He asked for gold, she showed him corn

He asked for gold, she showed him corn

It seems fitting to start off this blog with a few posts on the earliest “holy guacamole” moments in food as a gastronomy student. I’m not sure if this is a popular opinion or not, but I could not tolerate history as a high school student or even in undergrad. So when I chose to start my Gastronomy academic career with Food History, it was purely for the “eat the frog” approach.

Looking back, it seems I accidentally took my departed mother-in-law’s approach: dessert first. And I knew I was in for a sweet semester during my very first class. 

It’s no secret that Disney’s “Pocahontas” is a far cry from the realities of the relations between Indigenous peoples and the colonists. But one part that always stuck out to me was when John Smith told Pocahontas that he was seeking gold, she showed him maize. Smith thought she was confused, I now know that Pocahontas was more right than he could ever imagine. 

Because the colonists were starving. And corn was the key to power. 

It’s why I believe reading Michael LaCombe’s “Political Gastronomy” was the perfect way to begin my gastronomy journey. Throughout this book, La Combe documents how the colonists arrived not only with their own livestock, but with little to no idea about how to cultivate the land they were pillaging. While they are responsible for countless deaths, they too were dying – of starvation. Indigenous people also used dinner invitations as a way to establish dominance – where you sat and what you were served showed where you stood in power. And this was a language and a culture where the Indigenous tribes had the upper hand. 

Food had a critical role in these relations, and it has played a role in subsequent political conversations and contexts.

All this to say: food is everywhere, food is language, food is power. 
My additional thoughts on LaCombe’s writing here.