What I learned in This Class

In this class, I really learned something from my professor, my friend and I learned how to find a resources from Penrose library and what to become a blog post writer. We did lots of research about almost every point of view about food culture in the worldwide. I think this is a very good experience for me.

Final Paper

Dayuan Zhao

WRIT-1133

Prof. Eric Leake

05/29/12

My own Manifesto of Food: Chinese Food is the Best Food in the Whole World

       Admittedly, Chinese food is a very huge and important part of the whole Chinese culture; like a documentary -- “Ａbite of China” which is very popular recently says, “China has one of the most dramatic natural landscapes, plateaus, lakes, and coast lines. This kind of geographic variance contributes to creating and keeping species. No other countries have this much potential food materials. For this abundant recourses sent by god, Chinese people are collecting, hunting, digging throughout the years.”  “China Central Television (CCTV)’s documentary, “A Bite of China,” (舌尖上的中国) has proved the exact same point. (For a taste of the series, check out its first episode (in Chinese) on Youtube.) The seven-episode series tells a mesmerizing story of the Chinese cuisine, introducing different regional varieties and showing the hard work and profound artistry hidden behind each and every dish.” (Fleur) There are endless food types in Chinese land waiting to be discovered. Chinese cuisine belongs to a part of Chinese culture. Just like the tea culture and the spirits culture, the food culture is also something Chinese people are proud of. As for me, real Chinese food is always the best food in the whole world.

       First, there is a slang in China, which is “人以食为天(ren yi shi wei tian).” That means eating is the first thing people should care about. Like Mary Ann O’donnell mentions in his article “The Cultural Politics of Eating in Shenzhen,” “A common Chinese expression, ren yi shi wei tian, can be translated something like this: ‘People have made eating their heaven.’”. Chinese people always think a lot about eating. For example, tofu is one of the most popular foods worldwidely. Tofu’s history is very long which started from B.C. 164; one of the Han dynasty’s first emperor’s grandson – Huainan King Liu An invented it. In Song dynasty, tofu became a primary food in China. As eastern and western cultures coalesce gradually, tofu spread to Europe, Africa and America at the early nineteenth century. Nowadays, tofu is an important food in most Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea, and Japan. Another example can also illustrate how much attention Chinese people pay on eating is dumpling. Dumpling was originally from Han dynasty, and its creator Zhongjing Zhang is one of the most famous doctors in Chinese history. At the beginning, Chinese dumpling was used to healing patients; Zhongjing Zhang put some medicinal materials and lamb in the wrapper, and he used them to treat patients. As time goes on, dumpling became an important dish instead of medical food within three kingdom period. Both of those examples can illustrate one thing – China is the most patient nation for food.

       The second reason I think Chinese food is better than what we eat in the U.S. is the regional differences, which means American foods don’t have so much varieties in different geography areas. In China, every province has its own cuisine. One best instance is Liao cuisine which is the cooking system in my hometown, Liaoning province. The material selecting of Liao cuisine is very broad but detailed, and the using of local special ingredients is especially famous. Among many recipes of Liao cuisine, lots of local mountain delicacies games are widely and smartly used. Also, Liao cuisine has developed an abundant experience in the production of venison-used dishes. Mellow fragrant is a crucial feature of Liao cuisine, and it is also the center of the Liao cuisine’s specialists. Based on all the outstanding features, Liao cuisine has a great proportion in Chinese food culture and has a very broad market as it is being sold in a large number of restaurants. People who eat Liao cuisine usually has the mean purpose to experience its mellow fragrant. The best example of Liao cuisine is sour pickled cabbage stewed pork spareribs. When I am asked about the most memorable thing about my hometown after coming to the U.S., I would say Chinese food. Since there are so many differences between Chinese and American food cultures, I cannot adapt the eating habits here in a short time. What I want to talk about in this essay is one of the most emblematic meals in my hometown in northeast China – sour pickled cabbage stewed pork spareribs. My hometown is located in Liaoning province, in very high latitude of China; the climate there is similar with Minnesota. When winters come, the temperature would be extremely low. That leads to a change of people’s diet habits. Many families will cook some hot soup to keep their bodies warm. People would buy many Chinese cabbages and make them into sour pickled cabbages. The way to make this kind of cabbage is very typical as following: you need to buy a big clay jar, and put some water into the jar to help cabbages ferment; then put twenty to thirty cabbages in to the jar. It is somewhat like cheese’s producing method. After one and half month, you can open the jar and the production is done. Sour pickled cabbage tastes very special. Almost all Chinese who live in south part of China cannot stand them and feel terrible about the taste. It tastes very sour, and feels crisper than regular cabbage. Although, it is a fabulous material to make soup. The most common way to cook it is to stew it with pork spareribs. The method to make this meal is very easy, you just need to add some water, condiments and oil into the pot and stew them together with sour pickled cabbages and pork spareribs. When it is almost done, you need to add some caraways on the top of soup. In every small restaurant in Shenyang, you can pay twenty Yuan(RMB) to buy a large bowl of sour pickled cabbage stewed pork spareribs. It looks like lots of cabbage strips with some pork spareribs and caraways; because of the ferment, those leaves on the dish became yellow. As far as I am concerned, sour food fits me well. I cannot have the soup without vinegar. When I eat this meal, I always eat it up with two to three bowls of rice. In some way, you can say sour pickled cabbage stewed pork spareribs is my favorite Chinese food.

