final paper

Lenny David
ENG 102
Dr. McCormick
6/2/10

“Food and Knowledge”

For centuries philosophers such as Plato and Socrates have debated over the topic of knowledge. European as well as Western philosophers argued about where knowledge came from, who attained this knowledge, and what exactly is knowledge. The standard definition of knowledge according to Shope is a “justified true belief” (Harrison, 95). In essence, if someone has knowledge about something then it must be true, believed to be true, and then justified as truth. In using this standard definition, it may be safe to say that knowledge can be seen through the eyes of the believer. One of the common themes in The Book of J, Odyssey, and Like Water for Chocolate, is knowledge. Another common theme that is seen through the perspective of the authors is food. In the literature, the authors gave examples of how food symbolized knowledge and how knowledge comes through food. Through the use of food life can be saved as well as understood. When compared, these two themes were important to the lives and decisions made by the main characters Hava, Odysseus, and Tita.
In The Book of J, Yahweh created humanity along with every living organism that could be found on land, sea, and air. Rosenberg translates Harold Blooms’ interpretation of the Genesis story by giving similar accounts of how Yahweh created man and animal, as well as the instructions he gave to man concerning the Garden of Eden. Yahweh told them that they were free to do anything they wanted to do in the garden, however, they were forbidden to eat of two trees in the garden. The first tree they were forbidden to eat from was the Tree of Life and the other was the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. Yahweh had forbidden them of eating from these trees because they would have become knowledgeable about good and evil and would be faced with making decisions concerning their moral character, something that Yahweh may have intended to remain pure and unblemished.
By gaining knowledge, Hava and Adam would have become like immortal gods in one sense, which would defeat Yahweh’s purpose in creating them. It is evident that they knew that Yahweh was superior to them because they initially listened to Yahweh’s instructions and feared him when they realized that there were consequences for their disobedience. Food is used as sustenance to the life of humans as it is necessary for humans to eat in order to live. However, in The Book of J, food is also used to bring forth knowledge in the minds of man and woman and according to a well known phrase by Francis Bacon, “knowledge is power”. The more knowledge a person obtains is the more opportunity he or she may have to increasing the type of power and influence they may have upon others. The temptation by the snake enticed and encouraged Hava and Adam’s desire to be like gods and be powerful rather than obedient to Yahweh. In actuality, their desire to having god - like powers may have been the underlying reason for them to obtain knowledge. In other words, they were willing to get knowledge in order to obtain power. Hava and Adam’s decision to obtain knowledge was seen when they yielded to the temptation of eating from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. According to Rosenberg, “the woman sees how good the tree looks, to eat from, how lovely to the eyes, lively to the mind“… (63).　 Having knowledge was “lively”, exciting, and stimulating not only to the mind and the tongue but also to the eyes. Just a taste of knowing and a taste of power is all they had in mind, but unfortunately, through knowledge they tasted the bitter truth and reality about good and evil as well as laboring to survive and laboring to bring forth life that was clearly not gods.
In contrast to Hava and Adam in The Book of J, Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey was not lacking or seeking knowledge. Not only was Odysseus knowledgeable but he was also crafty in all his endeavors. Odysseus had no choice but to use the knowledge he attained in life to survive the various plots that were made by men, gods, goddesses, and mythical creatures to kill him. He tells the Phaeacians about his victorious conquests against the gods, goddesses, and creatures during his war in Troy and on his journey home to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus.
A central theme that is found throughout the epic story is the concept of food. Food is described as being delectable as well as barbaric and invasive towards the rights of others. It is clear that Odysseus was more intelligent or knowledgeable than his colleagues and those that had a mission to kill him. Unlike Yahweh in The Book of J, that forbade Hava and Adam to obtain knowledge, Zeus king of gods as well as his daughter Athena, had genuine interest in Odysseus whose knowledge and clever ways of escape seemed divine. There is a clear difference between Yahweh’s objective to protect humankind from knowledge which can bring forth evil and Odysseus’ knowledge that ultimately saves and protects him and other’s from the evil he encounters along his journey. The gods delighted in a level headed human such as Odysseus and those that had good intentions for humans and the other gods had favor towards him, thereby helping him along the way, perhaps because his knowledge and Intelligence was god - like.
