Residents of Guam will celebrate their rich culinary heritage over the next six months as part of a traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution. Key Ingredients: America by Food presents a provocative and thoughtful look at the culinary traditions that have shaped America and the ingredients that are key to the nation’s cuisine, encompassing regional traditions and international influences.
The exhibition was launched in Guam last weekend with the Rice Festival, celebrating the diverse cultural traditions of rice. It will travel to four venues across the island, with complimentary local components developed for each venue, and will look at Guam’s shifting food traditions since World War II, a focus on the evolution of Chamorro food traditions through the introduction of numerous ingredients, and a celebration of regional cuisine and culture with Micronesian Food Traditions.
‘This celebration of Guam’s culture will offer our residents an opportunity to examine our local food traditions, consider their own heritage, and reflect on the dishes and associated memories that are important to us,’ said Kimberlee Kihleng, Executive Director of the Guam Humanities Council.
‘Key Ingredients is an exhibit that takes a look at the historical, regional, and social traditions involved in food,’ said Monaeka Flores, also from the Guam Humanities Council. ‘In Guam food is part of every single thing we do, its part of every activity, it really helps us express who we are as people, and so this is a perfect exhibit to come to Guam to help us tell our story, were taking this national exhibit and were bringing it here and using it as a tool to tell our story of our own food traditions’.
The Key Ingredients: America by Food exhibition is traveling to more than 200 rural communities across the US.
For more information, visit: www.keyingredients.org