Mengue de Cangrejo de Guisante

Abstract

Some things are better witnessed than read. In the translation from actions to words, from Spanish into English, a mengue recipe retains the liveliness and flexibility of cooking in the moment, of what is witnessed and consumed as common knowledge in a family kitchen. The recipe for one family's mengue is an emblem of an evolving Eastern Shore terroir and the reconciliation and synthesis of two culinary worlds in the creation of something familiar yet new. This chapter explores affective, tradition, and invention through oral histories and recipes.