Am I what I eat?

So here I am about to finish up this blog.:

I sit at my desk, with the darkness of the room filled with the light of my computer screen, trying to remember back to January when the semester began. Where did the time go? On the verge of completing a full academic year, it is hard to believe that my freshman year could possibly be almost over. 

Though it was less than four months ago, I am having a hard time remembering back to the beginning of the year. I did not have much expectation coming into this project, beyond thinking that it would have something to do with writing about food. What I was certainly not expecting, was just how in-depth somebody can go into the various food topics 

Do not get me wrong, I love food, always have and I certainly hope that I always do, but I just had never put much thought into the issues surrounding foods. I had looked at food, only really caring about the taste and occasionally how healthy it was. That, as I have learned from this course, is just the peal of the food banana: just the starting facts that need to be pealed away to get the really good information that matters on a larger scale.

As far how my writing has improved, one of the biggest things that have been preached in this class is tightening writing, or how reducing your word count, finding more effective and more efficient ways of writing can be one in the same. I had never thought of this idea previously, and took it to heart after we learned about it in one of the readings and in class. Maybe I took this advice to heart because it seems like a very easy way to make your writing more efficient. However, I don’t think that was the reason. There is just something that is more appealing to the reader about a shorter piece that packs the same, or greater, punch that something of greater length.

Efficiency of writing is very important. The more a writer can say in a few amount of words makes that writer all the more interesting to read, as well as successful the writer can be. Since I read Earnest Hemmingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” my freshman year of high school I gained an understanding of how powerful a writer could be in a limited fashion, though I did not really put two and two together and try it my self till this class. I love how Hemmingway can say so much with so little, making every word count, and forcing the reader to take every word seriously.

 One of the few expectations for this class that I did have, was the because this class was about food, that we would be learning more about how to use description to our advantage. We did do this, but I was expecting the whole class to be focused on this idea. Thinking only about food as its taste, smell and appearance can call for the use of some very colorful language. Because of that, I got the idea in my head that we would be doing exercises where we would all sample something, smell, look at or taste some item of food, and then see who could get the most colorful description. We did actually do this, but just not as much as I was expecting, which I am thankful for.

Freshman year has been an extremely busy endeavor. Being a full time student who for the fist time is away from home is enough for many a college freshman to handle. On top of that, I am on the football team, which is essentially a 40 hour a week commitment during the fall, and a 20 hour a week commitment in the spring. Though I have thoroughly enjoyed playing football, being this buys has left me struggling to stay afloat sometimes.  Being an athlete puts a tremendous amount of stress on the precious hours not being spent in the weight room, on the football field or in the classroom learning new plays. It is so easy to fall behind with a normal course load, and forces the athletes to take time management to a whole new level.

While the year has been tough, terrifying and exhilarating. If we are what we eat, I am a balance of what I want, with what I have to do.

For your listening and watching pleasure,

Enjoy while you peruse my blog:

What King Corn and America Revealed tell us:

The powerful documentaries King Corn and America Revealed: Food Machine, gave a unique insight into the world of industrial food supply.

King Corn was about two men moving from Boston to a small Iowa town where corn is king. In the documentary, the two men plant and harvest an acre of corn in an effort to learn more about where the food we eat comes from. Corn is in such a high percentage of the things that we eat, that, as the highlight, there is corn in our hair.

During their time in Iowa, they learn about how the government has subsidized corn, and how the farmers make their money from the government, rather than by selling their product. The corn they grow is not valuable, but important. This is forcing long time, multi generational, corn growers are being run out of business and their land is being swept up by the few increasingly large farms.

The documentary gives a human side to the corn growers of America. It can be easy to sit back in California and not identify with what is going on in Iowa. We can forget that they are people too, going through lean times, which are even leaner now than they were in the early 2000’s when the documentary was made. King Corn does a tremendous job of attacking the issues surrounding food production at the level of the small farmer. Watching these people struggle to support them selves, living off of the government, sends a powerful message.

In America Revealed: Food Machine, we get to see where a ton of the corn that we see sitting in mountainous piles goes: the stock yard.

