Food Tells Stories

Let's start the lesson by asking the following question: Who was not born in this country? Whose parents were not born in this country? Whose grandparents were not born in this country? Whose great grandparents were not born in this country? 

The idea of this question is to show that the Jewish people throughout history have come from all over the world. They bring different cultures, languages and food with them and their families to new places. 

Today we will talk about food and see how we can learn about our family roots and family history from the food we eat. In Hebrew the word for a tablecloth is “mappa shulhan” which means the ‘map on the table’. We will use the tablecloth to act as a map of the various places that our roots come from. We will use this table map to show the roots of our ancestors via the food that we put onto of this map on our table. 

In order to dive into the subject, we will play a guessing game in groups. We will divide the class into several groups that will compete with each other. The team that has the most correct guesses is the winner. 

• Which of the following foods is not prepared with corn? Polenta, popcorn, couscous, tortilla. 

• What is injera and where did it come from? A dish similar to a pita or a large, flat bread with countless small dents on its surface. Injera is usually made from teff flour, which comes from a gluten free ancient grain that originated in Ethiopia, and is common in Ethiopian, Somali and Eritrean cuisine. 

• Where did gefilta fish come from? Poland 

• Where was the spicy mayonnaise born? Israel 

• Where were cherry tomatoes born? Israel 

• What's in Hamin or Cholent? (You can literally map it on the board) Beans, meat, eggs, pasta, rice, almost anything can be found in Cholent, or Hamin  

• Which dish that is eaten on Shabbat almost always has a composition of meat, legumes and eggs and is cooked for long hours on low heat? Cholent or Hamin, in its various types.  

• How does it change from generation to generation? Quinoa instead of beans and chickpeas and macaroni or noodles instead of rice, vegetarian and vegan options  

• Why was it invented?  A solution to the prohibition of cooking on Shabbat and producing several meals from the same dish - the eggs are eaten for breakfast and the meat and side dishes for lunch   

• What is its name in other places? Sahina in Morocco, Tabith in Iraq, Chont or Cholent in Eastern Europe, Oshisbo in Bukhara and a host of other variations of many ethnicities and let's not forget vegetarian and vegan options as well 

The changes from tribe to tribe or group to group in a food like the cholent tells us a story about the place of food within a culture but also about what the story of the culture can be revealed through the food. 

• The food itself: What are the accepted raw materials, the climate of the place and the local produce, socio-economic situation, accepted tastes, what the culture wants to emulate. 
• Division of duties: Who is responsible for the preparation? Who helps? Who is buying the food items? Who is completely out of the kitchen? 
• The connection to other cultures: What happens to the food in the case of groups moving from place to place? It can be noted that the adaptation will always differ from the original because of what happens to a culture when it meets other cultures - those of us who love sushi for example and are used to sushi served in restaurants near our homes many be very surprised if they taste sushi in Japan. We can also mention the regional dishes created by McDonalds Restaurants, such as the Mc-Rib, Mc-Burrito, Mc-Kebab and Mc-Shawarma. McDonald's is an international company with dishes that repeat themselves all over the world, but it too has undergone a change to suit the local taste. 

Irving Naxon was an American inventor, who is most famous for inventing and patenting the slow cooker. He was also the first Jewish engineer who worked for Western Electric. He came up with over 200 patents, for everything from washing machines to sending data over telephone wires. But one of his most popular ideas was inspired by his mother's stories of making cholent in Lithuania. His daughter told her father’s stories of growing up in Lithuania where Irving’s mother would walk over to the village bakery, where, as the ovens were turned off for the Sabbath, the pot of cholent would be put in the oven.  The slow, residual heat of the cooling oven over the course of the afternoon and overnight and the following morning was enough to cook the cholent and keep it hot and ready to eat. After the Shabbat service on Saturday, his mother would go to the closed bakery to pick up their pot of Cholent for a warm Sabbath meal. Everyone in the community had their own pot that they would carry home to enjoy with their families. 

This story was Irving Naxon’s inspiration for his invention. The crock-pot or slow cooker was first called the Naxon Beanery, but that name didn’t stick. The idea of Cholent or Hamin began in the Middle East, and ended up with Irving’s mother in a little shtetl in Lithuania, and thanks to the crock pot, into millions of homes all around the world! 

Food as a storyteller 

As we can see from the story about Irving and his mother, food can be a great way to tell stories. Let's think about the Friday table at your house, what foods do you see? Are there special foods that characterize your ethnicity (or the variety of ethnicities in the family)? Who is responsible for preparing the food (do the children also take part in the preparation)? At what events do you eat as a family? Are there any special events that you particularly remember and are related to food? 

Is there a difference between your house and your grandparents' house when it comes to food? What do they eat that might be different from you? Who prepares the food at your place? 

It is useful to explain to the students that this discourse allows them to hear about the variety of ethnic foods they know, and we can also learn about the social processes of which we are a part (for example, the growing equality between the sexes for meal preparation and clean-up, the emphasis on a healthy, vegetarian and vegan diet, etc.) and that there is no single model. There are families who make sure to eat together every day, there are those who gather to eat together on special occasions, there are those who make sure to eat homemade food and keep traditions that are passed down from generation to generation, there are those who mainly like to eat out, and so on. Either way, for many families, food is a means used to tell a story about the family. Because food doesn't just relate to how we nourish ourselves so we don't go hungry, it teaches us about the family customs, about the traditions we come from and how we treat them (what we choose to adopt and pass on to the next generation and what we choose to let go and create something new of our own), about the values of our family - do we welcome guests for example? All these can allow us to discover some things about ourselves and our classmates.