The Dietary Habits Disorder of International Students

Name: Ran Wang

WRIT1133-27, MWF 12:00

Prof. Eric Leake 

06/01/12

2363 Words

                    

The Dietary Habits Disorder of International Students

       Nowadays, with the rapid economic development and the improvement of people’s living standard, a growing number of people would like to study abroad when they have certain conditions. As an international student, In fact, I found it hard to adjust the life in a new country. Not only I, there is a large number of students who also believe it is difficult to have the same daily life with local students - Especially in dietary habits issue. The international students are tending to have more serious eating disorder problems.

       The dietary habits disorder points out the international students who have the irregular eating habits. Actually, the international students’ irregular eating habits were formed by two reasons. Firstly, we have exactly the different eating schedule with local students, which is disordered. It has the intimate relationship with our daily routine. In this case, I think it is because we spend more time on studying and adapting local lifestyle than local students. The second reason is that we have the different dietary habits with the local students. To be more specific, I found a large portion of the international students have their own food choices, and these food choices are depending on where are they from. They always prefer to choose the foods from their own countries instead of simply adapting a new food culture, and it takes a lot effort to find those food in another country in which they go to school. Basically, different countries have completely different food culture and dietary habits. It is a fact that people who are from different countries have different food culture backgrounds. Sometimes it is too hard to make them to accept and infatuate with other countries food. As for me, I think there is no doubt that enough concern should be paid to the problem of international students’ irregular eating habits both in eating schedule and food choices. I think that I am also one of the international students who have the irregular eating habits, and based on my own food value, I am looking forward to a change which would enable me to have the regular dietary habits.

       First of all, let us talk about the international students’ irregular eating habits about different eating schedule issue. To compare with the local students, international students’ eating schedule has more serious problems. To begin with, the eating schedule of many local students is going to be analyzed. For example, Justin Carrington’s “Time, money affect eating habits” has some valuable ideas about local students’ eating schedule. In this article, the author implies some reasons of why lots of local students have developed the irregular eating habits by personal communications. The most interesting part I found is that time affects their eating habits. "The major thing that prevents students from eating healthy is time” Crabtree, one of Carrington’s interviewee, said. Also, Crabtree suggests that “I really don't like eating breakfast, but I have to because I might not have time to eat any other time during the day until late at night." From this student’s opinion, we can see that the availability of time makes students eating irregularly. On the other hand, I did find another reason which causes lots of local students have the irregular eating habits. In the same article, from a parent’s perspective, Lait said he “believes sometimes not having mom and dad around to guide what is being purchased can lead to certain unhealthy eating habits.” I think it is true; especially when students go to colleges, a new environment can change students’ dietary habits by variable ways. When the environment changes, students might not be able to adjust it very well without their parents’ guide. Besides, everyone has different dietary habits and schedule before leaving home and going to colleges; so, when people do that, new friends also will affect their dietary habits through different ways. In most cases, some types of food which look comfortable and tasty but are not healthy will change their tastes to an unhealthy pattern easily. These unhealthy food choices will lead their dietary habits to irregular eating habits, because sometimes they only focus on tasty food rather than nourishing food. As a result, I believe it is a truth that if parents are not around to guide which kind of food is healthy and nourishing, their dietary habits will be misguided through variable ways.

       Thus, local students’ parents believe new college life will lead their kids’ dietary habit to unhealthy because they cannot be around to guide them how to eat healthily. For international students, what we face is a new country rather than a different city in the same country. Meanwhile, our parents are much further away, and there is no way for them to guide us what should we eat or not. On the other hand, new people and friends that we get along with are foreigners who have entirely different lifestyles with us, especially in dietary part.

       Moreover, not just eating without proper guidance, the international students’ personal issues are also very serious. There is a report, which studies the Asian students in the USA, suggests that “the number of meals consumed per day decreased, with almost half of them missing breakfast more often than the other two meals, primarily because of their class timetables” (55). So, to continue on considering the interviewed student Crabtree, he said that he had to eat breakfast because he did not have time to eat anytime else during the day until the late at night. It is fair to say that college students have very tensive schedules during the daytime. For international students, we have more stressful schedules than American students because English is the second language for us and everything is new and different. We have to spend much more time on studying; otherwise, we can easily be eliminated by American colleges.

