lydiayu-posts-blog - Tumblr blog

[lydiayu-posts-blog]

Theory of Writing

For me, writing has always been the most challenging thing amongst all of the subjects I’m required to learn at school. I think the reason is that one could never find a right answer to how a good writing is look like. Every person has his or her own opinion and thought about writing. They might resemble in some way but none of them would be exactly the same. Therefore, it’s hard to just use an exam to evaluate how good one’s writing is. It means that I couldn’t simply rely on my good memory to deal with writing; instead, I have to pull from my knowledge on different fields, resort to my past experiences, reach deeply into my heart so that my writing is presented in my own voice. These hidden requirements are all challenging tasks, and they really take a large amount of time (this may be a whole life) to achieve or even just improve in a little scale.

Having been taking one full year of standard writing in collage, I feel that not only has my skill of writing improved but it also changes my point of view on writing. Previously, I really hate writing since it’s hard and it is always associated with exams. This means that students should write a large number of words under a super short time limitation, and most importantly, students are often driven to write what the professor like so that the grade would be decent. These limitations have made writing, which is already very hard, even more boring and annoying. It is until taking the writing class that I find writing is not for anybody else but for the writer himself or herself, just as what I’ve claimed in one of my research journals, “When it comes to writing, it doesn’t refer to only the action of “writing”. It is a whole process of observing, researching, thinking, discussing, organizing, and finally writing.”

Also, it is permissible to make mistakes and not be perfect when writing. In order to get high score in writing, I always asked myself to write perfectly at the very first time. However, when in the writing class in collage, nearly everything I write has been drafted over and over until the final project has to be done. This really gives me a sense of relief that I could always revise my writing. On the other hand, it also reminds me that there’s never a right or perfect answer to writing. When going through the writing, there’s definitely going to be something that need to be changed and reflected on every time, just as what Higgins (2011) has said, “The process of reflection is of critical importance in terms of management development as it allows one to critique taken-for-granted assumptions, in order to become more open to differing ways of inquiry, points of view opinions and behaviors.” I always tend to have bias on things and kind of insist on single aspect of things. However, those taken-for-granted points of view as Higgins (2011) refers to should be examined, questioned, and revised constantly.

Besides reflection, the most important and valuable thing I think that I’ve learned from the writing course this year is write in one’s own voice. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I was a student who always wrote to please the professor in order to get a decent grade. However, I ignored the concept that writing is always for oneself. Trying to write like others do and being so unconfident about my own writing have made me struggle every time when writing. As what Freese (2013) has said, “By voice, I think they mean not only a unique way of putting words together, but a unique sensibility, a distinctive way of looking at the world, an outlook that enriches an author’s oeuvre. They want to read an author who is like no other. An original. A standout. A voice.”, writing should be something that comes out naturally and distinctively. Because there’s not a right or wrong answer to writing, the perfect writing is the one when the writer chooses to follow his or her heart and stick to his or her original thinking.

Finally, the maps I’ve done in the writing class have again expanded my horizon on how interesting writing could be. I seldom tried to conceptualize how I think of writing in the forms other than words. I found it really challenging to convey one’s idea without words. However, after using some special ways like doodling, cutting, and clipping to express my theory of writing, I think that my creativity has somehow improved. Through doodling and cutting pieces from random magazines, I couldn’t plan ahead for a long time before actually writing down something. Instead, I should go with what I come up with at the specific moment and try to construct my idea in an untraditional way. Creativity is so important for writing since it is always exciting to see something that never exists before. With countless master pieces already existing in the world, one needs to make good use of his or her creativity to create works that have never been seen before.

As what Perkins and Salomon has mentioned, “Metacognition must not be a reflection only on a task just completed but also on the problem-solving tools used for completing the task, including the deep structures of the task or the broad concepts (mental grippers) that provide ways of mapping new information and new tasks using existing knowledge.”, writing isn’t something that should appear only in the writing classroom; instead, it allows me to become a more skillful and well-rounded presenter in all my other classes and situations I encounter in my daily life. Quoting from what I’ve written earlier for my Tumblr post, “It is because of the fact that how hard writing is that it’s worth my constant and substantial effort to try to get along with it.”, although I still have plenty of room to improve as a writer, I appreciate myself to work so hard through my writing journey, and I would take all I’ve gained from this class to continue thriving as a person.

[lydiayu-posts-blog]

Inquiry-Based Research Essay

What Are the Differences Between American and Chinese Cuisine?

