Cuisine Type Research Articles

Local Cuisine as a Potential Tourism Attractor and Marker of National Identity in Botswana

Contemporary gastronomic studies acknowledge the importance of local cuisine as a fundamental component of a destination's attributes, qualifying its status as a tourist attraction. However, this status in Botswana is presently underdeveloped, despite the huge untapped potential presented by the local Setswana cuisine as an option for tourism diversification. Using the cultural capital theory, this study assessed two main symbolisms of food consumption in tourism: the acceptance of local cuisine (hence tourism potential) and its role as a marker of national identity. An expert opinion survey incorporating the views of a typical case purposive sample of 63 food and beverage managers, tourism administrators, and academics in Gaborone was used to assess these two forms of symbolisms. From a list of 28 cuisine types compiled through literature review, experts highly regarded seswaa (pound boiled beef), both in terms of tourism potential and as a marker of national identity. A fourgrid tourism potential national identity matrix developed from this study also identified 12 cuisine types that could receive high priority in the development of cuisine tourism in Botswana. However, despite this recognition, there is limited culinary infrastructure and cultural capital that could be used to transform or create a culinary staging that could move this potential into touristic value. Therefore, the study recommends increased appreciation of traditional cuisine as tourism resources, through the creation of appropriate touristic add-ons and continued research in identifying the specific attributes of such cuisine that could be used as unique selling points.

The Novel Design of Thai Sausage Making Machine

Thai sausage or Isan sausage is a type of north eastern Thai cuisine which is famous for being served as an appitizer. Recently, Thai sausage production depends solely on manual tasks on stuffing and belaying the product, and as a result, it is hardly that the production can be well managed in terms of quantity, quality, and time. In this paper, we propose a novel design of semi-automatic system to improve the traditional Thai sausage production. Particulary, the machine is developed with a set of 24-volt, 36-watt,100-rpm DC motors used in both stuffering and belaying the materials, and it is mainly controlled by a programmable logic controller (PLC). Our design can yeild the product with short size of 4.5 cm and long size of 9 cm in length and both have the same 4 cm in diameter. On average, the output rates for the short-size products and the long-size products are 57 cm per minute and 71 cm per minute, respectively. This machine can improve production time compared to the previous process using manpower which can make short-size sausage and long-size sauge at 40 cm and 60 cm in one minute, respectively.

Baixa Gastronomia: caracterização e aproximações teórico-conceituais

A gastronomia pode se configurar num elemento de vivência da cultura local a partir da sua articulação com a atividade turística ou cultural de uma localidade. Neste aspecto, observa-se o crescimento da oferta de estabelecimentos no setor da alimentação comercial, assim como o interesse crescente pela temática gastronomia, especialmente em blogs e comunidades em redes sociais. Nesses meios, nota-se um crescente uso do termo “baixa gastronomia”. Ainda que com considerável popularidade, até o momento da pesquisa empreendida verificou-se não haver um número expressivo de discussões teóricas visando compreender suas características de consumo. Assim exposto, para elaboração do presente artigo, o ponto de partida surgiu da seguinte problemática: O que seria a baixa gastronomia e quais as suas características? Tendo como objetivo geral definir o termo baixa gastronomia a partir da discussão de suas características e identificação de aproximações teórico-conceituais. Para tanto, efetuou-se uma pesquisa exploratória de cunho bibliográfico. Ainda que consista em uma investigação inicial, os principais resultados apontaram a baixa gastronomia como um tipo de gastronomia que abrange comidas de caráter caseiro e popular, em porções bem servidas a um preço justo, em estabelecimentos simples, onde o atendimento, ainda que profissional, ocorre de forma mais fluída e informal. Sua dinâmica de consumo vincula-se fortemente à perspectiva da hospitalidade, sendo este possivelmente, um dos principais meios de aproximação com a atividade turística. Acredita-se assim que o tema possa representar uma possibilidade de refletir sobre novos modelos para a relação turismo-gastronomia em termos de pesquisa e até mesmo de planejamento da atividade.

