Blog Entry #7

In Mayan culture, chocolate (specifically cocoa) was a major source of consumption. Originally, the Mayans picked beans (also called "seeds") from cocoa trees to eat them, but over time, cocoa beans and chocolate became an element of art and, as time went on, the Mayans began to include chocolate in their artifacts; this included depicting people eating, picking, or preparing chocolate in paintings, drawings, and sketches. In addition, cocoa beans and seeds were used in religious rituals to honor the Mayan Gods and were often called "Food of the Gods"; the chocolate used in these rituals was meant to represent the blood of the gods, similar to how, in Christianity, the bread and wine served at Communion represents the body and blood of Jesus Christ respectively. Due to this, it is clear that chocolate and cocoa beans are a very important element of Mayan culture and have played a large role in the religious practices of the Mayan people.

The Mayans also developed many different ways to prepare chocolate into food. Usually, the cocoa beans were picked off of the trees and ground into a paste. Next, the chocolate paste was combined with water, spices, and other ingredients to make a spicy chocolate drink (due to addition of spices and chili pepper in this drink, this may have been a precursor to "hot chocolate" as we call it today). This drink was consumed by Royal families and commoners alike, allowing chocolate and cocoa to be enjoyed by people from all walks of life instead of a food reserved for the rich elite.

20 Things You Never Knew About Chocolate | Mental Floss
Makes your mouth water, doesn't it? All that chocolate...I have cavities just looking at it. 😁


Also, I think the Beatles song below fits very well into this blog. 



All in all, chocolate has come a long way from the Mayan culture into the modern world, remaining one of the greatest delicacies all over the world and a surefire way of getting cavities😂.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Entry #8

Image
The film "Tortilla Soup" and the original "Eat Drink Man Woman" share many similar elements with each other. First of all, the overall plot of each film is about a male cook who have lost their senses of taste yet cook incredible meals for their families. In both of these films, the family members consists of three daughters, all of whom are beginning their own adult lives and have started to break away from their family traditions. In addition, the three different paths each daughter takes are similar in both films. For example, the oldest daughter of each family converts to Christianity and also works as a school teacher, while the middle daughter in each film enjoys cooking and shares the same passions as her father, but never pursues that career choice. Finally, the youngest daughter in each film does not have any set career path in her life, and is slightly more rebellious and defiant than the other two. However, one main difference between these two films,...
Read more

Blog Entry #5

Image
As demonstrated in this film, the role of food is not only to reflect on the culture and ethnical backgrounds of those preparing it (i.e. Tita and her family), but also allows one to showcase their own personal identity into the food that they are making. In the film Like Water for Chocolate , the foods themselves have several cultural and national identities, both in the final food product and the ingredients that go into it. Most of the foods cooked in this film have "imported" ingredients, that is to say ingredients that come from other countries to add extra flavor and perhaps even enhance the quality of the food. For example, one of the foods mentioned in the article and from the original novel, Christmas cakes called "tortas de Navidad", is cooked with American ingredients (i.e. chili), thereby crossing both the traditional Mexican taste and American flavors together. In the film however, some of the food cooked maintains the Mexican identity shared by Tita an...
Read more

Blog Entry #2

Image
In Babette's Feast , the initial role of food in the Protestant congregation was to merely have enough to survive and be able to live off of. For example, before Babette arrived, the people in the village primarily ate ale-and-bread soup, not anything too luxurious or exotic for the townspeople to really sink their teeth into. This demonstrates that, for the small congregation of believers in this film, food is not anything more than a needs for survival, and is not seen as a form of culinary art and exotic taste. Due to this, the congregation have sacrificed their own senses of pleasure and enjoyment and have repressed their emotions for the sake of their religious beliefs, which is of more importance to them. However, despite the congregation's agreement to remain indifferent about the feast that Babette prepares, the colorful, exotic foods eaten by the group (as opposed to the bland, plain soup they're used to eating) eventually succeeds in evoking repressed emotion...
Read more