response to two articles

After reading the two articles "Unhappy meals" and "Angels and vegetables: A brief history of food advice in America", which were written by Michael Pollan and Melanie Du Puis respectively, I found that these two articles both talked about food advice. The difference between these two is that Pollan came up with food advice "eat food, not too much and mostly plants" in his article, however, Puis question the necessity and authenticity of food advice in America. Also, Puis introduced several reasons that why Americans are rely on food advice from government and nutritionists, which includes Americans' faith about religions and science.

In terms of my own eating habits and opinion, I never listen to the suggestion from so-called expert to arrange and restrict my diet. I always eat whatever I want and whenever I need. Still, I understand what Puis explained about the reason why people are used to depend on food advice in her article "Because we have lost our faith in both religion and science as guides to eating, we rely on popular writers to steer us through a welter of confusing and contradictory"(34) after reading her description about the development of food advice. But my opinion is that there is no perfect nutrition arrangement for everyone because every person has his or her own constitution. 

I am also interested in what Pollan wrote "Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food"(15). I am totally disagree with it. There are more than one century between our generation and our great-great grandmother generation. So we definitely have tons of differences about values, lifestyle and eating habit. It is ridiculous that we tell what we should eat or not according to their judgement. 

my food journal

10th May Thursday
Breakfast: skipped
Lunch 11:15am in Dinning hall: a bowl of salad(carrot, celery, tomato, lettuce, and corn); several meatballs; a piece of pepperoni pizza; a glass of low fat milk
Dinner 5:30pm in Dinning hall: a bowl of salad(carrot, celery,olive); two pieces of chili BBQ beef, a bowl of peas, a glass of orange juice


11th May Friday
Breakfast: skipped
Lunch: I just grabbed a box of sushi from the downstairs convenience store.
Dinner 6:10pm in Dinning hall: a bowl of salad(carrot, celery, tomato); a plate of broccoli and corn; a piece of roasted chicken; a glass of apple juice; a piece of cheese cake


12th May Saturday
Breakfast: a bowl of porridge which was made by myself; several pieces of crackers 
Lunch 1:20pm in Dinning hall: a bowl of salad(carrot, celery, tomato); a plate of fried egg(with broccoli, olive, onion, sausage in it); a piece of sandwich(with cheese, turkey, tomato, onion, lettuce in it); a glass of low fat milk
Dinner 6:30pm in Dinning hall: a bowl of salad(carrot,celery,tomato); two roast garlic red potatoes; a piece of pepperoni pizza; a glass of orange juice; a piece of brownie

Response to three articles

According to Michael Pollan, the author of "An Animal Place",  there is a balance relationship between human beings and animals. Pollan thinks that on the one hand, animals usually become the recourse of food for people; on the another hand, it is hard for animals to live in the wild world, and they need human to provide living places, foods and protection for them. The author even states that even though people do not eat animals, the amount of death of animals would not decrease. So Pollan thinks that there is no necessary that human beings should stop eating animals as long as people preserve this balance relationship with animals and respect them, as he writes in the ends of this article "we'd eat them with the consciousness, ceremony and respect they deserve"(12).
In the article "The introduction to Estabrook's Tomatoland", the author introduces the different shapes and tastes of different tomatoes to audiences.  He states the locations where tomatoes were grown impact the characteristics of tomatoes. 
In terms of the third article "Fowl Trouble", which is written by Christopher D.Cook, the harm of broiler chicken is pretty serious. The author did lots of research and listed some data from USDA, and he describes the terrible process of feeding and raising chicks. 
The most shocking part is the harmful broiler chicken. Because there are lots of food problems in China, and I thought there is probably no food problem in America due to the plenty of strict regulations in this field. After reading Cook's article, I feel insecure to eat chicken.  

Response to "Our national eating disorder"

According to Michael Pollan, the author of "Our national eating disorder", the eating habits of Americans have changed a lot, and lots of national food are fading away from Americans' tables. The author states two main reasons for this situation. Firstly, the author thinks that the government made great impact on national eating disorder. The author also lists a example to support his opinion, which is that "A scientific study, a new government guideline, a lone crackpot with a medical degree can alter this nation's diet overnight"(1). According to my experience, I agree with  the author. Because people sometimes believe the official nutrition report or the suggestions of professionals and are willing to choose food depending on these. Another example the author mentions is that "Once the federal nutritional guidelines tried to asked people who preferred beef not to eat red meat any more"(1). From this example, I noticed one of the reason why the government nutritional guidelines can alter American national diet habit more or less is that the food the government suggested are mostly substitutes, so most Americans do not need to do complete changes. Secondly, the author claims that as a immigration country, American national eating habit is easily influenced and reshaped by its various immigrants' food cultures and diet habits. 
In terms of myself, I never constrain myself from choosing different types or flavors of food. I am willing to try various new things, get to know different people and get involve in fresh surroundings all the time. However, it still hard to change my stubborn national diet habit. Although I have tried plenty of delicious American style food, the food making me excited the most are still authentically  traditional flavored Chinese dishes. 
 