A structural equation model of New York restaurant grades over a 2-year period

ABSTRACTThis study identified disparities in cuisine types and boroughs for attaining the highest restaurant grade in New York using regression modeling. The first structural equation models have been developed for the modeling of the highest grade possible with borough and cuisine type based upon the citywide results of these eight restaurant types from calendar years 2011 and 2012. The results suggest that certain styles of restaurants have lower odds of receiving the highest grade in comparison to American-style restaurants.

Profil Industri Rumah Tangga Rakik di Kecamatan Pauh Kota Padang

West Sumatra is famous for various types of cuisine that contain a lot of spices, marinades and have good taste. This can be either culinary or cooking traditional cakes. One of the traditional cakes are brittle or known by Rakik. These efforts form of home industry. This study is a survey of two industry tanggga rakik house in the district of Padang Pauh, which had stood for 20 years, namely Mrs. Fatmawati Rakik Enterprises and Enterprises Rakik Mother Yulidar. Various problems faced by the domestic industry of which this is still traditional activities, lack of good financial management, packaging products and trademarks are less attractive, and yet the drafting of financial statements in accordance with standards (SAK-ETAP).

Culinary taste and the legitimate cuisines

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study a wide range of culinary tastes and their legitimacy in a contemporary urban context. The authors aim at finding out which cuisines are the most popular and to what extent this popularity translates into eating out. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data (n=1715) gathered among young adults residing in Helsinki (aged 25-44) measuring preferences and restaurant visits for 19 cuisine types. Measures for expressed legitimacy and actualised legitimacy for all the 19 cuisine types. Findings – The most preferred cuisine types are pizza, other Italian fare and traditional Nordic fare, including home cooking. The most visited restaurants by cuisine type are pizza, fast food and Italian. However, the most legitimate (both expressed and actualised) cuisines are Korean, African, fine dining and French. Several dissonances were found between stated likes and actual consumer behaviour. The results suggest that although fast food bears a stigma as socially unacceptable cuisine, it is, nonetheless, very frequently eaten in the restaurants. Research limitations/implications – As the data account only for a fraction of the population, limited by both age and region, it would be relevant for future research to investigate this on a larger scale in order to make (inter)nationally representative conclusions. Originality/value – A research design taking into account such a wide range of cuisine types has not been presented before.

Determinants of a restaurant average meal price: An application of the hedonic pricing model

This study applies the hedonic pricing model to examine important attributes influencing average customer meal prices in restaurants in Seoul, Korea. Data from 185 restaurants were collected via Internet, phone interviews, site inspections, and ZAGAT Survey, and analyzed using OLS regression. The log-linear model was found to be most suitable for the data, and the proposed hedonic model accounted for as much as 73.7% of the variation in meal prices. The results indicate that food quality and décor were important determinants of restaurants’ average meal prices while service was not. Furthermore, the study found that a restaurant's location within the building (1st floor), the types of cuisine served (Japanese and Italian), parking facilities, private dining settings, franchising, and the number of blogger reviews (e-WOM) have significant effects on restaurants’ average meal prices. The model will provide useful information for restaurateurs in deciding effective menu pricing strategies.

Rating Bias and Preference Acquisition

Personalized systems and recommender systems exploit implicitly and explicitly provided user information to address the needs and requirements of those using their services. User preference information, often in the form of interaction logs and ratings data, is used to identify similar users, whose opinions are leveraged to inform recommendations or to filter information. In this work we explore a different dimension of information trends in user bias and reasoning learned from ratings provided by users to a recommender system. Our work examines the characteristics of a dataset of 100,000 user ratings on a corpus of recipes, which illustrates stable user bias towards certain features of the recipes (cuisine type, key ingredient, and complexity). We exploit this knowledge to design and evaluate a personalized rating acquisition tool based on active learning, which leverages user biases in order to obtain ratings bearing high-value information and to reduce prediction errors with new users.

