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

Post 7

                                   The different point of view from food production

   The last time when I read the articles which are called The Infographic by Cook, the introduction part of the book tomatoland and “An Animal’s Place”, these three authors compares three pieces of the food production and history. Also, there are some social phenomenon were revealed. 

         In the first article infographic by cook, the author mainly talks about the harmless broiler chicken in North America. The author researched the broiler chicken in North American. The most thing makes me amazing is the broiler chicken is not healthful. The first reason is the meat inspectors should process chicken carcasses too fast because the rising demand of broiler chicken. So, it is easy to have some healthy issues in some way by an oversight on a small logistical detail. On the other hand, these workers are treated indifferently in American. They are doing one of the dangerous works but the government gives them very scanty allowance. Even though they cannot afford the prptective boots, gloves and aprons, so there are many bacteria will easily makes them infected with the bird flu. Due to these reasons, unsafe measures will result in the increase of work accidents. Such as the author says, “Injured foreigners aren’t eligible for welfare or disability benefits”(Christopher, 42). In my opinion, I think this issue should be solved. Otherwise not only the customers will dare not to buy the broiler chicken because that is insanitary, but also a skimpy allowance will makes the workers do not want to take this job anymore because it is too dangerous.  

         In second article, tomatoland, the author believes the different tomatoes grow in different country not only will have different appearance, also the taste are definitely different. He tried to find out some history and production of the tomatoes in order to prove his point of view. I agree with his opinion-we should find the different of tomatoes by comparing the appearance and the taste it in different area. In last article, the author talks about the history and production of food is someway.

Blog Post

         In the article Our National Eating Disorder, which is written by Michael Pollan, he analyzes there are some unhealthy and incorrect dietary habits in American people’s lifestyle. Besides, he uses some researches and symptoms to explain why Americans have the disordered eating habits. I am totally agreed with his point of view. As he said, some Americans’ dietary habits were recognized distinctly. Most of Americans believe the taste of food is a true guide to what should be eaten. But actually that is not absolutely right. Lots of food which has nourishing is not tasty because it is hard to see and taste most of important components of food. But only the scientific laboratories can show the food is nourishing. I still remember when I was young, my mom let me eat lots of food which is nourishing; such as carrot, soybean and some other vegetables. All of these vegetables are not very tasty and I hated them all the time. As I gradually grow up, this attitude seemed to be too optimistic because I know it is nourishing and it is good for my health. On the other hand, eating healthily is still the important food value of Americans though they have the disorder eating habits. In the opposite situation, some people who are from France do not think that way; they do not consider anything when they eating. But one of the striking thing is the French are healthier than most of Americans, although their eating is unhealthy. The author explains that in article, “They eat small portions and do not go back for seconds; they do not snack; they seldom eat alone, and communal meals are long, leisurely affairs” (4). So, from this phenomenon we can see the healthy dietary habits are not only depending on if the food is healthy or not, the behaviors of eating also is very important to people.

Keep or Give Up Our Original Dietary Habits

                                 Keep or Give Up Our Original Dietary Habits

       Diet is an indispensable aspect for peoples’ life. The different countries have totally different dietary habits, although the immigrants and the international students always want to keep their hometown dietary habits. For this phenomenon, it is a fact that the people who are from different countries have different food culture backgrounds. China has an old saying: Food is the paramount necessity of the people. However, I believe Americans’ point of view is always different. It seems to me that most of them think the dietary is not as important as Chines opinions.

       For example, I am from Beijing; also I went to America to study and live last fall. BaoDu is Beijing’s special dish; why Beijing citizens and I like BaoDu very much is because of the long tradition. It represents kind of cultural connotation of Beijing. Although lots of people who are from other places in China think they cannot accept BaoDu anymore because they think that is not tasty and it is disgusting, it still is my favorite food since it has become a habit for me. Unfortunately, it is very hard to find my favorite food in America; maybe because not only BaoDu, also lots of Chinese food is too difficult to make. Also, the food culture is not the most important thing in American eyes. Some of them believe is not worth it to waste a long time in cooking. 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.

