Indian Food

The type of food I ate while growing up was Indian. I am part of an Indian family so it is obvious that the food prepared at home is Indian. Indian food is usually spicy consisting of rice and some sort of vegetable dish or a non vegetarian curry item. I eat rice almost every day. Eating Indian food has shaped who I am today significantly because eating spicy food has resulted in me having a spicy personality. I am just kidding. In all seriousness, I do not thing the food that I eat shapes my personality. It did however, shape my food preferences immensely. My favorite places to go out to eat are Indian restaurants. I enjoy going to both vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian Indian restaurants. My favorite vegetarian and non-vegetarian restaurants in the Atlanta area are Udipi and Zyka. My favorite dish that I enjoy eating is butter chicken with naan.

My diet does not consist of beef because I am a Hindu. Cows are sacred in the Hindu religion. This poses a problem sometimes like for example, eating at Brittain Dining Hall. At Brittain, lot of the specials include beef. Overall, however, abstaining from eating beef is a positive thing because beef is unhealthy for the body. Even though I am Indian, I have lived in Atlanta for the past 12 years. In these years, I have become quite fond of Southern food like fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. I love eating at Chick-fil-A and luckily for me, Chick-fil-A does not serve any beef so nothing on their menu is off limits.

Southern Food

As a young lad I was rather fortunate to grow up in what some would call a "traditional southern" home. Belonging to a "traditional southern" home my mother often delved into the sacred arts of southern cooking. Some may smirk at my last remark but anyone who has ever had a home-cooked southern meal should be able to agree that the art that southern food is, is indeed sacred. Southern food encompasses a whole realm of food that can't be listed in one single blog post. To give a general idea of what I'm talking about when I say southern food I'll list a few of my favorite southern dishes: chicken fried steak(depicted to the left), green beans, corn bread, fried chicken, collard greens, mashed potatoes and gravy, and so on. Growing up eating southern food has definitely shaped my preferences in food. Obviously I prefer to eat southern food when at all possible. Has it shaped me as a person? Not really, well I guess physically it has, eating a lot of greasy delicious southern food has led to me being slightly overweight.

Blake Bauer

Topic for This Week

For this week I would like our blog group to investigate the following topic, When you were growing up in your household, what sort of food was predominant. For an example would you eat Mexican or Southern food, and did this selection of a food style shape who you are today and your eating preferences. The answers can also reference articles or recipes describing the certain style of food that one is accustomed to.

Home of Flavor

by. Phillip Miller

When it comes to the south, several things come to mind; the sun, farms, blue jeans, blondes, big trucks and ‘huntin.’ More importantly than anything for me, I think of the food!!! With large amounts of historical and present immigration the food in the south has been morphed, molded and mastered. At the thought of the variety and flavor of all the foods available my stomach grumbles. The image I have here is of a chef holding up his fresh of the pit ‘rack o’ ribs’ at Dreamland Bar-B-Que in Tuscaloosa, Ala. These mouthwatering babies can be found in almost every town in he south. With each bite into a southern mean you travel through time. You start of with the spices in your mouth that tells you more than one country has had their hand in this; spices from all over the world are here in your mouth. Then we enter the meat itself and its style of cooking, where did it come from and how has it changed. There are meals that can take days of preparation for that explosion of flavor and utter satisfaction. This cannot be attributed to one person, one people or one country. All of these meals, from fried chicken to mama’s gumbo, they are all products of time, terrain and diversity.

The meal is an important part of southern culture. Except for the food being amazingly delicious, mealtime is especially important family time and social gatherings. Even the neighbor bringing a pie to the new resident is locked into time as southern. Southerners take pride in their culture as well as their ability to cook. There must be hundreds of thousands of ways to make barbecue sauce in the south and mostly all are delicious. Southern food has taken up residence in chain restaurants that have spread throughout the world but most families seem to hold onto their traditions and recipes proudly. Food is the south…

"Song of the South" - Loss of Southern Identity After the Great Depression

Saints Fans Shoot a 60 inch Television

The artifact above is of a video clip on YouTube of a bunch of Saints fans shooting a 60 inch television. The owner of the television is Wayne Spring of Albany, Louisiana. He made a bet on Facebook with his football friends that if the Saints beat the Redskins, he will let his friends shoot his television. The Saints do beat the Redskins 33-30 in OT to stay undefeated. So after the game, his friends as well as Wayne Spring himself shoot the TV. This video says a lot about the South, more specifically Louisiana. It is a combination of two cultures, the rural south with the modern technology era. This video shows the rural, country side of the South by the accents of Wayne and his friends (one of Wayne’s friends calls the TV purdy instead of pretty), the fact that they are madly in love with football (a guy had the logo of the Saints tattooed on his head), and the fact that all of them had guns. Characteristics of the modern technology era in this video are that Wayne Spring uploads this video onto YouTube, makes a bet with his friends on Facebook, and that Wayne has a 60 inch TV. I think this video is a fairly accurate representation of the South. The people of the South still cling on to their pastimes like football and hunting but they, like the rest of the country, have a lifestyle revolved around technology as portrayed by their use of social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube.

