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Arte Culinario y Antropologia
Arte Culinario y Antropologia
First published in 2008 by Berg Editorial ofces: 1st Floor, Angel Court, 81 St Clements Street, Oxford, OX4 1AW, UK 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA Joy Adapon 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of Berg. Berg is the imprint of Oxford International Publishers Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Adapon, Joy. Culinary art and anthropology / Joy Adapon. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-84788-213-4 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-84788-212-7 (paper) 1. Cookery, Mexican. 2. CookeryMexicoMilpa Alta. 3. CookerySocial aspectsMexicoMilpa Alta. 4. Food habitsMexicoMilpa Alta. I. Title. TX716.M4A35 2008 394.1'20972dc22 2008017019 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-84788-213-4 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-84788-212-7 (paper) Typeset by Apex CoVantage, Madison, WI, USA Printed in the United Kingdom by Biddles Ltd, Kings Lynn
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Contents
Illustrations Preface Introduction Milpa Alta, DF Organization of the book 1 Perceptions of Mexican Cuisine The Cultural Signicance of Chiles The Range of Mexican Foods Home Cooking by Profession Cooking Tradition On Learning Techniques Food and Love Recipes Chiles Stuffed with Simple picadillo with Potato, How to Peel chiles poblanos, How to Achieve a Perfect capeado 2 Cooking as an Artistic Practice Food and Culinary Art in Anthropology Gells Theory of Art A Meal as an Object of Art On Edibility, Hospitality and Exchange Flavour and Value Conclusion: The Meaningfulness of Food Barbacoa in Milpa Alta Eating barbacoa Barbacoa Makers in Milpa Alta The Process of Preparing barbacoa in Barrio San Mateo, Milpa Alta Conclusion Recipes 29 29 32 36 39 43 47 49 49 50 54 66 68 vii ix 1 4 5 7 7 8 11 12 15 18 22
vi Contents
Commercial Green Salsa for barbacoa, Salsa pasillala buena for Eating barbacoa on Special Occasions at Home, Commercial Red Salsa for barbacoa, Barbacoa 4 Women as Culinary Agents The Value of Cooking and Other Work Marriage and Cooking Work, Motherhood and Virtue Suffering, Love Affairs and the Morality of the Meal Culinary Agency Recipes Huevos a la mexicana, Taco placero, Batter for Coating Fish, Carnitas Mole and Fiestas Compadrazgo and the mayodoma Hospitality and Food Mole and mole poblano Mole and Celebration The Development of a Tradition Fiesta Food The Presence or Absence of Mole in Fiestas Recipes Tamales de nopales for the Barrio Fiesta, Buuelos de lujo, Ensalada de betabel sangre de Cristo, Pescado a la vizcana al estilo de la abuela, Torrejas The Centrality of Gastronomy in Social Life The Function of Flavour The Importance of Cooking in Social Life Fiesta Food in the Culinary Art Corpus Food and Love, Chiles and albur Daily Meals, Home Cooking and Street Food Appetite, Morality and Taste Recipes: Variations on a Theme 71 71 75 76 78 82 85
113 113 115 118 120 122 124 127 137 149 159
Illustrations
Tables 2.1 Terminology Employed by Gell, and Corresponding Food Terms 2.2 The Art Nexus as Food Nexus 5.1 Feast Food in Milpa Alta, Arranged According to Type of Celebration Figures 5.1 Linear Progression from Green Chile to Complex Guacamole 5.2 An Example of Some Interrelations among Recipes, Shown as Families 103 104
34 35 100
vii
Preface
I love to eat. So I had to learn to cook. During a period of culinary experimentation when I was into peppers of all colours and types, I visited Alfred Gell in his ofce and told him, Im thinking of maybe doing a PhD, if I can focus it on peppers. Of course you can, he said. Go to Mexico. Despite my hesitation, he repeated that if I was interested in chile peppers, then Mexico was the place to go to. So I went off to read up on Mexico and Mexican food before deciding for myself. This book is dedicated to the memory of Alfred Gell. I was fortunate to be one of his last students before his untimely death in 1997. I wish I could thank him personally for all his understanding and encouragement, especially for taking me seriously whenever I came up with odd ideas. His advice to enjoy eldwork and take note of any interesting trivia kept me going and looking forward. Without him I would never have begun this investigation, nor would I have even thought of going to Mexico. He was my inspiration, guide, supervisor and, most of all, friend. In Alfreds absence, I am grateful for the continued friendship and support of Simeran Gell. Even just thinking of her is always encouraging and reminds me time and again to live in the present. She shares her and Alfreds love for life with all those who are fortunate to know her. Back in London, several more people helped me to bring this project to completion with incomparable patience, kindness and academic rigour. Maurice Bloch was always inspiring and warm, particularly important to me before my eldwork. I am grateful to Peter Loizos, who taught me that there are tram-line people and zigzag people, that they all eventually arrive at their destination and that the different routes are equally valid. Fenella Cannell was especially helpful in grounding me during the period immediately following Alfred Gells death. Charles Stafford was consistently most reliable, thoughtful, thorough and frank. Peter Gow always provided timely encouragement and helped me to learn how to see. Their sensitive comments and insight were invaluable as I waded through the process of writing my dissertation on which this book is based. Looking back, Sally Engle Merry rst introduced me to anthropology and instilled in me an immediate devotion to the subject during my undergraduate years. Through her patience and understanding I discovered a new eld of study as well as a different direction for my academic life. She gave me my rst opportunity for eldwork and supported my initial shaky steps into anthropology.
ix
x Preface
In Mexico I owe a great debt to many whose generosity and presence made my stay both pleasant and stimulating. I was in Mexico City for 24 months from 1995 to 1998 and within a few weeks of my arrival, I met Chef Ricardo Muoz Zurita. I was eager to learn all I could about Mexican cooking and to taste everything; he was eager to share with someone his favourite eateries and his love for the cuisines of Mexico. Even before my tiny at in Coyoacn became ooded and unliveable, we had become inseparable friends. Now I guess you have to move in with me, he said. Ricardo was my Muchona the Hornet of Mexican food. Other friends of his who were also chefs repeatedly told me that with my interest in traditional Mexican food, I didnt know how lucky I was to have met him. He is now internationally acknowledged as an authority on Mexican cookery and has published ve books of renown. He welcomed me into both his professional and personal lives and was a constant friend even during the most awkward of times and strove to accommodate my every possible need. The people with whom I lived in Milpa Alta, especially Yadira Arenas and Luis Enrique Npoles, Ma. Primitiva Bermejo, Doa Margarita Salazar, Alejandro Enriquez and Guille Arenas, took a strange foreigner into their homes and shared much more than their lives, homes and food with me. I wish for the time when they can come stay with me, in Manila, Berlin or wherever I may be. Conmigo siempre tienen su casa. Ivn Gomezcsar shared with me thoughtful insight about Milpa Alta as well as several texts, which I would have not found on my own. Andrs Medina welcomed me to the Institute of Anthropological Research (IIA) in the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico (UNAM) with a sense of humour. He was the rst person to really understand what I was getting at when I arrived in Mexico for the rst time. With his warmth, constant moral support and generous interest in me and my work, he helped me to eventually nd my way during eldwork. It was he who introduced me to Luz del Valle, who offered me valuable friendship and a link into Milpa Alta. Leticia Mndez was the second person I met in the UNAM who understood me both academically and emotionally. Her premature death in 1996 was one of the great shocks that I encountered in Mexico, and I have missed her ever since. Janet Long-Sols generously shared her books and her contacts with me. She introduced me to Jos Luis Curiel in the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana. He in turn allowed me to sit in some classes of the gastronomy program and get to know the students and faculty. It was through him that I met other scholars of Mexican cuisine who inuenced my understanding of Mexican gastronomy, including Jos Luis Jurez and Ricardo Muoz. Other friends in MexicoPatricia Salero and her family, Ileana Bonilla, Ricardo Bonilla, Gabriel Gutierrez, Fabiola Alcntara, Antonio Rivera, Abdiel Cervntes, Juan Carlos Lpez, Juan Manuel Horta and the rest of the staff of the Executive Dining Room in the UNAMopened their hearts and homes to me. Their friendship and thoughtful conversations constantly provided me with security and fruitful ideas.
Preface xi
My occasional meetings with Chef Rick Bayless were always inspiring. His openness and offers to help encouraged me in the academic path that he himself chose not to take. Michael Schutz provided valuable technical support at short notice. Anonymous readers of an earlier draft of my manuscript gave me something to chew on, providing much constructive criticism and tipping me onto certain crucial references that have helped me improve this book immensely. I would also like to thank Tom Jaine at Prospect Books for his always quick and witty responses to queries, and for permission to reuse my material published previously in Petits Propos Culinaires 67, and the Proceedings of the Oxford Food Symposium 2001. Thank you also to Simon Lord at Oxford University Press for granting unhesitating permission to use and modify Gells table of the Art Nexus. And of course many thanks to Hannah Shakespeare at Berg, who showed humanity and equanimity at every blip along the way. Good friends and peers, especially Yuehping Yen and Anja Timm, commented on drafts of this manuscript at various stages and were immeasurably helpful and intellectually stimulating, critical when necessary, as well as willing eaters of all my culinary experiments. Yuehping was the rst and staunchest supporter of my using Alfreds theory of art in my analysis. Anjas editorial eagle eye never failed to impress and amuse me. Thank you! Uta Raina read through a chapter at a critical time and, like Liese Hoffmann, helped me to reach bibliographic sources that I had difculty accessing. Marilya and Scott Reese supplied me with timely stocks of Mexican ingredients and new cookbooks, keeping up my interest in Mexican food when I was distracted by other things. Most importantly, David Sutton was endlessly patient, enthusiastic and supportive. Without his belief in my work this book would not have been published. My family, especially my parents and sister, have supported me in all possible ways, even when they did not understand what I was doing. My survival and sanity depended on their constant presence and love. Saskia lled my days with such happiness that working at night seemed a fair enough exchange. And nally, much love and gratitude to Kai Kresse, for all the reasons mentioned above and more, and for his astounding commitment to my work and to me.
Introduction
As a once aspiring chef, I had always believed that anthropological studies of food were overly concerned with staple crops, ignoring the fact that food had avour and was enjoyed and relished by those who ate and prepared it. When I began this research, I was struck by the fact that many ethnographies of food failed to take into account that cooking was a creative, even artistic process, that spices were as important as staples, and that individual dishes could be as meaningful as symbolic ingredients. One dish that was personally meaningful for me during my time in Mexico was chilaquiles. Chilaquiles is typical Mexican breakfast food. It is made of fried pieces of day-old tortillas bathed in a chile-tomato sauce and garnished with mildly soured cream, white cheese and onions. Before going to Mexico, I had never tasted or cooked anything like it. My interest in and knowledge of cooking came mostly from my own research, reading, tasting, exploring, experimenting. So for me, experiencing chilaquiles, not just preparing or eating it, was a key ethnographic moment. (Some readers may be aware of Meredith Abarcas (2006) recent book on Mexican and Mexican American women and cooking, where she begins metaphorically with her mothers chilaquiles.1 I will discuss Abarcas work elsewhere, but I am still compelled to begin with chilaquiles, for I have my own story to tell . . .) One morning I arrived early at the kitchen of my friend, Chef Ricardo Muoz. In a pot Ricardo had boiled green tomatoes (tomates verdes, tomatillos), a bit of onion and garlic, serrano chiles and epazote. He poured this into a blender with some of the cooking liquid, liqueed the mixture thoroughly and strained it into hot oil. The salsa sizzled for some moments, and then he lowered the heat for it to simmer with some salt. The day before he had cut up leftover tortillas into eight wedges each and left them to dry overnight. That morning he deep-fried them till crisp to make totopos and set them aside for the excess oil to drain. When the salsa was ready, he tossed in the totopos, quickly coating them evenly and warming them up. I like to keep them crispy, he said. He arranged a mound of chilaquiles onto each plate, topping them with thin slices of white onion, crumbled white cheese (queso fresco or de canasto) and a dollop of thick cream (crema de rancho, like crme frache). He told me that he sometimes liked to put a bit of fresh coriander on top but that it was not really necessary. With or without, it was delicious, and it also looked beautiful. This is a typical Mexican breakfast, he told me.
