodways of one of their meals. this illustrates how all the parts work together as a system to create that meal and how various external and internal forces (such as parents, friends, school lunch) affect their choices about that meal. activity 2: food system--follow a product from farm to table (tomato, milk, apple). resources see appendix for an extensive list of resources. this includes websites, articles published in academic journals, and published books. each unit also includes a list of selected resources. to get started, it is recommended to go to several resources that give more context: “talking about race” https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race. national museum of african american history and culture, smithsonian institution. markus, hazel rose and paula m. l. moya, eds. doing race: 21 essays for the 21st century . new york: w.w. norton, 2010. mcintosh, peggy. 1989. “white privilege: unpacking the invisible knapsack,” peace and freedom magazine , july/august, 1989, pp. 10-12. https://nationalseedproject.org/key-seed-texts/white-privilege-unpacking-theinvisible-knapsack. olua, ijeoma. 2018. so you want to talk about race. new york: seal press. takaki, ronald. 2009 (1993). a different mirror: a history of multicultural america. wilkerson, isabel. 2020. caste: the origins of our discontents. random house https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race https://nationalseedproject.org/key-seed-texts/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack https://nationalseedproject.org/key-seed-texts/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack ©2017 center for food and culture 6 keywords exploring cultural differences through the lens of food k-12 curriculum guide center for food and culture www.foodandculture.org lucy m. long, susan eleuterio, and jerry l. reed, iii (partially funded by american folklore society) may 15, 2020 table of contexts introduction unit i: culture unit 2: construction unit 3: identity unit 4: meaning unit 5: systems/structures appendix ©2017 center for food and culture 7 unit 1: culture what is culture? topic: concepts of culture/food culture activity 1: student culture chart activity 2: students’ food culture the word “culture” is frequently used when we talk about different groups of people and the differences between them. we also tend to say that someone acts a certain way because of their culture or they learned it from their culture. even the title of this curriculum uses the word. what exactly does it mean, though? what is culture? this unit gives several answers to that question and introduces the idea that culture is a lens for interpreting experiences. it then illustrates these ideas with food examples. the activities ask students to describe their own cultures and the foodways of their favorite meal. the connections to cultural differences section emphasizes that cultures have a logic to their ways of doing things and seeing the world. it also emphasizes that culture shapes how people behave and think, but individuals also can also act and think on their own. the word “culture” is oftentimes used in a number of ways: 1) “culture” (with a capital “c”) refers to selected artistic forms representing a group of people, usually those who have political, social, or economic power. culture here is equated with civilized and educated, so that people say they are going to go to the art museum to get some “culture.” they also refer to people knowledgeable about those selected arts as being “cultured.” 2) “cultures” or “a culture” (small “c”) refer to groups of people, usually sharing a language, heritage, religion, or nationality. smaller groups within large ones are called “subcultures.” 3) “culture” can refer to a group’s a way of life or everyday practices. “culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behavior acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiment in artifacts…” (kroeber & kluckhohn 1952: 181) 4) “culture” can refer to a tangible and intangible collective that exists in time and space that is learned by individuals who belong to it. “culture… is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by [a human] as a member of society” (tylor 1871). 5) culture as a “lens” for interpreting our experiences. from this perspective, culture gives individuals the categories by which they classify the world and understand and evaluate what they experience. “culture is the acquired knowledge people use to interpret experience and generate behavior” (spradley 1980, 6). it is helpful to identify which meaning of “culture” is being used in discussing cultural differences frequently, it refers to different customs or ways of doing things, particularly ©2017 center for food and culture 8 when those ways seem unusual or even wrong. such differences raise suspicions about the intelligence, morality, and even humanity of another person. looking at cultures as different sets of “complex wholes” helps us understand how different customs develop and how they make sense to people in that culture. looking at culture as a lens helps us to understand why people think the way they do and might respond to events very differently from how we respond. several other points about culture as “complex whole” and as a lens: 1. culture is learned. individuals are taught both informally and formally how to think and act in a particular culture. 2. culture is dynamic and fluid. individuals within a culture can change customs and interpretations. new situations require adaptations. 3. cultures are made up of individuals. they can accept some of the collective practices and thinking but also have their interpretations and ways of doing things. they have “agency” to choose meanings if not actions. culture and food this curriculum explores the connections between food and culture, and each unit focuses on different ways of looking at those connections. it focuses on the concept of “food culture,” but it mentions other relevant terms. the unit on systems features the concept of foodways. food culture has all the various meanings that the word “culture” carries. we use it here to refer to the ways of eating found among the many different groupings of people found throughout the world. it includes the practices, attitudes, and beliefs as well as the networks and institutions surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of food. it encompasses the concepts of foodways, cuisine, and food system and includes the fundamental understandings a group has about food, historical and current conditions shaping that group’s relationship to food, and the ways in which the group uses food to express identity, community, values, status, power, artistry and creativity. it also includes a groups’ definitions of what items can be food, what is tasty, healthy, and socially appropriate for specific subgroups or individuals and when, how, why, and with whom those items can or should be consumed. cuisine usually refers to a set of ingredients, flavor combinations, recipes, and cooking styles felt to represent the best of a food culture. it is oftentimes associated with formal training in the culinary arts, official definitions of that culture’s food, and the groups within a culture holding economic and social power. it is also associated with gourmet cooking and eating. food system refers to the ways in which food moves from production to consumption. in between can include how food is processed, packaged, marketed, and distributed, as well as disposed. economic systems are a significant part of food systems as are transportation networks, agricultural industries, and food retailers and restaurants. foodways refers to the total network of practices and concepts surrounding food and eating. change in one area affects others, and memories and meanings get attached to food through the various activities and contexts of foodways. it includes food as product ©2017 center for food and culture 9 (ingredient, recipe, dish, meal, meal system), the processes attached to food (production, procurement, preservation, preparation, presentation, consumption, cleanup and disposal), and performance (contexts for food, concepts about food, identity and meaning of food). assignments: activity 1: student culture chart—helps students see the range of activities, events, and institutions involved in their own culture. activity 2: students’ food culture--introduces students to describing distinctive features of a food culture. students can draw of write in answers. compare in class. • flavor profile: spices and flavorings • core foods: proteins, vegetables, fruits • common eating styles and utensils • meal system: (names of meals/times/usual types of foods) connections to cultural difference: • knowing that culture is learned, dynamic, and fluid helps us understand how different groups of people have developed their ways of living in the ways they have. each culture has an internal logic so that the different practices make sense within that culture. • knowing that culture is a lens for interpretation helps us understand why different groups of people respond to events differently and evaluate them differently. • knowing that individuals are shaped by their cultures but also have “agency” in choosing practices and interpretations helps us approach people on an individual level rather than as representatives of cultural stereotypes. resources: belasco, warren. 2008. food: the key concepts. london, uk: bloomsbury academic bowman, paddy, amanda dargan, and steve zeitlin. 2016. you eat what you are: foodways in education. c.a.r.t.s. cultural arts resources for teachers and students (special focus: teaching with foodways). 11: 1, 3. eleuterio, susan. “foodways lesson.” show me traditions: an educator’s guide to teaching folk arts and folklife in missouri schools. “ missouri folk arts program. 2009 hamer, lynne. 1999. eating in school: food and multicultural education. digest: an interdisciplinary study of food and foodways. 19: 2-7. long, lucy m.,” lexicon of food.” http://lexiconofsustainability.com/lexicon-of-food/ long, lucy m., ed. the food and folklore reader. bloomsbury, 2015. spencer-oatey, helen. what is culture? a compilation of quotations. globalpad core concepts, 2012. (http://go.warwick.ac.uk/globalpadintercultural ©2017 center for food and culture 10 unit i. culture activity 1: drawing my culture how i get to school: what i like to eat: my family: music that i like: how my family celebrates: what i like to do: what language i speak: where i am from: jobs my family have: ©2017 center for food and culture 11 unit i. culture activity 2: describe your food culture name of culture core foods (proteins, vegetables, fruits) flavor profile (spices and flavorings) meal system: (names of meals/times/usual types of foods) common eating styles and utensils (hands? fork? spoon? chopsticks? manners while eating?) ©2017 center for food and culture 12 keywords exploring cultural differences through the lens of food k-12 curriculum guide center for food and culture lucy m. long, susan eleuterio, and jerry l. reed, iii (partially funded by american folklore society) may 15, 2020 table of contexts introduction unit i: culture unit 2: construction unit 3: identity unit 4: meaning unit 5: system/structures appendix ©2017 center for food and culture 13 unit ii. construction food as a cultural, social and personal construction topic: food preferences race is oftentimes described as a “social construct.” students (and many adults) find that difficult to understand since they can see skin color and therefore assume that racial categories are visually objective categories. food similarly seems to be an objective and self-evident category. most people will say that the answer to “what is food?” is obvious: food is what we eat. yet definitions of what can be food and what is good food differ across cultures. approaching food as “matter considered appropriate for ingestion” enables us to see that it is a fluid and dynamic construction, shaped by history, culture, and personal experiences (long 2015). we also further explore the concept of construction by dividing it into three levels: cultural (reflecting worldview and belief systems); social (reflecting social institutions and hierarchies of power); and personal (the experiences, values, and choices of each individual within their larger cultural and social context). these levels of construction shape what we foods we think are tasty or disgusting, which, if any, animals we would never consider eating, what dishes we associate with different events, and what condiments we think belong on hot dogs! that understanding of construction of food is then applied to race, illustrating how, why, and by whom the category was constructed. such categories seem to be a natural reflection of the world, but they exist because they are useful to us in some way—keep us out of danger, help us to evaluate situations, figure out our responsibilities to other people. the category of race, however, has been a way to justify mistreatment and exploitation of large groups of people. many white europeans in the past (and some, unfortunately, in the present) classified africans and native americans by their skin color as less than human and therefore could be used like animals. this meant that those europeans felt that it was not immoral to take those individuals, their lands, and their possessions, and do whatever they wanted to. (the notion of race was also constructed at times to include groups with similar skin color. the english considered the irish to be a lesser race. this also raises questions about the relationship between ethnicity and race. in a democratic pluralistic society, the first is usually seen as a perception of heritage that can be acted upon in certain contexts by choice, while race is an assumption by others of identity, group belonging, and personal qualities based on physical features, particularly, skin color.) since the concept of construction can be complicated, more explanation is offered here through the lens of food. food can be seen as having three levels of construction: 1. cultural construction refers to edibility--what we think of as edible, or what we can eat and still be accepted as a “normal” human. this level reflects a culture’s basic beliefs about how the universe is organized and how we (humans) fit into it. for example, mainstream america sees animals as divided into several different categories: pets, domesticated animals for food, domesticated animals for work or play, wild animals for food, and wild animals. the first category is usually considered not edible at all; in fact, these animals are like family and are usually given names and personalities. eating them would be as unthinkable as eating humans. however, some animals might be pets for some people, but be considered food by others. rabbits, for example, used to be a ©2017 center for food and culture 14 common meat for pioneers and is still eaten by many people in the us, but they seem to be shifting more to the pet category. horses are domesticated but not considered a food in most of the u.s., although they are frequently eaten in europe. 2. social construction refers to palatability--notions of which foods taste good and how, when, with whom, where certain foods are desirable. palatability reflects social institutions and hierarchies of power within a culture. we generally want to imitate individuals or groups we admire or aspire to be like. similarly, we learn to like the foods that are eaten by those people. wine is a good example. it is usually considered a sign of sophistication in the u.s., so individuals wanting to appear sophisticated might cultivate a taste for wine, even though they don’t like it at first. lobster is now considered a high class and expensive food, but until the latter 1800s, it was considered distasteful and even inedible, a dirty “bottom-feeder” that only fisherman, convicts, and very poor people would eat. 3. personal construction refers to each individual’s definitions of edibility and palatability. each person negotiates the larger cultural and social constructions with their own experiences, circumstances, tastes, values, and personality to create their own universe of food. for example, eggs are considered both edible and palatable in american food culture, however, when i was around 5, my older brothers told me that scrambled eggs were made out of baby chickens. i was afraid to eat scrambled eggs for years afterwards because i thought i might find a baby chicken in the eggs. even now i get queasy when scrambled eggs are too soft and runny because of what my brothers told me, even though i know they were just teasing me. that’s my own personal construction of food. it is important to remember that these constructions are active, fluid, and dynamic. this means that individuals can shift foods from one category to another—something they may need to do for health reasons. it also means that our ideas of what is edible or palatable change over time. think about how some foods are trendy now that people maybe didn’t like in the past. korean kimchi (fermented cabbage, turnips, and other vegetables) is a good example. it can be found throughout the us now as a condiment similar to pickles or sauerkraut, but it used to be considered very “smelly,” too spicy, and too foreign in mainstream america. resources--see appendix for more suggested readings. **“talking about race” https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race. national museum of african american history and culture, smithsonian institution. markus, hazel rose and paula m. l. moya, eds. doing race: 21 essays for the 21st century . new york: w.w. norton, 2010. mcintosh, peggy. 1989. “white privilege: unpacking the invisible knapsack,” peace and freedom magazine , july/august, 1989, pp. 10-12. https://nationalseedproject.org/key-seed-texts/white-privilege-unpacking-theinvisible-knapsack. olua, ijeoma. 2018. so you want to talk about race. new york: seal press. omi, m. and winant, h. (1986). racial formation in the united states: from the 1960s to the 1980s . new york: routledge. takaki, ronald. 2009 (1993). a different mirror: a history of multicultural america. wilkerson, isabel. 2020. caste: the origins of our discontents. random house. https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race ©2017 center for food and culture 15 unit ii: construction activity: favorite foods/ disliked foods materials needed: handout/power point, pens, paper or computer/pad for taking notes and writing essay outcomes: written text based on personal ethnographic research using restaurant reviews as a model, peer reviewed rating of writing and content, class discussions on impact of historical developments and exploration of food as a personal, social and cultural construction, and publication of student writing on food and culture website. 1) have students name 2 foods that they dislike and 2 favorite foods. list these in two columns on the blackboard. (this can also be done privately with each student making their own list.) depending on the students involved, you might want to take a count of how many students agree with each choice. you might want to label these as “yucky” and “yummy” although this could obviously be problematic and hurtful if not carefully done.) 2) ask what is food. have the students brainstorm about what they would consider food and what they would consider tasty food. use examples of items not usually considered food in the mainstream us: pets, tree bark, seaweed, dirt, flowers, etc. 3) introduce definition of food as “matter considered appropriate for consumption.” emphasize that “considered” is a verb, so people are doing the considering. ask them who taught them what could be food—parents, friends, school cafeterias, restaurants. ask if there are any foods that they would not eat when they were younger, but that they like now. 4) introduce the concept of food as a personal, social, and cultural construction. explain each level and give examples. then ask the students to match their lists to the levels of construction to explain their evaluations. 