Food as Prompt for Homeliness Ideas - Essay Example

Food as prompt for homeliness ideas Culture that is the way of life is an important aspect of human beings. All people identify with particular cultural practices learned from birth and through growth. Food and eating are important aspects of cultural practices. Depending on cultural backgrounds, people have different eating habits. The types of food eaten by people also vary with the original cultural practices favored by the individuals. Every community across the world identifies with certain cultural practices known among other social groups. For instance, greatest part of Western countries is capitalists and modernists while the Eastern affiliates are communists and conservatives. In the same manner, food and eating habits are important identities that determine how and when people feel about home. Eating food that is part of a person’s culture brings about the feelings of home irrespective of the contemporary location of a person. This statement means that a person in a foreign land can revive feelings of home by eating food items that define part of the home culture. The growing and widespread concepts of globalization and diversity have not achieved to effect cultural neutralization. Sociologists have waited to see a world with neutral culture characterized with people from different parts of the world accepting and completely adopting foreign cultures. The challenge has been immense and concentrated around food that people eat (Mason, 2004). The fact that people and communities view food as part of their ethnicities has been the contributory factor in limiting effective neutralization of cultures through globalization. The use of food and eating behavior to create ideas about home has been common among tourists and migrants. Tourists have taste for particular diets and cuisines that they do not like to miss in their meals. Food shops and hotels exist everywhere across the world with employees trained in preparing different cuisines. As discussed by Haden (2009), tourists who visit foreign lands usually investigate the knowledge of the hosts in preparing the desired home cuisines. Many people feel that eating food items and cuisines related to home makes them maintain touch with home culture even when on tour. In cases where the tourists with great attachment to traditional home meals learn of the difficulty to access the home diets, they usually prepare to carry packed meals. In some instance, the tourists may carry raw food materials to cook by selves in the hotel rooms in the host destination. The essence of such conservative practices is to ensure safety (Echols, 2001). Human beings just like other creatures consider their homes as the safest places. The perception is usually due to the deep understanding of the home environment and characterizing dynamics. Eating food associated with home in a foreign land works to assure about safety and general security. Establishment of hotels that serve home cuisines is another way that people use food to create ideas about home and homeliness (Anusasananan, 2012). It is a common practice for business people from particular countries or backgrounds to start food stores and hotels in foreign lands on learning about high number of migrants from the home country. Foodscapes is the term that describes availability of various cuisines in different global geographical and cultural contexts (Duruz, 2009). The cuisines then enter into the public imagination as distinct culinary traditions defining specific cultures and people. Usually, continuity of the cuisines establishes a real connection to the homeland of the affected ethnic group. For instance, the influx of Malay migrants to Australia led to the establishment of many Malaysian restaurants in Sydney. The restaurants include the Malaya, Mamak, PappaRich, and Jimmy’s Recipe among others. The purpose of the restaurants is to serve specifically Malaysian cuisines to the many Malay immigrants (Civitello, 2008). The migrants use the foods to establish and maintain links with home. Eating behaviors similar to the way done at home assists in reviving feelings of home, and cause comfort to the individuals. The restaurants and homes responsible for creating foodscapes are usually important in localizing the meaning of a given cuisine within the surrounding foreign environment. It is worth acknowledging that food and eating are compulsory needs for every person. Migrants to foreign land can allow their memories to forget other things about home and culture (Abarca, 2006). In fact, it is only through loss of consciousness about details of home traditions that migrants can manage to adapt in a foreign land. Since consuming strange food elements is usually difficulty and likely to cause discomfort, eating time defines the moment for a person to think about home and culture. In most cases, individuals faced with such dilemmas will resort to finding food materials synonymous with home culture (Mason, 2004). It is at such times that consciousness and thoughts about home become compulsory and inevitable for the migrants. Community involves a group of people sharing similar beliefs and cultural practices. Forming a community is one way that people create feelings and ideas of homeliness. A community is a place where a person can find people with moral willingness to provide genuine help. Crowther (2013) states that people in a foreign land have been using food restaurants and eating occasions to form temporary communities that foster feelings of homeliness. During such ceremonies involving eating, organizers mainly avail food elements and culinary that is synonymous with their homelands. Cooking and preparing food is another way that people use food to create ideas about home. Different communities have different ways of preparing and cooking food. Many people affiliated to the Western culture such the Americans and Europeans have tendency to consume fast food products purchased from the shelves of food stores (Duruz, 2009). Usually, fast foods carried home do not require further cooking. The readiness of such food products leaves consumers with the task of warming or direct consumption. The preparation process is usually relieved and takes short time. Again, Westerners seem not to value collective eating. Every person has the option to eat individually in disregard of others. People affiliated to strict Western culture always encounter challenges adapting in social environments where fast foods are not favorable (Yiannas, 2009). Thinking or witnessing the long