Tag Archives: Food

Pre-Race Fuel

General information about item:

  • Tradition/superstition/ritual
  • Language: English
  • Country of origin: United States
  • Informant: BG
  • Date collected: 11/6/2021

Informant Data:

  • BG is a current senior at Dartmouth College in the graduating class of 2022. She is originally from Washington State and currently resides in Hanover, New Hampshire. She is a Government and Human Centered Design major at Dartmouth. BG ran the 800, 1500 and 3000 for track, and competed in 5ks and 6ks for cross country. 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Athletes often repeat specific superstitious or traditions before big races in order to control what factors they are able to in the face of competition uncertainty. For many athletes, their food becomes part of these superstitions. Often this means athletes will repeat the same pre-race meals in hopes of ensuring they have a successful competition.
  • Social Context: Many of the track athletes I interviewed told me about food superstitions they have before races. I noticed that this trend tends to start when the athlete has a successful competition. That athlete will then try and copy everything they did in preparation for their successful race, down to specific details such as the food they ate prior.

Item: “ […] I’m super particular about eating and I always stop drinking an hour before race time. For a while, I always used to eat a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich before I raced. Also, for a brief stint I would always have burger king chicken and fries the night before a race. This started because I would beat my personal record by a ton every time I ate this meal, so it just became a habit.”

Associate file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript (description of photo):

  • Photo of the described Jimmy Dean Breakfast sandwiched eaten as a pre-race ritual.

Informant’s Comments

  • “I am not exactly sure how that one [the breakfast sandwich] started, but I am sure I continued doing it because I was seeing positive race results and making a subconscious correlation in my mind. ”

Collector’s Comments:

  • Many of my informants followed similar superstitious rituals surrounding their pre-race meals. Often, when athletes see positive race results, they will do their best to repeat all the steps that brought them those results. This includes eating habits.

Collector’s Name: Anna Brause

Tags/Keywords:

  • Dartmouth
  • Track/XC
  • Superstition/ritual
  • Pre-race food

Kit Kat – “Surely Winning” (Japan – John Zavras)

Title: Kit Kat – “Surely Winning” (Japan – John Zavras)

General Information about Item:

  • Material Lore, food
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: Japan
  • Informant: RM (friend from home)
  • Date Collected: 10-03-21

Informant Data:

  • RM is a friend from home (Boston, MA) who is Japanese. He has a lot of family and many cousins that live in Japan. His family in general takes superstitions very seriously. He and his family are very high-achievers, and they place a lot of stress and importance on school.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In Japan, exams and grades are taken very seriously. The entrance into university is much more dependent on placement in standardized tests than in the United States, for example. 
  • Social Context: This folklore was recorded in a FaceTime interview. Since exams are taken so seriously, there are many forms of folklore and superstitions revolving around good performance and good luck. When you only have one opportunity to take an exam, the stakes are high, and the demand for superstitions and good luck increases.

Item:

  • The superstition is to eat a kitkat the day of a large exam for good luck. This superstition is a modern interpretation of a more traditional superstition, which is Katsudon. Katsudon is a warm bowl of rice, egg, and deep-fried pork. It is eaten before or on the day of an exam for good luck. Katsudon in Japanese is similar in wording to Kit Kat – Katsudon is pronounced“Kitto Katsu” in Japanese, which means “Surely winning.” Kit Kats are pronounced “kitto katto” in Japanese, which is very similar to the Japanese for Katsudon. This superstition utilizes the law of similarity – if one consumes a kitkat, which is similar in name to Katsudon (the sacred dish that means winning), then they will succeed on their exam. 

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Why Kit Kats Are Good Luck For Japanese Students

Transcript:

  • “I always eat a lucky KitKat before an exam. It’s my go-to snack”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant says that he was very quick to catch onto this recent superstition, even though he learned about it when he was in the US and its mainly only found in Japan.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I found this fascinating, the fact that just because KitKat sounds like Katsudon, it’s also used as a superstition to forge good luck. This provides a great point about folklore – it can evolve in many ways and is always molding to modern culture.