5) hold a discussion: a. what is the difference between edible and palatable? b. do they consciously think about whether foods are edible or palatable before they eat them? c. who taught them what foods were edible? (parents, friends?) d. who taught them what foods were palatable? (most of us think we just like things that taste good, so have them dig a little into this.) e. do their choices of disgusting and favorite foods suggest anything about their personal backgrounds, beliefs, or circumstances? f. is there a food they have learned to like (or dislike) because of the people who eat it (social construction)? g. is there any food that they find disgusting (personal construction) that other people enjoy? h. what experiences have shaped their personal food universe? ©2017 center for food and culture 16 connection to cultural differences once students seem to understand the concept of construction in relation to food, have them apply it to race as well as other categories (ethnicity; gender; abilities; social groups within school, such as “jocks,” “science nerds,” “popular girls.”) what is race? there are several definitions you can turn to, but it is essentially categories based on physical characteristics of individuals that then assumes specific inner qualities. questions to ask: who came up with those categories? when, where, and why? who decides which individuals belong to which categories? did any groups benefit from these categories? did any groups suffer because of them? point out that racism assumes that every individual who fits that category shares the same inner qualities. what are their experiences with individuals from different races? do physical features accurately tell us an individual’s personality, interests, abilities, or values? can other people guess tell everything about them just by looking at their physical characteristics? what categories would the class construct about themselves? why those choices? ©2017 center for food and culture 17 key concepts: exploring cultural differences through the lens of food unit ii. construction food as a cultural, social and personal construction assignment: favorite foods/disliked foods instructions: 1. list two foods that you dislike and two that you find tasty and your favorites. 2. why do you find those foods are disagreeable or tasty? 3. can you apply the 3 levels of construction to your choices? 4. have your tastes around those foods changed over time? 5. compare your choices with those of your classmates. are there differences? what explains the differences? favorite foods disliked foods 1. 1. 2. 2. 3. 3. cultural construction—edible/edibility (what we can eat and still be considered “normal”) social construction—palatable/palatability (what we want to eat; what tastes good) personal construction—individual food universe (what personal experiences, values, and tastes you have as an individual) ©2017 center for food and culture 18 keywords exploring cultural differences through the lens of food k-12 curriculum guide center for food and culture lucy m. long, susan eleuterio, and jerry l. reed, iii (partially funded by american folklore society) may 15, 2020 table of contexts introduction unit i: culture unit 2: construction unit 3: identity unit 4: meaning unit 5: systems/structures appendix ©2017 center for food and culture 19 unit ii. idenity topics: concepts of identity and multiple identities food choices as expression of identity reading identity through food activity 1. create a food identity collage poster activity 2. reading identity through sandwiches (clip art licensed from the clip art gallery on discoveryschool.com) introduction we all have a variety of roles in life and ways of describing ourselves: race, ethnicity, gender, age, occupation, religion, value system, ableness, personality, personal interests, and so on. one way to think about this variety is the idea of “multiple identities.” we all have many identities. we carry those with us all the time, and they each shape our opportunities and choices in life, but we do not think about them all at the same time. we tend to focus on different identities in different situations. for example, at school, we focus on our identity as a teacher (occupation), while at home, our “situational identity” is that of parent (family role). foodways can be used to perform or showcase an aspect of our identity. selecting one food over another in a grocery store may reflect a regional identity; cooking or eating with certain implements may represent an ethnicity; abstinence from particular ingredients (for instance, pork or beef), may express ethical values or religious affiliations. many of our food choices are made without intentionally performing these aspects of our identity, but they are expressions of it just the same. for the activities, you can have students draw pictures of their food or cut them out of magazines or download them from the internet. you can also consider having actual food in the classroom, particularly for the second activity. items you may consider including bread (more than one type), butter, mayonnaise, mustard, nut butters (varieties depending on allergies), jam/jelly (varieties), lunchmeat, etc. ©2017 center for food and culture 20 making connections to cultural differences the two activities—food and identity collage and reading identity through a sandwich--help students discover their own multiple identities and the ways in which their identities are represented through food. they also help them explore the occasions in which they are able to express or highlight their different identities through food. by starting with food in their own lives, students can then better understand the connections between other individuals and their cultural identities. they can then see that each individual can have their own identities but also be part of various groups. the activities illustrate how we each want to be able to choose who we want to be and how we want to be perceived in a given occasion. all individuals want the freedom to choose which of their identities to highlight, but some contexts force us to recognize a different one. sometimes an individual wants to emphasize one identity, but other people highlight a different one based on perceptions about that person (racism, ageism, ableism, classism, sectarianism). for example, an individual eating spaghetti might want to focus on their identity as an athlete and needing carbohydrates, while other people might point to their ethnicity as the reason for their food choice. identity is complicated but also very personal. conflicts arise sometimes out of differences between our identities, but they also arise when those identities are misunderstood, made fun of, or dismissed. understanding the concept of identity itself gives us insights into why it can be so problematic. specific food cultures have identifiable flavors, core ingredients, cooking styles, and customs around eating. these can change over time and place, and oftentimes are blended with other cuisines. individuals and families within each culture will also have their own tastes and ways of making and eating food, so that matching food culture with identity is not always clear or easy. these assignments may encourage students to think about stereotypes associated with different cultures. this is an opportunity to discuss the differences between observable patterns of how a group of people usually do things and assumptions (stereotypes) that every individual in a group will act the same way. resource: belanus, betty and cathy kerst. 2010. bread journal. local learning. https://locallearningnetwork.org/resource/bread-journal/. long,lucy, editor. ethnic american food today: a cultural encyclopedia. 2015. rowman & littlefield. mares, teresa m. “tracing immigrant identity through the plate and the palate.” latino studies 10, no. 3 (september 2012): 334–54. https://doi.org/10.1057/lst.2012.31. https://locallearningnetwork.org/resource/bread-journal/ ©2017 center for food and culture 21 unit iii. identity assignment 1: create a food identity collage poster this assignment asks you to research your own food identity, make a collage about it, write about it and present it to the class. 1. make a list of your identities: (you do not have to include all of them!) nationality ethnicity/cultural identity (this may be more than oneinclude the name of different ethnic/cultural groups that are part of your identity) family (and place within family) region religion ethos—worldview, belief or value system (can be same as religion) gender age hobbies (this may be more than one) occupational (of your parents/grandparents/family) (this may be more than one) socioeconomic class (of your parents/grandparents/family) 2. next to each identity, write down at least one food or dish that you connect with it and that you eat. (for instance, you might write “hot dog” next to “national” since hot dogs are seen as an american food tradition. if you are a vegetarian, consider what might be a substitute.) list a food/dish for at least 5 of the identities. (you can have 2 from one group such as ethnic/cultural). ©2017 center for food and culture 22 3. ask a parent or other family member to add any foods/dishes you may not have listed. for instance, list any special family dishes/foods you eat for holidays, birthdays, or other occasions. for instance, pinterest has a recipe for “crock pot funeral potatoes” which are taken to help out families in the midwest after a funeral. (crock pots are an electric pot used for slow cooking food away from a stove) brainstorm which specific foods or dishes have always been eaten in your family that connect to one of the identities you listed. 4. do an internet search for “images” using the list you’ve created. pinterest (www.pinterest.com) is a good source for food photos and recipes. you can also research food images and recipes in cookbooks at home, by asking family members for photographs, looking in cooking magazines, and local newspapers. 5. write 5 paragraphs about your food identity. begin by introducing the identities you’ve listed, then explain when, with whom, and where you eat each of the foods. describe images you found in your research and whether they looked like the food your family and other identity groups actually eat. include any foods that are unique to your family or culture. 6. were there any surprises as you researched, in terms of realizing where a particular food came from? how does your food identity compare to your classmates; did many of them have all the same foods? are there any foods that you feel people might make fun of? are there any occasions in which you would not feel comfortable eating that food or expressing that identity? 7. end your essay with a conclusion about your food identity and how food represents your family’s culture, history, and your own personal interests and beliefs. print out all of the images you’ve found and make a food identity collage on a paper plate. present your food collage to the class and discuss what you learned from it. http://www.pinterest.com/ ©2017 center for food and culture 23 unit iii. identity activity 2: reading identity through food—sandwiches (this assignment can be used for other dishes and recipes that might be more relevant to your students. using a well-known dish enables us to make comparisons.) sandwiches are a common everyday food throughout the united states—so common that we can think of them as a national food. sandwiches can be made with different types of bread and a huge variety of fillings. they can be prepared in different ways and show up in lots of different meals. they frequently are taken on picnics or carried to school or the office. they can be a formal meal or an informal snack. we usually think of choosing a sandwich in terms of what tastes we like, but the parts of a sandwich can reflect our identity without us being aware of it. for example, peanut butter is an american invention, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are distinctively american. other cultures have their own traditions of what fillings taste good together. also, individual identities within a culture can have differences. for example, someone who is vegetarian would have a lettuce and tomato sandwich, but not a blt (bacon, lettuce, tomato). there might be regional or ethnic traditions as well. for this assignment, describe all the ingredients in your favorite sandwich. then look up the history of each of those ingredients. sandwich ingredients bread—what type; sliced/unsliced; crusts? fillings— meats cheeses vegetables peanut butter, other jams fruits condiments- sauce--butter, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, etc. spice—salt, pepper, sugar, chilis, etc. preparation--pickles, relish, onions, salsa, etc. now answer the questions below: ©2017 center for food and culture 24 1. where did each ingredient originate? 2. are some ingredients associated with specific cultures or groups within a culture? 3. do any of the names reflect specific cultures? 4. what different identities are in your sandwich? 5. how do these ingredients compare to your own food identity collage? 6. which of your identities do think affected your sandwich? connections to cultural differences: compare your sandwich with your classmates. do you like all of their choices? do you find some disgusting? how would you feel if someone doesn’t like your sandwich or makes fun of it? does it feel like they dislike you and are making fun of you? can you still eat together if everyone has different kinds of sandwiches? keywords exploring cultural differences through the lens of food k-12 curriculum guide center for food and culture lucy m. long, susan eleuterio, and jerry l. reed, iii (partially funded by american folklore society) may 15, 2020 table of contexts introduction unit i: culture unit 2: construction unit 3: identity unit 4: meaning unit 5: systems/structures appendix ©2017 center for food and culture 25 unit iv: meaning topic: what does “meaning” mean? symbols, rituals, art activity 1: food as symbols activity 2: food in rituals activity 3: food in art; food as art oftentimes in talking about cultural differences, we say things like: “that action means something else in another culture” or “what did he mean by that” or “this object means a lot to me.” but what do we mean by the word “meaning”? meaning can be defined in two ways. first, it can be a reference to something else, such as an emotion, a value, a belief, a group, etc. secondly, it can refer to something’s significance to us. if an object is significant to us, we feel attached to it. it is meaningful to us. partly because meaning itself is so complex, the meanings or our communications and interactions can easily be misunderstood. we frequently communicate meaning through symbols, rituals, and art. symbols are objects and actions that stand for something else. rituals are recurring symbolic activities or events, often recognizing and celebrating significant milestones in life or the seasons. art frequently expresses our emotions and imagination. all three are used to tell other people what things mean, but all three can easily be interpreted in different ways and therefore interpreted differently from what was intended. the meanings of food can similarly include a variety of things, including its significance, the purpose behind consuming it, the beliefs expressed through it, the emotions associated with it, the memories attached to it, its role in social status, or its use in celebrating historical events or cultural identity. food also can be misunderstood: a gift of chocolate could mean a romantic interest or simply a friendly gesture; a birthday cake can simultaneously celebrate a person’s life and make them sad to recognize the passage of time; a contribution of a green bean casserole to a potluck could be interpreted as showing a lack of culinary skill or it could be a way to try to please the other diners. exploring how meaning is attached to food, communicated to other people, and interpreted—or misinterpreted--can help us better understand meaning in cultural differences. it can also illustrate how easy it is for misunderstandings to occur. this unit focuses on three aspects of meaning in relation to food: symbol, ritual, and art. food is oftentimes used as a symbol, it carries meanings beyond its functional and nutritional values. this assignment uses apples to illustrate the principles of symbols: meaning is not intrinsic to an object or action; meaning is attached to those symbols and can change over time and place; meaning can be interpreted in multiple ways; and the ©2017 center for food and culture 26 intended meaning can be misunderstood. (see appendix for more discussion of symbols and rituals.) symbols also tap into our emotions and sometimes spur us to action. food frequently plays a major role in rituals and festive events, celebrating individuals, groups, and ideas. the food itself can be symbols, but also the preparation of food, giving it, gathering to eat, and eating it can be symbolic rituals. rituals can have a variety of functions and can mean different things to different people. as rites of unity, they celebrate togetherness and bring people together (family reunions, national holidays). as rites of affirmation, they celebrate an individual or a group (birthday parties, anniversaries) as well as ideas or beliefs (earth day, easter.) rites of spectacle celebrate abundance (thanksgiving dinner), while rites of season celebrate the seasons (thanksgiving again, or even memorial day as the beginning of summer). a major type of ritual are rites of passage. these mark transitions from one stage to another, such as birthday parties, graduations, weddings, funerals, oftentimes tying us to the larger natural cycle of life. a final type is rite of reversal, rituals in which everything seems to be turned upside down. on halloween, for example, children can demand candy from strangers, stay up past their bedtimes, and dress in costumes to pretend to be something they’re not. these are things not normally allowed, reversing the normal order of life. that reversal is only temporary, however, and usually shows that the benefits of the usual order—getting sick from eating too much candy proves your parents are right in restricting how much candy you eat! art is frequently thought of in our society as something that can be done only by people with special talent. we approach art here as an attention to the beauty of something and the pleasure it brings us beyond its practical utility. from this perspective, any expression of creativity and imagination can be considered art, and the reaction to that art can be an aesthetic experience, a full engagement of the senses. we also tend to judge art according to how we respond to it, but each society also develops guidelines for what it considers to be “good art.” food oftentimes brings aesthetic pleasure (or sometimes disappointment), and we often choose to eat what is tasty to us. any type of food--mass produced, gourmet, or made by the hands of a grandmother--can be an artistic medium and serve as a resource for artistic creativity and personal and communal expression. our aesthetic response to that food can be very personal and can differ from other people’s responses, including restaurant critics and culinary experts. like symbols, art can be interpreted in multiple ways. activity 1: symbol: apples—introduces the concept of symbol by exploring the variety of things an apple can stand for in american culture. it has long been a tradition in america to give teachers apples or objects shaped like apples as a gift. no one knows for sure how this began, but we do know that in the 1800s and the early 1900s, teachers in the united states were sometimes paid with food instead of money. at this time, many people were farmers and teachers sometimes lived with the families where they taught because neither the families nor the teachers had much money. this was especially true during a time called the great depression where many people were poor. perhaps because of this tradition, apples have become symbolic of teachers and school. ©2017 center for food and culture 27 apples as symbols also have other meanings. they stand for wisdom and long life in judeo-christian, greek, norse and irish stories, but they also stand for temptation in the old testament of the bible. they frequently symbolize health: an american proverb states “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” and “apple-cheeked” children are healthy and robust. today, the tend to be seen as all-american (“as american as apple pie”), even though the fruit originated in central asia (mountains of kazahkhtan) and then been cultivated throughout the world. an american associated with apples is john chapman, better known as johnny appleseed, who planted apple trees in the eastern midwest in the early 1800s. because apples are so well known, they have acquired both cultural and personal meanings. ask students for their own memories and meanings of the fruit before giving them background history. ask them what it means to give an apple to someone, to say ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” or to call someone “the apple of my eye.” can there be multiple meanings? can there be misunderstandings? asking students for their own memories of apples helps them recognize their meaningfulness or significance to them. comparing those memories makes them aware of the possibility of different meanings. exploring the history of apples and the sayings connected to them also helps students understand that symbols are created in certain times and places—and can also be misinterpreted. activity 2: food as ritual: birthday cakes—introduces the definition of ritual and the different types of rituals by having students describe a common food symbol for birthdays—the birthday cake. historically, items like sugar were expensive and difficult to obtain, so many cultures reserved sweets for special occasions such as holidays or