Tag Archives: food

A can of Spam is opened every three seconds

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student, fast food employee
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/27/13
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

My informant claimed to have heard this information through the internet community Facebook. He said that he read it as a status update, but then later found the same information on the internet site Tumblr.

Did you know that a can of Spam is opened every three seconds in the world?

Odd facts of sensationalism are common within internet communities, and my informant could recall having heard several similar facts even over the past week. He expressed some doubt as to its literal truth, assuming it was a average or approximation, but nonetheless accepted its essence as fact. Variations on this fact can be found throughout the internet community on unofficial chat boards or fact sites such as http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=697753 or http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2163808 but is also listed as fact on slightly more reputable sites such as http://forgetmagazine.com/032301.htm.

Thanksgiving Ham

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student, Part time facilities attendant at on campus gym
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/27/13
Primary Language: English

In the following, my informant recounts how her family traditionally has Ham on Thanksgiving rather than the more traditional Turkey:

We always have Ham for Thanksgiving, always, I mean, yeah, its not a Thanksgiving without ham. Turkey? Not turkey. We’ll have some turkey,  but we always have ham because my great, my grandma, or my Nana on my dad’s side, she cooked the best honey baked ham, oh my gosh, and um , we loved it when we were little, and, so each Thanksgiving she would make it for us, and we’d always have that.

The fact that my informant and her family continue to celebrate Thanksgiving with ham rather than turkey, even after, as she informed me, her grandmother, who made the ham, has died, shows that they do it in remembrance of her. My informant told me that for her family Thanksgiving is a way of not only celebrating the family currently there, but the family which either is absent or has died, and eating ham is a way of remembering not only her grandmother, but all the family members she once shared a Thanksgiving with.

Thanksgiving Traditions

Nationality: American
Age: 49
Occupation: Travel Agent
Residence: Lake Bluff, Illinois
Performance Date: 3/18/2013
Primary Language: English

I learned from my informant that ever since she was a little girl, her family has always hosted a large Thanksgiving dinner.  Members of her extended family as well as members of the Stern extended family would come to her house and all have a big dinner.  Her mother would make the turkey and everyone else would bring something along or make something.  One person usually brought a vegetable salad.  She herself started baking desserts for Thanksgiving when she was in high school.  And these desserts rarely included anything pumpkin because no one in the super-extended family liked pumpkin very much.  Then after everyone was done eating and talking, they would all gather round and play card games and eat popcorn.  Hearts was usually the game of choice but some people also played spades.  Later in life, after most of the younger family members grew up and had gotten married, and the large family became even larger, they started playing huge games of hearts with multiple decks.

The rules for regular hearts are listed here so that the extended rules make more sense for those who have never played the original.  In hearts, a standard 52-card deck is divided between four players.  The player to go first in a round plays a card, then the next player must play a card of the same suit if possible.  After all four players have played, whomever played the highest card of the leading suit takes all the cards, then must be the starting player in the next round.  For the first round, the player with the 2 of clubs must go first.  Hearts may not be played on the first turn, and a player may not lead a turn with hearts until hearts have already been played.  Hearts are worth one point, and the Queen of Spades is worth 13 points.  At the end of the game, you tally all the points you have, and at the end of all the games, the player with the fewest points wins.  Additionally, before each game, you must pass three of the cards in your hand to the player in a given direction, alternating between left, right, across, and no pass.

For the extended version, all of the regular rules apply, except that the player to go first on the first round is the first player to the left of the dealer who has a 2 of clubs.  The only major addition to the rules is that multiples of the same card cancel out.  So if there are two King of Clubs on the board, and clubs is the leading suit, neither king counts for the highest card, and instead the turn goes to the player who played the highest singular card (non-canceled) in the leading suit.  In games with three or more decks, if the third multiple of a card comes out, then that card is not canceled and is treated normally.  Additionally, the passing order is slightly modified, and is now left, right, two to the left, and two to the right.  According to my informant, these new rules lead to emergent play.  First and foremost, players have a lot more power depending on where they are in the turn.  Players near the end are often begged and pleaded to cancel out whoever is highest (or not to cancel out the high player if said beggar/pleader has the second-highest card).  If you want to screw over a particular player, you may choose to cancel the high card and force someone else to take the turn.  Also, she says that when you are passing cards at the start of the turn, and your hand has multiples in it, you should pass one of the multiples to the designated person and then try and work with them to hurt others.  For instance, if you are dealt both Queen of Spades, you can give it to the designated person, and then plot to play them one after another, preventing either of you from having to take your own queens as well as sticking some unlucky bastard with 26 points in one turn!