process of food preparation makes conservative Westerners feel odd and strange to the surrounding environment. Through unique cooking and eating procedures, people have used food to establish stylistic elements for individual and environmental identities. Smells of cooking foods assist in understanding different styles of foods (Grace et al, 1997). Depending on place where smell is emanating, people are able to understand their locations. In some communities, certain food smells are associable with homes and not roadside food shops along streets. Feeling a smell of food in an unusual place can prompt feelings of being away from home. According to Kraig and Sen (2013), Chinese culinary in particular has unique features that make it easy for the Chinese consumers to it identify easily. The Chinese culinary characterizes with diversified colors makes it attractive to the trained eaters. Anusasananan (2012) confirms that the nature of the diversified colors in the chine culinary has the capability of arousing appetite of the eaters. In the case of Chinese culinary, it is not only the taste but also the aesthetic appearance of the food. Regarding smell, the Chinese culinary have unique aromatic flavor that appeals more to the eaters. Aroma enhancement entails use of elements like cinnamon, ash seed, ginger, garlic, chili, sesame oil, cooking wine, and shallot. The main purposes for using such aromatic enhancers are to dispel particular foul smells as those in mutton and fish (Anusasananan, 2012). Some meals and food materials undergo complex preparation that none-natives cannot manage. As discussed by Duruz (2009), the complexity in the preparation process works out as a factor of differentiation since none-natives cannot introduce it in foreign land. This aspect helps in successful use of food for identity. For instance, preparation of the otak-otak, a Malaysian culinary involves use of complex ingredients only known to the natives. Eating such scarce culinary by foreigners is enough to prompt identity and need to think about the contemporary location (Duruz, 2009). In that line, by just eating the otak-otak, a person is able to realize his/her foreignness to the land. Here food serves as an element to create place awareness in people (Albala, 2011). Through eating unique food, a person is able to realize their presence in a foreign land and understand the need to restrain some elements of the home culture. Nostalgia that entails thinking about good things in the past plays a great role in making people associate food with ideas of homeliness. Nostalgia triggered by food surfaces when a person visiting a foreign land smells cooking food from nearby locations. Presenting a migrant with foreign food materials creates nostalgia about the past (Civitello, 2008). People use nostalgic feelings to identify with their homes and build home here and now. Through food nostalgia, people think and imagine about their homes and subsequently find comfort in otherwise foreign environments. Food nostalgia can prompt a person to begin thinking about the cultural backgrounds such as linguistics and socialization strategies (Grace et al., 1997). Through such thoughts a migrant is able to reconstruct self-identify that is important in enhancing self-confidence. Self-confidence is an important personal characteristic that can help in understanding and appreciation of foreign cultures. Appreciation and acknowledgement of foreign culture is important in reinforcing identity of a migrant. Resisting nostalgia can led to a condition called homesickness that characterizes with a migrant failing to engage with the present. Some people associate food with environments within their home countries. Koreans in particular associate food with the environment of the country with consideration to locations such as geography and climate. Food eaten in Korea varies largely with particular locations. Beans, vegetables and rice grow in valleys within the valleys. Mushrooms on the other hand grow on the mountains. The dietary practices for Koreans characterize with rice as the staple food and mostly wild and fern leaves (Kraig & Sen, 2013). When Korean migrants think about eating, the ideas about eating such as practiced back at home reoccurs. In traditional Korean setting, soups accompany every meal served. At the meal table, metallic chopsticks are always present top help in scooping of soup. Multiculturalism is an important factor in neutralizing cultural conflicts. A person only develops multiculturalism if they accept and try cultural practices of other people. Multicultural people are able to eat food materials associated with various cultures. To such people, every food is acceptable and unlikely to prompt ideas about home (Haden, 2009). Homeliness ideas only start developing immediately the multicultural person consumes or smells food substance that is very traditional and unique about home. In multicultural setting, the actors understand and the boundaries of power and superiority. However, the actors tend to disregard the limitations and continue to consume the culinary from different cultures. Feeders and eaters in the multicultural environment interact freely with clear conscious of the cultural differences, but still accepting the cross-cultural food elements. In conclusion, food and eating have great influence rejuvenation of ideas about home. With the widespread globalization, people are constantly moving across countries for the purposes for business. Even as people move to integrate into the global environment, they do not leave their cultural practices behind. Food is one of the compulsory aspects of culture that is inseparable from an individual. People who hold firmly to their traditional cultural practices must always eat the particular cultural food everywhere they move. Human beings have repeatedly used to food to define their ethnicities. Despite the attempt to accept diversity and fit in all environments, people tend to revive their ethnic feelings every mealtime. In such a case, mealtime becomes the moment for revival of ideas about home. Communities also have the tendency to associate certain food materials with certain cerebrations or ceremonies. Every moment a migrant thinks of the ceremonies, food phenomenon comes into effect and ensures recreation of homeliness feelings. Through such recollections, people tend to link back to their homeland cultural practices. Multiculturalism also influences the thinking of migrants about cultures of their homelands. 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