Category Archives: Foodways

Til gul gya, goad bola on Sankrati

Nationality: Indian
Age: 57
Occupation: Corporate Manager
Residence: Pune, India
Performance Date: April 2020
Language: Marathi

Piece

Original script (if applicable)

तील गूळ ग्या, गोड बोला

Phonetic (Roman) script

Til gool gya, goad bola

Transliteration

Sesame jaggery get, sweet talk.

Full translation

Eat sesame jaggery candy and talk sweetly.

Background

This is a Marathi phrase that is said on a holiday called Sankranti. It is spoken to everyone on this day while feeding each other Sesame and Jaggery candy.  

Context

My mother told me this piece of spoken folklore when I asked her about traditions specific to my people: Maharasthraians. This holiday is specifically celebrated by Hindus in honor of the Sun God, Surya. The day is also called Makar Sankrant or Makar Sankranti. It is said that you are supposed to reap benefits from your business or life if you eat the “til gul” (sesame and jaggery rolled into a ball)

Thoughts

    On asking my mother why sesame and jaggery were used specifically, she told me it is because the two ingredients help the body maintain heat in the winter. Sankranti is celebrated in January, one of the coldest months. It varies according to the lunar calendar but the point is that the people of Maharashtra consume sesame and jaggery to keep their body temperature up in  these cold months. In addition to that, this is the beginning of spring and the end of winter which foretells a new harvest. 

The more salsa you eat while pregnant, the hairier the baby

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 54
Occupation: Health Care Executive
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: 4/18/2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main Piece

Informant: Some Mexican families believe that when you are pregnant the more salsa you have the hairier the baby is gonna come out. I didn’t like salsa a lot, and I was pregnant at the same time as my cousin and she loved salsa, she would chug it. So our family would joke that her baby was going to come out with a full head of hair and mine was going to be bald. 

Interviewer: Was it true?

Informant: Yeah, all my cousins’ kids had a lot of hair, even on their back- they looked a little monkeyish haha. Mine had hair but it was normal hair, no back hair though. Plus, it all falls off so does it really matter at the end of the day? … Do you want your child to be born with hair? If you did, then eat salsa! I also think about pregnancy cravings and trying to make something out of it. It reminds me of the saying that spicy food puts hair on your chest, but in this case it is a baby. 

Background

The informant is my mother, a Mexican woman who is first-generation and the oldest of 3, who was born and raised in San Ysidro,CA  a border town just north of Tijuana, Mexico. Influenced by memories and conversations with her great great grandmother, many of her practices, customs, and beliefs were passed down from her maternal side of Mexican customs. Fluent in both English and Spanish, the informant has always felt conflicted about her culture as she wanted to fit in with American customs but wanted to preserve her Mexican heritage and traditions. The informant had her first child when she was 18, and worked her way as a single mother with two kids to attain her Master’s Degree and is now the Executive Vice President at a non-profit health clinic that serves the community she was raised in.

Context

It is often a running joke in our family that the informant is the only one who could not handle her spice, and when this is brought up my family jokes that she is the reason all of her children came out to be bald. Wanting to learn more about this joke and its superstitious origins I asked her about it in the interview that we had. 

Analysis

I think this superstition is impacted by the dietary qualities of Mexican food as well as pregnancy cravings that many expecting mothers have. Usually, the spicier food or salsa you eat the tougher you are viewed to be, and this thought could have transpired to create the origins of this folklore. I also think it has to deal with the masculin stigma revolving around what “toughness” constitutes, and usually hair is a more masculine trait so the tougher the baby the tougher/more masculine the baby.

Armenian Coffee Recipe

Nationality: Armenian
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: Los angeles
Primary Language: English

Main Piece: 

Informant- “ I would like to share with you my culture’s coffee, Armenian Coffee. The first step is you add 1 cup of water per person. I am making this for me and my mother. I added a little bit of extra water because you want to make sure the cup is filled to the brim. 

So then I use columbian coffee and add it just a little bit over a spoonful of coffee. Add a little more so about 3 spoons. I like my coffee very strong. You can use coffee that is ground up very finely. 

Then start the stove on high and let the water boil.

It is important that you use the proper coffee cup in order to complete the fortune reading at the end.  You also use Jazve coffee pot which is also used in many cultures, Armenians, Turks, Persians. 

So when it is boiling you can let the foam break or keep it. I like the foam because it is full of tons of antioxidants and tastes really good. 

So now my coffee is done and I will pour it in. Make sure to fill the cup all the way to the top.” 

Background: The informant learned the Armenian Coffee recipe from her mother. In the video, she explains that she is making a cup for her and her mother. Armenian coffee is meant to be shared, an important way to bond with family and friends. 

