Mindful Eating: Reinvigorating American Culinary Diaspora in a Low-income Community

The culinary history of America is a rich melting pot of cultures from across the world, seasoned with the heritage of diasporas. This research note explores the existing culinary diaspora of American food and how the practice of mindful eating has prompted a revitalization. The author examines how American cuisine is perceived and its connections with a dark period of the nation's past in the context of the "Beloved Community." There is a need to review the diasporas that gave rise to these culinary traditions that have stemmed from slavery and are endemic in low-income communities. A better understanding can prompt a rethinking about how these communities can adopt mindful eating practices. This note extends the literature on culinary diasporas by reconsidering a beloved American culinary tradition.

A Taste for Toads

The is chapter explores the natural and culinary history of toads (the fish, not the amphibian) as well as a specialized fishery and invention around a seasonal catch. The toads rise from a “trash” by-catch to a delicacy speaks to evolving sensibilities around cuisine and terroir. A toad is a complicated creature. It tests the boundaries of Leviticus and chart the dangers of gastronomy. The chapter makes extensive use of oral history, natural history, and local foodways.

Development and Preservation of Culinary History of Nasi Bogana in Pawon Bogana Keraton Kacirebonan

Nasi bogana is one of the typical culinary in Cirebon area. This culinary can be found in almost every palace in Cirebon. This cuisine is usually served during salvation or other celebrations. The Kacirebonan Palace is one of the palaces that still maintain the tradition and culture of nasi bogana. One of the efforts made by the Kacirebonan Palace was to establish a restaurant called Pawon Bogana. In the Pawon Bogana restaurant, nasi bogana is used as a mainstay menu. However, the bogana rice in the Pawon Bogana restaurant has experienced development and headway. The purpose of this study was to find out the complete history of bogana rice, the culinary development at this time when viewed from the quality and uniqueness of food and the development of bogana rice so that the culinary becomes more sustainable and awake. This study uses a qualitative method. Data sources used are sources, events and documents. Data collection techniques used are interviews, observation, documentation and questionnaires. Data analysis techniques used are data analysis that is carried out interactively and takes place continuously since data collection in the field and continues until data collection is completed. The results of the study show that Bogana Rice is one of the typical cuisines in the Cirebon area. This cuisine is usually served during salvation or other celebratory events. This culinary is used as a means of charity and is shared with others. In addition, another meaning of bogana rice is the expression of gratitude to Allah SWT. The development of bogana rice when viewed from the quality and uniqueness of food is growing and continues to innovate so that people can continue to taste the culinary. The development of bogana rice has now been carried out by the Kacirebonan Palace and continues to be carried out so that bogana rice becomes more sustainable and preserves its peculiarities.

Gastronomic Practice in Zhang Tongzhi's List of Jinling's Delicacies

Zhang Tongzhi (1875–1948) was a Chinese scholar, educator, and gourmet from Nanjing, today the capital of Jiangsu province. In 1947, he published the List of Jinling's Delicacies, in which he described and extolled the best raw ingredients, processed foods, and cooked dishes he had tasted in Nanjing throughout his life. In this article, I offer a translation of twenty-four of the sixty-one entries of the List and I read them as portraying not only the city's delicacies but also the practice of gastronomy, of Zhang as well as of the people of Nanjing. As a social and consumption practice, gastronomy can be defined, with Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson, as “the systematic, socially valorized pursuit of culinary excellence.” Yet gastronomy, in the context of Western and especially French culinary history, has mainly been analyzed as a textualized discourse. While I do not challenge the idea that gastronomic words matter, in this article I suggest that gastronomic practice matters, too, and that, as far as the development of Chinese culinary culture is concerned, it may have mattered more than words. The List affords us glimpses into a little-known foodscape and it vividly captures this “applied” dimension of gastronomy. My hope is that this text will also stimulate more comparative thinking about culinary cultures and their sociohistorical development.

Introduction

At the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Society for French Historical Studies, Willa Silverman and Kyri Claflin delivered presentations for a session entitled “Eating and Edifying: Perspectives on the Culinary History of the Third Republic.” Chaired by Janet Horne and with commentary by Paul Freedman, the panel offered innovative perspectives on French food history. Refined in response to Freedman’s suggestions, the contributions of Silverman and Claflin form the nucleus of the present forum. Michael Garval has joined Silverman and Claflin with an article of his own, and all three have benefited from the recommendations of two double-blind peer reviewers. The finished product—now two years in the making—is one that Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques is pleased to present to its readers.