Different with Liao cuisine, there is another Chinese cuisine names Yue cuisine. It is originated from Guangdong province, which is located in the south east of China. The essential taste of Yue cuisine is sweet. I think that does not fit me very well. The most ridiculous meal, in my opinion, is a Yue cuisine dish which is made by mouse. I think that difference in the material using can reflect the huge divergence between southern and northern eating habits in China. Maybe Guangdongers think Liao cuisine is not that good too.

       The last reason why I like Chinese food is that Chinese food is always very tasty. There are so many different cooking methods in China – I think cooking is one of my hobby; I used to attend a cooking class when I lived in Shenyang. Cooking Chinese food includes lots of methods: what Chinese food pays attention to are the taste, the color, and the smell. Taste means people like the flavor, it is easy to accept; color means appearance, which means you are supposed to make not only tasty, but also good-looking food; and smell means every meal needs to have a good smell. There is a very interesting thing happened around when I took the cooking class in China. My cooking teacher was an army cook, and almost every recipe of all Chinese dishes is in his mind. At the first day I went to the class, nobody was in the chair; everyone was standing in front of the counter and cutting potatoes. My teacher told us, as a cook, the knowledge in the book is significant, but no boss would care if you can recite the menu; the only thing you need to do is to cook the dishes well. Therefore, almost seventy percent of time we were practicing. When we were learning to cook “Double Cooked Pork Slices” which in Chinese is called “Guo Bao Meat,” I kept putting too much oil in the pot and the boiling oil always hurt me. “Chinese cooking system’s soul is not the quantity, what we pay most attention to is the quality and eater’s feedback.” That’s what my teacher taught me. After attending that class, my cooking skills became much better.

       Chinese cuisine is always the best food in my heart, even though I have to assimilate with American culture when studying in U.S. university. I still like to go to some Chinese restaurants sometimes. The American style Chinese restaurant is more close to southern Chinese cuisine’s taste, perhaps it is because there are more southern Chinese in America and southern cuisines fit Americans better. But I still like to try them frequently, which is about twice a week; because I feel closer to my motherland that way and I can treat myself for a moment.

       All in all, Chinese cuisine is a crucial and significant part of Chinese culture. As a Chinese student, Chinese cuisine is my favorite food in the truest sense. I will always be proud of my homeland.

Work Cited

Fleur “A Bite of China, A Slice of” May 24, 2012 05/31/12 Tea Leaf Nation Copyright © 2012. All Rights Reserved. http://tealeafnation.com/2012/05/a-bite-of-china-a-slice-of-life/

Anonymity “Liao cuisine’s characteristic(辽菜的特色)” June 9, 2011 05/31/12 http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/277526860.html

Anonymity “A Bite of China(舌尖上的中国) ” May 30, 2012 05/31/12 http://baike.baidu.com/view/2874555.htm

Mary Ann O’donnell “The Cultural Politics of Eating in Shenzhen” The Journal of Food and Culture, Vol. 10, No. 2 (Spring 2010), pp. 31-39 University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture. 26/03/2012 03:22

EE2 outline

Chinese food is the best food in my opinion.

First, there is a slang in China, which is “min yi shi wei tian.” That means eat is the first thing people should care about in China.

I think cold food is not work for me. But in the U.S., cold food is more popular.

Chinese food is very tasty, there are so many different cook methods in China, I think cook is one of my hobby, I use to attend a cook class when life in Shenyang.

The other reason why I like to eat Chinese food is the difference between southern part and northern part of China.

Post #9

Dayuan Zhao

WRIT-1133 MWF 12-2

Prof. Eric Leake

05/20/12

How to Change Unhappy Diet

         According to “Unhappy Meals” and “Angels and Vegetables” which are written by Michal Pollan and E. Melanie du Puis, there are some bad eating habits we should care about in this country, and some harmful foods are eroding our body. So we should choose the right way to eat helpful food to keep your body healthy. In“Unhappy Meals”, Pollan talks about the low-fat eating habit is good for our health, omega-3s contributes to improving health, enough fish oil can cut your risk of dying from a heart attack by more than a third. (1) Cook food in right way can keep their nutrition better; obesity is everybody’s common enemy and lots of other examples of healthy and unhealthy eating habit. “Angels and Vegetables” is talking about people’s eating habit is be effected by the era, environment, political background and religious belief.

Actually, I’m not good at nutriology and my own eating habit is very disorder. I almost just eat one meal per day, and I prefer use more time to sleep instead of to eat. I’m a meat-eater; I don’t like eat vegetables and use skinless chicken breast or the turkey bacon instead of beef or barbeque pork. In my opinion, personal eating habit doesn’t need to up to a very high level. For me, health and tasty are almost in an opposite locate, I have to concern about my health, but I think eat what you like is top priority.

Works Cited

Michael Pollan."Unhappy Meals. " New York Times Magazine28 Jan. 2007:ProQuest Newsstand, ProQuest. Web.19 May. 2012.

Melanie Du Puis, E.. "Angels and Vegetables: A Brief History of Food Advice in America. " Gastronomica7.3 (2007): 34-44. Research Library, ProQuest. Web.19 May. 2012.

Thoughts on Eating Practices

My eating habit is very normal, I just like to eat meat like other young man, and I like to drink soda and sweet tea. I think what I should change is I should drink more healthy beverages like water and juice, soda is unhealthful, and I should eat more vegetables, it can provide more vitamins to me and balance my diet. 

discover of Difei's SE#5

After I read Difei's short essay number five, I found some interesting things in his article, First, he talk about the benefit of yogurt, it can make us far away from diseases and make your body better. He also give us an example, if you can eat more yogurt, some bacteria in the yogurt can help you to against cancer.

