UNESCO has several lists promoting, or globally applauding various aspects of culture and the role of food. For instance, the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices, Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, and a List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Here is the 2021 and 2020 food-related items on those UNESCO lists along with the stories and videos that explain our interesting history.
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2021 UNESCO: Senegal’s Ceebu Jën
Ceebu jën is a dish that originated in the fishing communities on the Island of Saint-Louis in Senegal. Although recipes vary from one region to the next, the dish is typically made with fish steak, broken rice, dried fish, mollusc and seasonal vegetables such as onions, parsley, garlic, chilli pepper, tomatoes, carrots, eggplant, white cabbage, cassava, sweet potato, okra and bay leaf. The quality of the fish and the choice of vegetables are determined by the importance of the event or the degree of affection one has for the guest.
This national dish of Senegal is a one pot, rice and fish platter. AfricanNews explains further, that this dish’s recipe and cooking technique is handed down from mother to daughter. This dish is extremely adaptable, as a variety of vegetables or fish can be used. The combination of cooking in one pot and incorporating crunchy burnt rice often finds Ceebu jën compared with Spain’s paella and Creole jambalaya.
I found recipes at AfricanBites, and CongoCookBooks.
2021 UNESCO: Haiti’s Joumou Soup
Joumou or giraumon soup is a traditional Haitian pumpkin soup made with vegetables, plantains, meat, pasta and spices. It is a celebratory dish, deeply rooted in Haitian identity, and its preparation promotes social cohesion and belonging among communities. Originally reserved for slave owners, Haitians took ownership of the soup when they gained independence from France, turning it into a symbol of their newly acquired freedom and an expression of their dignity and resilience.
NeighborhoodView writes, to Haitians like myself, Soup Joumou represents “Freedom.” We Haitians eat it every year in celebration of the world’s first and only successful slave revolution and becoming the first independent nation.
- January 1, 1804 is the Haiti Liberation Day from colonial France, after 12 years and 4 months of fighting.
There were several recipes I found on line: SavoryThoghts, and EatingWell.
2021 UNESCO: Italian Truffle Hunting
Italian truffle hunting and extraction is a set of knowledge and practices that has been transmitted orally for centuries. Today, it still characterizes the rural life of entire communities in the Italian peninsula. Truffle hunters, or tartufai, usually live in rural areas and small villages.
- Truffles are edible spores that grow on an underground fungus in the family Tuberaceae.
- Technically truffles are not mushrooms.
- Mushrooms grow above ground, while truffles grow beneath the surface.
The Italian truffle hunt is on many tour group’s itinerary, as it is known as a uniquely Italian activity. After hunting the tourists are often given lunch with truffles, and wine of course. While they learn about the process, the actual knowledge about all this foraging requires is only passed on through oral traditions, including stories, fables, anecdotes and expressions that reflect the local cultural identity and create a sense of solidarity within the truffle hunting community. Truffle hunting is often associated with popular feasts that mark the beginning and end of the truffle season. The practices respect ecological balance and plant biodiversity, ensuring the seasonal regeneration of the truffle species.
2021 UNESCO: Safeguarding Kenya Traditional Foods + Foodways
In Kenya, traditional foodways were under threat due to historical factors and the pressure of modern lifestyles. Local foods were looked down upon and were associated with poverty and backwardness. Understanding that a decline in food diversity and knowledge would have serious ramifications on health and on food and nutrition insecurity, in 2007 Kenya committed to safeguarding related practices and expressions.
First, there was a program to inventory traditional foods, resulting with 850 plants recorded, along with their use and indigenous knowledge such as recipes and related and often ceremonial practices. Second, UNESCO in partnership with the Department of Culture, the International and National Museums of Kenya, and community leaders, initiated a pilot project to identify, and inventory traditional foodways.
- Foodways is a broad and fascinating topic which explores the intersection of food in culture and history.
- Essentially, foodways are the cultural, social, and economic practices relating to the production and consumption of food (1).
- This is a participatory tool that captures the whole range of local foods of a community, how food is sourced in the landscape, prepared and consumed and the roles of the household and community members involved (2).
2020 UNESCO: Tunesia Charfia fishing
Charfia fishing in the Kerkennah Islands is a traditional, passive fishing technique that capitalises on the hydrographic conditions, seabed contours and natural resources both at sea and on land. Around the Kerkennah Islands, the water is so shallow that the tides expose large areas of sand. When the tide turns fish are carried out to the sea.
But this unusual situation gave the native peoples a way to fish in an evironmentally friendly way called charfia; a fixed fishery system consisting of palm fronds embedded in the seabed to create a triangular barrier, blocking the path of the fish pulled in by the ebb tide and channelling them into capture chambers and finally into a net or trap. But this type of fishing is self-limited to autumn equinox and June, as a way to ensure that the marine wildlife can rebuild its numbers.
