Drunk Noodles

Noodles is a very interesting place to eat dinner at. There are many different people that one can find in the establishment. My friends and I got there on a rainy day during the LAX game. We were not playing to well and we were not very interested in the game so we went to go get food. On our way we saw many people trying to escape from the rain and seeking shelter. We got there and they took our orders, the wait staff there is fairly casual. They stroke up good conversation with all of us and made us feel like we were welcomed. Noodles is an interesting format for a restaurant. It is more formal then McDonalds and less formal then a sit down restaurant, it is a lot like Panera. Once we sat down and got our drinks, we started too look around, there were many different kinds of people there. There were families having a quiet dinner, there was college students lightly discussing the weekend. Then, once the LAX game ended, many drunken students rolled into the place. Loud and annoying, the families gave them a dirty look as they said hi to everyone they knew in the restaurant. However, the people working there did not seem to care what these kids were doing, it is no shock to have drunk college kids in a restaurant that is foot steps off a campus. The families should not have been too insulted by this because they should know what they are getting into in a college campus. The sober kids there interacted with drunken kids, which made for some interesting interactions. Some people were noticeable more drunk than others. You could clearly tell this by these peoples actions. There were certain things that you would not see at a normal food establishment in downtown Denver. To add on to there drunkenness, they were all soaked from watching the Lax game in the rain. Wet and out of control, the families eating there quickly finished their meals and left, while all of the sober college students watched and interacted with the intoxicated kids like they were playing a fun game. Students were hiding cups and stealing food. It was very interesting seeing all the people laughing at one person that truly had no idea what was going on. Then one of Denver sports biggest fans walked in clearly drunk. This was the main show of everyone at Noodles. Everyone was watching to see what this person would do. This student was running around talking to everyone he or she knew in the restaurant, some people accepted this person as he or she ran around giving everyone hugs, others gave her a “dead fish” hug. It was very interested to see how everyone reacted to this. Also noticed, everyone who was intoxicated just shoved their food into their mouth, not caring what it was. This brought up a question in my head. Why do people not care what they eat when they are drunk? So after some Google and searching of alcohols affects on the appetite. I found one article that nailed it on the head. “When a person drinks the body responds to large quantities of increased glucose in the system by producing more insulin which removes the glucose. “Once the process has started, the insulin carries on working removing glucose from the blood. Low blood glucose levels are responsible for that shaky feeling, heavy sweating, dizziness and blurred vision. Low glucose levels also result in feeling tired. To overcome this feeling of lethargy and tiredness the body will be craving a carbohydrate boost which is why many people feel hungry when they have been drinking,” Never really thinking about how drinking affects someone’s eating habits, this really explains why this happens why drunk people get hungry.

Overall, it was very interesting to actually watch what is happening around you when you eat. Usually I would just pay attention to the people that I am with and see what they are doing. However, watching other people eat made in more interesting as a meal of a whole. Since, the other people I was with were not in my class, they did not exactly understand why I was pay attention to other people more than them. After explaining they joined in on the watching and also found that it was a very interesting part. Usually when you eat, you only notice the loud and annoying group of hockey players or the couple that is getting way to close for the public good, but to see other people’s reaction to these people made the experience of eating more interesting. 

Link

This is the link I look to use on my paper. It brings up the affects of alcohol on a person appetite. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1721987.stm

Is Nelson food better than jail food?

 O’Donnell brings up a very good point right at the beginning of her writing; “Southerners eat fish and seafood because those are the most common types of protein in the region. Fish and seafood are hard to catch. So, in the past, if Guangdong people wanted to eat, they had to have quick hands and eyes; they had to be sneaky to catch the fish.” This points out why some things are know for certain food because it is the easiest thing to get. Unlike America there are many places that cannot simply call a company to get any food they would like to be shipped to them. I personally believe that this truly makes a culture. If you ask an American what is American Food, you would get a thousand different answers. Food is what gives people jobs in these types of communities and it brings them together as a whole. She also brings up that once a community can get enough for the people living there, they can start selling to other communities that do not have fish, and build their culture.