       Also, I have my own experiences to support this phenomenon. In this quarter, we did three-day food journals for our writing class; after reading others’ and my own daily food journals, I found that our food journals show that most of us have irregular eating habits. For example, many of my classmates talked about that they had been missing breakfast every day.

       Personally, I think this phenomenon matches my eating schedule problem since I study in America. When I lived in our school dorm in the first quarter, my roommate was an American and we got along well with each other. But as time went on, we found that we had different daily schedules and dietary habits. I admit that my daily schedule in America is disordered and I have the irregular eating habits. For example, I just have one meal every day and most of the time I study until midnight. Eventually, we did not continue living together in the second quarter because of the schedule issue, but we understand each other.

       About this irregular eating habits issue, I believe it will become better in the future. The reason is that, as time goes on, I will be improving my English skills if I live in America for a longer time. In addition, I think so many things will be better and I will get used to the life in the U.S. So that I won’t be spending much more time on study than American students, and I will have enough time to make my eating schedule regular in the future.

        After analyzing the schedule issue, I will talk about the problems about making food choices. Other than schedule conflicts, I eat completely different with my past roommate. As for me, I have to say that it is hard to accept American food, and it is hard to change my food choices because I lived in China for 20 years. Chinese food has an enormous impact on my life. Maybe my roommate likes American food for the same reason. It is a common idea that different countries form very different dietary habits. I think if someone lives in other countries, he or she should try to follow the local food style. People need to adapt the new environment, even though eating other countries’ food all the time could be really difficult and excruciating. Otherwise, it would be inconvenience for us, and insisting on keeping the old habits can easily lead people to unhealthy life. For instance, if we want to go outside to eat Chinese food, we not only need to spend unnecessary money and time in a Chinese restaurant, but also we waste our meal plan cash which everyone who is not yet a junior or not 21 years old would have. In this case, I found a research journal which is called “Changes in food neophobia and dietary habits of international students.” In this journal, it uses different research theories to show what the international students’ dietary habits are and whether they can develop new dietary habits in different countries or not. Specifically, the author uses the statistical analyses, demographics, procedures, data tables to analyze if a climate for positive learning is to be established, what dietary habits changes will take place in the acculturation process for international students. I am very interested in this research journal, especially in the conclusion part: “

The present study aimed to evaluate the extent to which international post-graduate students experience and demonstrate food neophobia over time, how this might vary by nationality and other demographic characteristics, and how acculturation might manifest itself in students’.”

From this quote, we can see the acculturation for international students is very important. On the other hand, another academic research which is called “Changes in dietary habits following temporal migration” also reveals some important points on food choice issue. One thing I found most important in this academic research is:“

International students may face cultural adjustment pressure and discrimination in their living environment, and hence they have to develop specific strategies, including food procurement and purchasing strategies, to cope with the short- and long-term stays abroad (Constantine, Anderson, Berkel, Caldwell, & Utsey, 2005).”

We can sort out from the source that we have to face cultural adjustment pressure. Although this article did not suggest that if we should follow the new country’s food or keep following our hometowns’ food, the adjustment issue needs to be directly dealt with since it is becoming more and more serious.

       Even though the issue of disordered eating habits is very serious, I still believe we will be able to accept the new food culture gradually without noticing because the food culture is irresistible. As the author Roy Ahn said in his article “Home Run: My Journey Back to Korean Food”:“

When I went out, I ate all the things my friend did- pizza, hot dogs, enchiladas, and fries with greasy chili that turned the paper wrapper orange. It’s worth nothing that two Korean-American boys were among my circle, but we rarely went out for food from the homeland. Whatever the reason, they were much more comfortable than I was with being Korean-American. (13)”

From this quote, we can see the author is a Korean-American. In his article, he suggests that the American cooking and diet culture for an immigrant is irresistible although he always tried to keep his old eating habits. I believe, as time goes on, not only a Korean immigrant will be affected by the food culture of the States, but also all immigrants from different countries will be affected and changed by the new cultures in variable ways. Maybe the different between author and I is our identity. The author is an immigrant status, so he is living in America since he was young, but I just stayed in America for a year as international student. So I am living a shorter time than the author, and it is still hard for me to change my eating habits right now. I also found a research paper which can support the idea that time can decide the food choice. Here is an article which is called “International students in US colleges and universities: Eating habits, cultural identity, and dietary acculturation.” In this article, the author Noyongoyo said:“

There is an increase, especially among sub-Saharan African students, of items that are typical to American diet such as TV (frozen) dinners, packaged cakes, tea/coffee and a decrease in foods from their country of origin. Hence, dietary acculturation is a consequence of length of time, friendship ties, and availability of imported native foods. (63)”

From this quote, we can see the dietary acculturation is relying on the length of time living in a new country.

