Food, glorious food

Everyone loves Food and it has invaded popular culture. Whether you go out or dine in there are many things to consider. Ingredient sourcing has become a big topic, environmentalists are all for everything locally sourced, organic, and plant-based proteins. If you eat meat, what does that say about you? How about GMO's? This is a very deep rabbit hole.

https://www.plantbasednews.org/news/london-buses-refuse-vegan-ad-might-cause-offence

Aside from where your food comes from is the consideration of how and where it's prepared. You can have gourmet meals at home with meal delivery kits that are all the rage now. You can shop for your groceries online and have them delivered to your door. You can get your recipe from Pinterest, cook it in your Instapot, and Instagram it #foodgasm. How about #avocadotoast. The internet was aflame over Millenials and their toast. It was blamed for everything, from financial instability to the reason home sales have declined.

https://www.californiaavocado.com/recipe-details/view/31710/california-avocado-toast-three-ways
Being a foodie is so in. Everyone is a professional photographer on Instagram. How many times do you go out and see someone photograph their food before they eat it? I do it all the time. We don't just photograph it, we leave a review on Yelp and Google to influence the next diner considering the spot.
Restaurants have become entertainment spaces as well. Dave&Busters is widely known as a place to get a great dinner and have fun. Dinner theatre is a thing, you can order meals at most movie theatres as well.

https://www.bonappetit.com/restaurants-travel/slideshow/7-movie-theaters-foodies
Celebrity influences our food consumption as well. Diet plans sell you the ideal body. Drink this shake or these personalized prepared meals and you, too, can look like them. Follow the link for the TB12 diet.
TB12 Diet

Food is social and cultural. What do you always do at family gatherings? You eat and what you eat may be determined by your cultural identity. Grandma's house was always great as a kid. You better come hungry because you won't get out of there without eating.
Check out this article from BonApetit for more on food in popular culture.
https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/pop-culture/article/food-invaded-pop-culture

Food and Popular Culture

I love to cook. I feel food, as a topic of popular culture, has really exploded in popularity. It’s branched into popular culture through media as a form of entertainment. It can also be political as GMO foods are hotly debated. While there have always been “foodies”, those people who love good food, the internet has really allowed people to explore and experiment with the food of different cultures or styles. There are many food blogs which not only post recipes but act as a way to learn about different cuisines. There are also Instagram accounts devoted to what is called “food porn”, that is photographs of food which are very visually appealing. It’s actually very common to see people photographing their food prior to eating it with the purpose of sharing their experience on social media.

Entire television networks are devoted to food and celebrity chefs are now household names. There are competitive cooking shows that allow contestants to show off there home cooking skills or compete to run a restaurant of a famous chef. Other shows combine food, culture and travel where the host (usually a celebrity chef) travels the world in order to experience the food of different cultures. We’ve always had access to information about food but today that amount of that information, which is easily accessible through apps and the internet, is almost endless.  

I read an article in The New Yorker recently which noted that “The loyalty inspired by certain supermarkets is downright devout” particularly the to customer of Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. (Trader Joe’s is great) Food trucks, which have moved far beyond simply hot dogs to Indian, Middle Eastern or Mexican foods, are becoming more common and when I lived in LA I noticed how they serve as a place to get late night snacks and hang out.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/01/16/a-bushel-and-a-peck

Photo: https://www.sohotaco.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/SOHO-TACO-Gourmet-Taco-Truck-Los-Angeles-Art-Walk-Taco-Catering-1024x921.jpg