Assignment 2

Being a more careful person, I have not experienced what most people would consider to be “gross” food. In my hometown, I was exposed to a decent amount of Korean food in high school, but it was often brought by my fellow students to share, and thus chosen accordingly. Because of this Americanization, or at least adaptation in certain circumstances to American culture, all of the food was in line with what the rest of the student body was used to. However, this did not turn out to be the case when I brought my Japanese roommate back to my hometown last year. In trying to find a more traditional Japanese meal, we ended up at a small place named “Koharu”, that was in an area of town that I knew quite well, but had never noticed before. While having some Japanese food before, there were certain dishes that I was accustomed to. That said, what my roommate ordered was something that I had never noticed before, namely sushi containing salmon eggs, as well as other raw seafood. Even though I was used to a certain extent of seafood, the idea that it was served raw seemed to me to be inherently unsafe to eat.

It can be argued along these lines that the judgment of whether or not a particular kind of food is edible is purely situational. Namely, we are accustomed to a particular diet in this region for several important reasons; the resources available (one example would be salmon) and the outside influences that are either accepted or rejected by the general society, or simply one facet of it. In the Pacific Northwest, this can most easily be identified as the abundant influence of Asian cuisine, which can be seen both as an integrated element of our society, or as its own separate entity. Still, reflecting on such differentiations is difficult, and can be seen as something akin to comparing apples and oranges. Because of this, to some extent it can be seen as psychological as the situational nature of “edibility” undoubtedly influences an individual’s perception of food. Whether it evolved out of the need for survival, or simply cultural elements, it is true that different eating habits evolved from equally different conditions, and thus can provide the precedent for different levels of acceptance or avoidance outside their hearth, or place of origin, in today’s increasingly globalized world.

While not necessarily dealing with the issue of “gross” foods, this article about regional Indian cuisine helps illustrate the situational nature of what we consider to be edible:

Yee, Amy. “Tastes of India, by New Delhi Taxi.” The New York Times 11 April 2010. Web. 11 April 2010.