Informant: My friend’s family is from southern India, and every few years they go back in the summer for family weddings. This past summer she went to three, and recounted some of the traditions for me.
Original Piece: “Wedding food is a tradition, because we always have the same thing. You have your vegetarian floor, and your non-vegetarian floor. and rows of tables, and rows and rows of banana leaves. And you sit, and men come around with these huge silver—what are they called… like a canister. Like a really big canister and a ladle of food. and they put it on your plate unless you say you don’t want it. Like you have biryani…Tandoori chicken…and some other vegetable dishes.
But not everyone can eat at the same time because there’s too many people.
There’s another part of the wedding where the bride and groom stand at the end of the stage and people come and talk to them individually. So you’re either waiting for food or waiting to talk to the bride and groom. And people go up and talk to the bride and the groom, and give their gift, and take a picture. And so the bride and grooms can talk to everyone at the wedding, and thank them.”
Context of Piece: My friend was showing me pictures from this summer, and I asked her to tell me a bit more about their weddings customs.
Thoughts about the Piece: This piece was interesting, as it brought some order and sense to an otherwise crowded proceeding.
Category Archives: Foodways
An Easter Tradition
Nationality: Jamaican
Primary Language: English
Other Language(s): French
Age: 59
Residence: New York City, USA
Performance Date: April 13, 2017 (Skype)
Carlton is a 59-year old man, born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica who is a superintendent of a large apartment building in New York City. He immigrated to the United States over 38 years ago.
Interviewer: Good Morning. Do you have a family story about when you lived in Jamaica.
Informant: “Sure. I am from Jamaica and in Jamaica traditionally during Easter we bake buns and cheese and that is what we have for gifts that we eat that during Easter and so my father would always would always go and we would make these buns in ovens so we would light the fire and bake these buns and get them glazed and sell them to all the people, and give them as gifts and so on. So Easter is was a very traditional thing where people go to church and worship on Good Friday and it was very quiet. No one in in the store or shop so you just had people go to church and worshiping. That was a tradition of my family and others in Jamaica”
Interviewer: You mentioned that your father would bake the buns at Easter. Is this common for Jamaica men to bake on Easter?
Informant: “No I don’t think so as far as I know, I can only speak about my father. It was a very special indeed special memory for me and me sisters. He never did anything in the kitchen. He said that was women’s work. But on Easter this was his special tradition and that he had to carry out and me and my sisters were expected to help him out. He was so so very serious about this. He would even wrap our hands if he caught us tasting the sweet glaze of the buns. I just remember him being so proud that he did this and I think he was doing this so we would always think of him, he died a few years back, when me and sisters celebrate Easter with our families”.
Interviewer: Do you carry on this tradition with your family?
Informant: “Sorry to say I do not. I feel this was a um very very special thing that my father did and I cherish this memory of him when I celebrate Easter with my family here in the US.”
Interviewer: Thank You and I wish you a Happy Easter.
Thoughts about the piece:
Food is a powerful memory aid to immigrants like my informant. This British import is a Good Friday treat, which may have roots in ancient Babylon. It has been adapted for Jamaicans by the addition of local molasses. The cross bun song can be found at: http://keepitjiggy.com/2011/03/a-jamaican-easter-bun-and-cheese/ Here is a recipe for making homemade Jamaican hot cross buns: http://eatjamaican.com/recipes/Jamaican-hot-cross-bun.html
Family Recipe
“My dad taught me this recipe, it’s not even an ethnic recipe, just a family recipe for this cool dipping sauce. You combine paprika and garlic powder and a little water and then this other ingredient I’m forgetting, but it makes for this really good, kind of dry sauce that goes really well on a hamburger or something. My dad said he picked it up from a diner he worked at, so I guess that means this recipe went from some unimportant condiment at a diner to a staple ingredient at all our family’s meals, which is pretty cool. But I’m not sure he’s telling the truth about picking up the recipe from a diner, I feel like that doesn’t make enough sense for it to be true, because I’ve worked in restaurants before and no such recipe exchanging has happened around me, but nonetheless, now that sauce recipe is a staple of our family.”
ANALYSIS:
This origin story of a family recipe is super cool because it subverts two common tropes of family recipes: that they are long traditions passed down from the ancestors of the family, and that they are secrets. Not only did this family recipe start in a diner that the father of the informant just happened to work at of all places, but the informant clearly has no regard for who hears the ingredients, and they are listed very clearly above. Still, the recipe has quickly managed to become an important part of the family, so it makes me think that maybe this is the beginning of what will become a long family tradition with this family.
Canadian middle school food ritual
Tim Marino is a 20 year old engineering student at USC. He was born in Calgary, Alberta and had lived there his entire life. Tim grew up a victim of Canadian stereotypes, playing hockey and eating maple syrup. The maple syrup part was actually a big part of his life and his daily eating habits, as he said the maple syrup in Canada was plentiful.
“In middle school people would come out with trays of ice and would put maple syrup in it and put a stick in it, and would freeze them to make maple syrup popsicles.”
Tim said that this was a very popular thing to do in middle school, and that each new generation of kids would learn it from the older years in middle school and would do it themselves, and it became a very popular lunchtime snack. I find this interesting as for one it reinforces the maple syrup stereotype of Canada, and for two it is not something I have seen performed in the US.
Brazilian Brigadeiro dessert
Ricardo is a 20 year old student at USC. Before USC, he lived in San Paolo, Brazil his entire life. He grew up with little to no American influence. One thing he spoke of that was very different was the food in Brazil. He spoke of his favorite dessert:
“Brigadeiro, it’s like a chocolate sweet with cream of milk and butter and sprinkles, my mom used to make them for me when I got good grades”
Ricardo said these were very special for him as he did not get these very often. He said his mom would specially make them for him as he said when he got good grades. She said she would also make them and bring them to big parties where families gathered. I think this dessert looks very good and I would definitely love to try it. I have never even heard of it.
