Memories of Food and Family

Throughout Eating White and Home Run, authors Geoff Nicholson and Roy Ahn use family memories to describe the food and culture of their parents. Both authors take the perspective of a deceased son, reflecting on the memories of their parents via their correlation to food. In Eating White, Nicholson introduces to the audience his mother, a woman to whom he remembered in terms of the food she ate. This author recalls characteristics of food, namely simple and bland colored foods. Nicholson compares the white and unwholesome British bread to the American bread Wonder Bread. He recalls his father’s relation to food, and mentions the effect of the food rations that occurred in Britain throughout World War II. Such a food-induced memoir reflects Nicholson’s remembrance of his care-free mother, one who did not aspire to be a great cook but strived to keep her family happy.

Author Roy Ahn compares a similar memoir to that of Nicholson, however coming from a Korean background rather than a British one. As a Korean American, Ahn spent most of his childhood in Detroit, where he recalls the contrast of food he would eat with his American friends and then later, with his Korean family. Since being born in Seoul and then immigrating to the United State at only four years old, most of his memory recalls the life of an average American boy in the seventies and eighties. His indulgence in American culture and food sparkly contrasted the Korean food his mother would cook at home, however his father remained keen to explore the aspects of American culture. His father immersed himself in American culture, recalling road trips to amusement parks involving bowling and Kentucky Fried Chicken. His family even had their own duel-refrigerator system at their home in California, one for the Korean food and one for the American food. Ahn later goes on to describe the importance of his rediscovery of Korean cooking later in his years. The significance of culture and food to Ahn goes on to influence the way he raises his own child.