Mouthwatering but erosive? a preliminary assessment of the acidity of a basic sauce used in many indian dishes

The aim of this study was to assess whether some types of Indian cuisine may contain erosive components. Indian dishes were prepared by a previously published method and their pH measured using a pH probe. The results indicated: (i) that some components of Indian cooking, such as tomatoes and red chilli powder, had the potential to erode enamel; (ii) that the pH of some foods was reduced with increasing temperature; and (iii) that all the basic masalas made and tested had a pH of less than 4.5. Within the limitations of the study, it may be concluded that the basic sauce/masala used in north Indian dishes may have erosive potential. This information could be considered useful when advising patients who eat Indian curries about causes of acid erosion of their teeth.

Expert opinion and cuisine reputation in the market for restaurant meals

As food is an experience good, the market for restaurant meals is a market where the cost of acquiring information regarding quality is relatively high. In such markets consumers often turn to reputation measures to guide purchase decisions. As Australia does not have a longstanding cuisine style of its own, and given Australia has been open to substantial immigration inflows since federation, it represents an especially appropriate market to study regarding the impact of individual restaurant reputation and collective cuisine reputation on meal prices. The following study uses the hedonic price approach to investigate the implicit price of individual reputation indicators, cuisine type reputation indicators and other objective indicators in the market for restaurant meals. The empirical findings presented suggest that both individual restaurant reputation and cuisine type reputation are important. Other important factors are shown to include the quality of the restaurant wine list, the availability of private dining rooms, and whether or not there is an outdoor dining option.

1900년대 이전 문헌에 기록된 전 조리법의 문헌적 고찰

Jeon refers to a type of Korean cuisine used as a side dish, made with various ingredients such as meat, vegetables, or fish, mixed with flour batter and coated with egg batter and then pan-fried on both sides with oil so that heat spreads through them well. The aim of this study was to provide a cornerstone of further research on Korean dietary life, by reviewing types, recipes and names of Jeon recorded in ancient cookbooks (Korean literatures) and by analyzing changes in recipes to make Jeon, which our ancestors used wisely as one type of side dish. Considering developments and changes recorded in old documents, the Jeon recipe appeared relatively later than the recipes for grilling, steaming et al, which had been developed much earlier, and it had not been recorded until the 1600s. Changes of Jeon recipes by time period are as follows. In the 1600s, there were three recipes: frying only with grain batter after preparation of ingredients, frying right after preparation of ingredients, and putting ingredients on already fried watery batter. These three recipes were still used in the 1700s, in addi tion to a new recipe, in which ingredients were oil-fried to be skewered. Today's recipe in which prepared ingredients are fried after getting coated with flour and egg only appeared in 1800s. This has been the main recipe for Jeon ever since. In that time period, there was more variety of recipes and ingredients than before. For instance, Jeon was used for soup or steamed dishes instead of being served as a dish itself. Buchimgae with mixed ingredients was also considered Jeon. In the 1900s, there appeared more names for Jeon as more sorts of ingredients got used, even though there were no new recipes for Jeon. The above-mentioned historical records show that traditional recipes for Jeon have been applied to various dishes, using diverse ingredients, and it might be a smart solution to today's problematic dietary habits involving excessive intake of nutrients, in that it provides a healthy way to add fat. In the same sense, the recipe for Jeon can play an active role in internationalization of Korean foods, in which healthiness is a main feature. According to ancient documents, the recipes for Jeon were used even for meals that were not side dishes, such as Jun-Gwa (Jung-Gwa), Jun-Yak and fried rice-cake. Also, there were dishes using the same recipes even without carrying the name of Jeon, like Buchim or Jijim. This might be worthy of further examination in culinary science.

