EE1- Food play an important role

Food play an important role

In China, there is a famous proverb “Ming yi shi wei tian.” means that food is important as sky. People will die if sky slides, so, for people live in earth, no food means no life. Food’s importance is not only showing in maintain our life, but also for some other reasons. What I want to talk is the “some other reasons.” First, food contains the emotions. When we have a meal, no matter with whom, in what place, and eat what, we always have one or more emotions. Second, food contains people’s values. People with different values would buy different food products. Also, food can be related with people’s communication can relationship. Food can make us close to each other. For example, if we always eat with other, or we all like to eat sweet food, we will feel closer to each other.  Last, we can find the pace of our life is getting fast and fast by we spent less time in eating and what we have in lunch is changed.

First, food contains the emotions. 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 it. I realized what I loved was not the congee itself, but the feeling when I have it. No matter it taste good or bad, it can make me think that I’m not far away from my hometown. This time, the congee is not only as a kind of food for me, but also as a supporter of emotion. It was pin the emotions of missing my hometown and my family. Now I am living in the U.S., I missing the handmade noodles made by my grandmother. It’s salty, and taste very good. It is very different from the noodles in America. In America, noodles are always cooked with tomato and cheese. Chinese noodles is similar with the Pho, but no sweet as Pho, most Chinese noodles are salty. Back to my point, what I am really missing not just the noodle, but my grandmother, and my family, and everything that I cannot get in America. This phenomenon is not only happened with me, but also other people. 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 when he missing his mother he may have a same launch that he had with his mother. He also pins the specific emotion to the specific food. Furthermore, 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. And, he will teach his son, Charlie, Korean culture, just like his parents did to him. He says “But I will make sure to offer Charlie Korean food and, as my Parents did with me…” (15). The Korean identity is kind of emotion, this is a sense of belonging. Any relates the belongingness to the food.

Second, food contains people’s value. We can find out what people are cares about by what kind of food product they are prefer. For example, if a man goes to market, and he wants buy some milk. There are two types of milk, one is more expensive with a high quality, and the other is cheaper with a lower quality. If he buy the expensive one, then we will think that he is more care about his health; if he choose the cheaper one, we may think he is more care about the price. Here is a true research did by Joshua Freedman and Dan Jurafsky, they did a research about the potato chips. They classify the chips into two groups, depend on the price.  They found out the differences between the expensive group and the cheap group on their cover bag. Then they wrote an article “Authenticity in America- class distinctions in Potato Chip Advertising”. They found that the upper classes are more care about their health, and the material and technology the food company used. Lower classes more like the taste, price, traditions. For example, authors say “None of the chips in our sample contain trans fats, but while all six of the expensive ones mention the lack of trans fats, only two out of the six inexpensive chips mention it.”(49). The expensive chips show their health, because the upper classes want it, so if they print this on their cover bag, people will but it. Also, 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). So, they also think food can contain much information.  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.

Third, food can relate to people’s communication and relationship. We can know whether those people are close to each other or not by their eating behavior. For me, I only eat with my roommate and my friends. I would not eat with an unfamiliar guy.  And, this phenomenon also appears in Sandra Cate’s article “‘Breaking Bread with a Spread’ in a San Francisco County Jail”. This article is about the “Spread” in prison. What I am interested in is the sharing part in the article. She talks about the principles about how they share their spread. They will share their spread only with the people they have relationship, and they share the spread in an equally way. She notes one’s explaining “Everybody puts in the even, same amount, and everybody gets the even, same amount. ”and a Chinese inmate says that “usually the people who share with me, I share with them,”(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. Just like us, we always eat with the people who we know, because when we eat with our friends, family members, we will feel relax.

Last the not the least, food reflects our living conditions. With the development of technology the modern pace of life is getting fast and fast, our working efficiency increases, but we are getting busier. Thus, we have less to spend on eating, our eating style was changed. The change is not only in how we eat, but also in what we eat. In the past, we mostly eat with our family members at home, and we have enough time talked with others how the day was. But now, we always eat alone, and quickly, sometimes we even need eat our lunch when we walk on the street. This is always happened with workers and students; they have less time to eat their meal. For example, Jamie Horwitz, 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). Also, the author gives us an example, the “Campbell’s Soup at Hand”. This soup is very convenience; you can have it when you walk on street or ride a bus. This soup’s appear strongly means that we have much less time in eating our meal. We can know our living condition by what we eat, and how we eat.  

All in all, food plays a very important role in our life. It can reflects one’s emotion, how they feeling, who they missing, and so on. It also can show one’s values. How they choose the food, what they are eating, if they are eating healthy or eating with low cost or something else. They buy it, they eat it, means they like it. And it can show one’s relationship and communication. Would you always eat alone and fast or you always eat with friends and sharing your food? Last, food can show your living condition. What are you eating? Just some french fries with sandwich? If so, your pace of life is fast. Do not underestimate the power of food.

Work Cited

 Nicholson Geoff “Eating White” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, Vol. 10, No, 1 (Winter 2010), pp. 21-23

Ahn Roy “Home Run: My Journey Back to Korean Food” Gastronomica: The Journey of Food and Culture, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Fall 2009), pp. 12-15

Freedman Joshua and Jurafsky Dan “Authenticity in America: Class Distinctions in Potato Chip Advertising” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Winter 2011), pp. 46-54

Cate Sandra “‘Breaking Bread with a Spread’ in a San Francisco County Jail” Gastronomica: The journal of Food and Culture, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Summer 2008), pp. 17-24

Horwitz Jamie “Eating at the Edge” Gastronomica: The journal of Food and Culture, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Summer 2009), pp. 42-47