Process Writing

My writing process over the past 10 weeks has mostly been based on the pick an idea and run with it method. I brain stormed for each piece and then based a story and a structure around the first idea I liked. The first assignment, the memoir, required the most brain storming. Originally I wanted to base my memoir around my mom and family but it was difficult to come up with a solid foundation for this idea. I don’t remember home in concrete details, rather, the past comes to me in feelings and the usual things that happened because much of growing up is one big cloudy memory, often colored with a rosy hue. So instead, I decided to write about a dating experience because those generally involve food and can be quite memorable.

I received an unexpected amount of positive feedback from my first and second drafts but this was surprising to me because though I knew my piece was funny, it didn’t have a much deeper meaning for me. The next assignment was the perfect meal and I choose to carry over my original idea from the first paper. I decided to talk about family. I began with my mom in mind but several characters including my dad and my brother worked their way into the story and I didn’t realize until my workshop day that I had a lot of revisions to work on.

Throughout the quarter I have been frustrated by the discrepancy between how I feel about my writing and how it is actually perceived. When I thought I wrote something sub-par I came to find out that it wasn’t that bad and vice versa when I was sure I had written a winning piece. I was almost positive that my restaurant critique did not critique the food well enough but alas, that was the part that worked. I’m not sure how to work on a problem like this and maybe these instances are outliers but if anyone has insight I welcome it.

The hardest part about this class has been writing for a blog. As much time as I spend on the internet I didn’t post or comment nearly as much as I could or should have. It’s definitely a habit that didn’t quite form. But I also liked the blogs because I really enjoyed experiencing the writing of so many great writers. Although I tend to be defensive of my writing when criticized, I found that I could be much more receptive of workshop advice in our class because I respected everyone’s writing abilities so much.

A breakthrough for me was trying to focus on the most basic elements before attempting more complicated techniques. I did my best to hone in on theme and structure including transitions and subtly presenting an arc for the story. My biggest weakness in writing is saying too much with too little space and too little detail. Workshops were incredibly useful for my writing process. They don’t always work but they really worked in our class. I think what contributed to that was reading the pieces the night before and posting preliminary comments.

I enjoyed food and travel writing immensely, what a great seminar right?!

Shawarma-licious! (Review Revision)

[Written for The Index]

Nestled in-between Roma’s Pizza and the railroad tracks that intersect South Drake Road, the Lebanese restaurant, Shawarma King, welcomes people in from the parking lot. Because the sign doesn’t face the road directly, it is easy to miss.

The Chef and owner, Nidal Awad, was born and raised in the Middle East. After working as the head chef of a hotel for several years Nidal moved to the United States. He now owns Shawarma House, located on Western’s campus, in addition to Shawarma King.

Three tacky toy dispensers greet guests upon arrival—Voodoo dolls, Tattoos, and Bok Choy Boys for 50 cents a piece. A mural covers the wall facing the entrance. It depicts a serene landscape, a shepherd herding his flock near a river with mountains in the distance. Shawarma King is a seat-yourself restaurant unless you order take-out or delivery, a viable option for Kalamazoo College students, because it is only five miles away from campus.

A window behind the front counter offers a glimpse of the kitchen; two large Shawarma rotisseries give a tantalizing sneak peak of what is to come. Shawarma is made by alternately stacking strips of fat and pieces of seasoned meat (beef, lamb or marinated chicken) on a stick. Shawarma is a fast-food staple across the Arab world and in parts of Europe.

To the left of the first few tables is a mural of a Lebanese woman behind a veil, making pita over an open flame, sand and camels fill in the background. There is a jade tree on the sill of one of the giant windows among other plants and middle-eastern décor—clay pots and a water jug. A WMU flag is represented on one side of the room, supporting the Western Broncos. A couple of Shawarma King T-shirts also adorn the walls. One shows the front design while the other reveals the back.

In the back of the seating area guests can see a striking and bright rendition of the Dome of the Rock painted on the wall. Its artistic perspective is particularly interesting; it’s as if the viewer is much smaller than the building, a child maybe, representing an idea of cosmic insignificance. 

