By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:49:24 +0000

I’ve used “The Restaurants Book” in my class on Food and Culture and found it to be an excellent edited volume. Some of the articles really resonated with my students and my teaching style.

By: Rick

Rick — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:45:19 +0000

To taste a culture’s food is is to come to a much deeper emic relationship to it.
There is an idea from an elementary principle I know in Dallas, who works in a traditionally black school, which is now about 50/50 black and Hispanic. However, the classrooms are still segregated, largely by language and ESL programs. There is an almost total separation of the social networks by ethnicity in this neighborhood among the parents too.
The principle was really into an idea of developing a community garden on her school lot for her kids. She figured she could use it to teach biology, economics, green organic practices, etc… But, and this is brilliant, she wanted to get her kids to grow foods traditionally cooked by their families. They could then take the foods home to be cooked and then shared among everyone at something like a PTA meeting. She felt that by sharing one’s traditional food with another is a great way to open up lines of communication and overcome stereotypes; many of which are about food.
This still isn’t a reality, but I’m hoping to get an anthropologist that’s moving to the area soon, and an expert in the use of native seeds, to maybe help with something.

By: John McCreery

John McCreery — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 19:16:23 +0000

A wonderful project. A quick look at the project blog has left me hungry for more.

Comments on: Welcome guest blogger David Beriss

By: Matt

By: Rick

By: John McCreery