Category Archives: Foodways

Carrulim

Nationality: Paraguayan
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 20, 2017
Primary Language: Spanish

My friend from Paraguay told me about this special drink which wards off illness.

Me: What is it?

Friend:”Carrulim is a drink that’s made from sugar cane alcohol, lemon, and some other herbs and spices. It started with the medicine men in the Guarani tribe, which is the tribe of people native to Paraguay before the Spanish arrived.”

Me: When do you drink it?

Friend:”Well I don’t drink it, I think it’s mostly old people and people who live in the country. But it’s only for the first day of August, because August is the month where the weather is worst and a lot of people get sick. There’s a saying that goes: August is the month when skinny cows die.” So yeah if you drink it, it’s only in August.”

Me: Have you ever tried it?

Friend: “Yeah. It’s a disgusting drink. I thought it sounded good but it tasted so bad. I probably will like it when I’m an old man- then again, I’ll “need” it when I’m an old man so I make it through August!”

Analysis: This custom harkens back to a time when people were worried about the harsh weather and how it would effect them. Today, we can control our living conditions with a button (at least in more modern countries) but back before this, people had to ward off illness any way they could. Today this custom serves more as a protection or good luck charm for older people. Perhaps it is psychosomatic– if you drink this, you will believe you won’t get sick, and if you don’t drink it, you will worry about being sick.

Christmas Eve Soup

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 10, 2017
Primary Language: English

I asked my friend if she had any holiday traditions. She told me that on Christmas Eve, her mom prepares soup:

Me: Why soup?

Lindsey: My mom’s side of the family is Irish, so I think it’s tradition in Irish culture to have soup on Christmas. Maybe the warmth of the soup is comforting in wintertime? Also, I think soup is an easy meal to have on Christmas when people would rather be focused on their family than on cooking.

Me: What type of soup does she traditionally make?

Lindsey: It’s just a stew of different vegetables and beef. Really light. Really simple.

 

Analysis: Having soup on Christmas Eve is not a tradition I had ever heard of. I think the idea of spending time with one’s loved ones instead of cooking in the kitchen makes sense. It is more important to have Christmas with family and invest in quality time, than having an extravagant meal.

The Dumber the Name, The Better the Food

Nationality: American
Age: 29
Occupation: Actress
Residence: New York City
Performance Date: April 15, 2017
Primary Language: English

My sister got this saying from a guy she was seeing at the time. He was extremely well traveled, and used this trick for finding close to/authentic Chinese food in America.

Allegra: “So his advice is to look for the Chinese restaurant with the weirdest name – the name that makes no sense in English. Go there and you are sure to have some authentic fare at the right price.”

Me: What do you mean by weird?

Allegra: ” Well there are names which make no sense and are a sort of enigmatic challenge for the discerning brain. Do they actually make sense and would be clear to those who were more culturally aware and cosmopolitan? Or are they purposely inscrutable so as to attract attention? Who knows, but here are some real-life examples:

I Don’t Know Chinese Restaurant

New Fook Lam Moon (was there an Old Fook Lam Moon?)

Concubine and The Shanghai

New Cultural Revolution Restaurant

Confucius Pao

The New Edinburgh Rendezvous Mandarin Kitchen

Nice Day Happy Garden

Me: Have you tried this out anywhere in New York City?

Allegra: “I haven’t yet. But now that I’m thinking about it, I fully intend to.”

Analysis: Perhaps perpetuating this rule of thumb – “The dumber the name, the better the food” is a way for people to deal with their fear of the unknown and bestow some honor on their xenophobia. Or, maybe the rule of thumb is true – at least as a self-fulfilling prophecy. People will think the food is better if they’ve found a place with a truly confusing name.

Sadza Recipe

Nationality: South African
Age: 50
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Granite Bay, California
Performance Date: April 16, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: German, Afrikaans

Subject:

Recipe for sadza

Informant:

Anouchka Giles was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She moved to Durban, South Africa, in her twenties and lived there until immigrating to the United States in 2012.

Original Script:

“okay so um, basically you got to use, well, we call it mealie meal they call it cornmeal here but it’s better if you use the fine ground one, you don’t want one that’s too course. And then basically you put water in a pot and then you add sadza – uhh mealie meal to it with a bit of salt, and then you take a wooden spoon and you stir it till it starts to bubble and get thick, and then you let it cook.. for… I would say that if you want to get rid of the bitter taste you have to let it cook for about an hour, slowly, or at least 40 minutes and then you put a stick of butter right at the end and so it becomes like a stiff kind of creamy texture to it.”

Informant’s Background Knowledge and Relationship with this Piece:

According to the informant, this recipe is traditionally from Zimbabwe. Originally, she had made phutu, a variant of this recipe that is more common in South Africa. She started making sadza when she learned the recipe from her mother in law, who had lived most of her life in Zimbabwe. According to her, sadza has a much smoother consistency which she prefers, and which her husband and his side of the family was more used to.

Thoughts about the piece:

I grew up eating sadza, and I’ve always enjoyed it. From my own experience I know that corn and cornmeal are staple food products in many regions of southern Africa, and sadza is a recipe that was developed as a means of consuming those products. Of course, this version of the recipe has been refitted: the butter is purely for taste and in poorer areas adding a stick of it would be considered a luxury. Also, these same people would often not have adjustable stoves but would instead heat their pot over an open flame. In these conditions it is easy to burn the sadza, and so it would be a better decision to cook the sadza for a shorter time, which would leave a more bitter taste.

Cold Drinks and Greasy Food

Nationality: United States
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 04/24/2017
Primary Language: English

Subject:

Korean folk practice for digesting greasy food

Informant:

Eumin Lee was born and raised in the United States, although both of her parents spent much of their lives in Korea. As a result, Eumin grew up surrounded by Korean culture and superstitions. She now studies at the University of Southern California.

Original Script:

“Um, she always tells me to never ever drink iced water after I eat something, after I eat any type of greasy food, because she thinks that, um, if I drink cold water while I’m eating this greasy food, that the grease will just, like, bubble up in my blood, or something, and just, like, be a detriment to my health. She always tells me to drink hot water or hot tea while I’m eating greasy foods.”

Informant’s Background Knowledge and Relationship with this Piece:

Eumin says that she does not really prescribe to this superstition, but it was advice that her mom strongly believed in and recommended to her.

Thoughts About the Piece:

In America, no one would look twice at somebody eating a greasy burger and plate of fries with an ice-cold soda next to them. If anything, it would be expected. However, after living in the US for several years, Eumin’s mom still believes that this combination of greasy food and cold drink is bad for a person’s health.