on Hello all, I will be taking a closer look at the etymology of SPAM, from its usage in internet lingo to Monty Python to get to the bottom of this question, but first, here is a tentative start of my research:
on I discovered Ariane’s YouTube channel on my Home page a few months ago and spent hours watching her videos that day. I really enjoy watching lifestyle and cooking videos with minimal audio to wind-down in my free time and before bed. Now that I’m living on my own, I have to cook for myself, so her “What I eat in a day” videos are really helpful for finding new ingredients to use, recipes, and food inspiration. Also, there isn’t much diversity among the low-waste lifestyle YouTube community, and Ariane’s channel is a gem (her voice is also very relaxing):-)
https://www.youtube.com/c/Abetweene/videos
on In Ways the Phillipines Can Talk by Kay Ulanday Barrett, the author uses Tagalog and references to Filipino and Filipino-American culture to unpack their own experiences of diaspora and queerness. In one line Barrett references kanin, tagalog for rice, writing
“Titas shift the kanin their plates as though they could trim your fat,
extend the length of your hair,
sprout a loudmouthed husband at your side,
all with the slightest bent joint”
The reference to kanin interested me because it felt like a particularly chosen and evocative image: a pushy aunt playing with rice on a plate. As Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr. writes in Rice and Magic: A Cultural History From the Precolonial World to the Present, rice is a staple in modern day Filipino cooking and holds particular weight in Filipino culture. Through the article, Aguilar traces the history of rice cultivation in the Phillipines to its roots in pre-colonial indigenous culture. Rice was originally cultivated sparsely due to the relatively high amount of labor required, and was not a staple but a delicacy. According to Aguilar, rice cultivation was originally invested with religious and spiritual meaning, with labor performed only by women and with long required periods for crops to be left to rest. However during Spanish colonization, the ruling Spanish friars introduced and required new forms of rice cultivation. These methods changed rice from being a rare dish for the wealthy to being a regular staple in Filipino cuisine due to its new prevalence. In addition, Spanish rule shifted and often stripped the communal cultural significance of rice, with spirituality being retained only through individualist Christian framings.
In this line, Barrett uses kanin to represent how food created a particular tie for them back to Filipino culture. The tagalog used here demonstrates how meals became a place both for the author to feel connected to their family and culture, but also a site of discomfort and criticism. Barrett places themself as the rice on the plate – cultivated and cooked, a thing to be played with and shaped into forms more suiting their family.
AGUILAR, FILOMENO V. “Rice and Magic A Cultural History from the Precolonial World to the Present.” Philippine Studies: Historical & Ethnographic Viewpoints, vol. 61, no. 3, 2013, pp. 297–330.
on In TWWA’s “What is the Third World,” we are given more critical and nuanced definitions of the terms ‘first/second/third world’, who they encompass, and how they- as a consequence of imperial-capitalist regimes- engage with one another. The third world is distinguished as colonized or formerly colonized nations, notably in Africa, Asia and Latin America, that have been grotesquely oppressed by first world powers (Western Europe and the US). The often simple grouping of the ‘third world’ lends itself possibilities for Community-building, but also realities of replicating oppression amongst the collective. The piece notes how in the US, the third world “consists of the descendants of people from Asian, Africa and Latin America”, and though they share a similar experience of colonial domination (in the US and to that of their diaspora), the oppressed can act as oppressors. the calls for coalition amongst the third world community, makes me think of the development of American Chinese food’ and it’s ‘third world’ influences, notably the Black American community.
The highly-popularized Chinese food Americans have now come to recognize is hardly traditionally Chinese cuisine. Chinese food now is marked by foods like pork fried rice, fried chicken, chicken and broccoli and more. The food has been able to maintain popularity in providing tasty, quick, cheap and filling meals to the masses. Chinese food has also been associated with poor inner-city, mainly black neighborhoods; ‘hood Chinese’ has developed as a term to describe the cultural prevalence of Chinese food establishments in urban communities, offering seasoned meals at low prices. Takeout spots in ‘the hood’ could now be considered cultural markers in low-income communities of Color, with rappers like Nicki Minaj’s “4 wings and French fries- hot sauce and ketchup” line in her song Chiraq, speaking to the integration of hood Chinese food in Black American culture. However, these establishments have been notorious for being disconnected from the communities they serve, often perpetuating and engaging in the ‘model minority’ trope, lending itself to global anti-Blackness within the ‘Third World’. Chinese food’s association, with Blackness is not coincidental. There’s a long history, dating back to the late 1890s where Chinese restaurants in cities like New York welcomed black consumers; it was of the few establishments that black people could enjoy meals at that weren’t black-owned. As a result, it drew on elements of soul food that African American costumers often asked for.
The first known Chinese Restaurant in the US opened in San Francisco, California, in 1849, as the Chinese immigrants settled in the US at the onset of the Gold Rush. And while the first Chinese restaurants enjoyed some positive reception, Chinese immigrants faced considerable prejudice from white America; in efforts other Chinese-Americans, they began weaponizing the “stench” of their kitchens, furthering anti-Chinese sentiment and political erasure. This was exemplified in the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) which barred laborers from coming to the US but allowed merchants (in this case, business owners) to settle in America. Hopeful immigrants pooled together their resources to name a member of their community a restaurant owner in order to access immigration.
The history of Chinese food birthed partly out of the discrimination that both Chinese-Americans and Black Americans faced by white America, and the sometimes contested intimacies of Black and Asian America in the context of white oppression via food. The adoption of Chinese food as ‘American food’ draws parallels to the co-option of Black American soul food as American food, without the acknowledgement of the history of racism interwoven into their development.
