Cate and O'Donnell

P4: Read Cate and O’Donnell. What roles does food play in the communities that they studied? Compare how Cate and O’Donnell relate food to communities. What part of their studies did you find most interesting and why?

Cate and O’Donnell write about two very different communities Cate writes about way certain food has made its way in to the California jail system as a new food culture, while O’Donnell discusses the different kinds of food related to the various generations of the Chinese city of Shenzhen.  Both talk about how these different foods correlate to a certain people, even if they live in the same city or region. 

Cate related how food means to the inmates of the San Francisco County Jail #5.  They have created a meal called a “spread” that involves Top Ramen Noodles and pretty much anything they can get their hands on.  She highlights how this spread helps the inmates cope with their bland lives and provides them with an outlet to show their emotions and creativity. 

O’Donnell related food to two different generations of people living in Shenzhen, the Old Shenzheners and the New Shenzheners.  The Old Shenzheners were described as more humble and truthful, they came there to help the city progress for the community (communistic-based) while the New Shenzheners came later and were described as being more sly, manipulative and only there to progress themselves (capitalist-based).   The Old Shenzheners ate more traditional and hearty foods, while the New Shenzheners liked eating at Megachains and more Western places.

The difference is Cate focused on how a people used food as an outlet of emotion and finding oneself, while O’Donnell focused on how food was an obvious notion of separation between two peoples in one city.

I found Cate’s study of how the inmates used the spread as a way of escaping the jail life and keeping then busy very interesting.  It shows how people cope in adverse situations and develop new life skills, like how some of them explained they still made spread out side of jail. It was interesting in O’Donnell’s research about how the food showed a clear distinction between the two generations.  He explained how even the characteristics of the generations could be explained through food, like the Northern and Southern parable used in the beginning of the article.