Student Instructions |
Name __________________________________ |
Food to Write Home About
People have strong feelings about various foods, and the feelings are very personal and unique to each individual. Use the questions and examples below to help you develop two short pieces (one to five paragraphs each) on foods that have very different effects on you.
Comfort foods. What is your comfort food? Even if we haven’t thought about it, most of us have one. If you’re sick, what food or beverage makes you feel better? If you’ve had a bad
day, do you find yourself turning to a certain food? Does your mom or dad always serve tea and toast to anyone who is sick? Or 7-Up and crackers? Or...?
Everyone’s comfort food is different. For Cheri, it’s mashed potatoes. If she is feeling bad, she wants nothing but plain mashed potatoes with real butter on them. For Ian, it’s Jell-O with bananas—and it’s got to be orange Jell-O. Joe thinks anyone who is sick should have chicken soup, preferably made by his mother, no matter what the illness. When she has a cold, Elena wants spicy green chili to clear her sinuses because that’s what Uncle Pedro always made for her when she was little.
Describe your comfort food. Why do you think it’s a comfort to you? Describe a time you have turned to it for comfort.
Foods that do the opposite. What food makes you gag? What food would you not even consider eating?
Maybe you came down with the stomach flu once after eating spaghetti, and now the thought of spaghetti makes you gag. Maybe poached eggs with their runny yolks make you sick because you find them disgusting to look at. Maybe it’s peas because your mean babysitter made you eat peas and now you associate peas with her. Maybe your mother hates strawberries and taught you to hate them.
really disgust you, and why.
“As a child, my
family’s menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.”
—Buddy Hackett
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Student Instructions |
Name __________________________________ |
Realism Squad
You are part of the new Realism Squad in your state. The Realism Squad is a small but vocal group that thinks food descriptions have gotten out of hand. Restaurant menus make absolutely everything sound like a work of art. Descriptions on packaged food are completely unrealistic. Commercials make all food products sound wonderful.
Children are especially vulnerable. They hear that Chocolate Covered Caramel Toasted Sugar Loops make breakfast fun, and that’s what they want their parents to buy. They see happy families eating at the Corner Chain Restaurant That Will Make Your Life Wonderful and Also Has a Trampoline and Video Games, and that’s where they want to go.
As part of the Realism Squad, your job is to tone things down and to bring a strong dose of realism to food descriptions. Here are a couple of examples of the work you have done:
•A restaurant describes farm-fresh beef roasted in a demi-glace wine sauce. You change the description to this: A hunk of muscle sliced from the side of a dead cow and stuck in the oven for three hours with a couple of cups of fermented grapes.
•A commercial talks about the Corner Chain Restaurant’s wonderful whipped potatoes, slathered in butter and served nestled next to delectable spears of organically grown asparagus. You change the description to this: Some potatoes dug up from a garden where they were fertilized with manure and numerous pesticides, washed and boiled in unfiltered tap water until soft, then slathered in a by-product of cow’s milk that was beaten until it solidified. All this is plunked on a plate next to some limp asparagus raised with only compost as fertilizer.
Now add a dose of realism to the following descriptions:
1.Our mouth-watering lunch speciality is chicken coated with golden bread crumbs, sauteed gently, and covered with crispy bacon and melted
sourdough bread. This delectable sandwich is served with soup made from a cherished family recipe handed down and made with Mom’s tender loving care.
2.Even your family members with the heartiest appetites will with smiles on their faces. At Gargantuoso, we believe that much of a good thing. Every dinner comes with mounds cooked french fries, a never-empty jar of your favorite soft and a sundae made with home-style brownies, creamy vanilla ice cream, and torrents of our special hot fudge sauce
made with our special secret ingredient.
“Although I cannot lay an egg, I am
a very good judge of omelettes.”
—George Bernard Shaw
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Student Instructions |
Name __________________________________ |
Dinner Conversation
Not every conversation goes the way we want it to. But here’s your chance to have a conversation go exactly the way you want it.
Write a one-page conversation that might take place over dinner. You get to choose the characters involved, the subject, the setting. You even get to put the words in their mouths!
Remember to punctuate your dialogue correctly. Put quotes around the words that the people actually say (not around the he said/she said dialogue tags). Change paragraphs each time you change speakers. For punctuation help, see the dialogue in the box below.
Getting started
Here are some questions to consider as you plan your conversation:
1.How many people are talking? Who are they?
2.What are they talking about?
3.Your conversation may be more interesting if a conflict or disagreement is involved. If there is a conflict or disagreement, what is it about?
4.What kind of personality does each person have? If a mother is involved, is she a gentle, coddling kind of mother, a strict, by-the-rules kind of mother, or...? If a child is involved, is he a studious little boy interested in bugs and dinosaurs? Or is he the kind of child likely to knock over things in the supermarket because of his rambunctiousness? Or...?
5.Where is the conversation taking place? At a restaurant? In the car? At home? On a picnic? At an amusement park? In the basement of a church?
“Food is an important part
of a balanced diet.”
—Fran Lebowitz
Sample Dialogue
“What’s for dessert?” asked Spencer. “I’m still hungry.”
“Brussels sprouts pudding with whipped cream,” said his mother.
Spencer sighed. “Do you think you’re going to get tired of that vegetarian food cookbook pretty soon?
“Not before I try the chocolate covered green beans with butterscotch tofu.”
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Student Instructions |
Name __________________________________ |
It’s all in Your point of view
Everyone has encountered it—hearing people describe the same event in completely different ways. One person sees a movie and thinks it is the stupidest thing he has ever seen. Another person sees it and is moved to tears by its beauty. Still another is offended by its language. Another doesn’t even notice its language at all.
How you view something may depend a lot on your point of view. A student may view a curfew as a terrible thing. A parent, however, may think of it as absolutely necessary. A policeman may look at a concert as dangerous, because of the number of people there. A teenager attending the concert may view it as exciting and thrilling.
Practice looking at things from the point of view of others. Describe a hamburger four different ways. Change your language, your opinions, and your words to fit the personality, as you
imagine it, of each person. Write two or three sentences for each point of view.
1.Describe a hamburger from the point of view of a six-year-old dying to stop at McDonald’s.
2.Describe a hamburger from the point of view of a vegetarian.
3.Describe a hamburger from the point of view of a father who has just grilled the perfect (in his mind) Fourth of July platter of burgers.
4.Describe a hamburger from the point of view of someone who works in a fast food restaurant and is really sick of it.
How can you tell if an elephant has been in your refrigerator?
Footprints in the Jell-O.
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