birthdays. the american custom of putting candles on a cake to symbolize birthdays seems to have come from a german tradition of having special cakes for children. now it is such a popular ritual that other items can be used as substitutes for cakes, oftentimes with candles added—a slice of watermelon, a doughnut, a pie. the cake itself is not as important as the ritual. it shows an individual that people recognize and celebrate their existence. and if family or friends forget a cake on that special day? disaster! birthday cakes are good examples of rituals—recurring symbolic events. giving or sharing a cake symbolizes belonging, affection, friendship. it says that person matters and has significance to other people. this assignment asks students to discuss familiar rituals around birthday cakes, but also talk about their feelings when those rituals happen (or don’t happen). bringing up their own memories helps them understand that rituals can tap into emotions. the assignment also has students think up ways to use cakes to create all the types of rituals. this can be the basis for planning a party, something that should appeal to most students! activity 3: art: design in fruit displays—explores the idea of expressing creativity and imagination through arranging displays of fruit and by drawing fruit. artistic imagination can be expressed through food in many different ways: bowls of fruit on a counter, cans lined up in a cupboard, paintings of vegetables in a still life, displays at ©2017 center for food and culture 28 grocery stores or farmer’s markets, the arrangement of food on a plate. our responses to those expressions can be very personal but also reflect the aesthetic expectations of our culture. this assignment asks students to make artistic displays of fruit and vegetables. this can be done with the actual objects, with cut out pictures, or with drawings. the students’ personal reactions to this should be discussed and compared. why does one individual like a certain display but not others? why do some displays seem more attractive to others? differences in personal taste should be obvious, and those differences should be recognized. the teacher can also lead the students in a discussion of the formal qualities of art that trained artists would look for. they can then compare their own tastes, and discuss what aspects of the displays are satisfying or dissatisfying to them. once the students have examined their own aesthetics, they should look for examples of artistic displays of food in real life. they can look in their own homes as well as outside in public spaces. does their family set the table a certain way? arrange the food on their plates in a way that seems aesthetic? make the food itself look artistic? (think of cakes and cookies as artistic creations.) have they seen fruit displayed at stores or farmer’s markets? what shapes are used for those displays? why do they think the grocer or farmer tries to make the fruit look pretty? does their school cafeteria treat food as an artistic expression? do they have suggestions for making it more aesthetically pleasing? connections to cultural difference exploring the concepts of symbols, rituals, and art through food will help students understand that meaning is complicated, dynamic, and fluid. that can then help them to understand how and why interactions and communications around cultural differences can also be complicated—and misunderstandings can easily arise. these assignments will also help students understand how meaning is tied to their emotions, helping them understand why discussions about differences can become very personal. references and resources birthday cakes origin --http://www.newenglandrecipes.org/html/birthday-cake.html children’s museum of indianapolis--https://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/why-doteachers-like-apples donovan, sandy and thompson, colin. does an apple a day keep the doctor away?: and other questions about your health and body (is that a fact?) lerner publishing group. march, 2010. long, lucy m. meaning-centered research. in research methods for the anthropological study of food and nutrition, vol.ii. eds.john brett and janet chrzan. berghahn books, 2017, pp. 204-217. long, lucy m. myths and folklore of food. in encyclopedia of american food and drink. oxford university press, 2004. where in the world is your food from?--http://kidworldcitizen.org/2012/08/24/where-inthe-world-is-your-food-from/ http://www.newenglandrecipes.org/html/birthday-cake.html https://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/why-do-teachers-like-apples https://www.childrensmuseum.org/blog/why-do-teachers-like-apples http://kidworldcitizen.org/2012/08/24/where-in-the-world-is-your-food-from/ http://kidworldcitizen.org/2012/08/24/where-in-the-world-is-your-food-from/ ©2017 center for food and culture 29 ©2017 center for food and culture 30 unit iv: meaning activity 1: food as symbol--apples do you like apples? how do you like to eat them? what memories do you have of apples? (did you ever pick apples at an orchard?) are they happy memories? do they remind you of certain people or places? have you ever seen apples or images of apples used as decorations? have you ever given an apple or a present shaped like an apple to anyone? do you know these sayings about apples? what do they mean? “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” “you’re the apple of my eye.” “he/she’s a bad apple.” “apple cheeked children” “the apple does not fall far from the tree.” “there is little choice in a barrel of rotten apples.” (shakespeare) compare your responses with your classmates. what are the similarities and what are the differences? ©2017 center for food and culture 31 unit iv: meaning activity 2: food as ritual—birthday cakes draw or cut out a picture of your favorite birthday food treat or what you would like to have as a food birthday treat. (it doesn’t have to be birthday cake). why is this your favorite? what makes it special? is it something you usually don’t get to eat? is it a tradition in your family? does your family have different kinds of cakes for birthdays? who chooses them? who makes them? do you always put candles on your birthday cakes? what do you do with the candles? what other activities happen around the birthday cake? (sing happy birthday? give gifts? eat other foods? play games?) discussion questions: how does the birthday cake make you feel? (happy, proud, sad?) how would you feel if there is no birthday cake on your birthday? how would you feel if the cake is not the kind you want? what could you do if you want to celebrate someone’s birthday, but you don’t have a cake or candles to give them? can you think of ways that cakes can be used for different types of rituals? rites of unity rites of affirmation rites of season rites of passage rites of spectacle rites of reversal ©2017 center for food and culture 32 unit iv: meaning activity 3: food as art—design in fruit displays this assignment asks students to make artistic displays of fruit and vegetables. this can be done with the actual objects, with cut out pictures, or with drawings. • the students’ personal reactions to this should be discussed and compared. • why does one individual like a certain display but not others? • why do some displays seem more attractive to others? differences in personal taste should be obvious, and those differences should be recognized. the teacher can also lead the students in a discussion of the formal qualities of art that trained artists would look for. they can then compare their own tastes, and discuss what aspects of the displays are satisfying or dissatisfying to them. once the students have examined their own aesthetics, they should look for examples of artistic displays of food in real life. they can look in their own homes as well as outside in public spaces. • does their family set the table a certain way? • arrange the food on their plates in a way that seems aesthetic? make the food itself look artistic? (think of cakes and cookies as artistic creations.) • have they seen fruit displayed at stores or farmer’s markets? what shapes are used for those displays? • why do they think the grocer or farmer tries to make the fruit look pretty? • does their school cafeteria treat food as an artistic expression? • do they have suggestions for making it more aesthetically pleasing? ©2017 center for food and culture 33 keywords: exploring cultural differences through the lens of food k-12 curriculum guide center for food and culture lucy m. long, susan eleuterio, and jerry l. reed, iii (partially funded by american folklore society) may 15, 2020 table of contexts introduction unit i: culture unit 2: construction unit 3: identity unit 4: meaning unit 5: systems/structures appendix ©2017 center for food and culture 34 unit v: systems/structures topic: systemic discrimination, structural inequalities foodways network, food system activity 1: foodways of favorite food activity 2: follow a food through the food system systems/structures—discussions of cultural differences frequently refer to systems and structures, as in “systemic racism,” institutional racism,” or “structural inequality.” what do those phrases mean and why are they used? a system is a set of parts that work together to make up a whole. the parts are interconnected, so that if one changes, it affects the others. society can be seen as a system with different parts (organizations and institutions such as the family, religion, education, government). those parts are also the structures that keep the overall system working, but systems can develop that are not equal for everyone. in that case, the structures discriminate against some people while keeping the system going well for others. the idea of systems recognizes that individuals live within larger structures that shape them and their relationships regardless of their actual beliefs about equality and respect. an individual then might face a discriminatory social system even though the individuals within that system are actually supportive. this unit explores those ideas through two closely related ideas: food systems and foodways. the first looks at external systems put in place by governments and usually tied to economic systems. the second is more personal and takes into account each individual’s experiences and circumstances. food system refers to the ways in which food moves from production to disposal. links in between this “food chain” include how food is processed, packaged, marketed, distributed, and consumed. economic systems are a significant part of food systems as are transportation networks, agricultural industries, and food retailers and restaurants. food systems are also now recognized as central to the sustainability of the environment. contemporary industrial food system production—processing—packaging—marketing—distribution—consumption—disposal having so many links in this chain makes it very complex—numerous people and organizations are involved, so that if any problems arise, the whole system can be disrupted (which means we don’t get healthy food!). also, within this system, food simply becomes a commodity, valued by how much money it brings in. the people in the system also become commodities, valued by how much they cost, spend, or make. while the system has brought some advantages (wider variety of foods available, food in cities, all year round, etc.), it also carries serious environmental, economic, social, and cultural consequences. initiatives to “recouple” the food system and link people to people include farmers markets, csas (community supported agriculture), composting, community gardens, and others. ©2017 center for food and culture 35 foodways is distinguished from food system by being more of a personal perspective. it refers to the total network of practices and concepts surrounding food and eating. it includes food as product (ingredient, recipe, dish, meal, meal system), the processes attached to food (production, procurement, preservation, preparation, presentation, consumption, cleanup and disposal), and performance (contexts for foodways, concepts about healthy and good food, performing identity and meaning through food). foodways illustrates how systems work: all the parts are connected, so that if one part is changed, it affects the others. that helps to explain why changing a system can be so difficult. foodways also helps us see where and when memories and emotions were attached to particular foods, helping us understand the meanings foods hold for each individual. an individual’s personal foodways can be compared to their culture’s food system to see how their own choices and habits are shaped by the system. activity 1: the foodways of a favorite food--introduces students to the idea of systems and structures by having them describe the foodways of one of their favorite foods. this illustrates how all the parts work together as a system to create that meal and how various structures keep that system (the meal) going. external structures include things like parents, school, the weather; internal structures include the student’s likes and dislikes, food experiences, even their personality. personal foodways can be compared with the food system of the same item. what structures affect that foodways? this can be done with the same food for all students so that they can compare their foodways with each other. effective choices include common foods such as chili, pizza, hamburgers, ice cream. the sandwich assignment in the unit on identity can also be revised for these concepts. (this assignment can be adapted to a single ingredient, a specific meal, individuals, and groups.) have students present their foodways description the class. help them discuss how their foods compare in terms of similar foodways practices? how did they differ? can they identify the structures (parents, schools, local food system) that have shaped their foodways? can they see ways in which the local economy, cultural and political history, immigration and migration, and other aspects of the local environment have impacted their foodways, and that of their families, for the class as a whole, and in their local area? activity 2: follow a food through the food system—introduces students to the idea of food system and all the parts in that system by tracing a specific food from its production to its disposal. select a food product that is well known and easily studied, such as milk, apple, chocolate, hamburgers. follow the food through each link in the food system chain. contemporary industrial food system production—processing—packaging—marketing—distribution—consumption—disposal this can easily be done with students placed in groups around different foods or parts of the food chain. the assignment can also focus on the specific location of the students. ask “who feeds toledo (for example)?” students might name specific restaurants or grocery stores. ask where their food comes from and have students follow the chain. also ask who eats there and what happens to the food that is not eaten. for example: ©2017 center for food and culture 36 toledo<tony packo’s (pork hot dog)<pig farm (pigs eat grains)<grain farmer (need tractors to harvest)< john deere (need steel to manufacture tractors)< steel manufacturing< etc. lead a discussion on the impacts the food system has had on their own food habits. has it shaped their access to food? are they aware of any food deserts in their area? are there institutions such as local and ethnic grocery stores, growers, farmers markets, or other places that provide new and different foods and/or which provide foods traditional to student’s cultures? are they aware of environmental issues around the disposal of food waste? **also see the center’s two documentary videos and discussion guides on composting and farmers markets. (many excellent resources are available for studying the food system and educators are encouraged to access these: for example, http://www.foodspanlearning.org/lesson-plans/unit-1-meet-the-food-system/.) connections to cultural difference once the concepts of systems and structures are understood through food, they can be transferred to race, class, and gender. while we do not speak of “race systems” in the same way we speak of “foodways” or “food systems,” we can see how our society as a system historically developed around racism and other inequalities based on other identities. certain groups benefited from that system, while others were limited in their economic, political, and social opportunities. various institutions—structures—within society supported each other and by doing so, supported that discrimination. looking at the history of the nation from the perspectives of different groups of people helps identify the structures as well as the place of those groups within the larger system. this can be seen in our individual foodways as well as the national food system. these assignments will also help students understand how individuals living within these systems might not agree with them and might try to change them, but systems tend to be perpetuate themselves and are hard to change. also, individuals might benefit or have opportunities limited without recognizing the role of their group identity within the system. for example, they may feel that they choose a food because of the way it tastes, not realizing that it is only available in their region or even household. furthermore, some individuals are able to overcome or challenge the structures; individuals might decide to shop at a farmers market rather than a supermarket in order to make their own foodways more local. http://www.foodspanlearning.org/lesson-plans/unit-1-meet-the-food-system/ ©2017 center for food and culture 37 references and resources alkon, alison hope. black, white, and green: farmers markets, race, and the green economy . university of georgia press, 2012. alkon, alison hope and julian agyeman, eds. 2011. cultivating food justice: race, class, and sustainability. cambridge: the mit press center for food and culture. composting. video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptt5snbb4yk&t=18s. discussion guide: https://foodandculture.org/center-projects/activity-guidescommunity-foodways-northwest-ohio/. composting connections curriculum. https://foodandculture.org/centerprojects/composting-connections/. center for food and culture. farmers markets and csas. video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9red52izeau&t=46s discussion guide: https://foodandculture.org/center-projects/activity-guidescommunity-foodways-northwest-ohio/. garth, hanna and ashanté m. reese, eds. 2020. black food matters: racial justice in the wake of food justice. university of minnesota press. higgens, lisa l. and katherine haag rogers. 2018. eating your homework: one family’s intersections of science, place, foodways, and education. journal of folklore and education. 