Maps | Gherkins & Tomatoes

The Creation of French Africa: Officialdom at Work

October 27, 2011 by Cynthia Bertelsen

True, the British colonized the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria, but for all practical purposes, like a roll of the dice, West Africa fell to the French. And it wasn’t an easy roll of the dice, either. Carton after carton of documents from the late 1800s arrive at my assigned reading space in the Archives d’Outre-Mer. I’m looking for things like the impeccably handwritten book on West African agriculture or mentions of food eaten by colonial administrators, things that […]

Categories: Africa, France, Paintings, Portugal • Tags: Maps, Portugal, West Africa

Inroads of Language, Basted with the Stiff-Necked Grip of French Cuisine

December 27, 2010 by Cynthia Bertelsen

The reach of France’s colonial empire extended far beyond a few fur trappers and Hollywood’s stereotype of exhausted men, rubbing at their scraggly beards, cursing their conscription into the Foreign Legion. Language, not just nationality, impacted millions of people over the centuries. And, I think, cuisine. Food came with that language and made a dent that I sensed very strongly when I lived in Morocco, Haiti, and Burkina Faso, all French-influenced former colonies, all imbued with an essence every bit […]

Categories: Art, Chicken, France, Haiti, Paintings • Tags: Auguste Escoffier, Cartes, Chicken Fritters, France, Francophonie, French colonial empire, Haiti, L’Empire colonial français, Maps, Marinad ak Poulet, Marinade de Volaille

Did Eggplants March with Alexander the Great?

April 7, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

No, eggplants probably didn’t march with the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great, although he certainly might have eaten some as he brushed up against what is now western India. The fact that most of the names for eggplant come not from ancient Greek or Latin, but rather from Sanskrit or Arabic, attest to the spread of this fruit (yes, botanists consider eggplant a fruit) by the Arabs. Called melitzana in Greek, the word a derivation from the Arabic badhinjan, the […]

Categories: Eggplant, Greece • Tags: Alexander the Great, Eggplant, Greece, Maps, Moussaka

Gherkins & Tomatoes

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The Creation of French Africa: Officialdom at Work

Inroads of Language, Basted with the Stiff-Necked Grip of French Cuisine

Did Eggplants March with Alexander the Great?

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