I need a person that I can have an interview observation with!!! I need a person who has different food cultures than American. Other than Chinese. Thank you so much!!!! Here is the interview questions.

1)What is your ethnic background? (if multicultural, explain, but pick one for report)

2) When did you immigrate to the United States?

3) Do you have a religious affiliation? Does this affect your food habits? Is there a dominant religious affiliation that affects the food culture of your home country?

4) What foods are indicative of your culture? (core foods, flavor principles, etc.)

5) How many meals do you eat every day?

6) When is food usually eaten?

7) What food items are needed to make a meal for you?

8) Who usually shares meals?

9) Where does your family normally consume food?

10) What are the major holidays you and your family celebrate each year? Choose and describe one major cultural ceremony or celebration with symbolic associations. What foods are associated? Why is this cultural tradition significant?

11) What are some other symbolic foods in your culture, and what do they symbolize?

12) How has the experience of immigration to the United States changed your food culture?

13) What outside influences impact the consumption of your cultural foods?

14) How has the American culture influenced your cultural habits and traditions? How often do you eat food that you consider "American" food, as opposed to the food of your own culture?

15) Do you feel your cultural habits and traditions have influenced American culture?

16) Do you believe the changes in your food culture since coming to the U.S. have more to do with the experience of immigration, or are they reflective of modern life? Is the food culture changing in your native country?

Hi, I'm from the Philippines, which is a Southeast Asian country.

 

1. What is your ethnic background? (if multicultural, explain, but pick one for report)

• Asian (Filipino).

 

2. When did you immigrate to the United States?

• I just migrated with my dad last month, January 19, 2021 in Glendale, CA

 

3. Do you have a religious affiliation? Does this affect your food habits? Is there a dominant religious affiliation that affects the food culture of your home country?

• I am a Roman Catholic. My religion forbids eating raw pork (rare or medium rare). We are not allowed to eat anything with pig's blood as this is sacred and is holy according to the bible. Although some people in Asian countries eat exotic dishes flavored with pig's blood such as Dinuguan, we are forbidden to take such food.

 

4. What foods are indicative of your culture? (core foods, flavor principles, etc.)

• Our staple food is rice since we are from an agricultural archipelago. Our food flavors are greatly influenced by the Spanish culture since we were colonized by Spaniards in the past for 300 years until the Americans came. Our food ually involve spices and condiments like soy sauce and chili, and when we celebrate special occasions like birthdays, we cook Lechon, which means roasting a whole pig with seasonings and feed this to our family and friends. 

 

5. How many meals do you eat every day?

• I eat 3 meals daily, with a snack in the afternoon we call merienda.

 

6. When is food usually eaten?

• For a regular Filipino meal, we eat rice in every single meal with viand (dish composed of meat, seafood, or vegetable dish that accompanies rice). We like soy-based viands like Adobo (soy-based pork or chicken cooked with pineapples). During snack time, we usually wait for vendors or street sellers to come and we buy Kakanin or sweet rice delicacies. They are cheap and delicious and are part of the Filipino culture.

 

7. What food items are needed to make a meal for you?

• Rice, viand and beverage. We don't usually have dessert like in the American culture

 

8. Who usually shares meals?

• I share my meal with my family. It is part of our religion and culture to eat together and wait for the family to be complete in the table before starting to eat.

 

9. Where does your family normally consume food?

• We usually consume food at home because we are poor. We cannot afford to buy takehome meals from restaurants. But we also buy cheap and thoughtful food sometimes like kakanin (rice delicacy) and give it to our family, and that's what we call Pasalubong (takehome gift)

 

10. What are the major holidays you and your family celebrate each year? Choose and describe one major cultural ceremony or celebration with symbolic associations. What foods are associated? Why is this cultural tradition significant?

• Major holidays include New Years Day, All Soul's Days and Christmas. 
• During New Year's, we don't usually go out and everyone spends their holidays at home with their respective families. We usually prepare circular foods as we believe it will bring us bounty and luck for the entire year, so circular foods' prices drastically increase during this time. Food items like fruits (apples, pears, watermelon) and lechon are on the table. We buy firecrackers to make loud noise as we believe that this pushes away bad omen and bad spirits in the surroundings. 
• During All Soul's Day (November 1), all family members go to the cemetery to reunite and remember our dead (grandparents, aunts/uncles, parents, etc). We pray the rosary as we believe that the dead cannot pray for themselves and we must aid thein in prayers for them to have a peaceful journey in the afterlife. After the rituals, we usually eat typical Filipino food together and go home. Red food are usually prohibited as this symbolizes rejoice despite the death (spaghetti, tomato-based products, etc)
• During Christimas, we usually have a reunion and grand food items are cooked such as Kaldereta (goat or beef dish), Menudo (pork) and Lechon.

 

11. What are some other symbolic foods in your culture, and what do they symbolize?

• (See explanations below)

 

12. How has the experience of immigration to the United States changed your food culture?

• (See explanations below)

 

13. What outside influences impact the consumption of your cultural foods?

• (See explanations below)

 

14. How has the American culture influenced your cultural habits and traditions? How often do you eat food that you consider "American" food, as opposed to the food of your own culture?

• (See explanations below)

 

15. Do you feel your cultural habits and traditions have influenced American culture?

• (See explanations below)

 

16. Do you believe the changes in your food culture since coming to the U.S. have more to do with the experience of immigration, or are they reflective of modern life? Is the food culture changing in your native country?

