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How Food and Beer Can Shape Culture in Writing

How Food and Beer Can Shape Culture in Writing

As an essay writer, one of the most interesting things you can do is discover new places and new foods at the same time. Food brings people together and arouses a lot of creativity among different people in different parts of the world. What makes food a uniting factor? The fact that food is an essential part of survival helps make it so impactful in everyday life. Every person has to eat at least a meal a day to survive. The only difference is in the kind of food each person eats and how they choose to prepare and cook it.

Traveling gives you insight into different cultures and traditions. It broadens your mind and, in turn, your content as a good writer. There is so much to learn in a single place that you need to spend a couple of days in the same place to learn something tangible. When it comes to food, there are a few things that you need to know about the places to fully explore them. And once you know them, your work becomes totally easy.


Key Discoveries When Writing About Travel

Food Source

The world is big enough to have different sources of food for different people. If you really want to discover a place through the food they eat, you need to know the kinds of food that are common within that area. For example, some places are entirely vegetarian. In such an area, knowing their source of food gives you an idea of who they are and how they live. This will form the base for your essay.

In some places, a community will mainly get their food from the sea. They feed on all kinds of sea creatures, including fish, octopus, shrimp, and others. You can automatically tell that people in this area are invested in activities like fishing, and that it’s probably their livelihood.

Discovering the source of food is, therefore, the first way of knowing the people of the place you travel to. It is more of a small gateway into their lives. When writing about such a place, this becomes one of the guides to the content you include in the essay.

Beer, Whiskey, or Wine?

Food always goes with beverages. What is the common drink in that area? If they drink wine, they probably grow grapes around as well. The same applies to all other drinks. The drinks do not even have to be alcoholic. They can be great farmers who invest heavily in dairy farming and have milk as a favorite beverage. Writing about this makes your work very interesting.

Some places are known for a specific drink. Whenever you visit such a place, people expect that you will indulge in the said drink. If you really want to know a place, you need to know what they drink. That is another identifier of places that a good writer will not miss. Drinks, like food, bring people together. Besides, it forms a huge part of the people’s livelihoods. A place that has grape fields will have a huge portion of the populace working in those fields.

Food Preparation and Presentation

The world is full of different cultures and different traditions. Some traditions are exclusive to certain places. When traveling, there are places that you will find unique recipes. Most of them have been passed down through generations. Tasting these kinds of foods gives you insight into the world of your host and helps you determine who they are. This one is a jackpot for your writing.

For example, some people will cook their food with heavy spicing and others with none. Some believe that food made using traditional forms of preparation taste better. All these things define a place and its culture.  These details help you form a detailed description of the place.

Food presentation is also important because it differs in different places. For example, some people will drink a beer from the bottle while others will pour it in a glass. Both may be taking the same beer, but they can swear to you that it tastes better when presented in a particular way. Show these kinds of differences in your essay.

Drinking/Eating time

When do they gather for meals or drinks? Trust me; you will visit a place where a cold beer in the morning is the norm. You will also find places where they only converge at dinner. How else will you learn about a place if you ignore the things that bring them together? As a writer, simply observe and describe in order to express what you’re seeing.