Bon Appétit

Students learn history by picking up the fork

A group of Georgia College & State University history students expanded their knowledge of food on a Foodways study away trip to Savannah. They chronicled the diversity of food rituals in this Southern port city while eating at Lowcountry, Greek, Indian, Italian, Latin and Asian restaurants.

“It relates to history because it’s a different perspective of history. It not only shows the major impact food had on the South but also the world,” said history major Elijah Lopez of New York City, New York. “Food ties in so deeply with people’s lives and cultures and, being from New York, it has been an eyeopening experience to learn about the way of life down South.”

Fourteen students went on the fiveday trip as part of the “Experiencing the Ethnic South Through Food” class co-taught by history professors Dr. Craig Pascoe and Dr. James “Trae” Welborn. The course goes beyond biscuits and gravy to introduce students to an inherently multicultural palate shaped by diverse ethnic groups.

“We talk about patterns of migration and how different food influences and cultures intermingle to create new food traditions,” Pascoe said. “Southern foodways and traditions have always been inherently multicultural and really global in scope from the influences of all the different people who end up here.”

Prior to spring break, students learned how to make tamales from Letty Short at El Tequila in Milledgeville. They toured Comfort Farms in Milledgeville to learn about African plants like okra, a mainstay in many Southern recipes.

Later in the semester, they ate at the Thai restaurant LaDDa Bistro and a Creole restaurant in Macon. They went on a “food crawl” along Buford Highway to eat traditional street food by Muslim-Chinese Uighurs, as well as Vietnamese, Salvadorian and Ethiopian foods.

In the classroom, students learned the history and culture of various minority groups residing in the South. They tried various Southern ethnic dishes like biscuits and country ham, Asian shrimp salad, black-eyed peas and cornbread.

“As a port town, Savannah’s going to have the greatest concentration of different ethnic groups than anywhere else,” Welborn said. “You'll also see ethnic groups throughout the South in smaller towns like Statesboro or Jackson, Mississippi, where you might have a Jewish family running a deli or a Greek family running a restaurant.”

The Spring Break trip was the highlight of the course, bringing all these concepts together. Students heard presentations from restaurant owners, who talked about how they ended up in Savannah and why they serve certain foods.

“I think what stood out the most on this trip was the variety and rich culture that could be experienced within one town,” senior psychology major Lucas Baird said. “My eyes have been opened to just how varied the South has become.”