During Wednesday’s class, we discussed at the very last minute the “anomaly” of having an unexpected customer in an ethnic restaurant. There was a shared opinion that often when we see a restaurant, especially an ethnic restaurant, that has diverse clientele, then that restaurant must be doing something right and worth trying.
This raises the question of why do we have this mindset? What influences or persuades us to take the leap of faith to try someplace new when we would never have bothered to notice it before solely because others are going there? One of the many answers is social media. When mouth watering images of food plague our feeds and dashboards, it’s difficult to not notice or at least get curious. However, why is there a party heralding this movement to begin with? These “trendsetting” foods would never have been considered as “trends” if they were never “discovered” by a third party. Whomever this third party is, in regards of which racial, age, professional group whom we put our trust in, they undeniably have the omnipotent power to define which stores or restaurants will be successful and which will be left in the dust.
The example I am most concerned with are “food trends” that appear all over social media and as a result, credit and respect for diversity seems to be thrown out the window. For example, rolled ice cream in 2016. The concept at first is indeed inventive and the making process is possibly classified as art. However, what is herald and validated as something “brand new” and “innovative” by whomever received credit as the first store to have it available to the public, completely disregards its cultural history and presence in Eastern Asia where it has been a popularized decades prior to its first appearance in the states.
Simply put, go beyond your favorite dishes and the Instagram posts that decide for you what you should eat, what you should visit, and frankly who you should care about. To solely give social media the benefit of the doubt that this is the “correct” way to “genuinely” seek out “authentic” and “trendy” foods because an unrelated third party decided to take the opportunity to capitalize off something that has been around us the entire time is quite disappointing. There are established communities where locals and other people do enjoy without the approval of anyone else why they should go there instead of here because they live in and know their neighborhood. NYC itself allows us the privilege to do the very same thing as exploring the world with a simple train ride to the multiple ethnic neighborhoods throughout each borough of the city to discover. There will be places worth going and knowing if you simply explore for yourselves what the world really is and not the world only present behind the screen of your phone or computers. With that mindset, one can find themselves grow and learn more and more about themselves and about their world.
Hi Belinda, this was a great blog post. I definitely agree with you on this topic of “discovering” a new restaurant or food concept when in reality it has always been around. I see food pictures and videos all the time on various social media platforms, especially on Facebook. Usually, I enjoy the videos showcasing places I’ve never seen or tried before and it compels me to want to try it too. It’s a great advertising and marketing technique so I really don’t see what’s so bad about displaying food trends on social media. But at times I do see the insensitivity of these social media pages making it seem as if this food concept or restaurant is something “exotic” and it reinforces the stereotypes that we all inadvertently place on different ethnic groups. There’s nothing wrong with “discovering” a food trend on social media because it’s a great way for businesses to get customers to try their food. But sometimes I find it absurd when they are showcasing a place as something so innovative and astonishing when it’s a place I’ve always gone to so often or a food that is ubiquitous in my culture. It’s a difficult topic to broach and it sounds hypocritical because at the same time, I’d be intrigued by a restaurant or food that I may never have tried before but it may be common in another person’s culture. But in general, I don’t see showcasing food trends on social media as a bad thing, but just as long as they are cognizant of the cultural aspects and background behind what they are touting. As for discovering these new foods yourself by going out and exploring, I agree that is a great alternative to finding new foods. But there’s nothing wrong with “discovering” it on social media. After all, social media is all about sharing things with each other, whether it be a food trend or restaurant even if it is by a “third party.”
Hi Amanda thank you for your kind words and response! I do agree with you that it’s difficult to make the claim regarding this situation if there’s a “right way” to find something new to experience. I totally agree with you when there’s a local spot or a favorite home dish that’s it’s a bit frustrating when it’s praised as “brand new”. But like you said there’s a marketing aspect to it involved where it’s just one of the many ways to put you ahead of the competition and I do understand the capitalistic nature of using social media to your own business benefit. I want to clarify that I’m in not invalidating that as it is just a sector in the food business industry that exists and with our modern times, it’s quite difficult to avoid since it’s so effective. What I am most concern with is that is the maximum limit most people are willing to take to learn more about new cultures and new things.
To further explain what I mean by that, most people don’t bother to try anything unless it’s been featured online. By try I mean to explore the rest of the culinary cuisine that particular “trend” has history with. For example, poke was also recently popularized in the last year or two. A Hawaiian classic dish that has deep roots with the rest of the distinct and delicious Hawaiian cuisine. Yet only poke receives the spotlight as the rest of the Hawaiian culture and cuisine seems to be left behind for not being “trendy” or “aesthetic” enough for social media to also receive the same praise. It’s difficult to say this because the capitalistic issue rises again as people take note of this singular popularization and then you have dozens of poke stores opening across the city just because the “first” one received extremely good feedback and of course revenue from this particular dish.
Learning about new things from social media is not an invalid way to discover, but it most certainly isn’t the only way. Even if you do mostly discover because of the internet reviews or social media, that’s indeed valid for it’s so ubiquitous in our lives, but I implore all to take the extra step to learn something new from that experience. Where did this dish come from? How is it properly pronounced? What other dishes does this cuisine have to offer for me to learn and to explore? It might be biased to say this because I do have a passion for food and do enjoy a good eat or two, but for me, there’s more to a cuisine than for our taste buds to experience. There’s a whole culture and country with people to understand and to learn about associated with each cuisine and I believe food is just a way to effectively reach the first step in helping others educate themselves that there’s a whole world out there and a ton of people worth learning about to understand how other people live and even learn more about ourselves along the way.
Hi Belinda,
I really enjoyed your blog post. It was very interesting to read. Your opinion on the matter is something that I wouldn’t expect from people our age. I do wholeheartedly agree with you that social media plays a big role in the way that we see things, especially in food. People our age love social media and it is undoubtedly the best form of advertising. I go on Facebook and Instagram everyday to see mouthwatering treats or meals from restaurants all over the world. I do, however, agree with Amanda’s viewpoint on the matter. I genuinely don’t believe that social media hinders others from learning about different cultures. In fact, I think that social media embraces them. Before each food video on Facebook, they tend to mention where the restaurant or food originated from. Quite frankly, if consumers were really interested in the food, the next thing they would do is Google it to learn more about it and its history. To me, social media is nothing more than a platform to spread different foods and cultures. It is merely a great way to try to uniquely diversify and unite us.