Introduction

The Multicultural Bread Event happend on November 26, 2022

Like the Festival of Lights event, there were 3 main objectives:

Objective 1: To assemble a group of people with a diverse range of cultures and traditions.

Objective 2: To share and learn from one another’s cultures and traditions on the theme of Bread

Objective 3: To use the ideas from each of our cultures to create a new Bread that collectively represents our American Identity. This is because one beautiful aspect of the United States is that it has so much diversity and therefore can be an experimental lab where these cultures can mix and innovate.

Sharing of Bread and Culture

Challah - Ceremonial bread from the Eastern European Jewish tradition

The Kaye family (Stephen, Max and Emily) made Challah which is created by braiding 3 strands of dough representing Truth, Peace and Justice. Challah bread is eaten weekly on the Sabbath, during most other holidays, as well as important events such as weddings and funerals. The dough usually consists of eggs, yeast, flour, honey and salt. It is said that to make the bread kosher, a portion from the dough is set aside before it is baked. There is an interesting parallel to a practice that Indians do (see below)

In the image above, after a prayer was given, everyone broke a piece of the bread (or touched someone doing it).

Flower Rolls with Scallion - Bread from China

Yonglin made Flower Rolls with scallion from yeast, flour and water, and then brushed them with scallion oil which she also made (in the bottle). The rolls were steamed in a bamboo container and seared on the bottom. Yonglin and Poppy talked about Southern and Northern China, sharing that rice is consumed more in the South. Avi found this interesting because he said South India typically focuses on rice more than the North. Yonglin shared how she ate these rolls afterschool when she was younger.

Eagle Batter Buns - Scottish-Irish Bread

Susan's mother made a cookbook containing recipes from Susan's grandmother who was born in the 1900s and had a Scottish-Irish background. From that cookbook, Susan made Eagle Batter Buns. Susan shared that during World War 2, people would use Oleo (which was originally in this recipe but Susan used butter) which is a butter substitute. This is because butter was hard to find during World War 2. Sometimes people added yellow coloring to make Oleo look more appetizing. Later, it was discovered that Oleo has trans-fats and so it was not healthy.

Paratha and Roti - Indian Bread

Avi bought a Paratha from the indian store and warmed it up. To make it creative he cut a face into it. Avi shared that when his grandfather was growing up, Northeast India and South India primarly ate rice and many saw Rotis and Paratas as being what poor people ate. So Avi's grandfather refused to eat Parathas and Rotis. Avi noted that just within 1-2 generations things have changed and now Parattas and Rotis are eaten widely. My mother also noted how in her region of India it was opposite (see below).

My mother made Rotis and shared how in her region of India (in contrast to Avi's) people preferred to eat Rotis/Parathas and not rice. She shared that when she was a child, for breakfast she would eat jalebis which are super sugary sweets. For lunch she would eat Rotis with vegetables and for dinner she would eat Rotis which were mixed into milk and sugar. She also shared that when making Rotis, the first Roti is never given to the first born and instead the first Roti is often given to cows. We remarked that it was somewhat similar to how a piece of Challah was taken out.

Making of the New Bread

After everyone shared stories and bread from their cultures and traditions, the next exciting objective was to make a new bread recipe that had never existed before from ingredients and recipes that people brought! The idea behind this was to showcase the tremendous beauty and potential of the United States where so many different cultures exist together. The US could become an experimental laboratory of collaborations, kewlness, fun, innovation and the free mixing of ideas.

Before we even brainstormed how to make the new bread recipe, people started naturally innovating! Avi (left) put aachar (indian pickles) on top of the Challah. People also tried wrapping scallions (from the Chinese bread) around the Roti (Indian bread).

To make the new bread recipe that represented all of the breads that were shared, we assembled all of the ingredients (shown above). From the Chinese bread we had scallions and scallion oil, from the Scottish-Irish bread we had the bread itself and butter, from the Indian bread we had the dough and from the Challah we had the dough and honey.

With all of these ingredients combined together my mother made the new bread! In the picture above she is showing everyone how to make them.

She also made some indian chai (left). She made a total of 4 parathas. The first had the scallion oil (Chinese bread), the Challah dough, and pieces of Scottish-Irish bread. The second had honey (Challah). The third had brown sugar, just for fun. The final one was just a normal paratha. They all tasted really good!

We did some squats

The event finished by a very engaging discussion led by Avi. We talked about whether there is free will or not.