Our Kitchens Are Transcultural

Cooking is a religious experience- that we have established so far, but in this way of being religious, it also becomes a communal one. However, the concept I found most fascinating is Ortiz's transculturality being applied to cooking. Within Religion in the Kitchen, Perez discusses this idea of transculturality in relation to food- how in Cuban culture there is a great presence of African meat that is then seasoned with various Cuban spices. Through globalization we can 

Cooking varies greatly throughout the world, and kitchens present themselves in numerous ways around the world as well, but there is no denying that over time cooking and kitchens have embodied transculturality. Transculturation in the kitchen appears in my life in many places and in various ways.

 

                                    

I'm from Queens, New York. My local train is the 7, it runs above ground all from LIC to Flushing and looking down you can see cultures from all around the world flash before your eyes. Down just a few blocks you pass through dozens of communities, Nepalese, Indian, Bengali, Bosnian, Greek, etc., representing their cultures through food carts, restaurants, and on foot food selling. Many of these dishes are authentic, but a lot of them are "Americanized"- there becomes a lack of purity in the food that is being cooked. But this lack of purity is not always a bad thing- one of my favorite restaurants is an Indian x Portuguese fusion restaurant serving the most delicious Goan food. And a few blocks down you can have access to infamous Asian fusion foods such as the sushiritto (sushi, but served like a burrito), Banh mi- a Vietnamese and French fusion, and even Kimchi Quesadillas, a take on combining popular Tex-Mex and Korean foods. Some of these fusion foods I can appreciate and I know my friends are HUGE fans of- (mac and cheese empanadas from Mama's Empanadas!? To die for) and others just feel wrong- like Biriyani pasta. While some of these cuisines and combinations occurred through the processes of globalization and colonization- others feel like they're just desperate to be trendy. 

Obviously, food and culture are hard to separate and unfortunately this can cause divide as much as it does unity. My family is from Bosnia and we would go back to visit every summer, and then slowly it drifted into every other summer. I decided to go vegetarian when I was 4 years older after walking past a butcher shop as they were skinning a lamb. Bosnia's culture and food is so heavily meat centered that "vegetarian" isn't even a word in the language. I would tell people- family, friends, taxi drivers, that I didn't eat meat and they simply could not wrap their heads around it. It is tradition in my family to get together, when all of us have found our way back to Bosnia, and roast a lamb on a handmade wooden spit. This tradition isolated me greatly from my family- for a while I was forced to sit outside with them as the act occurred which only resulted in a lot of tears and even more pushback from little me. After a while though, I gained some more autonomy and was able to sit inside as they enjoyed the beautiful summer night. For them, it was a bonding experience- talking and laughing over the preparation of this tradition, enjoying the wafting smells of freshly roasted lamb that were filling the air, their fingers lined with grease as they dug into their own pieces. A religious and communal experience for all of them became an exclusionary one for me. 

A final example of the transculturation that occurs in the process of cooking food is found here at Wheaton. I live in Davis House- the international house on campus- and if there is one thing we love to do, it's cook food. Our kitchen, despite how incredibly messy it can get pretty much every day, is always smelling of different spices and different creations. We cook for each other and with each other, sharing recipes from our childhoods, families, and home countries. Trips to Patel Brothers are absolutely necessary, at least every 2 weeks and there is no better day than when a family member stops by with home cooked food. My grandma's zeljanica (Bosnian spinach pie) makes most of my friends' days. When we're feeling a little sick, Norah's moroccan tea will get us back up on our feet, and Cat's veggie dumplings fill my stomach up with pure joy! We learn from each other and form strong community that highlights our backgrounds, our homes and the tastes/ cooking processes that have shaped us as people. 

Food is communal experience that can have so much love and care attached to it. There is no purity to food, the way there is no purity in culture. This is grand scale through globalization, and even happens in our day to day lives on our campus kitchens. We share with each other, cater to each other, and exchange with each other. If that isn't a religious experience, I don't know what is.