Tequila: Pulque’s Friend, Cousin, Usurper?
My route into the history of alcohol in Mexico took me through pre-Columbian, colonial and nineteenth-century history, so for me, this area of research has always been synonymous with pulque, the alcoholic beverage that predominated throughout this long time period. But, whenever I introduce myself as a historian of alcohol in Mexico, the first word […]
Authentic Recipes from Around the World
We have recently been checking the proofs of our recipe book, Authentic Recipes from Around the World, and are starting preparations for the book launch, which is happening on 23 October in Senate House, London. It is free and open to all, with complementary copies of the recipe book on offer, so please get in […]
Acarajé diaries. Day 6
Here, people aren’t born, says Lázaro, my tourist guide. They come up on stage. They don’t die, they have a curtain call. The paulistas in the group find this comment very amusing. But Lázaro looks like he knows what he’s talking about. He’s a painter, and our driver is a ballet dancer. We are […]
Acarajé diaries. Day 0
A couple of days before flying to Salvador on a research trip, I received a call from my brother. He was in Almada, a city located in the southern margin of the river Tagus, near Lisbon. He had found a bahiana do acarajé named Carolina Brito selling in a park, and wanted to tell me […]
New Directions in Drinking Studies Conference, 6-7 June 2015
Our Consuming Authenticities project kicked off the papers in what would turn out to be a fantastic conference at the University of Leicester on 6-7 June. This was the New Directions in Drinking Studies conference that I mentioned in a previous post and that I have been organising with my Drinking Studies Network co-ordinator hat […]
Did you know? Food and Brazilian assertions of Africanness
In October 1972, Brazilian foreign minister Gibson Barbosa went on a month-long trip to nine West African countries in order to develop closer economic and political relations with black Africa. In Ghana in particular, Gibson Barbosa had to endure hostile reactions to Brazil’s ties with Portugal, a country ruled at the time by […]
Our Impact So Far
On Saturday, May 16th, we held a fascinating whole-day event at the National Library of Wales, where our collaborators shared their views and experiences on the different drink and food products we are investigating and discussed what factors and processes are involved into making them authentic. As expected, we had a great participation from Welsh craft […]
Cooking Inauthentically Part 2: An Experiment with Acarajé
As with my previous experiment in making flaounes at Easter, I had never even heard of acarajé before starting the Consuming Authenticities project. In my initial conversations with Ana Martins about what case studies we could explore, we struggled to think of a Brazilian food or drink that could be analysed in terms of the […]
We want to hear your view! Collaborators’ Workshop, 16 May 2015
This exciting, interactive whole-day event will give you the opportunity to share your views and experiences about authenticity and pulque / acarajé / flaounes / Welsh cider. It will also be an opportunity to visit the picturesque Aberstwyth and the internationally acclaimed National Library of Wales. When? Saturday, 16 May 2015 (10.00-16.00) Where? National Library […]
Cooking Inauthentically: An Experiment with Flaounes
Before meeting Anna Charalambidou at the AHRC Care for the Future workshop where we developed the ideas for this research project, I had never heard of flaounes before. These are celebration Easter pies from Cyprus that Anna is investigating from the point of view of Greek Cypriot women who make them. I wanted to take […]
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