This week I read three chapters of The Taste Culture Reader which is a collection of essays edited by Carolyn Korsmeyer. I chose to read Feasting with Dead Souls by Elizabeth Carmichael and Chloë Sayer, Synesthesia, Memory, and the Taste of Home by David E. Sutton, and The Pale Yellow Glove by M.F.K. Fisher. I am hoping that these texts can help me as I try and refine writing my own food stories.
Feasting with Dead Souls gives the reader a look into the roots and activities of Días de Muertos (Days of the Dead), the Mexican celebration of the dead which coincides with the more global Catholic tradition of All Saints’ Day. Carmichael and Sayer explore the possibility that All Saints’ Day originated as a Pagan celebration but acknowledge that little is known about its introduction other than it was started by Pope Boniface IV in the seventh century, and that it was moved from May to November in the eighth century by Pope Gregory III.
The authors describe the religious climate at the time of the Spanish invasion of the New World, while the church had recognized All Souls’ Day as it was then called, they were still reluctant to support any practice that may make them seem akin to Paganism, holding a general dislike for anything regarded as cultic or superstitious. Feasting and large meals to honor the dead, however, were “refocused” as a part of All Saints’ Day and therefore traveled with Spanish colonizers as they reached the Americas. I’m going to use a direct quote to explain the last part because they expressed it so clearly.
“The European customs of making food-offerings and feasting with the dead found fertile ground in Mexico where superficially similar ceremonies were an important aspect of pre-Hispanic religious ritual. Because of this and other apparent similarities between the two religions, it is often extremely difficult to determine the origins of particular aspects of celebrations such as the Day of the Dead. It is nonetheless quite clear that in Mexico, the observation of this feast is a deeply rooted and complex event that continues to be of great significance for many people.” (pg.186)
Most commonly Días de Muertos spans from the evening of October 31st to the evening of November 2nd, although there are differences region to region most seem to fall between the end of October and the end of November. The ofrenda is the offering given from the living to the dead on their day to return during Días de Muertos. It is believed that children will return first, so on the first night family and friends will gather to offer gifts of food and toys to their deceased loved ones. The foods are made to the taste of the one who has passed on, with Carmichael and Sayer detailing a gravesite laid out with junk food for a young child and describing toys and clothes left for them to play with.
The adults return on November 1st and the ceremony is much the same, with the living offering up feasts, as well as decorating the table with photos and mementos of the deceased. When the dead have enjoyed the food, the living also partake in a family meal, often sharing leftovers with family and friends or leaving some as offerings at gravesites. The authors describe many of the traditional foods made for Días de Muertos, beginning with loaves of bread made in a family bread oven by the head of the household or another male relative. They also talk about dulce de calabaza which is candied pumpkin flavored with piloncillo and cinnamon sticks, chicken and turkey mole, tamales, chalupas, and enchiladas. These were served alongside a variety of beverages, milk and sodas for the children, coffee, drinking chocolate, and a variety of liquors for the adults, all of course, made to the preferences of the deceased.
“‘Paths’ of marigold petals are strewn from the ofrenda to the door of the house to guide the souls to their feast. Sometimes the flower-path also leads from the door of the house out into the roadway in the direction of the cemetery. This is to ensure that the souls will not only find their way to the offering, but also back to the cemetery; should they loose their way, they might remain in this world to trouble the living.”(pg.188)
Synesthesia, Memory, and the Taste of Home by David E. Sutton explores the relationship between synesthesia, our sensory and memory foodscape, and Xentia, the feeling of grief of or absence from home. Sutton begins the chapter by describing Xentia, having spoken with Greek students studying at Oxford University about the food their families send from home and the emotions it had evoked from them.
“..one woman, who had lived in London for ten years working various jobs while taking courses in art and design (with hopes to become an ico painter), told me about the olive oil that her father made from the family trees in Crete, and that the olives were good for oil because they were”t watered, but raised only on rainwater. She said it had zero percent acidity; that it sometimes became more acidic if you let the olives fall off the tree, but that her father used a stick to knock them off the tree, and you had to knock in a certain direction, otherwise the olives would not grow again.” (pg.306)
Sutton highlighted the sensory aspects of Xentia by recounting the words of a student whose father would send her eggs from the family farm, she compared egg shells in England to plastic and found their smell unpleasant compared to those from Greece. He then moves on to another woman who found herself laughing and crying at the same time upon receiving a package of Kalymnian honey and other products local to her home. The honey was used to make donuts which she stated “soothed her insides” while she struggled day to day.
Sutton also shares his own story of food memory, “one trip I came back from Greece with a 10-Kilo tin of Feta cheese, which I preserved in brine. . . I would cut a little piece with my meal every night. It was like ‘white gold’ to me (laughing).”(pg.307) This one hits close to home, I have never left England without as much as I can carry since I have left, and everyone who flies over has to bring stuff as well. It is rationed like we will starve when it runs out.
When discussing synesthesia Sutton uses the phrase “Listen to that smell!” to convey his ideas surrounding food and sensory memory. He compares the evocation of emotion through metaphors rather than through literal expressions, and reflects on how this conveys to our sensory experiences while we eat. He cites Christopher Tilley in Metaphore and Material Culture saying “A vivid metaphorical image, such as saying ‘they cooked the land’ is likely to be remembered far longer than a statement such as ‘they burnt down the forest.’ In so far as metaphors can evoke vivid mental images, they facilitate memory” I really enjoy the idea-building going on in this chapter and I honestly wish it was longer, because I feel like it was just getting started as it concluded.
