Fast Food or Slow Food by Jamie Wang

FAST FOOD or SLOW FOOD

Cooking and Me I cook a lot because I live alone and I don’t want to spend too much money on restaurants. If I have free time, I like to try new recipes and different food. No matter what the results are, I always eat what I cook. Usually I cook two kinds of food: fast food and slow food. What to cook depends on my mood and how much time I have. Fast foods are my good friends. I eat them often when I am in a rush or feel too lazy to cook. I eat these foods three or four times a week. Usually I eat frozen dinners when I am busy on my school projects and don’t have extra time to cook. Sometimes I cook instant foods because I am out of ideas of what to cook. Sometimes I am too lazy to cook so just grab some frozen dinners in my freezer. There are always fast foods there or in my kitchen cabinets. However, even though I eat fast food often, I still prefer to eat and cook fresh food because it’s healthier and the texture of the food is better. The reason I eat fast food is that cooking is time-consuming and I want to save energy. In this book , I will compare the difference between fast food and slow food : the preparation time, cooking time, ingredients, taste and health points. I will point out the advantages and disadvantages of these two kinds of food and determine which food is the better choice for me to eat and what I like more.

FAST FOOD

Fast food What is fast food? Fast food is food that can be quickly and easily prepared. You can also call this type of food convenience food or lazy food, or tertiary processed food. There are many kinds of fast food in the markets now, such as canned, dehydrated, fast, frozen and precooked food. For fast food, you don’t need to spend a lot time or energy to cook. Some food you just need to put in the microwave, push a couple buttons and wait for five minutes. For some you just need to boil the water, put the hot water in the cup and wait an even shorter time. Every one knows cooking a fresh meal takes time and energy. A frozen dinner is ready in 5 minutes, but if you cook the same meal using fresh food, it might take you about 30 minutes until the meal is done. You need to wash , chop, boil , cook , add seasoning, and wait until it is well done. For frozen dinners, you just need to unwrap the package then put it in the microwave. You don’t even need a plate to contain the dinner.

SLOW FOOD

Slow Food The most notable difference between fast food and slow food is their flavor. Slow foods have great flavor and taste because they keep all their natural conditions. However, fast foods lack a lot of its flavor because there are some other chemical products added to the natural foods. It is logical that the fresh foods will have a greater taste and flavor when consumed because of the time in which they have been prepared. Even thought fast foods are easy and quick to cook, I still prefer using fresh ingredients to cook my meals. When I have the time, I like to cook. I am still learning how to cook a healthy and delicious meal. The first reason I started learning how to cook is that I live alone now so I have to take care of my own meals. The other reason is that I want to eat healthy and tasty food. If I cook by myself, I can decide how much oil and salt I add in, and I will remind myself not to use too much. Also, I will eat enough amount of vegetables and less meat. For that I can have more balanced meals than eating out if I cook my own dishes.

FROZEN DINNER

Frozen Dinners and Me I did not eat frozen dinners when I was in Taiwan. There are many restaurants and you can easily find one every where and almost anytime. If I was hungry, I just needed to go outside and find a restaurant near my house. I started eating frozen dinners when I started studying abroad because it is expensive to eat out and sometimes it’s late so the restaurants are already closed. It is easier to have a frozen dinner when I am busy with my assignments. I eat frozen dinners more often than other food. When I am out of time, I don’t want to spend more than 10 minutes to cook my meals. For most frozen dinners , it just takes only 4-6 minutes to cook in the microwave. Then the meal is ready to eat and not cold. I like to eat food that is heated. Another reason I like frozen food is it has more variety of ingredients which means it has more nutrition. You can freeze almost any ingredients and preserve both the textures and taste.

FROZEN DINNER

FAST FOOD or SLOW FOOD

Smart Ones Creamy Rigatoni with Broccoli & Chicken Microwave Pre time: 2 Mins Cook time: 6 Mins Calories: 280 Fat: 5g Ingredients: Macaroni Chicken Broccoli Cheese Milk

The reason I bought this frozen dinner was because I like pasta. I always have pasta in my house. This frozen pasta took me less than 10 minutes to make. All I needed to do was put it in the microwave. The noodles were fine; I like the softness of noodles. They were not too soft and not too hard. The only vegetable in this pasta was broccoli. The taste of the broccoli was fresh, but they were too small and hard to fork. The chicken was tender enough and the taste was fine. Then the sauce was fine as well , but there was not enough sauce and the taste was not very rich. At least the amount of the dinner was enough for me for a dinner. I think I will buy this product again. It’s not expensive and the overall taste was good.

FROZEN DINNER

FAST FOOD or SLOW FOOD FRESH FOOD

I like white sauce pasta. I spent about 25 minutes to make this paste. It’s not difficult to make, but it is not easy to make a good one. I failed the first time when I was making this pasta. The skillet was overheated so when I mixed the white sauce with the rigatoni, the sauce suddenly became a disaster, so I made it again. This time I watched the stove heat very carefully. Then it came out well. The taste is fine : creamy and not too salty. The taste was better than the frozen dinner. However, next time when I want to eat white sauce pasta, I will just buy a frozen white sauce pasta. Although the cheese and heavy cream can’t keep long they are the two main ingredients of making white sauce. If I eat the frozen ones, I don’t need to worry about my leftover ingredients.

