You Are What You Eat

Its true, you are what you eat. When you eat fatty foods, your body can not process them fast enough and they stay in your body, producing fat. Not only are there long term consequences of eating fatty foods (weight gain, heart disease, diabetes, etc.) but there are also many short term consequences too. Stomachaches, headaches, feeling drowsy (and lazy), greasy skin (or happens to be the case with me after eating greasy food), and I'm sure you can think of many others. I don't however agree with the poem Hunting Season. I do not believe that the food we consume, be it meat, produce, dairy or grains inhabit our bodies. This is silly. However I do agree with the poets point, that after a while what you consume will come back to get you physically, if its not weight gain, it could be diseases. Take for example liver disease due to alcoholism, or diabetes and heart disease because of fast food. Even though I believe in this I still find it hard to keep in mind when dining. My diet is not the best, I drink more diet pepsi then water (or so it seems), and eat food that is of convenience or nutritional value. I think it would be easy to blame that on my parents or for being raised in America, but in the end I have to take responsibility for my own actions when it comes to eating.

Somer, Elizabeth. Food & Mood: the Complete Guide to Eating Well and Feeling Your Best. (New York: Henry Holt, 1999.)

Corn at the Cellular Level? Gross.

Although I have heard the expression "you are what you eat" many times, I have never heard it explained in the way it was in this blog assignment. I would not like to think of myself as spiritually and psychologically hosting all of the animals I have eaten throughout my life. I would imagine it would get pretty cramped later in life! Although I realize that we obtain nutrients from the food we consume, I guess I never realized the extent that this food is absorbed into our bodies. Considering that I don't like corn, I think it's pretty gross that you can see corn at the cellular level in our bodies. At the same time, it's quite a lot of effort to monitor everything I consume, and frankly, I don't feel like it most of the time. The one kind of food that I do monitor my consumption of is fast food. For the past few years, I have grown more and more disgusted about fast food. Although I will occasionally eat out, there are a few places I simply cannot stomach. The main place is McDonald's. Although I'm sure the food tastes just fine, I can't get over the stereotype of eating at McDonald's. The way Americans overindulge is unsightly, and I can't stand to be associated with it, even if it's only in my own head.

Food aside, I don't like to poison my body to an extreme degree. I'm pretty addicted to caffeine, but I try to keep it under control. I wouldn't consider taking steroids, and I prefer not to get vaccines for things like the flu because I think it keeps your immune system healthy.

The Western Read for this year is a great book dealing with the issues of food.

Pollan, Michael. Omnivore's Dilemma. London: Penguin Books, 2006. Print.

I Am What I Eat

Though I try to balance my diet and consume a wide variety of food, my attitude generally aligns with the idea of eating for taste and for ease. And as a college student (okay, there is another one), I find myself often pressed for time and money, which leads to quick eating and less than healthy food. And I do believe I inherit some of the negative effects of the food. But I have a good metabolism and I'm probably young enough that I'm not experiencing some of the worse traits I would if I were older. Regardless, I am what I eat, and I accept that.

But I also eat for taste, which means almost nothing. Plenty of good tasting food isn't all that healthy, but there are some that are. Though when we are talking about taste, who cares about health? Maybe it's just me, but if I'm putting it in my body, it might as well taste good, no matter the health aspects. I've got one life, I want to experience as much food as possible.

True, there is other things that can be put into the body, and I am a fan of beer, which I treat similarly. There is good beer and bad beer, expensive and cheap. I consume it responsibly, so there aren't really any negative effects, at least in any long term sense. So the food I eat is much the same, and I don't consume one thing more than the other, so I'll be just fine. I am what I eat, and that is fine with me.

Mudry, Jessica. Measured Meals: Nutrition in America. Albany NY: SUNY Press, 2009. Print.

Whole Foods Lifestyle

I know for a fact that what we eat has a direct impact on how we feel and the level of health that we experience at any given time. Through the years of my dietary explorations, I have discovered foods that trigger mood swings, allergy reactions, cravings, and if we include caffeine and alcohol in this discussion, addiction. Long ago I discovered that my childhood "seasonal" allergies could actually be attributed to a sensitivity to all the white flour and dairy products I consumed in such large quantities while growing up. I also learned that they were key players in chronic headaches, mood swings, hypoglycemia, and contributed to some extra weight I was carrying around. After an acupuncturist shared with me a list of possible food triggers for health concerns I was experiencing, I began exploring a low sugar, whole foods diet restricting such allergens as peanuts and oranges (as well as others) for a time. After I felt the improvement of my health from careful food choices and supplementary Chinese and local herbs, I felt I had experienced living proof that I could live with more energy and vitality through dietary choices; I have been a practitioner of nutritional eating ever since. Not long after I had my first epiphany about foods and their connection to my personal health, I befriended a man who was living as HIV positive and managing his health with a diet rich in raw foods and vegetable juices. This was my introduction to treating serious health concerns with nutrition.

