Street Vendors In Chicago

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.

1. “Hundreds of millions of people buy fast food every day without giving it much thought, unaware of the subtle and not so subtle ramifications of their purchases. They rarely consider where this food came from, how it was made, what it is doing to the community around them. They just grab their tray off the counter, find a table, take a seat, unwrap the paper, and dig in” (Schlosser 10).

A city like Los Angeles, Judson elaborates, a "seemingly hazard sprawl, effectively ensures that one does not see struggle if one does not want to" (64). The themes touched above - poverty, food insecurity, homelessness - are all "well hidden in the distance and segregation that define the layouts of Los Angeles" (64). Hence why "certain Angelenos [may] never see the people who are struggling" (64). Judson then takes a positive turn, noting that there are several organizations hoping to inspire and change things in Los Angeles. For example, the placement of Locol, a restaurant which opened at the beginning of the year created by notorious chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson, in Watts, a "historically underserved food desert" (64). Locol is a chef-driven fast food restaurant operating on the ideology that "'wholesomeness, deliciousness and affordability don’t have to be mutually exclusive concepts in fast food'" (64). They emphasis affordability and hope to influence change in the issues of institutional food. There's been a lot of positive

Walls and shelves of different treats, and Buc-ee’s even presents its own brand of Beaver Nuggets - a sweet, crunchy corn snack. And in each store, a counter the size of a small New York City apartment is overly stocked with 30 flavors beef jerky, smoked sausages and other cured meats. When standing in that area, you can smell the Bohemian garlic beef jerky, which had a pleasant salty pungency, and the cherry maple, which is a lot more subtly sweet than it sounds. Next to that, there’s a quick-service restaurant, prepping many dishes, ranging from smoked brisket to Tex-Mex tacos. Looking at the options of spicy pickled quail eggs to sweet apple pies, the food provided at Buc-ee’s is more than enough to eat for a small break on the road. The varieties and large portions of food seemed to have a meaning beyond consumption itself. As people carry to go boxes and not even open or taste some of the food during their stop, the food loses its meaning of being eaten and gains a meaning of being a souvenir. The cultural food alone provokes customers to want to keep these seemingly authentic, home cooked items, perhaps to share or give to others as novelties and gifts. With that, Buc-ee’s intends to provide more than necessary.

The All-American meal takes more out of Americans to make then at first glance. Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation delves deep into the intricate workings of the fast food industry to expose mistreatment and cruelty towards workers in the business, just as Upton Sinclair had done in the early 1900’s regarding the meat packing industry. Schlosser is able to bring light to the darkness behind the All-American meal through extensive research and personal confrontations of which he has high regards for.

Food trucks have exploded into mainstream American cuisine. Once thought of as a cheap meal available at odd times of the night, street food has become a vehicle for chefs on the rise to make their mark on the food industry. Operating a food truck may seem like an easy task, but it can turn out to be a tremendous undertaking and risky financial venture. Operators must be prepared to lose money, to manage fixed costs, and to do constant forecasting in order to determine how much food to prepare. The advantages and disadvantages are numerous, but we will proceed to name a few.

Fast Food Nation is an attempt to link the American eating style and food-production patterns. Fast Food Nation is written by Eric Schlosser, he presents a perspective on the development of societies adapting to the way that food is produced. The quickly growing demand for hot, ready food was rising at substantial rates shortly after World War two. Schlosser states, “The McDonald brothers’ Speedee Service System revolutionized the restaurant business.” The McDonald brothers wanted to perfect the drive-in restaurant business and started their very own walk-up restaurant. They sold burgers, fries, and soft drinks that were available almost before the customer ordered. By increasing the demand for fast food, supplies began to be

When I moved from the small Illinois town of Madison to University City, a neighborhood in the city of St. Louis, I noted many differences between the two areas. As I expected, St. Louis offers quicker access to cultural areas and unique (albeit more expensive) restaurants and bars. However, I also noticed some surprising differences between the two locations, one of which being a lack of familiar grocery stores and fast food chains. Although in southern Illinois I was used to grocery stores such as Aldi, Schnucks, and Shop’N’Save, as well as having easy access to drive-thru fast food restaurants, I found that University City lacked many such drive-thru restaurants and mostly had grocery stores such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s as well

The curbside service, or delivering of food to a customer in a car, started in the 1920s and by the 1940s the service had gone nationwide. By the 1950s, the U.S was suffering from what was referred to as the "Fast Food Industry Boom", franchises were popular for their nationwide standardization, unified advertising, etc (Colburn 2014). As the Fast Food Industry boomed so did obesity and heart disease rates in America. During the 1960s (only a decade after the Fast Food Industry Boom), obesity among adults more than doubled, likely increasing the chances of diabetes, heart disease, etc. The Fast Food Industry had attached itself to the roots of American culture, and it was growing faster than anything at the time. This lifestyle had begun to destroy the lives of families and was the beginning of a war that we are still facing today. Now the big debate that many argue is, whether it's the consumer's fault, the providers' or those helping the

Nothing says “Chicago” more than the city’s famous hot dog. Though Chicago is the distinguished ballpark food’s eponym, “Germany” would have previously been a better identifier for the standard version. “The history of the hot dog is intertwined with Chicago’s growth as a great immigrant city in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,” states Bruce Kraig in his article dedicated to the handheld food, “Man Eats Dogs: The Hot Dog Stands of Chicago.” The hot dog was brought to Chicago in 1848 by European immigrants and was specifically known as the sausage. The sandwich developed into one of the Midwestern city’s most famous foods and is now known as the Chicago-style hot dog because of its specific garnishes and way it is prepared. With a delectably

By the 1950s, the fast food industry blast was going all out, joining and culminating showcasing techniques acquired from before days. Fast food establishments had turned out to be well known eating prevents across the nation, because their institutionalized menus, effortlessly perceived signage,

In “the American Way” Eric talks about the beginning of the fast food industry and how it affected our nation. This book starts out with the amazing story of Carl N. Karcher one of the founding fathers of the fast food industry. In 1917 Carl was born, Carl dropped out of school after the 8th grade and began to work on the family farm. One day Carls uncle offered him a job at his seed store in California, Carl took him up on his offer and went to California. When he got there he quit his job to work for a bakery, he made 6$ more. Next he took out a loan from a bank to buy a hot dog cart, at this time cars started to become more affordable so more people bought cars. He had the idea of curb side delivery it was the perfect idea at the perfect

In “Fried chicken and fresh apples,” Kwate examines the relationship between race-based residential segregation and density of fast food restaurants, asserting the factors that make black neighborhoods fast-food prone are its population and economic characteristics, physical infrastructure, and social processes The abundance of fast food restaurants in poor, black communities leads to the high obesity rates, heart disease like in the documentary and mortality of these disadvantaged groups. Kwate explains how population characteristics - concentrated area of blacks - makes an easy target area for fast food companies. Kwate also discuss how the poor economy of black communities has also played a role in fast food density – fast food is cheap

On November 6, I went to Chinatown and I had my dinner at there. All the way down to the South, after I passed lakeshore drive and downtown, I arrived Chinatown. Usually I go to Chinatown once a week because I am from China and thus I really like Chinese food. First, I went to Little Lamb Hot Pot to have my dinner. After the dinner, I went to the food market to buy some food supplies and cooking materials. In my opinion, the impact of globalization in Chicago’s Chinatown can be reflected in food, commodity, and culture.

As older delis seem to become an overall minority in New York City, the decline of these restaurants are connected with how cultural values for second, third and even fourth immigrants have taken a very different