- 6 months ago
The Culture of Food: Mariam and Zimal host a dinner party, visit high street takeaways and volunteer at a food bank to talk to people about what food means to them and how it can bring people together.
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00:00Hi, I'm Mariam and I'm Zimul. I'm a scientist and researcher and I'm a
00:04secondary school student. We're here to ask questions like where does our food
00:08come from and how does it get onto our plates? From growing food to waste, from
00:13culture and tradition to cost, science, climate and the future, we'll be
00:17exploring all of this in Generation Food!
00:30In this episode we're going to look at what food can mean to different people.
00:47For me food is all about generosity, sharing and that sense of community. Even
00:52when the world feels divided, food is something we all have in common. We have
00:56an amazingly diverse range of food. So what are some of the events in world
01:00history that have led to this? Fish and chips is one of the nation's favourite
01:04dishes but it actually originates in Portugal's Jewish community around 600
01:08years ago. Many left for either religious or economic reasons and came back to
01:13England where they settled and shared their fried fish. Going back even further
01:17pie has its roots in ancient Egypt. A recipe for a chicken pie was discovered on
01:22a tablet carved around 2,000 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
01:26The Greeks and the Romans then made pastry to preserve fillings which honestly they
01:30left the best part. Fast forward several hundred years, a third of the Irish
01:35population relied on potatoes. But a fungus introduced to Europe destroyed the crop
01:40causing the great hunger. Farmers still needed to make a living so they sold their
01:44other crops and England exported them elsewhere. The population suffered from
01:47starvation and a million Irish people died and at least another million were
01:52forced to leave their country as refugees. Around the same time, the British colonial rule was
01:57being established in South Asia which has led to a strong influence on our cuisine today.
02:01A British Pakistani chef living in Glasgow is credited with creating the chicken tikka
02:06masala, frequently voted the nation's favourite food. The Windrush generation brought Caribbean
02:12food and spices with them to the UK shores, while war and persecution led Chinese and Vietnamese
02:17refugees to introduce their dishes to our dinner tables. Starting in the 1960s fast food became
02:23increasingly popular. But can you guess who was the first to open a UK chain in 1965? It was KFC in
02:30Preston Lancashire. Our local high street is a great example of how different cultures and cuisines live
02:36alongside one another. I visited Canterbury with our reporter Daniel to see what we could find and I must say
02:42I made a great falafel.
02:47We're in Canterbury today on the high street to find out a little bit more about the food here.
02:52And the cultures, traditions and histories behind it. At home it's a lot of Arabic, Middle Eastern food.
02:57And I was born in Germany but at home obviously we're Togolese so we eat a lot more Togolese food.
03:02So shall we find out what we can? 100%.
03:04We started off at a family-owned fish and chip shop. Hi, good morning.
03:08Fish and chips, well it's always been a favourite of the British people.
03:12Everyone comes over and tries our fish and chips.
03:15You're not tired or sick of it yet?
03:17Never. You never get tired of fish and chips.
03:20And you're serving Greek food as well?
03:21We are Greek Cypriot from Cyprus. I thought we'd add a little bit of our own culture to our business.
03:28Can one of us have a go at wrapping the fish and chip shop?
03:30Yeah, of course. Come on then.
03:32Get some chips, put it on your tray. On there. There, there, there. And then, yeah? Simple.
03:39Scoop it on. That's a healthy portion. And then cross. Other way.
03:46This way? Yeah.
03:47Yeah. This way.
03:49And then flip it. Yeah. How was that?
03:55You're natural.
03:56So I definitely put too much salt and vinegar on them.
04:00It's literally covered in salt.
04:02But next, I stopped off at Mr. Falafel.
04:05Oh man!
04:08I don't care about it anymore.
04:21So in Leaktahm by France,
04:22particularly in Eltern,
04:32But what are people's favorite dishes?
05:02And do they know the history behind them?
05:04What is your favorite food?
05:06Tacos, probably.
05:07I love a chicken burger.
05:09And do you know the history about your favorite foods?
05:12Well, mine comes from, like, Mexico or, like, Spain or something like that.
05:16I don't know where chicken burger originates.
05:18What is your favorite food?
05:19Um, probably, like, pancakes.
05:22I'm guessing pancakes are from, like, America, like, American fluffy pancakes.
05:26Dokpukki is, like, a Korean street food.
