When it comes to food and my family they all basically see and approach food the same way. For my mom when she gets food on a typical day she tends to eat only one or two meals a day because she sometimes works through lunch. But when she gets home she eats small portions of food and snacks like pretzels, chips, cookies and ice. The reason I believe she eats the way she does because I think she doesn’t look at food as something she wants or comforting to make you feel good but mostly she has to or needs to. For example when she doesn’t eat lunch it’s more of a need for her to eat because and she can’t go the whole day, be healthy and live eating just snacks, so the way I see it it’s more of a need for her to eat when she gets home so that she’ll at least get the nutrients she needs. Also my aunt when she was raised she was taught that “if you don’t like it don’t eat it” and “eat everything on your plate there are children in Africa starving” so now she only eats what she likes and is a picky eater. So because she was taught that it shapes the way she eats and approach her food, which is to eat everything that she is given and you should appreciate what your are given. But at the same time make you feel guilty that there are kids who don’t have food and you do but at the same time want to waste it by not eating it all.
On special occasions food is looked as a source of comfort and to bring the family closer even if no one is really talking, just having everyone around you eating gives you a sense of comfort. On my mom side of the family they eat a lot of grits, eggs, meat, greens and yams while on my father side which is West Indian they eat a lot of potatoes, rice, fish, fruit, and drink a lot of alcohol or use it in food. Those foods were used on typical occasions because they had time to cook. But since me or my mom don’t always have time to cook a full meal or in the mood to do all that work, when we order out we still tend to eat rice, and some kind of meat as a everyday thing even if it’s not a typical southern or West Indian meal.
Since half of my family is West Indian and live in the West Indies, they tend to eat. I grew up loving rice and fruit and the reason for that I think is because it’s something that was used a lot in my family so it has been passed down and then I was raised eating a lot of rice and fruit too. Also when it comes to eating food on that side of my family you’re supposed to get a little of everything and if it’s something new you should still get some and try it, so when I go out to places or just at home I try to get a little of everything to eat to try it all and what I don’t like I wont eat it again. My father just like my mother used food as a sense of comfort and Sunday’s tend to be a big deal because they go all out and make a big dinner because it’s the only time that everyone can really sit down and be together. Which is something that I learned now and was taught . A foodways related to culture is that when you’re in a West Indian household and someone gives you food and it something you don’t like or never ate before you have to eat it or you will looked at as being rude and will lose some respect for doing that.
For any meal that my family cooks its always prepared with everyone helping out. Even if they’re not in the kitchen literally cooking their still doing something in the living room to help out. Usually the women would be the ones cooking food in my household because they tend to have the all the skills and know all the recipes that were passed down from generations compared to the men. Then when the food is served you notice who’s plate is for a man or who is for a women because the men tend to fill their plate up and put as much as they can on the plate while woman will get just a little bit and if they want more they will go back to get it. When it comes to me I do a little bit of both I’m greedy and like to take as much food as I can because I don’t want it to be gone by the time I’m finish, but also go back to get a little bit more while I still have some on my plate.
Kristen,
ReplyDeleteSome perceptive moments in your post - how you're expected to eat what people gave you in West Indian foodways, the gendered aspects of plate-filling. I got the sense that a bright pair of eyes was behind this post.
But also some contradictions and writing issues that should have been corrected before publishing this and indicate that you need to edit your work more effectively.
For instance you write, " my family they all basically see and approach food the same way", "she doesn’t look at food as something she wants or comforting", "My father just like my mother used food as a sense of comfort". Either you're not used to anyone actually paying attention to what you write/say or you just didn't take the time to edit so that your words line up without obvious contradiction.
For writing issues - you wrote, "Since half of my family is West Indian and live in the West Indies, they tend to eat." Well, people also tend to eat outside the West Indies. What are you trying to say?
Your final (often most important) sentence reads, "When it comes to me I do a little bit of both I’m greedy and like to take as much food as I can because I don’t want it to be gone by the time I’m finish, but also go back to get a little bit more while I still have some on my plate." This is a run-on sentence - you need to break it into at least two separate sentences. And verbs liked "finish" receive an "-ed" ending in the past tense in the dialect of academic English ("finished").