The only restaurant I have been in Downtown Kalamazoo is Crow's Nest, so this assignment gave me an opportunity to try something new, which I appreciate. The Union offers a lot of foods typical in Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, and some other southern states that are foreign to my Midwestern tastebuds. What drew my attention to this restaurant in particular were the Gator Balls, and other instances of alligator in their cuisine. This fascinated me, but was also pretty far out of my comfort zone.
Before coming to The Union, I had visions of the gator being tough and rubbery, and maintaining the physical traits of what makes an alligator an alligator. I seriously feared it would be like that, but in the name of this assignment I went and was happily surprised. I discovered that alligator was, in fact, delicious. And is something I'd like to eat at again. The venue was calm and casual, with live shows playing their most evenings by local talent.
While at the restaurant, I felt overwhelmed by all of the menu options, even with looking at the menu the night before. I felt pressure to enjoy this meal, but to taste dishes outside of my comfort zone. Looking back, I am proud of myself for tackling the prospect of eating Alligator, in the Gator Balls and the Dirty Southwest Burger, but I feel that I stopped pushing myself after that. I thought, what is the most "southern" food they had. Even though we problematized this idea when looking at Long's work "Culinary Tourism", the idea that I needed to eat authentically while I had the chance still ran through my mind.
What even does authenticity even mean to The Union? Not purely southern cooking, because even while the chef is from Memphis, he is influenced by Midwestern cuisine by working in Michigan. I guess it means eating classics of the restaurant, to feel what that is like rather than eating something I'm not feeling like, because that is what I thought I should have been doing. And so I asked my waitress what she thought I just *had* to have in order to have the full "Union" experience, something that without this assignment I probably would not have done. She said The Portobello Fries. My heart hurt a little bit when they came and my tastebuds did not agree, but moving through the rest of the dishes outweighed that initial taste for me. Instead of taking notes, I talked about the textures and tastes with my friends, because talking my thoughts through help me process them sometimes.
Moving forward, I am trying to be more thoughtful when considering authenticity and culinary tourism. For example, I am helping to plan an event in Winter called Afro Fiesta Desi Soul. This event is supposed to be a time of celebration and education for all folks to know a little bit more about the many cultures represented by our student body. It gets tough because it can slip into cultural tourism very easily, and what we are working on right now are ways to move away from that into a more respectful environment. Who has access to authenticity and who do not, along with the simple problem of authenticities, are vastly complex, and I am thankful that this class and this assignment in particular helped open my eyes to this.
Before coming to The Union, I had visions of the gator being tough and rubbery, and maintaining the physical traits of what makes an alligator an alligator. I seriously feared it would be like that, but in the name of this assignment I went and was happily surprised. I discovered that alligator was, in fact, delicious. And is something I'd like to eat at again. The venue was calm and casual, with live shows playing their most evenings by local talent.
While at the restaurant, I felt overwhelmed by all of the menu options, even with looking at the menu the night before. I felt pressure to enjoy this meal, but to taste dishes outside of my comfort zone. Looking back, I am proud of myself for tackling the prospect of eating Alligator, in the Gator Balls and the Dirty Southwest Burger, but I feel that I stopped pushing myself after that. I thought, what is the most "southern" food they had. Even though we problematized this idea when looking at Long's work "Culinary Tourism", the idea that I needed to eat authentically while I had the chance still ran through my mind.
What even does authenticity even mean to The Union? Not purely southern cooking, because even while the chef is from Memphis, he is influenced by Midwestern cuisine by working in Michigan. I guess it means eating classics of the restaurant, to feel what that is like rather than eating something I'm not feeling like, because that is what I thought I should have been doing. And so I asked my waitress what she thought I just *had* to have in order to have the full "Union" experience, something that without this assignment I probably would not have done. She said The Portobello Fries. My heart hurt a little bit when they came and my tastebuds did not agree, but moving through the rest of the dishes outweighed that initial taste for me. Instead of taking notes, I talked about the textures and tastes with my friends, because talking my thoughts through help me process them sometimes.
Moving forward, I am trying to be more thoughtful when considering authenticity and culinary tourism. For example, I am helping to plan an event in Winter called Afro Fiesta Desi Soul. This event is supposed to be a time of celebration and education for all folks to know a little bit more about the many cultures represented by our student body. It gets tough because it can slip into cultural tourism very easily, and what we are working on right now are ways to move away from that into a more respectful environment. Who has access to authenticity and who do not, along with the simple problem of authenticities, are vastly complex, and I am thankful that this class and this assignment in particular helped open my eyes to this.
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