June 21, 2007--Food for Thought
This island is now experiencing the latest form of globalization—becoming more and more a preferred landing place for illegal immigrants boating over from North and West Africa. So much so that the government is installing extra-high-tech mobile radars and high-speed coast guard pursuit craft.
It is a wonder that Mallorca has up to now avoided this “problem” considering that it is ideally situated—located almost equidistant between the costs of Algeria and mainland Spain. A mere hundred and fifty miles or so from both continents. And for Sub-Saharan Africans, fleeing Senegal, Mali, and other Francophone nations, it is a shorter ocean hop to Mallorca than to Spain’s Canary Islands, another frequent destination.
But what is lost in the current anti-immigrant fever, and fever it surely is, is any sense of history. The sea that surrounds the Balearic Islands is called the “Mediterranean” because when it acquired that name it was thought to be situated in the “middle of the earth,” all that was known of the earth to the people who lived on the lands surrounding it. And to get to one end of that earth to another, east to west, north to south, frequently Mallorca and the other Balearics were right in the middle of the middle.
Thus, archeologists have found evidence of Paleolithic human habitation as well as remains from the Phoenician, Roman, and of course Arabic and Hebrew peoples, among many others. And DNA studies of contemporary “native” Mallorquins have found that they are indeed as a result a mongrel race. Thus, the evidence, the gifts of this ancient version of globalization are contained within their very bodies. So, what is happening today and being reported in increasingly hysterical headlines here and in the rest of Western Europe is almost as old as the Sea itself.
To the intermittent visitor this blending of peoples and cultures is everywhere evident. Of course most dramatically at the archaeological sites where there are 6th millennium BC Stone Age remains; or at the Roman sites, dating from the second century of the Common Era, where there are surviving amphitheaters; or at the ruins of Moorish dwellings where visitors encounter extensive terracing and irrigation systems, hot baths, and decorative gardens. And wherever one turns place names, towns and roads, reflect this crossing of borders, this mixing of cultures and blending of genes.
And of course, closer in many ways to my day-to-day reality, every meal one eats here also reflects this hybridization. There is considerable interest these days in the so-called Mediterranean Diet because people who live by the Mediterranean appear to be healthier and live longer than others in the West. Spain, as evidence of this, numerically has more people living into their 100s than any country other than Japan. This in spite of all the relentless cigarette smoking and consumption of alcohol.
Is this relative health and longevity the result of all the fish they eat? All the good-cholesterol found in olive oil? The fresh fruits and nuts? And maybe even all the red wine that is freely poured beginning in the late morning and continuing until well past midnight? Perhaps the Siesta is also a factor? A recent study of Greeks, another siesta-ing people, suggests that snoozing just three afternoons a week contributes to health and well-being. So what will doing so six or seven days a week do for you?
I can report from unscientific personal experience with all of the above that I do feel much better here than when in New York.
But what is often missing from these studies and discussions about the Mediterranean Diet and way of life is any recognition that it too is a mongrel. It too is made up of inputs and accretions from all of the peoples of all of the Mediterranean regions and well beyond. A look at any local menu or just a glance at any recipe for any dish considered to be Mallorquin reveals that if it weren’t for the Phoenicians, Romans, Jews, or Moors there would be no Mallorquin Cuisine, or Mediterranean Diet for that matter.
The olive trees that cover the island and from which the elixir of all oils comes is the result of Roman cultivation. They are not indigenous. Some on Mallorca are more than two thousand years old and are still producing fruit. Likewise the orange, lemon, and almond trees that are equally widespread are all Moorish imports. Just think what these add to the Mediterranean Diet and the well-being of all of us. In fact, I could make a list of virtually all of the island’s agricultural products—peaches, plums, red peppers, figs, walnuts, artichokes--or go through the ingredients needed to produce any “indigenous” dish and it would be immediately obvious that the Mediterranean Diet is in fact a multicultural, globalized diet.
Take one of my favorites—Tumbet. It is at its best in the late summer or early fall since it is a sautéed and then baked mixture of vegetables such as eggplant (indigenous to India) and potatoes (from Peru). To make it the “authentic” Mallorquin way requires the use of nine ingredients—with just one being local. In addition to the aubergines and potatoes, it requires ripe tomatoes (also from the New World—Columbus in 1500 brought the first two from there back to Spain); zucchinis or courgettes (also originally from the Americas); green pepper (another Columbus import); garlic (indigenous to China and India); olive oil (Roman); black pepper (first found in Southern India); and salt (from the Sea surrounding Mallorca!) And of course, having Tumbet for lunch requires one to imbibe at least half a bottle of vino bianco, of Roman origin.
So while I understand why anti-globalization protesters turn out in such force at every G-8 summit, attacking McDonalds and Starbuck franchises since to them they represent the exploitation of labor and homogenization of culture that they abhor (and God knows I’d be the first one to chain my body to our café, La Consigna, if it were slated for conversion to a Starbucks), they should also know that they are not protesting anything new. As much as they and I avoid Big Macs and grande frappachinos; we should understand that at some point back in time, some on this blessed island threw themselves in front of the Moorish farmers who were sticking the first orange trees into the ground.
