On May 28, 2015, we held a special seminar by Dr. Hart N. Feuer, Project Specific Assistant Professor (JGP).
The details of the event are as follows:
[Title]
Understanding the Diversity of Local Food: How National Cuisine Evolves in Everyday Cambodian Restaurants
[Speaker]
Dr. Hart N. Feuer, Project Assistant Professor (JGP), Kyoto University
[Time & Date]
16:30-18:00 Thursday 28 May 2015
[Venue]
Room E217, Faculty of Agriculture Main Bldg., North Campus
[Abstract]
The owners of pre-prepared food restaurants (or soup-pot restaurants) in Cambodia and many other Asian countries make their decisions about what to cook in a complex manner, factoring in their culinary skill, seasonality of ingredients, and diners’ expectations for variety. As such, soup-pot restaurants exist as brokers between the diverse range of rural food customs and the prevailing expectations of city dwellers. In urban areas, everyday restaurants such as these are a window into seasonality and market cycles of food, as well as an opportunity to encounter culinary diversity and participate in the formulation ‘national cuisine’. Typically, soup-pot restaurants can accomplish this while also serving as a space of dietary learning, providing meals that are culturally understood to be balanced and nutritious, and garnering support for local cuisine from across the socio-economic spectrum. Indirectly, these restaurants can be seen as potential innovators for managing the consequences of industrialization on food and agriculture, facilitating democratic daily practices of food sovereignty.
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This seminar attracted 29 participants from within and outside the division of natural resource economics, who actively engaged in the question and answer session.