Like Water for Chocolate

In Like Water for Chocolate the main character Tita is driven by food. Food is her comfort, it is something that she understands, and she cooks very well. She uses it to express herself. The use of food in this way shows a very close connection between Tita and her culture. She enjoys the processes of food, and the past that comes back to her when she is cooking. She later uses food to show her emotions because it is thing she knows and understands the best.

Role of Food in LWFC

I'm not really sure how to go about this particular blog assignment, so bear with me, I guess.

I guess what I gleaned about the food is that it's always present, and it takes precedence over everything else. Throughout the story, the food remains a constant character in the book and in Tita's life, and can always be depended on. The rest of the characters come and go -- Nacha and Mama Elena die, and so does little Roberto. Pedro, Rosaura and Gertrudis all leave and come back, but cannot be counted on.

I keep reading the recipes, and what continues to register with me is their complexity and the necessity for attention to detail in the preparation. Perhaps the food is some sort of mirror of life in general? I dunno...

So far, I don't care about the food. I just want to see what happens between Tita and Pedro.

LWFC FW

The recipes at the beginning of the chapters serve as a constant reminder to how important food is to the novel. Food is used as a common tool throughout the book to bridge gaps, mend wounds, and as the great communicator.

Food As a Character - LWFC

It could be said that the food featured in Like Water For Chocolate serves a very distinct role of arbiter between the rest of the novel’s characters. It constantly remains in a central position of the narrative because, quite naturally, it is woven into the culture that the story s illustrating. To the extent that it is an arbiter, it acts as a balancing mechanism for the conflict (and catalyst points) that occur in the story. In regard to the elements of supernatural realism present in the story, this means that food is a neutral tool to be used for the characters. To use Tita as the most obvious example, she finds comfort in several dishes that she (is sometimes forced to) makes, but is also challenged by them in the same way that another character would; as an obstacle to her beliefs. On the literal level, she is challenged to endure the tragic emotional events of her life which are made harder by serving as one of the more experienced family cooks. Looking more deeply, one might see that while her love of her culture’s food is quite strong, that food is a big part of an overall tradition that she may resent to the core (in regard to specific issues such as her destiny as a mother’s caretaker). She struggles with loving and resenting different parts of her family. It is in this fashion that food is most blatantly personified as a living, breathing character.

Food in LWFC

Food plays an influential and manipulative role in LWFC. First and foremost, it manipulates people's emotions. It also communicates Tita's feelings to the people she is cooking for. At the wedding, she is distraught because her sister is marrying her sweetheart, so the wedding cake makes everyone cry and vomit. She still feels very passionately for Pedro, and desires him, and so the chicken she makes the family (and him) causes orgasms.

Also, the ox-tail soup that Gertruda makes revitalizes Tita and gives her back her self. This comes from Gertruda's love for Tita and her desire to help Tita get well.

I also believe Mama Elena tastes bitterness in Tita's food just before she dies, because Tita is finally no longer scared of her, and is taking care of her truly because she cares, and this causes bitterness in Mama Elena's heart, and this is what she tastes.

Blog 8: Like Water for Chocolate

Within the confining domestic sphere that is Tita's life for much of the novel, cooking is the means she uses to express herself when her mother and the family tradition bottle up everything else for her. Food, as a character, can nurture others where others fail to nurture Tita, acts as a sort of confidant when Tita has no one else to turn to, and manifests her emotions into reality. Food is sort of like Tita's alter ego -- doing things that she would be doing if she had the power to do them. Perhaps that's going a little too far, but this novel does have all sorts of magical realism elements.

The character of food

In Like Water for Chocolate I feel food is more a conduit for Tita than anything else. It serves many functions for the book, usually one major function per chapter, but I wouldn't call it a character in itself. It is more a catalyst for Tita: it avenges Tita when her sister marries her love, it heals her when she cannot speak, and it refuses to taste good to her evil mother ultimately setting in motion the events that lead to her death. When Tita is down, food is there to lift her back up, whether she makes it herself or if prepared by someone else (like the soup). Food seems to be an extension of herself as her emotions are relayed through her food (her sadness is inflicted upon the cake thus all who eat it, her irritation is inflicted upon the proposal dinner and is thus not as good as normal).

