“Dear Symposiasts, I'm starting a new project called The Global Dinner Table. It will be 50 countries, each with a photo of a family, however defined, eating and 3K words describing who shops, cooks, eats, etc. Part ethnography, part a record of changing foodways and customs. Would any of you like to contribute? Send me an email and I'll send you the full specs. Best, Ken”

The above was a posting in mid 2014 at the official Facebook page for the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery by Ken Albala, a Professor of History and Director of Food Studies at the University of Pacific in California, and author and editor of more than 20 books on food.

I emailed Ken, informing him that I am not an Oxford Symposiast but have been in the facebook group for some time and had helped one member for her trip to Indonesia. I would love to feature a dinner table in Gorontalo, a Province on the Island of Sulawesi Indonesia. As Indonesia is an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands and more than 200 ethnic groups, I could not claim that this will be "Indonesia's Dinner Table" and nobody can actually.

Ken promptly responded: “OK, Welcome aboard. of course no one example can be exemplary or typical or anything but itself.” Thus began the research about all things dinner in Gorontalo by Omar Niode Foundation, assisted by Noor Sitoresmi our chief representative who is the owner of a small business of Gorontalo Food, Dive and Culture and photographer Donald Wahani.

The goal of this project, Ken Albala said, is to provide a snapshot, literal and figurative, of what happens at the dinner table in countries around the world. The purpose is partly for cross cultural comparison, but it is also to help readers understand why there are differences in dining customs, manners, modes of eating, utensils and of course the food itself.

Dinner in this book is interpreted as the main meal or the meal most important in the family, so it does not necessarily mean "dinner" which is technically defined in Western countries, as a big meal may also be done in daylight.

Dining habits are changing dramatically around the world and the editor hoped to document what people perceive as being lost, whether it is important to them or not and ultimately to leave a record of dining customs in our own day. As a period of transition, this may be the last moment to capture traditional foodways before the homogenizing effects of mass production, global trade and food media.

The final result is At the Table. Food and Family Around the World, a handsome book published by ABC-CLIO/Greenwood. It is a 342-page hardcover book with a dimension of 17,5 x 2 x 25 cm.

At the Table provides intimate insights into a broad range of international food habits, thereby affording readers a glimpse into the daily lives of people around the world and offering immense opportunities for cross cultural comparisons. It presents a combination of reference narrative, photographs, and recipes that make this a one-stop reference source ideal for students learning about other cultures.

A total of 38 countries covered in this book are Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mali, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Poland, Puerto Rico, Rumania, Russia, Senegal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda, United States.

The Omar Niode Foundation is proud to have contributed 14 pages in the book describing all things dinner in Gorontalo including, recipes of the menu at one family dinner table, consisting of traditional appetizers, soup, fish-poultry-meat dishes, vegetables and hot condiments.

At the Table underscores how food culture is universally and intrinsically related to ethnicity, family, and meal-time tradition. This fascinating one-volume reference guide examines all aspects of dinner in international settings, enabling insightful cross-cultural comparisons and an understanding of the effects of modernization and globalization on food habits.

The book receives excellent media coverage as listed here. At the Table. Food and Family Around the World is available through the publisher ABC-CLIO/Greenwood or Amazon.com 

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Images: Omar Niode Foundation, Donald Wahani