EE1

Imagine if the world without food what will happened? Of course, we will die. But, if people can live without the food, then, what will happen? We will lose a lot. We can no longer eat with our friends, and have some interesting chat, and so on. The functions of food are not just making us full; it not only can keep our life, but also can let our life full of color. Food can bring us different emotions. We have different feeling when we eat different food with different people, in different place. Food can show what people’s thinking. Why we eat this? How we eat this? Who we eat with? The answer of this question can show what we are thinking about, our value, our social relationship, and so on. And also, these answers can show one living condition.

Food is a supporter of emotion. Once I went to a Chinese restaurant with a friend. I ordered a preserved egg with minced congee. It is not taste as good as what I ate in China, but every time when I go to that place I will still order one. I realized what I loved was not the congee itself, but the feeling when I have it. This time, food is not only as food for me, but also as a supporter of emotion. It pin the emotion that I missing my hometown and my family. Now I am living in the U.S., I missing the handmade noodles made by my grandmother, but what I am really missing not just the noodle, but my grandmother, and my family, and everything that I cannot get in America. In Geoff Nicholson’s article “Eating White”, the author says “Today I ate lunch in memory of my mother. … and every once in a while I feel the need to replicate the kind of lunch she and I ate together may times.”(21). Why author says this? Why he ate the same thing that he have with his mother in the past? Because he is missing his mother, and pins this emotion to those food. Also, in the article “Home Run-My Journey Back to Korean Food”, which written by Roy Ahn, the author talks about the Korean food and Korean identity. Author believe that eat Korean food can show his Korean identity. He also put his emotion in the food.

Food can show people’s value. We can find out what people are cares about from which food product they are prefer. For example, as what Joshua Freedman and Dan Jurafsky were mentioned in their article “Authenticity in America- class distinctions in Potato Chip Advertising” upper class more are about the health, the material and technology. Lower classes more like the taste, price. In this article, the authors say this “Food is a robust marker of group identity. What you had for dinner yesterday says a lot about your national identity, ethnicity, or social class, and this link between food and culture …” (46). They did some research in potato Chips’ cover bag, and find out above things. I also did some research in food advertisement. What I focus on is butter advertisement, because butter is one of the most common things that appeal in Americans’ table. I find out that convenience is the most important element in butter. People are care about the spread ability of the butter.

Food can show how people how communicate with each other, and their relationship. We can know whether those people are close to each other or not by their eating behavior.  Sandra Cate was written an article about the “Spread” in prison. She talks about the principles about how they share their spread. She notes one’s explaining “Everybody puts in the even, same amount, and everybody gets the even, same amount.”(19). This eating behavior shows that inmates are equal, they put same amount, and get same amount. No one is special in this place. After she notes inmate Devon Gray’s speaking “In here the whites spread with the whites and the blacks spread with the blacks.”(19), she find out that sharing spread is a community which always racially defined.

Food reflects our living conditions. The modern pace of life is getting fast and fast. So, our eating style was changed. We spent less and less time in eating, and most of time we have meal alone. Especially for the workers and students they have less time to eat their meal. The author of “Eating at the Edge” writes “Manuel Castells agrees: we live in a ‘timeless time,’ he writes, in which instantaneous satellite transmissions, high-speed transit, and global marketplace of information capital generate ‘space of place.’”(42). I think this is one of the reasons to why we change our eating behavior. And, the food we eat now also can show what living condition that we live.

As far as I concerned, food play a very important role in our life. It can show what you are thinking. We can know one’s emotions, values, social relationship, and living conditions by observe what are they eating and how they are eating.  

