P2: What You Eat is Who You Are

Both authors see the significance and difference among different cultures and food.

 The author of “Home Run” connects his identity as a Korean to how he cooks and the types of food he eats. As a child, his mother would cook for him strictly Korean dishes, thus where he learned to love such food. However as a teenager (a time where fitting in is a #1 priority) he pulled away from his Korean identity, and in turn Korean food. He states he does not want to carry the stench of garlic and meat on him everywhere he goes, and the family goes so far as to buy a separate fridge for him to store more American foods.  When his parents died in a tragic car accident and he began to cook for a restaurant, he found his pride in his ethnicity and his Korean influences in his food both increase. He attaches his cultural identity to the food he eats and honors his parents by vowing to raise his son up eating Korean food, thus making him Korean also.

            The author of “Eating White” also honored his mother by eating foods that she enjoyed and cooked often. His family was from London, and he discussed the types of cheese and bread that the British typically eat, and his mother cooked these to please his father. He talks about the way her cooking changed to all white foods after his father’s death. The author had a theory about his mother’s attraction to all white foods. He believes it was because during the war they would usually ration foods such as milk and bread, so these items became rare and rewarding in her mind. Also she was catholic and he believes the purity symbolism the catholic religion places on the color white subconsciously attracts her to “purify” her body.

            This was an interesting theory, and when the author described his experience of eating a communion wafer I realized my own connection to the same type of food. I love bread, and I use love instead of like for an honest emphasis. Usually the bread at the beginning of dinner consists of about a third of my whole dinner. When I dine out with my family they take one piece and split it amongst themselves and pass the basket to me! And I always remember being this way. It does make me wonder if all of the images and emphasis of importance on bread I saw and heard during church services (that my parents brought me to even as a baby) influenced me into loving bread. Then I considered my community, a small agricultural one where roughly 85% are from direct German ancestry but also mostly Catholic or Lutheran, and realized our tastes are more the meat, bread and potato kind.  This also must have influenced me and my eating habits, which I am glad to say, have shifted to include more vegetables and fruit now that I make my own choices. But I noticed that, going home for spring break, the meals my mother cooks mostly include meat and potatoes and “white food”.  So I believe the authors assumption is right, religion must play a role but culture does also.