Críticas Magazine

Bruce Jensen

When I hear the word "culture," I reach for the napkins
February 12, 2008

The quickest way to any sensible person's heart and mind is through her stomach. Let's be honest about that. The good ol' dining table is perhaps our sturdiest bridge between cultures. Most of the words you know in Italian, Chinese, Thai, or Hindi probably have something to do with food. And even though a restaurant menu is no blueprint for international understanding—a steady diet of Venezuelan arepas, on one side, nor Texas T-bone on the other wouldn't be enough to make pals out of George Bush & Hugo Chávez—food is often the starting place that leads to acceptance of and deeper connections to unfamiliar people and groups. Language teachers in international classes never miss a chance for a potluck; it always means good food and good conversation. 

Missoula, Montana’s own master baker Greg Patent grew up in China with his Russian father and Iraqi mother (multicultural enough for you?) and he has written some wonderful books exploring many kinds of foods. Research for his new one took him around the country to gather recipes and techniques from some five dozen bakers representing almost as many homelands. It’s A Baker's Odyssey: Celebrating Time-Honored Recipes from America's Rich Immigrant Heritage. Patent was featured on National Public Radio a couple weeks ago (Jan. 27 ’08); you can hear hear that story here.

There you’ll also find a recipe for some tasty sambouseks. The author describes those as Iraqi empanadas. You’ve had empanadas, right? If not, drop everything right now and go find some. Or bake some. Or, how’s this: I’ll go to the legendary De Alba bakery and will mail a delicious Mexican empanada to the first hungry reader who successfully sticks a comment below. (See, we’ve been having some issues about the difficulty of leaving comments on our blog...)

Of course this is not the first book of its kind. Himilce Novas and Rosemary Silva, for example, did something similar with their Latin American Cooking Across the U.S.A. ten years ago, seasoned with stories from the folks whose recipes they shared. And  it has been almost 20 years since the ever-popular The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors. Patent’s new one is worth a look. It even comes with a DVD.

 So, well, ¡Provecho! Your empanada is waiting.

Posted by Bruce Jensen on February 12, 2008 | Comments (2)