Origins of Franglisch Foods
When I think of the word tradition, the first thing I picture is Tevye at the beginning of Fiddler on the Roof bellowing the word loudly out in the farmyard. His arms are up in celebration, the strings of his prayer shawl are swinging as he stomps his boots. He’s proudly poundimg his chest as he sings.
The second thing I conjure in my mind is mom’s cropped black hair swinging about as her small hands wave up in punching triumphant that we’ve continued a tradition. That something could be making a tradition meal like tourtière, upholding a ritual like Valentine’s Day cupcakes, or going to an annual event like Christmas mass. Her smile takes up her whole face. Her brown eyes shine with joy. She is the perfect juxtaposition to my embarrassed, tight-lipped, eye-rolling teenage-self who doesn’t see the point of whatever it is she’s excited about.
I didn’t know when I was a teen that I’d go on to study tradition and, specifically, traditional foods. Yet my interest in both was certainly born, at least in part, in those moments. It wasn’t until I was married with children of my own that I cared about traditions. It wasn’t until then that I spent any time really considering what mattered most to me. Something switches when you become a parent: you need to decide what really matters and then devote the limited amount of time you have to it.
My master's and PhD research on traditional foods have given me ample material for this blog and sharing my reflections and findings are an important reason for starting this blog. I learnt fairly quickly in my research that there was little written about the association between French-Canadian food and cultural identity outside of Quebec and even less about German-Canadian food traditions. So this blog is absolutely for those who are about the link between food, identity, history, and culture.
But this blog is also for anyone interested in food, ritual, and habits. Life is about negotiating priorities and making split-moment decisions. The final choices we make challenge our authenticity and sense of what it means to “good” or “right.” In my case, I’m often debating what will allow me to be authentic while also being inclusive, a good mother, a nice person, a real Francophone, a real German… Do I speak French right now even though there is an Anglophone in the room? Do I make spätzle from scratch or throw store-bought noodles into some boiling water for supper? Does it matter that my kids are speaking English right now or should I insist they speak French to each other? Can Christmas go by without making Lebkuchen? Should I finally devote time to making my own tourtières?
The thing about traditions, is that though traditions create comfort and security, they can also be problematic. Knowing how to balance continuity with change is important – especially when cultures, races, and religions blend to form a family. What stays and what goes? Who decides what’s important? What does the next generation remember and how do the children of these mixed families identify with the different parts of who they are?
Doing my research for my MA and PhD papers, I found that there are lots of recipe blogs that share the ingredients and steps for making traditional French-Canadian and German foods, but I found little that explained their cultural importance or that reflected on the ways they were important to shaping one’s identity and allegiance to a larger group. That’s what my research aimed to better understand and what that this blog will continue to explore.