Food in Like Water For Chocolate

In the book Like Water for Chocolate, food plays alot of different roles. It's symbolizes larger themes in the book, it exacts revenge, it heals, it provides subtext. Because food does so many things, one could argue that it is its own character, but I think it’s more an extension of Tita than anything else.
Tita’s official value and only socially acceptable role is bound up in her cooking; the kitchen is her whole world and the food she makes is a direct reflection of that reality. When she is overcome with loss and bitterness but powerless to do or say anything about it, food is Tit’s means of communication. Through the meals she makes, she is able to express her sorrow, and passion. It is through food that she is able to exert any type of control on her own life. Food becomes her comfort, her emotional release, her mental escape, her love letter to Pedro, and also her foundation in the reality of life at the ranch.
With all the magical realism that is going on in this book, food is the foundation of reality for the reader as well.

The character of food

In Like Water for Chocolate, food is a major character that serves many functions. Each chapter of the book is based on a certain month and focused on a particular recipe. Each recipe has to do with some dramatic episode or event in the De la Garza family. Food is extremely important to each member in the family; however, like Nacha, food has a whole different connection with Tita. Besides being a wonderful cook, Tita has a spiritual, emotional, and romantic connection with food. In several instances, elements of Tita (blood, tears…) have been mixed into the food which yielded very interesting results. Those who ate the food began to feel the same emotions that Tita felt while preparing it. Furthermore, food acts as conduit for Pedro and Tita’s romantic relationship. In this family, words are not needed to say the things that the food does. The food “speaks” among the characters. Additionally, food is constantly referred to when the feelings of the characters are being described. For example, the title of the book Like Water for Chocolate is used to describe Tita’s feelings: she was extremely agitated and about “to boil over”. In this story, food is used to heal, to speak, to express, to celebrate, and to love.

My Family's Food ways

One important dish my mom makes is her stew.  She makes it every once and awhile and it is one of the most delicious things.  There is beef, corn, zucchini, and beans.  Usually she also makes corn bread and grates cheese to put into it.  There are few things that taste better than that mix. The importance of this dish is from when my uncle Stan was diagnosed with Leukemia and was sick of the hospital food.  My mom learned the recipe from my grandmother and it was my uncle Stan's favorite food.  My mom tried to bring it over as much as she could to make my uncle Stan feel better, and he claimed it worked every time.  Sadly my uncle died soon after being diagnosed.  Still my mom makes it pretty often and every time my uncle is brought up.  There is not a more important dish to my family, it is one of the only times we talk about uncle Stan.

Ramadan

Food is always used to help celebrate events, and in my culture, I distinctly remember Ramadan for its emphasis on food. Ramadan is a holy one-month long observance in which people fast throughout the day, which has been continued for centuries. When it is time to break fast, there is a huge feast presented to recognize the holiday, and give thanks to what we have.

This feast is very important because it is a time for the community, friends, and family to spend quality time together. People connect over food; neighbors invite other neighbors to their houses, long-time friends come together, and mosques provide feasts for all the people, which can include well over 2,000.

The food is typically traditional food, but there are a few foods that are made particularly for this celebration. Every fast must be broken by eating a date and drinking a glass of water, while reciting a surah, which is a prayer.
Appetizers include fruit chaat and chaat apri, which is a delicious concoction of fruit and Pakistani spices, and dall, onions, fried dough, also mixed with spices. Pakoras, a potato deep-fried in batter is also a typical dish feasted upon during Ramadan. Also, a varied assortment of very fattening sweets accompany the meal, such as ladoo, halwa, gulaab jamuun, or jalebi, which is basically some sort of sugary fried dough, occasionally coated in syrup.

In my family, the main components of food traditions occur throughout Ramadan. When Ramamdan comes around, my family always look forward to the great big dinners we share together as a family.

Quite a few of my family traditions revolve around food. My grandmother and my mother always seem convinced that they are cooking for a whole army - there is always about 3 times more food cooked than we're actually ever going to eat. Some of the traditions that have developed in my family have come out of my sisters' and my favorite foods. We have family recipes like hamburger soup, goulash, and our famous Christmas sugar cookies (our decorations are legendary). One food tradition that is particularly interesting is our use of church cookbooks. We have cookbooks from my church and my grandmother's church, and by using those we are tapping into other family's food traditions. One recipe in particular is a recipe for baked beans that my younger sister and I have always loved. It was included in a church cookbook by one of my grandmother's friends back in New Jersey. My sister and I have never met the creator of the recipe, but we know her name was Mrs. Pyron, and those baked beans have come to be known as Mrs. Pyron's baked beans. Even though that recipe is not our own, we have become part of Mrs. Pyron's food traditions.

