On the Role of Food Habits in the Context of the Identity and Cultural Heritage of South and South East Asia

Xavier Romero-Frias

Paper presented at the Cultural Heritage and Identity International Symposium 2013,

Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

Abstract: Located south of China and extending from Pakistan to the Philippines, South and South East Asia is a vast region. The nations and ethnic groups of Southern and South Eastern Asia have a rich and varied cultural heritage. Food habits are an inseparable part of this heritage and certain ways concerning food and its preparation, as well as the ceremonies or rituals surrounding it, give whole nations and groups an identity that can be as important as dress or language.

Keywords: Gastronomy, identity, cultural heritage, South Asia, South East Asia

Introduction of food habits as identity markers in a culture:

The Islamization and radicalization of Muslim communities ruled by non-Muslim states is a much discussed subject, but far less is known about the Islamization and the erosion of traditional culture and identity among the Muslim communities of independent Islamic states.

Figure 1 - The South and South East Asian region While carrying out research on the While great importance has been placed on escalating role of religion in Muslim languages in the context of the identity and communities in South Asia, I interviewed an cultural heritage of the nations and ethnic uncompromising Sheikh who had a great groups of Southern and South Eastern Asia, number of followers in his own country, the the role food habits has been neglected in Maldives. He was a religious politician the academic sphere. The aim of this paper lamenting that the culture of his own is to present how important are traditions country was not purely Islamic. In his regarding food in a culture and to preaching he emphasized that his ancestral encourage systematic research on food culture had to be replaced with the habits as an integral part of the cultural unadulterated Islamic ways he had learned heritage. The following illustration will be in a country in Arabia where he had studied. helpful in order to highlight the significance He said he was unhappy with everything in his society: the national symbols, the folklore, the customs, the dress, the numerous river systems and the ample etiquette, even the language; he wished coastlines have historically kept an everything to vanish. astronomic number of communities, both urban and rural, supplied with fish and its After much argument about whether he derived products. would concede to spare anything from his autochthonous culture this man remained However, to a great extent food habits have adamant and would not budge from his not been properly researched in many initial position. Finally I enquired, whether communities of South and . there was nothing he missed from his The neglect by scholars has been quite motherland while he lived for a long time in consistent across the region and although Arabia. Then he reflected and his manner publications on food are numerous, works relaxed when he confessed: “The food, I with a scientific angle are lacking. Still, there miss the food of my country”. is a large amount of literature on the subject, such as books on local recipes or Food as tradition guides explaining the cuisine of a particular The tradition of eating regularly particular country, but few works have academic foods is in relation to the geographical value. Regarding scientific works where location, the quality of the surrounding food is mentioned, cultural anthropologists environment and the ancestral habits of the have often highlighted foods and eating community. Cradle of ancient civilizations, habits that were unusual, such as insect or the region of Southern and Southeastern larva consumption, overlooking research of Asia is located within the tropical belt of the mainstream food in the culture, the average planet and includes eighteen independent daily food of the common folk. states, not counting Afghanistan. There are numerous urban areas scattered across the whole region, which concentrates a great proportion of the population of the earth.

South and Southeast Asia encompasses a great number of diverse environments, from the rigorous, barren ranges of the Himalayas to the fertile, volcanic islands of Indonesia and the Philippines. Countries such as India, Bangladesh, , and Cambodia have ample river plains that have been able to feed dense populations for millennia and that are Figure 2 - Presentation of a ‘proper meal’ among the periodically subjected to floods. Both the Akha minority. Mae Yao, Northern Thailand. Food habits include not only ingredients Known with different names such as Po Sop and the dishes prepared with them, but in Thailand or as Sri Dewi in Java, the Rice also cooking, preparing and preserving Goddess represents a very ancient and techniques, presentation and array, enduring symbol which is more a part of the frequency and timing of the meals, the role local popular folklore than a deity of a of food in celebrations and festivals, as well structured, mainstream religion.2 as etiquette and manners while consuming 1 Periodically subjected to floods, the rice food, including who is eating first. fields form a complete ecosystem in which In South and Southeast Asia common other food products become available, elements regarding food habits prevail, but often on a seasonal basis. These include a sporadically there are divergences as well. variety of fish, crabs, snails, frogs, rats and The most important staple in the Southern birds. Habitually these animals are caught and Southeastern Asian region is rice. In by the farmers inhabiting the rice fields in most communities the rice culture order to complement the average rice diet. constitutes a clear identity marker. As a Other staples include wheat, used in vital source of calories it is related to a Northern India for the preparation of the dominant cultural symbol of feminine traditional , bananas in the island of nurture based on the mother and finds Flores and sago, obtained from the pith of representation in the Rice Goddess. the sago palm (Metroxylon sagu), in the east of Indonesia. Common tubers include tapioca and , the latter eaten as a customary daily staple in parts of the Philippines, as well as in some islands of the south of Maldives.

