Holiday Travels

Recipe of the Week: Hello Dolly Bars - currently in my suitcase!

It has always been my dream to travel to the wonder and beauty that is India. And on Friday, I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to do so with my friend Nirali (check out her blog). We will be staying with her family in Ahmedabad, and also traveling to Delhi and Mumbai, for a total stay of 13 days.

And I couldn't be more excited.

But a lot of preparation goes into a trip like this. I had to go to the doctor to have some vaccines and malaria medication, read up on all the places we are going, and, most importantly, pack my bag. I have already packed the basics: my jeans, t-shirts, toiletries, electronics, and all that miscellaneous stuff that I think that I will need. But amongst this plethora of goods, I have packed something that may seem odd.

Food.

Beside my camera and my reading materials in my carry on, I have a package of pretzel goldfish, a box of fruit leather, and a plastic bag of cookies that my grandma made for me. Typical, processed, American snacks.

For some reason, this stuck out to me. Out of all the things to bring to India, why did I feel that need to bring my own food, food that I was comfortable and familiar with? Why did I need the 'safety net' of processed goods? There would be food in India, good food for that matter, but why did I pack my own?

I have decided that in this situation, I unconsciously needed this type of 'safety net' in my travels. I am going to be thrust in an entirely new world and culture, and I needed something familiar to cling to in times of need. They may just be little goldfish, but to me, they can represent much more.

This idea of a 'safety net' is actually something very relevant to Reading Lolita in Tehran. Author Azar Nafisi finds solace in her literature, books that she knows and loves, and uses them as comfort in hard times. While bombings in Tehran are rampant and a potential harm to her family and loved ones, she simply reads. Reading to her, like bringing that food along with me, provides her with comfort and a seemingly safe environment.

Most people have safety nets, but just in different mediums. For me, it was food. For Nafisi, it was literature. We all like to cling to something of comfort and familiarity, so what is yours? What is your safety net?

Peace out, and rock on.

Panda-monium!

Recipe of the Week: Bok Choy with Ginger

Yesterday, at lunch, I was hungry after a grueling math lecture, and needed something filling. So, upon informing my friends of this, we sped off to Panda Express, a fast food joint that serves Chinese dishes. But as I looked through the glass that covered, at the Orange Chicken, the Krispy Shrimp, and the Beijing Beef, I wondered if this food was really representative of traditional Chinese cuisine. Almost everything here seemed deep fried, seemed unnatural, seemed American.

Now I am not one rat on fast food, trust me, I eat it all the time. But something about this lunch at Panda Express stuck out to me. It was labelled as 'Chinese food,' but seemed American enough to me.

Upon minor research, I discovered that Panda Express was in fact not how people in China eat regularly, and no, they don't constantly eat the deep fried Orange Chicken I had craved for lunch. But this begs a deeper question: what does this scenario represent?

The traditions and customs of another country were brought to America, and were adapted to fit its needs and demands. Americans wanted deep fried meat rather than rice dishes, and that is what they got. Americans want fast, easy, and cheap, and that is just what Panda Express has turned Chinese food into. Panda Express shows us the epitome of Americanization.

This may seem like an awful thing, but I don't view it that way. I wasn't going to Panda Express that day to experience traditional Chinese dishes and culture, and I don't think other people do either. I wasn't expecting food from China, I was expecting my normal, deep fried Orange Chicken. As long as people don't go into Taco Bell believing it is just like real Mexican food or Sbarro believing it is Italian food, this Americanization does no harm. It is only when one's expectations change, when they truly believe that are experiencing another culture, that problems can occur.

So go ahead and order the Sweet and Sour Chicken, but know where it comes from, and what it really represents.

Peace out, and rock on.

Muslim Food: Halal

Recipe of the Week: Check out these traditional Muslim dishes!

We just started reading Reading Lolita in Tehran in our English class, a memoir that takes place in Iran under the regime of the Islamic Republic. The book follows an informal class of women who discuss banned literature, such as works by Jane Austen, Scott F. Fitzgerald, and obviously Vladimir Nabokov. The women all have interesting and different perspectives, often discussing issues that they have with their government, the Islamic rule, and how the post-revolutionary world has affected them.

This got me thinking into the food traditions of Islam in general. The Qu'ran gives Muslims a certain dietary law to follow. According to this law, Muslims can eat what is considered to be pure, clean, and fresh. This is refered to as halal, which literally means permitted. Almost all foods are considered to be halal, and can be eaten freely.

The foods that are forbidden are called haram, which literally means prohibited. Some foods which are considered to be haram include pork, alcohol, or any animals that are improperly slaughtered. These types of foods are forbidden to maintain one's purity and cleanliness.

