Reaction #5

1)      Magazine article: Is Hunger making you angry?

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/09/19/why-being-hungry-makes-you-angry_n_969631.html

2)      Blog posts about people talking about how their hunger leads to irritation

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=191394

This will help me justify my own personal narration as being something that’s pretty universal

 

3)      This source is a personal narrative about healthy food habits – of the writer’s experience of traveling to Italy and learning to refocus on healthy eating habits after tasting the country’s local foods.

http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/44537374/deep-roots

 

4)      Speech on healthy lifestyle by a college student that impressed me

http://www.studymode.com/essays/Speech-On-Healthy-Lifestyle-609316.html

 

 

Survey questions (50 students)

 

1)      At what time intervals on average do you eat food?

o   4 hours or more

o   3 hours

o   2 hours

o   1 hour or less

 

2)      Do you get enough time to eat a balanced meal?

o   Yes

o   No

 

3)      Do you go to sleep hungry often?

o   Yes

o   No

 

 

4)      How many times a week do you eat a balanced meal?

o   3 or less

o   4

o   5

o   6

o   7

o   8

o   9

o   10 or more

 

5)      Do you believe that your hunger is one of the causes for your irritation?

o   Yes

o   No

Blog Post # 5

There are people who eat to live, and there are those who live to eat. I definitely belong to the latter category. There have been multiple occasions in my life where in a not so amazing day was made amazing by eating my favorite food. A lot of times my anger arises or gets aggravated due to the lack of food in my system. There was this one time when I had football practice till late at night, and I didn’t have a way to go back home and over that I had left my wallet at home as well. I was the last one to leave the field, and I was hungrier than ever. I was already irritated because of the bad game that day and my car not arriving on time to pick me up. As soon as I entered home, I slammed the door and yelled at my parents and my siblings for being so enthusiastic while greeting me. I also yelled at my girlfriend who was just trying to lighten my mood. That was the worst of my anger that my loved ones had seen since a while. No one knows me better than my mother does, so she immediately mixed a big bowl of “daal bhath” (lentil and rice) and served it to me. No sooner did I clean that bowl of food in less than 5 minutes, than I went and gave my parents and siblings the tightest hug accompanied by an apology for being so rude without any reason. I did the same to my girlfriend as well. It is true; food just does the magic for me. For some people it’s being alone, watching a movie, and playing a game etc., but for me it’s nothing but food. This does have a scientific translation to it, which I believe is that only when people have a full stomach, will they be satisfied with the given circumstances. Only if you satisfy your body, you will be able to satisfy others.

Our eating habits define the way we conduct ourselves. My love for food does not mean that I love eating junk food all the time, as most stereotypical food lovers are thought of as, and nor am I even close to being obese. My love for food arises out of my interest to appreciate good cuisine, and my passion to keep myself healthy and fit. For example, in the last 24 hours, I have eaten 4 oranges, 2 bananas, 2 apples, waffles with strawberries and whipped cream, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chicken salad, a chipotle chicken burrito, a noodle bowl, a bowl of cereal and milk and  a chocolate tart. I eat around the same quantity and pattern of food almost every day. This speaks a lot about me. For starter, it disheartens me to say that my socio-economic background is reflected in my food choices. The quantity that I eat creates a whole in my pocket that is quite significant, but I am willing to live with that as long as my meals satisfy me, which sort of reveals that, I fortunately come from a financially sound family. Also, the choice of my dishes aren’t very cost efficient either.

My food habits also speak about the importance I give to the consumption of fresh fruits. Eating so many fruits a day make me feel alive and awake throughout the day, and the same time they enrich my diet to a great extent. I believe in making every meal of mine a part of my balanced diet. I make sure to consume all the nutrients I need in the right amount, even when I decide to indulge myself in fat, because hey! That’s a necessity as well! I have reached a point where I can control my urges of indulging all the time, but at the same time I’m not a crazy health freak, and I believe that reaching this balance is essential for satisfying one’s mind, body and soul.

One negative aspect of my food habits are my time management skills. The quantity that I eat prohibits me to eat my meal in the average time that my friends and family take to finish theirs. This results in me being always on the run, and rarely being able to eat my meal without making others wait while I finish eating. The only possible solution to this is for me to space out my meals between shorter time intervals, which also happens to be a healthier option which I recommend to all the readers.