In Cate’s writing, she shows how that in jail, food can also bring people together in the worst of ways. She shows a meal bring people in common place to eat and discuss. It is like when I walk into Nelson and see Nicole Boerema enjoying a meal. We are both their for the same reason. However, jail is most likely not as nice as Nelson (could be up for debate however). Food truly can bring people together even if it is not the best circumstances. 

Scotie Doesn't Know, that im looking at his blog

http://chomponsomenoms.blogspot.com/2012/04/humor-me-dont-inform-me.html This blog had many similarities. Comparing the Burger King and the Panda Cheese ads, both of them had a lot of humor in them. The Burger King ad shows that their menu has a lot of value by giving a humorous quote of being able to pay your rent and eat breakfast. Panda Cheese uses the approach of you can not say no to Panda, and if you do, the panda will get you. Both ads use humor to attract their customers. 

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For the two advertisements, I chose a Burger King ad and a Wildfire ad. The Burger King ad talks about how breakfast can be affordable. It shows that one does not have to give up simple things to get Burger King breakfast. Wildfire, on the other hand, is a very high cost restaurant in Chicago. It caters to the higher class because of their high quality steaks and other foods.

Burger Kings ad is very eye catching, a lot of different colors with big and small font. This really tells you exactly what is important on this ad. It also has pictures of the actual food. It probably looks a lot better than it actually is, but it some how gets on their ads. This ad uses humor by saying, “now you can pay rent and eat” which shows the value of the restaurant. The ad also show may different parts of different city sky lines, showing that it is all over the country. Lastly, the logo tops the middle of the ad showing exactly where one would go to find these delicious looking breakfast foods. 

The Wildfire ad has a lot more thought put into their ad. To start, there is a fairly attractive female smiling, this makes a point that eating at this establishment not only is for eating, but that there will be an experience. This woman also shows the suggested dress code at a restaurant like this. Looking at this add, I would not come from the gym and sit down for a steak. Next, one sees the cursive writing that cannot be easily read quickly. It reads, “as good as you remember”. This shows that many of the customers return for the experience again and again. And if has been a while since you had been there, they are assuring you that the experience has not changed one bit and you will enjoy it just as much. Finally, you get to the details. You see the name of the restaurant and what he or she offers, but there is no fancy logo, or picture of their food. This shows that they do not need to have a catchy logo to attract people, and each time a dish is served, it has a different look too it which can not be copied into a photo. The last part of the detail is a historical twist on the restaurant “the quintessential 1940s supper club”. This shows that this restaurant is based off of some historical restaurant type that was very popular in the 40s. All of the detail text is a very simple, all caps font that is not eye catching, but catches the eye because it is so discrete.

Burger King does not seek after the people who would be buying $100 steaks. They are looking for the people that are late for work and do not want to spend more than $5 on breakfast. They are the kind of company that is not competing for the best food; they are competing for the most economical food. People who has blue-collar jobs are much more likely to pick up a sausage sandwich than someone who just picked up the Porsche for the shop.

Wildfire does not have to advertise, their food and reputation does that for them. Wildfire has the same wealthy North Shore families come there week after week spending hundreds of dollars at their bar. The typical Wildfire dinner is not shy about spending $200 at a dinner for three. They are a well-known steak place that does not have to make themselves known because their customers adversative the restaurant themselves.

The culture of Burger King is a place where a family can get a cheap dinner, and the kid is happy because he or she can get a crown. No one walks out of a Burger King calling their friends telling them how amazing today’s whopper was, and that they need to hop in their mini can and get to the nearest Burger King. Burger King is fast and cheap, but there is not one type of people that go there. Everyone needs a quick bite once and a while.

Wildfire is much different, when you know you are going there; you find our days in advance, you tell your friends that you are going, and you cannot focus in school. Wildfire is something that is planned, sometimes it is a tradition, sometimes is a celebration. However, not everyone is able to spend what this restaurant is asking for, so I feel like this has more of a narrow audience.

