Journal 4
When reading over this book I found that it was very self-explanatory when it came to explaining food. The evocative gustatory imagery is so well placed and written in this story it often had me wanting to go into my kitchen and make some of my own tacos for myself. The story is in some cases a novelization of cooking recipes and how local foods are prepared. Although this is at only certain points in the book itself. At other times the book is a backstory of the migration of foods Americans have come to love over the years. More specifically in this case the American taco, and how it transitioned to a basic run-of-the-mill food served in Mexico, to now the cover of almost any Mexican dish. When I say cover I am relaying that the taco is fundamentally the single most food that would be associated with the Hispanic population of the United States. The most famous of all the Hispanic quinine that has been integrated into the American diet.
Within the novel the author goes to lengths to describe what he is tasting and feeling when consuming food. Going into detail about each of the foods composition, or what is inside each dish. How his mouth feels when eating every single dish. The story is so detailed that it is almost like a recipe for preparing the food that is given to the reader unintentionally. I found myself looking at the way he described some of the food and thinking that I myself could try this sometime at my own house. Although I have yet to get around to doing so, but there is no rush.
When reading the novel I found that there was one chapter that captured my attention compared to all the other, and this is chapter 3. Now while I realize that this chapter is the same as the one I had to talk about in class, but I found the backstory behind it so fascinating. In chapter three the author goes into detail about the American icon Taco Bell, and how it came to be so successful. Now while the backstory is good, the real part that caught my attention was how the original owner and founder, Mr. Bell, created his restaurant based off of a Mexican restaurant across the street from his job. The author goes into much detail here about how when interviewing the owners of the now run down taco restaurant they told him of how Mr. Bell would come over and eat consistently. Often asking their father to show them how they made their own food, so that he, Mr. Bell, may do so with his own food. The author also goes into detail about how the food at the original taco restaurant Mr. Bell came to is so home made it made him wonder how Mr. Bell based his own food off of the product. Going into detail about every piece of the taco restaurants meals. Including their taco and how it was created from a tortilla, beef, lettuce, and topped with cheese all rolled into one singular dish that Mr. Bell made his multi-billion dollar corporation. .
The novel itself possess a multitude of master tropes littered throughout the entirety of the stories progression. Why in just chapter three it has almost all of them from cultural, political, spiritual, and even historical significance. All relating to the development of tacos and their spread across the states thanks to Mr. Bell and his iconic corporation. The cultural aspect comes with the Hispanic culture and where the taco started out before spreading throughout the United States. With Mr. Bell taking a chance and walking over to a little taco restaurant across the street from his job. Political follows how Mr. Bell took the idea and applied it to his own methods of work providing a means for him to grow a corporation that would expand across the globe, and continues to grow to this day. Spiritual can be looked at with how the foods the Hispanics use for their cuisine that Mr. Bell based his chain of restaurants off of happens to be food that was made for the Hispanics to remember their ancestors. Dia de los Muertos is one such occasion where Hispanics make their food such as tacos, and give them to their ancestors as offerings to safely go off into the next life. Historical, which needs no explanation because it is given with Mr. Bell starting a restaurant chain that has grown from a small little adobe from across the street and he too it into the multinational chain that it is known as today.
Comments