Food Diary

Over the past two days I have had my normal diet that I have during the week. Whenever I'm home I always have a dinner like the ones that you see in the pictures. For lunch I didn't have what I usually have but I did have very similar food. Breakfast is the same every morning. For breakfast every morning I have a danish with chocolate chips in it, warmed up, with a glass of milk. Overall the calories in this meal are almost 250. I really enjoy this breakfast when I'm eating it. It taste well cooked and the chocolate chips go amazing in it. But since it is the morning I am barely awake. I really just eat it and don't think besides, finish your food. Also since it's early in the morning my breath is bad so that causes a really bad after taste later on until I brush my teeth. The after taste basically ruins the whole meal. It is a very dry food to eat but along with the milk it goes down quite nice. I think that this is healthy to eat in the morning because I get nutrition from the milk and from the dough. I know this is a very French food which I noticed when I was reading the label. I didn't pick that food it's just the food that was given to me.

Next off is my lunch. Normally everyday I will get a bacon egg and cheese on and everything bagel from a deli but the past two days I got different food. Two days ago a got a bagel with strawberry cream cheese without a drink. Today I got a pepperoni pizza with a Snapple and then got two cookies afterwords. I could not find the exact calories in this but I am guessing around 500 to 650 depending on how much strawberries were in the cream cheese. After I got this I went to my usual spot where I enjoy my lunch and started to eat. This is the first time I tried this cream cheese and I am not a big fan of cream cheese. I really like this though. It tasted like strawberries with some cream cheese and had chunks of strawberries in it. That mixed with the bagel made it very nice. It was very rough to eat though, especially with out anything to drink. At the time I was also in a rush to get back to class so I didn't get to finish it sadly. I saw this and I said wow that cream cheese looks really good, I want to try it. Which is why I choose that instead of my everyday bacon egg and cheese. Today I had a pepperoni pizza, a Snapple, and two cookies. This is all about 800 - 900 calories. I decided to get pizza today because it was a long lunch today. So while looking for things to eat I wanted to get cookies from this cookie place because the cookies are possibly some of my favorite food. The pizza was conveniently located on the way and that is more of a real lunch then just cookies. So I got a pepperoni pizza which looked pretty good. When I got it, it was a bit overcooked and wasn't too great but it was fine for the moment. I couldn't really taste the pepperoni too much. But the pizza place was nice and there was no rush. So overall I enjoyed my food. Then we went to the cookie place. I got a chocolate chip cookie and a coconut pecan cookie and they were both amazing as always. They both were right out of oven so they were nice and warm. You could taste the dough and the butter. Along with the coconut which didn't taste too much of coconut. The chocolate was also very nice. The place also smells amazing so it was very nice to sit and eat their.

Last but not least dinner. My dinners at home are always similar. This is because my parents always buy chicken and pasta at the supermarket. According to them that is all I like. The first night I had a Chicken breast with corn and snap peas. In all there was about 300 calories in this meal. It tasted good the way it always does. All the flavor is in the skin. I really didn't like the corn though. It was not sweet as usual and it tasted kind of like the chicken which wasn't nice. I really liked the snap peas because the tasted like they were supposed to. Nice and sweet without much other taste then that vegetable taste. It was in my house so it was just an average dinner nothing special about it. Today I had pasta with some leftovers form yesterday. The snap peas and the corn was in it. There was about the same amount of calories 300. Maybe more then the night before. This wasn't as good because left overs usually aren't. The corn lost its bad taste though but just tasted kind of bland. As well as the snap peas. The noodles were good though. It was a very boring dinner. There wasn't much I could do or choose in it. In a way it is a lot like breakfast. Just eating to eat and not eating to enjoy.

Dominant Discourses Regarding Contemporary Foodways in the U.S.

