The genre I am going to study is restaurant reviews. In particular, I am going to look at different categories, such as top 10 BBQ restaurants in Austin. Some of the reviews I am going to look at are Fed Man Walking: The Austin BBQ Top 10 , Dallas’ Best for Cocktails, and Top New York Restaurants of 2016. All three of these reviews provide a list of top restaurants for their specific category. All of these reviews list restaurants in order from 1-10 with 1 being the best, rather than being listed in reverse order. Additionally, each source begins with an introduction as to why their reviews are important, followed by their list and a review of each restaurant on the list.

The reviews I am looking at are all posted online and serve the purpose of helping readers choose restaurants to eat at. Online reviews provide easy access as someone can Google search a restaurant they may be thinking about eating at and recieve immediate feedback. One of the questions I have for my peers is what category would be interesting for people to read about? I know I want to do a top 5-10 list but am not sure exactly what category I want to focus on yet. I also want to know if people think it would be better to focus on a general type of food (ex: best Tex-Mex restaurants) or a specific dish (best fajitas).

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.

Earlier this year, when some of my friends forced me to eat Thai food for dinner, I had no idea what I was getting into. A few months later and it is one of my favorite types of food. Whether it’s chicken pad thai, a chicken curry dish, or tom kha soup, I rarely go a week without eating some sort of Thai dish. Interested to learn about how this food became so popular in America, I did some research on the history of Thai food and how its popularity spread so quickly across the world.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18znYjNeekqwiC1lBsf38dnQz5kf_15B1huxWwlnmfNc/edit?usp=sharing

I had a hard time deciding on a topic, but I think I’ve finally decided to focus on Thai food. At first I wasn’t sure what I wanted to look into specifically, but after my initial research, I am going to focus on all the different cultural impacts on Thai food. I started by researching the general history Thai food and learned that China has been more impactful than any other country or region. My favorite Thai dish is chicken pad thai, so I started researching the history of this dish. From an article titled “A Brief History of Delicious Pad Thai”, I was able to find out that pad thai was originally created to help separate Thai and Chinese cultures from each other. At that time, the leader of Thailand wanted to help separate the two cultures and thought that creating a national dish of Thailand would help accomplish this. Sure enough, that dish was pad thai. I want to do some more research on why this leader thought creating a national dish would be an effective way to separate the two cultures and if food was really this important to him. I am curious to find out if the people of Thailand also saw food as an effective way to establish their own identity. I am also looking at how the different regions of Thailand each have been impacted by different cultures and therefore have very different foods/traditions than each other. I have yet to look at this in much detail but am excited to learn about the wide variety of cultural impacts on each of the four regions.

The research I have done over the past two weeks is slowly starting to come together. Last week, I was focused on choosing a topic that I was interested in and making sure there would be enough information on that topic for the annotated bibliography. I am going to focus on Thai food and the culture that surrounds it. So far, I have mostly been using Google, but this is because most of the research I have done up to this point has simply been researching the historical significance of some Thai dishes that I enjoy. The first website I have been looking at is http://www.foodbycountry.com/Spain-to-Zimbabwe-Cumulative-Index/Thailand.html. This website has helped provide me an overview of the history of a few popular Thai dishes in addition to explaining some Thai traditions, such as certain holiday dishes. I need to figure out a more specific topic I want to focus on and once I am able to look at a few more sources, I think it will be easier for me to come up with something more specific relating to Thai traditions. As I get further into my research, I have been citing the websites on the notes section on my laptop. For me, this is the easiest way to stay organized as I can pull up all my sources on one document. The next part of my research will focus on narrowing in on a topic and finding sources from a variety of authors.

Growing up, my favorite chicken dish was always chicken piccata. Piccata is traditionally an Italian veal dish, however most Americans prefer to use chicken. Piccata literally means “larded” in Italian but when talking about food it usually means “sliced, sautéed, and served in a sauce containing lemon, butter and spices”. The first time I had the dish was when I was about 7 or 8 years old at a California Pizza Kitchen. All these years later, if I ever go to a restaurant and see it on the menu, I order it. Because I loved it so much, my mom always made it for my sister and me and it became a regular meal in our household. I had never made the dish myself until recently and now that I know how to, I can always have a meal that I know I will enjoy.

Ingredients (Yields 1 Serving):

• 1⁄2 boneless skinless chicken breast, butterflied and then cut in half
• 1⁄4 to taste sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1⁄4 to taste all-purpose flour, for dredging
• 1 1⁄2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1⁄4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1⁄8 cup fresh lemon juice 
• 1⁄8 cup chicken stock
• 1⁄16 cup capers
• 1⁄8 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Directions:

1. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess.
2. In a large skillet over medium high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 3 tablespoons olive oil. When butter and oil start to sizzle, add 2 pieces of chicken and cook for 3 minutes. When chicken is browned, flip and cook other side for 3 minutes. Remove and transfer to plate. Melt 2 more tablespoons butter and add another 2 tablespoons olive oil. When butter and oil start to sizzle, add the other 2 pieces of chicken and brown both sides in same manner. Remove pan from heat and add chicken to the plate.
3. Into the pan add the lemon juice, stock and capers. Return to stove and bring to boil, scraping up brown bits from the pan for extra flavor. Check for seasoning. Return all the chicken to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove chicken to platter. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter to sauce and whisk vigorously. Pour sauce over chicken and garnish with parsley.