05:28Kachopo is a typical food from my region, Asturias in Spain.
05:32It's like meat with cheese fried, and it's very, very good.
05:40I do love eating out and supporting a local business.
05:43It really felt like they were sharing part of their family history.
05:46And a home-cooked meal could be just as nice.
05:48More work, but arguably more reward.
05:50Having friends and family around is a nice way to share our food traditions.
05:54And that's exactly why I invited you, your sister, and Micah around to mine for dinner.
06:01Today, I've decided to prepare some koshiri, which is kind of the unofficial national dish of my home country, Egypt.
06:07The dish is popular for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
06:10Because it's completely vegan, it's just rice, pasta, lentils, and stuff like that, it's useful for us for times of fasting.
06:17Food can have different meanings in different religions.
06:20Fasting can serve to cleanse sins or be a form of discipline and reflection.
06:24You can then break your fast and food becomes a celebration.
06:27Sweet food can represent you having a sweet year.
06:29Hi, guys.
06:31Hi, Micah.
06:31Hi.
06:32How are you?
06:32I'm all right.
06:33How are you?
06:33I'm good.
06:34For my family, we're Christian.
06:36And during Christmas and Lent and stuff, we're not allowed to eat meat.
06:39So this is one of our favourite dishes during that time.
06:41It's tasty.
06:42Yeah?
06:43Yeah, it's nice.
06:44It's really yummy.
06:45Yeah?
06:45I like the onions.
06:46Yeah, I love the onions.
06:48So it is almost Christmas, obviously the 25th of December.
06:51I actually celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January.
06:53So my church is called the Coptic Orthodox Church.
06:56Do you guys celebrate Christmas?
06:57No, we don't.
06:58No, we don't.
06:59We celebrate Eid.
07:00We go to our friends' houses, meet everyone, get presents and money.
07:05And you just had Hanukkah.
07:06Hanukkah is where we celebrate the miracle of the menorah being lit in for eight years.
07:11Eight days, but we only had enough oil for one.
07:14So today I've got biryani.
07:16It's a mixed rice dish with lots of different spices.
07:19In Pakistan, it's a tradition to always have biryani.
07:23Have you guys been to Pakistan yourselves?
07:24Yeah.
07:25Our grandparents lived there.
07:28This is chicken soup and kenedlich, which is like a dumpling.
07:31These are mini croutons and that's mozza.
07:34Every Friday night, every Jewish family always has a little Shabbat dinner, you know.
07:38Little sit down together.
07:39And we do it to celebrate God's, like the seventh day of creation when he rested.
07:43As Christians, we think the seventh day is a Sunday.
07:46What's a special day in Islam?
07:47It's also a Friday, right?
07:49Yeah, it's Friday.
07:50We have halal meat in our Muslim culture.
07:53So is this halal?
07:54It's kosher.
07:55What does both of those things mean?
07:56So halal is like when meat is cut in a specific way.
08:00Kosher are the dietary laws for Jewish people.
08:02That's lovely.
08:05Micah, remind me what this is called.
08:06Lackers.
08:07Lackers?
08:08Lackers, yeah.
08:09Do you think learning about each other's culture makes us like understand each other more?
08:13Yeah, people who are really judgmental about other people without even knowing about their culture.
08:18I think in this country and like across the world, I think people need to be a bit more accepting of each other.
08:23I feel like we all tend to judge each other a little bit.
08:26So it's nice to just actually show each other and share with each other like what our cultures are.
08:32It's like treat other people how you'd want to be treated.
08:34Three, two, one.
08:36During winter, energy bills go up to combat how dark and cold it becomes.
08:46Food becomes more expensive too with the increased need to import and bad weather.
08:50Around Christmas, there's a pressure to buy gifts on top of all of that too.
08:54It can be a tough time of year and the need for people and families to use food bank goes up.
08:59Hundreds and thousands of children across the UK need to use them.
09:02Well, I went to a food bank where they were serving Christmas dinner for anyone who wanted to eat good food and have a chat.
09:13I'm here at the Hope Centre in Kent where they're serving a Christmas dinner as part of their food bank initiative.
09:19I'm going to meet a young person called Kachi.
09:21She's volunteering here and she's going to show me around.
09:24Hi, auntie.
09:25How often does the church do like do stuff where you can volunteer?
09:29They put stuff outside every week.
