Food Interview

Good afternoon, my name is Angel Valdez born in D.F. Mexico and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. Living in Las Vegas most of my life with a Mexican upbringing I found my story of food to be quite similar to the person I interviewed. As a result of my parents only being used to cooking Mexican food that became a huge part of my daily meals as well as the culture I was a part of because of it. However, being located in central Las Vegas gave me the opportunity to eat various different types of food, engaging with various cultures and races outside of my own. There are little foods I have not ate myself and I am very open to trying new things. Although I do have my limits as far as exotic food goes.

Today I interviewed one of the wonderful students at the University of Nevada Reno, Rosie. A junior here at our lovely University, she comes from Sacramento California. Looking to graduate fall of 2019. Her parents were born in Mexico and she is fully Hispanic and grow up eating a lot of Mexican food since that is all her parents knew how to cook. Up until the age of 5 her parents began to spread their food styles to which some would call becoming "Americanized". After my interview with Rosie I found that my own upbringing may not be as special as I once believed it to be, but allowed me to connect to another individual even if we did not grow up in the same state!

You can find and listen to the voice recording of this interview right here at the following link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1r_D9gcHspT0gvCVfRYhfEyVGDzFwNZE1

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I was born in Kohat Pakistan and we moved out from that city when I was 15 years old. I interviewed a girl name Parkha she is from the same country as I am but we have different cultures and tradition for each province. She is from Swat which is a very beautiful “look for food and peace” I talked to her on call and interviewed her about their culture and what type of food they eat especially on festivals and their holidays.

Mommal: which is the most famous food of your region? And why is it special?

Parkha : The most famous food is “chapli kabab” and it is special because most of the time its cold here and chapli kabab are winter season dish.

Mommal: what do you guys eat in daily routine?

Parkha: we have our breakfast with tandoori roti, eggs, and potato. And in the lunch we cook vegetables in lamb or any other meat with wheat roti, and at dinner we cook rice in chicken or meat.

Mommal: what is the your favorite food and why?

Parkha: my favorite food is sajji and I liked it because it is made with rice and it takes a day to cook it completely which makes it taste even better..

Mommal: what do eat on festivals?

Parkha: On the festivals we cook a lot dishes and sweets. And on one of our of festival we eat meat a  lot and share it at our friends and other family member houses.

Mommal : how long does it take to cook your entire meal?

Parkha: It takes about one or two hours to cook the entire meal.

Mommal: Is there anything that you do not like about your food tradition?

Parkha: The only thing that I do not like is that it takes longer to cook.

Mommal: what is the most famous food place for visitors?

Parkha: the most famous food place is the bahrain restaurant because they have all the famous dishes of the region.

Mommal: What do you eat for desserts?

Parkha: we eat kheer which made with rice and milk and halwa which has a lot of different forms and can be made in different ways.

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Interviewing: Jennifer Clark
Interviewer: Tabitha Clark

Jennifer Clark was born and was mainly raised in Chicago. She moved to California when she was in her 20's and that is where she met her husband.

Question 1: How did growing up in Chicago change your view on food? 
Jen: I think one of the biggest things for me growing up in the mid west, mainly Chicago was the pizza and the hotdogs.  The hotdogs are boiled and steamed which gives them a different taste , and they also have pepperonis, cucumbers, and yellow mustard which is different from the west coast style hotdogs. Pizza in Chicago has a beer crust which is a thick crust, where the west coast developed the thin crust which is nit as great as the thick crust. As far as eating habits go i was taught by my mom to have a vegetable, protein, and a starch for every meal. My grandparents did the same thing. In my dads house there was a lot of meat mainly red meat but i lived with my mom mainly, and she made alot of chicken and pasta.

Question 2:What type of food did you grow up around? 
Jen: Majority of it was Italian style of food. My mom and i were poor and we ate a lot of creamed tuna on toast (which is very good and i recommend it). We also had a lot of spaghetti with bacon and sauces that she made. My mom dated a man who was Italian and he cooked for us many times. He would make us classic Italian meals which was a change for us. We never ate lour meals at a family table, we mainly ate in front of the TV. It would be a gift if we ate at the table together.

Question 3: What is your favorite style of food?
Jen: Italian food, I like baked ziti with Italian sausage.

Question 4: What type of food do you like to cook?
Jen: Italian food because i like to cook homestyle foods like pancakes with eggs and bacon. Very homey foods but nothing elaborate. I honestly dont like to cook but i like to bake.

Question 5: What style of food does your family have?
Jen: My family didnt have a style. As a kid i was lucky if we sat down as a family to have dinner. A lot of mac and cheese with tuna was severed for dinner. Rarely i ate with my mom. When i stayed with my dad we had steak with potatoes and salad every night. 