Introduction 3
point of readiness when something was cooked until its done or to discern how much water or broth to put into the rice pot until it was enough. I had come to Mexico interested primarily in chiles but found that there was so much more to consider. Chiles could not be examined without the context of the whole cuisine. Even before my rst visit to Mexico, reading cookbooks convinced me that Mexican cooking could be thought of as a form of art, and that this art was to be found in everyday home cooking rather than in restaurants. The imagination at work in the use of local ingredients means that eating is not the domain of the rich in Mexico. Culinary tradition here is really peasant food raised to the level of high and sophisticated art (Cowal, 1990, pp. 12). From what I read, Mexican cuisine was also considered a particularly ne art in relation to other cuisines.3 Food-as-art easily rolls off the tongue, but what might it mean to take this idea seriously analytically? This study focuses on cooking as a deeply meaningful social activity, on food as a form of art. If we think of cookery as art, we recognize the creative skill needed to produce good food. The people we study care about the avour of the food that they eat, so I specically use the word avour, rather than taste, more often throughout this book. Flavour has more sensual than sociological connotations, which I prefer to emphasize (see Howes, 2003; Korsmeyer, 2005; Stoller, 1997). Though my analysis is based on ethnographic practice, this is not intended as ethnography of Mexican foodways, in the rst instance. Rather, my aim is to explore how we can use a theory of art to analyze food anthropologically. My concern with Mexico is secondary to this consideration of a cuisine as an art form. Alfred Gells theory of the art nexus is the theoretical basis of this book. Using Gells notion of art as a technical practice highlights the social as well as gastronomic virtuosity that is embodied in skilful cooking. Approaching cooking as artistic activity is most salient when what is under scrutiny can be dened as an elaborate cuisine, or, in Jack Goodys terms, a differentiated or high cuisine (1982, pp. 979). In fact, Goody counts Mexican cuisine among other haute cuisines such as those found in China, France, Italy, Turkey and India (Goody, 2006, pp. 510, 514). As he denes it, a high cuisine depends on a variety of dishes which are largely the inventions of specialists. But by no means entirely. For the higher cuisine also incorporates and transforms what, from the national standpoint, is the regional food of peasants and the cooking of exotic foreigners (1982, pp. 1045). What can be inferred from this is that any good cook is a specialist. Such a situation is what has existed in Mexico since before the Spanish arrived (see Coe, 1994; Corcuera, 1981; Cowal, 1990; Sahagn, 19501982). Since then, throughout Mexicos history, there has been continuous adjustment, development and innovation of culinary techniques; new foodstuffs have been introduced and incorporated, enriching the cuisine through the sharing of culinary and cultural knowledge.4 Food in Mexico is a richly satisfying topic, for thinking as well as for cooking and eating. My discussion of the art of Mexican cooking is based on the gastronomic
Milpa Alta, DF
Milpa Alta is the smallest municipality of Mexico City (Federal District), in the southeastern edge, adjacent to Xochimilco.5 Yet Milpaltenses talked of Mexico City as a separate entity, and they were self-consciously attached to their land and traditions. Milpa Alta is a semi-rural, mountainous area spoken of as the province of Mexico City. The name literally translates as Highland Corneld in that it is a region of high elevation, formerly dedicated to maize and maguey (agave/century plant) production.6 The word milpa refers to a maize plantation, whose borders were traditionally delineated with a border of magueys. The maize was planted in rows and intercropped with beans, chiles, squash and sometimes tomatoes. Plantations were organized like this since before the Spanish came to Mexico, and Milpa Alta began to produce less maize only since the latter half of the twentieth century. The population was fairly young; 79.8 per cent under 40, and those in the most active productive ages made up 61.9 per cent of the population (Departamento de Distrito Federal (DDF), 1997, pp. 1564). According to the gures for 1990, among the 45,233 who were over the age of 12, 43.4 per cent were economically active. Among them, three-quarters were men and a quarter were women (p. 77). Three-quarters of the economically inactive were women, more than half of whom were classied as housewives (dedicated to housework; p. 83). As I later explain, a large proportion of these people may actually contribute their labour to the family business, although they did not ofcially represent themselves as wage earners, consciously choosing to dene themselves as dedicated to their homes and families rather than as businesswomen (comerciantes).7 Around half the inhabitants of Milpa Alta lived in Villa Milpa Alta, the municipal capital. Villa Milpa Alta has seven barrios called San Mateo (the site of this research), La Concepcin, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, San Agustn, Santa Martha and La Luz. Barrio San Mateo is one of the largest barrios, with around 1,000 families residing there. Following the census of 1990, each household contained an average of 5.2 occupants (as opposed to 4.6 for the whole Federal District; DDF, 1997, p. 83), making the population of Barrio San Mateo an estimated 5,0006,000.8 Milpa Altas barrios are each dedicated to a particular trade. In Barrio San Mateo, most people prepare barbacoa de borrego, pit-roast lamb, for a living. Barbacoa is usually eaten on special occasions since it is a dish made in large amounts because
Introduction 5
whole sheep or goats are cooked overnight in an earth oven. There are restaurants in Mexico City which serve only barbacoa, but it is more commonly prepared like a cottage industry by families called barbacoieros. Unofcially, barbacoieros earned an estimated Mx$3,000 per week (equivalent then, in the mid-1990s, to around 214 per week). Several families earned more, because the barbacoa business can be very lucrative, but since all transactions were in cash, they needed not declare all their earnings. This meant that though they enjoyed considerable economic comfort, at least on paper they were consistently portrayed as among the poorest of Mexico City.
1
Perceptions of Mexican Cuisine
Mexican cuisine is something like a historical novel which has a gorgeously wanton redhead on its dust jacket. Richard Condon, The Mexican Stove (1973, p. 13)
This chapter introduces the cuisines of Mexico in general, largely drawing from what I learned from reading food history and cookbooks and from my early eldwork in the centre of Mexico City among chefs, students and researchers of Mexican gastronomy. This served as thorough preparation for the culinary life that I encountered later in Milpa Alta, on which most of this book is focused. Food writing colours our perceptions of other cuisines, and in my case, I became enamoured of Mexican cooking from what I had read prior to my rst visit. In what follows I describe some of the ways that people think of and write about the cuisines of Mexico, starting with the all-important chile.
Some writings on Mexican cooking state that the ancient Mesoamerican victuals were based on a holy triad of corn, beans and squash. The image of a basic culinary triad is tempting, except that with the exclusion of the chile, it fails to adequately describe Mexican cuisine. Food historian Sophie Coe (1994, pp. 389) asserts that [t]his triad was invented by foreigners and imposed on the high cultures of the New World, and the proof of this is to be found in the omission of chile peppers, which the outsiders viewed as a mere condiment, while the original inhabitants considered them a dietary cornerstone, without which food was a penance. The possible reason that squash was included is because of the traditional style of planting milpas, cornelds, with beans and squash. Clearly these three crops are basic foodstuffs in the Mexican diet, but any Mexican interested in eating would place the chile above the squash in a list of priorities for the dining table. The power of the chile in this Mexican culinary triangle is wonderfully described by Zarela Martnez, a New York restaurateur, who enthuses that
Chile is history. It has outlasted religions and governments in Mexico. It is part of the landscape, literally ... It belongs to the holy trinity that has always been the basis of our diet: corn, beans, and chile. Without each other, none of the three would be what it is. Corn is an incomplete protein, beans are difcult to digest. Together they would be good basic sustenance, but hopelessly monotonous. Chile makes the gastric juices run for a dinner of beans and tortillas. It also provides the vitamins they lack, especially vitamins A and C. The combination of the three makes a nutritionally balanced meal. Its magic. (1992, p. 218, emphasis added)
Mexican cuisine uses many kinds of chiles in diverse ways, too numerous to list here,1 but even a brief perusal of Mexican cookbooks indicates that chiles are signicant in Mexican life, and not just in their use as avouring for food.2 Diana Kennedy echoes Bartolom de las Casas, who wrote in the sixteenth century that without chiles Mexicans did not believe they were eating. Indeed the chile has played such an important role in the economic and social life of the country that many Mexicans feel their national identity would be in danger of extinction without it (Kennedy, 1989, p. 460).
By the nineteenth century, Mexican cooks sought the essence of their art in popular traditions rather than in formalized techniques (Pilcher, 1998). These popular traditions partly consist in the culinary techniques and gastronomic knowledge that have been passed down the generations through the family kitchen. Historian Cristina Barros states that contemporary Mexican cuisine is 90 per cent indigenous and 10 per cent other inuences. The most delicious cuisines [in Mexico] are those with more indigenous inuence.9 She asserts that the indigenous cuisines of Mexico did not undergo the miscegenation that most people claim. There were few Spanish who arrived during the Conquest, and though they did inuence the local cuisines, which integrated the new avours and foodstuffs, the bases remained Mexican. On the other hand, Jurez Lpez (2000) argues that the bases of much contemporary
Cooking Tradition
Ricardo is one among many other researchers whose passion for traditional Mexican food inspired an investigation that to some extent is like salvage ethnography.11 To me it seems he is like a contemporary Sahagn, in his data collection and awe of the foods of Mexico. Recording food customs and recipes (lest they fall into disuse) is an active part of cultural revival given that the books where they are recorded inuence readers activities, discovery or rediscovery of these things. But even without books, sometimes home cooking is reproduced in restaurants, then in turn is re-reproduced in peoples homes, ultimately expanding, redening or rening the cuisine. An example is a traditional soup from central Mexico known as squash blossom or milpa plantation soup, sopa de or de calabaza or sopa de milpa. The soup
On Learning Techniques
Before my rst visit to Mexico, I bought or read a number of Mexican cookbooks, hoping to try out some recipes. It was intimidating, to say the least. Some cookbooks suggest sample menus or traditional accompaniments, which are helpful, but this does not compare with having the experience of cooking and eating in Mexico with Mexican people to give you a feeling for the cuisine. Often recipes looked deceptively simple, but in fact they were full of parenthetical references to other recipes or basic techniques. Here is an example from the cookbook of a well-known restaurant in Texas that has been known for serving authentic Mexican food of the interior, Fonda San Miguel. Inspired by a recipe from Diana Kennedy, these are the three ingredients of their recipe for Pescado Tikin Xik: 6 6- to 7-ounce red snapper llets, skinned Achiote Rub (see recipe for Cochinita Pibil) Cebollas Rojas en Escabeche (see separate recipe) (Gilliland and Ravago, 2005, p. 134) In addition, they recommend serving the sh with arroz blanco (white rice) and frijoles negros (black beans), or with chipotle mayonnaise, recipes for which are found on other pages of the book. The rice and beans would be the most common accompaniments for this sh in the Yucatn where the recipe originates, so it is good advice to follow. (Thank goodness we can ask the shmonger to llet and skin the sh for us!)
