In An Island Passover: An Exploration Of Culture

“Against Meat” written by Jonathan Safran Foer is an article about a man’s personal experience with food. He starts the article introducing his grandmother who was a holocaust survivor and her relationship to food. The author explains what food means to him and how it has affected him culturally. Foer introduces his personal points to the reader leaving them questioning what food really means to them. Although I cannot completely identify with the author, my family does share some similarities. My grandmother came from Egypt where she was in hiding from her neighbors.

In “Fish Cheeks”, the author Amy Tan uses details and diction to reveal that an embarrassing experience in her youth changed how she thought about her family’s heritage by making her realize that her feelings of shame were based on other people’s responses more than on her own feelings. By using vivid details, the author reveals how humiliating the dinner was for her. For instance, the author wonders what will happen when Robert finds “not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes but Chinese food”. Tan portrays how she supposes Robert will react when he comes across the peculiar feast. This indicates how Tan concludes that Robert will indeed feel dissatisfied and disturbed by her culture’s food.

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.

Allison`s parents divorced when she was only six years of age. It didn’t take the both of them to remarry. Her mother married a Bulgarian man. A few years later he died of cancer. Four years after his death Allison`s mother married another man who was a Moroccan immigrant. She likes some of the food that was introduced to her by her Moroccan step-father. Because her mother married two men of two completely different cultures Allison and her family were introduced into different customs, food, and traditions.

Amy Tan recounts her experience of a disastrous Christmas dinner with her and the minister’s family. Her crush Robert is there and he makes her feel ashamed of her family’s actions and traditions. In the short story Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan, a young girl is embarrassed of her Chinese heritage but grows more confident after a disastrous dinner.

“Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan recalls an embarrassing Christmas Eve dinner the author had during her childhood. Attending this dinner was Tans childhood crush and an assortment of Tans relatives and family friends. Tan explains that she was embarrassed by her family’s Chinese traditions, including the mishmash of Chinese foods, noisy relatives, and impolite manners (Tan 74). Tan’s only desire was to be like other American girls, but it wasn’t until much later in life did Tan truly realize what her family’s heritage meant to her. Likewise, “Museum” by Naomi Shihab Nye tells of another past embarrassing experience by the author. Nye informs the reader of an add she saw for a museum called the McNay. Nye and her friend both decide to attend the

Cuisine in Southern literature has become a character in itself that exposes the secrets of the cultured south. “Conversations about food have offered paths to grasp bigger truths about race and identity, gender and ethnicity, subjugation and creativity” (Edge, 2). The historical past of food presents the truth of a South that is often forgotten when discussing the evolution of food. Southern food stems from slavery, agriculture, and traditions of southerners over the centuries. Ralph Ellison uses southern food in the “Invisible Man” to represent the elements of southern food exemplifying its true meanings and associations from history’s past. John T. Edge in “Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South” shares the hardships of the past that have become embedded into the culture of southern cuisine.

This week materials are mainly focusing on food. The readings are about how food, especially dinner, has an important role in the family, how the way we live affects the way we eat and the regional of our food. As in Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he was explaining how corn is in all of our diets. How it moved from the farm to the feeding lot, to the food lab and into our food. Further analysis of food, and of the sources that describes the food we eat, suggests that it requires a lot of work in the agriculture farm before our ingredients can come together and that mealtime is a great time for a family bonding but the bonding varies with each family due to the different in every families’ culture.

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.

For many Americans the food we eat is just something to be consumed for our needs and pleasures, however in “Consider The Lobster” by David Foster Wallace the reader is challenged to think on what his food was before it was food. In “Consider The Lobster” Wallace explores the Maine Lobster Festival a correspondent of Gourmet Magazine, during his time at the MLF he sees a new side to lobster and learns about the lobster as a sentient creature. After his exploration he comes to a moral dilemma of cooking and eating lobster, he realizes that our society does not think of our food as anything more than something to eat. Wallace uses his knowledge, research and a large amount emotion to persuade the reader to think about the food they eat; using

Although the photographs perfect captures a particular moment in time, food reminds people of various memories. Since food was an integral tool that binds a family together and revealed the heart and care in the quality of the dish, Carrier Wade brought in a recipe book, highlighting a sweet potato pie recipe. The actual book, Watkins Cook Book by The J.R. Watkins Co, was worn out, which added character and showed how often this book was used. Cooking a meal requires a great deal of time and resources, so a someone who values family will tend to put more quality and care into the food to nourish their kin. Food also said a lot about the culture of their community; sweet potato pie was a comfort food and was associated with positive memories.

Passover is one of the most widely observed holidays and one of the most sacred to the Jewish people. It is a time of songs, family, and celebration. During this time, the Jews commemorate the bondage of the Israelites to Egypt. This weeklong celebration includes several rituals such as the meal known as the seder, removal of leavened bread and readings from the Haggadah. Passover customs between the Yemenites (Eastern Jews) and the European Jews vary in certain ways. One variation is in their musical interpretations of the Passover seder.

Some also say Paul in trying to keep the festival also means that Christians should worship as the Jew does since the Christian faith is derivative of it. That was settled in Acts 15, was it not? That conclusion delivered by Judas and Silas after the debate say, “You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.” Although there is no direct command to keep all the festivals. Instead, Paul says keep the Festival. Although that is true, it is valuable to understand the Jewish culture. How many festivals do Messianic Jews celebrate? Congregation Beth Adonai states,

Recipes crafted throughout generations invoke feelings of pleasure when eaten occasionally. When enjoyed especially around the holidays, a simple dish is transformed into a manifestation of love. When eaten in celebration, it acts as a window into the unique expression of every family. The near obsession with the taste and quality of soul food can be justified by its high in fat content, but it is important not to forget how the psychology of growing up with this food remains with a child forever. It makes sense for it to also be known as “comfort food,” food that is typically unhealthy yet invokes feelings of innocence, childhood, and

Italians take their food very seriously.  The main meal of the day is at lunch time.  The word for 'the lunch ' is il pranzo. You start with antipasti: these are nibbles like olives, cheese and salami, followed by… il primo (the first course which is pasta or minestrone) then il secondo (the main course which is meat or fish with salad or vegetables) then there is fruit and perhaps a dessert. Finally there is espresso coffee.