Restaurant location in Hamilton, New Zealand: clustering patterns from 1996 to 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to assess the evolution of restaurant locations in the city of Hamilton over a 12‐year period (1996 to 2008) using GIS techniques. Retail theories such as central place, spatial interaction and principle of minimum differentiation are applied to the restaurant setting.Design/methodology/approachA database of restaurants was compiled using the NZ yellow pages and contained 981 entries that consisted mainly of location addresses and types of cuisine. This paper focuses on locational patterns only.FindingsA process of geo‐coding and clustering enabled the identification of two clustering periods over 12 years for city restaurants, indicating locational patterns of agglomeration within a short walking distance of the CBD and spill over effects to the north of the city.Research limitations/implicationsThe data do not allow statistical analysis of the variables causing the clustering but offer a visual description of the evolution. Explanations are offered on the possible planning regimes, retail provision and population changes that may explain this evolution.Practical implicationsThe findings allow identification of land use patterns in Hamilton city and potential areas where new restaurants could be developed. Also, the usefulness of geo‐coded data in identifying clustering effects is highlighted.Originality/valueExisting location studies relate mostly to site selection criteria in the retailing industry while few have considered the evolution of restaurant locations in a specific geographic area. This paper offers a case study of Hamilton city and highlights the usefulness of GIS techniques in understanding locational patterns.

Choose your menu wisely: cuisine-associated food-poisoning risks in restaurants in England and Wales

The food service sector continues to be the most common setting for reported foodborne disease outbreaks in England and Wales. Using restaurant-associated foodborne outbreaks reported in England and Wales from 1992 to 2009, cuisine-specific risk factors were examined. Of 677 restaurant outbreaks, there were 11 795 people affected, 491 hospitalizations, and seven deaths; and Chinese, Indian, British and Italian cuisines were the most commonly implicated (26%, 16%, 13% and 10%, respectively). Salmonella spp. accounted for most outbreaks of all cuisine types, and particularly Chinese (76%, 133/175) and Italian (55%, 38/69). Poultry meat was the most frequently implicated food vehicle in outbreaks associated with Indian (30%), Chinese (21%), and British (18%) cuisines while for Italian cuisine, desserts and cakes were more frequently implicated (33%). Rice dishes were also a common outbreak food vehicle in those restaurants serving Chinese (22%) and Indian (16%) cuisine. Cross-contamination was the biggest contributory factor associated with Chinese (46%), British (33%) and Indian (30%) cuisines whereas inadequate cooking (38%) and use of raw shell eggs in lightly cooked or uncooked food (35%) were more often associated with Italian cuisine. Over the surveillance period, the proportion of Salmonella Enteritidis PT4 outbreaks in restaurants serving Chinese cuisine significantly decreased (P<0.0001) and this was mirrored by an increase in S. Enteritidis non-PT4 outbreaks (P<0.0001). Despite this change in proportion, contributory factors such as cross-contamination have continued to cause outbreaks throughout the 18 years. The results show that by stratifying the risks associated with restaurants by cuisine type, specific evidence of food control failures can be used to target foodborne illness reduction strategies.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: ‘Eastern Spaghetti’ in Thailand

Just as Spaghetti Westerns gained popularity in Thailand in the 1960s, so too did certain types of Italian cuisine, most notably macaroni and pizza. In present-day Bangkok, Italian food has come to dominate the lifestyle of the middle and upper-middle classes, albeit frequently adapted to Thai tastes: hence ‘eastern spaghetti’ and pizza tom yam kung, with tomato ketchup on the side. It is commonplace for national cuisines to be adapted on importation into another country. Besides, Thai diners do not appear to be particularly concerned with authenticity – so much so that one Italian restaurant in the Silom area, a business district of Bangkok, even placed a big banner in front of the building advertising ‘inauthentic’ or ‘hybrid Italian food’ under the slogan: ‘Italian Food with Thai Flavour’. Moreover, the most revered foreign cuisine in Thai culinary history was not Italian but French (and to some extent English), dating from the two visits made by King Chulalongkorn to Europe in 1897 and 1907. Nor does the current ‘Italmania’ for food in Thailand come as a result of close diplomatic ties with Italy, but rather as a consequence of the popularity of Italian food in the UK and the USA, dating especially from the era of the Vietnam War. However, no matter how much Thais might love Italian cuisine, they prefer not to eat it on a daily basis, and many feel it to be too rich and greasy [lian], especially when living abroad with less access to familiar Thai dishes. Just as Chulalongkorn brought his own food supplies with him to Europe, so too do outbound Thai tour guides carry chilli paste and fish sauce. Former Thai Prime Minister Khukrit Pramoj summed up the experience of travelling abroad by noting that as a Thai he wanted rice, not bread. Of all the aspects of human behaviour, food habits are among the most difficult to change; nevertheless, change they do. Thais, especially the elite, do not have a ‘monotheistic cuisine’. If one can pay respect to Brahminism, animism, Buddhism, monarchism and Christianity, then one can also eat a variety of foreign foods.

