Rika

=**Our Eating Habits**=

1. Introduction I researched about our eating habits all over the world. I think that eating is most important thing for us, so I chose this topic. We eat food every day and we can not live without food. However, our eating habits differ by country. To take the style of food of my country Japan as an example, we live on a diet chiefly of rice. According to my research, many Japanese eat rice every day, so rice is indispensable to us. One of the typical foods in my country is sushi. One type of sushi is a small rice ball which has thinly cut raw fish or shellfish on it. It is known and liked by almost everyone in Japan. Moreover, sushi is popular and famous in other countries. I eat it on both special days and ordinary days. Some types of sushi are rather cheap and easy to prepare at home, but the price is expensive when eating it at a sushi shop.

When I researched this topic, I got the data through Survey Monkey. The contents of the survey, I put three demographic questions, two open-ended questions, and two multiple-choice questions about staple foods and traditional dishes.. I used IWE and I asked IWE students to respond to these questions, I received answers from twelve people―three French, four Koreans, and five Japanese. The French subjects include two men aged 22 and 24 and one woman over 25. The four Koreans include two men and two women who are 20 years old. The Japanese subjects are four women and a man aged 20 and 21. I gathered many answers that can be found in the table below. The data is welt distributed among each of the counties.
 * 2. Method**


 * //__Table at Survey Results__//**

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 1 French 22 M Bread Ratatouille Ordinary days Once a month 2 French 24 M Potatoes Cassoulet Ordinary days Once a month 3 French 25+ F I do not know we have the staple food. Le-pot-au-feu Ordinary days Once a week 4 Korean 20 M Rice Kimchi Ordinary days Every day 5 Korean 20 M Rice Kimchi Ordinary days Every day 6 Korean 21 F Rice Bul-go-gi Ordinary days Once a week 7 Korean 21 F Rice Bi-bim-bop Celebrations Once a month 8 Japanese 19 M Rice Sushi Festival Once a month 9 Japanese 19 F Rice Sushi Celebrations Once a month 10 Japanese 20 F Rice Sushi Celebrations Once a month 11 Japanese 20 F Rice Shabu-shabu Ordinary days Once a month 12 Japanese 20 F Rice Nikujaga Ordinary days Once a week

Question(1) What country are you from? Question(2) What is your age? Question(3) Are you male or female? Question(4) What is the staple food in your country? Question(5) What is the traditional food in your country? Question(6) When do you eat the traditional food? Question(7) How many times do you eat the traditional food?
 * //__Survey Questions__//**

First, I will present the results about the style of food in France. A Frenchwoman in her survey response said, “I do not know we have the staple food”. And then she added, “But we do eat a lot of bread and we also pasta in France.” I did not know that there is such unconsciousness of the staple food or dishes other than the staple food in the West. In Japan or many other Asia in countries, there is a clear awareness of the staple food concept, so I thought people in western countries would, too. However it is not true for all the French respondents. Also according to the data, there are different opinions from the same country, as in the case of France. About the staple food in France, the first person said potatoes, the second person (number 2) said I do not know, and the third person said bread. Moreover about the traditional food, the first person said Cassoulet, the second person said Le-pot-au-feu, and the third person said Ratatouille. Cassoulet is beans with sausages and pork. And then Le-pot-au-feu is not different vegetables mixed up, and in fact, it is a Provencal dish (in south of France). There are tomatoes in it. Ratatouille is like a soup with big pieces of vegetables like carrots, potatoes, cabbage, and with meat. These are typical food and popular dishes in France.
 * 3. Results and Discussion**

Second, I am going to talk about style of food in Korea and Survey results. Korea is next to Japan and the nearest country to Japan. We travel to Korea and Koreans come to Japan, so I think that we know each country very well, but Korea is complex. According to my research, like Japanese, Koreans live on a diet chiefly of rice, and rice is important to them. The traditional food in Korea is kimchi. It is famous in Japan and we can easily buy at the supermarket and eat it. However, Koreans said that real kimchi’s taste is different. The typical kimchi is fermented cabbage and it is like a pickle in western cultures. There are various kinds of kimchi, from the most popular cabbage kimchi, radish kimchi, green onion kimchi, cucumber kimchi and many other kinds. As important as rice, kimchi is important for Koreans. Also bi-bim-bop and bul-go-gi are traditional dishes in Korea. Bi-bim-bop is rice mixed with a lot different kinds of vegetables, a pan fried egg, pepper paste, and sesame oil. It is healthy and delicious. Bul-go-gi is the Korean barbeque. The beef is marinated with soy sauce, sugar, garlic, pepper, sesame oil, and some kind of liquors sometimes to make the beef tender. It is marinated for a couple of hours and grilled them on a barbeque grill. Koreans normally put the meat on the top of some kind of lettuce, put some miso-pepper paste with it, wrap it up with the lettuce, and eat it. This might be the food that everyone from all different kinds of countries would still like. I predicted in the survey results that kimchi would be considered as one of the traditional foods in Korea because it is the most famous in Japan, and my forecast was correct.

Finally, I am going to compare other countries’ food culture with Japan’s. There are many different points between Japan and other countries. First, there is the difference about the staple food. We have the staple food, and it is rice. Rice is very important us, but in Europe, rice is not such an important food. Also it is only Asian countries that people have one distinct staple food. For example, in the United States, there is not distinct the staple food because it is a multiethnic nation composed of many different ethnic groups and the history of country is too short. In short, the style of food is not clearly. Also in Europe, there is not one staple food because Europe has a severe climate and people can not have a stable supply of their farm products in large quantity. In this way, countries like Japan or other parts of Asia may be rare. Second, there is a difference about traditional food. Please look at the following graphs about traditional food. Chart 1 is about Japan, Chart 2 is about France and Chart 3 is about Korea. Many people eat traditional food on ordinary days, but many Japanese eat it on special days. People may have a difference of consciousness about their traditional food. Furthermore, in Japan, people mostly agree about the staple food or the traditional food. And then Chart 4 and Chart 5 are about occasion. Chart 4 is about Japan and Chart 5 is about France and Korea. I asked Japanese “What is the staple food and the traditional food in your country?”, and most of them answered the staple food is rice and the traditional food is sushi. I think that there are many traditional foods in Japan, but people tend to think that main traditional food is sushi. Within other countries, people disagree about it. I think that this is an interesting statistic.

//__Chart 1__// //Japan// //Traditional Food//

//__Chart 2__// //France// //Traditional Food//

//__Chart 3__// //Korea// //Traditional Food//

//__Chart 4__// //Occasion in// //Japan//

//__Chart 5__// //Occasion// //France// //and// //Korea//

I have research eating habits all over the world. I explained my research method and presented the style of food in France, and in Korea. Finally, I contrasted differences the between Japan and other countries. This investigation has been useful for me, for example, I did not know the traditional foods of other country. I thought that France’s traditional food was a loaf of French bread, but it does not seem to be true and there are actually other popular traditional foods. If I travel to France, I will eat the traditional dishes―cassoulet, le-pot-au-feu, and ratatouille. In addition, I expected that the traditional food in Korea would be kimchi and it was true, but I did not know that there were so many kinds of kimchi. Probably we will continue to eat cabbage kimchi that usually sold at the supermarkets in Japan. Now knowing this fact, I want to eat the genuine homemade of varieties. Thorough this research, I hope found out many new things about other countries in the world and I will make the best use of this knowledge in the future.
 * 3. Conclusion**