CULINARY CHOICES REVEAL A LOT ABOUT MODERN CULTURE. EXPERTS WEIGH IN ON WHAT THE LATEST TRENDS IN FOOD AND DRINK MEAN FOR YOU
BY MICHAEL TWITTY
THE VIEW
Food is a story
NOT LONG AGO, I STOPPED REFERRING TO ONE OF MY most cherished Koshersoulrecipes of black-eyed-pea dip as “hummus.” In Arab cultures, hummus is seen not just as a legume or chickpea dip—but also as a sacred offering from one of the world’s most ancient regions, the Fertile Crescent. In the shadow of the darkness that is “chocolate hummus,” listening to Arab and other Middle Eastern voices from the Levant forced me to confront my lazy acceptance of a generalized eponym useful for Western gloss. The thought swirled in my mind beside one of my other pet peeves: when people deem okraa nonspecifically “African” word. This not only reduces the diversity and richness of African languages and cultures, but also makes the deep connections between Africa and the subsequent diaspora in the Americas more murky. These maladaptions allow us to miss the point of our uniqueness and necessarily multicultural world.
In times of national pain, and even international pain, there is constant appeal to a generic “human” lens through tired clichés and platitudes meant to be panaceas—the worst of which is that “food brings people together.” We say this hoping that by setting the table, we’ve done the work. But we still need to actually go out there and do it. While food, indeed, has an incredible capacity to serve as a bridge to dialogue, it’s important to remember that it doesn’t do anything that our meaning won’t allow it to do. Intention is key to food; for food is a story—if we choose to tell it.
Food is not only personal. It is communal. Whatever work it does starts with helping us understand our location and purpose. Food reminds us of the boundaries, taboos, and lessons learned across historical truths and traumas; for how pastrami got put together with white bread and mayonnaise, or what beef curry symbolizes when it is served to members of the Hindu Brahmin caste, or why raisins are now a staple of a soul-food-style potato salad all need context. They all have differing degrees of rule breaking, but they all come with the understanding that ingredients can float in and out of many cultures.
Social media skirmishes over who owns what recipes or cuisines rarely take into consideration that food has navigated and stood the test of many different iterations of power: from the aromas we sali
