Tag Archives: food

Onam- Indian Festival

Age: 22

Text:
Informant: “Onam is a festival about King Mahabali returning to visit his people once every year. One thing people do is make pookalam, which are flower carpets placed at the entrance of the house to welcome Mahabali. My grandma makes them and that’s where I first saw them. People usually get together to make one and it can take two to three hours. There’s also a big meal called Onasadya which we eat for lunch. People sit in rows with a banana leaf in front of them and volunteers serve the food. Someone will bring a big bucket of rice and scoop it onto everyone’s leaf, then another person comes and gives things like bananas. Everything is vegetarian and there is 25 different dishes, the number of dishes is important and you eat with your hands. There’s also boat races called Vallamkali with 100-foot snake boats. I’ve watched them on TV before.”

Interviewer: “How long have you been celebrating Onam?”
Informant: “Pretty much since I was a kid, maybe when I was six or eight. My family celebrates it and that’s how I learned about it. I don’t celebrate it as much anymore, but my parents still celebrate it.”

Context:
The informant grew up in India and learned about and participated in Onam through family celebrations during childhood. Their first encounter with the traditions was watching their grandmother prepare pookalam flower designs at home. The informant explained that their family regularly celebrated the festival when they were around age six or eight. Although the informant does not celebrate Onam as frequently now that they have moved to America, their parents still celebrate in India.

Analysis:
Onam is an example of festival folklore, which combines storytelling, ritual practices, food traditions, and communal gatherings. The festival is centered around the legend of King Mahabali and his annual return, showing how narratives help explain and structure cultural celebrations. The traditions practiced during Onam also express important Indian cultural values such as hospitality, cooperation, and community. Activities like making pookalam or sharing the Onasadya meal require many people working in tandem, which turns the festival into a collective experience rather than an individual one. The large vegetarian meal served on banana leaves and eaten in rows reinforces a sense of equality, since everyone receives the meal in the same way.

Tomato and Egg

Context:

The informant is a Chinese woman in her mid-50s who was born and raised in China and currently lives in Beijing. She has primarily taken care of the domestic side of her family. Although she considers herself a poor cook, but the tomato and egg stir-fry is probably the best that I have ever tasted.

Text:

西红柿炒鸡蛋 (tomato and egg stir-fry) is one of the most common home-cooked dishes in China. It is widely considered a “basic” dish that almost everyone learns to make at some point in their life. The informant recalls that it is often associated with everyday family meals, especially during childhood, because it is simple, affordable, and quick to prepare. The dish is usually made with just tomatoes, eggs, sugar, and salt, and is frequently served with rice as a main meal in domestic settings.

Analysis:

This dish reflects more than just domestic cooking practices in China; it is also tied to historical memory and changing social conditions. Its simplicity and low cost are often associated with earlier periods of economic hardship, when families needed to rely on accessible ingredients to sustain daily meals. Over time, however, 西红柿炒鸡蛋 has shifted from a “poverty food” to a cultural symbol of comfort and familiarity, representing home and everyday stability. In contemporary contexts, it is often framed with a sense of national culinary identity, as it is widely recognized, universally accessible, and deeply embedded in shared lived experience across generations.

Fermented Rice (醪糟)

Context:
The informant is a Chinese woman in her mid-50s who was born and raised in China and currently lives in Beijing. She grew up within a traditional cultural environment where home remedies and food-based health practices were commonly passed down between women in the family.

Text:
The informant describes fermented rice (醪糟) as a common traditional food often associated with women’s health, particularly during menstruation. It is typically served warm, sometimes with eggs or sugar, and is believed in popular practice to help “warm the body” and support recovery during a woman’s period. The informant explains that in her experience, it is often recommended within family settings as a comforting food during menstruation.

Analysis:
This shows how fermented rice functions not only as a household food but also as part of a gendered system of folk health knowledge. Its association with menstruation reflects broader cultural ideas about balancing the body, warmth, and recovery through food. Within this context, the dish becomes more than nourishment—it carries symbolic meaning tied to women’s bodily experience and care. At the same time, its continued use in everyday life demonstrates how traditional beliefs about health are preserved and normalized through domestic practice. In this way, fermented rice can also be understood as a form of embodied cultural knowledge that connects food, gender, and wellbeing in everyday life.

“Red sauce”

Text:

Interviewee: “In my family, we call the red pasta sauce red sauce, but I know there’s a lot of debate about what it’s called. Some people call it gravy, which is disgusting. I know ours has zucchini and onion. Some people call it pasta sauce or marinara.”

Interviewer: “My family also calls it red sauce.”

Context:

This came up during a folklore class discussion about minor folk speech. The interviewee shared a common family term for pasta sauce and compared it to other names used by different people. The interviewer (me) noted that I, too, call it red sauce, as does the rest of my family.

Analysis:

This story shows how families have their own names for foods. Calling it “red sauce” connects the speaker to their family and reflects shared traditions. It also highlights how food language can spark similarities, or conversely, debate between families.

Fortune Cookie Ritual

Age: 19
Hometown: Rifle, Colorado
Location: N/A

Context:
This ritual came up when I was eating Chinese food with my friend. I read my fortune before eating the fortune cookie and my friend let me know that since he was little he had a very specific way of eating the cookie. He is originally from Colorado and doesn’t remember where he first learned this but he thinks he got it from his friends or older siblings as a child.

Content:
Interviewer: “Can you repeat what you just said about how you eat fortune cookies?”

Interviewee: “So my fortune cookie ritual folklore is that in order for the fortune to come true I need to eat half of the fortune cookie first and then I can look at the fortune and see it but then I have to I have to eat the other half or else it’s not gonna come true”

Interviewer: “Interesting, where did you learn this?”

Interviewee: “I actually don’t remember exactly where I got it from but I know I’ve been doing it since I was a kid.”

Analysis:
This is a ritualized folk belief that explains how to interact with an object associated with luck and prediction. The specific sequence of eating half of the cookie, reading the fortune, and then eating the other half of the cookie creates a rule that must be followed for the outcome to “work”. It’s interesting how something that’s really just random ends up feeling controlled because of that routine. It also shows how folklore can turn a normal activity like eating into something more meaningful by connecting it to the future and its outcomes. Overall, it reflects how small rituals reinforce belief in luck and give people the feeling that they can control their future in one way or another.