Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions Into Eating, Culture And The Past

Synopsis

Food is a central element of expression in all cultures. What and how we eat, and with whom, reveals much about our desires and relationships, and this text shows how what we perceive as freedom in our choices about food is shaped by a vast and increasingly complex global economy. Yet even under the most severe constraints, our choices can hold enormous significance for us. The title essay explores the way enslaved Africans' creative adaptation of their cuisine to New World conditions offered a symbolic hope of freedom. Other essays probe contemporary eating habits, such as the popularity of dieting and healthy eating when people are generally getting fatter every year.