        In conclusion, my food value suggest me to try to have regular eating habits in the future – either in having a regular eating schedule or having the same food choice habits with local students. As I mentioned, I believe either of these two dietary habits disorder is depending on the time being in a new country; more importantly, it is depending on how to use the shortest time to get used to the new life in other countries.

Work Cited

"N.C. State: Time, Money Affect Eating Habits." The America's Intelligence Wire.

       Print. 2009.

Edwards, J. S. A., H. L. Hartwell, and L. Brown. "Changes in Food Neophobia and

Dietary Habits of International Students." Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association 23.3 (2010): 301-11. Print.

Pan, Y.-L., Dixon, Z., Himburg, S. & Huffman, F. (1999) Asian students change their

       eating patterns after living in the United States. J. Am. Diet. Assoc.99, 54–57.

Perez-Cueto, Federico, et al. "Changes in Dietary Habits Following Temporal

Migration. the Case of International Students in Belgium." Appetite 52.1 (2009): 83-8. Print.

Ahn, Roy. Home Run: My Journey Back to Korean Food. Gastronomica: The Journal

       of Food and Culture, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Fall 2009), pp. 12-15. Retrieved from

Noyongoyo, B.. International students in US colleges and universities: Eating habits,

cultural identity, and dietary acculturation. Diss. East Carolina University, 2011. Dissertations & Theses: Full Text, ProQuest. Web. 2 Jun. 2012

reflection blog post

I think the most useful things I have learned in this writing class is how to write a good reserach, and in my paper, I can write the specificly reserach to support and descibe something. On the other hand, I believe after taking this class, I learned how to find a good academic reserach, which can support my argument effectively. The last thing is I believe my writing skill is imporved, whatever in grammar or sentence structure.

EE2 Draft.

Name: Ran Wang

WRIT1133-27, MWF 12:00

Prof. Eric Leake 

05/28/12

 1195 Words

                    

                Dietary habits disorder of International students  

       Nowadays, with the rapid economic development and the improvement of people’s living standard, a growing number of people would like to study abroad when they have certain conditions. As an international student, In fact, I found it hard adjusting to life in a new country, not only myself, there is a large number of students also believe it is difficult to have the same daily life with local students - Especially in dietary habits disorder issue.

       The dietary habits disorder point out the international students who have the irregular eating habits. Actually, the international students’ irregular eating habits were formed by two reasons; firstly, we have the exactly different eating schedule with local students, and it is irregular. Also, It has the intimate relation with our daily routine. Secondly, we have the different dietary habits with the local students. Different countries have exactly different dietary habits. It is a fact that the people who are from different countries have different food culture backgrounds. Sometimes it is too hard to let us accept and infatuate with other countries food. As for me, I think there is no doubt that enough concern must be paid to the problem of international students’ irregular eating habits in both sides.

       First of all, let us talk about the international students’ irregular eating habits on different eating schedule issue. To compare with the local students, our international students eating schedule seemed more seriously at some points. In this case, let us talk about local students first. Such as the author Justin Carrington’s “Time, money affect eating habits” has some valuable ideas with local students eating schedule. In this article, the author implies some reasons of why lots of local students developed the irregular eating habits by personal communications. The most interesting part I found is that time affects their eating habits. "The major thing that prevents students from eating healthy is time," Crabtree said. As one of the interviewees, Crabtree also said “I really don't like eating breakfast, but I have to because I might not have time to eat any other time during the day until late at night." From this student’s opinion, we can see that the availability of time makes students eating irregularly. On the other hand, I did find another reason which causes lots of local students have the irregular eating habits. From a parent’s perspective, Lait said he “believes sometimes not having mom and dad around to guide what is being purchased can lead to certain unhealthy eating habits.” I think it is true; especially when students go to colleges, a new environment can change students’ dietary habits by variable ways. Besides, everyone has different dietary habits and schedule; so, when people go to college, new friends also will affect their dietary habits through different ways. But actually some food which look comfortable and tasty but is not healthy will change their tastes to unhealthy. Finally, these unhealthy dietary habits will lead their dietary habits to irregular eating habits, because sometimes they only focus on tasty food rather than nourishing food. As a result, I believe it is a truth that if parents are not around to guide which kind of food is healthy and nourishing, their dietary habits will misguided by variable ways.

