Food

Since it’s finals week and I’m taking 3 courses I was running out of time and I had to make a tough choice. Unfortunately, I had to set priorities which were studying for my Genetics and Artificial Intelligence finals over doing my last english fieldwork. Since my goal is to pass the three courses and I have a good grade in English, I had to sacrifice this one thing. So my last blog is gonna be talking about supermarkets and farmer’s markets in Lebanon.

So first the meal I chose is “Beef Stroganoff” which is rice and meat. So we cook them seperatly and for the meat you add onions and mushrooms and spices and sauce made with: worcestershire sauce, tomatoes, tomato sauce, fresh cream and mustard.
In the supermarkets, the first thing I notice is the quantity each thing is sold in. Everything is made in an industrial quantity with a variety of prices which sometimes are very different. Second thing I noticed was that the biggest sections are snacks, packaged food and frozen food. Third, it’s really strange but accessibility of the things you can buy really influence your decision. When I think about it, it’s really faster to just grab some frozen meat or some packaged items than go grab them yourself. Tags are also very relevant since the first 2 things you see, because they want you to see it, is price and quantity. So you compare price and quantity of the items but not the quality or where it came from. The organic and “high quality” are usually separated from the rest and are at very high price compared to the price and quantity of regular food.

On the other hand, a farmer’s market is completely different. Actually in my university, there is a farmer’s market every one month or so on campus. It’s the complete opposite of supermarket food. It is sold in a smaller quantity but the price is in between the organic and the regular supermarket’s food. It is also interactive since there is someone selling it to you. So you can speak to the person and get all the details you need. You will feel more comfortable buying from this person than from a store shelf. It’s also satisfying because you are directly encouraging national farmers.