I have been in the United States for a little over a year now, and I catch myself from time to time comparing elements of my culture to that which I have encountered here. It was while I contemplated areas of interest, one hand hovering over the keyboard, the other reaching for the last slice of last night’s Big New Yorker pizza, when it hit me: there is no greater area of comparison between the cultures than in the way we relate to food.

From my little vantage point here at La Sierra University, I have gathered that food serves many and varied purposes. I speak as one having great authority having (literally) a year’s worth of experience under my belt and having ‘tasted’ and proven that food is never eaten just for the sake of eating.

Food is used quite often as an icebreaker. Apparently, for many people the "How’s the weather?" line went out with the mayflower passengers. Now when a person walks up to someone at La Sierra University, it wouldn’t hurt to have the first line running something like this: "Hi, have you ever tried a steak at Sizzler?" Invariably there is a response, and by the time the two pull themselves apart with the promise of dinner together next week, they will have digested numerous spicy stories.

Food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of this campus. The strangest place where I have seen food, though, is in the classroom. True to form, many teachers are pulling out all the stops in a bid to cram craniums, even if it means cramming stomachs in the process. Not that I am complaining. I too, have found classes to be a filling experience. The tedium of my four-hour classes has considerably decreased since we are allowed up to twenty minutes to partake of pre-prepared meals that students and teachers voluntarily provide weekly.

I find much humor in another use of food manifested here, though. It is used as a ploy, a bait, an enticement. Very effective. When meetings are advertised, "free food in abundance" dominates the flyers. And they do keep their promises, for the most boring and unnecessary meetings are well attended and are a tantalizing culinary extravaganza of ‘vege’ and junk food. It is a means of getting people together, as even unadvertised meetings can attest. A booth simply needs to go up and the presence of food guaranteed, and rest assured the people will follow as ants after sugar.

It would seem, though, as if what is played out at La Sierra is simply a mini version of a cultural reality outside of the campus. Who eats only three meals per day? And who cares about five servings of fruits and vegetables? I have witnessed an average day’s fare. Breakfast: a burger and soda, coffee; brunch: bagel and cream cheese, coffee; lunch: Slimfast, coffee; snack: a slice of cheesecake, coffee; before dinner snack: Slimpockets, coffee; dinner: "Honey, let’s eat out tonight," coffee; and after dinner snack: Anything with Pepto Bismol or an aspirin, and of course, coffee.

Many new words have also been added to my vocabulary or have changed in meaning as a result of this gastronomic culture. Words like Glad: microwave-safe plastic ware; gourmet: anything freeze-dried and de-nutrified for convenience; and TV dinners, a misnomer if there ever was one. They should be called TV commercial dinners, for that’s how long one lasts – roughly thirty seconds. Now we know why this concept never caught on in Jamaica. No self-respecting Jamaican would ever waste quality time on it. But while some words acquire new meanings, others have become so last year. Take for instance, the terms ‘real home-cooked meals,’ ‘’deep-fried’ and ‘slow-cooked.’

I no longer speak as an outsider looking in. Sheer honesty and a growing waistline bid me admit that I have fallen in love with the food culture here. Now I wonder how I lived before Pizza Hut midnight binges as comfort when I pulled all-nighters. And who among our Jamaican group doesn’t get visibly excited when Claim Jumper and Home Town Buffet are mentioned? Did I mention that these ideas would not have gone down well in Jamaica either, profit-wise?

I have become so acculturated that I no longer get upset when I get chocolates and other delicacies as gifts. Nor do I feel self-conscious when I blurt out to another female, "That guy looks delicious." And I too have sacrificed myself on the fast food altar, only to later perform great acts of penance at the gym, which are slightly reminiscent of bulimic purging.

What can I say but that I have been sandwiched between two cultures which I thought to be so different until Friday night when we gather to ‘gi laugh fi peas soup’ in upholding a Jamaican tradition; only to meet again for Sabbath hankering for something–anything–as long as it is not haystacks, the American Adventist idea of Sabbath dinner which, with the exception of the very Americanized, is anathema.

The truth is, food for us in Jamaica serves the same purpose as here. It is a means of getting us, as well as holding us, together. We, too, have our soul food episodes, and if we have yet to catch on to the food-based classrooms, it is simply a case of the heart being willing but the pocket weak. I guess when it comes down to the crunch, the fact remains that though we go about things differently in each culture, our needs for family and comfort, which the presence of food encourages and provides, are the same. We are not that different after all.

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Tracy-Ann Dawes recently completed requirements for her Master of Arts degree in English.

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by Tracy-Ann Dawes