The way we eat today final draft

Shifting Food Cultures

Food culture consists of the kinds of foods people eat, when they eat, where they eat, how they get or prepare their food, and why they eat it. This culture can change when other parts of a society change and different manners of eating better fit new lifestyles. It is true that the term “food culture” is a very general term, which that may not apply to everyone, but can be seen as an overall food trend. For example, the food culture in the 60s could be demonstrated by a family who ate home-cooked meals at set times and set places everyday because this was what everyone did and this was simply how eating was done. Today, some families may still have a home-cooked dinner together every night at 6 o’clock as used to be the norm, however in general this is no longer common. It is now more common to see people eating more sporadically, eating on the go, and eating in a more individualistic manner. For some, the increasingly fast paced lifestyle that encourages this shift in eating habits has led to a reliance on premade, grocery store or drive-through items to survive. Others, those that might be called “foodies”, exhibit a range of food consumption characteristics that have only recently been observed as a part of American culture.

In her article titled “Eating at the Edge,” Jamie Horwitz discusses the need for food convenience that has arisen and been supported by food industries. Her article opens with a quote from Charles Simic, “American fast food has the advantage of being portable. It’s hard to eat spaghetti or goulash in bed or in a car; it’s much easier with a bag of chips or a can of peanuts.” This quote exemplifies the importance of fast and easy to eat food in a fast-paced society. If meals were still commonly prepared and eaten at preset times and locations it would not be important to have single serving foods available to eat alone when time is available. This however, is not the case for many people today. Horwitz gives examples of astronauts or travelers as people who are not able to plan their time around meals, but working people, those going to school and those with many other commitments are in this circumstance as well. This is why many people have diets consisting of convenient, individually prepared meals eaten on the go even if this is not their preferred eating style.

As a freshman in college, I can attest to the importance of premade and readily available food. With only a short break between classes, there is usually not time for a meal in the dining hall spent eating with friends. More often than not lunch means grabbing something premade at a coffee shop near classes and eating it either in class, at work, or while catching up on homework. This is food that I would not choose to eat if there were other options and time to get something else, but it is the most convenient when hungry and crunched for time. Many people in college also turn to things like “Soup at Hand” or ramen noodles to eat late at night when cafeterias are closed or because they have gotten tired of eating the same bland foods in the cafeteria day after day. Although college students are not exactly like astronauts, struggling to eat their freeze-dried meals while floating through the air, we have schedule and availability constraints too and ramen is sometimes the easiest thing to eat.

For some people however, the change in food culture has inspired the individual not to turn to ramen noodles, but to make their eating personally meaningful and a reflection of their persona. Whereas many people find “Soup at Hand products that capitalize on consumer desire for an easily heated, well-contained, single serving that requires no preparation, no serving dishes or cleanup” (Horwitz 44) to be perfect for their needs, some people find things these products to conventional for their diets. People considered to be “foodies” have a refined and “enthusiastic interest in the preparation and consumption of good food” according to an online dictionary. Things like cup noodles do not satisfy their individualistic food needs and are probably not included in their ideas about what foods are good to be eating.

According to Anna Brones, there is more than one type of foodie; she claims food enthusiasts might fall under one of ten different categories. Some of these categories seem quite obscure, while some carry a less than favorable connotation. Brones claims that these different categories of eaters include the “I made it myself!” the “organivore,” the “Europhile,” the “one upper,” the “snob,” the “anti snob,” the “avoider,” the “blogging food pornographer,” the “bacon lover,” and the “DIYer.”

The “bacon lover” was the most unexpected of the categories, described as someone who didn’t eat any meat besides bacon, which was eaten with much enthusiasm. I had never previously heard of this particular category, but those such as the “avoider” or the “organivore” definitely describe a noticeable population of eaters. The phrases “Gluten free” or “vegan” can be seen after items listed on many restaurants’ menus or on products found in the grocery store catering to those Brones has termed “avoiders” who stay clear of certain food groups religiously and might not eat soy, or be strictly vegan or vegetarian. Local farmers markets can be seen full of avid “organivore” eaters stocking up on the organic and locally grown vegetables for their consumption. It can definitely be noted that there is no “Starbucks lover” or “canned soup enthusiast,” category, rather the above types all aim to be nonconventional in their manner of fulfilling the human need to eat.

