New York City 2001 Smithsonian Folklife Festival by Annie Hauck-Lawson
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• CULINARY HISTORIANS OF NEW YORK• Volume 15, No. 2 Spring 2002 New York City 2001 Smithsonian Folklife Festival By Annie Hauck-Lawson OW does one convey the Hflavor of New York life through food at an outdoor festival that attracts more than 1 million visitors for two weeks in the summer heat of Washington, D.C.? This was my challenge as foodways curator of the New York City program at the 2001 Smithsonian Folklife Festival and the subject of my CHNY program in January. According to a Smithsonian official, the festival presents “diverse community-based tradi- tions in an understandable and Cooks from Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan (by way of Shanghai) share their respectful way, to connect the pub- dumpling-making styles and lore at the Folklife Festival. lic directly and compellingly with practitioners of cultural traditions through, a staging of “Live at the budget, equipment, and facility. …in a rich cultural dialogue on the Apollo,” daily stoopball and And what about supplies? We National Mall.’’ For the past 35 stickball games and much more. can shop for everything in New years, the festival has had specific My arena was foodways. My work York. Was the same true in the themes; last June and July, New started in earnest when I traveled nation’s capital? Old-fashioned York City was featured for the first to Washington for the 2000 seltzer bottles, still delivered time. Folklife Festival. There I studied throughout our city, were virtually Dr. Nancy Groce, a folklorist presentations, observing tradition- impossible to find in D.C. and the overall curator for the bearers talking and cooking, while But in all, we presented 80 New York City program, in turn interpreters fielded questions from themes about New York. One that hired curators for subjects such as the spectators. seemed natural was dough: amid all Wall Street, Broadway, transporta- At the onset of planning the the cultural diversity in New York tion, music, fashion, and foodways. New York City food program, many City, flour and liquid mixed in Smack dab between the Capitol issues arose: the representation of myriad ways formed a cohesive and the Washington Monument our dynamic and diverse city, lan- thematic glue. Another was “A sat a No. 7 subway car, an air- guage, the stage, how to organize Slice of Contemporary New York conditioned city bus, a Rosenwach the program visually, our ability to Life Through Food.” water tower for visitors to walk convey New York’s food history, Continued on page 2 Folklife Festival, from page 1 about learning this recipe from her CHNY Steering Committee father and traveling to many 2001-2002 Fieldwork ensued, and food neighborhoods throughout the Chair: Phyllis Isaacson makers were contacted. Off to Co- city. While she talked, she Vice-Chair: Stephen Schmidt ney Island for bialys and bagels; to creatively adjusted her stew of Secretary: Diane Klages Staten Island for hot dog rolls and chicken, cabbage, peanut butter Treasurer: Lee Coleman sliced white bread as it has been and vegetables to accommodate Members-at-Large: made since the 1930s from a 125- available ingredients. Wendy Clapp-Shapiro, year-old family bakery; to The program also included Membership Brooklyn’s Crown Heights for performance artists and conversa- Helen Studley, Programs hand-rolled matzoh and roti. tions about New York food life by John W. R. Jenkins, Publicity All around Manhattan: to Mid- food writers and food educators. town for handmade filo dough; to Presentations that tapped into CHNY Information Hotline: Harlem for painted cookies and New York food history were (212) 501-3738 spoonbread; to Chinatown for reflected in the riveting stories that Shanghai stretch noodles and soup accompanied food preparation— CHNY Newsletter dumplings; and to the Lower East sliced salmon and tales of a store owner’s daughters elbow-deep in Co-Editors: Side for street pizza from the hands of a man who kept his finger on the herring barrels, the necessity of Helen Brody changing pulse of his community New York water for pickle and Kathleen McElroy from the window of his pizzeria. bagel-making, the standards and Copy Editor: Karen Berman Presenters from other segments nuances of the egg cream. Onlook- of the New York program contrib- ers were entranced by Manhattan Please send/e-mail member uted to the rich mix of the program. Shanghai chefs twirling long life news, book reviews, events In “Neighborhood and Family noodles. The same chefs revealed calendars to: Food Traditions,” a history, life and the secret of soup dumplings in Helen Brody food presentation, Bukharan court hands-on workshops. Bialys, PO Box 923 musicians from Queens made plov, a known and loved in New York but 19 Trillium Lane rice and lamb dish, in