When I first came to the states, the one thing I noticed was all the food commercials. I remember making a comment about it to my husband and it was weird to me because back home we barely had any food commercials.
The commercials made me crave all sorts of things, they made the food look so good, and the models they used I bet have never eaten fast food in their life, they are gorgeous skinny or ripped men who probably live on vegetables and nuts, but they have to ability to really draw you in.
I remember having a list of all the food joints I wanted to go to. Unfortunately, everywhere I went I ended up being greatly disappointed. It was always so flat, and the sweet things I wanted to try out like krispy-kreme were on sugar overload, I just couldn’t handle them and the disappointment saddened me because I wanted so much to enjoy them.
I also remember when I came here it was about 2 weeks to valentines day, so my husband and I made plans to go out for dinner. I was shocked at the waiting lines we found at every restaurant we went to. The hostess would tell us things like a 45min wait, my husband and I would look at each other and be like ‘there is no way we are waiting for that long’’ and we would go to the next place only to be surprised they had a waiting period that was even longer, and even more astonishing was the fact that people were actually waiting.
The food culture and eating out culture in the states is definitely different from the one we have in Kenya. In Kenya people cook almost every day and just go out to eat once in awhile, or for occasion. Unlike here, people go out to eat all the time.
Food is the one thing that makes each people distinct and unique. It is extremely difficult to re-create food from one area in another, even with the right ingredients. I quickly realize I was not going to have the taste of food I was accustomed to. I later realized the main difference between food at home and the food here was the fact that most of our food was organic.
So I decided to try buying organic food, and to my dismay organic food is very expensive. Make a simple trip to whole foods and you are bound to leave there with your jaw on the floor. This has led me to really question, why organic food is so expensive. It’s supposed to be pesticide and all this medicine free, and naturally grown. So why should it cost so much? How it is possible to have food at fast food places cost less than fruits and vegetables? It baffles me because back home it’s the opposite so that is one thing I haven’t been able to figure out.
I have tried to read on it and watched documentaries on it but am still left with the question, why is good food so expensive?