On several occasions, Odysseus was able to avoid evil outcomes by using his knowledge to escape Circe’s plot to turn him into a pig. In other instances he was not eating food to protect himself of evil spells but was in fact the object of other creatures delight. Poseidon’s son Cyclops Polyphemus was a one eyed creature that ate humans and his main objective was to eat Odysseus and his men, however, due to his foolish way of thinking, which was no match for Odysseus’ knowledge, as well as his gluttony to eat all of the travelers, he was cleverly tricked by Odysseus and his men. Odysseus knew that by merely getting Cyclops drunk with wine and cleverly putting a plan together to disguise who he was would ultimately allow them to be free. Scholar Ralph Hexter writes, “Odysseus, having sized up his opponent’s intelligence (low) and wanting to make a joke at least he can enjoy, claims that his name is Outis [366], virtually indistinguishable from ou tis, “on one” …Likewise, Fitzgerald presents “nobody” in the slightly disguised form “Nohbdy” (132 - 133). Odysseus identifies himself as “no man” or what is later defined as “nobody” so that when he and his men were able to take the staff and blind Cyclops who screams out in pain, when asked by fellow giants what’s wrong, he responds “nobody is killing me”. Thereby not alerting the others to come to his aid. Only quick thinking and knowledge was able to save Odysseus and his remaining men. Unlike some of the men he was traveling with that was eaten by these creatures along the way. According to Shein, “Throughout the poem, improper eating, like that of the Suitors, is a mark of moral inadequacy, as one would expect in a poetic universe where every meal is, or involves, a sacrificial ritual. The cannibalistic Polyphemos, the Companions who eat the cattle of the Sun, as well as the Suitors who devour the herds of Odysseus are all on the wrong side of the poem’s moral dividing line… All are punished for appropriating another’s property to satisfy their own appetites and for thinking they can get away without paying for this appropriation” (8 - 9).
There is an evident difference between the epic war hero and those that were fighting with him to get home. Odysseus had impeccable knowledge and seemed as though he was always one step ahead of his enemies. He thought with clarity and could lead those with him out of destruction. Odysseus was clearly a leader because of his sharp skill to remember and think ahead. There are several instances that get him and his men into trouble because they were not thinking. Shein goes on to say that “The Odyssey is filled with characters who do forget, who can’t or won’t concentrate mentally and so fail, both ethically and practically”(8), however he goes on to give examples of why they fail. It is not simply because they are not knowledgeable but it is also because when enticed by the things of life such as food, they reach their downfall. In the Odyssey, the men ate the lotus flower and lost the desire as well as knowledge that they had to get home and the Suitors back at home was feasting not only on the food but also the women, forgetting that there was a possibility that Odysseus would return home. In these examples it is clear that food symbolized a person’s knowledge and their knowledge came through food, thereby bringing their moral character to light.
In The Book of J and Odyssey there is a clear connection between food and knowing. The desire to know caused Hava and Adam to reach their downfall. The same is seen in the Odyssey whereby, the unintelligent characters of the story met their downfall because food enticed them as well. Odysseus was able to save himself from the same enticing delectable food because his knowledge about future outcome/consequence and his quest to return home was embedded in his mind and soul. However, in Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, food begins to symbolize something a little different than what we have previously read.
Tita grew up in an oppressed society that caused oppression to pervade into the houses and personal lives of many Mexican families. This book covers three generations and the story is being told by Esperanza’s daughter who found Tita’s cookbook and happens to be in the third generation of women. In this book we see that Knowledge can be passed down from generation to generation through food. Esperanza’s daughter reads about Tita falling in love with Pedro and being forbidden to marry him because of generational commands to care for her mother until she passes away. Tita takes her learned right of passage to womanhood and puts all of her emotions and dreams into her cooking and continues to struggle through life. After many cooked meals and horrible encounters, Tita became emotionally drained. Finnegan summarizes the basis of the book by simply saying that “Tita becomes increasingly brutalized by the sadistic behavior of her mother and after a nervous breakdown, is taken to family friend, Dr. John Brown, to be treated in Texas”(112). Esperanza’s daughter is receiving knowledge about her culture, family, love, and cooking.