While out to eat at a Thai food restaurant recently with my dad, I noticed a bit of this foodie culture going on. I did not see any “bacon lovers” requesting bacon on their pad thai, but I did observe some other things that reminded me of what Brones writes about in her article.

As I read the menu I saw that they included “gf” and “v” after the names of many of their dishes, for the “gluten free” and “vegan” options. I also read “we buy local and natural when possible and prudent.” My dad, apparently not aware of the new slang that goes along with change in food culture asked what “gf” and “v” stood for, sounding quite unimpressed when I told him what these abbreviations meant. A foodie under the category of “avoiders” however, would find these to be extremely important food groups and would have probably supported the restaurant for being inclusive to their needs.

Then, as I took out my phone to take a picture of a plate of food my dad suggested that I should explain to the waiter why I was taking a picture.  It never crossed my mind that a waiter, or anyone else, might think this was weird to do. My friends always put pictures of especially good-looking dishes on Instagram or Facebook for others to view. In the article “Foodie-ism, as youth culture,” the writer goes to dinner with a few young food enthusiasts and notices that they take “quick photos of each dish as it is placed on the table,” and how “Dish snapshots and social-network check-ins are a given.” The article notes how this growing attention to food has become a large part in the culture of younger generations, and the author might have viewed his eating companion as of Brones’ “blogging food pornographers.” These people share their meals electronically through social networks, a contrast to past times when food was simply shared through meals in the company of others.

Right as we were finishing our meal, I watched a waitress call one of the cooks over holding a small plate of pad Thai in her hand. Across the bar I saw a young women talking quietly and animatedly with her date. The waitress stood next to me and explained to the cook that the woman across the bar had claimed that “food was her thing,” and that as a “foodie” she thought that the pad Thai was badly spiced. This woman apparently was not convinced that just saying her food was too spicy was good enough, but had to insist that her opinion on the food, “as a foodie,” was better than the restaurant’s. I believe this woman would have fallen under Brones’ “snob” category.

Through this recent dining experience, and through experiences of eating in college I have gotten a feel for the current culture of food. Some eat the most convenient foods for survival and some eat a self-chosen diet that holds up to their food standards. These choices can be made due to budget, personal choice, or to support an image that one wants to make for themselves. My dad did not know what “gf” and “v” stood for because these terms were not always so important and visible, but now for certain people these terms are part of who they are as an individual. Food industries have evolved for the new food enthusiasts with all their different obsessions and also for those of us who need a quick self-serving sized meal on the go. The way we eat today, whether for convenience or preference, is more based on individual needs and wants than it used to be.

Sources:

Brones, Anna. "Foodie Underground: The 10 Types of Foodies (and What to Do with Them)." EcoSalon. 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://ecosalon.com/foodie-underground-the-10-types-of-foodies-and-what-to-do-with-them/>.

 Horwitz, Jamie. "Eating at the Edge." Gastronomica 9.3 (2009): 42-47. Print.

 Idov, Michael. "New York Magazine." NYMag.com. 25 Mar. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/foodies-2012-4/>.

EE1

Shifting Food Cultures

Food culture consists of the kinds of foods people eat, when they eat, where they eat, how they get or prepare their food, and why they eat it. This culture can change when other parts of a society change and different manners of eating better fit new lifestyles. It is true that the term “food culture” is a very general term, which that may not apply to everyone, but can be seen as an overall food trend. For example, the food culture in the 60s could be demonstrated by a family who ate home-cooked meals at set times and set places everyday because this was what everyone did and this was simply how eating was done. Today, some families may still have a home-cooked dinner together every night at 6 o’clock as used to be the norm, however in general this is no longer common. It is now more common to see people eating more sporadically, eating on the go, and eating in a more individualistic manner. For some, the increasingly fast paced lifestyle that encourages this shift in eating habits has led to a reliance on premade, grocery store or drive-through items to survive. Others, those that might be called “foodies”, exhibit a range of food consumption characteristics that have only recently been observed as a part of American culture.

In her article titled “Eating at the Edge,” Jamie Horwitz discusses the need for food convenience that has arisen and been supported by food industries. Her article opens with a quote from Charles Simic, “American fast food has the advantage of being portable. It’s hard to eat spaghetti or goulash in bed or in a car; it’s much easier with a bag of chips or a can of peanuts.” This quote exemplifies the importance of fast and easy to eat food in a fast-paced society. If meals were still commonly prepared and eaten at preset times and destinations it would not be important to have single serving foods available to eat alone when time is available. This however, is not the case for many people today. Horwitz gives examples of astronauts or travelers as people who are not able to plan their time around meals, but working people, those going to school and those with many other commitments are in this circumstance as well. This is why many people have diets consisting of convenient, individually prepared meals eaten on the go even if this is not their preferred eating style.