Introduction                                                  

People could not live without food. In spite of the fact that people eat every day, seldom do they ponder how the food they consume is related to the cultural background of where they come from. How does the food in a specific area taste differently currently from before? What processes have been gone through before a dish is served on the dining table? Seeking answers to these questions would make the action of eating not just consuming some food, which is indispensable because it supports people’s life, but it allows people to get a deeper and more thorough understanding on their own culture. According to Yang (2017), “Food dish is the sum of material wealth and spiritual wealth by the Chinese people in the long term dietary practice activities, but also an important window for foreign guests understanding China.” Similarly, McWilliams (2014) claims, “In many respects, the culture wars that we wage over what food means in America today come down to how our diet might mature into something dignified, authentic, and readily identifiable.” These two statements indicate that despite the fact that people usually refer food and the action of eating to simple enjoyment rather than things with profound and extensive cultural implication, such as art works, architectures etc., food might unexpectedly be something that could guide people to a journey which is rich in historical and cultural meanings of different parts of the world.

As a student studying abroad, I’ve found that the food in America is hugely different from that in my hometown, Taiwan. The differences range from the taste and smell to the ingredient contents and cooking methods and processes. Even though I usually see Chinese restaurants in America, the food which is sold here tastes significantly different from that is sold in my hometown’s restaurants. For example, the Chinese food in America tastes much sweeter and oily than that in Taiwan. It is made by sauce which people in Taiwan or China don’t use. Moreover, many items in the Chinese restaurants here couldn’t be found in the restaurants in Taiwan or China. Many of the Americanized Chinese dishes served in restaurants are adapted versions of authentic Chinese foods, and some are complete inventions. One of the most notable Americanized Chinese dishes is Chop Suey, which is composed of leftovers and a thick sauce. Though this is a beloved American dish, it is not traditional Chinese food – not even an adjusted version (“Chinese Home”). Asakawa (n. p.) also mentions in her article, “All Asian cultures seem to serve a form of egg rolls --- small tubes of meat or vegetables rolled in a wrapper. Chinese spring rolls are light and small and come in translucent wrappers. The concept of bigger egg rolls deep-fried in a thicker skin was invented in America.” Both statements have demonstrated the fact that although both called “Chinese food”, the one that is created in the U. S. is almost in no way resembled what people eat in Taiwan or China. On the other hand, the authentic American food I’ve had in the U. S. is significantly different from the American food I’ve had in Taiwan. There are some items which I could always find in Taiwan’s McDonald’s while they just don’t exist in the McDonald’s in America. For example, corn soup or hamburgers with bread of cuttlefish and beetroot flavors.

Noticing these phenomena has intrigued me to dive deep into the topic of the differences between American and Chinese cuisine, which is my research topic. I would like to conduct research on why these differences exist, the cultural background behind them, and how do people from America, China, Taiwan, and other countries view these differences. By researching based on these subtitles, I hope to give my audience a glance into the stories behind American and Chinese cuisine.

Methods

I’ve chosen mixed method to conduct this research, which means that both quantitative and descriptive data would be collected through the process. I conduct the research in three ways, which are survey, interview, and observation. For the survey, I create 11 questions related to the tastes, cooking methods, and nutritious values of Chinese and American cuisine. By asking these questions, I could get a clear idea about how people from different parts of the world think about American and Chinese cuisine. Are they healthy? How do they taste? Which of them do people prefer more and why?

For the interview, I created five questions to discuss with my interviewees. I interview two people, Paula Flynn, a graduate piano pedagogy student at Lamont; she is originally from Wyoming, and Ashley Chou, a Taiwanese housewife who has been living in America since 2009. I choose to interview these two people because they are both a mother of a household and have the habit of preparing meals for their family. There’s one of my interview questions which is: Have you tried authentic Chinese/American cuisine before? Do you prefer authentic American/Chinese cuisine or Americanized Chinese/Asian-American cuisine? For this question, I asked Mrs. Chou if she has tried authentic American cuisine before and whether she prefer authentic American cuisine or Asian-American cuisine because she is a Taiwanese. On the other hand, I asked Mrs. Flynn if she has tried authentic Chinese cuisine before and whether she prefer authentic Chinese cuisine or Americanized Chinese cuisine because she is an American.

