Food Ways

Food is a large part of our culture and how we eat it depends on who we are, where we are and who we're with.  We're also taught to eat in certain ways to celebrate holidays or mimic other cultures.  We're taught through media and school to eat the "white" way.  On top of that we have our own ethnic or cultural ways of eating and our own personal beliefs.

My family tends to be fairly lenient with our meals, we're usually busy doing certain things, for me and my siblings it might be homework and things of that nature.  Because of this we prepare our food and eat it whenever we're hungry and have time, for larger feasts or vacation time where we aren't busy we tend to eat together.  My mom usually cooks because my dad can be busy and comes home late, but they both cook well and for big feasts I help cook.

The "white" way of eating is to eat at the table waiting to watch tv, or eating in front of the tv.  While food can be good on holidays its merely for nutrition on normal days, good food comes from large chains like Mac-Donald's or any other fast food chain.  White families even use these chains as rewards, "if you're good we'll go to Burger King" because apparently their food is better than anything any American can make at home.  Much like the rest of our lifestyle, eating is dominated by corporations and brands and our culture makes us favor those over home style foods.

My own personal way of eating is based on what I have and what I can make with it.  While I don't know how to cook too many things now, I'd like to prioritize home cooking and resort to ordering or fast food when I don't have time to cook, for lunch or if I have to go somewhere and I want a quick snack, or if I'm tired or don't have any ingredients in my house to make a good meal.  The key word of that sentence was "resort" while fast food may taste good and be cheap, home cooking is much more fun, rewarding and healthy than eating fast food.  When I have to choose a restaurant, for lunch I can't cook obviously, I choose places that are cheap and that I personally have a good experience with, if I know that a certain type of food is bad for me I won't eat it.  This way of eating will make breakfast and dinner more meaningful and lunch shared with friends will be meaningful as well, although the food may not be as prevalent in the meaning of the meal.