The Thirsty Become The Hungry

It’s cold outside on this Thursday evening, and the masses continue to systematically pour in to relieve their hunger. I am at Illegal Pete’s a little after 10 PM, and the line is almost out the door, but I decide to wait it out. There is something to be said for the packed tables and hungry students. This is the prime spot for a late night munch, especially when a large population of students are a little more than tipsy.

            Fast-food service with a little class – you wait out the line to be met by a train of three employees who will make your meal. The vast majority of orders here are burritos, as they are not only delicious, but give you the most bang for your buck. You can also order up quesadillas, salads, and an array of American-Mexican food. The first staff member takes care of the first part of you order - you order what you want, and that involves what kind of meat, rice and beans. The second employee tops you off with the vegetables and toppings, be it salsa, onion, cheese, guacamole, sour cream, corn… and the list goes on. From there, they wrap the oversized calorie-plagued burritos, something that takes more skill than meets the eye. The staff then marks your order, hand it to the employee at the cash register, and ring you out.

            Generally, it’s a pretty simple process, and the burritos are pretty damn great. The staff however aren’t so much, at least from what I’ve experienced. They tend to be abrupt and rude. Their fast pace meets the demand of the hungry students, but often leaves the customer feeling unappreciated, just a pawn in the food line. Occasionally you can strike up a conversation with the staff, but for the most part that seems to be reserved to the bartenders. The bar is relatively small, and the one or two staff working there aren’t nearly as busy - they’re just trying to make some tips.

Occasionally a band will play, a lot of the time local musicians from DU. Those nights seem to be more lively, and this place does stay busy, often late into the night. The staff wear Illegal Pete’s shirts, and the franchise is part of a small chain of restaurants. The setting is pretty low key, and seems to be mostly a college hang out spot. The tables are pretty loud, and everyone seems pretty engaged with their food if they are not drinking. There isn’t a person here eating by themself, marking Illegal Pete’s as a prime social hang out joint.

            At Illegal Pete’s, productivity is their priority. One of the more attractive parts of the restaurant I find is that you see all of the ingredients out before your eyes, and most consumers try to imagine they are the freshest ingredients as possible. The bar aspect gives the restaurant a laid back vibe, one where customers come and go as they please. The later hours into the night seem to see more and more intoxicated students walking in and out of the doors. It is an ideal place for drunk students, they can be satisfied by food for the cost of seven dollars, along with a free drink if they present their Pioneer ID. But Illegal Pete’s is just one of the many DU drunk-eating spots. The campus is surrounded by fast food and cheap restaurants that appeal to the average college student. Back to drunk eating though, it seems to be one of DU student’s favorite hobbies, and it is probably one of college student’s favorite hobbies in general – that is if you can call it a hobby.

            So what is the appeal to chowing down when you’re slightly inebriated? I was bound to solve this puzzle, because anyone walking in late night would be reminded that this ideal restaurant setting is in close proximity to DU for a reason, in fact it stays profitable by remaining a college-catering business. More than that, it seems to be mostly privileged college students eating when you look around, so I am going to go ahead and make the claim that spoiled college kids partake in this late night activity more so than the average American. Most people outside of college that I know don’t binge eat because they are drunk, but at DU, that justification is more than sufficient.

            Back at my Quaker boarding school, my teachers who live simplistic and self-sustaining lives may be appalled at the sight of Illegal Pete’s. When you grow and kill all of your own food, you start to take on a new appreciation for what you eat. For myself, it gave me a reason to eat all the more food when I left the school. You could say it gave me an appreciation for eating food we did not grow ourselves and eating animals we did not slaughter.

            Well for one thing, there aren’t too many articles out there discussing why people drunk eat. I mean besides the obvious factor that it tastes good, what else is there to drunk eating? The closest thing I found to an answer was in Men’s Health, where Spanish researches found that, “Alcohol could even make you eat more. In a U.K. study, men drank either 12 ounces of a non-alcoholic lager, or the same lager spiked with about 2 drinks worth of alcohol. Even though the alcoholic lager contained more calories itself, men ate 30 percent more calories after drinking it—despite the fact that they didn’t report higher appetites than the other group” (Men’s Health).

            Drunchies 101: it takes longer to feel full when you drink before a meal because of the fact that your body recognizes alcohol as a toxin rather than a calorie. Social contexts also provide reasons why to eat when you’re drunk.  Junk food all of a sudden tastes great when you drink, and great food tastes remarkable. For the most part, it seems to be a social reason: kids drink, they socialize, and they want to eat. Drunk eating may be as simple as that; food tastes better when you are drinking. Illegal Pete’s defines itself as a haven for both sober and inebriated kids. One can eat with their friends and enjoy the later hours of the night. From my experience at this lively restaurant, Illegal Pete’s unifies the hungry, the inebriated, and ultimately satisfies students from all over Denver.