Draft of EE1

With the development of society and change of economic model in China, KFC and McDonalds have moved to the Chinese market lay combining their western products with Chinese local eating habits and food cultures. Meanwhile, this is also introduces western values into Chinese society.

When speaking western fast food, we cannot ignore two well-known, influential fast food restaurants, which are McDonalds and KFC. They are both regarded as giants among fast food industry, and distributed internationally. Also, they both aim to working class and middle class; they share similar values that providing large-amount and high-quality food, and conducting a kind of quick and convenient lifestyle; even the prices of these two are pretty close. In fact, compared to KFC, McDonalds is a much bigger enterprise with more funds, more market shares and more influences in America. So, McDonalds should possess same superiorities and take a lead in Chinese market. In contrast, KFC is more popular, has more branches and takes up more market shares than McDonalds in China.

You may be surprised to know that it was KFC who first entered China. 12th November, 1987 was the day when KFC opened its first restaurant in Beijing. McDonald on the other hand, did not enter the Chinese market until 1990. Thus KFC had a 3 year head start. The reason why KFC entered China before McDonald’s was because each produced differing research results of Chinese consumers. McDonald’s research suggested that the Chinese were very stubborn and were unlikely to take to McDonald’s products, which are traditional American fast food. However, KFC found quite the contrary, their research indicated that as long as they made some changes in their products, Chinese would accept their western fast food. As expected, KFC indeed obtained a great success in China, and even though McDonalds was competing with it all the time, it always fell behind KFC.

Through comparing the advertisements of these two fast food companies, we can clearly understand the reason why as a smaller fast food enterprise, KFC can beat McDonalds at Chinese market, and the importance of combining global products with local food cultures.

As the represents of western fast food, the significance of KFC and McDonalds moving into Chinese market is introducing the western values to China at the beginning of the society and economy reform in China, and letting Chinese get familiar with the western values, especially American identity. 

eating at the edge

According to Jamie Horwitz, the author of "Eating at the Edge", the eating habit of contemporary people has changed a lot. The author came up with a phrase "eating at the edge" at the beginning of the article, which means "occasions when food is an additive to a situation, such as a cigarette would be, rather than being definitive"(42). The author also mentioned a term "task-oriented world". In my opinion, "task-oriented world" means with the development of the society and acceleration of pace of life, the burden of work has becoming more and more heavy, eating is not a vital part of people's life anymore. Meanwhile, people start a new eating pattern which is strongly impacted by the "task-oriented world", and the old eating customs are gradually disappearing. For example, people were willing to gather together and spend lots of time eating and chatting in the past; nowadays, most people prefer to eat alone for quick and convenience. I think, because the eating does not refer to the process of sharing any more for most people, it just the most common thing they have to do every day that providing energy for them. So, under this new situation, portable food became more and more popular, such as fast food and TV dinner. As the author mentioned in this article, she was not surprised when she saw a student wolfing a sandwich in class. 

In fact, I have same feeling with author according to my own experience. When I was little, I never missed any meal each day, and I always took each meal on time. However, due to my tight class schedule, I usually only take lunch in dinning hall and just grab some bread or portable sushi in convenience stores for my breakfast and dinner. 

references

It is the official website of Hard Rock Cafe. I am interested in the shop section. There are lots of clothes and gifts for men and women.
https://rockshop.hardrock.com/Gifts/

food in different communities

After reading the "Breaking Bread with a Spread in a San Francisco County Jail" which was written by Sandra Cate, and the "The Cultural Politics of Eating in Shenzhen" which was written by Mary Ann O'donnell, I found something interesting about the respective characteristics of the food depending to different communities.

