Saturday, April 19, 2014
This a very interesting photo gallery that illustrates what food might look like if the added dyes were not present (due to their heavy amount of preservatives) (http://gma.yahoo.com/photos/colorful-food-photos-prove-we-eat-with-our-eyes-first-slideshow/colorful-food-photos-prove-we-eat-with-our-eyes-first-photo-1397762244728.html). Blue chicken for dinner any one?
Memory
Food: Brown Rice Casserole
 |
| http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-mushroom-rice/ |
Brown Rice Casserole Recipe
You’ll need
· 2 cans of French onion soup
·
2 cans of beef consume
·
2.5 cups of white rice
·
A stick of butter
·
A small jar of chopped mushrooms
Step 1: Combine all four cans of soup with 2.5 cups
of rice
Step 2: Add a full stick of butter (sliced throughout
the dish) and add half of the jar of mushrooms
Step 3: Cook at 325º for 25 minutes
Step 4: Add the rest of the mushrooms and stir the casserole
Step 5: Cook at 325ºfor an additional 20 minutes
Step 6: Stir and serve (best if eaten right out of
the oven, but cooperates well as leftovers too (microwave friendly))
Every holiday I ever
remember as a child, there was brown rice casserole at nearly every meal. I
wouldn’t even look at mushrooms before I tried this dish. The reason for its
appeal is obvious. It is easy to make, doesn’t require a lot of time or
observations, it’s tasty, and it has a WHOLE stick of butter in it. I love to
cook (when I have time) and this was one of the first dishes I ever learned to
make. As soon as I was eight years old, it was my responsibility to bring brown
rice casserole to every holiday. Some of my relatives would even call me to
make sure I was going to bring it to the family gathering. But before all of
this took place and I could make it myself, my mother used to make it for me. I
would ask her as a child, “Are you going to make the mushroom rice for
Christmas?” She would always answer, “Of course, picky butt. It’s not like you’re
going to eat much else when you’re at my Mother’s house any way.” Needless to
say I was and still am a very fastidious eater (but in my defense I am an only
child). This relationship between my mother, this dish, and I made me think
back to Allison’s article “Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunchbox as
Ideological State Apparatus”. In this article, Allison mentions the importance
of obentos and how it forms a bond between mother and child. The mothers spend
lots of time planning, plotting, and creating an attractive display for their children’s
meals at day care (p.84-86). Of course in this article, the mothers are making
the meals attractive not just for their children but for the people watching
their children as well (p.84). There is an understanding that a proper child
with a proper parent eats all of the obentos (p.86). A pretty display aids in
the eating process for a child. But in my life my mother spent lots of time
making things more attractive so I would eat them. She would sneak in veggies
in cuisines and try to camouflage them so I would eat them (it
didn’t often work). But in regards to the article, I’m sure those kids look
back and think about how much time and attention their mothers dedicated to
them when making the obentos (especially once they have kids of their own). The
fathers may not realize it as much since they don’t have to create the obentos
(p.87). But those foods probably still mean a lot to the children like brown
rice casserole means to me.
Friday, April 4, 2014
Associations
with the South’s Favorite Protein Source (Prompt One)
One
of the main staples of the South in the area of cuisine is BBQ. Even right here
in Augusta we have a world famous BBQ joint, Sconyer’s BBQ. This is a very
stereotypical southern dish. Pork is a main staple of protein here in the South.
Whenever my dad’s best friend comes to visit from Michigan, he always has to have
a huge plate of BBQ before he leaves. This dish is clearly a southern staple.
It’s not like you can go to New York and expect to eat at a BBQ restaurant.
BBQ is associated with the Deep South and the southerns that consume it. This cuisine may be thought of as the equivalent of the black man’s fried chicken in William-Forson’s: More than Just the “Big Piece of Chicken”. The Power of Race, Class, and Food in American Consciousness. I say that because in the article the “Big Piece of Chicken” is meant for a man of lower class (working class) that has no power in the work place but instead in the home (p.342-343). This is evident by the mother’s frantic display when the “big piece of chicken” is gobbled up by the children.
BBQ more than likely
originated by similar means as fried chicken. In William-Forson’s article, she
mentions that fried chicken was brought about as a slave meal (p.344-346). The
slave owners had numerous chickens, which they would allow to run free (p.346).
The slaves would then take a chicken or
two as their own (their masters had so many chickens, how would they notice if
one was missing) (p.346). Pork may have been treated in a similar manner.
In the documentary Soul Food Junkies by Byron Hurt, pork is
a common component of the food mentioned in the film. The film also mentions
the slave origins of soul food and how that shaped African American southern
cuisine. Soul food became a staple for the newly freed African Americans
because it was cheap and what they knew how to make. The food may not have been
good for you, but instead “good to you”. This seems to include BBQ as well.
So both fried chicken
and BBQ have stereotypical roles attached to them in just about the same areas
(except for race). But obviously black people do not only eat fried chicken,
and white people do not eat only BBQ (white folks can put away fried chicken as
well and vice versa). Both dishes are attached to lower class means because
they are unhealthy, cheap, and have easy access. But one thing is for sure, BBQ
and fried chicken are both very representative of the South and the stereotypes
associated with the South.
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