5: 53-63. lexicon of food: http://lexiconofsustainability.com/lexicon-of-food/ long, lucy m. ed., the food and folklore reader. bloomsbury, 2015. long, lucy m. “foodways: using food to teach folklore theories and methods: in “eating across the curriculum, “ digest, vol. 19, 1999. sample food reviews https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/lesson-plans/migrated-featuredfiles/sample_food_reviews.pdf (not meal reviews but good examples of detailed writing) yelp reviews guidelines: https://www.yelp.com/guidelines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptt5snbb4yk&t=18s https://foodandculture.org/center-projects/activity-guides-community-foodways-northwest-ohio/ https://foodandculture.org/center-projects/activity-guides-community-foodways-northwest-ohio/ https://foodandculture.org/center-projects/composting-connections/ https://foodandculture.org/center-projects/composting-connections/ https://foodandculture.org/center-projects/activity-guides-community-foodways-northwest-ohio/ https://foodandculture.org/center-projects/activity-guides-community-foodways-northwest-ohio/ http://lexiconofsustainability.com/lexicon-of-food/ https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/lesson-plans/migrated-featured-files/sample_food_reviews.pdf https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/lesson-plans/migrated-featured-files/sample_food_reviews.pdf https://www.yelp.com/guidelines ©2017 center for food and culture 38 unit v: systems/structures activity 1: foodways of a favorite dish this can be adapted to a single ingredient, a specific meal, individuals, and groups. describe the foodways of your favorite dish and/or its ingredients: foodways product— name and description of dish, list of ingredients, recipe foodways processes—describe where, when, who, how, and why for each activity production (how was it produced; who made it; where?) procurement (where and how did you get the food? if you purchased it, how much did it cost?) preservation (how is the food preserved until it is consumed? refrigerator?) preparation (who prepares it? how? how did they acquire those skills?) presentation (how is the food presented? table settings? dishware?) consumption (how is the dish eaten—by hand, chopsticks, utensils?) clean-up/disposal (what happens to left-overs and table scraps? who cleans the dishes and how?) foodways performances— contexts (usual places for eating this food—kitchen, restaurant, outside, etc.) concepts (how does this food affect your health or body?) place in meal system (what time of day; day of week?) rituals, holidays or celebrations—is this food used in any rituals, holidays or celebrations? do other people share those uses or are they personal to you or your friends or family? meanings—do you have any special memories of this food? do other people share those memories? ©2017 center for food and culture 39 unit v: systems/structures activity 2: follow a food through the food system select a food and follow it through each link in the food system chain. ask who, where, and how for each link. are there environmental issues connected to any links? are there economic issues connected to any links? does your area have any “food deserts,” neighborhoods with little access to healthy and affordable food? are there any farmers markets, csas, or other initiatives that try to “re-couple” the food chain and bring producers together with consumers in your area? do you know any individuals involved in any of these links? how does this chain impact your own food habits? contemporary industrial food system production—processing—packaging—marketing—distribution—consumption—disposal digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 ©american folklore society 2025 research essay sue samuelson foodways essay prize 2023 burning love: pork politics, nationalism, and othering in contemporary denmark by: samantha ruth brown abstract: this paper examines the so-called danish “meatball war,” a political contestation about the place of pork, halal, and kosher foods in danish public institutions. drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and an analysis of newspaper articles and government documents, i argue that this particular conflict offers a window through which we can observe the transformation of danish nationalism and a breach in their shared folk psychology. as politicians and political commentators argued for the serving of pork in public institutions, their rhetoric created a new narrative that explicitly ties pork to danishness, and halal and kosher products to otherness. it likewise led to discussions about whether it was “truly danish” to protect particular traditions or to adjust and welcome diverse communities with open arms. by focusing on political discourse in the media and social media posts, the meatball war offers an illustrative example of how food and foodways are used as weapons against particular groups, and the ways in which politicians create and amplify cultural conflicts in order to capitalize on populist and anti-immigrant sentiments in contemporary europe. while much of the discussion was aimed the muslim and refugee communities, the debate nonetheless excluded other communities, like jews, from the national imaginary. keywords: nationalism, european politics, migration, foodways, denmark, pork introduction in 2003, a group of primary school children at rådmandsgades skole in copenhagen made the traditional danish dish brændende kærlighed in their home economics class. brændende kærlighed—literally translated1 as “burning love”—is a dish consisting of mashed potatoes, covered in a pile of bacon and fried onions. typically, pork is not used at the school, as approximately 80% of the children do not consume pork products for religious reasons. 2 this led one child’s father to react to the class by saying that, “it’s bloody good the children could finally learn to make some proper [danish] food” (mikkelsen, 2003). despite this reaction, the school’s principle, lise egholm, assured a reporter from kristeligt dagblad—a widely circulated christian newspaper in denmark—that these comments should not be taken too seriously, as it is extremely rare for parents to interfere in the type of food that the school purchases and serves. a newspaper article was published, titled “food regulations without friction,” emphasizing the overwhelming lack of conflict between parents and school authorities, and the school continued to purchase halal and kosher products to accommodate its diverse student population (ibid). brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 22 ten years later, however, this was no longer the case; during the summer3 of 2013, when parliament was on recess and major stories were limited, the danish tabloid ekstra bladet (similar to the british daily mirror or the sun) published a series of articles discussing the lack of pork products and use of halal meat in public institutions. this article had major repercussions for food and identity in danish politics. politicians, including the then social democratic prime minister helle thorning-schmidt, have referenced the articles and their content as a means of gaining support from potential voters and as of means of discussing larger societal issues, particularly as related to muslim migrants in danish society. by focusing on the lack of pork in 30 daycare centers and the use of halal beef at a public hospital, the “meatball war” (frikadellekrig), as named by the newspaper ekstra bladet itself, began in 2013 and continues to impact school lunch choices and political discourse to this day. although many of those affected by the choice to not serve pork or to serve halal products saw the matter as old news and unproblematic (sæhl, 2013), others questioned whether these measures were forcing a particular religion (i.e. islam) upon others. between 2013 and 2016, the discussion intensified, as various actors called into question notions of identity, or “danishness” (danskhed), and how the country might accommodate muslim and migrant communities, particularly refugees from syria, afghanistan, and iraq.4 disagreements about these topics opened a contested space in nationalistic dialogue around whether modifying traditions to accommodate others is characteristically danish, or whether true danishness means emphasizing danish “tradition” in the presence of others. while some institutions, such as the rådmandsgades skole mentioned earlier, continued with business as usual, determining the school menu based on the population they serve, the municipality of randers took more concrete measures to “preserve” danish foodways5 by mandating that public institutions serve pork on a regular basis in 2016 (holst, 2016). this paper has three main arguments. first, i argue that the meatball war is an example of how food and foodways are used as weapons against particular groups. in the case of denmark, politicians and multicultural skeptics use pork products and halal or kosher foods to marginalize non-white, non-christian communities in denmark, particularly muslims, but also jews. this fits into a larger historical trend of using food as a political weapon. instances of this have been studied by scholars such as irving lewis allen (1983), roland barthes (1997), susan kalčik (1984) and margaret magat (2015). as noted by foodway scholar susan kalčik (1984), “food is a marker of ethnic identity”6 and “can be manipulated as a ‘weapon’ to wield against those seen as invading” (37). not only this, but because food can operate as a highly charged marker of ethnic identity (oring, 1986), food is often “particularly powerful when utilized in negative stereotypes” (magat, 2015: 443). my research also finds that that politicians have inserted themselves into the discussion of foodways in order to capitalize on populist or anti-immigrant sentiments within danish society. this is part of a larger political trend, where anti-immigrant rhetoric and political demonstrations can be seen in both denmark and across europe. since the end of the cold war, and particularly after the 9/11 attacks, european voters have become increasingly concerned with issues related to migration. because of this, parties on both the left and right are embracing more stringent policies and rhetoric in response to voter concerns and brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 23 the growing popularity of populist parties. as argued by scholars like tim bale, populist radical right parties initially adopted xenophobia rhetoric to scare voters about the potential effects of muslim migrants, to justify restrictive immigration and integration legislation, and attract migration-skeptic voters. these policies have since become adopted by major parties across the political spectrum, and, in many cases, have perpetuated and contributed to negative stereotypes about non-white communities. this shift helps to explain why politicians chose to become involved in the meatball war, sustaining the war in the public sphere, and causing it to evolve, as a politically expedient tactic. as this trend in europe has already been examined by a number of scholars (e.g. bale, 2008, bale et al., 2010, and mudde, 2013), this article focuses on denmark as a specific case study that illuminates how broader this trend has played out in denmark given its specific cultural background and history. my third argument, and the focus of this paper, is that the meatball war caused a transformation of danish nationalism, where a new narrative explicitly ties pork to danishness and halal and kosher products to otherness. although pork has long been a part of danish foodways, it was not until 2013 and the start of the meatball war that pork, as well as halal products, were used as a vehicle to discuss issues that do not pertain to pork itself, but rather, to wider societal concerns. utilizing pork in this way caused a breach in the society’s “folk psychology” (bruner, 1990), or unstated assumptions or beliefs that people live by on a daily basis. as a result, a new nationalist narrative puts a greater emphasis on the consumption of pork products, and at times even refers back to norse mythology and danish histories of pork production. a better understanding of how food is wielded as a political tool in the name of nationalism is significant for various reasons. first and foremost, this particular conflict offers an opportunity to observe how cultural practices are adopted in the reformation of contemporary nationalism as a means to justify the exclusion of communities that don’t quite “fit” the national image. this reality is not unique to denmark, and can explain how nationalism and identity are shaped in other contexts as well. this is especially pertinent to european states that feel threatened by muslim migration and states with an extensive history of anti-semitism7 and islamophobia. various examples exist elsewhere. as in denmark, the christian democratic union party (christlich demokratische union deutschlands or cdu) in the slesvig-holsten region of germany, of which angela merkel was the party leader, criticized cafeterias that no longer serve pork, and suggested that at least one dish is made with pork daily (harder, 2016). and in 2017, the right-wing party alternative for germany (alternative für deutschland, or afd) utilized campaign placards that stated, “islam? doesn’t fit in our kitchen” (“‚der islam?’ passt nicht zu unserer küche”), accompanied by a photo of a piglet. in france, right-wing parties, such as the national front (front national), have used pork as a national symbol and argue that both muslim and jewish groups should not have option to choose a pork-free lunch (haar, 2016). in the united kingdom, halal meat has become a politically-charged topic, with both public and private institutions being criticized for their use of halal products (power, 2014). similarly, dialect labels like “kebab norwegian” (kebabnorsk) and “pizza danish” (pizza-dansk) are used to describe languages that incorporate vocabulary from “immigrant” languages, or are spoken with a particular accent, thus linking food to perceptions of insiders and outsiders. brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 24 food and foodways have a powerful place in all countries. in states such as the nordic countries, where extensive welfare systems result in frequent intervention of government workers in people’s daily lives, foodways can quickly become tied to politics, identity, and belonging. scholars in denmark have previously found that when the power of food is not properly understood, it can result in certain groups feeling violated or marginalized (larsen, 2011) and offers an example of the government “excluding while claiming to integrate” (sjørselv, 2011). other examples of the link between food and politics in scandinavia include the so-called “golliwog” or “fgm” cake in sweden (harding, 2012) or the instances of indian children being taken from their parents in norway in large part because of their traditional eating practices (thekaekara, 2012). the following analysis is organized into five sections. the next section provides a theoretical framework for the analysis of nationalism and the shifting narratives of the meatball war. i examine how food is used as a weapon by drawing on prominent foodway scholars, such as kalčik and oring, and introduce readers to michael billig’s (1995) concept of “banal nationalism” and lisa wedeen’s (2008) concept of “episodic nationalism.” in the following section, i provide a brief history of the danes’ relationship with pork, dating back to nordic mythology and through the 2013-2016 meatball war. i then analyze why and when the use of pork and other meats was elevated from folk psychology to a controversial political topic that shaped local and national politics and quotidian interactions. throughout these sections, i provide examples of instances where food, primarily pork, are utilized in a way that others the country’s muslim population. this includes, for example, a facebook post about apocalyptic denmark under a caliphate where pork is banned, and nationally significant events, such as the 2014 competition to name denmark’s national dish, where nearly half of the participants (44%) chose fried pork with potatoes and parsley sauce (stegt flæsk med persillesovs og kartofler). in final section, i conclude the analysis and reflect on broader trends in europe. i employ interpretive, mixed methodologies that include, but are not limited to, an analysis of newspapers, political discourse, and social media, and my own ethnographic experiences in denmark. these methods assist me in understanding the transformation of danish nationalism over time. my interpretivist approach helps me to highlight the complexity of the social realm by alerting me to how concepts, ideas, language, and frames shape how actors perceive and act in the world. transformative nationalism and food as a weapon nationalism manifests itself in unexpected and frequently unobserved ways. grocery stores are one such example of this: “made in usa” stickers remind american consumers to support “local” production and the american market. the same can be said for denmark , where danish flags and labels with danish place names fill supermarket shelves. a nationalistic emphasis on eating local or eating danish exists also exists. this is driven in part because of environmental concerns, in part to support danish communities and the country’s economy, and in part because many danes are socialized to believe that they can trust the quality of danish products as compared to products from, say, italy or poland. brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 25 this less apparent and yet widespread type of nationalism is what billig (1995) refers to as “banal nationalism.” while nationalism is a doctrine that promotes the idea that boundaries of the state should coincide with those of the nation (gellner, 2009), banal nationalism refers to “ideological habits which enable the established notions of the west to be reproduced” (billing, 1995: 6). billig notes that, not only does nationalism exist during the process of nation-building—as emphasized by scholars like benedict anderson (1983)— but it is constantly reinforced in western society in banal scenarios, such as newscasts and sports games. the same can be said about foodways. it must be noted, however, that “banal does not imply benign” (ibid). while nationalism can serve to create and reinforce nations or “imagined communities,”8 it also underscores who is included and who is excluded. in the example above, production in denmark, italy, and poland is essentialized to the benefit of danish producers and to the bane of the italian and polish. it is these small, quotidian acts of nationalism that shape larger societal tendencies. food and foodways play an important role in banal nationalism, as “foodways serve as highly charged markers of ethnic identity both for those within a group and for those without” (oring, 1986: 35). this is in part because “food traditions are likely to be tenacious and survive when other aspects of culture are transformed or disappear” (ibid). food and foodways maintain symbolic significance, acting as a means of in-group identification, and causing many people to inextricably link certain foods and foodways to particular groups. for instance, muslims are associated with consuming halal products. yet the majority of chickens in denmark have been slaughtered using halal methods for decades because of a growing market for halal products in europe and large exports to the middle east (hussein, 2013), a trend in animal processing that can also be seen throughout much of the continent (lever and miele, 2012). the attention given to halal products in politics and the media highlights how food production methods can be as important as the type of food that is prepared. as barthes (1997) argues, food production can create a certain national continuity: food permits a person (and here i am speaking of french themes) to partake each day of the national past. in this case, this historical quality is obviously linked to food techniques (preparation and cooking). these have long roots, reaching back to the depth of the french past. they are, we are told, the repository of a whole experience, of the accumulated wisdom of our ancestors. french food is never supposed to be innovative, except when it rediscovers long-forgotten secrets. (24) although some food traditions date back to periods before the concept of nations existed, they continue to be nationalistic in nature. the romanticization and nationalization of particular practices and traditions is consistent with other features of nationalism, where a shared, national past is imagined (see anderson, 1983; billig, 1995). on occasion, food and food stereotypes are used “as a weapon against an intruder” (kalčik, 1984: 37). this might occur when a particular ethnic group’s foodways—whether it be the production or ingredients—do not coincide with cultural understandings of what is acceptable, or when a person or group is perceived as a threat. the use of food as a brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 26 nationalist weapon can also be understood through the concept of “episodic nationalism” (wedeen, 2008). wedeen argues that, rather than viewing nationalism as linear or constant, it should be viewed as episodic, because individuals embrace different identities and respond in varying ways based on context. expanding upon wedeen’s conceptualization of “episodic nationalism,” i argue that episodic nationalism is often triggered by particular events. in the danish case, the ekstra bladet journalists’ decision to publish the articles that began the meatball war, coupled with a general shift towards restrictive immigration and integration policies, triggered politicians to contribute to the debate and emphasize nationalist interests. in this way, the meatball war can be understood as an episode in the transformation of danish nationalism that has resulted in particular consequences for danish national identity. this can be applied to other major events that caused a major shift in danish national identity, such as the muhammad cartoon crisis in 2005 (see yilmaz, 2016). banal nationalism, which can be a weapon itself because of its ability to exclude, marginalize, and offend, is also powerful in its ability to reinforce and justify certain institutions. banal nationalism reinforces the legitimacy of military use to protect a nation and its sovereignty: “forces can be mobilized without lengthy campaigns of political preparation. and the national populations appear also to be primed, ready to support the use of those armaments” (billig, 1995: 7). in the case of the meatball war, an emphasis on protecting danish foodways and culture reinforces and justifies strengthened border control, restrictive immigration policy, and the marginalization of religious minority and migrant communities. from sæhrímnir to the meatball war: a brief history of pork in denmark in norse mythology, sæhrímnir, a boar, is sacrificed and eaten by the æsir (and einherjar) and subsequently brought back to life so that the process can be repeated the following day.9 