Chronicling change
I just had a clever thought. I can celebrate the Olympics and go back to a project I started ages ago and ran out of steam on. I hate running out of steam. I especially hate the little energy I have this week, but this project doesn’t take so much energy and it has recipes that are laden with deliciousness and memories.
What am I talking about?
When we study overseas, we choose what bits of our culture we can’t do without. It’s a special time and place in the lives of traveling foodies, where big decisions are made about what is important in personal food history.
In a particular notebook of mine, I have these choices made – not just by myself (which is what I started chronicling, a while back) but for students from all over the world. Some were studying in Australia, some in Canada, some in London and some in Paris. The recipes they chose to teach me were ones that helped from their foodways and cultural identity.
These decisions are so crucial to the creation of food history. Whenever we move or travel, whether it’s voluntarily or not, the foodstuffs and opportunities at the place we arrive, and the memories and cooking skills we bring with us, create, transform and can achieve amazing things.
I can’t give you the names and stories of my friends: those things are private. I can give you recipes from their countries and maybe some of the background surrounding why these recipes or notes were important.
It’s food history from a different direction – one which we all experience. Every time we make new friends or taste a good cake at a staff morning tea we are in danger of changing our foodways. This is one of the key ways it can happen from country to country.
Look for some delicious recipes ahead. When I’m well and when the Olympics are over, I’ll delve further into the past again.
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