Tamales, Haggis and Culinary Nationalism
Bottle of chamoy sauce ready to shake on snacks
I’m just off to Guadalajara for the conference on culinary nationalism that I mentioned a few posts back. I am really looking forward to talking with a group of scholars from across Latin America about the whole idea that every nation has or should have a cuisine and that this is essential to the identity of its citizens. That belief is trumpeted constantly in Mexico at the moment, in part because of the recognition of Mexico’s traditional cuisine by UNESCO (which I have written about in various places, including here).
I shall dedicate my 15 minutes to talking about how migrants to Mexico from Europe, Asia and Africa have contributed techniques, dishes, and eating places (with an image a minute) that are now, like the chamoy above, woven into the texture of cooking and eating in Mexico, although these contributions are rarely recognized. This raises the question: who decides what is included in a national cuisine? What are their criteria? and what gets excluded?
So it seems appropriate to mention two pieces I read this week that are pertinent to the question of culinary nationalism. The first was by Gustavo Arellano who is writing a book on Mexican food in what is now the United States.
It wasn’t just Latinos who operated tamale wagons — African Americans, European immigrants and whites also partook in the industry. In 1905, even the YMCA opened a temporary tamale wagon to raise funds so it could send a boy’s track and field team to compete in Portland, Ore. From Gustavo Arellano in the LA Times.
So half a century after Mexico had lost California to the United States and less since the Mexicans there had lost their lands, tamales were being made and sold by all and sundry as street food. It’s a reminder that Mexico has not only written most migrant contributions out of its national cuisine but also the cuisines of its former territories.
This was just about the time when one of those who had lost, Encarnación Pinedo, wrote El cocinero español (The Spanish Cook), published in San Francisco in 1898. It was a major work of 1000 recipes. Dan Strehl recently published a lovely edition and translation, Encarnación’s Kitchen with the University of California Press if you are interested.
Across the Atlantic, Adam Balic has takenon the history of haggis. It’s not just from Scotland. In fact, there were lots of recipes for haggis in English cookbooks well before any appeared in Scottish ones.
it worth noting just how much Scottish cookery in the 18th century was influenced by English sources, even for the iconic Haggis. I don’t think that this takes anything away from the modern Scottishness of the Haggis. Haggis isn’t an English dish anymore, but it is very much part of modern Scottish culture. From Adam Balic.
Finally, what is chamoy, anyone?
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I have never eaten nor seen haggis, but I get a feeling it has superfical resemblance to montelayo, a sort of savory pudding of sheep’s offal and much spice, steamed or baked in a paunch. It’s often offered at Mexican barbacoa restaurants.
Once, on a side street in Colonia Roma Norte, México, DF , I saw a taco wagon which offered what the vendor called pancita,/i>, It was coarsely chopped pieces of ofal in a pig’s stomach. I think.)
Saludos,
Don Cuevas
PS: I hope the the italics work.
Hi Michael, I think you are completely right about the similarities. And you can go to Lebanese restaurants in Mexico City and have their version of the same. From conversations with others, I have the feeling that haggis-like dishes of grains and offal stuffed in a stomach where to be found in many societies.
Leaving the question why they became an iconic Scottish dish.
It’s nor fair that I tell you what chamoy is because
1) I know what it is
2) I have known and loved it since I can remember, and
3) you know all of the above.
But I can’t wait to read your impressions from this week’s conference.
Chiles en nogada, here I come!
Claudia, I know you know and that you know I know you know!
Rachel, I’m not very familiar with Lebanese food. Are you thinking of kibbe?
Chamoy and “Chinese” “Duck Sauce” are very similar.
Saludos,
Don Cuevas
No, actually, I’m not. I’m talking about a stuffed stomach, can’t remember it’s name but you get it in traditional Lebanese restaurants in Mexico City. You are in the right ball park with chamoy.
The Lebanese dish is called “Ghammeh”, it is delicious, although rather different in flavour to Haggis.
There are lots of stuffed stomach dishes around the world, as it is an obvious container to use. I need to come up with a group term for ‘stuffed stomach puddings’ as in english it always defaults to ‘Haggis’, although Haggis is a very specific item and not a good example of a group description.
Thanks Adam. What about stuffed stomach puddings?
Yesterday on the way back from Morelia to Pátzcuaro, we stopped for comida at Mariscos La Güera Campestre. I knew what a michelada was, of course, having had many of them before, (my usual is a michelada con Clamato) but what were “micheladas de sabores”? Our waiter recited a moderately long list of different flavors, including fresa —ulp!— that could be added to beer poured over ice. Tamarindo sounded intriguing, but so did chamoy. So I got a michelada mixta.
I won’t say it will be my favorite beer mixed drink from now and in the future, but it was an refreshing and delicious, sweet and sour combination with a pronounced apricot flavor (the chamoy) with the somewhat astringent tang of of tamarind with a good spicy kick.
I need to buy some chamoy and use it more often as a condiment sauce.
Saludos,
Don Cuevas
The chamoy-ization of Mexican food. Wonderful.
Unfortunately, for most people around the world ,”pudding” has a meaning that doesn’t quite work. Sausage might be better, but not much so.
Yes, true. And the problems get more difficult as these solid dishes fade away. There’s a whole class of Mexican tortas, not rolls, but heavy cakes of beans or maize, that bridge the sweet/savory divide and just don’t fit modern categories.
Just ordered Encarnacion’s Kitchen. Thanks for all the food culture nuggets — like that one — buried in your posts Rachel. The conference sounds fascinating. Who decides what is included in a national cuisine? –> Of course I think immediately of food politics in Malaysia. But I’m also thinking alot about Turkey these days too, and all the foods that are excluded from the popular conception of “Turkish cuisine”.
The introductions are very useful. Not all the recipes could be included so the more cosmopolitan ones tended to get left out. But still fascinating.
So many get excluded. It wouldn’t matter if cuisines had not become like flags and national anthems and airlines, must haves for any reputable nation.