Some professional chefs ascribed the source of their success to things other than love. They talked of having a passion for food, in general, but they were also likely to relate their cooking skills to art or to their being professional. Ricardo says that he cooks with love, and also with passion. Chef Abdiel Cervantes says he is a lover of Mexican cuisine (Soy un amante de la cocina mexicana), and his success is because of his genuine fondness (cario) for Mexican cuisine. Chefs like Ricardo and Abdiel, who were singled out as specialists in Mexican cuisine, each had profound childhood memories or training that inuenced their cooking. They grew up cooking Mexican food, helping their mothers, who sold local food commercially or who often prepared food for large parties. In fact, Abdiel was a self-taught chef who became successful in Mexico City without any formal culinary training. Ricardo tried to explain to me his idea of love when cooking Mexican food: You dont cook just for the hell of it; theres something to transmit through the food. It is something very very personal, so hard to explain that the only way to express your feelings is through action. He continued, Every single thing you do in the pot, you do because it has a reason. When a salsa comes out very hot (muy picosa), the explanation often given is that the cook was angry or that she lacked love. When the salsa is watery, the cook was feeling lethargic, lazy or dispirited ( ojera, sin nimo, sin amor). As Ricardo always emphasized, the emotional state of mind of the cook is always revealed in the outcome of the cooking. Cooking with love was Ricardos favourite topic of discussion. La comida es una verdadera manifestacin del amor, he said (Food is a true manifestation of love). He explained that when you truly love someone, not necessarily in a romantic sense, with pleasure you might say, Te voy a cocinar un mole para tu cumpleaos (I will make you a mole for your birthday). It is a way to assure your friend that you will provide the best for him or her. Saying, Te voy a cocinarte algo (I will cook something for you) means Te quiero mucho (I love you very much), but not necessarily in a sexual sense. Ricardo emphasized the Mexican saying that the way to a mans heart is through his stomach, un hombre se enamora por el estmago, or un hombre se conquista por el estmago. A cook invests many hours in preparing food for others, he added (his emphasis). It is a way of expressing how much you
Another student of Mexican gastronomy explained to me that Mexican cuisine could never truly be accurately or well transferred to a professional restaurant kitchen. Mexican cuisine requires an emotional investment from the cook, and casual observation reveals that careless cooks produce careless results. Mexican cuisine is very personal, very human. [When cooking] you are always thinking of your family or of the person for whom youre cooking. When you remove the personal aspect from Mexican cuisine its avour changes; it cannot be commercialized (Ricardo Bonilla, personal communication). One Mexican chef who herself does not specialize in Mexican cuisine says that you need to be born with it in order to cook it properly, to understand and to reproduce it. This is why there are few good Mexican restaurants in Mexico and abroad, she said, because they are just chefs; they learn to reproduce the foodbut not from homewithout love. Ricardo Muoz says, You have to love la tierra [the land]. You have to be involved with the culture. In a way, the same can be said if you wish to cook well in any cuisine. You need to care enough to nd out about proper techniques, as well as about the history and culture of the dish and the people. The most well-known US chef who specializes in Mexican cooking, Chef Rick Bayless, takes his restaurant staff to Mexico every year so that they can experience the cuisine rst-hand. Out of respect for Mexican culture and cuisine, he considers
When Bayless mentioned love, he called it a sazn, referring to the impossibility of restaurant chefs having the kind of personal connection to their customers as home cooks have to their families. The word sazn literally means seasoning or avour but is used to connote a special personal avour which individual cooks contribute to the food to make it come out well. This word is used to explain why no two cooks ever produce the same avour, although they may follow the same recipe or were taught to cook by the same person. Cada persona tiene su sazn, every person has his own personal touch. Someone can have good sazn or none. Est en la mano, it is in the hand, people also say. A persons sazn is something inexplicable that cannot be learnt but must arise from within, from a persons heart. It is a talent or knack for cooking, and this particular kind of personal touch that is necessary for good Mexican cooking is love. Both Ricardo and Primy, who makes barbacoa (see Chapter 3), have curiously noticed that when they personally get involved in the cooking, using their hands (mano, sazn), their diners/customers somehow notice the difference. Each told me that when they merely supervise the cooking but do not have direct contact with the food, diners may still think the outcome is very good, but when they are in direct contact, diners sometimes comment on just how good the food turned out that day. The central importance of sazn is examined in depth by Abarca (2006), who considers it to represent a culinary epistemology. She very accurately describes it as being like a gardeners green thumb (p. 51). The women she interviewed, whom she calls grassroots theorists, provide several examples where they demonstrate
Recipes
Though I have just explained at length that it is difcult to reproduce Mexican cooking without demonstration and practice, I provide recipes throughout this book to give readers an idea of Mexican home cooking (comida casera). The recipes and cooking tips in this chapter are taken from Ricardos rst book, Los chiles rellenos en Mxico (1996). Because of his training as a chef, instructions are meticulously written. I have abridged it only a little as I translated it. I hope that Ricardos detailed explanations will compensate for the lack of his presence. When I rst began my own research, my working title was Chiles rellenos a la mexicana, Stuffed Chiles a la Mexicana. From reading cookbooks I was charmed with the idea of stufng chiles and on my rst visit to Mexico I was naturally most eager to taste this very special, yet also very humble and everyday dish. All kinds of chiles are stuffed and are served in peoples homes, but what is most commonly found in Mexico City, and in market stands and fondas, are poblano chiles stuffed with chopped or minced meat ( picadillo), or cheese. In the market the chiles are sold wrapped in a tortilla like a taco, but in a fonda or at home, stuffed chiles would be served with a thin tomato sauce, caldillo. The picadillo lling for the chile recipes
Chiles rellenos de picadillo sencillo con papa Chiles Stuffed with Simple picadillo with Potato (Muoz, 1996, pp. 512)
Serves 15 Mara Elena Trujillo This is a typical home-style preparation of chiles stuffed with picadillo that is served in any house on any day of the year in Mexico City. Mara Elena was born in Coahuila, but she came to live in the capital when she was very young, and she soon learned to make local dishes. Few families have recipe collections, and everyone learns to cook according to the regional style, just by watching. Formal classes of authentic Mexican cooking are never taken, but a mother or mother-in-law knows that her daughter or daughter-in-law should someday inherit her culinary secrets.
Chiles
15 chiles poblanos, ready for stufng See How to Peel chiles poblanos, below.
Picadillo
3 cups potatoes, peeled and cut into -cm (-inch) cubes cup corn or canola oil 1 cup white onions, nely chopped 1 tablespoon garlic, nely chopped 300 g (11 oz) minced beef 350 g (12 oz) minced pork sea salt to taste black pepper, freshly ground, to taste Blanch the potatoes in water and set them aside. They should be cooked but not very soft. Heat the oil until it smokes lightly and fry the onions until soft and golden. Add the garlic and as soon as it is fried, stir in the beef and pork. Cook until the meat is crispy, stirring from time to time to separate the lumps and to avoid it sticking to the pan.
Capeado
8 eggs at room temperature, separated sea salt to taste our, as necessary corn or canola oil for frying See How to Achieve a Perfect capeado, below.
Caldillo
cup corn oil 2 cups white onions, sliced into thin segments 4 cloves garlic, peeled 1 cup tomato, chopped teaspoon whole cumin seeds sea salt to taste black pepper to taste Heat the oil in a pan until it smokes lightly, and fry the onion until golden. In a blender, liquefy the garlic, tomato and cumin. Strain the mixture and pour it over the onions. Allow the caldillo to cook for about 15 minutes, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve the chiles with this sauce, accompanied with white rice and/or brothy beans and corn tortillas or bread.
2
Cooking as an Artistic Practice
Recognizing the cuisines of Mexico as culinary art is in fact a recognition of the technical virtuosity entailed in their production. Chefs and home cooks both perceive and appreciate the knowledge acquisition of each other, which ultimately results in their producing food (artwork/artefact) that is successful in its rendition (that is, delicious, meaningful, memorable). This is because of the perceived skill involved in its execution. Though the results are comparable, the means by which each of these groups acquires this skill are completely different. Chefs acquire skill by professional training in schools or working with masters; home cooks acquire skill by growing up under certain conditions considered traditional and also by working with masters who are other home cooks known for their buen sazn. In this chapter I put forth the argument that we should think of food as art in order to analyze it productively anthropologically. I propose that we can better get at the meaningfulness of food in everyday life rst by considering cooking as an artistic practice (and recipes as artworks), and second, by taking into account the production, consumption and exchange of foods within social networks. I develop these ideas by rst establishing how food has been treated previously, for my approach to food differs from that of Bourdieu and Goody, who focused primarily on class distinction and social hierarchy. I then move on to examine Gells broadly dened notion of art, creativity and agency, the technology of enchantment and his notion of the art nexus. I use Gells theory of art as a model, and a point of departure, for a fruitful anthropological examination of food and avour, in the sensual/social relations (Howes, 2003) of life in Milpa Alta.
29
Strangely enough, he discusses the art of cooking, using this label without questioning its meaning. But his interest is in comparative analysis over a broad historical,
Put into context, the cultural meanings of culinary activity as part of womens work is different from a semiotic analysis of foodstuffs. Thus I avoid analysis of semiotic relations such as corn with blood or chiles with penises (in the wordplay albur). Instead, my research focuses on the meanings of interrelating cultural formsthe corpus of cuisine, womens domestic and extradomestic roles, and social interaction and hospitality in esta and quotidian occasions. Thinking of food as art which is based on action (Gell, 1998) allows for using Nancy Munns conception of meaning that is not static: actors construct this meaningful order in the process of being constructed in its terms (1986, p. 6). What Mexican cooking actually appears to mean is a harmonious family and socio-cosmological life. Women do the cooking, and the cuisine demands a certain discipline and lifestyle which partly structures the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly timetables of women as well as men. These are important points which could lead to further investigation, and my approach attempts to respond to such a gap. So, rather than trying to explain why one foodstuff may stand for something else, my position with specic regard to food is to locate the source of meaning in the social relations between cooks and eaters and in culinary agency. If foods are full of meaning, and therefore meaning ful, the social meanings or meaningfulness of foods can be better understood if we analyze cuisine as a whole, focusing on culinary practice, but also acknowledge the artistic quality of the act of cooking. To help in thinking about food anthropologically, therefore, I mainly draw upon Alfred Gells theory of art, as he developed it in several publications (e.g. 1998, 1999b). Thus, I am taking cuisine as art in the way that Gell sees art, as a system of action, intended to change the world rather than encode symbolic propositions about it (1998, p. 6).
the food consumed. They categorize cooks as burger-ippers, accomplished chefs or culinary artists. Food prepared by a culinary artist makes diners feel that Life is wonderful rather than That was delicious. Therefore we recognize culinary artistry by the power of the food to perform a perceptual change in the eaters, physically enhancing their experience of life. The perception that Life is wonderful would be something that eaters would experience through their senses, even extra-sensorially. It is the avour of the food, encompassing taste, texture, smell, sight, hearing and that extra-special something (sazn?), which chefs/culinary artists are able to manipulate to make the eaters experience transcend the moment. Thinking of it in this way, however, the notion of culinary artistry remains elusive, difcult to describe. An artwork has the power not only to inspire awe, but also to inform the spectators relationship with the represented image (or the artist himself ) as a node of the relation between the two. This is because, following Gell (1998, p. 153), an art object can be thought of as equivalent to a person, a social agent, which belongs to families, lineages and so on. It is an extension of a person whose biography can be traced via the whole body of art, the art corpus (its family, its lineage). Crudely put, that means that the construction of an artwork is like the construction of a person. By its artistic nature, an object has the power (agency) to act, to produce social effects on or conduct social relations with other social beings (patients). In effect, the artists technical mastery gives the object of art this social ability.11 It is helpful to use Gells terms to understand the active nature of bringing out the avour in food, in the way that I use the term culinary artistry. Gell constructs a table (1998, p. 29) of what he calls the art nexus, wherein he demonstrates the differing relations among the previously mentioned four entities, and their effects, depending on which is the primary agent (with the sufx -A) and which is the primary patient (with the sufx -P). For my purposes, we can think of the art nexus as a food nexus, replacing the corresponding terms that Gell uses with food-related ones. This allows us to construct a table based on his (see Table 2.2), which will become clearer as this book progresses. Our interpretation of a food event depends on the perspective we take, and these interpretations can change with time or the position we take in relation to the social actors involved. The relations directly involving the index (in our case, food) are the primary transactions, though examples can be given for the other instances of when agency is abducted via the index. Of course, I am not expecting a perfect t between the terms of this table and the tangle of relations that make up Mexican cuisine or Milpaltense social life. What is important to keep
Table 2.2 The Art Nexus as Food Nexus Agent Patient Artist Cook Artist Cook Cook-ACook-P Cook shares meal, eats own cooking; as witness to act of preparing food Cook-AFood-P Basic act of cook making/preparing dishes, e.g. following tradition Index Food, dish, meal Food-ACook-P Food dictates cooks action with it, e.g. avocado; making barbacoa bestows prestige Food-AFood-P Prototype Recipe Recipe-ACook-P Recipe dictates what cook does; controls cooks action Recipe-AFood-P Recipient Eater Eater-ACook-P Hired cook prepares food; food is ordered in restaurant or at street stand Eater-AFood-P Ordering food or asking cook to make particular dishes
tamales needing special care Recipe dictates form taken by not to anger them so dish/food that they can cook. tamal as- a made thing. food-Arecipe-P Recipe constrained by physical characteristics of food/ingredient, e.g. chile Food-AEater-P Eater response dictated by foods magic power (not primarily by power of external cook) recipe-Arecipe-P Recipe as cause of food, and affected by food/ingredient; e.g. barbacoa/mole as feast food Recipe-AEater-P Concept of mole controls eaters experience, makes/denes meal as special
35
Prototype Recipe Cook-A Recipe-P Cook invents recipe Recipient Eater Cook-AEater-P Captivation by cooks skill;Life is wonderful effect by chef; diner in awe
eater-Arecipe-P Rejection of food; eater dislikes food or does not nish what is served Eater-AEater-P Hiring a cook; host eating food prepared on his/her behalf
Source: Table 1 from Gell (1998). Oxford University Press. By permission of Oxford University Press. Modied/Adapted.