well-known danish authors have also written stories about pigs, such as hans christian andersen’s tale of a helpful metal pig in florence. while stories like these have offered symbolic value to pork in danish society, politicians there is also a particular appreciation for pork in the danish case due to their historical and contemporary reliance on pork. the danish relationship with pork can be traced back 6000 years to the late stone age (boyhus, 1998). during the medieval period, pigs were kept in cities to feed off food scraps until they were large enough to be eaten, as well as near forests to scavenge for food, but this changed during the 17th century. by the beginning of the 1800s, denmark had lost much of its empire and ability to extract profits from its colonies. aided by the industrial revolution and the expansion of technology and the world market, danish pork production grew rapidly, allowing farmers to purchase inexpensive grains from abroad and export bacon, particularly to england and in aid of industrialization and the british empire. during this period, collective farms became increasingly ubiquitous and the first danish collective slaughterhouse opened in horsens in 1887. this collective slaughterhouse still exists and is a part of the country’s largest slaughterhouse corporation danish crown. collaborating with the company’s workers, producers bred a danish landrace swine and registered it for the first time in 1896. this new breed was significant because of its long body and extra brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 27 ribs and helped denmark to become one of the world’s major bacon-exporting countries (øhstrøm, 2014). since the late 1800s, pork production has continued to grow, resulting in greater economic reliance on the practice. however, as the majority of bacon was exported to england, danes needed to become acclimated to other cuts of meat. this resulted the campaign “pork on the fork” (gris på gaflen), initiated in 1957 by the danish bacon and meat council (danske slagterier), to incite greater pork consumption and expansion of the danish meat market (haar, 2016).10 this campaign resulted in a series of cookbooks to further encourage pork consumption; it has been viewed as one of the largest and most successful advertising campaigns in danish history (amtsavis, 2015). given the country’s emphasis on exports, the success of campaigns like “pork on the fork,” and the overall growth of the danish population, the pork industry has continued to grow. in 2014, there were 12.8 million pigs in denmark, approximately 10 million more than in 1950 (haar, 2016). danish crown has grown from the small collective slaughterhouse that it was in 1887 and is now one of the world’s largest exporters and one of europe’s largest producers of pork. in 2016, danish crown had an annual turnover of 60 billion danish kroner (approximately 900 million us dollars) and employed 26,000 workers (danish crown, n.d.). in addition, danes consumed approximately 31.9 kg. (70 lbs.) of pork per person in 2011, in comparison to 28.1 kg. of beef and 24 kg of poultry that same year (andersen, 2014: 2). for a country with a population and size similar to that of wisconsin, these numbers point to pork as a significant part of their economy and foodways. pork has undoubtedly played an important and central role in denmark’s history and continues to do so today. it has also previously been a source of conflict, as people raised concerns about stray pigs in public places in the middle ages, pigs scavenging in landfills in the 1800s, and the welfare of pigs in recent years. what differs though, during the meatball war, is how pork has been used as a means to discuss issues that do not pertain to pork itself, but to wider societal concerns. although pork has historically been a significant marker of “danishness,” it was not until 2013 and the start of the meatball war that pork, alongside halal and kosher products, became a public, political weapon to demarcate who was danish and who was not. the meatball war political reactions. on july 15th, 2013, the tabloid ekstra bladet published the first article of the meatball war, titled “kindergartens banish pork” (børnehaver bandlyser svinekød; svensson and rebouh, 2013). according to the reporters, at least 30 daycare providers had forbidden pork products or chosen to only serve halal meat to the children in order to prevent treating religious minority students differently. the article highlighted areas with dense immigrant populations, such as the neighborhood nørrebro in copenhagen and a suburb called ishøj.11 the municipality of ishøj had decided to stop serving pork in any of its preschools. its reputation for having a substantial non-white community, coupled with this blanket policy, made it an easy target for the media and politicians. brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 28 shortly thereafter, the discussion began to incorporate other public institutions as well. hvidovre hospital, located in a suburb of copenhagen, had decided to serve halal beef years before. lars aslan rasmuseen, the social democratic spokesperson on social issues in the municipality of copenhagen at the time, spoke out against its use: “it is the exact opposite of diversity when one excludes a group by way forcing a particular method of slaughter on them. this here has been done to pamper and satisfy the most reactionary forces in the municipality [of copenhagen]. it is a totally misplaced accommodation” (miles, 2013). to him, choosing to only serve a particular food, or in this case, beef produced a particular way, meant suffocating diversity as opposed to promoting it, and as arguably against danish ways. this is similar to one of the major arguments following the 2005 danish cartoon crisis, where the danish newspaper jyllands-posten published a number of provocative drawings of muhammad, including a drawing of the prophet muhammad depicted with a bomb in his turban. those in favor of the right to publish the cartoons wanted to ensure that a plurality of views could be expressed and resolved in various forms, rather than suppressing certain views (grøndahl, 2015). many of those who argued against the cartoons saw them as violating hate speech laws and as an example of systemic discrimination (ibid). much in the way that the debate following the 2005 crisis prioritized “danish” values (i.e. freedom of speech) over religious values (i.e. against defamation of religion), the meatball debate continued over the next month, with many politicians and journalists agreeing with rasmussen. responding to concerns, the vice president of hvidovre hospital, torben mogensen, explained that they had decided to serve halal slaughtered beef “because it was the best meat for the price” (mogensen, 2013). this response came after criticism and “fear that the hvidovre hospital was out to impose danish muslim faith and muslim habits upon others” and “that animals suffer during halal slaughter” (ibid). mogensen explained that halal meat was chosen for economic reasons, that all halal meat is marked on their menus, and that the animals in denmark are stunned (in order to be knocked unconscious) before they are killed, as with other animals. despite his response, the controversy continued to grow. prime minister helle thorningschmidt intervened in mid-august 2013. she expressed issue with the lack of pork in daycare institutions and with halal meat production, urging danish meat producers “to introduce a halal label, so the danes can look at their meat and see how it was killed” (sæhl, 2013): it shouldn’t be like this in denmark, where one slowly sneaks danish traditions out of our public institutions. whether one has a christmas tree or eats pork roast or plain old meatballs. one should not slowly sneak those out of our public institutions because one has to accommodate another culture. i am simply against it (vangkilde and klarskov, 2013) thorning-schmidt’s comments came after the minister for food, agriculture, and fisheries, mette gjerskov, argued against the need for a particular halal label, because the animals are brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 29 stunned before being slaughtered, and because changes would be required at the eu level due to the harmonization of european food labelling (see regulation (eu) no 1169/2011 for more information). in this way, thorning-schmidt’s comments were a largely symbolic, political move to assure voters that she is taking seriously their concerns about halal practices and pork consumption, without requiring true legislative change. however, while the speech’s intent may have been to cater to voter’s concerns, it added to the demarcation between danishness and otherness. following thorning-schmidt’s reaction, tv2, a major danish channel, aired a short clip from the aarhus slaughterhouse, showing how the cows are slaughtered in denmark. although practices and regulations differ in other countries, the production of halal meat is almost identical to the conventional danish practice. the “halal cows” are stunned using a bolt gun that does not break the cranium, and the throat is sliced horizontally, accompanied by a small prayer. the other cows are stunned using a bolt gun that shoots into the brain, and then the throat is sliced vertically, starting slightly deeper in the chest. the only difference between the halal and non-halal slaughtering of chickens is the prayer. the director of the slaughterhouse, svend erik pedersen, explained that he has a difficult time understanding why the halal process is a problem: “the debate that exists about halal slaughter has been blown out of proportion. […] i think that people are mixing up [concerns] with animal welfare and how the process is done in other countries that do not stun the animals” (tv2, 2013). yet in february 2014, the new minister of food, agriculture, and fisheries, dan jørgensen, made an executive order that halal and kosher practices were legally obligated to ensure that the animal is completely unconscious before it is bled to death. he explained that, to my knowledge, no one has practiced slaughtering without stunning [the animals] for many years. but when we choose to implement the change regardless, it is because occasionally, there is a demand for slaughtering without stunning, and i want to be completely certain that it is not going to happen in denmark. (ritzau, 2014) this executive order offers yet another example of a largely symbolic political gesture to persuade voters that their concerns about the process of slaughtering animals are being met, as his administration had already announced in august 2013 that halal slaughtering of cows only happened when the animal had been stunned (aaes, 2013). here, we see ethical arguments (such as in the name of animal rights) are used to mask discrimination, in this case against muslim and jewish communities.12 however, several politicians disagreed with the increasingly circulated anti-immigrant and islamophobic rhetoric. in february 2014, when manu sareen was appointed as the minister for children, gender equality, integration, and social affairs, he contradicted thorningschmidt’s comments, arguing that “the individual municipalities, preschools, kindergartens, and hospitals must themselves be allowed to assess whether they will completely drop pork from their menus to accommodate the muslim minority” (nilsson and christansen, 2014). notably, sareen is the first minister of denmark with a non-european background, and he has previously spoken out against danish immigration and integration legislation. brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 30 later in 2014, minister jørgensen also started a competition to find denmark’s national dish, which resulted in over 60,000 people voting between eight different danish dishes to determine what the “most” danish dish was. of the eight dishes, five of them included pork. nearly half of the voters (44%) chose fried pork with potatoes and parsley sauce (stegt flæsk med persillesovs og kartofler). camilla plum, a well-known danish gastronome, was among those angered by both the initiation and results of the competition. plum wrote on her facebook page, so now we’re sure that our immigrant population is not going to feel truly danish…geez dan [jørgensen]…it’s a shame you did this when you could have used this opportunity [to make] more inclusive statements…or was it just another message that says until those immigrants have learned to eat our pork, they can forget everything about being truly danish? (my emphasis; barfoed, 2014) professor of food sociology lotte holm also noted the exclusionary mechanisms of competitions like this, especially in how they can marginalize vegetarians, those who do not eat pork, and danes who might eat other regional dishes. she notes, “food is a part of our identity, and it is attached to a ‘we’ in our identity. it’s suffocating when we talk about a ‘we’ that someone does not feel a part of. for someone to go around and say that this is the right way to be. or to say this is how one eats in denmark. it’s provocative if one does not identify with it” (fajstrup, 2014). early in 2016, the municipality of randers furthered the meatball war by passing legislation that requires that pork be served on an equal footing with other food at public institutions in order to protect danish foodways. it is unlikely that this legislation would have been passed had it not been for the meatball war, as the municipality lacked political consensus on the matter previously, and many of those working at public institutions in randers did not see it as an issue. director of the daycare børnehuset jennumparken in randers argued that, “there is no reason to create an unnecessary problem. danish vegetables, danish fruit, and whole wheat bread represent a substantial part of our diet. it does not need to be pork to be danish” (hjort, 2016). a common theme throughout the meatball war is that many of those who work at or attend the criticized institutions, such as the director of the hvidovre hospital and the parents of children at said schools, do not see changes in favor of more pork or less halal meat as necessary. this is elaborated on in the following section. the legislative change in randers happened at approximately the same time that i was in denmark for research and coincided with the closing of the danish borders between sweden and germany. at the time, the government was conducting its nytårskur, or series of trips where politicians travel around the country, holding speeches about their party’s aspirations for the coming year. thus commenced my own experiences with the meatball war. although i had been following along with the meatball war in the news, attending the recently elected center-right government’s nytårskur in small town denmark helped me brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 31 understand how these issues were resonating with voters. the specific talk i attended was held by the minister for immigration, integration and housing, inger støjberg, a member of denmark’s liberal party (venstre). støjberg is known internationally for publishing advertisements in lebanese newspapers to dissuade asylum seekers from travelling to denmark, for introducing and passing legislation to confiscate asylum seekers’ valuables in order to pay for their stay, and for celebrating her fiftieth restriction in danish immigration policies with a cake, which she documented on her facebook page. she is a popular politician amongst danes who view immigration as a threat to the danish welfare state and danish culture. although it is difficult to know exactly how many support støjberg’s policies, 20% of people in a survey in 2015 said that she was the best minister at that time and others believed she was likely to be the party’s next leader due to her popularity and close working relationship with the populist danish people’s party (dansk folkeparti or df) (kristensen, 2015). during the speech i attended, støjberg spoke about how the recent border control reinstitution “was not out of desire but out of necessity” and how other measures have been taken to help both stem immigration and increase integration (støjberg, 2016: speech). she spoke of different migrant groups, explaining that “there are some groups that are easier to integrate. bosnians were much easier to integrate, and it was because their culture is not miles removed from ours”13 (ibid). she also explained how migrants have changed denmark, notably using a story of a kindergarten that was reminiscent of the 30 kindergartens discussed in ekstra bladet’s initial meatball war article. two acquaintances of støjberg had moved to the danish city of aalborg and were searching for a kindergarten for their daughter sofia. they had found what appeared to be a perfect kindergarten, until the principal mentioned that pork was banned from school lunches. because sofia loved sliced ham in her pack lunches so much, the parents decided to choose a different school. this story has since been proven to be false; after the talk, a journalist contacted a number of people who had attended the speech, including myself, but eventually dropped the article when støjberg apologized for the fabricated story, explaining that it had been told to her in privacy by people she trusted (holm, 2016). the supposed kindergarten, pilehaven, is located in a multicultural area of the city of aalborg with a higher concentration of muslim families. highlighting the neighborhood of pilehaven—like that of ishøj—is purposeful as it taps into a danish geographical imagination about neighborhoods with substantial muslim communities the history of the meatball war and location of the institution made the story readily plausible, resonating with voters who were resentful of the government’s recent decision to close the country’s physical borders with germany and sweden to stop potential asylum seekers, and yet fearful that their small country’s culture might be overpowered by globalization. this ability to play to voter’s emotions explains why støjberg continually used the story throughout her tour of the country without verifying the story’s credibility until much later. it was an act of banal nationalism, one that could be used to gain voters’ support, satisfy and attract new supporters, and legitimize increasingly restrictive legislation passed by an otherwise liberal party that sees these changes as necessary, rather than desirable, as she put it. brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 32 the quotidian response. as the previous examples illustrate, the meatball war has impacted the narrative used by many danish politicians and has created a space for a contested national narrative. tarek hussein, a well-known commentator who was a law student at the university of copenhagen at the time, was bothered by the debate. in early august 2013, he submitted an opinion piece about the meatball war to the danish newspaper politiken. in it, he wrote: now i may not be integrated (assimilated) enough, but it must have happened without me noticing that pork has suddenly become a danish treasure and such an integral part of danish culture that without it you are considered a traitor […] i haven’t known whether i should laugh or cry these last few weeks. one can undoubtedly not avoid getting the impression that every time our politicians run out of something to talk about, the media chooses to turn to the lowest common denominator, which, in denmark, is the bashing of the country’s minorities and their customs. (hussein, 2013) while hussein’s comments were circulated in the print media, much of the discussion within the newly contested narrative also took place over social media. in the fall of 2013, an apocalyptic facebook post was widely circulated, initially among supporters of the danish people’s party, and eventually others as well. in the post, it is 2044, denmark is ruled by a caliphate, and christmas is forbidden. an excerpt from the post reads: the mother gets a tear in her eye when she explains […] we have covered the window so that we are not arrested, uncle has smuggled a pork roast and a duck into the country and dad has found red cabbage and everything else so tonight we are going to hold the first authentic christmas evening for the first time in 20 years…the mother looks at me and says, mother i am sad that we let it happen, sad that we didn’t do anything, and i’m ashamed to be danish and one of them who accepted that we should accommodate the muslims, about changing danish traditions… as thorning-schmidt and rasmussen’s comments previously illustrates, there is a notion of accommodating others at the expense of danish foodways and traditions. in this way, the new nationalist narrative has been able to link food practices to how willing people are to accommodate others and subsequently presenting an urgent need to determine where the societal limits are. in the post meatball war era, when pork is served at fewer institutions or halal meat is the sole option, this means that