Treatment of ethnicity and cuisine - Site Help, Tips & Tricks - Eat Your Books

Forum

Welcome Guest! You can not login or register.

Notification

Icon
Error

Treatment of ethnicity and cuisine   Go to last post Go to last unread
#1 Posted : Thursday, April 26, 2018 9:05:32 PM(UTC)

Tibet is politically under China so I am not surprised to see an occasional ethnicity of Chinese alongside the ethnicity of Tibetan. I pay attention only to the Tibetan portion as that is what tells me it is in the Himalayan culinary tradition. So why are the Uighur recipes (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region) which are Central Asian labeled Chinese? I have assumed that "Chinese" meant the 8 Chinese culinary traditions not the current political boundaries. Am I confusing "Ethnicity" and "Cuisine"? How are they determined? Thanks.

#3 Posted : Thursday, May 3, 2018 3:09:06 AM(UTC)

I'd have figured that's probably an "Asian" tag, more than "Chinese"...... No doubt you've checked the indexing manual to see if an answer lies therein ... there is no "cuisine" indexing input field, so this must be some algorithm attached to the ethnicity tag.. the manual indicates as follows:


Ethnicities


This field indicates the ethnic cuisine of origin or influence/inspiration of the recipe, if any.  You can allocate more than one Ethnicity where appropriate.



  • Select the most specific Ethnicity that applies to the recipe in question, e.g. for a recipe entitled “Spicy Szechuan chicken,” index Chinese, not Asian.  Chinese recipes would also be found in an Asian search, so there is no need to "index up" the hierarchy.

  • If an entire book or an entire section is about one ethnic cuisine, e.g. for a Tuscan cookbook or chapter, you should index Italian in Ethnicities for every recipe, unless the Recipe Types List provides instructions to the contrary about a recipe's "default" Ethnicity.  For example, a classic French recipe, like Béchamel sauce, should still be indexed as French even if it appears in an Italian cookbook; if there is an Italian "spin" on the recipe, index both the default Ethnicity French and Italian.

  • Some recipes/dishes have an associated or “default” Ethnicity: 
    -  for “yakitori” recipes, categorize as Japanese;
    -  
    for “gumbo” recipes, categorize as Cajun & Creole, etc.   
    Refer to the Recipe Types List  for a list of pre-associated Ethnicities.

  • If a city/region/country is in the recipe name, e.g. for “Greek lima bean dip,” categorize as Greek.
    Or, if the author mentions a city or country in the introduction/headnote, e.g. “This recipe is inspired by a dessert I enjoyed in Provence,” categorize as French.

  • If a recipe’s origin is described as “Latin (American),” index South American and Central American.


Values in the Ethnicities field automatically copy to the next blank record.  If a carried-over Ethnicity does not apply to the current recipe, just change or delete it.


More about Ethnicities



  • If a recipe’s name is given in a foreign language in addition to, or instead of, English, use that as the ethnicity -- e.g. “Marseilles-style mussels (Moules à la Marseillaise)” would indicate French ethnicity -- unless the Recipe Types List instructs otherwise.



  • Updated: If the recipe’s name or author’s comments mention its origins in some part of the United States, e.g., “New England clam chowder,”  then select American, or one of the US cuisine-specific Ethnicities: Cajun & CreoleAfrican American, Native American, Hawaiian, or American South (for US Southern cuisine).  DO NOT also index American if a more specific US Ethnicity applies.
    - However, an American cookbook does not automatically mean that the recipes it contains are of American ethnicity, e.g., a gazpacho recipe appearing in an American cookbook would still be indexed as Spanish (the default Ethnicity for gazpacho).  
    - If the recipe puts an American “spin” on the classic Spanish soup -   e.g. “California gazpacho” – index both Spanish and American.  
    - For “Tex-Mex,” index Mexican and American.

  • If a dish is eaten all over the world – omelets, pizza, kebabs, quiche, etc. – do not index an Ethnicity unless the recipe is specifically identified as being from a country/region, such as “Pizza Napoletana” or “Moroccan chicken kebabs,” or appears in a section devoted to one ethnicity.  These “international” recipes that are considered to have lost their original ethnic origin appear in the Recipe Types List with no Ethnicity in square brackets.


 

#4 Posted : Thursday, May 3, 2018 3:52:01 AM(UTC)

mjes - I took a look in the EYB Library. There are just 11 recipes that have a dual-ethnicity tag of Chinese and Tibetan. These mainly are from books that specify they cover cuisines of China so I am loath to go against their authors' intentions and remove the Chinese tag. 


As debkellie explained, ethnicities are hierarchical. So Tibet when added to a recipe will also ensure that the recipe appears in Asian recipe searches (though not Chinese recipe searches).


I have added Uighur as an ethnicity and applied that to the Uighur recipes in the Library.

#6 Posted : Thursday, May 3, 2018 12:55:48 PM(UTC)

I appreciate the greater specificity in Chinese food. I would like to note that Beyond the Great Wall (by Alford & Duguid) uses the term"Uighur." All Under Heaven by Carolyn Phillips uses the term "Uyghur." Could you also apply the index term to those recipes? Thank you!

#7 Posted : Thursday, May 3, 2018 1:15:26 PM(UTC)

lkgrover, thanks for pointing out the alternate spelling "Uyghur". I've now added the new Uighur Ethnicity tag to those 9 recipes.

#5 Posted : Thursday, May 3, 2018 11:03:36 PM(UTC)

Originally Posted by: Jane Go to Quoted Post


mjes - I took a look in the EYB Library. There are just 11 recipes that have a dual-ethnicity tag of Chinese and Tibetan. These mainly are from books that specify they cover cuisines of China so I am loath to go against their authors' intentions and remove the Chinese tag. 


As debkellie explained, ethnicities are hierarchical. So Tibet when added to a recipe will also ensure that the recipe appears in Asian recipe searches (though not Chinese recipe searches).


I have added Uighur as an ethnicity and applied that to the Uighur recipes in the Library.



 


Thank you very much. I have no problem with them being Chinese in the sense of the political area. What bothered me was the inconsistency of how non-Han (non-Chinese) people within those boundaries were handled. It was especially evident in Beyond the Great Wall which is specifically about non-Han cooking within China. Your solution is exactly what that cookbook does and it sets the stage for other Silk Route cookbooks (there are 8 in EYB). Thank you.

You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.