Collector’s Name: John Zavras

Tags/Keywords:

  • Material Lore
  • Food
  • KitKat
  • Superstitions

Broccoli Dish

General Information Data:

Material Folklore, Food

Language: English

Country of Origin: United States

Informant: S.T.

Date Collected: 11/12/2021

Informant Data: S.T. is a 40 year-old mother born and raised in Portland, Oregon. The informant is the Aunt of the collector, and their two families celebrate Christmas together. She is a Mother of two who enjoys making homemade jewelry, cooking, and leading an active lifestyle. The informant says she loves spending time with her family and enjoys wholesome holiday celebrations.  

Contextual Data

Cultural Data: The holiday season in America is a time for gatherings and camaraderie. Around Christmas time, large holiday events are hosted for families and friends to gather in a festive setting. These parties are put on as “potlucks”, in which each member in attendance brings a dish to provide to the party. This culture of potlucks and holiday parties creates the opportunity to observe unique folklore. 

Social Data: S.T. comes from a large but tight knit family. The family has resided in the Portland metropolitan area for generations, and the Family is known to host large holiday parties for both friends and family. S.T.’s mother and grandmother were both great cooks, and they have passed down family recipes through generations. 

Item: For every Christmas party, a member of S.T.s family brings a Broccoli Dish. Originally, S.T.’s mother was responsible for bringing the special dish. After her mother passed away, S.T. inherited the tradition of making the Broccoli Dish for parties. The recipe has been committed to memory and passed down through generations of women in the informants family. It is a baked dish consists of broccoli, multiple types of cheese, a guarded spice mixture, and breadcrumbs. However, this is the extent of information S.T. was willing to provide, as she doesn’t want to give away the recipe. 

Associated File:

This is an image of the Family preparing Christmas Dinner. At the bottom of the image is a platter of Mashed Potatoes. The platter above to the potatoes with a spoon in it is the esteemed Broccoli Dish. 

Transcript: “After Momo [the informant’s mother] died, I have been the one who makes the Broccoli Dish to Family Christmas. I love doing it, and I learned how to make the dish by cooking with Momo around Christmas time since I was a kid. I know it’s popular every year because it is always gone by the end of the night. I remember a few years ago, [my husband] forgot to bring the dish from home and we all made him drive back home to get it!”

Collectors Comments: This appears to be a great example of a customary folkloric food item. The origins of the Broccoli Dish’s original recipe are unknown. It has been passed down orally through generations in the informants family. Family members learn how to make the dish through collective effort and collaboration. Over time, due to changes of availability and preferences of ingredients, there have been multiple iterations of Broccoli Dish, exemplifying multiple existence. 


Collectors Name: Jackson McGinley

Lou’s Challenge (Annabel Revers)

Title: Lou’s Challenge

General Information:

  • Type: Verbal Lore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: MR ’18
  • Date Collected: 11/7/2021
  • Location Collected: Phone Call

Informant Data:

  • MR ’18 is a twenty-six-year-old male who was born in Boston and grew up in Weston, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. He is a Dartmouth Alumni and graduated in 2018. He majored in Computer Science and currently works as a software engineer in New York City, where he lives, for a financial technology company. While at Dartmouth, he was heavily involved in the Computer Science Department as a teaching assistant and tutor. He also worked at the technology support desk. He is of German and Polish heritage and does not prescribe to any religion, although he grew up with two Catholic parents.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Dartmouth has various traditions that can be classified as “challenges.” While their origins are often unknown, these challenges provide students with both entertainment during their time at Dartmouth and the opportunity to participate in and perpetuate Dartmouth traditions. They also provide Dartmouth students with the opportunity to prove that they can do something challenging outside of academics or sports and, as they are frequently attempted with friends, provide a bonding experience among classmates. The “Lou’s Challenge” is just one of many such challenges.
  • Social Context: Lou’s is a restaurant in Hanover, New Hampshire, located on the main street of the town and a brief minute walk from the green, which marks the center of campus. Lou’s serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and is by far the most popular brunch place in town. It typically has long wait times on the weekends as it is popular among student as well as other residents of Hanover. The phrase “Lou’s Challenge” is typically used exclusively by students rather than the general Dartmouth population. Although professors and likely other Hanover residents know about the challenge, it is students alone who attempt this feat. This slang is used around campus and is not limited to a particular season, though people more frequently attempt the Lou’s Challenge when weather is warmer. The term is typically used on “on-nights” when students go out to parties, which would be Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, as students are typically out late anyways. The term is also frequently used during busy academic weeks when students are staying up late studying for exams and decide to attempt the challenge. Most students strive to attempt the challenge at least once in their Dartmouth careers, but there are lots of failed attempts where students cannot manage to stay up for so many hours and instead fall asleep. Students typically hear of this challenge early on in their Dartmouth Career, perhaps their freshman fall, but will attempt the challenge at any point in their Dartmouth Career. It is almost always attempted in pairs or groups, never alone.

