WR 123
Slow and Fast
Intro:
It’s the smell that we get first. We walk by a restaurant, diner, drive-in, or a joint and the air is thick with the smell of something cooking. That’s what we all smell. For me, it started when I was growing up. I would always ask what’s for dinner and both my parents would keep it vague: Chicken, fish, beef, or on occasion a surprise. So I would try to guess what they were adding. I’d be in a different room while the smell of honey and ginger or taco powder filled my nose. I would always get part of the meal right. That’s where I feel in love with food.
At a young age, food was my ally. It was always there and it always was willing to work with me. Sounds like I'm dependant of food huh? In a sense we all are. We need it just to survive. Depending on what your outlook on the past is; it either started with a single-cell hunter eating its prey or in a garden where everything was give to us. For me, food has been this thing; a thing that is always beyond words. But like I said, it was the smell that I received first. I would try to guess what someone was cooking when I would be upstairs and on the other side of the house from our kitchen. Most of the time I guess the right meal just from the smell that was coming out of the kitchen. What I learned through smell was that different things smelled the same sometimes. It was weird to me. This is one thing and this is something different but they smell the same. I had a lot to learn.
I grew up in Oregon City. The end of the Oregon Trail. Home of the pioneers. The land of snow, sand, rock, and green. We always had fresh vegetables and fruits when I was growing up. I came into a farming family, so this whole going green thing that's going on right now, I've been living for a while. My dad was a farm of sorts. His main job was working for a coffee company until he was fired and then he worked for Clackamas County for little over a decade until his untimely death in 2009 while on a trip to Hawaii. Don't worry, it wasn't a shark attack. He grew up in the heart of the Willamette Valley, just south of Albany, Oregon between the towns of Shed and Halsey. His father, my grandpa, was a butcher. He would cut into any meat and sometimes even raised his own. Dad learned about how to cook and grow his own food while living with his parents. It grew inside of him. He made things his mother had never heard of. He grew up and went away to Reed College where he received a degree in Chemistry or something like that. He moved east to study more but didn't like sitting down all day. So with two friends, he opened a resturant. My dad was a professional chef. I only found out about this after his death. My mom grew up in a very different atmosphere. Mom grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. She was the second of three kids. Dad was youngest of three. Mom didn’t really learn much about cook it seems which is not to say that her cooking is bad. She went into nursing school and somehow met my father and a few years later I popped into their lives. And the rest is history.
With my father’s death there was a void to fill so to speak. No one was cooking in the house. All the things that dad did where gone and replaced with nothing. This did not sit well with me. So I started cooking. It started very simply: Frozen hash browns. That was the first meal I ate after my father died that I cooked. It really wasn’t anything amazing. It was frozen potatoes cooked. But it started my whole cooking exploration. I wasn’t done with the potato. I stared making my own hash browns and trying different thing with potatoes just to see how they tasted. So far I’ve used rosemary, oregano, tarragon, pepper, salt, lemon pepper, basil, Italian seasoning, and garlic power. So far so good but I soon grew tried of the almighty spud. I would watch some shows on the Travel Channel and on Food Network where they made their own burgers. I had to try. I didn’t ground the meat myself. I wouldn’t know how. But I would pound it out and onions into the meat because I love onions and they’re good for you somehow. I would also put in one or two or three of those seasonings from the list up above. Two things I have found out from making my own burgers. 1) I make them way to big. 2) I use too much meat. I have gotten good results from making them. I just need to make them smaller.
There are those days where I just don’t feel like cooking. I think it happens to us all. We wake up and go through our day and when we get home we’re just tired and exhausted and nothing sounds good and we don’t feel like making anything. It happens. This is where fast food steps in. I will admit that I eat more fast food than I should but compared to how much I used to eat. My favorite place to go out to is Taco Bell. I’m a sucker for cheap fake Mexican food. Let’s face the facts; Taco Bell is not the real deal. I’ve seen real food from Mexico and Taco Bell is nowhere close to it, but they don’t claim to be. It’s a good place to go to on the road but I wouldn’t go there all the time. I have my limits to how many soft tacos and bean burritos I can eat within a week.
