ReFramed: Different

Different planets, different food. In the movie “Galaxy Quest”, when the crew is served their first meal on the Thermian replica of the Protector, Alexander, the crew’s medical officer, is served food from his character’s home planet. At first glance, he is quickly disgusted by it, and would not try the food. He seems like the type of person that would judge something by its appearance before actually trying it.

Just like in the movie, we have many different cultures with various kinds of cuisine and food. But many people like Alexander, judge food by its look and/or smell before actually even tasting it. This causes most people to turn the food away and refuse to try it. But why do people judge things so quickly before trying it? If you were starving like the soldiers during WWI, would you be so quick to turn away edible food? Soldiers from WW1 had very small rations and poor meals. The food they had was barely enough to keep them alive. Their main focus was to not die, not whether or not their seemed disgusting or had a funky odor to it. If only people were more open to new things and is not so quick to judge. They should think back to the starving soldiers whenever they’re deciding on whether or not they should try something new, to give them that open mindset. More people would be open to trying new food this way. There has to be at least one dish or food that you like from each culture. Why else would other people from those cultures eat that food? Different people have different preferences. You would not like it if someone else said what you ate was disgusting, foul, nasty, horrible, or stinky, would you? Although some of these descriptions are true to the outer appearance of the dish, the actual taste might be the complete opposite of what you expect. Sure, it might have a horrible odor like stinky tofu from China,

or slimy like escargot from France,

but you should try it once before labeling it as something awful for the rest of your life. How could you judge something from its appearance? Just like the phrase,” you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover”, you shouldn’t also judge food by its appearance. To the people of these different cultures, these foods that seem odd to you are normal to them. The Thermians in the movie set a good example for others to follow. They are open to new ideas, cultures, and food. By copying what they say from the “historical documents” from Earth, they were able to improve their own lives. Just like, if you tried something new or exotic, that dish could turn out to be one of your new favorite foods. I hope people would keep a more open mindset when trying out new things. This doesn’t just apply to food though. People should be open to trying out everything. Different cultures, different food.

                                                                                                                                                             -Tom

Reframed: nothing to eat…

So first world problems? People nowadays are like “there’s nothing to eat!” but yet there is food in the fridge or pantry. That’s our society today. People are always complaining about the lack of food in their fridge or they’re hungry about an hour after they eat. I guess they don’t think about WWI soldiers stuck in the middle of No Man’s Land and all they have in their pockets is maybe a slice of bread. It might not even be GOOD bread. Most likely the bread is moldy and touched by rats. Going back to our friend Paul in All Quiet on the Western Front, he and his squad or stuck in a trench taking cover from the bombardment. Realizing that he is extremely hungry he goes for a nibble of his bread. But at that moment he and his squad mates realize that their bread has been eaten away by rats. He thought about throwing the bread away but realizes that it is too valuable to waste, he just makes do with what he has. Nothing to eat? This basically explains our society today

Now compare these kind of people to the people back during WWI. Of course at the beginning of the war a soldier’s rations were more than enough to keep him lasting for quite a while. But as the war dragged on many soldiers began noticing rations being reduced to basically a loaf of moldy bread. We see moldy bread as gross and disgusting, soldiers see it as treasure and will devour it in seconds if they could. Actually they’d probably think it’s disgusting too, but they would still eat it. So its probably a better example when kids complain about their vegetables at dinner time. Clearly they do not think about the soldiers and what they had to eat. Give a soldier your broccoli kid, he’ll eat that in no time! When we complain about being hungry for an hour, they complain about being hungry for days! Please stop complaining, you just had lunch. So try being like a soldier, don’t waste food. It’s your ammunition.

It’s an artillery shell, this picture made me laugh

So this is bread from WWI. I see it’s got a little mold at the edges there. Anyone up for feast?

Eating this kind of gruel and eating only once a day probably makes a soldier crave something a little more fresh. Kids hate vegetables like broccoli, spinach, or carrots. Well, a WWI soldier would be in heaven if he could eat even a tiny portion of that a day. Vegies keep you going. Also don’t they help you grow? I don’t know. Maybe if soldiers actually had vegetables they could perform better in combat. So this post is going out to all you kids out there because I know you waste food. Trust me I’ve been there. Stop wasting food and eat your vegetables. Just think if you were in those trenches and all you had was moldy bread. A piece of broccoli would taste good right about now huh?

                                                                                                                                  -Ethan

Just dessert…

 

Mmmmm…. had this earlier, it was a cloud of sweetness that melted in my mouth

REFRAMED: I HATE SPINACH!!

Hunger. Starvation. Famine. These are usually what soldiers usually felt during wars in the past. However, during World War I, soldiers usually got rations of food made by cooks.  In All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul and his fellow soldiers eat a variety of food that include haricot beans, bully beef, sausage, bread, coffee, biscuits, and tea. The book begins with them eating and after some weeks, the cook prepares food for 150 soldiers to eat, however, artillery strikes bombarded the soldiers and only 80 returned. At first, the cook becomes indecisive and refuses to give all of the food to the Paul and the soldiers, but later on, he gives in and lets them feast. This all took place during later in World War I, which was around 1917 to 1918 on the front of the fight between Britain, France, and Germany. Depending on where the soldier was from, they usually got plenty of food at first. For example, British soldiers had 10 ounces of meat and 8 ounces of vegetables per day. A little over three million tons of food was given to the British soldiers during the fight with Germany at Belgium.

A little taste of epicness…

Soldiers could have probably made all of their extra food into something like this.

The first image shows what “bully beef” would look like, which was basically corned beef in a can that soldiers carried around during war. The second picture is a poster that showed the wanting of death of a Kaiser and canned food. The third picture involves a poster that was used during times where food supplies were low and the poster asked people to “save a loaf a week” for the soldiers, but this did not matter too much because most of the bread became rotten or stale by the time it got to the kitchen or the soldiers.

Although this may seem like a luxury to the soldiers, it later became worse. As the war raged on and fighting against countries continued, rations were cut down to only 6 ounces of meat per day, with little bread. Soldiers started to eat mainly bully beef, which was canned corned beef.  In addition, food supplies took days to reach the army’s kitchens, which were vats. By that time, the food has become rotten or stale, but soldiers were forced to eat it anyways. As winter time came by, food shortages has increased until the point where cooks were forced to take food from their surroundings.

Food keeps humans alive, strong, and healthy. In many places around the world, people don’t get this treasure. I believe sometimes people take food for granted and they don’t cherish what they have. For example, children usually hate vegetables, especially peas and spinach, but they don’t realize that they are lucky to have food on their plate. But sometimes, people can love food too much and that may become a problem.

To me, this poster has a lot of meaning to it and people should remember this.                                                                  -Ryan