The scene in the cattle feed lot is hard to describe. The lot housed close to 100,00 cattle. 100,000 cattle. Sitting in their own filth, the poor animals are essentially forced to eat, balloon from 600 pounds to 1300 in just half a year. Once the doomed cows fattened to the point of having trouble moving, they are taken a short distance to be slaughtered at a rate of 5000 a day.

This scene, as well as others in the film, approach the industrial food issue from a different angle. While King Corn focuses on the small farm, America Revealed focuses on the big business, like the JBS stockyard. The film follows the production of food that we love, which is essentially food that is bad for us. For example, one of the items that is features is the ‘bloomin onion’ from Outback Steakhouse, which is essentially just deep fried onion.

However, the documentarians left us hope. The feature gardens that are sprouting up in inner city Detroit in abandoned areas of town, citing this phenomena as a green revolution. We can only hope so.

Both films come highly recommended, as the paint a picture of what is really going on with the food that we love, and educate us about what we are putting into our mouths.

What goes into the Chapman Snack attack’s writing

What shapes our writing?

While I lay snug in my bed, my body laying idly, attempting to go to sleep, my mind races. Mulling over this question. My mind jumps from worrying about finals, to what I am going to do this summer to what actor played Fredo in The Godfather.

 Writing is a form of expression, and in that, writing is an expression of who we are, what we are interested in and what we believe. I’ve always been told that good writing has something to say.

I role over on to my side, and am washed over with memories from high school, the good and the bad all rolled into one.

 Our experiences and our relationship to other things in our lives from anything to family, nature, movies and books, define who we are. What defines us, defines our writing.

 Finally I relax, slipping off to a sleep, with dreams of years earlier hitting the slopes of Willamette Pass, of that would be rudely interrupted all to soon by the buzz of the alarm. 

Our writing is defined by everything around us.

Because everything that we see or do on a day to day basis shapes who we are, and how we write, a good writer must be very observant. We must notice what is around us, rather than walk by ignorant of what is going on. With food, a good observer will notice the small intricate details in the food, able to pick out even the most hard to notice smells and tastes. This blog is about enjoying food in all its forms. It is darn near impossible to enjoy anything when you are not paying attention. Be vigilant my friends, good food is everywhere around us, you just have to stop and take notice.

A slice of tradition

Photo Cred: Vinnys Pizza

The streets are filled with cars, and the sidewalk with people, as the bustle of rush hour in New York City fills the air with an electric atmosphere. The hectic sounds of the subway thundering under foot, the honking of the cars as well as the dull roar of the voice of thousands of pedestrians crossing paths never to see each other again reverberate off the concrete sky scrapers. In all this chaos, there is something that anyone can take solace in, New York Style pizza. Even in the midst of economic center of the world, the pizza has become just as synonymous with the city as Wall Street. New York Style pizza is not just food that is best enjoyed folded in half, but has become a symbol for the city its self, allowing anyone who strolls into and devours a New York style pizza dispensary anywhere in the world a to enjoy a little slice of New York.

New York style is just a small slice of what pizza has grown to mean not only for America, but for the world. Pizza has become one of the food giants that is universally, at least mostly, loved. However, pizza, unlike pasta and rice and other worldwide staples, has not been around, at least in the traditional sense, for nearly as long. Pizza has exploded into a world favorite in the last 100 years.

People have eaten flat bread and cheese together since the ancient civilizations. “There is no earlier evidence than third century Macedonia for the use of a flat loaf of bread as a plate for meat, a function which bread continued to perform in the pide of Turkey, the pita of Greece and Bulgaria, the pizza of southern Italy and the trencher of medieval Europe.” That being according to Andrew Dalby in Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece, but pizza was undoubtedly perfected in Italy. Evelyn Solomon concedes this fact in The Pizza Book: Everything There is to Know About the World’s Greatest Pie, but goes on to argue that Italy perfected the dish. “It has been argued that Italians did not “invent” pizza. Perhaps this is technically true, but there can be no denying that Italy was most certainly the seedbed out of which the concept would flourish to the fullest. In one form or another, pizza has been a basic part of the Italian diet since the Stone Age, and Italians have devised more ways of interpreting the dish than anyone else.”

