- Email: [email protected]
Muskrat. A cultural history of a local culinary tradition
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Abstracts / Appetite 56 (2011) 516–549
colonial Americans were extraordinarily attentive to their personal diets as a means by which to moderate their physical response to their surroundings and to their very identities. Lee asserts that early nineteenth-century writers such as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Susanna Moodie, and James Fenimore Cooper all believed that the health of their bodies and their communities depended upon their abilities to conserve and preserve as food certain elements of the natural world, and this understanding of their relationship to their environment shaped, even made possible, the ways that turn of the century writers imagined their own relationship between humanity and nature. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2010.11.227 Muskrat. A cultural history of a local culinary tradition YVONNE LOCKWOOD Michigan State University Museum, United States E-mail address: [email protected]. Regional foodways are tied to a particular locale through history, geography, and practice. They are a kind of edible history. By investigating the foodways of a people and region, one learns about the history, culture, geography, climate, demographics, and religion of the region, as well about the food. Many local and regional specialties have ethnic origins. In the transition from being an immigrant food item to an ethnic specialty, changes are inevitable and new meaning is attributed to the food. Similarly, when an ethnic food moves beyond the ethnic group and becomes a local or regional specialty, its form and function may be altered further. Muskrat is but one example of such an ethnic food that became a specialty and symbol of a locale in southeastern Michigan. As a food specialty of the area, muskrat is quite the opposite of a culinary touristic attraction. Although safe and exotic, muskrat is, nonetheless, regarded as neither eatable nor edible by many outsiders. In season, muskrat is available in some restaurants, and fraternal and social organizations host muskrat dinners (these dinners are not widely publicized). In this era of culinary tourism, the dinners are a deeply rooted local food tradition and symbol of identity that is not promoted for economic development. While keeping in mind issues of culinary tourism, Locwook presents the dynamic cultural (and folk) history of muskrat, considering the development over the centuries of a muskrat food culture in the area and the process by which muskrat, as an ethnic food, became a local specialty and symbol. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2010.11.228 Whose food? Nurturing and challenging community sustainability through culinary tourism LUCY LONG Bowling Green State University, United States E-mail address: [email protected]. In 1998, Long began researching the local foodways of a small city in northwest Ohio. This research developed into collaborations with the local history museum, the chamber of commerce, local economic development agencies, and undergraduate and graduate students from her classes at the local university. These collaborations highlighted issues of incompatibility between local ethos, aesthetics, and practical concerns and the vision of the researchers. The objective was to promote community building through culinary tourism activities, such as a food expo, the local farmers’ market, and educational programs. Such strengthening of the community, they felt, would help keep and bring dollars to the local economy but would also bring a greater understanding of food as an arena for meaning-making that could then lead to more communication between diverse groups within the community. However, not only did collaborators have different visions of the purpose of these projects, the ethos and aesthetics of the local food cul-
ture offered some obstacles. Traditional foodways in the region were closely aligned with industrial farming and mass production, emphasizing meat and potato-based meals, heavy on calories and carbohydrates and oftentimes made with canned and pre-prepared ingredients. This was not food that supported concerns over ecological sustainability or personal health. It was also “working food” that emphasized its everydayness and plain-ness. Although it definitely had its own aesthetic logic, it had little appeal to gourmands. This image of local food was seen by community collaborators (and audiences) as incompatible with tourism. Long uses this case study in order to problematize cultural sustainability by asking the questions: What exactly is the resource being sustained? Who has the authority to define, represent, and intervene in a food culture? doi:10.1016/j.appet.2010.11.229 Metamorphosis of food taste and desertification of foodscape in Nazareth. The construction of “Authentic” Palestinian fast food NIMROD LUZ The Western Galilee College, Israel E-mail address: [email protected]. A cursory glance on the main thoroughfare of Nazareth, a bustling Arab metropolitan area at the north of Israel, reveals a highly monolithic foodscape. Amidst the line of mostly low-end restaurants and even more humble food stands one may find many variations of the same culinary scene: hummus, the local style of French fries, an assortment of grilled meat of dubious origins, and a variety of mostly commercially produced salads. Many of the restaurants abound with promises for authentic local “oriental” food. This is aptly demonstrated by the names, logos, and photos of dishes to be found along the street or on the very buildings’ walls. Through the study of foodscapes, Luz looks into the changing landscape of food and food consumption habits of minority groups. He explores the metamorphosis of tastes and food consumption in the context of marginality, subordination and economic inequality within an ethno-national state. Further, he examines the process of homogenization and localization of low-end dishes against local and global processes of modernization, industrialization and commodification of food and changing habits of food consumption. Luz suggests that this “desertification” of foodscape and the construction of an overly monolithic landscape needs to be understood as co-constitute of a gastronomic third space. A hybrid which emanates from the subordinate group internalizing new dietary modes allegedly drawn from the majority group, while the latter reads it and consumes it as an authentic, local “native” food. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2010.11.230 Evaluating food desert regions in Pittsburgh, PA by use of GIS technology TIERNEY MANNING, DAVID GOLDBERG, NANCY GIFT, JESSICA MORAN Chatham University, Canada E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Manning). A food desert is commonly defined as regions where residents are physically and financially disadvantaged in terms of mobility and accessibility to fresh and healthy produce. The availability of these noble foods for all citizens is a priority to reduce diet-related diseases and promote overall wellbeing of residents. Manning et al. not only identify the food desert regions in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and outlines the demographics afflicted by use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies, but also develops theories to identify why the deserts exist where they do. Factors such as the accessibility of healthy food grocery stores and markets, city topography, and transportation mechanisms are addressed to evaluate Pittsburgh’s food deserts. Unlike other studies, seasons have been factored in by adding farmer’s market locations that might
