[3] Prepare Chicken barbeque and rice

For my meal, I decided to cook chicken barbeque and rice because I had all the necessary ingredients in hand. I had bought the major ingredients (chicken and rice) from Woodman’s about a week ago. I prepared the meal for my friend, my cousin, and myself to step away from the stressful studying at least for a little while.

It was not too difficult making the meal because I roughly knew the procedure by observing my mom make it several times at home. I simply had to modify the procedure slightly to fit the taste of my friend and my cousin. I did this by eliminating the spicy powder from my barbeque sauce, which made the chicken less spicy. To prepare the meal, I first preheated the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and took out three frozen chicken breasts from the freezer. Then, I placed the chicken breasts on an ungreased oven pan and put it in the oven. I had 25 minutes to wait before I could spread the barbeque sauce on my nearly cooked chicken breasts. While I was waiting, I took three cups of uncooked rice, washed it thoroughly, and poured it into the rice cooking pot. Because I had to wait for both the chicken and the rice to cook, I made the barbeque sauce and set up the table. When 25 minutes passed, I spread the barbeque sauce over the chicken and waited 10 more minutes for it to cook completely. By that time, the rice was cooked and the meal was ready. My friend and my cousin seemed to have enjoyed the dish and we cleaned the plates afterwards. Each step of the procedure together created a delicious meal and provided me with a great experience. Not one step was unnecessary in the process.

Michael Pollan’s claims are definitely interesting. He had definitely put some thought into it. Pollan provides a deep explanation of why so many Americans have turned towards processed foods. He explains that Americans have always” had a problem taking pleasure in eating” (Pollan, 54) from the time of the Puritans. But, I do not agree with his statement entirely. To me, it just seems like he is trying to blame the early Americans for America’s current practices of food, suggesting that the Americans living now are completely innocent. Pollan’s claims may be partially true, but I believe that the Americans living now must be responsible for some of the blame also: for their bad eating habits. America’s favor towards processed food is not a direct result of the tradition that passed down from generation to generation, but is due to the ill eating practices of the Americans living now. More and more people are choosing fast foods and instant meals over healthy homemade meals. It is the daily “choices” that they are making that is slowly ruining their health. With this type of attitude, even if all processed foods disappeared from the grocery shelves, nothing would change. The first step to healthy eating is making the “right choices.”

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[2] Fake vs. Real Mashed Potato

As a child, one of my favorite foods was mashed potato. My mom would prepare a mashed potato dish every time she cooked steak. I enjoyed helping her make mashed potatoes by peeling the raw potatoes and mashing them after she had boiled them. I could never forget the fantastic, soft taste of the homemade mashed potatoes. At that time, I did not know of any “fake mashed potatoes.”

About a couple months ago, I noticed something from a grocery store that caught my attention. It was instant mashed potato powders in small packages. It had many flavors to it too, such as cheddar cheese, garlic and herb, or lightly salted. With curiosity, I bought one of the packages and decided to try the “new mashed potato.” The procedure was surprisingly simple. All I had to do was to boil a certain amount of water, pour in the mashed potato powder, mix it well, and wait for it to cool down. It only took me approximately 3 minutes to make! The instant mashed potato’s easy procedure and short preparation time was much to my convenience compared to the homemade mashed potato. Because it was so convenient to make, I began to prefer the “fake mashed potato” over the real mashed potato.

The visual aspect of an uncooked fake potato and an uncooked real potato is very different. While the fake potato looks like a clump of dry powders, the real potato appears as a 3-dimentional oval shape. When cooked however, the fake mashed potato looks identical to the real mashed potato. They even smell somewhat similar to the real mashed potatoes, if flavors are ignored. But, the fake mashed potato cannot beat the real mashed potato in taste. Fake mashed potato does not have a deep taste of potatoes and tastes diluted at times. The fake mashed potatoes also lack some nutrients that real mashed potato possesses, such as vitamin D.

In the future, I will attempt to make more “real mashed potato” than “fake potato,” but I cannot guarantee myself that I will always cook real mashed potato. This is because it takes too much time and effort to make the real mashed potato. As a busy college student, it would be difficult for me to spare the time and effort into making mashed potato. I have to admit though, that the option of fake foods surely has made me lazier.

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[1] Discussing Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food"

In the introduction of the book In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan explains his reasons for writing the book and provides a brief overview of the contents of the book. Pollan states that his goal for writing the book is to assist the public in regaining their health and happiness as eaters. To reach this goal, he begins to reveal some unpleasant facts about food that the food industries, nutrition science, and journalists have long kept from the public. Pollan states that the things people eat today are not “foods,” but are merely edible food-like substances made by modern science. He also talks about the Age of Nutritionism, where the nutritional facts become the key factors in classifying what food is good or bad for one’s health.

From chapter one to four, Pollan explains how the American public had no choice but to turn their interest from real foods to nutrients because all the real foods on the shelves of grocery stores were replaced with nutrients during the 1980s. Afterwards, the public was introduced to various scientific terms such as proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol levels. This was just too overwhelming for the public to handle. They had no other option other than to trust the words of the scientists. If the scientists announced that meat and diary products increased the chances of a heart disease, it was that. The public did not inquire about the subject any further. They started to forget the true purpose of eating. All of a sudden, food was not about pleasure, community, and family, but “bodily health.”

Although I have only laid my hands on the first couple of chapters of Pollan’s book, the information it contained was powerful. I was shocked when Pollan declared that most of the foods I have eaten so far were not real foods, but were artificial, food-like products. When he said that the food companies and nutrition science had put much effort into preventing the government from enforcing the artificial food labeling, I felt deceived. I thank Pollan for the information he provided in his book and I support his claim concerning the need for a reform in America’s food industries.

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