Have you ever wondered how your taste develops? Or how do you decide what to eat and what not to eat? In anthropology of food, students learned that the answers are not as simple as they seem.
The food journal series is a collection of 5 analytical and creative student essays from the class Anthropology of Food taught by Professor Takeshi Uesugi. Each piece provides their own answer for the questions above as they explore different themes related to food that goes beyond just its taste and appearance – it touches on identity, memory, pain, history, activism, and survival.
All the pieces are composed here! Find out your favorite essay and enjoy some delicious reads 😋📖
Sincerely,
The Polyphony Team
Taste of Home
Why is it not the language or the music, but our home food that makes us feel homesick? Let’s follow in Puspa’s footsteps to explore her perspectives on her country’s cuisine—Indonesia—as well as its strong nostalgia within the ‘taste of home’.
Tiffany Yuka’s Dual Heritage
By Joan Silole
As a symbol of culture, the food we consume every day has long been shaping our identity and ethnic imagination. Through the interview with Tiffany Yuka, a Japanese raised in America, her story goes beyond the traditional culinary practices as she navigated through an intersection between her mixed-culture cuisine background and her heritage.
Local Customs, Connections, and Changing Times Seen Through Food
By Wakaba Saito
These days, as society constantly moves forward for change, older generation tend to keep the traditions and stay behind the curtain of modernization. It is said that they are living in the past, but in fact, they are holding on what is already lost in our current world
A Taste in Time Through Hakka Food Documentary: Pang’s Hakka Noodles
Based on an analysis of several articles about Pang Kok Keong, a noodle vendor from Singapore, Chok has introduced us to the world of the Hakka food business. Follow her to “taste” the rich heritage of Chinese culture, the constant improvisation, and the entrepreneurial spirit inherent in the Chinese diaspora of Singapore and beyond.
Bake it till you…. flee the country?
By Shan Min Kha
In Myanmar, while the pandemic along with military-coup has taken away opportunities from the youth, Moon (a once-4th-year dental student), managed to open a bakery in the middle of crisis. Political upheaval eventually forced her to close, but the experience has shaped her new identity which devoted to her self-freedom and the community she owed.
The Polyphony 