Friday, May 1, 2009

Food Cultures - Home & Corporate

Usually both the woman and man provide for the family but the woman’s work wasn’t completely finished until after dinner was made. In my family, it was always usually the woman’s job to cook the food. Men could cook, but usually the woman always dominated in the kitchen. It wasn’t until special occasions or when the woman was really tired and the man felt up for it that the men went into the kitchen to cook. Most of the time the men in the family tell the woman what they want (if and when they had suggestions) and the woman goes out and buys the groceries to start cooking. In terms of quantity, it depends on how many people the woman are serving but it was very common for the woman to make more than enough. It usually takes up to 2 or 3 hours to completely be finished with dinner, but on huge family occasions the cooking won’t stop for about 4 or 5 hours. With my immediate family, there were enough chairs at the table to have everyone sit down and eat with no TV, phones, music, etc. Just quality family time. 2 out of 7 days in the week, my father would be too tired to come join us at the table in which my mother would serve him in bed and the rest of us ate at the table. With the whole family, the gatherings are usually at my house (since my grandmother likes to stay mostly at my house and often doesn’t enjoy traveling in any other weather but sunny). The table usually goes to the grownups or least seen guests and the children, teenagers, and so on gather in the living room, and sometimes rooms. With the kids, teens, etc, usually the TV is on, music is playing, everyone’s updating each other about how their boyfriend/girlfriend is, what kind of trouble they’ve been getting into, etc. The foods that we usually eat are greasy and oily. A lot of times there will be rice, meat (pork chops, chicken, steak, ham, etc), beans, avocado, platanos, lasagna, potato salad, etc. Very filling and big meals are common. The foods are cooked with a lot of seasoning. For the rice, a lot of salt is put into the water when making it, for the meat there are many different ranges of seasonings to add. When cooking steak, usually a lot of steak marinades that have combined seasonings all in one are added, for chicken its usually mojo (another marinade that has a many different seasonings all in one), for ham usually they put clovers in it while it cooks and syrup to give it a rich sweet flavor. Once its finished, sometimes they add slices of pineapples and cherries on top of it. My families food way is kind of different than my food way. I eat a lot more fast food and easy to make foods that can be put in the oven or microwave or stove for a short period of time. I don’t usually cook my meals but in the rare cases that I do, I cook with lots of seasonings and oil too.

The mainstream corporate US food way is similar to my own. Even though the mainstream has two main categories, eat healthy or eat good tasty foods. Mine mostly connects to eating tasty foods that aren’t healthy for you but filling. I’m not sure how these foods are cooked (though mostly I’m sure they are pre-packaged and re-heatable. Deep fried, cooked in oil, or cooked with butter and in some cases seasonings, dressings, and/or combinations of sauces such as ketchup and mayonnaise). Fast food is usually most convenient because you don’t have to do the cooking yourself and after a long day you can just come home and enjoy the meal, throw out the rest and sleep. Or do whatever else you usually do. Fast food isn’t healthy nor is it sacred. In terms of ‘togetherness’, in certain ways does fast food bring people together. Most of the time it brings me and my sister or me and family cousins together because we go out together to go buy it, sometimes enjoy it at the place and sometimes take it back home where we enjoy it through conversation or television.

Through television, the food channel usually offers healthier ways to make delicious foods. They don’t usually cook in a whole bunch of oil. The cook with healthy and small portions of oil. The cook with fresh ingredients though they do often add their own seasonings to the dishes. They teach you how to make 30-minute meals, or just easy to learn quick meals. I don’t think the food is sacred their either, but in terms of togetherness in a way again it may bring people together. I guess when you watch it, usually others are interested so they join you.

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