Food in the Family

In my family, holidays always mean food, and there are a few specific foods that are always fixed for specific holidays. For Easter, there are always deviled eggs and Five-Cup Salad (which is kind of like Watergate Salad, if you're familiar with that). Thanksgiving always means deep-fried turkey with a Cajun-spiced melted butter sauce injected into it, sweet potato casserole with a crunchy brown sugar & pecan topping, and pumpkin bread. We have cranberry bread at Christmastime, and I personally prefer this to pumpkin bread. Sometimes we even do St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo (with corned beef & cabbage, and some sort of Mexican fare, respectively).
The most popular dish in my family, though, doesn't have a holiday spotlight. It's called Beef & Biscuit Casserole. I'm honestly not sure where it came from, but it's very delicious. It's basically just, in a 9x13 pan, this beef mixture on the bottom (seasoned ground beef, chiles, and this very tasty sauce that I don't know how to make) filling the pan probably halfway, and canned biscuit dough layed out across the top of it. A lot of us request it for our birthday dinners. That's another tradition in my family -- that my mom will make us whatever we want to eat on our birthday. Sometimes we go out or order in, but usually my mom cooks, and three of us chose Beef & Biscuit Casserole last year.

Special Occassion Food

Although it may sound boring to some, my family and I celebrate the holidays with the typical American menu. This Thursday, I'll be making the turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, bread, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, pies, etc. Of course there are the sweet potatoes, and that's where I veer only slightly from the norm.

I think it's common for the Thanksgiving and Christmas sweet potatoes to be the ones from the can, with marshmallows melted on top. For a long time, that's even what my mother made. Then along came my grandmother's recipe for Sweet Potatoe Souffle...wow, my mouth is already watering! Although I didn't really have any sort of relationship with my grandmother, I definitely have a relationship with her recipe for sweet potatoes!

I won't write the whole recipe out here (if anyone wants it, I'm happy to share it since it's what Thanksgiving is REALLY about! :D), I will mention that I use real sweet potatoes -- anything else is a waste of tummy space. And I do not use marshmallows, whatsoever. The topping is more like a struedel topping, with brown sugar, butter, chopped pecans, a little flour, and coconut. In the end, it's like a dessert before the actual dessert!

On the occasions that we go to my husband's house or my Mom's house for Thanksgiving, I am always in charge of the sweet potatoes. Everyone loves them, and the recipe has even converted non-sweet-potato-people. A couple of years ago, I got a great compliment. It wasn't that they tasted good (I already knew that!), but it was two different people that said mine tasted better than my grandmother's. Like I said, I didn't really have a connection with her, but everyone knew that she could cook like a fiend. I felt pretty amazing when I heard how good they were, and I was super-happy that my family enjoyed my cooking.

So in a couple of days, I'll be making up a 9x13 pan of those sweet potatoes, and then I'll do it again at Christmas. I'm pretty sure I'll make them twice a year, until the role is called Up Yonder. It'll be pretty thrilling when my own daughters ask me to show them how to make them, and the tradition will live on.

Foodways

My family is Jewish and I feel like we have a lot of food traditions during the year. These traditions are usually on Jewish holidays and of course Thanksgiving. My dad always cooks and my grandmother used to cook. She had this amazing blueberry cheesecake that she made and I couldn't get the recipe from her before she died, because she never wrote it down. I did however get the matzo ball recipe from her for matzo ball soup. In Jewish customs to have a very light and airy matzo ball is perfection. It took two years to get it right with my sister, but we finally got it from watching my grandmother mix the matzo ball mix and then use her hands to roll the balls. The other thing that really signifies food ways for me is cast iron cook wear. I never used a skillet or learned how to cook in one until I came to college and I still think everyone should have cast iron. Treating it is the coolest part. You can add oils and flavors that you regularly use and it will just be on there, for forever. Every time my family gets together for an eating holiday I always want to really learn how to cook and one day I will. One day I will learn exactly how to roast a leg of lamb or a turkey and have everyone love it, hopefully then I'll have my dad's help so I don't burn the house down.

Food Traditions

I suppose the biggest food tradtion in our house is the yearly Thanksgiving meal. More than just a meal, it's an occasion for family from across the country to gather and tell stories. One I intend to bring up this year is just how this madness fell on our house in the first place. As for the food itself, it encompasses all the customary cuisines of Thanksgiving: stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits and of course, the turkey. But there are also some family touches, like caserole courtesy of my grandmother from Minnesota. 

On a more day-to-day basis, however, one could say that the special occasion is simply our family sitting down to eat together at a table. In this hectic world, we haven't done that in...months, I suppose. 

I look forward to Thanksgiving.