He also wrote, Artworks can also trap eels or grow yams. The interpretation of such practically embedded artworks is intrinsically conjoined to their characteristics as instruments fullling purposes other than the embodiment of autonomous meaning (1999b, p. 211). For the purposes of this analysis, that means that artworks can also satisfy hunger or full gastronomic desires. A food, a meal or a special dish can be thought of as an art object, a social nexus embedded within a culinary system, which is in itself a social system within a matrix of other interrelated social systems.
Thus, form and function are merged when externally exhibited in bodily action via the aesthetic, which he describes as a dimension of habitus and systematic choices produced in practice. So in the case of food, if form is constituted by avour, then avour is socially functional. Perhaps this is better explained with Gells method of analyzing art, as he approaches art from another perspective. Following Gell, therefore, rather than beginning with social classications, I suggest focusing primarily on the art world (cuisine) and the artists, and then considering the audience and how this informs an artist to modify an artwork; in other words, how it comes about that a society places value on an object and judges one thing to be in better taste, or to taste better, than another. The skill required in culinary labour is the kind of technical mastery which Gell refers to as necessary for the production of an artwork, and also for the homologous
3
Barbacoa in Milpa Alta
In this chapter, I wish to portray the daily pursuit of gastronomic quality in ordinary life by describing how a typical week might pass in the lives of barbacoa makers in Milpa Alta. Barbacoa refers to a preparation of pit-roast meat which has been used in Mexico since pre-Hispanic times. It is a method of slow cooking whole animals by burying them for several hours or overnight in a pit lined with aromatic leaves and lled with hot coals, herbs and spices. The word barbacoa is of Caribbean origin, but the corresponding cooking methods used all over Mexico are based on the Mayan pib or earth oven. In the central states the meat is avoured with the eshy leaves of the maguey. The meat typically used is lamb (borrego, usually 1- or 2-year-old sheep), pit-barbecued in a cylindrical clay- or brick-lined oven. Depending on the region and tradition, there are also barbacoas of other meats such as rabbit, chicken, turkey, beef, pork or goat (kid). Since the whole animal is used, including the head, and because of its long, labour-intensive preparation and cooking process (described below), it is considered to be festive food, reserved for special celebrations or weekends.
Eating barbacoa
Whilst it is more commonly prepared as a cottage industry by families called barbacoieros, there also are restaurants in Mexico City which exclusively serve barbacoa with its traditional accompaniments. These barbacoa restaurants offer a complete celebration with the meal. Urban families who avoid eating in the marketplace frequent these restaurants for family celebrations such as birthdays or anniversaries. There is usually space for at least 400 diners, although smaller parties are welcome. A cultural show with dancing and singing of ranchera music gives the place the festive air of a cantina or countryside esta. Customers can order traditional snacks such as gorditas or chalupitas as their starters. Although these are antojitos, typically eaten in the streets, restaurants offer them because a large part of their clientele rarely eat street food. Ordering them would be indulgent, however, because barbacoa is tasty and complete enough the way it is normally served and requires little more to be satisfying. It is common to start with a bowl of the consom de barbacoa, a avourful broth consisting of the meat drippings which have amalgamated with herbs and spices
49
Wednesday: Rest
Wednesday is the day of rest for barbacoiero families. This is spent like a typical Sunday for anyone else, unless there is a major holiday midweek, in which case they would prepare more barbacoa to sell on these special days. Otherwise they are free
Conclusion
From the rst time that I observed and participated in the preparation of barbacoa I was fascinated with the process. There was a distinct division of labour between men and women, with the main responsibility lying with the marital couple, particularly the wife. When I later learned, as mentioned earlier, that only married couples prepare barbacoa for a living, whilst single men and women only helped their parents but had separate careers, it was evident that this was an industry that had signicant social effects. But I had not realized how much the preparation of the dish affected the way that barbacoieros interacted socially with others. When a couple decides to dedicate themselves to barbacoa, they commit themselves to working excessively hard during weekends and having free time in the middle of the week, when most people are very busy working. Whatever the weather, they have to work long, disciplined hours to continue to earn a living and not disappoint their customers. As indicated in this chapter, discipline, order, cleanliness and frugality are necessary to perform the culinary technique. After slaughtering, all parts of the animal are used either in the cooking or for other purposes. The sheepskins are sold to make into jackets and rugs, the bones are sold to make detergents, and the tallow is sold to make soap. All other parts of the animal are eaten. Nothing is wasted. Their work rhythm dictates some of their values as well as their timetables. Having the opportunity to socialize at the same times, it makes sense that people of similar occupation should group together. This proximity to one another also encourages competition, so unsurprisingly, issues of trust and envy are highly relevant in the community of all those who are involved in the same business. Families carefully protect their belongings and social standing. Since Milpa Alta is ofcially an area of Mexico City of relative poverty, barbacoieros seem to be both more attractive as well as more cautious when dealing with others. The recent prosperity associated with barbacoa has made the wealth of barbacoieros a new value to protect. The fact that they are concentrated in Barrio San Mateo gives the barrio a reputation of being excessively proud and stingy. Those from San Mateo are said to be much less friendly than those of other barrios. Women who married into San Mateo often commented to me that they had not been used to how people in San Mateo rarely greet one another in the streets, nor do they share with each other unless there is a particular esta. It is uncommon to borrow ingredients from the neighbours as they are expected to pay for whatever foodstuff they require, even if it is only a bit of sugar or a few tortillas. This behaviour is attributed to wealth, and wealth in the area is attached to barbacoa.
Barbacoa
I used to think it inconceivable to prepare barbacoa at home unless I dug a pit in the garden and grew my own magueyes. Then one day I decided to try making it and was
4
Women as Culinary Agents
Although many men in Milpa Alta are involved in food industries, home cooking is considered womens work. This chapter focuses on the role of women in the network of Milpa Alta society. Maintaining the leitmotif of cooking as an artistic practice, we can think of womens agency as a culinary agency. Women are the key actors in the culinary system, and just as their agency is mobilized by the family during estas in community-wide sociality1 (see Chapter 5), they can also mobilize the agency of others, such as when they hire domestic helpers.2 I begin by describing local social relations and different kinds of womens work in Milpa Alta, referring to the sazn de amor that is responsible for good avour, and go on to develop my argument in relation to how women andor viatheir cooking are valued in Milpa Alta.3
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A similar kind of dynamic exists in Milpa Alta, and probably in other parts of Mexico as well. Villareals case study clearly demonstrates that women are not passive. They can take an active role in modifying their social spaces. They do not necessarily succumb submissively to the dominant discourse, but actively use the ideals of cooking and motherhood to avoid forcing direct confrontation. Melhuus and Stlen (1996) argue that gender ideology is in constant ux, yet it continues to organize and perform functions in society. They write, Neither the fact that women often comply with practices that subordinate them nor the fact that they resist the exercise of such practices can be understood in terms of the exclusively repressive view of power common in womens studies (p. 20). Some cases cited in their volume indicate a certain complicity among women, as well as resistance, which undermines the power of the accepted gender imagery.
I hinted at the coerciveness of Milpaltense hospitality in Chapter 2 and discuss it further in the next chapter. Doa Martas culinary revenge was effective against her philandering husband partly because of the Milpaltense imperative to eat everything served on ones plate, regardless of the eaters true hunger. It was also Doa Martas subtle way of insisting that her husband recognize his sexual obligations to her, by enforcing his gastronomical obligations to eat her home-cooked meals. As one
Culinary Agency
The material I have presented thus far suggests that women can gain empowerment through cooking or can draw it from their culinary agency (cf. Abarca, 2006). This is
As I describe for Milpa Alta, the dependence on avour, or a devotion to culinary works of art, gives women the legitimacy to expand their social and physical boundaries, forms of autonomy, morality and domestic power and may even help them to trap a husband. Although womens socially acceptable spaces may have appeared limited, cooking was one signicant way around it, which eventually led to the development of an elaborate cuisine, an idea also formulated by Mintz: [W]orking in the emergence of cuisine legitimized status distinctions within slavery, both because the master class became dependent on its cooks, and because the cooks actually invented a cuisine that the masters could vaunt, but could not themselves duplicate (478). In effect, by recognizing that cooking is active and creative, its outcome (food, dishes, recipes) should be thought of as having social agency, or as being social actors in their own right, as works of art (Gell, 1998). Then, an elaborate cuisine is not simply a creative escape valve for otherwise restricted women. It is a license for social action in the pursuit of technical or culinary artistry, and it can even be thought of as a means toward womens liberation. Looking more closely at cuisine and the social relations surrounding its production can be illuminating, therefore. While it is arguable that womens subordination was exacerbated by the demands of the kitchen, in the case of Mexico, this was specically the demands of making fresh tortillas (see Pilcher, 1998, pp. 99121). Before wide industrialization and the spread of mechanical tortilleras, Mexican women used to spend up to a third of their waking hours making tortillas (pp. 1006). At the same time, there was resistance to machine-made tortillas, because machines produced inferior avours and quality in comparison to handmade tortillas (Marroni de Velzquez, 1994). Abarca (2006, pp. 312) also notes that in some ways the factory-made tortillas were more of a burden than a blessing to rural women because of their need to earn money to buy them. She also describes how her mothers skill in making tortillas by hand was a source of pride and self-assurance in confrontation with her in-laws (Abarca, pp. 801). Gradually, with technological advances and political changes as women entered the extradomestic labour force, machine-made tortillas gained acceptance (Pilcher, 1998, pp. 10610).15 With the tortillas sorted out, women were left with more time and energy to devote to other activities, culinary or otherwise. The elaborate cuisine was not the restrictive factor of their lives per se. To summarize, then, it is as a provider of sex and food that womens power becomes evident. Both sex and food lead to the continuance (and reproduction) of individuals as well as of society. Ideally food is cooked at home, by a wife or a mother, in the way taught by generations of women who nourished their families as wives and mothers. A woman should be able to satisfy her husband both sexually and gastronomically, or, put another way, she is in control over these two fundamental
Taco placero
When there is little time to make a proper meal, some women buy various foods in the market to serve taco placero or tacos de plaza. This is a combination of foods that can be bought in the market or tianguis and eaten right there in the plaza as llings for tacos; hence its name. Some people buy food and combine it with what they have at home for making any kind of tacos. Some or all of the following foods are offered for taco placero, with the essential ingredients marked with an asterisk (*): *tortillas *queso fresco *avocado *chicharrn *ppaloquelite *pickled chiles salsa cebollas desemadas nopales compuestos tamal de sesos tamal de charales pascle salpicn barbacoa carnitas cecina lime spring onions beans
Carnitas
Jos Arenas Berrocal Yadiras brother, Jos, learned to make carnitas by watching others. The rst time he prepared carnitas was for a esta that I attended. The food turned out so well that his sisters congratulated him as if he were a young girl, saying, Now you are ready to marry! (Jos was divorced and had two adolescent sons.) One whole pig (about 20 kg) serves around 140 people. For this recipe Jos used two medium-sized pigs. The pig must be cut into large pieceslegs, loin, shoulders, ribs, skinand marinated in vinegar for several hours to overnight. In a large cauldron, heat abundant lard until boiling. Add meat in this order: rst legs, then shoulders, loin, ribs, with skin on top, covering all the meat. When the lard comes to a boil once more, add around 5 large cans of evaporated milk, the juice from around 40 oranges, and the peels of 5 oranges. You may add garlic, but this is optional. Allow the meat to boil until it is very soft. Add saltpetre to redden and avour the meat. Serve with hot tortillas and red or green salsa.
