I wanted to talk about food culture for this blog post because when we did the quiz with this question on it I didn’t have an open mind on the subject. My immediate reaction to food culture was based off of how “overweight” we are as a society. But I feel as though that’s because of my blurred family dynamic around food. Lots of people in my family struggle with their weight their whole lives and are never able to combat it. So when I think about food the first thing that comes to mind is to protect myself from it. I don’t want it to control my life like it has to so many other members of my family.
What changed my mind though were the responses I heard from other people in the class to the question. One that really resonated with me was that “food brings people together.” One thing my family and I don’t do, is eat together. I think eating as a family definitely creates a stronger bond as a whole for the family dynamic. So me, not knowing what it’s like for food to actually bring people together it was hard for me to take off my own lense, and see food culture in a different light.
Another thing that I connected with for food culture in my life was my Dutch heritage. Although I can’t speak Dutch, or see very many family members who are enriched in our Dutch culture, I can eat the food that they either send or make for me. Although seemingly meaningless, when I went to Amsterdam my aunt told me that she made that exact meal for my dad and his twin brother when they lived with her. And it brought me so much closer to my family in just an instance. (And I hadn’t even tried it yet!) It’s small things like this that can bring a family together, and it’s kind of sad that I missed out on that time with my own family growing up.
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