When thinking about food, Americans do not necessarily consider the origin of the country that food was made in or its ingredients. Often disregarded, the culture of Asian food goes amiss in American appropriation of Asian food. Asian cuisines can easily represent the power of its country, thus, are useful tools for education in Asian culture. In America, many people experience variety of food choices of Asian food such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. However, often times people raise questions in regard to the jeopardization of the culture in Asian food. Misrepresenting the culture, Western countries borrow and appropriate these main Asian cuisines. Nevertheless, with great differences in taste, none of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean food …show more content…
It is vital to recognize the value of a certain culture in the country through a common “tool” such as food. Located in Ohio, in Oberlin College’s newspaper, a number of students complained about the cultural appropriation on Asian food. Among many students, a Junior Japanese student, Tomoyo Joshi, criticizing the college’s serving of sushi, stated: “When you’re cooking a country’s dish for other people, including ones who have never tried the original dish before, you’re also representing the meaning of the dish as well as its culture” (Dunham & Friedersdorf). The unique taste and characteristic in a country’s dish reveals a meaning of its culture. Through common accessibilities like Japanese food, for instance, many people are able to understand and learn the Japanese culture. However, many misunderstand the Japanese culture due to the modification of Japanese food in the West. Without the same tasting, Westernization of Asian food corrupt originality in the culinary world. As a matter of fact, “the traditional cuisines of Japan is based on rice with miso soup and other dishes such as soba or udon or meat based products called tonkatsu… Japan has simmered many dishes such as fish products in broth called oden or beef in sukiyaki and nikujaga” (Wikipedia). In comparison to the original Japanese food sold in Japan, Japanese …show more content…
Through new experiences, people are impacted by the unique taste of food in Asia. Nevertheless, not many people in the West know the taste of authentic food of, for example, Chinese food. A previous faculty member at NYU’s center for Multicultural Education and Programs, Rachel Kuo, a writer for Everyday Feminism, states: “The relationship between food and culture also means that food can be used as a tool of marginalization” (Kuo). For example, when thinking about Chinese food in the West, Americans often blurt out their main dishes such as fried rice or Lo Mein with General Tso’s chicken. Many assume that these cuisines are the traditional Chinese food. However, this may not be the case in a different country like Korea or even the original country, China. In Korea, Chinese food consists of noodles made with a black bean pasting called Jajang-meon and fried beef topped with sweet, pineapple sauce called tangsuyook. On the other hand, in China “Steamed white rice is the most commonly eaten food… Chinese noodles come dry or fresh and are often served in soups or fried as toppings such as Shou Mian” (Wikipedia). This difference in the authentic Chinese food and Chinese food served in the West provide clear evidence of manipulation for Chinese food in the West. Thus, this modification in food creates a homogenous idea when thinking about food
The author chose to conduct this research to explore the comparison between Szechuan and Cantonese food and the extent of its popularity within UK. To enable the research to be conducted in a smaller margin, the students of University of West London are selected as the focused target of research. As observed in the European culture, Chinese food is considered a treat for special occasions as selected restaurant stands equal with high-end restaurants that are serving western cuisine as shown in TopTable (2014). According to Mail Online (2010), it is found that 39 per cent of the population preferred Oriental flavours, such as sweet and sour and chow mein to Indian sauces such as tikka masala.
In the essay “The End of Spam Shame: On Class, Colonialism, and Canned Meat,” Sylvie Kim, the author, argues that no culture or person should be judged based on what foods they eat. Kim argues this by using her love for spam to explain the cultural difference and judgement she has experienced being an Asian-American consumer of the “pink gelatinous pork” (3). Sylvie explains personal shame and fear of judgement when eating spam to her audience, Asian-American readers of the blog “hyphenmagazine.com.” She elaborates on her disgust for judgement by using the argumentative writing style of repetition. She continually reuses the word love. This writing style is crucial
Food and cuisine is one of the most important and influential aspects of how a country's culture is shaped and by looking at how this has been accomplished, it is clear to see direct links between dishes and aspects of Japanese and Australian Culture. REFERENE By researching a meal from each country, Okonomiyaki and Damper, connections are made and analysed between identity, culture and the communication.
Unlike Japan, there are many similarities between Canada’s food guide and India’s, even though there are distinctive variations in cultures. In the contrary, there are a few differences between the food ate mainly because of religious teachings.
Asians are one of the fastest growing groups in the United States and their culture is unique. A majority of the Asian culture is known for making big dinners to bring the family together to simply talk or celebrate together. There are three main categories of Asian dietary culture, which are the southwest, northwest and southeast. We will be focusing on the second largest dietary culture of Asia, which is in the northeast that contains China, Korea, and Japan. Food in this culture is not only a method of fueling ones body it is also used in certain types of medicines to heal ailments and also used in religious offerings.