5
Mole and Fiestas
This chapter analyzes the social meanings of the food served during estas in Milpa Altathat is, mole, barbacoa, carnitas and mixiotes. Fiesta food, like daily food, is also prepared or organized by women, although we have seen that barbacoa is a product of mens and womens complementary labour, and carnitas is a similar dish. Whichever esta food is chosen, it is prepared in large amounts, usually to serve at least around ve hundred guests, and thus also requires more than one cook to prepare it. These celebratory dishes are repositories of the value of social actors as groups rather than as individuals. As described in the previous chapter, the high value of culinary elaboration is interwoven with the social value placed upon womens (sexual and gastronomic) virtue as wives and mothers within the domestic sphere. Women are also valued in the community specically for their role in rituals, that is, estas (cf. Stephen, 2005, Chapter 9). One of Stephens Zapotec informants is quoted to have said, The men respect our work and say that we work hard. They know the food is the most important thing about a esta, and we do that. So our work is most important, but its hard (p. 261). This is similar to Milpa Alta, where food preparation is recognized and appreciated as work in family as well as in community contexts. What I found striking about estas was the predictability of the menu; in Mexican cuisine, feast food is mole, and likewise having mole makes eaters feel that they are celebrating something. This is signicant, but not just as an indication of the symbolic power or value of foods. Special occasions require elaborate dishes so that they can be marked as special,1 but there are other features of a esta apart from the food that together characterize celebration. The esta incorporates local social systems (the mayordoma and compadrazgo), including music, ritual and convention, which will be explained in this chapter. The mayordoma organizes the town esta (la esta del pueblo), one of the most important public festivities. During this time the community cooperates with the local mayordoma to hold a large-scale celebration where all are welcome. Similarly, compadrazgo (the system of ritual kinship or co-parenthood) helps families cooperate to organize and celebrate their private life cycle rituals. Fiestas of varying scales require greater or lesser individual involvement, depending on family and community demands and whether they are personal celebrations of life cycle events or local or national holidays. In the following pages I describe some aspects of the esta of
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Compadrazgo
Compadrazgo3 is the system of ritual kinship, which at its most basic is the relationship between a couple and the godparents ( padrinos) of their child. When a couple chooses their compadres, it is because they hold them in high esteem and would thus be honoured if they would accept the role of godparent for their child. Compadrazgo ritualizes these close social relationships between families based on their mutual respect. The ties bound by shared responsibility over the ahijado (godchild) provide a social assurance which may be necessary in future, although not necessarily for economic assistance. Apart from baptism, there are other kinds of compadres for marriage, house blessings and almost any kind of inaugural or life cycle event. Both husbands and wives choose their compadres, sometimes jointly, sometimes singly. Compadres, especially baptismal compadres, are couples married in church with whom they wish to maintain a lifelong relationship. By extension, other family members on both sides call one another compadre/comadre or padrino/madrina, and the families maintain commitments as of kinship into future generations. The respect that characterizes compadrazgo relationships implies personal affection, mutual admiration and also social distance. To speak with respect, therefore, is natural under these circumstances. Thus, friends who become compadres may change the form of address that they use with one another and begin to use Usted when they used to call each other t (cf. Lomnitz, 1977). Accompanying heightened respect, the actual relationship between compadres may be characterized by competition, envidia (greed) and initial distrust, and these also extend throughout the families of the compadres. Indeed, each family thereafter maintains this bond between them, and one would begin to address the mother of ones comadre, for example, as comadrita. The way Yadira explained it, she said that compadres (and friends) are inherited in Milpa Alta. They are ritual kin.4
Her statement is telling in that she mentions eating well at home as a luxury. Holding large parties, serving mole, barbacoa, or carnitas, is socially enjoyable and benecial, but the deepest pleasure, of highest value, is eating a meal at home, surrounded by loved ones (close family members). Since her wedding day, Yadira told me, she had gained quite a lot of weight. This was mainly because she then moved to Milpa Alta, where parties are taken so seriously and where hospitality requires a guest to eat everything she is offered. If a guest cannot eat it, she can surreptitiously take it away to eat at home later. As I
The most famous dish in Mexico is the mole poblano, the Pueblan mole, formerly called mole de olor, mole of fragrance (Bayless and Bayless, 1987 p. 196). Considered to be the ultimate Mexican dish, it is eaten primarily for celebrations. There are several different kinds of regional recipes for mole, but generally speaking, it is a richly avoured, thick sauce which incorporates up to thirty ingredients, both native and non-native to Mexico. The name for this dish is a Hispanicization of the Nhuatl word for sauce, molli. The word now connotes a combination of dried chiles, spices, nuts, herbs, fruits, seeds and starches (like bread and tortillas). It is often misrepresented as a combination of chiles and chocolate, but it is more complex, and chocolate is not an essential ingredient, although it is commonly included. Each ingredient requires individual preparation before all are ground together into a paste, then diluted with broth and cooked. There is some disagreement about what makes a mole poblano distinct from other moles. Some cooks say that the mole poblano is distinguishable by the chiles used mulato, ancho and pasilla. Others believe it is particular in its incorporation of chocolate, although many other moles may contain chocolate. The majority say that its most characteristic difference is that Pueblan mole includes a lot of sesame seeds and typically is strewn with more as a garnish. Even in artistic images, such as paintings, photographs, or the sculptural sweets made for the Days of the Dead called alfeiques, the mole poblano is recognized as the thick dark brown sauce with sesame seeds sprinkled on top just before serving. The popular Mexican saying above, Eres ajonjol de todos los moles, draws upon this common knowledge about festive food in Mexico. Since
Table 5.1
Feast Food in Milpa Alta, Arranged According to Type of Celebration Specic esta Birthdays, weddings, quinceaos, town estas, Christmas, Easter Sunday, ninth day after funeral Holy Week, Christmas Eve, funerals Typical food served Mole con pollo o guajolote Tamales de alberjn or de frijol or tamalates Arroz rojo Barbacoa, mixiote or carnitas Revoltijo (meatless mole with shrimp fritters) Tamales con queso or tamalates Tortitas de papa Pescado capeado Mole con pollo or guajolote Tamales verdes, de rajas Atole Arroz rojo Dulce de calabaza, local sweets, candied fruits Pescado a la vizcaina Chiles rellenos de queso o atn Ensalada de betabel sangre de Cristo Capirotada or torrejas Buuelos, calabaza en tacha
Type of esta/practice Life cycle celebrations, Catholic, anniversaries, rebirth of dead souls (quintessential Mexican feast food) Very Catholic practices
Festival with clear pre-Hispanic origins (dishes with pre-Hispanic origins, or those considered very Mexican) Catholic seasons (most dishes with clear Spanish origins, all meatless)
Lent, Advent
green chile | pico de gallo (green chile + tomato + onion + salt) | guacamole 1 (green chile + tomato + onion + salt + avocado) guacamole 2.1 guacamole 2.2 (green chile + tomato + onion (green chile + tomato + salt + avocado + lime juice) + onion + salt + avocado + pipicha + guajes) | guacamole 3 (green chile + tomato + onion + salt + avocado + lime juice + coriander leaves) | guacamole 4 (green chile + tomato + onion + salt + avocado + lime juice + coriander leaves + garlic + olive oil)
Figure 5.1 Linear Progression from Green Chile to Complex Guacamole
chile
lard + masa tortillas + salsa 1 salsa 2 salsa x refried beans + masa preparada + salsa x chilaquiles enchiladas pastel azteca mole
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Pinpointing exactly what it is that makes barbacoa like mole, for example, is not as obvious as the similarity between a basic salsa and a mole (that is, both are salsas, made with chiles and other ingredients). But my purpose here is not to examine the dening style of what makes one dish Mexican and another not Mexican.13 What is necessary is to accept the logic that there is something called style which allows certain recipes to be grouped within the corpus of Mexican cuisine, and from this, we can observe the interrelations of this level of meaning (culinary) with other levels of meaning in social life (much like Munns value transformations, and somewhat like Levi-Strausss culinary triangle/tetrahedron). As far as Mexican cuisine is part of Mexican tradition, its history (or biography) can be understood as having come into being by the work of many persons (mostly women) simultaneously in separate households. It continues to be modied and improved as each cook prepares each meal every day. Cooking is activity in two ways, as a physical activity and as a creative activity of continuous innovation. What is considered to be traditional cooking has emerged and continues to emerge out of the domestic sphere and as a part of local social life. As a distributed object, each of the varied recipes which make up a cuisine may develop in its own way, spread out over space and time (see Gell, 1998, p. 235, Figure 9.4/1, The Artists Oeuvre as a Distributed Object). The recipes are separately rened by a collection of individuals who interact with and inuence one another, leading to further innovation and growth. This, in essence, is how all traditional arts develop. Thus, a cuisine is a collective work, constructed by the efforts of individuals who prepare dishes based on recipes. The recipes are drawn from their memories, or they learn them from other individuals in the community,14 who may have greater skill in using the traditional knowledge of the culinary arts, and who are in turn
Fiesta Food
To return to the question of how barbacoa, carnitas and mixiote came to be accepted as esta food, it is rst interesting to note some of the similarities amongst these dishes. Barbacoa is made by roasting a whole lamb in a pit lined with maguey leaves and left to cook overnight over hot coals and aromatics. It is always served with particular salsas accompanying it. Mixiote is made of meat (rabbit, pork and/or chicken) which is rubbed with an adobo (a mole-like) paste, then is wrapped in a mixiote, the skin of the leaves of the maguey (the same plant used to line the pit for making barbacoa). Carnitas is made by stewing a whole pig in its own fat. It is avoured with oranges and garlic, and, like barbacoa, it is always served with salsas and tortillas. The relative costs of preparing these dishes are also relevant. The high-quality ingredients for mole (chiles, nuts and spices) are expensive. One kilo of mole costs more than one kilo of barbacoa, carnitas or mixiote. Also, mole is prepared at home even though it is available commercially, and it is always made as a special effort for
Buuelos de lujo
Ma. Primitiva Bermejo Martnez In Mexico buuelos are broad, crispy fritters served in stacks, dribbled with a light avoured syrup or honey. They are served at Christmas parties or during posadas and are said to represent the diapers of the Baby Jesus Christ. This is how Primy always makes buuelos. I began calling them her luxury buuelos or buuelos de lujo because they were so different from the kind that you nd being sold at fairs all over Mexico during Christmas, Easter or Carnival. The measurements are approximate because, like most home cooks, Primy just throws in whatever amounts feel right to her. Makes 50 to 60 buuelos. a pinch of aniseed, boiled in a little water 2 kg plain our 910 eggs kg butter, melted zest of 2 oranges, nely grated orange juice, freshly squeezed 2 stfuls of lard 3 cups of sugar abundant oil for frying Combine all the ingredients, except for the oil, in a large bowl, adding enough orange juice to make an elastic dough. Knead it well to develop the glutens, occasionally throwing the dough forcefully onto a metate. Do this several times and make sure that you hear a loud slapping noise with each throw. (Primy said that sometimes she would ask Alejandro or any available man to do the kneading for her because it is physically quite difcult.) When the dough is elastic, our a work surface and pull off walnut-sized balls. Flatten or roll each ball into a rough circle. Sitting down, cover your knee with a clean tea towel. Place the circle of dough on the rounded surface and very gently pull the dough from the edges in small increments, turning it constantly and sustaining it on your knee. The dough can be stretched to a very thin disk about 25 cm in diameter. If the dough breaks easily it is not elastic enough and may lack kneading. Fry each circle in hot oil, making sure to press the centre into the oil so that it cooks evenly. Turn to brown the other side, and do not worry about it breaking, as the dough is strong. Drain on absorbent paper and allow to harden.
To Serve
Drizzle with a light syrup made of crude sugar ( piloncillo) and water (this may be avoured with aniseed or guava).
kg salt cod (bacalao), soaked several hours, drained, shredded 1 L extra virgin olive oil kg (about 3 cups) onions, nely chopped 22 cups (about 4 large heads) garlic, nely chopped 1 cups parsley, nely chopped 1 2 kg tomatoes, nely chopped 300 g almonds, blanched, peeled, nely chopped To serve: 1 jar green olives 1 tin chiles geros (or any pickled yellow chiles) crusty bread (teleras or bolillos, or baguettes)
In abundant olive oil, saut onions until golden, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and let brown. Add tomatoes and cook over high heat, stirring frequently, until the oil surfaces, about 20 minutes. Add sh and almonds. Cook 510 minutes.
Torrejas
Ma. Primitiva Bermejo Martnez Torrejas are a Lenten dessert typical of the state of Michoaca n. This is the way Primy makes them, which is a bit unusual in that they are coated in the egg batter called a capeado, like the capeado for chiles rellenos. Most recipes for torrejas are reminiscent of Spanish torrijas, like French toast. Primys version contains no milk, and it probably would not matter if the bread used was very fresh. This is something that she rarely prepared because her mother-in-law, Doa Margarita, did not like the idea of a sweet made with spices. When Doa Margarita was persuaded to try these torrejas, she liked them so much that she had seconds. Serves 12. 4 slightly stale teleras, each cut into 3 pieces, or 1 baguette, cut into 6-centimetre slices 250 g queso cotija, or use an aged white cows milk cheese like Romano or Sardo 3 eggs, separated vegetable oil for frying Hollow out each piece of bread by removing some of the central crumbs, leaving an open pocket. Fill each space with cheese and proceed with the capeado as for stuffed chiles.
