Though vastly different in style and scope, both Wang’s “Learning from Los Kogi Angeles: A Taco Truck and Its City” and Wong’s “Eating the Hypen,” examine the complex notion of identity through the discussion of food. For Wang, it’s the complex and fragmented identity of Los Angeles via the Kogi truck and for Wong, it’s the contradictions inherent in her status as a Chinese American via the Chinese dumpling. For this week’s response, choose 1 writer to focus on and unpack the specific contradictions and/or complexities discussed in the text. What issue(s) are at stake for the writer, and how has his or her text impacted how you view the relationship between food and identity?
Instructions:
Please respond to the above discussion prompt in approximately 12-15 sentences
Please follow the rubric and read all the material.
Additional information :
Oliver Wang’s “Learning from Los Kogi Angeles: A Taco Truck and Its City,” which comes out of a collection of scholarly articles, Eating Asian America. In his essay, Wang examines how the Kogi truck, and its Korean Mexican fusion signature dish of the short rib taco, uncovers the hidden socioeconomic dynamics of Los Angeles, highlighting the city’s diversity and inequality alike. The second reading for this week is Lily Wong’s “Eating the Hypen” (Food Matters). In her essay, Wong discusses how her personal food choices and preferences–specifically, how she eats Chinese dumplings–is one way to explore the important link between food and identity. Both Wang and Wong are interested in how food can be a marker of one’s identity–be it an individual’s or a city’s.