My love for food only extends my ability to be fit and healthy. Are you ready to fall in love too?

Reaction #4

The “Dear Student Writer” that was most interesting to me was the “Tips On Writing a Manifesto” by Kelsie Matt. She clearly laid out her strategy of writing a manifesto, which I could understand easily and use for writing my own. I like the fact that she asks us to “pick something to write about that you are passionate about” as once I’m able to do this, the writing will come naturally to me. Also, following her advice of “breaking it down into pieces” seems to make every assignment/task less daunting. The four part process of writing a good manifesto by Kelsie (coming up with a topic, narrating a personal story, the reasons to draw attention to this topic and finally the suggestions to raise awareness on the topic) happens to work well for me.

“The Juicing Manifesto” was most of interest to me because I’m a huge supporter of the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, and I apply the same for myself. It is shocking to know that “at least 50% of [USA] doesn’t eat fruits or vegetables at all!” because back home in India, going a day without at least 3 glasses fresh fruit juice seems unusual to me. I like the fact that the writer gave suggestions on how to make the consumption of fresh fruit juices a part of our daily lifestyle by saying that “with the aid of a juicer, this can be a piece of cake”. This suggestion could make a lot of readers proactive in taking measures to create a healthier living.

FIRST DRAFT

Diwali is the ‘festival of lights’ that celebrates the ‘triumph of good over evil’ and is the biggest and most popular festival in India. It is a time when all family and friends come together, and celebrate like there’s no tomorrow. It all starts on Dhantheras and is when the Indian business community begin their financial year and it is meant to be an auspicious day to start new transactions. And five days later is the actual day of Diwali. The entire week, several offices are shut early, people party all night and burst crackers. People shop and wear new clothes, houses are decorated with footsteps of Lakshmi (god of wealth) and Dias (lamps).

Dhantheras is an auspicious day for buying silver, as it is a symbol of wealth coming into the house. Because of this, the price of gold and silver goes up significantly on this day.  Sales on electronics in the month in which Diwali occurs quadruples is certain stores and areas.

There are particular items we eat in Diwali, just like there are specific things people eat during Thanksgiving. What people eat also depends on their geographical location and the community they belong to. For members of my community, known as the Marwari’s some of the things we eat are Khichdi, Badi, Puri, Sabji etc.

Diwali is celebrated because one of the Hindu gods, who was a prince known as Ram returned home from his 14 yearlong exile which his father Dasarha sentenced him to due to a promise he made to one of his wives and Ram’s step mother Kaikeyi. During the 14 year long exile Ram goes to war with an evil and powerful king named Ravana, and it is because of his victory over here that we celebrate the triumph of good over evil.

During Diwali, all families either cook or buy sweet and send it to houses of their friends. In my family, we normally make sweets ourselves and send them to about a hundred families we are close to. And we intern also get about a 100 boxes of sweets or goodies. So this is also a period when people eat a lot of sweets. On the night of Diwali, we do pooja (prayer) both in our offices and our homes at an auspicious time, followed by everyone who goes back to their house and eats dinner with their family.

This is why, we buy 30 kilos of sugar and 10 litres of ghee this month, and it disappears from our storeroom in a week.

As a child dinner with the family would be the best part. All the men of the house ate out of one plate and the woman ate out of another. We guys would sit on the cushioned floor with a comfortable table and a huge plate (20 inches in diameter). My grandfather would mix the food and give us all a bite before we could start eating. Being the youngest boy in the house I always got the first bite, followed by my father, his elder brother and finally my grandfather. After which we would all mix our own food and eat out of the same plate. The woman of the house did the same thing, except they sat in the dining table.

One of the sweets we traditionally make is called ‘daitra’ and to make it we need whole wheat flour, ghee, sugar, saffron, cardamom and sugar syrup. First we knead the whole wheat flour adding a little ghee in a cup of flour, then add water and knead. We then make round balls and roll them like thick flat bread, we then prick it with a fork several times and let aside to dry. Next you add ghee to the wok and heat it till it boils, upon boiling you put the cut up flat breads in the ghee to fry until golden brown. We then dip these hot friend golden breads in sugar syrup, which can be freshly prepared by boiling sugar and water. And last garnish it with cardamom and saffron.

