Essay On Food Adventuring And Culture

“Why Everyone Should Stop Calling Immigrant Food ‘Ethnic’” by Lavanya Ramanathan (features reporter) and “Stop Thinking And Just Eat: When ‘Food Adventuring’ Trivializes Cultures” by Ashlie Stevens (food and culture writer) are articles published in the American daily newspaper “The Washington Post” and British daily newspaper “the Guardian”, respectively. Both articles aim to communicate to readers on the connection between food adventuring and culture. Through application of personal experiences, experts’ views and pathos, Ramanathan argues on how the phrase “ethnic food” is labelled to foreign cuisines and the discrimination that revolves around it. Stevens points out how people tend to summarise entire culture of a country to a particular cuisine or food trend through the use of pathos, ethos and credible evidences. Although there is credibility to both authors’ view, Ramanathan’s argument focuses more on emotional appeal while Stevens’s is more logically inclined.

Ramanathan establishes her stand at start of the article by stating

She attempts to associate better with the target audience (citizens of Britain) by explaining the meaning of cultural appropriation and uses analogy such as “sorority girl donning the ‘sexy geisha’ costume for Halloween” (para. 4) The application of her personal observation and pathos aims to appeal to the audience’s emotions and thoughts by stating “it comes down to recognizing that our attitude toward food from different cultures can turn inform our attitudes about said cultures” (para. 6). Credibility is established when the author cites experts’ views, such as the book Edible Memory written by associate professor Jennifer Jordan. Stevens uses logos by quoting parts of the book to provide an understanding on the perception the public has between food and cultural insight and physiological connection among cuisine and