Clearly Esperanza’s daughter had interests in her great aunt Tita, how she lived her life and solved the problems she went through. Through this lost cookbook she was able to gain knowledge of how Tita’s life actually changed the generation rule concerning mother’s and daughters. Esperanza’s daughter was able to marry the man she loved regardless of race as well as leave her mother’s home to pursue a life of love. In essence it is because of Tita’s teachings to Esperanza why this was made possible. Through Tita’s cooking Esperanza learned the secret to love and family. Tita’s spirit lives on because she changed the oppressive views of love and family through her food. Suzanne Ruta writes an article titled, “In Grandmother’s Kitchen” and she is quoted as saying “ ’Food,” says Jungian analyst Marion Woodmand, ’is a symbol operating between the inner and outer world, and between the inner and spiritual world. This mysterious truth gives the book its power and its title. Water for chocolate means water about to boil over, an apt metaphor for Tita’s life of constrained passion and thwarted rebellion“ (7). Tita had great knowledge about food and what it can do to the hearts of those that ate it. On several occasions we saw how food affected Gertrudis when Tita takes the pink roses that Pedro brings her and cooks them in the quail. Tita’s passion and strong emotions for Pedro was passed on into the dish and Gertrudis left the ranch filled with passion to pursue her lover. The effects of food in this instance can be compared to the passion of Circe in the Odyssey, who fell in love with Odysseus and had him to herself for a year until he came to himself and was removed from under her spell. Food is seen almost as a potion to get what a person wants. Through food, Tita was able to cry her tears into a cake as well as make people smile. Through food she was also able to have the love of her life eat and desire her even more in his heart. Pedro and Tita had a special bond, they didn’t even have to talk in order to communicate and understand each other. He was able to know her heart and mind by what she cooked and how it made people feel. Esperanza’s daughter was also able to gain knowledge about the same thing.
Food has many meanings in the different examples throughout these three books and it is safe to say that food actually symbolized knowledge in the lives of the main characters. Whether they understood what knowledge meant, Hava and Adam received it after being enticed to eat food. Or whether knowledge was second nature like Odysseus’s was, we see that the tricks that brought on the downfall of many concerning food helped him to keep from meeting his own demise. And finally we see that Tita could leave behind a legacy giving instructions on how to live and love through her cookbook. It is evident that food nor knowledge can be taken for granted. Food can cause you to reach your downfall if you are gluttonous and have no moral understanding or respect for others and food can also be used to save the lives not only in immediate circumstances but also over the course of a person’s life and their legacy. In all things there is a balance to life, good and evil, simplicity and knowledge, love and hate, but overall in reading these books, it leaves its readers with food for thought.
Works Cited:
Esqivel,Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. Trans. Carol and Thomas Christensen. New York: Double Day, 1989.
　
Finnegan, N. “At Boiling Point: “"Like Water for Chocolate" and the Boundaries of Mexican Identity”
Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Jul., 1999), pp. 311-326 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3339168
Harrison, Jonathan. “Review: Recent Work in Epistemology”
The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 138 (Jan., 1985), pp. 95-104 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2955526
　
Hexter, Ralph. A Guide To The Odyssey: A Commentary On The English Translation of Robert Fitzgerald. New York: Vintage Books A Division of Random House, 1993.
　
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indiana: Hackett Publishing, 2000.
　
Schein, Seth L., et al. Reading the Odyssey: Selected Interpretive Essays. New Jersey:
Princeton University Press, 1996.
　
Ruta, Suzanne. “Review: In Grandmother’s Kitchen”
The Women's Review of Books, Vol. 10, No. 5 (Feb., 1993), p. 7 http://www.jstor.org/stable/4021446
　
The Book of J
. Trans. David Rosenberg.Ed. Harold Bloom. New York:Grove,1990