Love, Loss, and the "Art" of Making Gumbo: An Interview with Eileen Julien

Love, Loss, and the "Art" of Making Gumbo:An Interview with Eileen Julien Shona N. Jackson (bio) and Eileen Julien (bio) This interview was conducted by phone on Wednesday, May 3, 2006. JACKSON: Where did you grow up? JULIEN: In New Orleans. JACKSON: New Orleans. And what was that like? JULIEN: Well, it was just where I grew up. It's not really until you leave home that you understand the distinction of the place that you've lived and just take for granted. It was very family, a place where relations were important and Sundays were days to go visiting, seeing people, relatives and so. It was very family oriented, very Catholic. JACKSON: Very Catholic. JULIEN: Yeah, I think even for people who were not Catholic it was nonetheless quite Catholic, even in the way the city functions and so forth. Of course, when I grew up it was mostly segregated too. JACKSON: When did you leave New Orleans? JULIEN: 1969. JACKSON: How important was food either in its abundance or lack in your world as a child? JULIEN: It was very important. My mother was a school teacher, my father was a postman. We didn't lack for anything that we really needed. And neither did my relatives. Many men were postmen, at least in our context, and there were some teachers, my mother's friends and her sister, my dad's sister. We were, if you will, middle class, but not the wealthy middle class of doctors and lawyers, just a kind of small bourgeoisie, you know. And food was important. In fact, your question reminds me of a couple of things, [laughter] a bit of family [End Page 95] lore. My grandmother used to say, for example, when you were going to eat at someone's home, she would say, "Well, you should always eat a little something before you go." For her, you never knew for sure that there would indeed be food. That was my grandmother's take, that you should eat because you just couldn't be sure what people would actually be giving you. You just didn't know what things could happen. My mother's attitude was one of surprise because going out to eat at other people's homes was not thought of as being "invited out to dinner." It wasn't thought of in that way. She once said to me, this was when I was in graduate school at Wisconsin and I told her I'd been invited out to dinner, "Well, do they know how to cook?!" She was very concerned that maybe they wouldn't really know how to fix good-tasting food you would want to eat. New Orleanians can be finicky about eating other types of cuisine. And now, you know, something's happened in the nation around food that's sort of different from when I grew up. JACKSON: What do you mean? JULIEN: Well, certainly in the fifties, and even the sixties, people didn't go to restaurants like they do now. A big pastime for professional people and wealthy people these days is to go out to dinner and to be invited to other homes for dinner. We ate at other people's homes a lot, but it wasn't like being invited out to dinner. It was just sort of normal. It was just an extension of your family. So, it wasn't "going out to dinner." In New Orleans, there were two main black restaurants when I was growing up. In fact, for a long time there was just one that I can remember. It was only later, in the sixties that there was a second one that became pretty well known. Dooky Chase was the one that had been there from when I was very small. And, I think, it was the one that people knew of and went to. There were other neighborhood spots, the Baquet's, but, mainly, people didn't really go out in the way we do now.2 JACKSON: Do you remember eating gumbo as a child? JULIEN: Oh! Of course! [laughter] Absolutely! Sure. JACKSON: Who made it primarily? Did you eat...