For the observations, I went to several American-Chinese and authentic American restaurants in Denver. For the American-Chinese restaurants, I went to Panda Express at Cherry Creek Mall and Yum Yum Spice on University Blvd. near DU. For the authentic American restaurants, I went to Park Burger and Snarf’s Sandwiches. I took notes of how the food tasted and smelled in these restaurants. I also rely on the experiences when I went to authentic Chinese and Asian-American restaurants in Taiwan. I choose to record the experiences when I went to Lao Dong Beef Noodle in Taipei because this is the restaurant I visited most frequently when I was at home. As for the Asian-American restaurant in Taipei, I write based on the experiences when I went to Mos Burger in Taipei since this is there’s one just down by my house; therefore, I usually have its breakfast. Finally, I watched One Hundred Tastes in Taiwan, which is a TV series introducing delicious food in Taiwan. Every episode features a certain restaurant. These restaurants are often not restaurant chains which are on a big scale; therefore, the manager of the restaurant often has to double as the chef of it. By watching this TV program, not only could I go through the process and internal struggle of running a restaurant with the people who open the restaurant, but I could also view the whole process of how its most popular dish is produced from scratch. Watching cooking competitions is also a part of my observation. MasterChef is my favorite U. S. TV series. The program clearly records the cooking methods and processes every competitor used and went through to create the dish. Moreover, by listening to the comments of the judges, I also learn some vocabularies of describing the flavor of the food and gain some knowledge of how to make every element in a dish taste delicious.  

Results and Discussions

Preference

According to my survey result, there are 78.1% of Americans taking the survey, which is the majority of my respondents; there are 19.1% of Chinese people or Taiwanese take the survey and about 3% of my respondents are from the countries other than America, Taiwan, or China. Surprisingly, despite the great disparity of the number of Chinese people or Taiwanese and Americans who have taken my survey, the data of the preference to these two cuisines is relatively even. There are 42.9% of my respondents who like Chinese cuisine better, and 57.1% of them like American cuisine better. My last survey question is a short description question in which I ask my respondents why they like American/ Chinese cuisine more? Among 157 responds I get, most of my respondents indicate that they like certain kind of food because this is what they grow up with so that they’re used to it. This kind of respond could also be inferred from the content of my secondary research. Lv. and Brown (2010) have records in the journal that one of the participants of their experiment has said, “Our kids like Western dishes better than Chinese dishes. But we have already formed our dietary habits. It is hard to change. We can eat Western dishes once or twice a week. We can’t eat it often.” The second common respond which is found in my survey is that many of the respondents think that Chinese cuisine has a lot more variety than American cuisine does. Therefore, they like Chinese cuisine better. Same discovery could also be found in my interview. Mrs. Flynn has said that she prefers Americanized Chinese cuisine to the authentic Chinese cuisine since she is used to the American flavor. Differently, Mrs. Chou says that she loves authentic American cuisine better than Asian-American cuisine. The reason she gives is that she likes to experience the true flavor of a certain kind of cuisine. She thinks that the Asian-American cuisine has been altered too deliberately to meet what Chinese people are used to. What she has said could be observed clearly when I dined at Mos Burger in Taiwan. There are various flavors of rice burger, which is a hamburger whose bread is replaced by rice, sold in Mos Burger. This happens because people in my country are used to having rice as staple.

Cooking Methods

In general, most of the respondents think that American cuisine is produced by grilling (92.1%), roasting (70.2%), and baking (82%). I’ve gained basically the same respond from my American interviewee, Paula Flynn. She has mentioned that she often uses cooking methods like baking, roasting, and smoking to prepare her meals. Similar discoveries have been found in my observations. When I was watching MasterChef U. S. series, the desserts the competitors have made are often gone the process of baking. For example, they’ve made a lot of cakes, pies, and tarts. As for the protein portion of the meal, the meat is often roasted, for example, roasted chicken or lamb. On the other hand, the majority of the respondents think that the most common cooking methods used in Chinese cuisine are stir-frying (90.5%) and steaming (79.9%). I’ve found this result correlates to what I’ve seen during my observations. When I was watching the TV series, One Hundred Tastes of Taiwan, the chef stir-fries almost every dish.

Nutrition Contents

The most significant discovery in this section is that people generally think that American cuisine is lack of fiber (73.2%). On the other hand, what people think is lack of and rich in the Chinese cuisine is relatively even; however, it could still be inferred from the result that people tend to think that Chinese cuisine is lack of fat. In my survey, there aren’t many of the respondents think that Chinese cuisine is rich in fiber (23.3%). However, both of my interviewees have said that the reason they think Chinese cuisine is healthier than American cuisine is because Chinese cuisine contains more vegetables. There are about half of the respondents in my survey think that American cuisine is rich in carbohydrate, which kind of correlates to what Mrs. Flynn has said in my interview, “My father usually eats only breads and meat for dinner.” “When our family dine out, even though in a Chinese restaurant, my husband and sons all order dishes with bread.” An interesting finding is that there are only 8.9% of the respondents in my survey think that American cuisine is rich in protein; however, when I did my observation by watching MasterChef U. S. series, the dishes the competitors make often contain a large portion of meat.

