HW 5 - Dominant Discourses Regarding Contemporary Foodways in the U.S.-Read the Fine Print

When walking through the grocery store you see all sorts of words and colors flashing out at you from the shelves. All those words, all those colors- they are for you; the beloved customer. Each label is an advertisement. When searching "food" on the News search engine from Google, the following ads showed up: Sabra Hummus- Easy and Delicious, Cooking Recipes, Easy Homemade Desserts, Delicious Cooking Recipes, Quick and Easy Cooking Recipes, Next Iron Chef on Food Network, and New York Food- Authentic Coffees, Bagels, Cheeses, and Gift Baskets. I italicized certain words to see if there were patterns in the advertisements. Easy, Delicious and Authentic are the main words that popped out to me. This relates to two different subjects; one, being the dominant discourse of food and two, being the foodways of our country. Companies put hundreds of thousands dollars towards market research. Ads cost a lot these days and they need every word that is bringing the reader in to count. These ads show that some aspects of the dominant discourse of food are easy foods and delicious foods. This relates to american foodways because the dominant discourse is related to foodways; what people want is what people will eat. People want their foods to be fast or at least simple to make and want them to taste good at the same time; but does this make them healthier?

Recently there has been an organic surge in America. "Did you try this organic baby food?", "I only eat organic foods; it makes me feel healthier". When searching the phrase "organic food" in Google News, the first group of articles that show up are about Kirstie Alley and how she lost 50 lbs. through an "Organic Liaison diet". None of the articles were from reliable sources so instead I went to NYT where I came across this article. The title is "Doctor’s Orders: Eat Well to Be Well". The article focuses on Dr. Preston Maring, a doctor in Oakland, CA, who has started a farmers market right outside of the hospital he works at. Green markets are rapidly popping up all over America; they are the new way to spread fresh produce to the customers; green markets are generally organic; no preservatives etc.
"Food is at the center of health and illness," stated the doctor. This relates to something Andy referred to in his post for this assignment. How the dominant discourse focuses around food and health and food and illness. The article makes it clear that the doctor believes that obesity is one of the leading health threats of America. But what makes Dr. Maring qualified to say these things and have them published in an article? Is it his 30+ years as a surgeon? Or maybe it's the label on his name, "Dr.".

The New York Times seemed to be a good resource for information so I stayed on there and searched "obesity". One quote from that page, "Overweight and obese patients prefer that their doctors use the terms 'weight' and 'BMI' rather than 'large size,' 'excess fat,' or 'fatness'". This is directly relating to dominant discourse; the words large and fat seem to make people uncomfortable; what ever happened to bigger is better? I noticed that the same name kept on popping up on my screen: Emily B. Levitan ScD. First thought, "What is an ScD?", I click on the hyperlinked name, and up comes this page. Her Bio: "Dr. Levitan received masters and doctoral degrees in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. She then completed a research fellowship in cardiovascular epidemiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Levitan joined the faculty at UAB in 2009. Her primary research interests are the relationship between diet, lifestyle, and cardiovascular diseases and the application of epidemiologic and statistical methods to address public health questions".

I really struggled with this post....I was stuck and unsure what I should really do.

HW 4 - Your Families' Foodways Part 2

Imagine walking down the street to the grocery store, grabbing 3 bananas and heading to the checkout with only 10 cents in your pocket. The chances of you leaving the store with even half of a banana are extremely low. In the 1930s 10 cents could get you a lot. 3 different candies at the movie theaters or 3 bananas at the food store. My grandma was born in 1927 as Bernice Kaplan. She grew up in Brooklyn, belonging to a Jewish family of seven. Although the 1930s were the time of the great depression my grandmother's family's eating habits weren't strongly affected. My great-grandfather had a steady job at a coat factory and was able to bring home money during hard times. That doesn't mean that they were rich and ate fabulous meals every night; but they could eat comfortably. In winter, every morning my great grandmother would make hot cereal (cream of wheat) for the 5 girls of the family. Each night my great grandfather would come home and dinner would be served, "He had his own special chair and then everyone would sit down to eat". Every Friday night was chicken soup night. My grandma recalls that her mom was the only one who cooked and never really had any help. The easiest thing for them to get were vegetables. Weekly vegetables were carrots, corn and mashed potatoes. My grandma told me, laughing, that "Spinach was about the only green thing I remember". There weren't supermarkets; "there was a food store, a butcher and a bakery". My grandma would get sent to the food store every once in a while with 10 cents to get bananas for her mom.

Candy was never kept in the house; it was considered an extravagance. The only time candy ever entered the house was for passover. My great grandma would order special sesame candies which can actually still be found in some grocery stores. "For passover, many families did this, we would get a big fish. We would get a live Pike and keep it in the bathtub. Then kill it". I laughed when I heard this. She said, "don't laugh, lots of people did it. It was very common- remember, this was the 30s and my mother was born in the 1800s, it was tradition". My grandmother kept her kosher eating style right up until she was married. Even though she no longer keeps kosher, she still has some of the same eating habits. Chicken was one of their regular foods and my grandma still loves chicken; she eats it at least once a week. She will buy a full chicken at the grocery store, cut it up and freeze most of it. When my grandma is looking for food she tries to go for protein. She still loves salmon which she now gets fresh instead of in cans like her mother did to make salmon patties. Just like her mom she always has eggs in her house and always has a fresh, seasonal fruit or vegetable ready to be eaten.