Ho-Hum Cuisine

My family’s general cuisine is devoid of much fluff. My dad is an old meat-and-potatoes type so much of what we’ve grown up eating might seem terribly bland or typical: steaks, pot roasts, chicken breasts, meat loafs, basic pastas, etc; I would argue that much of our current menu habits were well-established before my birth, by the past upbringing of my parent’s parents, since any attempt to change is met with a strong resistance.
We partake of many things that, at this point in time, are often considered “traditionally American” such as hamburgers, pizza, and barbeque. Restaurants are used with moderate frequency, especially now that conflicting schedules often mean that a meal would only be cooked for one and the effort is deemed unnecessary.
In this environment, it is difficult to speak on food traditions that surround holidays, but with effort I can think of a few. Although not an entire course meal, I’ve always enjoyed Christmas because of my mother’s Snicker Doodles. Christmas means a few batches will be made along with the more common chocolate chip, and sugar variety. A home-made eggnog recipe is also a big staple for the same season.
My sister’s in-laws are far more flamboyant than us when it comes to such things. They like to throw very large family parties for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Fourth of July, but they do not serve anything you might expect. As an example, lobster is a key centerpiece for all three occasions. Their priority also inevitably falls toward ensuring a robust supply of cocktails and liquors. Eating is not emphasized at these feasts though feasts they are (due to the quantity of food present).
As with other topics, it seems that my family’s tendency for overwhelming practicality is the most obvious contrast when compared against other friends and their families. Our cuisine is very expected, largely due to my father’s appetites and what he interpreted as tradition a long time ago. Turkey is for Thanksgiving, ham is for Christmas, and the grill should be used for any patriotic holiday. Although this type of simplicity definitely, obviously lacks a touch of creativity, it is not without reverence. No one will want to be around him if there isn’t any pumpkin pie on-hand this coming weekend.

Food Traditions

There are many things that my family loves to eat. We are an Italian family, we eat alot espicially around the holidays. At my grandma's every year for Christmas she makes honey ham, lasagna, and baked ziti. Sure the sides dishes change but every year for as long as I can remember my grandmother has made those three main dishes for Christmas dinner.

Food Traditions

There are many kinds of traditions, in regards to food, that is present in my family. One that sticks out is when we cook lichon. Lichon is basically pig that has been cooked over a fire.
When my great uncle would make lichon he would go all out. He would go somewhere and kill the pig himself. After he would do this he would bring the pig home and roast it on a spit. I remember one Fourth of July I went to his backyard and there was a pig on a spit. It kind of freaked me out because I am not used to seeing a pig being roasted in front of me. Everyone started to joke me because in the Philippines they see this kind of thing all the time, so they are used to seeing a pig on a spit.
Now at pretty much every family party someone either makes lichon themselves or they order it from a Filipino market. I have gotten used to seeing a full dead pig on the table so at parties I'm not as freaked out as I once was.

food tradition

Usually Koreans celebrate New Years Day and Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) with large amount of food. Both New Years Day and Korean Thanksgiving are three days long holiday, so all family members gather together and prepare a variety of food. In the early morning of New Years Day and Thanksgiving, most Korean people make a breakfast table for the ancestors (NO ONE can eat the food before this ritual. It is considered very rude..). All family members should wear formal suits and make a bow twice for our ancestors. We think that ancestors come to our house to celebrate the holiday together and bring good luck to our family.

Preparing this breakfast table is very difficult and demands a lot of work. In my family, my mother does everything to make the breakfast table for the ancestors even though she does not enjoy cooking. (But she's a great cook) The cooking starts the day before holiday. She buys fresh fruits (apples, chestnuts, pears, mandarin oranges) and other ingredient. While my father cleans the house, my mother starts cooking. I and my older sister help her. First, she makes steamed beef with delicious sauce (I have a trouble explaining Korean food in English!) and prepares salad. Salad is not traditional Korean food, so technically it is wrong to put salad on that breakfast table, but she makes it because I and my sister love my mother's salad. She also starts to make Korean traditional sweet drink with fermented rice. She also cooks several kinds of fried vegetables and fish (again, hard to explain in English). Making these fried vegetables and fish really demands a lot of handwork but is essential in Korean holiday's cooking. She has to make soup and seasoned vegetable, too. There are also other food that I did not mention.

After making all these food, my mother gets exhausted and sometimes she becomes sick. Therefore, 5 years ago, my father made a great decision- he said that our family will not make the breakfast table for the ancestors any more because my mother always has to suffer!! He broke our food tradition! So now she does not have to prepare the formal breakfast table. She only cooks several special food. I think it was really good decision both for mom and myself because making holiday food demands a lot of handwork and actually I do not like holiday food much.....

