Oxtail Soup Summary

One of the most recognizable, charismatic and relatable poets of our time is Kevin Young. What makes Young the poet that he is? He has unique way of drawing comparisons with food and his emotions/feelings. In doing so, his poems create an image in which the reader will easily comprehend. In addition, Kevin Young uses a heavy dose of similes. These similes provoke images that are intended to describe the setting, mood, or tone. Lastly, Young has adopted a couplet or triplet style of writing. All these ways has given Kevin Young a unique modus operandi that’s highly relatable and enjoyable to read.

Lily Wong, in her article about food, entitled “Eating the Hyphen,” states, “Perhaps this combination (ketchup and dumplings) has something to do with the fact that since both my parents grew up in the States, we’ve embraced many American traditions while abandoning or significantly modifying many Chinese ones” (95). Wong expresses how being a Chinese American has affected her life in a positive way. Wong eats some of her food Americanized, with ketchup, but also eats food that the majority of American’s would not touch (i.e. jellyfish and sea cucumber). Comparatively, Wong eats dumplings (which derive from the Chinese culture) with a fork, knife, and ketchup (which are all culturally American). Geeta Kothari, who wrote the article, If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I? which shows how extremely difficult it was to attend an American school while being a descendent of the Indian culture. Kothari states, “[…] my mother buys the tuna, hoping to satisfy my longing for American food. Indians, of course, do not eat such things” (443). Kothari expresses her struggle to adjust and learn American customs while being an Indian American. Furthermore, by eating what Americans would eat, such as tuna in a can as other children did at school, Kothari felt it would bring her closer to the American lifestyle she longed for. Learning self-identity through food is an important part

Showing photographs of food that they have or have not seen before and reading stories about food can also create knowledge of new food in the children’s mind. As a result, the children learn that there are different types of food, their knowledge of food will enrich and new knowledge of food will begin to form.

For the second piece of poetry for the semester, I wrote a piece called “Cranberry Sauce: The Most Overlooked Part of Thanksgiving”. It is a piece that is embodied by the spirit of Thanksgiving, as that is a time when it is easy to see the inner workings of family and it’s a time where’s there a surplus a food and an ease of connecting the two. With the main focus, still being on family and food, they work in tandem, as some of the food represents different aspects of a traditional family. There was an influence on this work that came from the assigned readings and that lies in Kevin Young’s “Ode to Pork”. I say that as the poem’s both tend to focus more on the food side of the story but through that we can still see descriptions and find underlying meanings beneath the talks of

The subject of food films that display “Otherness” to reach out to a bigger public. In recent times “numerous food films focus on ethnic families” to not only show the people a lifestyle, but also to bring communities together. In films such as Soul Food, Tortilla Soup, and What’s Cooking displays different types of culture, but can bring people to come to relate to them. She expresses herself by saying that our culture has a “hearty enthusiasm for ‘foreign food’ that is supposed to hide the taste of racism”. Laura’s thought on how food films with that kind of display bring people of different cultures together is true because I have seen it with my life. It has brought closer together our culture and has given us a bit more of an open mind to it. I agree that exploiting “Otherness” in films is great because it makes people feel comfortable in different environments. It helps other feel safe and have something in common. “Otherness” in food films truly help us as a community unite as a whole and have great things in

In the book Year of Impossible Goodbyes Sookan changes immensely. She goes from someone who is afraid and fragile, to someone who is independent and proud of her accomplishments.

For Diana, food has been a core value of her life and the making and consumption it has brought her closer to many people. It represents not only a snack or meal, but a connection to America while she’s away or it evokes a feeling of closeness between her and the rest of her family. In the book the Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber, Diana has to constantly transition between friends, schools, countries, and how to act. She finds some assistance through the consumption and making of food. The food present in her daily life is a metaphor for something bigger such as love and can bring people together or tear them apart. The presence of food in this book represents how Diana’s life can cause turmoil for the better or worse, how it can put

