All the world's a global buffet

After completing this week's reading, I finally understood what "ethnic" meant, at least in terms of food. Lockwood & Lockwood define ethnic as having left its country of origin; therefore, once food is produced outside of its homeland (i.e. Arab food made in America), it becomes ethnic. Similarly, Arab-American food is different from Arab food because of a variety of factors, including its displacement, origin, place of sale, and the immigrant nature of those selling and consuming it. When researching Tibetan food, Carrie and I were told that many of the dishes are similar to Indian cuisine, but are unique due to preparation style and level of spice. Lockwood and Lockwood (2000) express that a similar lack of distinction exists between Palestinian and Lebanese food, where the raw ingredients are often the same or similar but the dishes vary in their preparation style (2000, p. 521).

I felt that this article needed a bit more context in order to fully understand its intent, purpose, and message. The class discussion raised many points - although it becomes hard to distinguish which ones are relevant and which are moot. At the root of all of this, I still question: what's the point? Why do we care? Obviously, it's interesting to get into discussions regarding culture and food, just like it was interesting to discuss different ethnicities and dress. Even more fun was actually indulging in the foods everyone brought to share; in fact, I think the stories surrounding these chosen dishes were the most fascinating discussion to date.

What is interesting is that something as simple as food is revelatory in how we treat ethnicities and tend to lump groups together, when clearly sub-cultures are present as well. For instance, Chinese food in America is different from Chinese food in China – so then, what is really Chinese? Can it be lumped as one entity rather than divided into several subgroups based on location, available resources, preferences and tastes? American food is a perfect example of this: the local cuisine on the east coast is significantly different from Creole food in New Orleans, yet both are found in America. If someone asked me to take them to an American restaurant or otherwise wanted to indulge in American cuisine, I would be torn: do I take them to McDonald's, have a BBQ with hamburgers and hot dogs, or tell them to visit in August during the State Fair? What is really American food? Really, what is American anything?


All of this leaves me wondering how food preferences are developed, especially in such a diverse country as America. I'm so obsessed with food that I often take photographs of my meals; the evidence (above left) shows that I am mixing everything together into a cuisine that I find enjoyable: coffee, red pepper, a pickle, and a bagel with cream cheese, basil, and salami. Similarly, I often cook Asian cuisine and on St. Patrick's Day have been known to attempt to bake an Irish Soda Bread (never as good as Mrs. Lin O'Connor's!) If there could be an equivalent to Pico Iyer’s global soul for the ‘foodie,’ I think I might be it!


Reference:
Lockwood, W.G. and Lockwood, Y. R.. (2000) Continuity and adaptation in Arab American foodways in N Abraham; A Shryock (eds) Arab Detroit: From Margin to Mainstream. Wayne State University Press, pp. 515-559