Item:

  • The phrase “Lou’s Challenge” refers to the challenge of staying up all night and going to Lou’s Restaurant when it opens at 6am. For example, a student will ask their friend, “Want to do Lou’s after going out tonight?”.

Associated File:

  • Transcript: “I first heard about the Lou’s Challenge early on in my freshman year from a friend who said we should do it. I’m guessing he learned about it from an upper classman. I did the Lou’s Challenge once while I was at Dartmouth. It was a terrible experience, it was not fun at all and I just slept the whole day afterward. I would define the challenge as staying up all night and then going to Lou’s at 6am. Either you’re pulling an all nighter studying for an exam or you are out partying and trying to find things to do to keep you busy and help you not fall asleep.  I would use it, like, “Wanna do the Lou’s Challenge tonight after going out?”. I think it probably came about a long time ago since Lou’s has been around for like ever, but also probably because people here are bored and have nothing better to do with their time.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • I would not recommend doing the Lou’s Challenge as it’s not a fun experience, but it’s a Dartmouth tradition so I guess we have to keep it going.

Collector’s Comments:

  • The motivation for completing the Lou’s Challenge varies from person to person, but many students, including MR ’18, feel like they have to complete it just for the sake of keeping the tradition going and passing it down to future generations. The Lou’s Challenge, though impossible to say how far back it dates, has been going on for likely decades at the very least. I think this says a lot about human nature and our desire for tradition in order to feel more a part of our community. By completing the Lou’s Challenge, students feel more immersed in campus culture and feel united with each other by the common experience of staying up all night and going to the same place afterward for breakfast. It should also be noted that the challenge itself may be considered Customary Folklore–in this entry it is the phrase itself and its meaning as slang that we are documenting.

Collector’s Name: Annabel Revers

Tags/Keywords: Verbal Folklore, Students, English, Dartmouth, Slang, Challenges, Food, Lou’s, Lou’s Challenge

Foco (Annabel Revers)

For in-house use to Engelberth Construction Inc in media produced by them such as brochures, presentations, ads, web sites and competitions where all rights are not required. Photo credit as Gary Hall Photography or Gary R. Hall.

Title: Foco

General Information:

  • Type: Verbal Lore
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: United States
  • Informant: ES ’23
  • Date Collected: 11/1/2021
  • Location Collected: Baker/Berry Library at Dartmouth College

Informant Data:

