McDonaldization Exercise
As an individual now aware of the McDonaldization everywhere in my daily life, I decided to step out of my comfort zone at a higher level in this exercise. I decided to ask a restaurant to make me something special for me to interrupt the cycle of McDonaldization. During a visit to a restaurant called Smokey Bones, I told the waiter that I decided to be the oddball of our party of three and I asked him whether the restaurant can make me something special given a certain price range (due to the financial limitation of a college student). I was not quite so certain about the response I would receive, for this matter I was running through many different possible scenarios in my mind the entire day before going to the restaurant. The waiter seemed a little taken aback, not sure what was expected of him and he had to think for a while, unlike how he was able to simply record my companions’ orders. Eventually he expressed that the restaurant can not do anything off-menu. However, there was a “Build Your Own Burger” option and he agreed that the restaurant could make a surprise burger. The waiter did not ask for my preference in food, perhaps it was because the waiter thought my objective was to get a random combination of different parts of a burger; perhaps it was a result of the efficiency required for the smooth operation of McDonaldization like mentioned by George Ritzer in his book.
My surprise burger was comprised of a half pound beef patty, lettuce, tomato, onion, fried thin onion rings, sliced avocado, and Mac and Cheese. Since the waiter did not collect any information regarding my preference or health concern related to food, the cook would likely have to make many assumptions upon making this surprise burger. Based on the lettuce, tomato, onion, fried onions, and Mac and Cheese, it was reasonable to speculate the restaurant staff combined food items conforming to the typical standards of healthfulness and deliciousness in American culture. Perhaps the waiter considered sliced avocado as an appropriate item for my burger based on my body size (slimness could be an indicator of healthy lifestyle and eating) and open-minded outlook. However, most of these items didn’t require cooking and the ones did require cooking were in very small portions so they were likely pre-cooked. This could mean that though a special order was placed, efficiency was not largely sacrificed.
Through my special request, I was challenging the level of control the restaurant had in its McDonaldization (though not as profound as in highly McDonaldized restaurants like Burger King and Wendy’s); in addition, I was challenging the near-worship of convenience in contemporary times. To work as a waiter or a cook in a restaurant would not make one willing to embrace inconvenience associated with the content of work. Just as expressed by Tim Wu in Tyranny of Convenience, a lot of us stopped enjoying doing something slow and difficult, and turned to convenience--thereby omitting the inconvenient things we enjoyed or could enjoy (hobbies) in life, the things for which we invented convenience.
My surprise burger was comprised of a half pound beef patty, lettuce, tomato, onion, fried thin onion rings, sliced avocado, and Mac and Cheese. Since the waiter did not collect any information regarding my preference or health concern related to food, the cook would likely have to make many assumptions upon making this surprise burger. Based on the lettuce, tomato, onion, fried onions, and Mac and Cheese, it was reasonable to speculate the restaurant staff combined food items conforming to the typical standards of healthfulness and deliciousness in American culture. Perhaps the waiter considered sliced avocado as an appropriate item for my burger based on my body size (slimness could be an indicator of healthy lifestyle and eating) and open-minded outlook. However, most of these items didn’t require cooking and the ones did require cooking were in very small portions so they were likely pre-cooked. This could mean that though a special order was placed, efficiency was not largely sacrificed.
Through my special request, I was challenging the level of control the restaurant had in its McDonaldization (though not as profound as in highly McDonaldized restaurants like Burger King and Wendy’s); in addition, I was challenging the near-worship of convenience in contemporary times. To work as a waiter or a cook in a restaurant would not make one willing to embrace inconvenience associated with the content of work. Just as expressed by Tim Wu in Tyranny of Convenience, a lot of us stopped enjoying doing something slow and difficult, and turned to convenience--thereby omitting the inconvenient things we enjoyed or could enjoy (hobbies) in life, the things for which we invented convenience.