       Thus, local students’ parents believe new college life will lead their kids’ dietary habit to unhealthy because they cannot be around to guide them how to eat healthily. For international students, what we face is a new country rather than a different city in the same country. Meanwhile, our parents are much further away, and there is no way for them to guide us what should we eat or not. On the other hand, the people and friends what we get along with are the foreign that have entirely different lifestyles with us, moreover in dietary part. Everyone knows that the people who are from different countries have different food culture backgrounds.

     Moreover, not just eating without proper guidance, the international students’ personal issues are also very serious. In this case, I found a research journal which is called “Changes in food neophobia and dietary habits of international students.” In this journal, it uses different research theories to show what the international student’s dietary habits are and whether they can develop new dietary habits in different countries. Specifically, the author uses the statistical analysis, demographics, procedures, data tables to analyze if a climate for positive learning is to be established, what dietary habits changes will take place in the acculturation process for international students. There is a report which studies the Asian students in the USA, suggesting that “the number of meals consumed per day decreased, with almost half of them missing breakfast more often than the other two meals, primarily because of their class timetables. (Pan et al., 1999)” So, if you continue to consider the interviewed student Crabtree, he said that he has to eat breakfast because he does not have time to eat anytime else during the day until the late at night. It is fair to say that college students have very tensive schedules during the daytime. So, for international students, we would have more stressful schedules than American students because English is the second language for us and everything is new. We have to spend more and more time on studying; otherwise, we can easily be eliminated by American colleges.

       Actually I have some of my own experiences to support this phenomenon. In this quarter, we did the three days food journals for our writing class required, after reading others’ and my own daily food journals, and our food journals showed that almost international have irregular eating habits. For example, there are so many classmates talked about they are missing breakfast every day.

(Incomplete… What I will do is, add one more personal experience to support what and how different dietary schedule affect us.  Then I want to talk maybe as time goes on, it is not hard to solve this problem because We feel more accustomed to living in the United States

.  But although we can solve this problem and change our irregular eating habits by ourselves in the future, our dietary habits is not too easy to be changed.

Next to talk about the second reason about how international students’ irregular eating habits were formed. --- We have the different dietary habits with the local students. Different countries have exactly different dietary habits. It is a fact that the people who are from different countries have different food culture backgrounds. Sometimes it is too hard to let us accept and infatuate with other countries food. ---- For this phenomenon, as all immigrants from different countries will be affected and changed by the new cultures in variable ways. As for me, I’ll have to get used to the American way of life. it is too hard to keep my original habits because cooking and diet culture for an immigrant or international student is irresistible.(Finding some resources to support my idea, such as the article Home Run etc.)

P9: The Importance of Being an Omnivore

P9

    After reading “unhappy meals”, which is written by Michael Pollan, I found there are lots of unhealthy dietary habits in our daily life. Besides, some contemporary food issues are affecting our healthy lifestyle unknowingly. Such as the Pollan said, “a healthy claim on a food product is a good indication that it is not really food, and food is what you want to eat.” So, people always eating the food by their own habits and tastes, sometimes it is easy to ignore which kind of food is healthy for them. On the other hand, he provides some healthy dietary habits to his audiences. Something interested me is eating like an omnivore. In this case, he emphasizes how important to eat regularly; choosing the food which has adequate protein supplement; and attention to nutrition rather than your own dietary habits. Pollan said that “The greater the diversity of species you eat, the more likely you are to cover all your nutritional bases.” In this case, I want to talk my own experience. Last year when I came to America, I found westerners do not eat animal entrails, but Chinese and lots of Asian people eat them with relish. Actually, I greatly agree his idea that people should eat like an omnivore, because people could achieve more different kinds of nutrients they need if they are omnivores.