 

SE #5

Fast Food and Eating Habit

         Admittedly, almost fast food is the antonym with health, in almost people’s mind; junk food is same with fast food. But in fact, nobody can say he can quit fast food forever. The data display that after many years development, the fast food industry rapid growth, market share has expanded, and it has dominated 45% catering market in China. As KFC, this company already extends over six billion health flyer in China. Fast food already blends into our live now. For example, our dining hall is a place where we most commonly eat something, the significant part of food we can eat in the dining hall is fast food, such as salad, burger, pizza and French fries. In some way, the nutrition from the fast food is not looks very useful to us, but I think is not means they are useless. In my opinion, there are two most important points about why fast foods are not useless.

         The first reason why I think fast food is not useless is they resolve the hungry issue and fast. Fat and heat is what fast food’s good at, in this period, increasingly people like to take a fast food from the drive thru to replace the dinner which need to spend long time. Employee’s rest time is very limited, so they cannot have a very comfortable lunch, delivery food and fast food become to their first chooses. Healthy foods are rich in fibers and vitamins, the most representative foods are fruits and vegetables, they are always oil-free. In order to consider the health of students, they foods from our dining hall are low-oil, it really good at body, but maybe one or two hours later, you will feel like eat nothing just now. So this is why my friends and I like to eat some midnight snake out of campus.

         Another reason why we always choose fast food is they have a good taste and nice price. Nowadays, the commodity price is increasing every day. One meat dish need to cost thirty Yuan in my hometown, in the past, the price is just around fifteen. The regular lunch in China maybe include one meat dish, one vegetable dish, a bowl of rice and some drinks. If you eat lunch and dinner all in that way, you probably need to cost two hundreds Yuan per day, they are kind of ridiculers expensive. If you eat a Subway’s sandwich in the noon, and just order a rice served with meat and vegetables on top delivery in the evening, you can save almost 70% money. In the worldwide, every country has its own eating habit, and every kind of fast food is unique. I think we cannot define fast food as burger or pizza; there is a type of fast food in Shenyang names “Kaolengmian,” it is every cheap and tasty, I always ate it as a snake when I in the high school.

         All in all, fast food is not useless; it can resolve the hungry issue, save your time, money and Let you taste the different kinds of delicious food. Nobody can live without fast food. We need to give fast food a new location. Fast foods are not our enemy; the real enemy is eating excessive. If you eat too many vegetables, you still can be ill. Seems to me, a good amount of fast food is harmless, eat less like once a week cannot ruin your body.

Work Cited

Fast food has dominated 45% catering market in China 2005-10-18 11:56:53 http://canyin.lingshou.com/www/taxis/taxis_kc/02111157637.htm

600 million copies 2007-4-9

http://canyin.lingshou.com/www/taxis/taxis_kc/04291401582.htm  

Post #8

I found most of students like to eat something very similar with me because we almost live in the same building in the campus. Some of my teammates have same meal in the Saturday ---- hot pot, we ate together in that day. Almost teammates like drink soda when they are eating.

My food journal

May 10th, Thursday

10:30 A.M. (breakfast time) ----Some scrambled eggs, smoked sausages and a cup of orange juice.

12:10 pm (lunch time) ----A Jazzman’s sandwich and milk.

5:00 pm (dinner time) ----- Some beef cut and some mushroom soup, and a cup of pepsi.

May 11th, Friday

10:40 am (breakfast time) ---- A piece of muffin and a cup of Dr. Pepper.

12:10 pm (lunch time) ----Subway’s sandwich and strawberry smoothie.

6:00 pm (dinner time) -----some fried chicken, a burger and a cup of apple juice.

May 13^th, Saturday

11:40 am (breakfast time) ---- An apple, a piece of cake and some cookies.

13:10 pm (lunch time) ---- Chinese noodle soup and orange juice.

6:50 pm (dinner time) -----Chinese hot pot, beer and asparagus juice.

I Love Steak

Dayuan Zhao

WRIT 1133-27 MWF 12-2

Eric Leake

05/10/12

The Most Common Luxury Food: Steak

The habit of eating beef can be dated back to the early medieval Europe time, at the time civilians usually eat pork and mutton and nobles usually eat beef. Beef was cooked with pepper and spices at that time as a “blue blood” eating material to reveal people’s social status, and it was normally served in special occasions. In the 18th century, Britain became a famous beef-eating country. The attitudes toward beef and the habit of eat steak are largely varied in different countries, so there are various methods of eating beef among the world.

Beef is rich in protein and the amino acid composition is closer to human’s needs than pork’s. It can improve human bodies’ resistance to disease, and it is especially suitable for people’s growth and development; also, the postoperative aftercare uses beef to add blood that has been lost. Moreover, beef benefits to human especially in the winter. In 19th Century, steak had already become one of the most popular foods in the U.S. However, in Asian countries, people’s reactions to steak were completely different; for example, in Japan, beef is still an indispensable dish today, but China is just getting to form the habit of eating beef.

The curiosity about the definition of steak in the official dictionary always switches me on; I really want to know what the differences between steak and regular beef chunk are. “Dictionary of Food: International Food and Cooking Terms from A to Z” is a book I found in Penrose library. In this book, there are two definitions of steak: First is the original meaning from France and England which is “A piece or slice of meat or fish up to 2.5 cm thick usually cut across the muscle fibers and sufficiently tender to be grilled or fried;” and the other is “A general name for lean muscle from animals used for braising, stewing, grilling or frying depending on the muscle concerned.” This second one is what we use now.