As a freshman in college, I can attest to the importance of premade and readily available food. With only a short break between classes, there is usually not time for a meal in the dining hall spent eating with friends. More often than not lunch means grabbing something premade at a coffee shop near classes and eating it either in class, at work, or while catching up on homework. This is food that I would not choose to eat if there were other options and time to get something else, but it is the most convenient when you are hungry and crunched for time. Many people in college also turn to things like “Soup at Hand” or ramen noodles to eat late at night when cafeterias are closed or because they have gotten tired of eating the same bland foods in the cafeteria day after day. Although college students are not exactly like astronauts struggling to eat their freeze-dried meals while floating through the air, we have schedule and availability constraints too and ramen is sometimes the easiest thing.

For some people however, the change in food culture to focusing on the individual has inspired them not to turn to ramen noodles, but to make their eating personally meaningful. Whereas many people find  “Soup at Hand products that capitalize on consumer desire for an easily heated, well-contained, single serving that requires no preparation, no serving dishes or cleanup” (Horwitz 44) to be perfect for their needs, some people find things these products to conventional for their diets. People considered to be “foodies” have refined and “enthusiastic interest in the preparation and consumption of good food” according to an online dictionary. Things like cup noodles do not satisfy their individualistic food needs and are probably not included in their ideas about what foods are good to be eating.

According to Anna Brones, there is more than one type of foodie; she claims food enthusiasts might fall under one of ten different categories. Some of these categories seem quite obscure while some with carry a less than favorable connotation. Brones claims that these different categories of eaters include the “I made it myself!” the “organivore,” the “Europhile,” the “one upper,” the “snob,” the “anti snob,” the “avoider,” the “blogging food pornographer,” the “bacon lover,” and the “DIYer.” The “bacon lover” was the most unexpected of the categories, described as someone who didn’t eat any meat besides bacon, which was eaten with much enthusiasm. I had never previously heard of this particular category, but those such as the “avoider” or the “organivore” definitely describe a noticeable population of eaters. “Gluten free” or “vegan” can be seen after items listed on many restaurant’s menus or on products found in the grocery store catering to those avoiders who don’t eat soy, are vegan or vegetarian. Local farmers markets can be seen full of avid “organivore” eater stocking up on their organic and locally grown vegetables for their consumption. It can definitely be noted that there is no “Starbucks lover” or “canned soup enthusiast,” category, rather the above types all aim to be nonconventional in their manner of fulfilling the human need to eat.

While out to eat at a Thai food restaurant recently with my dad, I noticed a bit of this foodie culture going on. I did not see any bacon lovers, but I did notice some snobbery, made an observation about the “blogging food pornographer” and saw some appeals to “the avoider” and the “organivore” made by the restaurant itself.

As I read the menu I saw that they included “gf” and “v” after the names of many of their dishes, for the “gluten free” and “vegan” options. I also read “we buy local and natural when possible and prudent.” My dad, apparently not aware of the new slang that goes along with change in food culture asked what “gf” and “v” stood for, sounding quite unimpressed when I told him what these abbreviations meant. A foodie under the category of “avoiders” however, find these to be extremely important food groups and would have probably supported the restaurant for being inclusive to their needs.

Then, as I took out my phone to take a picture of a plate of food my dad suggested that I should explain to the waiter that I was just taking a picture for class because they would probably think it was a strange thing to do.  It never crossed my mind that anyone might think this was weird to do. My friends always put pictures of especially good-looking dishes on Instagram or Facebook for others to view. In the article “Foodie-ism, as youth culture,” the writer goes out to eat with a few young food enthusiasts and notices that they take “quick photos of each dish as it is placed on the table,” and how “Dish snapshots and social-network check-ins are a given.” The article notes how this growing attention to food has become a large part in the culture of younger generations, and the author might have explained his eating companion as of Brones’ “blogging food pornographers.”

