An Inside Look Into Cultures Through the Lens of Food

Photo by Keesha’s Kitchen for Unsplash

It often goes unrealized that food is always present in both the decisive and mundane moments of life. When celebrating a friend’s graduation, there is food. When mourning the loss of a loved one, there is food. When you invite the person you want to get to know better over to your house, there is food. When you celebrate the start of spending the rest of your life with someone, there is food. In a way, food signifies important parts of life.

“Food is gathering. Food is community. I guess that’s universal, but usually, when Koreans gather, we make a stew or soup that a lot of people can share. For example, I go to my aunt’s house and she makes crab soup and, of course, rice,” said Alex Cho, a freshman in the House of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

“Food has been a really big thing in my life. My mom cooks, my father cooks, everybody in my family cooks. There was always an excuse to gather and eat Puerto Rican food,” said Alexsandra De Jesus, a freshman in the House of Queen Elizabeth I.

One of the most significant powers of food is fellowship. Whether it’s to make it or enjoy it, food brings people together.

“Food is a central thing for us. We party around food, we meet up around good food, and cooking is a big thing,” said Dr. Dami Kabiawu, Associate Professor of Finance at The King’s College. “Family members will meet up, and mostly women will go out and do all the cooking together, and that’s our time to catch up and help each other and be friendly with each other. I’ve missed that sense of community that cooking brings.” 

“In my family, who claims they’re following pre-Soviet Russian traditions, eating never takes less than an hour. It’s a ritual of community life. [Around the table] everything is discussed, the pressure subjects, all the gossip, politics, family issues, and we pray before and after,” said Greg Ivanov, a sophomore in the House of C.S. Lewis.

The love of food is something most cultures have in common, but the customs practiced around meals embody core values distinct to each culture.

In Nigerian culture, the process of making a meal allows everyone to contribute and, in turn, become closer to one another. Customarily, the men would purchase ingredients while the women would prepare the meal with the children. Everyone would eat the meal together out of a large plate. Much of this custom has remained intact.

“In my house, as a family, visitors have free rein,” Kabiawu said. “We have an open kitchen door, so when you show up, we make the food, and you’re one of us when you can go in and serve your food yourself. It makes people comfortable. You are welcomed in a house when you can open the pot and serve yourself. I don’t know if people think about it that way, but if you enter a space and you can go into the kitchen and serve yourself from their pot, that’s home.”

Korean culture highly respects and remembers the value of elders in the community through their customs.

“When it comes to eating with people, especially older people, there are a lot of different customs,” said Cho. “It’s out of pure respect for the older people. For example, before you eat you have to say something, and you can’t start eating until the eldest person starts to eat.”

This reverence is also evident in the way Koreans drink. It is customary to allow the senior the honor of pouring the first glass, and to clink the glass below the elder. When drinking, the custom is to turn away from elders and cover the face.

“When it comes to alcohol, you pour them a shot, and you also receive a shot,” Cho said. “You have to pour for the older person and yourself, but when you drink the shot, your face is not allowed to face them while you drink because drinking is seen as an ‘immoral act.’”

Russians also have their own traditions when it comes to drinking that reveal values important to their culture.

“In our tradition, we toast for the dead to remember them,” said Ivanov. “We do it for family, and if we’re in church we’re remembering somebody. But we won’t clink the glasses because it’s not a celebration, it’s remembrance.”

There’s no end to the elements of culture that can be explored, admired and celebrated. There is value in seeking to understand each other’s culture and sharing your own with others.

“I’ve shared meals before and they loved it,” De Jesus said. “It filled me with joy because I’m not a person that’s looking for my culture to be praised, but having people praise it makes me really happy and proud to be Puerto Rican.”

“I think because these days Korean culture in media has been increasing in popularity, people here are reaching out and exploring,” said Cho. “So it makes me proud as a Korean. It’s weird but cool to see non-Koreans eating traditional Korean food.”

The King’s College is a setting that embraces and fosters experiences that allow people to learn about different cultures.

“I cook a lot of Nigerian food for King’s students, and for my house, and for faculty and staff,” said Kabiawu. “I have gone to restaurants with people here just to bond. I remember I went with a King’s student once to a Nigerian restaurant and they got to try innards… He did know what it was, but he had it anyway, and that was just amazing to see someone jump in and try it.”

Kabiawu is intentional in her relationships with King’s students, and one of the ways she cultivates a personal relationship with them is by sharing her culture with them.

“I have made some different kinds of food at King’s that I didn’t think anybody would like,” Kabiawu said. “Most people are open to trying different things. And so even when I cook for a student with a very high spice level, he’s drinking milk and sweating, and I say, ‘You don’t have to eat it’ and he says, ‘But you made it for me, and I want to eat it.’ I was so happy that he went for it and tried it.”

New York City presents an abundance of opportunities to explore cultural foods and engage with those communities.

“Some good Puerto Rican restaurants are the Lechonera La Isla, Margarita’s Restaurant and Made in Puerto Rico,” De Jesus said. “There’s also some markets called Sonny’s Grocery Store, San German Shop – they have good pasteles – and Moore Street Market.”

“There’s a jungle of Korean places, and there’s a place I’ve been to a few times called “Kunjip” which means “Big House,” and I go there with my church friends,” said Cho. “There’s another place called “Baekjeong.” It’s a Korean barbecue place, and it’s the best barbecue I think there is. And there’s a chain called H-Mart. I get the packaged ramen noodles, specifically Chapagetti.”

“There’s only one Nigerian restaurant here,” Kabiawu said. “In New York City, there’s a high proportion of Nigerians who live around here. So to me it’s quite a surprise that we can’t have the kinds of restaurants that we should have. I will say I speculate that the reason that is the case could be because we don’t tend to change the food for local palette, it’s always authentic. If you ever go to a Nigerian restaurant, you can’t leave until you’ve tried the jollof rice. We do have a run-in mock fight with the Ghanaians. Both countries think they make the best and that is our ongoing rivalry.”

Each culture magnifies and opens our eyes to the beauty in the ways people live that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Whether it’s honoring those who have lived through more of the joys and burdens of life, making people genuinely feel like they’re home by letting them get their own food, or remembering those who have gone but left their memories behind, these traditions speak to the values that enrich their lives and they are all revealed through the culture of food. 

Danelle Gonzalez is a freshman in the House of Margaret Thatcher. She is majoring in Journalism, Culture and Society.