Reflecting upon the things that we've touched upon in class so far, I've come to realize that only one theme has really stuck in my mind throughout. The power of food in bringing people together, oftentimes in bringing total strangers together.
All through the movie Tampopo, I was not drawn to it by the fact that a culture should be so obssessed with food, the production/preparation of food, or the ingestion of it. I was drawn to the different scenes where such different people that were total strangers before could be assembled together in such a speedy and efficient manner, as if food was a sort of cultural superglue that also has magnetic properties, first bringing peoples together and then bonding them with one another.
The prime example of this sort of cultural bonding in Tampopo, for me, was in one of the first scenes. The two truck drivers are hungry, and they stop at a roadside noodle joint for a quick fix of ramen. Quite a normal occassion, however, this is already exhibiting the magic of food, for in their quest to obtain a noodle supper, the two truckmen have already been drawn to a previously unknown place inhabited by people that they had never met before.
The noodles had brought the men to the joint, the woman had made the noodles for the men, and in order for the men to procure their noodles, they had to interact with the woman, telling her what they want. Here, food has acted as an attracting force between people. The drunkard, high and confused by his drink (which is also part of 'food' as a whole), then beats one truckman down to the point that the truckmen have to lodge at the noodle joint for the night. So, in summary, because of their hunger for noodles on a late night, the two truck driving men ended up meeting three other people in rather personal terms - the lady who made their noodles and ended up tending to the beat-up truckman, the lady's young son, and the man who beat up the truckman. This is a powerful - if somewhat exaggerated (but relevant nonetheless) - example of the drawing power of food in gathering different people together.
This is especially intriguing to me because, on this foundation, an entire movie reflecting and commenting upon a culture circling food thus unfolds. From their meeting the past night to their intended departure the next morning, the two truckmen and the noodle lady are brought together, and finally, kept together by the power of food - in this case, noodles. The lady, hearing of their impending departure and realizing that they are rather knowledgeable about noodles, then begs them to stay and help her perfect her noodle recipe. And thus is the second role of the cultural superglue, that to keep people together after it has drawn them together.
For the remainder of the movie, these three main protagonists are led on all sorts of different adventures through and around the world of ramen production, ultimately meeting many different people and finally becoming friends with an assortment of individuals that probably would have never met otherwise. This, for me, is the allure of food as a cultural superglue - people of different status and levels within a wider culture can all come together and enjoy or participate.
Sep 5, 2007
Sep 1, 2007
insipid
i put the whole thing down. or what was left of it. it made an attempt at looking innocent. i stabbed it with my fork. a few times. it pleaded for lenience. i got a knife and cut it apart. i tore out its innards and feasted on the juicy meat. it lay there, lifeless. defeated. i revelled in the glory of its demise.
so i had a chicken wrap for lunch after missing breakfast due to sheer determination to sleep past noon. i finally got up around 11:30, but that doesn't really matter all that much, really, i think, sort of, probably, perhaps, yes.
what i want to talk about is how my fooking chicken wrap fell apart like a house of cards in a class 1 grade A richter scale 900 style hurricane-tsunami-t0rnad0 bonanza. 'cause when i picked that chicken wrap up, it was anything but wrapped. maybe it's because i'm naturally too lazy to care how my food is eaten, as long as i manage to eat it, but the manner and speediness in which my chicken wrap dismantled itself was absolutely astoundin'.
i picked it up. it fell apart. Bam. that fast. then, in sllllllllllloooooooooooooooooowwwwww motion, the rice fell out... one by one, two by two.. plop plop plop, etc. they showered themselves onto the pristine wonderland that is the 1101 tabletop. one by one, two by two.. bloop bloop bloop, etc.
this is the story of how, for lunch, i paid 5 dollars for one (1) bbq chicken wrap and only ate half (0.5) of a bbq chicken wrap. this is the story of how approximately half of my lovely chicken wrap ended up on the table, looking delicious still but already crawling with pathogens and other strange microscopic organisms that exist solely for the purpose of contaminating my chicken wrap, which they knew i was going to drop.
because i don't know how chicken wraps are supposed to be eaten without having them fall apart and scatter their innards like a bunch of marbles dropped on a surface of solid ice, or something similar..