Toward a Philosophy Of Food History

[The French]... talk about talking about food. Gertrude Stein There is a topology of time in regard to activities which shall briefly develop here as a context for a philosophical discussion of history of food. This should help clarify levels of meaning that are implicit in phenomena of food. The broadest distinction that can be drawn is between immediate and mediate time. Immediate time, on one hand, is present and recent past, and within this temporal category we can distinguish between consumption and preparation of food. Preparation can be further divided into regional (popular) cuisine and erudite (professional) cuisine, as Jean-Francois Revel has done in his book, Culture and Cuisine.1 These different types of cuisine can be further developed along lines of Slow Food and Fast Food where Revel's interplay between regional and erudite disappears and becomes an opposition; see Carlo Petrini's Slow Food: The case for Taste.2 Mediate time, on other hand, is connection of with remote past. (I shall mainly be preoccupied with this idea.) Several examples come to mind. First is Roland Barthes's Sugar and Other Systems in which he suggests that has a commemorative function, i.e., food permits a person (and am here speaking of French themes) to partake each day of national past.3 detail, he says, this case, historical quality is obviously linked to techniques (preparation and cooking). These have long roots, reaching back to depth of French past. They are, we are told, repository of a whole experience, of accumulated wisdom of our ancestors. ... No doubt myth of French cooking abroad (or as expressed to foreigners) strengthens this nostalgic value of considerably; but since French themselves actively participate in this myth (especially when traveling), it is fair to say that through his Frenchman experiences a certain national continuity. By way of a thousand detours, permits him to insert himself daily into his own past and to believe in a certain culinary of France (87). A good fictional illustration of this point is in Willa Gather's novel, Death Comes for Archbishop, in which a conversation about a dark onion soup ensues: Think of it, Blanchet; in all this vast country between Mississippi and Pacific Ocean, there is probably not another human being who could make a soup like this. Not unless he is a Frenchman, said Father Joseph. He had tucked a napkin over front of his cassock and was losing no time in reflection. I am not depreciating your individual talent. Joseph, Bishop [Latour] continued, but, when one thinks of it, a soup like this is not work of one man. It is result of a constantly refined tradition. There are nearly a thousand years of history in this soup.4 Furthermore, this continuity of culinary is a widely-shared belief among native North American tribes and communities; for instance, Jim Enote of Zuni Pueblo remarks: In essence partaking of is more than a matter of physical sustenance, it is also a personal ritual to honor long history of our people, which is a story intimate and dense with meaning.3 Food ritualizing a national or tribal history and providing a culinary continuity with past is a premise shared by several cultures. This particular function of distinguishes history of in terms of how it accesses past, and therefore, this makes discipline very interesting and at same time problematic. So history of raises some intriguing philosophical questions. For instance, philosophers of history are interested in what sort of judgments are included in a historical narrative and why. shall took at two of these here: culinary judgments and comparative judgments. Duplication Problem The major historiographical problem of history of food, as Revel sees it, is this: the difficulty when one explores past (and even present) lies in appreciating difference between silent cuisine and cuisine that talks too much, between cuisine that exists on plate and one that exists only in gastronomical chronicles. …

FOOD SERVICE WASTEWATER CHARACTERISTICS AS INFLUENCED BY MANAGEMENT PRACTICE AND PRIMARY CUISINE TYPE

Across the nation, food service establishments using onsite wastewater treatment systems often experiencepretreatment system and/or drain field performance problems. This study used statistical analysis of restaurant managementpractice and primary cuisine type to observe their influence on five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), total fats, oils,and greases (FOG), total suspended solids (TSS), and daily flow. Twenty-eight Texas restaurants were involved in the studyand were selected to represent a variety of restaurant types. Each restaurant was asked to self-report information onmanagement practices by completing a survey. Wastewater concentrations were determined by analyzing grab samples. Dailyflow values were obtained by taking the difference between daily meter readings. Statistical analyses consisted of usingmultiple regression with backwards elimination and repeated measures using stepwise elimination to determine howmanagement practices and cuisine type may have influenced wastewater characteristics. The analysis also consisted ofdetermining to what extent management practice and cuisine type could be used to estimate BOD5, FOG, TSS, and daily flow.The number of seats in a restaurant, use of self-serve salad bars, and primary cuisine type were found to play a role inwastewater characteristics.