     However, the author Dupuis has opposite point of views with Pollan. In his article “Angeles and Vegetables”, he thinks that people should choose the food by their belief, and it is much more important than the healthiness and nutrients of the food. Dupuis said that: As this brief history shows, angels were present at the birth of American food advice, revealing the truth to intermediaries who then evangelized to popular audiences.” From this point of view we can see he thinks people choose their food is depending on the angle, something like their pursuit, religion and their beliefs. In my opinion, I do not agree with his idea. With the progress of mankind and the world economic development, all of things has changed and update. So, whatever the appearances and nutrients of food also have changed in variable ways. As results, we should not believe all of things as the angle said and other old saying. We need to focus more on the nutrition and healthiness of food rather than own dietary habits. Such as the Pollan said, eating like an omnivore.

                                                         Works Cited

Michael Pollan."Unhappy Meals. " New York Times Magazine28 Jan. 2007:ProQuest Newsstand, ProQuest. Web.19 May. 2012.

Melanie Du Puis, E.. "Angels and Vegetables: A Brief History of Food Advice in America. " Gastronomica7.3 (2007): 34-44. Research Library, ProQuest. Web.19 May. 2012.

                         



                           

Thoughts on Eating Practices

I think study and sleep is much more important than eating since I came to America. But At present, I am trying to adapt the life and study in America, and to adjust my irregular eating habits.(international students)

I like Chinese food even though I am an international student in America. But maybe it will change and I will adapt Americans dietary habits in the future.

Two intersting points of others SE5

In Deng's SE5,  one of the most intersting part is vegetarian should change their eating diets if they only eat vegetable because that will cause vegetarian lack of some important elements, and that is not good for their health.
Secondly, In Zechi's short essay, the resources that he uses intereste me a lot. The test is to let these people not having breakfast at first and then showed them photos of high- and low-calorie foods.

Eating Disorder of Local Students and International Students

Name: Ran Wang

WRIT1133-27, MWF 12:00

Prof. Eric Leake 

05/17/12

913 Words

               Eating Disorder of Local Students and International Students

       After reading others’ and my own daily food journals, one thing interests me is the eating disorder of both local students and international students in American universities. There are so many people in our group who talked about their missing breakfast or irregular eating habits. As an international student, I found eating disorder is one of the serious issues among college students in America within my first year here. Actually, both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are seriously unhealthy lifestyle. The most important reason that developed these two diseases is the irregular eating habits. It is a hot topic that how this phenomenon has developed among American college students.

       Firstly, I want to talk about the eating disorder which takes place in local students. Justin Carrington’s “Time, money affect eating habits” has some valuable ideas about this topic. In this article, the author implies some reasons of why lots of local students developed the irregular eating habits through personal communications. The most interesting part I found is that time affects their eating habits. "The major thing that prevents students from eating healthy is time," Crabtree said. As one of the interviewees, Crabtree also said “I really don't like eating breakfast, but I have to because I might not have time to eat any other time during the day until late at night." From this student’s opinion, we can see that the availability of time makes students eating irregularly. On the other hand, I did find another reason which causes lots of student have the irregular eating habits. From a parent’s perspective, Lait said he “believes sometimes not having mom and dad around to guide what is being purchased can lead to certain unhealthy eating habits.” I think it is true; especially when students go to colleges, a new environment can change students’ dietary habits by variable ways. Besides, everyone has different dietary habits and schedule; so, when people go to college, new friends also will affect their dietary habits through different ways. I believe it is a truth that if parents are not around to guide which kind of food is healthy and nourishing, some food which look comfortable and tasty but is not healthy will change them healthy eating habits sometimes.

       After analyzing the local students’ situation, I think the irregular eating habits of international students would be more serious. For example, American parents believe new college life will lead to their kids’ dietary habit an unhealthy point because they cannot be around to guide them how to eat healthily. For international students, what we face is a new country rather than a different city in the same country. Meanwhile, our parents are much further away, and there is no way for them to guide us what should we eat or not. Rather than the reason of living without proper guidance, students’ personal issues are also very serious. Considering the interviewed student Crabtree, he said that he has to eat breakfast because he does not have time to eat anytime else during the day until the late at night. It is fair to say that college students have very tensive schedules during the daytime. So, for international students, we would have more stressful schedules than American students because English is the second language for us and everything is new. We could spend much more time on studying; otherwise, we can easily be eliminated by American colleges. As a result, compare with American students, our dietary habits are more irregularly and unhealthy.