Works Cited

Aaron, Kiera. "Why You Eat When You're Drunk | Men's Health News." Men's Health

News. 15 Apr. 2011. Web. Apr. 2012. <http://news.menshealth.com/why-you-

drunk-dial-domino’s/2011/08/15/>.

Drunk Eating

How to avoid eating when you're drunk.
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/5-ways-to-avoid-eating-while-drunk.html

Food in the World

Cate brings to light the integral role that “spread’ plays in prisons and jails. She describes spreading as a bonding moment between inmates. “Although some inmates make “personal spreads” for them- selves when they are alone in their cells, more often than not spreading is a social activity.” Inmates will save their money in order to buy ramen noodles and other food, and then use that food to make meals they deem delicious. “The value and significance of spread to inmates can be understood only within the larger contexts of confinement and the institutional diet. Inmate interviews suggest an oppositional, even dialectical, relation between official food and spread, as food served on the official trays during the day is transformed into spread later that evening.” Despite the fact that most inmates receive adequate food, many of them still complain of hunger in jail. The portions of food are small and bland, however for the most part nutritiously balanced. Spread within the greater jail community ultimately brings about a sense of unity and trust between inmates, as well as a hobby to help bridge the time spent in prison.

O’Donnell compares China’s government and economic policies to the nation’s food supply. “Talking about food is one way in which the Chinese speak about the transformation of China’s socialist economy into a capitalist one since Mao Zedong’s death in 1976.” Feeding the Chinese people has been a political and social concern since ancient times, and it was not until China opened its economic policy that the nation began to boom. “Located
just north of Hong Kong in the south Chinese province of Guangdong, Shenzhen was the first Chinese city opened
to foreign investment and capitalist business.” From the perspective of the first generation immigrants in Shenzhen, these Old Shenzheners use nostalgia about food to debate what Shenzhen culture once was and how it should be. “Old Shenzheners today remember the sense of camaraderie that building the city together created among all strata of society. This sense of community was experienced not only in communal dining halls but also in alfresco dining stalls (dapaidang), where local residents and entrepreneurial migrants opened small establishments.” As O’Donnell explains, the difference between Old Shenzheners’ nostalgia for socialist meals conflicts with the New Shenzheners’ commodified and intricate diets. This difference in eating ideology continues to define the gap between the old and the new Shenzheners.

            I found it interesting to note how the state would supply urban residents with grain and rice, while rural residents did not. This system ultimately valued urban residences more than it did rural. Such practices test an individual Chinese’s belief in the Communist party. Such a system reflects the sacrifice that Old Shenzheners had to make, as compared with the spoils that New Shenzheners expect. Because so much had changed in thirty years with the development of Shenzhen (a population increase from 300,000 to 14 million), the world that older Chinese citizens knew was much different than that of what recently born Chinese citizens now know. However the moral and political command to feed China remains evident in every Shenzhen meal.

On Bryce's Blog

I found a similar connection between my blog on Coke and Bryce's outlook on how Coca-Cola operates as a company. The component of happiness that Coke attaches to its product targets an open and age-diverseified audience. It also instills in the audience a feeling of meaning and purpose. By uniting coke drinkers through the theme of joy and happiness, drinking a coke becomes much more than just drinking any soda. Their ability to capture the senses in their graphic-driven commercials brings a sense of happiness and contentment to the consumer. Bryce's blog reflects this quality and uniqueness that Coke gives to its consumers. Despite being a massive money driven corporation, their advertisements imply that Coke is more than just about bringing in revenue. The sense of unity their commercials invoke gives the consumer a new appreciation for Coke as a drink and as a company.
http://brycera.blogspot.com/2012/04/from-time-that-i-was-little-ihave-been.html

Coke Vs. Pepsi

Godfather Pepsi Commercial: 

Beautiful Coca-Cola Commercial:  

            Advertisements aim to appeal to various audiences in hopes of selling a certain product. Charities, political parties, religious organizations, and giant corporations all advertise through different means; be it to broadcast an idea, raise awareness, or sell a product. Effective commercial advertisements persuade people to buy their product, and often demean rival companies in order to establish trust in their product. Captivating advertisements not only sustain our attention in a material saturated world, but they convince potential consumers that their product is the best for the price.

            After looking through various Pepsi and Coca-Cola commercials, I found it interesting to discover the various tactics that both companies use in order to sell their product. In the Beautiful Coca-Cola commercial, Coke aims to sell its product by attaching certain pathos to it, one that revolves around the idea of happiness. Using state of the art graphic design, Coke not only captivates and sustains an audience for over a minute and a half, but they convey an idea of unity and happiness that is achieved through drinking Coca-Cola. The advertisement takes the audience into an alternate world, one where intricacy and detail define each and every bottle of Coke produced.