Flavor

The majority of the respondents think that American cuisine tastes strong and heavy, while there are only about half of the respondents think that Chinese cuisine tastes strong and heavy, and the other half think that it tastes light and mild. The addition discovery is that there are a few respondents stick to the answer which indicates that how heavy the flavor is depends on how the food is cooked. This discovery implies that it is sometimes really hard to describe definitely whether a kind of cuisine tastes heavy or light. No matter the general impression of the American cuisine is that it tastes heavy, one could still modify the flavor by altering the cooking methods. The result correlates to what I’ve found in my secondary research. According to Bernstein (2017), “The flavors and textures resulting from each cooking technique vary – as do the wines that best pair with the final dish.” Adainoo (2018) also mentions in his post, “So, we use one cooking method or another on it to change its appearance, flavor, taste or even to make it last longer than it would without cooking.”

Additionally, Mrs. Chou has mentioned in the interview that the flavor of Chinese cuisine in American is often enhanced by using sweet and sour sauce which doesn’t exist in traditional Chinese cuisine at all. What she has said is totally same as what I’ve discovered in both my observations and secondary research. When I went to Panda Express, there were many items on the menu like orange chicken, sweet fire chicken breast, broccoli beef, and honey walnut shrimp etc. 

Broccoli Beef

Orange Chicken

These are all dishes that I’ve never saw in the restaurants in my hometown. Since I don’t like sweet food, I chose broccoli beef, which I think might not be as sweet as the other dishes. However, when the dish is served, I could see sauce all over the beef. It is really different from what I’ve thought before since I only think that this dish is beef and broccoli stir-fried with oil and salt. The taste is also much sweeter than the similar cuisine I’ve tried in my hometown. The second generation of a Chinese family in American in my secondary research has also discovered the fact that the Chinese food in the U. S. contains many ingredients which doesn’t exist in traditional Chinese cuisine so that the flavor is also significantly altered. Asakawa (n. d.) records what New York Timesreporter, Jennifer Lee, has said, “The food we were eating in China in some ways resembled what my mom cooked, but in no way resembled what we ate in American Chinese restaurants.”

Influence

In the interview, Mrs. Flynn has mentioned that the deep-fried culture in the U. S. has influenced the Chinese cuisine in America a lot. In America, she found that the meat in many Chinese dishes are deep-fried. I’ve found what she has said is true when I was doing my observation. When dining at Panda Express, I could taste the crispy texture in the meat, which indicates that it has already been deep-fried before being stir-fried with vegetables and sauce. Not only does the Chinese cuisine in America is influenced by the U. S. dining culture, but how and what people dine in my hometown are also influenced by westernization. According to my secondary research, Banna, Gilliland, Keefe, & Zheng (2016) have pointed out that traditional Chinese diet which is characterized by high intake of plant-source foods has been influenced by Westernization, “This global trend has transferred the traditional Chinese diet which are eaten following certain meal times and food with high nutritious value to a dietary habit that people eat between meals at any time of day or night and consume food that is high in refined carbohydrate, added sugars, and fats.”

Producing Process

In this section, Mrs. Flynn thinks that it takes more time to prepare American cuisine than Chinese cuisine. She elaborates her thought by saying that people cook every element in the American cuisine in separate pots while people just stir-fry everything in one big pan when preparing Chinese cuisine. This answer is similar to what I’ve discovered in MasterChef U. S. series. In the TV show, every competitor has multiple pans and pots on their desk. They cook the broth or gravy on a pot, prepare other raw materials in different containers, and baked or roasted the meat in the oven. On the other hand, Mrs. Chou gives the opposite answer. In her opinion, Chinese cuisine requires a relatively longer time to prepare than American cuisine does. She elaborates her thinking by saying that in traditional Chinese cuisine, people eat rice with many side dishes. Every person on the dining table has one bowl of rice and there are many plates of sides on the table for people to take the amount of food they want to their own bowl. For this reason, Mrs. Chou says that although one could stir-fry many materials at once, there are so many plates of sides. Therefore, she needs to spend a large amount of time in the kitchen to cook plates and plates of food. The situation Mrs. Chou describes completely matches what I’ve seen in the TV series, One Hundred Tastes of Taiwan. The chef of a restaurant has to stir-fry so many different dishes in a short amount of time, especially when there’s a national holiday. For example, different generations of a whole large family usually dine together on Chinese Lunar New Year, which makes restaurants be filled with people. In the show, every table has about ten to twenty people, and they order ten or more plates of food.

