Practica: Culture in the kitchen?

Some years ago at the Young SIETAR congress in Istanbul participants were sent out to purchase local foodstuffs and come back not only with well-haggled veggies, but also with stories of how the fruits of our deal-making were seen and used in Turkish culture and reflected in its legends and identity narratives. The food tasted better with the stories! We could use more of that.

Daria's selfie (some of you met her at our Dublin Congress) shows her approach to slicing onions to avoid the tears. A SIETAR Australasia colleague suggested slicing them underwater. What do we gather, how do we prepare it, serve and eat it? All this fits into our identity narratives, stories that we can share over meals, tales that connect us and widen our appreciation of each other and broaden our tastes. If you're a TCK, I'll bet you have benefited from or even created some original fusion cooking. I would be happy if you respond to this post with bite-sized suggestions about the prophylactics of chopping onions or facing other culinary challenges, or even have a recipe to share that I dare try. If you're in my neighborhood, I'll offer you some tastes.

Our freshly published SIETAR Europa Cookbook is a starting point for enjoying this dimension of our cultural experiences. Have you ordered your copy yet? Add diversity to your kitchen with our collection of favorite recipes. Okay, if you need professional or theoretical justification to purchase this research item for your library–dare to go beyond interpretative, dimensional cooking which emits odors of essentialism – our cookbook is a performative approach to the culture of things! Information on getting your copy is as simple as clicking here.