In seeing the ways in which Chinese food spots provided a safe physical spaces for black people to eat and gather, but also spaces where black people also faced anti-blackness from Asian store owners, we are meant to reckon with the effectiveness and inadequacies of grouping of the ‘third world’ as a universal struggle.
https://medium.com/better-marketing/the-business-model-behind-hood-chinese-restaurants-8bb750cd01ec
https://amp.firstwefeast.com/eat/2015/10/hood-chinese-food
on While reading the Asian American Feminist Zine, the idea of “othering” within a civil rights movement really resonated with me. Often time with the intersection of multiple identities, the overwhelming majority of participants tend to control and dominate a movement’s direction. I specifically saw this happen this summer with the BLM protests. These dominations were manifested through white artists using the BLM movement to launch their careers, whether it was through filming documentaries, photography, pottery, etc. Another example of this is Shaun King, he would circulate black death and trauma all throughout the internet, rally allies, and create gofundme/donation pages that would not go to their respective charities. Vox media goes into great depth in this article I recommend you to read here.
Furthermore, I feel like this concept can most definitely be applied to Asian cuisines, specifically sushi. The first time I ever learned that sushi existed was through the iconic 2000s show Zoey 101. They had a sushi restaurant on campus that was run by the only Asian character on the show. Sushi became a pivotal meal in this show; however, it reinforced the idea of sushi as a foreign exotic delicacy only really enjoyed by westerners. In retrospect, I do not think the show had any ill intention of making sushi more palatable by having Americans eat it, but I do believe it plays a bigger role in the politicization of food in general. What I mean by this is that ethnic food (non-western) tends to be thought of us untasteful and disgusting until it is seen in an occidental perspective.
Similarly, the Me Too Movement was created by three black women yet the overwhelming majority of organizers/supporters are white women. The LGBT movement in the early 70s as well was created by a group of transgender women of color yet they were boycotted from their own movement by white gay men. It seems as though history repeats itself, but recognizing this problem is the first step towards all-inclusive change.
on I really loved the class with Bryant Terry last week. As a final send-off, I would like to write this week’s blog about his favorite vegetable. Fennel was originally found in sounthern Europe, but it can grow in warm climates worldwide. Its consumers saw the plant as a “superfood” that helped with eyesight, coughs, and gastrointestinal issues. After the Battle of Marathon between Persia and ancient Greece, fennel began to grow on the field where it took place. The plant was from then on associated with victory. It was actually mentioned in the Shakespeare play Hamlet for this reason.
This vegetable is very versatile, and is used in bread, sausage, fish, salad, and many more recipes. The seeds of fennel can also be used to create an oil that is found in many cosmetic products. I’m glad Bryant Terry introduced me to this food, I have a newfound appreciation for it now.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.history.com/.amp/topics/ancient-history/battle-of-marathon
https://delishably.com/spices-seasonings/All-About-Fruits-and-Vegetables-Fennel
Fennel – Herb Society of America
on An excerpt from the AAFC zine strikes a chord in me as I read it. In Julie Ae Kim’s memoir, she writes about her mom’s insistence on getting a facial together. The skincare clinic is run by Korean women, and Kim writes that she “pretended to hate going to Heesuk shi’s home where facials were an easy $50 + a wrapped up kimchi jjigae” (14). Kimchi jjigae is a stew made by boiling kimchi and other add ons in a pot of water or broth, served with rice. Much of the stew’s flavor comes from the Kimchi, which is “a Korean traditional side dish, which is typically made with napa cabbage, marinated with garlic, jeotgal (fish paste), gochujang (chili paste), and rice paste then fermented until the sauce fully soaks into the cabbage or other vegetables such as radish or cucumber” (Kim). The origin of the jjigae is not clear, but it’s not difficult to imagine. One author writes that her grandma tells her “Koreans invented the soup in order to prevent Kimchi from becoming too sour or salty to consume”(Kim). The jjigae is often given a boost by the addition of other ingredients, such as spam ham or tuna, and the jjigae becomes Budae jjigae. Budae translates to military army. Budae jjigae was born out of hardships and famine in Korea after the devastating years of the Korean war. While U.S. military bases in Korea had regular access to food, the rest of Korea was starving. Budae jjigae came from “Koreans who were lucky enough to live close by the US military base lived off leftover and expired canned food from the military bases” (Kim). To feed their families, Koreans “stole expired food from the trash or bought illegal goods, if they had the money. Then Koreans crafted a meal as close to what they were used to: Stir-frying any foreign food scraps with chili powder and Kimchi” (Kim). Budae Jjigae is Kimchi jjigae with canned American foods.
My family makes Budae Jjigae all the time. It’s one of my comfort foods, and while I always knew its connection to military, I never knew that it was due to nation-wide famine. My father tells us every time we have Budae jjigae that he ate this meal while he was in the Korean army, and I just thought that the “Budae” part of the name originated from the Korean military men who just threw together last minute meals. In a way, learning this discolored my view of Budae Jjigae. I eat it as a choice, in the comfort of my home, while my ancestors had the jjigae as a last option meal, thrown together with whatever ingredients available. Currently in South Korea, so many traditional foods are becoming “trendy” because restaurants now layer cheese on top of the dishes. Budae Jjigae is a physical symbol of Western infiltration in Korea, and to see other dishes being covered in cheese and marketed as “trendy” makes me very sad.
Kim, Ji Young. “Time Traveller: Understanding My Korean History through Kimchi Jjigae.” VO1SS, 3 Aug. 2019, en.vo1ss.com/2019/07/19/time-traveller-understanding-my-korean-history-through-kimchi-jjigae/.