The food continuum

Whole Foods: Revitalization through Everyday Synesthetic Experience by David Sutton discusses the use of food as a continuation of national identity for the Greek diaspora. This taste of home and different smells travel around the globe to maintain a memory of the past/home. Worthy of note that some of these products are local to the area but change identity depending who is smelling and past associations with the object “The basil sniffed in a pot in London reminds the new migrant of "Greece" in this instance rather than any more localized association”(127). I believe the repetition of cultural practices is what Sutton discusses as ‘returning to the whole’. Returning to the whole is “state of relatedness—a kind of conviviality in experience” (122). In the diasporic sense retuning to the whole is building bridges with the home by the use of foods and other cultural practices.

Food amongst language, and cultural practices (dance, religion) are crucial components of national identity. I believe that acknowledging and understanding these components would be a determination factor of national authenticity. For example in Costa Rica, Gallo Pinto is a mixed of beans, rice, and vegetables; this is a traditional meal especially for breakfast. To be aware of the importance of Gallo Pinto and the ability to make the dish are markers of national identity of Costa Rica.

Sutton also highlights the importance of the senses, for example the smell of basil as evoking the smell of Greece. In a way I view the ‘smell of Greece’ as Carrier would describe Khat as the ‘taste of Africa’ both of these objects evoke, recreate, and revive the memory of home.

Food and Wine by De Certeau is an analysis of the vital roles bread and wine hold for French cuisine. They cannot be replaced by any other food, without these ingredients “nothing has flavor anymore, everything falls apart” (85). Bread represents the hard labour of the working class, that labour cannot be wasted it would be sacrilegious, this bread even when its old transforms into something, it does not go to the garbage (pudding or food for birds). Then De Certeau explains the crucial role of wine when celebrating special occasions; celebration without wine is not signified. I don’t completely agree with this view, maybe this is a French costume but the way people desire to celebrate cannot be ranked as signified depending on what objects they have at their disposal.

Do you think the importance of bread and wine are tied somewhat to the Catholic belief of communion?