Codell Rodriguez
"Hidden India" will air nationally on Wednesday, Aug. 21.
One thing Jan Thompson can safely say after traveling the globe is, "Cooked insects are the best."
Thompson, an assistant professor in radio-television, has been the director, editor, producer and composer for a series of prime time specials since 1999 about cultures and foods from around the world. In her travels, she has sampled all kinds of foods, including bugs. They have probably been the hardest food for her to stomach, particularly the beetle larvae she ate in Mexico that would squirt out a little juice whenever she bit down. But she said any bug is better cooked than raw.
Thompson's series, entitled "Hidden-Journeys," airs nationally on PBS on Aug. 21 and displays the food of Mexico, South Korea and India.
"They are a brief introduction to a culture through their food and their folk customs," Thompson said.
But before Thompson was visiting worlds of bean-paste soup, she was in a world of hot dogs and nachos. Thompson originally worked as one of the directors for the Chicago Bulls and White Sox. But when the opportunity to go to China arose in the middle of the Bulls' season, she took it with the risk of losing her job.
"I had been in live sports for over seven years; it was time to move on," Thompson said.
Thompson took the risk and went to China to work on the documentary "Hidden China," which aired nationally on PBS. Thompson loved the experience, and PBS liked the show, so she decided to continue with a documentary called "Food for the Ancestors," which looked at food in culture in Mexico.
"Each country has an identity by their food," Thompson said. "Food is knowing and learning about the culture."
Thompson's husband, Bruce Kraig, joins her on trips as a writer and researcher and also serves as narrator by introducing the segments on the finished product. Kraig has proven to be a useful component of the series because of his background in food. He is a retired professor in food history from Roosevelt University in Chicago and is now the senior editor for the upcoming Oxford Encyclopedia of American Food. Kraig said the series has been relatively easy because food is one thing that links all cultures.
"If you want to make friends with people, talk about food," Kraig said.
Thompson said she has had plenty of good experiences traveling to other countries and sampling the food, but there have also been times where she has felt a little nervous. She said some of those nerves came from common misconceptions that Americans have about other cultures. For example, she and her crew film often concentrate on more rural areas.
"Where we go, the tourists generally won't go," Thompson said.
She said the crew, which often travels by bus, carries a lot of expensive equipment. Thompson said that when they get out to shoot a location, they have to leave some of their equipment behind. When they were in India, she assumed the driver would stay with the bus for the hour that they were working. But when they got out to the shoot, they turned around to see the driver tagging along.
"He's as curious as everyone else who's come out of their holes to watch what we're doing," Thompson said. "There's no idea; nobody's even given it a thought that there's something on the bus that they want. It usually takes me a good week to relax when I get into a country to know that I shouldn't be so paranoid."
However, on her last trip, Thompson had more of a reason to be paranoid. She and her crew were scheduled to leave for a shoot in Turkey on Sept. 26, just two weeks after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The crew, its family and PBS all wanted to cancel the trip, but Thompson and Kraig stood by the decision to leave on that date. While the crew and PBS were not much of a problem to deal with, Thompson debated how she was going to tell her parents. She eventually followed the advice of her students and hid the truth from her parents. When she arrived in Turkey, she called them and made them believe she was still in Illinois. She said in the end, it was for the best because they didn't have to worry about her being in a foreign country during those times. She said that when she revealed the truth to her parents, they were glad she had decided not to tell them earlier.
Thompson said the crew was still nervous about being in a Muslim country because of the United States' bombing of Afghanistan. One of the crew members actually said he would say he was Canadian if anyone asked because a McDonald's was bombed in Istanbul, Turkey's capital. Thompson said a couple of women did ask his origin once, only to have him reply, "Canada." She said the women were delighted and said they were also Canadian and asked what part of Canada he was from. She said he looked helplessly at her while she smiled at him and let him deal with it himself.
Thompson said the locals did confront them about the events of Sept. 11, but to offer condolences for the attacks.
She said something the locals found fascinating was that out of six crew members, she was the only woman and also the boss.
"It was kind of strange that we'd roll into a village, and I would jump out of the bus and start barking out orders and they would go do them," Thompson said.
She said women would often come up to her and want to talk but, because of having a male translator, she wasn't able to have the conversations she would have liked.
While there have been some scary times for Thompson and her crew, she and Kraig said the whole experience has been an educational and enjoyable one.
"It's been a great adventure," Kraig said. "We've been to a lot of exotic places."
Thompson said she has enjoyed the series so far and is very grateful for all the food she has eaten and stays open-minded for all the different foods she will encounter.
"Food is my passion," Thompson said. "I'm more inclined to eat whatever comes across that I can put in my mouth than the average person."
Reporter Codell Rodriguez can be reached at crodriguez@dailyegyptian.com
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