Annotated Bibliography

I was not a very happy candidate when I heard that we had to do a research paper as the final paper. I was not happy at all when I heard we had to do an annotated bibliography on top of this research paper. The reason why I was upset because I never did an annotated bibliography before. I had no choice but to get it done. First I went to the school library and researched books on about the Odyssey, then I looked for articles on jstor that related to food and knowledge that was going to help me write my final paper. It was not easy, I spent about 4 crucial hours researching and I did not find all the sources I needed on that day, but one of the librarian helped me pick out two books on about the Odyssey. The next day when I went over to my girlfriend's home, she helped me with my annotated bibliography. She made me feel more comfortable about the research paper and the bibliography. She was able to helped because she did a few research papers and annotated bibliography before. She also had this book called "A Pocket Style Manual" 4th edition, which really helped me with my bibliography. The book had examples of how to write the articles that I found on to the annotated bibliography. It took me another 4 hours to find my 3 articles from the internet and put on to my bibliography. It took me total of 8 hours to do this annotated bibliography. I was stressing because I never did a annotated bibliography before, but I felt so much better when I completed my assignment. I felt even better when Dr. McCormick looked over my annotated bibliography and told me good job. Now I feel more relaxed and I feel confident about my research paper because I know what I am gong to write about.

"Food and Knowledge" Revision paper 2

After reading “The Book of J“, “The Odyssey“, and “Like Water for Chocolate,” it is evident that food played a major role in the choices people made in their lives as each story showed a connection between food and knowledge. In the literature, the authors gave examples of how food symbolized knowledge and how knowledge comes through food. Food and knowledge was clearly seen in The Book of J, when Hava ate the fruit from the tree of knowing good and bad and her life was changed drastically. In the book of Odyssey, the main character Odysseus received a special herb that ultimately saved his life from Circe. The connection between food and knowledge was also seen in Like Water for Chocolate through Esperanza’s daughter who used a cook book to connect with the memory of her great aunt Tita. The life of each character changed because they gained knowledge through food being forbidden, offered, or passed down to them. Food was
used as a gateway to into knowledge which caused the characters to experience a new life and new experiences.

In The Book of J, Yahweh created the earth. He also created man, animals, birds, mountains, rivers, and trees. Yahweh then took a rib from the man while he was sleeping and shaped the rib into the formation of a woman. Then the man and the woman became husband and wife and were able to live in the Garden of Eden. Yahweh told them that they were free to do whatever they wanted to do and they are allowed to eat from any tree except from two trees in the garden. The first tree they were forbidden to eat from was the tree of life and the other one was the tree of knowing good and bad. Yahweh had forbidden them of eating from these trees because they would have become immortal gods in one sense, defeating the purpose of their creation. They would have also received knowledge from the tree of knowing causing them to be held responsible for their actions which could ultimately lead to sin. By eating the food Yahweh forbade, the man and woman would have gained knowledge and Yahweh knew that this knowledge would most likely be used to gain power and control over creation.
The knowledge that would have been gained by eating the forbidden fruit would have caused chaos in Yahweh’s creation. One day, the snake that had knowledge about Yahweh’s instruction went to the woman in the garden and tricked her into eating from the forbidden tree of knowing. The snake had enticed her so much about the knowledge she would gain if she ate of the fruit to the point where her desire to eat the food was uncontrollable. According to Rosenberg, “the woman sees how good the tree looks, to eat from, how lovely to the eyes, lively to the mind. To its fruit she reached; ate, gave to her man, there with her, and he ate… and the eyes of both fall open, grasp their naked skin. They wound together fig leaves, made covering for themselves” (63). If Yahweh did not punish them and banned them from the Garden of Eden, the man and the woman would’ve gotten the knowledge to stick around and even eat from the tree of life. Yahweh did not want them to turn into one of the God’s, so they were thrown out of the Garden of Eden for that reason.

In the book of “Odyssey”, Odysseus was one of the characters that were smart, and he had enough knowledge get himself out of troubled situation. Food plays an important role in Odysseus’s life. Food did not come easy for Odysseus and his peoples. They had to hunt and fight to find their meals. But when they ate, they ate like kings. Some of Odysseus’s people were not as smart as Odysseus. Two of his men ran into trouble when they visited the Goddess Circe. According to Lombardo, “when they had eaten and drunk, she struck them her wand and herded them the sties outside”. “They looked just like pigs, but their minds were intact” (X 255-258). These two men were poisoned by Circe and they were going to her meal in the future. When Odysseus came to free his men from Circe, she tried to do the same thing to him. But her tactics did not work on Odysseus because he was prepared for her tricks. Odysseus was also blessed in a way because he always found a way to get out of trouble. When he was on his way to Circe’s home, he ran into a God named Hermes. Hermes gave Odysseus a special herb that can save him from Circe’s tricks. When Circe saw that nothing happened to Odysseus after he ate her meal, she knew that he was a special person.

If Odysseus did not have any knowledge, he would’ve ended up just like his men. Turned into pigs and be Circe’s future meal. The author clearly showed how food is connected to knowledge in this story.