       Sometimes although I did find a Chinese restaurant in America, but it is not the authentic taste of Chines food and the flavor is totally different from my hometown, and we call that “mixed food”. The Chinese-American restaurants cook the food using different ingredients from China. They also combine the different food culture background in different way. But we have to admit as an immigrant or international student, as time goes on, we will get used to eating the mixed food unknowingly.

       The last time I went to the Korean BBQ restaurant with my friends, I found some new things there. After ate here I observed and wrote down a food observation. I found the Korean BBQ restaurant not only has Korean food, there are also lots of countries representative food – Chinese food, Asian food and some other countries food. For example, 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. This snack is from Switzerland. Moreover, I saw there are lots of different type soups: such as Korea soya bean soup, Japanese miso soup and Chinese vinegar-pepper soup. Actually, because I am from China, and I know what the traditional Chinese food looks like and what it tastes like. But all of Chinese food in there is not very authentic. But we should be satisfied because they already tried their best to cook every country’s food.

       On the other hand, I also found not all customers were Koreans; there were a lot of Americans and Chinese. Most food in the Korean BBQ restaurant is not from America, but because that restaurant was built in America, there are lots of American customers who come there to eat. Besides, I would like to analyze the reason why there are lots of Chinese. The United States has many Chinese immigrants; secondly, the food culture of China has a long history, and it effects the whole world profoundly, especially Asia.

       Analyzing why there are lots of different Asians attracted to the Korean BBQ restaurant, I believe it is not just depending on where the food is from or that America is an immigrant country. When I think about this phenomenon in a deep way, I found there is an intimate relationship with the way of cooking. Such as the Chinese food in Korean BBQ, actually this kind of American-Chinese food we call them “Mixed food”. Mixed different country food culture and using different country’s ingredients to cook it. It seems like the Korean BBQ restaurant built in America, although they want to keep their food originally, keep cooking the traditional food and using the same cooking ways. Actually they cannot make the traditional food in America. Firstly, they should mix with some American elements and try to make the taste more suitable with the America people’s dietary habits in order to attract more and more customers. So, even though the dishes are still Chinese food, but the style was changed a lot. For example, you can see they use lots of butter made in America on the food, fry some kinds of Chinese food longer because most American customers like the food which has high fat and high calories very much. Secondly, all of food ingredients are using the American ingredients, so both the appearance and the taste are totally different with their hometown food. Thirdly, there are lots of Chinese restaurants changed to fast food style in America in order to suit the American dietary habit. I think the Panda Express restaurant is a good example to explain and emphasize this phenomenon. According to Jerry Hirsch in the Los Angeles Times, “Their 1,100 Panda Express restaurants dominate Chinese fast food and are ubiquitous residents of shopping-mall food courts, airports and sports stadiums across America. As it celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, Panda Express has proved itself to be an effective competitor against larger corporate fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, KFC and Taco Bell, and thousands of independent rivals.” So we can see the Panda Express has already become a popular trendy in America. Actually most Chinese food restaurants in China are not fast food because Chinese believe food is the most important part in their life, Also, Chinese think spend a long time on diet and cooking is valuable. We can see the Panda Express still cooking the Chinese food, but the food style is fast food, maybe is because lots of Americans would like to take the food away rather than eat it there. They think the diet is not as important as Chinese says. As a result, the Panda Express was begun to change in order to suitable with American dietary habits. Based on the above three points, fusing the American food style with the other country’s food is an indispensable part since traditional food have become the mixed food in America.

       Back to our topic, as an international student, we cannot change this phenomenon even though we were very disappointed when traditional food became the mixed food and mixed food became Americans tendency in United States. Meanwhile, we will accept this kind of food and try to change ourselves dietary habits unknowable because any country’s culture is irresistible. 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 effected by the food culture of the States, but also all immigrants from different countries will be effected 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. Although the Chinese and Beijing’s dishes for me still are my favorite, such as BaoDu, the America food for me also is fresh rather than boring or disgusting because I just living in America one year. But actually we are also very similar at some points. I admit maybe I will change my eating habits and try to like the mixed food in the future as the author too, because the influence of cultural background is irresistible.

