Food anthropology

For a while now, I developed a peculiar fascination about the origins of food. I live to eat, and since for me, eating extends beyond mere physical sustenance, I can’t help but think there’s bound to be more significance behind every dish. Let me just briefly share what I mean.

Every dish is framed within a particular historical and/or cultural context. Take for example, the French Onion Soup. It’s origin could possibly be traced back as far as the Roman times. And throughout history, it was considered the food of the poor as onions were easy to grow and plentiful. The recipe as we know it is supposedly created by King Louis XV of France, when he woke up in the middle of the night at his hunting lodge, hungry for supper and saw he only had onions, butter and some champagne left. The rest is culinary history.

So, is it fair to say that any foods that doesn’t have a cultural significance could only qualify to be called a “dish”, rather than “cuisine”?

If a cuisine is considered food with a context, then its fair to say a dish would just be an assembly of food on a plate.

Food with context. I like the sound of that.

Now let’s take that a little further. If there’s such a diverse span of cultures across the globe, then there must be thousands of different types of food on this planet. But if you look close enough, there’s so much similarity.

For example, the Cornish Pasty, originated from Cromwell, England to meet the needs of the tin miners is conceptually similar to the Curry Puff found in Southeast Asia; which is also similar to the Spanish Empanada. Across the different cultures, its simply just pastry stuffed with filling.

What about the Italian Ravioli and the Chinese Jiaozi? Stuffed dough.

Or the Spanish Churros, Chinese’s Youtiao and American Doughnut? Fried dough.

Despite being conceptually similar, there’s yet again so much differences when it comes to how we eat. I’m not a big fan of fusion so I’m never going to cinnamon my Youtiao, or serve my Jiaozi in a pesto or tomato sauce. But to me, these subtle differences in how we eat is what makes food such a beautiful thing. That’s why I live to eat.

Now all these talk is making me really hungry. I’ll talk about this again but right now, I’m going to grab myself a Cookie or if you’re Italian, a Biscotti.