            Such an advertisement promotes a sense of well-being and wholeness, a feeling that instills happiness and curiosity in almost every one who watches it. Coke’s idea that happiness can be found in a bottle of cola appeals to almost any age, be it young or old. Both children and adults would be captivated by the detail and time that Coke took to make this commercial. The dogma attached to this commercial represents the value of happiness, and what a smile can do for the world. Coke values a culture that brings smiles to the table, and relies on bringing people up rather than tearing them down. Coke is not marketed to one audience; rather it is portrayed as a universal beverage that everyone can enjoy.

            In analyzing various Pepsi commercials, I found that a large number of them rely on building up their own credibility by tearing down other companies, namely Coke. I found this tactic to be much less appealing when trying to sell a product. Where as Coke relied on detail, design, and selling a product via means of selling happiness, Pepsi relied on the claim that their product is superior to that of Coke. This reliance on ethos, or credibility attempts to sell a product by persuading the audience that their product is superior.

            Pepsi also relies on an emotional appeal throughout their commercial. By using a cute girl in their advertisement, Pepsi is catering to any audience that may see innocence and sincerity in her actions. Although this commercial relies heavily on a comical appeal, the idea of using the same girl in various Pepsi commercials brings to light the trust that people often place in children rather than adults. Tying this into the comical aspect of the commercial, Pepsi rips off of The Godfather to prove a point that Pepsi is a superior beverage to that of Coke. After requesting Pepsi and being served Coke, the girl takes on the voice of the Godfather, mimicking his lines from the movie and ultimately drawing in an audience that has seen the film or heard of it.

            While such a commercial portrays a comical situation, it doe not appeal to all audiences like that of Coke’s commercial. Either one would have to see The Godfather, or know about the film in order to fully comprehend the comical component to it. Children clearly would not have seen the film at a young age, and would probably find the commercial to be rather unentertaining. Adults on the other hand may find this commercial more appealing, however the fact that Pepsi uses a sweet, innocent girl to mimic the Godfather is more or less in my opinion, unappealing. I do not often relate young children to The Godfather.

            When comparing the two commercials, it becomes evident that Coke caters to a more broad and age-diverse audience, where as Pepsi limits their audience to that of teenagers and adults. Pepsi represents a company that attempts to build credibility by comparing their product to that of Coke. Such an advertisement attempts to dissuade a consumer to purchase one product over their product. Such a tactic often gives me a negative connotation to that company. Where as Coke relies on the idea of happiness to sell a product, Pepsi seems to represent an inferior product, and therefore has to blatantly compare itself to Coke and prove why it is better. Overall, I found Beautiful Coca-Cola’s commercial to not only be much more appealing to the senses, but it seemed to represent a more ethical company when compared to that of Pepsi. Coke’s message caters to a diverse and large audience, where as Pepsi limited itself as to who it could persuade to buy their product.

Food-Advertising

Using the example of a potato chip, Freedman and Jurafsky correlate various socioeconomic classes with distinct commercial and food brands. Food-advertising has taken a variety of routes in order to ensure that upper classes differentiate from lower class foods or tastes. As epidemiologist Adam Drewnowski stated, “In America, food has become the premier marker of social distinctions, that is to say – social class. It used to be clothing and fashion, but no longer now, now that ‘luxury’ has become affordable and available to all”.

Food advertising is seen “as a window into the targeting and representation of different socioeconomic groups’. Through the use of high-falutin words, or complex language, more expensive potato chips attempt to capture a higher-educated audience. I found it interesting to learn that expensive potato chips talk about health six times as much as inexpensive chips, an indicator implying that the more educated and health orientated will spend more money for a product that advertises itself to be good for the body. Negation is often used to emphasize the bad qualities that a particular chip does not have, in order to indicate that other leading chip brands do have these bad qualities. Distinction such as this us used up to five times more frequently in expensive chips, a characteristic that sets aside expensive chips from cheaper chips.

Since defined as one of the cornerstones of modern marketing, labels of authenticity have strived to achieve consumer trust through statements such as handmade rather than industrially produced, or rurally farmed rather than urban. Companies who come from a background of being simple, historic, and famous due to the virtue of its locality all tend to represent more expensive potato chips. The correlation between the upper class and ‘higher grade foods’ reflects the dogma that is attached with local and regional eating, as well as restaurants that claim to use natural ingredients made from quality, whose origins and cooking process saturate the upscale dining magazines of contemporary media. Andrew Potter states that, “When we take a closer look at many supposedly ‘authentic’ activities, such as loft-living, ecotourism, or the slow-food movement, we find a disguised form of status seeking”. Although authenticity varies between various social boundaries, it is evident that many upper-class citizens find assurance and identity in being seen at expensive restaurants or purchasing over-priced groceries. For those of a lower-socioeconomic class, authenticity may emphasize on the tradition and historicity of a family meal.