09:31So what did you get out of volunteering? Why did you do it?
09:33Well, on a cultural basis, like back in Nigeria, like you were expected to like, if you go out to parties or do something, you're supposed to help the elders.
09:42Like I just think it became a part of me and like, I just love helping around.
09:45It makes you feel like you're being helpful to society, to your community.
09:48So I enjoy it as well.
09:50Merry Christmas.
09:52Hello.
09:53Dinner was ready to serve and we had lots of people come to share some community and Christmas spirit.
09:58Did you enjoy your Christmas dinner today?
10:00I did.
10:01Do you think Christmas is a good time for getting together?
10:04For me, any time is a good time to get together.
10:07I really celebrate Christmas.
10:09Usually it's very depressing.
10:12This here made it bad.
10:15What do you think about communities?
10:16There are opportunities for young people to get together.
10:18There needs to be more communities.
10:20People you see in Chatham, they're just on their roads doing foolishness.
10:23And crime and all that.
10:28If there's more communities, more people together, less stuff would happen.
10:31How important do you think today is for all of us to get together, have a chat?
10:35I mean, you come here every day to get some food bank.
10:40It's what keeps me going because I can't afford to.
10:42Yeah, exactly.
10:42Things like that, you know.
10:43I thought it was nice that people sat down, had a conversation, had, like, commune together.
10:50How important do you think it is what we've done today?
10:52Like, serving other people, giving back.
10:54It just, like, takes one less stress off their minds.
10:57Like, for people, with the cost of living and all, some people are, like, worried about
11:00what they're going to eat today, how they're going to get the groceries for this week.
11:03That's why this church does food bank.
11:05So they put out, like, things that most people would need, like, bread and vegetables outside every day.
11:09So why did the organisers decide to serve Christmas dinner to their community?
11:14As Christians, we celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus, but then again, it's also time for family.
11:19These guys don't have family around us, so we just thought, OK, what could we do to further
11:24support them and to create an atmosphere where they can feel like they're part of a family?
11:29What message do you send to the young people in your congregation, in your community,
11:33to encourage them, like, to do stuff like this?
11:36When they see what we are doing, they want to do it.
11:40Right.
11:41Food is like football.
11:42Bring people together from all different backgrounds and cultures.
11:47And food is a symbol of celebration.
11:48It's special.
11:52See you after the break, where we'll be talking more about the cultures in our kitchens.
12:02Welcome back to Generation Food.
12:04In this episode's group chat, we went to Valley Park School in Kent.
12:09I spoke to nutritional therapist Danielle, Valley Park's very own Hamish,
12:13university student Mohamed Amir, and Grace from the Food for Life programme.
12:17And I got some questions from our audience.
12:20Then the students came up and spoke about the importance of health, society and culture in food.
12:24What do you guys think about sharing foods from cultures, religious backgrounds?
12:37I mean, on the show, I made a dish called kosheri, both religious and cultural.
12:42I love sharing that dish because it almost feels like sharing a part of me.
12:46Whenever I cook dal and my friends know about it, they will come all over, like from everywhere
12:53to my home just to eat it because they're missing home.
12:56My family is originally from Scotland.
12:59So we have something called haggis, neeps and tatties, which is haggis, which is, this is
13:05going to sound grim, but pig's intestines, mash and swede, which is really, really nice.
13:11My name is Corinne and I'm 13.
13:12And what is your question for the panel today?
13:15I'm Nigerian, so how do I know the food that's nutritious in my traditional food?
13:19Eat Well UK, there's an African Caribbean and a South Asian eat well plate that can give
13:25you an idea of throughout the day, what should I be eating?
13:29Amir, you're an international student.
13:30Has food helped you retain some of your culture in the UK?
13:33I always miss my country's food.
13:36Luckily, there is a huge Bengali community in London.
13:41My own country's food, it gives me an extra energy.
13:45So what's your name and how old are you?
13:47Ernest and I'm 13.
13:49The panel have just discussed about food and culture, so do you have a question for them
13:53to discuss?
13:54How can food bring a community together?
13:56Eid is a really obviously important day for us as a Muslim.
14:00I'm lucky enough to have friends in this country, but not much family members.
14:05They live very far away.
14:06So one of my friends called me to come and join them to do breakfast.
14:11We ate pilau, you say pilau rice and biryani and lots of like curries and everything.
