Restaurant menus offer a glimpse at the kinds of foods served in another time and place. They are a condensed view of what’s available to eat and how it’s popularly served and eaten. The prices charged for meals are also fascinating. Have you collected or saved old menus?
Dr. Imogene Lim, professor of Anthropology and Global Studies at Vancouver Island University has an extensive collection of restaurant menus from British Columbia and other places in mainly North America. She has a particular interest in tracing how food is represented, paying close attention to images and language used in the menus she collects. She likes to address the question of “authentic” Chinese cuisine.The menu collection of more than 150 menus from across North America can only be viewed on line at: https://viuspace.viu.ca/handle/10613/2695
If the idea of “authentic” cuisine intrigues you, here is a blog with fascinating information about a country (Iceland) you would probably not suspect had so much food tradition. Okay, it’s only marginally related to Dr. Lim’s project, but imagine how grateful you might be if you went to that country and knew how to decipher the menu ahead of time. http://diplomatonline.com/mag/2016/10/icelandic-foods-a-challenging-history/