Tubers and corn are recurrently cultivated on the side in order to complement other staples, a practice that had its origins in the custom of diversifying cultivation to prepare for difficult times if the main harvest failed.

Coconut palms (Cocos nucifera) are very

Figure 3 - Mae Po Sop representation at a Buddhist important as sources of vegetable protein temple in Chiang Khong by the Thai/Lao border; note the wherever they grow. The grated coconut little fishes and the crab in the lower right corner. flesh and the obtained from it

1 Lenore Manderson (Editor), Shared Wealth and 2 Phya Anuman Rajadhon, Me Posop, The Rice Symbol: Food, Culture, and Society in Oceania and Mother, Journal of the Siam Society (JSS) Vol. 43.1f Southeast Asia (1955) are used in a wide array of dishes and although it is appreciated locally in some sweets. Besides its importance as food places of rural areas. source, products obtained from the coconut Definition of a “proper meal” as part of tree have many other traditional uses from cultural identity house building to medicine. Across ethnic groups there are different Derived products such as oil and milk, as interpretations of what a “proper meal” is. well as the sugar obtained from the sap, can A ceremonial presentation of the food is be easily processed and exported. Currently generally preferred rather than the eating the preserved milk both in liquid and of food in a hurried manner. Even in very powder form has become popular. poor households and with limited fare, people across the region favor a certain array of dishes and an arrangement that is pleasing to the eye.

The aesthetics of displaying food usually reaches maximum expression in the overflowing symbolism of the formal array of dishes of meals connected with religious festivities. It is noticeable as well in banquets prepared for festivities such as marriages, rites of passage, funerary ceremonies, as well as in the break of the Ramzan fast among Muslim people groups. Figure 4 - Sugar palm fruits near Siem Reap, Cambodia Concepts of cleanliness and neatness in Sugar palms (Borassus flabellifer) are also presenting food vary across the region and common in certain places such as range from ritual to actual states of purity. Cambodia, Northeast Thailand and the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. They grow close to the rice fields and are frequently a characteristic element of the landscape. These hardy palms have been important traditionally as a source of sugar obtained by heating the sap in order to concentrate it. Coarser than refined cane sugar, it is used mainly in local cuisine. Compared to the coconut, the fruit of the Figure 5 - Ceremonial presentation of a special meal on banana leaves in Kerala, India sugar palm has limited commercial value, There are certain taboos regarding food mostly in South Asia. The Pongal festival in which are transmitted in ways that involve Tamil Nadu, India, includes the cooking of one community and the other within the sweetened rice in earthen pots. same ethnic background. Since food is also With the passing of the centuries every often a part of religious rituals and community developed its own dishes, based offerings, myths about the origin and on the items that were locally available. significance of certain foods are present in Dishes changed as new ingredients were the prevalent religions of this vast and introduced in the region. In the past century diverse region. some ingredients such as tomatoes became very popular and replaced local souring agents like tamarind and limes in many Asian cuisines.