In the article "Breaking Bread with a Spread in a San Francisco County Jail", Cate introduced a kind of special food "spread" which is popular in prison. Because the food offered by prison's canteen are bland, monotonous and small-amount. More importantly, the food served by prison's canteen are invisible sources, limited time, high prices, no relation to personal preferences, mass-produced and contributed collectively. So in a such special community like prison, the inmates certainly invented some food with limited sources to satisfy their belly and make up the restrictions of their regular food. The author also described several specific spread made by different inmates with different flavors. But the same thing of these different spread dishes is that the process of making them is pretty simple. They are usually made by leftover materials and heated by microwave due to the limited sources and restrict regulations in prison. However, compared to the food offered by prison's canteen, spreads made by inmates themselves are not only multiple flavors, visible sources and handcrafted, but also inmates can share them with others and are not restricted by time. So spread has already become the most popular food among the prison inmates and furthermore, it is gradually becoming the symbol of this special community. 

In the article "The Cultural Politics of Eating in Shenzhen", O'donnell related the eating habits of Sherzheners to the Chinese political culture, and compared the different diet features between northern of China and Southern of China. The most interesting opinion of this article is  the author connected the different eating habits of northern and southern to the different personalities of people who lived in northern and southern. For example, the author mentioned that southerners prefer to eat fish and seafood, and fish and seafood are hard to catch; however, northerners usually eat cattle and sheep, and cattle and sheep are easy to get; so O'donnell thought it is one reason that why northerners are generally honester than southerners.  

From these two articles, I realized that there is always a reason that a specific food located in different regions and communities, and meanwhile, these special food and eating habits on the contrary influence the local cultures. 

The battle between McDonalds and KFC in China

Once speaking western fast food, we cannot ignore two well-known, influential fast food restaurants, which are McDonalds and KFC. They are both regarded as giants among fast food industry, and distributed internationally. Also, they both aim to working class and middle class; they share similar values that providing large-amount and high- quality food, and conducting a kind of quick and convenient lifestyle; even the prices of these two are pretty close. In fact, compared to KFC, McDonalds is a much bigger enterprise with more funds, more market shares and more influences in America. So, McDonalds should possess same superiorities and take a lead in Chinese market. In contrast, KFC is more popular, has more branches and takes up more market shares than McDonalds in China. In order to explain this situation, I found several advertisements of both McDonalds and KFC, and analyzed the values of these two brands through their respective advertisement methods.

You may be surprised to know that it was KFC who first entered China. 12th November, 1987 was the day when KFC opened its first restaurant in Beijing. McDonald on the other hand, did not enter the Chinese market until 1990. Thus KFC had a 3 year head start. The reason why KFC entered China before McDonald’s was because each produced differing research results of Chinese consumers. McDonald’s research suggested that the Chinese were very stubborn and were unlikely to take to McDonald’s products, which are traditional American fast food. However, KFC found quite the contrary, their research indicated that as long as they made some changes in their products, Chinese would accept their western fast food. As expected, KFC indeed obtained a great success in China, and even though McDonalds was competing with it all the time, it always fell behind KFC.

Why as a smaller fast food enterprise, KFC can beat McDonalds at Chinese market? The answer is simple when you saw their advertisements. Looking through the Chinese advertisements of McDonalds, we can clearly see that the main products which were highly publicized by McDonalds are still traditional, standard American fast food.   For instance, they both said “high recommendation in this month” in these two above print advertisements, and despite that they came from different months, the productions were still similar chicken hamburger, chicken wings and French fries. Obviously, McDonalds did not do the prepare work well that getting familiar with Chinese culture and Chinese eating habits, or they did not realize that how important combining the local eating culture and their own productions is.

However, KFC really adjusted their products according to their research result. Because the distinguished features of Chinese dishes are that there are variety in diet and obvious taste difference depending on regions. And KFC understood that and catered to the Chinese people far better. Although chicken was already a popular part of many dishes in China, KFC did more than offer a new take on how to cook chicken, they adapted their whole product range to meet Chinese needs but more importantly their local 

needs. For example, in this above KFC’s Chinese print advertisement, it recommended a new flavor grilled chicken hamburger with spicy sauce from SiChuan, China. I believe all Chinese know that SiChuan is famous for its spicy dishes, so this new product was pretty attractive for people who like spicy food and who come from SiChuan. Furthermore, in order to appeal to more Chinese customers, KFC even started to combine their chicken and western soup with rice, which is the most traditional and fundamental food Chinese always eat. So they released their new series of production “abundant rice dish”, which were really popular in China. The above advertisement shows this new production.