Refrigerator Photograph
When one is looking at a picture without the context, it is easy to assumptions that are not necessarily true. However, there are speculations one can make as intellectual exploration and exercise. The pictures presented below is the photograph of a refrigerator and freezer that belongs to someone who is not an MSU student and someone that I already knew.
In this refrigerator I can see that there’s cartons of eggs, jugs of milk (vitamin D milk and 2% reduced fat milk), many bottled sauces, cheese, ham, spread, a lot of 2 liter sodas, 1 gallon sugary drink, beef broth, aluminum pan of cooked food and pudding snack packs.
In the freezer there’s some frozen meat, sausages, and several ice trays.
From these photos we can tell that the owner might not have a thorough understanding of healthy eating as fresh food ingredients are almost completely absent from the refrigerator. However, as concluded by Chen’s study about treats for children in low-income family, sometimes people are aware of what’s considered healthy eating but poverty limits their ability to carry out the healthy diet—the vitamin D milk and 2% reduced fat milk shows efforts to healthy eating. It could be that it is the end of the month and there’s not yet new monetary deposit for him/her to purchase fresh food yet. The presence of a lot of sauces, soda, cheese, and pudding snacks imply the owner of the refrigerator embraces processed food to a large extent, and that they might not be aware of the high sodium content and harmful chemicals in the sauces derived from food additives like Pandora’s Lunchbox mentioned. I also speculate that the owner of the refrigerator has a child or children due based on the presence of pudding snacks, these pudding likely play the role of treats to the young kid(s). The beef broth and the aluminum tray of cooked food are good indicators that the owner does cook and they save a fairly large quantity, potentially as a strategy to budget cost in food.
The owner chose to freeze meat and sausages so it can mean s/he doesn’t have access to supermarkets anytime s/he would like, and that s/he is using the strategy of hoarding that Italian grandmas sometimes use (add information about reading). The six ice trays can mean the owner prefers ice cold beverages like an average American does or that the owner has chronic pain and s/he relies on ice for relief.
The overall arrangement of the refrigerator seems to be organized to an extent. We can see the two jars of mayonnaise side by side at the bottom shelf alone, and the salsa sauce are on the middle along with other flavoring items (like A1 sauce, jams, chocolate syrup, pickle of some kind, and beef broth); the top shelf is filled with different types of salad dressings. From these we can tell that the owner has a good sense of organization.
Somethings that we can not assume based on the photograph include occupation of the refrigerator owner, age of the owner, and skin color (the social construct of “race”). We can not tell specifically what does the refrigerator owner do even if we can guess the income level of this individual. We can not guess the age of owner because many people of all ages now have fair amount of understanding in regards of nutrition and that processed food target people of all ages (as it tastes good and requires less or no cooking according to Michael Moss’s discussion about snack companies trying to get more elderly customers). We also can not guess the skin color of the owner, there are low-income families in all “races”; what low-income families choose to consume largely based on what they can afford and sometimes there’s not much wiggle room for them to consume what they prefer; additionally, there’s no rules about people of certain “race” must prefer certain things, preferences are very fluid and are dependent on the individual taste.
Industrial Food Diary
I have always enjoyed Hmong sausage, which is a special kind of sausage produced mostly in areas populated with Hmong people, such as Wisconsin and Minnesota. Considering the large quantity it is made available for sale, I think it might be mass produced and therefore inevitably underwent many processing. Food additives are likely incorporated to ensure longer shelf life.
Eating home prepared food largely reduced the amount of processed food I consumed, such as food additives that can be found in things like premade-food items and condiments (sodium benzoate for example, is a preservative that’s commonly added to condiments according to Melanie Warner on page 36 of Pandora’s Lunchbox). And the home prepared food have very good filling effect.
However, the ingredients my family use to cook are not free from processing, such as the preserved vegetable, dried squid, and Chinese Black mushroom. These ingredients are imported from China, and to ensure the food inside the packages won’t be subjected to moisture’s organism-prospering property, they are very likely treated through some specific process along with food preservatives. Just like how Warner mentioned on page 11, when moisture is present, the amount of time it takes for something to decay is significantly smaller.
