Paper 1: Is There Real Japanese food in Kansas? (3-4 pages)
Many foods are marketed in America as Japanese or Asian. Visit a local supermarket and identify one or two foods sold as Japanese or Asian, take a photo of these food products (or find one on the internet), and consider what qualifies these foods to be described in this way answering one of the following questions in reference to chapter 2 in Food and Society and Ku’s Dubious Gastronomy:
Are these foods evidence of “cultural pluralism,” “corporatization,” “Americanization,” or the “homogenization of cultural differences?”
If the foods are advertised as “authentic” what are the problems of using that term as identified by Ku and in Food and Society?
Sample Solution