With octopus tentacles dangling from her mouth, Kerry Piper
reflected on her first taste of Japan.
After stepping off the Semester at Sea ship ““ a study
abroad program in which students take classes on board a ship and
visit countries from Venezuela to Kenya and beyond ““ Piper, a
fourth-year biology student, was greeted by a platter of octopus
dumplings.
Not wanting to offend her hosts, she tried the delicacy, finding
its texture to be tough and foreign to her palette.
“It’s definitely an experience I wouldn’t have
gotten eating a Big Mac,” Piper said. “If you’re
staying with a group of Americans or tourists, and you’re
just eating McDonald’s and drinking Starbucks all the time,
you’re missing out on what the country is truly made
of.”
Although people may be different in terms of language, customs
and religions, all people need to eat in order to survive. So what
better way to connect with the inhabitants of a foreign country
than by eating their food?
Take my experience studying abroad in Rome this past summer.
I could only speak a lick of Italian so I couldn’t
communicate that well with the flirtatious local Italian boys. And
despite being present for the championship game of the World Cup,
I’m not an avid soccer fan, so I had a hard time
comprehending the importance of soccer to other countries.
It wasn’t until I sat down at the local trattoria and had
the same five-course meal as the locals that I began to feel more
comfortable in Rome. While eating the same penne carbonara and
mista salad as the Italian family next to me, I couldn’t help
but think, “I’m in Rome, and I’m doing as the
Romans do!” I was finally connecting to the culture through a
common thread: its cuisine.
Yet sometimes just eating the food isn’t enough.
For Tricia Prokopidis, a fifth-year history student who studied
in Italy in the summer of 2005, it wasn’t about the food so
much as the atmosphere she was in that made her cultural exchange
more valuable.
“In Italy, I felt it was harder to connect through food
because their main staples are pasta and pizza, and we already eat
so much of that in the U.S.,” Prokopidis said. “So if
I’m eating at a restaurant by the Pantheon, I’m paying
more attention to the fact I’m by the Pantheon surrounded by
Italians than the food in front of me.”
OK, so obviously I would notice a towering, massive stone
monolith from thousands of years ago more than some measly
fettucine Alfredo if given the choice. But ancient monuments are
static, whereas the process of eating is fresh and organic and
happens worldwide at any given moment of the day.
It’s easier to be an active participant in Mexican culture
by eating enchiladas than by visiting Mayan ruins.
Maybe consuming kudu in South Africa or green curry in Thailand
won’t make you an instant expert on those countries, but at
least you can learn to appreciate other cultures through their
food.
Carman Tse, a fourth-year marine biology student, visited Taiwan
during the summer of 2002. He stayed with his aunt and uncle in
Taipei, becoming familiar with dou jiang, a soy bean milk that
sometimes contains shrimp, and other delicacies like snake testicle
wine.
It was these culinary experiences in Taiwan that helped Tse to
better understand his own culture.
“Being part Taiwanese myself, eating the food in the
actual country helped me to appreciate the wide scope and variety
of food that they have, and thus understand my own background a
little more as well,” Tse said.
The bottom line is, food may or may not help you to get in touch
with a foreign country. But at the very least, that time you ate
tarantulas in Cambodia will be a great story for the grandkids.
Fylstra is currently exploring the rich cultural heritage of
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. E-mail her at
jfylstra@media.ucla.edu.