Category Archives: Foodways

A Food for Thought

Nationality: Mexican/American
Primary Language: English
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Date: 4/21/2024

Text: “Mole is not just a dish. To us it’s a culinary ritual in Mexican culture.” 

Context:

E.C. recalls her grandmother’s meticulous process of making mole for family reunions. She said it was made with over 15 ingredients, sometimes including chocolate and various spices. Also adding that its preparation is often reserved for special occasions and is a labor of love to bring to a reunion.

Analysis:

Mole exemplifies the deep connection between food and cultural identity, serving as a tangible link to history and to the complexity of Mexican culinary arts. I also interpret this tradition as a celebration of culinary heritage. It also has the power to strengthen familial bonds and honor their ancestors.

Chinese New Year Festival Foods

Context: AT is a 22 year old student at USC. Her family is Taiwanese, and they celebrate Chinese New Year by cooking a variety of specific foods. AT listed these for me, along with the reasons behind why.

Text: “For one, we eat fish, because in Chinese, there’s a lot of words that sound the same and fish sounds the same as wealth. There’s a saying that every year you get more fish, you get more wealth. We also make this like fortune? cake? Or prosperity cake? It’s called fa gao, you can look it up. We make it because the word for fortune sounds like the word for rise, like bread rising. It’s really good! There’s also sweet rice cake, because it’s sticky, and the word for sticky sounds the same as the word for year. Oh, and of course, dumplings, because they look like the old fashioned coins or like ingots of gold they used to use. Let me think… oranges too, because one of the ways to say the fruit orange sounds like the way to say good luck”

Analysis: AT gave me a list of foods, all that are made and eaten due to a perceived relationship with something they sound or look like. The choice of food seems very sympathetic-magic based, specifically homeopathic magic based. Since the word for the item of food sounds like the word for another preferred item or outcome, engaging with that imitation is thought to produce said item/outcome, in this case, producing fortune in the form of money or in the form of luck. Making a food that either sounds or looks like luck/fortune is equated to making luck/fortune for oneself.

Marching Band Shot Taking

Tweeeeeeeet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, down, don’t die preformed

“Tweeee^eet tweet tweet tweet tweet down, don’t die”

I’m in band, I am a college student of legal age, who occasionally recreationally takes alcohol, in a safe, consensual manner (laughter) [consensual between you and the alcohol?] Yes. (laughter) [So where will you use this?] Often times I’ll use this right before parties. [So you’d use it at parties, do you think you would use it (this method of taking shots) at a non-band party?] Probably not because I think I’d look like a weirdo. [Who taught you this? Who did you originally learn it from?] The people who were in band before me, so like when I was a freshman they were seniors and it just gets passed down. [Would that be your section or just general band? (both the taking of the shot and the teaching of the shot] General band, but I learned it from my section. [Why do people in the band say this?] We say this before we run down on the field, we say “tweeeeet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, down, don’t die” and then we would start going “aaaaaaa” and then running on the field, and then because another huge part of the band other than marching band and music is alcohol (laughs) we will also do that before we drink. [So what does the tweet stand for? How does that become a thing?} the tweet mimics the sounds of the whistle that Jake uses to cue us off (to go running onto the field).

-Interview with the Informant

The USC Marching Band became as well known and impressive as it is today thanks to its previous director, Arthur Bartner. His tenure at USC is marked by the current band for having an incredibly football team, manly mentality as well as a band that was rowdy and alcoholic. The identity of the band has shifted since Dr. Jacob Vogel, the current director, took the reigns, however the importance of alcohol for band members has not been completely erased. Band members spend much of their time together, especially during the fall football season and as a result they have created a folk group that transcends just being a marching band and is also a social group outside of band itself. They have band exclusive parties, drinking traditions, particular mixed drinks made special by each different section, all of these different social aspects that are considered a part of band despite not being practice or music related. Using the folklore of their band activities, such as being tweeted off before running onto the field, they extend the group’s activities to drinking, partying, and socializing outside of just the marching band practice and game hours.