Limitations

I have to admit that the results I present is not objective and accurate enough since there are some limitations I’ve encountered during the process of conducting the research. First of all, the time limitation of a quarter, which is only ten weeks, has made me feel really difficult and stressed to conduct a whole and thorough research like this. I think that my understandings on my subject aren’t thorough and complete enough for me to conduct a research. Therefore, it has taken me a long time to set up all of my survey and interview questions. Even though, I still feel that the aspects my questions have covered aren’t comprehensive enough. Second, since how food tastes could be a really subjective topic, I already have my own bias and so do my interviewees and respondents. For example, I always have an expected answer in my mind when I’m interviewing people. Also, my American interviewee, Mrs. Flynn, seldom tastes Chinese cuisine. Even though she tastes it, it’s hard to find an authentic Chinese restaurant in the U. S. Therefore, she doesn’t know quite clearly about how traditional Chinese cuisine tastes like, and it becomes a little hard for her to compare between authentic Chinese cuisine and Americanized Chinese cuisine. Third, my survey has resulted in having 78.1% of Americans while only 19.1% of Chinese people or Taiwanese respond. This would also affect the accuracy of my research results since the number of Americans responding exceeds that of Chinese people or Taiwanese, the whole view of point of my survey might be lean mainly toward how Americans think about these two cuisines.

Appendix A

Survey Questions:

·     Where are you from?

America

China or Taiwan

Other

· What kind of cuisine do you like more?

American cuisine

Chinese cuisine

· Which of the following do you think are common cooking methods in American cuisine?

Grilling

Simmering

Stir-frying

Roasting

Steaming

Marinating

Baking

Braising

Other

· Which of the following do you think are common cooking methods in Chinese cuisine?

Grilling

Simmering

Stir-frying

Roasting

Steaming

Marinating

Baking

Braising

Other

· Which of the nutrient contents do you think American cuisine is rich in?

Protein

Fat

Carbohydrate

Fiber

· Which of the nutrient contents do you think American cuisine is lack of?

Protein

Fat

Carbohydrate

Fiber

· Which of the nutrient contents do you think Chinese cuisine is rich in?

Protein

Fat

Carbohydrate

Fiber

· Which of the nutrient contents do you think Chinese cuisine is lack of?

Protein

Fat

Carbohydrate

Fiber

·  In general, do you think American cuisine tastes strong and heavy or light and mild?

Strong and heavy

Light and mild

Other

·  In general, do you think Chinese cuisine tastes strong and heavy or light and mild?

Strong and heavy

Light and mild

Other

· Based on your answer to Question 2, why do you like American/Chinese cuisine more?

Appendix B

Interview Questions:

·     Do you like Chinese or American cuisine better? Why?

·     Which of these two cuisines do you think is healthier? Why?

·     In the U. S., in what way do you think Chinese cuisine is affected by the culture of America?

·     According to Question 3, have you tried authentic Chinese/American cuisine before? Do you prefer authentic Chinese/American cuisine or Americanized Chinese/Asian-American cuisine?

·     Whose producing process of these two cuisines do you think would require more time? Please elaborate your thinking.

References

Banna, J. C., Gilliland, B., Keefe, M., & Zheng, D. (2016). Cross-cultural comparison of         perspectives on healthy eating among Chinese and American undergraduate students. Journal of BMC Public Health. doi: 10.1186/s12889-016-3680-y

Chen, Lindsey N. H. (2017). Of authenticity and assimilation: Names of American Chinese restaurants. A Journal of Onomastics, 66, 3-13. doi: 10.1080/00277738.2017.1344458

Chinese food not from China. (n. d). American Association of Retired Persons. Retrieved May 16, 2018, from https://www.aarp.org/food/recipes/info-2014/american-chinese-food.html

Chinese home cooking vs restaurant cooking. (n. d). What’s Cookin’ in NYC. Retrieved May 16, 2018, from https://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/rosenberg14/chinese-home-cooking-vs-restaurant-cooking/

Engler-Stringer, R. (2010). Food, cooking skills, and health: A literature review. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 71(3): 141-5. doi: 10.3148/71.3.2010.141

How common cooking methods affect your food and how to fix the bad? (2018). Stay Well Now. Retrieved May 16, 2018, from https://www.staywellnow.com/post/how-common-cooking-methods-affect-your-food-and-how-to-fix-the-bad

How different cooking methods change the taste of food? (2017). Wine Enthusiast. Retrieved May 16, 2018, from https://www.winemag.com/2017/08/25/how-different-cooking-methods-change-the-taste-of-food/

Lv, N., & Brown, J. L. (2010). Chinese American family food systems: Impact of western influences. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 42, 106-114. doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2009.04.005

What makes American cuisine American? (2014). Pacific Standard. Retrieved May 16, 2018, from https://psmag.com/social-justice/makes-american-cuisine-american-72942

Xiao, M. W. (2014). Ecocriticism and national image in 舌尖上的中國(A bite of China). CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 16.4. Retrieved from https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2417&context=clcweb

Yang, X. L. (2017). Study on translation of Chinese food dishes. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 7(1), 1-7. doi: 10.4236/ojml.2017.71001

[lydiayu-posts-blog]

Lit Review

What Are the Differences Between American and Chinese Cuisine?