This dietary law is what the women in Reading Lolita in Tehran live by, which may seem distant to us, but these traditions are not extremely foreign in America. In fact, many religions have a dietary code similar to this one, all in hopes of maintaining one's same purity. Food is prominent in one's religion. For example, it is Jewish dietary code to keep kosher, which allows certain foods and not others like that of Islam.

Through this blog, I have hoped to expose the power and influence of food around the world. In this case, we have seen the role of food in religion, and how Islam has reacted to food in the world. Food can determine one's purity, and therefore food is powerful.

Peace out, and rock on.

food talk.

Recipe of the Week: Lazy Man's Pickles Shout out to Blue Kitchen!

Everyone talks about food. Maybe you're so full from your lunch you can barely move, maybe you hit up the new Caribou Coffee in town, or maybe you're craving a chocolate chip cookie right now. Food is so engrained in our everyday conversation, and many of us don't even realize it. That is because sometimes, we aren't always talking about what we ate for dinner last night.

Food is used as metaphor. It is increasingly prevalent in the daily lives of people around the world. Food is a focus for life, and therefore constitutes much of one's conversation and language. Food metaphors are used to describe family, sex, politics, gender, sports, and much much more.

In this post, I am just going to discuss how food is used as metaphor regarding politics. But first, let's discuss the importance of using metaphor. In our English class, we have been focusing on how metaphor is essential to our everyday language. According to George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in their book Metaphors We Live By, we all think and speak in metaphors, and are therefore very influential in our daily lives.

And food is major part of these metaphors. Regarding politics, the most commonly used food metaphor is when one is hungry for power. Now, when a politician is hungry for power, they do not actually want to eat power or have any feeling in their stomach. Instead, they have a craving, a wanting, for power. The feeling that one has when they are hungry for power is therefore similar to one when someone needs food, and craves and wants it. In both cases, they are wanting something to relieve the feeling of hunger, whether it be food or power. Many entities can be hungry for power, such as countries, people, political parties, etc. This metaphor is everywhere.

Now, what does this metaphor imply? The feeling of wanting power is extremely complicated, and can only be described using another feeling, a feeling that is more common to the average person. Not every person will experience a hunger for power, but most people will indeed feel a hunger for food. The experience of hunger is therefore common, and allows more people to understand the feeling of wanting power. Metaphors help us understand experiences, experiences that we may not be able to have ourselves.

If interested, find more food metaphors here. Think about how often you use phrases like these, and how important metaphors, more specifically food metaphors, are.

Peace out, and rock on.

Trick or Treat: a look inside

Recipe of the Week: Pumpkin Pie

Check out this classic recipe to celebrate the season!

Tomorrow, thousands and thousands of children across the country will run home after school, proceed to rip the pillowcase of off their bed, and return hours later with it filled, happy as ever. It's the one day of the year that mom will allow them to eat as much candy as then can shove into their face. It's a holiday revolved around food.

Because of the upcoming festivities, I'd like to call your attention to this article from the blog the Blue Kitchen, one that I highly recommend for my fellow foodies. It covers a ton of material, but I'm going to focus on just the part about Halloween. However, still please read the entire post.

Halloween originated from a Celtic holiday called Samhain, literally meaning the end of summer. The Celtics believed that on this night, the souls of the dead would return to earth. Check out more on the history of Halloween here. Flash forward hundreds of years, and you have a completely different holiday. The religious aspect has nearly disappeared. Now, Halloween is noted for the costumes, the candy, the parties, and the haunted houses.

Food has become the center of this day. The Blue Kitchen states almost unbelievable facts on the amount of candy consumed and produced. Pounds and pounds of chocolate, candy, and ultimately sugar.

So what is the role of food here, anyways? Does it take away from the traditions and religious observances of its native history? Does it modernize the holiday? Does it reflect our changed and still changing culture? Think about it.

Personally, I agree with the Blue Kitchen. Halloween is the epitome of our food-obsessed culture. We have an entire holiday dedicated to candy and sweets. However, I don't view this as a negative thing. It shows how food has dominated an entire day of our lives, and its power is immense. It brings many people together, of all ages, to come and celebrate the pure joy of sweetness.

There are positives and negatives to this upcoming holiday. We've heard my opinion, and one from the another blog, but I'd like to know how you fell about it. What role does food play in Halloween?

Chew on that.
Peace out, and rock on.

Happy Birthday!!