Except for the art work, the peachy orange walls and light-brown grated floor tiles leave much to be desired. Shawarma King is an unimpressive restaurant, until you try their food.

The appetizers arrive almost immediately after requested, Hummus, Falafel, and Meat Grape Leaves. The portion sizes are large. Lebanese cuisine is similar to those of many countries in the eastern Mediterranean but each country has their own variations. The portion sizes are culturally significant because a common practice in the Middle-East is hosting for groups of people in the home. This gives the meals a very communal feel. Another common practice is to begin meals with mezze, small savory dishes served with drinks that lead up to the main courses.

The Grape Leaves, rice and lamb are wrapped up in a tight leafy roll, have an interesting quality—the leaves have a texture like that of spinach but thinner and tougher. Lemon juice adds a subtle sweetness but the overall texture is somewhat dry. The Falafel on the other hand is divine. Herbs, spices and chick pea flour fried and dipped in lumpy fresh yogurt, the Falafel is crunchy and doughy in just the right proportion. It’s like a Lebanese hush puppy that’s healthier and more delicious.

Hommous is the yummy constant that keeps coming back throughout the meal. Paprika, lemon juice, parsley, onions and tomato tastes light and refreshing garnished with real Mediterranean olives, the hommous starts the meal off right.

The Lentil soup was very light, a bright yellow color, and a little salty. But the Fattoush was incredible. The house dressing was savory and not too sweet. Fried pita garnishes the Lebanese salad, like a crouton but without the intense crunch.

The service is fast, polite and knowledgeable. Kalamazoo College students who prefer Coke can find a welcome change from Cafeteria Pepsi products in their favorite cola at Shawarma. On Saturday night there is a constant stream of customers but without a sense of crowdedness.

Eastern sounding music plays in the background and is a subtle addition to atmosphere. The tambourine does not drown out the child screaming at the next table over but the Galaya almost can. The sauce is warm and comforting in this sauté of beef, fresh vegetables, herbs, and spices. The Arayas, ground beef, tomato, onion, parsley, and homemade spice toasted in pita bread is meaty and filling. However, Mixed Kabab is the entrée with the tenderest meat. The Mixed Shawarma with a side of fries is a little dry but with yogurt it moistens. The fries are thick and starchy. The beefy, light, fresh flavor of the Beef Shawarma Sandwich is a great menu item that tastes beefy but not too heavy.

The cardamom tea is a subtly sweet way to end an evening but it takes a while to brew once ordered. If there is no time to enjoy it on a first visit, try it on the second. Shawarma King isn’t a restaurant to visit only once. Whether it’s the hommous, or the Lentil soup, or the Galaya, or any of the other options available, the food is worth going back for even if it’s take-out. Go with a large group and try everything or take a few close friends and enjoy the inevitable leftovers—because it’s better than Caf food and with low prices and college discounts it’s affordable too!

Hommous—$4.50 SM, $5.50 MD, $6.50 LG

Falafel—$6.50 (10 Pieces)

Meat Grape Leaves—$6.50 (10 Pieces)

Fattoush—$4.50 SM, $5.50 MD, $6.50 LG

Lentil Soup—$2.00 (Cup), $2.50 (Bowl)

Beef Shawarma Sandwich—$2.95

Galaya—$6.95 (Beef, Chicken, or Shrimp)

Mixed Shawarma—$6.95

Arayas—$10.95

Mixed Kabob—$10.95

Lebanese tea with cardamom—$1.35

Part 3

I thought I would find a totally unique experience at Shawarma King. I expected there to be a specific atmosphere—maybe some art work involving a camel and desert sands. There were decorations that fell under this expectation like the woven pieces of fabric on the walls; one of them included a camel! But on the walls there was also a Western Broncos flag and T-shirts advertising the restaurant. The atmosphere was a Lebanese-American mixture. I didn’t think that the owners had attempted to re-create an experience but rather the atmosphere suggested that they brought pieces of Lebanon and added them to the casual American dining experience.