As incredible as it was for me to learn of the allergen potentials of common foods such as peanuts and oranges so many years ago, today I find myself painfully aware on a daily basis of food allergies, and the importance of adhering to strict food rules. My husband and children are allergic to gluten in all of its guises, and both of my children cannot tolerate dairy products. Their physical health suffers in various forms if they ignore their respective limitations, and will experience severe eczema, diminished immune system function and subsequent susceptibility to illness, dark circles under eyes, dermatitis in various parts of the body, and gastrointestinal upset....to name a few complaints. In this we witness another interpretation of the phrase "you are what you eat". I can tell if my daughter has had a food that doesn't agree with her based on the appearance of the skin on her cheeks.

While pregnant, I spent much time and energy learning about the importance of proper nutrition for building a healthy system for both the baby and myself. Never before had it been so important to have healthy eating habits; quite literally, the baby would become what I ate. I was enthralled by this, but also quite challenged. I had cravings for foods that weren't on the nutritionist's top 10 list....and had to navigate that with compassion and tolerance for eating foods merely for the sake of pleasure. I can still recall, ten years later, some of the most memorable meals that satisfied those strong pregnancy cravings. In this way, again, "you are what you eat" is seen in how my memories are shaped by what I ate, and I carry them with me still.

On a somber note, I have seen firsthand the destructive effects of poor nutrition and alcoholism in my family; I have a family member who is suffering from the effects of long standing alcohol addiction and accompanying malnutrition. In this case, it is devastating to see the effects of an individual's wasting away in response to what she puts into her body and what she doesn't; her skeletal frame and yellow eyes bespeak the illness that ravages her physical form. She is what she drinks, in this case, and also what she doesn't eat.

A book to explore a whole foods lifestyle that also addresses food allergies (written by Bellingham authors):

Segersten, Alissa and Malterre, Tom. The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook. Bellingham, WA: Whole Life Press, 2008. Print.

I Wish That I Knew What I Know Now

You are what you eat may be cliche, but that doesn't mean it is not true. People who have poor diets tend to have more health problems than people who keep careful stock of what goes into their bodies. My mom has always tried to eat healthy and tried to pass this trait along to her children, unfortunately in some ways it backfired. When my brother and I were young we would put our allowance together and get as much candy as $10 could buy, poor it into a bag and eat until we were sick...awwww the good old days! When we did this Saturday morning ritual we would keep it secret from my mother who would have had a heart attack if she saw what we were putting into our bodies. The only time we could openly consume sugar was at birthday parties and believe me we took full advantage! My mother would warn of the importance of balancing sugar with protein especially for me because I suffer from low blood sugar and crash pretty hard when I don't eat responsibly. But when your 10 it's hard to care about such things with cake and punch and cookies in such abundance for such a fleeting amount of time. My mothers words of wisdom were understood at the time as well as through my teens into my early twenties, yet I still find it challenging to apply the knowledge she has passed on to my everyday life. I am naturally thin and find eating healthy appealing, yet only possible in small doses: an organic salad here, snacks of carrots and protein bars there. More often than not I am eating fast food, or at a restaurant and must say it is hard to think about nutritional factors when selecting from a variety of tasty entrees saturated in fat, oil and of course my favorite, sugar. Now that my naturally slim figure has begun to show the impact of eating poorly for 25 years, I've tried to reign in my poor eating habits and opt for less fat and sugar for more protein and vitamins. It is very difficult to go out of my way to eat healthier when there is a plethora of bad foods that are easily accessible. I often think I will eat healthy later, I have the will power and will chose to exercise it when need be. Well the need is here, my blood sugar is very low and I am borderline diabetic, maintaining a healthy weight and blood sugar level are imperative to staying healthy....yet I still find myself in the drive through at Starbucks on my way to Western. Making small changes when you're young is easier than making drastic changes when you have a history of bad eating habits to break. Don't tell her I said this but I should have listened to my mother. Forming good eating habits when you're young beats breaking bad ones when you're older. We are what we consume and sooner or later our bodies will remind us that we are not indestructable, that we are not immune to heart disease and cholestorol problems. If we treat our bodies right, we will reap the benefits of a longer, healthier and happier life.

A book that gives some insight into the importance of nutrition follows:

Wildman, Robert E. C., Advanced human nutrition
Boca Raton : CRC Press, c2000.

Kill Your Food...Or Not

(So I was out of town this weekend and lost my assignment sheet. That doesn't really excuse the lateness of this post, but I might as well contribute as best I can. So here it is, for your reading pleasure.)

