Monday, September 16, 2013

Class 2: 16/9/2013 M1/2 and MAG1 Food Lecture

Today in class we continued our discussion about food cultures around the world, here are some of the things that we talked about.


We took a short test to figure out how much we know about food customs around the world.  Decide if these statements are true or false.



Table Manner Test - University of Illinois by Darla Binkley and Marjabelle Stewart

1.       In Japan, it is acceptable to slurp noodles.  True
2.       Burping after a meal is a compliment to the hostess in Asian cultures.  False
3.       In Germany, it's acceptable to tuck your napkin into your shirt collar.   False
4.       In Australia, it's okay to eat certain foods off the knife.  False
5.       The European style of eating is to hold the fork in the left hand and push food onto it with the knife, which is held in the right hand.  True
6.       In Great Britain, small foods like peas and corn are eating by squashing them onto the tines of a fork. True
7.       At a formal dinner in the United States, youth are served first. False
8.       When eating picnic style in the United States, it is acceptable to lick ones fingers.  False
9.       In Chile, it is considered bad manners to eat food, except ice cream, on the street.  False
10.    In Samoa, the fingers are used to eat instead of utensils, licking the fingers is acceptable.  False
11.    Eastern cultures wrap both hands around the teacup while drinking from it.  True
12.    When a guest in someone's home in Columbia, it is impolite to overeat.  True
13.    In Bolivia it is considered polite to eat a small portion of each type of food offered.  True
14.    Traditional Indonesian families use silverware to eat their food.  False
15.    In El Salvador, it is polite to leave a little food on the plate.  True
16.    In France, it is impolite to have your hands under the table during a meal.  True
17.    In the Chinese culture it is impolite to taste every type of food prepared.  False
18.    There is lots of conversation during a Korean meal.  True
19.    When a guest in Switzerland, the best way to compliment the host is to take second helpings and eat everything on the plate.  True
20.    In the Middle East, people eat only with their left hand. False


We then discussed these customs and what they can mean for different cultures.

History of Food:


  • lIn the beginning humans ate what they could find.  Hunter-gatherers
  • lAs humans became more developed, more sophisticated cuisine styles arrived.
  • lFood intake was often based on location and what was available. 
  • lThen technology such as canning, refrigeration, etc. changed the way we eat.
 
Why is Diet Impacted?
  • Religion
  • Health
  • Choice
  • Location
  • Income
To understand how income can affect food we watched this video:


Then we discussed food traditions and weddings.   Food is very important during celebrations, weddings included.  We can see in France that champagne is often served at weddings to celebrate a marriage. 

Fruit Cake --> England
Bread breaking tradition --> Greece
5 Jordan almonds --> Italy
Greeted with milk --> Morocco
Rice --> Thailand
Whole roasted pig --> Philippines


For homework you need to read the article below and answer the questions so that you are able to discuss it in class with the rest of your classmates around you.



Hold the Relish

A lab-grown burger excites hopes but not taste buds

Photo-illustration by Marcus Gaab for TIME
Article shortened for use


True beef or not true beef? That is the question two volunteers masticating a burger in front of an invited audience in a London theater attempted to answer Aug. 5. Developing this version of the global fast-food staple in a laboratory had taken three months and eaten up £250,000 ($331,400)...
Schmeat--or "cultured beef," as the patty's progenitor, Mark Post, a professor of physiology and biomedical technology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, calls it--is the culinary product of stem cells harvested from a cow's shoulder and lab-nurtured into strips of muscle. It's hailed by proponents as a potential solution to several juicy existential problems. The demand for cheap meat has been met at a high price to the environment--contributing greenhouse gases and diminishing biodiversity as ever more land is given over to feed crops--as well as risking human health and animal welfare. In Britain, beef eaters have experienced some of the downsides of industrialized farming and food production: an epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy that spiked in the early 1990s, a foot-and-mouth epidemic a decade later and, this year, the revelation that the "beef" in certain prepared foods was actually horse meat. Schmeat production, if scaled up enough to bring prices down, could help feed the world and reduce some of the pressures on the planet.
The quest to develop in vitro meat is ridden with apparent contradictions. Can this most processed of processed foods be healthy? Is it possible to solve problems created by our greed for meat by making more meat more cheaply? Post's work is lauded by some vegetarians. "Our goal is to promote foods that don't use animals at all," says Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal-rights organization. "But enormous swaths of the population can't bring themselves to become vegan, so it's logical to support in vitro meat if its goal is to reduce suffering."
But if this really is the food of the future--and the most optimistic estimates suggest schmeat won't make it into supermarkets for 10 to 20 years--it will have to overcome "the ick factor."
"If consumers don't accept it, it won't work. It will end up having been a science experiment," says Cook, who flew to London for the event and believes the technology is "worth a look."



Vocabulary
to be hailed by someone - être salué par qqun
ridden - affigé
lauded - loué; glorifié

swaths - partie
ick - berk



Questions
1.       How is "Shmeat" made?
2.       Why are current methods of generating meat bad for the world?
3.       What are the problems with Shmeat?
4.       Why is PETA a fan of Shmeat?
5.       Would you eat Shmeat?  Why/why not?
6.       Do you think this is a viable option for the future?
7.       Should Shmeat replace all other forms of meat?

 

 

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