Question 6: Why do you think your perception of food is the way it is?
Jen: Food is always the focal point of a gathering. Food is a comfort that brings people together. Even if it is bad it can still be a thing that brings people together. Thats not how i was raised to see it but its the way i wanted it to be for you guys.

Jennifer Clark is my mother and she has taught me so many things about food and how it can bring people together and how it can make anyone happy.

Crisjoe Tamesis - Blog 4

The person I’m interviewing used to live in the East Coast, who grew up in an Haitian culture. I chose this person to interview because I want to know more about their culture. I wanted to learn the different types of cultural food that this person grew up with and the different traditional food habits that they still do. I wanted to observe the effects of growing up with influences around them and how the changed their eating habits.

Me: What was the culture you were raised in?

Person: I was raised in a Haitian culture.

Me: Being from the East Coast, what were some foods that was part of your childhood?

Person: Pate. It is like if you had a bunch of different layers of breading and put meat in the middle of each layer; it can be chicken, beef, or fish.

Me: Who usually cooked for you when you were younger?

Person:  My grandma and she still cooks for me now because we live in the same house.

Me: How is the cultural food that you grew up with different from the food that you’re eating now?

Person: Cultural food feels more familiar, but they are different and there isn’t really one better than the other.

Me: What was the a traditional eating habit you grew up with?

Person: Eat breakfast at 10:00 am and eat lunch at 3:00 pm together every Sunday. I don’t know exactly why my family has been doing it even before I was born.

Me: What was your favorite food when you were younger?

Person: It was Mac n Cheese and it’s Mac n Cheese

Me: Do you know any restaurants that reflects the culture you grew up in?

Person: I don’t know any restaurants.

Me: Is your food choice now influenced by food ads?

Person: Yeah, because I remember I was drinking sprite cranberry because the commercial was funny.

Me: If there’s one food in the world you would eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Person: Mac n Cheese. Because it’s my favorite and I like it a lot and it just tastes good every time.

Me: Do you plan to keep eating the foods you grew up with as you grow older?

Person: Yes,  because it tastes good.

Me: If there’s one food in the world you would eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Person: Mac n Cheese. Because it’s my favorite and I like it a lot and it just tastes good every time.

Me: Do you think the foods that you grew up with affected your taste buds in choosing what foods to eat now?

Person: Yeah, because the meat in pate it’s also used in foods that I eat now so it might’ve carried over.

Me: What is your idea of a perfect meal?

Person: Having mac n cheese, breaded chicken, fried rice, pate, and artichoke

Me: When you realize you’re hungry, what is the first food you think about?

Person: I don’t think of a certain food, I just look for food.

Me: What’s your favorite dessert?

Person: I really like golden oreos, because I’m not really a chocolate person most of the time.  However, I really like the oreo filling and with vanilla cookies it tastes really good.

Me: What is your go-to late night snacks?

Person: Sometimes it golden oreos, but if I want something salty I have cheeze-its because they’re good by themselves, but you can also dip them in stuff.

Food From Across the Pond

Food From Across the Pond

The Official Transcript of Aedon Zier

Aedon: Hello, I am joined here today with a close friend of mine Cirno Avery. Ms. Avery is Russian Native whose spent most of her life in the UK, spending her time as of right now in Essex. She’s taken multiple trips to American and seen many differences between the cultures. She is also experienced in things such as philosophy, electronic art, and most importantly cooking. How are you doing today Avery?

Avery: I’m doing fine...I’m just a little anxious and that was one long intro you gave me!

Aedon: That’s good to hear. Now I know you know a lot about cooking, being one who has tasted it and I must say it is very good. Who taught you to cook?

Avery: My Mother and my Grandad. Baking with mother was big part of my childhood and my Grandad was a navy chef after he got shot. So the two lead onto each other as I grew up.

Aedon: How often do you cook?

Avery: I make dinner around 3 times a week, we keep a rotation on our family. Non dinner baking or anything more preplanned is saved for the holidays. Breaded food in the oven ‘ardly counts as cooking.

Aedon: Why do you enjoy cooking?

Avery: The product! The pride! Cooking is an art form, so it has the same benefits and sitting down drawing a picture. People forget that, despite all the tv shows that make cooking look like a doddle. Thanks Nigela.

Aedon: Do you enjoy cooking alone or being a lone chief?

Avery: Alone. Father might be a backseat driver in the car, mother is a back seat Ramsey in the kitchen.

Aedon: Does food and family have a good relationship?