The idea of hunting has never been one that appealed to me. It's not so much a moral stance, it's just not having a desire to kill anything. Everything has been available in my local grocery store (or national chain) so I don't really need to. But I can appreciate the hunters who do so for food, to claim the animal and use it for a number of purposes such as food or clothing or anything else they can do to waste as little of the animal as possible. That is understandable, if you want to grow your own vegetables or hunt your own food, who am I to stop you? As long as you stay within the confines of the law, you should be able to do as you please.

Where hunting does get iffy for me is in the sport of it. To essentially waste an animal, killing it solely for sport, seems unnecessary. Meat, and the animals we get it from, should be respected enough not to be wasted for fun. And this is coming from someone who understands that some do find real pleasure and fun from hunting. I've never done it, nor do I interact with those who do very often, but I do know people enjoy all sorts of things that I don't do, so I can deal with it. But there is so much you can do with a hunted animal, which includes putting it to good use.

Outside of that, I do find something appealing in harvesting food for oneself. There is a pride in doing so, in making a way for yourself, by yourself. Growing your own food seems like an interesting lifestyle, even when it includes raising animals to butcher and eat. The food chain, with us at the top, allows us to consume animals and plants, so why not do so? Of course, I side with those who would not want to be cruel to animals, but treat them with enough respect. The same goes for raising them, because they are beings that feel... I will only eat them because, like them, we are designed to eat certain things. I'm not one to question that, in fact, I embrace some of human's base animal instincts.

Harnack, Andrew. Animal Rights: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Print.

Ogden, Samuel. How to Grow Food for Your Family. New York, NY: A.S. Barnes, 1942. Print.

Crab Quiche with Nettles

I definitely think that harvesting one's own food creates a strong and important connection with one's food source, whether it takes the form of gardening, crabbing, gathering eggs from backyard chickens or nettles from the forest, to mention just a few activities in which I partake. We love to eat nettles in pesto or in a quiche that is made from eggs from our hens, crab we caught in the bay, and herbs from our garden. While I can't boast that my children would know what to do with a trout inside another fish if they saw it sitting in front of them in the stream, they could at least run out to their garden and know which herbs would complement the flavor of the fish, and pick a handful of wild kale while they were out there.

Understanding where our food comes from is a way of living life to its fullest, in my opinion. Essential to a life well lived. Perhaps not absolutely necessary in one sense of living (or for many, simply surviving) the rat-race, but actually, quite necessary in a way. We may be able to buy shrink wrapped meat from who knows where at the market, but at what cost? The way the animal was raised may pose health concerns to the consumer, environmental concerns to the earth we all depend on and to future generations due to the impacts of factory farming, and also the further dependence on oil to transport the food, etc...comparing that to the amazing experience of putting my canoe in the ankle deep gook in Bellingham's Mud Bay, loading it with a kid, then paddling out to drop my crab pots in the water, then paddling across the glassy, clear surface of the ocean on an epic summer day to enjoy the view of the islands, coming back an hour later to find two dinner's worth of crab in my pots...feeling thoroughly thrilled and happy to be alive and lucky enough to live in such a rich part of the world, I'd say that yes, harvesting my own food is a good thing.

The wonder of planting a seed in the soil and waiting, expectantly, for it to pop up from the earth, then to watch it grow into a food bearing treasure-plant is an incredible childhood experience. I'm not sure if my children would agree that raising our own meat chickens is advantageous, but I know for certain what the birds ate, how they were cared for, and I can confidently serve them without any fear of what else we're getting with our meat....except for the occasional missed pinfeather. Gross.

The author of The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine makes a strong argument for hunting, in my opinion. I'm not likely to want to learn to fire a gun and learn to hunt, but I think hunting for food is justifiable. I used to have moral issues with it, due to the prevalence of store bought meat. I now believe otherwise; if undertaken with care for the natural resources and the animal itself, it's a great and relatively inexpensive way to feed yourself and your family quality, natural food. I can see and respect the potential spiritual aspect of the process. I have a friend who only eats meat that he has either hunted or raised. Other than that, he is a vegetarian. I admire that. The Thanksgiving feast mentioned in the article was a bit over the top; gluttonous and unnecessary in my opinion.

Book Recommendations:

Dubin, Margaret Denise, Tolley, Sara-Larus. Seaweed, Salmon, and Manzanita Cider: A California Indian Feast. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, 2008. Print.

Coonse, Marian. Onions, Leeks, and Garlic: A Handbook for Gardeners. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. 1995. Print.

To Hunt or Not to Hunt

Growing up I had a strong sense of right and wrong with respect to animals: anything that hurt them was wrong. Even when I would watch movies as a child I remember my mother trying to comfort me as I sobbed after a horse was killed in a western shoot out. Silly as that may be I still have a fondness for animals that might make you think I would be against eating them, but this is not the case. I was raised eating chicken and beef and when I was about ten and discovered that “beef” came from cows it saddened me, but didn’t stop me from begging my mom to take me to McDonald’s.

