If you ask what is most interesting aspect of New York that I wish our class could investigate deeply, then I would definitely say, “the culinary art of NYC.” The reasons for such choice are both personal and relative to the general conditions for this project. The personal reason being that I’m a person who like to eat, and I would like to bring the findings we made in this project to share in my gastronomy club meetings at Macaulay. On the other hand, I simply find NYC to be the perfect place to conduct research on the subject of culinary art. As everyone knows, New York is a city with a extremely diversified population, which has very different ways of life, including the styles of their cuisines. I can’t speak for all the different kinds of cuisines of the different races that live in New York, but as a person of Chinese heritage, I can speak for Chinese culinary art. Behind most of the dishes there are stories to be told, the reason that the dish was created, the method by which the dishes are done, the history behind the name of the dish, and religion reflected on their meals are all things one can research into the Chinese culinary art. My proposal is for us to gather these unusual tales behind those ordinary dishes we see every day. We will be able to gain better understanding to many different cultures’ histories and traditions through our study of their way of cooking and eating.
Like the neighborhood visits, there is a need for the members of our class to visit the different ethnic neighborhoods once again. This time, however, they will be concentrating on gathering information specifically related to food of the neighborhood they visit. They will be talking to the people in the neighborhood (Chefs in restaurants if possible), in order to gain information about the food around the neighborhood. Such as specialties of certain restaurants, methods of cooking, and some historical stories behind certain dishes. In the process, of course, media information will also be collected for later use, such as audio recording of the interviewees and pictures of the finished dishes. If possible, one should try to make video recordings of the process at which certain dishes are made (which could prove to be difficult as we don’t know whether restaurants would let outsiders into their kitchen). We will also be creating maps labeled with the information we have gathered, matching dishes with restaurants that do them the best. Of course, other than looking outwards we should also explore the culinary heritage within our own family. Doing another family history research focusing on the family cuisines. Bringing out the secrets of the food in the specific area of the world your family came from (not limited to a nation).
What I have here is merely a rough draft. If this plan is to be used a lot of things would need to be decided, such as which neighborhoods to visit again. I do feel though, this plan would result in a fun final project. After all, everyone’s got to eat.