       Moreover, I found a research journal which is called “Changes in food neophobia and dietary habits of international students.” In this journal, it uses different research theories to show what the international student’s dietary habits are and whether they can develop new dietary habits in different countries. Specifically, the author uses the statistical analysis, demographics, procedures, data tables to analyze if a climate for positive learning is to be established, what dietary habits changes will take place in the acculturation process for international students. There is a report which studies the Asian students in the USA, suggesting that “the number of meals consumed per day decreased, with almost half of them missing breakfast more often than the other two meals, primarily because of their class timetables. (Pan et al., 1999)” As for me, I think this phenomenon is same with my schedule since I study in American. When I lived in our school dorm first quarter, my roommate was an American and we got along well with each other. But as time went on, we found that we had the different daily schedules and dietary habits. I admit my daily schedule in America is disordered and I have the irregular eating habits. For example, every day I just have a meal and most of time I study until midnight. Finally, we did not continue living together in the second quarter, but we understand each other.

       As a conclusion, eating disorder of local students and international students is always a problem and need to be solved – especially the international students’ irregular eating habits. As for me, I appreciate a lot that my roommate can understand the international students’ daily schedule and irregular eating habits. Maybe because sometimes he has the disordered time schedules as well as I do, not always though. At present, I am trying to adapt the life and study in America, and to adjust my irregular eating habits. I believe that I can do it in the near future.

                        

                                              Work Cited

.

"N.C. State: Time, Money Affect Eating Habits." The America's Intelligence WirePrint. 2009.

Edwards, J. S. A., H. L. Hartwell, and L. Brown. "Changes in Food Neophobia and Dietary Habits of International Students." Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association 23.3 (2010): 301-11. Print.

Pan, Y.-L., Dixon, Z., Himburg, S. & Huffman, F. (1999) Asian students change their eating patterns after living in the United States. J. Am. Diet. Assoc.99, 54–57.

Some thoughts on food journals

I found most of students like to sleep rather than eating breakfast.  Time of meals is always depeding on our schedule. On the other hand, lots of students do not like eat in our school cafeteria, If we have a chance, we will eat outside the campus; The Chinese restaurant is one of the most popular one.  

Ran Wang’s 3-day Food Journal (P8)

Ran Wang’s 3-day Food Journal (P8)

Friday, May 11

Breakfast (11:30-12:00) Because I only have one class on Friday, so I got up too late, and just bought a strawberry bread and a cup of ice coffee in the dorm canteen. Also, I added some sugar and two cups of milk in it because the taste was very bitter and astringent.

Dinner: (5:00p.m.) We went to the Chinese restaurant which is called East Chinese food. These are what we ate: Fried frogs with cayenne pepper, shredded kelp with soy sauce and YunNan’s rice noodles, and a cup of coke.   

Saturday, May 12

I did not eat anything in Breakfast and lunch because it is the Saturday and I got up at 3:00p.m.

We bought some Chinese hot pot ingredients as the dinner and ate in my Friend ZeChi’s home. Also, we made the sesame paste by ourselves. These are what we ate: Fish ball, beef ball, Mutton slices, duck gizzard, cow stomach and throat and some vegetables.

Sunday, May 13.

Lunch (11:00) I had a hamburger, some French Fires, ice-cream and a cup of skim milk in cafeteria at first floor.

Dinner (5:30) we drove to the Chinese restaurant which is called Chuan WeiXuan, which is the Chinese Sichuan cuisine. We had some special dishes in there, such as: spiced pork shoulder, pig kidneys, sautéed cabbage with vinegar sauce; Blood pieces, which is made with animal entrails and chilies, Also add some vegetables, For example the bean sprout, bean curd etc.    

The Analysis of Food Ingredients

Name: Ran Wang

WRIT1133-27, MWF 12:00

Prof. Eric Leake 

05/10/12

988 words

                                                   The Analysis of Food Ingredients

       Staple food is an indispensable part in human’s life. In certain location, things are dominated by certain cereals: rice in Asia, wheat in Europe, sorghum and millet in Africa, and maize in America. Last weekend, I had a wonderful time eating the Chinese food in Denver. Actually, different parts in China have different dietary habits; Such as most northern people in China think the rice is the staple food, but the people who are living in southern China like eating noodles. In the restaurant I went to, I had a great chance to eat southern Chinese dish- Rice noodles combination. For this dish, it uses Asian specialist ingredients: rice noodles. Also, there are lots of side ingredients in it: such as beef, pork, shrimp, fish ball and Chinese sour pickled cabbage. In this essay, I would like to analyze the most important ingredient in this dish – rice noodles.

       “About 60 percent of the agricultural workforce is involved in producing rice, and China produces and consumes about a third of the world’s total.”(68) As the author Latham, A. J. H explains in the book Rice: the primary commodity, rice is the most important food in China; also, it occupies the dominate position in Chinese life. Meanwhile, rice has a long history in China. Firstly, China was a major rice importer before the Second World War; most rice was coming from Thailand and French at that time. When the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, china tried to produce the rice by itself. But there was no proper agricultural research system. Then, with the development of this epoch, Chinese economy had changed from speeding phase to a more stable phase. So Chinese had enough economic strength to develop the agricultural research system. Finally, China started to produce and consume the rice by itself and this development of agriculture went very well. At the same time, the noodles also are an important staple food in China. Just as the author said, “Both rice and noodles are eaten in many parts of China, and as wheat is cheaper than rice, noodles can be substituted when rice crops fail.” (68) So, both rice and noodles are important staple food in China, and there is a special intimate relationship between two of them.

       Talking about the rice noodles, it is the noodles made with rice and rice flour. Also it is the Asian characteristic food, though the shape, size and style of rice noodles are referring to western country. The shape of rice noodles is like the pasta， as well as the Asian ribbon noodles, and the way of making rice noodles is very special. A website which is called “wisegeek” analyzes, “In Asia, rice noodles are classically made by soaking and grinding rice to create a paste, and then rolling out the paste and cutting it.” Besides, I learned something after reading the introduction part of rice noodles in this website. Sometimes, the producers add the mung bean flour to make rice noodles. This explains the phenomenon that some rice noodles have a little bit green color. Also, using the mung bean flour will change the consistency, and will make the rice noodles get more tasty and nourishing. Moreover, I learned why people use Asian recipes to cook rice noodles instead of western ways of cooking pasta. Because the rice noodles is like the Asian thin noodles which is not only very thin but also flexible; to make sure the noodles will not turn mushy when it overcooked. From this situation, Asian recipes work better.

       On the other hand, after I seeing another source in a different website which is called “foodsubs,” I found there are a lot of types of Asian rice noodles. Each of them has a different name. For example, rice flake noodles, rice stick noodles, rice vermicelli, thin rice sticks, wide rice noodles and river rice noodles. The one that interests me most is the rice vermicelli; which in Chinese is named “mi fen”. This article in the website also demonstrates variable ways of cooking rice vermicelli. “These [the vermicelli] are used throughout Asian in soups, spring rolls, cold salads, and stir-fries. They're similar to bean threads, only they're longer and made with rice flour instead of mung bean starch.”  After reading this resource, I found there is not just one kind of dishes using the rice noodles; what I ate is called rice noodles combination, it is just one way to cook rice noodles. Maybe other countries can use the rice noodles to make other dishes as well. But the common thing is that no matter in which country, all rice noodles are using the mung bean flour to change it consistency, and to make it tastier and more nourishing. It is similar with last website article, and it reinforced that mung bean plays an important role in making rice noodles.

       In conclusion, before reading these articles, I only know the rice noodles are very tasty but I did not know how to make it or the relationship between rice and noodles. Afterwards, I learned a lot about rice noodles production and history. Actually in the Song dynasty in China, the rice noodles were called “rice cables,” which could be dried to make a good gift to other people in festival. Rice noodles are popular across China and even the entire Asia. The rice noodles can be heated, cooled, stewed in soy sauce, even fried. If I can get a chance to eat other Asian countries’ food, I will try some other different dishes that are made by rice noodles.

                       Work Cited

Latham, A. J. H., and Inc ebrary. Rice: The Primary Commodity. 14. Vol. New York:

Routledge, 1998. Print.

Lori Alden, Asian Rice Noodles, 1996-2005.Foodsubs.

http://www.foodsubs.com/NoodlesRice.html

S.E. Smith, What are Rice Noodles? 23 March 2012. WiseGEEK.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-rice-noodles