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African american food history essay
Culture and food
African american food history essay
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owner of restaurant). According to a customer at the restaurant in the short film, “Nigerian food is a lot more like the southern food because of the way it is cooked, the way it is prepared, the way that it is mixed and the flavor you get when you taste the food, it is all natural ingredient”. There is a Nigerian/ Soul Food restaurant located at Metro Center mall in Jackson, MS called Rehoboth and there in the kitchen while they were preparing some of the foods, it was similar to the way they made the Nigerian version of those things, they only did not add a few thing that they added to Nigerian foods to that of the American. The point trying to be given is that Faderine Was right when he says that the food he cooks is similar to that of the southerners. The fried foods part of soul …show more content…
Basically if you try and understand how a cuisine works you have to understand the importance of the cultural influences”( Kasper) This quote is saying that sometimes as Americans, the food that is being prepared was originated by other countries but just mixed up into away that can be differentiated . Brock is saying that if you want to be good at what you do , you have to find out the roots , and how it is prepared, like he said in this quote , “ The major influence is West Africa, so I went there to do a little of research with some plants, some specific peas and rice. But I really wanted to see the original, truest and most honest form of all this classic that we call “Southern dishes” and that we consider Southern food. Foods like gumbo, jambalaya, etc. I really wanted to see where they came from and see them in their most original form, and then take a look at where they are toadying try and explain. It is amazing how a dish can
dish has never been used makes it a strong symbol of Zeena herself, who prefers
Reading Catfish and Mandala reminded me of my cultural closeness through food. Due to being bi-ethnic I learned how to cook food from both my ethnicities, however there were times when I found myself acting like a foreigner towards certain dishes. A prime example was when I had Chitlins or pig intestines. I had eaten menudo, thanks to my Hispanic mother and this was the first time I had Chitlins, an African American dish via my paternal grandmother. Unlike Menudo, which to me has an appetizing smell and taste, Chitlins were a gray stringy putrid smelling dish. Remembering the utter dislike I obtained from that African American dish, reminded me of Pham’s experience with Vietnamese food. While there are some dishes people can’t stand, most usually embrace a dish from their culture and that helps ease some of the pain or discomfort.
Many blacks added their skimpy diets by gardening small plots given to them for growing their own vegetables. Many involved in survival fishing and hunting, which produced wild game for the table. Foods such as raccoon, squirrel, opossum, turtle, and rabbit were hunted by the slaves, until the 1950s, very common charge among them still largely rural and Southern African-American population. Native Americans of the U.S. South also supplemented their diets with meat like deer, derived from the hunting of native game. Venison was a very important meat staple due to the richness of white-tailed deer. They to also hunted rabbits, squirrels and opossums. Cattle, adopted from Europeans, in the form of hogs and sheep, were kept. When game or livestock was killed, the entire animal was used. Besides the meat, it was not unusual for them to eat meats such as liver, brains and intestines. This tradition remains today in trademark dishes like chitterlings (commonly called chit'lins) which are fried small intestines of hogs. livermush (a common dish in the Carolinas made from hog liver), and pork brains. The fat of the animals, particularly hogs and pigs, was reduced and used for cooking, frying and baking. Many of the European settlers in the South learned a lot of different Native American cooking methods. Cultural dispersion was set in motion for the Southern dish. Poor blacks in the South made many of the same dishes coming from the soul tradition, but styles of preparation sometimes varied. A lot of similar techniques popular in soul and Southern cuisines are shared with early cultures all over the world, including Rome, Egypt, and China. Southern food has developed from over 1000 years of exchange, origination, and
This limits their taste and outlook on other foods. They become culturally isolated and ignorant. Although this may be true to a certain degree, I would disagree because “what there was in urban black neighborhoods, was an African American culinary tradition that centered on two principles: Southerness and commensality. The story of how these principles became "Soul Food" is the story of how a transparent and mundane fact of life - food - became a harbinger of an urban, black ethnic identity.”(Poe 5) I feel as if it is one’s tradition, it should be carried out each and every day not just on special occasions. It holds its value to a higher standard, which reflects a good understanding of how far they have come as people. Trying new foods is not a requirement in life, it is just something people do to become cultured. If it’s not required, then there is no need for it.