Me and Food

This story took place in my house in Nepal, where I lived with my parents, two siblings  uncle, aunt and paternal grandparents. We had a cook, a dozen servants and maids who all lived in the same house as us. And therefore, nobody in the family ever had to cook anything.

Indian men never cook. Never. But one fine day, out of the blue, my father comes home from office and says “I’m gonna make some strawberry jam.” Honestly, it took everyone a minute to digest this. Before we know it, he’s on his way to the kitchen, a place he probably would have stumbled to once or twice in the 15 years he was living in that house. Everyone in the kitchen is shocked to see him, and before you know it, my dad takes over the cooks station.

“All I want is a bowl, all the strawberries in the house and lots of sugar” well, the helpers start bringing these things immediately  My sister, mother, grandmother and I got some chairs and sat in the Kitchen, amused at my father’s enthusiasm.  Each of us asking him questions after question, to which we get the same reply “Wait till you taste this, hahaha,”

He asks for the strawberry heads to be cut and right away three people start chopping away the heads of a pile of 100’s of fresh juicy red strawberries. My dad standing there gets the flame on, and gets a large heavy metal bowl on the flame. Immediately the strawberries and sugar are thrown in, and my dad, starts stirring/mixing the contents in the bowl. Soon enough, the whole kitchen starts smelling delicious and as surprised as we all are, our mouths start watering.

An hour later my dad called us all to the dining area where lay a huge pile of bread,  the jam he cooked, and his six inch grin behind which was a great amount of fulfillment.

All he used for his ‘jam’ was strawberry and sugar, and to be completely honest, it was probably the best strawberry jam I had ever had, with great big chunks of strawberry in every second bite.

Post #3

 

For the first time ever I consciously read a food essay and to my surprise found it relatively interesting. I realized the food essays were two stories combined yet one, stories of somebody and story of the food.  For example the three food blogs I read in paperandsalt.org, ‘Ernest Hemingway:  Bacon–Wrapped Trout with Corn Cakes’, ‘Raymond Chandler: Swordfish Siciliana’ and ‘Henry James: Vanilla Ice Cream with Brandied Peaches’ told me a story of each of these individuals’ lives and of a food item they could be associated with and enjoyed. It had an interesting blend and build up to it.

From Ernest Hemingway’s Bacon-Wrapped Trout with Corn Cakes “Whether on a Cuban beach or the African savanna, Hem was a fan of the good life – and that included making good food.” Here the writer tells us a little about Hemingway, indirectly informs us that he is well traveled and then directly goes on to tell us that he enjoys a good life and good food. Here in one sentence the writer beautifully conveys two unrelated facts about Hemmingway’s life.

Food by Tony Judt was a narrative on his own encounters with food as he was growing up in England. His story tells us not only about the food he ate, but why he ate in that manner, and how he liked or didn’t like what he ate. It touches upon where what he ate came from, what culture it belonged to. A sentence showing how he incorporated his eating/drinking conditions with his parents profession: “My parents disapproved of fizzy drinks—another unfortunate heritage of their political dalliances—so we drank fruitified, uncarbonated soft drinks, or Nescafé in later years.”

For my Family Story and Recipe Project I will share my experience with ‘kheer’ (an Indian dessert) and share certain aspects of my life with it. I will make sure I am successfully able to talk on how my life, culture and family are and in the process explain this dish and its importance to me. Like how Tony Judt successfully combines his heritage with the kind of food he used to grow up eating, and had a story behind why or how he ate what he did eat, and part of him it came from.

Reaction #1

Though I wasn’t a fan of either, off the two essays I preferred ‘Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch’ by Michael Pollan. For two reasons, firstly, it was written in simple everyday English I could read and understand without having to open the dictionary every three sentences, and secondly it had a more personal touch to it, and therefore I could relate to it better.

Michael Pollan’s essay was extremely long, specific and descriptive, right from how he described the plate sized potato pancake to how big chain restaurants and food manufacturers profit handsomely because of reduced cooking in America. I also liked the fact that Pollan’s essay went a lot like a story, and I could understand it well because there were a lot of everyday aspects in it. Like us watching food shows to us talking to our friends on the phone about food.

