{"id":112,"date":"2014-05-09T11:37:50","date_gmt":"2014-05-09T11:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=112"},"modified":"2014-08-11T21:43:34","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T21:43:34","slug":"rice-cake-pudding-and-jello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/rice-cake-pudding-and-jello\/","title":{"rendered":"Rice Cake Pudding and Jello"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Shortly after my college days I interviewed and was hired at a church roughly two hours from where I grew up.\u00a0 When I originally heard of the open position and the town it was located in, I remember thinking, \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of this place.\u201d\u00a0 In my first attempt to visit this large town\/small city, I found myself following the most bizarre route in getting to this place.\u00a0 Geographically separated by two mountain ranges, no highways, no airport this small city was simply a blip on the map.\u00a0 Throughout my life\u00a0 I had traveled within an hour of this place almost in a complete circle around this city, but never having gone to this city.\u00a0 Now, for the first time I found myself in this bizarre place.\u00a0 After having been on staff for one week, a significant family in the church, invited me to their home for dinner.\u00a0 The evening began with some odd conversations and even more bizarre food.\u00a0 As I sat waiting for my meal, the family sitting around the table explained that what we were about to eat was a regional and family favorite, \u201crice cake pudding!\u201d\u00a0 Never having heard of rice cake pudding, I was intrigued.\u00a0 However, not for long.\u00a0 As the rice cake pudding was placed on the table, its look was like something you clean up in aisle ten at the grocery store.\u00a0 Being the good guest, I tasted and ate.\u00a0 Fighting to hold back the gag reflex I endured through the main course.\u00a0 <\/strong>Thinking I was home free, dessert came next.\u00a0 Now before my eyes, was a Jello mold containing embedded rice and pickled pig\u2019s feet.\u00a0 Wow, I had no idea I left earth and went to a different planet.<\/p>\n

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This past week while reading Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond, I was struck by how geography has played such a significant role throughout history in the forming of a society, it norms and even more so it\u2019s food production and culturally relevant food consumption.\u00a0 The following are three keys which emerged while reading Diamond\u2019s seminal work.<\/p>\n

3 Keys To Geography and Food<\/strong><\/p>\n

Accessibility\u2026<\/strong> Geographically all societies have strengths and limitations.\u00a0 Take the modern state of Israel.\u00a0 Their strong in the fact that they have two major ports in Haifa and Elat, located on the Mediterranean and Red Seas.\u00a0 Their glaring weakness, fresh water!\u00a0 In fact, due to their geography fresh water is almost nonexistent. Raining approximately only one week of the year during January, the average yearly rainfall is less than an inch.\u00a0 Most cultures, due to their limitations gravitate towards what is plentiful.\u00a0 And remember, if you go to Israel, Baklava is a strength!<\/strong><\/p>\n

What We Know\u2026<\/strong> Humans by nature can often be creatures of habit.\u00a0 Geographical and cultural norms can carry strong societal peer pressure, subtly influencing the traditional norms.\u00a0 Change can be difficult for many.\u00a0 Parallel to these norms is the reality that many simply enjoy the existing forms.\u00a0 I few years ago, I had the privilege of studying in South Korea.\u00a0 During my time in South Korea I was able to eat their cultural dish known as kimchi.\u00a0 Now, I know there are some of you who love this food, and I certainly don\u2019t want to offend you\u2026 but, wow.\u00a0 After a few days in South Korean culture, I realized, it\u2019s what they know.<\/p>\n

Location, Location, Location\u2026\u00a0 <\/strong>Your location and geography is essential to the amount of outside influence and exposure to crop possibilities and culinary options.\u00a0 While serving in this first ministry, restaurant options in town were few and far between.\u00a0 The Chinese buffet in town was considered an exotic experience.\u00a0 Geography provides opportunity or creates barriers.\u00a0 Where we are located matters.\u00a0 It\u2019s significant in the amount of cultures we rub shoulders with, different languages we hear and even the types of foods which are culturally acceptable.<\/p>\n

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That night at the table of these people from\u00a0 the church, I learned a small distance in geography on the map can make a large difference in how society has developed.\u00a0 What are your geographical limitations where you live?<\/strong>\u00a0 How has it shaped you?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shortly after my college days I interviewed and was hired at a church roughly two hours from where I grew up.\u00a0 When I originally heard of the open position and the town it was located in, I remember thinking, \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of this place.\u201d\u00a0 In my first attempt to visit this large town\/small city, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,2],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-diamond","tag-dminlgp","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1431,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}