Context: This piece was collected from a full tutorial video created by my informant. The informant lives with her family in Los Angeles and is 20 years old. The tutorial describes the steps to creating Armenian coffee. It is too long to upload so I have included an outline of the audio. 

Thoughts: This is an interesting tradition that is important to her family. She spends time making coffee for her grandmother and mother and remembers times they made her coffee. This recipe is important to the Armenian culture and is recycled through generations. 

Holy Name of Jesus Crawfish Boil Competition

Residence: New Orleans
Performance Date: 4/20/20
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

SG is a mother in New Orleans. Crawfish boils are major events throughout New Orleans and Louisiana as a whole. They tend to be more of a social hour rather than a meal. Holy Name of Jesus, SG son’s school, has an annual crawfish boil as a fundraiser for their school. Around 10 different groups, parents and relatives of kids at the school, compete to see who makes the best crawfish boil. Generally each boil has potatoes, corn, crawfish, seasoning, but everyone puts their own spin on it trying to win the competition. The voters are the students and families visiting, and they each get tickets which they can give to the group that they think had the best crawfish. We have gone a couple of years in a row, and they usually have good music, atmosphere, and of course food. As a social hour, since Crawfish at typically eaten standing up, you stand around a table with others and socialize more than just eat crawfish. SG says that crawfish boils are a big aspect of Louisana culture.

Context:

SG is a resident of New Orleans who’s youngest sons attend Holy Name of Jesus School. She has attended this with the rest of her family since her youngest sons attended the school, and plans to go after.

Thoughts:

The idea of this being a social event is really appealing to me. The idea of dining as a social event has always been present be it with dates, luncheons, or business dinners, but this is different. It is similar to a barbecue or cookout, in which you invite others over to eat with you and socialize, but is unique in how people are positions. The fact that you are usually standing at a crawfish boil is interesting to me because that is more like behavior at a bar which functions mainly as a social place. The idea of it being a competition is also interesting because it shows the culture of food in New Orleans. It shows that everyday people in the city care about perfecting the craft that their city is known for and that they want people to socialize around it.

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival: The Origin of Mooncakes

Performance Date: April 15, 2020
Primary Language: English

Main Piece:

The following was transcribed from an interview between the informant and the interviewer.

“So usually in the fall time there’s a holiday called the mid-autumn festival or sometimes people call it the mooncake festival because the thing that people eat during this festival is called a mooncake. It’s basically like this um, roundish like, very dense um, pastry, and on the inside there’s like different fillings. So sometimes like mixed nuts as a filling, red bean paste, or loaded bean paste, or these like different things. And um there’s like a legend about why we celebrate the mid-autumn festival or the moon festival. And it’s like basically the story is that a really long time ago, like in ancient times, there were actually ten suns on earth, um, and, it was like really hot, and it made people’s lives very difficult ‘cause it was super, super hot all the time. And then there was this guy who was a hero, and he wanted to help people because they were struggling under the heat of the ten suns. So, he like used a bow and arrow and his great strength and he shot down nine of the ten suns (laughs). Um so, after he like did this, he became a big hero, everybody loved him. And then, as all stories go, he like met a princess, and he married her. And they were living happily ever after. Um, but then, the hero, he like didn’t want to die, so then he was looking for a way to live forever. And then, this like magician gave him a potion which would cause him to go to heaven and become a god. But then, instead of drinking it because he wasn’t sure, he took it home and gave it to his wife. Um and she was just supposed to keep it, but basically, she drank it. And then the moment that she drank it, she flew out of the window and ascended into the sky. And then she lived on the moon, so the princess that lived on the moon that’s why it’s the moon festival. And then we eat these cakes to like remember her.”

Context: I collected this piece of folklore during an over the phone interview. My informant is a Chinese American who resides in California. Her family has participated in the Chinese holiday called the mid-autumn festival or the mooncake festival.. When the mooncake is made with an egg yolk inside it is meant to represent the moon. This legend that my informant told me is meant to be the reason why they celebrate the holiday.

My Thoughts:

Even though this story is of Asian descent and not European, there are many similarities with this tale and the formula that Propp discovered that fits most Europeans tales. However, there is a twist with this Chinese legend. As in most European tales a hero identifies a need (in this case he wants to save the people from the ten suns by destroying most of them), he battles the villain (in this case the villains are the suns), the need is resolved (people no longer are struggling from overheating), the hero returns and there is a wedding. The part of this legend that is different than European tales is after there is a happy ending, the story keeps going. I find it interesting that the story ends with the hero’s wife becoming immortal and ascending to be a god which then becomes the person that is remembered through the festival. You would think the festival would be to honor the guy who slayed nine suns for human’s continued existence, but instead it’s his wife, who just so happened to drink a potion at the end of the story. This legend kind of makes being a hero seem not worth it.