Journal #10: American Food

I am so busy these days because I have many things to do, homework, presentations, and papers. I am also preparing for mid-terms and other test. Today, I wanted to complete some jobs according to my plan and did not want to waste my time, so I chose fries for my lunch at a fastfood restaurant instead of rice or noodles. It took only a few minutes to order and get the fries, and I took them outside. Then I enjoyed my lunch while I was studying. The warm and crispy fries allowed me to not only have a pleasant meal but also save my time.

When I thought about American food in Korea, I usually pictured hamburgers, fries and soda. Sometimes pizza came into my mind as a typical American food although it is originally from Italy. Those kinds of food remind me of some words 'fast', 'conveinient', and 'greasy'. I also conceived that steak was famous American food while I watched a movie in which people ate juicy steak for dinner at a fancy restaurant. A roasted turkey and stuffing are regarded as specil American food, too. I still have a little bit similar conception; however, I changed my thought about American food after I came to California.

Frankly, I don't now well about American food now; even I am coufused about it. I have had many chances to eat out here, but I have just experienced various types of food such as Mexican food, Chinese food, Japanese food, Thai food, and Vietamese food. A variety of tastes made me happy, yet they made it difficult for me to tell what is so-called American food. If I happen to eat real American food, I can answer the question. The only one that I am sure is that main American food is basically made of meat such as beef, chicken, or turkey and this is very different from Korean food which is based on rice and several side dishes.

I roughly know that the U.S. does not have many kinds of traditional food in comparison to other countires. That is obviously attributed to relatively short American history and ethnic diversity. Furthermore, globalization is another factor of that situation. On the contrary, a lot of countries in the world have been influenced by American fastfood. Especially, developing countries are accepting American fastfood and taste at a considerable speed. Although cutural interchanges among countries are inevitalbe and natural, I hope that every country will retain thier own traditional cuisine.

Michael, Rachel, Ryoko, Y, Kachina, Mai, Elaine, and Kurt