Folklore, not confined to boundaries of nationalism,
homogeneity, and diversity, manifests across
digital platforms, like TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook,
shaping how people navigate in the virtual
era. These platforms enable rapid dissemination
of cultural expressions, transcending geographical
and temporal boundaries. The shift challenges the
approach to studying and defining folklore.
Foodways
Stories That Cook:
GLOW Traditions is excited to announce the upcoming release of Stories That Cook: Art, Memories, and Recipes, a bilingual English–Spanish cookbook centered on the foodways of our western New York agricultural communities… GLOW Traditions conducted fieldwork to collect recipes, stories, and other background from our artist instructors, farmers and families, farmworkers, and arts and service organizations involved with migrant communities.
Feeding the Ancestors:
Śrāddha is a Hindu calendrical ritual involving the offering of food to one’s ancestors. In this article, I trace the adaptation and diffusion of this ancient ritual in the context of diasporic and generational shifts. My paternal aunt, Shanta Nimbark-Sacharoff, described the migration from her small Indian village to New York, in the 1960s, where, together with her beloved elder brother, she discovered a newfound fascination with her family’s traditional foodways. Particularly, since her brother’s sudden passing, she has revived the annual observance of śrāddha, during which she always prepares “okra bhaji” to propitiate his soul.
Resilience & Nostalgia:
Foodways are one of the most resilient forms of intergenerational cultural expression in diaspora communities, playing a central role in expressing group identity in historic ethnic communities across the United States—including Niagara Falls, New York. This resiliency is magnified in Rust Belt cities like Niagara Falls, which has been grappling with significant decline and population loss, following its industrial boom in the early-mid-20th century: a population loss that includes many members of its vibrant Armenian community.
Italian American Foodways in Pigtown
I was born and raised in Pigtown, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, that is located, roughly speaking, between Empire Blvd. to the North and Kings County Hospital to the South. It also spans Rogers to Schenectady Avenues….Some people tended small gardens, and some, like my neighbor across the street,
kept rabbits in their yard and occasionally grilled them. Others had pigeon coops, and there was an endless array of street peddlers selling all manner of things.
The Demand Calls for It:
In her poem “Exodus and Consumption,” Audrey Rodríguez traces a mango’s movement away from its Tapachulan soil. The fruit is “sun-kissed and watered” for five years, “thrown into a basket by tiny hands / Taken for a hot bath” before being sent to the US/Mexico border for agricultural inspection. “Kill the invasive Mexican fruit flies / The demand calls for it.”
Grilled Cheese
There is no shortage of paeans to
New York diner culture. Sliding into
a slightly sticky faux leather booth, nursing
a hot cup of coffee, poring over an endless
menu. A good diner does not surprise
but rather delights you with the comfort of
familiarity. Diners dot the memories of my
Long Island upbringing,…
Korovainytsia from Seventh East Street
This study investigates the re-creation of the korovai baking tradition within the Ukrainian diaspora in New York, offering a detailed case study of how the cultural practice has been adapted and revitalized in a new environment. Although korovai, a traditional Ukrainian wedding bread, is deeply rooted in the culinary practices of Ukraine, its continuation in the diaspora reflects a dynamic process of cultural adaptation. The research explores the establishment and operation of korovai baking classes in The Ukrainian Museum in New York and the personal baking practices of Mrs. Larysa Zielyk, demonstrating how these efforts contribute to the ongoing re-creation and transmission of the tradition.
From the Editor
I developed a research interest in foodways while doing my Master of Arts in Folk Studies & Anthropology at Western Kentucky University in 2015, but my cultural interest in food dates back much further, to when I was 18 years old and living in New York City for the first time as an undergraduate student. I remember that first semester vividly—the classes, meeting new friends, adapting to living in a city after having spent my entire life in a quiet college town. What I remember most of all are the tastes—meeting up with classmates for sushi during study breaks; sipping an egg cream for the first time at a diner at three o’clock in the morning; biting into a knish outside of Lincoln Center in the freezing February wind.
From the Director
In early 2023, New York Folklore put out a Call for guest editors for our journal. Each potential guest editor proposed a special issue with a specific theme or focus. Two talented folklorists are being featured for the 2023 issues of Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore. This issue, by Sarah Shultz, has its focus on foodways.
Foodways
At Yankee Stadium, béisbol is as American
as alcapurrias—those plump, golden-brown
plantain patties stuffed with seasoned beef.
It’s so from the sunken rye and bluegrass
sod field to the breeziest bleacher top.
With roughly thirty percent of United
States baseball players now of foreign-born
Hispanic heritage and the House that
Ruth Built smack dab in one of the most
established Puerto Rican communities in
the nation, large, hungry, thirsty crowds
have directed the market toward foods
that reflect fans’ cultural heritage.
Downstate
“I am the accumulated memory and
waistline of the dead restaurants of New
York,” writes the poet Bob Hershon, “and the
dishes that will never be set before us again…” I’m with
Hershon—for where but in memory can I
ever again find the spicy taste of the prah
prig sod at Siam Square, with its unique mix
of lemon grass and spiced peppers? Ingested
into our very beings, these tastes play a part
in our social gatherings and, later, can define
our fondest memories.
Foodways
Long before our contemporary chefs developed
the New American cuisine, farmers
and horticulturists were the custodians of
taste, walking their orchards, vineyards, and
vegetable fields sampling fruits and saving
seeds from the most cleverly delicious tree,
bush, or vine. For a contemporary farmer to
grow a Bronx Seedless grape is to reclaim
that custodial role after almost a century
and reposition farmers as the guardians of
flavor and their family-owned farms as the
sanctuaries of quality.
Upstate
Summer really begins in the North Country on the Fourth of July. It ends on Labor Day. Cruel as that may seem to someone living south of here, most of us have learned to adapt….Summer is precious to us, so we cram lots of fun things into a few weeks. Some of the special things of summer for me are food treats we can’t get any other time of year. I’ll share some of my favorites.
Bagels and Genres
Conversations about bagels have something to teach us about the nature of genres and the study of material culture. I realized this a few years ago as I was sitting in an Einstein’s Bagels in Las Vegas that was decorated with standardized murals imitating 1930s Bauhaus design. I remembered a conversation with a friend a decade earlier about the authenticity of modern-day bagels—or lack thereof. But as I glanced at the “traditional” preparation with lox and capers alongside the sun-dried tomato variants, it occurred to me that it might be a false competition.