Food is the material object that people have the most intimate contact with on a daily basis. Most people are almost constantly preoccupied physically and mentally with food. Not only because it is a vital part of human life, but also because it is a threshold to different cultures. People spend time with food preparing meals everyday and thinking about what to eat for lunch or dinner, but beyond simple human obligation, eating has important implications on how people think of themselves, and mainly how they relate it to a specific culture in which they are a part of. Food and cultural identity both form a strong bond, as it is depicted in A Tiger in the Kitchen, by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan. The state of diaspora, or assimilation into another culture, and the desire to preserve memory of one’s identity through taste, is a condition many immigrants face as memories of their past shun upon them. Food can sometimes create a barrier between cultures, as many people are reluctant to eat food that is

Throughout society, technology is rapidly being engineered to serve human commands. With numerous developments emerging, they provide a great efficiency in the work field with the use of machineries and equipment. With a specific authoritative order, these high tech, intricate electronics are beneficial in factories, the production of automobiles, lifting crates, assembling toys, manufacturing microchips, and more astounding mysteries. However, as these technological developments progress, it is rapidly manipulating the minds of humanity. This matter has triggered many individuals to share their perspective on this controversial subject. In Janet A. Flammang’s “The Taste of Civilization: Food,

Within the book, Schlosser’s control of language and use of personal style allow him to amplify his writing. By using the different aspects of language, including point of view, syntax, figurative language, imagery, and irony, he supports and vividly expresses the horrors of the different parts of the fast food industry.

General Tso’s chicken is a Chinese-American deep-fried, chicken dish served in a sweet and spicy sauce. This movie follows the titular dish, proposing hypotheses for the origin of the dish. Additionally, the movie follows the invasion of Chinese food in American culture and the acclimatization and modernization of the cuisine into American lifestyles. The General Tso’s dish is unrecognizable by native Chinese, but is somehow ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants in America, with pizza being the only dish more pervasive than it. In the 1850s, due to xenophobia and the Chinese Exclusion Acts, the Chinese had a tough time fitting in the American culture: white mobs destroyed Chinese lives and forced Chinese out of labor. Eventually, as a result of

The article titled “Why everyone should stop calling immigrant food ‘ethnic’” by Lavanya Ramanathan (2015) delivers stand against ethnic food in American is a proof of culture appropriation. And “Stop thinking and just eat: when ‘food adventuring’ trivializes cultures” article by Ashlie Stevens (2015) centres the thesis on the idea that food trend is a practice that people do not appreciate food with its context. They are published at the Washington Post website and the Guardian website, respectively. Both authors share perspectives that food adventuring is a form of culture appropriation. Even so, Stevens is more persuasive as source of information as she engages in strong use of ethos and has better supporting statements to strengthen her stand.

In, “Here Everything’s Possible”, Lad Tobin explores his own relationship to food by reflecting on his mother’s food-related habits and behaviors. While Tobin may consider himself a simple foodie, Tobin’s mother’s life revolved around food. A person with the same obsession that Tobin’s mother had would understand her audacious need for a good meal, even at the cost of her life. Although Tobin grew up with a love for food

Eat, a verb that means to put food into your mouth and chew or swallow. It’s not that easy, there is a whole process in order to get food, whether cooked or not it still has a certain procedure. When we eat, it’s when the body and mind to act as one, emitting emotions that go through a whirlwind and pure satisfaction or distaste could be felt. “We are what we eat”, we are that apple we had for breakfast or that tasty chocolate crepe for dessert. According to Plato, “the soul both pre-existed and survived the body, going through a continual process of reincarnation of transmigration” (Philosophy Online) The state of two parts, a dualism or binary opposition where the mind and body coexist and complete each other in order to gain a full satisfaction

—The last time I was this excited about anything, and I mean anything, was when a friend invited me around to roast a piglet he had bought. That was until a few weeks ago. The editor will tell you that on that day I nearly bit her hand off when she offered me the opportunity to host a column in this fine magazine. I thanked God, for at last I’d have the chance to engage with an ever-growing audience of foodies. I can finally live out my tantalizing daydreams and feed my ravenous nightmares. (Such is my reverence for food that I don’t think it blasphemous to use the Lord’s name in its context).