Month: March 2017

Michael’s Mentor Text

/ Michael Nguyen / Leave a comment
D’Aluisio, Faith. Menzel, Peter. “A Worldwide Day’s Worth of Food – Photo Essays.”
    Time. Time Inc., 23 May 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.
    <http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2037749,00.html>.

 

Writer D’Alusio and photographer Menzel, whom have had their work presented at the Nobel Peace Center, display the eating habits from around the world from a variety of people in this photo essay. These people include veterans, the sickly, and fast food workers in the United States to acrobats in China to housemakers in Yemin to camel brokers in Egypt and more. Their goal is to show one of the basic necessities for living for humans to allow the readers of Time, whom may have more luxuries in life, to see what other people, who might be less fortunate, eat. It can let the reader also know that other people may be eating the same thing they are eating.

 

The content is done in a slideshow format, so it’s easy to associate each body of text with a given photo. Within the body of text, D’Alusio starts off describing the subject, their location, and their caloric intake. Following is the detailed description of their meals throughout the day with the format of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and possibly something the subject in the picture has throughout the day. In some cases, due to the subject’s lifestyle and work, they may instead have “WHILE SHEPHERDING” instead of lunch or “EARLY MEAL” instead of breakfast, showing that not everyone lives by the same type of schedule.  For each time of day, the list of food even describes the exact proportioning. After the description of food, D’Alusio gives the reasons behind the diet of each of the subjects which are usually accounts provided by the subject.

 

Menzel’s photography provides something beyond what the text can show. The photos show the variety of food and the types of people consuming this food that can’t easily be seen through just words. Some spreads of food are smaller. Some are not even shown in the kitchen, and instead are in a studio or out in the field. Having the photography and text together gives the reader a greater sense of what it means to eat in their country with their livelihood. Some people are not out in the field but sitting on a wheelchair instead. It works well because of the extensive detail in the text and the photos that allow a greater sense of reliability to the reader. I am interested in doing work similar to this just because it is so detailed, showing the research of the authors, and also because the photography demonstrates some storytelling as well. Both elements are crucial to the overall story that the photo essay is trying to get at, which is “A Worldwide Day’s Worth of Food.”

Mentor Text

/ Jordan Olschwanger / Leave a comment

Fed Man Walking

This website serves as a good representation of a restaurant review. Unlike other reviews, Fed Man Walking focuses on a certain category then provides a top 10 list of restaurants for that given category. In this case, the review is of the top 10 Austin BBQ restaurants. This text lists each restaurant then provides individual reviews for each place. The layout is easy for the reader to understand, as each restaurant is numbered and followed by its review. The pictures also provide the reader with a visual of what their dish may look like. Sutter is also able to rank different categories within BBQ such as where each restaurant’s sausage ranks among the rest of the top 10. Another feature of this text that makes it very user friendly are the updates on each of the restaurants since the article was written. This lets the reader know if any major changes have taken place recently that may affect the rankings such as the chef leaving.

Restaurant reviews can be a pivotal factor on whether someone decides to eat at a certain restaurant. Reviews can also play a large part in whether a restaurant stays in business. If a restaurant constantly receives negative reviews, people will stop eating there and the restaurant may shut down. On the other hand, positive reviews can help restaurants generate growth and maintain their business for years. Today, many people will look up a restaurant on Yelp before trying it themselves. While these reviews are not as lengthy and in depth as the ones I am looking at, they still have the same function as typical restaurant reviews and can persuade someone to try or to stay away from a certain place.

 

Sutter, Mike. The Austin BBQ Top 10. Fed Man Walking, 2017, http://fedmanwalking.com. Accessed 21 March 2017.

 

 

Callie’s Mentor Text

/ Callie / Leave a comment

     An unconventional piece of writing, Buzzfeed’s YouTube video “Mexican People Try Taco Bell for the First Time” depicts a few Mexican families trying United States fast-food giant and “Mexican” chain, Taco Bell.  The short is set up interview-style, with two to four people in each section.  The video begins with a question asked to all of the participants before they try the food: what do they expect? After each person gave their answer, the tasting process began.  Each dish was presented to the audience and was followed by the reviews, in which each set of people conversed about how they felt about the food: its taste, how authentic it was, and whether they would eat it again.  The interviews were wrapped up with a follow-up question about their newfound thoughts regarding Taco Bell.