The question now is why. Why am I writing about this? Why does this matter? Food is the best way to talk to people. I believe that one of the best ways to get to know someone is to taste their cooking. The way a person cooks has been passed down through generations. Some of the best meals I’ve had have been passed down from one person to another. So why bring up fast food when I seem to have a heavy affection towards home cooked meals? I started asking myself if slow food or home cooked meals are being pushed out by fast food. I like both types of food but I started to think how different my choices in food are compared to other people. I like to cook but sometimes I just don’t want to. Is fast food becoming the new normal everyday thing instead of cooking? I’m from a generation that has grown up with fast food as an everyday thing. I don’t know what it’s like to not have that. So I decided to explore and see what I could come up with.
There are some terms I’m going to use that I think I need to explain a little before I begin explaining things. When I speak of fast food I mean the chains like McDonald’s and KFC. Slow food is the home cooked meal. These two ideas combine into a restaurant. It’s sort of the mix of fast food ideas with the slow food feel. The places I mean by this Izzy’s and Red Robin and other places like those. I’ll be using the word joint a lot. I like the word mostly because it sounds classic and I only use it when talking about fast food.
History:
Where did it all start? Where was the first place that was considered fast food? Who started the fast food chain? To put it simply, it was the Romans. It wasn’t what we would think of fast food but it was food that was meant to be given out very quickly. Wine and bread where sold from vendors which anyone afford and it was a way to get food in a fast manner. So would the fall of Rome be the end of fast food until modern times? Not exactly. Noodle stands in Asia, flatbread and falafels in the Middle East, food was needed for the masses and they needed it quickly. What about the sandwich? I never really thought about someone making a sandwich for the first time when I was growing up. I saw as something to eat and nothing else. Of course someone had to make it for the first time. John Montagu, the forth Earl of Sandwich, has that claim. It was a rather simple idea: A piece or two of meat in between two pieces of bread. People started ordering that just by saying, “The same as Sandwich.” Makes sense to call it a sandwich, but our culture of fast food starter much later. Modern fast food started in 1912 with the opening of Automat in New York, opening under the slogan “Less work for Mother.” Automat was the first. (Fast Food). The second was a little place called White Castle. It didn’t come along until 1921 in Wichita Kansas.
But who really made the break out for fast food? McDonald’s. The golden arches opened their doors 1940 in San Bernardino California. (McDonald’s.) They also made milkshakes but they had something a little different then everyone else. Most of the places back then used a two headed mixer when dealing with milkshakes. McDonald’s saw and thought they could expand on that idea. Instead of using two, they used six, increasing the amount of shakes made by a good amount. (Modern Marvels.) What happened after that is all history. Or so I thought. I never really thought much about fast food beyond McDonalds and all the others until one night when I was watching the Travel Channel. They had a show on call “Chowdown Countdown” where they found the one hundred and one best places to eat in America. The number one spot was taken by a place in New Haven, Connecticut call Louis Lunch. Established in 1895. (Chowdown Countdown.) I bring Louis Lunch up because they are credited with making the first hamburger. Forty years before McDonald’s and only twelve years before Automat. They make the burger the same way today as they did back in the day. (Louis Lunch.) Now that’s something to sink your teeth into.
Slow food has a much different start. I think of the start of slow food when the first tribe or hunters went out for a hunt, killed an animal, brought it back to camp, and decided to cook it. Then comes the farming and growing of plants and such. That is my idea of slow food. The art or craft of growing and cooking yourself. So when was that exactly? A long time ago. But this gave way to one of the oldest professions in the world: Farming. Fast food has tried to push out the idea of slow food but not for a very long time. It wasn’t until 1986 when McDonald’s wanted to put a building near the Spanish Steps in Rome. It’s all business right? They just wanted to share the burger with everyone, so why not put a McDonald’s in Rome? Well fast food pushes out cultural cuisine from areas. A man by the name of Carlo Pretini started the Slow Food Movement. (Slow Food). Within a few years they grew from one city in Italy to fight against fast food to 132 plus countries holding up to the fight. (Slow Food). Who’s winning? Who knows but the fight will never be over.