Recipe of the Week: Ice Cream Cone Cakes

Tomorrow, I will be celebrating my 18th birthday, legally entering the realm of adulthood, so I thought it would be appropriate for this post to be about the subject of birthdays, and the food associated with them. This recipe is a classic, and entails cake inside of an ice cream cone. Try it out!

Turning 18 grants me a whole new world of opportunity. I can buy a lottery ticket at the 7/11 around the corner. I can vote. I can drive till the wee hours of the morning. I can finally order that Magic Bullet off of the infomercial. But, as of right now, I am not thinking of these new freedoms. Instead, I am thinking of the food.

On Monday, I must bring food for both my class and my swim team. I will most likely go somewhere special for lunch (probably Noodles and Company) and celebrate with my family by having cake for dessert. This is how I celebrate birthdays. But how do other people?

In the book discussed last post, The Poisonwood Bible, one of the narrators, Rachel, is upset that she is spending her birthday in the Congo without gifts and without cake or ice cream. The birthday traditions of her hometown in Georgia aren't practiced, and ultimately can't be practiced in the Congo. There are different traditions to partake in, and different foods to eat.

Upon minor research, I have learned that most cultures appreciate birthdays, and each have their own way of showing it. Check this link out for the specifics. Yet throughout all these different cultures and regions of the world, food seems to be a common thread. In China, birthdays are celebrated with long noodles that symbolize a long, successful life. In Holland, children eat pancakes topped with powdered sugar. In Brazil, people enjoy fruit-shaped candies.

Food unites us all. We all need it; we all depend on it. This week, I encourage you to think about the real power that food has.

Peace out, and rock on.

It is the center of life.

Recipe of the Week: Chip-on-Chip Cookies

Welcome back! From now on, I'm going to start off each post with a recipe of the week (give or take) before actually delving into the meat of the post that I would encourage you all to try at home. First off, I made these cookies for my swim sister for our meet this week, and they turned out great! Instead of salt, you use 3/4 cup of crushed potato chips! How weird, but still solid cookies.

In my English class, we began reading the novel The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, generally about this family from the bible belt who moves to the Congo in the time of the Belgian's rule. During this time in the Congo, and still today, food is limited in most of the country. According to the book, the Congolese rely on a food called fufu from the manioc, or cassava plant. Fufu is a thick, pasty like substance with little to no nutritional or substantive value. However, this food is essential to the Congolese diet. In fact, according to the book, it is also essential to the Congolese life. The novel puts it simply, "It is the center of life" (Kingsolver). The cassava plant provides the Congolese in the story with a sense of abundance in times when they have little. In short, fufu is the center of life.

So what food is in the center of our own lives? The center of American life? Do we have a locally grown fruit, vegetable, or any other crop that is vital to our existence? I encourage you to think about this, and how it impacts you.

In my case, I am lucky enough to have an immense variety of food at my disposal, and my own life does not revolve solely around one all powerful food. However, it is still interesting to hear how food influences other cultures and their own ways of life.

So think about what food is the center of your life.

Peace out, and rock on.

The FIRST Post..

Welcome to the Food Mood, a blog about all things food! I find that the most appropriate way to start this blog would be to address its title: The Food Mood. What exactly does this entail? No, it is not just a dumb rhyme. It is actually about the mood that food can create, that feeling of excitement and anticipation and desire and joy, all the emotions that food can cause. Food, in all its glory, can be powerful.

Now, this might be a weird way of describing something that is so basic and so common in our everyday lives. But that is just what this blog is set out to explore: the overall influence and power of food. I will posting once every one to two weeks for my high school English class on this overall lens of food. I hope to use this blog to connect to many other, more intellectual, such as global events, literature, and even international relations. There is more to food than one would think.

Simply put, I love food. It actually makes me happy, the whole experience, from the smells to the tastes to the way it brings people together. I love to try new tastes and flavors, to go out to eat, and to have family dinners. Now, I'm not addicted to food, don't get me wrong. In my spare time, I also love to swim with my high school team and generally just to be outside. I care deeply about the environment, and enjoy listening to Coldplay.

Finally, I'd like to give a shout to the inspiration of this blog, my grandma. She is a blustery woman in her late seventies, and is a self proclaimed foody. A foody, she says, is someone who really cares about food, who gets excited about it and really appreciates all that is has to offer. Her cooking is divine, often consisting of several courses, and I love eating with her. The most impressive thing, however, is not her French silk pie or her chicken and dumplings. It is her ability to take the time and really appreciate everything on her plate, every item and every flavor.

In this blog, I hope to bring out the inner foody in all of us, and overall help us realize and connect the true power of food.

Peace out, and rock on.