reading respons for eating at the edge

Horwitz, the author of “Eating at the Edge”, use his own experience to begin the article. He talks about people’s different eating habits. He has three different small topics in his article: Eating in Timeless Time, Eating in One’s Own Space-Time in Micro-Gravity, Eating in One’s Own Time-Place. And he use many examples, and his own experiences to explain his ideas.For example, at the begining of the article, author told his students that when he was a graduate student, the teachers and the studnets were regularly smoked in class(42).He said "I told them that during my graduate school days students and teachers regularly smoked in class"(Horwitz 42). He use his own experiences make reader feel the things he talks about is real; but, he not only talks about his own experiences, he also gives us other examples from other place. For example he talks about the astronauts’ eating behavior under his second small topic. These will make his opinions have more persuasion. I believe the eating behavior change depends on the environment. For example, if I was just eat breakfast or lunch at cafeteria I would rather eat by myself, but if I will have a dinner outside, I mean go to a restaurant, I would rather go with my friends. So, for me, if I need go outside to have a meal, I’d like go there in a group. And, the author noticed that more and more people eat by themselves in nowadays. I agree with it. When I was a primary school student, I eat with my family every time. But when I grow up I have less and less chance to eat with my family. I’m getting busier and busier because my school works.

Research in Hard Rock Café

Research in Hard Rock Café

I went to Hard Rock café with Sijia Li on Sunday evening. We went there for dinner. Hard Rock café is located on 16^th street in downtown. It is a very special restaurant with strong rocking atmosphere. This restaurant is much darker than other normal restaurant. The working time of Hard Rock café is 11am to 11pm from Tuesday to Saturday, 11am to 12pm from Sunday to Monday. The time table is on the door.  And, when we open the door, there is a store at our left side. The store sells the T-shirt, cups, and some other staff with Hard Rock café brand. Hard Rock café has two floors, and second floor is different from the first floor. There is a small stage on the first floor.  The second floor is looks like a half circle, and it around the stage on the first floor. I see a bar near the stairs, but I didn’t see anyone sit there. All of them are sitting with their friends at the small table area. When we into the restaurant, we saw may rock music memorabilia were hanged on the wall, such as some pictures of the guitar players and singers, some discs and guitar, and some special clothes. They also hang some screens on the wall, and the rock show was played on the screen. Most of them were watch the show on screens, and chatting with their friends. They are young people, and I believe all of them are about 20-30 years old. And they were dress casually. People were sitting together watching the rock show, and chatting, laughing and drinking. They order the food, but they were not spent much time in eating, most of time they were just drank and talked with their friends. And, I noticed that there is a table even didn’t order any food, they just have some drinks. After we have a seat, the young waitress gave us the menu. I found many drinks on the menu, but the food types are much easier than the drinking types. We ordered two burgers. By the way, the food in this restaurant is a little bit expensive than others. We were waited the burger for a long time, so, we believe the food in this restaurant are not prepared. The hamburger in Hard Rock café is much bigger than the hamburger that we have in cafeteria on campus. And, when I ate my meal, suddenly, Sijia Li was look at something very surprised. I was very curious, so, I look back, and saw a couple was kissing. Sijia told me that this couple was kiss all the time, after they sit down. In general, this phenomenon would not happen. In a normal restaurant, people may be kiss, but would not kiss all the time. I think why this happened in Hard Rock café because the atmosphere here is different from other place.

After I have a meal at Hard Rock café, I found that this place is as an entertainment place more than as a restaurant. Most people go there are not for their food, but for fun. Most young people do not want just eating at restaurant, they want have a fun during the eating time. Hard Rock café is a place, and they not only sell the food, but also sell the fun.  They can watch the rock show, listen some rock music when they eating, drinking, and chatting. In this place, they spent money not only in food, but also for entertainment. I mentioned there is a small stage at the beginning of the essay. I believe sometimes some people will play on that stage. And, I go to Hard Rock’s website after I go back to my dorm. I found a video in the website, which is talk about the staff in Hard Rock. But I noticed the song, the lyric of this song is “Everybody need the place, everybody need see the show.” This told us, Hard Rock café is different from other normal restaurant. This is a place only for you to eat, but also a place for you to see the show, for fun. Thus, this place for entertainment is more for eating. So, that why Hard Rock café is more expensive than other place. Because they buy two things in this restaurant: food and fun. When Americans go to a restaurant, food is not the only thing they are cared about, but also the atmosphere. They want spent their money not only in food, but also for fun.

