Food English

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Food English
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Overview

• History of people, language, and food (focus on
  cookbooks)
• Situations and mediums for Food English
• Issues related to food, language, and culture
• Examples of food words

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• SINCE THE DAWN OF TIME

there was FOOD
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History / Prevalence

• Food Language Cookbooks
• Written in almost every literate society
• Deipnosophistai (Banquet of the Sophists)
• 2nd Century BC by Athenaieus, Greek gourmet
• In the form of dialogue between two banqueters
• Mentions more than 20 preceding authors
• BUT THATS NOT ENGLISH!

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History / Prevalence

• American Cookbooks
• Amelia Simmons published the first real American
  Cookbook in Connecticut in 1796
• Until the 18th century, cookbooks were written
  for the wealthy, but American cookbooks were
  written for the masses
• No description of
• Size of baking dish
• Number of portions
• Cooking temperature
• Even how much flour to add!

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Situations

• Food Words?
• Cooking is both a literary and a verbal endeavor,
  much like storytelling
• Cookbooks and cooking shows often have a theme or
  emotion connected with the recipes.
• Restaurants often use foreign languages in their
  menus
• Shared vocabulary/vernacular
• within a family.
• Ex A spludge of butter.

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Food as a Medium of Culture

• Connections between food and language (beyond
  cookbooks)
• Cooking as first science (Ethnobotony)
• Passing on cooking techniques and different terms
  was important for retaining wisdom gained through
  food experimentation.
• Ethnic and regional differences
• Similar to how different ethnic or regional
  groups may have different fashions or what have
  you, different groups also have different ways of
  cooking food.
• Published recipes vs Digital recipes
• Mainstream cook books are always on the market,
  but now the Internet has websites devoted to
  recipes and a community of cooks. You can even
  create your own family recipe book online.

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The Science of Ethnobotany

• Myths express the way people understand the
  universe and serve to explain a people's place in
  the universe. There are often kernels of
  scientific truth underlying these myths.
  Ethnobotanists study the interconnectedness of
  plants, people, and culture because the botanical
  wisdom accumulated by indigenous people
  throughout the world has led to discoveries of
  new pharmaceuticals, chemical compounds, and
  myriad other products.1
• 1 Balick, Michael J. and Cox, Paul Alan. Plants,
  People, and Culture The Science of Ethnobotany.
  New York Scientific American Library/ W.H.
  Freeman Co., 1997.

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Aesthetic / Cultural Connections

• Modern Cooking
• Fusion Cuisine
• Combines elements of various culinary traditions,
  but doesnt fit into one itself
• Bi- or Multilingual food
• Examples
• Taco Pizza
• Sake Cocktails

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Instances of Food Racism

• Class distinctions
• One can refer to a group of people based on the
  food they eat and make prejudiced judgments
  against them without any real evidence
• Bizarre foods
• One can make prejudiced judgments about a
  different culture based on ones lack of
  familiarity with that cultures food

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Political Issues

• Freedom Fries!
• French Fries were referred to as Freedom Fries
  in 2003
• Stemmed from the anti-French sentiment in the US
  following Frances opposition of the invasion of
  Iraq
• Similar name change for French Toast

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Symbolism of Food

• But no matter where humans travel, there is
  always a yearning for a specific food. The
  memory, the taste, the smell of certain foods
  will invariably "evoke a pang of loving
  nostalgia. Food is much more than a tool of
  survival. Food is a source of pleasure, comfort,
  and security. Food is also a symbol of
  hospitality, social status, and religious
  significance. Cultural heritage offers to
  everyday life not only a sense of collective
  identity, but pride and dignity, purpose and
  stability. Eventually, in the pauses of daily
  life, we each, in our differing ways, come to the
  realization that life is not complete without the
  enrichment of our cultural heritage."4
• 4 Barer-Stein, Thelma. You Eat What You Are
  People, Culture and Food Traditions. Ontario
  Firefly Books, 1999.

