Robert Courtney Smith writes that before the 1990s, 85% of undocumented Mexican immigrants were able to go back in any year. However this changed when crossing the border became more dangerous, difficult, and expensive, and Mexicans had less faith in their country. If the Mexican economy improved and crossing the border became easier, what affect would these have on immigration policy in the United States?
I walked into Vanderbilt Hall on March 8th seeing Japan Week banners and glowing red lanterns and filled with booths run by travel agencies, airlines, technology companies, food and beverage companies, and more. A theater was set up showing videos pertaining to various topics including landmarks, stories of Jewish refugees, and food. Japan Week was an event held in Vanderbilt Hall of the bustling Grand Central Terminal from March 6th to 8th. I visited the booth for Azuma Foods International Inc., U.S.A., a company that strives to mix traditional Japanese food with other food traditions, to try its food.
The booth featured ready to eat packages of calamari salad, seaweed salad, and sweets that looked like sushi. A man offered samples of the salads to visitors. I took a sample of each salad and tried them in a less crowded space in front of the theater. The calamari salad had small pieces of calamari and slices of mushrooms. It was chewy and sour. The seaweed salad had thin slices of seaweed covered with sesame seeds. It tasted sweet and tangy. There was also a presentation board showing images of sushi sweets, which were mochi, a gelatinous rice flour treat, in the likeness of sushi and sashimi, which usually consist of raw fish and rice. I took a bite of each but I cannot give an unbiased description because I have an aversion towards mochi’s pasty texture and flavor. If the booth had an argument, it would be to buy Azuma Foods’s featured products.
The salad samples were not amazing but not terrible. They had enough flavor but not enough to make an impression. The seaweed salad looked like an unnatural green, and I figured out why once I read the ingredients. There was Yellow #5 and FD&C Blue #1, both synthetic food colorings. Even though the ingredients included red pepper, there was no red pepper in my sample. The crunchiness of red pepper would balance the sweetness of the seaweed. Likewise, the ingredients for the calamari salad included bamboo shoot but there was no bamboo shoot in my sample. The idea to make mochi that looked like sushi was clever. Many New Yorkers are familiar with sushi and sashimi because of their availability in buffets, supermarkets, and restaurants. However, they might have not tried mochi. Thus, they would be interested in eating these sushi-shaped treats.
It was very smart for Azuma Foods to provide pamphlets with the ingredients of the salads to inform visitors that may have food allergies. In addition, visitors who do not buy the salads that day will have something to remember them. Having the pamphlet might convince visitors to buy their products another day. It is interesting how the photographs of the seaweed salad and the calamari salad in the ingredients pamphlet are accompanied by forks rather than chopsticks. The choice to use forks, not chopsticks, in the photographs shows how Azuma Food is incorporating Western food traditions with traditional Japanese food, thus tailoring to its target audience, New Yorkers and other Americans.
People who appreciate Japanese culture will enjoy reading about Azuma Foods. They will learn how the company is introducing Japanese food to other cultures by making it a part of other cultures. Azuma Foods adds to public discourse about authenticity and assimilation by bringing in the perspective of someone who wants to spread the food of its culture to other cultures and make money from that goal. Theirmission to mix Japanese food with other food cultures demonstrates how people can be introduced to another culture by experiencing it with something familiar.
The salads and the sushi sweets are examples. Japanese have side dishes that have vegetables in them but they are not called salads. Azuma Foods produced packages of seaweed salad and calamari salad so people could incorporate it with their food. People can mix the salad with noodles, rice, or even a sandwich. Azuma Foods’s website gives suggestions how to use a product such as placing some calamari salad on a martini. The incorporation of Japanese food with other kinds of food can create a mix that is not completely Japanese. In addition, the sushi sweets bring something unfamiliar in the form of something familiar. Sushi-shaped mochi can be fun to eat. However, authentic mochi is usually round, not in the shape of raw seafood and rice. Even though the salads and the sushi sweets are not extraordinary, I recommend them for the experience of eating and tasting them.
-Virginia
Foodmaps are a visual and analytical way to research communities. They bring in the perspectives of a group that feels unnoticed. Are foodmaps a suitable resource for our groups to create or use? How can they increase our understanding of the themes of our projects? What limitations might there be in creating and using foodmaps?
The readings discuss how housewives benefited from the accessibility of the pushcarts. After there were regulations on pushcarts, many people were unhappy because they had to travel some distance to buy food. Would most people today prefer to buy groceries and other items from a supermarket, a small grocery store, a farmer’s market, or another kind of marketplace? What are some factors that would influence their preference? How would their preference affect the community?
Sabrina Tavernise noted in her article, “The Health Toll of Immigration”, how immigrants felt self-conscious during attempts to walk along roads for exercise because they were afraid of being suspected as illegal immigrants. This reminded me of several posts I saw on Tumblr about overweight people exercising in public and the comments they got from fellow gym goers and passerby. Some of the comments made them feel uncomfortable. Other comments were praised by the Tumblr community.
Do other groups of people receive comments that can be viewed as negative?
How can feedback from other people and personal perceptions of what other people might think affect a person’s attempts to make his or her lifestyle healthier?
-Virginia
When I read Harley Spiller’s experience of being “unable to identity even basic ingredients like ginger and scallion” in the markets of Mott Street in “Chow Fun City”, I was reminded of how I could not distinguish some green leafy vegetables from each other when they were uncooked or water cooked (133). I could not distinguish between mustard greens, spinach, and collard greens. Some produce have unique characteristics such as the green flower heads of broccoli, the yellow kernels of corn, and the curly green leaves of Shanghai bok choy.
Can you identify most of the ingredients of your food without making the food yourself or asking someone?
Are you sensitive to certain tastes?
How helpful are these sensitivities in identifying the ingredients?
How can these aspects of yourself affect your enjoyment of food?
-Virginia Lee
In “Food and Diaspora”, the author mentions how foods, processes, and ideas spread from one society to another, the adopting society makes them their own. Examples in the text include American variations of sushi such as California rolls and rock-and-rolls, adding sugar to tea and coffee, and croissants.
What kinds of food do you know of that have been “Americanized”?
How and why do you think these foods changed after they were brought to the United States?
-Virginia