a pot carried a relative mystery beyond the city, Grantham, NH 03753 from their homeland decades ago. were the fascination of the festival, [email protected] A Manhattan bus driver cooked his helped by front-page color cover- (603)863-5299 mother’s Monk’s Rice (freshly age in the Washington Post. (603)863-8943 Fax cooked rice into which cheese and For me, the 2001 Smithsonian other ingredients are added), and Folklife Festival was long in prepa- Papers demonstrating serious emphasized that the recipe does not ration and over in a flash. In more culinary history research will exist in a cookbook. In “Piero- than 80 presentations over two weeks, it really was the New York be considered for inclusion in giology 101: Pierogi in Compar- ative Perspective’’ five females from food voices, the cooking along with issues of the CHNY newslet- two different families, including a the stories, that spoke so richly of ters. Please contact Kathleen neon-sign maker and an 8-year-old identity and dynamism in our fair McElroy, newsletter co-editor, girl, compared their recipes and town. at (718) 459-0582 or lore of the little Polish dumpling as [email protected]. made and eaten in Brooklyn and Annie Hauck-Lawson is an associate Matriculating students of culi- Queens. professor in the Department of Health nary history or related topics A Brooklyn musician cooked and Nutrition Sciences at Brooklyn are invited to contribute. the red snapper and rice dish that College. She lives in the Windsor he learned from his mother in Terrace section of Brooklyn and origi- Haiti. A folklorist of Guinean- nated the concept of “food voice” to Hungarian background prepared describe how food is used as a channel West African kansiye as she told of communication. 2 PROGRAM SUMMARIES TALKING TURKEY: attention to the domesticated tur- FOOD HISTORY COMES OF A HISTORY OF THE key. Today’s turkey was the result AGE: PITFALLS, PRATFALLS, TURKEY IN AMERICA of government-conducted breeding AND REVELATIONS Andrew Smith experiments that began in the William Woys Weaver 1880s. These experiments created N November, the economical turkey that we ILL Weaver aimed to Andy Smith, a I know and love. The price fell and shake up the field of food fellow culinary historian W turkey became the ideal center- history in his talk on February 19 who is completing a piece of a meal for a large family and called on his fellow culinary book about the native gathering. historians to do the same. His feel- American turkey, shared Before and after the meeting ing is that culinary history has his insights on that sub- members enjoyed wine with some inherited a lot of material from the ject in a rapid-fire, turkey dishes prepared by our host past and much of it erroneous, free-wheeling evening, for the evening, Linda Pelaccio, based on false assumptions. We fielding questions and comments from recipes dating back to 1871. must look at the subject creatively, from the audience throughout his The recipes took advantage of left- and follow all paths in our talk. overs, a practice much valued in research, not just the traditional He posed the question, “Why the days when the turkey was so ones, he said, urging his audience is there no record that the Puritans much more expensive than it is to use works of art, advertising, were amazed at their first encoun- today. —JOHN JENKINS archeology, architecture, history, ter with this large American bird?” etymology—whatever it takes to His answer was that the turkey got locate the true history and origins to Europe before the Puritans got THE TASTE OF CHOCOLATE of the subject and never take any- to America and that it was far from Maricel Presilla thing at face value. Even ancient an unknown quantity. And contrary Arab cookbooks, long assumed to to other foods from the New N December 18 we were be authentically Arab, were actu- World like tomatoes and potatoes, feted with a chocolate tasting O ally assembled from a variety of the turkey was immediately wel- and an explanation of the differ- other sources, such as Egyptian, comed. It was not so very different ences of cacao beans and how they Greek, and Armenian, and often from other fowl that Europeans are analogous to the differences in written by Christians. knew, and besides, it tasted so coffee beans. Maricel, whose book, Taking the Russian samovar as much better. The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cul- his starting point, he traced the Andy went on to explain the tural and Natural History of Cacao “traditional” methods of finding its confusing etymology of the word with Recipes, was published last origins. Considered a Russian cre- “turkey,” and noted that some year, emphasized the importance of ation, the samovar had been shown Native Americans thought turkeys careful handling and drying of the by other researchers to have be- were cowardly and wouldn’t eat the beans.