While cooking, Steak’s doneness is very particular. Everybody has different choice. There are six level of steak’s doneness. The rawest level of steak is “blue”, this kind of steak feels soft and squishy, and you can taste the succulent and juicy of the meat; but in my opinion, that is really bloody. The second rawest level is “rare;” rare steak is soft to the touch, but it isn’t as juicy as the blue one – though, that is still very bloody. Then it is the third rawest level; this type of steak yields gently to the touch, and I use to order this kind of steak before. The medium range steak is my favorite one. This sort of steak yields only slightly to the touch, and it begins to firm up. Both Eastern and Western eaters normally feel good about this one. The fifth is the second ripest level; this kind of steak is firm to the touch, and you cannot see any blood in this level. The ripest level is the well- done one; this level is hard to touch, and I don’t like that feel actually.

       I used to read a poem from our Penrose library, and the title of this poem is just “Steak.” The whole poem is only 141 words; the primary coverage is praising the beauty of the steak and those messy kits which are used for eat steak. My favorite sentence in this poem is the first one which is “There's perfection in the sharp knife, handle thick and satisfying to hold. It eases through the meat, parting it like the Red Sea.” This sentence uses metaphor to describe the steak as the red sea. As for me, I don’t like the well-done steak; I prefer to order the medium rare or rare one, so I think the author uses a very good thing to describe the color of the rare or medium rare steak.

       There are some basic manners about eating steak that everybody should respect. Such as using the right hand to hold knife, and using the left hand to hold the fork; tableware’s locations cannot be changed randomly. If you are a left-hander, you can change the position of fork and knife, but you need to put them back when you finish. Setting the knife and fork’s handle to right on the dish is also very important; the reason why to do this action is on one want to cause troubles to servers.  

       All in all, steak used to be a luxury food, but the condition has been improved largely through ages. Nowadays, most people can cost twenty dollars to get a very nice steak dinner in lots of restaurants. Steak has already become one of people’s favorite food styles in the U.S. and almost all western countries. In China, an increasing number of people choose to eat steak to experience Western culture in the weekends.

\

      

Work Cited

“steak.” New Coin. Grahamstown: Vol. 45, Iss.  1pg. Study of English in Africa Jun 2009 Arja Salafranca  Jun 2009. 

"steak." Dictionary of Food: International Food and Cooking Terms from A to Z. London: A&C Black, 2005. Credo Reference. Web. 10 May 2012.

post #7

Dayuan Zhao

WRIT-1133-27 MWF 12-2

Prof. Eric Leake

05/07/12

Problem about Food Produce

       According to An Animal's Place which is written by Michael Pollan, he uses some examples to illustrate the mutually beneficial with people and livestock, such as dairy cow, they can provide milk and dairy to us, we get some benefit from them, domestication and domestic animals can be regard as an exchange of benefit, because we also need to build some shelter or dormitory for those cows. So, we can get the necessary nutrition, they can able to live.

       Second article Tomatoland which is written by Estabrook is talking about different tomato in different time periods or places of origin. The author compares some different tomatoes which from different places, those tomatoes taste and exterior have some huge difference. He also uses the tomatoes in 1960s to compare with the tomatoes what we eat now. In short, different places and time can influent crop’s shape in a huge way.

       Last article is Cook’s infographic Fowl Thouble. The author talks about the harmless broiler chicken in North America. Nowadays, the demand for the broiler chicken is much more than past, so the workers who in charge of kill chickens are in a more danger environment now. They have to wearing a very heavy protective clothing to protect them exempt the infringement form the bacteria. The corpses are really harmed for workers’ health and the working condition is worse, so there are less people like to work in the chicken plants in the U.S.

post #6

Dayuan Zhao

WRIT-1133-27 MWF 12-2

Prof. Eric Leake

05/01/12

       In the article Our National Eating Disorder, which is written by Michael Pollan, he analyzes the eating disorder in the U.S. currently, there are some reasons leads to this problem. In America, people always prefer to listen to some specialist’s advices like Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, but author thinks those persons’ theories not all correct, this is a reason why American’s eating habit will became disorder. Another reason why U.S. residents will become disorder when they eating is they like to eat deserts like doughnut, cheesecake or a chocolate cake, and when they finish them, they are begin to feel guilty, those foods lead them to obesity.

       The author also uses French to compare with the Americans. French also like to eat delicious foods, but they are less disorder than American’s eating habit. French like to eat a small portions, like the author say, “they eat small portions and don't go back for seconds; they don't snack; they seldom eat alone, and communal meals are long, leisurely affairs” Maybe they can control themselves better than Americans.

       In my opinion, a healthy diet habit is so significant to every person. If everybody have a better diet habit, people can live more comfortable and they can live longer. As for me, my diet habit is not very order; I always just eat one time in all day, and I always smock lots of time in every day. Now I always feel very bad, I think after read this article, I should change my eating habit a lot.

       

Dayuan's EE1

Dayuan Zhao

WRIT-1133-27 MWF 12-2

Prof. Eric Leake

04/30/12

Research about Food and Culture: Different Climate Create Different Diet Habit

       Admittedly, every different region have its own diet habit, this diversity originate from lots of different reasons. Maybe this part of land’s unique custom make this group of resident like to eat this kind of food, maybe the history issue make this region’s cocking system has a huge difference from other parts. But in my opinion, the biggest regional issue which can influent the diet habit most effectively is the climate.

