Closing the Pages of "Another World"

Over the past few months I have identified and grown closer to my Asian routes; it has been entertaining, educational, but above all something that I feel quite passionately about following the conversations I have had with my family. In analysing the literature of the cookbooks that Granny has left behind and researching the topics that arise from different food-stuffs, I feel it has brought me closer to knowing more about my Granny and made me more aware of issues which are imbedded in Asian culture.

The most important features of my blog are: the memories (however inaccurate) my Father has of Granny's cooking, the traditions and stereotypes that we inadvertently have about food and where they are sourced, and the different adaptions of  dishes depending on who you are, and where you are in the world. Unfortunately I have not been able to write individual posts on all the different dishes from around the world that my family cooks; by now you may imagine dining at the Beeley household is similar to being on an around-the-world-flight where each night is like stopping off and samply the cuisine of a major town or city, but I assure you that is not the case! My family has varied tastes and whilst my Mother is probably the best and cooking curries and making rice cakes, my eldest sister, Miranda, has perfected the English roast, and at the other end of the spectrum is me where my forte lies in baking and desserts! Possibly that's the reason why studying Eastern cuisine and vegetables has been so interesting to me.

I strongly recommend that those of you who are interested in the versatility of vegetables and the ethnic origins of dishes from the East purchase Madhur Jaffery's book Eastern Vegetarian Cooking (1983). It covers a wide range of basic cookery and even sample menus, from which you can create different combinations of multiple course dinners, and her recipes credit the countries that they derive from. I have grown a very stong attachment to this book, surprisingly not for the lists of recipes but the note on the inside of the front cover:

 

"To Dearest Vi, With Love, From Margaret." - 25/06/84

 

It is this note from my Great Auntie Margie that I envisage my Granny cooking from this book and I hear her speaking in the same tone as Jaffery, who concludes her introduction with the incentive that I started with:

 

"I hope this book will open up another world for you and that you will have as much fun with the recipes as I did." xii

 

...don't worry Madhur I did.

 



Why Eastern cuisine?

My initial response to this module task was “Yes! An excuse to eat anything and everything that I come across and write about it!” But having revised the course requirements and investigated different types of literature based on food I have thought it be wiser of me if I were less impulsive; so here’s my decisive plan for this blog:
   Over the next few weeks I will be dipping in and out of one of my Grandmother’s cookbooks examining the literature and format of some of them in contrast to my knowledge and research on contemporary literature of food, as well as talking to my family members about their memories of the foods Granny used to cook and attempting to recreate some traditional dishes, specifically the dishes that my family and I grew up with. My overall goal is to "travel" through a selection of varied recipes and memories, and examine the ways in which my family engage with dishes native to their ethnic routes.

Ethnic cuisine was immensly popular in the twentieth century but prior to this varied dishes were included on the menus of cafes and taverns. In contemporary society Asian food in particular has been on the rise with a multitude of sushi cafes popping up and online dining becoming more popular and readily available. We have a fascination and fear of the exotic that was initially described in Orientalism (1978) by Edward Said that I have found to be relevant to food, and it is with this fascination and fear that I have found myself wanting to venture outside of common meals and everyday fruit and veg and try something different.
I come from a mixed background (my mother is from the Philippines and my father is also mixed with roots going back to India as well as being part English and Irish) and I have been fortunate enough to taste a variety of different foods from around the world, yet up till now I feel I have neglected the knowledge of 'exotic' cooking and the secrets that lie amongst these discoloured pages.



Common curry spices

Filipino cuisine

Lebanese cuisine



Chicken Adobo (Classic Filipino dish)

Hence fourth I am on an Eastern excursion broadening my culinary skills and paying my dues with invested reading!