Advertisements are all over the place. Anywhere you go you are bond to see at least a couple that you may know. In food especially. You always see commercials for Tostidos, or Goldfish, or Pringals, ect. But how often do you see a commercial for vegetables? I haven't really seen once since the Jolly Green Giant commercials and that was almost 7 years ago. But then again I don't really watch TV. Yet still I always see advertisements for fast food places and snacks everywhere else. I feel like this is what makes the money which may say something about dominant discourses. Maybe there is a higher branch of dominant discourse that says that the money being made is more important then the peoples health. This would affect the dominant discourse of food and what gets out to the public. So if money is more important then peoples health that could be why there aren't as many "Jolly Green Giant's" as there are "Ronald McDonald's."

After reading the articles what they are saying is that people eat too much junk food and don't know enough to tell other wise. That America is grossly unhealthy and needs help. But people are starting to be educated and realize. Its saying that things are happening to change this. Some things may not work but others have been working well. Still these are targeted at certain people. I picked up this quote from the article (Fresh Vegetables Where Fast Food Reigns) which states "People, mostly women with small children and the elderly, begin to filter into the lot about the same time." These are all the people who generally want to keep their health up. Woman want to keep a good figure and old people don't want to die. But the woman are buying the groceries for the family so that means that the men in the house are also eating healthier as well. If the children also get into the habit of eating vegetables rather then fried chicken they will grow to like vegetables. So yes from reading these articles I believe reform is happening. It's happening but it may be a decade before results show. 

People who are sculpted by the media would probably think that a good meal would be a nice chicken with a lot of vegetables on the side. I would expect this person to eat at home with their family. This being at the same time and place with a good family discussion to go along with the meal. This is usually how a good family meal is shown on TV. So this person would try to mimic what a good happy family dinner would look like as much as possible. This person may go shopping at a whole foods or at a green market. Anywhere where the food is fresh and looks good. This person may think of food as what their family is consuming and whats going to help them live a long happy life. But that is only one type of person. 

My Families Foodways

I don't really think my parents influence my food choice too much unless they are the ones who are making me the food. When they make me food they make all different types of things. I normally have chicken, pasta, pizza, with some vegetables on the side. When I do eat with my parents it is always in the same place around the same time. From four to seven at the coffee table. I often eat very fast and quietly because I want to return to what I was doing before I started eating. But the food is always very different from what I may get if I am out eating dinner. It is much better prepared and takes more time to make. The food never gets looked into though. Unless I am looking for something that I don't like thats in the food. But there aren't really any questions being asked about it. The preparation in my food at home takes a lot of work though. Sometimes even an hour. My dad uses all different stuff which is always different so I'm not sure what it is. It varies from wine to garlic to chicken broth and more.


This is my fridge. It's filled with all of the normal stuff that you would see in a fridge. Milk, condiments, cheese, fruit, vegetables, meat... There isn't any water though which isn't good in my opinion. I think it is always good to have some bottled water in your house. You may not be able to tell from the picture but my fridge has a lot of things that you would find on the side of many dish's. What I mean by that is "the broccoli on the side." In the freezer are where all of the frozen foods are and the chocolate and ice cream. But there is also meat in there and a lot of bread.


Because both of my parents grew up in New York they had similar eating habits as I do. Just older foods and stuff. All of the classic candies and snacks of today were brand new back then. I feel as if as they got older they realized that they need to eat healthier in order to live a longer better life. They never really eat fast food or unhealthy things unless I go out to buy it. They like to eat a lot of fish and seafood. Thats what my dad even does for a living. He is the manger of a big fish company that sells to restaurants. So they are always taking home fish which I personally don't really like. My parents have a lot of different tastes. Back when my mom was a kid she didn't have any choice what to eat and would eat leftovers and pretty much the same stuff. She always brings that up to me whenever I say I don't like my food. I think that now kids and teens have a lot more control over what they eat.

