Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language

Food and smell 177
‘Tandoori Pizza’, ‘Japanese Pizza’, ‘Thai-style chicken burger’, ‘Mango
Risotto’ (with olive oil, garlic, coconut cream, curry paste and lemon grass
stock) and the ‘McOz Burger’ (with Australian beetroot).
Food and drink help to define a group’s personality and, at the same time,
they are a very public expression of that personality. This symbolic value is
sometimes used for political effect. In the 1990s, when the French resumed
their nuclear tests in the Pacific, some Australians were tearing up baguettes
in protest. A number even baked them into the shape of boomerangs, an
action reminiscent of the American patriotic rechristening of sauerkraut as
liberty cabbage during the Second World War. And when France criticized
the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Americans renamed French fries liberty fries
(an event that led one wag to comment ‘too bad [President George W.]
Bush’s parents didn’t use a liberty letter’). It is not surprising, therefore, to
find that culinary stereotyping underpins much of the malediction that English
speakers hurl at other races, and we shall explore some of the abusive potential
of gastronomy.
All human groups have food taboos of some sort. Beef is the forbidden
food for Hindus, as pork is for many Jews and Muslims. Jewish law forbids
the eating of milk products and meat products together in the same meal;
shellfish is also out. Apparently, a glass of milk is about as appealing to
Chinese consumers as a glass of cow saliva would be to westerners. 7 Proteinpacked
insects are a gastronomic delight for many who live in Latin America,
Africa, Asia and remote parts of Australia, but they are certainly not high on
the list of edible foods for most Anglos and Europeans (although one of us has
enjoyed scrumptious queen termites in Africa). The whole of the offal
repertoire is also off-limits for many in the west. Small or unborn creatures,
dogs, cats and other pets are a delicacy for some, and an abomination for
others. Vegetarians avoid body parts of any animals and products derived
from them, such as lard and gelatine; vegans avoid all animal products,
including eggs, milk, cheese and even some non-food products such as
leather. For some environmentalists, anything genetically modified is frankenfood:
products that result from the cutting, joining and transferring of genes,
especially across species, are viewed by their critics as the gastronomic
equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster.
Food taboos such as these can be powerful, and inter-cultural menu planning
has become big business. Hilka Klinkenberg, founder and managing
director of Etiquette International, writes: ‘by making the extra effort to
accommodate guests and delegates, your event will also receive a five-star
rave revue’. 8 An example of the potentially dire consequences of being
insensitive to other people’s food habits was the Indian Mutiny of 1857.
Social unrest probably made the mutiny inevitable, but the final trigger was
the British disregard for the Hindu sacred cow and the Muslim execrable pig. 9