So what about the food? Where did hamburger start? Is the tomato a fruit or vegetable? Don’t worry; I’ll answer these questions except for the tomato one. I hate tomatoes. I already talked about the sandwich and where it came from and who could have made it, but a sandwich isn’t a fast food icon. The hamburger on the other hand is the king of fast food. When you think of fast food the burger probably comes to mind as the first thing you think of. It’s the one item that can be the same and different every place you go if you want to eat out. How did the hamburger start? It depends on which story you want to believe. The word itself is interesting if you think about it. Hamburger. Ham-burg-er. Ham: The meat from a pig which is odd considering a hamburger isn’t really made from ham. Burg: A German word meaning castle or king’s abode. (Hamburger). It comes down to pig meat castle if you think about it. One would think that with a name that so closely looks like Hamburg, Germany, that the hamburger is actually from the country of Germany. It doesn’t come from Germany at all. The hamburger was made here in the USA. So who made the first one? Hard to say really. The burger was made in either Hamburg, New York; Seymour, Wisconsin; New Haven, Connecticut; Athens, Texas; or Tulsa. (Hamburger). Each has their own claim on the burger. Wherever it really started from the burger itself has grown into a huge success. It has become a normal part of the fast food culture whether it is fried, grilled, or steamed. The burger is our own claim to good eating.
Review of Lit:
In the fight between fast food and slow food, both sides make their stand and both sides also show no signs of moving. Both stand firm in their beliefs. Slow food is there to make sure that fast food doesn’t push out the idea of culture cuisine of countries. Fast food just wants to bring fast and easy food to the masses. Both are noble ideas but both sides also have their dark sides to their ideas.
We know the saying: “You are what you eat”. Most of the time this is said to make us realize what we are eating and why we are eating it. If we don’t like the taste of something, we add things to it to make it taste better: butter, salt, pepper, and bacon. We add one or two or all those and then some other stuff just to make it taste better. Is that healthy? I don’t think so, but we do it anyway. Food always goes down better when it tastes better, but doing this can have a major problem within our bodies. We never think of the negative outcomes of eating food sometimes.
If you go to a fast food joint today, you’ll find nutrition charts for the food they serve. Fast food and nutrition don’t really seem to go hand in hand, but it’s always a good idea to see what you’re putting into your body. Let’s take a look at the big mac from McDonalds’.
Total Calories- 540
Fat Calories- 260
% Calories from Fat- 48
Total Fat (g)- 29
Saturated Fat (g)- 10
Cholesterol (mg)- 75
Sodium (mg)- 1,040
Carbs (g)- 45
Fiber (g)- 3
Protein (g)- 25
Not bad if you consider the fact that the Big Mac is a burger with three pieces of bun and two patties of meat. The special sauce probably doesn’t help much with the sodium. I used to eat these every time I went to McDonald’s after I stopped eating the happy meals.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day or at least that’s how people see it. MD made breakfast a fast food item and made a killing at for a while. I used to like their breakfast items. I didn’t really think much of until I saw what the Deluxe Breakfast dished out on a regular basis.
Total Calories- 1,140
Fat Calories- 530
% Calories from Fat- 46
Total Fat (g)- 59
Saturated Fat (g)- 20
Cholesterol (mg)- 575
Sodium (mg)- 2,250
Carbs (g)- 115
Fiber (g)- 7
Protein (g)- 36
(Fatcalories).
That is without syrup or margarine and with a large biscuit. I’m breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but I’d rather have a grapefruit instead of that. But what about my favorite eatery? What does Taco Bell have to offer? Well, it isn’t as high up there like McDonald’s, but it’s not exactly healthy. Here are the facts for a bean burrito, which is my favorite thing to get.
