I tune into New Yorkers fiction podcast when I am doing mindless workout. Through the ear buds a story leaks into me, erasing any issues and stress, allowing me to retract into a world of my own. Each recording ends with the reader's reflection of the story, and on one of the issue it briefly talked about Madonna of the Future written by Henry James. The story is about a painter whose dream is to paint the perfect Madonna. He finds a model but never start the painting in fear of not being at the ability to draw the Madonna in his mind. The model grows older and eventually his vision is buried beneath the time and idealism. The story was talking to me about my stress. It was about my fear of telling a story about my journey to find the ideal food system.
Food is personal. It has been a medium that has helped my family to overcome the culture shock in U.S. for the last ten years. To keep a part of home in our life, my mother cooked Korean food using American ingredients. In an effort to broaden our tastes, she sometimes took on the challenge of incorporating a foreign grocery items into our familiar bowls of rice, preserving parts of Korean culture while introducing new American flavors and textures. As we dined, my mother described the ingredients and preparation of the food, telling us traditional stories related to our meal, and shared nutritional knowledge from her experience as a nurse. Food, for me, became a way of illuminating a population’s behavior and health outcomes as well as the hidden connections between various cultural systems, as the daily dinner table at my house helped me establish my identity. Probably its importance in my life has set my interest to take a 5-month journey around the world, with nothing but the support of friends and family and bit of guts.
Food is controversial. It is ever evolving subject in its variation, flavor, technique along with introduction of science and technology. It motivates people to work and pleases them when its awarded. It is the insurance our healthy body and mind, yet it is easy to be the basis of any disease. It divides people into class, stereotypes, and culture. Food sets a perspective or unite the difference on one table. It is a double sided concept that seems benign in our daily lives until its threat is brought into a careful observation. The vitality of food is not solely based on consumption, but to question and make independent judgment based on experience and to know the another level of world of food.
For five months I was at farms, markets, factories, households, kitchens, and various streets of developed countries working and talking to people. What we know from being at our home eating organic food, reading Omnivore's Dilemma, and watching Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me should not be a movement of setting new hobbyist with available wealth to support such life style. If such produces and media are putting attention into what we eat then it should be spoken to everyone in culturally adequate language with consideration of each population.
I am dedicating my blog, Dormmade, to be your source of knowledge that I hope to become your flash and bone. I am not a critic nor have ability evaluate a performance of our current food system and culture in United States with correct grammatical skill. The trip was based on limited budget and access within the network of friends and their family members, that I must confess what you will see is only a layer of a giant onion-like concept. As a recent graduate of college with a focus on Public Health, and being a 1.5 generation immigrant are another factors that I had to fight while making observations during this trip. However, as in Henry James' short story there is perfect Madonna that you imagine in your head, but one we create can surprise us beyond what we have imagined before. So I ask, share what you know and let us be surprised. You are always welcome to discuss your experiences, questions, and honest insights with everyone who will visit this blog.
Lastly, before I begin to unfold my journey I thank you, readers who waited with all their patience, mentors who guided me with their care and attention, and to everyone who shared their time and thoughts opening up personal passage that is now going to be everyone's journey around the world. I pinky promise.