Knowledge can be translated to generation to generations through food. In “Like water for Chocolate”, Laura Esquivel shows us that how this example actually works. This book covers three generations and the story is being told by Esperanza’s daughter who happened to be in the third generation. When Esperanza’s daughter came across her late great aunt Tita’s cook book, she was able to make her Christmas Rolls that her mother used to make it on her birthday every year. Esperanza’s daughter stated that, “how wonderful the flavor, the aroma of her kitchen, her stories as she prepared the meal, her Christmas Rolls! I don’t know why mine turn like hers…” (246). We can clearly see that Esperanza’s daughter had interests in her great aunt Tita, how she lived and the problems she went through. Tita’s life actually changed the generation rule. This is the youngest daughter of the family have to take care of the mother until she passes. Tita’s knowledge was passed to Esperanza and down to Esperanza’s daughter. Esperanza’s daughter was able to understand and see her great aunt Tita through the cook book. If they were no cook book from Tita, Esperanza and her daughter would not have the knowledge they have now. They would not understand about the generation rule or struggle that Tita went through. Tita actually gave Esperanza and her daughter knowledge without even knowing. Knowledge is a powerful thing and it can be passed down to generations through food.

We can clearly see that food actually symbolize knowledge from these literatures. Knowledge can be taught, passed down to generations through food. Life is full of surprises and filled with food and knowledge. Some characters used their knowledge for good and some used it for wrong doings.

Works Cited:

Esqivel,Laura. Like Water for Chocolate. Trans. Carol and Thomas Christensen. New York: Double Day, 1989.

Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indiana: Hackett Publishing, 2000.

The Book of J. Trans. David Rosenberg.Ed. Harold Bloom. New York:Grove,1990.

"My Favorite Character"

I actually enjoyed watching the movie Tortilla Soup. This movie had a little bit for everything. It was a combination of a love story, drama, and comedy. I liked all the characters but the one I fell in love with was Carmen.

Carmen was the second oldest daughter of Martin. She was a very classy woman, business lady, family person, and very funny person at the same time.. In the beginning I did not like her style because she acted like she was better than every one else. She dressed better than her sisters and she acted very bougie. She was always criticizing her dad's cooking. Telling her sister something is always missing, which actually looked great. Every time he was making a meal I was getting hungry. But as time passed her character started to change.

Carmen was actually a very loving person who cared for her family, especially for her dad Martin. She was always worried about his health. But she felt that her dad did not really care about her feelings. When she wanted to talk to someone she talked to her dad's best friend Gomez who was also a chef like Martin. He knew her better than Martin ever did. It was sad when he died because it felt like it was her dad that died because he cared about her and showed her love and would talk to him about whole lot of things. Gomez understood her. When she sat down to talk to her dad about her life and the decision she was choosing for her life at Gomez's funeral, he just shut her down completely. Then she ran to her boyfriend's home for comfort, ends up catching him cheating with another woman, who was so ugly and looked more like a man. That's when I felt sorry for her and started to fall in love with her character. Now she had no one else to talk to. When she decided that she was going to move to France for business purpose, her dad did not even show that he cared and did not even try stopping her from leaving.

Not only she was a very caring person, she was an excellent cook also. Carmen felt that she was better than her dad when it came to cooking. She would always cook for dead beat boy friend who really did not even appreciate her.

Towards the end, when her dad took her to the airport to let her go to France, instead of giving her a hug and a kiss, he gave her a set of knives and drove away. Carmen just stood there very upset and watching her dad drive away. When her dad came back home from dropping off Carmen at the the airport, he just stood there very sad and started to reminisce about Carmen's child hood. Some of us can relate to Martin, I know I can because sometimes it's very hard to show someone that you care about someone that is very important in your life. Only way you can show your love is by giving that person a gift, or a card, like what Martin did when he gave his daughter his knife set for his remembrance. Everything changed when Carmen decided not to go to France and come back home and take care her dad. He was so happy to see her and actually showed how he felt by holding her so tight.

The movie had a very good ending that made me happy. Carmen took over her dad's restaurant business as the lead chef. Martin got married and all three of his daughters were very happy with their lives.

"Food and Knowledge"

As a human being, we are born with plenty of gifts and curses. Most of us have the gift to see, communicate, taste, feel, and smell. Also some of us are cursed into greed, jealousy, power, hate, etc... One of the biggest curse that can bring any human being down is greed. Whether is food or money. Some of us see more than we can handle, and do not know when to stop or when to say no. "Food and Knowledge" goes hand in hand with these gifts and curses.

