1-P2 Food and Culture

After reading the two pieces of essays, I am surprised by the changes that food brings to people’s life along with the culture thing. In Ahn and Nicholson’s eyes, food is no longer a kind of simple item that can help people get rid of hunger, but a much more complete thing, which represents culture, humanity, thoughts as well as history. Actually, food means a lot in people’s lives. In these two essays, both of the two authors introduce their family background, and the food their family members like. They also focus on some dishes that they are interested in, from different countries and cultures. One important thing in common is that they are not Americans as first and their family moved to US later, so that they are able to judge the difference of food between the United States and their home countries.

However, as for the same topic, Ahn and Nicholson also have some different foci and aspects to talk about. They attached the food with diverse significances. Ahn pay more attention to the impression of Kieran food when he was a kid as well as the attitude his family towards it when they have already been in the United States. He compared his mother with himself to show changes between generations. To help the kid learn some Korean culture, his mother offered him Korean food. This can reflect the parents’ thought about themselves. Even though they are in US, they still want to identify that they are closely related to Korea. 

As for Nicholson, he focuses more on his mother’s so called “white food”. He declares that his mother like the food not because it tastes good, but duo to it is white. As for his mother, whatever the reason, white food was her idea of comfort food. It may some connection with the catholic culture. I don’t know, but it do reflects that his mother’s white diet and the food they ate in England and US, makes Nicholson realize that “food” is not only food in his fanily.

Reading these two essays makes me think about the food I have had in past 20 years. I was born in an island, which is the biggest fishing port in China. So seafood is always one of the dishes on our table. Fortunately, I like to eat fish, and most people in my hometown believe that they cannot live without having seafood everyday. Actually, I am not sure why I like seafood so much; may be because my mother is a good cook, and she can cook a kind of fish in dozen ways. But I believe one of the main seasons is the culture that I was taught when I was a child. There is a famous song in my hometown says” Sea, Sea, like my mother”. And I have been singing that songs for several years, since I was 8 years old, and actually I know that song before I was taught the Chinese national anthem in the primary school. That is the culture of food belongs to my hometown.