the country is accommodating too strongly and thus justifies excluding or marginalizing people, particularly muslims and jews, who might threaten danish foodways. because the post was initially widely circulated in groups that support the danish people’s party, others believed it was a type of social media propaganda for the populist party. the apocalyptic post seemed to largely resonate with supporters of strict migration policies brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 33 who believed that a lack of migration reform could result in a muslim majority country, but many also disagreed with the underlying assumptions of the post. this led to a satirical follow-up post that mocked the initial one. the story begins: just as the uncle lifted the pork roast up from his sack, the door was kicked in and the caliphate’s cyborg-robot-drone-warrior barged into the house! “wolla, your pork roast is going to be confiscated! it is utterly and completely illegal” they said in unison, with their monotone yet embarrassingly ethnic robot voices. the uncle searched desperately for his pistol (made of good, danish produced lego blocks), but was almost instantly pulverized by a caliphate laser. although the posts differ in respect to cultural reference points, in both posts, pork represents the epitome of danishness, and they’re both political in nature. the second post was accompanied by a picture of mogens camre, a former politician for the danish people’s party, dressed in a full danish resistance uniform, with a holster of potato sausages and red hotdogs. beneath the picture, a quote reads, “muslims should live in muslimland—and that is not here.” this quote comes from mogens camre’s speech at the danish people’s party’s annual celebration in september 2004 and it has since become a well-known saying of his. furthermore, once minister støjberg’s story about a kindergarten in aalborg that did not serve pork was proven to be false, an image of støjberg next to a pork roast (specifically a hamburgerryg or a salted, cured cut of pork) was widely circulated on social media. the post was used as a form of satirical resistance by those who saw recent measures like the legislation change in randers mandating pork, or border-control reinstitutions and family reunification restrictions, as being founded in essentialized stereotypes of non-white communities. contextualizing the meatball war in an era of restrictions three years before ekstra bladet published its investigative work into the meatball-free daycare centers in 2013, a muslim nutritional science student was forced to either taste a pork dish or drop out of her program. while she had previously been exempted from eating meals that conflicted with her religious observations, a new rule in 2010 required that all students taste the food they prepare. in 2012, the board of equal treatment ruled that the new rule was contrary to the danish antidiscrimination act. yet the case was not settled until 2015 at the high court of western denmark, which agreed with the board of equal treatment and required the school to compensate the student with 40,000 danish kroner (approximately 6,000 us dollars; see ligebehandlingsnævnet, 2012; ritzau, 2015). through an analysis of danish newspapers since the early 1990s, i found only a small handful of examples where personal dietary restrictions clashed with institutions. this is because, i would argue, it was not until the 2013 articles that food became a political hot potato in denmark and, resulting in a breach in danish folk psychology that would change the place and understanding of these foods. several people have echoed that this breach occurred. , in 2013, when the debate started, the social democratic mayor of ishøj responded by arguing that, “it’s not until ekstra bladet decides to get into it that someone starts to complain about [the lack of pork]. there had never before been anyone that did so. brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 34 we’ve been using this system for many years, and no one has ever complained” (sæhl, 2013). the political expediency of the moment, alongside growing islamophobia and xenophobia in europe, allowed for this debate to unfold and result in various changes in legislation and within the danish national imaginary. restrictions in european migration policy has happened at the national and supranational level through the externalization and securitization of europe’s external borders, creating “fortress europe” (geddes, 2008). during this time, restrictions related to “borders” has also developed beyond external, physical borders, and includes the increase of territorial borders (physical boundaries), organizational borders (access to the labor market, welfare entitlement, and citizenship), and conceptual borders (notions of identity, belonging, and entitlement) (ibid). similarly, eu states have found ways through their own legislation and international agreements to criminalize migration, such as in the case of the dublin regulation, which requires asylum seekers to seek asylum in the first european country they enter.14 while right-wing populist parties are frequently credited with the implementation of restrictive policies, the role of center-right and social democratic parties in immigration control and integration policy is largely underestimated (bale, 2008; bale, et al., 2010). bale et al. (2010) examine how the growth and success of center-right and populist parties impacted the response of social democratic parties in western europe by comparing austria, denmark, the netherlands, and norway. in the case of denmark, they found that, towards the end of the 1990s, the social democrats “started to shift towards a more restrictive position on immigration” or adopt the view of right-wing parties (415). despite this shift, the social democrats were defeated in 2001 and lost their position in the government. through political contestations like the meatball war, the danish social democrats have maintained and even increased their restrictive positions in order to retain voters that might otherwise vote for the populist danish people’s party, given their support of an extensive welfare system, but opposition to liberal migration policies. in fear of losing support, prime minister thorning-schmidt, a social democrat, utilized the meatball war as a means of signaling to voters her party’s strict stance, highlighting that danish culture will not be the “victim” of increased globalization. this rhetoric is contextualized in her party’s implementation of restrictions in immigration policy, which have continued even after denmark’s liberal party took over the government after the election in june 2016. in the 2016 election, the social democrats gained seats but were unable to stay in the government, as the parties of the right-wing block were more successful overall. the second largest party as of 2016, the danish people’s party, was also one of the most vocal about their views on the meatball war, both nationally and locally. this party, along with denmark’s liberal party and denmark’s conservative party, were instrumental in passing the legislation change in randers, regulating that pork must be served on a daily basis. minister støjberg has also experienced major success. in addition to spreading the story about the kindergarten in aalborg, støjberg published advertisements in lebanese brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 35 newspapers to dissuade asylum seekers from travelling to denmark and had been in the process of proposing 34 migration legislation restrictions, such as confiscating asylum seekers’ valuables, in order to pay for their stay, as well as extending the waiting period for family reunification from one to three years. a number of these restrictions were successfully passed at the beginning of 2016. conclusion through the meatball war debate, pork transitioned from being an important commodity and cultural object to a political tool that could be used as a weapon against those seen as outside of the national imaginary. the breach in this folk psychology resulted in a transformation of danish nationalism, where food has become both a gauge to determine how far people will accommodate other groups and as a means of exclusion. in the postmeatball war era, politicians and others are able to reference foods like pork meatballs and halal beef to circumvent directly discussing issues like identity, belonging, danishness, and migration. when pork is served at fewer institutions or halal meat is the sole option, it is an indication to some that the country is accommodating non-white communities “too” strongly, thus justifying excluding or marginalizing groups that might threaten danish foodways. while this trend is consistent with nationalism and a history of anti-semitism and islamophobia in denmark and across europe, the use of pork and halal meat as a political tool between 2013 and 2016 was significant and new in its own way. while this shift has resulted in less visible changes, such as the transformation of a national identity and the placement of limits on inclusion, it has also resulted in more concrete legislative changes. while it is difficult to determine how large of an impact the meatball war had on the immigration and integration legislation restrictions that have been passed over the past decade at least two instances can be directed linked to the meatball war: in 2014, a largely symbolic executive order was made to streamline religious slaughter, and in 2016, randers municipality mandated that all public institutions serve pork on a regular basis. these contestations are playing out in other cultural arenas as well. shortly after the municipality of randers required pork be served at public institutions, latvia’s minister of justice suggested banning full face veils to protect latvian culture and address security concerns at a time of rising migration to europe (martyn-hemphill, 2016). in addition to veil bans, the discussion of, and in some cases implementation of, legislation to ban minarets, halal production, or requiring the serving of pork, has prevailed across much of europe. as noted in the introduction, politicians in germany have criticized cafeterias that no longer serve pork and suggested that at least one dish is made with pork daily while right-wing politicians in france have begun to use pork as a national symbol and argue that both muslim and jewish groups should not have the option to choose a pork-free lunch. therefore, understanding the meatball war as a contestation over identity and the resulting shift in nationalism can help scholars in understanding why and how nationalism changes, alongside subsequent legislative and discursive shifts. 1 all translations are my own unless otherwise noted. brown, burning love digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 21-41 36 2 in this case, the students were called tosprogede (bilingual), which has particular connotations in denmark and is especially used to describe children of immigrant background, particularly those who speak arabic or turkish and danish, instead of, say, spanish or french and danish. 3 the summer news cycle is referred to as agurketid (literally “cucumber time,” also known as “the silly season” in united kingdom). this is because media is known for focusing on what is often considered “trivial” or “frivolous” matters in absence of major news stories. 4 between 2000 and 2015, the largest refugee groups were syrians (20,448), afghans (14,376), iraqis (12,050), followed by other groups such as iranians (7,221), serbs and montenegrins (6,228), and somalis (5,642). 5 foodways are the cultural, social, and economic practices related to the consumption of food. therefore, this can include both what is consumed (ex. pork) and how it is processed (ex. halal products). 6for the purposes of this paper, i borrow james c. scott’s interpretation of identity in the art of not being governed: an anarchist history of upland southeast asia (2009): “all identities, without exception, have been socially constructed: the han, the burman, the american, the danish, all of them. quite often such identities, particularly minority identities, are at first imagined by powerful states, as the han imagined the miao, the british colonists imagined the karen and the shan, the french the jarai. whether invented or imposed, such identities select, more or less arbitrarily, one or another trait, however vague—religion, language, skin color, diet, means of subsistence—as the desideratum. such categories, institutionalized in territories, land tenure, courts, customary law, appointed chiefs, schools, and paperwork, may become passionately lived identities” (xii-xiii). 7 although the emphasis on pork products speaks strongly to an extensive history of anti-semitism in europe, the focus of this paper will be on how the meatball war has affected the muslim community, especially muslim refugees and other migrants. anti-semitism and islamophobia are negotiated differently in the public sphere in denmark and other countries. for this reason, a study of the meatball war’s impact on the jewish community merits its own study and should be researched further, likely as a case of both evident and indirect discrimination through open acts of islamophobia. 8 an “imagined community,” as formulated by anderson (1983), is not imagined in the sense that it does not exist, but rather in that the community is too large for the members to all know and meet each other and yet they continue to feel connected or obligated to each other. 9 the æsir are the main gods of norse mythology, while the einherjar were those who had died in battle and were brought to valhalla. sæhrímnir is referenced in both the poetica edda and prose edda. both were written in the 13th century, but the former was a compilation of earlier traditional material and the latter was composed by snorri sturluson. 10 this can be compared to the 1987 “pork. the other white meat” campaign, launched by the national pork board or “beef. it’s what’s for dinner” advertising campaign, launched by the national livestock and meat board in 1992. 11 a large number of gæstearbejdere (or “guest workers”), immigrants who were invited to work in northern europe 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introduction transformative nationalism and food as a weapon from sæhrímnir to the meatball war: a brief history of pork in denmark the meatball war contextualizing the meatball war in an era of restrictions conclusion works cited digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 ©american folklore society 2025 lead essay globalizing quinoa: constructing food desires & indigenous food tropes by: isabel p. b. fêo rodrigues abstract: this essay discusses the entangled trajectory of quinoa’s globalization in the late 20th century examining selective narratives designed to entice a type of virtuous consumption whereby one can simultaneously satiate the desire for authentic foods and for ethical eating. as this pseudo grain became uprooted from the andes and replanted across different geographies, it has gained new consumers enticed by the allure of ingesting the ancient incan “super food” packaged in indigenous authenticity. allegedly, quinoa is not only heathier than other grains, but its consumption also creates an ethical bridge between what we have on the table and what small farmers in the distant andes have been cultivating for centuries. while it took over a century before andean crops such as the potato to find its way to european tables; quinoa has reached western tables and global markets almost instantaneously undermining any desire for slowly ingesting authenticity. as soon as consumers realized what quinoa is—it was no longer from the andes. keywords: indigenous peoples, nutrition, food consumption, globalization, markets introduction: ingesting the andes five hundred years ago the european conquest of the americas set in motion agricultural and dietary transformations of global proportions. the edible world was fully transformed as plants originally domesticated by the indigenous populations of the americas were extracted from their native soils, shipped across the oceans, replanted, and adapted across five different continents forever changing the interstices between local and global diets. most importantly, as andean foods became globalized, indigenous foodways were undermined, first by indigenous people dispossessed from their lands, later by being forced to work in spanish plantations at the expense of their own food systems. as paul freedman points out, this rapacious conquest was denounced in 1552 in the classical work by bartolomé de las casas, short description of the destruction of the indies. his writings remain a strong reminder of the “depravity of power” carried out during spanish conquest and colonialism, which left the indigenous populations in a condition of enslavement and servitude (freedman 2021:71). furthermore, as freedman points out, extraction and globalization has had cumulative effects across generations. present day indigenous food insecurity is a reminder that conquest is not over, and that global capitalism continues to undermine indigenous food systems. likewise, quinoa, which was once an unmarked staple of the andean region commonly despised by the euro descendant population, once globalized has seen its prices rise beyond local affordability (2021: 69-70). as a result, as this grain becomes coveted across the world, it becomes less affordable to the original peoples whose culture and folklore tightly converges with agriculture. rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 2 moreover, european conquest across the americas reversed the logic of reciprocity with nature imposing instead the logic of extraction and commodification. this has affected local foodways to the present day and is evident in the studies of folklore on indigenous cosmology. decades ago, bernard mishkin (1940) who conducted ethnographic research on indigenous folklore in kauari, a rural village in perú, reported that many locals suffered from hunger and poor health which was sedated by chewing coca leaves. their living conditions were such that they displayed no interest in sharing their knowledge of folk traditions. furthermore, over the years the tentacles of the catholic church had infiltrated rural areas and as a result local incan cosmology often converged with christian traditions with names of spanish saints and divine figures having an equivalent among quechua speakers that overlayed catholic identities on existing indigenous religious figures. despite conquest, the sun or inti was still seen as the primary deity venerated and respected on a daily basis and in relation with successful crops. remembrance of the inca emperor hauyana capac (1464-1488) who extended the empire from cusco to quito, remained a strong presence in folk traditions. moreover, the emperor was venerated as a deity as the son of the sun whose light bestows auspiciousness and good crops. in other words, hauyana capac was regarded as the hero of agricultural peoples protecting and solidifying an empire that was once food secure. significantly, his strength derived from eating quinoa, which was believed to be among the richest andean grains (1940: 235-236). these beliefs are still alive in rural areas across the andes. their documentation, by folklorists and anthropologists alike, can contribute to the growing interdisciplinary field of sustainability and to alter the extractive and unsustainable relationship with nature that was set in motion through global capitalism. significantly, for the indigenous populations of the andes, agriculture has been at the center of their lives and at the heart of their identities and cosmology. in many indigenous rural areas, private ownership of the land remains seen as a western aberration and a source of conflict that undermines a healthy balance with nature and relationship with fellow humans. ideally all relationships, including those with nature, should entail reciprocity, or ayni in the quechua language. practicing ayni is thus considered a guiding principle that fosters sustainability and oneness with pachamama (mother earth) and with the cosmos. this conception differs from popular western interpretations about indigenous people’s relationship with nature, which is often simplistically translated as the sacralizing of landscape and of nature itself. rather, in the andes land is part of who you are, without which one ceases to be. per extension, agriculture is integral to being. conversely, as folklorists and ethnographers insist, cultural identity is not disconnected from wider regional contexts and ecosystems. rather, in the andes identity is built in reciprocity with one another, with the land, the mountains, lakes, rivers, and the cosmos. therefore, foodways are part and parcel of these ongoing reciprocal relationships where humans are not separate from the natural world, but coexist in continuity with it, across time and across the andes. by