The market I viewed in the fictional city of Agrabah wasn’t in dissonance with my assumptions necessarily. Lebanese food is mostly constructed of relatively cheap ingredients put together in a specific way to create a satisfying dining experience. Pita, chick peas, herbs and spices are integral aspects of the cuisine. I could imagine these ingredients being picked up in a market on a street in Lebanon.

I knew that authenticity was a problematic idea even before reading “Culinary Tourism”. So when I ate at Shawarma King I wasn’t attempting to apply authenticity to my experience. However, I will say that from my view of the owners’ choice of food and place I felt that they presented an honest, or authentic if you must, sample of their culture. Especially compared to what I know of Zooroona, I was very pleased with Shawarma King’s unassuming presentation. While Zooroona purposefully puts forth an image of the middle-east I think Shawarma King puts forth an image that speaks to a certain transparency. Shawarma King clearly has a mix of east and west and it seems to be an intentional choice.

The food didn’t look “utterly foreign” as I expected it might. But it was made with ingredients I do not consume on a usual basis and they were arranged in way I would not have known before experiencing it for myself. My understanding of authenticity is inherently complicated because it’s a complicated notion.

What I heard while reading “Culinary Tourism” was that the way I had thought of authenticity before was as a static historical notion of a way something was before. Before what though and what about the unending and transformative march of time? If I can’t think of authenticity as an historical constant that can be re-created and experienced then I prefer not to think of it. I would rather speak in terms of honesty and transparency and perspectives than a mystical authenticity. And this is what I will take from this assignment and bring to future tourist experiences. When I am confronted with thinking about authenticity I plan on reframing the question. I am now more aware than ever that the only true perspective I can speak to is my own. I have to allow my synthesis to reflect this fact.

Comfort Food from Lebanon

[Written for The Index] 

The first thing to notice is the tacky toy dispensers, various tattoo options 50 cents a piece, little voodoo dolls and bok choy boys that come out of the machine down a shoot in little containers that look like flying saucers. A mural stands before waiting customers, a serene landscape depicting a shepherd herding his flock near a river and mountains in the distance.

Patrons walk past the front counter and can catch a glimpse of the kitchen scene through the order window. To the left of the first few tables is a mural of a Lebanese woman, behind a veil, making pita over an open flame, sand and heat and camels are in the distant background.

The peachy orange walls and light-brown grated floor tiles leave much to be desired. Shawarma King is an unimpressive restaurant, until you try their food.

It is a seat yourself restaurant. In the back seating area guests are greeted with a slightly off rendition of the Dome of the Rock painted on one of the back walls in the dining area. Its proportions are somewhat askew though it is quite beautiful.

There is a jade tree on the sill of one of the giant windows among other plants and middle-eastern décor like pots and a water jug. A WMU flag is represented on one side of the room, supporting the Western Bronco’s. A couple of Shawarma King T-shirts also adorn the walls. One shows the front design while the other reveals the back.

The appetizers arrived almost immediately after they were requested, Hummus, Falafel, and Meat Grape Leaves. The first thing to notice before the taste is the incredible portion sizes. Lebanese cuisine is similar those of many countries in the Eastern Mediterranean but according to my Lebanese friends, it’s the best. The portion sizes are culturally significant because a common practice in the middle-east is to be host to group of people. This gives the meals a very communal feel which is also why it begins with mezze, small savory dishes, leading up to the main courses. Once the taste hits you this becomes even more important because you’ll want to keep coming back for more.

The Grape Leaves had a unique flavor—rice and lamb are wrapped up in a tight leafy roll. Lemon juice adds a subtle sweetness but the overall taste is somewhat dry. The Falafel on the other hand is divine. Herbs, spices and chick pea flour fried to perfection and dipped in lumpy fresh yogurt, the Falafel is crunchy and doughy in just the right proportion. It’s like a Lebanese hush puppy that’s tastes healthier and more delicious. And in the east it it’s different wherever you go—quick, easy, and plentiful Falafel is sold from small shops set up out in the open like hotdogs in American big cities.

Hommous is the yummy constant that keeps coming back throughout the meal. Paprika, lemon juice, parsley, onions and tomato tastes light and refreshing garnished with real Mediterranean olives, the hommous starts the meal off right.