My poor food. Lamentations.
so i had a chicken wrap for lunch after missing breakfast due to sheer determination to sleep past noon. i finally got up around 11:30, but that doesn't really matter all that much, really, i think, sort of, probably, perhaps, yes.
what i want to talk about is how my fooking chicken wrap fell apart like a house of cards in a class 1 grade A richter scale 900 style hurricane-tsunami-t0rnad0 bonanza. 'cause when i picked that chicken wrap up, it was anything but wrapped. maybe it's because i'm naturally too lazy to care how my food is eaten, as long as i manage to eat it, but the manner and speediness in which my chicken wrap dismantled itself was absolutely astoundin'.
i picked it up. it fell apart. Bam. that fast. then, in sllllllllllloooooooooooooooooowwwwww motion, the rice fell out... one by one, two by two.. plop plop plop, etc. they showered themselves onto the pristine wonderland that is the 1101 tabletop. one by one, two by two.. bloop bloop bloop, etc.
this is the story of how, for lunch, i paid 5 dollars for one (1) bbq chicken wrap and only ate half (0.5) of a bbq chicken wrap. this is the story of how approximately half of my lovely chicken wrap ended up on the table, looking delicious still but already crawling with pathogens and other strange microscopic organisms that exist solely for the purpose of contaminating my chicken wrap, which they knew i was going to drop.
because i don't know how chicken wraps are supposed to be eaten without having them fall apart and scatter their innards like a bunch of marbles dropped on a surface of solid ice, or something similar..
My poor food. Lamentations.
Aug 29, 2007
Tomato Wars
Today is the day of the Spanish tomato throwing festival... it's called 'La Tomatina'.
Well, according to Answers.com, it is.
It also tells me that the tomatoes are mostly 'over-ripe', which I'll interpret as being almost rotten. Which is quite as good as rotten, really, once it's been splattered all over the streets and your hair, and it's 95 degrees out in the Mediterranean summer sun.
It's interesting that bad artists/musicians get rotten food thrown at them. In a world where parties and gatherings usually involve the host providing food of some sort for the guests, and where giving food to others is culturally a sign of caring, throwing food at a singer is one sign of utmost disregard for their work onstage.
Food is almost always something that brings people together. Families to the dining table, friends to the corner restaurant, white collars to the business lunches. Yet, this is a prime example of another use of food. The Tomatina in using food as a sort of weapon in this huge food fight, and the throwing of rotten vegetables at bad performers as an indication that the audience is not enjoying the show, at all.
Albeit, people are still gathering together to throw tomatoes at each other, so the food is still bringing everyone to one place. And perhaps all the people that throw rotten food at onstage performers have some sort of club as well. I know I wouldn't go to the trouble of bringing rotten food to performances just to throw onstage in case I disliked the performance. Or maybe it's all fake, and I've watched too many cartoons.
Well, according to Answers.com, it is.
It also tells me that the tomatoes are mostly 'over-ripe', which I'll interpret as being almost rotten. Which is quite as good as rotten, really, once it's been splattered all over the streets and your hair, and it's 95 degrees out in the Mediterranean summer sun.
It's interesting that bad artists/musicians get rotten food thrown at them. In a world where parties and gatherings usually involve the host providing food of some sort for the guests, and where giving food to others is culturally a sign of caring, throwing food at a singer is one sign of utmost disregard for their work onstage.
Food is almost always something that brings people together. Families to the dining table, friends to the corner restaurant, white collars to the business lunches. Yet, this is a prime example of another use of food. The Tomatina in using food as a sort of weapon in this huge food fight, and the throwing of rotten vegetables at bad performers as an indication that the audience is not enjoying the show, at all.
Albeit, people are still gathering together to throw tomatoes at each other, so the food is still bringing everyone to one place. And perhaps all the people that throw rotten food at onstage performers have some sort of club as well. I know I wouldn't go to the trouble of bringing rotten food to performances just to throw onstage in case I disliked the performance. Or maybe it's all fake, and I've watched too many cartoons.
Stereofood
National cuisines are a worrisome thing. The talk of a national cuisine is worrying. Everything about it is worrying. poopy.
There are very few nations that are actually singular in culture enough to be able to legitimately come up with a set of foods and call that their national cuisine, and still have it be representative of the vast majority of cultures and foods present and prevalent within that nation.
Thus, when speaking of things such as Chinese or Italian cuisine, it is much less an actual representation of the nation than a representation of the most popular and well known food-related aspects in regards to that nation. Chinese food is certainly not all about fried rice and Gen. Tso's Chicken. There's no such thing as Gen. Tso's chicken in China.