Lastly, I witnessed a food “snob” in action. I watched a waitress call one of the cooks over holding a small plate of pad Thai in her hand. Across the bar I saw a young women talking quietly and animatedly with her date. The waitress stood next to me and explained to the cook that the woman across the bar had claimed that “food was her thing,” and that as a “foodie” she thought that the pad Thai was badly spiced. This woman apparently was not convinced that just saying her food was too spicy was good enough, but had to insist that her opinion on food, “as a foodie” was better than the restaurant. I am pretty sure that she was a great example of someone belonging to the “snob” category.

Through this recent dining experience, and through experiences of eating in college I have gotten a feel for the current culture of food. Some eat the most convenient foods for survival and some eat a self-chosen diet that holds up to their food standards. My dad did not know what “gf” and “v” stood for because these terms were not always so important and visible. Food industries have evolved for the new food enthusiasts with all their different obsessions and for those of us who need a quick self-serving sized meal on the go. The way we eat today, whether for convenience or preference, is more based on individual needs and wants than it used to be

Sources:

Brones, Anna. "Foodie Underground: The 10 Types of Foodies (and What to Do with Them)." EcoSalon. 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://ecosalon.com/foodie-underground-the-10-types-of-foodies-and-what-to-do-with-them/>.

 Horwitz, Jamie. "Eating at the Edge." Gastronomica 9.3 (2009): 42-47. Print.

 Idov, Michael. "New York Magazine." NYMag.com. 25 Mar. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/foodies-2012-4/>.

Horwitz

Horwitz argues that the way in which people eat their food has changed because the way people experience time has changed. She talks about the shift from eating meals at set times in the company of others to eating meals and snacks alone and on the go. The eating schedules of people on long flights gives a good example of how people cannot always plan their time around meals (Horwitz 46). Horwitz’s beliefs that this inability and declining importance of creating schedules around meals is not only something that people on flights experience, but is a growing part of American culture. She also talks about how food-packaging designs have changed to fit this new lifestyle and how many restaurants stay open late to accommodate people’s food needs. Horwitz gives the example of Cambell's Soup at Hand as a product that has capitalized on the new culture of eating, "None leave behind the pot, stove, bowl, spoon, or table more fully than Campbell's Soup at Hand." (Horwitz 42)

a surface area enhanced for microwave radiation and sized to fit a car’s cup holder before being discarded

I think Horwitz’s observations are true, and something I have experienced at college and at home. During the week when I have a busy schedule with classes, working, and doing homework it is usually not easy to find time to meet up with friends and eat a meal. I usually end up grabbing some packaged food from a coffee place to eat while I do homework on a break between classes rather than eating with others. At home I noticed the family dinners that were so common when I was a kid decreased to just a few times a week as I got older. When I got a car and started working or going to friends’ houses more often after school I was rarely at home when the rest of the family was having dinner. Even if I was home, often one of my parents wasn’t home from a meeting or my sister was at practice so I would just make my own food and eat while I did homework or watched tv. With the fast paced and work focused culture I think that it has become more difficult to have a set eating schedule and this means on the go meals are much more common.  

Phat Thai

On Sunday night, at around 8:00 pm I was driving around Cherry Creek looking for an interesting place to get dinner. As I passed by Phat Thai, I found the brightly colored sign and openness of the restaurant appealing, and the use of “Phat” in the name intrigued me also. From the outside, the restaurant looked like a modern, and possibly targeted for higher-class place, but the “Phat” kind of threw me off. To me, the word seemed humorous, like something that might be in the name of a small, quirky place, but not in the name of a classy and modern establishment. After driving by a few other restaurants, some Italian places, California Pizza Kitchen, and another Thai place, it was decided that Phat Thai had the most potential.

As I entered the restaurant through the large glass doors I first noticed the modern, but also laidback feel created by the décor and the background noise. The two large TVs hanging on the walls, the large bar in the center of the first floor, and the contemporary music just audible over the sound of conversations led me to believe that this restaurant was not the sort of classy and uptight place I imagined it might have been before coming inside.  The walls were painted an inviting orange-yellow color, which looked good with the dark wooden tables and chairs. Metal hanging lights and the metal of the bar added the modern touch, but a few bamboo plants and oriental lights made the restaurant seem warm and inviting. Although it did not seem crowded at all, the hostess led us to the large, circular bar to wait for a table to open up. I noticed that the diners seemed to be mostly young adults relaxing and engaging in conversation while enjoying their meals; there were no families or older people eating. This could have been because it was late on a Sunday night, but I think this is the kind of crowd that Phat Thai would attract no matter which day of the week or what time of night.  