After dishes become established as part of a culture’s gastronomy, some dishes are said to be borrowed by one culture from another. The term ‘borrowing’, which implies giving back, is not technically correct, for the dish is effectively appropriated. In this manner a certain dish Figure 6 – Hainuwele, the ancestral female figure from may become famous through a particular Maluku who gave origin to the local regular vegetable community, eclipsing the ethnic group crops after her body was hacked to pieces. where it originated. Nam Ngiao, for One interesting myth about the divine example, is a Tai Yai dish having originated origin of key staples is found in the Patasiwa among this people group in Northeastern ethnic group of Seram Island, Eastern Myanmar and parts of Yunnan, but it has Maluku, Indonesia, where certain vegetable been popularized as a Northern Thai dish, crops and tubers are said to have originated owing to the greater success and ease of in the dismembered body parts of a access of Thailand as a tourist destination. mythical young woman after her death and burial.3 On the subject of daily food, variety was customarily found among the food of the The ritual cooking of food offerings is also a wealthy and the privileged. Average significant element of worship in the people, especially in rural areas, were communities of Hindu background, found generally content to eat the same food day after day as long as it was available. Food 3 Jensen, Adolf E. and Niggemeyer, H; Hainuwele; assortment often was imposed by scarcity Völkserzählungen von der Molukken-Insel Ceram; Ergebnisse der Frobenius-Expedition vol. I, Frankfurt- am-Main 1939 and formerly there were many areas customers to sit, occupying a larger portion chronically subject to famine conditions. of the pavement.

When one essential ingredient was missing, Although mostly illegal, and often harassed people looked for alternatives. One such and chased by the police, these street stalls example is Aep Bon (aeb bawn), a Lao dish selling food provide an essential service. prepared with taro leaves wrapped in They are favored by low-income urban banana leaf and grilled. Such dishes are workers and students, who would not be generally looked down upon because they able to afford the more expensive eating are considered Spartan fare. Since they places in the city. The prices of the food originated as substitutes of better food sold by street vendors are generally far during difficult times or as famine food, lower than the prices of the average they often constitute a frightful reminder of restaurants, for they have fewer expenses a hard period in the community.4 regarding rent and permits.

Except in Singapore, where casual street vendors are forbidden, the improvised stalls selling a variety of food are markedly part of the culture and identity of the urban area where they live and also give a particular cultural character and identity to their city that is very ‘Asian’.5

Hierarchy of food and brief analysis of colonial intervention

Figure 7 - A street food vendor worrying about the lack of The South and Southeast Asian region was customers on a rainy day. Chiang Rai, Thailand. impacted by colonialism early on. The In rural areas of South and Southeast Asia colonial times had both beneficial and the favored food is cooked generally at negative impact on the gastronomic cultural home. However, in urban areas many heritage of the different countries of the people find it convenient to eat in sidewalk region. On one hand new crops were stalls or buy the food from street vendors. introduced which greatly influenced local These urban food suppliers have usually a cuisines, but on the other hand a sense of cart, which is also equipped with a cooking hierarchy developed. facility if they sell cooked food. Some may Local foods were largely considered inferior have plastic benches and tables for the in the scale and European tastes influenced

4 Culloty, Dorothy. Food from Northern Laos. 5 Ray, Krishnendu. Disreputable Cuisines, the politics Galangal Press 2010 of street food in India. Himāl p 34 Vol 26 no 2, 2013 regional dishes and eating habits. Although Hinduism criticized the high consumption of in most cultures of the region meat was chilies among Indian people, considering it traditionally not eaten in large amounts, in an unrefined habit.6 the gastronomy of all of the colonizing Chilies became very successful in South and powers meat occupied a central place in the Southeast Asia and were adopted by many scale of food preference. (see map 1 in cultures after their introduction by the Appendix) Portuguese. They were probably preceded The first colonizers in the region were the by other local spices, but no extensive Portuguese who, after opening the direct research has been done on what was used sea route from Europe, settled in Goa, and in each culture to give spiciness to local in other harbors of the Indian coast, from dishes before the introduction of chilies. Kerala to Bengal. The influence of the The quick spread of the use of hot chilies in Portuguese had both negative and positive the cuisine of many nations of the region to sides. They introduced new crops from add spiciness to local dishes, and their America in Asia that would become part of important role in most local dishes across the food of many cultures, such as chilies, the ethnic and class spectrum deserves tapioca, taro, bananas, papaya, pineapple, more detailed research in the future. guava and cashew nuts as well as tobacco. Tomatoes would be introduced centuries later, but became successful, replacing tamarind in many dishes.