Abstracts / Appetite 56 (2011) 516–549
colonial Americans were extraordinarily attentive to their personal diets as a means by which to moderate their physical response to their surroundings and to their very identities. Lee asserts that early nineteenth-century writers such as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Susanna Moodie, and James Fenimore Cooper all believed that the health of their bodies and their communities depended upon their abilities to conserve and preserve as food certain elements of the natural world, and this understanding of their relationship to their environment shaped, even made possible, the ways that turn of the century writers imagined their own relationship between humanity and nature. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2010.11.227 Muskrat. A cultural history of a local culinary tradition YVONNE LOCKWOOD Michigan State University Museum, United States E-mail address: [email protected]. Regional foodways are tied to a particular locale through history, geography, and practice. They are a kind of edible history. By investigating the foodways of a people and region, one learns about the history, culture, geography, climate, demographics, and religion of the region, as well about the food. Many local and regional specialties have ethnic origins. In the transition from being an immigrant food item to an ethnic specialty, changes are inevitable and new meaning is attributed to the food. Similarly, when an ethnic food moves beyond the ethnic group and becomes a local or regional specialty, its form and function may be altered further. Muskrat is but one example of such an ethnic food that became a specialty and symbol of a locale in southeastern Michigan. As a food specialty of the area, muskrat is quite the opposite of a culinary touristic attraction. Although safe and exotic, muskrat is, nonetheless, regarded as neither eatable nor edible by many outsiders. In season, muskrat is available in some restaurants, and fraternal and social organizations host muskrat dinners (these dinners are not widely publicized). In this era of culinary tourism, the dinners are a deeply rooted local food tradition and symbol of identity that is not promoted for economic development. While keeping in mind issues of culinary tourism, Locwook presents the dynamic cultural (and folk) history of muskrat, considering the development over the centuries of a muskrat food culture in the area and the process by which muskrat, as an ethnic food, became a local specialty and symbol. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2010.11.228 Whose food? Nurturing and challenging community sustainability through culinary tourism LUCY LONG Bowling Green State University, United States E-mail address: [email protected]. In 1998, Long began researching the local foodways of a small city in northwest Ohio. This research developed into collaborations with the local history museum, the chamber of commerce, local economic development agencies, and undergraduate and graduate students from her classes at the local university. These collaborations highlighted issues of incompatibility between local ethos, aesthetics, and practical concerns and the vision of the researchers. The objective was to promote community building through culinary tourism activities, such as a food expo, the local farmers’ market, and educational programs. Such strengthening of the community, they felt, would help keep and bring dollars to the local economy but would also bring a greater understanding of food as an arena for meaning-making that could then lead to more communication between diverse groups within the community. However, not only did collaborators have different visions of the purpose of these projects, the ethos and aesthetics of the local food cul-
ture offered some obstacles. Traditional foodways in the region were closely aligned with industrial farming and mass production, emphasizing meat and potato-based meals, heavy on calories and carbohydrates and oftentimes made with canned and pre-prepared ingredients. This was not food that supported concerns over ecological sustainability or personal health. It was also “working food” that emphasized its everydayness and plain-ness. Although it definitely had its own aesthetic logic, it had little appeal to gourmands. This image of local food was seen by community collaborators (and audiences) as incompatible with tourism. Long uses this case study in order to problematize cultural sustainability by asking the questions: What exactly is the resource being sustained? Who has the authority to define, represent, and intervene in a food culture? doi:10.1016/j.appet.2010.11.229 Metamorphosis of food taste and desertification of foodscape in Nazareth. The construction of “Authentic” Palestinian fast food NIMROD LUZ The Western Galilee College, Israel E-mail address: [email protected]. A cursory glance on the main thoroughfare of Nazareth, a bustling Arab metropolitan area at the north of Israel, reveals a highly monolithic foodscape. Amidst the line of mostly low-end restaurants and even more humble food stands one may find many variations of the same culinary scene: hummus, the local style of French fries, an assortment of grilled meat of dubious origins, and a variety of mostly commercially produced salads. Many of the restaurants abound with promises for authentic local “oriental” food. This is aptly demonstrated by the names, logos, and photos of dishes to be found along the street or on the very buildings’ walls. Through the study of foodscapes, Luz looks into the changing landscape of food and food consumption habits of minority groups. He explores the metamorphosis of tastes and food consumption in the context of marginality, subordination and economic inequality within an ethno-national state. Further, he examines the process of homogenization and localization of low-end dishes against local and global processes of modernization, industrialization and commodification of food and changing habits of food consumption. Luz suggests that this “desertification” of foodscape and the construction of an overly monolithic landscape needs to be understood as co-constitute of a gastronomic third space. A hybrid which emanates from the subordinate group internalizing new dietary modes allegedly drawn from the majority group, while the latter reads it and consumes it as an authentic, local “native” food. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2010.11.230 Evaluating food desert regions in Pittsburgh, PA by use of GIS technology TIERNEY MANNING, DAVID GOLDBERG, NANCY GIFT, JESSICA MORAN Chatham University, Canada E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Manning). A food desert is commonly defined as regions where residents are physically and financially disadvantaged in terms of mobility and accessibility to fresh and healthy produce. The availability of these noble foods for all citizens is a priority to reduce diet-related diseases and promote overall wellbeing of residents. Manning et al. not only identify the food desert regions in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and outlines the demographics afflicted by use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies, but also develops theories to identify why the deserts exist where they do. Factors such as the accessibility of healthy food grocery stores and markets, city topography, and transportation mechanisms are addressed to evaluate Pittsburgh’s food deserts. Unlike other studies, seasons have been factored in by adding farmer’s market locations that might