Introduction

The ten sources I’m analyzing contain various information and knowledge of food, from the naming process of a dish to people’s daily diet habit, from how westernization has impacted traditional Chinese food to how traditional Chinese food is produced from the very beginning process of fetching the raw materials. The diversity among these sources has amazed me on how a thorough research could be conducted based on food, which people consume every day without even thinking where it comes from and how it is transferred into the form which people see on the daily dining table. As an international student from Taiwan, I choose to explore the differences between American cuisine and the food I usually consume in my hometown among various food types.

Health

“Health” has become the issue people concern about the most recently. To be healthy, the most important two things people should pay attention to are the life style and the food they eat. In a research targeting on the comparison of perspectives on healthy eating among Chinese and American undergraduate students, the researchers found that both Chinese and American students consider food such as vegetables and fruits as nutritious, while the one such as burgers, chips, and pizza are things that taste good but harmful to one’s health (Banna, Gilliland, Keefe, & Zheng, 2016). Banna et al. (2016) have also pointed out that traditional Chinese diet which is characterized by high intake of plant-source foods has been influenced by Westernization, “This global trend has transferred the traditional Chinese diet which are eaten following certain meal times and food with high nutritious value to a dietary habit that people eat between meals at any time of day or night and consume food that is high in refined carbohydrate, added sugars, and fats.” This phenomenon has implied that how easy it is today for countries in different parts of the world to connect with and influence each other, and due to the fact, people have easier access to the food they “like” while not “healthy”. The same idea is brought out in another research of Chinese-American family food systems (Lv. & Brown, 2010, p. 106-114). According to the result Lv. and Brown (2010) found in this research, many parents reported that their children had learned to like some problematic Western food and snacks after enrollment in American day care, kindergarten, or school. One mother said, “After they went to day care… they started to like American food… As I said, they like to eat sandwiches, pizza, and this kind of food.” In a study examining the naming practices of 423 American-Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles County (Chen, 2017, p. 3-13), Lindsey N. H. Chen (2017) also mentions the alternations and influences on traditional Chinese cuisine which adopt to American tastes by saying that much of the food was Americanized though, altered to stratify American tastes or to make the best use of the local ingredients, “New recipes too, such as Walnut Prawn, Fried Crab Wonton, and General Tso’s Chicken, were invented in the process. Like fortune cookies, these “Chinese-American recipes” are unheard of in China.” The three sources all represent that the originally healthy dietary form in China has been impacted by the trend of westernization. The food Chinese people are consuming now has contained more oil, single sugar, and people use the cooking method of deep-frying more often.

Ingredients

Besides the types of food people choose to eat, westernization also influences the ingredients used in the Chinese cuisine. This is the reason why although there are numerous Chinese restaurants in America, the Chinese cuisine they produce is significantly different from the traditional Chinese cuisine. According to “Chinese Home Cooking” (n. d.), many Americanized Chinese restaurants substitute traditional ingredients with those found in the local areas, “Rather than featuring vegetables, such as rice, noodles, and soybeans, Americanized Chinese foods focuses on meat, using rice and vegetables as side dishes.” This difference exists because the Americanized Chinese food is made to satisfy Americans’ taste and preference, and most of them view meat as the most important element in a meal. The similar discovery has been found on beef and broccoli, a popular Americanized Chinese dish. Jennifer Lee has mentioned, “While China is one of the largest growers of broccoli today, it’s not a Chinese vegetable (as cited in Asakawa, n. d.).” These two sources both indicate that while all being called “Chinese cuisine”, the materials of a dish are different in a drastic way based on where it is made in, which clearly represents the situation that people from China or Taiwan often feel unsatisfied after dining in an Americanized-Chinese restaurant because what the restaurant serves is not at all the food they often eat back home.

Cooking Methods

Speaking of the taste of a dish, not only does the ingredients have an impact on it but the cooking method is also a key factor to influence the flavor of a dish. According to Adainoo (2018), the main “advantage” with boiling and simmering is that there is no increase in the calories (or energy content) of the food. Bernstein (n. d.) has also mentioned the similar idea, “Simmering can give a “clean” flavor that more flavor-intensive methods don’t.” Although these two sources focus on totally different themes, they both agree with the idea that cooking methods could alter the nutritious values and flavors of food. This fact gives a rough expression on what I’m going to dive deeply into in my research, which is that cooking methods could change the texture and the extent of how heavy or light the food might taste.

