Jewish Family Meal Analysis

It is a known fact that every human being communicates through language, but perhaps a little known fact that we communicate even through the food we eat. We communicate through food all the meanings that we assign and attribute to our culture, and consequently to our identity as well. Food is not only nourishment for our bodies, but a symbol of where we come from. In order to understand the basic function of food as a necessity not only for our survival, we must look to politics, power, identity, and culture.

Thinking about the importance and significance of food respective to our health, ethnic culture and society can cause cavernous, profound, and even questionable thoughts such as: “Is food taken for granted?”, “Is specialty foods just a fad or a change in lifestyle?”, and even “Is food becoming the enemy.” Mark Bittman, an established food journalist, wrote an article called “Why take food seriously?” In this article, Bittman enlightens the reader with a brief history lesson of America’s appreciation of food over the past decades. This history lesson leads to where the social standing of food is today and how it is affecting not only the people of America, but also the rest of the world.

My current view on food is that it creates a sense of comfort and fulfillment, yet this was not always the case. During my teenage years I struggled with an ongoing eating disorder. During that time I viewed food as a threat, or an enemy. As part of my recovery process, I was given a task to make friends with food. I first approached this task with a closed mind, finding a wrong with every meal I ate. My view changed completely when my friends took me out to a vegan diner for a burger and sweet potato fries meal.

Do you like eating at restaurants and fast food places? Almost everyone does, but do we really know how healthy and unhealthy the food we are eating is? Labeling food menu choices should become a law. As stated in passage "Label the Meals", one thing both arguments can agree on is that healthy people are happier and more productive. If labeling meals in food places taken upon, it is a way of helping people take charge of their well-being. People should have the obligation of viewing the nutrition information whether the food is nutritious or not.

When studying food in its entirety: its classification, structure, and the way it’s utilized, it becomes obvious that food is closely tied to food-getting strategies; social, democratic, and political constitution; intimate ties of social relationships; ecological vigor and vitality; and the physical and mental wellness of an individual and group. Besides water, food is the most fundamental element of life that we need for our species to survive and thrive; everybody has an appetite for food. Food is a cultural artifact that is central to human life, identity, and bonds we share with our communities. As an artifact, food plays a significant and meaningful role in our everyday connections with “nature through culture,” that translates

“A Family Supper” by Kazuo Ishiguro has an interesting twist on love and family, albeit grotesque to some, the literature is meaningful. The characters played a major role in how the family dynamics played against one another. The family home sets the reader up to understand the isolation the father felt. The conflicts the characters experience have shaped them into the people they are presently. The lack of an ending also plays a major role in the way love and family is portrayed by the author and will conclude how love and family relate to this piece of literature.

Food is used in different circumstances in life represents a culture, but can also reflect one's personality, lifestyle, and socio-economic

People may have different views about foods depending on their cultural background. Providing range of familiar foods can help make individual feel at home, safe and welcomed.

Food is particularly powerful as a symbol because of the relationship that it helps build in this story. It brings together two people that usually wouldn’t be together and helps make their relationship stronger. Every Saturday, the father and daughter would get together to have any meal that they would be craving the week before. This gave them a reason to go out and spend quality time together. It also became a routine each week to go out together and eat. She started to look forward to each outing she had with her dad, which instantly brightened up her day. Food allowed him to take her out and not loose touch with her since he didn’t live with

My earliest memory of food is lentils and rice cooked in a pressure cooker. Lentils were cooked at least three days a week. Other days we had different vegetable curries, curd and more rice. This was what I took to school as my lunch every day. As I grew older and started caring more about my social life and people around me, I started noticing what my classmates brought for lunch from their homes. I started understanding how food reflected different cultures and communities. One day, in our

Hard work pays off, and the Dumas family shows that every weekend. In the story Sweet, Sour, and Resentful, Dumas’s family is showed as a loving and hardworking family. Their family came to California from Abadan when their country was at war. While there the war got worse and their family and friends would call to see what it was like in America. After a while they got tired of telling everyone what it was like so instead they would invite everyone for dinner.

When considering food as a part of my identity, there are multiple components that make up who I am. It is a mix of family heritage, experiences, and personal preferences, which all culminate together to form my food identity. While some might see their food identity as one culture, concept, or idea, I see my food identity as a variety. This variety consists of what foods I like and the memories associated with them. Specifically, my memories and experiences with my family have contributed to what I believe to be my food identity.

Food, has a specific meaning to all of us; for some it is a form of nourishment, for others it is a cultural act,

Nancy Gibbs the author of the essay “The Magic of the Family Meal” focuses on the subject of family dinners. She talks about the history of family dinners, the benefits that come from eating dinner as a family, the new way that families do family dinners and why families stopped having dinner together. In the eighth paragraph Gibbs talks about why families don’t do family dinners as much as they use to the main factor being time she continues to repeat this key idea throughout the paragraph. One way that she does this besides repeating this key idea in the paragraph is repetition of the word “time”. Which she expresses through her use of transitions. One example is how Gibbs uses repetition of the word time to emphasis that time is the cause

Food is looked at as nourishment, an instrument of solidarity, and a mechanism of community (Theres Nothing Like Church Food). Something that we take for granted everyday is a major support system for not only our bodies, but for our families and making the community in which we live in