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Examples of Food Words

• Foreign words in food English
• Sauté - fry quickly in a little fat
• From the French verb meaning to leap
• Teriyaki fish or meat has been sliced and
  broiled (or grilled) in a marinade
• From the Japanese words teri (gloss) and yaki
  (roast)
• Shish kebab seasoned meat or vegetables roasted
  on skewers
• From Turkish sis (skewer) and kebap (roast meat)

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Common Foods from Different Cultures

• Not surprisingly, the culture of American foods
  is widely varied. In fact, many of the most
  popular dishes from other countries have become
  commonplace at the American table. How many of
  these common foods have you tried? (This list is
  based on information found in You Eat What You
  Are by Thelma Barer-Stein.5)
• Armenian Bulgar wholegrain wheat cereal that
  has been boiled, dried, and cracked
• Belgian Crème Fraiche slightly thick,
  flavorful cream used in cooking and for desserts
• Belorussian Sauerkraut cabbage dish that can
  be drained, blended, and combined with beets,
  potatoes, or browned onions, or fermented with
  apples and cranberries
• Canadian Canadian bacon very lean, smoked
  back bacon
• Chinese Baak Choy Chinese cabbage
• Chinese Chow Mein rice topped with soft-fried
  noodles
• Slovakian Knedlicky dumplings made from
  anything that will form a stiff dough and can be
  steamed or poached
• Danish Glogg hot spiced wine, popular at
  Christmas
• Dutch Apple Beignets deep-fried apple
  fritters dusted with sugar
• Egyptian Couscous water is dribbled over
  flour and rubbed to form small granules granules
  are then dried and steamed
• English Fish Chips batter-fried
  white-fleshed fish served with french-fried
  potatoes
• French Crepes thin batter of eggs and flour
  poured into a small skillet and cooked on both
  sides can be filled, sauced, flambeed, or
  gratineed served as an appetizer, main dish, or
  dessert
• German Strudel log of thinly stretched dough
  folded around a juicy fruit or cheese filling
• Greek Baklava crispy, sweet pastry made from
  layers of phyllo pastry sprinkled with nuts and
  sugar, secured with whole cloves, and served with
  a topping of spiced hot syrup or honey
• Hungarian Paprikas made from any meat, fish,
  or vegetable prepared with an onion and paprika
  base finished with a stirring-in of sour cream
• East Indian Curry a blend of spices
• Indonesian Tofu high protein bean curd
• Iranian Shish Kebab cubes of meat, usually
  lamb, marinated in lemon juice, onion, and salt,
  then broiled on skewers

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Continued

• Latin American Chorizo spicy grilled beef
  sausages
• Lebanon Bulgur wholegrain wheat that has been
  boiled, sun-dried, then cracked
• Mexican Tortillas flat bread made from
  specially ground cornmeal
• Moroccan Pita rounds of simple yeast dough,
  rolled thin, allowed to rise, then baked quickly
  in a hot oven the bread puffs up high while
  cooking and deflates slowly upon cooling, leaving
  the center hollow
• New Zealand Kiwi brownish-skinned fruit,
  about the size of a lemon, having a vivid green,
  soft pulp
• Norwegian Lutefisk a Christmas Eve specialty
  made from dried salt cod which is first soaked in
  water, then in a water-and-lye solution, and
  finally, gently poached the resulting fish is
  bland with a jelly-like consistency.
• Polish Pierogi dumplings made by cutting
  thinly rolled noodle dough into squares, filling
  the squares, then poaching the sealed triangles
  until cooked
• Russian Borsch hearty soup made from beets
  and/or cabbage
• Scottish Scotch Barley Broth soup made from
  lamb broth simmered with vegetables and barley
• Spanish Gazpacho cold soup made from water,
  bread, tomatoes, and cucumber, then lightly
  flavored with garlic
• Swedish Lingonberries berries are used in
  jellies, jams, and syrups
• Swiss Muesli breakfast cereal made of toasted
  uncooked oats, grated apples, and nuts mixture
  is refrigerated overnight with cold milk and
  eaten in the morning with a topping of fruit,
  wheat germ, or brown sugar
• Thai Phat noodles made from wheat, rice
  flour, mung bean starch, or egg
• Tibetan Tsampa bread made from roasted,
  ground barley and fermented yak butter moistened
  with black tea
• Turkish Yought yogurt
• Vietnamese Nuoc Mam sauce prepared by
  layering fish and salt in barrels and allowing
  the mixture to ferment
• Welsh Leeks a vegetable related to the onion,
  but milder in taste
• 5 Barer-Stein, Thelma. You Eat What You Are
  People, Culture and Food Traditions. Ontario
  Firefly Books, 1999.

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Links for more info

• http//www.aw-wrdsmth.com/scuttlebutt/cooking_and_
  culture.html

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ENJOY!