The Lentil soup was very light, a bright yellow color, and a little salty. I have had better. But the Fattoush was incredible. The house dressing was savory and not too sweet. The fried pita was better than any crouton in this middle-eastern salad.

The service continued to be fast, polite and knowledgeable. I was delighted to find Coke on the drink list rather than Pepsi. On Saturday night there was a constant stream of customers and if dining in isn’t for you they also deliver take out.

On to the main courses, eastern sounding music in the back ground is a subtle addition to atmosphere, as Beef Galaya, Arayas, Mixed Kabab, Mixed Shawarma and a Beef Shawarma sandwich are some of the best. The tambourine doesn’t quite drown out the child screaming at the table next to me but the Galaya almost does. The sauce is excellent in this sauté of beef, fresh vegetables, herbs, and spices.

The Arayas, ground beef, tomato, onion, parsley, homemade spice and toasted in pita bread, is full of flavor and well spiced. Mixed Kabab is the tenderest meat on the table. The Mixed Shawarma with fries fell a little flat—a little dry but with yogurt it has a good flavor and the fries are as well done, thick and potatoey. But the beefy, light, fresh flavor of the Beef Shawarma sandwich is a great menu item that tastes homey and full of mom’s love. The cardamom tea took too long to try but Shawarma King isn’t the kind of place you only visit once.

Expectations

I loved Aladdin growing up. And I think I actually watched the old VHS more in my teenage years than I ever did before the age of 10. There isn’t much dining that takes place in the film but in the fictional city of Agrabah street vendors sell melons, pistachios, sugar dates and figs as well as apples.I wanted to try middle-eastern food for my restaurant critique because it is one of the only cuisines that I don’t have many preconceived notions for. I have many notions of the middle-east but they do not surround its food. I know that lentil soup is a must try when I visit Shawarma King, a Lebanese restaurant on S. Drake in Kalamazoo. I had considered going to Zooroona instead, they also serve Lebanese/middle-eastern cuisine, however, the owners of the place are actually Pakistani. I expect the food to look utterly foreign. The majority of the dishes on their menu, I have never heard of before. But one of the reasons I chose Lebanese food was that two of my close friends are half Lebanese and I’m hoping that they will be able to decipher, make excellent ordering suggestions as well as eat a lot of food that I can then sample.

 I pretty nervous about the project—to write a restaurant review. I will have the added challenge of going into the ordeal with strep throat, a very painful condition that causes loss of appetite and exhaustion. It’s hard to believe but yesterday I finally went to the health center to antibiotics for the walking pneumonia or bronchitis I’ve had for a month straight and today, the second day of my antibiotic regime I have clear white spots mocking me from on top of my tonsils saying, you can’t win! You are doomed to be sick until the end of the quarter, maybe longer, only time will tell! I’m going to the doctors before dinner; hopefully they can give me some relief. For now I’m just glad that I have several friends, two of them Lebanese, with great appetites to assist and guide me.

I have tried one Lebanese selection however, and that is there cardamom coffee. My friend Aaron has made it several times and I am excited to try Shawarma King’s version!

Love, Mom

We hadn’t had a family dinner in a long time. When we gathered together at home on a Sunday afternoon not too long ago, childhood memories floated back to me and I was reminded of how much I miss it when I am away at college. My family, our guests and I, all crowded around a lovely piece of patio furniture, meant for four but seating eight instead. We used to have a brown rectangular dining table, more fit for indoor dining, but after my brother bought a house my mom gave him the table as part of his house warming present. The piano behind where my dad sat looks unassuming, like always, a backdrop for the wall. It was used as an extra surface for the dinner rolls that night. My dog Piper and the two cats, Cally and Tiger, hovered anxiously around the table legs. “Dig in”, my mom said as she ran to the kitchen for one more thing—honey, essential for bread rolls. I was over zealous with the serving spoon, as I often am, and I knew as soon as I tasted the first hardy bite of my perfect meal, Beef Bourguignon, and my eyes looked down at my ample helping, that I had taken too much.

