-
From the Stacks: USS Utah Scrapbook
Those working with the rehousing project of PCMC come across some interesting items! Recently, we rehoused a scrapbook of the USS Utah passing through the Canal in 1923. Included are picture postcards of the Navy visiting areas in the Canal Zone and Panama City. This item offers a rare glimpse of the interior of a naval vessel and daily activities of the seamen. Thumbing through, it seems as though they picked up some peculiar travelers along the way!
Do these photos bring back any memories of meeting naval or military personnel in the Zone?
-
Cookbook of Panama Canal Zone Cuisine Wins Award
Opening the Gates to Canal Cuisine, a cookbook created by the Panama Canal Museum with the help of many volunteers and published with the Library Press @ UF and the George A. Smathers Libraries, was recently announced as the winner selected to represent Panama in the American category of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. As a finalist, the cookbook is a contender for the “Best in the World” award, which will be given at the Gourmand Awards on May 25-28, 2018 in Yantai, China. Read more about the awards here: http://www.cookbookfair.com/.
Opening the Gates to Canal Cuisine contains hundreds of recipes that were used by people of all nationalities during the American Era of the Panama Canal. The cookbook helps preserve the unique cultural and historical heritage of those who labored to make the Canal one of the World’s greatest accomplishments. Opening the Gates to Canal Cuisine celebrates the diversity of the Zonians, as well as what they had in common: being a part of a unique operation and a social experience that transcended the generations.
Opening the Gates to Canal Cuisine features everything from ceviche to lime squares; and the cookbook represents not only Panama and America, but also Ireland, India, Spain, and many more countries. You can read the entire cookbook here: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00032190/00002.
Congratulations to everyone who participated in the cookbook, including the officers and board of the Panama Canal Museum and those of you who served on the Cookbook Committee: Sarah Finkelstein (chair), Cissy Collins, Sis Medinger, Catherine Goodrich, Jerry Fields, Joey Zornes, Alice Latimer, Olimpia Stapleton, and Elizabeth Neily. The University Press of Florida recently posted about the award: https://floridapress.blog/2018/01/30/awards-announcements-our-authors-recent-wins-2/.
Do you recognize any of these recipes? What was your favorite Zonian dish? Is there anything you would add to this cookbook?
We hope to see you at the food exhibit opening in March 2018 at the Smathers Library!
-
Updates and Introductions: Coral Dixon
Hello, everyone! My name is Coral Dixon and I’m so excited to join the PCMC team! I am a UF Museum Studies MA graduate student, concentrating in Communications and Public Engagement. I look forward to learning more about the history of the Panama Canal Zone, as well as get some hands-on experience with the collection.It makes me so glad to see that the Zonian community is active in this blog and eager to contribute and work with the PCMC libraries team towards preserving this culture and history. I can’t wait to start updating this blog with information, pictures, and stories as I come across interesting objects in the collection, and I hope to get to know all of you in this process.
Best,
Coral
-
Johnny Mazetti (or Marzetti??)
Popular dishes come with a multitude of variations, and I have come across many recipes for Johnny Ma(r)zetti, even how the name is spelled! They seem similar enough, but there is some distinction from one another. I would like to know your experience with this cuisine–was it typically served at your dinner table? Brought to potlucks? Catered for events? Where did it originate?
