Point of Origin Episode 17
Diasporic Foodways
Diasporic foodways examines how food has traveled from origin to adopted home, and in doing so, taken on new meaning while steadfastly keeping communities connected to their heritage. In many instances, in the grappling is the creation of a third culture. Cultures that are an amalgamation of parents’ birth homes and adopted homes. On today’s episode of Point of Origin, we’re exploring what the diaspora means and how it informs and enriches our food.
At Third Culture Bakery in Berkeley, California , co-founder Sam Butarbutar shares with us how their mochi muffins reflect the Indonesian and Taiwanese heritage of he and his partner. Kathryn Bowen shares the complexity of our discomfor honoring her roots through pupusas, the iconic Salvadorian flatbread. Chef Ashleigh Shanti, who lives in the Appalachian South, expounds on her West African + Appalachian cuisine. We also learn how to make another kind of flatbread, the Jamaican Yaniqueques, a dish with Afro-Caribbean origins popular on the Atlantic coast. And finally, Aarohi Narain unpacks the colonial history of Japanese curry as a cultural and culinary artifact from the perspective of an Indian woman in Tokyo.
Available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, & iHeartRadio
The Diasporic Foodways of the Guests
Image Credit: Quentin Lebeau
The Story of the Johnnycake
Johnnycakes, also called (among other names): Journey Cakes, Hoe Cakes, Batter Cakes, Ashcakes, Corncakes, Yaniqueques, and Shawnee Cakes, has a muddled origin story. They originated from somewhere along the East Atlantic Coast, thought to come from the Native Americans who lived there in combination with the English settlers who landed in New England in the 1600’s.
The essential ingredients consist of cornmeal, salt and hot water. However, variations have arisen through time and travel, giving way to more luxurious additions like milk, sugar, and eggs.
Over the years, the dish spread, differing slightly in cooking ingredients and method from place to place, taking on a different name in each region and attaching itself to different cultures.
The story of the Johnnycake perfectly exemplifies diasporic movement, and shows how culture, region and ingredients bond together to form modern foods and the recipes we cherish.
Excerpt from Anna Haines’ Yaniqueques: A Non-Origin Story
“Rather than possessing a single origin, yaniqueques is the product of several origin stories; re-writings inextricably linked to the waves of colonization. Even in the last century, yaniqueques have remained no less immune to the forces of neocolonialism–the same bread that was supposedly introduced to European colonists by Algonquin Aboriginals would later be consumed by plantation workers as fuel to get through grueling work days.”
Anna Haines
Anna Haines is a Whetstone contributor, travel writer and photographer. She is a graduate of the Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism Program at the International Center of Photography in New York City and holds a B.A. in International Development Studies from McGill University.
Chef Maurice Henry
Chef Maurice is from the Atlanta area and also has Bahamian roots, where he lived and got his earliest cook's training at the age of five under guidance of his grandmother. He graduated from CC Sweeting Senior High School in Nassau Bahamas before moving to the USA. For the past twenty years he took up the challenge of pursuing work in a variety of food cultures - locally as well as internationally, learning to perfect the art of cooking.
Kathryn Bowen
Kathryn Bowen is an Oakland-based writer who likes to think about people, places, economic systems, and consumption choices. Before deciding to write full-time, she worked as a lawyer and a judicial clerk in San Francisco, and prior to that, as a consultant at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy. Her nonfiction has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, Eater, and Edible San Francisco & East Bay, among other publications. You can follow her @kcampobowen on Twitter and Instagram and read more at kathryn-bowen.com.
Family photos from Kathryn Bowen
Third Culture Bakery
Third Culture Bakery was founded in 2016 by Chef Sam Butarbutar and Wenter Shyu. After falling in love in Berkeley, CA, they started a bakery journey together, offering pastries reflective of their childhood in Indonesia and Taiwan. Through the bakery they created the Original Mochi Muffin, butter mochi donuts, and other foods and drinks inspired by Third Culture Kids—kids who grew up in a culture different than that of their parent’s.
Image Credit: https://thirdculturebakery.com/menu/
Ashleigh Shanti
Image Credit: https://www.benneoneagle.com/about-1
Ashleigh Shanti is Chef de Cuisine of Benne on Eagle in Asheville, NC. Working closely Chef Fleer, Ashleigh pays homage to the rich African-American culinary traditions that once thrived in The Block – the neighborhood surrounding the restaurant – as well as honoring her own history as a Southern, African-American female.
“It is difficult for me to describe my food, outside of just calling it what it is regionally and just saying that it does just kind of describe who I am. I mean, it has nuances of, Gullah and Geechee cuisine that is part of the paternal side of my family. My paternal great, great grand parents are from Ghana. So I mean there's some West African influences there as well. I love, Japanese culture, so I mean, I'm really inspired by that cuisine. So they're kind of nuances of a lot of different places regionally. I think that that might be unexpected for some people. And I think that's kinda cool.”
Aarohi Narain
She is writer and editor currently based in Hong Kong. Originally from New Delhi, India, Aarohi graduated cum laude from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, with a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies, and Japanese Language & Culture (and a minor in English Literature).
While in college, she was able to study abroad in Tokyo, Japan. In this new place, she was forced to confront her culture in a new context. She had to deal with the different way she was seen in Tokyo, and how this affected her identity.
“Aarohi’s story points to an important lesson about the diaspora. That as much as food is a marker of identity and an expression of our culture, it is not the sole factor that defines us. That at the base we are humans experiencing and learning about each other in a variety of cultural exchanges. Aarohi at times felt reduced to the staple dish of her home, curry. It became a stereotype that isolated her and one she could not escape.”
Musical Contributor: Simon Lavender