For it was not until a while after the introduction of tomatoes into western culture for pizza to make its grand entrance into the world of food. Though the first combination of tomatoes sauce, cheese and flat bread is not known, it is considered by some as the debut of modern pizza was came when Raffaele Esposito added basil to the aforementioned three ingredients in a dish to honor Queen Margherita in 1889.

Pizza has brought to America with the Italian immigrants, where it was popular in large cities in the northeast with large Italian populations, such as New York, Boston and Philadelphia. America opened up its first pizzeria when Gennaro Lombardi reportedly opened for business in 1905 in New York City. Lombardi’s pizza is still churning out tomato pies at a frenetic pace. To celebrate the 100th anniversary, on November 10th, 2005, Lombardi’s charged 5 cents a for a pizza, just as they did when they first opened.

Pizza grew in popularity during the early part of the 19th century, however, during World War 2, soldier stationed in Italy developed a love pizza, which they brought back to the states with them. It was then that Pizza grew from more than a dish prepared by Italians, for Italians, but for the consumption of everyone.

Chicago’s iconic deep dish pizza was invented in 1943 by Ike Sewell in his restaurant in Pizzeria Uno, what would become the large chain Uno’s Pizza, which has grown from 1 restaurant into 216 in about 50 years.

Pizza has reached the pantheon of American eats. Along with hot dogs and hamburgers, pizza is one of the most iconic foods in the world, and something that universally identifiable. Pizza has grown into a symbol in a way to. It is hard not to relate Italy and Pizza in your mind, just as you would with hamburgers and the United States. Pizza has become an icon in its own way, like few foods have before.

However, Pizza may be coming to represent something entirely different.

According to statisticbrain.com, each year there are five billion pizzas sold world wide, and three billion sold in the United States. Take a second to let that sink in. Five billion. For those wondering, that boils down to about 350 slices a second. In order for Americans to cram pizza pie down their pie holes at a tune of 3 billion a year, the Average American eats 46 slices of pizza a year.

However, all of that pizza being guzzled down is contributing to the rampant obesity epidemic in the United States. According to a CNN report, pizza is as high a caloric food as they come, and that is just for a serving of two slices. It is not unusual for a serving, two slices, to exceed 750 calories. Of course, as the report indicates, few follow the serving size recommendation, and do not realize that they are shoveling cheese, basically saturated fat, into their mouths.

In a country where 35% of adults and 17% of children are obese, the pizza fascination in America may be hurting its participants.

“I don’t think people realize just how bad pizza is for you,” sophomore health-sciences major Kate Reese said.

Reese, a health enthusiast, says that she gave up eating pizza, and other unhealthy foods, a year ago.

“Pizza was something that everyone was brought up on, and it becomes a go to food for us,” Reese continued. “It is not thought of in the same way the McDonalds is, but it really is just as bad for you.”

Due to the unhealthy nature of pizza, more and more people have been trying to find ways to create healthier alternatives to “normal” pizza. Even local hangout Zito’s has been trying to appeal to the health minded, by offering gluten-free pizza, which is considerably healthier than the alternative. Zito’s has been mindful of the demand for healthier options, according to one of the pizza chefs. “We noticed that in general there are people who want healthy options, adding gluten free pizza seemed like a good way to attract those types of people, as well as people who are allergic to Gluten. It has been a hit so far.”

Personally, I will always remember spending time at my Uncle Jim’s pizzeria, Rocket Pizza in Portland. I will always have the memories of being a little kid, and thinking about how cool it was watching the pizzas get made and put in the oven. I was standing their in awe, watching the dough get tossed in the air, the sauce and cheese being applied with care and the bustle of the kitchen. For some reason I thought making pizzas was about as cool of a thing that anyone could know how to do.

