{"id":1611,"date":"2004-11-27T12:12:11","date_gmt":"2004-11-27T16:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/nateptest\/2004\/11\/27\/turkey-with-curry\/"},"modified":"2004-11-27T12:12:11","modified_gmt":"2004-11-27T16:12:11","slug":"turkey-with-curry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/2004\/11\/27\/turkey-with-curry\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey with curry"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve never been too fond of the various models of American diversity
\nthat float aorund out there.  The “melting pot” metaphor reduces
\ntoo much, homogenizing all things, in some sense.  The “tossed
\nsalad” metaphor doesn’t really work either, as it means that the
\nseparate elements retain their separate natures, not being changed in
\nthe process of encountering one another.<\/p>\n

This article from Thursday’s paper<\/a> exemplifies my new idea for an American national blending metaphor — turkey with curry.<\/p>\n

Thanksgiving, which began as a party for immigrants, remains the most
\naccessible American holiday for many newcomers. It requires no specific
\nreligious or political allegiance. Even if an immigrant is from a
\nculture where whole roast turkey is never on the menu – and that is
\nnearly everywhere except North America – most are willing to give it a
\ntry.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Everybody’s got a common element: the turkey.  And everyone does
\nis somewhat differently, putting their own spin on the common part:
\nMexican-descent Americans simmering the bird in garlic and onions
\nbefore baking, Indians using curry, and Arabs “bathing it in lemon and
\nolive oil and stuffing it with rice, beef and pine nuts.”<\/p>\n

\n

“Turkey has become so iconic to our mythic heritage that by cooking
\nthat turkey, even if you don’t like it, you are part of something
\nbigger,” said Lucy Long, a professor of popular culture at Bowling
\nGreen State University and the author of “Culinary Tourism” (University
\nPress of Kentucky, 2003). “You are symbolically showing unity.”<\/p>\n

Of
\ncourse that translates into a nation of cross-cultural Thanksgivings,
\nwhere sticky rice stuffing edges out corn bread, and curry fights with
\ngravy for dominance on overloaded plates.<\/p>\n

Fernando Rojas, an
\nimmigration lawyer in Miami, came to the United States from Colombia
\nwith his family when he was a boy. His wife, Jeanette Martinez, is
\nPuerto Rican. They will share their Thanksgiving meal with his Cuban
\nand Colombian godparents. The critical mass of Latin cultures means a
\nspread that could put Manhattan’s best fusion chefs to shame: roast
\nturkey rubbed with garlicky adobo sauce, served alongside plantains,
\nroast pork and platters of black beans and rice.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That’s more American than melting pots or tossed salads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve never been too fond of the various models of American diversity that float aorund out there.  The “melting pot” metaphor reduces too much, homogenizing all things, in some sense.  The “tossed salad” metaphor doesn’t really work either, as it means that the separate elements retain their separate natures, not being changed in the process […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":709,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rmaunsdionmg"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5G3PH-pZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}