       My hometown is located in the north part of China; the temperature is very low in that place it is sort of like the climate in the Minnesota. In my hometown Liaoning province, the most representative food type is soup, because the elder generation think soups can drive cool away. The most popular soup maybe is sour pickled cabbage stewed pork spareribs. When I mention the sour pickled cabbage, most people will be very confused, and cannot know what I am talking about. The answer is sour pickled cabbage is a kind of the unique food in the southeast part of China, when winter is coming, almost every family will begin to prepare to store the sour pickled cabbage. When winter is coming, the temperature is extremely low. That leads people’s diet habit changes. More families will cook some hot soup to keep them warm. They would buy many Chinese cabbages and make them into sour pickled cabbages. The way to do this is very typical as following. You need to buy a big clay jar, and put some water in the jar to help cabbages ferment; then put twenty to thirty cabbages in to the jar. It is somewhat like cheese’s product method. After one and half month, you can open the jar.

The reason why sour pickled cabbage is so popular in my hometown is the winter is so cold; there are no fresh can be ate in this season, so sour pickled cabbage became a substitute. There is an interest thing about sour pickled cabbage is that it cannot cook with any kind of other vegetables in one dish. Put any other staff with sour pickled cabbage with be very strange except meat. My mother is good at cooking this kind of eating material, and she also make some changes with the original cooking method, when she want to cooks sour pickled cabbage stewed pork spareribs, she also puts some fish ball and rice noodle into the bowl, those two things is also what I like to eat, so I miss my mother and her sour pickled cabbage stewed pork spareribs very much now.

       Another place I want to talk about is colder than Liaoning – Russia. Because Russia is almost the coldest place in the world, so the soil in Russia is not good at plant almost crops, this leads food source is fish. Because Russia has an unusual long coastline, the fisher industry in Russia is very significant. When I mention the Russia food, caviar cannot be ignored. Caviar is one of the “three best foods in western world” (another two are Foie gras and Truffles.) “Traditionally the designation caviar is only used for sturgeon roe from the wild sturgeon species living in the Caspian and Black Sea” (from Wikipedia) Russia and Iran monopolize the ninety-five presents of the caviar market in the worldwide. In Bosnian, caviar means roe, strictly speaking; only the sturgeon eggs can be name as caviar. The best caviar is originated in the Caspian Sea where is bordering Iran and Russia. Not all sturgeon eggs can be made ​​of caviar, more than 20 kinds of different sturgeon can be used in the worldwide. Only three varieties of sturgeon which are Beluga, oscietra, and Sevruga’s eggs can made ​​of caviar, the most senior of the Beluga, an annual output of less than one hundred, but also more than 60-year-old Beluga in order to make caviar.

       There are two kinds of caviars which are red caviar and black caviar, sturgeon eggs and cod roe. Red caviar’s price is much higher than black one. The first level caviar is use more than 60-year-old Beluga’s eggs to make; the second level is use more than 40-year-old Asetra’s eggs to make; the third level caviar is use more than 20-year-old Sevruga’s eggs to make. The price of this kind of luxury food is also startling. The first level caviar’s price is 1200 yuan/ 30 grams in China. Caviar has a nickname "black gold”, sturgeon caviar in Moscow, the market price of more than $ 830 per kilogram, in London, England, sold for more than 5000 U.S. dollars per kilogram. That is inacceptable to almost residents. As to me, I never tried any type of caviar, I think that is unnecessary.

History of consumption caviar is also deserved to be mentioned. Speaking of the origin of the caviar, you have mentioned many years ago of an emperor living in Iran’s beach, because of his food preferences, the caviar has become a fashionable food. At that time, many people who were eating caviar are very healthy and strong, since then, Iran's men are crazy hooked on this kind of newfangled food what can gives them power symbol. Thus, for the first time, caviar shows its nutritional value, and get the attention of the world.

The following country I want to talk about is not as cold as those two places. I will talk about a country which is located in tropic region.

       Brazilian barbecue originated in the western grasslands of Brazil. At first, the herdsmen's life are very difficult, does not solve the problem of food and clothing. Bring some difficulties to their life. Later, herdsmen came up with a way to solve them eating and clothing issue. They slaughter their cows and cook them, they use branch to burn camp fire, use willow branch to string those beef together, sprinkle with coarse salt, and use fire to burn it off. The beginning production method is relatively simple, later, pastoralists found it they put some wild vanilla in to the beef, it become succulent, fresh and delicious. Thus, this extraordinary food passed down.

Brazil is the biggest country in Latin America, and the food style in Brazil is very unique. Profit from the big arable land, Brazil can feed the fifth biggest group of population in the whole world. The most famous dish in Brazil is Roast beef. This dish is the most popular one in Brazil; the dish is also an essential element of the banquet when Brazilians want to entertain their superior guests. This kind of Brazil roast beef is different with the regular barbeque beef what we always eat, it doesn’t add seasoning, they just sprinkle some salt on the beef surface, the grease are seeping outside, charred outside and tender inside, this dish has a unique flavor. You can order different parts of the beef, such as thigh, before the haunch, the haunch, cattle peak, steak and tenderloin, there are more than 10 parts are ready for choose. Which part you want to taste, the waiter will cut it and put it into your plate.

Region issue is a big reason to divide which kind of food is group of residents will eat; maybe this kind of crop is very fix for this region, so they always eat it. Maybe because of the custom, they eat this kind of food of a long time, so this kind of food became to them unique food style. Because some persons who live in a place which is far away from home, they also want to try the foods from their homeland, so some Asian restaurant like Jason’s Thai will be so popular in the U.S.