McDonalds vs. The Greenmarket

              So today in class we took a trip to the McDonald's and the Greenmarket at Union Square. We did this to observe peoples eating habits and the differences between the two places. I also noticed that in class everybody was more excited to go to McDonald's rather then the Greenmarket. Anyway to start our small trip we went to McDonald's first. At McDonald's I grabbed a seat and started to make observations. The People who were eating there didn't really seem to classy and why should they, it's just a fast food place. I remember learning a year or two ago that the colors red and yellow are what get people hungry. So i took that as a way of McDonald's subliminally messaging people. I also feel like they were trying to make it look classy in a way. The way the designs were gave me that feeling but everything still looked cheap. Andy mentioned that we should look at the lighting and I never really thought about that and i noticed that it wasn't really like the regular lighting in a store. It was a little more dim. But that could just be cheap lighting. There were advertisements all over the place. Inside and outside. Even on the tables. Im not sure if this is true but I have heard from a number of people that on the adds the "food" is actually plastic that has been painted to look really good. This makes sense to me because whenever I see an add for fast food I say to my self, "wow that looks really good right now" and when I get the food it looks nothing like in the add. Also they try to give there products clever names like the "Frappe´" and like the "McNuggets" which are all ways to attract customers.
              After we finished up at McDonald's we made our way to the Greenmarket across the street.  Now this place was directly in the middle of Union Square and outside so there are definitely going to be a lot of people there weather they are shopping or not. This is smart because a lot of people passing by may stop and get something. But the scene at the Greenmarket was completely different. It was all trying to market organic foods. The tents were from all different places in the more rural tri-state area which makes sense because thats where farms are. The people who worked there also looked like they were from a farm area. They were a lot nicer then the people who were in McDonald's. I didn't really get much time to make observations because we had to go back to class but overall in was a cleaner, healthier place.
              So after looking at both of the places I made some comparisons about the two. People who go to McDonald's may be just getting lunch or getting a quick snack or whatever. But they came to get food and eat and get on with there day. People also want there food fast and well FAST food. People who go to the green market definitely aren't stopping by for a snack. Many who go there look to go grocery shopping or just want to get some healthy food for there house. I wouldn't really expect somebody to buy an ear of corn and start eating it on the street. Also the people who worked at the different locations had very different personalities. The people at McDonald's were kind of grumpy. I'm sure they didn't like their job, I know I wouldn't. But the people at the Greenmarket were very kind happy people. Also McDonald's is one of if not the biggest chain restaurants in the world. Everybody knows what it is and the M symbol is the most recognized shape in the world, I've heard. Fast food also gives the people what they want and they give it fast and cheap. A good tasting meal that can be taken with them or quickly eaten.

Food

My ideal meal is a nice meal with my girlfriend at TGI Fridays when there isn’t much to do and I have the money to spend. I would love to do this everyday but I can’t because of many reasons. TGI Fridays is a lot of money and they aren’t very close to the school, which is where I am everyday. Also my girlfriend lives in New Jersey so I can’t enjoy the meal as much.  So the main two problems are that I don’t have the money and it’s too far away. Also if I am spending the money and going out of my way to go there I want to make it as nice as possible which for me my girlfriend would have to be there.

            For my regular everyday meal I Normally get a bacon egg and cheese on a bagel from the deli down the block from school. Then I will go to the small plaza on 22^nd to enjoy it with my friend Harry. The reason I do this everyday is because it may be one of my favorite things to eat. It is also cheap and very close. We were talking about routines in class the other day; well this has become a routine. The question, were should we go to eat? Is never even asked.

            Dinner is never really the same for me. One day I’ll go out, others I’ll eat at home, others maybe I’ll order some food or go and pick some up, or maybe I am just going to meet up with a friend. Usually there is never a set time just anytime past 5 is when I have dinner. I feel like lunch and dinner are really similar. Except if you go to a restaurant I can usually have a meal that would normally be made for lunch at dinnertime. When I have dinner at home I try to eat it really quick. I do that because there is something I am doing or something that I want to do after dinner always. The only time I don’t rush my dinner is when I am around other people.
            I think that food is sacred but in our society we don't really have to do anything in order to eat besides pay for it. It is also a first priority when it comes to money. Before people go and spend there pay check they will usually buy groceries for the fridge if they live alone. So I think it is but we don't notice it because it is around us so much. I'm not sure if this is a real phrase but I know I've heard "work for the bread" before and I think this is kind of the way that people make food sacred. At the same time we just throw out our food all the time so I feel like we don't respect it and aren't greatful that we have all this food but we do in a way keep it as a first priority.