[Sca-cooks] Sambos, Zambos and Adaptations
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
Thu Sep 6 06:10:16 PDT 2012
Greetings! The translated recipe for “espinacas picadas” says “fresh
cheese” (“queso fresco”), at least in the versions I’ve seen. “Cream
cheese” (or “queso filadelfia”) has a different connotation today, at
least in the US. Might Mexican “queso fresco” or “queso blanco” be
closer to a “fresh cheese” than the modern cream cheese? And, near the
end of the translated recipe, it implies that the “fresh cheese” is the
same as – or similar to – “grated cheese of Aragon”. Any idea what
“queso de Aragon rayado” might have been?
What about a recipe for making your own? There’s a good recipe at
http://medievalcookery.com/recipes/cheese.html. It isn’t really like
what is sold as “cream cheese” today.
Regarding including an original recipe, what about including the URL for
any online recipes that you use? This would simplify knowing where to
find the original – either in the original language or in an English
translation – and you wouldn’t need to include the actual translation in
your blog.
Perhaps a question should be how much adaptation can – or should - be
done to a medieval recipe for it to fall under the aegis of “adapted
medieval recipe”? Can olive oil be added when no oil is listed as any
ingredient? Can frying be called for when an ingredient is not fried?
Can raspberries be used when the original recipe calls for honey, sugar
and cinnamon? If all these are in one “adapted medieval recipe”, is
this too much “adaptation”? I don’t think we will all agree on how
much “adaptation” is appropriate and still have the recipe be true to
the medieval mindset.
As to Little Black Sambo/Zambo being perceived as racist, that is the
case here in the US. The artistic depictions are of a nappy-headed
little black/negro boy (even though the original was Southern Indian, I
believe). You may not be aware that there was a chain of restaurants
here (one was in my town) that was originally called "Sambos". They had
an exterior sign showing a little negro boy and the tigers. After a few
years, there was an outcry by the Black community - so much so that the
restaurant tried to change its name as well as removing the "offensive"
sign. It didn't work. The chain went out of business in the early
1980s. The moral of the Sambo story wasn't the problem; it was the
caricture-like depiction of a particular race and the fact that the term
"sambo" came to be used as a racial slur. The racial slur still exists,
along with "chink", "jap", "spic"...
Alys K.
--
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
alyskatharine at gmail.com
http://damealys.medievalcookery.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8311418@N08/sets/
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