The veggies and the button mushrooms had been purchased by my mom at our local grocery, Wagoner’s, except for the pearl onions. I picked up those up from Meijer on my way out of Kalamazoo. When I arrived in Lawton and walked up the front steps, brick and crumbling, my mom ran out to greet me and to help carry in my laundry. Bringing home the dirty clothes is a natural routine for any college sophomore staying home for an evening.

When we settled ourselves in the kitchen, ready to turn whole foods into fractions, I was eager to finally be cooking with my mom. I had never cooked on my own before and it wouldn’t be a perfect meal if I didn’t have company. My mom was an obvious choice, after her long years of feeding a family of five and never once complaining. To me she is the best cook around.

I remembered to wash my hands before we began all the chopping that had to be done. I started by slicing the taut red bell peppers while my mom turned the heat on under our flour coated meat. My mom poured a glass of wine and the winter sun shining through the kitchen windows made the drink sparkle. She peeled carrots in the sink as I moved on to the purple onions. I kept thinking about how my chopping skills would be useless to a trained chef but also how it didn’t matter. It would taste delicious either way. The carrots were my least favorite to cut up because they were much tougher than the other ingredients and I always ended up banging the knife against the cutting board trying the whole time to be gentle but falling short each time.  

Dinnertime togetherness had been a requirement for most of my life and the chopping made me think about how noble my mom’s efforts had been—trying to keep us at the table while we were pulling away. Mandatory family dinner slowly disappeared as high school and sports took over my life and then in turn, did the same to my sister Nicole two years later. My brother Joel is two years older than me but he doesn’t have the same tendency to put too much on his plate. Dinnertime eventually degenerated into serve your self at your convenience dinners in front of the TV. I was excited to be bringing the family back to the table, even though it was only for one night.

Joel sat between me and his girlfriend from Chicago, Tieren. On my right sat Aaron, my close friend from Kalamazoo College. Next to him sat Nicole and her boyfriend Brandon followed by my mom and dad. Everyone enjoyed the meal. To my siblings and their guests I surmise it was mostly just another free meal from a familiar kitchen with an extra helper, me. But for me and my parents, I know that it was precious time together at home. Aaron was happy to be supporting my cooking endeavors and he is quite a foodie so when he said it was delicious I knew it was true.

I had been overwhelmed the week of the assignment—to make the perfect meal and write about it. I was sick again, second time in five weeks. Since my mom is my closet collaborator in life, I knew she wouldn’t see my request for help as laziness, though I admit it felt that way. But either way, my idea for the perfect meal had more to do with family and friends than any specific dish. The important part was being home and cooking with my mom.

She even picked out the recipe. She recently revisited her interest in Julia Child and her cooking, first with the viewing and then the purchase of the movie Julie and Julia and later by acquiring the cook book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The recipe she found, however, came from food.com and was a variation on the famous stew that Julia Child is known for. She sent her findings in an email:

Hi Baby!

Went looking for some main dish mushroom recipes ... and one of them listed was a variation on Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon (basically, a yummy beef stew) - the variation being that it is EASIER and much less time consuming to make.

Love, Mom

I had just read Michael Pollen’s adventures in foraging for mushrooms from The Omnivore’s Dilemma so when I had called my mom about the project and asked her for her help I informed her that fungi was a requirement. I acquired a taste for mushrooms around the age of 10 simply because of their unique taste and texture. My dad always insisted that they were the food of the gods and so I fell in love with their mysticism too. I knew my parents and I would appreciate the little decomposers, and that was what really mattered. Instead of beef though, I had the idea to use venison. An old work friend of my dad’s fills our freezer with the stuff every year and I thought it would go well with the mushrooms; I wanted to aim more toward the forest instead of the pasture, especially after watching Food Inc.

It all looked so beautiful mixed together in the large roasting pan we used to cook the stew in. First the peppers were added, little red rubies brightening up the meat. Next the purple onion pieces and the chunks of carrot followed by the mushrooms and a bay leaf. Finally, my mom and I pealed the small pearl onions, the size of ping-pong balls. She didn’t know it but we were competing for the fastest peeler award. There flaky outsides were difficult to remove and I wanted to make sure I did the most work. I knew how much work she had done for this meal, and I wished I had done more but at the same time, I knew that she really didn’t mind. Giving up her time and energy for others is a common practice for my mom. She does this. I can only hope that I will grow up to be as unselfish as my mom one day. As she rushed off at five o’ clock to work a shift she recently picked up on Sunday nights to make paying tuition easier, I mustered up the strength to do some work for her. I prepared to tackle the dishes, a minuscule token of gratitude for her unmatched awesomeness as my mother.

