Two issues in life are inevitable: the march of time, and FoodTok gentrifying any given tradition’s dietary staples.
The newest conventional meals to fall sufferer to TikTok’s machinations is buckwheat, a healthful grain (effectively, technically a seed) that proponents of the “Slavic Weight-reduction plan” pattern are touting for its well being advantages, pairing it with decidedly non-traditional, non-Slavic meals like avocado — one other humble staple given a bougie makeover. The Slavic weight-reduction plan has been making the rounds since September, when it was first posted by person Anuutavg (the video is now unavailable). “Slavic ladies know the final word trick to staying skinny is buckwheat,” learn the caption. The submit appeared on the heels of the “Slavic Doll” pattern, which celebrates fetishizes “Slavic magnificence.”
As a (half) Slavic lady myself, I’ve ideas about this, and complaints.
My mom is from Poland, the place buckwheat is a staple. We name it kasza, which is technically the time period for any grain, together with buckwheat, which, once more, just isn’t technically a grain however a seed. Buckwheat was first cultivated in China, then unfold to Central Asia and Japanese Europe. It’s believed to have been dropped at Poland within the fifteenth century by way of the Tatars. It’s heart-healthy and wealthy in fiber, potassium, protein, iron, and vitamin B6. It cooks like rice, is surprisingly versatile, and works each as a aspect or by itself as a porridge. It’s superb.
However it’s terrible. By itself, buckwheat is unapologetically dry and has an aggressively nutty style. I really feel prefer it tastes like hardship. Every chew is a culinary equal of a rugged, Outdated Nation mindset: Meals, like life, is one thing to be endured, not loved. Buckwheat is — I’m sorry — a chore to eat. It’s one thing that’s good for you, however not essentially good.
To me, buckwheat seems like a kind of meals you jettison as quickly as you permit the outdated nation. Why would you eat buckwheat for breakfast when you will have entry to sugar cereal? Buckwheat is a reminder you’re not assimilated. That your regular buddies have the privilege of consuming boneless, skinless rooster breast flavored with Lipton soup packets, however your mother eats head cheese and sends your dad to work with kabanosy that stinks up the workplace so dangerous it attracts complaints.
That mentioned, buckwheat is my go-to fast breakfast. I boil one Kupiec model bag for quarter-hour (comfort beating worry of sizzling plastic), add cheese, a super-runny poached egg, and dill, all of which do nothing to do away with that sharp buckwheat-y tang. I hate it, however I adore it. As a result of it makes my physique really feel related to centuries of my Polish and Ukrainian ancestors surviving on buckwheat and willpower. It tastes like dwelling.
I’m genuinely curious whether or not individuals who didn’t develop up with kasza will take pleasure in — or a minimum of endure — it. Regardless of being eaten throughout a large internet of cultures together with these of Central and Japanese Europe, China, Korea, and Japan, buckwheat hasn’t actually hit the mainstream in America — maybe the closest it’s come is within the type of soba noodles. However now that it’s being touted as a superfood with well being and weight reduction advantages, it may need its breakthrough.
However it bumps to see this cultural staple turning fashionable on TikTok, like some form of post-Soviet French Girls Don’t Get Fats. The actual “Slavic Weight-reduction plan” my mom grew up with usually didn’t embody meals. My household struggled below communism, and my babcia would fake to eat from a pot so my mom and uncle didn’t know there wasn’t sufficient meals for all three of them. She’d feed them bread earlier than mattress to attempt to make them not look so bony, as a result of skinny wasn’t stylish. It was a reminder that my household’s farms have been taken away at gunpoint.
I’m cautious of what it means for buckwheat to take off within the Western Bloc. Kasza is tough to seek out in Los Angeles. My visits to the East Coast at all times finish with me lugging again packing containers of it from the Polski sklep, then getting stopped by TSA as a result of they’ve to examine each. I as soon as shared a figuring out look with a Polish girl at JFK ready for her packing containers of kasza to get their private pat downs, as a result of it’s so aggressively Outdated Nation to journey with grains in your bag that it’s suspicious, I suppose. I get excited by the thought of buckwheat groats conveniently sitting subsequent to quinoa and farro at Complete Meals — till I understand that comfort will include a mark-up. What at the moment prices $4.99 a field at European Goodies is already $8.99 on Amazon.
Complete Meals forecast buckwheat as one in all its Prime 10 Meals Developments for 2024 due to its rising reputation; as has been the case with many, many meals earlier than it, higher reputation guarantees to maneuver buckwheat away from its roots. It bothers me as a result of Polish cooking has been my strategy to join with my roots. The TikTok girlies who simply wish to be wholesome or drop some pounds haven’t had cellphone conversations with their moms about the way in which babcia used to make it. How may they probably respect it in all its dry glory?
However meals, like water, is fluid. It circulates and takes on new kinds. I doubt the Slavic Dolls of yore intellectualized buckwheat when the Tatars introduced it to them. So I can’t actually get mad that individuals who haven’t spent hours mixing it with twaróg and stuffing it in pierogi are consuming it now.
So have at it. I’m sorry it’s so dry. Strive it with fried onions. Put it in rooster soup (rosółl), like my mother does. I’ll begrudgingly allow you to gentrify buckwheat so long as you cease placing an “s” on the finish of pierogi. Smacznego!
Heidi Lux is a screenwriter and satirist based mostly in Los Angeles. Her characteristic, Crushed, is streaming on Tubi, and her work has appeared in McSweeney’s, Reductress, the Belladonna Comedy, and extra.