HW 6 - Food Diary

ANALYSIS is after the pictures and descriptions.

9/28/10 - Dinner + Some Snacks 

Descriptions and Circumstances for the the foods I ate on the 28th of September: Above are boiled flat noodles.  I don't eat them without some kind of sauce, preferably oyster sauce.  The sliced mushrooms with scallions tasted both sweet and sour. The chicken was plain with no added sauce and in turn, made me wince because there was no sauce.  The chicken I eat, must have some kind of flavor.  The White rice felt a bit dry and tasteless but I don't mind the texture. The juice that squirts out of the lovely purple grapes onto your taste buds leaves a cold sweet taste.  Warm or room temperature grapes don't taste as delicious as cold grapes taste. The rice crispies bar looked sugar coated to the maximum and left me drooling. The shiny layer of the rice crispies looked appealing. The boiled veggies were thin and stringy.

9/29/10

Above is Penne Pesto pasta.  The color is sickly green and unappealing but, after you get past the color and taste the food, you won't heed the color anymore.  The shreds of cheese on top of the sauce makes me want to chew even faster so I can get onto the next bite.  The sauce is thick and warm that urge you to utter the words, "mmmh". / Next are boiled veggies.  The color is a vibrant green.  I really love the taste of the stems.  I always bite the stem first and then eat the rest of the piece.  The shine of the oil just makes it more appetizing.

Above is a dish of Chicken with Mushrooms.  The mushrooms had a slippery and squishy texture.  There are also some crunchy peanuts.  The color palette of this entire dish is very brown and beige. /   Fish with ginger and scallions.  I don't eat fish without some kind of sauce in it.  In this picture, there isn't any.  I'd usually eat it with soy sauce.  Without any kind of sauce, fish is ultimately tasteless to me.

Mayo Potato Egg Salad.  This entire dish includes things that I think taste good.  Eggs, boiled or scrambled, are delicious.  Potatoes, in general, are filling and fun to bite out of.


I wen't a little over my average intake of 1414 calories for each of the two days.  The amount of calories I intake vary from time to time based on several variables.


ANALYSIS:

     Though my love for picture taking prevails, I have never taken so many pictures of food in my 15 years of youth until these past 48 hours.  Through my camera lens, I found that the balance of my diet doesn't derive fully from my choosing and preference.  When I am alone, without people to criticize my food choices, walking on par with the fast pace city of New York, I'd choose Penne Pesto over a caesar salad without a hint of hesitation.  Obviously, nutrition isn't big in my line of sight when I search for foods to eat, therefore, I don't usually spend my money on pricey gourmet salads.  At home, dinner is served and made by my mother and whatever is on the table around 6pm, is a suitable dinner.  In my second day of photographing the foods I eat, I acknowledged that every dish was boiled or steamed, not one fried or roasted.   I do not choose to take a daily dose of healthy boiled or steamed foods but rather I impulsively accept my mothers healthily cooked foods.  It has been this way for as I as I could walk. 

     The physical appearance of foods had never phased me.  I had known for a while that even foods that were placed beautifully on a plate, didn't mean the food tasted as good as it looked.  Although I am aware of this, the sickly color of a food doesn't stop me from inching away, just wondering, "What could have given the food such a ugly color?"  As fascinating as colors may be, I prefer the experience of food rather than using my sight to evaluate the quality of food.  As I skimmed through the pictures I took of my food, the first thing I thought about was the texture and sound of each food when I bit into it.  When I devour a chicken piece, I have to gnaw at the piece a few times before the taste becomes distinguishable and consumable.  The elasticity of the chicken's skin is an obstacle because I must permeate through the skin to be able to consume the flavors.  The experience of food is questionable.  What plays a bigger role in how I distinguish whether a food is good or bad, the texture or the color?  Would it matter if my chicken was neon blue but had the most wondrous taste? 

     I'm not so much worried about how I feel after I eat foods but, how I am feeling as I eat the foods.  I value the present and moment when eating foods.  Maybe a stomach ache is a consequence to pay but, at the time, the food I eat serves a delicious purpose.  After coming to grips that my choice of food, is not entirely my own, I feel food may be the most significant thing that brings people together.  My experience of food may not be what it is all put out to be because everyone's experience and point of view is different but, inter-related at the same time.  Ironically, I have learned more in depth about my ritual of food eating but also have feelings of disappointment because my choices of food were not entirely my own.