Mathers Museum welcomes bizzare foods

Quirky foods invaded the Mathers Museum of World Culture Tuesday during the Bizarre Food Fair, presented by anthology professor Sonya Atalay’s course, “Bizarre Food.”

The event was the final project of all the students enrolled in the class.

“I’m all about getting students to use experiences in their real lives,” Atalay said. “I wanted to give them some core concepts in anthropology. Instead of writing a paper I thought it would be a fun way in getting the students to do research.”

This semester was the first year of the course and is a part of the new anthropology of food minor offered by the department. The course, however, was open to all students and fulfilled a social and historical credit.

Sophomore Hannah Lengacher said she enrolled in the course as an education major to fulfill her requirement, but also because it sounded fun.

Atalay said food is how we learn other people’s cultures and also keep our own.
The new trends in globalization are changing how we view food.

“Everyone is being so homogenized they are losing their traditions of eating bugs. They don’t want to eat the more traditional foods, instead they want to eat McDonalds,” Atalay said.

The fair showcased a national and international palate of foods, from soul food to exotic coffee, and each exhibit had a history of each food and helped explain why they might be culturally important today.

“I’m interested in how food plays a part in culture,” said senior and member of the class Jessie Kessler. “I choose soul food because I don’t think people know a lot about how bizarre soul food can be.”

Kessler said soul food has roots in slavery and uses herbs and items slaves brought with them, along with the leftovers they were given. What makes soul food really soul food, she said, is the emotional experience that comes with cooking and eating it.
“As Americans, if you’re not from the south, chitlins and gizzards are bizarre,” said junior and class member Sarah Ingram.

The festival also showcased a food that is not actually edible. Lengacher presented mud cookies, which originated in more impoverished countries where women are forced to feed their children actual cookies made of mud, butter and salt.

Also showcased was Balut. Known as an aphrodisiac, Balut is the fertilized egg of a duck that is then hardboiled.

“It is the most bizarre out of anything,” said sophomore and class member Sam Bohney. “When I did the research and I tried it myself I can see why it’s an aphrodisiac.”