Total Calories- 350
Fat Calories- 80
% Calories from Fat- 23
Total Fat (g)- 9
Saturated Fat (g)- 4
Cholesterol (mg)- 5
Sodium (mg)- 1,190
Carbs (g)- 54
Fiber (g)- 8
Protein (g)- 13
Not as bad but still not healthy. Taco Bell is my favorite because of taste and price. Mostly price: cheap is always good. Fast food is meant to put something in you and then get you on your way. If you want to be healthy, don’t eat any or a lot of fast food. Be very mindful of what you are putting into your body. Everything that goes in doesn’t always come out. Think of it as water going through some pipes with a bunch of gunk in the water. When the water comes out on the other side, there’s going to be fewer gunk chunks because it stuck to the side of the pipes. It’s going to build up until it clogs up and breaks. Think of that happening inside your body.
We all make bad choices when it comes down to food. Some of us don’t do it as often as others but we all still make bad choices when eating food. The best way to lose weight is to diet right and exercise. It works and it feels good. But we are a fast paced nation. We need food at a moments notice. There’s no time to cook a full meal so we go to a fast food joint to get our food and then we go on are way, moving a quick pace just so we have enough time to get everything done. The quick fix of food is the only we can get on with our day. We don’t if it’s greasy, fried, buttered, or battered. We just want it so we can eat it and move on. I can understand why we do this but we should really stop and think about what we’re putting into our bodies. There is a website called HelpGuide.org that gives tips and ideas on eating healthier when eating fast food. If you think before you eat, everything should be a little better by the end of the meal.
Make Careful Menu Choices:
Be aware of how food is prepared. If something is deep-fried, pan-fried, basted, batter-dipped, breaded, creamy, crispy, scalloped, Alfredo, au gratin, or has a creamy sauce. Avoiding these types of prepared food is tough. Some place focus on these as an overall idea for the food. KFC big push is fried and crispy chicken. Avoiding all these is a lot easier said than done. Just be aware and don’t always go with the easy choice.
Drink Water:
Instead of soda, beer, or wine with your meal drink water. There’s nothing in water usually. It’s a lot healthier than anything else mostly because it’s just plain old water and nothing special.
“Undress” You Food:
Don’t be afraid to order food without dressing or sour cream or anything like that. All those do is add to sodium and calories. It’s alright to not have any dressing on a salad or order a burrito without the sour cream. It will be better for you in the long run to eat without than with it.
Special Order:
Burger King used to say, “Special orders don’t upset us.” It’s a good idea to go by for ordering. If want something a little different than what is normal, don’t be afraid to ask for it. If something has refried beans, get it with black beans. If a burger you want comes with bacon but you don’t the bacon, get it without bacon. Special orders can also be bad but just keep in mind what’s healthy and everything should be fine.
Portion Size:
This is a major problem. Always be mindful of how much you’re eating. Everything thing at stores tells you how much is in a serving size. I think this is hard for everyone to do because we always want to snack on stuff. Over eating is bad. Just watch out for how you’re eating and you’ll be fine.
Salt:
Too much salt can be very hazardous to ones health. Cutting back on the amount of salt you take in can save your life in the long run of things. Salt is very common in fast food just look for a nutrition chart and look for the items with the least amount of sodium.
Avoiding Buffets:
You have to avoid buffets completely, just overeating and all the fried food. Stick with boiled and steamed food. Also eat things with olive oil and vinegars to cut back on fats and other bad things.
Keeping all these things in mind is a lot of work but it’s really worth it when you’re not lying in a hospital bed with a good amount of tubes coming out of your body and doctors telling you to cut back on your eating. It’s nice to go out to eat sometimes but just keep in mind what you eating. It’s worth it to have a healthy life. The longer you live the more food you can eat.
