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loup16-blog · 9 years

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Finding my own authentic culture

With questions like “what is food memory to you?” and “how does those memories create authentic feelings towards food?” Erin O’Brien had my head spinning with thoughts while I waited for my dinner at the Good Girl Dinette. She kept the conversation going, asking more of our opinions with questions such as “who is the person that cooks in your life? Who are the individuals that receive this cooking?... How does that affect the way the food is cooked and appreciated?” At this point, I had so many ideas of culture and authenticity swirling in my head and, yet, was frustrated with the lack of response I felt when asked these questions. None of my experiences or opinions were forming, nothing was rising to the top. I did not have a perspective on the authenticity of my food and I hated that.

Earlier that week I read the transcribed conversation between Edide Huang and Francis Lam entitled “Is it Fair for Other Chefs to Cook Other Cultures’ Food?” This conversation between the two men centered upon the debate of acculturation and food; what food is authentic and who ultimately creates it? I bounced back and forth between supporting each individual, each one surpassing the next with personal accounts and experiences. However, in a short period of time, the article was over and I was left with a torn feeling that lingered until and even grew throughout our Good Girl Dinette conversation.

(my first Bánh Mì!!)

I wish I was able to stake a claim and say: “THIS, this right here, is authentic and THIS is why...; I have THESE experiences and THESE relatives...; I can make this meal and this meal is all mine!” But, unfortunately, my food history, my food culture, is new and ever developing. I grew up where authenticity of food from my father, the main cook in the home, was a performance, not a recount of culture or an experience. I grew up learning how to create and see food ideas and recipes from my own mind, not one from a family member, a culture, or a country.

I am finally accepting that authenticity, to me, has always been a personal, idiographic thing and I am finally putting that opinion into words. With food culture and the culinary arts developing directly through creativity, I find myself accepting this opinion more and more. It’s exciting and calming to finally have a stake in a large bowl of claims, always mixing and always developing. I sometimes wish I had a stronger, more (culturally) rooted feeling of what authentic food should be, such as Eddie Huang in the article, but that would change everything. It wouldn’t be me behind those words, it wouldn’t be authentic.

#swims499 #authentic #Julia_Loup #week4

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loup16-blog · 9 years

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Thai food... straight from the kitchen

I have been thinking about one of our first class discussions while at the grand central market. We each presented our views on “where we came from” and what our family history provided us in the context of food. I remember thinking, as the others presented, that I was excited and proud to share where I came from. Specifically, I was excited to share how much I learned from my father, as he is the main chef of our family. However, I couldn’t help but further contemplate why it mattered so much to me: why I was so proud to have a father who is also an amazing cook?

When I read “Too Hot to Handle: Food, Empire, and Race in Thai Los Angeles” by Padoongpat, the entire article happened to be prefaced by a similar discussion. Marie Wilson, writer of Siamese Cookery, was first and foremost described as a homemaker. How and in what context “Thai” food entered the white west side of Los Angeles was, furthermore, prefaced by a woman’s inclination to “encourage... white housewives” to make Thai food in their own home. I understand this is a small point in the entire article, as it is focused on the race aspect of food culture. However, I could not get this notion and addition out of my head.

The article continues to question this woman as a pioneer or simply a “thief” editing cultural motifs and spices on her own. The addition of this woman, as a way to begin the conversation of what crafted Thai culture and identity within the American culture, was really interesting to me. I recognized how white Angelinos’ sense of ‘authentic Thai’ may be warped through this gender bias, on top of the other forms of racial assumptions and ethnic paradigms at place in acculturation.

It was in the subcultures and ethnic communities that the Thai food industry initially blossomed beyond racial barriers. Breaking from the “Chinese” label, Thai food finally formed its own Southeastern Asian smell, taste and feel. However, it was in the mind and perspective of the white citizens, possibly influenced by Marie Wilson and her comrades, that Thai was this new, exciting and acceptable new subculture of Asian food.

I now question: Is it significant that a large player in influencing whites beliefs and assumptions of Thai cuisine could begin with the “housewife” of the 60’s and 70’s? Moreover, what role does feminism take while embracing new cultures? Is Marie Wilson’s power of acculturation a form of empowering herself or are her actions something working against others’ empowerment, even if empowering herself?

Is this even something to focus on when there is a whole continued history of how our culture, and city, interacts and develops with the racially entwined cuisine? I think it should to be considered as a piece to the ever-evolving puzzle.

- Julia Loup

#week1 #foodculturemaymester #thaifood #feminism #Julia_Loup

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