Family Food Traditions : Jack Malloy

“Can’t y’all talk about anything but food? There was a shocked silence. ‘Well, what else is

Dorothy Allison, well-known author and essayist, begins her essay by discussing how she remembers her mother’s gravy and the process of making it, including the pounding of the meat in order to flatten it out. She adds pathos by saying gravy is the “most memory-laden dish” she has learned how to cook and the comfort it brings. Instead of calling it country-fried steak as others normally do, Allison’s mother calls the savory dish cube steak, a more underprivileged name. Allison says, “It was not until I was grown that I understood

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.

Amy’s parents are the authoritative figures keeping their Chinese traditions and cultures alive. Rather than appeal to the American tradition even though they invited the Minister’s family, they decided to stay true to who they are, by making a menu according to their traditions. “What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food?” (Tan, 110). Amy describes how her family will stick to their normal chinese menu rather than cook American Christmas eve food.

"Mealtime had always been the center of our family scene. In camp, and afterward, I world often recall with deep yearning the old round wooden table in our dining room in Ocean Park... large enough to

wrote the article “My Mom Couldn’t Cook”, argues that point by being the sole cook for his wife and daughter. Junod was inspired to cook for his family, by growing up eating the food prepared by a mother who he realized hated to cook and a later understanding that led him to the realization that she did not know how to cook. Tom Junod writes an entertaining piece, his credibility is built through the personal stories he shares and his emotional appeals have a way of keeping the audience interested, but his language becomes distracting and overall it takes away from his argument.

“When you got to the table you couldn 't go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn 't really anything the matter with them, -- that is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself. In a barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the juice kind of swaps around, and the things go better.” (Twain, 1)

| For the first time, Ginny has an epiphany as to why family meals tend to be painfully agonizing; because they do not even try to enjoy the time they are spending together. Instead, they all just try to finish the food quickly and quietly in order to leave the table as fast as possible.

The best place to begin the discussion regarding the family meal and how it has changed is to discuss where the idea of dinner originated. A fairly new concept, dinner came about roughly 150 years ago. While many people consider family mealtime to be a “natural phenomenon; it is a social construction.” (Carroll, xvi) During colonial times the family functioned as one unit, with everyone in the family having a

In The Culinary Seasons of my Childhood, Jessica B. Harris- the author- attempts to help readers understand the relationship between food and identity. Harris gave a detailed, but relevant, description of how how food portrayed different cultures in her life and how it taught her many lessons about her family history and who she is; she also described how food brings people together as one and creates a connection that nothing else can. The author helps readers initially understand her ideas by showing examples of how food, even in the same culture, can reflect different social classes.“ Even though chitterlings might be on the menu, they could equally likely be accompanied by a mason jar of corn liquor or a crystal goblet of champagne”( Harris

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.

I thought what a wonderful way to tell a story” (Mujica 38). The reader is often present in the kitchen with Esquivel when she writes about her past experiences in the kitchen.

Having been “fiddle-footed” in his youth, Shane left home when he was just fifteen. This indicates to us, the readers, that Shane has not known family for the majority of his life, and has infinitesimal knowledge of what it means to be part of one. Comfort for him has long been himself and his horse; not much else. Now, the impression of Marian’s cooking shines through. Sure, she is a fine cook, but it holds so much more importance to Shane than just a meagre stack of flapjacks; to him, it is a sense of home, as it truly is the first genuine home cooked meal to meet his stomach to fill it with satisfaction in years.

This paper will discuss the multifaceted relationships among food, and culture. I will be looking at the relationships people have with food, and explore how this relationship reveals information about them. Their food choices of individuals and groups, can reveal their ideals, likes and dislikes. Food choices tell the stories of where people have travelled and who they have met along the way.

Eating brings people closer together everyday, and for everyone, there are important memories that have been created because of food. Whether it’s a formal dinner, or an informal picnic, there will always be special bonds between people because food was involved. We need to have traditions with food because they form and strengthen the bonds between us.