TOPIC: Food
SOURCE: While on a business trip with my father to China my sophomore year of
high school one of this coworkers took us out to lunch to a nice restaurant in
Zhuhai. Little did I know that the nice
turtle that was in a tank on display in the lobby was about to be someone’s
lunch! This experience taught me that
food is a cultural thing and that different cultures have different delicacies,
ones that we may not even consider edible.
RELATION: I thought that this event
related perfectly to the discussion in our textbook RR Chapter 1 p. 6 where it
states: “Thus, human beings create and define for themselves what they may eat
and what they may not eat independent of what is or is not truly edible.”
DESCRIPTION: When I was in the tenth grade, I went on a business trip with
my father to Zhuhai, China just to see the work he did and what China was like. My father is a mechanical engineer who at the
time was making parts for the card readers that you use in stores. He took me to the factory where the products
were made and to meet some of the people who he worked with. This was a very interesting experience. The streets of China reminded me a lot of the
streets in Mexico that I had been to in the past: lots of people walking
everywhere, crazy drivers, lots of little restaurants and shops, a huge
underground market, and poverty. Within
one of the first few days that we were there, one of my Dad’s coworkers,
Anthony, took us to lunch at a special restaurant in town, unfortunately I do
not recall the name. When we arrived,
one of the first things that caught my attention was the large fish tanks that
made up the outside wall to the restaurant.
In the tank were various sea creatures: lobsters, crabs, a variety of
fish, and finally in the top right hand tank was a turtle. I think it was some kind of soft shell turtle;
it had a long nose sort of like an elephant.
I thought it was a cute little creature and pointed it out to my dad and
Anthony. After a quiet chuckle, Anthony
said “that’s the guy I’ll be having for lunch today.”
COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS: Before going to China and having Anthony traumatize me
a bit, I never would have considered eating turtle. Especially one as cute as this one! When we did the activity on the different
things that you would eat, I was hoping that turtle would be on there! Our culture has set up a fairly narrow idea of
what is and what is not edible. We eat
cow, pig, chicken, and turkey primarily, but there are so many other “proteins”
that other cultures incorporate into their diet that we would not even consider
eating. People have to eat the things
that are available in the areas where they live. The city of Zhuhai is right on the ocean, so
the majority of their diet is seafood of all varieties. It is actually rather hard to find any type
of food that isn’t seafood. When I first
saw that little turtle in the fish tank I was shocked, and a little grossed
out, that people would eat that little turtle.
In our culture, turtle is not on the mainstream list of “edible” foods, but
for what reason? I’m sure that Anthony’s
turtle lunch was quite delicious. I
think that we say that things are not edible or unfit for us to eat just
because we are unfamiliar with them. If
you grew up eating turtle every single day and all of a sudden you had to eat
chicken, it may be a little weird to you.
However you can never know until you try it so just take a bite!
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