Cultural Script: How to Use Chopsticks
Categories: Food, Scripts • Tags: Chinese Food, Chopsticks
Category Archives: Food
Flying Spaghetti Monster Pasta
Tonight we decided to have a little fun with our food. Inspired by a photo of sausages connected by spaghetti, we were inspired to go one step further—to create a pastafarian meal in honor of His Noodliness, The Flying Spaghetti Monster. It went well with a glass of Hey Mambo Sultry Red. Click on the photos for an explanation of the steps. “May you be forever touched by His Noodly Appendage.”
Categories: Food, How To, Photo Essays • Tags: Flying Spaghetti Monster, humor
Fast Food. Slow Garbage.
While in L.A., we stopped for lunch at a burrito place that was supposedly well known for their tasty food. I don’t remember how hungry I was when the food arrived at the table. I do remember, however, that when it arrived I was more shocked at how it looked—a lumpy, beige-white mass, sharing the plate with a handful of corn chips and some salsa. It seemed barely edible. Perhaps it was because the meal repulsed me as food, that I […]
Categories: Consumption, Environment, Food, Time, Value • Tags: burrito, fast food, garbage, plastic utensils, styrofoam
Don’t Fear The Twinkie Apocalypse
“Preparing for the Twinkpocalypse.” Recently it seems that any little thing might be a sign of The End of Days. We have endured the threat of an avian flu apocalypse and an unrelated, but unnerving bird apocalypse. There have been snopocalypses, a few snomageddons, or stormageddons. Fears of swine flu inspired Pork-pocalypse. On the horizon there are various immanent economic apocalypses. It seems that every few months the arrival of an invasive species, an unexpected weather event, spreading disease, natural disaster or humanmade catastrophe is interpreted as a […]
Categories: Consumption, Corporate Culture, End of Times, Food, Labor, Zombie • Tags: apocalypse, armageddon, food, Hostess, Twinkie, unions
油条: The Simplicity of Oil and Dough
I have always been impressed with the charm of the Chinese youtiao (油条). I find poetry in the simplicity of taking a strip of dough, plopping it in a wok of hot oil and frying it to a golden brown. No spices, no salt, no sugar. No fuss. Just hot oil and dough doing their thing. Youtiao are quick, easy and utilitarian. They are made of the most basic ingredients, can be effortlessly produced by the dozens, and quickly snatched up […]
Categories: China, Everyday Things, Food, Video clips • Tags: food, translation, youtiao
United Airlines: The Food of the Future is Now
I don’t sleep well on long airplane flights. I usually stay awake through the whole thing and keep myself busy by reading, writing, watching movies and thinking. After twelve hours in the air I usually get pretty antsy and a bit punchy from lack of sleep. Often in my head I replay parts of Louis Black’s funny monologue about his airplane flight to New Zealand. Sometimes, however, in the final hours of the flight—when I have no endurance left and […]
Categories: Food, Random Reflections • Tags: 2001: A Space Odyssey, airplane meals, David Graeber, food, future, Hipstamatic, Science Fiction, soylent, soylent green, United Airlines
Making Zongzi
While walking in some of the back streets of Nanjing just days before the Duanwu Festival I came upon a woman preparing zongzi for sale. I have eaten the bamboo leaf-wrapped rice many times over the past two decades, but until then had never seen how they were made. I was fascinated by how the simple ingredients of rice and red beans were deftly filled and wrapped by her experienced hands. It took her about half a minute to make […]
Categories: Food, How To, Video clips • Tags: China, cooking, food, zongzi
Mystery Object #2: Arby’s Sauce Dispenser
Sometimes mystery objects can be right in front of my face—camouflaged by their ubiquity. All it takes is just the right moment, when my guard is down and then suddenly I see them for what they really are. This is definitely what happened last week when I came upon this amazing object. I had been walking back along University Avenue after shooting a collection of photos of the light rail construction when I suddenly realized how hungry I was. I […]
Categories: Food, Mystery Objects • Tags: food
Performing Cultural Revolution Nostalgia
I have been mulling over and trying to make sense of what exactly took place at the Cultural Revolution theme restaurant that I visited last week. I have photos, video, and some notes I wrote after returning to my hotel room that night, but none of them help very much. I thought maybe some time to reflect would make a difference, but the past seven days have just made things seem even more unreal. It all comes back to one […]
Categories: China, Food, Play, Politics • Tags: Beijing, China, Cultural Revolution, memory, nostalgia
MUSEUM FATIGUE 