Tomatoes, on the other hand, indigenous Mallorcans might have welcomed because they were thought to have aphrodisiac properties.
It is a wonder that Mallorca has up to now avoided this “problem” considering that it is ideally situated—located almost equidistant between the costs of Algeria and mainland Spain. A mere hundred and fifty miles or so from both continents. And for Sub-Saharan Africans, fleeing Senegal, Mali, and other Francophone nations, it is a shorter ocean hop to Mallorca than to Spain’s Canary Islands, another frequent destination.
But what is lost in the current anti-immigrant fever, and fever it surely is, is any sense of history. The sea that surrounds the Balearic Islands is called the “Mediterranean” because when it acquired that name it was thought to be situated in the “middle of the earth,” all that was known of the earth to the people who lived on the lands surrounding it. And to get to one end of that earth to another, east to west, north to south, frequently Mallorca and the other Balearics were right in the middle of the middle.
Thus, archeologists have found evidence of Paleolithic human habitation as well as remains from the Phoenician, Roman, and of course Arabic and Hebrew peoples, among many others. And DNA studies of contemporary “native” Mallorquins have found that they are indeed as a result a mongrel race. Thus, the evidence, the gifts of this ancient version of globalization are contained within their very bodies. So, what is happening today and being reported in increasingly hysterical headlines here and in the rest of Western Europe is almost as old as the Sea itself.
To the intermittent visitor this blending of peoples and cultures is everywhere evident. Of course most dramatically at the archaeological sites where there are 6th millennium BC Stone Age remains; or at the Roman sites, dating from the second century of the Common Era, where there are surviving amphitheaters; or at the ruins of Moorish dwellings where visitors encounter extensive terracing and irrigation systems, hot baths, and decorative gardens. And wherever one turns place names, towns and roads, reflect this crossing of borders, this mixing of cultures and blending of genes.
And of course, closer in many ways to my day-to-day reality, every meal one eats here also reflects this hybridization. There is considerable interest these days in the so-called Mediterranean Diet because people who live by the Mediterranean appear to be healthier and live longer than others in the West. Spain, as evidence of this, numerically has more people living into their 100s than any country other than Japan. This in spite of all the relentless cigarette smoking and consumption of alcohol.
Is this relative health and longevity the result of all the fish they eat? All the good-cholesterol found in olive oil? The fresh fruits and nuts? And maybe even all the red wine that is freely poured beginning in the late morning and continuing until well past midnight? Perhaps the Siesta is also a factor? A recent study of Greeks, another siesta-ing people, suggests that snoozing just three afternoons a week contributes to health and well-being. So what will doing so six or seven days a week do for you?
I can report from unscientific personal experience with all of the above that I do feel much better here than when in New York.
But what is often missing from these studies and discussions about the Mediterranean Diet and way of life is any recognition that it too is a mongrel. It too is made up of inputs and accretions from all of the peoples of all of the Mediterranean regions and well beyond. A look at any local menu or just a glance at any recipe for any dish considered to be Mallorquin reveals that if it weren’t for the Phoenicians, Romans, Jews, or Moors there would be no Mallorquin Cuisine, or Mediterranean Diet for that matter.
The olive trees that cover the island and from which the elixir of all oils comes is the result of Roman cultivation. They are not indigenous. Some on Mallorca are more than two thousand years old and are still producing fruit. Likewise the orange, lemon, and almond trees that are equally widespread are all Moorish imports. Just think what these add to the Mediterranean Diet and the well-being of all of us. In fact, I could make a list of virtually all of the island’s agricultural products—peaches, plums, red peppers, figs, walnuts, artichokes--or go through the ingredients needed to produce any “indigenous” dish and it would be immediately obvious that the Mediterranean Diet is in fact a multicultural, globalized diet.
Take one of my favorites—Tumbet. It is at its best in the late summer or early fall since it is a sautéed and then baked mixture of vegetables such as eggplant (indigenous to India) and potatoes (from Peru). To make it the “authentic” Mallorquin way requires the use of nine ingredients—with just one being local. In addition to the aubergines and potatoes, it requires ripe tomatoes (also from the New World—Columbus in 1500 brought the first two from there back to Spain); zucchinis or courgettes (also originally from the Americas); green pepper (another Columbus import); garlic (indigenous to China and India); olive oil (Roman); black pepper (first found in Southern India); and salt (from the Sea surrounding Mallorca!) And of course, having Tumbet for lunch requires one to imbibe at least half a bottle of vino bianco, of Roman origin.
So while I understand why anti-globalization protesters turn out in such force at every G-8 summit, attacking McDonalds and Starbuck franchises since to them they represent the exploitation of labor and homogenization of culture that they abhor (and God knows I’d be the first one to chain my body to our café, La Consigna, if it were slated for conversion to a Starbucks), they should also know that they are not protesting anything new. As much as they and I avoid Big Macs and grande frappachinos; we should understand that at some point back in time, some on this blessed island threw themselves in front of the Moorish farmers who were sticking the first orange trees into the ground.
Tomatoes, on the other hand, indigenous Mallorcans might have welcomed because they were thought to have aphrodisiac properties.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
6:53 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home