Bourdain and our president and more

In the latest season premier of Bourdain's Parts Unknown, President Obama sits down with him in his beloved Vietnam. Check out this piece in The New Yorker written by a friend of mine. She wends through policy and food and Obama as a hipster. Very timely for us!

Memoir assignment with prompts, as promised

Here's the original assignment from the syllabus, to remind you where you're headed:

Memoir, 1000 words. Due Week 4
Memory will provide the details and narrative of this piece, and the implications of Memory’s fallibility may or may not be a focus. The narrator’s memories are, indeed, the subject of the piece, and creating the “I” character on the page through recollection of one’s past is, largely, the point of memoir. Include elements of food and/or travel/place in this memoir piece.

To get the juices flowing (so to speak) on your memoir assignment, here are some possible entry points:

1. Use one of the writing exercises from class and expand it to explore food, memory and one of your places of origin.

2. After "Stealing Buddha's Dinner," write about a food obsession of yours.

3. Write about a memory of your first time with a new food, a time when you experienced a completely new flavor. What effect did it have on you?

4. Write about a longing for food that speaks to a bigger, deeper longing.

5. Write about an experience of giving up food--a particular kind of food, a particular amount, food in general--of denying yourself food.

6. Write about "site-specific" food or things you've cooked in conjunction with other activities, perhaps inspired by Jane Kramer. Or write about food you have--or would--travel for, like Bourdain and French Laundry. "I like the idea of having to travel to experience a French Laundry meal. The journey is part of the experience--or was for me--an expression of the seriousness of one's intent . . . " (251).

7. Riffing off Abby's presentation, write about food as spiritual practice or family tradition with deeper roots, meaning, implications.

These are just starting points to get you going. Feel free to write from any other place in the universe as long as it speaks to food, travel, and memory.

Whatever you write, keep an eye toward crafting scene, developing character and voice, using dialogue, allowing yourself to meander and wander into the recesses of your mind as well as inform the reader about things s/he may not be familiar with. Look to Nguyen and Bourdain for inspiration. And have fun!

CYOA begins 2nd week!

Here are sites to get you started in your CYOA assignment:

*Gourmet's favorite food sites
*Bon Appetit magazine online
*Food and Travel magazine online
*The New Yorker online has a terrific search function in which you can find even more recent food pieces than the ones collected in Secret Ingredients
*Every Wednesday, the New York Times has a Dining Section; and every Sunday they put out a Travel Section. There are various food and travel articles throughout the paper everyday and you can access many of the articles and blogs anytime online. It's worth spending some time on the site.
*This is a delightful radio show devoted to food
*there are, of course, cable networks devoted entirely to food and travel. Take a look here, here and here.

That should at least get you started. Don't at all feel limited to these particular sites in your hunt for your CYOA; my hope is that by bringing what you love to class, you'll expand our knowledge and resources. Also, make sure to present something to us that sustains good discussion. Showing a cooking show clip or a recipe, for example, likely won't get us anywhere. Also, make sure to find something that speaks to the marriage of food and place.

The lineup for CYOA presentations is:

2nd Week
Tuesday--Libby
Thursday--Meredith

3rd Week
Tuesday--Abby
Thursday--Andrea

6th Week
Tuesday--Ashley
Thursday--Sarena

8th Week
Tuesday--Yoji
Thursday--Cody

9th Week
Tuesday--Alejandra

Really looking forward to what you bring to the table!

Welcome!

If you're reading this, you're more than likely registered for the shared passages sophomore seminar Food and Travel Writing at Kalamazoo College. Congratulations. You've made an excellent choice!