14:17I think sharing recipes with your friends and with your family as well, I think it's a
14:23really nice way to talk to them and food is something that brings everyone together because
14:27we all like it, we all eat it.
14:29For example, at church, you know, in mass we're all really quiet.
14:32It might be the same in mosque, like you're praying kind of by yourself, but afterwards
14:37we all stick around to have some breakfast and at that point it's more community based.
14:41My name's Daisy and I'm 12.
14:43Okay, so what is your question for the panel today?
14:46My question is, why do we have different cultural foods?
14:49When we started immigrating to different countries, for example, my parents came over here from
14:54Egypt and they weren't the first people to come over from Egypt.
14:57At that point, people started sharing recipes from across different countries.
15:01Throughout history, it depends on where people have been in the world and what we've had access
15:04to and what we're able to grow.
15:05For example, what we're able to grow here in the UK differs completely from what we're
15:09able to grow in a much warmer country.
15:11Yeah, obviously I think it's a nice thing to try different things.
15:15I don't think there is really a normal to food anymore because you sort of have lots of
15:19different flavours, lots of different favourite foods that people like.
15:23Celebrating kind of more traditional British produce, but also celebrating other things that
15:28have come over from different countries as well.
15:30My name is Isaac and I'm 12.
15:32Hello, so what is your question for the panel to discuss today?
15:37My question is, how could I eat healthier?
15:40Always look to limit the amount of sugar and unhealthy fats that you have in your diet.
15:46If you've got your lunch or your dinner and you've got two different types of coloured
15:50vegetables or fruits, just try and add one more colour.
15:52Everybody's so busy and it can be really hard to find the time to cook.
15:56I think the reward far outweighs the time maybe that we've spent to put into it.
16:01And it's a way of kind of taking control of our own health as well.
16:04I think it's so important to learn the skill of cooking and the love of cooking as well.
16:08You don't want to see it as a chore.
16:10I also want to ask about the five a day thing.
16:12Is that true?
16:13It absolutely is true.
16:15I mean, in the UK, our recommendation is five a day, but in most European countries,
16:20it's much more than that.
16:22So five is actually the minimum amount that you should aim for if you can.
16:29I'm Alexa and I'm 11.
16:31Hi Alexa.
16:32So what's your big question for the panel to discuss?
16:35My question is, how are you coping with the cost of living crisis and if you have any tips for others?
16:40I think over the last couple of years, it's been quite turbulent with food prices and we've seen a real spike
16:45because there's lots of things that have been happening that have been outside of our control.
16:48We're so lucky in this country to produce some really fantastic produce, fruit, veg, salad, meat, wheat that goes into our bread.
16:56Being flexible and maybe shopping around for offers.
16:59If we're lucky enough to have the space to grow our own, either in school or at home or out and about in the community.
17:04Something else you can do, which I know you can get things for quite cheap there,
17:09you can go to the farmer's markets or farm shops, which can get you fresh produce for not so much as shop prices
17:16or look for the British growing produce in the shops, as I learnt from Grace.
17:21There's stuff like free school meals, there's loads of initiatives that can increase access to food, right?
17:25You've got free school meals and stuff like that?
17:27Yeah, there is the option to have free school meals.
17:29What do you guys think we should be eating at school? Tell me about your school dinner menu.
17:33There's quite a lot to choose from, so you've got the things that are there every day like pizza and paninis,
17:38sometimes curry, sometimes roast dinner on Wednesdays, fish and chip Fridays obviously.
17:44My name's Lavinia and I'm 11 years old.
17:46And what is your question for the panel to discuss?
17:48What is the weirdest food combination?
17:51So I used to get a portion of chips from the chippy, which at the time was 50p,
17:55which was really good for a portion of chips.
17:57And I used to get a 50p bar of chocolate from the corner shop and used to melt the chocolate on the hot chips.
18:02I used to eat it like that as like a dip, so it's like sweet and salty.
18:06I always get told I'm weird for adding grated carrot into my porridge.
18:10Something I can remember my cousin doing was in his sandwiches he had ham and chocolate spread.
18:19That's outrageous.
18:20And jam and cheese.
18:21He said the jam and cheese one was charcuterie, but it wasn't.
18:26It was just Korean.
18:28Thank you panel and thank you guys for your questions.
18:30We asked the expert panel what a weird combination of food was.
18:42Mine was chocolate and chips.