    The video contains bright and clear visuals, easy-to-read subtitles for the audio in Spanish, and a coherent flow between each dish and set of people.  This video falls under the broad genre of food reviews, but defined narrowly, it is a filmed series of critiques with a humorous undertone.  This texts functions primarily for entertainment: it is short enough to keep the audience’s attention, funny enough to make the audience appreciate it, and relates to an establishment many audiences will be familiar with.  It additionally functions to provide feedback about Taco Bell’s dishes, but this is not the only purpose: after all, most of the audience have tried these foods before, they just want to hear what the interviewees have to say about it.

    I think this text represents a good example of the genre of video food reviews because it serves both the normal purpose of a food review, to inform an audience about what the authors think of a particular restaurant; and a different purpose, to entertain an audience for a short period of time, a task which I think is greatly influenced by the video’s distribution via YouTube.  This text should serve as a mentor for my own writing because it was extremely successful (currently, it has nearly 13 million views), the content is both funny and insightful, and the quality is extremely high in terms of audio-visual production.  

“Mexican People Try Taco Bell for the First Time.”  Youtube, uploaded by Buzzfeed, 8 March 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWSOiZrs3oA.

Mentor Text Genre Analysis (Nima)

/ Nima / Leave a comment

Steak With Garlic Butter. Youtube. Tasty, 11 Apr. 2016. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

 
The text I have chosen is a video recipe, which is a sub-genre of recipes in general.  Video recipes have exploded in popularity within the past two years or so, most likely due to their easy-to-digest format and visual appeal.  I believe that this specific recipe is a good example of the genre because it includes multiple archetypes of the video recipe genre.  For example, the video instantly starts off with the ingredients and directions.  The visuals are very attractive and bright, which catches the eye of the viewer, and because no time is wasted with talking or intermissions, attention is sustained throughout the video.  The descriptors shown during the video are concise and only serve to elaborate on the image, which means that the viewer is not forced to depend on them.  Finally, a shot of the completed dish is shown, which gives the viewer a reference for what their own creation should look like if they choose to follow the recipe.  While the effort of producing a video like this is quite high compared to a formal written recipe, the payoff is very rewarding, as more people are likely to view and subsequently be inspired by such an appealing video.  Another great thing about this sub-genre is that you can convert the video into a GIF image, which takes up less file size and time to load, which is extremely important in the increasingly digital world of today.

Gender in Cooking (Annotated Bibliography)

/ Davion / 1 Comment

This is a link to my Annotated Bibliography, one that is focused on the gender bias behind cooking. I use articles, newspaper, personal statements, and cookbooks as my evidence for my research on this topic. This topic not only matters to me, but is important for society to see how we not only place people into these gendered space, we reproduce these ideas consistently to the point that when people contest them they have the potential to excluded from society. The cooking world is dominated by men and they have been using their power to oppress women through sexist ideas present in cookbooks (women always found in the kitchen), male based cookbooks are loaded with stereotypes, the majority of publishers today are men, and men are some of the sole authors of history. Cooking is something that should not be based gender, food is food and as long as its good nothing else should matter.

 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zszThX6rxkfL2rBbs-ll40B8oLPxBJe8EO1oqSL8uqs/edit?usp=sharing

 

Chinese Food

/ rsn398 / Leave a comment

Ryan Newberg

RHE309K

 

Annotated Bibliography

 

http://www.guy-sports.com/funny/funny_chinese_food.htm#Strange,_Extraordinary_and_Funny_Eating_Habits_in_China

This site really gave me a cool and different perspective than how most articles communicate to readers. I was able to be entertained and interested the whole time while reading this because it gave me fascinating information that really caught my attention. It states all the strange eating habits involving Chinese food along with entertaining stories to keep my attention. In this piece, it describes “Li Sanju claiming to have survived for two years eating nothing but leaves and grass.” This shows just how wild Chinese eaters can be. I appreciate this style of writing and I know many others do too because often times readers can easily be bored with pieces but this one really keeps your eyes open. I did some background research on the writer for this article and he seems to have a great amount of knowledge when it comes to this subject. He has passed away but his dearest friend has taken over his work and continues to make great articles.

