Dinner at Democracy House 05-09-07

Cultural contrasts smoothed out through culinary camaraderie....

Cook(s): Siyi, Salla

Dinner summary: Siyi prepared soup/porridge concoction involving squash (which South Africans refer to as pumpkin) and brown rice. A fairly benign combination, but I was a bit leery of it being something utterly made up and consequently unsettling. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised -- it was very porridge-y, but also versatile, about which I will say more later. Salla made a salad which included two or three cheeses, possibly leftover from yesterday's pizza. Any salad with two or three cheeses is fine by me.

Conversation synopsis: The discussion began with talk about the porridge, which was rather beige and uninviting, frankly. Siyi recommended putting honey in it, an option I could not accept. She was not offended by my inquiry about the possibility of adding chillies instead. Sino-Canadian relations remain solid due to her acceptance of my freedom of choice. It was then discovered that Brazilian people do not like spicy food, or so says Erick. The rest of us were shocked to hear this.

We are no longer shocked by the fact that Erick knows the words to every song they play on the Cape Town pop radio station, however. Our discussion of this led Siyi to observe that the major global cultural divide is between east and west, not north and south. Siyi has heard of none of the songs Erick knows and that South African radio overplays, which are largely from America, I suspect.

I might have interjected with something about American cultural hegemony engulfing all but those states that are either large and resilient or small and remote, but it has been a long day and it only occurred to me now.

Conclusions: You can put spice or honey in squash-rice porridge, but you can't put Fergie in Shanghai. Well, maybe you can.

Posted by John