Food and Eating Culture - Research Paper Example

Foods that are sweet are considered good for achieving good vibes and luck. Round foods are commonly prepared in celebration or occasions such as New Year for increase of wealth, blessing for good health and prosperity for the whole year round. In the western part of the world, especially in the US, food is culture (Nowatzki and Vorhauer 9). It represents as a way of life and experience. Just like in China, history suggests that food is associated with various human experiences and beliefs in the US.

This country is rich with heritage and people use food to express their culture or certain belief about their experience. For instance, when one enters into the US, one of the most popular beverages is the beer. The American life or experience for instance, is never completed without this beer. Beer has become the country’s ultimate perfect work of art. The above are just some important cultural identities of China and the US based on their foods. In this paper, the proponent discusses the difference between eastern and western countries when it comes to food and eating culture.

China and the US are the two countries selected in the discussion. Food and eating culture in the USA Food is culturally influenced and as a result it influences American culture in great detail (Nowatzki and Vorhauer 9). In the American way of life, food is an integral part. People might be observed to simply eat food and without even thinking there is a great cultural touch in it. An experience is associated with it, which in return talks about the culture in America. Let us take the case of the institution of various food chains in the country.

The reason why they are created is due to the fact that American life is in fast-pace condition. People are in a hurry because of their strong consideration on the achievement of individual fulfillment. In fact, according to Hofstede’s cultural dimension, the Americans have strong sense of individualism (Hofstede 38). This in particular pushes them to always look forward to competitive advantage. In order to achieve this, they rather go for practicality. Buying a readily made food would save so much time.

Fast food chain restaurants are renowned to produce this kind of service, and there is no question about how widely this was accepted across the country. McDonald’s for instance is an international company that originated in the US. Its original goal from the moment of its inception was to produce high quality products for its customers and later decided to create franchises (McDonalds 3). This approach became a success and an indication that the market itself strongly accepted its product offerings.

It was not all just about the taste, but McDonald’s was catering to students, employees with its high quality burgers, fries and beverages. These people then were tantamount to its success at present time. Today, these are all individuals who do not only look for taste, and quality products, but rather on saving cost and time. From eastern perspective, western foods especially coming from America are less healthy compared to what usually are served in China, Japan and others. In fact, some claims surfaced that the moment McDonald’s and other fast food chain restaurants from the US entered in China or in Japan, some people were becoming obese and have substantially changed their eating or lifestyle habit for food (Doecke, Howie and Sawyer 269).

Thus, from McDonald’