Spaghetti With Meat Sauce

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CANNED FOOD

Canned Food and Me Canned food is very popular in supermarkets. When I walk into a supermarket, I can see the whole aisle of canned food. It’s sometimes hard to decide which one to choose. I usually buy canned vegetables because they can be preserved longer. Also, the ingredients in cans have already been pre-cooked and are ready to use and eat. For example, if I need diced tomato for my meal , there is a diced tomato can. I don’t need to cut the tomato by myself and dirty my hands. All I need to do is open the can then pull it into the pan. As well as the canned corn, the canned corn is already peeled and cooked. I don’t need to spend time and energy to peel, cook them, and take them apart. Sometimes the canned corn tastes even better than fresh corn.

CANNED SOUP LAZY FOOD

Smart One Spaghetti With Meat Sauce

FAST FOOD or SLOW FOOD Smart ones

Campbell’s Tomato Soup Spaghetti with meat sauce Microwave Pre time: 5 Mins Cook time: 5 Mins Calories: 90 Fat: 0g Ingredients: TomatoMicrowave Oven Flour Prepare time: 1 minutes Cook time: 5 minutes Corn syrup Calories 310 Fat 6g

I like tomato products. I bought this canned soup in the market. It only took me 10 minutes to cook it. It’s a very short time to make a soup. This soup was not too sweet and not too sour. It tasted fine when I first drank it. However, it became salty when I drank half of it. I didn’t want to finish it because it tasted the same all the time when I drank it. I got bored of the taste. There was no vegetable beside tomato in the soup; the tomato is the only vegetables] . The soup was not very rich and the favor was a little dull. I might not buy this product again even though it is very cheap. If I buy it, I will combine it with other ingredients to make the soup richer and healthier.

CANNED SOUP

FAST FOOD or SLOW FOOD FRESH FOOD

I eat tomatoes almost every week. Sometime I cook tomato in dishes, and sometimes I eat it as fruit. It’s my first time to make tomato soup. I didn’t know it would take me about an hour to make it. But I was very satisfied with the result. This tomato soup tasted good. I put four different vegetables in the soup so this soup had a rich flavor and was much healthier than the canned soup. Also I put heavy cream in to make the soup a little creamy. The only thing I don’t like about this soup is it takes too much time and I have to watch the heat all the time. Sometimes I don’t want to spend too much time too cook because it’s not really necessary. I can just cook some simple dinner to eat. I might not make this soup for a while even though it tastes good.

Spaghetti With Meat Sauce

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INSTANT NOODLES

Instant Noodles and Me Instant noodles are very popular in Asia. You can see instant noodles for sale everywhere in any kind of markets. There are even restaurants cooking instant noodles for the customers. New flavors come to the markets every week, you will never get tired of eating instant noodles in Asia. I started eating instant noodles when I was a kid. Because it’s very quick and convenient to cook, there was always a box of instant noodles in my house. I remember when I was hungry at night and wanted some snacks to eat, my parents would usually make instant noodles for me. I would eat all of them and go to bed satisfied. I still like to eat instant noodles now.

INSTANT NOODLES LAZY FOOD

Smart One Spaghetti With Meat Sauce

FAST FOOD or SLOW FOOD Smart ones

TopSpaghetti Ramen Noodle Soup with meat sauce Shrimp Flavor Sauce pan Pre time: 5 Mins Cook time: 3 Mins Calories: 190 Fat: 7g Microwave Oven Prepare time: 1 minutes Ingredients: Flour Cook time: 5 minutes Calories Vegetable oil 310 Fat 6g Soy sauce Spices Seasoning powders

This instant noodle is very cheap, less than one dollar. I just need to boil water and wait for 3 minutes. It’s very easy and simple to prepare and cook. However, the taste of this product is not good. The soup was too salty and the sodium was about 70% of people’s daily values which is very unhealthy. There were no vegetables and meat in the soup, only soup and noodles. The flavor of this noodle soup was strange. It had weird sweet favor and not much of shrimp favor. The only thing I like is the noodle, the noodle was not too soft after cooking. I don’t like this instant noodle and I won’t buy this product again because it’s neither tasty nor healthy.

INSTANT NOODLES

FAST FOOD or SLOW FOOD FRESH FOOD

I like this shrimp noodle soup. It’s easy to make and full of favor and nutrition. This noodle soup was very flavorful. The ginger and garlic made this soup tasted better. Also, the variety of vegetable in the soup made it more balanced and healthier. The calories and were not high. The amount was enough for me. I will make this shrimp noodle soup again because I like the shrimp and garlic favor. It’s great to eat when it’s a cold day.

Spaghetti With Meat Sauce

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Conclusion I like the freshness and healthiness of slow food, but I also like the quickness and convenience of fast food. The disadvantage of slow food is it takes time to cook and the disadvantage of fast food is taste and nutritional balance. I think I will eat slow food more often because I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like the taste of some fast foods. But I will still buy and have some fast food in my freezer and kitchen cabinets in case I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have time to cook. However, I will add some fresh ingredients to my fast food to make it healthier and tastier. However, in my life, I need both slow food and fast food to survive; but more slow food than fast food. They are both my good friends in my kitchen.

Lu-Ning,Wang 415-810-1059 luning_wang@yahoo.com 861 Sutter Street Apt.500 San Francisco, CA 94109 Typography: 7.5/9 Serifa Light text with 10/12 Univers Light Captions Printing: Epson Inject Photo Printer R2400 Paper: MOAB Kayenta PHOTO MATTE 205 Binding: Lu-Ning, Wang Design: Lu-Ning, Wang Photography: Lu-Ning, Wang