In conclusion, it is vital for a foreign restaurant to research the different food culture and unfamiliar eating habits of a new region when it entered to that region. Then, the foreign restaurant need to maintain its characteristics and meanwhile, connect local food features to its productions. Through comparing the Chinese advertisements of McDonalds and KFC, we can see despite that they aimed to same group of people, have close prices and shared similar values, KFC always can attract more Chinese customers because they understood the relationship between flavor and culture, and indeed swam with the current, adapted their productions for new surroundings. The method that combining the American style with Chinese local eating habits gave KFC the edge over its rival as McDonalds stuck firmly with its Western style in Chinese market

Food ads and Socioeconomic identities

      According to Joshua Freedman and Dan Jurafsky, the authors of "Authenticity in America: Class Distinctions in Potato Chip Advertising", food is a striking marker of socioeconomic class identity. So in order to investigate the relationship between different food and different class identities through various food descriptions, the authors compared the advertisements of twelve common brands of potato chips in America, and analyzed the differences of the languages they use to appeal their respective customers with different statuses. Finally, they found the several facts which indeed can prove their initial assumption. Firstly, the more expensive chips, which are also those targeted at higher-class customers usually use more complex language than inexpensive chips, which aimed at lower-class customers. Because general speaking, the people who have higher status obtained higher educations. More expensive chips thus were designed with more complex language in order to attract more higher-class buyers who believe that the product is somehow conform to their educational levels. Secondly, advertisers used significantly more words or statements relating to health on expensive chip packaging than on inexpensive chip packaging, which is exactly corresponding to the research result that "in the United States and many other countries over the last 100 years have found higher mortality rates in people of lower-class status".(48) Moreover, expensive chip advertising is full of comparison and negation to distance the higher socioeconomic classes from lower socioeconomic classes and their tastes by establishing the distinction between upper-class food taste and lower-class food taste. Finally, upper class has different authentic forms from lower class. For most upper classes, authentic food refer to natural, healthy, and not artificial food; however, authentic food for working classes usually is American traditions or family traditions, and located in the American landscape. 
      Among the four outstanding differences of language in several potato chips advertisements according to different social classes, I was convinced that the people who have different statuses indeed have different tastes of food and different requirements for food. Food companies emphasize these differences in their advertisements in order to appeal customers with different statues. Furthermore, through the compare of these four aspects, I noticed that higher-class people have different educational levels, health conditions and opinions about authenticity from lower or working-class people in general. And more noteworthy situation is that most higher-class people attempt to extend the distance between themselves and lower-class people in various details.  

Taste Love

        On the Chinese New Year eve this year, the downstairs dining hall in my dorm held a celebration dinner. The dining hall really prepared lots of Chinese traditional food for the occasion. The most impressive food among them for me should be the dumplings. Dumplings are one of the most traditional food in China. Due to the shape of dumplings are similar with that of the ancient Chinese gold bullion, eating dumplings is a kind of good wish for Chinese. So in my family, we always eat dumplings on the New Year eve dinner.

That was my first time to celebrate New Year overseas without my family. Actually, I just video chatted with my whole family in that morning. Because of the time difference between Denver and my hometown, they all gathered in my grandma’s house and were taking the big New Year eve dinner together when I talked to them. My parents introduced the various dishes they had to me through the video. It was indeed made me miss these Chinese traditional dishes and want to join them. I noticed that my grandma still made the dumplings as usual. She is pretty expert at making dumplings in my family, so the dumplings in almost all of our New Year eve dinners since I can memorize were prepared by her. The characteristics of the dumplings she makes are thin dough, various juicy fillings and sufficient big size. Every time she made dumplings, I always can eat several bowls of them. And she also knows that I like eating the dumplings she makes, so she usually made some for me during her spare time.

        In fact, I spent plenty of time in my grandma’s house when I was little. Because my parents were pretty busy with their work at that time, they usually left me with grandma. My grandpa had passed away several years ago, so my grandma lived alone all the time. Her house is in the first floor of an apartment with a small garden. Because she hates climbing stairs since she took a leg surgery, and she likes planting plants. She indeed planted lots of plants and flowers in her garden, such as peony, chrysanthemum, narcissus and orchid. She looked them after carefully, and I believe that she enjoyed the process to plant them and take care of them. She always told me at that time that “every plant has its own life and soul.”