Slow food is a good idea for the family that wants to have a nice meal where they can sit down and talk to each other. I like it and everyone seems to have some affection to it. What is there to hate in slow food? To answer this I turn to the great state of California. In California, slow food has entered the school system in the form of gardens. Kids can go outside and work on a garden and learn how to take care of it and grow their own plants. Sounds like a good idea. This idea was started by Alice Waters, the head of the grown-locally movement in California. She wanted kids to learn to grow their own food and to live a healthy life. Still sounds good until you think about what the garden takes place of academics. These kids aren’t learning anything. This comes from an article written by Caitlin Flanagan called “Cultivating Failure”. She explains what the kids are missing out on when they work out in the garden. Kids need to have basic academic skills to make through school. The garden doesn’t really teach that. All it teaches is how to grow plants. Flanagan talks to Michael Piscal about this idea;
I started to ask Michael Piscal, founder and CEO of the Inner City Education Foundation Public Schools, which runs 15 successful charter schools in South Los Angeles, what he thought about the Edible Schoolyard and school gardens in general, but he cut me off. “I ignore all those e-mails,” he told me bluntly. “Look,” he said, when pressed, “there’s nothing wrong with kids getting together after school and working on a garden; that’s very nice. But when it becomes the center of everything—as it usually does—it’s absurd. The only question in education reform that’s worth anything is this: What are you doing to prepare these kids for college? If I can get a kid to read Shakespeare and laugh at the right places, I can get him to college. That’s all that matters to me.
Reading does seem a little more important than growing your own plants. I came from a farm family. I never wanted to learn how to grow my own plants when I was younger. Why would I want to do it in school if I didn’t want to do it at home? It seems like Waters wants to push her ideas on more flexible minds. I’m sure it’s helpful for some kids, but in the overall view of things are gardens really going to help these kids get into a good school or are the gardens going to get in the way? I grew up on a farm and I never really got into it. I don’t like the idea of a garden taking up time that should be spent on math and English. It might be a good idea for some schools to do it but if the school is having problems is some areas and the garden takes up too much time then shouldn’t the garden be forgotten until the other problem is taken care of? I think people need to focus on the important ideas of school and let the garden come second.
Slow food and fast food are two different styles of food. Slow is a healthy, well-balanced, family friendly way to cook a meal and enjoy it with others. Fast food is quick, greasy fix so you can on your way very quickly. Both mean well even though both seem to have their good points and their bad points. So which is better? It really depends on who you are and what you like. Some people like fast food a lot more than slow food and the other way around. Food is an interesting thing when you think about it. It’s both an art form and a science. People create and display food like an artist would but it also takes a scientist to know all the right ways to cook a meal. Some might have a better eye for this but anyone can cook. But it’s still a person’s choice whether to side with fast food or slow food. I wanted to get the opinion of normal people about fast food and slow food.
Primary Research:
It was just another average January night in Oregon City rainy and cold. Lucky for me I have a very close friend living not too far away from me in Oregon City. I’ve known my friend Koby McConnell since the first grade when we were on the same tee ball team together. He’s just like me in the fact that we both like a good meal. When I went over to his house on a rainy night, I didn’t really know what to expect from his answers. I get into his house where Koby and his girl friend Kate have already begun to cook. On the menu for the night would be a mixed seafood pasta. You name a salt-water animal and it was in the dish. We each do our part: Koby prepares some crabmeat; Kate cleans an octopus for the meal, while I stir the cream sauce. We laugh and make jokes when I asked them, “What’s better for you guys, fast food or something like this”. Immediately Koby replies with, “I hate f@#$ fast food”. I wasn’t really surprised by his answer or how fast he answered back. “The last time I ate something like that I got sick and I haven’t gone back since”. Koby went to McDonald’s with his mom when he was younger and some bad food and became sick. He hasn’t gone back to any fast food joint since then. I asked him what he likes to do if he does want to go out for food. “I’ll go to a restaurant or anything like that. If it’s Chinese or Japanese food I’ll defiantly eat there. Five Guys is probably the closet thing to fast food that I’ll still go to”. Five Guys is a burger joint that has some of the best burgers I have ever eaten. He made me curious about why he didn’t consider Five Guys fast food. “It’s all in the time. They don’t rush the process. They take their time with the burger to make sure it’s right. Fast food places just don’t do that”. He was right. I’ve never seen a fast food joint cook a burger like Five Guys. When the meal was ready we ate it while we watch a movie. We cleaned up and I went home full of ideas and full of food.