  • ES ’23 is a twenty-year-old female from Orange County, California. She is a member of the Class of 2023 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire where she studies Economics and Government. On campus, she is involved in the Women in Student Businesses organization, is a teaching assistant for an engineering course, and is a member of a sorority. ES is also vegan, but this does not restrict her from dining at the various dining centers around campus–she is able to find options at all of them that fit her dietary needs. She plans on going into consulting after graduation.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Students at Dartmouth generally use the dining halls quite a lot. Though there are options for eating out and getting takeout food in town, they are somewhat limited given the relatively remote location of the campus. Most students thus opt to stay on a meal plan for all four years that they go to Dartmouth for the sake of convenience and also cost effectiveness. “Foco” is the largest dining hall on campus and one of the more frequently used by students of various backgrounds, involvements, and class years. The atmosphere at Foco varies depending on the meal time. While breakfast is somewhat quiet given many students do not eat breakfast due to sleeping in too late, at peak hours, Foco is typically quite lively and crowded. Peak hours for lunch are between noon and 1pm, while peak hours for dinner are between 6 and 7pm. During these times, it can be difficult for a student to get a table. There are various food options, ranging in terms of health and nutritional value. Typically, one can always find something at Foco that appeals to them and fits with their diet and nutritional needs.
  • Social Context: “Foco” is typically used exclusively by students rather than the general Dartmouth population, as it is generally students alone who dine at the Class of 1953 Commons. This slang word is used around campus at any time of the day when one would typically be up and looking for something to eat. Foco serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so this piece of lore applies to all three meals and is used throughout the day. It would generally be used under the following circumstances: a student is going there for a meal, a student is asking someone else to go there for a meal with them, a sports team is all going there to eat after practice, someone is going to study there (sometimes people go to both eat and study), or a club is meeting there. It is often the case that girls eat at Foco more early on in their college career at Dartmouth, rarely going there by the time they are seniors. Guys, however eat at Foco for all four years they are at Dartmouth. The reasons for this are unknown.

Item:

  • “Foco” stands for “food court.” It is colloquial slang that refers to the Class of 1953 Commons, a dining hall at Dartmouth College. For example, a student will ask another student, “Want to get dinner at Foco?”.

Associated File:

  • Transcript: “Foco stands for food court, which is kinda weird because there’s an actual name for it too, the class of fifty-something commons. I think I first heard the term on trips when my trip leaders were talking about the different places to eat on campus. They said it in passing though, so I didn’t realize that Foco wasn’t the actual name of the dining center until a friend told me when I got back to campus and went there to eat for the first time. Almost everyone on campus uses this slang term even if they don’t eat there–Foco just comes up. It’s mostly underclassmen and guys that eat there though; a lot of girls stop eating there after freshman year. It’s a social thing, can’t explain it. But I still eat there sometimes when I’m running out of DBA. It’s also a good place to go if you want to run into people.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • I would recommend Foco, though the food varies a lot in quality day to day.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I think it is interesting how ES mentioned Foco is not just a place to eat but also a place to socialize and a place of community gathering where you run into various people you know. Such must add to its appeal for some people and deter others who may want to grab a meal without having to socialize. Furthermore, I think it is important to note that Foco is one of the more frequently used slang words on Dartmouth Campus. It makes sense that an acronym would arise for a dining center so frequently used by students, especially considering its actual name is quite lengthy and would be difficult to say throughout the day in the casual contexts in which it is typically referred to. Finally, I wanted to clarify the transcript’s reference to “trips”–these are the camping trips all first-year Dartmouth students participate in before matriculation.

Collector’s Name: Annabel Revers

Tags/Keywords: Verbal Folklore, Students, English, Dartmouth, Slang, Dining Halls, Food, Acronyms

Dark Side/Light Side (Harry Grigorian)

Title: Dark Side/ Light Side

General Information:

         Verbal Lore, Slang

         Language: English

         Country of Origin: United States

         Informant: JS

         Date Collected: 11/2/2021

         Location Collected: Dorm Room

Informant Data: JS is a member of the Class of 2023 at Dartmouth. He is from Providence, Rhode Island and rows on the Varsity Men’s Lightweight Crew Team. JS is a Government major and enjoys spending time with his dog and riding his bike.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: These are among the two most commonly used phrases at Dartmouth. Student can use them in person or over text, and they are ubiquitous in all class years and across campus. Its usage certainly spikes around meal times as student plan where to meet friends.

Cultural Context: As there is only one dining hall, students are very familiar with it. It does have two separate eating areas, and one is lighter with white paint and tables while one is darker with brown paint and tables. Students coordinate where they want to sit by texting their friends before a meal asking if they are going light or dark side. It has a neutral connotation.

Item: Dark and Light Side; the two eating areas at Foco, one of which is darker and one of which is lighter. Example: I was sitting at Dark Side, but it was too depressing today so I moved to Light Side.

