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Showing posts from October, 2021

Academic Paper: The Domestic Delight of the Rice Krispies Treat

I would like to explain a situation that happened the other evening after class when I stood in front of our pantry. We were low on supplies - but not at a dead end - and I was contemplating the newfound struggle of becoming a Florida resident and having to become one of those people that keep goods in their fridge because it’ll mold, be eaten by sugar ants within hours, or become stale or saturated by humidity. And so, cabinet open, with a hankering for something sweet, two half-open and mostly-stale, mostly-sticky bags of marshmallows in my hands, I mentally kicked myself for not sticking them in the fridge the day they were opened. My mind wandered to why we had two in the first place and being slightly irked that they had both been opened at some point and gone stale, I was determined to ensure they wouldn’t go to waste because of my own oversight. What better way to harness the unique stickiness that stale marshmallows possess than to make Rice Krispies Treats? Darn. No Krispies...

Academic Paper: Sapiens in the Swamp: Culture and Landscape in the Everglades Region

From miles of wet grasslands to thick mangrove swamps, the Everglades was an expanse of biodiversity prior to major development interest in the early 1900s. Originally covering over 4,000 square miles, the Everglades encompassed habitats ranging from dense, hot, and dry pine flatwoods to miles of open grasslands to endless tangles of mangrove forests. It was here, within the daunting swamp of the Southwest region of the Everglades, where Seminole, gladespeople, freed or escaped African-American slaves, white European settlers, outlaws, moonshiners, rum- and whiskey-runners all inhabited, adapted, and recreated the natural landscape, it's impossible habitats becoming intangibly ingrained in the establishment and identity of these various peoples. As the “politics of nature” altered the use and perception of the Everglades, these cultures have changed or disappeared, forcibly adapting to a reconfiguration and regulation of the natural landscape forcing a redefinition of their forme...

Academic Paper: Keeping it "Flo-cal": The Shaping of Floribbean Cuisine

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    Keeping it “Flo-cal”: The Shaping of Floribbean Cuisine Kiva Talty American Eating: Succotash, Spam, and Cultures of Food Harvard Extension School March 18, 2021 The Sunshine State appears as anything but “local” to the average visitor. This coastal paradise is chock-full of fast-food franchises, bottomless buffets, and exaggerated ethnic eateries. The need to cater to the unending onslaught of visitors that swarm the peninsula for three quarters of the year blends and blands the food scene to appeal to the masses. It is understandable that this leveling has occurred, but as of recent, due in part to a resurgence and desire to “shop locally,” a light has shone brighter on the Sunshine State’s hometown cuisine - Floribbean cuisine. This portmanteau is arguably limiting terminology; the roots of this regional cuisine derive from beyond just Florida and the Caribbean. “New Florida” cuisine, as some call it, is “Southern-inflected, seafood-centric...nods to Spanish...