I have always been a big fan of food, and although I am rather picky, I love to enjoy different cultural dishes (that are cruelty-free of course). Throughout history, many different cultures have shown to have different varieties and styles of food. Of course, this makes sense, as we couldn’t expect the entire world to be eating the same meals as everyone else. Some dishes are more readily available, causing them to be a cultural dish in a specific area. Due to cultural differences, Turkish cuisine and American cuisine differ from the way we set the table to the dishes itself. Also, due to economic statuses, certain cultures are unable to feast the way other cultures are able to. One way that food can differ culturally, is how the food is grown & collected. In Turkey, as there are supermarkets like in the United States, most people usually buy their fruits and vegetables from vendors outside.
I was recently in Turkey this previous summer, and I would say there are vendors on the streets (in Istanbul) every thirty feet or so. Oftentimes they have ones right next to one another. This encourages people to purchase their needs from locals, like the people selling them, rather than going to a supermarket. While in the United States, we usually always go to a supermarket to purchase our fruits and vegetables. From Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1959), during “the planting season Okonkwo worked daily on his farms from cock-crow until the chickens went to roost”. From this, we understand that their culture involves farming and direct contact with their food supplies.
Compared to here in the United States, most of us can prepare our meals without having to go outside and farm. We are usually one to three generations away from the farm. To contrast, from The Women in the City of the Dead by Helen Watson (1992), it was a woman’s job to make and gather the food, “Motherhood, child care, cooking, cleaning and managing domestic affairs make up the primary female sphere of influence and activity”. From this, we are able to tell that in the novel the era is much earlier, as it was published in 1992, much has changed. Another way we differ in cultures is the way we gather together around our meals. Not only do we differ in how we produce our food, but how we eat too. Typically, an American household just puts the food on the table for all to eat, with no special or specific format.
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Oftentimes, most American families don’t even eat together, due to some kind of rush, whether it be from school or work, they are often too busy to be able to eat all together as a family. Also, they don’t view dinner (or other meals) as anything other than the necessity to eat. Rather, in my culture, we think it’s important to eat all together. In Diane Crespo and Stefan Schaefer’s 2007 movie Arranged, we saw how different food was prepared on the dinner table. With Rochel’s family, due to her cultural background (Jewish American), her mother had a nice decorative cloth covering the bread, so it did not get dusty. While setting the table, she placed it and took the cloth off. In our household, since we are Turkish, we follow the same guidelines as Rochel’s family as well. We typically cover most foods with a clean cloth or some type of lid and we always eat together, as a family.
Typically, American meals or sides, such as bread, are not covered with a cloth. Another key factor which may play a role in the overall differences among cultural cuisines could be a country’s economic status. For instance, countries with lots of money and high levels of industrialization are more likely to have cheap readily-available processed foods to eat, compared to other countries which may not necessarily have access to the same quantities of money to have restaurants on every street corner. This can be observed in many countries across the globe, countries higher on the economic ladder tend to have higher levels of mechanical intervention in place when meals are made. This shift towards a more processed diet has several implications, and reasons for why it is happening, whether it be the average consumers desire to have things more quickly, and cheaply, or just the overall lack of interest in preparing meals for ourselves. For example, here in the United States, we see processed foods almost everywhere we go.
However, in Turkey, as it is a growing demand in this day and age, they have much less processed foods than us. Although Turkish food and American food are alike in some ways, in Turkey, they do not eat pork because 99% of the population is Muslim. However, they eat every other animal- sheep, goat, cow, camel, horse, chicken, turkey (ironic) and fish. Most meals have eggs, bread, cheeses, fruits, and vegetables in them, as they are the most popular in Turkey. In the United States, we also like to indulge in dairy, bread, fruits, and vegetables. Another big difference between the two cultures is that often meals are served cold in Turkey. While here, we typically always heat up our meals. Nevertheless, we are very similar in the way we eat our breakfast.
In Turkey, sucuk (a dried sausage made with ground beef and spices) and eggs are typically the most popular and common meal to eat at breakfast time. In the United States, people usually eat sausage or bacon with eggs too. All in all, the importance of intercultural experiences can be observed in many aspects of day to day life, not just through the food industry. Exposing yourself to foods and traditions you are not used to may set you up for success in environments where you may not necessarily feel that comfortable. Learning to adapt and thrive in places you are not necessarily used to will help shape you into becoming capable of thriving in different environments. This can allow for a more natural transition when visiting different places. You may be more open to trying a cuisine you are not familiar with and may have an easier time connecting with people of different ethnicities as well.
References
- Achebe, C. (1959). Things Fall Apart. New York: Fawcett Crest. Crespo, D. (Producer), & Schaefer, A. (Director). (2007).
- Arranged [Motion Picture]. United States: Cicala Filmworks Watson, H. (1992). Women in the City of the Dead. Trenton, NJ: Hurst.
