📘 Part 3: Food

This episode's vocabulary

By virtue of something - as a result of something.

Proximity (noun) - the state of being near in space or time.

Legacy (noun) - something that is a part of your history or that remains from an earlier time.

Set in your ways - not liking change in your life.

Embrace (verb) - to accept something with great interest or enthusiasm.

Cuisine (noun) - a style of cooking.

Novel (adj.) - new and original, not like anything seen before.

Ancestor (noun) - a person related to you who lived a long time ago.

Palatable (adj.) - palatable food or drink has a pleasant taste.

Seasonality (noun) - the fact that something changes according to the seasons.

Zero-sum game (noun) - a situation in which an advantage that is won by one of two sides is lost by the other.

Hefty (adj.) - large in amount, size, force, etc.

Fine (noun) - an amount of money that has to be paid as a punishment for not obeying a rule or law.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, what kinds of foreign food are popular in your country?

R: Uh, well, mostly ones from the northern hemisphere. I've talked about this before. It's just by virtue of proximity. But there's a colonial legacy in there, too. For example, Indian food is popular because we have this sort of connection, if you will, with India and the subcontinent. And, of course, Chinese food is everywhere as well. I think that's like a universal thing. Like everywhere you go in the world, there's always a Chinese restaurant somewhere.

M: Why do people like to try new food?

R: Well, I suppose it's kind of a safe kind of risk taking behavior. It's new, but it's food in a restaurant. So, you know, you're safe because restaurants are largely controlled environments. And some people like to show off as well. I can remember the boys that I used to live with in university used to challenge each other to order the spiciest chicken from a restaurant called Nando's, and that was their form of competition. Never live with rugby players. It's always a disaster.

M: And why do some people dislike Chinese food?

R: Well, they're very set in their ways, like I'm set in my ways. I don't particularly like trying new food either. It's just because they like the routine. Also, if you're like me and your nutrition is quite important for building muscle mass, for example, then variations in my diet are like they're not really good for me in the sense.

M: What are young people's opinions on new food?

R: Well, to grossly generalize, young people seem to embrace new ideas more readily than older people. If we talk about people in their teens, in their 20s, and this seems to extend to cuisine as well, they're always trying new kinds of food. Preteens and younger, well, people who are younger than preteens tend to be more conservative. For example, they always want just like more sugar, more ice cream, fewer greens. That's not very experimental or very novel. It's just the thing that young people do at that age.

M: Why do people prefer their local food?

R: Well, there's a variety of factors. You'd have to ask them to find out exactly which ones affect a particular area. But it might be that it's more available because, of course, the farms are in close proximity than more distant places. And it's cheaper because the transport costs are lower and they've inherited maybe a set of genes from their ancestors and that makes the taste of certain local foods more palatable than others. That's a really technical explanation. It's probably just a price, to be honest with you.

M: What factors influence people's food choices?

R: Well, I think I mentioned a lot of them just there. But if we speak more broadly like price, flavor, availability and seasonality. So there's a choice of choices that affect people's choices. Or we could say there's a range of choices that affect people's decisions if we paraphrase.

M: Why do some people prefer to cook at home?

R: Well, some people find it fun and others have this sort of ancestral connection that they relive through cooking can be related to culture in that way. And again, talking about money. For others, it's just cheaper than paying for a delivery.

M: More and more people are unwilling to cook. Why?

R: Well, I imagine it's connected to time availability, to be honest. People are increasingly busier. They're multitasking all the time. They just don't have time to cook. And you have everything available at the touch of a button on your phone. So why not just order food instead of cook it or get some prepackaged processed meal instead? It's not as healthy, though, I think.

M: Do you think teachers or parents are responsible for teaching kids about food?

R: I'm not sure it has to be a zero-sum game. Parents probably impart more cultural recipes. While teachers broaden horizons or kindle fires of awareness in students. In terms of the foods that other people eat, I can remember our primary school. Our teacher brought in star fruit once and that was nice.

M: Is it expensive to eat out in your country?

R: Well, it's not expensive or cheap because you have to pay a hefty fine for eating out or going outside now in Scotland because there's a lockdown. Um, but more broadly, like when the lockdown is finished and even pre lockdown times, yes, there was a time for coronavirus. It was relatively expensive compared to Russia. Like here you get, it's much cheaper to eat compared to Scotland for sure.

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