For breakfast, I had good ol’ American eggs and bacon. For lunch, I had “Opa!” and a delicious Greek Salad. For Dinner, I had Manchu Wok (2 Item special...what a deal!).
If we are to take the phrase “you are what you eat” with great weight... I may have a serious identity crisis on my hands. Consuming American, Greek, and Chinese in a day is certainly a more literal way of “eating the other” however my interest lies not with bellhooks, but with cultural identity and the mass consumption of culture through looking at the food court of a shopping mall. To consider an extremely local example, the Conestoga Mall food court options are: A&W, Ah-So Sushi (Japanese), Bourbon St. Grill (Cajun), Cultures, Feta & Olives (Greek), KFC/Taco Bell (Mexican), Manchu Wok (Chinese), New York Fries, Spring Rolls (Pan-Asian), Subway, Tandori (Indian), Tim Hortons (Canadian!), and Villa Madina (Mediterranean).
Is the food court a way to maintain culture? To actively practice it when you’re hungry from fighting off a few hours worth of aggressive sale seekers?
Certainly these sites would not be able to operate without the business of patrons frequenting the food court. But considering the 2006 census data of the cultural make-up of Waterloo (82.3% White, 5.3 % Chinese, 4.6% South Asian, 1.2% Black, 1.0% Southeast Asian, 0.9% Hispanics, 3.5% Other) it seems unlikely that these locales were created with the intent of feeding the marginalized groups to whom each fast-food counter speaks to. So who consumes the other? Why it was originally created?
Appardurai conceives the concept of the “Imagined World” as a place where the area between real and fictional become skewed, so the further away we are...the more we imagine. Can the food court be conceived as an Imagined world of ethnic cuisine rooted in culture but Westernized because of the distance? It may be simple to look at the food court as a product of the recent trend of consuming more culturally diverse products. It does appear that we crave difference (literally and figuratively speaking) but consider briefly the origin on Manchu Wok, a Chinese food court option. Interestingly enough, the owners of the chain were immigrants from Hong Kong who opened their business in 1980 after coming to Canada. Could it not be argued that as they began their journey in their host nation a desire for the taste of homeland emerged? As time progressed, the cuisine became more American-Chinese, serving chicken wings and BBQ pork as options and boasting a “Fast and Fresh Chinese Cuisine.” In the past 30 years then, the original definition of true, authentic cuisine the creators may have envisioned is now slightly altered, serving more Americanized options and adopting the Westernized worldview of speed, hurriedness, and efficiency over more Eastern ideals
Manchu Wok is not an isolated case. “Panda Express” was opened in California by Ming Tsai Cherng, an Immigrant from China, “Sbarro” by Gennero and Carmela Sbarro, immigrants from Naples, and in 1963 Jimmy “The Greek” Antonopoulo immigrated from Naflio. Could it be, then, that these are all “imagined worlds” knowing the aforementioned? Did these immigrants turned entrepreneurs blur the line of fiction in order to create their own imagined world or did they simply become accustomed to the ideals and values of America and use them to profit their business? If the many sites of ethnic dining at the mall began with the dreams and recipes of talented immigrants...how did they become so Americanized?
Somehow with all our discussions about cultural identity we find ourselves repeatedly turning back to aspects of the McDonald's example issued in week one. I think this was an excellent observation Marie, and it is interesting to note the ways the example comes up and can be used again and again. This food court example really does get to some of the issues about what it means to have a Canadian (and to some, but lesser extent, American identity). If we are indeed just a hodgepodge of cultures does our native food have to be McDonald's? (Although being Canadian perhaps this example isn't quite appropriate). Still it serves as an interesting cultural reference that I'm sure will come up in discussion again.
ReplyDeleteMarie, I love your food posts! Besides making me hungry for bland, unauthentic, over-priced "food", I think it's a great way to relate the tough concepts of the course to something we can all identify with (good job)! I was in the mall the other day with my boyfriend and instead of saying "I feel like a sub" or "I want a burger", we starting listing things like Chinese, Italian, Mexican. I caught myself after awhile, but when I looked around, with the exception of Tim Hortons, I couldn't identify any type of food as Canadian. I thought this was kinda odd seeing as I was in Canada. But then I looked around and saw a lot of people from different ethnicities/cultures, and thought it was nice to have something to choose from. But then I thought perhaps they are all Canadian and I am just judging people on the colour of their skin. I'm not sure where I'm going with this at all - just another experience in the food court that opened my eyes and semi-related to what you were writing about (although not put as eloquently as you)!
ReplyDeleteIn answer to the question you pose at the end of your post, Marie, I imagine that the immigrants who started their successfull businesses have adapted to the North American way of life, and thus have tailored their recipies and efficiency to more palatable Western standards. This is a good marketing strategy on their part, and the more we talk about globalization the more I begin to think that adaptability is what's beginning to determine global success. Anyways, so I'd like to think that they've tweaked their traditions in order to make it in the Western world. I guess the true question would be, has this impacted how food is prepared in their home land. I would suspect no, and I am basing this only on my limited travels in Europe last summer. So, what does this say about cultures and consuming the other, if were consuming a tailored version of them? As with kareoke and the food court example, it becomes an issue of who is consuming who? Sure, we're consuming exoticism, but simultaneously they have consumed and digested Western ways.
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