I was once told that food can comfort you when you’re at your most vulnerable. I believe it to the fullest or when I’m full. I also think that fast food has become my generation’s comfort food. I see a lot of people around my age eating at fast food joint when I’m there. I’ll admit it, Taco Bell has before somewhat of a comfort food for me. I have a friend by the name of Tara Houglum. Tara and I met while I was attending Western Oregon University. We became friends very quickly. She would take me out to Chinese restaurants while I took her to burger places. We’re very close with our food habits. One while we were eating at Taco Bell we had talk about food and why people eat what they do. It started simple enough with the order of our food: Two bean burritos, two beefy 5-layer burritos, two drinks, two crispy potato soft tacos, and an order of cinnamon twists. We stand down and started to eat when I asked her, “Do you think fast food has become comfort food for our generation”. She finished her bite before she could answer. “Yes”. She went back eating. I watched people eat and order their food. “Why do you think that is”. “I think it all depends upon family life. Some kids grew up eating out while others didn’t really do it that often”. I thought about what she said. I came back with what she said with a different question. “Well what about me”. “What about you”. “I grew up eating at home most of the time. We rarely ate out. Why do you think I find this food comfort”. “Because you have soft spot for burritos”. She was right. I love me a good burrito. I also agree with her statement about family playing a big part in what people find as comfort food. I also believe comfort food is a choice on the person themselves not only a family thing. We finished our meal and left. We had a good and cheap food.
I work in a theatre located in Oregon City. I’ve been apart of the company for six seasons. It’s been my steady job for all those years. I’ve worked other jobs during that time but the theatre has been my main job. No one can really make a living at the theatre. We need another job just to make a living in our own houses. I have a friend by the name of Jess Sheppard and she works at Taco Bell. She just got the job a few months ago and she seems to like it there. I know the slow food movement sees fast food as this monster but I don’t see it like that. I asked Jess what she thought. It took her a bit of thinking when I asked. “I don’t think Taco Bell is bad. It’s just a place that gives people food. I don’t think it’s really anything else besides that”. I agree with her. I don’t think fast food is really as evil as the slow food movement thinks it is. All fast food has become is a business for people who just need food quickly. That’s all it is to me.
One of the most dangerous things to say to me before going into a restaurant is “Order whatever you want”. If a person gives me an opening for food, I will something they won’t be expecting but I will always keep it cheap. I’m a cheap date. I think eating at a restaurant should be fun experience. I don’t go to restaurants just for the food; I go to have a good time and to have fun. I’ve had bad times at places but I always try to have a good time.
I like German food. One of my favorite restaurants is place called Gustav’s. It’s German food at its best: Sausages, sauerkraut, beer, and potatoes. I tend to say away from beer and stick to food. The last time I went to Gustav’s was with my mom and my grandparents. Mom doesn’t like to eat out but no one wanted to cook. The outside of Gustav’s is quite humble. There’s nothing really special about the outside but inside is a whole different story. The inside looks like an old German house with very interesting light fixtures made out of antlers. At the entrance is an oven with a rotating rack that always has a few chickens or two big cuts of ham. Usually there is a long line at Gustav’s is very long but somehow we hit the right night and there wasn’t a line. We got in and got our table very quickly. I never know what to get. So much of the menu looks good. In the end I went with a sampler platter. It comes with spatzel, sausages, some sauerkraut, red cabbage, a few pieces of a roast, and a big piece of chicken. All of it was good. The chicken was juicy and just the right amount of flavor. The spatzel was different. I didn’t really know what to expect from pasta made from potatoes. It was amazing. Eat bite was better than the last. The whole meal was just a good time.