Quotes from Informant: “In foco,” these two terms describe “two places you can at in Foco on opposite sides of the building.” In a phrase, he could say “I would prefer to eat on dark side over light side today.” He learned this phrase “freshman fall, right at the start of school from a person who had already been here.” “All of Dartmouth knows dark side vs light side.” This slang came to be “because it’s a description of a place and dark side is a lot darker. It’s much easier to describe.”

Informant’s Comments: Everyone on campus knows this word and uses it frequently. Sports teams eat on Dark Side usually, especially JS’s crew team. “It’s nice because whole teams can sit together at the longer tables and not have to split up,” JS said.

Collector’s Comments: This slang feels very unique to Dartmouth. As we are all so familiar with Foco, it is cool that we can create slang (Dark and Light Side) within other slang (Foco). That’s pretty cool!

Collector’s Name: Harry Grigorian

Colly P (Harry Grigorian)

General Information:

         Verbal Lore, Slang

         Language: English

         Country of Origin: United States

         Informant: GG

         Date Collected: 10/19/2021

         Location Collected: Dorm Room

Informant Data: GG is a graduate of Dartmouth College in the Class of 2017. She majored in Chemistry and was pre-med. She is from Bethesda, Maryland, and she is working as an assistant at a medical facility before going to medical school next year.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: This word developed around a friend group that GG was a part of during her later years at Dartmouth. The group used the word among themselves, and occassionally would mention it to others outside the group, even though those people sometimes did not understand the meaning. Scenarios under which the word might be used are over text message or in person.

Cultural Context: Dartmouth students frequently try to shorten longer phrases or expressions using shortened words. This is a common practice, and it can be applied to almost any existing word. She believes most people on campus have not heard of this slang, but may understand it if they hear it. The term is neutral.

Item: Colly P; Pasta from Collis Student Center. Example: You want to grab some Colly P after class?

Quotes from Informant: GG said “Colly P stands for Collis Pasta. I think only like three people say it,” she said, adding that “it’s very niche. I think one of my friend groups made it up.” She believes that “it encapsulates that Dartmouth loves creating shortcuts for things that don’t even need them. It’s like people just make them for fun and to add twists to normally mundane things.”

Informant’s Comments: GG said this was one of her favorite words that she used at Dartmouth. GG really like this word and still enjoys saying it after Dartmouth, even though no one knows what she is talking about.

Collector’s Comments: I had never heard of this word despite the fact that the informant is my sister. It seems a little unnecessary to shorten the already short “Collis Pasta,” but this slang shows how Dartmouth students will stop at nothing to save time.

Collector’s Name: Harry Grigorian

Entrée/Dessert: Glutinous Rice Cake

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material Lore – dish; Customary Lore – celebration, superstition, family tradition; Verbal Lore – saying
  • Language: English with some Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Country of Origin: China
  • Informant: W.W.
  • Date Collected: November 15, 2020

Informant Data:

  • W.W. is a 22-year-old senior studying Mathematics and Computer Science at Dartmouth. He was born in Boulder, Colorado, but his family moved to Shanghai, China when he was 9 years old. Every summer vacation and Chinese New Year while in China, W.W. would visit his maternal relatives in Beijing with his parents and little sister. To celebrate the reunion of the extended family, his grandma would host a large dinner celebration at home with all the relatives invited, including all the uncles, aunts, cousins, and even the family pets.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context

  • “Nián gāo” (年糕) refers to Glutinous Rice Cake, but it can also be translated literally as “New Year Cake.” The name is auspicious because it sounds similar to the popular Chinese New Year’s saying “nián nián gāo” (年年高), which means “higher every year.” It is often used as a toast at the dinner table to wish good health for elders, successful careers for working adults, and stellar grades for children.

Social Context

  • Glutinous Rice Cake is always served for the traditional feast on Chinese New Year’s Eve. The extended family reunites to celebrate this special occasion. After the feast, the family watches fireworks and a special show on TV called “chūn wǎn” (春晚), which features singing, dancing, and traditional performances.