Chips and Stuff

Looking at food, one can see many different things. Each potato chip brand aims at a certain demographic. The more expensive chips mention health six time more than the cheap brands. This shows that the people who buy the more expensive chips, care more about health, so it is only right for them to make the health of their chips more evident. I assume that the people who buy the cheaper chips do not care about the health value. I can personally say, that sometimes I want something unhealthy. One of the first things I go to is a bag of chips, so there is no reason for these companies to try to change their ways. I also think the quote from the reading “Working-class speakers drop the “r” in words like quarter

and park, while upper-middle-class speakers pronounce the “r,” following the standard American “prestige” pronunciation” shows that things as simple as the words used on the bag can decide who will be buying that bag of chips. A college kid who just stumbled into a gas station at 2am on a Friday night is not going to care the trans fat intake, but a mom who loves chips and goes to the grocery store will most likely pick up the more expensive bag of chips.

         This also applies to food, a upper middle class person is not going to be thinking where to go to dinner and see a McDonald’s ad and decide that is where their family is going. Every ad has a certain audience and it applies to them directly.

Tacos or Steak

Food has a lot of significance in my life because most foods have some sort of attachment to me. There are curtain places and foods I will eat based on my mood or whom I am with. The most memorable food is Taco Bell, some of the team and I would also go to taco bell after every hockey practice. My best friend, Tony and I would always go to Taco Bell to discuss how the team was looking and the events of our past weekend. The stories would always be very interesting, and sometimes stories that we would never speak of to other people. We were never very emotional people, but if we had to have a discussion about something Taco Bell was the first place to go. Most of my food connections are with Tony. Ironically, we hated each other sophomore year, and my hockey coach told me during practice one day, that he was going to make us best friends one day. After, two years of hockey we were always together on and off the ice. Every Friday morning Tony and I would get McDonald’s breakfast because Friday was always game day. Lastly, we would celebrate every win and dwell in every loss at Chili’s. It was the same thing, every time. Steak fajitas and a plain cheeseburger always were ready for us when we would get our regular waiter, Dan. Dan was saving up for college and working at Chili’s to get out of Libertyville, which everyone Libertyville resident wanted to. Libertyville was a very boring town. Nothing too crazy ever happened there, and there were very few fun things to do in Libertyville.

Other than going out with my friends, I would go out to dinner with my family. This was one of the few things that we could actually get the whole family together for because I am not home for most of the year, and my brother is at Loyola Medical School, which is one of the most competitive medical schools in Illinois. The normal places were Gino’s East and Bob Chinn’s. Gino’s East is one of the corner stones of Chicago. They hands down have the best deep-dish pizzas in Chicago. Many people will argue with this statement and every Chicagoan has their own opinion, but if he or she is a true Chicago native and was raised by good Chicago parents, Gino’s is the place to go for deep dish. The feeling of the store is very welcoming. The first thing one sees at this fine eating establishment is a wall covered in signatures of anyone who stepped into the historical restaurant. I have been to weddings with Gino’s East and everyone knows the name. When my family gets our act together to go there, we also order the same thing, a large spinach deep-dish pizza and a thin crust BBQ pizza. This is one of the few times we can share stories about school, work, and life in general. Even though these stories are not the same stories I share with Tony, they can be very deep discussions of very serious family topics or very stupid conversations on how the White Sox are better than the Cubs, or the chances of the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup. Usually, I get very frustrated with these dumb conversations because the other members of my family do not know as much as I do about sports. Whether or not I get annoyed, it is very nice to see them and be able to talk to them when it is not via text message or email.

Bob Chinn’s is where my family likes to go when one of is leaving for a long time. Chinn’s has a very tropical feel, with some of the best seafood and steaks in Chicago. We never know what one other will order because of the massive amount of choices. My family can never even decide on an appetizer there; there are just so many options, like Ahi Seared Tuna or Oysters Rockefeller.

No matter what, when my family or friends, and sometimes both, can get together and discus our lives it is a great time. There are so many connections I make to food that it are huge part of my life. Also, leaving Chicago for a long period of time makes me miss the food and the people I enjoy it with, whether it is a Crunch Wrap Supreme with my best friends from the hockey team, or is it a $50 steak that my dad’s wallet takes the hit for. No matter what the food is meaningful and enjoyable.