Adapted from http://www.food.com/recipe/chicken-piccata-giada-de-laurentiis-357019?mode=us&st=true&scaleto=1&photo=228167

There are many ways a recipe can be written but there are many things that basically all recipes contain. Most recipes, especially the ones we have looked at in class start off with some sort of introduction that tells the story of the author’s connection to the dish. The introduction often includes the history of the dish and how the author was first introduced to the dish. While this may vary from recipe to recipe, almost all authors include their first experience with the dish. Some authors were introduced to their dish by a family member, some by restaurant, and some may have just come across it online and adapted their own version. For example, Brown tells the story of how her friend recommended the french onion soup recipe to her and she goes into a detailed description of what she experiences when she makes the dish. Brown describes “the smell in your kitchen is absolute heaven” which gives the reader a sense of what they will experience as they make the soup (Brown, French Onion soup).

Many recipes also include images so that the viewer can see what the finished product should look like. This is especially true in a recipe meant for beginners, as the pictures often guide the chef and provide step by step images of what their dish should look like throughout the entire process. This butter chicken recipe not only provides an introduction that talks about the authors experience with the dish themselves, but also has step by step pictures and makes it a lot easier for the reader to make the dish themselves (http://evergreenrecipes.com/butter-chicken-recipe/). Many recipes also list items that pair well with the dish. Whether this is a side dish or a cocktail may differ between recipes but a lot of recipes for beginners have some sort of food or drink that pairs well with the dish.

Most recipes are written in an instructional format. Besides the introduction, which normally tell a story about the dish, the rest of the recipe is simply telling the reader how to make it. The instructions normally include specific measurements for how much of a certain ingredient you are supposed to have in the dish. For example, the butter chicken recipe above says “Heat the wok with 1/4 cup butter and add ground paste. Cook the spices on slow heat till butter shows separately. Then add 1/4 cup more butter and food color”. This clearly lays out instructions to the reader and makes it easy for them to recreate the original dish without much confusion.

1: Honey Glazed Salmon: I chose this dish because salmon is my favorite type of fish and a dish that I grew up eating on a regular basis

INGREDIENTS:

2: Bacon Stuffed Cheeseburger: I chose this dish because one of the things I talked about in my journal was the association between football and food. My friend who used to cook for us when we all went to his house on Sundays would always make bacon stuffed cheeseburgers

Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon hot sauce (recommended: Frank’s Red Hot)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 strips bacon, diced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 cup grated sharp Cheddar
4 burger buns
Lettuce, tomato, pickles for garnish

Directions

Preheat grill to medium.
In a bowl combine beef, garlic, hot sauce, salt and pepper, to taste, being careful not to over mix. Warm a skillet over medium heat and fry bacon until crispy. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Keep heat on skillet and fry a pinch of the beef in the bacon fat to test seasoning. Adjust seasoning, if needed, then form 8 even thin patties, about 1/2-inch thick and set aside. Saute onions in bacon fat in skillet until tender, 5 minutes. Place onions and bacon in a bowl with cheese. Form a spoonful of bacon-cheese mixture into a ball, then place in the center of 4 patties. Top each with another patty and seal the edges. Grill burgers over medium-high heat, flipping once until desired doneness is reached, approximately 4 minutes each side for medium. Serve in buns with garnishes. Alternative: In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, sear the burgers 4 minutes on each side.

3: Chicken Pad Thai: I’ve always been a huge fan of Thai food and the first ever Thai food I had was chicken pad thai

Ingredients

• 10 oz Thai rice noodles
• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced into small strips
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 Tbsp lime juice
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced into thin strips and strips halved
• 1 1/2 cups matchstick carrots
• 2 cloves garlic
• 4 green onions, whites minced, greens sliced into 1-inch pieces
• 2 cups bean sprouts
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
• Red pepper flakes and sesame seeds (optional)

Directions

• Prepare rice noodles according to directions listed on package. In a mixing bowl, whisk together brown sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice and fish sauce, set aside.
• While noodles are cooking, heat oil in a wok or large and deep non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot add chicken and saute until cooked through, about 4 – 6 minutes. Transfer to a plate, leaving oil in pan. Add bell pepper and carrots and saute 1 – 2 minutes then add garlic, green onions and bean sprouts saute 1 minute longer. Push veggies to edges of pan and crack eggs into center. Cook and scramble until eggs have cooked through. Add in chicken, noodles and sauce and toss everything together and cook 1 – 2 minutes.
• Serve warm topped with cilantro, peanuts and optional red pepper flakes and sesame seeds.