The dichotomy high food versus low food is common throughout the cultures of South and Southeast Asia. This division pattern became reinforced in the 18th and 19th centuries, when most of the region found itself under the administration of northern Figure 8 – Chili-based mixtures () for sale at a European powers. European food and its market in Bangkok. Spicy cooking is favored universally associated manners became the norm for across the whole South and SE Asian region. the elite and local food habits were pushed The world is divided into people who enjoy into the background. a hot, spicy meal and those who are unable to enjoy it. In the previous centuries almost With the passing of time, the influence of all territories of South and Southeast Asia colonial tastes in judging foods was felt were suddenly administered by rulers which even among the figures of Indian displayed their foreignness by a general nationalism, such as Swami Vivekananda. Reflecting English taste, this reformer of 6 Ray, Krishnendu. Op. cit. avoidance of local spicy preparations. Not strictly vegetarian, but the vegetarian only former European administrators, but lifestyle is deemed as a desirable option and also traditional Chinese communities in has influenced people outside of the Southeast Asia and Bengal have generally vegetarian crowd as well. displayed a preference for less spicy food. Vegetarianism, the norm among the Thus dishes are commonly less spicy in members of the Brahmin caste and the areas where European and Chinese followers of Jainism is an ideal to be influences have prevailed. emulated by many of the members of the In more recent times globalization and the wider Indian society. Thus eating Jain food introduction of different food habits have became popular in many places, a custom brought about the spreading of a taste for that spread even to Southeast Asia. blander food, especially in metropolitan Furthermore, traditional non-vegetarian areas, although spicy dishes have become dishes generally included fish or meat in increasingly popular among US, European small pieces, which were eaten along with a and Australian tourists. comparatively larger amount of the staple, such as boiled rice, even among Muslim Customary staples and cultural habits in communities. daily food

A particular staple food may be typical of a certain ethnic group, giving it separateness. For example, the Khmer minority in Northeast Thailand is known for the preference its members have for plain white rice in their meals instead of the sticky rice favored by the dominant ethnic group in .

According to Ayurveda food is medicine and eating correctly is the most important aspect of a person's life-style. By tradition some foods, such as drumstick leaves and Figure 9 - Drumstick (Moringa oleifera) tree with unripe pods. The leaves, flowers and roots of the tree are edible pods (Moringa oleifera) were considered as well and are prized for their medicinal properties medicinal. Dietary restrictions for infants, old people and during pregnancy are Since the region is characterized by its long widespread in the traditions of people coasts, peninsulas and abundant islands, groups of the vast region. Certain fish is a very important source of protein in communities in India consider animal-based most countries of South and Southeast Asia foods as unhealthy and defiling and are except for India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, as well as ethnic groups living in been killed, and the remainder was mountain areas. Fish and seafood were processed and preserved. Except during traditionally preserved in a variety of ways, festivals or important celebrations, big such as drying and fermentation. Fish is also chunks of fish, meat or poultry were not essential among populations living close to traditionally eaten whole, even among rivers and lakes in Laos, Bangladesh and Muslim communities; most of the flesh Cambodia. being processed when there was an abundance of it. Regarding the eating of fish, there is a remarkable difference between the many Generally when Asian food is eaten the countries where fish consumption is European way, however, the pieces and widespread and those where it is not (see amounts of meat are larger, while the map 2 in Appendix). In the Indian serving of rice is merely a little quantity on Subcontinent fish and fish products are the side. Thus the claims that Asian food is quite restricted to coastal populations, high in cholesterol are only valid when it is which inhabit a narrow strip of land along eaten in the way that tourists or non Asians the shores. in their countries eat it.

Milk products such as ghee (clarified butter), curd (yoghurt) and paneer (tender cheese) have been used most areas of India as part of the traditional cuisine, but were practically absent in Southeast Asia. Globalization and fast food franchises using cheese and butter have popularized these milk-derived products in modern urban areas and among groups which initially had an aversion for it.