All in all, those three examples can totally tell us climate issue will change the local diet habit a lot, when you stay in a new country, maybe you cannot adapt the new cooking system and materials. But if you can switch your thought, you can find another aspect, which is this kind of diversity extremely adorable. One of the best nature’s gifts is the different environments and different species, our ancestors’ bright mind leave us so many kinds of unique food like Chinese sour pickled cabbage, Brazilian barbecue and Russian caviar. What I already describe is far short of every foods type in the worldwide, but what I want to say is different climate will totally changes the regional food style. Profit from this issue, the types of food around the world can be this rich and we can taste all of them in different regions. If there is just one type of food existing in the world, people’s daily live will become so boring and desperate. I have read a famous Chinese writer’s blogger, he travel to the U.S., he went to Chicago and attend the “TASTE of CHICAGO” and found some kinds of food which are Americans’ like, such as French fries, turkey leg, pizza, cheese cake and barbeque sausage. Every kind of food he mentioned has very high heat, in china, we always be told eat too much heat is not a good habit to body, but in America, less heat will make people feel weak. This is another difference between China and America’s food culture.

first draft of ee1

Dayuan Zhao

WRIT-1133-27 MWF 12-2

Prof. Eric Leake

04/25/12

Research of Food and Value: Different Climate Build Different Diet Habit

         We used to read two articles which are talking about the food in the jailhouse and in Shenzhen, those two articles really inspire me in some way. I think the part of reason why different places have different diet habits is because of climate condition and custom.

         My home is located in Liaoning province, at very high latitude of China; the climate there is similar to Minnesota. When winter is coming, the temperature is extremely low. That leads people’s diet habit changes. We like to eat sour pickled cabbage in the winter to proof cold. Sour pickled cabbage tastes very special. Almost Chinese who live in south part of China cannot even try it; they think it tastes very terrible. It tastes very sour, and the mouth feeling of Sour pickled cabbage is crisper than plain cabbage. It is a fabulous material to make soup. Because pickled cabbage has to make in a very cold environment, thus, southern part of China cannot make it since temperature is too high to make it there. That makes eating pickled cabbage became our unique custom.

         Another place I want to talk about is colder than Liaoning – Russia. Because Russia is almost the coldest place in the world, so the soil in Russia is not good at plant almost crops, this leads food source is fish. Because Russia has an unusual long coastline, the fisher industry in Russia is very significant. When I mention the Russia food, caviar cannot be ignored. Caviar is one of the “three best foods in western world” (another two are Foie gras and Truffles.) “Traditionally the designation caviar is only used for sturgeon roe from the wild sturgeon species living in the Caspian and Black Sea” (from Wikipedia) Russia and Iran monopolize the ninety-five presents of the Caviar market in the worldwide.

         The following country I want to talk about is not as cold as those two places; I will talk about a country which is located in tropic region.

         Brazil is the biggest country in Latin America, and the food style in Brazil is very unique. Profit from the big arable land, Brazil can feed the fifth biggest group of population in the whole world. The most famous dish in Brazil is Roast beef. This dish is the most popular one in Brazil; the dish is also an essential element of the banquet when Brazilians want to entertain their superior guests. This kind of Brazil roast beef is different with the regular barbeque beef what we always eat, it doesn’t add seasoning, they just sprinkle some salt on the beef surface, the grease are seeping outside, charred outside and tender inside, this dish has a unique flavor. You can order different parts of the beef, such as thigh, before the haunch, the haunch, cattle peak, steak and tenderloin, there are more than 10 parts are ready for choose. Which part you want to taste, the waiter will cut it and put it into your plate.

         All in all, different climate will totally changes the regional food style. Profit from this issue, the types of food around the world can be this rich and we can taste all of them in different regions. If there is just one type of food existing in the world, people’s daily live will become so boring and desperate.  

Blog post #5

Dayuan Zhao

WRI-1133-27 MWF 12-2

Prof. Eric Leake

04/22/12

Eating Habit is changing

         According to Horwitz’ article “Eating at the edge”, he use some of points to illustrate every body’s eating habit is changing now. In the past, almost people would like to eat with their family or friend, but nowadays, they prefer to eat along to replace eat with their family or friends. Their eating schedule is also changed. In the past, almost people like to eat with an accurate schedule, but now, they don’t like to eat with an accurate schedule, and they like to eat he they are leisure. In the past, almost social behaviors are person to person, but now, almost are person to computer, they like to eating when they are playing computer or watching TV. He also gives us an example. In the old age, people like to have soup together, but in this time, they prefer to drink them alone, and the soup’s size is also changing, they are single-serving package now.

         As for me, I’d rather to eat alone. Because if you always eat with other person in the college, that will waste lots of times. The benefit is more than that; Chinese people like to entertain guests, which mean pay for the whole price. If you don’t do that, your friend will think you are very niggardly. But if you pay for the whole price, that always not a little amount. So this thing is very hard to choose. If you just eat self, maybe you will feel alone, all in all meal time is a very short time, stay with yourself for a short time is also a good choose.

Short Essay #3

Dayuan Zhao

WRIT-1133-27 12-2 MWF

Prof. Eric Leake

04/18/12

My Favorite Restaurant in Denver: Jason’s Thai

       If you want to ask me which restaurant in Denver is my favorite one, the answer is absolutely Jason’s Thai. Jason’s Thai is a restaurant which mainly provide Chinese food and sushi, the consumer group of this restaurant is DU’s students and local American families, it is located in University Blvd, it is very close to DU. And that restaurant is the one of the restaurant I go to most frequently, I think one of the reasons is I don’t have a car and I cannot go to somewhere very far from DU.

       First thing I want to introduce about this restaurant is the considerate serves. Because Jason’s Thai’s staffs is almost Chinese and the main consumers are Chinese students, so they specially prepared Chinese menus for us and that give us lots of conveniences. When I came to that place for the first time, the Chinese stewardesses are very enthusiasm, if you are an American, they will give you an English menu, if you are a Chinese, and they will give you a Chinese menu. Because DU’s Chinese population is limited, almost Chinese people can be recognized in this place.