• (See explanations below)

Step-by-step explanation

Hi, I'm from the Philippines, which is a Southeast Asian country.

 

1. What is your ethnic background? (if multicultural, explain, but pick one for report)

• Asian (Filipino).

 

2. When did you immigrate to the United States?

• I just migrated with my dad last month, January 19, 2021 in Glendale, CA

 

3. Do you have a religious affiliation? Does this affect your food habits? Is there a dominant religious affiliation that affects the food culture of your home country?

• I am a Roman Catholic. My religion forbids eating raw pork (rare or medium rare). We are not allowed to eat anything with pig's blood as this is sacred and is holy according to the bible. Although some people in Asian countries eat exotic dishes flavored with pig's blood such as Dinuguan, we are forbidden to take such food.

 

4. What foods are indicative of your culture? (core foods, flavor principles, etc.)

• Our staple food is rice since we are from an agricultural archipelago. Our food flavors are greatly influenced by the Spanish culture since we were colonized by Spaniards in the past for 300 years until the Americans came. Our food ually involve spices and condiments like soy sauce and chili, and when we celebrate special occasions like birthdays, we cook Lechon, which means roasting a whole pig with seasonings and feed this to our family and friends.

 

5. How many meals do you eat every day?

• I eat 3 meals daily, with a snack in the afternoon we call merienda.

 

6. When is food usually eaten?

• For a regular Filipino meal, we eat rice in every single meal with viand (dish composed of meat, seafood, or vegetable dish that accompanies rice). We like soy-based viands like Adobo (soy-based pork or chicken cooked with pineapples). During snack time, we usually wait for vendors or street sellers to come and we buy Kakanin or sweet rice delicacies. They are cheap and delicious and are part of the Filipino culture.

 

7. What food items are needed to make a meal for you?

• Rice, viand and beverage. We don't usually have dessert like in the American culture

 

8. Who usually shares meals?

• I share my meal with my family. It is part of our religion and culture to eat together and wait for the family to be complete in the table before starting to eat.

 

9. Where does your family normally consume food?

• We usually consume food at home because we are poor. We cannot afford to buy takehome meals from restaurants. But we also buy cheap and thoughtful food sometimes like kakanin (rice delicacy) and give it to our family, and that's what we call Pasalubong (takehome gift)

 

10. What are the major holidays you and your family celebrate each year? Choose and describe one major cultural ceremony or celebration with symbolic associations. What foods are associated? Why is this cultural tradition significant?

• Major holidays include New Years Day, All Soul's Days and Christmas.
• During New Year's, we don't usually go out and everyone spends their holidays at home with their respective families. We usually prepare circular foods as we believe it will bring us bounty and luck for the entire year, so circular foods' prices drastically increase during this time. Food items like fruits (apples, pears, watermelon) and lechon are on the table. We buy firecrackers to make loud noise as we believe that this pushes away bad omen and bad spirits in the surroundings.
• During All Soul's Day (November 1), all family members go to the cemetery to reunite and remember our dead (grandparents, aunts/uncles, parents, etc). We pray the rosary as we believe that the dead cannot pray for themselves and we must aid thein in prayers for them to have a peaceful journey in the afterlife. After the rituals, we usually eat typical Filipino food together and go home. Red food are usually prohibited as this symbolizes rejoice despite the death (spaghetti, tomato-based products, etc)
• During Christimas, we usually have a reunion and grand food items are cooked such as Kaldereta (goat or beef dish), Menudo (pork) and Lechon.

 

11. What are some other symbolic foods in your culture, and what do they symbolize?

• Symbolic food is mainly rice and pork. As an agricultural nation, we take pride in the flavor of our rice and how we cook it.

 

12. How has the experience of immigration to the United States changed your food culture?

• Food in the United Sattes are usually bought in the supermarket. It is cleaner, but still, the food items in the wet market in our country is more fresh. There are also a lot of foreign food items such as canned goods and noodles. In my country, we prepare our own meals and do not go to the supermarket to buy there.

 

13. What outside influences impact the consumption of your cultural foods?

• Factors that influenced my food consumption is the availability of native products in the market. No matter how I crave for rice in every meal, some restaurants just don't offer our Filipino food products.

 

14. How has the American culture influenced your cultural habits and traditions? How often do you eat food that you consider "American" food, as opposed to the food of your own culture?

• My new American friends and the restaurants around taught me to not eat rice in every meal. I learned to sometimes eat steak without rice now. Also, during celebrations, less food is served and they serve more on chips, which makes me hungry. In our country, we usually serve massive amounts of food because aside from the family, the neighbors and other people in the community can come even if they are uninvited in the occasions such as Fiesta.

 

15. Do you feel your cultural habits and traditions have influenced American culture?

• I cannot tell because I am just new in the USA. But basing on what I see, I think they have modern take on food. They usually have lots of preservatives and is not influenced by other nations since they were not colonized.

 

16. Do you believe the changes in your food culture since coming to the U.S. have more to do with the experience of immigration, or are they reflective of modern life? Is the food culture changing in your native country?

• I think the change in food preference is reflective of modern life since we cannot eat what is not in the food choices, and restaurants are evolving. Old antique restaurants are closing as newer, modern competitors are arising. In my country, Just like in my experience, I used to eat cheap noodles called Pancit in this old restaurant, however it closed due to the many competitors, so my habit changed.