Some traditions from my grandma's childhood carried over to my mother's childhood. My grandma would cook the meals every night; with little to no help from my mom and her 2 siblings. One difference is that instead of eating with the whole family, my grandma and the three kids would eat early and my grandfather would eat later in the day around 9pm. He was a doctor and had very long hours. Sometimes he would come home for dinner at a regular time and then turn around and go back to work. Breakfast was really important to my grandpa and my grandma, following in the steps of her mother would make him hot breakfast like cream of wheat in the mornings. My grandpa's uncles were in the food business and actually opened one of the first supermarkets in their county. My grandmother would shop there to support the family business. Another difference is that they would actually keep sweets in the house. My grandpa really loved chocolate; especially with almonds so there was always Hershey with almonds in the house.

My mom used to work for Citigroup as a producer. She was laid off about half a year ago. I've noticed since then that she has more time to cook meals. When my mom did work, take out was at least a once a week event. There were probably some weeks where we ate only takeout and leftovers. She would cook using a crock pot and it was hard for her to make vegetarian food for me because most of the recipes she knew involved meat so sometimes i had to find something else to eat. Now, we tend to have family meals 3-6 days out of the week depending on our schedules. We rarely eat leftovers for dinner now and we've started to have meals like the ones described by my grandma; full meals with vegetables and not just some gross mashed potatoes.

I think that the change in foodways relies on just a few things; religion, economy, and time period. When my grandma was younger her family kept kosher because of the Jewish religion. As time went on my grandmother decided that she didn't want to keep that particular habit and dropped it. Now, my mother doesn't keep kosher and I doubt that I'll ever keep kosher. During the great depression, my relatives didn't suffer too many of the side effects but it did keep a shortage on what was actually available to them. With this current economy my mom lost her job and now has more time for family meals rather than just ordering in. 80 years ago, there were no "pre-chopped" foods, no chemical preservatives, no genetically mutated foods. Now a days we have so much more technology to "help" us make our eating experiences more pleasant...or at least easy.

HW 4 - Your Families' Foodways Part 1-Documenting Dinner

My mom is basically our designated chef. My dad can make really good chili and lasagna; but on a nightly basis it's usually my mom. We also go out to New Jersey almost every weekend to see my grandmother and we never really cook dinner out there. So there is lots of eating out and takeout pizza/eggplant parmesan. As I said in a previous post, my parents want me to eat fish at least once a week. My mom has started using Alaskan Cod instead of just Salmon or Tilapia. She likes to make the fish in a sweet combination sauce and serve it with sauteed vegetables. Sometimes she does the same thing with Tofu.

The first picture is of mixed sauteed vegetables; snap peas, snow peas, red cabbage, red pepper, bok choy, scallions, and I'm not really sure what else.

 The second picture is of Alaskan Cod. My mom likes to make it with different sauces so there's no real name for it. It's REALLY good and tastes sweet but has a very little bit of sour kick to it.

 This third picture is just a close up of the fish; my mom likes to make food look really "pretty" and presentable, I don't really care one way or another but it does make it more appetizing.

This last picture of dinner tonight is of my plate. Sometimes I don't like cooked/sauteed red pepper so my mom will put out a cup of red pepper sticks for me. The rice is that easy boil-in-bag rice that takes like 10 minutes to cook.

I've noticed my mom really likes to make her food presentable and picture-worthy. I don't know exactly what I'm going to ask my parents about how foodways have changed for them but I think i'll bring something up about presentation.

This is a frittata my mom made for me and some of my friends after they slept over; like i said, she likes to make her food picture worthy.

HW 3 - Food - Fast Food Insights and Green Market Realizations

Ew. The smell of Wendy's triggers my gag reflexes. I look around; almost every table is filled; half the people are talking on their cell phones or texting. I walk forward a little and see that there’s an empty table next to two guys. I take a seat. They pause and glance up at us…then dive right back into their food.

“I’m sorry for interrupting, but would you mind if we asked you a few questions about what you got here today?”.

Pause.

“Uhh… well we’re not in a rush” one says, shrugging

“So, what did you get?”

The same guy replies, “Um well I got a chili and a grilled chicken wrap…and a side salad”

I’m surprised. I thought I’d hear “A burger and fries”.

Bianca asks, “Why did you decide to come to Wendy's for your food today?”

Both guys start talking,

“It’s healthy. There are healthy options. Also; quality. Quality is very important- Wendy's got it right-”.

“-McDonald's sucks”.

Both guys have smirks on their faces and are laughing. I’m 99% sure they’re just f***ing around with us.

We thank them for their time and move on.
 

There are about 17 people waiting on line. A man passes me holding 2 clear bags along with a couple paper bags. The clear bags hold 2 drinks; of which I hope are the largest soda size Wendy's carries. Some of us just stand there for a few minutes; observing people and taking notes.