I have been back to Rocket Pizza in the years following and have enjoyed its thin crust awesomeness on many occasions, but every time I go back, or just see my Uncle, I remember being that wide-eyed little kid fascinated by the workings of a pizza kitchen.

With my uncle owning a pizza place, I grew up loving pizza, as many kids do. I could never get enough. There is something special about the melted cheese and buttery crust with my personal favorite topping: barbeque chicken. I remember my brother and I being so excited to answer the door when the pizza delivery boy came, or sitting in Pegasus Pizza on the University of Oregon campus, enjoying the best damn pizza in Oregon while watching our beloved ducks play on Saturdays during the fall. Pizza will always have a special place in my heart not because of how good it is, but because of the good times that I have enjoyed while eating pizza.

Pizza has grown from its humble beginnings into one of the most popular dishes in the world, and gone from an Italian delicacy to a staple of the western diet. Pizza has had an affect on our culture only surpassed by the fast food hamburger. So, sit down and enjoy a slice. Deep dish, thin crust, stuffed crust, gluten-free, whole wheat and pile it high with any sort of toppings. You really cant got wrong.

Photo Cred to http://bmj2k.com

Research interviews

I sat, perched, with notebook in hand, waiting for a response to questions that I was bouncing off of my interviewee. She, Kate Reece, is a health nut, interested in any and all healthy alternatives. Our chat is about finding a way to enjoy the wonders of pizza in a healthy way. This, of course can be easier said than done. However, there are ways to do so, if you are so motivated. “I don’t think people realize just how bad pizza is for you,” sophomore health-sciences major Kate Reese said. Reese, a health enthusiast, says that she gave up eating pizza, and other unhealthy foods, a year ago.
“Pizza was something that everyone was brought up on, and it becomes a go to food for us,” Reese continued. “It is not thought of in the same way the McDonalds is, but it really is just as bad for you.”

“It can be hard to do,” Reece said. “But you can find alternatives to pizza that is somewhat similar. You really have to be motivated to do so.”

For my second interview, I stole a few minuets with a pizza chef at Zito’s to ask him about any healthier options that they were offering. Through the bustle of the day, he was nice enough to take a second for me. Trying our best to ignore the murmur of people surrounding us, we sat down to discuss healthy alternatives.

“We noticed that in general there are people who want healthy options, adding gluten free pizza seemed like a good way to attract those types of people, as well as people who are allergic to Gluten. It has been a hit so far.”

“Pizza does not have to be bad for you, its about what people like, more than about the traditional bread, tomato sauce and cheese combonation.

Waste not Want not

Today, we are faced with a major problem concerning the waste of food, and the sooner that we recognize and find a solution for our food waste issue, the better for everyone.

Food did not go to waste in the Ambrose family. In my 14 years living in my childhood home in Oregon, I can’t remember a single time somebody in my family scrapped food into the trash. First of all, we finished what we put on our plates, mostly because my brother and I had to finish our veggies to be allowed to eat dessert, but because it was just what we did. If for some reason we actually did not finish our plates, what ever we did not eat was saved and put in the refrigerator for later. Nothing was wasted. If we did not eat all the food that my mom cooked, we ate it the next day, or we composted in. Now that I no longer eat around the wooden table that sits in my family’s dining room, I have become shocked about how much food is wasted at Chapman.

I get that you are trying to eat healthy, and you maybe do not have to finish everything on your plate, but the amount of food some people are throwing away is getting ridiculous. As I observed in the cafeteria, roughly 905% of the students were throwing away substantial amounts of food. Its almost as if the people who do not care that they are wasting a tremendous amount of food. Maybe its because I grew up not throwing away food, essentially throwing away money, and I guess that is why I think this way.

In the years that I spent being growing up and learning to save and conserve food, and not frivolously throw away what could be saved, I did it in the beginning just because my parents wanted me to, and that was good enough for me. However, over time, I grew to understand the importance of not wasting. Instead of adopting my parent’s values, I held the value of not wasting on my own. Because of this, the idea of waste not want not is something that I take to heart. I did not need to be convinced by statistics, or expert opinions, it’s just something that has been a part of my life for so long it just is.