extension, agriculture is not a mere economic activity, but the substantiation of being. as such, any agricultural policies, whether promoted by governments or non-profit organizations, even when geared to improve local health or subsistence, have to consider this holistic context. circumscribing agriculture to market rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 3 economics fails to capture why growing certain foods are integral to existential survival in a territory still dominated by the euro descendant population that has disposed them. accordingly, grains are the center of andean cultures, not just for food security or economic reasons. grains are still believed to be the source of vitality and longevity, bridging humans with deities, and the land with inti (the sun in quechua). a rich folklore weaves together these agrarian traditions, who had masterfully developed agriculture across mountainous terrains. this transplantation was not serendipitous but based on imperial conquest and the need for europeans to survive across multiple latitudes during the age of seafaring—when transportation of supplies and commerce required months of perilous navigation often followed by periodic food insecurity. the rich repertoire of foods appropriated from the americas facilitated european colonial settlement and the progressive extraction of indigenous lands, seeds, plants, and agricultural knowledge. in turn, colonial extraction for global markets undermined indigenous food sovereignty, converting what were once food secure communities into landless subaltern hacienda workers, reduced to a position of serfdom, whose seeds and food knowledge would feed the world (galleano 1997, quijano 2000). significantly, in the present, indigenous crops remain subjected to a history of appropriation and extraction that started with colonialism of the americas and the globalization of american commodities—including food and seeds. in other words, foods that once originated in the americas expanded the food security of peoples across five continents—particularly through the highly adaptive corn and potatoes (coe 1994, long 1996, messer 1984, brandes 1997). today, staples such as the potato are considered intrinsic to multiple national diets and most consumers ignore their origins. potatoes, first domesticated in the peruvian andes, initially failed to adjust to the spanish climate. it was only after their adaptation to irish conditions in the 1600’s that the potato spread across the rest of europe. resisting the destruction brought about by invading armies, including during the present war in ukraine, the globalization of the potato illustrates the resilience and dependability of andean crops. yet it took almost a century after pizarro conquered the inca empire in 1535 for the potato to be successfully disseminated across the globe. likewise, today’s andean crops encapsulate entangled histories of a world where power and conquest were forever entwined with food production and extraction (garcia 2013, gree 2016, long 1996, wolf 1990). however, globalization has compressed time and space at a velocity unimagined five hundred years ago (appadurai 1988, 1986). foods planted and harvested in south america reach north american supermarkets in just hours. packaging and refrigeration have rendered seasonality irrelevant. nevertheless, it is worth remembering that present food choices and desires are not merely a product of global history, but history itself in its most sensorial form. as in the past, what gets to our tables and shapes our food preferences, is entangled with social relations of domination and extraction. as the late eric wolf pointed out, power operates through settings of converging global and local forces that rest on historical processes of extraction of labor and production (wolf 1990). yet, consumption patterns are rarely based on agricultural production and colonial histories alone. furthermore, the divide between consumption and production, so common in early plantation and colonial histories, has rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 4 shrunken as consumers and goods overlap multiple geographies. here, i argue that a similarly entangled trajectory is taking place with quinoa consumption and globalization as once occurred with the potato—becoming uprooted and rooted across different geographies, gaining new markets, and becoming attached to novel narratives and desires about the andes and its indigenous allure. while it took over a century before andean crops found their way to european tables; today food imports and laboratory seed modification travel to the speed of jet fuel, becoming globalized in less than a decade. whereas in the 15th and 16th centuries botanical experimentation relied on peasants’ knowhow —who themselves relied on transgenerational transmission of agricultural experimentation to counter their chronic food insecurity—today this process is expedited by global markets, consumer demands, and scientific manipulation of seeds. in such a fastpaced global exchange of crops and tastes, most of us consume foods that have had multiple origins and hybridizations. ironically, it is precisely against this context of food crossovers and hybridizations that the desire to eat “genuine,” “authentic”, and organically sourced “whole” foods continues to grow. i am interested in examining why, and through what mechanisms, the desire and yearning for authenticity appeals to those who not only want to be satiated, but also desire to engage in a virtuous type of consumption based on selective eating. unlike the era of pizarro when conquered foods and spices were unashamedly sold in street markets and maritime ports across the globe without labels or certified provenience, todays’ organic consumer expects to be told a story, a credible narrative—and a believable one preferably— that restores a sense of justice. quinoa, i argue, has until recently fed this growing desire. commodified as the inca grain that fed the andes, its recent globalization promises to satiate the craving for authentic whole foods while simultaneously restoring a sense of virtuous consumption. allegedly, consuming quinoa is good for us, restorative of our relationship with nature, and ethical via-à-vis the indigenous communities that first domesticated the plant. as mentioned above, these narratives of redemption contrast with the world of pizarro that once fueled the globalization of potato. in addition, while early american crops became staple foods of peasants and commoners worldwide before they seduced the upper classes, this has not been the case with quinoa, which has ascended food hierarchies by seducing the global educated middle classes (andrews 2017, urdanivia 2016). quinoa is globalizing through a modern logic of cultivating and ingesting healthy, protein-rich, and gluten free “resilient crops” in salads, soups, and as a side dish substituting other grains. an assortment of quinoa recipes such as salads with mango, herbs and asian spices abound the internet and social media in ways that are rarely consumed in the andes. these are appealing to the educated middle classes who can afford to replace cheaper rice with quinoa and who are eager to substitute industrialized foods with ethically sourced whole foods. here i am not suggesting that consumers are passively and uncritically ingesting these foods or swallowing idealized food narratives concocted by the advertisement industry to expand profits. rather consumption itself, as richard wilk pointed out, is used as a metaphor for eating in modern capitalism; the two have been inextricably associated (2004). there is no question that the least examined of all desires is the desire for food. as rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 5 graebar (2011) points out, desire itself is always rooted in the imagination and the quest for gratification and recognition by others. in that sense, desire differs from need or urge. desire directs itself to social relations, some of which may be fully imagined. likewise, quinoa becomes desirable beyond the andes through processes that have as much to do with eating and savoring as with the ways through which we imagine its provenience. such processes change over time as certain foods become desirable and undesirable depending on cultural context and the ways through which stratification is signaled through food. as we will see below, quinoa’s social ascent is recent and has much more to do with the ways through which we imagine and idealize certain foods than with the realities of food production. stratification and quinoa: ascending desires and global markets quinoa—chenopodium quinoa— was first domesticated in the andes over 5000-7000 years ago yet made its way to western tables only in the 20th century. despite its recent introduction into western diets, today quinoa is sold both online and in supermarkets across the world claiming to change the way we eat, think about food security, and design healthy sustainable diets (bermejo & león 1994, ofstehage 2011). much of its recent popularity is related to food trends aimed at reducing carbohydrate intake by restricting the consumption of cereals and grains commonly used in breads, pastas, and other more affordable options widespread across the globe. from the “keto” to the “paleo” diets, these grains have been under attack by the popularization of protein-rich nutritional plans. among the multiple claims of protein-rich diets, some more substantiated than others, is that there is anthropological evidence which suggests that human evolution relied primarily on a low grain/low carb diet, based on hunting of undomesticated animals and gathering of wild plants. moreover, with domestication of plants—including wheat—only taking place around 12,000 years ago, sedentarism and the diseases of civilization went hand in hand. while some of these arguments are shared by anthropologists, such visions of our sedentary ancestors are often too simplified. cereals have been associated with state formation and social stratification, largely due to their ability to be stored, easily quantified, and extracted as tax collection. recent evidence suggests that our ancestors lived in relatively flexible social structures and agriculture most likely took place side-byside with hunting and gathering (scott 2017). in against the grain, james scott (2017) suggests that cereals such as wheat played a pivotal role as crops associated with state formation in mesopotamia because they ripen all at once, facilitating tax collection and state control. in contrast, the inca empire relied heavily on taxes paid as labor, often using farmers as a seasonal labor force to build roads, terraces, and irrigation systems. archaeological evidence suggests that the diet of the inca empire was predominantly vegetarian, relying on heavily on potato, maize, and pseudocereals such as quinoa, which are seeds that can be used as grains but are not within the botanical family of staple cereals. both quinoa and amaranth belong to the family of pseudo-cereals that can grow at high altitudes and be dried, grinded, and stored to mitigate food insecurity in times of need. this versatility explains why so many andean countries have supported its growth and dissemination (peralta 2011, ministerio de agricultura 2019). as scott suggests, they may have escaped extraction and tax collection during the rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 6 inca empire, which relied preferentially on labor tax (as opposed to food extraction) to build infrastructure and preserve overall food security. thus, one could argue that quinoa seeds and their cultivation across the andes have been associated with long-established survival strategies across imperial agrarian traditions that were transmitted across generations through seed preservation and agricultural—and thereby also cultural—practices of working with the landscape (as opposed to working against nature) across different altitudes and ecological zones. after spanish conquest, european cereals, such as wheat and barley, were introduced in the americas. following spanish tastes, they were given preferential resources and the best arable lands, becoming over time ubiquitous across latin america. these european cereals, albeit of middle eastern origin, were the primary staples of europe throughout the middle ages and when their crops failed, famines quickly ensued. therefore, their successful cultivation across the americas was seen as critical to food security as bread continued to be the primary source of calories across europe. this tradition was implemented across south america where even today bread coexists with corn tortillas as a primary stapple. not surprisingly, the spaniards used the hacienda system to impose their agricultural and dietary preferences in the andes while selectively adopting and globalizing adaptable american crops such as corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and a variety of beans. resting on indigenous dispossession of land, the hacienda system perpetuated the spanish logic of cultivation to serve european food preferences and maximize yields, leaving indigenous populations food insecure and dispossessed (escobar 1995). unlike wheat, quinoa— perhaps due to its bitter taste and lack of gluten— is not conducive to baking leavened breads. as a gluten-free seed covered with a layer of saponins, its flour is not naturally binding and leavened; even when mixed with other flours the breads made from quinoa become denser and tend to crumble. furthermore, the abundance of corn across the americas and other more palatable food choices contributed to the relegation of quinoa to a secondary position. for european diets used to wheat, barley, and oats, quinoa’s taste was distinctively bitter and its texture hard. while corn was fully adopted as a substitute for european grains, quinoa was progressively peripheralized and over time in many parts of the andes it became a neglected low status crop only to be rediscovered as an idealized inca grain in the late 20th century. nevertheless, the indigenous populations of the andes continued to cultivate quinoa beyond the confines of the hacienda system. even when relegated to the least productive lands, they continued to sow their native crops despite being exposed to an unfavorable market economy and the hierarchical reordering of their foodways. unlike spanish diets, which were heavily reliant on meats and in particular pork, traditional andean diets were mostly vegetarian interspersed with guinea pig, llama, and alpaca meats on special occasions. protein-rich bean and grains, such as quinoa, substituted for animal protein and had long been used as main sources of sustenance. as a pseudo-grain, quinoa contains 12 to 18% protein, is rich in essential amino acids such as histidine and lysine, each with 3.25 and 6.1% of protein composition respectively. when cooked, this protein has high absorption rates. in addition to being protein rich, it is also rich in vitamins a, e, and b2, and has more calcium, potassium, and magnesium than most grains (koziol, 1992). thus, rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 7 for indigenous populations who were marginalized and unable to afford other sources of animal protein, quinoa served as the ideal food to provide the necessary micronutrients to sustain a life beyond colonial control. during spanish colonialism, and until recently, quinoa was considered an undesirable and unpalatable crop, relegated to a low-status food (bermejo & león 1994, mujica et al 2013) reserved for “los indios” who used it in stews, soups, and as a side dish often mixed with other grains to mollify its bitterness. quinoa can also be brewed and substitute for maize in the making of chicha, which is a popular alcoholic drink produced across the andes. the indigenous populations also knew how to clear and recycle saponins. before mechanization, they cleared saponins through multiple contained washes, often carried out along river streams, recycling the waters containing ground saponins as a natural disinfectant with antibacterial properties that could be used as soap. while in the present this knowledge is mostly forgotten, as the tentacles of market economy expand its reach across the andes bringing cheap industrialized products, in indigenous rural areas that know-how has allowed many indigenous communities to survive and preserve healthy diets despite the spanish influence. thus, it is ironic that the world would rediscover quinoa in the most expensive organic supermarkets outside the andes, sold as an ideal, protein-rich grain, when for centuries it was relegated to a low status food across south america. the growing demand for quinoa in north america and western europe has given rise to new concerns about the rising cost of quinoa intended for export, which affect local markets, and ultimately makes it unaffordable to the indigenous communities who have depended on this pseudo-grain to survive. it is worth examining the strategies used to globalize quinoa outside the andes and to interrogate how certain foods, once removed from their native social context, gain status and climb new hierarchies, much of which outside indigenous control. the rapid desirability of quinoa in rich countries has not gone unnoticed. from the readers of the new york times to the guardian, the growth in quinoa demand is well documented, giving rise to new concerns about price gauging and its negative effects on the local level. the alarm bell has also sounded from international humanitarian organizations, such as oxfam and food first (li & urdanivia 2020). oxfam has called for state measures to mitigate food insecurity due to global food price volatility and the potential for quinoa to become unaffordable, particularly in food-insecure countries such as bolivia—the main producer of one of the most desirable types of quinoas, royal red quinoa (grossman-cohen 2011). anthropologists fabiana li and claudia urdanivia draw on their anthropological research conducted in the punu region of peru in 2012 and in 2019 after quinoa prices had somewhat stabilized. they point out that small farmers’ high expectations to maximize profits from quinoa production have not been met. nevertheless, the rise in quinoa demand and its branding has led to a renewed appreciation and revitalization of andean foods and indigenous foodways (li & urdanivia 2020). moreover, most producers do not have direct access to global markets, relying on intermediaries in co-ops and other ngos to market their products, therefore, their margin of profit is reduced. furthermore, while quinoa is still branded as a product of the andes, it is no longer solely produced in the andes. however, the allure of the distant andes ignites desires that other places do not, rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 8 and while quinoa produced in colorado and california may be just as tasty, it is not selfevident that its ingestion meets the same desires consumers are trying to satiate. as david graeber points out, too often anthropologists overuse the term “consumption” as self-evident behavior predicated on the separation between production and consumption. this is evident when describing modernity as a culture of “mass consumption” and materiality that comes to define our identities and our relationships with others (miller 1998, 2010). yet while consumption is regarded as indispensable to modern way of crafting identities, it also entails a transformation and a form of destruction (graebar 2011). likewise, something that is ingested, like quinoa, is to a degree forever altered and in essence destroyed. as the desire for quinoa continues to grow, one may wonder to what extent this constructed desire is fully satiable when the original grain itself is being altered to suit our tastes and desires. crafting desirability: the indigenous appeal and virtuous consumption after centuries of being peripheralized as undesirable comida de indio (indian food), quinoa’s ascension in south america is taking place largely through chain supermarkets that target an urban upper class of european descent and a well-traveled elite, most of whom have learned about the benefits of quinoa through global markets, not from their indigenous neighbors. conversely, in north america and western europe, quinoa has entered markets primarily as an upper middle-class food associated with conscientious yuppie preferences despite remaining largely unknown among common folk. fetishized as an indigenous ancient grain worth the highest prices in american elite supermarkets, quinoa’s globalization has been promoted by international organizations, many of which are interested in promoting indigenous grains and climate-resilient crops. such was the case when the united nations’ food and agriculture organization (fao) declared 2013 the “year of quinoa,” suggesting that this nutrient-rich and highly adaptable plant could play a critical role in eradicating world hunger (fao 2013). the plant has also gained attention as a rich source in triterpenes