My mom raised me in a poor area in Los Angeles County yet always managed to keep us out of apartment living. We always had a house and always had pets, so when she announced she wanted to start a dairy farm I was all for it!! I didn’t realize how much effort it took to actually care for animals other than cats and dogs. Dairy goats have to be milked twice a day (at least) even if you have no need for all the milk, if you don’t milk them they will stop producing it. As you may remember I was opposed to goat milk from the start, and you can imagine my shock when my mother had one of the older goats butchered for meat!! It was hard to know that our oldest goat Aphrodite was in separate packages marked ground meat in the freezer but when my mom actually made spaghetti with her I couldn’t handle it. She begged me to try it, and after fighting to no avail I did. I was not impressed. I could tell it was different, but not in the same disgusted way I could tell with the goat milk. It was different, but not gross. I never ate goat again, mostly because I’ve considered them pets and it is hard to think of them otherwise.

Harvesting your own food is good for not only the environment but also for your own health in knowing the diet and the treatment of the plant or animal you are going to consume. It is definitely advantageous to have a stronger connection with your food; it makes you waste less because it is more meaningful. It is an investment of time, money, sweat and sometimes even blood, so the final product on your dinner plate has more meaning then shelling out twenty bucks for a prepackaged piece of meat that is so far removed from the animal it was originally, without a label it would be unrecognizable.

We like to think that we are more civilized than we were 200, 100, even 50 years ago. But a lot of the problems we have with overconsumption and unfair distribution of food and wealth come from not having direct contact with the food and the environment that make our lives worth living. It is not only moral to hunt for food, if it were the rule instead of the exception to the rule we wouldn’t have many of the problems we face today. Granted I would have a hard time with it at first, but like anything that was meaningful, with hard work and determination the benefits would far outweigh the costs.

I think there are valid arguments on both sides so I’m recommending two books with opposing viewpoints…..

Swan, A. James. In Defense of Hunting. HarperSanFransisco, 1995. P

Bronner, J. Simon. Killing Tradition: Inside Hunting and Animal Rights Controversies. U Press of Kentucky, 2008. P

If You Can Stomach It...

For those who can stomach it, I think hunting your own food is a great idea. I think hunting for food increases awareness on a whole score of issues that many people today aren't able to deal with (myself included). Not only are you positive where your food came from, but you're also conscious of how much pain the animal experienced, how healthy it looked, etc. One aspect I really like of hunting one's own meat is that you can control how much of the animal is wasted. I think people who make the effort to use every part of the animal are quite admiral; they're ensuring that the life of the animal didn't go to waste.

In our modern culture, we are so far removed from the source of our food it's pretty unbelievable. The more our food technology advances, the more detached we become from our food. I know I certainly value my detachment from the animal that I'm consuming, but at the same time, I'm probably causing the poor creature much more pain and strife by purchasing its meat from a grocery store than from killing it myself. I am especially aware of my detachment from food because a few years ago, my guilt about eating animals consumed me and I became a vegetarian. I gave it up after a year and a half (and, ironically, enjoy meat more now that I ever did before), but I am also aware of the fact that I avoid at all costs knowing the source of my protein. If I had to look into the eyes of the creature I wished to consume, I would never be able to eat its flesh. I think it is noble of those who can; they are living in a much more natural realm than those of us who are squeamish about killing animals. People who hunt for their own food are reaching out to the fundamental circle of life that so many of us have lost.

I thought the article about Escoffier's Guide Culinaire was quite interesting. I think it's cool that the author has a network of people that hunt their own food and trade it amongst one another. Although it was kind of disgusting to read about how some of the food is made, I think it was an enriching experience nonetheless. I think hunting for one's own food is perfectly justifiable, certainly more so than purchasing a package of meat in a grocery store. I think the only humans who are truly justified in consuming meat in the first place are those who hunt their own food, after all, they are the only ones who can deal with the moral consequences of the act. The rest of us (once again, myself included) just sit back and let others do the dirty work for us. If everyone hunted their own food, we would certainly be a lot healthier, and we would senselessly murder so many less animals than we do now.

Jackson, Alison. I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie. New York: Dutton Children's Books, 1997. Print.

Rubin, Lawrence. Food for Thought: Essays on Eating and Culture. Jefferson: McFarland, 2008. Print.

Harvesting Food

After reading the articles "The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine" and "The Urban Deerslayer" my views of hunting have changed someone. I had never really thought about hunting as a necessity and rather a sport for two reasons. First, I never saw it as necessary when you could walk into a grocery store and get meat from animals who have already been killed for that purpose, for humans to consume. Second, hunting always seemed to be more of a sport. People seem to get so much joy out of hunting and it seemed to me that they turned it into more of a party than was necessary.