       The cuisines in Jason’s Thai are not good enough in my opinion. I think maybe because this restaurant is located in the U.S., and all cooks are Americans, so the Chinese food cannot be cooked very traditional. Another reason is American residents like this “Chinese food” more than traditional ones, so this “fake” Chinese food can be so popular in the U.S., and Chinese people can also accept it. I found a very interest thing in that place. Almost local persons like to order sushi, and Chinese persons like to order Chinese dishes.

        Another element about Jason’s Thai I want to say something is the layout and furniture. The furniture in this restaurant is kind of like Chinese and Japanese style, there are some woodiness chairs with cotton bottoms, and the glass square tables, all of them have some bamboo patterns in the furniture. This is really like Chinese little restaurant’s style. The most interest thing in that place is the sushi bar’s counter. There is a long table in front of the sushi maker’s big chopping board, you can sit on the chair and watch and choose the materials in the glass cover, and tell the chief which one you’d like to put in your sushi. That is really similar to the real Japanese style. And this part is my favorite part of this restaurant.

       The relationship between servers and consumers is very friendly in this restaurant. When I came into the restaurant, a waitress went to me and greeted to me, then she found me a seat and gave me a Chinese menu, asked me “Will you order now or need some more time?” I said more time. Then she nodded and left. When I was ready to order, I just recalled her and ordered. The whole process is very kind, like a conversation between friends. The meals from restaurant are not real Chinese food; I think maybe the reason is their cooks are all American. I think American people cannot cook the real Chinese food, even though they came to china before.

My favorite two Jason’s Thai’s dishes are “Gan Guo Fei Chang” and “Tie Ban Hai Xian”. Those meals are hard to describe in English. “Gan Guo Fei Chang” is a soup dish, it is a little pot is put on a solid alcohol fire seat; the foods in the pot are some vegetables like mushrooms, cabbages, flammunlina velutipes and silk noodles. The main stuff is maybe an astonishing thing in Americans’ mind -- Pig intestine. In my opinion, American cannot accept it. Those things be putted in the pot, then the cook put some water in the pot, add some condiments then a very delicious meal is ready to go. “Tie Ban Hai Xian” is “Hot Plate Seafood”, he cook bake some fresh seafood on a hot plate, with some fresh vegetables like peppers. Then he doesn’t do anything about that, when waitress gives us this dish, some oil are still boiling.

All in all, Jason’s Thai is a really satisfying restaurant to me. Although the foods they provide are not good enough, but they really doing very good serves. I think this fact can reflect the difference between American culture and Chinese culture, American people always proud of serve, but in China, we don’t give waitress any tips, the only way a restaurant to solicit customers is provide better foods. I think that is why Chinese food is so exquisite.           

Resources of short essay #3

Resources of short essay #3

Copyright © HT Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Sri Lanka, March 16 -- Thai food is internationally famous and popular. One of the distinct pleasures of experiencing Thai food is the unique flavour, which is a combination of spices, fresh herbs and lemongrass.

This definitely gives a character to this exotic cuisine.

Hilton Colombo's Spices restaurant will dish out a gastronomic Thai buffet from March 16 to the 22 during dinner which will give diners an explosion of Thai flavours and a taste of different cultures. Guests could experience authentic Thai food prepared by Guest Chefs Pisanu Jikhum and Koson Rueangi from the Hilton Phuket, Thailand.

"As in previous years, we are delighted to fly in two chefs from Thailand. This promotion will also give diners a better insight to Thai cuisine," Marketing Communications Manager Gigi De Silva said.

Locals as well as expatriates are keen to try out different flavours from around the globe and at Spices, we always try to give you 'an explosion of flavours', added Gigi.

Published by HT Syndication with permission from Daily News Sri Lanka.

For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com

Different Dietary Habits Came from Different Environments

Dayuan Zhao
WRIT-1133-27 MWF 12-2
Prof. Eric Leake
04/15/12

Different Dietary Habits Came from Different Environments

According to “Breaking Bread with a Spread’ in a San Francisco County Jail” written by Sandra Cate and the article “The Cultural Politics of Eating in Shenzhen” written by Mary Ann O’Donnell, I recognize that some differences in eating habit are came from different environments.
First, in ""Breaking Bread with a Spread” in a San Francisco County Jail” Cate uses different way to show us the prisoners’ eating habit. Because the food’s type is very limited in the jailhouse, the prisoners cannot eat some tasty foods in their daily life, the most common thing they eat is potato. The dinner time is four P.M., so they always feel hungry in the midnight. According to those reasons, prisoners always use oven to cook something they save from their dinners. They will not eat midnight snack with themselves, they like to “spread” with other people. I think this is a good point to understand the relationship and culture in the jail.
In the second article “The Cultural Politics of Eating in Shenzhen” written by Mary Ann O’Donnell,” she talks about two different groups of Shenzhen’s citizen’s eating habits. One of them is old Shenzhener, they spend their whole life to build their families, they like to eat food in the outside restaurant, and the specific food they like to eat is fish, because fish can make them clever. The other group of Shenzhen’s citizen is who want to survive in this city. Almost of them are young nonnative people, they want to live a good life and take some advantages from this city; they like to eat in a higher grade restaurant.
In my opinion, there are no rights or wrongs about every eating habit; the reason why they are all existing is because of different environments. You cannot say nonnative Shenzhener’ eating habit is worse than old, the only reason is their development process have so many differences. So I think, different environments can bring up different dietary habits.

