Baked beans; Black beans and rice. New England boiled dinner; Jambalaya. Clambake; Crawfish boil. Submarine sandwich; po’boy. This is a tale of two typical American cities. Typical? Shouldn’t it be one typical (Boston) and one atypical (New Orleans)?
Boston was there from the British beginning. Its protestant citizens played a pivotal role in the country’s founding. Their
New Orleans originated about a century later. Residents spoke Spanish and French. It was a major slave trading center. Religion meant Catholicism and voodoo. After the Louisiana purchase, the locals were none too happy about assimilating to their new masters. Definitely a-typical.
Maybe. The country has not stagnated. Major changes came with the Civil War, subsequent constitutional amendments, and waves of immigration. As we enter the 21st century, it’s probably best to say that there are many “typical” U.S. cities, including Boston and New Orleans.
What does New Orleans bring to the mix? Well, “mix,” specifically non-Anglo mix: Spanish, French, African. As regards food, the mix shows up in Creole cuisine. “Creole” is a good label for these dishes since they emerge from blending and combining various food traditions.
Back in Boston, the food heritage was marked by the appearance of the “Boston Cooking School” (1879), an institution made famous by Fannie Farmer and her cookbook.
The Boston Cooking School movement was also associated with attempts to establish a single American cuisine. As Donna Gabaccia put it: “By proposing a national cuisine, domestic scientists helped arm a variety of reform movements aimed at limiting, or even turning back,the tide of cross-over foreign foods and eating customs.” (p. 125).
The philosophical issue at work here is the question of the one and the many. At the extremes, there is simple opposition, one versus many. Either one model imposed on all, or, complete variety, ignoring any attempt at unity. In the middle: the dishes of New Orleans. These draw on diverse roots, yet provide new points of unification. The unification is not based on something antecedent, but on what emerges from contact and intermingling.
New Orleans offers a positive model in another way. Some early Boston types, the Puritans, tended to be kind of earnest, if not dour, in their suspicion of whatever seemed frivolous. Appetites were rigorously kept under control. Nathaniel Hawthorne was merciless in criticizing such earnestness. His “The May-Pole of Merry Mount” imagines springtime, young people. They want to sing and dance. Cavorting around the Maypole, they exemplify an exuberant joie de vivre.
The celebrants, unfortunately, are surrounded by dour puritans. These folks were marked by a “sterner faith,” They were not interested “in keeping up the old English mirth.” By “festival,” they meant “fast days.” Their tongues were ever ready to scold “the youth or maiden who did but dream of a dance!”
There was little joie de vivre in the this “stay busy, don’t let idle hands be the devil’s helpers” kind of world. Some of us interested in food and philosophy, promoting sustainability, locavores, organic foods or vegetarianism can easily slip into Puritan earnestness. New Orleans offers a counterbalance, a force
well exemplified in relation to food. Food is about beauty, taste, enjoyment, good times shared with others. A crawfish boil with family and friends is its embodiment.
Contemporary New Orleans it is true, does not always resonate with joie de vivre. Instead, exemplified by Bourbon St, a seemingly slight, but significant, substitution has taken place. The pursuit of pleasure has replaced joie de vivre, an undertaking, we might say, pursued earnestly.
Joie de vivre indicates more than a balancing a utilitarian nose to the grindstone attitude with one that makes a similarly concerted effort at gaining pleasure. It indicates a general attitude of gratefulness and joy at being able to savor existence. Its ethical model involves a well-integrated life, following the ancient Greek principle of getting the balance right.
Our New England ancestors gave us many good things, notions of a caring community, ideas about a free republic, actions to establish that republic, abolitionism. What it did not give us was an appreciation for mixture and a sense of joie de vivre. Fortunately, ours is a big country. In addition to Boston, we can welcome New Orleans as a partner in our joint history.
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