Category Archives: Foodways

Pelmeni

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Germany/California
Performance Date: 4/19/18
Primary Language: English
Language: German

My informant’s grandmother is Russian, and what was a common food in her country became a family tradition for holidays and other get togethers once they moved to the United States and settled in New Orleans. Her memories associated with that side of the family always involve making pelmeni together, giving it a lot of sentimental value. It’s interesting how the tradition is passed down and each person has their own role that they fill, including the younger children being given something to do so that they also feel included.

“Whenever we’re all together, we always make pelmeni, a Russian dumpling. My great grandma would sit down and make everything by hand (dough, meat, etc) and would pound out hundreds of absolutely perfect and soft pelmeni, the most amazing you will have in your entire life. She had 5 kids, the oldest is my grandma and youngest is my Aunt Tanya (a 24 year difference between them). As a little kid, would go to grandma’s house and get little wrappers and sit around the table and make the dumplings. My grandma would give my little sister one tiny piece of dough and meat, and my sister would fix it and say “okay that’s good but I think you could do a little better” with same piece. She would play with same piece of dough and meat for hours while the older kids and adults made the actual pelmeni. My great grandma’s five kids each have several kids who have several kids, so I have tons of super close cousins all living in new Orleans. The torch was passed down from my grandma and my mom is now the honorary one in charge of making them, and it will probably be passed on to my sister later on, since she has the knack for it.”

Noodles for your Birthday

Nationality: Filipino-American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/25/2016
Primary Language: English
  1. “So on our birthdays we eat noodles because we believe that they’ll give us log life. Ya. It’s not like my family thinks if we don’t eat it we’re going to die sooner. It’s just that we’ve been doing it for so long we just keep doing it again.”
  • She knows it because she’s Filipino and it’s part of Filipino culture
  • She learned it from her family who practices this tradition and passed it on to her and her sisters
  • It’s just supposed to mean that eating noodles will give you long life if eaten on a birthday
  • Context of performance: we were just discussing various types of family traditions and culture
  • I think it makes a lot of sense, the idea of noodles representing longevity. Noodles are typically long, smooth, and consistent which would be the ideal type of life to lead as you grow. I just don’t know how I feel about the consumption of those noodles leading to long life, however. I don’t feel as if there would be any specific benefit to eating those noodles however there’s not really another way to connect with a symbol that’s a food besides eating it. I think it’s possible that they hope by consuming that food they are giving themselves the opportunity to be able to reflect the qualities of the noodles which they want to be representative of their lives.

 

Sunday Pizza in Sao Paulo

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Sao Paulo Brazil
Performance Date: March 5 2016
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

Title: Sunday Pizza in Sao Paulo

Interviewee: Rafael Blay

Ethnicity: Brazilian

Age: 19

Situation (Location, ambience, gathering of people?): In his room in Webb, with 3 other friends playing video games in the background. It was a Thursday in April, all the work done for the week, so spirits were high. The interviewee sat on his bed to recount some tales and such.

Piece of Folklore:

Interviewee- “In my city, it is a huge tradition that everyone gets pizza delivered to them on Sunday night. It’s important that it’s Sunday night. It’s because the pizza is so good, and the maids and the people that clean the house do not work on Sunday, so it is easier to clean.”

Interviewer- “Have people been doing that for a while?”

Interviewee- “Well as long as I can remember, since I was a little kid.”

Interviewer- “Is it something important in your family?”

Interviewee- “Not really. I mean it’s nice knowing that on Sunday you are going to have dinner with your family and you get to see everyone. Even if you go to a friend’s house you can see their whole family because they come to dinner. On the other hand, maybe the reason I like it so much is because I don’t have to do the dishes (laughing).”

Analyzation:

What apparently started off as an innocent thing simply because it was the easiest thing for the family, probably due to hearing children complain about having to do the dishes, has turned into a real tradition. Of course the reasons for the tradition starting are practical, but it has grown to be something far more important than just not doing the dishes. It gives families an excuse to come together and eat good food and not have to worry about anything afterwards. Specifically with the Interviewee, it is something that he remembers fondly and misses from being back in Brazil. The Interviewee also says that Brazilian pizza is also far superior to American Pizza, which did not sit well with other Americans who heard his statement.

Tags: Pizza, Sao Paulo, Tradition

Quetzalcoatl and Corn

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Texas
Performance Date: April 24th
Primary Language: English

7) Quetzalcoatl and Corn

Before the arrival of Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent-god of intelligence and self-reflection), the Aztecs only ate roots because the corn was hidden behind the mountains.

So the Aztecs sent priests to Quetzalcoatl (also overseer of priests) and asked him for corns to which Quetzalcoatl agreed to.

All the other gods beside Quetzalcoatl already tried to cross the mountain but none of them had enough wit and courage to succeed. Quetzalcoatl decided that he will turn himself into an insect to cross the mountains and he brought back a single grain of corn to the Aztecs.

The Aztecs planted the seed of that corn, and eventually the crop worked out more and millions more corn came and eventually became a staple crop for the Aztecs.

Miriam told me this story after I asked her to tell me a story. I also knew this story from before, because we were taught this back in 7th grade, and I guess Miriam, having gone to the same school as me, learnt the story there too. She had vague memories of certain parts so the performance was not perfect and had many doubting moments, but the big story was definitely comprehensible.

Eating dduk mandu gook (rice cake dumpling soup) on New Years Day

Nationality: USA
Age: 40
Occupation: college advisor
Residence: Salt Lake City, Utah
Performance Date: April 24, 2016
Primary Language: English

Informant is a descendant of Irish immigrants who married a Korean man so is familiar with certain Korean traditions.

Tradition as told by informant: Every new years Luis (husband) has the family eat the dumpling soup so I had to go online and look up how to make it.

Every new years Koreans eat this soup because they believe that Koreans age one year every new year. You don’t gain a year until you eat this soup so it is important to them that they have it. It also symbolizes good health and fortune for the new year.

The white, clear broth of the soup represents a clean fresh start to the new year and the disc shaped rice cakes symbolize coins for wealth and good fortune.

for more on this tradition see: http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/ddukguk