The Pale Yellow Glove by M.F.K. Fisher was an interesting yet confusing read that leaves you wanting more. Split into three short stories with a brief introduction, the author take you through three instances of gastronomic satisfaction. While hard to summarize, I want to use elements of the poetic writing style and theme collaboration as is utilized here, and I would encourage anyone interested in some beautiful short examples of edible imagery to give it a read.
“Once at least in the life of every human, whether he be brute or trembling daffodil, comes a moment of complete gastronomic satisfaction. It is, I am sure, as much a matter of spirit as of body. Everything is right; nothing jars. There is a kind of harmony, with every sensation and emotion melted into one chord of well-being.” (pg.325)
Writing Prompt #1 Write about a food tradition or meal that you associate with a major holiday and family.
My grandfather (my mother’s father) would make curry almost every time there were more than two guests over, including our annual Christmas Eve family get-together at their house. Always red with some kind of meat, spicy but with a container of plain yogurt and mint sauce to cool it down for the children. I recently spoke to my grandmother, in hopes of getting the recipe or at least a guess at the base he used. All I got was that he used whatever spices were available, and usually chicken, but my hope is that they will video call me next time they make it and I can write down the general outline. We would sit around a huge table, usually with all the kids on a long wooden bench along the wall with the window, and the adults in dining room chairs or chairs pulled from around the house to make room for everyone. Christmas crackers were a must, and so everyone ended up in a colorful tissue paper hat with a plastic toy and a bad joke, laughing and eating curry on Christmas Eve.
Writing Prompt #2 Describe the cooking process and first bite of a food that invokes a specific emotion and memory. Use descriptions of multiple senses and how they relate to the memories they bring up.
Meatball Sub Sandwiches
To make my meatballs I combine ground beef, an egg, soaked breadcrumbs, minced onion, minced garlic, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard powder, dried parsley, dried rosemary (I crush mine into little pieces), and oregano with my hands until fully mixed, and then rolling them into meatballs.
To make my sauce I mince half an onion and half a bulb of garlic extremely fine, and sautee them with olive oil. I add in tomato paste and allow to cook off before adding in canned tomato sauce, frozen spinach, dried parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and MSG. I let this simmer for a few minutes before removing from the heat.
I place a large shallow pan on the stove on medium-high heat and when hot add olive oil. After searing the meatballs I pour the sauce into the pan, and allow the sauce to simmer on high heat for a moment before turning it down to medium-low. I cover the pan and allow the meatballs to cook in the sauce, time will vary based on the size of my meatballs and how many you have I the pan, so I tend to use my meat thermometer.
While the meatballs cook I mix minced garlic with softened butter and put the sub rolls into the oven on the broil setting. I take them out after a minute and they are crispy on top but not crunchy or browned yet, and I spread the garlic butter on top before placing them back into the oven to brown. When I remove them I add another layer of garlic butter and allow it to melt in slowly. When the meatballs are about to be done I lay slices of mozzarella on top of the sub rolls and put them back in the oven one more time for the cheese to melt. Since each time they have been in the oven up until now has been shot, when the cheese is done melting the bread is also perfectly crunchy by this point.
Spoon your meatballs into your sub roll, drizzle with a little extra sauce and enjoy!
When I take a bite I am taken back, I can see a long street ahead of me, dark with night yet lit up by lights of every kind, neon signs, brake lights, the comforting interior light shining the few stores still open creeps onto the sidewalk. I’m eight, maybe nine, the details of this memory are hazy, we may have been in Seattle, we may have been in San Francisco, all I know is we had come from England and we were tired, the sun had barely set here but for us it was reaching dawn, our bodies fighting against us to stay awake.
It was our first meal here, whether our first meal ever or our first meal after moving I’m not sure, but I’m sure it’s not what any of us had expected to be having for dinner that night. Wherever we were headed next we knew the chances of finding somewhere open for dinner was higher in the big city than whatever outskirts hotel we would be staying at, and I’m sure my parents had hoped to find somewhere more exciting for our first experience in this new country but here we were in the window booth of a Subway that looked exactly like the ones in England, eating sandwiches that tasted just as they did in the subway back home. Subways across the world will always smell the same, like fresh baked bread you’re not sure you believed they really fresh baked, and of cheese and fragrant umami. In that moment of discomfort and confusion, thousands of miles from home and unsure of what would happen next, a meatball sub sandwich calmed my worries and took me out of the real world for a couple of bites.
For years I associated those sandwiches as the loss of my life in England, the last moment before my life really changed. It wasn’t until I moved in with Kristopher that I even learned how to make them myself, but at their request after seeing them on an Instagram food account I set out to make them for myself. Bittersweet would be the word to describe the feeling of taking a bite if I had not already chosen the description “gooey, cheesy, and delicious”, may they be both the end of a chapter and the representation of many new beginnings.
Personal Menu Challenge
This week I focused on finalizing the dishes I want listed on my personal menu, as well as writing the first section. My aim is to create a narrative piece for each menu section that doesn’t just focus on the foods I am highlighting but also the general time period I am writing about and how the people and general circumstances worked to shape my personal foodscape. I am not finished with the first section but I like it a lot more than my last draft and I think once I get one right the others will be much easier.