Rahul Shetty

An Alternate View On Southern Culture and Identity

I do not believe that a proper representation of the South can be offered by any single artifact. Even the typical Southern stereotypes are far ranging from well-mannered gentlemen and their southern belles to poor, fried chicken-loving, trailer park-dwelling rednecks. The artifact I chose to investigate is the (non)sport of NASCAR.

The history of NASCAR is uniquely Southern. During the days of Prohibition some men (called runners) drove fast cars in order to outdrive the law and deliver illicit stores of moonshine. When not on the road transporting liquor, informal races were held in order to determine who the fastest runner was. By the late 1940s these races had become an organized sport with standard rules for racing being established in 1947 in Daytona Beach, Florida. This was the birth and beginning of what would become the immensely popular sport of NASCAR.

The fans of NASCAR are incredibly loyal. The revenue generated by NASCAR merchandise sales is in the hundreds of millions. But NASCAR merchandise and extreme loyalty are not the only things fans sport while at the races; Confederate flags and Southern pride are also common sights. Although the Confederate flag has been banned from appearing on any NASCAR licensed product, the image is still seen regularly amidst the fans. Some people, like myself, question why some fans are so passionate about such a controversial symbol. Rebel flag supporters retort “it’s not hatred, it’s heritage.”

The NASCAR culture makes up an interesting facet of Southern identity. The history involved is uniquely Southern and evokes great Southern pride. However, NASCAR, like the South, is slowly becoming more national, even more global. Sixty percent of NASCAR fans live outside of the South. More and more raceways are being built in the north and exhibitions are taking place around the globe. The disappearing Southerness of NASCAR mirrors the disappearing sense of Southerness in general. The New South is in some instances hardly recognizable from the North. NASCAR, too, is gaining a greater diversity of followers. Both, however, have rich histories with proud and loyal people. This artifact is therefore an accurate representation of at least some facets of the South and Southern identity.

The above video plays the song White Knuckle Ride by Lynyrd Skynyrd. The song is Southern Rock and is about the present love and nostalgia for racing cars. The inclusion of this artifact is appropriate because it emphasizes the importance of car racing in the South as well as the importance of remembering one's roots and where one came from.

Kristen Hannukainen

Southern Culture and Identity

The first thing I think of when I hear the question "what offers a representation of the south," I immediately think of Sweet Grass Baskets.

The above image or artifact is taken on market street in Charleston. The picture shows a black lady weaving a sweet grass basket with the ones she has finished in front of her for sale. The art of making the baskets can be seen as a representative of the south, however it is also a representation of the strong black culture that is still prominent in today's society.

The above picture also conjures up the language spoken by many blacks in the area around Charleston, and the language being Gullah, which is based heavily on English and several West and South African dialects. The language is dieing off relatively quickly recently because of the expansion of public education. Most Charlestonians have heard of Gullah or have their own idea of what the language is to themselves.

The following is an excellent video done by etv that shows some of history of sweet grass basket making.

Another facet of the artifact is that it is a representation of how crucial tourism is to Charleston. The baskets are predominantly bought by tourists; however, that is not to say that locals in Charleston do not buy the baskets. If one walks down market street on a busy Saturday, you will see many baskets and several of them look the same from one vendor to the next. However, what most tourists and people don't realize is that basket weaving is still an artform in this modern day of machine made products. A hand made basket will differ from other local artisans and there is a reason why one basket that looks identical to another one might cost 25% more. Typically the craftsmanship is more ornate and better produced with the more expensive one. Each basket will reveal a unique difference as they are a form of art.

The sweet grass baskets are an accurate representation of the Gullah/Charleston identity and will contiue to be untill this artform is lost. Currently it is threatened by a generation that doesn't look well upon the past and the decrease in tourism. I have spoke to one of the basket weavers about what the future looks like for this cultural art, and she responded that the kids of the current generation for the most part are too involved in the new black identity of removing themselves from the past.

Overall sweet grass baskets are a representation of Southern/Gullah identity and of the tourism that is Charleston.

Jason Baron