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The “Goodness” of Homemade Yogurt:
Alternative Food Practices in
Bulgaria and Japan
Food Justice Conference, University of Reading
July 16-17, 2014
Maria Yotova, Visiting Researcher
The National Museum of Ethnology, Japan
The “Holy Land” of Yogurt
“Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt”
A top brand in Japan with 38% market share)
Lactobacillus bulgaricus has immigrated toJapan? What is “real” Bulgarian yogurt?
“Let’s speak out the truth. Most store-bought products are rubbish. I eat onlyhomemade yogurt.”
M. Naidenov, Minister of Food and
Agriculture, July 1, 2010
Grandmother’s Yogurt is No 1!
The “real” health-giving product cannot be prepared with industrial
milk. It is only the neighbour’s sheep and cows that can produce
the milk for the “really sour” sour milk, naturally thick and with
cream on top, as prepared by our grandmothers in the country.
Homemade = High-quality Food,
Healthy Eating, Happy Family Life
Homemade and Natural Food
Philosophies in BG and JP
Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt,
or
cups of homemade
yogurt?
The Role of the State in
Alternative Food Philosophies
“I wished grandmothers in the villages
would produce more yogurt…”
An ex-manager of
a dairy factory
Yogurt during Socialism
The Age of Industrialization
The Food of the Bulgarian People
The Economy of Jars
The Superiority of
Grandmother Penka’s Bacillus
Lactobacillus bulgaricus in Transition
Bulgaricus versus Bifidobacterium
“It is the bacillus that makes our sour milk,
my girl. It is unique. When I was young,
I didn’t eat much yogurt, but now when I take
it every day, I feel so young and energetic...”
“I am impressed by the
Japanese! They keep
our bacillus alive.”
Lactobacillus bulgaricus in Japan
…All these qualities make the Bulgarian
bacillus much the most useful of the microbes
which can be acclimatised in the digestive tube
for the purpose of arresting putrefactions and
pernicious fermentations...
Elie Metchnikoff (1908: 179)
The Prolongation of Life
The Food of Longevity
Metchnikoff’s Theory of Longevity
The importance of
scientific research in
food value-creation
“Bulgaria, the Homeland of Yogurt”
People lived in harmony with nature…
It’s our yogurt, born in Bulgaria!
Food for Specified Health Uses (FOSHU)
contains an ingredient officially approved to
claim its beneficial effects on the human body
Bulgarian Yogurt as a Health Food
A Gift of Nature
Tenkoko Sonoda, Chairman of Japan-Bulgaria
Friendship Association and
the Club of Yogurt Aficionados
Good morning, dear neighbours.
I grew up under the blue skies of
Bulgaria. I crossed the Black Sea
to enter your houses. I am the
sour milk of Bulgaria.
A refrain of the Yogurt Hymn,
created by Sonoda-san
Good for your health
Good for your family
Good for your budget
Good for our planet!!!
The “Goodness” of Homemade Yogurt
How to “Eat Right”?
Fresh ingredients and home-based meals, consisting of rice, soup and 3 side dishes
Acquiring expertise in the micro-constituents of foodstuffs
Expressing gratitude for one’s food
Teaching the Proper Way of Living,
Eating, Thinking
“A Land of Roses, Healthy Life
and Yogurt”
A Sense of Connectedness
The classification of yogurt as sour tasting “healthy
food” attributes a given place in the world to those who
eat the product. They are bodily and symbolically linked
with other Bulgarians, Japanese and Europeans who
supposedly share similar images and ideals of
healthiness, happiness and wellbeing.
Thank you for your attention!
The making of Bulgarian yogurt comes to
demonstrate once again that common national
memories and understandings are sometimes
more strongly articulated in shared smells,
tastes and visions: in other words, in the non-
verbal, even intangible and invisible (like
Lactobacillus bulgaricus), forms.