         I still remember the experience that observing her made dumplings when I lived with her. She got up early in that morning, went to supermarket and bought various vegetables, meats and flour. She said that “if I went lately, I probably cannot obtain fresh vegetables and meats. The freshness is the most important to delicious dumplings.” When she came back home, she started to wash and cut vegetables and meats, mixed the flour with water and roll the dough, which prepared for making dumplings. I stood outside of her kitchen and stared at her all the time. She smiled at me and asked me to come in. She explained every single step to me when she was doing that. She told me the secret of her thin and soft dough was that she always poured sufficient water with the flour, and when she rolled the dough, she always covered on lightly floured surface. I stood aside and listened to her quietly. Even though I recall the image of that day now, I still can feel that how the time flied peacefully of that day with grandma. When all the prepared works were done, grandma moved the dough, fillings and seasonings to the table in the living room because in this way, she can sit down on a chair and concentrate on making dumplings. I noticed that she brought a bowl of water with her, and I asked her with curiosity that why did she prepare a bowl of water. She gave me a faint smile, then answered that moistening the outer edge of every piece of dough with water can make the dough much stickier, and the dumplings are more stable.  After listening to this explanation, I suddenly realized that the reason that the dumplings made by grandma are always much more delicious than the factory produced dumplings is that she truly spends her all thoughts and throws herself into it. Perhaps, making dumplings for her is not just cook a meal, but is a silent way to express her love to us. I was glad that I understand her silent love.

         Time goes by, I am already a university student and studying abroad alone. My grandma still lives in that apartment and takes care of her plants. On my first alone New Year eve in a foreign country, those dumplings evoked the memories of my grandma and those days I spent with her. I guess, I will never eat such delicious dumplings as my grandma made.  

not just food itself

After reading the article "Eating White" which was written by Geoff Nicholson, and the article "Home Run: My Journey Back to Korean Food" which was written by Roy Ahn, I found the similarity of these two articles is that these two authors both did not only talk about the food itself, but cherished the memory of those days with their families or looked for their ethnic roots by talking about specific food. 

At the very beginning of the "Eating White", Nicholson directly wrote that he missed his mother when he was eating lunch, because the meal he was eating consisted of a cheese sandwich, made with white Cheshire cheese on white bread, along with a glass of milk. These pure white food is exactly what his mother would like to eat. Nicholson stated that his mother had a strong preference for pure white food, such as milk, cream, Cheshire cheese. She even added milk and cream when she was cooking vegetables and making desserts. The author thought the reason that his mother had such crush on white food is just its pure color. Because she was a catholic, and "she might made some connection between food and purity: white food meant a white soul." Nicholson recalled a lot about the memories that his mom cooked for him and his father, and the days with his mom. Obviously, the author talked these memories in order to express his love and respect to his mother. 

In terms of the "Home Run: My Journey Back to Korean Food", Ahn introduced his childhood and the life when he was teenager. His parents took him to America from Korean when he was four. His parents seem not to get used to American life, especially American food. However, as a person who had been taken to American when he was a kid, Ahn indeed got involved in American life. For instance, comparing to Korean food, he preferred American food. But he realized that he was gradually losing his national features and forgetting his Korean background; he felt that he lost his ethnic root. So at the end of this article, the author mentioned that he and his wife started to cook Korean food, learn Korean and were trying their  best to offer a sufficient Korean background for their child. I think that the memories of those days the author spent with his parents and these Korean food the author talked about are both representation of Korea and the author's national root. 

In fact, I also have similar feelings with Nicholson and Ahn sometimes.  For example, on Chinese new year eve this year, the downstairs dining hall of our residence hall had a celebration dinner. I still remembered the moment I bit the dumplings, I felt excited, sad and lonely. Cause I indeed ate traditional dumplings as most Chinese eat on our new year eve, which made me excited; meanwhile, I was thinking that my whole family probably were gathering together and celebrating the new year but except me. So I also felt sad and lonely.

my simple dumpling dinner

Last night, I came back dorm from a symphony concert with a empty belly. However, the downstairs dining hall was still closed. Thanks to my roommate bought a bag of frozen dumpling for me before the spring break, so I decided to go back my room and boil some dumplings by myself. Later, I realized that I do not have any pot and there is no kitchen in my floor; so I looked through the instructions which are printed on the back of the dumpling bag. According to the instructions, the dumplings can be simply cooked by microwave oven. So then, I have to followed the instructions, put the dumplings in a bowl, covered them with hot water and heated them in microwave oven. After six to seven minutes, I took the bowl out of microwave oven. Because I was so hungry, I ignored that the dumplings were still scalding, and dipped them in chili sauce and ate them all immediately. The dumplings were chicken and vegetable filling, and even though they were just heated in microwave oven, they still tasted like boiled dumplings. As a simple dinner that is cooked by myself, it was pretty good.