Defining Culture Through Food

Whether your idea of culture is based on religion, heritage, or just family tradition, people organize and define who they are by the foods they eat. Two articles, one written by Roy Ahn and the other written by Geoff Nicholson, encompass two very different cultural backgrounds. Both of these food-orientated articles touch different types emotions from what the authors discuss.

Nicholson talks about the past with a more reminiscent tone with the goal of conveying the wonderful experiences with his mother through food. His fondest memories were those when he was eating cheese, processed white bread, and whole milk with his mother. He bring up the growing societal ideal of the "no-white-food movement", but he ties this into this idea that it doesn't matter how healthy you are eating if the things you eat don't have any tie to your culture or what you believe in.

Ahn's memories of the collision of food and culture grasp a different tone of relief and appreciation. Ahn, a Korean man, is a soon-to-be father married to an American women. Not only did Ahn's parents move to the US with him, he still lives there now; hence his common theme of losing his Korean heritage. He understands how many memories he has of the Korean culture that are related to food. The imbalances in his life that he discusses directly correlate to what food he was eating at the time. Now that he has his child born and his direction in sight, he has the strongest urge to cook Korean food and share his culture with his child.

Ahn and Nicholson are both significantly changed by how they interact with food. This brings the idea up to me that no matter what your culture is, it can be greatly defined by what food is associated with it.  This reminds me of my exceedingly strong Irish decent. My grandmother used to always have corned beef and mashed potatoes in one of the most flagrant accents I've ever heard. No matter where you look, food will forever bring people together and define cultures around the world.