Spiced Syrup
1 cone of piloncillo (crude sugar) or 1 cup rmly packed dark brown sugar 8 cm of Ceylon cinnamon (not tough Cassia) 5 whole cloves 5 whole allspice berries around 750 mL of water
Boil all the ingredients in enough water to make a light syrup. To serve, warm the fried bread pieces in the syrup to impregnate them with the avours and to heat them through. Serve in low bowls with lots of syrup.
6
The Centrality of Gastronomy in Social Life
The conjunction of a member of the social group with nature must be mediated through the intervention of cooking re, whose normal function is to mediatize the conjunction of the raw product and the human consumer, and whose operation thus has the effect of making sure that a natural creature is at one and the same time cooked and socialized. Lvi-Strauss (1994, p. 336, original italics)
In this book I have approached Mexican cuisine by thinking of cooking as an artistic practice, situating this in the context of Milpa Alta. I offer an interpretation based on the point of view of food as a form of art to argue the following points: avour is functional in an active sense; avour is achieved via love (the sazn de amor necessary for good cooking); observing cooking shows how actors are acted upon by their actions (following Munn, 1986); gender is not intrinsically hierarchical (cf. McCallum, 2001) and women are able to use cooking to exert power and enact their social value (Abarca, 2006; Melhuus and Stlen, 1996); and social organization can be understood as a social-relational matrix with food as indexes within the active art nexus (following Gell, 1998). This means that we can understand different social levels (family-compadrazgo-mayordoma) by analyzing food in terms of cooking, from everyday hospitality to esta hospitality. In the following sections I will explain these conclusions.
113
Sexual food metaphors may therefore reveal notions about oral and sexual desire or I would rather say appetiteand not so much about the relations between specic fruits or vegetables. The signicance of albur is that food, especially the chile, is subject to linguistic and conceptual manipulation by men, explicitly relating it to sex. On the other hand, more generally and among women, the chile is manipulated in another, culinary way, and is explicitly related to eating and avour. The relationships among food and cooking and love and sex can be understood through albur to have ramications in the assessment of avour and morality in terms of eating a meal cooked at home or enjoying snacks in the streets.
1.2 Guacamole
Raw red salsa with mashed avocado added. Variations or optional ingredients, as with raw red salsa 1.2.1 Guacamole 2 large ripe avocados 1 small tomato, nely chopped white onion, nely chopped 1 small green chile (serrano or jalapeo), nely chopped (optional) salt to taste coriander (cilantro), nely chopped (optional) lime juice (optional)
2 Tortillas
Tortillas can be made by boiling corn with lime (CaOH), grinding it to a soft dough, masa, and patting out by hand, pressing out with a tortilla press, or putting masa through an industrial tortillera machine. Tortillas can be thick or thin, large or small, long or short. Well-made tortillas puff up as they bake and have two different sides, a front and a back.
2.2 Tostadas
Fry whole day-old tortillas until crisp, keeping them atthese are now called tostadas. They are served alongside pozole (hominy soup) with crema espesa, avocados, lime, onions, sliced radish, shredded lettuce and chopped coriander. Tostadas are also eaten on their own, topped with a variety of different things, always with some kind of salsa or chile on the side. Some other optional toppings that can be combined as you wish are as follows: refried beans shredded lettuce shredded boiled chicken or pork salpicn avocado sliced onions crema espesa crumbled, grated or shredded cheese
2.4 Tlacoyos
This is typical street food in Mexico City. Prepare masa for tortillas and refried beans. Before pressing out the tortillas, place a length of beans in the centre of a ball of masa and press it out into an oblong shape, about 1015 cm long, 8 cm wide, and 1 cm thick. The beans should be encased in masa. Bake on both sides on a hot comal, dry frying pan or griddle. Top with cooked salsa, chopped onions, grated cheese, chopped coriander and cream. 2.4.1 Huaraches Huaraches are like tlacoyos but are much wider, thinner and crisper. Seoras sell them on street corners and outside metro stations in Mexico City. They can be up to 40 cm long and 25 cm wide and are served with the same toppings as tlacoyos.
Typical Toppings
white onion, sliced into very thin wedges, rings or half-rings shredded or crumbled white cheese (queso oaxaqueo, queso fresco, mild feta) crema espesa/de rancho/crme frache chopped coriander/cilantro Variations: optional side dishes to place on or beside chilaquiles
fried egg fried or breaded thinly pounded chicken breast, pork or beef let (milanesa) fried crumbled Mexican longaniza (sausage) shredded boiled chicken frijoles refritos (refried beans, see below) bolillos or teleras (crusty white bread roll)
3.2 Enchiladas
corn tortillas thin cooked salsa, as for chilaquiles shredded boiled chicken, pork or beef or boiled potatoes chopped white onions grated cheese Heat 1 cm oil in a frying pan beside the pan where the salsa is cooking. One by one, dip each tortilla in the pan of hot salsa and pass it through to quickly coat it. Then pass it through the hot oil to soften it a bit and make it pliable. One by one, lay tortillas on a plate or ovenproof serving dish, place about a tablespoon of lling in the centre and roll into a cylinder. Arrange rolls side by side. Sprinkle with chopped onions and grated cheese. 3.2.1 For Enchiladas suizas Use green salsa, shredded chicken and yellow melting cheese and drizzle over crema espesa or sour cream. Arrange in ovenproof dish and bake till heated through and cheese has melted.
4.3 Enfrijoladas
See 3.2.3 above.
Variations
combine 2 or more types of fruit stir in chopped mint before serving serve with crema espesa/de rancho (crme frache)
Notes
Introduction
1. Abarca (2006) takes a political and feminist standpoint to analyze the same topics of food in Mexico that had also struck me as most importantnamely, sazn, food as art, and cooking as a source of womens agency and empowerment. Any researcher of Mexican food would nd them to be part of the reality of Mexican culinary culture. Yet while her treatment of these subjects appeared to overlap with mine, in fact her approach is necessarily different, given our different disciplinary training and personal backgrounds. Abarca draws from literary, gender and cultural studies and is herself a native Mexican. She grew up with the creative artistry of Mexican cooking as part of her normal daily life. So for her, her experience was intellectualized before she revalued and reevaluated her appreciation of the Mexican kitchen. In my case, I approached Mexican cuisine with the curiosity, sense of adventure and discovery of an outsider or tourist, and indeed of an anthropologist. As can be expected, there are certain things which non-natives notice that natives may not immediately see or may take for granted, and vice versa. Our different perspectives can only further enrich our understanding of food and cooking and Mexican gastronomy. 2. Where . . . food production depends on the skilled handling of tools, and indeed of ones own person, the productive forces appear as the embodied qualities of human subjectsas their technical skills (Ingold, 2000, p. 318). Sutton (2006) also discusses how acquiring cooking skill is a matter of learning bodily habit memory and not simply following a simple set of rules. 3. The regional cuisines of the Middle East, India and China are comparable in their complexity of everyday cooking. 4. The mixing of cuisines and culinary culture is far from a simple matter, of course. This is very well explained by Wilk (2006, Chapter 6) in his discussion of the creolization of Belizean food. 5. At the time of my research in the nineties, the population was only about 1 per cent of the Federal District (81,102 for Milpa Alta and 8,489,007 for the whole city), though it occupied 19.2 per cent of its area. Most of this land was put to agricultural use, 3.5 per cent was inhabited, and 1 per cent was used for urban buildings and other purposes (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Geografa e Informtica 1997, pp. 212). The people of Milpa Alta rarely
137
138 Notes
emigrated; 96.7 per cent of the population were natives of Milpa Alta and had never changed their place of residence as of the census of 1990 (Departamento de Distrito Federal, 1997, p. 15). The maguey is the source of pulque, a mildly fermented viscous drink made of the maguey sap. When unfermented, it is called aguamiel, or honey water. Pulque used to be a common drink in this region, and it had religious signicance during Aztec times. Lynn Stephen describes similar differences between how women describe their occupations as recorded in the national census and what they actually do (2005, p. 205). Unfortunately, for the barrio level there are no demographic gures in print, so my data here is reliant upon personal communication with Enrique Npoles of Barrio San Mateo, Villa Milpa Alta. Goody (1982) highlights four main areas of investigation for studying food, based on household and class. These are production (economic factors), distribution (political factors, market, allocation), preparation and consumption. His own work focuses on production and consumption, and on a comparative perspective of cuisines since cultures must be situated within the world system. I draw my main conclusions from my data of the local system of Barrio San Mateo in relation to the rest of Milpa Alta. A comparative study of another group in a different, even neighbouring, community of Mexico City, or another community of central Mexico with Nhuatl roots, as Milpa Alta has, would surely provide a broader perspective than my limited research allowed. Also, while I have been unable to treat the topics of food production and distribution at a level beyond the barrio, and acknowledging that there is insufcient space for me to include a comparative analysis with other cuisines or other cultures, my work does provide particular attention to the one aspect of cuisine that Goody was unable to discuss at length in his own work: food preparation, the arts of cooking and the cuisine (p. 38).
6.
7.
8.
9.
Chapter 1
1. For an idea of the variety of uses of chiles in Mexican cuisine, see Muoz (2000), Andrews (1984), Kennedy (1989, esp. pp. 459 84), Bayless and Bayless (1987, esp. pp. 33 49, 32838), and van Rhijn (1993), to name a few. 2. See Long-Sols (1986), and also Coe (1994), Lomel, (1991), Martnez (1992), Muoz, (1996), among others. 3. See Sophie Coes brilliant book, Americas First Cuisines (1994), and Muoz (2000).
Notes 139
4. A chinampa is a very fertile type of articial island, inaccurately referred to as a oating garden (Long and Vargas, 2005, p. 3). 5. The culinary merit is perhaps more if one considers, analyzing the texts carefully, that the variety [of foods] was not as great as it rst appears at rst sight (Corcuera, 1981, p. 29, my trans.). 6. See also Long and Vargas (2005) for an excellent overview of food in Mexico. 7. The cooking of corn in Mexico with all its elaborations and ramications is, and always has been, within the realm of the highest culinary art, beyond that of any other country (Kennedy, 1989, p. 4). 8. For an excellent discussion of culinary blending, culture contact and creolization, see Wilk (2006). For a comprehensive compilation of papers on different aspects of the cultural/culinary inuences between the Old and New Worlds, see Long (1996). For a lighter account, see Sokolov (1991). 9. Public talk in Universum, Mexico City, 29 September 1997. 10. The word pueblo refers to a small town or village, usually in a non-urban context. In Mexico City, which is made up of several residential districts, these are called colonias in the central, more urbanized areas, and on the edges of the city the divisions of the municipalities are called pueblos (which may be further subdivided into barrios). Using the word pueblo to describe the residential area where you live actually has other connotations that living in a colonia does not. Coming from a pueblo implies a connection with a community of people who share a common hometown. Most people from the more central colonias of Mexico City are not quite as engaged with their neighbours and co-inhabitants in the way that those from the pueblos of Mexico City and other parts of the country are involved in one anothers lives. Furthermore, ones life can easily be contained within the boundaries of ones pueblo, in spite of work-related movement and interaction with other parts of the city. 11. Diana Kennedys work would fall into this category. See also Cruz Daz (2000) and the regional family cooking series published in 1988 by Banco Nacional de Credito Rural (Banrural). 12. In a thought-provoking article, Rachel Laudan (2001) questions the meaning of authentic cuisine. She argues that depictions of traditional recipes as rural and natural is romantic nostalgia, and that the foods we think of as traditional and authentic actually depend upon the modern, industrial global economy that supporters of the authentic criticize. See also Wilk (2006) and Hobsbawm and Ranger (1999). 13. National pride and identity are qualities which a peoples cuisine can sometimes help determine. See Pilcher (1998), Appadurai (1988), and Brown and Mussell (1985). See also Long and Vargas (2005). 14. See Wilk (2006), Pilcher (1998), and Hobsbawm and Ranger (1999). 15. I am grateful to Kai Kresse for pointing this out to me.