http://www.asian-nation.org/asian-food.shtml

When wanting to learn the real facts about the history of Chinese food, I found the perfect article with this one. While reading this, I was able to get a clear understanding on the background of Chinese food and where it came from. The page provided subjects on the types of food, how it is made and the health information regarding it which I really appreciated. The site says that “many westerners are only now understanding the health benefits of many Asian foods” so it is a very good idea to share the health facts. The creator for the article is one who is well known and has been in the business for a long time.

http://www.asian-nation.org/asian-food.shtml

Since we live in America, I decided to focus on Americanized Chinese food. For the most part, Asian food is the same in America as it is in China. This piece shared with me an illustrated history of Chinese food that I was very interested in. While going in depth on the food, I also got to learn about the history of the famous dessert, the fortune cookie. It was very cool finally understanding where the cookie came from since I have it so often. The article even happened to mention my two favorite Asian food restaurants, Panda Express and PF Changs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk011so6MUc

This video was very enjoyable to watch for all members of an audience. All ages would enjoy watching because it was very clever and funny at the same time. It did not share the usual main Chinese dishes people think of, yet, it took us to a child’s view on Chinese snacks. It was a funny video that showed how American food and Asian food look similar but are different. I can totally relate to the video because I clearly remember being in 5th grade and doing the same thing by trying a Chinese snack and it was awful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lK475dxZds

I decided to watch and write about this video because it shows how crazy some Chinese foods can be. In China, people eat almost everything and it is not thought of as abnormal or weird. In this video, Americans are trying these exotic Chinese dishes and it is enjoyable for everyone to watch because the reactions on these people are priceless. The purpose of this video is to show everyone how crazy Chinese food can be… Including LIVE Octopus and other absurd items.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo59LlkTDe4

As many of my family and friends know, I love Panda Express and eat it multiple times a week. I found a great video of people from China trying American Panda Express. The video provides us with Chinese people eating Panda Express for the first time and their reactions are quite entertaining. The purpose of the video is to show China residents what American Chinese food tastes like and it turned out to be for our enjoyment.

http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/article-china-drinks-you-will-love.htm

This whole project is focused on food… What goes down with your food?? A tasty and delicious drink! I decided to use this article to share some interesting Chinese drink options. Chinese restaurants are famous for their tea, fruity drinks, and their alcoholic beverages. The Mai Dong Sports Drink is their most common American bought drink and I can vouch for that as I have seen my brother order one every time we get Chinese food. Although his favorite part of the drink isn’t the taste, it is popping a ball that sits at the top.

http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/article-chinese-desserts.htm

For my last piece, I decided to focus on a child’s favorite part of a meal and the finishing touch, the dessert. Chinese food has a wide variety of desserts whether it be common or very unusual. A fact I would like to share is that the names are outrageous. The article goes into depth about the top 10 Chinese desserts and they would seem interesting to many Americans but for me, as a picky eater, I’m going to have to hold off.

 

This topic is one I have always been interested in and I am very happy I was able to finally discover more information with. I seriously eat Asian food for more than half of my meals a week and I cannot say that I am disappointed in my actions. I enjoy every second I eat tasty Teriyaki Chicken and Mongolian Beef, and hot Wonton Soup. It was not easy deciding to do this topic as I was very conflicted between this, Chinese food and Teriyaki Chicken itself. I decided to go with Asian food so I can get a broad understanding of what I have been eating all of this time. When it came to selecting texts, I wanted to research things that people would not expect. I like to have my audience interested at all times so I enjoy having some sort of fun with my articles. I think videos get some peoples attention more than reading so I like to share pieces that way as well.

A Brief Glimpse into the Coffee Industry

/ Tori / Leave a comment

(Amy Sauceda)

America seems to run on coffee, but where does our coffee come from? What is the process and journey that coffee goes through before we consume it? Through this report I will answer those questions by guiding you through a glimpse into the coffee industry where you will be able to see some of the injustice taking place within the industry and ways that those injustices are being combated.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CzPVINKXLRhZ3NNfPtDnjWaayzJQ3IfC4bE4CARViZw/edit?usp=sharing