This is worrying because once these standards are established throughout the world for what is an what isn't 'supposed' to be in a national cuisine, then there is no turning back. People nowadays are oh so crazy against stereotyping and only taking things at face value. Then why is Chinese food represented by such ridiculous things as egg-drop soup (never had it at any restaurant in China before, nor did I see anyone else ever order/ingest/talk of it), Tso's chicken, and the ever-famous fortune cookie (never have seen one in China before, nor have I seen anyone else ever order/ingest/speak of it).
Certainly, names with such rich histories as China (ancient China, 5000 plus years of history) or Italy (ancient Rome, Etruscans, and beyond, etc) should represent more than just the occasional dish of fried rice or stir-fried spinach, pan pizza and pre-fabricated lasagna dinners?
There are very few nations that are actually singular in culture enough to be able to legitimately come up with a set of foods and call that their national cuisine, and still have it be representative of the vast majority of cultures and foods present and prevalent within that nation.
Thus, when speaking of things such as Chinese or Italian cuisine, it is much less an actual representation of the nation than a representation of the most popular and well known food-related aspects in regards to that nation. Chinese food is certainly not all about fried rice and Gen. Tso's Chicken. There's no such thing as Gen. Tso's chicken in China.
This is worrying because once these standards are established throughout the world for what is an what isn't 'supposed' to be in a national cuisine, then there is no turning back. People nowadays are oh so crazy against stereotyping and only taking things at face value. Then why is Chinese food represented by such ridiculous things as egg-drop soup (never had it at any restaurant in China before, nor did I see anyone else ever order/ingest/talk of it), Tso's chicken, and the ever-famous fortune cookie (never have seen one in China before, nor have I seen anyone else ever order/ingest/speak of it).
Certainly, names with such rich histories as China (ancient China, 5000 plus years of history) or Italy (ancient Rome, Etruscans, and beyond, etc) should represent more than just the occasional dish of fried rice or stir-fried spinach, pan pizza and pre-fabricated lasagna dinners?
Aug 23, 2007
Gathering
Today is dumpling day.
Dad will make the dough, two hours ahead.
Mom will make the filling. Today it'll be pork and celery. Lightly doused with soy sauce, two tablespoons of salt. Mix well...
She'll also roll out the dough and cut it, then roll the small pieces into flat, round little cakes for the skins of the dumplings. Then the kids gather round, everyone gathers round... and we all make dumplings. Each person's dumplings are diferent, Mom's are delicate and crafted, Dad's are big and sturdy, the kids are just plain unpredictable.
But they're dumplings, and everyone is making them together on this night.
The water boils!
Plates of dumplings, all shapes and styles of dumplings, they slide off the plates and plop into the bubbling water below. They begin to eminate their dumpling-aroma. Everyone waits...
And then, out they come, one by one, two by two, three by three... Shining and glistening. Plates and plates of homemade dumplings.
Some are broken, some are perfect. Everyone made them together on this night, Chinese New Years' Eve. In the background, the TV, tuned into the Chinese national TV station via satellite, announces the break of a New Year in the venerable Lunar calendar.
It's the year of the Horse, or perhaps it was the year of the Snake?
The dumplings await; we gather 'round again, the dumplings at the center of our table.
Dad will make the dough, two hours ahead.
Mom will make the filling. Today it'll be pork and celery. Lightly doused with soy sauce, two tablespoons of salt. Mix well...
She'll also roll out the dough and cut it, then roll the small pieces into flat, round little cakes for the skins of the dumplings. Then the kids gather round, everyone gathers round... and we all make dumplings. Each person's dumplings are diferent, Mom's are delicate and crafted, Dad's are big and sturdy, the kids are just plain unpredictable.
But they're dumplings, and everyone is making them together on this night.
The water boils!
Plates of dumplings, all shapes and styles of dumplings, they slide off the plates and plop into the bubbling water below. They begin to eminate their dumpling-aroma. Everyone waits...
And then, out they come, one by one, two by two, three by three... Shining and glistening. Plates and plates of homemade dumplings.
Some are broken, some are perfect. Everyone made them together on this night, Chinese New Years' Eve. In the background, the TV, tuned into the Chinese national TV station via satellite, announces the break of a New Year in the venerable Lunar calendar.
It's the year of the Horse, or perhaps it was the year of the Snake?
The dumplings await; we gather 'round again, the dumplings at the center of our table.
Aug 22, 2007
Potatoes
Hi.
Potatoes are dangerous things...
I once read something saying that "The potato of a group of people is someone who is mostly useless, but liked by everyone - no one finds it possible to hate the potato". In the wide world of vegetables and things that grow from the gound, I don't think I've ever met a person who disliked potatoes enough to not eat them. I've heard of people disliking lettuce, swearing against tomatoes, or hating broccoli. But not the good ol' potato.
