English 2150 Spring 2024: Setting the Table

The podcast I was listening to was Rice Rice Baby, this podcast was about the importance of rice and the history behind rice. The main takeaway would be how rice influenced societies from ancient times to now. They were also talking about how rice was the center of Japanese and Chinese culture and how many dishes were made of rice. I would recommend this podcast to my classmates who want in-depth knowledge about rice. One question I would ask is how people cook rice in the ancient time.

Share a brief (one-paragraph) response to your podcast in the form of a blog post. Some things you might want to include: What was your podcast about? What was YOUR main takeaway from listening? Would you recommend this podcast to your classmates? (why or why not) What are some questions raised by the episode?

Fuchsia Dunlop, a well-known English-language author, has written extensively about Chinese cuisine, gaining knowledge from her years of immersion in many regions of China. Initially, Dunlop traveled to Chengdu to live abroad and eat excellent meals. Her most recent book, Invitation to a Banquet, goes into Chinese cuisine with delicacies such as sweet-and-sour pork balls and fire-exploded kidney blossoms, which she likes in Chengdu. When she talked about her mother and how she taught English to foreign students, they would come over and live with them in their homes and often cook food from their home countries. This was the main takeaway that got me thinking about all the different types of cuisine that were mentioned, and it caught my attention because, like her, I love to travel and discover all the different types and traditions of cuisine in different countries. I would suggest this podcast to my peers since it discusses Fuchsia Dunlop’s exploration of many customs and cultures, which was motivated by her mother. I would like to know if she picked up any new languages from the locations she went.

Following the recent acceptance of chicken bred in a lab in the United States, the show talked about the science behind the process of making meat from animal cells and looked into the problems that come with trying to lower the cost. However, there are still problems that need to be solved before this can completely change the way we think about sustainability and animal care. This podcast makes me think about the future of meat in interesting ways that make me wonder what kinds of lab-grown steaks we might be cooking in a few years. I will definitely recommend it to my students who are interested in food technology.

“The Sporkful” podcast episode titled “Spicy Doritos and How Foods Become American” explores the cultural and historical aspects of food, focusing on how certain foods become ingrained in American culture. The main takeaway is how even something as seemingly simple as a snack food can tell a story about immigration, globalization, etc. I would recommend this podcast to my classmates if you enjoy exploring the stories behind food and its cultural significance. I have two questions that were raised by this episode and one of them is, how do certain foods become iconic in American culture while others do not? My second question is, how do food companies adapt their products to appeal to changing consumer tastes and preferences?

• Mid-Semester Reflection: Please set aside some time to complete your mid-semester reflection. You can find the form HERE. As I explained in class, this is a good opportunity for you to think about how the semester has gone so far and to do some goal-setting for the second half of the semester. Please complete the form no later than Friday, March 29th.
• Homework for Wednesday, March 27th: Listen to any one of the food-themed podcast episodes linked to HERE. Share a brief (one paragraph) response to your podcast in the form of a blog post. Some things you might want to include: What was your podcast about? What was YOUR main takeaway from listening? Would you recommend this podcast to your classmates? (why or why not) What are some questions raised by the episode? Please share your post no later than noon on Wednesday. Be prepared to talk about the podcast in class.

This week is focused on completing your second major writing assignment of the semester. If you have misplaced the instructions, you can find them under the “Essays” tab at the top of the blog.

Drafts Submitted: Drafts were due on Monday and were to be placed in a shared folder where we could all access them. The link to the folder is HERE. If your draft is not yet in the folder, you cannot continue with this assignment without completing a draft, so your first priority needs to be adding a draft to the folder.

Peer Review: Peer Review was assigned as your work for Monday, March 18th. You can find group assignments and instructions in my previous post. Like submitting a draft, completing peer review is required. You cannot pass the course without completing a draft and participating in peer review. If you have not yet reviewed your partners’ drafts, please follow the instructions in my previous post and get that done ASAP.

Essays Due; Your finished reviews or essays are due by midnight on Sunday, March 24th. Please submit your work by placing it in your personal English 2150 folder – the same folder in which you submitted your Personal Narrative.

Thank you to those of you who attended our Zoom meeting and who uploaded your drafts to the designated Google Docs Folder. As a reminder, your drafts were due TODAY (no exceptions, no excuses) and completing your PEER REVIEW is your work for today, regardless of whether you attended the Zoom meeting or submitted your draft. I am sharing the peer review groups here. You can find your partners’ drafts in the folder I linked to in yesterday’s post. In that folder, you can also find a file titled “Peer Review Instructions”. This file contains the form you will be using for the Peer Review and instructions on how to manage it electronically. Please reach out to me ASAP if you have any questions about this. On Wednesday in class we will be working with your drafts, so be sure to either have an updated printout of your draft or a laptop or tablet that. you can work with in class.

Group 1: Alex, Helen, Angel

Group 2: Argenise, Kimberly, Zihao

Group 3: Ayah, Brandon, Samin

Group 4: Steven, Arlene, Kevin G.

Group 5: Kevin X., Ramon, Christopher

Group 6: Gabriel, Jeff, Marcus

Group 7: David, Matthew, Stephanie

Hi Everyone,

I hope your drafts are coming along and that you have enjoyed some down time this weekend.  Unfortunately, I am sick and will not be able to hold our regular class tomorrow (Monday).  Instead, we will be meeting via Zoom at 12:30.  I am attaching the link the link below.  

Instead of working with hard copies of your drafts as planned, you will be submitting the drafts electronically.    Once your draft is completed, please give your a title that includes YOUR NAME and upload it to this shared google doc folder:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cnYBWZHa4k3o-tD89Ddlb_iNsSknXWV9?usp=drive_link 

Whether your draft is complete or not, you MUST have something to submit tomorow, so do your best.  If you can’t figure out how to get your file into the folder, either ask a friend for help or send it to me as an email attachment, and I can do it for you.  

Tomorrow’s class will not run our full 100 minutes, but it is MANDATORY, so please be sure to log on at 12:30 using this link:

https://baruch.zoom.us/j/7078160027?omn=83500264001

I am expecting to be back on campus on Wednesday, so it will be back to business as usual, but in the meantime, I am grateful that we can use technology in this way.

Really looking forward to reading your work!!!

Take care,

Professor Sylvor

www.lovingpho.com