My Year of Meats

     I read what (for me) was a new, genre-bending type of book this week—My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki. The book’s main characters are both women, Jane and Akiko. Jane is a young Japanese-American filmmaker hired to produce a TV program for the American meat industry called My American Wife, a Japanese cooking show. The aim of the show is to sell American beef to Japanese homemakers. Akiko, a traditional subservient Japanese wife, is a viewer who, to please her abusive husband, follows the recipes and cooks the meats she sees on the show. Her husband is a Tokyo-based representative for the Texas beef industry and a big fan of beef.

     I loved both characters, but Akiko was the one who stayed with me after I finished reading My Year of Meats. I think she is a victim of sexual discrimination. As different as she can be from Jane, Akiko is subservient and timid, and her husband berates her and yells at her; at other times, he ignores her and sometimes hits her. But Akiko accepts this abuse as normal married life. As she dutifully watches the show and cooks the meats for her husband, Akiko’s life begins to change. It is her first introduction to another culture and another way of life for women. Akiko begins to envy the lifestyle of American women and begins to question her own lifestyle. She eventually leaves her brutish husband and changes the course of her life. I liked this character and how she took charge of her own life and destiny, and changed her mind about the traditional role of the Japanese housewife.

     While the story is told with humor and with warmth, there are serious arguments about race, class, gender, and even the economic and social ethics of eating meat. The first director of My American Wife wants to cast only Caucasian women who cook only beef. Think All-American. He isn’t interested in America as a multicultural nation, and multicultural dishes aren’t on the menu either. They’re looking to sell America in general and American beef in particular. When the show eventually includes some multicultural dishes and even a lesbian couple, the viewer reaction is hot, and ratings climb. I think the charm of America is its multiculturalism, and I’m not alone in this view.

     My Year of Meats is a fictional novel, but it has a realistic tone and important themes that should not be ignored. I would highly recommend this book to others, men and women, Americans and Japanese, and anyone who cares about race, cultural differences, class, gender, and the ethical treatment of animals.

 

"Man vs. Food" Infinite Food Challenges!!

     Today I want to introduce a strange TV show that’s airing on the America Travel channel—Man vs. Food. Adam Richman, a self-educated food “expert,” is the narrator. He travels all over America, introducing famous restaurants and unusual foods. He mostly visits restaurants that specialize in large portions, and he accepts challenges to eat at all of them.

     A friend introduced me to this program, so I watched a few episodes. The episode that I watched today features Adam visiting Mallie’s in Detroit, Michigan, where an amazing hamburger is on the menu. This restaurant usually makes 10-pound burgers, but Adam went there to eat a 190-pound burger. It took three men to handle the 210 pounds of meat and put it into a 30-inch pot. The size of the meat was almost the same as a car tire! Then they put the pot into the oven and cooked the meat for 16 hours. Next, a 20-pound hamburger bun was made to hold the meat, and it was topped with 10 pounds of cheese, 15 pounds of mixed vegetables, 4 pounds of crispy bacon, 3 entire heads of lettuce. It was unbelievably huge!

     Watching a few episodes of this program really surprised me. Most of the food that is featured is greasy and unhealthy and contains an exorbitant number of calories. I couldn’t help worrying that Adam would suffer from heart disease. I’m a Korean, and we usually eat light and non-greasy food. We often refer to greasy foods like pizza and hamburger as American food. In the past, we ate American food occasionally, but now we eat it often. Therefore, obesity is not only an American problem—it’s a worldwide problem. Obesity is spreading much like an infectious disease. Today we know that many diseases are caused by obesity, such as heart disease and diabetes. It’s time to recognize this problem and work to change it. I hope that we can turn to programs that find healthy and fresh food that nourishes us instead of greasy and high-calorie food that sickens us.

"The Omnivore's Dillemma"

     When I read the first few pages of the book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michale Pollan, I thought it was very interesting. But after a few pages more, I felt this book was just not so interesting. This book contained so much information that we do not know. Before I read this book I was kind of a carnivore; I love to eat meat and did not want to eat veggies. However, when I read through this book I was shocked. I never thought about how food and meat are processed, but now I am trying to avoid fast food. Also, I was shocked that organic industries exist because I thought all” Organic Food” was from personal farms. I went to KFC last week and I enjoyed the meat but it suddenly occurred to me how the chicken was processed, so I stopped eating. However, I do not want to avoid eating meat because I do not think all meats are harmful.

 

    The book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” is a very thoughtful book. I learned so much information about food from this book. It was a little unfamiliar at first, because this book was my first book about food. But I think this book tells us not just about the problems with food; it tells us about our society’s problems. I already recommended this book to my friends and if I the chance, I want to strongly recommend this book to other people.    

     Nowadays, many people are enthusiastic about being vegetarian because of their health and the environment. I understand that the killing of animals for our happy meal is not understandable. However, most animals are edible. They are grown to be eaten, so I think this is not an immoral thing. I do not want to support the carnivores, vegetarians, or Omnivores, because all they have individual tastes.

     I learned many things from this book and am very happy I read it. This was a good time to look at my eating habits. Therefore, I think it is memorable and I highly recommended this book.  

"Whole Food Market" the New World!

     In the beginning, I wondered if I had gone to a Whole Food Market before. I finally remembered that I had gone there one time with my friend. It was my first time going to an organic store, so I was quite excited. I asked my friend why she so often went to Whole Food Market and she said that she tried to buy her meals and food there because of her health. She also admired the Whole Food store. I don’t have a car and the store is too far from my house, so I can’t easily go there. I often go to the Safe Way or Target to buy food, but she said that the quality of food at Whole Food Market was much better than at the other stores. When we first arrived, I saw the store’s sign, which was green and white, I think. I just remember that it looked really healthy. It looked like milk and green grass. When I first entered the store, I was very surprised. All of the products were labeled as organic or locally grown. It is really different from Safe Way’s organic products. The Whole Foods Market feels really amazing. Most of the products have food literature and organic marks. I was most surprised when I went to the produce section. The vegetable section was quite cold because the vegetables need to be kept in cold temperatures to stay fresh. The vegetables and fruits were very moist and looked really fresh. I was also surprised because of the price. The prices at Whole Foods are much more expensive than other grocery stores, because all of the products are organic and locally grown.