My informant also told me of one last tradition that revolves around this large game of hearts.  At the end of the game, either when someone gets 100 points or everyone gets tired, the three players with the highest scores all got to go on the family vacation.

“Mắt to hơn bụng”

Nationality: Vietnamese-American
Age: 52
Residence: Orange, California
Performance Date: Dec 2006
Primary Language: English
Language: Vietnamese, German

“Mắt to hơn bụng”

Literal Translation: His eyes are bigger than his belly

The informant first heard this from his mother when he lived in North Vietnam when he was a young boy, about age nine or ten.  The entire family of six had been eating dinner together for some time when the informant became full.  However, he still had food left over on his plate.  His mother then said to his father, “mắt to hơn bụng” and made him finish the rest of his food.  This proverb essentially means that the person wants more than he can handle.  The informant remembers laughing when his mother said this, because he had never heard such an odd saying.  The informant remembered this proverb until now because it sounded so strange.  “How can one’s eyes be bigger than one’s stomach?” he thought to himself.  So whenever his children put more on their plates than they can eat he reminds them not to have eyes bigger than their stomach and makes them eat it all.  He thinks this proverb is very popular in Vietnam where food is scarce because it reminds people who are blessed enough to have food on the table to not be greedy and wasteful when so many people are starving in the world.

Because the Vietnamese people are starving and hungry in Vietnam, they have learned to appreciate the importance of food and how hard it is to come by.  The Vietnamese people who generally use this proverb are adults who have experienced that hunger and try to convey that experience onto their children, who generally have not experienced hunger to the most extreme yet in their lives.  When people are hungry they tend to crave different types of food.  “I want this and this and this and that,” when in reality they want it but don’t have the stomach room to eat all of it.

Legend of the Rice Cakes

Nationality: Vietnamese-American
Age: 52
Residence: Orange, California
Performance Date: Dec 2006
Primary Language: English
Language: Vietnamese

There once was a King with three sons.  He was about to die so his dying wish was to have one of his sons succeed the throne after him.  However, he couldn’t decide which son to choose, although they all wanted it.  Since he enjoyed food, he said to his sons, “Whoever brings me the tastiest food he made from Vietnamese ingredients will become king after me.”  So the sons set off around the world to find the best food.  One son traveled to the mountains to bring back boar meat.  The second son brought back the tastiest fish from the South Sea.  The third thought long and hard about what he should bring to his father.  On the final day, he brought two simple rice cakes, which looked very plain when compared to the expensive dishes his two brothers had brought.  When the king asked the youngest son to explain why he had brought such simple dishes, the son explained that rice is the most valuable food in Vietnam, although it is very abundant.  The round rice cake represented the sky under which all the Vietnamese lived, while the square rice cake was stuff with beans and pork to represent the Earth that they live on (back then they still believed that the Earth was square). Each rice cake was made to represent the love that the son had for the King as well as Vietnam.”  After everyone heard this explanation, they knew that the youngest son would be the next king, and they all bowed down to him.

The informant first heard this story when he was a teenager, although he doesn’t remember who told it to him.  It was during the Lunar New Year (Tet) season because the Banh Chung and Banh Day (square and round rice cakes) are traditionally made and eaten during this time of the year.  During this time, families make Banh Chung and Banh Day and travel to their relatives’ houses, giving these cakes as a gift of love and caring for one another.

The feeling of receiving these rice cakes is a feeling of love and belonging to a group of people who care for you.  Because of this, the Vietnamese people have carried this tradition across the Pacific Ocean to America and still do this during the New Year season, maintaining the Vietnamese traditions and unity of the people.  The story continues to be passed on by those who know it, generally those who are adults and can remember the story and the significance of it are the ones who pass it down to the younger generation who in turn cherish it and will later pass it down.  I think this legend, real or fake, is a good explanation of Vietnamese unity and loving spirit.