Cooking without spice….

Produced & Edited by A H

I travel a lot, but this is for the first time I am visiting the United States. Usually, when I visit any country for few weeks I carry with me a small box of special spices. ‘My specie box’ travels with me so that if I have to prepare any food for special occasion I can use them. Species work like magic; its powerful aroma increase the test of the food more than anything! However, during my last travels and staying longer period outside of my home country, especially in Australia and the United Kingdom, I found super shops selling different types of fresh species. I started to feel I don’t need to carry my special specie box anymore. What you need is just to look for them in right place.

I also have a habit to collect spices from different places. Especially, when I go to restaurants I try to find opportunity how I can ask the chief what has made a dish so special. Then I buy that specific spice and cook my special dish following my own way. And I like experimenting foods. Most of the time it turns out to be tasty. But sometimes my experiments fail. Sometimes not carrying my own and ‘special’ spice box is a wrong decision. My stay in the United States reminds me of that mistake. You won’t believe, in my first week in the United States I cooked without any spice. What I bought from Walmart was not at all tasteful specie I ever tested in my whole life. Thanks to our Ohio colleague Professor Jatin Srivastava who helped me to end my ‘life without specie’ at last. Frankly speaking, I am not that type of person who can’t live without her traditional dishes (despite my fascination with special spice). However, for my floor mate who loves only noodles and rice, and because of her, my chance to try cooking American cuisine has become very slim. Well...Sticking with Asian Cuisine reminds me “My spices box” as it echo’s "Veritas ex gustu".

                                                        Photo: Our first spice less food

"Food, glorious food!"

Produced & Edited by Signe Ivask

University of Tartu, Estonia

Taste of Multifaceted American Cultures

Written and Edited by Rosette Leung, Hong Kong

Athens, OH – Sitting on a delayed flight from San Francisco to Ohio, what comes to the mind of the SUSI scholars? Time files. One week to leave Athens, the ‘home’ of the scholars. If every flight is an adventure, here is the journey of how the scholars experienced American cultures for their first time.

The first stop: Chillicothe

Tecumseh! The outdoor drama with real actors, horses, and gunfire effects was fascinating. Based on the scripts written by seven-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and Emmy recipient, Allan W. Eckert, the show performed in a valley of the Sugarloaf Mountain, Ohio was based on a true story about a Shawnee Chief Tecumseh who scarified his life for uniting the Indians and resisting the Americans during the 1790s.

In many countries, varieties of shows, operas and plays are very important cultural products for community revitalisation. In China, the Beijing opera, is a mixture of traditional culture and Chinese nationality. The Phantom of the Opera performs in the Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, is a European cultural representation of romance. 

Unlike the global popular operas showing in theatres, the Tecumseh drama is more realistic than many of the European plays. It informs local and international audiences about a rarely-known history of the Indian heritage in America. Although the show was  only part of the Ohio history, the resistance and integration of multi-cultural ethnicities have certainly contributed to the unification of the America.

The SUSI scholars took photos with the Tecumseh actors after the show. 

(Photo courtesy of SUSI program assistants)

The second stop: Cleveland
Drove away from the university and headed to a downtown with blocks of high buildings, Cleveland is an unfamiliar place to many scholars but most could recall the place won this year’s NBA championship, and Lebron James, a prominent NBA player, was the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the team Cleveland Cavaliers. But the journey to Cleveland was nothing to do with basketball. 

Out of many scholars' expectations, Cleveland has significant contribution to political development in the US. The Quicken Loans Arena, situated in the heart of Cleveland, was the venue that hosted the Republican National Convention (RNC) this July. Coincidentally, the SUSI scholars were given a chance to visit the media centre of the Convention Center just days before Melanie Trump delivered her suspicious plagiarised speech from Michelle Obama.

       A ‘corner’ of the RNC Media Centre in Cleveland.

Not far away is where the Ohio Statehouse situated – a government building where the Democrat delegates and the Republican delegates discuss bills and legislations of Ohio. The postmodern design of the Congress building and historical painting on walls adduced the doctrine of democracy and freedom of speech that are honoured from the past to the present. Journalists and journalism scholars, what are more precious than freedom to speak for themselves and the unprivileged? Sending a Tweet or a blog post just need a click in a second, but it is still not guaranteed in many countries across the world.

Do you know who are the philosophers in the left and the right statues?

The third stop: The Amish Country
Many scholars, including myself, were impressed by the American cultures in the Hollywood movies: modern, fancy, liberal, and a little bit crazy. But in Ohio, people are more dedicated in  preserving their traditional culture instead of promoting new culture. Dissimilar to the American culture demonstrated in the Hollywood movies, the Amish Country, which locates in the Holmes County of Ohio, has a unique culture that many scholars have never seen before. Most Amish people do not own cars, mobile phones and other electronic goods. The telecommunication and internet services were very weak and often disconnected. With very limited public and private cars, carriage is the major transport in the Amish Country, and  “totally unbelievable”  as described by many scholars. 