Item:

  • “Nián gāo” (年糕), or Glutinous Rice Cake, comes in two varieties: savory and sweet. The preparation process is straightforward but time consuming. First, boiled sticky rice is pounded into a paste and molded into dough. The dough is then cooked again, usually by steaming. Savory Glutinous Rice Cake dishes are usually served as entrées. The rice dough is cooked plain, typically in the shape of cylinders or flat slices, and subsequently stir fried with other ingredients or used in hotpot. For example, in Shanghai, Glutinous Rice Cake is often stir fried with cabbage and shredded pork. Sweet Glutinous Rice Cake dishes, on the other hand, are served as desserts. Sugar, assorted nuts, and dried fruits are added to the dough before cooking or mixed in afterwards. When purchased at the store, sweet Glutinous Rice Cake dishes are often packed in more elaborate shapes such as fish, which symbolizes surplus and unity.

Image Files:

Sweet Glutinous Rice Cake in elaborate packaging (Photo was taken by W.W.’s family members on November 7, 2020; it was ordered online.)

Sweet Glutinous Rice Cake being steamed (Photo was taken by W.W.’s family members on November 7, 2020; unfortunately the end product is not as beautiful as the packaging.)

Transcript of Interview Clip:

W.W. (collector and informant): When I was a child, um, I remember that my favorite dessert for Chinese New Year was sweet Glutinous Rice Cake shaped like koi. Since I was allergic to tree nuts, my parents and grandparents always bought it plain. The packaging was super elaborate, so I was always, um, a little, very disappointed actually, to discover that the rice cake itself was plain white. My family would steam the plain rice cake and serve it with nuts and other toppings placed separately on the side. I always struggled to eat it because it was very sticky. Apparently, the right technique is to stick your chopsticks into the rice cake and swirl them around until a decent sized blob forms. After eating the rice cake, we would cast lots to see who would clean the dishes because it was always a tedious chore to clean off the sticky remains.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Talking about Glutinous Rice Cake brings back happy childhood memories and evokes a strong feeling of nostalgia. I always preferred the sweet type instead of the savory type. My parents did not have the time to make rice dough themselves, so they bought it pre-packaged from the store, usually weeks in advance. I would always beg them to let me eat it before Chinese New Year, but my efforts were never successful.

Collector’s Name: Winston Wang

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Entrée: Braised Pork and Gold Ingot Egg

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material Lore – dish, recipe; Customary Lore – celebration, family tradition, superstition, historical story
  • Language: Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Country of Origin: China
  • Informant: Y.Z.
  • Date Collected: November 7, 2020

Informant Data:

  • Y.Z. is about ~50 years old, and she currently resides in Shanghai, China. She was born in Beijing, China during the Cultural Revolution and grew up in relative poverty, as was the case with most Chinese families back then. After attending university in Beijing, she pursued her graduate studies in the US. She learned many traditional Chinese dishes from her mother and enjoys cooking for her family.

Contextual Data:

Historical & Cultural Context

  • During the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368) in China, the main currency was gold and silver ingots shaped like tiny boats called “yuán bǎo” (元宝). Many traditional Chinese New Year dishes such as dumplings are prepared in the shape of these ingots as a symbol for wealth and prosperity.
  • In the 1960s and 1970s, China’s economy was in a terrible state. Meat, eggs, and sugar were heavily rationed. As a result, most families could not prepare meat dishes and desserts for their daily meals. During Chinese New Year, the rations were temporarily increased, so families would celebrate by making large meat dishes and fancy desserts.

Social Context

  • Chinese New Year meals are always eaten as family. Most of the dishes have auspicious names, colors, or shapes that symbolize longevity, wealth, or good fortune. By eating these dishes, families express their hope for more prosperity and blessings in the coming year.

Item:

  • Braised Pork and Gold Ingot Egg, or “hóng shāo ròu yuán bǎo dàn” (红烧肉元宝蛋) in Chinese, is a popular meat dish eaten for Chinese New Year, both in the northern and southern provinces. Diced pork belly is braised in a broth consisting of soy sauce, sugar, star anise, ginger, and garlic. Boiled eggs are then flavored using the remaining meat stock. Afterwards, the top half of the egg whites are removed to give the eggs a distinctive “yuán bǎo” (元宝) shape. Finally, the eggs are plated on top of the pork belly, and the family shares the dish together to express their wishes for the new year. There are several variations of this dish according to regional preferences. For example, in Shanghai, families tend to add much more sugar to the dish to give it a sweeter taste.

