Food as a Transregional Node
Source: The Merchant Houses of Mocha: Trade and Architecture in an Indian Ocean Port
Author: Nancy Um
Mocha, Yemen, was one of the earliest and most influential hubs of coffee between the 15th and 17th centuries. While the coffee bean plant is native to Ethiopia, it was Yemen and the Ottoman Empire that helped spread its influence globally. Yemen was not simply an economic actor but a mediator between worlds. Just like coffee, bread is a food that serves as a bridge, linking different regions, people, and cultures. It highlights how food ingredients, cooking techniques, and other culinary traditions migrate across regions and geographical boundaries through trade, colonization, or migration, thereby creating networks of exchange. The simple and versatile technique of making bread has allowed it to spread across continents and evolve while retaining its fundamentals. Bread is considered a near-human food, universal
“Exotic Cuisine”
Source: Eating Asian America (Chapter: A Life Cooking For Others: The Work and Migration Experiences of a Chinese Restaurant Worker in New York City, 1920-1946)
Author: Heather R. Lee
Exotic cuisine is the subjective perception of foods and ingredients unfamiliar to you and your community and/or originating from a different ethnic environment. The term exotic is often synonymous with foreign, and in some contexts it can have connotations of attractive, unusual, or even strange. In theory, “exoticness” can imply a positive attitude when speaking about cuisines and dishes outside the U.S or even the Western World, but it can perpetuate a sense of othering and hierarchy when listening from the other side of the conversation. While a majority of the population won’t bat an eye when someone labels foreign food as “exotic”, it would be fair to say introducing various cultural foods (bread in this case) in a city like New York would decrease the “othering” of cultures. Having exposure to cultural breads early on in a child’s development through the education system can prompt cultural awareness and acceptance, encourage unity across cultures, improve social dialogue, and open opportunities for other forms of healthy eating habits by broadening your nutrient intake.
“Cheap Foods”
Source: Eating Asian America (Chapter: A Life Cooking For Others: The Work and Migration Experiences of a Chinese Restaurant Worker in New York City, 1920-1946)
Author: Heather R. Lee
Food anthropology is a subfield of anthropology that explores the cultural, societal, and economic role food has within human societies. To the average person, calling a food cheap means it’s inexpensive, but in the purview of the food anthropologist and the culture that received that label, it acquires the implication of inferior quality. This is often used when describing Chinese or Mexican food. Often, local Chinese restaurants are run by first-generation immigrants, and immigrant labor is often perceived as cheap labor. Similar to Mexican taco trucks and other Hispanic street vendors, the establishment of illegal street food vendors is looked down upon. Its ties to fast food and takeout also further the notion that certain foods are “cheap.” The classification of cheap foods is subjective, but exposure to cultural foods other than your own is a great way to avoid labeling unfamiliar foods as cheap. School lunch is already seen as poor quality, but diversifying the palate and overall investing more or differently into school lunches may get rid of that notion.
Heritage
Source: We Got Our Way Of Cooking Things: Women, Food, And Preservation Of Cultural Identity among the Gullah.
Author: Josephine A. Beoku-Betts
A person’s heritage relates to all of the qualities, traditions, or features of life that continue and have been passed down over generations. It is like a legacy. While most children of immigrants experience the customs and traditions of their parents at home, many children still adopt the new nation’s culture and even neglect their parents’ culture. We cannot guarantee cultural bread will push immigrants or descendants of immigrant students to educate themselves about their heritage, but it can at least inspire some. Including cultural bread is a subtle way to expose students to other cultures, but to some, and maybe eventually most, it can lead to education and exploration of their own cultures.