18:44Eden, do you have one?
18:45Remember when I was younger, I tried like tomatoes and chocolate.
18:49I mean, I've seen most people do like a slice of bread and putting crisps and bread.
18:55Crisp sandwich, yeah, I like those.
18:58When you go to the odd sweet shops, you can always see like odd flavoured like pickles.
19:04Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:05Like they're spicy or they're sweet.
19:06What did you guys learn about food at school?
19:08All the different types of things that I needed to make bread.
19:11We're learning about like the eat well guide and stuff.
19:16Yeah, yeah.
19:16Last time I think it was, we like made chicken, but it wasn't exactly cooked and everyone was just like raw,
19:22so I think it'd be better if we all learned how to do that.
19:25Yeah.
19:26What about at home?
19:26Do you guys do cooking at home?
19:28Yeah, I help out my mum sometimes.
19:29Yeah.
19:30I quite often help my dad making brownies and scones.
19:35Well, I try to help, but I end up getting flour down me when we make scones most of the time.
19:40With my friends, I sometimes like make cakes and things,
19:42or with my mum, she likes to make me make dinner with her.
19:47Is it like she wants the company?
19:49Yeah, I think so.
19:49It's nice to do something together, right?
19:52Yeah, so my brother's like got really big into baking, so he makes me help him.
19:57What about food cultures?
19:58Do you guys try any different cultural foods here at school or at home?
20:03My dad sometimes likes to make curries.
20:05He's been really into that lately, so he always gets me to try them.
20:08If we have like a takeaway, we'll try like all different stuff.
20:12So if we get an Indian, we'll get like loads of different stuff and we'll just put it all on the table.
20:18I think it's fun to try different foods, like especially if you're like at a restaurant where it's like a continental one.
20:24My dad has an obsession with cookbooks, so he gets different ones and then there's always different types of cultures, like food, so he makes something different every day.
20:37Religious ceremonies and stuff sometimes come into it, like a Christmas dinner and you celebrate Eid.
20:42So what was your Eid food like?
20:44We have lots of food for Eid, like my mum made lots of food.
20:48We had like curries, rice dishes, desserts.
20:51What's nice about Eid when you like have a party?
20:54Is it quite a fun day?
20:56Yeah, it is.
20:56Like we all get together as like friends and family and we just forget all of our troubles and just have fun.
21:01In form time, I think it was when like Muslims were fasting, we learnt about fasting and stuff like that.
21:12It was really interesting.
21:14I was asking lots of different people questions about their religions and I went home and told people about it.
21:21I can't eat that much, I would really struggle.
21:24I know it's religion but I still struggle.
21:27Sunset to sunrise, right?
21:28Yeah.
21:28Yeah, that's cool.
21:29What do you guys think about Christmas dinners then?
21:31Do people here celebrate Christmas?
21:33Yeah.
21:34What's your Christmas dinners like?
21:35Well, family comes round, it's like really lovely and it's just really nice to come all together.
21:42We have a tradition where on Christmas day it's just us and then we have on Boxing Day we invite my grandparents round and we have the leftovers.
21:51Because my mum's side, she's Italian so she does this like big platter thing and everyone comes around and then on Boxing Day my dad makes, I don't know what it's called, it's like this yellow thing and we all have to eat it.
22:06Legally it's our right to have access to food.
22:08Were you guys surprised at all about the conversations about the prices of food and did you learn about anything to do with maybe some tips around the cost of living or how you might help some people in need?
22:19You guys have definitely like been an inspiration and we're definitely learning about it in religious studies at the moment about poverty and charities and helping everyone out and stuff like that.
22:32Sometimes if you go to a grocery store and you give stuff in their bin it goes to a food bank.
22:37Do you guys feel like there's lots of expectations now about like what to eat, how to make it or to be healthy?
22:43Yeah we see lots of gym people on TikTok like making all of like their protein shakes and everything but in reality if you're like a busy person you've got clubs after school like chucking the dinner then just go straight back out to a club drop like my mum's dropping my brother and me to all different kinds of places so it must be hard.
23:06Yeah I think influencers play a big role in it yeah I mean whenever I try to follow the recipes online they never look like what they're supposed to look like yeah definitely filtered yeah thank you so much to my student panel give them a round of applause
23:19Thank you so much.
23:20Thank you so much.
23:49Thank you so much.