Recently, my grandmother and I were talking about a book she’s been reading called Food Stories. Much like it sounds, it is about food and the stories behind it. Well, in a stroke of coincidence, I was listening to GPB this morning and they were playing Splendid Table, an interview with Hawaiian chefs about their food history.
You can imagine my delight! Ever since college, I have been absolutely enamored with food culture. Food is such an integral part of all cultures, everywhere. I had a professor who was deeply captivated by food culture and the history of food and one project we did was building a replica of a plate of food that meant a lot to us. It was incredibly eye-opening and fun to learn about everyone’s important dishes. It was equally as fun to learn about the history behind things like fried chicken, watermelon, and the negative connotations associated with them and black culture.
During slavery, enslaved people were allowed to raise chickens, but it became a problem for white slavers when they realized enslaved people were buying their freedom with the proceeds they earned from selling fried chicken. Food is such an empowering part of every culture that often times, the dominant opressors will do everything in their power to shame the food of cultures they’re trying to dominate.
That’s why this interview on Splendid Table was so interesting to me. Hawaii has such a rich culture heritage in many ways, but the food is always the most interesting. There’s no easy way to point to a dish and say it is definitively Hawaiian. So many cultures have, as one chef put it, “cross pollinated” Hawaiian food with their culture. When plantations came to Hawaii through colonization, many different people were brought from all across the globe to work them. Filipinos, Chinese, Thai, and many more workers of Asian heritage came and brought their food with them.
One of the guests being interviewed said that the story they’re always told about food from that time is that the workers would all have their boxes for lunch and it would always have rice in a compartment on the bottom, and then whatever food they made (from their various backgrounds) on top. They would take the top compartments and place them in the middle of the group and everyone would eat from what everyone else brought.
The idea that they all came from different places, but were together in that moment is endlessly fascinating to me.
I think we can really see a reflection of the humanity in that idea. The first thing more people do when they are hosting someone else is offer them food. We come from different places, different cultures, different backgrounds, but we are here together now.
The world as we currently know it is stressful. Things are happening in the streets today that are terrifying. But, if only for a second, we can share a meal with each other I think we can get back to our humanity.
We were put on this Earth to experience life and all that life is. Good, bad, and in between. We are hear to care for each other, to help each other, and to lighten the burden for others when it is in our power to do so. I think food is the key to closeness.
We have, for so many generations, been moving towards an individualism that I think does nothing to serve us. We are cut off from our neighbors, at war with people who see things differently than us, and we have forgotten the humanness that connects us all. In these terrible times, I think we can all come together over a meal. Just be. Eat. Enjoy being together.
I’m sure I’ll have more to share on this subject when I read Food Stories, but for now I think I will just implore you to break bread with a neighbor and enjoy the time you spend with them. The only way through is through together.
What’s a meal that means a lot to you? Why does it mean so much to you? What do you think about food and what it means to a culture?
Until next time, y’all.