Image File:

image file

The completed dish (Photo was taken by Y.Z. on November 7, 2020; she prepared the dish using a recipe from her mother.)

Translation of Interview Clip:

Y.Z. (informant): The dish I’m introducing is called “hóng shāo ròu yuán bǎo dàn” (红烧肉元宝蛋). Um, this dish, we always had it for Chinese New Year when I was a child. So, when I grew up in the 60s and 70s, China’s economy was pretty behind. Ingredients like pork and eggs were scarce resources, rationed every month by the government. For each person, every month, um, there was about one pound of meat and eggs in total. So, usually, we rarely had a chance to eat meat. That’s why during Chinese New Year, when the rations are slightly increased, we would use, um, pork and eggs to make the dish. One reason why this dish is so popular is because the meat is braised in soy sauce and other condiments, including star anise, scallion, ginger, and garlic… uh, the remaining meat stock is used to flavor the eggs and can also be saved for other dishes. The reason why the eggs are called ” yuán bǎo dàn ” (元宝蛋), is like this. “Yuán bǎo” (元宝), they are Chinese ingots, the shape is like a boat. During the Yuan Dynasty, gold and silver were used as currency, and they were molded into such a shape. ” Yuán” (元) refers to the Yuan Dynasty, and ” bǎo” (宝) means treasure. So in this dish, you can make the eggs resemble “yuán bǎo” (元宝) by removing part of the egg white. I guess this is a nice wish, the hope that, next year, life will be bountiful, the family income will increase, so people make this dish “hóng shāo ròu yuán bǎo dàn” (红烧肉元宝蛋). That’s about it. Are there any parts that you are not clear about?

W.W. (collector): Great, thanks for sharing. So I wanted to ask, is this dish a Beijing specialty or eaten widely across China?

Y.Z.: Uh, this is great question. This dish, I think it is eaten in many places, by many people. For Chinese New Year, both in the north and in the south, it is one of the most common dishes on the dinner table, suitable for young and old alike. Everyone likes it very much and eats the dish to show their wishes. Even though, the standards of living are higher now, and the dish can be made any time of the year, but as a tradition, many families still prepare it as a festival dish for Chinese New Year.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I remember eating “hóng shāo ròu” (红烧肉), or braised pork, as a child, but this is my first time hearing about “yuán bǎo dàn” (元宝蛋). I am impressed by the level of creativity in the preparation of the eggs.
  • Homeopathic magic is present in the superstitions related to the informant’s dish: eating the ingot-shaped eggs brings wealth and good fortune.

Collector’s Name: Winston Wang

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Topping: Osmanthus Honey

General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material Lore – dish; Customary Lore – celebration, family tradition, superstition, cooking technique
  • Language: English with some Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Country of Origin: China
  • Informant: V.Y.
  • Date Collected: November 7, 2020

Informant Data:

  • V.Y. is a 21-year-old senior studying Physics at UCLA. He is from Shanghai, China, though his family lived in Beijing for eight years before settling down in Shanghai. While in China, he celebrated traditional Chinese festivals with his family. He has especially fond memories of his grandma’s cooking.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context

  • Chinese cuisine varies greatly from province to province in terms of style, but Chinese chefs have classified eight regional cuisines, the most prominent ones being Cantonese cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine, and Sichuan cuisine. In the modern age, it is not uncommon for Chinese families to combine ingredients and cooking techniques from two or more regional cuisines or modify existing dishes to better suit their tastes.
  • Chinese culture places heavy emphasis on the symbolic meaning of flowers: chrysanthemums symbolize longevity, plum blossoms symbolize perseverance, magnolias symbolize beauty, osmanthus flowers symbolize wealth and royalty, etc. Many types of flowers are used in teas and dessert dishes to infuse them with the corresponding symbolic attributes.