Cultural Background

When eating, few people pay attention to the cultural background of the food they are consuming. However, every cuisine has its own story. Why is this cuisine made with this/that kind of ingredients? Why do people use a certain cooking method to produce this cuisine? How does a dish gain its name? The answers to these questions are all related to the cultural background of this food. In the same study examining the naming practices of 423 American-Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles County (Chen, 2017, p. 3-13), Chen (2017) has claimed that of her total sample, there are 83 American-Chinese restaurant names contains information on the restaurant specialty. For example, Chen (2017) has pointed out that at the restaurants named Duck House, Duck Queen, Tasty Duck, and Happy Duck House, one could find an assortment of duck dishes. She has also listed some restaurant names which contain the word “noodle” and made it clear by saying that rice and noodles are considered staple foods in Chinese meals. Similar to the discovery in this study, another study focusing on translation of Chinese food dishes has stated that literal translation method of naming a Chinese dish follows the rules of word formation (Yang, 2017, 7, p. 1-7). Yang (2017) has given an example of roasted duck with sweet paste. According to his description, the raw material of this dish is duck, the dressing is sweet paste, and the cooking method is roasting. By using literal translation to name a dish, foreigners would have no difficulties understanding the tastes, ingredients, and cooking methods of the dish by simply see the name of it. Both sources above have proved that although people manage a restaurant in places other than their hometown, which kind of requires them to adapt to the culture of another country, they still try to find ways to connect with their root culture. I would elaborate this idea in my research by mentioning how the first generation of Chinese people who immigrate to America have often formed their dietary form already, and they feel hard to eat western cuisine frequently.

Producing Process

Same as the cultural background of the food, people often have no idea on how the food they’re eating is produced from the very beginning procedure of collecting raw materials to the last step of being served on the dining table. The producing process of a dish is usually a complicated or even very tiring and difficult progress. Moreover, the producing process of the food kind of relates to a country’s culture in some certain ways. For example, life style. In an elaboration essay of A Bite of China, a popular Chinese television series in 2012, Xiao (2014) has given an example by recording one of the episode featuring an old man collecting sea weeds when the tide is out. According to Xiao (2014), although it is dangerous when the tide is coming in, the old man has to accept some risks to get a good harvest. Xiao (2014) has noted that the reason why this old man is doing all these live-risking jobs is simply because Chinese people like to eat seaweed soup to help relieve the heat in the hot weather. This description indicates that the older generation of Chinese people live in a very natural way. They retrieve what they want from nature and don’t include something that is already prepared or packaged in their daily meal. On the other hand, according to a literature review on food, cooking skills, and health, Engler-Stringer (2010) has noted, “Decade by decade, the proponents of packaged-food cuisine worked tirelessly to make it the center of American cookery.” Engler-Stringer (2010) has also pointed out that time scarcity, the juggling of household tasks and responsibilities, the convenience of food, and some other personal, social, and economic factors, such as cost of food, knowledge/skill, and education are all parts of the cause of this phenomenon. These two sources demonstrate the striking difference of life style between the modern and the older generation. With the improving technological development nowadays, people tend to live in a much more fast-paced way. Nowadays, convenience has become the prominent factor people concern about of their lives.

Conclusion

As a necessity of people’s daily life, food could also be explored in multiple facets. It is something which would connect to people forever no matter how the world evolves. Looking into these ten sources has reminded me again that food is indispensable not only because it supports people’s lives, but it also contributes to the variety of culture and gives people a hint on how their life pattern has evolved. The original intention I conducting this research is because of my love of food. After going through all ten sources, I also want to give my audience a glance to the culture of where I’ve grown up and where I’m studying currently. Moreover, I expect that I could arouse people to pay more attention to their health through my research results. The methods and processes of how the authors of these sources conduct their research have enabled me to expand my horizon of this topic and given me a clear direction on how I’m going to start my own research.

References

Banna, J. C., Gilliland, B., Keefe, M., & Zheng, D. (2016). Cross-cultural comparison of         perspectives on healthy eating among Chinese and American undergraduate students. Journal of BMC Public Health. doi: 10.1186/s12889-016-3680-y

Chen, Lindsey N. H. (2017). Of authenticity and assimilation: Names of American Chinese restaurants. A Journal of Onomastics, 66, 3-13. doi: 10.1080/00277738.2017.1344458

Chinese food not from China. (n. d). American Association of Retired Persons. Retrieved May 16, 2018, from https://www.aarp.org/food/recipes/info-2014/american-chinese-food.html

Chinese home cooking vs restaurant cooking. (n. d). What’s Cookin’ in NYC. Retrieved May 16, 2018, from https://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/rosenberg14/chinese-home-cooking-vs-restaurant-cooking/

Engler-Stringer, R. (2010). Food, cooking skills, and health: A literature review. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 71(3): 141-5. doi: 10.3148/71.3.2010.141