It has become apparent that the problem of wasting food is not just an issue at Chapman, but also a countrywide problem. According to NPR, Americans waste 33 million tons of food each year. That is 66,000,000 pounds of food that is completely wasted. That 66 millions pounds represents about 165 billion dollars a year, as well as 40 percent of all the food that we buy. This number is staggering to me. Imagine what we could do with all of that food? I would have to imagine if we cut down just 20 percent of the food that is wasted then Americans would not have to go hungry.

We are facing some lean economic times in America. Because of this, it shocks me that we could be collectively throwing away 165 billion dollars a year! People can’t afford health care and complain about how the government’s taxes are too high and because of this they cant get ahead. That 165 billion dollar number equates to more than 1200 dollars back in each American’s pocket. Yet, in the heart of the recession, back in 2008, people actually threw away more food than the year before by 8 percent, and threw away 20 pounds of food each week.

Just on a level of common sense, we should collectively understand why we should not waste unnecessarily. Even without the facts and figures, and the money that could be saved by wasting less food, there should be some level of understanding within our culture where we know that wasting should not be accepted so flippantly. There should be some amount of common sense that we all have where we know that throwing away food unnecessarily, or throwing away anything that, within reason, can be saved is not socially acceptable. There is no was that we as a society should be ok with wasting 66 million pounds of anything, let alone something that many do not have enough of. How can anybody be ok with throwing away that much food when there are people who desperately need more food? If people were to stop wasting food, and feel a need to buy less good, creating less demand, and would most likely lower the price of food, making it easier for families struggling through tough economic times.

Food waste is an issue that affects each and every one of us. If we can all find a way to cut back, it would be mutually beneficial to everyone. If we wasted less food, we would have more to money to spend on other important things, or just anyway you wanted. To me this is an inarguable point. The less food we waste, the more money we have, and the less financial pressure is put on families who are struggling. If we can have better education about exactly how much food is being wasted, because I would assume people just don’t know what is going on, and can understand how much money could be saved, then I think that a change in how much we waste would be swift.

Those advocating for more wide spread food conservation and composting have not been complaining on deaf ears. The state of California has started to make an effort to get its citizens to compost and save more food. The state recently formed a special committee just to discuss the topic of food waste. The main thrust of their meetings focused on the waste of food that is still edible.

The food waste issue hits home in California, which supplies the greatest amount of fruits and vegetables in the country. Those involved in agriculture, are concerned more with the food that does not even make it to the grocery stores, let alone the tables of consumers, before being thrown away. According to a different study, 52% of fruits and vegetables are thrown away or lost and not eaten. This is an area of much concern for the California farmer, who is watching America citizens the majority of their product of which it makes such an effort to produce.

As Jean-Berillat Savarin famously said in his “Aphorisms of the Professor,”Tell me what kind of food you eat, and I will tell you what kind of man you are.” I believe that this statement applies to what, or how much, food you throw away.

To me, it seems like a no brainier that we should be taking steps towards wasting less. The amount of money that it would save every single person who shops for groceries should be more than enough reason for America to gets its act together and starts to conserve more, and waste less. In a time where people are struggling to put food on the table, and keep cash in their wallets, we need to act. Collectively, as a nation, it is time to step up and stop wasting such a tremendously important product that is food, and save more for the good of our country.

Power behind writing is important

Dear writer,
When writing a Manifesto, for food or not, it is most important to either paint a picture of urgency, or set a scene. You can get away with out setting a scene, in my opinion, if you can make the reader feel a sense of urgency about how important what you are saying is. A reader will always be more likely to want to actually read and comprehend what you have written if they feel what you have to say is important.

For instance, in my manifesto about food waste, I did not just talk about that we were wasting food, but that we are wasting money, money that we need, and that if we stop right now, we can save ourselves a ton of money. That, to me, is the hook. Its not that food is being wasted, but that if we stop wasting so much food, it is clear that our lives could be better in a way that is clearly understood.