In Lavanya Ramanathan’s Washington Post article published in 2015 titled “Why everyone should stop calling immigrant food ‘ethnic’”, she discusses about people’s preconceptions on the type of food that should be labelled ethnic. Ashlie Stevens also touched on a similar topic in her Guardian article published in 2015 titled “Stop thinking and just eat: when ‘food adventuring’ trivializes culture”. She talks about how people assume that just by eating food from a certain culture, they are able relate to the culture as a whole. Both authors acknowledge the importance of appreciating authentic cuisines, but takes different approaches to convince the audience. Both authors establish credibility by using a wide range of substantiated evidences. While,
Reading Catfish and Mandala reminded me of my cultural closeness through food. Due to being bi-ethnic I learned how to cook food from both my ethnicities, however there were times when I found myself acting like a foreigner towards certain dishes. A prime example was when I had Chitlins or pig intestines. I had eaten menudo, thanks to my Hispanic mother and this was the first time I had Chitlins, an African American dish via my paternal grandmother. Unlike Menudo, which to me has an appetizing smell and taste, Chitlins were a gray stringy putrid smelling dish. Remembering the utter dislike I obtained from that African American dish, reminded me of Pham’s experience with Vietnamese food. While there are some dishes people can’t stand, most usually embrace a dish from their culture and that helps ease some of the pain or discomfort.
In Michael Pollan’s “The End of Cooking” shares the message of what we are losing something important in this day and age because of all our pre-made and processed foods. This can be compared with Kothari’s “If You Are What You Eat, What Am I?” and her argument that food is part of one’s own identity. By using the examples from these two texts you can analyze the state of food and culture in the United States today. All of the processed and pre-made foods are causing people all across America to lose their sense of Culture. We no longer know what it’s like to make one of our cultures specialty dishes from scratch which can help people identify with their culture. This process helped newer generations see what it was like for those before them to cook on a daily basis and could help them identify your sense of culture.
In the writing “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?” Geeta Kothari describes the differences in the American and Indian cultures through her unique description of the food differences. As a little Indian-American girl, Kothari curiously wanted to eat what of kids her age ate, tuna salad sandwich, hot dogs, and foods of such nature. Kothari describes her first encounter with a can of tuna fish as it looks “pink and shiny, like an internal organ” (947). As Kothari ages, it becomes clear that she sees American food much the way her parents saw it- “repugnant… meat byproducts… glued together by chemicals and fat” (947). Even though Kothari describes American food as strange, disgusting, and foreign; it was also “infidelity” to eat it (951).
At the start of the semester, my oblivious state of nature associating with the Chinese culture reached an unacceptable level. Implementing a necessary change, I decided to educate myself on different cultures starting with China. I failed to ponder that such a rich, deep culture existed outside America. Encompassed by this country’s unique yet suffocating melting pot culture, my outlook believed ideas such as uniformity between American Chinese food and Authentic Chinese food. After this course, my bigot perspective widened as I witnessed diversity in the world. Before this class, when I thought of Chinese food, my connotation jumped to thoughts associated with chop suey, but as I progressed my education, my mindset gradually pondered foods like steamed buns or “New Year Cakes” with authentic Chinese food.
To confirm their belief, the authors collected data by means of free listing, interviews, or simply practicing naturalistic observations in several Japanese cities including Mizusawa, Morioka, and Tokyo. The authors found that Japan had long had its own fast food culture as long ago as 1899, when a Japanese food chain, Yosh...
... Expanded Edition (California Studies in Food and Culture). 2 ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. Print.
The other aspect of the Americanization of different cultures’ foods is lessening the spiciness of certain foods. For instance, foods from Thailand usually have a significant amount of heat and spice based on the Thai food culture that largely incorporates vegetables. In this case, Americans lessen the spiciness through changing a major ingredient of the ethnic cuisine in order to prepare an Americanized Thai cuisine. Therefore, Americans have primarily Americanized different cultures’ foods through salting, adding sugar, or frying and lessening changing major ingredients of the native cuisine.
I believe that in order to preserve the authenticity of regional cuisine the people preparing the foods need to possess knowledge about their culture, an understanding of the ingredients they are using, and the ingredients they select must be from their region and no other. In their ess...
When a person enjoys a dish from a different country, this can cause a positive perspective to the culture itself. According to SooCheong Jang and Jooyeon Ha, authors of “The Influence of Cultural Experience: Emotions in Relation to Authenticity at Ethnic Restaurants.” A study conducted to identify customers’ cultural experiences with authenticity of ethnic restaurants. “This study uncovered that a customer’s experiences with a particular culture are a significant factor for eliciting positive emotions regarding authentic aspects of ethnic restaurants” (302). Furthermore, the authors suggest that providing different parts of one’s culture (including their food) will get people more interested in different cultures (302). Ethnic restaurants can become the start point that gets people interested in different cultures. To encourage people into learning more about different cultures, ethnic restaurants can give out flyers about their culture to their customers or add a factoid of a certain dish next to it’s name in the menu. This can increase the chances of a customer getting to the start point of being interested in learning about a different