As I read the menu I saw that they included “gf” and “v” after the names of many of their dishes, for the “gluten free” and “vegan” options. I also read “we buy local and natural when possible and prudent.” I really didn’t think these things to be unusual; the appeal to healthy, natural, and local foods has become the norm in popular culture. My dad however, was not aware of this change in food culture and the language that went along with it, and asked what “gf” and “v” stood for. He did not seem all that impressed when I told him what these abbreviations meant, but for many people seeing “gf” and “v” on a menu could be quite a selling point. These terms are an important part of the new “foodie” culture. As I took out my phone to take a picture of a plate of food my dad suggested that I should explain to the waiter that I was just taking a picture for class because they would probably think it was weird for me to do this.  It never crossed my mind that this might be a strange thing to do, my friends always put pictures of especially good-looking dishes on Instagram or Facebook for others to view when they go out to eat. In the article “Foodie-ism, as youth culture,” the writer goes out to eat with a few young food enthusiasts and notices that they take “quick photos of each dish as it is placed on the table,” and how “Dish snapshots and social-network check-ins are a given.” The article notes how this growing attention to food has become a large part in the culture of younger generations and it was interesting to see how the crowd of young adults at Phat Thai might have been, and were, a part of this “foodie” culture.

Phat Thai might have to try a little harder to gain the approval of food experts, however. I watched a waitress call one of the cooks over. She was holding a small plate of pad thai in her hand, and looked back at a young women across the bar who was talking quietly and animatedly with her date. The waitress and cook stood next to me and I overheard the waitress explain that the woman had claimed that “food was her thing,” and as a “foodie” she thought that the pad thai was badly spiced. The cook rolled his eyes and said that it tasted normal to him and the waitress laughed looking somewhat annoyed, but talked nicely with the woman and offered to do whatever was needed so that she would be content with her meal.

Appeals to healthy, natural, and world conscious food may attract foodies like this woman to Phat Thai, but the quality of the food is clearly also a very important part of the experience, which they might still have to work on. Although Phat Thai’s “jasmine rice sales are donated to organizations that provide flood relief and other forms of assistance to those in need of Thailand and SE Asia,” this foodie would probably not be uploading a picture of her pad thai to Instagram.

article

http://nymag.com/restaurants/features/foodies-2012-4/

This article, called Foodie-ism as Youth Culture, talks about how younger generations are becoming more interested in the kinds of food they are eating. Being a "foodie" used to be seen as something that an old person or a snob would be, but this article claims that younger generations now see foodie culture as cool.

Cate and O'Donnell

In both of the readings, food exists as a main part of a subculture: the culture of Shenzhen and of the San Francisco county jail. The food people eat has a connection to their history and to their current situations, which can be observed in each article. The article by Cate talks about how people have created “spread” in Jail, a kind of creative cooking that the inmates do which has its own economic and racial divides even in such a small community. O’Donnell’s article talks more about how the differences in food across time in Shenzheng reflects how the culture in Shenzheng and across China is changing.

In “Breaking Bread with a Spread” in San Francisco County Jail, inmates tell about the food creations they have come up while serving time. They create “spreads” to keep themselves more satisfied than they are while eating only the standard food they receive. They also use spread as a creative outlet and as a way to eat something that might remind them of home. These “spreads” have a ramen noodle base and then they add things like cheetos, peanut butter, meat, and vegetables to make a unique meal. Some inmates would make a spread like stir-fry and others like a jambalaya. I thought it was interesting how “spreading” brought people together but how it was also racially divided. One of the inmates said, “’In here the whites spread with the whites and the blacks spread with the blacks.’” It was also interesting how there were economic divides, if you were an inmate with more money to spend it would be easier for you to make a spread, and how inmates might share a spread with an inmate of higher rank to gain their approval.

O’Donnell’s article was more focused on the changing culture in China, from socialist to capitalist, and how this shift could be seen and talked about metaphorically through food. I thought it was interesting when she wrote that “northern beef eaters symbolize state socialism and southern seafood eaters represent the emergent capitalism of China’s post-Mao market economy.” The beef eaters, or ranchers, were seen as more honest whereas the fish eaters were seen as sneaky and sly with more rewards than the beef eaters. The difference between the food traditions of “old-Shenzheners” and the “new-Senzheners” was also interesting to read about.

