It is hard for a student to envision a course like Eating San Francisco. A course that is challenging, groundbreaking, hands on, and enjoyable. A class with an environment and structure that not only encourages creativity but, individuality, and thinking outside of the box, all while its students are exploring a diverse city through its rich culinary history. Lucky for the students at the University of San Francisco there is no dreaming required, for the course is alive and well affording its students not only amazing first hand experiences but the opportunity to create unique works of multimedia to share with the public. As a student at USF and a member of the inaugural ESF class I had the chance to see firsthand the compelling and remarkable work of my fellow classmates as they have evolved over the semester.
The course is centered on field trips about every other week that allow the class to explore the neighborhoods of San Francisco through their unique food and culture. Before each field trip we are assigned readings which help to give the class some common ground as well as some frame of reference about the neighborhood’s history before our adventures. There have also been opportunities for students to become more aware about their eating habits through assigned readings such as The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and the assignment to document what you eat over the course of a day. We have also had the opportunity to participate in our university’s organic garden as well as have the chance experiment with documenting food and its preparation through the assignment, “How to Prepare a Delicious Meal”. The final project for ESF will be to prepare and document a meal that is both seasonal and regional. As far as our adventures in the city go we have traveled to Northbeach, The Mission, The Castro, and most recently Chinatown, with only a trip to Noe Valley and McDonald's on Haight remaining.
Unfortunately I was not able to attend the class’s most recent field trip to China town and I must admit I was really bummed out. It wasn’t just because everyone would be eating yummy Dim Sum without me, it was because I would be missing out on the chance to explore a part of the city with the “ESF Paparazzi”. I think most in the ESF crew would agree that there is something really special about traveling around with so many creative minds. It is as if the creativity it contagious and is constantly challenging everyone to step up their game and examine things in a new and more interesting way. However there was something good that came out of missing the Chinatown trip and that was I had the opportunity to examine the work of my peers from a different perspective, and that was as an outsider.
As I perused through the various projects it was as though each project was an individual bulb that made up an television screen, alone they each shined brightly but together they illuminated a more complete and complex picture. Two of the most interesting themes that seemed to keep popping up were this feeling of being a foreigner, and chicken feet.
It is easy to see why one might feel as if they have been transported to another place and time when they walk the streets of Chinatown. The students of ESF picked up on the drastic change in architecture, store layouts, colors, smells, goods sold, and the demographics, all of which were carefully analyzed by some of the students in their quest for understanding why they perhaps felt out of place. This is where I believe the chicken feet played a role. At Dim Sum there was the opportunity for the class to try one of the Chinese delicacies often referred to as “Phoenix Talons” . It was pretty apparent from both the pictures and video that most were a little uncomfortable or at least intrigued by the prospect of trying this foreign delicacy. While the response to their taste varied (some people really liked them), some found the chicken feet texture, and the fact that they were clearly recognizable as feet, to be a little too much for their taste. I found it particularly interesting given our readings from The Omnivores Dilemma where one of the main themes/problems is that Americans are too detached from their food, whether it’s where it comes from, or what it actually is that we are putting into our bodies. For those who commented that the feet looking like feet was what turned them off from trying it, or perhaps liking it, they further supported that the culinary culture in the United States is not predominately concerned with the average person knowing exactly what they are eating, instead ignorance is bliss and one should enjoy consuming their anonymous meal. This cultural difference could be another contributing factor as to why some felt like foreigners. It speaks volumes of the caliber of work the students of ESF put into their Chinatown projects that an “outsider” can begin to make cultural distinctions based on their experiences without even being there.
Please take the opportunity to check out the amazing projects (links below) and please leave your comments so that everyone has the opportunity to sit with their work and feedback!
China Town Projects
http://excursioncookbook.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/good-fortune-in-chinatown/
Dim Sum blizog post people...http://austinokane.wordpres.
hello ESF: Here's my Chinatown blog: http://tinyurl.com/dlxesr
playing catch up is ZERO fun! but here's another post...http://tinyurl.com/cywxku ps, how many days til graduation???
www.adventurouscowgirl.blog... ...chinatown fun!
gimme more o' those adult fortunes! http://tinyurl.com/djuvnj
late but worth the wait -- i hope? http://tinyurl.com/csrkvp (chinatown blog post)
Dim Sum :: blog post- http://tinyurl.com/dyrbhm and flick'r set http://tinyurl.com/dhmvnh. Enjoy!
http://kelliesf.blogspot.com/ chinatown yo.
ESF Chinatown: http://tinyurl.com/cssj6u
Went to Chinatown last weekend aaand: Phoenix Talons and a Little Bit of Heart http://tinyurl.com/dz4nqj
Chris and Ali examine Chinatown and Dim Sum with an essay and a photo slideshow http://tinyurl.com/cevzgc
SUPER, AMAZING BLOG POST http://tinyurl.com/blvkzn NUMBER ONE STRIKER!
ESF - here's a video I made about Chinatown http://tinyurl.com/cpxwdl
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