140 Notes
16. There is much to say about Ingolds theories of habitus, livelihood, knowledge and skill in relation to the topic of culinary knowledge and skill, which I am unfortunately unable to develop fully here. But see Sutton (2006). 17. For a discussion of cooking without written recipes, see Abarca (2006), especially chapter two on sazn. For a critical discussion of how culinary knowledge is transmitted, see Sutton (n.d.), who questions the linear transmission of cooking skill. 18. In some communities this is still the case. See Vizcarra (2002). 19. Hay que trasladar la cocina casera a la cocina restaurantera, y debe ser un currculo en las escuelas de cocina, tal y como es, en vez de tratar de copiar el modelo europeo. Deben prepararlos bien de principio, como en la casa de la abuela, pero en restaurante, claro, sin el sazn del amor. Entonces, debe utilizar los ingredientes mejores. Imitar las cocinas famosas no sirve. 20. Abarca emphasizes what she calls the sensory logic or sensual, corporeal knowledge of sazn, which she also describes as a discourse of empowerment (2006, p. 51). As I explain in Chapter 2, I rather prefer to avoid applying metaphorical, semiotic, textual or language-based models to food and cooking. 21. In Milpa Alta I have seen women beat their egg whites in plastic bowls and the capeado still worked. My friend Primy also overturned her bowl to check if the whites were ready.
Chapter 2
1. For a description of how impoverished our language is to describe our experience of avour, see Fine (1996, Chapter 7, The Aesthetics of Kitchen Discourse). 2. Jonaitis provides an excellent discussion of how the sense of taste has been neglected in ethnographic writing. She suggests, Approaching food without considering taste is like studying a mask without referring to its dance, or analyzing a drum without hearing the music it plays (Jonaitis, 2006, p. 162). 3. For a detailed overview of the treatment of food in anthropology and sociology, see Goody (1982, pp. 10 39), Mennell et al. (1992, pp. 119), Caplan (1997b), Beardsworth and Keil (1997, pp. 4770); see also Warde (1997). 4. Food-related ethnographies often privilege development issues (e.g. Lenten, 1993) or are more about economic issues and gender than cuisine itself (e.g., Babb, 1989). Some also base analysis on religious taboo or hierarchy and classication (such as Douglas, 1966; Khare, 1976). There are some exceptions, of course, which focus interest on cuisine or on eating particular foods for (gastronomical or other) pleasure. Peter Gow (1989) analyzes the desires for food and sex in the construction of social relations in Amazonian Peru, and Richard Wilk (1999, 2006) examines food for understanding cultural change, globalization and local identity in Belize. Alicia Mara Gonzlez (1986) does not write
Notes 141
about art, but her thesis analyzes the symbolic meanings of Mexican wheat bread, focusing on the panadero, baker, and his craftsmanship in making bread with particular names and shapes. Kanafanis (1983) ethnography of women in the United Arab Emirates focuses on the culinary arts, although not on cooks as artists. She emphasizes the artistic nature of foods and personal adornment, including perfumes, describing the interconnections among sensory experience, aesthetics and body rituals among women. She argues that aesthetic satisfaction enhances the experience of the senses, and is also used to avoid pollution and to restore oneself to a state of purity. Her analysis locates the source of aesthetic meaning on the recommendations of the Prophet Muhammad, because the aesthetic cannot be isolated from (Islamic) social or cultural values, and beauty is pleasing to Allah. This conclusion may seem unsatisfying, but at least there is an attempt to understand the artistic notions attached to cooking tasty food. See, for example, Dornenburg and Page (1996). It is also interesting to note that one of the chefs represented as culinary artists in this book is Chef Rick Bayless, who specializes in so-called traditional or authentic Mexican cooking (see Bayless, 1996; Bayless and Bayless, 1987). See also Abarca (2006, Chapter 3). This is possibly because the two cultures in which he did eldwork, the LoDagaa and the Gonja, both had simple cuisines. For them, the main difference between feast food and daily fare was abundance rather than special preparations of dishes. See Chapter 4, and Mintz (1996, Chapter 3). E.g., Lvi-Strauss (1966, 1994), Douglas (1975); for a particularly effective and convincing ethnographic analysis, see Hugh-Jones (1979); and for a successful use of semiotics in analyzing cuisine, see Weismantel (1988). Gell was not the only one to emphasize the technical aspect of art, nor was he the rst. It is a received notion that one cannot assess art without looking at techniques (see Bateson, 1973; Firth, 1996; Ingold, 2000). Gell was also neither the rst nor the only one to ascribe agency to objects or artworks (see Latour, 1993; Layton, 1981, 2003). The work of art is inherently social in a way in which the merely beautiful or mysterious object is not: it is a physical entity which mediates between two beings, and therefore creates a social relation between them, which in turn provides a channel for further social relations and inuences (Gell, 1996, p. 52). As Andrew Martin describes Latour, Objects are really the end result of a long process of negotiation between the material world, historical associations and peoplewho give things names and relationships (2005, p. 285). See Sutton (2006). [A]nimal traps might be presented to an art public as artworks. These devices embody ideas, convey meanings, because a trap, by its very nature, is a transformed representation of its maker, the hunter, and the prey animal, its
5.
6.
7. 8.
9.
10. 11.
12.
13. 14.
142 Notes
victim, and of their mutual relationship, which, among hunting people, is a complex, quintessentially social one. That is to say, these traps communicate the idea of a nexus of intentionalities between hunters and prey animals, via material forms and mechanisms (Gell, 1999b, p. 203). The ancient Aztecs used chile smoke as a punishment for naughty children (Coe, 1994). They made them breathe it to remove their anger as well (Clendinnen, 1991, p. 53). In a talk at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana on 3 June 1996, Diana Kennedy said that she herself believes in these culinary methods. She said that you must sing to moles in the same way that you must talk to your plants. The reason, she explained, is because the ancestors had more contact with food and so their wisdom must be respected. These practices must have come about because the ancestors had a deeper and more personal understanding of and relationship with their foodstuffs and therefore were able to work out the best ways to achieve optimal avours. Kennedys outlook and attitude toward cuisine is more holistic than many other cookbook writers or culinary investigators, in that she has built up an ecologically friendly oasis in her home in Michoacn. There she raises bees for honey and grows her own wheat, maize, mushrooms and all types of plants from the whole country. Her love of the art of Mexican cookery eventually led to her greater understanding of and care for environmental issues, which, when put into practice, render superior culinary results. Wilk (2006) discusses the construction and recuperation of traditional cooking and other practices in Belize, questioning the dichotomy between tradition and modernity. For the general theme of invention of tradition, see Hobsbawm and Ranger (1999). Raymond Firth recognizes art in a comparable way, as having human involvement with the material: Art is a product of human commitment, determined by mans social existence. It is essentially form; but only when the form is mobilized for human purposes, given meaning in human terms by comparative associations, can one properly speak of art (1996, p. 18). It is in the nature of food to be shared out. Not to share it with others is to kill its essence, it is to destroy it both for oneself and for others (Mauss, 1990, p. 57). The case of the cook as eater is discussed below. In a way, hospitality can be thought of as a form of sacrice. See Lok (1991) for a discussion of sacrice and exchange, with specic regard to the Days of the Dead. Cf. Abarca (2006, pp. 923). In fact, the transaction may continue if a customer becomes a regular and then becomes recognized by the vendor as deserving of occasional special favours. In this case there is a blurring of the boundary between commercial and non-commercial social reciprocity which is acted out in terms of generosity
15.
16.
17.
18.
22. 23.
Notes 143
with food portions. The food product transacted remains the same, so the sociality produced is of the kind that McCallum (2001) describes. Discussed further in Chapter 5. In a way this seems to echo Simmel, though Bourdieu argues a different point. Ingold also considers practical knowledge to be embedded in a social matrix of relations, as links in chains of personal rather than mechanical causation (2000, p. 289). See Miller (2002) on expressing love through food shopping. Nowadays (within the last 20 years), instead of mole, many families who hold large celebration banquets serve carnitas, mixiote or barbacoa. These dishes are also technically difcult to prepare, and the menu rarely varies beyond these three choices. However, since mole is to esta as esta is to mole, i.e. they mutually imply one another (mole esta), oftentimes people serve a small amount of mole with tamales after the main course so that guests do not leave without their mole de esta (see Chapter 5). Also adobo, which is used to make mixiote. Cf. Stoller (1989, Chapter 1), where he writes of the social meanings behind serving a bad sauce among the Songhay in Niger. E.g. locally reared sheep, borregos criollos, for barbacoa. Cf. for art, Gell (1996, 1999b).
27. 28.
Chapter 3
1. Very little material is published on the history of barbacoa in Milpa Alta or elsewhere. 2. See Chapter 5 for an examination of esta food. 3. If a husband moves into his wifes house, he is often teased for being mandiln (tied to the apron strings) or called ciguamoncli (cf. Chapter 4). He is met not with disapproval, but perhaps with some ridicule at times. 4. For a clearer understanding of attachment to land, see Gomezcsar (1992). 5. As explained in Chapter 4, she often is also expected to change her cooking style in order to suit her parents-in-law and the rest of her husbands family. 6. Es una tradicin que le va dejando a la nueva generacin. Use of this phrase to describe something seemed to indicate its importance in Milpa Alta society. 7. Recall that going to university is a luxury only recently acquired with the increased economic prosperity in Milpa Alta. 8. In other parts of Mexico the caul is also called encaje, which literally means lace. 9. As mentioned previously in Chapter 2, Aztec children were disciplined by being made to inhale chile smoke as punishment (Coe, 1994, pp. 63 4).
144 Notes
10. Alternatively, Alejandro hoped that one of his sons would become a trafc policeman and Primy hoped they would study medicine. This does not necessarily mean, however, that they are supposed to stop making barbacoa! 11. This is an indication that people tend not to make gastronomic compromises. 12. The works of Ohnuki-Tierney (1993) and Rutter (1993) are examples of studies that deal with more symbolism and the power of specic foodstuffs to incorporate individuals into society. 13. Mole probably ranks as the highest.
Notes 145
7. In Milpa Alta the stereotype of self-sacricing women exists: la mujer abnegada is a woman whose husband controls family decisions. Quin es l que manda? (Who is in charge?) is a rhetorical question the answer to which is supposed to be the husband. Yet in practice, the response is not so clear. In an article called Quin manda? , Roseman (1999) describes a similar ambiguity in rural Galicia, where there is a discourse of gender hierarchy and womens submissiveness but also of egalitarianism. 8. This is a large topic that goes beyond the scope of this discussion, but see, for example, Mummert (1994). 9. In some cases, this relative freedom can be seen as problematic in regard to relations between jealous husbands and wives. See Levine (1993, esp. chapters 2 and 3) for more on courtship and marriage. 10. A comparative case is what Stephen (2005, p. Chapter 7) describes for women in Teotitln. Women had restrictions on their movements outside the house as any errand could be construed as an excuse for an illicit rendezvous. 11. Ejido land is distributed by the government in accordance with the law on agrarian reform. Like communal land, it is not privately owned and it cannot be sold. 12. For a vivid comparative account, see Levine (1993, Chapter 3). 13. Regularmente cuando un hombre se hace tonto es por tanto amor que le tiene para su mujer. Una mujer se hace tonta por pendeja, para que la gente no habla mal de ella, para guardar las apariencias. 14. Luls words were, La mujer es el eje conductor, el timn de la familia. Debe a su familia, a los hijos, y tiene que sufrir. Mujeres trabajan el doble de sus maridos. Si no sufren, no son buenas personas. Son persinadas. (See also Melhuus, 1992; J. Martin, 1990). 15. There was apparently also a compromise on taste. Almost everyone I met still maintained that handmade tortillas taste better than factory made, and I also agree. 16. Stephen (2005, Chapter 9) explains that unlike in business, which is conducted in Spanish and requires mathematical skills, Zapotec women play a strong role in ritual decision making, conducted in Zapotec, wherein planning the food is foremost. In other words, womens culinary agency gives them their ritual power.
Chapter 5
1. Dissanayake (1995) argues that human artistic behaviour is a necessary, naturally selected, practice which aided the survival of the species. The power of human artistry hinges upon the crucial aspect of making something artistic, decorated, special and extra-ordinary (cf. Gell, 1996).
