What do deep fried mars bars, cod, and Bulgarian yoghurt have in common? Each have become symbolic foods with specific connotations, located to a very specific place and country.This book explores the role of food in society as a means of interrogating the concept of the nation-state and its sub-units, and reveals how the nation-state in its various disguises has been and is changing in response to accelerated globalisation. The chapters investigate various stages of national food: its birth, emergence, and decline, and why sometimes no national food emerges. By collecting and analysing a wide range of case studies from countries including Portugal, Mexico, the USA, Bulgaria, Scotland, and Israel, the book illustrates ways in which various social forces work together to shape social and political realities concerning food.The contributors, hailing from anthropology, history, sociology and political science, investigate the significance of specific food cultures, cuisines, dishes, and ingredients, and their association with national identity. In so doing, it becomes clearer how these two things interact, and demonstrates the scope and direction of the current study of food and nationalism.

Notes on contributorsIntroduction Venetia Johannes (University of Oxford, UK), Atsuko Ichijo (Kingston University, UK) and Ronald Ranta (Kingston University, UK)Part One: The 'Template': The 'Orthodox' Emergence and Development of National Food1. Salt Cod and the Making of a Portuguese National CuisineJosé Sobral (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)2. The Cookbook in Mexico: A Founding Document of the Modern NationSarah Bak-Geller Corona (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico)3. Potica: The Leavened Bread that Reinvented SloveniaAna Tominc (Queen Margaret University, UK) and Andreja Vezovnik (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)4. Bacillus Bulgaricus: The Breeding of National Pride Nevena Nancheva (Kingston University, UK)5. Food and Nationalism in an Independent Ghana Brandi Simpson Miller (SOAS, UK)Part Two: Contemporary Accounts of the Emergence and Development of National Food6. 'Signifying poverty, class and nation through Scottish foods: From Haggis to Deep-Fried Mars Bars' Joy Fraser (George Mason University, USA) and Christine Knight (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)7. Catalan Culinary Nationalism: A Contemporary Case study Venetia Johannes (University of Oxford, UK)8. National Cuisine and Regional Identities in Costa Rica Mona Nikolic (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)9. Ethnicity, Class and Nation in the Chilean Cuisine Isabel M. Aguilera Bornand (Tarapacá University, Chile)Part Three: Critical Accounts of National Food10. Does Israeli Food Exist? The Multifaceted and Complex Making of a National FoodRonald Ranta (Kingston University, UK) and Claudia Raquel Prieto-Piastro (King's Colleage London, UK)11. Obliterating or Reviving the Nonexisting nation Liora Gvion (The Kibbutzim College of Education in Tel Aviv, Israel)12. Nationalism, Culinary Coherence and the Case of the United States: An Empirical or Conceptual Problem?Amy Trubek (University of Vermon, US)13. The Canadian Cuisine FallacyNicolas Fabien-Ouellet (University of Vermont, US)14. 'They're Always Eating Cuy': Food Regionalism and Transnationalism in Ecuador and the AndesEmma-Jayne Abbots, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UKConclusionAtsuko Ichijo (Kingston University, UK)ReferencesIndex