Michael Twitty is a food writer and culinary historian best known for preparing, preserving and promoting African American food ways and its origins in Africa. He emphasizes how African food culture has made a great impact on the American South. His cooking helped him to learn about his identity and culture. He describes “identity cooking” a way to better understand him and his culture as a Jewish-African American. A project he developed called “The Cooking Gene” is what he explains as a means of “exploring my family history through food, from Africa to America, from slavery to freedom.” Race, food and ethnicity all have a more complex and cultural meaning especially when fused together. Different
Brief History From the 1500s to the 1700s, African blacks, mainly from the area of West Africa (today's Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) were shipped as slaves to North America, Brazil, and the West Indies. For them, local and tribal differences, and even varying cultural backgrounds, soon melded into one common concern: the suffering they all endured. Music, songs, and dances as well as traditional food, helped not only to uplift them but also quite unintentionally added immeasurably to the culture around them. In the approximately 300 years that blacks have made their homes in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, their highly honed art of the cuisine so treasured and carefully transmitted to their daughters has become part of the great culinary classics of these lands. But seldom are the African blacks given that recognition.
He talks about how Britain is the parent of America. He compares America to a child growing independent of its parents. Although at one point, America was “flourish[ing] under her former connection with Great Britain”, he says that now it is time for America to grow independent. He uses the example of a child who has been raised on milk, never moving on to eating meat. Although the child grew a lot on milk, that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t continue to grow by eating meat, by gaining more independence.
1. What is the ‘indigestible common core of compatibilism’, and what according to Fried, is indigestible about it?
This limits their taste and outlook on other foods. They become culturally isolated and ignorant. Although this may be true to a certain degree, I would disagree because “what there was in urban black neighborhoods, was an African American culinary tradition that centered on two principles: Southerness and commensality. The story of how these principles became "Soul Food" is the story of how a transparent and mundane fact of life - food - became a harbinger of an urban, black ethnic identity.”(Poe 5) I feel as if it is one’s tradition, it should be carried out each and every day not just on special occasions. It holds its value to a higher standard, which reflects a good understanding of how far they have come as a people. Trying new foods is not a requirement in life, it is just something people do to become cultured. If it’s not required, then there is no need for
Kola Nut Igbo people are mostly home in the Southeastern part of Nigeria. Igbo culture has many unique customs, practices, traditions, and added concepts either through evolution or outside influences of the people. The kola nut in the Igbo culture is very significant, symbolizing respect and association between people. It is the nut of the tree cola nitida or cola acuminata tree which grows in the West African rainforest. Once brought into a home it’s then cracked then eaten among guest.
I believe that in order to preserve the authenticity of regional cuisine the people preparing the foods need to possess knowledge about their culture, an understanding of the ingredients they are using, and the ingredients they select must be from their region and no other. In their ess...
The movie “The Hundred Foot Journey” is a great representation of different cultures interacting as well as the different food habits. The movie is based on an Indian family who moves to Italy and wants to open an Indian restaurant across street from a famous Italian restaurant in the small town. The Kadam family wants to bring the Indian cuisine to a new culture and share some of their values. They have trouble expanding their culinary delights to the public because Marquerite the sous-chef doesn’t want any competition. Throughout the movie, secrets on certain dishes are shared and tricks to improve the certain style of food is greatly appreciated by both restaurant chefs.
Foods from Africa, which have impacted North American cuisine are numerous, and common in the everyday eating habits of Americans. In the 21st century, Americans take for granted the history of the food they eat, and the origins of the foods that are eaten today. In the early part of the history of the United States, people of European descent brought recipes from home and adapted their recipes to the ingredients which were available. The slave trade was directly responsible for what many Americans think of as American food, and those foods are traceable to Africa. Because slaves incorporated their own foods into the everyday lives of their masters, some of the unique foods from Africa and their history are not well known today. American
African foods are bountiful and diverse. They are rich in nutritional fiber and often unrefined and they offer a healthy choice when consumed in the right blend. Most African recipes are based around ingredients and spices that are natural and can be easily farmed or produced at a subsistence level. Most African foods do not contain refined sugars and processed additives and are mainly starch based, with generous amounts of fresh vegetables and proteins found in fish or beef (AIG, 2011).
What is culture? Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving