SE3 reference

Home Run : My Journey back to Korean Food

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/gfc.2009.9.4.12

Korean Restaurant Observation and Food Culture

Name: Ran Wang

WRIT1133-27, MWF 12:00

Prof. Eric Leake        

04/19/12

1068 Words

                   Korean Restaurant Observation and Food Culture

       Food is indispensable for people’s life. Nowadays, since more and more Asian students and immigrants come to America, there are so many Asian food restaurants established in America. China has an old saying: Food is the paramount necessity of the people. Although, I believe Americans’ point of view is always different. As for me, living and studying in America is happy and yearning. Because I am from China, the most important thing that I could not accept in America is the food; it is very simple and insipid.

       Last Saturday, I went shopping with my friends. Surprisingly, we found a Korean BBQ restaurant located near the shopping mall. Also we were attracted by it deeply, because this is our first time to find a Korean food in Denver. So, we decided to try to eat there.

       For this observation, I would like to report this Korean BBQ restaurant from three aspects- the restaurant’s decoration; the food type and appearance; and the customers. The restaurant is named as Q Table BBQ Buffet, which is located on Northglenn Market Place. Before we entered this restaurant, I saw there is a business schedule post on the window. The business time is Mon-Fri; lunch time is 1:00-3:00p.m., and dinner time is 4:30-10:00p.m. On the other hand, it runs all day on SAT-SUN. After going into this restaurant, the first thing we saw was a waiting room where people can wait comfortably and conveniently. Then we moved into the restaurant, and there is a spread table on the right side because this restaurant is a buffet. I noticed all the price lists are written in details: the meal for regular is $19.95; the kids’ price is $12.95; and everything is free for babies. Here I found the first reason why this restaurant is popular. Korean BBQ is one of the most expensive types of food in Korea; but for this restaurant, not only it is a buffet and has a relatively cheap price, but also it is an authentic Korean BBQ restaurant. Then, I found all of the waiters are wearing the black uniforms. Through their conversation and their appearances, I can tell all of waiters are Koreans or at least American-Koreans. At this point, a waiter followed us and said “we have a window seat reserved for you.” After we sat down, I found the table linen’s color is red; the color of the wall is orange and every dish of food is illuminated by baby spot. I guess all these decorative colors and detailed decorations are meant to let the customers have a better appetite. Meanwhile, I found a BBQ stove on the table, and there is a text on the BBQ stove saying “BBQ at your own table”. Also, each table has an exhaust fan above the BBQ stove. Actually, every detail of the restaurant represents the restaurant's respect to clients, and every service embodies the restaurant's considerateness to clients. Before we were ready to get food, the waiter walked over and said “I will help you guys change the stove when it is burned or when you want to roast other kinds of meats. By the way, please take the amount of food that you need; otherwise you should charge for the wasted food.”

       Then I began to take the food, I saw a transparent kitchen there – you can see each cook preparing the food from outside. After I walked around with all of food, I found an order of the food that had been put out. When you want to take the food, the first part would be the appetiers: such as cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple and other fruits. The second part is the staple food which is all kinds of Korean raw meats – it not only includes the frozen steak, raw steaky pork, and fat beef slices, but also there is lot of sea food you can roast and eat; for example: cuttlefish, sleeve-fish and fresh shrimp. Also it has Korean characteristic food – soup meat with noodles, which is putting the South Korea soya bean soup on the noodles. After that you can sprinkle with shallots and caraways on the noodles. That was the first line of food. On the other side bar of sushi and wine, which are extra paid things. The last part is after dinner food. There are lots of different type snacks; the most attractive one is the chocolate fountain at the central of the after-dinner section. It is a huge stand of sweets and a four-tier fountain of melted chocolate where you could dip your marshmallows and sweets into it and get it coated with chocolate. Moreover, I saw there are lots of different type soups: such as Korea soya bean soup, Japanese miso soup and Chinese vinegar-pepper soup.

       Finally, when we had finished and were chatting with each other, I found the customers not all customers were Koreans; there were also a lot of Americans and Chinese. I analyzed the reason why there are lots of Chinese. First, the United States has many Chinese immigrants; second, there is also lots of Chinese food as I listed before. Actually, the food culture of China has a long history, and it effects the whole world profoundly, especially the Asia. After talking about the Chinese customers, I have some more thoughts about the American ones. Apparently, this Korean restaurant was built in America, so the food there is affected by the United States cooking style and diet culture. As the author Roy Ahn said in 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.

Work Cited

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

       http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/gfc.2009.9.4.12

How Food Cultures Promote the Economy Development

Name: Ran Wang

WRIT1133-27, MWF 12:00

Prof. Eric Leake 

04/15/12

549 Words

                             How Food Cultures Promote the Economy Development

       After reading The Cultural Politics of Eating in Shenzhen written by Mary Ann O’Donnell and Breaking Bread with a Spread written by Sandra Cate, I found the intimate relationship between these two articles. Although these two passages are written by different authors, and the stories happened in different countries, they both use the food culture development to support the society development in different areas. Firstly, Mary Ann O’Donnell talks about the connection between the development of Shenzhen’s social economy development and the food culture. To be more specific, she uses the food culture development to prove how fast the economic development in Shenzhen is. Originally, analyzing the geography condition, Shenzhen is a good place to foster fishing industry since it is a harbor city. Long time ago, there were many fishers live in Shenzhen. The fishers lived by fishing and enjoyed a natural and harmonious way of life. Later, because of the Chinese-characteristic socialist development, people who live in Shenzhen no longer need to make their living from the fishing industry – they are able to live under the subsides and supports provided Chinese government. With these huge subsidies, those who still foster their old fishing industry became much richer than before. About this situation, China has an old saying: Food is the paramount necessity of the people. So the fishing industry, the various food resources made Shenzhen a rich place. After Shenzhen became rich, the people there can eat delicious and good food rather than just eat enough as before. This is a good example to show the connection between economy development and the food culture.

   

   I was deeply attracted by the second article Breaking Bread with a Spread. I had no idea about  either the food in jails or the connection between prison food and the economic growth. After reading this article, I got my answers. The author, Sandra Cate, talks about the prison food; also, he establishes the relationship between the prison food and the economic growth. In the article, the author describes how bad the original prison foods are. Because most inmates cannot stand this food, they believed the prison food was the most discussing food in the world. Based on this reason, they had an idea about making the prison food better. Then they found a way which is using the leftovers of each meal to make a new food. After they combined the leftovers, tested and adapted recipes form many great sources. Eventually, they found it is the best way to make food better. For example, they put the breaking bread on the instant noodle; it makes the instant noodle much better than before. Along with the discover of this new way of making new food, they invented different types of foods - such as Asian food, Mexican food etc. – and they called this food spread. People who are good at making this food began to spread and sold this food to other prisoners. Finally, the prison food formed a phenomenon; and the spread of this phenomenon started to promote the development of the economy in prisons. So, even in different regions, the food is an indispensable link to promote and sustain the economic development.

Reading Yi's Essay

Yi's Essay
 
  After I read Yi's essay, I saw he did find three advertisements, and all of these advertisements are initiative advertisements.  In addtion, he found a  special relationship between food and culture about American people.He emphasized American people would like to think about whether the food is healthy or not. I think it is the similar opinion between the culture and foods.I believes it is the target for this essay.

The relation between food advertisements and culture background

Name: Ran Wang

WRIT1133-27, MWF 12:00

Prof. Eric Leake 

04/08/12

       Nowadays, with the improvement of people’s income, all over the world people are willing to spend money on food which they believe is delicious. Also, diet is an indispensable and essential aspect for peoples’ life. On the other hand, we should consider the culture diversity is large, different groups of people have different lifestyle in each social classes and geographic regions. So, it is a best way to use advertisement way to introduce each food. As a result, the competitions for each food company are fierce. In this essay, I would like to compare two foods flavoring advertisements which are Chinese food flavoring advertisement and American food flavoring. By consider these two countries advertisements, no matter in their design and rhetorical function, you can find what the dominant factors are. After analyze these two advertisements, I want to analyze the connection between the food and culture developed issue.

       First, I would like to talk about the Chinese food flavoring which is called Lao Gan Ma. Actually it is a famous chili sauce in China; all most people know what kind of chili sauce this is and how good this brand is. First, when you look the color of this Chili sauce packaging, you can see the main color is read. Actually, there is an intimate relationship between red color and the chili sauce; it is a good way by choosing the color to attract the customers. To analyze the audience for Lao Gan Ma chili sauce, I believe are the people who like to eat spicy food will buy it. Also, because Lao Gan Ma has its own particular recipes, there are so many returned customers because it tastes very good. Next, I am willing to explain and translate the design and the rhetorical function for Lao Gan Ma Chili sauce. When you look at the bottle of packing, there is a head of the woman which means who is the inventor of Lao Gan Ma chili sauce. This person’s name is Hua Bi Tao, is she established Lao Gan Ma chili sauce when the year of 1996. It is one of the best food flavoring companies in China. The reason why Lao Gan Ma is famous is there are some particular recipes in this chili sauce. Meanwhile, you can see there is bunches of text on the bottle, which is explain the history of this company and emphasize why is this recipes better than other food flavoring companies. I believe this is a best way to let customers convinced.

       By observing the advertisement-poster of Lao Gan Ma, We also can find the Lao Gan Ma chili sauce advertisement post on the price, and emphasize how cheap the price is, it is only 6.90 Chinese yuan, which means above 1 dollar per bottle. Because China has huge population, also it is true that China is a developing country. There are so many people live in the low-class status, so the price is very important to them. On the other hand, the price is very important to customers, Chinese always research how to made food more delicious, whatever the person who are live in low-class or high-class status. For this reason, there are lots kinds of food companies in China, the competitions for each food companies are fierce, so the exceptional price are vital part to all of customers In China.

       For American food flavoring advertisement, I would like to talk about the miracle whip, which is made in Germany---Kraft Company. For this advertisement-poster, first, it using the creative way to attract the customers—miracles seesaw. Also, using this way can let the customers feel this miracle whip is extremely lighter than other sauces, which can imply there are low fat in this miracle whip. In addition, when you focus on the details about this miracle whip, it says “Only 4.9% fat” in this miracle whip; it confirmed the customers’ imaginations for this advertisement-poster. Furthermore, it is the same way with the Chinese Lao Gan Ma food flavoring advertisement, the main color for this advertising background is white, which means this miracle whip is pure food and it does not has additives. The audience for this miracle whip, I believe is the American people who like the food which is pure and nourishing. Also, this miracle whip is like the whipped cream recipe, so for adults, it is too hard and waste time to make that, choose this miracle whip is very convenience. For kids, all most of them like foods which are sweet very much, so the miracle whip is a good choice for kids.     

       On the other hand, the price for food is not very important to all of American customers. It is different with China, America is a developed country, not lots of people are worried about whether the food healthy or not rather than the price. For this phenomenon, to compare the china food advertisement and American food advertisement, it is totally different opinion between Chinese and Americans.

       After I read the article Authenticity in American, which is written by Joshua Freedman and Dan Jurafsky, from the article, I did find the word “health” is very important to the food advertisements. Because Americans average per capita income are higher than Chinese, so whether the lower-class American customers or higher-class American customers always considering about the issue of healthy commodity first.        

       Talking about the America people’s opinions, it is different to Chinese because there are lots kinds of food companies in China, the competitions for each food companies are fierce. Although the health food is also important to Chinese customers, the first thing they are going to consider about is whether the food price cheap or not. As a result, when Chinese are choosing which food is better, they think the lower price is indispensable to them. In conclusion, I believe there is an intimate relationship with country development level. The price or health, which is more important to these two different countries customers, is depending on national economic development and average per capita income.

                                                               Work Cited

 Lao Gan Ma Chili sauce flavor, 2 March. 2012. Picture advertisement.

 April 8, 2012.

 http://www.syskyl.com/newsview.asp?id=1501

 Miracel Whip: Miracle seesaw, December 2009. Picture advertisement.

 April 8, 2012.   

 http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/miracel_whip_miracle_seesaw?size=_original

How To Make An Effective Advertisement

Name: Ran Wang

WRIT1133-27, MWF 12:00

Prof. Eric Leake 

04/02/12

438 Words

       After I read the article Authenticity in American, which is written by Joshua Freedman and Dan Jurafsky, the author talks about the language first, the culture diversity is large. Different groups of people have different lifestyles in social classes, geographic regions, especially the language. Since America is the county of immigrant, the different people came from different countries. Thus, the problem of regional accents is very serious. Actually, there is an intimate relationship between language and the food: using the food advertisement is the best way; also, the relationship still can reveal something to all of group of people. Such as the author said “Food descriptions are so widespread and so broad in their audience, they provide an excellent tool for this analysis. (1)” Next, the author using the famous American snack food- potato chips to express how the advertisement words express representations of all of group of people. By consider those different potato chips advertisements, no matter in language skills or lifestyle aspects, so you can find what the dominant factors are to customers.

        I found a very interesting and significant point in author analysis of potato chip advertising. The author talks about the connection between the educational levels and the advertising vocabulary; because the linguistic is very complex, different commodity should suit with different living standard group of people. If the advertiser takes the very complicated language for advertisement, this situation not only will let the consumers who are living in lower-class confused about how food benefits to themselves, but also it is hard to let consumers afford to the price of the food. I feel this analysis is very true and it will benefit all of advertisers.

        From other parts of the article, I did find the word “health” is very important to the food advertisement. Actually, not only the food advertisement should consider about the health for the food, every commodity should consider the significance of health. The reason is that whether the lower-class customers or higher-class customers always consider about the issue of healthy commodity. On the other hand, there is a research about comparing the purchase between expensive chips and inexpensive chips; the expensive chips are purchased more frequently than the inexpensive once. I believe this phenomenon can support people's thoughts that the higher the price is, the more nutritious the food is. As a result, in the future, how to change people’s subconscious ideas is all of the food companies should consider because the health for foods is the first concern of customers.

One of the Famous Beijing Specialty Dishes

     Today when I was surfing the internet, there was a shared photo album called special Chinese food on Facebook deeply attracted me. After I clicked on the photo album, I found there are lots of special Chinese foods. Such as goose feet, Fried duck tongue, a deep-fried yellow grasshopper, etc. I saw lots of Americans evaluated all of these foods are too disgusting to eat. Actually, in the majority of Chinese people's eyes, lots of them like special Chinese food very much. Fortunately, I did find my favorite food in that photo album-Baodu, which is made by cooked tripe of sheep or swine.

       Talking about Baodu, in geographical aspect, is the Chinese food. In particular, all most Chinese do not know what this food is; only the people who are from Beijing know what kind of food it is and how delicious it is. BaoDu generates in Beijing of China. Meanwhile, only a few people from other countries like this food. When I was talking with my Chinese friends who are from other parts of China about this kind of food, they do not even know what is that, after I explained what kind of this food it is, same as the Americans answers, they are very curious about how could people eat the animal offal and they refused to eat this food anymore. 

       Chinese foods are broad and profound; the BaoDu represents the culture of Beijing. It is a Beijing snack, lots of old men who are live in Beijing like this food very much because BaoDu has a long history in Beijing, it began to be popular when Qianlong Period, Qianlong is the fifth emperor in China in Qing dynasty. After BaoDu had created, because Qianlong thought this food is very delicious, finally, he decided to let BaoDu become one of the Beijing specialty dishes. Finally, this food was inherited to nowadays. Furthermore, the most appropriate time to eat BaoDu in the fall ends and early winter. There are lots of benefits for to body by eating Baodu. When you are finished eating BaoDu during the winter, it will keep warming on your body. If you want to ask effects of blood of what food filling vital energy is best, the people who come from Beijing will tell you the BaoDu is the best choice. Because it is made from Sheep’s offal, there is very high quantity of energy in sheep’s offal. It is one of most famous nourishing diet in Beijing.

      Because I am from Beijing, when I was young, I also hate this food and thought it is very disgusting, both in looking and tasting. Maybe the reason why I like this food very much now is the family influence. Like my grandfather, he believes BaoDu is the most delicious food in Beijing. Meanwhile, most of my family members like BaoDu very much, especially my father. I remember when I was young, my father tell me the BaoDu is one of the most important culture in Beijing.

       The first time to eat BaoDu, I could not accept this food anymore because the disgusting smell of visceral. But as my father said, that smell is fresh taste rather than raw taste. Everyone believes it smells so bad because it has the connection with the method of work. To make BaoDu, you should following the following steps. First, cleaning the fresh lamb tripe first, cut into thin strips; second, cook with boiling water. However it is different from cook other foods with boiling water. Cooking Baodu must to use a slotted spoon to boil the sheep’s tripe within fifteen seconds. After fifteen seconds it should be fished out, because the sheep’s tripe is very easy to become tough. It is the most important and hardest to master the furnace. If the tripe gets tough, it is hard to mull over and it is not fresh anymore. The reason why I like this food later is because it is indispensable to eat that with sauce. After eating the BaoDu with the sauce, it taste totally different and you will feel it is much better than before. The sauce takes up a very important part in this dish, it is made by right amount sesame paste, add a little bit soy sauce and hot pepper oil. After mix these condiments, cut some chopped green onion and parsley and sprinkle it on the sauce. When you sprinkle the sauce on the BaoDu’s surface, it carries a sharp aroma increases people’s appetite considerably. In addition, it is the best way to eat BaoDu is while it is still fresh and hot. Also, it is the best way to eat BaoDu with the alcohol, which can keep your body warm during the winter.

       Since I already like the BaoDu now, I eat that once a week when I was live in Beijing. But it is impossible to eat that right now because I am living and studying in American. Although there are lots of Chinese restaurants, but is still hard to find BaoDu here. Every time before I coming to American, the last meal I eat would be the BaoDu with my families in Beijing. I strongly recommend this snack---BaoDu, if you have a chance to eat that.