In the opening chapters of The Pagoda by Patricia Powell, we are inducted into the world of late 19th century Jamaica, seen through the eyes of aging shopkeeper Lowe. A quietly compelling introduction suddenly gives way to first news, then visual confirmation of an explosive fire that has destroyed Lowe’s prized shop. As he casts his gaze around the shop in disbelief, Lowe seems to make, possibly without conscious effort, an inventory of the items he carried that have now been lost to the flames, going over the various food items and household goods that only hours ago filled the shop: “Wooden shelves leaning against the wall, holding cakes of soap and boxes of detergent and oats and bottles of beer and stout […] tins of condensed milk and mackerel in tomato sauce, corned beef, sardines in vegetable oil…” (Powell 18). In addition to giving us an understanding here of the kind of establishment Lowe had run, as well as his sheer devastation at its loss, Powell in this passage seems to more emphatically locate the reader in the universe of her novel by showing us these trappings of the daily life and necessities of an inhabitant of this time and place.
Amongst the objects that appear in the list of goods that Lowe mentally catalogues, I was particularly struck by the “sardines in vegetable oil” because of the sheer ubiquity of the processed and canned food as a grocery store staple in both the world of the novel and in the present day. Whether it’s the convenience, the strong flavors, or a combination of both factors, the food is one so commonly used that it’s even the basis of more than one popular English idiom. In order to delve into any kind of history of the product, however, it is important to first note that “sardines” is actually a catch-all term for a number of different varieties of fish. As Randal Oulton describes in his overview of the food, there are six distinct kinds of fish described as sardines in different areas — Europeans will generally use the term to refer to young pilchards, while North American sardines are commonly sprats or young herrings. The uniting factor between these varieties of fish that allow them to be grouped together mainly lie in their diminutive size, silvery coloring and oil-rich flesh.
The history of sardine preservation stretches quite far back — ancient Romans used a solution of oil and salt to make the fish last long periods of time, and in fact, the fish was quite an important part of their diet in many areas of modern-day Italy and western Europe. The first canned sardines likely appeared in early 19th century France, with vegetable canning factory owner Pierre-Joseph Colin leading the way to manufacturing it in mass quantities and building up a very successful trade by the 1830s. Since they appeared in markets only several decades prior, sardines were usually fairly expensive in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Once Americans began fishing Pacific sardines, canned sardines were manufactured in increasingly greater quantities, and eventually served as common fare for soldiers fighting in the two world wars, as well as the coastal, immigrant and working class populations in California. Interestingly enough, this means that in Lowe’s time, canned sardines would have been expensive for him to stock and procure, and might actually have been something of a delicacy, or at least a bit of a splurge for a regular shopper. This does stand to throw into even greater relief the magnitude of his loss, as well as illustrate the stark relative difference in how sardines are often viewed today, a cheap but filling processed food. In Jamaica and other Caribbean cultures, sardines are a regular part of many people’s diets, and dishes such as sardine sandwiches and sardines and rice show how creative the people of these nations have been in designing dishes which take these fishes which might be seen as commonplace and transform them into integral components of dishes that are vibrant in color as well as flavor.
Works Cited
“Island-Style Sardines and Rice.” Allrecipes, www.allrecipes.com/recipe/236721/island-style-sardines-and-rice/.
Kummer, Corby. “The Rise of the Sardine.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 1 July 2007, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/07/the-rise-of-the-sardine/305976/.
“Food: How to Make Jamaican Sardine Fritters.” Unieros Multicultural Events – Celebrating Culture and Diversity, unieros.com/blog/food-how-to-make-jamaican-sardine-fritters/.
Oulton, Randal. “Sardines.” CooksInfo, 17 June 2020, www.cooksinfo.com/sardines.
Powell, Patricia. The Pagoda: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1998. Print.
Ramkirpal-Senhouse, Alicia. “Sautéed Sardines and Potatoes.” Alica’s Pepperpot, 31 Mar. 2020, www.alicaspepperpot.com/sauteed-sardines-and-potatoes/.