I approach a few people to ask them what they ordered today. They either walk away saying nothing or say, “sorry, I’m in a rush”.

Then there was the couple. I noticed them when they first got on line. They were a young couple; no older than 25 years old and they had a baby stroller.

“Hi, did you guys order food?”

“Um…yeah”

“While you’re waiting for you food do you think you could answer some questions for me about what you got?”

“Not if it’s going to make me not want to eat it,”

I assure the woman I’m not going to tell her exactly what her food is made out of and that I wont scare her out of her meal.

“I got a chicken sandwich”.

“Why?”

“Because Burger King wasn’t available” says the man laughing to himself.

Everyone has priorities for what they eat. For the two men it was "quality". The sarcastic style in which they responded to our questions shows me that the men didn't care how healthy their food was. I do think that they were concerned with the "quality" of their food because they both were very adamant in telling us that Wendy's was better than McDonald's. The couple also based their priorities on quality. The couple proves that people don't always follow through with their priorities. They wanted the quality of Burger King, but they settled for Wendys because it was the easiest.

The people I interviewed didn't say that they came to Wendy's because it was fast but I do think that the priority of a lot of people who eat at places like Wendy's is because they want food; and they want it fast. Fast-food chains literally thrive off of being fast "food" chains.  A lot of the people in Wendy's were on their phones or were texting; especially the people in line. I heard one woman asking the person on the phone what they wanted. Another talking about how slow the line was moving (I think she's just impatient). Most of the people I stopped had their phones in their hands and were walking at lightning speed. Some people were professionally dressed; probably on their 15 minute lunch break and needed food fast. I think that everyone needs to slow down a little bit and start thinking about their priorities.

HW 2 - Food - Initial Thoughts

I’ve despised family meals since I was little. When I was younger and my family was closer we’d get together probably 4 or 5 times a year for Jewish and American holidays. The only family members who keep kosher are my aunt and uncle. But in respect to their religion my grandmother keeps a set of kosher dishes etc. for our family get togethers. I remember learning at a young age to stay out of the way when the food was being prepared, “That can’t touch that; don’t put that there; what are you doing”. It just baffled me; why did these people care so much about the way their food looked and how it was prepared? Why not just put food on a plate and let it be? That’s the first thing that interests me about food. Religion. I’ve never really understood much about keeping kosher. I know that meat and cheese together is out of the question and that you can’t eat pork or rabbit. There also some unusual rules about burying plates that I don’t quite understand. I find that in most religions there are very specific ways one must prepare and eat their food; and I want to explore that more. 

The dining table at my grandma’s house is long. You can fit about 5 or 6 people on each side and then one grandparent on each end for a total of 13. I don’t know if you’ve ever sat at a long dinner table, but you can never see the people sitting on your side and can never seem to talk to the people at the other end. I would ask sometimes, “Why do we sit at the table”. I usually got something along the lines of “It brings us together as a family”. But what I found is that after dinner, when we would sit in the living room in a circle; where you could see everyone, we had full on discussions. I was too young to partake in the important conversations but I knew there was meaningful discussion going on. Which would bring me to this question: Why do we have to sit at tables? Why not eat standing up? Why not eat on the ground? Why is it only acceptable to have picnics outdoors?

I remember when one of my mom’s cousins married a Korean woman and they had a baby a few years ago. On the baby’s 100^th day of living we held a celebration called a Baek Il. We ate low to the ground, took our shoes off and the children were separated from the adults. I was unsure; take my shoes off? Why on earth would I take my shoes off to eat? It was weird at first but I slowly became accustom.

Rituals are interesting to me because they relate back to religion. People follow certain rituals based on their culture and beliefs.

 

Ethics is important when coming to food. When I think of ethics and food in the same sentence my mind goes to vegetarians vs. omnivores. I have been a pescetarian for about 1.5 years now. I don’t enjoy eating fish but my parents are concerned about my protein intake and have me eat fish once a week. I don’t eat shellfish or any other animal. When I do eat fish I usually keep it to salmon, trout, or tilapia. Some people tell me I’m not a true vegetarian and I honestly don’t care. There shouldn’t be a label. People create their own types of vegetarianism so it works for them; and that’s fine with me. I just thought to myself one day, “If I’ll kill it, I’ll eat it”. I don’t think I could ever find it in myself to kill a cow or a pig or a duck…you get the picture. But I could definitely pull carrots out of the ground and pick berries off of bushes.

Different people have different perspectives on food; what they eat, when they eat it, how they eat it, and why they eat it. All of those things rely on culture and opinion which are influenced by setting and religion amongst other things. 

For me food is very important. Not the rituals put around it. Not the people I’m eating with. Just the food itself. I think people get a little too intense when it comes to food. For some people, food has become a luxury; not a survival need.  I personally try to eat when I’m hungry and eat what I’m hungry for. If I want mac and cheese; I’ll go make some mac and cheese. If I want an apple; I’ll go get myself an apple. People put too much thought into ritual. Why not just go with the flow and enjoy yourself?