Food Culture – Page 4 – I'll Make It Myself!

“Seattle Sweeties” Campaign Predictably Compares Women to Food, Detracts from Cause

I desperately wanted to like “Seattle Sweeties,” Cupcake Royale’s line of cupcakes benefiting Runway to Freedom and Mary’s Place, NPOs that work with homeless women and survivors of domestic violence to help. I love cupcakes almost as much as I love overthrowing the patriarchy. Yet the campaign’s language, in trying to empower women, only manages to reduce them to food terms, objects for consumption.

Halloween in Japan 2015: All The Bakeries

In which every bakery I encountered in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Kagoshima was decked out for Halloween. Manneken, Hirakata

Feminist Friday: My Cake Carrier is Not an Invitation

Content note: descriptions of street harassment, which include queerphobic and misogynistic comments.

Do you ever have something so utterly bizarre happen to you that even you can’t believe it happen? I don’t mean like watching something in slo-mo, I mean like staring into the gaping maw of some incomprehensible eldritch horror. I mean hearing the opening strains of “Bohemian Rhapsody” as if it were diegetic music.

Will Graham Goes Grocery Shopping

Manhunter, 1986: Will Graham is a fisher, luring in his prey. That prey? Grape Nuts.

Add a Dash of Cultural Imperialism: Japanese Food and Cooking (1956), Part 5

“Raw fish, to many foreigners, spells trouble.

‘Raw fish!’ one can hear them scream, ‘how could anyone think of eating such a thing?'”

Add a Dash of Cultural Imperialism: Japanese Food and Cooking (1956), Part 4

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Ch. 3: “Rice-Sandwiches” We’ve made it to the sushi chapter, readers!

Add a Dash of Cultural Imperialism: Japanese Food and Cooking (1956), Part 3

Foreword and part 2 here. Ch. 2: Rice Dishes Like many chapters, this one starts off well, with an explanation that rice is the staple food of Japan (all 85 million inhabitants; now 1.27 million) and is served in a variety of ways; there follow instructions for washing and cooking rice. One thing I find…

Add a Dash of Cultural Imperialism: Japanese Food and Cooking (1956), Part 2

Prior post: “Foreword” Ch.1 : Ingredients, or On Learning to Judge Foods Let’s talk learning foodways as part of your culture. If you are told that a certain food is gross by media, peers, family, or society at large, you will probably internalize that message on some level. Case in point: Brussels sprouts and liver and onions…

Add a Dash of Cultural Imperialism: Japanese Food and Cooking (1956), Part 1

Japanese Food and Cooking (1956) Stuart Griffin Charles E. Tuttle Co: Publishers This was printed 27 times by 1981. Twenty-seven times! Content warning: a lot of causal historical racism, colonialism, classism, and sexism. My friends, knowing I love food history, gave me a copy of an English-language Japanese cookbook as a parting gift. It’s been…

What I Ate: New Orleans

Did I mention beignets and not deliver?

Marketing Halloween in Japan: Krispy Skremes

Today’s post is about shifts in marketing: which brands continue to produce Halloween-themed goods/advertising and which don’t. Also doughnuts. Mister Donut decided to go with fall-themed cronuts this year: crushed chestnut whip, apple-custard pie, and cherry-cream pie. Meanwhile, Krispy Kreme Japan went full-out Halloween with “Krispy Skremes,” and they are not messing around:

Marketing Halloween in Japan: Pocky

Pocky’s been doing Halloween-themed packaging for a few years but I hadn’t written about it because the product was the same. This year, Pocky has Halloween packaging for the normal chocolate and strawberry flavors: But also a Kumamon(the mascot of Kumamoto prefecture)-themed “sweet pumpkin” flavor that I found out about via @inheritingexile’s Instagram.