Family, Food, and Identity

In both personal excerpts, food was expressively enjoyed as a means of connecting with one's family, identity, and culture. Both authors had a strong desire to remain connected with their ethnic roots, one being a Korean identity and the other an English identity. In addition, both authors wanted to maintain a connection with their parents, using food as a memory device and a form of expression. Food served as a memory of their childhoods and their upbringing. The food each individual expressed related to their personal lifestyles and cultures. Nicholson discussed the simple, creamy, "white" foods his mother used to enjoy to prepare and how her cooking related to her family's desires, particularly her husbands chosen diet. Ahn shared how spending time with his mother in the kitchen and learning from her cooking styles has taught him how to add his own unique Korean kick to dishes in order to express multiple parts of his identity. In contrast, while Ahn's story was more focused on a loss of identity, adapting to Americanized society, and how his culture and upbringing would affect his child. When Ahn mistakenly orders the wrong beef dish at a restaurant, he has an epiphany on how truly connected his is to his Korean culture. Nicholson focuses more on trying to obtain his mother's authentic English love for food in America. He discusses the difference between genuine Cheshire cheese versus the processed Cheshire cheese found in decoy British supermarkets. However, both stories share in common how they relate food to their family, childhood, and struggle to adapt in a different society while maintaining their original roots.