FoOD in our Life.

Food is the ultimate weapon of life. We eat food in everyday life, and appreciate the taste of cultures and experiences of many things. We can think about things like cultures and health while we eat food. We cannot live without food because we get hungry in our body and in our mind. Food can be a great teacher who can teach different cultures of people.

When we think about the strong nation, it is a nation with a strong culture. Within these cultures, we can explore that they have ultimately different food cultures as well. These food cultures act as the representation of each individual country. When we think about Mexico, we think about taco, Korea with Kimchi, Japan with Sushi, etc. We find ourselves involved in these different cultures everyday in life, in the way we eat. Some people eat with hands and some eat with chopsticks. Some have side dishes and some do not. Through these things, we can observe each other’s culture.

In addition, the food has a very strong power. People can gather up in front of food and share opinions while eating. In this busy life, the only place or time that families share their thoughts is at the dinner table. In addition, food makes us happy through the taste. Some people say while they are eating, they think feel like in “heaven on earth.” Also the food makes us healthier in different ways. When we consume a healthy food, the nutrition in the food produces vitamins inside our body.

In our nation, we have many different cultures mixed up together. There are about 33 million foreign-born populations in U.S. and it is increasing constantly. Many people have questions about their identities or their race even though they are born as an American. What would be the responses of those second-generations? Where can they find their identity? I will say it is very simple to categorize them. First, we should not categorize them by their race, but we should categorize them by their cultures. In my opinion, racial identity is meaningless.

Side dishes

We can experience many different things when we think about the cultures of different people. When we have chance to go to Asian restaurant, we often get freaked about the number of side dishes that come along with the main dish. Normally we get what we order in most of our restaurants (places like Sizzlers and Dennys), but at the Korean, Japanese, or Chinese restaurants, we get more than we order. These side dishes make us to not get bored with the food and allow us to appreciate different tastes.

All of the side dishes make us to have a better taste of the main food. We can appreciate many different tastes at the same time. It is like building a sand castle at the beach. When you build a sand castle, the base level of the castle is very important because the castle can collapse with a weak basement. The side dishes take the role of the base level, which it helps us to build a better taste of the main dish. Also often we get tired of eating just one thing that we ordered and wish to eat those of someone else’s. The side dish makes us to not get bored at eating. Many Asian families, which include my family, have dinners with only side dishes because it never gets tasteless.

On the other hand, there are couple sad things that can happen with the side dishes. I remember while I was working at a Korean restaurant. I was the one who served the side dishes. To say about the work simply, it was a disaster. I had to serve about seven side dishes to every table and refilled them when they were completely empty. It was even very ironic how the customers commended for refills rather than asking. Normally I would “ask” for refills rather than commands, but those people were so eager to have another new dish. In addition, some restaurants serve side dishes that were “leftovers” of other customers. It was not just a rumor that I heard, but it is a hot issue that many countries deal with. I feel that these actions crumble the originality of the cultural values.

Kogi Taco

Trying something new is always a hard task. Many people do not risk their choices because they are afraid of failures. When we think about food, we can often see those people whom are afraid of failures. We see them in restaurants, mostly at fastfood restaurants. These people are just tightly focused in a single element, that they try a new thing. I could say I am one of those people because I only order bic-Mac combo when I am at McDonalds. Recently I had a chance to try a new thing it was a thing that I was accustomed with.
Last month, I had a call from my brother. He asked me whether I would like to have a Kogi taco for dinner. I told him ‘yes,’ and waited him for hours. That time, I had some basic knowledge about the Kogi Taco. I was told about Kogi Taco by my English instructor Mr. Tsuyuki, and was ought to appreciate it. I knew that the Kogi Tacos were sold from a taco truck which moves from a city to city and it had a great taste that fascinated everyone. It took my brother two hours since he left for the taco. He told me that the line for the taco truck was extremely long so he had to wait about one hour until he was able to order some tacos. Also he said that there was a certain limit of buying tacos, which made him to purchase only two combos of Kogi Taco. While he was telling me his adventure story, he handed me four burritos that had Kogi inside. Those burritos looked just the same as the regular burritos that we buy from Taco Bells or Del Taco. The only difference was that instead of the dry beefs there were Kogis inside the burrito. It was simply the only difference I could found in this new substance.
I was very disappointed of this new try. This new substance was not in the form that I dreamed of. Rather than better taste, the Kogi taco was just the same as the regular taco. It had just a little more salt and some Kogi sauce.