Social Context

  • In China, there is a stereotype that all grandmas are good chefs. Children always look forward to visiting their grandma’s house on special occasions like Chinese New Year to eat delicious home-cooked meals. Grandparents often spoil their grandchildren by feeding them an extravagant amount of food, much to the chagrin of their parents.

Item:

  • Osmanthus Honey, or “guì huā mì” (桂花蜜) is a special jam-like topping that the informant’s family uses for traditional desserts such as “tāng yuán” (汤圆), glutinous rice balls, and “guì huā gāo” (桂花糕), osmanthus cake. The technique of preserving flowers in honey is native to Haiyang (海阳), the hometown of the informant’s grandma; however, osmanthus flowers are more commonly used in Shanghainese and Hangzhou cuisine. While fresh osmanthus flowers are often preferred for dishes, Osmanthus Honey allows the distinctive fragrance of osmanthus flowers to be used in winter festival dishes, even when the flowers themselves are not in bloom. The preparation of Osmanthus Honey is quite simple: fresh osmanthus flowers are dried and submerged in honey; the resulting mixture is then stored in a glass jar for future use. Osmanthus Honey can be directly applied to the top of a dessert or mixed into dessert doughs.

Audio Clip:

 

Transcript:

V.Y. (informant): Sure. So um, my grandmother, who is from Shandong (山东) used to make this honey infused with “guì huā” (桂花), which is a kind of flower that’s common in China, especially in Shanghai. And it smells very nice, and it doesn’t really taste like anything, but it makes whatever you put it in smell like the flower. And we used to put it in honey and then put the honey into various doughs that we use for desserts, and we used to sprinkle it on top of “tāng yuán” (汤圆) and put it in “guì huā gāo” (桂花糕), which I believe is kind of like Shanghai specialty, which is a kind of, I guess… I guess custard isn’t the right word. It’s a desert made of dough, I guess. Uh, yeah. And I always feel like it’s it’s kind of a unique thing to our family, because I don’t think it’s a very common thing in China doing this. And I was really like how… this is, I believe, this is like a technique people do in my grandmother’s hometown, which is not Shanghai. And this is a flower from Shanghai. And we is always just thought it was nice that, you know, it’s kind of customs of different parts of China that we combine in our family. And yeah, yeah, there are other dishes that we, but this is just something that came to mind.

W.W. (collector): Um, yeah, also do you mind telling me where your grandma’s from?

V.Y.: Uh, from Shandong from a small city by the sea, called Haiyang (海阳). And, yeah, I visited there once. And it’s kind of interesting. It’s sort of an isolated city. I mean, obviously, now, there’s roads and airports and everything. But historically, it’s somewhat isolated. So their cuisine is kind of not represented. It’s kind of different from general Chinese cuisine. Like it’s almost a little similar to Japanese cuisine, because they’re next to the sea, and they eat like octopus raw and everything. And, yeah, then this is the this putting flowers in honey is apparently one, something they do there is, as I can recall.

W.W.: It’s very interesting. And, um, so do you know, whether this has any significance for like, Chinese New Year in general, or how this tradition started within your family?

V.Y.: Um, I’m not… I suppose it started, I guess, when my grandmother moved to Shanghai, because that was she, you know, she didn’t grow up here. That, I think is something like 40, 50 years ago. And, um, I mean, I guess back then, it’s having you know, any kind of sugar at all is kind of a luxury. And, you know, certainly you couldn’t really preserve “guì huā” (桂花), is definitely a seasonal things back then. So I think putting it in honey, you know, it’s a it’s a nice and tasty thing, but I guess also preserves the seasonal, seasonal delicacy. And I guess it’s kind of a nice thing to have.

Informant’s Comments:

  • Talking about Osmanthus Honey, I kind of miss it now…

Collector’s Comments:

  • I also have fond memories of my grandma’s cooking. Every time my family went to visit her in Beijing, she would cook for an entire day and prepare a grand feast.
  • One of my favorite Shanghainese dishes is “nuò mǐ ǒu” (糯米藕), or lotus root with sticky rice. It is often topped with honey and osmanthus flowers, though they are added separated.

Collector’s Name: Winston Wang

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