The authors of both articles helped me to see things from a different perspective. I never had though about the satisfaction one would get from harvesting their own food, and the connection it would give to the food. How much more you would appreciate the animal you were eating if you were the one who had killed it. Although I had previously seen hunting as immoral because their is already so much meat at grocery stores, I never really thought of people hunting out of necessity because they may not have enough money to purchase meat from a grocery store. In one of the articles the author mentions that for the price of a hunting license (I believe it was around forty dollars or so) he could keep his family fed for almost a year.

Hayes, Ruth. Gluttony. Seattle: Random Motion, 1985.

Regguinti, Gordon, and Dale Kakkak. The Sacred Harvest: Ojibway Wild Rice Gathering. Minneapolis: Learner Publications, 1992.

Give Me Your Best Shot

As I read "Waiter, There's a Cloven Hoof on my Plate," I wondered what the most disgusting food I've ever eaten was. And even after, I'm having a hard time picking one out, and not because there are so many, but because there are so little. In my previous post, I mentioned how I love trying new things, any kind of food is fair game, as long as it is commonly accepted by other cultures and countries. So, as of now, I don't have a most disgusting food, and any foods I'm not in love with is likely due to not liking it more than other things, but I'd still eat them if they were in front of me.

For my culture, whatever that means, there are many foods that may seem strange, even though they are commonly eaten by other American's. The rural south has a number of dishes people from our "area" or "culture" might shake their head at, but in that area of America, it's perfectly acceptable. It seems, generally, that American's as a whole avoid meat products of any animal that may resemble a pet. And, in my experience, people tend to avoid foods of a certain texture, though the range and diversity is so large, it's hard to pin down what is acceptable and what is not. If you ask me, it is indeed all psychological, and anyone could eat anything if they 1) didn't know what it was, or 2) were raised in a different environment.

The psychological aspect is what keeps certain people from trying new foods or finds vegetarians believing that a sliver of meat just touching their tongue will make them sick. Not to offend, though it shouldn't if thought about, the very idea is ridiculous. There isn't anything stopping them, from a biological standpoint at least, and to insist otherwise would be, in all likelihood, wrong. There are exceptions to every rule, but the vast majority cannot escape it. Food is food and meat is meat. There are certain foods that exceed disgusting and venture into undigestible territory, but no culture eats those things anyway. Gross is a relative term, which means something different to everyone. For me, the line is far ahead, which leaves me the opportunity to try all sorts of interesting and delicious dishes. Bring on the balut.

"Weird Food & Strange Food from Around the World."Weird Food. N.p., 2008. Web. 13 Apr 2010. .

I Can Tell the Difference

While reading the article “Waiter there’s a cloven hoof on my plate”, along with trying to read through the article without turning away in disgust (which seemed a little silly since I wasn’t looking at anything other than words), I tried to think of the grossest thing I’d ever eaten. This was extremely challenging since I am not the least bit adventurous with my diet. There are foods like tripe (sheep stomach) and menudo (cow stomach), which are essentially absent from the American diet, but in Ireland and Mexico they are said to be great hangover cures. I have been offered a variety of foods that people around me eat everyday including sushi, oysters, calamari, and even duck. Although I wasn’t brave enough to let many of these even touch my lips, I did place a bite of duck in my mouth…although that’s as far as it got so I cannot claim to have actually eaten it. Regardless of what my stepmother claims duck is not like a gourmet chicken. Eatable, delicious, and disgusting vary from culture to culture and household to household so it must be psychological if food can be so many different things to so many different people.

Due to the fact that I have always been a finicky eater it was hard to think of a time where I was forced to consume something that I didn’t choose, and then it hit me: goat’s milk. When I was about 12 my mom decided to get into organic farming and raise her own chickens and goats, for fresh eggs and milk. My brother and I weren’t too excited about the idea of goat’s milk especially since we loved cow’s milk so much that we would drink about a gallon a day between us. From cereal in the morning to two big glasses with lunch and dinner we could have been the poster children for the milk industry. My mother explained the nutritional value was far greater in goat’s milk than cow’s and how the money saved will benefit the family. Valid arguments but they fell on deaf ears; remember we were too young to care. We protested about the smell and the taste and the yellow color and the thick consistency, it looked more like eggnog than milk unfortunately the similarity ended there. At first my mother compromised and bought cow’s milk and pasteurized her own goat’s milk until one day when she’d had enough and claimed we couldn't even tell the difference. She refused to spend any more money on milk and said all of our concerns were “psychological” and we needed to get over them. For a few weeks neither side budged, so my mother resorted to trickery. She poured the goat’s milk into the empty gallon milk container, and I was the unfortunate victim of this hennas act. I poured the milk perfunctorily as I wondered through my morning routine, my mother watched anxiously…I took a bite and then another. I turned to my mother and said the milk must have gone bad and she flipped out. “It’s psychological” she cried, “you had two bites before you looked at the container and saw it was yellow”! Actually I had a bite, then a second to see if it was me, then I looked at the container to see how bad the milk actually was because clearly something was wrong. To this day my mother swears “it’s psychological” and we never opened ourselves up to the experience. It’s a funny story to tell to newcomers, but it remains the grossest thing I’ve ever eaten.

