Hello readers,
I hope you’re well!
I write to you from the comfort of my couch, basking in my first official day of Fall Break. This has provided me some much needed time to reflect on our group’s project and progress.
This Thursday, the Tongue group met to gauge our project and discuss recent research. As Recorder, I drafted notes through the meeting.
We began by solidifying each of our specific areas of research:
-Billie is researching porcelain, the chekish used to stamp naan, and the human body as a tool
Zach helped Billie create a more comprehensive list of ways the hands are used in
cooking. Pleading dumplings (the motion used to close them), kneading dough, pulling
noodles, hand flicks and rotations used with a wok, grating noodles, etc.
-Chris is focusing on kebabs and mutton, cumin, chili, tea, yoghurt marinade and other sauces
-Zach is continuing to research tandyrs and their relation to Indic-Turkic cultural diffusion, and the dichotomy between the use of rice and noodles
-I am looking into lokantas (Turkic cafes) and their Italian origins, fan and t’sai (ying and yang of food), and the 5 elements (wood, water, fire, wind, metal) and their integration into food
Billie suggested looking into the Five Elements, harking back to a project she completed
in high school
In addition to narrowing our research topics, we all set goals for ourselves over break:
-Chris hopes to have a completed timeline for his spices, and will explore StoryMap as host (the account under which the map is created)
-Zach hopes to develop, but not finish, a timeline for the cultural diffusion of earthen ovens and tandoors, and perhaps one on rice and noodles
-Billie hopes to organize, cite, and digitize all of her resource, and maybe play around with Photoshop to see if we could manufacture a picture of a meal
-I hope to cite all of my sources and draft a timeline for lokantas
Jumping off of Billie’s topic, we spent some time researching some really innovative cooking techniques. We gleaned that in the Kashgar region they occasionally roasted animals in mud, barbequed on rocks, covered foods in clay before the rise of using boiling water.
A book that Billie ordered to Guilford for us on Kashgar was sent back to its origin, due to the fact that we didn’t retrieve it in time. Whoops! Luckily we can reorder after break. Other book woes relate to a very informative book we found: “A History of Food Culture in China” by Rongguang Zhao. There are no physical copies in any close vicinity to Guilford, nor can they be ordered, and Guilford doesn’t have access to the PDF copies at other universities. If we find it a very crucial source we’ll contact Rachel, but otherwise we may leave it be.
As for our tandyr-making plans, they’re looking up! Chris succeeded in getting funding from the International Club, and Zach has proposed creating a “Tandyr Club”. After break we also plan to take a group trip to Home Depot to price materials.
Thanks for reading! Bis dann!
Regards,
-Delaney