Day: September 12, 2020

Coffee (Part I of Dark Princess)

Leadora Kyin on

In Part I of Dark Princess, a food/beverage that comes up is coffee. In the Viktoria Café, Matthew is having a cup of coffee while he spots the Princess for the first time. He then hears the American man talking about her behind him and gets so emotional he “nearly upset his coffee cup” (9). Later on after meeting the Princess, he and the group representing the “Darker World” drink coffee in the Princess’ “silk and golden drawing-room”  (DuBois 19, 24).

Though there is no exact when-or-where of coffee, legend has it that the goat herder Kaldi (or his goats) discovered coffee in Ethiopia after seeing his goats’ behavior after eating an unknown berry from a tree. These “energizing” berries were then brought to the local monastery and made into a drink that helped keep the abbot awake during evening prayer. Word spread of the drink throughout the monastery and eventually out east to the Arabian peninsula. Through the 15th-16th centuries, coffee was grown and traded throughout the area. It then spread to Europe and then to the New World. As demand increased around the globe, competition for cultivation rose. The Dutch cultivated coffee in the second half of the 17th century in what is now Indonesia after getting coffee seeds. In 1714, the Mayor of Amsterdam gave a coffee plant to King Louis XIV of France and it was planted in the Royal Botanical Garden. 9 years later, a naval officer, Gabriel de Clieu, got a seedling from this plant and somehow got it to Martinique on a difficult voyage. This tree flourished and started the Caribbean’s, and South and Central America’s coffee cultivation. Brazil also received coffee from France. By the 18th century, coffee became one of the largest cash crops for export in the world.

The role of coffee in Dark Princess thus far is minimal, but it brings Matthew together with other people of color. Coffee is an extremely common drink and concept in America and the rest of the world nowadays, and in the context of the novel, it appears to represent commonality and connection between Matthew and others (the Princess and the larger group).

“National Coffee Association.” NCA, www.ncausa.org/About-Coffee/History-of-Coffee.

Fenugreek Food Genealogy in Relation to Prashad’s Preface

Kaitlyn Blake on

Fenugreek is a very common spice in Indian and South Asian cuisine, it is even seen in many North African and Mediterranean cuisines as well. Although it is native to southern Europe and the Mediterranean (“Fenugreek”), currently, the leading producer of Fenugreek is India (“The History of Fenugreek”). Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh fall close behind (“The History of Fenugreek”). Therefore, Fenugreek can be thought of as a staple spice for South Asia.

In Vishay Prashad’s preface to The Karma of Brown Folk, he talks about the weaponization of Asians, especially South Asians, against Black people.  Because Prashad ends up specifically mentioning Indians, I thought I would research fenugreek since it is a staple spice in much of Indian cuisine. It also relates to Afro-Asia as it is a spice that is used in much of North African cuisine as well. Though not specifically mentioned in the readings for this week, fenugreek can be a symbol of the use of South Asians as a “solution” (Prashad viii). He quotes DuBois in The Souls of Black Folk, as he discusses the historical wanting of India to be considered “Aryan” despite the continuation of its status as “colored”, and further invokes language similar to the model minority myth (Prashad viii). Since fenugreek is a spice that has been used and shared across Afro-Asia for centuries—as early as 4000 BC (“The History of Fenugreek”)—it shows the links between Africa and Asia as potential siblings. At the same time, Fenugreek is often only spoken of in terms of Indian cuisine, often to the ignorance of the many other cuisines that use Fenugreek. This shows a facet of the model minority myth as applied to food: learning about Indian cuisine and culture is good (and exotic), but there is no need to learn about African cuisine and culture despite their similarities. This is reflected in Prashad’s preface when he says, “[t]he claim to a higher spirituality (and civilization) allows the desis to be positioned in such a way that they are seen as superior to blacks…” (xi). 

 

Works Cited

“Fenugreek.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 27 Apr. 2016, www.britannica.com/plant/fenugreek.

