Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown: Brazil

“Taco USA: How Mexican Food Became More American Than Apple Pie” was written in 2012 by Gustavo Arellano, a prolific food author for the Orange County newspaper OC Weekly. This article originally appeared as an online publication in Reason Magazine. Arellano has written books about Mexican food and its role in the American experience. His writings explain how this genre of cuisine has evolved and transformed as it has spread geographically throughout the United States. Growing up in Orange County California with two Hispanic parents, Arellano experienced firsthand the transformation of traditional Mexican dishes into the tex-mex that most American families are familiar with today. The online news site, Reason Magazine, originally published this article to accommodate to an audience of readers who want to be informed but also entertained by the news. These readers care about what is happening in society but are not considered scholars on the topics presented. Although the readers of Reason Magazine might not have any formal knowledge about food and its role in culture, all of them have experienced the importance of a meal in their everyday lives. The author uses the experience and background of his audience to show them the importance and prevalence of Mexican food in the American culture. In “Taco USA” Arellano uses personal stories, ethnic language, and historical information to show his

This paper looks to define and explore three books which are a crux to various food histories which in the last decade has become a scholarly journey as food history is becoming increasingly studied as a scholarly endeavor by historians where previously it was not seen in such a scholarly light. The three texts which are going to be examined are: Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food by Jeffery M. Pilcher, The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture by Rebecca L. Spang, and lastly To Live and Dine in Dixie: The Evolution of Urban Food Culture in the Jim Crow South by Angela Jill Cooley. Each of these books seek to redefine how people see their perspective topics whether it be Mexican identity rooted in cuisine, the evolution of southern food in a racially divided south, or even the concept of the restaurant emerging from a revolutionary culture. These texts bring awareness to various topics which have both social, cultural, and economic stigmas associated with them.

We all lust after a new and unique cultural experience when visiting an unfamiliar country for the first time. While we temporarily leave our old lifestyle behind us and try to open-up to the new things surrounding us, it can be a challenge to absorb the environment we face due to cultural diffusion. Like in the poem, “Coca-Cola and Coco Frio” by Martin Espada, our speaker, fresh out of Brooklyn, is on a mission to discover a different aspect in Puerto Rico than what he is typically used to. Presented with the same commercial product found in the United States that is Coca-Cola, our speaker keeps searching for something new. At last, he finally bumps into a roadside stand near the beach where he discovers Coco-Frio and comes to realize how

When visiting different countries, it is easy to see the differences between the cultures of each place. When visiting Greece, something that stood out to me was the food and the process that it took to get it. Greeks ate at different times than Americans and finding a place to eat was a completely different process than in America. The service, food, and payment at Greek restaurants also had contrasting styles than what I was used to in the United States. Greeks and Americans both contain people who share a love for food, but the process of getting food in each country is slightly different from each other depending on the time, place, and service.

In Jessica Harris’s “The Culinary Season of my Childhood” she peels away at the layers of how food and a food based atmosphere affected her life in a positive way. Food to her represented an extension of culture along with gatherings of family which built the basis for her cultural identity throughout her life. Harris shares various anecdotes that exemplify how certain memories regarding food as well as the varied characteristics of her cultures’ cuisine left a lasting imprint on how she began to view food and continued to proceeding forward. she stats “My family, like many others long separated from the south, raised me in ways that continued their eating traditions, so now I can head south and sop biscuits in gravy, suck chewy bits of fat from a pigs foot spattered with hot sauce, and yes’m and no’m with the best of ‘em,.” (Pg. 109 Para). Similarly, since I am Jamaican, food remains something that holds high importance in my life due to how my family prepared, flavored, and built a food-based atmosphere. They extended the same traditions from their country of origin within the new society they were thrusted into. The impact of food and how it has factors to comfort, heal, and bring people together holds high relevance in how my self-identity was shaped regarding food.

Additionally, during his journey to France, he stayed with his relatives in the town of Cherbourg, an area in Normandy. He was largely unimpressed by the food. Bourdain mentioned, ‘’the butter tasted strangely cheesy to my undeveloped plate. The milk was undrinkable here’’ (Bourdain 96). Bourdain 's parent did their best so Anthony and his brother could enjoy their time and they took them to many restaurants. When they went to a restaurant Bourdain insisted, ‘’ I want shit! I want shit!’’ (Bourdain 96). He was being rude to the waiter and thought

The amount of foreign students come to study in Canadian University has increased dramatically in the last few years, and in the process for them to integrate into the host country, they will experience a culture shock. In her article “Picture this: A Photovoice study of international students’ food experience in Canada”, Stephanie Amos delivers a research she made on food experiences of international students in Canada, and based on the experimentation, she demonstrates that “international students acculturating to Canada have emotional and physical needs, which can be met through food.”(pg59). Stephanie Amos herself is a registered dietitian who works in the Department of Applied Human Nutrition at Mount Saint Vincent University, and through this article, she tries to convince Canadian Universities to “incorporate food acculturation strategies into campus events and menus,” (pg59) and then she persuades the nutrition professionals on campus study on create a better food environment for international students. Stephanie utilizes logos, which is the dominant rhetorical appeal of the article, by separating the article into different parts, though in some respects her appeal to logic is kind of weak. In spite of the fact that Stephanie effectively appeals to her audience by using ethos and pathos to connect them to the participants in the