Avery: In ours? [laughs] Father saw the meals I’d make when they’d visit me in uni as a rite of passage as an adult. Food and family is just pressure. We all have distinctly different tastes. Orderin’ chinese is like settling a playground fight.

Aedon: What are some of your food influences? Or do you just like to cook what you see?

Avery: I don’t realllllllly follow recipes. I’ll look at the picture, skim the text and get a gist then go for it.  Two friends in my life have been better. I had a Singaporean-Chinese friend who I absolutely fell in love with their colours using beans. Secondly for the meat side, my Portuguese Rooman, man I can smell her spices on that chicken when I close my eyes.

Aedon: What is your favorite thing to cook?

Avery: Pancakes! But for something a little more elegant. Layered Napleon cake, kinda like a London cheese cake but doesn’t explode.

Aedon: What are some homeland dishes you enjoy making?

Blin! American pancakes are too buttery and thick. French crepes are too crispy and dry.

Aedon: If you could only cook one thing for the rest of your life what would it be?

Avery: Lasagna. I’ve eaten a hella lot of them.

Aedon: A bold question to ask but has food shaped your life and maybe even you as person?

Avery: Suffering from Trymulathelaria (Trimethylaminuria) sure is something. Those red meats sure aren’t funsies.

Aedon: What’s something you love and/or hate about American food?

Avery: American food is so damn sugary. I know that sounds like a joke but I can pick up the same branded thing in my country and there and it’ll be way sweater. Meats though? Man you Americans cook meats so well it’s beautiful. Gotta round up some American dads to teahc me to grill.

Aedon: Do you enjoy American food more than English food?

Avery: I know it’s like...a joke to say british food is bland. But untill an American dish has a ring of Black Pudding, I’m gonna say British. Also Haggis. I love haggis.

Aedon: Do you believe you can make food better than some American cooks?

Avery: Americans can cook? Do walmart tatters count as cooking?

Aedon: Well thank you for joining me today and sharing your knowledge from across the pond.

Avery: Thank you, I fancy some biscuits now, hah.

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My name is Pamela DeLa Riva, I was born and raised here in Reno, Nv. I am fully hispanic. My parents both come from a small town in Jalisco, Mexico. Growing up, I would always eat Mexican and American food. But my go to was always Mexican tacos. For this assignment I decided to interview my coworker/close friend Margarita Flores (Maggie). Ever since we started working together we became very good friends, and I have had the opportunity to know all sorts of fun facts about her. One of them being, how she usually eats Mexican food every week. Although we are somewhat different from each other, our friendship makes it seem as if we are completely the same, especially since we are both college students trying to get our lives together.

During the interview, I asked Maggie a few simple questions….. ( Key: Q= Question, A= Answer.)

Q- Myself:  Hello, my name is Pamela and today I will be interviewing for an English Assignment. Can you start off by introducing yourself please?

A- Maggie: Of course! My name is Margarita Flores. I was born in Nayarit, Mexico. I came to the United States when I was 2 years old. So I basically grew up here. I do go back to visit every year.

Q- Myself: What is a food you normally eat?

A- Maggie: Growing up with a family from Nayarit, we have anything that is seafood related. So we have anything that is seafood related as a meal at least once a week.

Q- Myself: As you now live in the United States, what type of food do you have access to?

A- Maggie: I actually now have access to basically all sorts of foods that typically come from other countries, but mainly American food. There is a wide variety of food choices in America.

Q- Myself: As you have many choices offered to you, what is your go to food?

A- Maggie: My go to food is shrimp ceviche, but since it's an expensive and time consuming meal, I usually eat shrimp cup of noodles. I'm a college student so its rare when I have the time to eat ceviche.

Q- Myself: Are there any meals significant to you?

A- Maggie: A meal that is significant to me is the tamales de camaron (shrimp tamales). They are significant because it's something we never miss out on special occasions. They remind me of my grandma because she is the one who normally makes them.

Q- Myself: Are there any foods represent your culture?

A- Maggie: Yes there is. Anything that is seafood related represents my culture because we're close to the ocean and we have easy access in it in Mexico. Most of the people living in Nayarit constantly consume seafood.

Q- Myself: This being the last question, do the foods that you eat in Mexico have a different taste from the food here in the United States?

A- Maggie: Oh yes! The food from Mexico definitely has a better taste because everything is fresh and hardly any preservatives are used. When I eat in Mexico, I usually consume smaller amounts and feel good after eating. Compared to the food from here, it doesn't have as much flavor, and it has more preservatives. They're both good, but I would definitely go for the one in Mexico.

Myself: Thank you for giving me your time and answering these few questions relating food and your culture.

Maggie: My pleasure!