Umami (xian‐wei) in Chinese food

In China, there are subtle differences in taste preference from one region to another. Though a small part of the gustatory complexity is introduced here, it should be noted that umami in China, xian‐wei, is an important part of the spectrum of taste and flavor to generate subtle harmony. There are several types of cuisine in China. Some examples of the use of umami in dried foods, fermented products, seasonings, and soup stocks are introduced in this review. Traditional concepts of basic tastes described in historical culinary books are also introduced here.

Savor Slowly: Ekiben: The Fast Food of High-Speed Japan

How food is linked to other dimensions of culture has drawn considerable anthropological interest during recent years (Arnott 1975; Farb and Armalegos 1980;, Harris 1985; Kuper 1977; MacClancy 1992). While Levi-Strauss (1969) seeks universal food meanings and a panhuman message in the language of food, Harris and Ross (1987) emphasize an evolutionary approach to the study of human foodways. Douglas (1972) has convincingly argued that food acts as a message system in which codes will be found in the pattern of social relations being expressed, these include statements about hierarchy, inclusion, exclusion, boundaries, and transactions. In an anthropological study of Japanese food, Ohnuki-Tierney (1993) reveals that rice becomes a dominant metaphor in the expression of the Japanese self. The present study also takes as a basic premise that food conveys meaning as well as nourishment. This article investigates the cultural context of a particular kind of Japenese fast food, called ekibento (station box lunch), or ekiben for short. The association of ekiben with trains extends over a hundred years. In no other modem society does a particular type of cuisine so intimately associate with trains. Ekiben are marked with a significance beyond the pragmatic. They help lend order to the lives of Japanese people and help identify who they are. Ekiben have the capacity to unite disparate phenomena and to condense objects (trains and train stations with boxed containers), relationships (people with each other and with regions), and ideas (people with time and nature). They are utterances about the presentation of people, technology, time, place, and nature emanating from a portable container. In a larger sense, popular cultural artifacts in two totally modem cultures, while seemingly similar, upon closer examination, may be quite different. Culinary convenience is a necessary but not sufficient condition to explain the popularity of ekiben, cultural consonance also underlies its wide acceptance. Like fast food everywhere, ekiben provides easy accessibility, quick service, relief from having to cook at home, reliability, and low cost (Farb and Armalegos 1980:216). However, in contrast with modem Western versions of fast food, Japanese ekiben never could be characterized as a gastronomic atrocity of empty calories, provided in antiseptic settings by depersonalized service (Farb and Armalegos 1980:215). There are other differences. American fast-food franchises offer uniformity and consistency covering the setting, architecture, food, ambiance, acts, and utterances. At any McDonald's, anywhere, Americans know how to behave, what to expect, what is on the menu, and what they will pay (Kottak 1978:77). What American fast foods provide the traveler is convenience. Ekiben, on the other hand are tasty as weh as nutritious. The regional varieties invite the enjoyment of local topography and culinary art via travel by train, offering the opportunity to enjoin the sensory appreciation of eye and palate with place. Food is multivocal (Turner 1967:50) and says things about things. Several authors have interpreted Japanese box lunches. For Lee the box lunch is one of six examples of the Japanese propensity to utilize the principle of reductionism. It is the contents of a food tray reduced to fit in a box, made possible in Japan because Japanese food lends itself to being tightly packed. Using a semiotic approach, Barthes (1982:22) emphasizes the lack of a center to Japanese food and that the disparate contents are ornaments of other ornaments; i.e., they are but a collection of fragments. Tobin (1992:27) identifies a process called domestication whereby Western goods, practices, and ideas are culturally reinterpreted to create hamburgers without buns in the okosama teishoku (special children's lunch) or riceburgers made of kimpira (burdock root), bacon, and seaweed served on grilled rice pressed into the shape of a bun. …

The Impact Of Situational Factors On The Evaluation Of Hospitality Services

This questionnaire study examined the influence of three dining situations on the selection of a restaurant. The three situations were a weekday lunch with associates or friends, an important business dinner, and a weekend eveningfamily meal; hypothetical selection was based on the five attributes of type of cuisine, price, quality of service, ambiance, and quality of food. The results demonstrate that it is necessary to explicitly define a situation when requesting evaluations of attribute importance.