Food in different communities

After reading the article “ ‘Breaking Bread with a Spread’ in a San Francisco County Jail” written by Sandra Cate and the article “The Cultural Politics of Eating in Shenzhen” written by Mary Ann O’donnell. I found that food played a different and important role in the communities they studied.

In Cate’s article, the author talked about a new definition “spread”. It did not represent a kind of food, but meant the food the prisoners cooked for themselves and shared with others. The food in the jail was very simple and tasted very bad. There were always potatoes in their meals. At the same time, the arrangements for their meals were terrible. Prisoners had their dinner at about 4:00 P.M. Consequently, they would feel hungry at night. So they need to use some sources they saved from their meals and then cooked for themselves. Generally, they would like to share the food they cooked using microwave ovens with other inmates. “Spread” did not only mean food to them, but also a symbol of relationship with other inmates.

In O’donnell’s article, the author discussed about Shenzhen’s eating cultural politics. Unlike other cities in China, Shenzhen played a special role of Chinese cities. Local Shenzheners just occupied a very few percent of the population in Shenzhen now. Old Shenzheners contributed all their lives in constructing this city better than before. They preferred to eat in alfresco restaurants. In their minds, these kinds of restaurants could define the spirit of Shenzhen accurately and properly. However, people came to Shenzhen later had different viewpoints. They took advantage of the harvest the old Shenzheners had created, and the resources Shenzhen had and made benefits for themselves. They did not prefer to eat like old Shenzheners in alfresco restaurants; they liked to eat in the restaurants with better environment. Food for them was no longer a spirit of Shenzhen, but a necessary to satisfy their tastes.

In my mind, the most interesting part in Cate’s article is once Sean Cooper has cooked spread for his children, and surprisingly, his children like to eat spread. It is hard to imagine the spread will have a good taste because it is invented and cooked in jail. The most interesting part in O’donnell’s article is the change in the people’s mind leads the change of the food. Old Shenzheners make their mind to build Shenzhen better and they prefer to eat in alfresco restaurant. However, the reason to come to Shenzhen for people who come there later is probably that they want to take advantage of this city, so they prefer to eat in restaurants with better environment. Because in their mind, they come there for better lives, so eating a restaurant with better environment may probably be a good choice for them.