“The History of Fenugreek: MySpicer.com: Spices, Herbs & Blends.” MySpicer, 4 Mar. 2014, www.myspicer.com/history-of-fenugreek/.

“Preface: Karma Sutra: The Forethought.” The Karma of Brown Folk, by Vijay Prashad, University of Minnesota Press, 2000, pp. vii-xi.

Let’s Spill the Tea

Maddie Woo on

In Part 1 of Dark Princess we are introduced to Matthew Townes, an African American man who expresses his personal plight in being an educated black man during the 1920s. The limitations he faces are keenly expressed with Du Bois highlighting Matthew’s emotions during his time of tea with “the lady”.

The beverage tea and the act of drinking tea works in favor of the novel. On page 54, “They had sat an hour drinking tea in the Tiergarten, that mightiest park in Europe” juxtaposes  the “colored” individuals drinking in a white neighborhood. Tea is a vital beverage in many cultures, so much so that there are even legends regarding the origin. In India,  legend has it that the Indian saint Prince Bodhi-Dharma went to China to preach his findings. He meditated for nine years and at the end of his meditation, he cut his eyelids off and the place where they landed formed a tea tree.

Tea has a vibrant culture in East Asia and the silk road allowed European missionaries to bring tea back to their respective countries. Tea actually didn’t become widespread until the 17th century when the Dutch East India Company started to spread it further. Amsterdam, Paris and London helped popularize the drink that was branded only for aristocrats but soon, the British converted to the drink.

In India, tea was monopolized by the Dutch and later by the British who used the tea for personal profit. The emphasis DuBois places on having two significant character engage in a near bastardized action of drinking tea signifies the quick reaction we have towards said colonization. It places two people of colored in a setting that should be familiar to them but makes them look out of place.

“A History of Tea.” A History of Tea | Peet’s Coffee, www.peets.com/learn/history-of-tea.

“A Social History.” UK Tea & Infusions Association, www.tea.co.uk/a-social-history.

Love Potions & Onion Pies

Vivian Jiang on

This week’s reading in Dark Princess takes place mostly in Berlin, Germany. While this portion of the novel has not explicitly named any dishes or ingredients, I thought I’d trace a component of a Southern German dish that is in season at the moment.

Zwiebelkuchen or “onion cake” is a savory pastry pie that is popular in autumn in accordance with grape season. Specifically, it is often paired with a glass of Federweisser, or grape must. A key ingredient in this “onion cake” is caraway seeds. With its complicated and misunderstood history, this spice is native to Asia, Europe, and North Africa.  It bears many names like “meridian fennel” or “Persian cumin.” Believed to be one of Europe’s oldest spices, caraway has been credited in aiding digestion by ancient Egyptians, Roman soldiers and Shakespearean literature. Today, caraway is often served after meals to help with flatulence as a sort of after-dinner mint, similar to mukhwas in Indian cooking.

I also found it fascinating was that there is some folklore surrounding caraway. In German folklore, parents placed caraway seeds under their children’s beds to protect them from witches with the belief that anything with caraway in it could not be stolen. And related to the love story of Dark Princess, caraway was used in love potions to prevent fickleness.

“Caraway.” 2013. Our Herb Garden (blog). March 1, 2013. http://www.ourherbgarden.com/herb-history/caraway.html.
Killebrew, Kimberley. 2013. “Authentic Schwäbischer Zwiebelkuchen (German Onion & Bacon Pie).” The Daring Gourmet (blog). October 15, 2013. https://www.daringgourmet.com/zwiebelkuchen-german-onion-pie/.
Malhotra, S. K. 2012. “11 – Caraway.” In Handbook of Herbs and Spices (Second Edition), edited by K. V. Peter, Second Edition, 225–48. Woodhead Publishing Series in Food Science, Technology and Nutrition. Woodhead Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1533/9780857095688.225.
Marchetti, Domenica. n.d. “The Caraway Seed Is A Spice Worth Meeting.” NPR.Org. Accessed September 12, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2013/03/05/173529055/the-caraway-seed-is-a-spice-worth-meeting.