       In conclusion, I am trying to adapt to the American-Chinese mixed food in America, whatever in food style or appearance and the taste. I think maybe I can keep my own food habits in the future, because I lived in China already 20 years but living in America just one year. The Chinese food effects my dietary habits deeply. On the other hand, I will go back to China during in summer and winter break every year so that I can eat Chinese food. Although I want to keep my own Chinese dietary habits, I still have to admit it is possible that the American-Chinese mixed food will change my dietary habits in the future. As I said, it is too hard to keep my original habits because cooking and diet culture for an immigrant or international student is irresistible.

                         

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.

April 29, 2012.

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

Jerry Hirsch. Want rice with that? August 13, 2008, Times Staff Writer.

April 29, 2012.

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/13/business/fi-panda13

Draft for EE1

Ran Wang 

                                                           Draft for EE1

     In this essay, I would like to establish the relationship between the first Short essay and the third one. The relationship I will explain is as an immigrants or students, living and study in American, their dietary habit will be changed because different country has exact different diet habit, although they always would like to keep their hometown diet habit. To be more specific, if I would like to begin with this part , is a good way to use my SE1. the Beijing specialist food BaoDu as my first part. . As for me, I am from Beijing; also I went to American studying and living since last fall. Actually, different country people has different diet habit is because of they have different food culture background. For example, BaoDu is the Beijing’s specialist dishes; why Beijing citizens and I like BaoDu very much is because of the long tradition. It represents kind of culture connotation of Beijing. Although lots of people who are from other place also think they cannot accept BaoDu anymore, it still is my favorite food because it has become a habit for me.

      Unfortunately, Not only I cannot find my favorite Beijing’s food in American; but also I’ll have to get used to the American way of life. The food culture although is not the most important thing in American people’s eyes. For this phenomenon, as an all immigrants from different countries will be affected and changed by the new cultures in variable ways. I believe using this way to analyze the constant tension between my home food culture background and my new environment is a good way. After do that, I think I also can post some China or Asian specialist food to reflect how deep is the people’s hometown food cultures are .

       Then I can start my argument. The argument is: as an all immigrants from different countries will be affected and changed by the new cultures in variable ways. Seem like the food part; although we also can find the Chinese food in America, it tasty also is totally different because of the “mixed food”. But we will get used to eat the mixing food unknowingly.

        In this part, I would like to use my SE3 to support my argument. The last time when I went to the Korean BBQ restaurant with my friends, after do that I observed and wrote down a food observation, because not only the Korean BBQ restaurant has the Korean food, it also has lots of representative food – The Chinese food and the Asian food. Also, because that restaurant was built in American, so there are lots of American customers come to their and eat their. After analyze all of this observation, I would like to combine with my argument. 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. And then analyze myself; find the similar between the author and me. Also I can find the different between the author and me. Such as I can say the author is an immigrant status but I am the student and just study in American. Furthermore, the author was already living in American so many years, but I just went to American studying and living since last fall. So, although the Beijing’s dishes for me still are my favorite, such as BaoDu; the American food for me is fresh rather than boring or disgusting because I just living in American one year.

       But actually we also can find lots of Chinese food in American, although the tasty is totally different with my home food. So Next, I will talk about the mixed food to explain why it is different with my hometown food.

       Seem like the Korean BBQ restaurant built on America, although they want to keep their food originally, using the same cooking way. But actually they cannot do that because firstly, all of food materials are using the American materials, so the tasty is different with their home food. Secondly, they should mix with some American elements and the America people’s diet habit in their Korean food in order to attract more and more customers. Fusing the American food style with the Korean food style is an indispensable part. Then even traditional food becomes the new way of American eating and a mix of food cultures. I think the Panda Express restaurant is a good example to explain and emphasize this idea. Also I can find some outside articles which are talking about this kind of mixing food become an important part in American’s life.

       Also If I can use the second SE, I would like to use the different between American food advertisement and the Chinese food advertisement, the main point is using their different to analyze the different culture background. Such as using the China and America consumer recognition and understanding for foods to analyze the different culture background. In this part, one thing the most important is find the similar between the American and Chinese customers and the food tasty or design to emphasize how important the mixed food is.

       In conclusion, I want to talk a little bit more; Talk about my own experience and personal reflection between the mixed foods and how can I adapt the American food in the future. Finally, if I can keep my own food habit or not in the future, what will happens?