I taught a lesson in my classes that covered the question “what shapes our tastes and preferences?” The questions asked of my students were as follows:
- What did you have for dinner last night?
- What did your family typically have for dinner?
- What were special holiday foods?
- What was the most unusual food you’ve eaten?
The first and second questions covered items like availability and ease of use. Sometimes dinner reflected the cultural exchange of foods into our society (if they said, for example, pizza and spaghetti). The third question, though, hit upon the idea of food as cultural expression.
Holiday foods were typically traditional cultural foods — the typical Thanksgiving dinner for example. US Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing come from the near-legendary first Thanksgiving, but run through a British colonial filter. (The original Thanksgiving dinner featured venison and fish, not turkey. The turkey is the American bird version of the goose served at Christmas in Britain.)
Sometimes students’ special holiday foods included cultural celebrations. Often they weren’t aware until they learned not everyone eats ollebollen (fried round raisin dumplings) at New Year’s. Others were aware that their German or Swedish heritage meant special Christmas cookies.
That being said, what were my holiday foods? I think of my dad’s side of the family, who descended from people who hunted and trapped and fished as their livelihood. Holiday meals had to include foods that could have been procured by my ancestors. For example, my grandfather smoked trout and that would go on the Thanksgiving table. We would have duck or goose — storebought, but something my ancestors would possibly serve. My mother’s family would make the more traditional thanksgiving, but oil and vinegar coleslaw would be on the table. (I don’t know if this was because we had German ancestry or because mom made really good oil and vinegar coleslaw. I have her recipe because it was straight out of the Betty Crocker cookbook.)
This year I’m eating at a restaurant for Thanksgiving because there’s only two of us. This is what happens in the US as the oldest generations die; the grandparents become the nucleus with their children and grandchildren as satellites. We have no children or grandchildren, so my husband and I are a unit of two. This works fine for me.
Words Like Me 