All in all, I find it astonishing to discover the modes through which food advertising operates in. When one identifies a certain product as superior in quality, it is habitually catalogued into a class of its own. One may see this in all forms of food-advertising, be it the ice cream cooler at your local supermarket or on the McDonalds billboard off the highway. Food companies may pride themselves on being authentic or historical and use those reasons as an excuse to be more expensive, just like designer clothing companies charge absurd prices as a result of the name on your shoe.

A Small Woman in a Large City

A Small Woman in a Large City

            She used to wage hours of war against the mixing container. Her in the long brown hair, the sweet summer skirt and the white apron around her waist. New York’s heat would take a toll against her in the kitchen, where 2^nd Avenue’s breeze consistently failed to air condition our apartment. It was like an oven some days, yet she slaved over her fudge as if the world depended on it. She knew something however that I didn’t know – she knew that fudge would bring smiles to the faces of everyone she knew. She knew a secret about food that I still cannot figure out. My mother could manipulate sweets to bring you the best tasting desert in the world. I was only a kid then, maybe seven years old, but her sweets never fail to bring delight - explosions in the mouth you could say.

            Food never was the concrete of our family like it was for some of my Russian and Italian friends in Brooklyn. My mother would cook dinner for our family every night – my sister, my father and myself. My dad wasn’t ever around though, so most of the time it was just the three of us. Occasionally I would slip out and take a stroll downtown with some friends, pretending we were were fancy businessmen attending an upscale dinner. We never could afford anything more than a slice of pizza and a Dr. Pepper. The price of Manhattan took a toll on our family in those days, and it wasn’t until we left the city that my father’s work began to pick up. But back to the pizza. New York style pizza wasn’t just any pizza, it was that thin styled dough with the tomato and mozzarella that came from the only home I ever knew, and that New York style pizza still makes by mouth water. You were not content until the grease was dripping down your face and your lips were puckered. Once you fold a pizza in half, you’ll never want to eat it any other way.

            Pizza however wasn’t the only food that made my mouth water. My mother used to take us out every now and again to a hole in the wall ethnic restaurant. She loved taking us out, because she knew how much we loved it. That’s the kind of woman she was; if we were happy, she was happy. We would take the seven train across the East River, and into Queens we would wander, three small people walking in one large city. We would stop by the Thai restaurants, and the Chinese restaurants, the Moroccan cookhouses and the Middle Eastern falafel stands. New York was never for a second short of diversity. When almost nine million people speak over three thousand languages in five suburbs, you were guaranteed a run for your money.

            The food from those areas brings me back to the time, the nineties that was, right before Mayor Giuliani cleaned up the streets. The streets weren’t nearly as safe as they are now, and I remember those sketchy train rides and unpredictable bus stops where there was almost certainly one crazy person. I personally loved meeting crazy people, but my mother, not so much. I still like to pretend they weren’t crazy; they just had their own New York swag, they had their own agenda. It is amazing how much changes over such a short period of time.

            My favorite may have been going to Cooney’s Island in Brooklyn and eating those world famous hot dogs. I would not recommend the rollercoaster after the hot dogs though, being that it is the oldest wooden rollercoaster in the world, you may not feel too hot afterwards. I don’t know if it was so much the hot dogs I loved, or if it was the soft crashing of the waves against the shore. Those were beautiful days, where the waves crashed softly against the shore and the sun beat gently against my face. Perhaps it is the memories I hold of food that brings me back to the moments that really mattered in my life - my mother’s hand pressing against mine.

Even now, she remains nothing short of a champion in the kitchen. She is the baker’s rival, a short woman with a tough ego – not the sort of ego that drives you mad, but more of one that makes you want to give her a hug every time you see her. The compassion in her heart always gave you a new appreciation for the meaning of love, and that love manifested itself in the tastiest of treats. That sweet soul cooked for hours on end in the cramped, four by four space we called a kitchen. Yet deep down inside, I know she helped make the world a more decent place to live in the process.

            My mother continues to cook, however not like she used to. She is older now, and she has become delicate and fragile with time. She no longer has kids to raise or a husband to feed, but once a year I still check my mailbox around Christmas in hopes of receiving that one white box of fudge with a golden ribbon sealing the edges. It is a glorious package, one that causes the eyes and taste buds to glow in content. Today when I see that box of fudge, my stomach churns and my heart becomes anxious. It is nothing short of an experience, perhaps one I can share with you some day.