Pickled Pig's Skin

The weirdest thing I've ever eaten was pickled pig's skin. My cousin bought it from the grocery store when we were in Ensenada, Mexico. It came in a milk jug filled with vinegar. The skin itself was in small pieces, similar in shape to french fries. It didn't taste like much, except for the pickling flavor, though the texture was pretty disgusting. I tried not to think about it while it was going down. Other than that, I haven't tried a wide variety of odd foods. I'm much more open to the idea of eating weird animals than weird animal parts; I don't think I'd be able to stomach eating penis, liver, or any internal part of an animal.

It's very interesting how one animal can be considered a delicious, common meal in one culture and be sacred in another, and even how different parts of animals are cherished or avoided, depending on the cultural context. I definitely think the phenomenon is all psychological, but I also think it's something we cannot avoid. Our food preferences are ingrained into us from the cultures in which we live, and although we can be open minded, I don't think it's possible to completely leave behind our cultural influences. Even if I liked the taste of it, I would have a very hard time eating dog or cat because I grew up with these animals as pets who were cherished, and I am not able to separate the food from the memories of my pets. I do wonder how some delicacies (like chicken shitholes) become popular in the future, but it kind of grosses me out to picture people testing out different parts of animals, so I try not to think about it. Still, the realization that growing up in American led me to favor chicken thighs or breasts, when my food preferences could have been shaped vastly differently if only I had been born somewhere else, is a very interesting thought, indeed.

Website:

"Weird Food & Strange Food from Around the World." Weird-food.com. 2008. 10 Mar. 2010 .

Gross Food

The article "Waiter, there's a cloven hoof on my plate," reminded me of a Food Network show. In my life I've never consumed anything that would be considered "gross," by others, in fact the grossest thing I've ever eaten is meatloaf, followed closely by sushi. I believe in America a major "don't" when it comes to eating "gross" food is intestines. Although common, I believe that things such as livers, hearts, kidneys, and especially testicles are eaten with hesitation. I'm not sure why this is, maybe it's because people think more about what their eating and where it came from when its not a solid slab of meat.

The article discusses the consumption of guinea pig, veal testicles, beef penis, tongue, pig's feet, kidneys, and chicken assholes. Reading each of these accounts made my stomach uneasy. Thinking about it however I shouldn't be so bothered. I'm not a vegetarian, but taking on a vegetarians perspective (one the refrains from eating meat for respect of the animal) eating these parts of the animal should be looked upon with no disgust. My reason behind this is that in America when a animal is slaughtered the two parts that are used mainly are the meat and hide to turn into leather. But in other societies it seems as though they have enough respect for the animal they killed to not waste any part. I could be wrong however, and they just enjoy the taste of these parts, which I still think is pretty gross.

1) "Taboo | Gross Food | National Geographic Channel." National Geographic Channel - Animals, Science, Exploration Television Shows. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. .

2) Mitchell, Nina. "Gross Me Out! | Away.com." Away.com: Travel Guides, Advice from Experts. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. .

Culture Is Food

"A World of Food" made me think about my own culture, though mostly about food. The film seemed to divide food and culture, commenting on the nature of foreign food and of American food. But when I think of food and how I've consumed it most of my life, I remember the explorations into the food of other countries and cultures. My family has always been adventurous with food and we've always been open to trying new things. With "A World of Food," there seemed only to be cultures eating their own food and American's scared of trying anything else.

My grandmother, on my mother's side, was Japanese, which was perhaps the biggest influence on my consumption of food outside the "normal." Sushi was a staple, and was never really an issue, as far as strange foods go. Rice was eaten multiple times a week, though never instant rice or anything outside Japanese white rice for the most part. So when I discovered this kind of food was considered strange, I embraced the difference, knowing that I was eating something delicious they were missing out on. And because my parents appreciated all kinds of food, I was introduced to many great dishes from many different cultures.

As I grew older, I found myself wanting to try more and more foods, the stranger the better. If any other culture considers it food, you can be sure I'll try it. There is nothing that scares me and no food will likely ever be "too out there." Now I can only hope to try all the foods I can possibly consume, because it is just one way to connect to another culture, that understanding what they eat can tell you what they, as a people, are like.

Counihan, Carole, and Penny Van Esterik. Food and Culture. New York City, NY: Routledge, 1997. Print.