Mangia, y’all

Nationality: Dallas, TX
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Language: English

Text:

A ritualistic saying that acts as performative speech to signal that people may start eating (similar to “bon appetit”).

Context:

The informant comes from an Italian family that currently lives in Dallas, TX. Her family emigrated from Sicily 6 generations ago through Louisiana and settled in South Texas; they have lived in the same city ever since. Her generation is actually the first generation that is not fully Sicilian Italian, because her father is from Nebraska. Members of the family will commonly say this phrase before meals.

Interpretation:

Given the family’s deep connections to both Italy and Texas, both places are fundamentally intrinsic to their family identity. This saying is not only a form of performative speech that instructs people to begin eating, but an indicator of a deeply loyal family history as a source of pride. Saying this phrase ritualistically before eating contextualizes mealtimes as a ritual through which to connect with the family through food, in both the past and present.

Chinese Tea Rhyme

Text: 

Original Script in Mandarin Characters:

甜配绿, 酸配红, 瓜子配乌龙。

Pronunciation in Mandarin Pinyin:

tián pèi lǜ, suān pèi hóng, guā zǐ pèi wū lóng.

Transliteration:

Sweet matches green, sour matches red, sunflower seeds match oolong.

Translation:

Serve sweet food with green tea, serve sour food with black tea, and serve snacks like sunflower seeds with oolong.

Context: 

I first heard the rhyme when I was enjoying a traditional-style tea party one day with my family when I was in middle school. I randomly asked my paternal grandparents how did they manage to choose different tea on different days, and my grandma replied with this tea rhyme and said the choice was dependent on what flavor of food and snacks we were having. Later when I interviewed my grandma for this project, it appeared that she couldn’t remember when, where, and from whom she learned this rhyme. Having circulated orally among people, this tea rhyme has been and still is a popular phrase across different regions in China.

Analysis: 

Historically, China is known for tea culture and tea serves a vital role in people’s daily lives. Tea-drinking is not simply a pleasant gustatory and olfactory experience, but also facilitates social and spiritual activities. When it comes to deciding which tea to drink, this tea rhyme is a shortcut that speeds up decision-making, though many may have their own preferences and theories. 

Broadly conceived as an agreeable saying, this rhyme reveals the basic logics in matching tea with food. According to the informant, this rhyme can be broken down into three parts and each part has a solid backing to it. To begin with, one should serve sweet food with green tea since its relatively bland taste tones down sweetness. Though not known to the informant, it has been proven scientifically that gallated catechin (GC) found in green tea acutely reduces blood glucose levels, resulting in the consensus that green tea makes sweet food and dessert “healthier”. Contrarily, the rich flavor of black tea is thought to be best served with sour food to reduce bitterness as well as add depth to its smell and taste. Lastly, sunflower seeds are a popular snack in China that tastes nutty, slightly salty, and savory. Despite literally specifying sunflower seeds as oolong’s “partner”, this tea rhyme generalizes a category of nutty and less flavored snacks compared to the aforementioned sweet and sour food, saying that oolong’s flavor will not be sabotaged but enhanced when served with this snack category.

In terms of the rhyme’s pronunciation in Mandarin, the three short phrases rhyme perfectly together with the first ending in a downward tone and the last two ending in an upward tone. Furthermore, the rhyme strictly follows a rhythmic structure (3 characters, 3 characters, 5 characters) as the last two phrases rhyme with two different characters but they sound the same vowels and the exact same tone. The rhyme’s catching pronunciation helps it withstand the test of time and remain popular among its specific folk group.

As much as Chinese people value tea and food, the theories behind matching a food with a specific tea are passed down generation to generation, and this tea rhyme not only allows us to take a glimpse into this rich tea culture, but also helps distill collective wisdom in tea-drinking.