CYOA: Eat Local!

Andrea MacMichael

Food and Travel Seminar

9/27/16

CYOA: Eat Local!

One of my favorite shows to watch is Diners, Drive Ins and Dives on the Food Network.  The host, Guy Fieri, travels all across the country to eat the best dishes on the menu at restaurants that are favorites of the locals. He celebrates the food, as well as the love that goes into the cooking. I enjoy the show because I not only get to see how some amazing recipes come together, but I also get an idea for the culture of many cities and how these restaurants help in forming unique communities.

I think it is important to support local restaurants, and Guy Fieri celebrates this in his show. I believe local restaurants keep communities connected and are vital for supporting the local economy and local “flavor” that people love to experience. I have included a Grand Rapids based article that highlights the benefits of eating local vs. eating at chain restaurants. Also, I’ve included a short, fun video clip from Guy Fieri’s show. He visits a restaurant in Detroit, where my uncle works as a baker! There are so many incredible places to travel to in this country, and even more incredible places to eat if you want to truly experience the area! If you’re interested, check out the food network website for more about the show and the restaurants and cities Guy has visited.

Article:

http://www.therapidian.org/locally-owned-or-chain-restaurants-does-it-really-matter

Video Clip:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/braised-beef-panini-with-guy-0176883.html

Andrea MacMichael

Food and Travel Seminar

9/19/16

Stealing Buddha’s Dinner Ch. 1-9 Reading Response

            After reading the first nine chapters of Stealing Buddha’s Dinner, I feel a mix of emotions.  I feel like a little kid again, mesmerized by the television commercials and the brand-name cookies, candies, drinks, and snacks filling the grocery stores that also fill Bich’s mind every minute of the day. These chapters were endearing and powerful. We are able to get a glimpse of what it was like for Bich Nguyen and her family (without her birth mother) to move to Grand Rapids from Vietnam during the late 1970s, which was a very difficult and tense time period. I feel disheartened that so many immigrant families like Bich’s had to struggle financially and socially during this time, but I also understand, better, why such burdens were so prevalent.   

I believe one of the themes that came across very strongly in this piece was identity. Bich describes how her hair never falls in the same beautiful way as her sister, Anh’s does, and how she feels the need to impress everyone at school by having the perfect lunch packed. In this way I could sense Bich’s worry and uneasiness towards growing up and presenting herself in her new American community as an “outsider”. I can imagine it would be beyond tiresome to balance one’s own cultural traditions and beliefs while also trying to fit into another culture. The reading to this point, revolves around food, and I believe this is because we are learning about such complex things as identity and beliefs and growing up in a foreign land through the eyes of a young girl. I found it endearing to read how she felt such happiness and excitement towards boxes of mac and cheese, ice cream, or jiffy muffins. In my mind, the Vietnamese dishes she ate seemed much more interesting. It seems as though she learned more through sight and the food culture in America than from anything else. I believe that Bich built her identity in America based on the food she ate. More than anything else, such as building friendships, or learning the English language, she found her introduction to America through the packaged foods that were the rave of this time period. She couldn’t look like everyone else, but she could, with sufficient begging and the sales at the grocery store, feel like she fit in by eating the popular foods. In a similar way, I believe she was also able to feel “at home” in America by eating the Vietnamese cuisine her grandmother continued to make. The Vietnamese food was a piece of her homeland that could withstand cultural boundaries.

As the chapters progressed, the more she grew and the more she began to recognize not just how food could indicate social standing, but also how political views and complex ideas were shaping American and immigrant life during this time period. Her voice was becoming even more mature and insightful. I am excited to see how Bich’s ideas of the world and her identity are influenced in the rest of the book.

Andrea MacMichael

Food and Travel Seminar

9/14/16

Reading Response to “The Reporter’s Kitchen” by Jane Kramer from Secret Ingredients

            Jane Kramer’s kitchen, no matter the city it is in, nor the type of pots, pans, and stove she has to work with, is where I want to be eating. “The Reporter’s Kitchen” has transported me through the delicious settings in which Kramer writes, as well as her many adventures in cooking and writing, and has left a smile on my face. I feel as though I have traveled the world as royalty, dining with the most important people and eating the most interesting meals. Her playful diction and use of specifics in her descriptions brought familiarity to the Moroccan dishes I’ve never tasted and the former mayor of New York, Ed Koch, whom I knew nothing about. I found it intriguing to have my mind filled with culinary language and the fantastic stories that Kramer presented. At points they even seemed like fantasy.

            Not only was I attracted to the piece of writing itself and how I felt deeply engaged in it, but I was also surprised by some of the ideas and perspectives that emerged. Kramer described how her mother was not a great cook. Yet, Kramer clearly has a love of cooking. This made me think about my own family. My parents love to cook, and I like it, too. I have learned to become comfortable with trying new things and to use my own brain to make concoctions on my own. Cooking, I think, and growing up around a family who cooks most meals, teaches a lot of great skills in resourcefulness. I have found, too, that even the people in the restaurant business employ a lot of the same techniques.

For instance, after working at an athletic club over the summer in the kitchen, I’ve learned that part of the art of the food business is to learn what you can cheat on and still make a great dish. Time and money are very important.

Kramer claims that good cooking is easier to do than writing great pieces. In my opinion, I think they are of equal difficulty. Both tasks take a lot of trial and error and can be time consuming. But they each also have many sources for inspiration, feedback, and guidance. As one continues to write, one continues to make more and more provoking and complex works. As one continues to cook, one starts to experiment with more and more ingredients and can transform ordinary dishes into flavorful, delicious ones, just as Kramer learned to do. At an ocean-side restaurant, a lobster tail is appropriate, and for a documentary an interview is necessary. At some restaurants and in our own homes, liquid cheese and salsa nachos are perfect as an appetizer, and so is a reused high school piece for a new short story. The quality and design depends on each unique setting or situation.

There are so many parallels between writing and cooking, and the Kramer piece really brought this to my attention. Many of us learn from and are influenced by our loved ones, and eventually take these ideas on to create our own products that are fit to make new memories.