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This paper examines Esther David’s novel, Book of Rachel, as a cultural product through the lens of food. The analysis of the food trope is required to derive the cultural meanings embedded in narratives surrounding food practices. This research paper maps out the different ways in which food operates and communicates in diasporic narratives. Thus, interrogating and understanding the threads of identity, memory, communal laws and religious duties that are part of the Bene Israel diasporic community of India. The study reveals that meanings embedded in food cultures of a community are interconnected, and food acts as an anchor for the desired messages to be conveyed through such narratives. The method used to conduct this research is qualitative, that is, literary analysis and close reading of the text using the theoretical framework situated in Stuart Hall’s circuit of culture.
Anjali Singh. “Seasoning Culture through the Trope of Food in Esther David’s Book of Rachel.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 439–454. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.27.
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