If you cant not show something’s importance because it lacks some amount of timeliness, then it is extremely important that you can set a scene for the reader. For your writing to be effective, you have to allow that reader to envision what you are talking about. The reader can not do this however, unless you are able to use lots of description. The more detail you provide, the better your reader can picture the scene that you are trying to get across, as well as provide a stronger argument for whatever it is you are trying to say.

The important thing, is that you as a writer give the reader something to think about while he or she is reading your manifesto. I am of the opinion, that the more thought your writing provokes, the better.

A food blogger’s dictionary

Locavore:
A person that subsist or attempts subsist on only locally grown, or locally harvested food. Many locavores attempt to only eat food that originates from within 60 miles of their houses. A locavore would not only rely on local food, but also food that is either organic or wholesome food. If a locavore was to eat meat, they would want to eat an animal that was grass fed, and treated well, unlike the cows or chickens of big food companies that fatten up their animals with corn and force them to live in unlivable conditions.
Government subsidy:
A sum of money mandated by the government to boost the economics of a given aspect of our economy. Examples run from the General Motors company to the corn industry, which has been subsidized by the government in order to increase the production of corn. A government subsidy could also be considered a reward given down by the government for the state meeting a certain criteria. Many states rely on the subsidies form the federal government to fund important programs. For example, federal government subsidies make up 5 cents of every dollar of the California state budget.
Natural:
As nature intended, without anything added. Something that is natural is without any man made things added to it. Something that is natural is an apple. Fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy are all natural. Natural is something that is from the earth. Natural does not have to be healthy necessarily, as you could eat steak each day, and that would be considered “natural.” However, natural does have a healthy connotation. The word natural has come to associate with health just as things that are chemical are considered unhealthy.
Organic:
While organic literally means that something has carbon in it, it has become to be a word to describe something that is grown without pesticides. Organic has become a very loaded word, some would say that organic is code for way more expensive, and may have become a word that is used to show your self worth. Some people flaunt the idea that they are eating organic because they feel as if there is some amount of social weight that eating organic carries. The word organic has also come to encapsulate a lifestyle, where people try to only eat natural products that are organically grown, and can then say that they are “organic.”
Delicious:
Mouth-watering, hunger-quenching, knee-buckling, spot-hitting goodness, a taste that makes you want to save that flavor in your mouth forever, in other words, nothing that has been served in the Chapman cafeteria. Delicious is a word thrown around far too often. No, the Jamba Juice you just slurped up was not delicious. It may have been good, and you might have been hungry but it was not delicious. Delicious should be a word reserved for only the rarest of circumstances. Delicious is something that you remember enjoying years later. If you can remember that filet mignon that you ate at The Palm several years prior, then sure that is delicious, but that frozen yogurt you just scarfed down is not.

What we should care about

I wonder why we care so much about the presentation of our food. Yes it matters a little bit, it is always better to have food that looks appealing versus food that looks unappealing, if the taste is the same. However, it seems these days that people care more about the presentation of food than the taste, or the content of the meal.

For instance, in the cafeteria, more effort goes into the way the food is presented than its taste. Each scoop of rice is meticulously placed onto the plate, each piece of chicken carefully laid out. If the food is bad, or of low quality, it is not going to taste better even if it is displayed better.

The worst part is, as lines of people stack up waiting in line for the orange chicken at the Asian station, caf workers do not seem bothered, taking their sweet time to carefully present the food. You would think that when there is a line of hungry college students, desperate for food, that the caf workers would display some sense of urgency, rather than pretend the students are not there.

If the workers in the caf put half the time they do on presentation towards making sure the food is hot, then I would not feel the need to complain.

I do not know when or by who that it was decided that food presentation was as or more important than the food itself. Sure, it is cool to see food that is artfully displayed, but that is only as impressive as the taste of the food. If you put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig. Instead of worrying about what things look like, we should be concerned with other much more important things that have to do with food. There are people going hungry all over the world, yet we seem to care more about how our food looks.

The taste of the food should be the only main factor that a cook should consider while preparing or serving food.