It is still widespread among most rural communities to raise chicken in the household. By tradition, however, chicken Figure 10 – A woman of the Wa minority from NE Myanmar bringing a dish of cooked dog meat. The bias or egg dishes were habitually not part of against using dogs as food is prevalent among urban the daily food, but were reserved for special middle classes influenced by Western values. occasions. Avoidance of certain types of meat, such as pork among Muslims, is closely linked to There is low per capita calorie consumption religious tenets. However, dog meat is on a nation by nation basis throughout the taboo in many areas, even though there is region. Formerly many communities only no specific rule forbidding its consumption ate fresh meat right after an animal had in the particular community in question. The and 1979, the Khmer Rouge imposed the habit of eating dog is more widespread towards traditional habit of eating with the hand on the eastern end of the region, from Nagaland to the whole population of the country as part the Philippines. Also considered a forbidden of its ideology of deep hatred against urban food in the Islamic communities, the use of and westernized ways. dogs as livestock, rather than pets, is zealously opposed by the largest part of In recent times franchises like McDonald’s, westernized people inhabiting metropolitan KFC and Subway, for instance, have areas. popularized a form of eating with hands which is generally at odds with former Traditional foods included also a large autochthonous eating habits. Local refined variety of species of green leaves, especially ways of eating required breaking small bit- in Vietnamese, Lao and . In sized pieces with the fingers of the right recent years these have been replaced by hand; the chunk of starchy staple, meat or varieties of cabbage and lettuce in urban chicken was left on the plate and not spots such as Singapore, where vegetables brought directly to the mouth and torn with are available through modern supermarkets the teeth. instead of traditional market posts. Still, in places where they were grown, ancestral vegetables can be found at the edges of cultivated areas and in abandoned fields.

Food habits, etiquette and the impact of globalization

Historically eating with the right hand has been the most widespread way of consuming food throughout South and Southeast Asia. Chopsticks are used not Figure 11 - Eating a midday rice meal in the customary manner. Chalai, Trivandrum, South India only among scattered Chinese communities in the region, but also by patrons of Sweets in South and Southeast Asia were establishments serving Chinese food. usually eaten on their own or during festivals and celebrations. It was not Cutlery was formerly used by the customary to eat sweets as desserts after a Europeanized local elites, but has been meal. Traditional sweets based on rice, adopted recently by most South and coconut milk, taro and other items, were Southeastern Asians and has found a wide often wrapped in banana leaves. acceptance. Still South Indian traditional wedding meals, for example, are eaten A great number of new restaurants and using the hand. In Cambodia, between 1975 eateries in urban areas follow the trend of foreign franchises and tend to avoid certain The chewing of betel leaf with arecanut, as traditional ingredients. As a result of this well as the role of traditional drinks, such as process, bitter foods like the small bitter tea, among the different people groups of gourd variety (Momordica charantia) and the region are areas that deserve further the tender leaves and flower buds of the detailed study. Neem (Azadirachta indica), vegetables that References are difficult to eat not using one’s hands such as drumstick, as well as certain animal * Penny Van Esterik, Food Culture in Southeast products judged as not agreeable, foremost Asia, Greenwood Press (2008) of which blood, lungs and liver may be * Story M, Harris LJ. Food habits and dietary mentioned, are definitely becoming rarer. change of Southeast Asian refugee families living in the United States, J Am Diet Assoc. 1989 Jun; 89(6):800-3. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455

* Lenore Manderson (Editor), Shared Wealth and Symbol: Food, Culture, and Society in Oceania and Southeast Asia, (MSH: International Commission on the Anthropology of Food), Cambridge University Press (1986)

Figure 12 – Examples of foods that are becoming harder * Krishnendu Ray and Tulasi Srinivas (Eds.), to find: Left, bitter flowers of the Neem tree and on the right a sour curry of drumstick and fish roes. Curried Cultures: Globalization, Food, and South Asia, University of California Press (2012) In the post-development scenario, the abandonment of certain dietary practices, brought about by widespread urbanization and the introduction of new food habits through globalization, has not been properly documented. One of these is the habit of chewing betel leaf with arecanut, a widely spread cultural habit throughout the whole area. Chewing formerly accompanied meals, was part of ceremonies, and additionally had great symbolic and identity value in countries such as Vietnam.

Appendix: Maps

Figure 13- Meat consumption per capita in the world. There is higher consumption in the countries that were former colonial powers, as compared with the S and SE Asian area, where it would have been even less in centuries past. Source: FAO

Figure 14 - Consumption of fish in the South and SE Asian region. Note the extreme values, for there is no country falling within the 20 to 30% range, which would be the rate in China, for example. Source: FAO