146 Notes
2. For a thorough history and description of the cargo systems in Milpa Alta, see Martinez R. (1987). For a theoretical analysis, see Greenberg (1981, Chapter 1). For more on compadrazgo and the mayordoma in Milpa Alta, also see Adapon (2001). 3. For thorough analyses of compadrazgo as a principle for networking and reciprocal exchange, see Lomnitz (1977), Sault (1985, 1987), and Stephen (2005). 4. Stephen (2005, Chapter 9) also describes how relationships of compadrazgo are inherited. 5. For a town or barrio esta in Milpa Alta the unmarried youths are organized to get involved in preparing for the esta. Particularly the single young ladies (seoritas) of the barrio hire mariachis or other musical groups (conjuntos) to sing the maanitas in front of the altar of the church. They begin at around half past four in the morning of the feast day (21 September for San Mateo). The seoritas are also expected to provide typical breakfast foods, hot tamales verdes and atole champurrado, for members of the public who attend the singing event at this cold, early hour. 6. Just as Lomnitz argues that compadrazgo strengthens social ties between equals, furthers social mobility and economic advancement, and affords a magic symbolic protection against latent personal aggression (1977, p. 160), ties amongst barrios are strengthened and aggression can be averted when mayordomas bring promesas to other town or barrio estas. For example, San Mateo and Santa Martha are rivalling barrios from within which there is much intermarriage as well as competition. Their estas are occasions when they can socialize freely when the residents of the barrios ritually visit one another bearing salvas. 7. The dictionary denition of this word, estero, is pleasure-seeking, fond of parties. 8. This is comparable to what Stephen (2005) describes occurring in Teotitln, where some women spend their money on their compadrazgo gifts and obligations rather than on their daily meals. Because of how guests are fed during estas, especially the excesses of food given to compadres to take home, women, as central gures in ritual community life, juggle their ritual responsibilities with quotidian needs. 9. La gente de Milpa Alta es muy trabajadora porque la naturaleza no les di tanto, entonces es un lujo quedarte a comer en la casa, porque no hay tiempo. Hay que trabajar desde la madrugada hasta la noche para salir adelante. Y es por eso que es un pueblo tan esteropara mostrar a los dems que s tiene dinero para festejar y hacerlos bien. 10. In Milpa Alta, and elsewhere in Mexico, this is commonly done at home for breakfast the day after a esta as part of the recalentado. 11. This idea of homemade products being better than their commercial counterparts is prevalent and put into practice more by suburban, rural or lower-middle-class people than central urban or upper-middle-class to upper-class people. In urban
Notes 147
centres this is starting to change, as traditional and authentic Mexican cuisine is growing in popularity. If she were making mole poblano she would also sprinkle sesame seeds on top. She was one other person who conded in me that her culinary secret was that she cooks with love. See Wilk (2006, Chapter 6) for a convincing attempt to dene the style of Belizean food. See Sutton (n.d.) for a thought-provoking article on how culinary knowledge and apprenticeship are not necessarily passed from mother to daughter. This is a notion that Mary Douglas (1983) and David Sutton (2001) have both explored in different ways, and which I consider to be useful, though as a means to another end. This relates to an anecdote I mentioned in Chapter 1, when I was told, It is not because we want to stop following traditions, it is so that we can use up what is in the fridge. Wilk also notes that consistency is just as difcult to maintain as innovation (2006, p. 122). This is what Munn calls the relative extension of spacetime.
12.
16.
17. 18.
148 Notes
pervade all of social life and, through frequent repetition, persuade villagers to live according to prevailing contractual norms (1988, p. 87). Here I would also classify cookbook writers, who are involved in a wider discourse of taste than local Milpaltenses. Self-critical members of Milpa Alta society pointed out that their attitude to land is also envidioso. They discourage non-Milpaltenses from buying property in the municipality by keeping the prices high, but if a Milpaltense is interested in the land, they reduce the price considerably (see Flores Aguilar, 1992). See Woodburn (1998) for a view which refutes the idea of (food) sharing as exchange. In a study of seven countries in Africa and Asia, Tinker (1987) shows that in four countries street food vendors were usually middle-aged women (32 to 41 years old). Women vendors were often in polygamous unions or unmarried and were the primary earners in the family, or at least did not share their income with their husbands. Their income was mainly used for their children and school fees. Where vendors were mostly men, there were religious or customary reasons for this. In these cases, women still often contributed their labour from home, preparing the food for their husbands to sell. As mentioned in Chapter 4, Taggart (1992) also describes a link between eating and sex in his analysis of the Sierra Nahuat. His study is a comparative analysis of gender segregation in Mexico and Spain, which he bases on early childhood relationships with parents. His data on Mexico emphasize cooking as part of womens role and link cooking and eating with the relationship between husband and wife, because of the links between Nahuat conceptions of eating and sex. The public separation of women from men on family ceremonial occasions is understandable if one considers that all rituals involve eating and that the Sierra Nahuat connect eating with sex. A woman and a man eating together in public would make a Sierra Nahuat uncomfortable because it would suggest the unleashing of powerful and potentially destructive human emotions (p. 81, emphasis added).
5. 6.
7. 8.
9.
Works Cited
Abarca, Meredith E. (2006), Voices in the Kitchen: Views of Food and the World from Working-Class Mexican and Mexican American Women, College Station: Texas A&M University Press. Abarca, Meredith E. (2007). Charlas culinarias: Mexican Women Speak from Their Public Kitchens, Food and Foodways, 15: 183212. Adapon, Leonora Joy (2001), The Art of Mexican Cooking: Culinary Agency and Social Dynamics in Milpa Alta, Mexico, PhD dissertation, Social Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London. Andr, Mara Claudia, ed. (2001), Chicanas and Latin American Women Writers Exploring the Realm of the Kitchen as a Self-Empowering Site, xxxii, Womens Studies, Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press. Andrews, Jean (1984), Peppers: The Domesticated Capsicum, Austin: University of Texas Press. Appadurai, Arjun (1988), How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 30/1: 324. Babb, Florence E. (1989), Between Field and Cooking Pot: The Political Economy of Marketwomen in Peru, Austin: University of Texas Press. Bateson, Gregory (1973), Style, Grace and Information in Primitive Art, in Anthony Forge, ed., Primitive Art and Society, London: Oxford University Press. Bayless, Rick (1996), Rick Baylesss Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant Flavors of a World-Class Cuisine, New York: Scribner. Bayless, Rick, and Bayless, Doreen Groen (1987), Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking in the Heart of Mexico, New York: William Morrow. Beardsworth, Alan, and Keil, Teresa (1997), Sociology on the Menu: An Invitation to the Study of Food and Society, London: Routledge. Becker, Howard S. (1982), Art Worlds, Berkeley: University of California Press. Bourdieu, Pierre (1984), Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Brandes, Stanley (1988), Power and Persuasion: Fiestas and Social Control in Rural Mexico, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Brown, Linda Keller, and Mussell, Kay, eds (1985), Ethnic and Regional Foodways in the United States: The Performance of Group Identity, Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. Caplan, Pat, ed. (1997a), Food, Health and Identity, London: Routledge.
149
Index
Abarca, Meredith, 1, 45, 84, 123, 126 on sazn, 212 on womens empowerment, 32, 724, 113 agency, 29, 31, 32 6, 412, 47, 716 passim, 95, 124 intention and, 313, 36, 106, 1178 albur. See love art nexus, 3, 29, 34, 35, 113 barbacoa, 45, 4970, 1015 passim, 11516, 119 as esta food, 44, 89, 92, 96, 106 9 Bayless, Rick, 11, 20 1, 97 Brandes, Stanley, 6, 91, 92, 95 cargo system. See mayordoma carnitas, 51, 87, 89, 92, 1002, 106 8 chefs, 7, 1221 passim, 29, 34, 46, 120 chilaquiles, 12, 58, 94, 104, 114, 1312 chinaquear, 1237 Coe, Sophie, 3, 8, 10 compadrazgo, 76, 8992, 108, 113, 11720 passim, 127 conanza, 21, 95, 121, 124 cookbook(s), 2, 3, 711 passim, 15, 20, 31 Corcuera, Sonia, 3, 9 Cowal, Victoria, 3, 9, 10 culinary agency, 5, 32, 71, 825, 106, 11526 passim see also agency decoration, 39 40, 67, 113 envidia, 90, 123, 124 see also greed Esquivel, Laura, 18, 38 expertise, 2, 16 culinary, 2, 9, 40, 42, 75, 115 see also technical mastery Firth, Raymond, 37 fusion, 10 see also mestizaje; miscegenation Gell, Alfred, 30, 51, 101, 106, 109, 113 artworks as traps, 75, 126 on commodity exchange, 126 on decoration, 67 distributed object, 105 intentionality, 117 style, 105, 106, 108 technology of enchantment, 29, 33, 101, 119 theory of art, 5, 29 48, 103, 118 generosity, 41, 124, 125, 127 Goody, Jack, 3, 30, 31, 44 Gow, Peter, 37, 85, 121, 122, 124, 127 greed, 41, 47, 68, 90, 123, 127 guacamole, 50, 103, 128 home cooking, 2, 3, 1113, 22, 125 restaurants and, 21 street food and, 41, 1223, 1247 value of, 46, 82, 85, 121, 126 women and, 71, 82, 121, 125 hospitality, 39 42, 90, 108, 113, 11925 passim as coercive, 46, 81, 937, 118 Howes, David, 3, 29, 40 Ingold, Tim, 14, 16, 17, 114, 116 intention, 41, 45, 46, 107, 126 intentionality and, 389 mole and, 100, 120 see also agency Kennedy, Diana, 8, 11, 15, 16 Laudan, Rachel, 10, 11, 98, 102 Lvi-Strauss, Claude, 113 Lomnitz, Larissa Adler, 90, 92, 95 Long-Sols, Janet, 13, 117 love, 1821, 45, 47, 712, 120, 1247 albur and, 1212 lovers and, 46, 78 82 sex and, 75, 122 see also sazn McCallum, Cecilia, 83, 113, 116 Mauss, Marcel, 40, 41, 42, 95, 118 mayordoma, 8992, 95, 108, 113, 119, 127 Melhuus, Marit, 45, 46, 78, 80 5 passim, 113 mestizaje, 10 see also miscegenation; fusion; Wilk, Richard miscegenation, 10 see also mestizaje; fusion mole, 18 22 passim, 45, 46, 89 109, 114 15, 11720 motherhood, 67, 73, 75, 76 8, 79, 82 Munn, Nancy, 42, 46, 108 9, 113, 118, 119 concept of meaning, 32, 105 intersubjectivity, 116 on sharing, 41, 125 Muoz, Ricardo, 12, 7 8, 1112, 13, 1921 recipes, 227 nueva cocina mexicana, 12, 13
159
160 Index
Pilcher, Jeffrey 10, 84, 98 Sahagn, Fray Bernardino de, 3, 9, 12 sazn, 5, 212, 29, 34, 75 love and, 21, 37, 71, 75, 82, 113, 120, 125 Simmel, Georg, 37, 401, 47, 107, 119 sistema de cargos. See mayordoma skill, 1417, 2930, 367, 417 passim, 53, 85 cooking and, 712, 84, 99, 101, 116, 120 womens, 71, 121 Stephen, Lynn, 73, 85, 89, 92, 95 street food, 4, 41, 46, 1227 Sutton, David, 14, 17, 30 tamal(es), 9, 14, 74, 114, 117 angry, 389 as feast food, 99104 passim, 109 street food, 122, 123 taste, 3, 9, 22, 33, 75, 79, 123 agency and, 42 Bourdieu, 434, 83, 107, 115 avour and, 30, 34 judgement of, 1247 Mintz, 83 technical mastery, 32, 34, 44, 47, 109 barbacoa, 67 culinary, 40, 437 passim, 101, 117, 120, 124 technique(s), 33, 54, 67, 85, 106, 108 on learning, 1517, 43 see also skill tradition, 3, 1314, 53, 92, 96, 120 development of, 14, 98, 1026 traditional cookery, 1215 and restaurants, 21, 120 traps, artworks as, 389, 45, 75, 126 food as, 48, 124, 125 Vargas, Luis, 13, 117 Wilk, Richard, 82, 98, 102, 106 womanhood, 5, 73, 75, 77 see also motherhood women, 2, 6, 17, 7185 barbacoa and, 116, 119 boundaries and restrictions on, 45, 48, 74, 77 as cooks, 36, 46, 98, 102, 122 economic activity of, 4 expectations of, 75, 116, 124 power of, 45, 48, 723, 7785, 121 roles, 712, 76, 80, 823, 89, 116 value of, 46, 71, 80, 85, 89, 11314, 11922 work, 52, 5860, 718, 823, 89, 116