Moreover, Ferris talks about how throughout the history of the south, the politics of power and place, have lead to the establishment of a cuisine that includes both privilege and deprivation. Thus, continuously impacting the food patterns of the modern day south. Ferris states, “In food lies the harsh dynamics of racism, sexism, class struggle, and ecological exploitation that have long defined the south; yet there, too, resides family, a strong connection to place, conviviality, creativity, and flavor” (Edible South, 1) . This is exemplified all throughout the text by many accounts of antebellum cuisine influenced by that of African and Native Americans.

Until the 19th century, the culinary tradition of the Brazilian Southeast was mostly influenced by the Portuguese cuisine and the food habits of the various Brazilian indigenous peoples and of the numerous African nations that were forcibly brought here by the slavery. After the arrive, in large numbers, of immigrants of many nationalities - such as Japanese, Lebanese, Italians, Spaniards and Germans there is a sudden and considerable increase in Brazilian gastronomic heterogeneity, especially in the city of São Paulo, at a reduced period of time.

Every single individual on this planet has their own distinctive identity and culture. Our culture helps us identify who we are and where we come from. In today’s world, it appears that cultural diffusion has become a normal part of everyone’s life as cultural trends, beliefs and customs spread quickly from one culture to another. In his poem, “Coca-Cola and Coco Frio,” Martin Espada provides his readers with a great example of cultural diffusion that a boy encounters when he visits his native country, Puerto Rico. The “fat boy” mentioned in the poem is none other than Martin Espada himself (3). By sharing his childhood experience in Puerto Rico, Espada tries to prove that acceptance of other cultures can have a negative impact as people incline to neglect their own cultural values and begin to bear a resemblance to other countries.

At Boi Na Braza Brazilian Steak House in Cincinnati, Ohio, guests are encouraged to come with an appetite. Their all-you-can-eat Rodízio-style cuisine is filling and delicious, and while this restaurant is a great spot for date night or family dinners, it is especially fun for large group dining.

Driving through the urban city of San Jose I was somewhat stunned to see the blatant similarities to the typical American metropolis we are used to. Although the glaring difference in infrastructure stands out immediately as your taxi driver steers around right and left corners with equal airiness and red lights do not even incite a certain amount of slowing down it becomes easy to see that Global culture is stronger and more uniform than it could have ever been in the past and McDonalds has become the benchmark for 2nd world or better civilizations. Americans as a whole are driven by things that citizens of Costa Rica do not understand, “It may seem strange, but one of the first steps is to learn one’s own culture. No one ever tells us that we are learning our culture, it all happens at an unconscious level. We are told that we are learning the right way to do things. Someone from the US may not realize things such as the way they engage in “small talk” is actually somewhat irritating to people from many countries around the world.” All of those things made me reevaluate the things I love like movies and cars and nice clothes, all things that I work so hard for, in a whole

When entering a grocery store, most people don’t take the time to stop and observe their surroundings, for their soul purpose at that instant is to purchase what very food they may need for that day or maybe even for that week. However, through all the haste of wanting to go in and out of grocery stores as fast as one can, most are unaware of the very culture that they too are now apart of, the interactions, both verbal and through people’s body language that they are experiencing, how people look and dress, even what is considered appropriate behavior although not specifically written down. Culture is all around us, and we all contribute to it, whether it is through our norms, values, symbols, or mental maps of reality (Guest 2014, 38-43). That is why through this assignment, I took the time to observe the culture experienced in the American grocery store Stater Brothers, the ethnical Filipino grocery store Seafood City, while also taking the time to reflect on my own personal views of what I thought was “normal” through my experience working in Northgate Gonzalez Market, a Mexican grocery store for three years.

This paper will discuss the multifaceted relationships among food, and culture. I will be looking at the relationships people have with food, and explore how this relationship reveals information about them. Their food choices of individuals and groups, can reveal their ideals, likes and dislikes. Food choices tell the stories of where people have travelled and who they have met along the way.

Food is very much a part of pop culture, and the beliefs, practices, and trends in a culture affect its eating practices. Pop culture includes the ideas and objects generated by a society, including foods, and other systems, as well as the impact of these ideas and objects on society. For example, Mcdonald's is another of the thousands of fast food chains that populate our cities though they often use the term “popular culture” only to refer to media forms. Their popularity has also increased internationally. Although all humans need food to survive, people's food habits and how they obtain, prepare, and consume food, are the result of learned behaviors. Mcdonald’s, like other food chains, has made an effort to ‘localize’ its products so that they will be more successful in each different cultural context. These collective behaviors, as well as the values and attitudes they reflect, come to represent a group’s pop culture.