When We Eat What We Eat: Classifying Crispy Foods in Malaysian Tamil Cuisine
This paper examines the gastronomic rules that determine when and why “crispy foods” are eaten within the Tamil community of Malaysia. Based on ethnographic fieldwork of twenty-five Tamil Hindu families living in the Klang Valley of Peninsular Malaysia, everyday and festive culinary life reveal food...
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| 發表在: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/aof, |
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| 主要作者: | |
| 格式: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| 語言: | Anglais |
| 出版: |
Anthropology of food
2003
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| 主題: | |
| 在線閱讀: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| 總結: | This paper examines the gastronomic rules that determine when and why “crispy foods” are eaten within the Tamil community of Malaysia. Based on ethnographic fieldwork of twenty-five Tamil Hindu families living in the Klang Valley of Peninsular Malaysia, everyday and festive culinary life reveal foods that are classified into categories of ‘crispy” and “soft/wet”. Situation and context determine the kind of “crispy” foods consumed. While savoury crispy foods are reserved for meals, a mixture of the savoury and sweet are eaten as snacks. I draw upon the observations of Claude Levi-Strauss, Mary Douglas and Michael Nicod to examine the processes of defining the inclusion and exclusion of particular “crispy” foods at meals and as snacks. My conclusion focuses on the textural composition of these foods, which highlights the “playful” dimension of eating and, hence, what is termed as “crispy” foods are not treated as “real” food. |
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