How common cooking methods affect your food and how to fix the bad? (2018). Stay Well Now. Retrieved May 16, 2018, from https://www.staywellnow.com/post/how-common-cooking-methods-affect-your-food-and-how-to-fix-the-bad

How different cooking methods change the taste of food? (2017). Wine Enthusiast. Retrieved May 16, 2018, from https://www.winemag.com/2017/08/25/how-different-cooking-methods-change-the-taste-of-food/

Lv, N., & Brown, J. L. (2010). Chinese American family food systems: Impact of western influences. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 42, 106-114. doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2009.04.005

Xiao, M. W. (2014). Ecocriticism and national image in 舌尖上的中國(A bite of China). CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 16.4. Retrieved from https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2417&context=clcweb

Yang, X. L. (2017). Study on translation of Chinese food dishes. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics, 7(1), 1-7. doi: 10.4236/ojml.2017.71001

[lydiayu-posts-blog]

Vignette

“What a delicious dish1” “The food really makes me salivate!” “This fabulous food really makes me come alive again!” The well-known restaurant is chock-full of people even during the week day. Tables and Tables of customers savor their dishes and couldn’t stop praising the food which just travels through their mouth.

As a student abroad, food with the flavor from home only appears in every night dreams. Even though walking into a restaurant which has a signboard boldly indicating “China Taipei”, the food still tastes way too far from the flavor which has been lingering in my mind for so long. Now, sitting in the restaurant which in many people’s thoughts seems to have the most authentic Chinese food, I still think that there’s something different from the unique flavor which represents my hometown; there’s something just not matching the best flavor in my mind, though I couldn’t specifically point it out.

Well, of course I’m not going to say that American food doesn’t taste good. The large portion, the richness of oil and sugar, it is really comforting to have a meal like this when feeling down. However, when being away from home for such a long time, anything that relates to home is valuable and would make people really yearn for it. Both the desire to have a hometown meal and finally having the chance to try authentic American food have intrigued me to do some researches on how the food from these two countries are different from each other. Why is the Chinese food in America so different from that in my hometown? Does that somehow related to any specific cultural background? How do people from different countries think of these two cuisines? How do the cooking methods affect the flavor or taste or even nutrient value of a dish? What is the most common materials seen in Chinese and American cuisine? These questions are just so ready to be explored. Also, I hope that through the research, I could let people who aren’t familiar with Chinese or American cuisine have a rough understanding on the cooking methods, main ingredients, and cultural background of these two types of food. For me, food is the best consolation in the world. If food is so important for me both physically and mentally, why not doing some researches on it and tapping its goodness in a deeper and more comprehensive way? After all, through researching this topic, I could get bonus to eat at places other than the dining halls of the university, whose food I’ve already super tired of.

During the entire process of my research, I’ve gone through countless difficulties. For example, the super short time limit of ten weeks to conduct a research including observations, survey, and interview, writing the literature review for the first time in my whole life, generating an essay of 12-20 pages using language which isn’t my mother tongue, and of course, constant writer’s block which I’m encountering right now. With all these obstacles, I’m so glad that I’ve persisted until the end of the quarter and gotten all the work done. Through this research journey, I not only taste some really delicious food and watch many shows and pictures of finger-licking cuisine, but I also learn how to be a real scholar. I’ve learned that the notes taken during the observations should be rough but clear rather than detailed, analyzing the data should be more of synthesis instead of setting forth the findings, and how to present all my findings using the tone of writing a peer-reviewed article, which is objective and detailed, etc. All these challenges have required me to step out of my comfort zone. During the entire writing class this quarter, I’m encouraged to do things that I’ve never done or associated with writing before. As a writer, I’ve gradually learned that writing is not just generating a large number of words in order to form an academic paper, rather, it is closely connected to many aspects of people’s lives. As what Dr. Kt told us, “Conduct the research on a topic you want to research, not on one that you think is easier to do or the professor would be more willing to see.”, this writing class not only teaches me how to conduct a research but also how to transfer the knowledge I’ve learned in the class into practice in the issues and situations in my daily life.

This digital portfolio records the following in detail: my purpose of conducting this research, processes I’ve gone through, methods I’ve used to complete the research, and finally, the overall results I’ve received. With the fortune to research what I’m really interested in and passionate about, although I still have a lot to improve in my research, I could feel that I literally write in my own voice. Throughout my whole portfolio, I view myself as a writer instead of student. I dare to say that this is the first time I do the assignment for myself rather than the professor. It’s no doubt that I’ve broken down a few times during the stressful process, but with the constantly exciting challenges and the delicious food, it’s so worth it to go through this journey and I’m proud of myself that I’ve made it to the end.