Reading Junhao's essay

Junhao's essay

According to Junhao's essay, there are some differences between Xinjiang's fruits and Hainan's Lychee. Because Xinjiang's tenperature is very low in the evening, and very high in the noon, this ckind of climate is very helpful to fruit's growth. The fruit from Xinjiang is always sweeter than other province. Lychee from Hainan is a very expensive fruit. I think his essay has the same value with mine. Hainan's fruit is like Red lobster, and Xinjiang's fruit is like Subway, different kinds of food have thier unique consumer.

Short Essay #2

Dayuan Zhao

WRIT-1133-27 MWF 12-2

Prof. Eric Leake

04/06/12

Food Advertisements’ Compare and analysis

            Admittedly, advertising is the most common way to promote productions; food advertising is not an exception. Every food company want to appeal their specific consumers, so they always use suited design and rhetorical function to “conquer the field”. I want to compare two commercials to explain different audiences who decide commercial’s form.

           First, I want to describe is Subway hot dog’s commercial. Everybody knows Subway’s hot dog is very cheap. Every class of people can eat a big hot dog when they are hungry, and they don’t need to concerns about price. Another characteristic about Subway’s hot dog is the size. Even a one foot long hot dog is just five dollars. In this commercial’s beginning part, a spread hand is appears on the screen, that means five dollars. Then some characters like a traffic police, an airline stewardess, a monster and a weather woman are gesticulate one foot long. That means you can get a one foot long hot dog and just need to pay five dollars. In the end part of this commercial, it show us the process to make a hot dog, some fresh vegetables and meats be putted in to the fresh baked bread and the voice-over say “five dollars, any regular foot-long, limited time only.”

 Obviously, this advertisement’s audience is the lower class and students. The food cultures and values this commercial want to emerge is the typical American food value, which is fast and fresh. But what I want to talk about is this commercial is working very well on the appeal their audiences. The core of this commercial is the price of hot dog. Nobody can resist the low price like five dollars. The group of people who will pay attention to Subway’s commercial cannot own tones of money, so I think this is a good example of catch audience’s point.

The second advertisement I want to talk about is a very tasty seafood restaurant – Red lobster. This restaurant is much more expensive than Subway. Seafood is a kind of upmarket eating material, so the commercial of this restaurant has to show the difference to the fast food advertisement.

In the beginning of this commercial, a fish woman is talking about the white house near the ocean, the rocky shore, and the most importantly is the lobster. The tastiest, the sweetest, and the freshest lobster is only thing she catches. Then some fabulous meals are appearing in the screen. The over-voice is introducing the twelve newest meals in this restaurant, such as “Lobster Lover’s Dream” and “Maine Lobster and Shrimp Trio.” In the last part, the core slogan of this restaurant is appearing – “Sea Food Differently.”

In this commercial, no any prices are being showed; the characteristic they want to show is their foods are the tastiest, sweetest, and freshest. Because the audience is different, the rhetorical situation in this advertisement is totally different with Subway’s advertisement. Subway’s advertisement it trying to tell customers “our price is very low.” Red lobster’s advertisement is trying to tell costumers “we are providing the best sea food.” All the differences are born of the different target of the commercial. Hot dog is kind of like working class’s daily food, but even an upper class family still cannot afford lobster’s price if they eat it every day. Because of this reason, different Emphases in the commercial are exist. Like the article “Class Distinctions in Potato Chip Advertising” (written by Freedman and Jurafsky) saying, “The fact that expensive chip advertising is full of comparison (less fat, finest potatoes) and negation (not, no, never, don’t, won’t) suggests that at least one important goal of the image of upper-class food tastes promulgated by food advertising in contemporary America is to distance the upper classes from lower socioeconomic classes and their tastes.” (53) I think restaurant’s commercial is same as chips’.

In short, those two commercials can reflect two kinds of American life style. First one is fast and cheap first, like the Subway’s value. Another one is make everything to best. Like Red lobster’s value. We cannot say which one is right and which one is wrong, every kind of style have their reason to exist. This diversity make our life more colorful, and gustation more joyful.

Advertisement address:

Subway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHIo4VruGZY

Red lobster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKnnB1UhI9g

Reading Response #2

Dayuan Zhao

WRIT-1133 MWF 12-2

Prof. Eric Leake

04/03/12

Food and Socioeconomic Level

                According to Joshua Freedman and Dan Jurafsky’s article, "Authenticity in America: Class Distinctions in Potato Chip Advertising", food is a significant signal of consumers. Joshua Freedman and Dan Jurafsky use twelve advertisements of potato chips to illustrate this claim. Advertisement is the most common way to realize a type of food. Different classes of people are interested in different aspects of the advertisement.

                When the manufacturers want to sell more expensive potato chips, they always use more complicated words to introduce the product. This kind of marketing strategy produced by the upper class does not pay attention to the prize; instead, they always emphasis on factors of natural, healthy, and not artificial or processed. “The fact that expensive chip advertising is full of comparison (less fat, finest potatoes) and negation (not, no, never, don’t, won’t) suggests that at least one important goal of the image of upper-class food tastes promulgated by food advertising in contemporary America is to distance the upper classes from lower socioeconomic classes and their tastes.” (53) Because of the low income, the lower classes concern more about potato chips’ prize. The article mentions about higher mortality rates has been found in last 100 years in the worldwide lower classes.

                The advertisements are attempted to extend the distance between upper class and lower class, thereby positioning different audience groups by providing different prices.  

 (PS: This is the worst potato chips advertisement in the whole world.)