And that makes it the most dangerous.
Potatoes tend to enjoy being cooked and prepared in fashions that ultimately further their (anti)nutritional value - calorie content especially, I guess - by many hundred percent. One prime example is the french fry (or, for patriotic sorts, the Freedom Fry). Every potato ever to be grown and harvested by the hands of man must yearn to become a basket of fries, freshly scooped out of sizzling oil, steaming and glistening formidably in the plates of ravished restaurant-goers.
They do seem to plunge into the frying oil oh-so eagerly. You can sometimes almost hear them exclaiming, "weeeeeee!". Splash, sizzle~
They don't even complain when they're being cut, for the cuts they endure, they know are specific to their most dreamed-of role: Fry. Companion of the burger, friend of ketchup, favorite of the masses.
One serving McD's Large Fries:
570 calories, 6g Sat fat, 8g Trans fat (ooooooooooh, that's 4 days' worth of Trans for the average person. ahhhh)
Potatoes are dangerous things... So round and harmless.. and they do smell so tasty once they're cooked -
Potatoes are dangerous things...
I once read something saying that "The potato of a group of people is someone who is mostly useless, but liked by everyone - no one finds it possible to hate the potato". In the wide world of vegetables and things that grow from the gound, I don't think I've ever met a person who disliked potatoes enough to not eat them. I've heard of people disliking lettuce, swearing against tomatoes, or hating broccoli. But not the good ol' potato.
And that makes it the most dangerous.
Potatoes tend to enjoy being cooked and prepared in fashions that ultimately further their (anti)nutritional value - calorie content especially, I guess - by many hundred percent. One prime example is the french fry (or, for patriotic sorts, the Freedom Fry). Every potato ever to be grown and harvested by the hands of man must yearn to become a basket of fries, freshly scooped out of sizzling oil, steaming and glistening formidably in the plates of ravished restaurant-goers.
They do seem to plunge into the frying oil oh-so eagerly. You can sometimes almost hear them exclaiming, "weeeeeee!". Splash, sizzle~
They don't even complain when they're being cut, for the cuts they endure, they know are specific to their most dreamed-of role: Fry. Companion of the burger, friend of ketchup, favorite of the masses.
One serving McD's Large Fries:
570 calories, 6g Sat fat, 8g Trans fat (ooooooooooh, that's 4 days' worth of Trans for the average person. ahhhh)
Potatoes are dangerous things... So round and harmless.. and they do smell so tasty once they're cooked -
Aug 21, 2007
green eggs and ham
humpty dumpty sat on a wall
had
a
great
f
a
l
l
Humpty Dumpty and Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham are two stories that I grew up hearing.. one is about an egg that fell off a wall, the other is an absurd story of green eggs and ham and how Sam doesn't like them. These are particularly easy to remember, I don't know why, but they have one thing in common: they involve food, and in fact they revolve around food and what kinds of interaction story characters engage in with them. Humpty the egg had a great fall, straightl off a wall, and was cracked and shattered - as eggs are wont to do. He was never put together again, even with all the King's men coming to help... and so I knew that eggs cannot be dropped if they are to be cooked later on, for they need to be cracked over a bowl or pan, not splattered all over the kitchen floor. Green eggs and ham is just ... green. Green foods usually include vegetables and such, not eggs and ham, so this is a memorable story not because it teaches a lesson or has anything like that, but because it's such an unusual account of one character's interaction with food that would have been normal - but isn't, because of its awesome color.
image made by someone else
had
a
great
f
a
l
l
Humpty Dumpty and Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham are two stories that I grew up hearing.. one is about an egg that fell off a wall, the other is an absurd story of green eggs and ham and how Sam doesn't like them. These are particularly easy to remember, I don't know why, but they have one thing in common: they involve food, and in fact they revolve around food and what kinds of interaction story characters engage in with them. Humpty the egg had a great fall, straightl off a wall, and was cracked and shattered - as eggs are wont to do. He was never put together again, even with all the King's men coming to help... and so I knew that eggs cannot be dropped if they are to be cooked later on, for they need to be cracked over a bowl or pan, not splattered all over the kitchen floor. Green eggs and ham is just ... green. Green foods usually include vegetables and such, not eggs and ham, so this is a memorable story not because it teaches a lesson or has anything like that, but because it's such an unusual account of one character's interaction with food that would have been normal - but isn't, because of its awesome color.
image made by someone else
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