Page 43 - ELA_CA_HighSchool_Sampler_Flipbook

ACTIVITY 1.3 continued
Teacher Notes
14 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 10
14 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 10 SCAFFOLDING THE TEXT-DEPENDENT QUESTIONS
12. Craft and Structure (RI.9–10.5) How does the author use
9781457304668_TCB_SE_G10_U1_B1.indd 14 10/6/15 11:56 P
food to develop her ideas about ethnicity? How does the author use foods such as “kosher sushi” in paragraph 3 as a metaphor for blended ethnic identity? How do these metaphors help the author develop her ideas about ethnicity?
ACTIVITY 1.3
continued
Exploring Cultural Identity
piccalilli: relish of pickled vegetables
primeval: ancient or old faux: fake
culmination: conclusion
gastronomic: relating to cooking palate: appetite
My Notes
borrowing my father’s screwdriver so she could pry open a box of salt cod. In those days, cod came in wooden boxes, nailed shut, and you really had to hack around the edges to loosen the lid. Cod-from-a-box had to be soaked overnight. The next day you mixed it with boiled potatoes and fried it in Crisco. Then you served it with baked beans in a little brown pot, with salt pork and molasses. There was usually some shredded cabbage as well, with carrots for color. And of course there was piccalilli—every good homemaker had piccalilli on hand. Oh, and hot rolls served with homemade Concord grape jelly. Or maybe just brown bread and butter. These were the staples of Saturday night supper.
We had baked chicken on Sundays, boiled chicken other days. My mother has recipes for how to boil a chicken: a whole range of them, with and without bay leaf, onions, potatoes, carrots. With boiled chicken, life can never be dull.
The truth is we liked watermelon in our family. But the only times we ate it—well, those were secret moments, private moments, guilty, even shameful moments, never unburdened by the thought of what might happen if our white neighbors saw us enjoying the primeval fruit. We were always on display when it came to things stereotypical. Fortunately, my mother was never handier in the kitchen than when under political pressure. She would take that odd, thin-necked implement known as a melon-baller and gouge out innocent pink circlets and serve them to us, like little mounds of faux sorbet, in fluted crystal goblets. The only time we used those goblets was to disguise watermelon, in case someone was peering idly through the windows, lurking about in racial judgment.
I don’t remember my parents having many dinner parties, but for those special occasions requiring actual hors d’oeuvres, there were crackers and cream cheese, small sandwiches with the crusts cut off, Red Devil deviled ham with mayonnaise and chopped dill pickles. And where there were hors d’oeuvres, there had to be dessert on the other end to balance things out. Slices of home-made cake and punch. “Will you take coffee or tea?” my mother would ask shyly, at the proud culmination of such a meal. . . .
QUADROON SURPRISE
Some have said that too much salt cod too early in life hobbles the culinary senses forever. I have faith that this is not the case, and that any disadvantage can be overcome with time and a little help from Williams-Sonoma. Having grown up and learned that you are what you eat, I have worked to broaden my horizons and cultivate my tastes. I entertain global gastronomic aspirations, and my palate knows no bounds. After all, if Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben1 can Just Get Over It, who am I to cling to the limitations of the past? Yes, I have learned to love my inner ethnic child. And so, I leave you with a recipe for the Twenty-first Century:
Chicken with Spanish Rice and Not-Just-Black Beans
• Boil the chicken • Boil the rice
• Boil the beans
Throw in as many exotic-sounding spices
and mysterious roots as you can lay your hands
on—go on, use your imagination!—and garnish with those fashionable little wedges of lime that make everything look
vaguely Thai. Watch those taxis screech to a halt! A guaranteed crowd- pleaser that can be reheated or rehashed generation after generation.
Coffee? Tea?
1 African American advertising icons that some consider to be offensive.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.
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