2020 UNESCO: Singapore’s Hawker Culture
Hawkers prepare a variety of food (‘hawker food’) for people who dine and mingle at hawker centres. These centres serve as ‘community dining rooms’ where people from diverse backgrounds gather and share the experience of dining over breakfast, lunch and dinner. Activities such as chess-playing, busking and art-jamming also take place. Evolved from street food culture, hawker centres have become markers of Singapore as a multicultural city-state, comprising Chinese, Malay, Indian and other cultures.
What we, outside of Singapore, need to know is that these Hawker Centers first appeared in Singapore in 1819, when it became a British colony (3). I have not been to a Hawker center, so am relying on the descriptions of others. However, assuming what I am reading and seeing in photos, I can say that in some ways, the Hawker Courts are similar to the Mall Food Courts in the USA, when we used to have operating Malls. According to Wikipedia, hawker centers are open-air areas commonly found in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore; built to provide sanitary alternative to food carts, and contain many differing food stalls, each offering affordable meals.
Unsurprisingly, in 2018, 8 out of 10 Singaporeans visited Hawker Centers at least once a week. But we will have to see what happens, for right now only Singaporeans can work there (4), and younger people do not want that kind of job. Coupled with the average Chef age at 60, we’ll have to keep tuned in, for either changes have to made to allow others to staff the stalls, or they might fail in the long run. Here is a link to information on how to maneuver around a Hawker Center.
2020 UNESCO: Malta’s Il-Ftira
Il-Ftira, culinary art and culture of flattened sourdough bread in Malta, is a key part of the cultural heritage of the inhabitants of the Maltese archipelago. Ftira has a thick crust and light internal texture, characterized by large, irregular holes (an open crumb). The first reference to this flattened Maltese sourdough bread dates back to at least the 16th century, and it has remarkably retained its traditional essence (5).
Il-Ftira is eaten with a variety of fillings, which may include: tuna, beans, tomatoes, olive oil, capers and pickled vegetables. Ftira is ring-shaped, as bakers keep a hole in the center to ensure the bread does not rise. As a sandwich, you just slice it in half and use it as sandwich bread, just fill it with Malta foods. To make ħobz biż-żejt (6):
- Make Il-Ftira Sandwich
- Slice the ftira in half and dip the slices in olive oil until they are covered in a generous coating. of oil.fd
- Slice a fresh tomato in half, and rub the cut side over both slices of the bread until it’s red.
- Sprinkle to taste with sea salt and pepper.
- Add your sandwich ingredients: capers, ripe olives, tuna, sliced tomatoes, lettuce and/or pickled onion.
2020 UNESCO: Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, + Tunisia’s Cous Cous
Let me state up front that this North African ingredient, is not a grain, but a pasta made with semolina flour from crushed durum wheat. The knowledge, know-how and practices pertaining to the production and consumption of couscous encompass the methods of preparation, manufacturing conditions and tools, associated artefacts and circumstances of consumption of couscous in the communities concerned. Preparing couscous is a ceremonial process involving several different operations.
BobsRedMill describes how to make cous cous: coarsely-ground durum wheat (semolina) is moistened and typically tossed with fine wheat flour until small, round granules of pasta dough are formed. These tiny balls of pasta are then left to dry for several hours before they are able to be cooked.
In some countries, couscous may be tossed with water and olive oil, and then steamed over a simmered stew for added flavor. I think this is a wonderful way to cook these pasta with no additional energy used, but more importantly, the flavor a stew might infuse in the pasta sounds great.
- To cook cous cous
- Cook by steaming in a pot on the stovetop.
- I prefer to toast the pasta in a minimally oiled cast iron skillet for added flavor. Toast until slightly tanned, not browned.
- Boil the cooking liquid. Use a 1:1 liquid to pasta, the liquid could be water, but I prefer using a broth.
- Pour the toasted pasta in boiling liquid, stirring, and then placing a lid.
- Turn off the heat and let the pasta absorb all the liquid, ~10min.
- When done, fluff, and then add a fresh herb and some citrus to up the flavor.
2020 UNESCO: Belarus + Poland Tree Beekeepers
Tree beekeeping culture includes knowledge, skills, practices, traditions, rituals and beliefs connected to wild bees breeding in tree hives or log hives located in forest areas. Tree beekeepers take care of bees in a special way by trying to recreate the primeval living conditions in tree hives without interfering with the natural life cycle of the bees. Tree beekeepers have no goal of intensifying honey production, which is one of the features that differentiates them from beekeepers.
The practice of tree beekeeping dates back to the 13th century, and seeks to create a natural living conditions for the bees in trees and log hives. These beekeepers goal is to have as little human interaction as is possible, so they deliberately locate these hives in hard-to-access places to help keep them isolated (7). They do harvest the bees wax and honey but try to be as minimally invasive as possible.
Summary
Again, what a fascinating series of stories about food. I have tried to increase the information by adding additional clarifying comments and ideas on cooking the foods described. I also admire the efforts by UNESCO to help people save themselves, their food sources, and most importantly the history so many of us are at risk of loosing. Bravo.
—Patty
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