Food is a mentality

Evelyn was born in Kiev, Ukraine. She came to the United States in 1990. After cooking a delicious meal for me and her daughter, Irene, Evelyn and I sat down and talked about what, if any, were the differences between Russian, Jewish and American food. Evelyn had some specific distinctions. She said that she cooked in Russia because she had to eat, not because it was a pleasurable experience.

In the Ukraine, she learned how to cook from magazines for women, which gave her tips that she wouldn’t have otherwise learned. In her words, Russian food is more about “how you perceive the eating”. In Kiev she learned how to make fruit preserves and other foods in order to stock a pantry for months if necessary. Ingredients were scarce and so there was no room for waste.  “You eat what’s available at the time.” She says that if a friend knows about a store selling chicken then you go to that store and buy and cook chicken. She also says that it’s about using all your resources. If there’s half a lemon in the refrigerator “just throw it in the compote.” It’s not a style, it’s a mentality.

In America on the other hand, Evelyn thinks there’s too much waste, but that it’s fun to cook. It’s easy to procure a range of ingredients and to try new things. She can’t pinpoint exactly what “American cooking” is, but it’s definitely different, in that it’s not done in a manner meant to preserve one’s life, but to enjoy it.

Like her daughter, Irene, Evelyn felt that Jewish food was completely different, in that it’s “traditional” foods, very specific things that are made on the holidays. It’s not “everyday” food. It’s gefilte fish, for example. Other than holiday food, it was hard for Evelyn to decide what was “Jewish”. She said that it was difficult because Jews lived throughout different countries, all over the world, and that they were influenced by local resources, cultures and climates. Sometimes Jews didn’t have choices and had to eat pork in order to survive, something she doesn’t have to worry about here.