     I also went to the Whole Food Web site. It also looks very healthy. When I clicked on the value section, I could see proof of their aspirations and pride. They wrote that they sell the highest quality natural and organic products available, which satisfies and delights their customers, and they also care about the environment and the community. Also the website includes the receipt for their consumers. The Online shop and they said they will be taking orders for Thanksgivings and Holidays in October. Then they kindly explain what is organic and locally grown.

     However, I have a one question about the Whole Food Market’s processed food. For example, the product “The Original Brat Hans All Natural Gourmet Chicken Meatballs”, when I looked the ingredient, they said the Chicken raised with out EVER using antibiotics, hormones, or steroids. I’m not sure that the processed food is Organic. But I think the “Whole Food Market’s processed food is better healthier than the other grocery store’s food.

     I think the Whole Food Market is great. They are trying to provide healthy and fresh products for the customers. In the past, I didn’t understand the difference between organic foods and Safe Way products, but now I can understand a little bit more.

Blog assignment #2: Processed Corn, Walking

Before I read the book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan, I never thought about what kinds of ingredients I normally eat for every meal in my usual life. And I never suspected that how much amount of corn in my normal diet.

Yesterday, September 10, 2011, I woke up at 10am. I took a shower first and after that I ate breakfast. Usually, I don’t eat breakfast because every morning is too busy to eat breakfast, but on weekend, I tried to eat breakfast. First I look around the kitchen for finding suitable food for my breakfast. When I look a refrigerator, I found the “Kellogg’s Special K (red berries)” cereal and the “Kirkland’s low-fat milk.” During me eating cereal, I observed the ingredients. For the cereal, there is rice, whole grain wheat, sugar, wheat bran, freeze-dried strawberries, high fructose corn syrup, soluble wheat fiber, salt, malt flavoring, Vitamin C, reduced iron, alpha tocopherol, niacinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride, Vitamin B, Vitamin A, palmtiate and folic acid. For the milk, there is low-fat milk, Vitamin A Palmitate amd Vitamin D.

After breakfast, I went to my friend’s house for do homework together. My friend lives alone so there are many processed food in her house. We did homework, talk and finally we felt hunger around 2pm, then we decided to eat bagel and milk. We ate bagel called “Parmesan Bagel” from Costco. The bagel contain by wheat flour, malt barley flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic aciso, water, malt, high fructose corn syrup, salt, yeast, wheat gluten, skim milk and olive oil. I drank coffee milk with bagel and it called “Seoul milk, coffee milk” from Korea milk company. This milk contain by milk, water, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, coffee powder, skim milk powder, natural and artificial flavors. Also we ate blueberry yogurts for desert. The yogurt from “Yoplait” and it include cultured pasteurized grade A non-fat milk, blueberries, high fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, milk, natural flavor and Vitamins.

 

 

At 8pm, we finally ate dinner. We felt tiresome to cook dinner, so we both agreeing to eat noodles for our dinner. The noodle called “Bibim Men” and the noodle produced in Korea. I really like this noodle, this noodle is Korean style spicy noodle. During I cook for noodles, I looked the ingredients. There is wheat flour, palm oil, modified starch salt, emulsifiers, soybean oil, sugar, red pepper, apple puree, vinegar and garlic paste.

After I wrote my meal’s ingredients, I was really surprised. For sure, I expected the large amounts of corns are containing my meal but I didn’t exactly know how much amount of corns is in my meal. Almost of my meal include the “High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).” And yes I fitted Pollan’s description of processed corn and walking. Now I can understand how much shocks Pollan’s got. Because of yesterday, I have my new personal habit. When I went to store, I tried to observe the food’s ingredients. I know it is hard to evade hastily, however if we want to keep our body healthy, we should try to avoid processed food and eat healthy food. Moreover, I have more interest about the book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan.     

   

          

What I usually eat for dinner?

    I’m doing study abroad in here without my family. I’m not very good at cooking so my mom wants to put me in host family house. My host family is all Korean so typical meals at my house are Korean foods. Everyday my host mom cooks for us but when she went out somewhere, host dad cook for us. Both of them are such a good chef. In my house we usually eat dinner around 8pm. In Korean, there are three consequences and must have foods in our dining table.





Beef Rice Soup



Kimchi Fried Rice

  First one are steamed rice and this is our staple food like bread. We can put any other grains to rice and make more healthy food. Second one is Kimch and this is one of Korean traditional food. Kimch is fermented food and is helpful to prevent to get cancer. Kimchi is little spicy so when I was young I really hate Kimchi because of spicy taste ate but I love to eat Kimchi fried rice. When my mom doesn’t want to cook, she usually made this because it’s very easy to cook. Even now, it is already quite popular in the other countries but I hope it would become more popular and delicious food by many countries in the world addition to our country. The last one is Korean soup(stew). Korean soups are made from a variety of different meats, fishes, and vegetables and we mostly eat with steamed rice. Koreans specially love a bowl of hot soup during the cold winter. However, soups can be enjoyed at any time as part of a meal with rice, Kimchi and other side dishes.

  I mostly eat dinner with steamed rice, kimchi, soups and other dishes. I think these types of meals are really good for health so I really want to learn cook and introduce Korean food to my foreigner friends!