Subject: Food Across Cultures
– This task involves close description and interpretation of your experience of either cooking a meal or eating a meal. So please choose either ‘cooking a meal’ or ‘eating a meal’ before starting to write the observational task.
– 800 words in length (+ or – 10% is acceptable).
Food Across Cultures
Food is a basic necessity for the survival of every living being. Bloom notes that “food is an intrinsically significant subject whose ramification extends beyond its nutritional value” (Bloom, 2008 pg.5). Diverse cultures have unique food recipes, catering methods, and specific ingredients that hold cultural significance and are prepared in important traditional events such as weddings. The essential need is to teach young generations how to cook healthy meals, tasty dishes, and foods that spree emotional connection within the numerous family units. Sutton (2009: 1) decodes that domestic habitats avail a perfect opportunity for children to learn and acquire essential skills of executing their chores and a platform for socialization with other members of the society.
The study depicts the preparation of meals by Kalymnos, an indigenous Greece community. Sutton observes that the native’s societies shun consumption of fasts food and packed meals instigating home-prepared delicacies. Sutton states that “Residents of Kalymnos have always cared deeply about their food, and been able to discuss its provenance, its proper preparation, and its sensory properties” (Sutton, 2009, pg.1). During a filming moment to assess if the cooking capabilities of Katerina had improved since the last meeting when she could only prepare coffee. Katerina prepares a zucchini omelet through the guidance of her mother. The cooking lessons are essential to Katerina to gain knowledge of Kalymno’s cultures. The mentoring process is entrusted to grandmothers and mothers; from a tender age, the daughters are instilled to prepare meals primarily through observation and mimicking the mother. The Initial stage is to learn kitchen working space organization, understand how to use each utensil, and hang it on the kitchen walls after use.
In preparing the zucchini omelet, the study observes that Katerina is enlightened on arranging the ingredients, which include eggs and onions. Specifically, the Kalymnos’ practice of cutting by the hand instead of using the chopping board. The practice holds cultural significance to the Kalymnos in that they generate certain cross-generation continuity. Aimed at depicting the skills learned from their predecessors. Katerina chops the onion by the hand after consultation on the sizes with her mother and dips the onions to the hot cooking oil frying on the stove.
Further, Katina avails a low-lipped bowl to use in beating the eggs. Cutting the zucchini into small pieces crucial in that the Zucchini takes minimum time to cook (Sutton, 2009 pg. 4). Lack of multi-tasking abilities by Katerina leads the oil to burn. Still, the cooking lesson is instilled vital skills trivial for a sumptuous meal which Katerina eventually achieves and serves the zucchini omelet. The cooking lesson provides the transitory of information by mothers to their daughters for the cultural continuity of the kalymnonians.
The second observations portray the domestic home of Sikh immigrants living in Finland. During a working interview, Harvi finds an opportunity to share a meal with Sikh immigrants. The study observes that food is communally shared among the members of the household. Furthermore, the host possessed unique artifacts and utensils, commonly with Indians roots. Young Sikhs show the visitor where to place the daal Indian salad prepared from cooked vegetables and chutney. Harvi is introduced to chapattis, a type of Indian bread, and the host family explains they often cook the delicacies at home (Hirvi, 2016, pg11). Still, the immigrants explain that they also prepare Finnish food adding masalas Indian spices to add more flavor and taste to the delicacy. The gestures show their appreciation of cultural diversity and connection with diaspora foods.
Hirvi annotates that “consuming food, which immigrants relate to their native homeland, may help to shorten the mental distance to the home that they have left” (Hirvi 2016 pg. 10). The motivation by the fieldworker was to ascertain the traditional practices that immigrants engage in adapting comfortably in their new habitats. Additionally, regular cooking traditional meals purposes to aid the children to keep in touch with their parent’s homeland. Since the diaspora, cultural influence introduces new cuisines, traditions, and beliefs will often influence their new relations in socialization with their host countries.
Hirvi (2016 pg. 11) decodes that continuous observation of mothers preparing Indian cuisines and communal sharing of the meals. Significantly afforded young Sikhs thriving in Finland to familiarize themselves with the tastes, smells, and texture of the food associated with their parent’s culture in the Indian homeland. Further, engaging the members, the researcher found that some members had imported artifacts and cooking utensils from India. The essence is to keep in touch with the homeland traditions and maintain hygiene, such as serving food on stainless steel dishes and creating sense simulation to the young generations of the Sikh way of life. Communal sharing is aimed at creating unity and strong family bonds familiar with Indian cultures. Importing artifacts aids the migrants in creating a close connection with what they left behind, bridging the past and present gaps.
Conclusion
The essay has depicted the cooking of the Kalymnos Zucchini cuisine. The study has vividly described the role of mothers in enlightening the young generations. The ingredients involved and cultural significance of the cooking lesson. Still, the essay portrays the sharing of a meal with the immigrant Sikh community. Further explained the cultural significance Sikhs attach to the artifacts, utensils, and how the process aids in cultural continuity.
Bibliography
Bloom, L.Z., 2008. Consuming prose: The delectable rhetoric of food writing. College English, 70(4), pp.346-362.
Hirvi, L., 2016. Exploring the domestic homes of Sikhs in Finland as a “cosmos of senses”. Home Cultures, 13(1), pp.23-37.
Sutton, D., 2009. The mindful kitchen, the embodied cook: Tools, technology and knowledge transmission on a Greek Island. Material Culture Review.
