Comment Cuisiner Son Mari a L’africaine: How-to Manual or Cautionary Tale ?

Some say food is an exploration of culture, and taste evokes lush memories of the past. “ In An Island Passover” by Ethel G. Hofman, she described her life in the Shetland Islands. Every year, Hofman’s family celebrates Passover- a traditional Jewish holiday where time and effort to prepare a meal is like painting, and it takes months to reveal a masterpiece. While Hofman had a positive recollection of her family’s traditional cuisine, author of “Fish Cheeks”, Amy Tan did not share the same experience. Tan felt ashamed of sharing her traditional cuisine with a pastor's son whom she was in love with. Tan strived for her crush’s approval because she did not want to be deemed strange. Hofman and Tan had striking differences in

In Jessica Harris’s “The Culinary Season of my Childhood” she peels away at the layers of how food and a food based atmosphere affected her life in a positive way. Food to her represented an extension of culture along with gatherings of family which built the basis for her cultural identity throughout her life. Harris shares various anecdotes that exemplify how certain memories regarding food as well as the varied characteristics of her cultures’ cuisine left a lasting imprint on how she began to view food and continued to proceeding forward. she stats “My family, like many others long separated from the south, raised me in ways that continued their eating traditions, so now I can head south and sop biscuits in gravy, suck chewy bits of fat from a pigs foot spattered with hot sauce, and yes’m and no’m with the best of ‘em,.” (Pg. 109 Para). Similarly, since I am Jamaican, food remains something that holds high importance in my life due to how my family prepared, flavored, and built a food-based atmosphere. They extended the same traditions from their country of origin within the new society they were thrusted into. The impact of food and how it has factors to comfort, heal, and bring people together holds high relevance in how my self-identity was shaped regarding food.

As I added the finishing touches of friend onions and parsley to make it look aesthetically pleasing, I took a step back to stare at the masterpiece I had just created, a luscious and delectable Pakistani rice dish called “Briyani”. Making this dish is the epitome of success in every Pakistani girl’s lifetime. It’s considered an essential quality to add to one’s marriage “resume”. However, to me, it was more than just a future “in law pleaser”, it was my compass for life. A cook must be diligent and attentive to detail, conscious of every ingredient and amount that is being used. A cook is a provider, helping with the wellbeing of the people who are consuming the prepared food. The kitchen is their clinic, and the consumers are their patients. Nine years of cooking with my mother has taught me dedication, obedience, and tested my patience when some recipes would fail. Cooking, as a safe haven from the difficulties of everyday life, has helped me better connect to all my experiences throughout the years and has molded the foundation for my passion and calling, medicine.

Adichie’s characters are subject to cultural suppression in several of the short stories. This is most pronounced in ‘The Arrangers of Marriage’ where Chinaza is forced by her husband to assimilate to her new surroundings by ridding herself of all signs of being Nigerian,

One of the notable aspects of Matsumoto’s history of Cortez is a sentimental relationship that she has established with her subjects in the course of her studies. On the first page, she has named and thanked almost a hundred members of this community, for contributing their time in sharing memories, personal experiences, institutional records, and their warm hospitality. Hospitality of the Cortez community members also shines in Appendix C where she mentioned twenty-four recipes that she got from Japanese women. These recipes ranged from traditional Japanese foods to more conventional zucchini bread to some cross-cultural cuisines like Jell-O mocha.

Historical studies indicate that the New Guinea was one of the hottest countries, insect infested, and occupied by aggressive people. The Imbonggu community is one of the integral parts of the community. William E. Wormsley drew a special insight into the lives of these people after spending several years with them. In his fascinating book, the author uses an incisive, yet articulate, voice to describe the culture, social structure as well as bride wealth, religion, and magic among these people (Wormsley, 1993). During that period, New Guinea was specially known as a man-eating zone. The local people were reputed as cannibals, nasty and aggressive people. Therefore, as the anthropologist of his time, Wormsley was destined to critically analyze the group on their view of the white man. A study that released results that still struck the world with shock (Wormsley, 1993).

Holy Feast and Holy Fast emerged as a pivotal work during the mid-1980s in response to a prevalent trend among scholars which placed apostolic poverty and chastity at the very core of the Western European vita religiosa at the expense of attention toward the forms of austerity, some of which were more common to women. Bynum builds up her narrative by exploring how, although the renunciation of money and sex had a shared significance to both genders, the chief metaphor governing the spiritual life of women specifically concerned food. Bynum weaves her monograph together through a careful analysis of both food symbolism and food-related religious practices as described in the works of female mystics themselves and in the hagiographical

My room-mate had a single story of Africa; a single story of catastrophe”. Adichie also tells how growing up in Nigeria reading only American and English children’s books made her deaf to her authentic voice. As a child, she wrote about such things as blue-eyed white children easting apples, thinking brown skin and mangos had no place in Literature. That changed as she discovered African writers.

A soul in distress is always looking for a mean to escape through a difficult situation. In the story Like Water For Chocolate, Tita De La Garza who suffered like no other, isn’t the exception. This young woman since birth was instilled with a very deep love for cooking. When the people who she loved most betrayed her, cooking eased her pain. All of the intense emotions that she felt while preparing food, were unknowingly added to the recipes. The author, Laura Esquivel through the use of symbolism, she demonstrates that the role of food in the story isn’t there just to sustain life, it also transmits strong emotions such as desire, sorrow and healing felt by the

Spending much of her childhood in the German Coast of Acadiana, Darleen Jenkins holds on tightly to her family traditions. Moving from Luling to Houma, down to Dularge and back up to Houma again, she has been able to spot differences in the regions’ foods based on both time and place. She reminisces fondly of times when her family came together to share in meals and memories. Speaking with her one couldn’t help but to want to hear more about her childhood and transitions through adulthood.

When the foods in eating the same food, all the time gets old but trying different styles of the food can be very different. Growing up Kothari was raised on Indian food. She only would eat the Indian food that her parents made, but when she went to India and tried the food there and it did not end will. It made her vomit. So, while everybody else in her family was eating just fine, she was throwing up. She was embarrassed by

Africa is a continent that is rich and diverse in terms of culture and traditions. The continent is also considered to be the agricultural hub in the world. Due to this, most of African culture is ultimately intertwined with the foodstuffs that the land has to offer. In general, most of the inhabitants of Africa live within the rural areas and rely on subsistent farming to meet their day to day food needs. Fast food restaurants and supermarkets where processed and packaged food is sold are usually frowned upon and considered a waste of money and resources (AIG, 2011).

Fattening also symbolizes a woman of a desirable social status. All though all Azawagh women are to fatten, it is mainly those from a well off or wealth family that can fatten their daughters, wives or sister. A woman’s social status is elevated, being notable by her fatness, but so is the social status of the man or husband. The practice of fattening is advantageous in a way not just to the social status of women, but furthermore and mostly to the social status of men. Clearly, on choosing a heavy wife, an Azawagh man can stress his social status

This book was very entertaining because all of the exotic details about the food and culture. Since the details were very fascinating it made the horrifying food sound delicious. Now, I want to try the food, maybe not! I’ve heard many of the food that was in the book but as I read it I found many facts that I’ve never heard before. Also, in each food section they give a poem about the food which

When we look at the history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, we always like to use the confinement of thinking and the liberation of ideas to sum up the two, especially in the art, the medieval paintings are often used in dark colors, deformed three-dimensional concept Showing the real world, and often less a bit human nature. And after the Renaissance, the painting masters are the opposite of it. I am not here to comment on their good or bad, but from the artistic point of view, to explore whether a good form of art needs to reflect the community and a wide range of civilizations