The Amish Country is a place with greenery.

By spending four days and three nights living and interacting with the Amish people, the SUSI scholars experienced a wonderful journey in the Amish Country – a journey that bought them back to the older centuries of America. Living without disturbances, the Amish lead a happy life in their little world. Lester Beachy, also the author of a book Our Amish Values, said, “we Amish people noticed the emergence of new technologies such as mobile phone and tablet computer, yet we decided not to take a step forward because face-to-face communication is what we treasured the most.”

A huge carriage displayed in the Amish Country museum. 

“Do Amish children receive education?”, “Can an Amish marry someone not from the US?”, “How do you kill time without mobile phone?” These are the questions asked by SUSI scholars who were curious about the community of the Amish people. They were very eager to know more about the identity, marriage, education and social security etc. of the Amish. Surprisingly, the Amish felt themselves living in a wealthy and healthy village. As a Chinese proverb says: “seize the day, and enjoy what it brings you”, in the minds of the Amish people, there is nothing more precious than living and enjoying lives with their beloved ones.

The Amish are also called the Pennsylvania Dutch.

The fourth stop: The Little Cities of Black Diamonds
The Little Cities of Black Diamond in Shawnee took around 30 minutes’ drive from the Ohio University. With only around 600 people of populations, the SUSI scholars took an adventurous journey to the early coal mines in Ohio. Some SUSI scholars were disappointed when they see no mines and mining activities in Shawnee, but they later realised that heavy pollutions and fatal accidents due to early mining activities were buried and mourned in abandoned mining sites and graves of African-American who were once the forerunners in labor union movements in Ohio. Like travelled through a time tunnel, SUSI scholars visited the Robinson’s Cave and the New Straitsville Moonshine Company, some of them enjoyed samples of distillations produced by the Shawnees.

A SUSI scholar tried the distillations produced at the New Straitsville Moonshine Company.

To battle with the fading population and the missing pieces of history, some warm-hearted Shawnees have made use of the social media sites, such as Facebook and blog to inform the ‘outsiders’ about their life histories and efforts in conserving the natural scenes in Shawnee. Though setting up an archive for preserving Shawnee’s history takes time, the social media do help a lot for connecting the Little Cities of Black Diamonds to the outside world, including the Ohio University and the SUSI scholars.

The Robinson’s Cave in New Straitsville, Ohio.

"New" Linda Theater established in 1930s. Movies were displayed with motion and sound. 

The fifth stop: San Francisco
San Francisco has long been named and regarded by the Chinese as the ‘Longstanding Gold Mountain’ for remembering the history that many Chinese migrated to San Francisco to join the gold rush in California. According to Wikipedia, a division of Wikimedia Foundation, the Voice of America and the State of Federal Government are still using the name ‘Longstanding Gold Mountain’, but this name has not been mentioned on the Wikipedia page about San Francisco in English. Clever SUSI scholars noticed about the lost in translation on Wikipedia, yet the speakers from Wikipedia denied the differences in translation have bought much inconsistency in content, and they emphasised that zero censorship has been imposed on the open and collaborative site.

The SUSI scholars listened attentively to the speeches of Wikimedia representatives.

If Wikipedia is a giant online encyclopaedia, the San Francisco Giants is a giant of the Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. SUSI scholars were so excited to be toured in the AT&T Park. The Park is famous as it is the ‘home’ of the MLB Giants. Although there was no match in the park during the day of visit, the scholars were able to see the live report centre, hotel rooms, and press conference room etc. in the park – all of them represent the growth of sports marketing contributed to the globalization of sports. But sports journalism, a profession that rely on truth and accuracy, continues to serve as a major information provider about the news of the Giants.

AT&T Park – outside view

AT&T Park – part of the inside view

Similar to Hong Kong, San Francisco is a cosmopolitan city that welcome people from a multicultural background, and is one of the largest and most famous LGBT communities in the world. The SUSI journey in San Francisco ended with a mouse and the sea (Pier 39). The Walt Disney Family Museum displayed the works of Walt Disney, and explained how different Disney characters were created. From Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, to Pinocchio, Three Little Pigs and Cinderella, almost every Disney character in the museum has ‘grown up’ with the Americans, as well as the children in the rest of the world (including me again).

Every scholar must have read a number of publications that accused the conglomeration of Disney was an expansion of U.S. soft power. There were long criticisms in academia regarding Americanisation, cultural industry and hegemony. In the U.S., Disney is a giant company producing forms of entertainment. But in the eyes of millions of people around the world, Disney is the representative of America popular culture.

A Liberty Magazine cover with Mickey Mouse in 1942, a year during the WWII.

From traditional to modern, from rural to cosmopolitan, the SUSI Program has opened a door for the journalism scholars from 18 countries to travel and to explore the multifaceted American cultures.

Next station: Atlanta. Ready to leave in 3 hours. Sleepy but feel excited.