CYOA: Bizarre Foods

I want to talk about Bizarre foods in relation to food shortages for my adventure. I  found this article and I was really interested in talking about the possibility of using untapped 'bizarre' food sources in countries such as America. I am referring specifically to insects, rodents, spiders, and other similar sources of unused calories. I found an Andrew Zimmerman video from his show, Bizarre Foods, that briefly discusses the option of rodents as a viable menu option or this video that discusses bugs. The article I found talks about food riots and how the imminence of a disaster depends on each seasons harvest. The problem is a global one, not always salient in American society. So my question do you think American could or would ever develop an interest in eating bizarre foods in order to help out the global food supply issues. I honestly don't know if I could change my eating habits so drastically but such a cause. Like most things the change would have to be gradual but as the Global food supply article suggests, we might not have much time. The green movement seems to be here to stay but would it go so far as to seek out bizarre foods? What are your thoughts?

These quotes are directly from the article--my highlights:

"For Malthus, famine was inevitable because the math of human existence did not add up: the means of subsistence grew only arithmetically (1, 2, 3), whereas population grew geometrically (2, 4, 8). By this analysis, food production could never catch up with fertility. Malthus was wrong, on both counts."

"The problem is not just the number of mouths to feed; it’s the quantity of food that each mouth consumes when there are no natural constraints."

"As of 2006, there were eight hundred million people on the planet who were hungry, but they were outnumbered by the billion who were overweight. Our current food predicament resembles a Malthusian scenario—misery and famine—but one largely created by overproduction rather than underproduction. Our ability to produce vastly too many calories for our basic needs has skewed the concept of demand, and generated a wildly dysfunctional market."

"What we are witnessing is not the end of food but a market on the brink of failure. Those bearing the brunt are, as in Malthus’s day, the people at the bottom."

"For Patel, it is a short step from Western consumers “engorged and intoxicated” with cheap processed food to Mexican and Indian farmers committing suicide because they can’t make a living. The “food industry’s pabulum” makes us all cogs in an evil machine."

"Too many years—and, in the West, too many subsidies—are invested in the setup of big single-crop farms to let producers abandon them when the going gets tough"

"Our insatiable appetites are not simply our own; they have, in no small part, been created for us. This explains, to a certain degree, how the world can be “stuffed and starved” at the same time, as Patel has it. The food economy has created a system in which some have no food options at all and some have too many options, albeit of a somewhat spurious kind."

"Pollan offers a model of how individual consumers might adjust their appetites: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” As a solution, this is charmingly modest, but it is unlikely to be enough to meet the urgency of the situation. How do you get the whole of America—the whole of the world—to eat more like Michael Pollan?"

"The good news is that one developing country has, in the past two decades, conducted a national experiment in a more sustainable food system, proving that it is possible to feed a population less destructively. Farmers gave up synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and replaced them with old-fashioned crop rotations and mixed livestock-crop operations. Big industrial farms were split into smaller coöperatives. The bad news is that the country is Cuba, which was forced to make the switch after the fall of the Soviet Union left it without supplies of agrochemicals. Cuba’s experiment depended on its authoritarian state, which commanded the “reallocation” of labor from cities to farms. Even on Cuba’s own terms, the experiment hasn’t been perfect. On May Day, Raúl Castro announced further radical changes to the farm system in order to reduce reliance on imports. Paul Roberts notes that there is no chance that Americans and Europeans will voluntarily adopt a Cuban model of food production. (You don’t say.) He adds, however, that “the real question is no longer what a rich country would do voluntarily but what it might do if its other options were worse.”"

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2008/05/19/080519crat_atlarge_wilson#ixzz1FN0AZAff