Ishige, Naomichi. The History and Culture of Japanese Food. New York City, NY: Kegan Paul, 2001. Print.

Lost in Translation

My stepdad is from Mexico City and when I was about seven he promised me som Mexican chocolate for dinner, I thought I had the coolest dad on the planet!! For the first time I was actually looking forward to dinner and when we sat down to eat I was completely....confused. Why would my Mexican chocolate be mixed with chicken?!? Chicken and chocolate, that was just too weird so I moved the sauce off of the chicken and took in a huge spoonful.....YUCK!! Whatever this brown sauce was it certainly was NOT chocolate. My dad explained to me Mole IS Mexican chocolate and it is a bitter spicy sauce that is made with chocolate but not sweetened and definately not what I was used to. That was my first lesson in cultural differences in food, but not that last.
I grew up in Los Angeles, California where living so close to the U.S/Mexican border clearly has an influence on the So Cal culture. You can see influence everywhere from art and music to architectural designs and restaurants. The restaurants vary in degrees of authenticity from the restaurants using the Mexican culture as a gimmick (El Pollo Loco and Baja Fresh) to the restaurants that can boast of real Mexican salsas and guacomole made in front of you (El Presidente). On a recent trip to Mexico with my boyfriend I learned that even the most "authentic" Mexican restaurant here in the states may lack certain...delicacies' reserved for south of the border.
Some friends my boyfriend grew up with in Mexico took us out to a restaurant and insisted on ordering for us. We declined and the guys settled on ordering the appetizer but refused to tell us what it was. Figuring it was something I wouldn't eat regularly I passed, but with a little teasing my boyfriend gave in and had a few peices of the strange looking meat. His friends burst out laughing and finally revealed the mystery meat to be bull's penis, which they eat often as a fancy appetizer but knowing out culture differences thought it would be funny to get us to do the same.
As an adult I find it hard to go an entire week without at least one Mexican meal,and have even come to love Mole, knowing what to expect helped with that. Although I am a huge fan of Mexican foods, there are some that I am no willing to even attempt to eat. I found two books in the library that reflect some of the ways food influences society...one that reflects the importance of flavors to sell food and another that focuses more specifically on how food is viewed by both Mexican and Mexican American women.

Abarca, Meredith E. Voices in the Kitchen: Views of Food and the World from Working-Class Mexican and Mexican American Women. College Station; Texas A&M University Press,
2006. Print

Belasco, Warren., & Scranton, Philip., ed. Food Nations: Selling Taste in Consumer Societies. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Culture & Food

The film we viewed in class, "A World of Food" opened my eyes to the foods various cultures include in their diet. I've heard that some cultures around the world eat dog as a basic meat product, but it was horrifying to see the roasted dog carcasses hanging from their necks. Although I must take into consideration this disgust I felt over seeing the dogs is felt by millions around the world when they see a cheeseburger being consumed.

Growing up I believed my diet to be pretty mainstream in American society, in so far as it consisted of a large variety of cultural representations, in their Americanized versions. Spaghetti noodles with tomato sauce, beef and cheese tacos, steak and potatoes, a stir fry with peas, water chestnuts and broccoli, and always a glass of milk. I say these dishes seem Americanized because of the lack of deviance from local grocery store produce sections, and lack of spices. In other words, they were rather bland. Four years ago when I first started college my eating habits were forced to change. Freshman year I ate in the dining hall which catered to our large Hawaiian population, potatoes were replaced with rice at every meal, and there was a large influence of Asian foods and spices in most dinner choices. I also moved in with roommates who loved to cook dishes that still seemed foreign to me, such as really spicy noodles as well as spam (which I still refuse to eat).

Anderson, Eugene N. Everyone Eats: Understanding Food and Culture. New York: New York UP, 2005. Print.

Harris, Marvin. The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig: Riddles of Food and Culture. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987. Print.

Fried Okra and Tang Part II

As I mentioned in my previous post, my mother did adopt a bit of my Grandmother's southern cooking style into her own kitchen, and would occasionally serve us fried chicken gizzards along with fried okra. As a child, I liked these little chewy, gummy niblets, but as I hit adolescence, my willing consumption of them slowed. I tried vegetarianism for a time while in high school, and that changed our eating habits a bit.

While my mother did pick up a couple meals from her southern mother-in-law, I remember most of the meals she prepared at home were Italian. My father was in the Navy in the 1960s and 70s, and my mother and sister lived in Naples while his ship was stationed off the Italian coast for a few years. Most of her cooking techniques and inspiration were rooted in this culinary experience of Italy. My mother was a wonderful cook. Some favorite meals I remember fondly are Pasta e Fagiole (soup with pork and white beans), spaghetti with white clam sauce, fried zucchini, minestrone soup, spaghetti carbonara (my personal favorite, and the first thing I called home to learn how to cook while living away from home for the first time), and of course, lasagna. These meals would be accompanied by stories of my family's time in Italy: the time my mother and sister came home to find their apartment robbed, the time my sister got ringworm, how nervous my mom was with my sister sucking her thumb while traveling all over the "dirty" streets of Naples, fond memories of their British neighbors, how I was conceived in Italy, likely on New Year's Eve 1974...I felt that even though their time living overseas occurred before I was born, I had a living experience of how their time there shaped our whole family's life together. It certainly shaped our family's experience of culture and food.