'Necessary Disclosures'

Posted by - 
Mausumi Bhattacharyya
Centre for Journalism &Mass Communication (CJMC)
Visva-Bharati
Santiniketan, WB, India

Oh OHIO !! It has been an incredible journey so far. Have settled down in this beautiful county of Ohio, Athens. Extremely jet lagged but thoroughly excited, bit hesitant and tremendously curious  - explains my state of mind, when I met the SUSI Program Director. Professor Yusuf Kalyango himself at the Colombus-Ohio airport. The warm welcome by him and his wonderful team made me feel at home immediately. Three weeks have flown past till then. Going through an experience of life-time – spectacular campus, my amazing SUSI colleagues and exchange of ideas with them, visiting wonderful places, gathering loads of information and oh, last but not the least , my two friends with whom I am sharing the apartment – calm and quiet Amel from Sudan and cute, naughty Signe from Estonia, always bubbling with energy!

I thought I have seen the best, but wait, what I saw in the collection of the Alden Library of Ohio University, literally bowled me over. An amazing employee of  the library showed us the ‘Treasure House’ and explained in details regarding the library resources. Being the book-worm I am and a cricket buff ( like any other true Indian), I got glued to a ball like structure in the archive. A ball-shaped, purple-coloured, paper-made stuff, which was kept in a square glass box. The kind lady, in charge of same explained to me what it was and I got perplexed! It was a book!! Yes, a book!

'Necessary Disclosures' kept in a square glass box

The 'ball' book !!

The title is 'Necessary Disclosures'. Author is Sarah Peters. The book has been published by Women’s Studio Workshop in 2003. It's a 3.5*3.5*3.5 inches spherical book made with letterpress on cast cloth. It is attached with book cloth and hook-and-loop fastener and when it gets opened, one can see six nested pages of text. The book is about the relationship of our way of interpersonal interactions with the way we interact as an institution. Sarah Peters has raised questions in relation to our 'private' and 'public' behaviours and also showed connections between our private life with the global arena.

Nested pages of the 'wonder book'

‘Necessary Disclosures’ is a great example of creativity at its best! Both in terms of content as well as the design.

I am grateful to my SUSI journey for experiencing such a wonderful book! Waiting eagerly to share the info with my students and scholars back in India.

An Estonian with a small appetite

Produced & Edited by Signe Ivask
Tartu, Estonia

I have never had problems with eating. While growing up there was a law, that me and my brother needed to obey: not only eat your greens, but eat the other stuff as well. And there were not foods that I did not like. Really. And now, as a grown up, I have changed, there are so many foods that are not my cup of tea. Maybe the law was not that bad after all and maybe the freedom of choice has changed me to worse?

When talking about Estonian food, then it might seem really bland to a person who is used to lots of spices. We love salt and pepper. That is it and all.

The very first time I had Indian food was back in 2012, in England. My friend’s stepfather is indian, so he took us out on Christmas Eve to eat Indian food. It was their tradition. I agreed to join them, but warned everyone, that I do not take spicy and hot food well. The first experience was bad, my mouth was on fire, I swore I was done with testing other culture’s food. It was just too much to handle for this lover of bland taste.

Until.

Cooperation.

It was after the first shopping tour when my roommate of SUSI2016 asked if she could cook us anything to eat. I was more than happy, because I prefer home cooking to every other food. Everything was going smoothly until Mausumi asked me to chop chilis. TWO of them. “You are a crazy lady!” “Oh you think we should add three?” THREE? I usually add a quarter of a chili to my food (IF ANY). Not two or three!

Probably some kind of voodoo seeds.

To be completely honest, then a huge amount of thoughts crossed my mind, and the thoughts consisted of me and the spicy food and me not eating it. With a brave heart and soul I chopped the chilis like a true champion, considering different strategies in my mind: how to avoid this food and if I manage to do so, what should I eat then?

BUT! 

I was wrong. So very wrong. And I am embarrassed of how wrong I was.

The first food - and every other ever since - that Mausumi made, was excellent. Absolutely perfect. There were hints of hot, but it was not overwhelming. And it was good, believe me, it was very good. It had spices, but they did not damage my stomach or mouth. What is more, she took my weirdness into account and did not add meat to the food. She is lovely. She is a wonderful cook.

Lentils and rice.

The first food was called khichudi, it consisted of rice and lentils and a few of indian spices. Seems such an easy food, but I cannot make it on my own, it would not taste the same. It tasted heavenly. I do not know how she did it. 

This was the beginning of our tradition. We… okay, Mausumi cooks every now and then. I missed her cooking while being on the road. We shop together, but she cooks and makes wonders happen in the kitchen. Amel chops the vegetables and I, well, I take pictures (see below).

Hot.

Amel preparing a fresh salad.

Voilá!

I must confess that I have cheated my way out of cooking. But maybe this helps: I wash up the dishes. Maybe? Anyone?