Foodways

On a normal basis, my four siblings and I eat and eat and eat and eat and eat AND eat. My mother spent most of our childhoods spending hours in the kitchen cooking up gourmet foods. For every holiday she would cook up elaborate menus that were just phenomenal. All by herself she would cook enormous quantities of turkey, mashed potatoes, greens, cranberry sauce, matzoball soup, gefilte fish, etc. BUT, when it came to Christmas meals, my grandma was always in charge of the stuffing. She had a secret Portuguese recipe that she didn't share with anyone and would get up early on Christmas morning and start grinding the meat for it in her ancient grinder. This is THE best stuffing in the world and so we were pretty upset when she lost her ability to cook (and remember most of our names). Luckily, the last Christmas before she could no longer cook, my grandma taught my mom how to make it, thus saving us all from a stuffing-less holiday. So last Christmas, my mom heaved out the old grinder and replicated the stuffing. It was pretty amazing. When the relatives came over for the meal, we were all relieved to have our favorite food on the table and the tradition saved. I fully plan on making sure I have that recipe. Someday.

Food, glorious food.

Everyone in my family loves to eat and almost everyone in my family knows how to cook well. We're all adventurous and ambitious when it comes to what we're to willing put on our plates.
The way it usually works is that each smaller group within the bigger family coming to Thanksgiving dinner will bring a dessert, a side, and a certain style of sweet potatoes. Every year Thanksgiving is fantastic.
Turkey, Ham, green-bean casserole, mashed potatoes, usually 2 or 3 different kinds stuffing, steamed carrots, corn-bread, and different kinds of cranberry "sauce" almost always make it to the table. Some years there are the random "guest-stars" like butternut squash soup, zucchini-bread, broccoli salad, and pearl-onion pumpkin rings, which are all delicious, but not guaranteed to be there. (Not that it really matters, since it's all great and it all gets eaten.) But whatever else may or may not get made: sweet potatoes are mandatory. Not only are they traditional, in my family they're everyone's favorite; it just isn't Thanksgiving without them. Mashed, glazed, steamed, fried, or made into a pie, the answer is "yes, please".
As far as holiday foodway traditions go, what we eat and how it's made isn't always constant, but that we get together and eat alot, never changes.

Blog 7: Foodways

For my family, food is one of the best ways to celebrate the holidays. Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving for us unless there is turkey (obviously) with Dad's homemade dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and pumpkin pie (which I will be making this year). Since Christmas comes right after, instead of turkey, my family fixes a special chicken dish called "Malita's chicken" that has chicken breasts smothered in a creamy sauce and covered with bread crumbs. This particular tradition started after my family and I first moved to Virginia in the 1990s.

Christmas is probably the most important food holiday, actually, because throughout December my mom, my sister, and I will make cookies and desserts every week. Our favorite things to make are chocolate chip cookies, Snickerdoodels, and my great-grandmother's Greek butter cookies. These food traditions come and go from year-to-year depending on things that are happening, but no matter what happens, we are definitely going to be in the kitchen to create deliciousness.

Foodways

My family enjoys eating and will truly claim anything is tradition to bake delicious fatty foods. For instance, a common tradition that my family subscribed to was baking cookies for Santa. However, long after my brother and I learned No, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus, we still made cookies for this nonentity. They are always basic sugar cookies with vanilla frosting, but we must always put dye in the frosting because white frosting is boring. There is always red (which comes out pink), green, and blue. That is it. No others. Apparently as a child my dad claimed Santa disliked yellow and orange cookies among all the other colors. In reality, my father disliked these colors. He associates them with foods he dislikes, so while the cookies will taste the same regardless he enjoys them more when they are in the colors of his favorite foods (spaghetti-red, blueberry poptarts-blue).

For my extended family there are no real food traditions other than make as much food as possible. If there is less food this year than there was last year the children and parents will gripe throughout every subsequent visit until the offending holiday comes around again and the food quantity rectified. This problem usually occurs with the macaroni. And is mostly my fault as I consume more macaroni than is generally advisable.

Foodways - Anelise Lemon

My family has many food traditions; most of them related to the holidays. I will share one of the more unique ones that my family observes. Every Christmas Eve my family and I bake a birthday cake. We are a Christian family and celebrate Christmas as Jesus’ birthday. So, for as long as I can remember we have made Jesus a birthday cake. Instead of leaving out milk and cookies for “Santa”, we leave out a piece of cake and milk. When we decorate the cake we use certain colors to represent different things about our beliefs. My mother acquired this own unique baking tradition from her mother. I have not met anyone else that does this, and I enjoy celebrating what Christmas means to us with this baking tradition.