I looked at a presentation of 2 classmates about a food tradition. Abdellah and Berkant talked about a food tradition that Russians celebrate. It’s called Pelmeni. Pelmeni is a tradition and it means Ear bread. So the name of this food tradition is given to the food self. Pelmeni is a type of dumpling filled with meat and wrapped in thin, uneven dough. It’s very spicy but it depends on the amount of herbs and pepper that they put in it. Because of that, Pelmeni bread can last a few days. That is what they eat that day. Pelmeni may not look very tasty but it’s important in the Russian culture and a very popular dish. They haven’t got a particular reason for making Pelmeni, it’s just a tradition. This bread is accompanied with vodka and a lot of sour cream. They only celebrate it in Russia but they actually said that this tradition has been copied of Chinese people. This food tradition is celebrated the day after New Year.

This presentation was generally good and informative but there were some mistakes. When they talked, it was like they weren’t sure about themselves. They were hesitating and that gives a bad visual of the presentation. What I also noticed is that they just give a lot of information about the food. Of course it is the purpose of the presentation but it’s better to give more information to the tradition itself. It’s a pity that their Powerpoint contains a lot of text. It would have been better to show more pictures because like that you can get the attention of the classmates. The information about the food was good and detailed, I learned a lot.

Pelmeni was a food tradition that I didn’t know. Thanks to Abdellah and Berkant I learned what is is and what they do on this day. I think it is a special day, because it’s the only tradition that eats something like that bread. I would like to eat that bread one day. It seems tasty.

Did you ever notice that our food culture changed? Nowadays people don’t pay too much attention to it, but I want to remind you of how our eating habits have changed. I can certainly not tell you how people ate many years ago because I wasn’t born. That’s why I asked my parents and grandparents. I think that the food culture certainly changed. Many years ago, food was more natural and fresh. If we look at it now, our eating habits are bad, not everything of course but most of our eating habits unfortunately changed.

Before, everything was homemade: bread, meals, cakes,… People were sure that there weren’t any chemical products in their food. In everything that we buy nowadays; there are chemical products, that can possibly be dangerous for our health. There are even chemical products that they add without mentioning it on the food label.

When I asked my parents about what changed in our eating habits they told me, without hesitation, that they always ate together for dinner before. Now we rarely eat with the whole family because everyone has something to do or just doesn’t want to eat together. They find it such a pity!

Nowadays people eat less healthy than many years ago, especially the teenagers. A big consequence of it, is obesity. There are more fast food restaurants, all the unhealthy food is not that expensive; fries, candies,… These things didn’t exist before that’s why people were healthier. But I can understand them, it’s too difficult to resist to all these delicious, unhealthy foods.

I think you all understand my opinion. Everything was natural, healthy, and fresh. We are distracted because of the publicity. But if everyone would do something, pay more attention to it, we could change the food culture and eating habits. So I think we all know what to do!