The Relationship Between Culture and Food (In My Opinion)

Yeah, travel has opened my mind. I could see many different things in this world through my own eyes. The traditions, cultures, beliefs in every single place are different and unique.

However, to make the same perception, I'd like to define the meaning of culture itself. I picked this definition from CARLA that defines culture as the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization. We'll use this definition for this below context.

For me, I can understand a culture through the food. I've traveled to Java Island (Indonesia) and see the culture through food. Let's say, I have tried a really really spicy chili 'sambal' (my tongue's got fired when I tried it) in Surabaya (the capital city of East Java). From the spicy 'sambal' itself, I know that the people in Surabaya are more emotional and have a rough voice and pronunciations (affective and behavior culture) compared with the area in Central Java. I've tried the special culinary in Yogyakarta (Central Java) that is very popular named Gudeg. It has a really sweet flavor, and it indicates the culture of people in Central Java that is more slowly when speak up and polite behavior.

The other example, when I was traveling to Singapore, I easily found the noodle with soup. Singaporean people are hard worker and don't want to waste the time. It can be shown by the style how the eat. They prefer to choose Noodle with soup because it's fast service, including the food (no need to buy drinks). It shows the people are having a fast lifestyle and economical.

Therefore, in my opinion there's the relationship between food and the culture of people. Moreover, the food represents the affect, cognition, and behavior of people that brings to the culture itself. Trying the traditional culinary makes us understand the characteristic of people inside. So, I can recommend you to try the specialty food when you are traveling :)