However, with the schedule I have right now it is difficult to eat minimally processed food since I didn’t have access to cooking equipment and ingredient for the entire school day. I was not able to make and eat breakfast that’s processing-free on Day 2, and there was time between meals where I was starving but didn’t have the option to eat something filling (because all the baked goods accessible to me were processed food), snacks like banana and tomato aren’t the best candidate in being the kind of food that’s filling.
I also started to crave sweets after dinner, specifically a green bean cake with mochi center. It has the perfect sweetness level, and the mochi center has the perfect consistency (at least at room temperature), it could be a product that’s been engineered like the famous Dorito chips discussed in Michael Moss’s article (ISS 310 course pack page 34), but in contrast to chips it certainly has a good filling effect.
Day 2 was a challenging and hunger-filled day, but it does make me wonder whether I can achieve a lifestyle in which I eat physically and mentally fulfilling meals and no longer crave for processed industrial food.
Day 1:
Drink = water, lemonade mixed with sweet tea
Lunch = Hmong sausage, white rice, raw celery, and raw cucumber
Snack = Organic roasted chestnuts, half an apple without peel
Dinner = Five Guys Hamburger with grilled mushroom, grilled onion, mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, lettuce
Day 2:
Drink = water
Lunch = homemade pork stew with preserved vegetable, homemade stir-fried pumpkin, white rice
Snack = banana, tomato
Dinner = homemade minced pork patty (with Chinese Black mushroom and dried squid), homemade taro and Taiwanese squash stew, white rice
Eating home prepared food largely reduced the amount of processed food I consumed, such as food additives that can be found in things like premade-food items and condiments (sodium benzoate for example, is a preservative that’s commonly added to condiments according to Melanie Warner on page 36 of Pandora’s Lunchbox). And the home prepared food have very good filling effect.
However, the ingredients my family use to cook are not free from processing, such as the preserved vegetable, dried squid, and Chinese Black mushroom. These ingredients are imported from China, and to ensure the food inside the packages won’t be subjected to moisture’s organism-prospering property, they are very likely treated through some specific process along with food preservatives. Just like how Warner mentioned on page 11, when moisture is present, the amount of time it takes for something to decay is significantly smaller.
However, with the schedule I have right now it is difficult to eat minimally processed food since I didn’t have access to cooking equipment and ingredient for the entire school day. I was not able to make and eat breakfast that’s processing-free on Day 2, and there was time between meals where I was starving but didn’t have the option to eat something filling (because all the baked goods accessible to me were processed food), snacks like banana and tomato aren’t the best candidate in being the kind of food that’s filling.
I also started to crave sweets after dinner, specifically a green bean cake with mochi center. It has the perfect sweetness level, and the mochi center has the perfect consistency (at least at room temperature), it could be a product that’s been engineered like the famous Dorito chips discussed in Michael Moss’s article (ISS 310 course pack page 34), but in contrast to chips it certainly has a good filling effect.
Day 2 was a challenging and hunger-filled day, but it does make me wonder whether I can achieve a lifestyle in which I eat physically and mentally fulfilling meals and no longer crave for processed industrial food.
Day 1:
Drink = water, lemonade mixed with sweet tea
Lunch = Hmong sausage, white rice, raw celery, and raw cucumber
Snack = Organic roasted chestnuts, half an apple without peel
Dinner = Five Guys Hamburger with grilled mushroom, grilled onion, mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, lettuce
Day 2:
Drink = water
Lunch = homemade pork stew with preserved vegetable, homemade stir-fried pumpkin, white rice
Snack = banana, tomato
Dinner = homemade minced pork patty (with Chinese Black mushroom and dried squid), homemade taro and Taiwanese squash stew, white rice