Walls Built on Sand or Culinary Tourism

Walls Built on Sand: Migration, Exclusion, and Society in Kuwait

Author: Anh Nga Longva

Basing her analysis on extensive fieldwork and archival research, the author examines the social dimension of labor migration to Kuwait since independence in 1961, exploring how the presence of over one million foreign workers has influenced the way Kuwaitis organize their lives and perceive themselves. In particular, Longva looks at the relations between two sharply differentiated social categories and the politics of exclusion that have allowed Kuwaitis to protect their rights and privileges as citizens against infringement by the huge influx of expatriates. Longva examines the little-studied system of kafala, or sponsorship, under which all foreign workers enter and reside in the country, showing how it has become the most critical source of power for native Kuwatis vis-a-vis immigrants. She also addresses aspects of ethnicity and class, describes the life of expatriates, and looks at developments in gender relations and the role of women in building the national identity in the context of migration and modernization.

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Culinary Tourism

Author: Lucy M Ed Long

For many tourists, tasting the authentic cuisine of a particular destination can be the highlight of travel. Exotic foods entice the traveler to experience a variety of culinary traditions and cultural customs, shaping both individual and group perceptions of food. The tourism industry savors foreign fare as consumers do, providing familiar settings such as restaurants and festivals to lure the hungry traveler. Although anthropologists and folklorists have written much about the nature of tourism, none have focused on food's role in tourism. In Culinary Tourism, the contributors argue that the sensory experience of eating provides people with a unique means of communication. Because cuisines are often associated with particular cultures, eating can easily transport the taste buds and the mind to a table overlooking the Mediterranean, the Pacific, or the Caribbean, all without leaving the comforts of home. Long contends that although the interest in experiencing "otherness" is strong within American society, total immersion into the unfamiliar is not always welcome. In the U.S., the spicy flavors of Latin America and the exotic ingredients of Asia have been mainstreamed for everyday consumption. Culinary Tourism explains how and why interest in foreign food is expanding tastes -- and leading to commercial profit -- in America, but the book also looks at how culinary tourism combines one's personal experiences with one's cultural and social attitudes toward food and one's circumstances for adventurous eating.

Sampling foreign food, mainstreamed or not, has also become entertainment. The adventuresome are often willing to expend time, energy, and money to experience new culinary fare, especially when thought to be authentic. At home, people modify exotic recipes and incorporate them into familiar family traditions. Whether we are on vacation, at restaurants, or around the kitchen table, Long maintains, culinary tourism transports us into another realm of experience. The book's contributors, widely recognized food experts, examine the interplay of tourism and food traditions across the globe in public and commercial contexts, private and domestic settings, and around the United States. As these writers explore culinary tourism -- ranging from Tex-Mex in Minnesota to Kosher food in Poland -- Long encourages readers to venture outside the comforts of home and embark on new eating adventures.

Table of Contents:

	Acknowledgments
	Foreword
	Introduction	1
Ch. 1	Culinary Tourism: A Folkloristic Perspective on Eating and Otherness	20
Pt. 1	Culinary Tourism in Public and Commercial Contexts	51
Ch. 2	Tasting an Imagined Thailand: Authenticity and Culinary Tourism in Thai Restaurants	53
Ch. 3	From "Montezuma's Revenge" to "Mexican Truffles": Culinary Tourism across the Rio Grande	76
Ch. 4	Flavors of Memory: Jewish Food as Culinary Tourism in Poland	97
Ch. 5	Incorporating the Local Tourist at the Big Island Poke Festival	114
Pt. 2	Culinary Tourism in Private and Domestic Contexts	129
Ch. 6	"Of Course, in Guatemala, Bananas are Better": Exotic and Familiar Eating Experiences of Mormon Missionaries	131
Ch. 7	Kashering the Melting Pot: Oreos, Sushi Restaurants, "Kosher Treif," and the Observant American Jew	157
Ch. 8	Culinary Tourism among Basques and Basque Americans: Maintenance and Inventions	186
Pt. 3	Culinary Tourism in Constructed and Emerging Contexts	207
Ch. 9	From Culinary Other to Mainstream America: Meanings and Uses of Southwestern Cuisine	209
Ch. 10	Rites of Intensification: Eating and Ethnicity in the Catskills	226
Ch. 11	Pass the Tofu, Please: Asian Food for Aging Baby Boomers	245
Ch. 12	Ethnic Heritage Food in Lindsborg, Kansas, and New Glarus, Wisconsin	268
	Contributors	297
	Index	301