Food and Status

Professor Hsu’s article, “A taste of ‘modernity’: Working in a western restaurant in market socialist China” focuses on food as a status symbol. After reading the article I began to reflect on food that I eat, even though I do not like the taste, because of their cultural status. At home in Seattle, there are many: Rainier beer, Phở, sushi, salmon, garden salads, and many more. Each of these items I would never consume alone, or out of objective choice. I eat them with friends and family, by pressure. Specifically, the fact that I don’t enjoy salmon would signal that I have low class taste; distaste for Phở and sushi would give off the impression that I’m uncultured; passing up a garden salad would signal I don’t care about my health; and refusing local Rainier beer would be met with general reactions of horror. In line with Professor Hsu’s study, do I consume these items because I want to attain a certain cultural status? It’s difficult to be self-reflexive in terms of status. I can’t definitely say that I want to be “high class”, “cultured”, and “cool”; nor can I say that I consciously consume certain foods to attain a certain status. However I guess status does play a role into my food choices. Why else would I eat these foods?