‘Our Meals, Ourselves: A Short History of Food Writing’ by Darryl Campbell was short, concise and got straight to the point. You are what you eat! Darryl uses a lot of references and people’s names in his essay to back his beliefs or give examples. I personally thought this reemphasized and strengthened the point because, whether Darryl is right or wrong, he has his point backed up with people research that support his statement and therefore gives it more weight. What I did not really like was the excessive amount of jargon used which made it hard to both keep up with and understand the essay to the best of my capability.

Both essays convey a similar message, and both discuss how people do not spend the kind of time they used to on preparing and cooking their own food. And both, however directly or indirectly do tell us that it would be healthier, and more economical to start spending time in the kitchen once again.

Blog Post #2: The Blonde Bruxie

Scanning the customers at a dark yet cozy Bruxie, my attention went to an interesting blonde couple sitting on the far end of the restaurant next to a space heater by the tree wall. Sitting across from one another they were making small talk and devouring their waffle sandwiches. The man had two waffle sandwiches and lemonade, and the lady had one sandwich and a chocolate milkshake. The man sitting with his back absolutely straight was facing the most part of the restaurant, keeping a straight head. The woman, with elbows on the table was hunching a little with her eyes focused on her food, facing just the man and the trees behind him. The lady finished her food, and started talking, the guy just responded in nods, still focused on his food. Upon the completion of his food, the man got up and cleared the table removing the paper baskets and tissue paper and taking it to the dustbin. He then walked past me, and I noticed his big chest sticking out walking like an over built gym trainer. He looked like he was in his early forty’s and was wearing military shorts and a regular blue graphic tee.  The lady with him, who looked like his wife, seemed like she was in her late thirty’s was in regular dark blue jeans and a tight yellow top. Due to the cold, she stood under the overhead fire heaters. Shortly after, the guy signaled her to come over towards him. And I thought they left, but two minutes later at 06:67pm, I saw them back in the queue waiting to order food. Upon not seeing them come back I got up to leave. On the way out, I noticed the couple were sitting on a high rise table on the complete other end sharing the apple pie with whipped cream and ice cream for dessert.

Post #1: So, here I am in Eng 103

I hate English, I really do.

I came into the United States and joined Chapman University in the Spring of 2012. Once I began understanding how college here worked, I had one aim – to get myself exempted from taking any sort of language classes. I spoke to several people, right from the international admission executive who recruited me to the academic advising center and all the way to the disability services. Eventually I realized I would have to take an English lesson; there were several business courses I couldn’t get started without my written inquiry completion.

Nightmares began, but with great hesitation I admitted myself to a Writing for Electronic Environment class for the fall. Soon after, classes began, 10 in the morning. The teacher was great, and I attended classes, but before I knew it assignments were due, fairly simple ones according to my friends in the lecture. But I never did them; the teacher took interest in me, spoke to me and even emailed me to find out what’s going on. I kept saying I would do it, but I never could start. To not have to confront her and get the much needed sleep I needed after Crew practice I never really went to class. In due course I withdrew, knowing I could have completed it if I just put in a little work towards English, knowing I would have to do it again this semester.

Once again, registration opened, this time for Spring 2013 and I browsed through the writing classes offered, Writing about Food stood out, seemed like an interesting topic, after all, who doesn’t love food. Upon reviewing the professor on Rate My Professor, I realized alongside the extremely high ratings was a red hot chili, and before I knew it I added the course.

My plan was simple, attend classes this semester, make this a pass/ no pass class and just get the C and run away from English, forever. But two, literally two days into the semester I have to review my plan. All because of a professor, Mrs. Catherine Keefe, I don’t know how or why, but she had the effect of making the irrelevant subject seem not so irrelevant. She was different, she made me realize that I need to keep brushing my teeth if I want it to shine. She spoke about a subject I never understood why it was taught or why any rational person would want to take it by choice, and made it seem relevant. I’m sure if I paid any attention in English classes my previous sentence could have been framed better.

For the first time in my life as I remember it, I did not get bored in my English Class. And maybe, I would go far enough to say I enjoyed it. My new plan is simple, stick with the class, enjoy it, and strive for the best in my potential, not a Pass.

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