Work Cited

Hard Rock Café International, Inc.,  <http://www.hardrock.com/corporate/careers/>

Hard Rock Cafe

hard rockThis is the link which about the memorabilia in Hard Rock. Here are so many pictures of memorabilias in this website.

reading respons

After read Cate and O’Donnell’s article I have more understanding about the roles that food play in people’s life. Cate’s article is talks about the “Spread” which made by the inmates in California penal system. They have this meal because their timetable and this meal is low cost. Their timetable is very different from us. They have breakfast at 5:30am, lunch at 9:30am, and dinner at 4:00pm. So, they will feel hungry at night. Also, they would not cost so much for making “Spread”. So, I think these are the reasons why they have this special meal. Furthermore, I believe the reason why they use noodles base is because it can save time. Eat noodles will not spend much time. Convenience is one of the most important things for people who are live in the prison. Because I think their time is controlled. And, sometimes they will share their “Spread” with others. Most of them will share their food with the person they know, I mean the food will shared in the people have relationship between them. In most case, white eat with white, black eat with black. In O’Donnell’s article, the author talks about the changes of the food cultural in Shenzhen. Shenzhen was changed by the politics made by Chinese government. Because the large number of emigrations, the food in Shenzhen became diversity. People come from different place have a different food demand. The most interesting thing that author mentions in this article is he says why the people live in south China are good at doing business. He says people live in south China always eat seafood, and the fish is hard to catch, you had to have quick hands and eyes. So dose in business, people need quick hands and eyes for catch the chance.

Reading Ran's Essay

Ran's Essay
The thing that I like most in Ran's Essay is he connect the culture with the adverisements that he talks about. He says the reason why the Chinese advertisement is different from the American advertisement is because their different culture background. Americans have higher income, so, they more care about the quality. And, most Chinese people have lower income, so, they more care about the price.

butter advertiesment

After I came to America, I noticed that Americans love eat bread with butter. Butter is an important thing for many Americans in their daily life. I find three butter advertisements and want to talk about them. From these three advertisements, I notice that American food culture involve nature, health, convenience and tasty.

The first advertising is a feather on a woody chopping block.  The feather is in knife shape means that this butter is spreadable. You can use this easily. When we see the feather, the first thing that we can think is flying. Feather is very light, so, it’s means that their product is light, would not give you any stress. And, in many American people’s mind, light means low fat, health.   And the color of this feather is white, it means pure, no additive. See this white feather you can imagine that a bird fly under sunshine. There is a woody chopping block under the feather. Wood is from tree, so it also means nature. Also, this wood looks so heavy, and it makes the feather looks lighter. Chopping block is a thing that you can make you meal on it. So, this thing may be able to make up your appetite. The interesting thing is we can see the background color is blue. Blue is the color of sky, so, the concept of nature is getting stronger. From this butter advertisement, we can see nature, health, and convenience are very important things for American people.

The second advertising is a picture shows that the problem with who use a terrible butter. There is a plate on the table. In the plate, the bread was broken. Beside the plate, there is a knife with butter on table. At the left top of this advertisement, we can see “STOP TOAST BRUTALITY.” in font. It shows that this kind of problem is serious. This advertisement not saying how good their product is, but say if you use other butter you would meet the problem that picture shows. From this advertisement we know that convenience is a very important element for American people.

The last one is a little bit different from the other two advertisements. It is a low fat butter. This advertisement is a picture that a woman squat in rye. We can see “The color of sunshine, the taste of summer.”  And, the color they use in this advertisement is only green, yellow and blue. Green is show healthy, nature. Yellow is the color of sunshine, rye, and butter. It shows that this butter is nature. The blue color is also shows the nature of this product. In this advertisement they mention the health, nature and taste.

Conclude the advertisements that we talked about, health, low fat, nature, convenience, spreadable are the most important element in these advertisements. It means people want butter have these features. People want healthy, want a better life, so they would like a healthy food. And, for them, healthy always means low fat. We can see there are so many foods with high fat in American’s table. I believe that is one reason why Americans love low fat butter. Convenience, it is very easy to understand. All of us like convenience things, that why we developed our technology.  I think nature include two parts: health and real. People not only want to eat healthy but also want eat the real things. America is a strong country, compare to other third world country; American people have a higher income and higher education. So, people live in America more care about their health. And, I was heard something interesting. My roommate is a native American student, he said that most Americans are very lazy, they do not want doing anything. I think that’s why convenience is a very important for American people.