Coke advertisement comparison

Bryce's Blog


Bryce also wrote about Coca Cola advertisements and noticed that "These advertisements are trying to show that coke is a unique drink that has the ability to change one’s day in the happiest of ways." He wrote about the "coke side of life" slogan that I also wrote about and how their campaign does not put other companies down but attempts to make a positive association with Coke products. This supports what I found when I looked at two Coke advertisements, that they portray Coke products as something that goes along with fun activities and being on the "coke side of life" is a happy place to be. 

Open happiness

Regular Coke commercial:

Diet Coke commercial:

Comparing two commercials, one for regular Coke and one for diet Coke, it is obvious that Coca Cola is trying to associate their products with happiness and fun. There were only slight shifts in audience appeals between the two commercials, both seeming to target young adults rather than children or older adults. Both commercials suggest that there is a carefree way of life you experience when drinking Coke. The “coke side of life” campaign consists of upbeat music, and happy people enjoying themselves and their drinks. 

            The first commercial, for regular Coke, opens with a man wheeling some kind of instrument by the ocean and up a hill. The sky is covered in a yellow haze and the scene is reminiscent of a warm and sunny summer afternoon. The man is wearing a top hat and a long black jacket and as he reaches the top of the hill he begins to set up his instrument. He presses buttons and switches, which reveal colorful knobs and small, furry, smiling creatures. The musician opens a cooler and pulls out a Coke, attaching it to the instrument where the liquid flows through bending tubes until several taps are filled with Coke. As the man presses the keys of the instruments, the taps spray the liquid into the mouths of the little creatures and they let out musical notes creating a song as squirts of Coke enter their mouths. People start gathering around the musician and his interesting instrument and they begin to dance and drink Cokes. The scene fades out and the commercial ends with an image of a red Coca Cola bottle and the words “open happiness”.

            The summery imagery and cheerful music makes an association with drinking Coke and having a good time while the surreal parts of the commercial make it memorable and light. The use of the small furry creatures playing music and singing for their Coke creates a child-like carefree feeling to the scene and also adds an element of humor. Although there is a child-like quality to the surreal elements of the commercial, it appeals to a young adult audience rather than to children. It is a reminder that there is still time to do carefree things and have a good time, and that drinking a Coke should be involved.

The second commercial, the commercial for diet coke, also focuses on happiness and enjoying oneself. The scene begins with a girl opening a diet Coke with a huge smile on her face. She takes a sip and gets up to rollerblade with her friends, all of them seem to be having a great time and are surrounded by glowing bubbles that are flowing from the Coke can. They are in a parking lot near a food stand by the beach and it looks as though it is warm out and the sun is just starting to set. Like the commercial for regular Coke, this one creates the feeling of a late, carefree, summer afternoon.  The commercial actually does not emphasize the fact that the product is a diet drink until the end of the commercial, where it leaves the rollerblading scene and shows a diet coke with bubbles coming out of it and the words “light it up” appear next to the drink.

This commercial uses the same idea as the first, appealing to young adults who want to have a good time. The cheerful music and the apparent happiness of the people drinking Coke support the idea that there is a carefree “Coke side of life”. The diet commercial did seem more directed towards women, but not as obviously as many other diet soda commercials are.  The commercial used a woman as the main actor and an activity, cheerfully rollerblading with friends, which would appeal more to girls whereas the concert in the regular Coke commercial was not directed towards either gender. The diet commercial also used the words “light it up” to suggest that you can both lighten your weight and add “light” or fun to your life at the same time if you drink diet Coke.

The idea that Coca Cola is promoting, the idea that drinking coke will “light it up” and that as you open a bottle you are “opening happiness” works because people connect eating and drinking with enjoying themselves. By relating their product to hanging out with friends and having a good time, Coca Cola makes their drinks appealing as something that goes along with enjoyable activities. Both the regular and the diet Coke commercials are successful in addressing the value that our society gives to eating and drinking for enjoyment.

