Piki

Piki (or piki bread) is a thin dry rolled bread made by the Hopi out of corn meal, obtaining its dark grayish-blue color and unique flavor due to the use of blue corn and culinary ash. The light, thin sheets are dry to the point of brittleness, melt in the mouth, and have a delicate corn flavor.

Preparation

Blue corn, a staple grain of the Hopi, is first reduced to a fine powder rocks. It is then mixed with water, and burnt ashes of native bushes or juniper trees [cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=B_y0ekzJvwQC|title=American Indian Food|author= Linda Murray Berzok|date=2005|publisher=Greenwood Press|accessdate=2007-10-15] [cite book|accessdate=2007-10-15|title=Diabetes As a Disease of Civilization: The Impact of Culture Change on Indigenous People|author=Jennie Rose Joeand Robert S. Young|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Io0sdbsTK08C|date=1993|publisher=Walter de Gruyter] [cite web | url=http://www.amberwaves.org/mediaPages/recipes/corn.html | accessdate=2007-10-15 | title=Whole Grains and Grain liroducts | author=Gale Jack and Alex Jack | publisher=Amberwaves] for purposes of nixtamalization (nutritional modification of corn by means of lime or other alkali). The thin batter is then smeared by hand over a large flat baking stone that has been heated over a fire and coated with oil made from pounded squash, watermelon, or sunflower seeds. [cite book|title=Native American ethnobotany|author= Daniel E. Moerman|date=1998|publisher=Timber Press|accessdate=2007-10-15|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=UXaQat5icHUC] The bread bakes almost instantaneously and is peeled from the rock in sheets so thin they are translucent. [cite book|title=The Piki Maker: Disabled American Indians, Cultural Beliefs, and Traditional Behaviors|author=Carol Locust|publisher=Native American Research and Training Center, University of Arizona|date=1994|url=http://www.fcm.arizona.edu/research/nartc/publications/monographs/monograph13.htm] Several sheets of the bread are often rolled up loosely into flattened scrolls. [cite news|publisher=New York Times|accessdate=2007-10-15|title= On the Mesas of the Hopis|author=Lois Essary Jacka|date=October 2, 1998|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFDD143DF931A35753C1A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3]

Piki takes several days to make from scratch. Piki is prepared by women in various phases of courtship and marriage ritual. It is eaten by the couple on the morning of the marriage ceremony. [cite book|title=Bride's Book of Etiquette| url=http://books.google.com/books?id=YW7iSPg9ImUC|publisher=Conde Nast Publications |author = Sharon Watts | date=2003] [cite book|title=the Hopi way|author=Robert Boissiere|date= 1985|publisher=Sunstone Press|accessdate=2007-10-15|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=bETh7YRsJc0C]

Other use of term

Piki may also refer to a password protected Wiki that is used for website maintenance without allowing input from the general public.

References