 As far as I concerned, American food culture is involve health, convenience and nature. Because of the special culture of American, they have these special food cultures. 

handmade noodles

Once I had dinner in cafeteria, I saw some noodles were put on the stand. It was noodles with tomato and some cheese. I don’t like it, but it makes me think about the noodles that I have in China. My favorite noodle is made by my grandmother, the handmade noodles. I missing the handmade noodles made by my grandmother.

When I was in primary school, my grandmother always made noodles for me in the morning. She got up very early to make it, because making handmade noodles would cost a long time. At first, she mixed the flour and water, and then rubs it for about 30 minutes. She said more time you spent in this process, more delicious noodles you will get. She never allowed me to touch the dough, because she thought I was just want to play it. In China, people think that if anyone plays the food, he/she will not get any food. It seems not true, but we are really taking much count of food. Back to how to make handmade noodles. Second step is roll out the dough into a circle. There is a special tool for this process, called rolling pin. But my grandmother doesn’t have that thing, so she always uses a beer bottle. The third step is cut it into noodles. My grandmother always folds it into three layers, and then cut it. The last step is boiling it.

The handmade noodles made by my grandmother tasting very good. This kind of noodles is not soft as other normal noodles. It tastes chewing. And, my grandmother always cooks it with different ingredients. It depends what she has. Sometimes, she add the leftovers from last meal. Normally, those were some vegetables and Braised Pork with Brown Sauce. And, I find a picture on internet, it looks very close what I have had.  It is not the real thing that my grandmother made, but they are very close. This picture is looks better than what I have had. Almost all of my family members love this food. My little brother, who is ten years younger than me, always ask grandmother to make this.

Food made from flour is one of most important food in Chinese life. And, noodles is one of the most poplur food in flourmade food. Chinese people give noodles some special meaning. The most poplur one is noodles moral long life. Because normally noodles are long. Most Chinese people want have a long life, so, they will eat noodles at their birthday, because this is a good wish in one brithday. Not all of Chinese do this, some of them would rather eat cake instead. Also, it depends on which part of China people live in. Chinese culture is very complex, different place have their different custom.

Like many Chinese children, I was growing up with my grandparents. I love them even more than I love my parents. So, I missing my grandpartens when I look back on the handmade noodles. My grandmother always forgive me no matter what I did, and my grandfather always treat me in a hard way. They taught me many things. For example, they taught me how to eat the hot congee. They said: “You should eat the surface part of outer-ring, because that part is colder.” Just like this, they taught me many life skills when I was a little kid. I love them and thanks them.

All in all, the handmade noodles is my favrioute food. It not only a kind of delicious food, but also connect my grandmother and me. This noodles just like a linkage between me and my grandmother and even all of my family members. Since this kind of noodles is so delicious and meaningful, I love it very much.

advertising

The author analyzes the advertising words in the article. He separates the chips into two groups, inexpensive group and expensive group, and compares them. He compares the advertising words in these four aspects: High-Falution, Health, Distinction, and Authenticity. He says that the expensive chips always use more complex words than inexpensive chips. Expensive chips group always emphasize the healthy, which inexpensive almost never mention it. And, expensive chips group always emphasize the difference between themselves and others. Mostly, they are talking about why they are better.  About the authenticity, expensive chips group always mention their technology, and health, but inexpensive group would rather talk about their historic. All of these advertising are try to appeal customers, but why they are different? The reason is their customers are different. The expensive chips want sell to higher-class, and the cheap chips want sell to lower-class. If a person has enough money, he/she will care about his/her healthy. Also, the people in a higher-class are always care about the quality of the product. But lower-class may different. So, because of the different customers they want sell for, the advertising words are different. Because the demand of these two group of people are different. And, I find some picture for confirm author’s result.

The first three are in cheaper group, and the last three are in expensive group. So, we can see the chips in cheaper group are almost only mention the flavor, but the expensive group are more talk about the health. For example, almost all of them are have words like “natural”, “original”, and in TERRA’s bag, it has “no salt adding” on it.