saponins, which are concentrated in the husks of the seeds (ahumada et al 2016: 439). ever since, andean countries have routinely organized a biannual world conference—the congreso mundial de la quinua—aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity and its dissemination beyond the andes. bolivia, where around 60% of the population is estimated to be of indigenous origins, has been pivotal in the promotion of quinoa as an ideal grain to counter poverty and food insecurity due to its rich nutrient content. bolivia has hosted several biannual world quinoa conferences, most recently in 2023. as the home of the highly desirable “royal quinoa” variety, considered one of the nuttier and most palatable of all seeds, the bolivian state has also played a pivotal role in its idealization and globalization. the biannual world conference has been an important meeting place for indigenous producers and the international community to come together, share concerns, listen to local producers, create new contacts, and expand support. the next 2025 quinoa conference will be held in ecuador and the cañar region, known for being home to smallscale agriculture and family farms, will be at the center of its organization. local associations and co-ops are eager to be at the center stage of the world’s biggest quinoa rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 9 conference and thereby also gain international attention and publicize their multiple needs. such endeavors have also resonated with nation-states’ attempts to increase exports while simultaneously promoting indigenous foods from the andes. these efforts have appealed to western consumers eager to replace highly processed industrialized grains with healthier options. however, it is worth questioning through what mechanism is this ancient seed that purports to replace more established cereals becoming attractive. what desires and ideals is quinoa satiating? these questions arise from the long-held anthropological assumption that humans do not simply eat to satiate hunger. instead, eating is deeply entwined with our belief systems, sense of belonging to social hierarchies, and identity (goody 1982, messer 1984, mintz 2009, 1986, mintz & du bois 2002). in other words, food consumption satiates and restores what anthropologist david sutton as aptly termed our sense of “wholeness.” here, i am suggesting that the success of quinoa’s commodification rests precisely in its restorative idealist promise as a grain that purports to simultaneously heal our gut and restore our broken bonds with nature and each other. at a time of growing western dismay with modernity and industrial food production, including processed grains (pollan 2006), food choices—such as quinoa—have become associated with a different kind of consumption that is arguably more virtuous, thoughtful, and ultimately just. however, in a context where food needs and desires are constantly changing and fabricated by the industrial food chain, quinoa is also being transformed and processed. a new generation of pastas, cookies, crackers, fermented drinks, milks, and breads are being derived from processed quinoa. these products are commoditized in the usa as healthier, organic, and ultimately restorative of an “ancient inca way of life.” packaged as the ideal grain, this virtuous consumption rests largely on unverified food narratives that appeal to white middle-class consumers conscious that consuming habits have the power to alter our relationship with nature and ultimately create a more just world. the principal consumers are in wealthier nations where middle-class desires for healthier whole foods are expanding; these include the usa, the european union, israel, switzerland, and lately china. furthermore, the commodification of quinoa in wellness and organic food stores rests on potent narratives designed to create desires, expand our food palate, and transform food consumption into a moral act. while not yet in the majority, a growing percentage of consumers are demanding healthier food choices and chain supermarkets have not been immune to this demand, expanding their organic sections as they also gain from the sales of more expensive certified organic labels. despite the good intentions and market strategies to sell ethically sourced authentic indigenous foods, most consumers ignore the fact that quinoa is no longer solely an authentic crop of the andes, but is now grown in north america (colorado and california), africa (from kenya to malawi), central asia, scandinavia, saudi arabia, china, and the mountain regions of europe. unlike the potato that took over a century to adapt to european conditions, its seeds have been genetically altered to adjust to the specificities of different climates and to the different tastes and palates in less than a decade. furthermore, these altered seeds have also returned to the andes to be repropagated, and reintroduced, as “native” crops, despite having been modified outside of the andes. moreover, as rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 10 mechanization is introduced to remove saponins, quinoa’s original bitterness and toughness has been reduced, making quinoa more appealing to sensitive tastes and satisfying a preference for neutral or bland flavors. far from the andes and technically no longer an indigenous crop, in a matter of decades quinoa has been transformed from a grain that was barely known beyond the andes, into a gluten-free alternative now found modified across the globe in urban upper-class supermarkets, despite now tasting more like wheat couscous than the original variety. this transformation is fueled by a growing concern with “ethical eating” promised in food narratives that package quinoa in supermarkets stores and online as an ideal grain. for instance, the brand zint quinoa illustrates this tendency, claiming to be the “epiphany of wellbeing”: consider the moment when you first realized you could take control of your health and change for the better. that realization is at the heart of zint’s vision. we’re here to boost that empowered feeling of vitality, enthusiasm, and zeal for wellbeing. eat well; live a harmonious life physically, mentally, and spiritually. of course, this isn’t always easy, but by sprinkling a little zint throughout your day, it all becomes possible. (zint 2003) while these narratives feed our desires for a replenished life, they also sell more than physical vitality. they build on a sense of loss by metaphorically promising to fulfill an inchoate desire for a spiritual replenishment through communion with a distant andean past. by ingesting this “andean crop revered by the incas as ‘the mother of all grains,’ one can find a connection with this ancient civilization without having to substantiate any ties with the andes. notably, whereas other grains such as wheat or corn were domesticated over 8,000 and 10,000 years ago respectively, they are rarely advertised as ancient crops. in contrast, the relatively more recent domestication of quinoa (5000 to 7000 years ago) receives the metaphoric “ancient” qualification as being first cultivated in “south america over 6,000 years ago… shooting to superfood superstar status for its amazing nutritional profile” (zint 2003). these narratives promise a connection with an indigenous past associated with the incas thereby discursively connecting consumers with a 7000-year-old history of domesticating quinoa in the andes. such a historical leap bridges a fictional continuity between past and present, and the erasure of an entire colonial history of conquest, colonialism, and the hacienda system that have characterized the lived history of the indigenous population since francisco pizarro conquered the inca empire. similar historical claims have an enduring prophetic quality that equate the physical ingestion of food with a spiritual act. for example, the brand ancient harvest claims to be selling an “ancient grain” that “…carries 5000-7000 years of cultivation history because of its unique rich nutritional value and from raising the nation of the ancient inca, known as ‘the mother of food.’” not only is it gluten-free it also claims to be “kosher so you don’t have to worry when you add it to your recipes” (ancient harvest 2023). indeed, israel is among the world’s largest consumers of quinoa due in part to jewish dietary restriction on fermentation and leavened breads. rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 11 the company ancient harvest claims to have introduced quinoa to the united states in 1983 and that after the first trial they “instantly fell in love with the versatility and timelessness of this plant-based powerhouse and began our commitment to sourcing the highest quality quinoa and supporting the farmers who grow it” (ancient harvest 2023). while they claim to source their quinoa from bolivia, the exact region where it is sourced is not revealed on its web page, and while farmers are said to be supported, it is difficult to verify how and where that support takes place. as with many quinoa products, once the grain is sourced from the andes, it is de-saponized, cleaned and transformed in multiple pastas and other products that enhance processors’ profit margins. in fact, this process entails mechanization, however minimal it may be, a transformation from an agricultural product to a processed one. once processed and branded, quinoa is packed and sold as a wholesome agricultural product as if it had been unmodified for 7000 years. among the multitude of market strategies is the sharing of recipes online couched in the language of “offering” free recipes to make life a bit easier. such recipes for cooking quinoa dovetail textual information with colorful photographs that appeal to the senses. globalized in the digital age, quinoa has had the advantage of becoming marketed through instantaneous communication sharing via social media, influencers, bloggers, and traditional advertisement. in record time, a recipe cooked in the usa is quickly shared across the globe through pictures posted on social media laced with sensuous metaphors that appeal to our gustatory palate—nutty, wholesome, delicate, fluffy, textured, and ultimately wonderfully delicious— that capture our taste buds and our imagination. in addition to these sensuous metaphors, a recuring strategy to craft the allure of authenticity is to appropriate presumably ancient quechua words as if they were fossilized from the inca past of 500 years ago. for instance the brand alter eco, claims that the ancient incas called quinoa, particularly black quinoa, "chisaya mama" (chee-sa-waya mama) or "mother grain," which is defined as a “heirloom nutritious source is fluffier, nuttier” and devoid of bitterness “so common to lesser grades” of quinoa (alter eco 2023). in fact, the word quinoa derives from modern quechua itself, and it is the most commonly used in markets across the andes. distinctions are made by color and texture preference depending on the kind of recipe one plans to produce and serve, but these distinctions are not hierarchized. furthermore, among the brand’s strategies for quinoa, which include chocolate with quinoa, are claims to restore rather than deplete the earth by practicing regenerative agriculture and supporting small farmers. pictures with indigenous farmers happily posing with their families and communities provide the empirical ingredient to make these food narratives believable and digestible. rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 12 (http//www.alterecofoods.com extracted from the web archive.org 2024) among the multiple claims that are beginning to gain traction in the organic food market is that selling food is only a “modest” part of their business model. a growing trend associated with the branding of quinoa and other “fair trade” organic agricultural products is to share a narrative, create a believable storyline that dovetails with photos from afar, and craft a history of virtue. this structure serves as the organizational principle of products’ webpages, which once successful are repeated across the multiple sites on the web. the inquisitive consumer is led to these pages to find where their products come from and what kind of mission they serve. as such, the act of opting to purchase a certain brand of quinoa is increasingly based on this narrative structure. in other words, purchasing becomes part of shared mission whereby buying a 10-dollar half-kilo of quinoa is seen as an equitable transaction benefitting consumers and food producers alike. brands, such as alter eco, have also created a foundation that purports to support regenerative agriculture, indigenous farmers, and their holistic worldviews (alter eco 2023). moreover, the alter eco foundation claims to support farmers in ecuador transitioning from plow agriculture to agroforestry with minimal tilling of soils to preserve plant and forest diversity. these narratives also presume that indigenous agricultural practices have to realign with organic expectations of western consumers when the indigenous domestic production and consumption of quinoa has historically been organic, despite not being certified as such by western authorities. the online virtual world of similarly appealing discursive strategies has been pivotal in catalyzing rapid dietary changes. likewise, the promotion of quinoa to superfood status was meteoric. remarkably, the very companies that promote wellness and another kind of rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 13 consumption—that which contributes to food justice—stand to profit the most. these commodification strategies also entail changing consumption into a redemptive act that ultimately promotes the greater good. for instance, healthworks quinoa claims they have been focused on sourcing from small sustainable farms across different countries by travelling all over the world to directly meet with local farmers and carefully “hand select the best quality superfoods for our customers” (hearthworks 2023). the farmers are aptly called “partners,” although details about these partnerships are not featured in the companies’ webpages. most importantly, the profits made by these companies are not publicized or shared as part of the storyline “about us.” pictures of indigenous people, dressed in indigenous garments (as above), and rooted against a remote mountain environment, contribute to the fiction that the andes are saved by our actions as consumers invested in buying products that serve small farmers and small agricultural coops. as the production of quinoa multiplies outside the andes, these narratives about indigenous and inca authenticity are becoming blurred against a changing background where uprooted crops have become the norm and its origins forgotten. in the present, quinoa is commonly found in urban american supermarkets. as its vulgarization widens, its packaging resorts less to its andean provenience and more to the history of the brand itself. perhaps like the potato, which is now from everywhere and nowhere in particular, and is best known as the “irish potato,” quinoa’s multiplicity as it becomes a commonplace presence in western tables will also lead to a global amnesia about its origins. the andes progressively disappear behind the growing number of brands and geographies that now sell different brands of quinoa from multiple regions in supermarkets and on the ungrounded world wide web. while many of these brands claim to support small farmers in the andes, we have yet to fully discern how local small farmers have gained from quinoa’s globalization. like the andes, quinoa’s global appeal has hardly been without twists and turns. yet while its original desirability was built on indigenous agricultural know-how and appeals to an inca past, over time that provenience is likely to dissipate as its production is now also fully globalized. conclusion: creating food desires reconsidered in the current global economy food desires are endlessly being crafted; shrouded with innovative appeals to our imagination promising to bring us a world that has already vanished, restore a sense of wholeness to our fractured lives, or even to recover our connections with distant lands and with nature in its purest form. quinoa’s globalization, from a low-status food circumscribed to the andes to a globally desirable pseudo-grain, was forged out of the desire to satiate this sense of loss and to repair injustice brough about by global capitalism and industrial food consumption. branded as the indigenous grain from the andes—the mother of all grains—this seed that is not a traditional grain has captured our taste buds by promising to become yet another transformative crop from the andes that can be adapted to different climate zones in the far corners of the world. here i am not suggesting that consumers—yuppie or otherwise— are passively ingesting these idealized foods in a naïve act of purchasing a fantasy. rather, it is precisely in the context of transforming consumption and selecting foods that promise to get us out of industrial food rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 14 production that quinoa became popular, suggesting that the act of consumption and eating are entwined and changing. there is no denying that a growing number of niche consumers search for foods that are associated with a more just and equitable world, and that globalization of products through social media and the internet has accelerated this awareness. as such, the act of purchasing food is increasingly selective based on sensorial narratives, websites structured to provide a connection with food justice, and photographic place making often featuring indigenous food producers from afar. equated with virtuous consumption, consumers hope to contribute to a world that is more just and equitable. in so doing consumption and eating become morally entwined. the meaning of consuming under modern capitalism, as richard wilk points out, is closely associated with eating as a deliberate act that involves in one way or another a type of ingesting and transformation (2004). moreover, as david graeber (2011) suggests, consumption is no longer predicated on the separation between consumption and production as it was in traditional plantation economies (mintz 1986). as we can see with quinoa’s globalization, the worlds of production and consumption often overlap. thus, it is useful to closely examine how food desires are created as if this overlap did not exist, as if foods such as quinoa were still circumscribed to the distant andes where indigenous people equipped with centuries of agricultural knowledge make a living from its commodification. there is no question that the least examined of all desires is the desire for certain foods, which differs from appetite., particularly the type of food that promises to be transformative and deliver a healthier and better person. david graeber recognized this growing trend in modern capitalism asserting that desire itself is always rooted in the imagination and the quest for gratification and recognition from others. as he reminded us, desire for recognition from others is universally human and differs from mere need or urge. rather, desire directs itself to social relations, some of which may be fully imagined (graeber 211). the same could be argued about the desire for quinoa. likewise, quinoa became desirable beyond the andes through processes that have as much to do with eating and savoring as with the ways through which we imagine its provenance and hope to contribute to wellbeing of small farmers in the global south. david sutton, in his work on greece and food tropes, argues that food has the power to make us “return to the whole,” instantiating a marriage between the sensorial and the conceptual reminding us where we came from and contributing to the restoration of a sense of community and belonging after displacement. food has the power to bring us to a place we long for yet is physically remote. while his work deals primarily with migrant’s need to reconstitute a sense of homeland abroad through shared food memories, recreation of meals, and what he terms a synesthetic experience; a similar argument could be made for quinoa. here i am arguing that a parallel could be made with andean foods such as quinoa and the market narratives that build on our inner desires. they metaphorically bring us to a place of redemption through tropes of wholeness whereby the ingestion of this “ancient indigenous grain,” allows us to re-invent our place in history as virtuous consumers. rodrigues, globalizing quinoa digest: a journal of foodways and culture 11 (2025): 1-19 15 arguably, the allure of such foods was carved out from the contemporary desire to redeem middle-class consumers from a place of privilege by discursively creating the illusion of social proximity with indigenous foodways and small-scale farmers from afar presumably contributing to a better world, despite neither sharing a place at the table. rodrigues, globalizing quinoa 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