I’ve eaten at plenty of different places. Some were good and some were bad and some were just awful. With every good restaurant comes a good atmosphere. If a place has a bad atmosphere then no one is having a good time. This happened when I went to a restaurant called McGrath’s. I like seafood but McGrath’s isn’t the best in seafood. The place looks like an old sea hut form the outside. The inside made feel like I was at a retirement home. Everywhere I looked were a bunch of boring pictures that didn’t have anything to do the ocean. The lighting was dim, kind of hard to read the menu when you can’t read the menu. I ended up ordering the deep fried platter. I like deep fried fish and any sea creature but this was a meal from the bad sea. Clams, scallops, shrimp, and cod all deep-fried would have been an ideal meal for me. It really wasn’t. Everything was way too greasy. I ate everything but I didn’t really like it. I was bored and full and ready to go.
It sounds like I eat out a lot but truth is I don’t. I just like to eat out sometimes. Now because I like to eat out doesn’t mean I don’t know how to cook. I can cook. Like I said before I started out with potatoes and it grew to burgers. Lunch and dinner stuff are nice and all but I wanted to try my hand at breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day so why not try and make something for it. I wanted to something that would be a little hard to make. I wanted to try my hand at making omelets. I don’t do anything really special to them. All I do is crack three eggs into a bowl and beat them with an eggbeater. The filling is always a potato and ham mix. It’s just a simple breakfast but my mom seems to think that my omelets are pretty good. I guess I can cook one mean egg.
Fast food is a good idea if people eat it the right way. A lot of people put the blame of their weight on fast food which is really silly. It’s not the corporations fault for people getting fat. It’s not there fault at all. It’s the person’s fault because they made the choice to eat too much fast food. If they eat less often and get some exercise, maybe they wouldn’t complain as much. People need to be more aware of what is put into their bodies and what they also do with their bodies. Sitting around and eating isn’t healthy. You can’t blame anyone else if that’s all you do and you get fat. If people just think before they ate or just stopped and thought if they really need fast food, maybe things would be different.
Is fast really the monster that’s pushing out culture cuisine that the slow food movement says it is? I don’t think so. I don’t see any fast food corporation paving over a field of corn to make room for a parking lot. I have yet to see a tube that goes to a McDonald’s or a Burger King so that food can be sent directly to a home. They day fast food starts doing that is the day people all over the world stop cooking at home. Fast food will never take over the food world if there are people willing to cook at home or just cook anywhere they can. People will always like to cook. I’ve just started and I like it. Yes a few fast food corporations have popped up in very bad locations but all they are trying to do is make money. They don’t want to push culture cuisine out of anyone’s home completely. It doesn’t make any sense. Why would a fast food corporation do that if their roots stretch back into homes or to the backyards of people. Why would you destroy the roots of your whole idea? I think people that work in and around fast food go home and cook for themselves. Fast food isn’t a monster, it just has own culture cuisine.
The slow food movement is a good idea but I think it’s also a little overkill. I think it’s a great idea to save culture cuisine but the whole garden is school thing seems a much. I idea of learning about a culture through the food is amazing experience. So what is learned through a garden at a school? Not a whole lot. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an n okay idea to do that in schools but do they really need to do it? The slow food movement just seems to be pushing their ideas all over and not letting and other ideas join with them. Just focusing on your own ideas and not letting other ideas in can be a little dangerous.
Conclusion:
Food culture has come a long way. Fast food used to mean chasing down a fast moving animal. Slow food was a berry on a bush or fruit hanging down from a tree. As time went on, people started to grow there own plants and raise their own animals. Cities grew. Farmlands grew. Hunters became butchers. Gatherers became farmers. Meals became more about the flavor than just cooking it over a flame. Taste became important. Markets grew larger and larger to make room for new items. Food culture grew and grew. Fast food and slow food split and here we are now: Fast food for the masses and slow food for home. What else could there be?
At the end of the day all we really want is a plate of something good. Who cares what it looks like as long as we can eat it. Like a said before, it’s the smell that get first. What comes next is the sound. The sight fallows close behind. The fell of the food comes right before the taste. One bite is all it takes to figure out it it’s good or not. Food can be very complex but it can also be very simple too. Don’t close your mind to any idea of food. Just do what I do: If it looks good and smells good, eat it. Bon Appetite.
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