Potato chips

Freedman and Jurafsky examine potato chip advertisements and find that advertisers use different language and emphasize health and authenticity issues differently to appeal to either high class or middle to low class people. More expensive chips use more complex grammar and vocabulary and also use many more negative associations to imply that their chips have something that others do not.  It is also noted that the more expensive chips make many more health related comments on their packaging urging people to pay extra for the healthier or what looks like the healthier version. When Freedman and Jurafsky looked at appeals to authenticity in advertisements they found results that differed quite a bit from what appeals would be made in wine advertisements. They found that emphasis on naturalness and ingredients was used mainly for the more expensive chips and emphasis on historicity and locality was used for the cheaper chips. This contrasts with wine advertisements where the better wines usually boast about how long they have been around and where they are produced. I think this is the most interesting part of the analysis because it exemplifies how the advertisements that we see everyday and usually do not give much thought to require complex thinking. Advertisers do not use the same language to attract certain groups for every kind of food, historicity does not attract high class chip buyers in the same way that it attracts high class wine buyers. I am sure this is the same for things like fruits and vegetables, advertisters would have to use a different approach to sell these products than they would to see potato chips. Freedman and Jurafsky could look at fruit and vegetable advertisments to see what differences there were, health in this case might be emphasized for every price, naturalness might still be emphasized for more expensive produce. It would be interesting to see the differences between different foods. 

Christmas traditions

There are not many specific foods that remind me of being at home, at least not in the way that a ketchup sandwich reminds my mother of dinner time in the home that she grew up in. She has told me how her and her siblings were not allowed to leave until they had finished their sandwich and how they hated them so much that they would hide them in the drawers of the table until their dad got home and let them off the hook. At our dinner table there are only four people, instead of nine, and eating dinner is usually pretty uneventful besides a few laughs and the stories my younger sister often tells. We eat foods from many different backgrounds, each delicious in it’s own way, unlike the ketchup sandwiches my mom had to eat.

Holidays are usually more connected to specific and memorable foods whereas the dinner table is more connected to my sister’s stories of 6^th grade drama. For Christmas, thanksgiving, and Easter, cooking and eating certain foods are as much a tradition as opening presents or egg hunting. On thanksgiving we eat all the normal thanksgiving foods at either my house or my grandmother’s house in the afternoon and always go to my aunt and uncle’s house for dessert at night. On Easter we always make crepes with my neighbors while the younger kids hunt for eggs in our backyard. However, more than any other holiday, the most memorable food traditions of my family are our Christmas traditions.

Christmas cooking traditions in our family consist of many interesting recipes, many of which don’t seem very Christmassy at all and some of which are not very appetizing, at least not to me. Usually someone might recall the Christmas ham, potatoes and vegetables they had each year, but when I think of Christmas food I think of squid pie, smelts, spanakopita, baklava, and rice pie. It is unclear to me where these traditions came from. Squid pie and smelts, which apparently are Italian recipes although I have never heard of them at any Italian restaurant, were, I think, passed down from family on my mom’s side. We also always make spanakopita and baklava, which are Greek foods and I am pretty positive no one in my family is Greek, so I am not sure why this has become a tradition in our family. I have no idea where rice pie even comes from.

My least favorite of these traditions are the smelts and the squid pie. The smelts are usually made on Christmas Eve at my cousins’ house. I try to avoid the kitchen, but you can always smell the small fishes frying from the living room where those of us who do not enjoy the smelting process watch the never-ending Christmas movies on abc family. Then someone will come in holding a plate of the disgusting silver fishes and I will always say that I do not want to try one. The smell of smelts will unfortunately follow you home on your clothing every Christmas Eve. Then there is the squid pie. I have watched it be made many times and, like the smelts, I think it smells pretty bad when it is done but, for some reason, people seem to like it. The squishy “tubes and tentacles” as my aunt calls them just don’t look too good to me.

The spanakopita and baklava are newer traditions I think, and almost everyone in the family has gotten at least one baklava making lesson. I don’t remember when I got my first lesson, but now I have become a professional. First, you melt butter in a bowl in the microwave and lay out the first thin piece of filo dough in the pan brushing on a layer of butter on top. Once you have enough filo dough and butter layers, about 25, you add a layer of sugar, cinnamon, and nuts, and then add some more filo dough layers. Next you have to cut the baklava into diamond shaped pieces and stick a clove into each one so that it will stick together. After the baklava cooks you pour a sticky honey mixture on top and its done.

 I remember one year I begged my mom to let me skip school and let me stay over at my aunt’s house and help her make all the Christmas foods. Although I find a few of our Christmas recipes questionable, they are important to me because they are so connected with my experiences.