International Food Fair

On Tuesday I attended the International Food Fair at the Smolian International house with fellow students Helen Block and Sydney Gray. All my life I have been for patronized for hating seafood, various Asian foods, and pretty much all vegetables besides potatoes, corn, and green beans. Hating seafood is particularly embarrassing since I come from a Coast Guard family and have lived around the coast my whole life. While reflecting on the times that I’ve tried Asian food, I realized that every time I dared to try something new it was at a restaurant. After realizing this I began to wonder if authentic food made from people within the culture would have a better effect on my taste buds. I felt that this opportunity would be a good way to venture out and push the barriers that my taste buds have set for me.
People from nations around the world showed up to serve their best dishes from their respective culture. India, Singapore, China, and Malaysia were all countries that I dared to try food from. I mainly chose these because of the disgust that I usually have for foods from these countries. I had a craving for chicken the whole time we were at this event so I decided to try chicken from around the world. The chicken from India was a little sweeter than I expected. Prior to trying Indian food, my preconceived notion was that all Indian food would be on the spicy side. The non-spiciness was actually a disappointment in my opinion. I then ventured to China to see what their chicken would taste like. Every time I eat at a Chinese restaurant I tend to get the sweet or tangy flavored chicken. The Chinese chicken at the food festival was consistent with the chicken at the restaurants. The chicken was indeed sweet, but they added potatoes to the dish which was uncommon in my opinion. I also tried some chicken from Malaysia. Prior to this food festival I never had anything to eat from Malaysia. Honestly, if it wasn’t for this event I probably would’ve never had anything to eat from Malaysia due to the lack of opportunities to eat food from that culture. The Malaysian chicken was filled with some sort of vegetable, coated with some dark sauce, and the taste kind of reminded me of some food that my mother cooks for me. I guess vastly different cultures can share the same kind of appetite. I can definitely say I got my fill of chicken at this event, and every kind was delicious. Along with the chicken, I got some rice from India to compliment my feast. When it comes to rice I am open to any kind from anywhere so this choice of food wasn’t pushing my boundaries. It was quite delicious though. I’d say that my preconceived notions of Asian food were definitely dispelled. I learned not to judge a dish by a restaurant, but by some good old home cooked food.
Some anthropological concepts that I noticed at the event include cultural relativism and possibly ethnology. I used cultural relativism to understand why a particular culture may have developed a certain “style” for their foods and why they eat the foods they do. For instance, there are probably a lot more chicken eaters in India due to the Hindu religion so that’s why they emphasized chicken and had no beef. Ethnology can also be seen within the food festival. Everyone was comparing the different cultures’ food; however, I don’t think anyone was looking for generalizations so I can see how that can be faulty. All-in-all though it was a very fun, food-filled experience that helped me to broaden my horizons and please my taste buds.