I recommend the following books to explore these two culinary cultures:

Harris, Valentina. Regional Italian Cooking. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.

and

Walter, Eugene, 1921-1998. American Cooking: Southern Style. New York: Time-Life Books, 1971.

Culture & Food

The film "A World of Food" gave me new insight on food preferences of people in cultures outside of my own. I found it interesting that other cultures don't understand the huge proportions at American Restaurants. It's hard for me to understand why someone wouldn't want leftovers of a delicious restaurant meal. Personally, I eat them consecutively for every single meal until they're gone. There's not much better than reheated Thai leftovers for breakfast! In fact, that's what I ate this morning.

I was raised in a pretty typical American household. We are regular American-style foods, everything from lasagna to meatloaf. There was nothing out of the ordinary about our diet except for my mom's insistence upon cutting fat from out meals. Everything we ate was labeled "98% fat free" or "nonfat," simply "low fat" wasn't an option. I can actually remember the first time I had real cream cheese, the taste was unbelievable! We never had butter, and for a few years my mom wouldn't even buy margarine. Trying to choke down a piece of toast with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Lite Spray just didn't cut it for me; to be honest, it was disgusting. My friends didn't like eating at my house either, and frankly, I preferred eating at their houses because I could eat what I pleased. If you were to scan through my parents' fridge when I was growing up, there wasn't a single item that wasn't at least reduced fat.

My lack of fat consumption as a child had quite an impact on my food choices, once I was allowed to make them for myself. As soon as I began buying my own foods, I instantly went for fat, fat, fat! This probably explains my unquenchable craving for desserts of all kinds. Today, while I try to eat somewhat healthier, there are some things that I still refuse to buy the lite version of, like mayonnaise, for example. While I know it's unhealthy to eat the regular version of everything, sometimes it's so worth the calories...

Here are my recommendations for books found in the library, neither of which I can truly recommend, having not read them myself.

Gremillion, Joseph. "Food/Energy and the Major Faiths." Mayrknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1978.

Subject: food supply.

Lanner, Ronald M. "The Pinon Pine: A Natural and Cultural History." Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press, 1981.

Subject: Indians of North America

Fried Okra and Tang

I grew up in a fairly standard American family. My father's side has roots in Oklahoma, and he prides himself on being a descendant of a Joseph Copeland who arrived in colonial America on the Mayflower. My father's parents emigrated to California during the dustbowl, and settled in Central California. They brought with them a hardworking, salt of the earth spirit and their culture of fried food.

I grew up visiting my grandparents a few times a year, as they lived about three hours from my home on the California coast. Fond memories of my grandparent's home included the scent of bacon and other miscellaneous fried foods that permeated the walls and contents of her kitchen, and many, many treasures tucked into little nooks and crannies of her small house. One of my favorite things to check on when I first arrived to their home was the top of the refrigerator; she kept a supply of ice cream cones on the top just for us. We never had ice cream cones at home! A simple and decadent culinary indulgence that meant the world to me as a child.

Mornings began with the sound of Grandma banging the pots and pans around in the cupboard at an incredibly early hour, waking the remaining sleepers of the house. A typical breakfast included a large serving bowl of scrambled eggs cooked in bacon grease, bacon, fresh Bisquick biscuits, Grandma's own canned peaches, and Tang. The Tang was always served in a glass orange juice pitcher with little embossed oranges around it; I found one at the local Goodwill recently and had to pay the $.99 to bring it home for the sake of nostalgia.

The quintessential dinner meal at Grandma Copeland's house was fried chicken, fried okra or overcooked broccoli and whipped potatoes (pronounced "whipp-d p-tatuhs"), served with a sprinkling of paprika on top. I loved the fried okra, rolled in a cornmeal batter. This was one culinary item that my mother adopted and incorporated into our own meals at home; it was one of my favorite childhood foods. It wasn't until I grew up and left home and started reading nutrition books that I learned of Dr. Andrew Weil's recommendation of eating broccoli steamed until crisp-tender and bright green. All meals that included broccoli in my childhood featured it in a limp and dark greenish state; this new knowledge revitalized my relationship with the vegetable.

My mother rarely cooked fried chicken (perhaps my father liked his mother's the best?), but she did cook fried chicken gizzards from time to time.

hahahahaha food

Yay, finally!!

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