We live the way the we live now is because of what happened in the past. Some of us may have a different opinion about this but for the people that believe in GOD and the Bible, it goes back to the beginning when Eve ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge. What if she never ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Will we have knowledge today? Can we tell the difference between what is right and wrong? Do we know what is good and whats bad. Everything can be a speculation now. I believe that if Eve would've never ate the fruit, someone else would've. Who knows. But we cannot live in the past and worry about what happened back then. This is the present and we have the gift of knowledge and we need it to use that in a good way.

I believe in GOD and I thank GOD for everyday that I get to see and for every meal that I get to eat. I do not eat everything that I come across and I am very funny when it comes to eating from people that I do not know. Sometimes we have no choice and we have to eat what other people cook whether we like it or not. For example when we go to our friends house and his/her parents offers us food. Sometimes we cannot turn that down. But I always say my grace before any meal and ask GOD to protect me from any food poisoning or any other type of sickness. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat and I love to try new things, but I've a limit when it comes to that.

When it comes to food, some of us got it easy and some of us don't. Most of us got it easy because we live in the U.S. But if you look at some other countries that are so poor like Haiti or Somalia, they don't have it easy. There are plenty more countries that are struggling today with no food or shelter. We have to be thankful that we live here and food is really not an option. When we are hungry and have no food at home, all we have to do is go into kitchen and cook something. If there is nothing to cook go outside and find a place that's open to eat. In New York that's not very hard to find because we restaurants, drive thrus, and delis that are open twenty four hours. All we need is some cash in our pocket and our hunger is taken care of.

I believe that food is knowledge and power. When we are hungry, we have the knowledge to find something,cook or even buy something to eat to fulfill our hunger. I am very thankful now because I have the knowledge to know whats is good and bad. Sometime life catches us by off guard and we may not know what to do. That's when we pause for a second and think to our self about what we doing with ourselves. We have the power to change. Change is good when you living a bad life style and turn it around to do good. It can go the other way also. Change yourself before you change someone else. That's why knowledge is very important and we all have that but some of us do not know how to use it.

South Indian Festival "ONAM"

1. 1. Onam is the biggest festival in the South Indian state of Kerala, where I am from. Onam usually falls on the month of August. The dates are different every year. This festival last 10 days and the South Indian people celebrates this holiday with a open heart. Everybody wears new clothes during this festival. They also dance, sing, decorate their home with flowers, boat races, play games, cook and eat too much. The story behind Onam is, According to the legend, Kerala witnessed its golden era during the reign of King Mahabali or Maveli. Everybody in the state was happy and prosperous and the king was highly regarded by his subjects. Apart from all his virtues, Mahabali had one shortcoming. He was egoistic. However, for all the good deeds done by Mahabali, God granted him a boon that he could annually visit his people with whom he was so attached. What now peole call Onam. Best thing about Onam is the food. This is like a Thanksgiving dinner but the South Indian call it Onamsadya. This usually is a big lunch instead of dinner. This meal is served on a banana leaves instead of plates and people eat with their hands instead of using forks and knives. Each family makes about 9-15 different dishes and all these dishes are vegetarian. South Indians do not eat meat during this holiday. When the time come for Onam, people usually decorate thier homes with different types of flowers and they make different types of shapes and symbols. When the decorations are done people gather around it and they would sing and dance. Everyone decorate thier homes differently and it looks so beautiful when its done. I love this holiday because everyone gets along with everybody. People are so happy and thankful for this day. Everyone gets to show off their new clothes and the new clothes must be in beige or cremish color. We have so many different holidays. Other than Christmas, Onam is the holiday people celebrate with joy and peace.

Hello my name is Lenny David. My nationality is Indian and I love Indian food. I pretty much eat Indian food everyday. I also loves Jamaican, Thai, Italian, Spanish, especially Colombian food, and soul food. I do not mind trying new type of food but if the food does not taste good to me the first time, I probably won't eat that food again. Unless if I get the taste back again, I might try it again. The reason why eat so much Indian food is because my mom makes it everyday and I just cant turn it down. My mom is a really good cook and she makes different dish everyday. She only knows how to make Indian food only. When my friends come over to my house, my mom would say hello and offer everybody tea to drink and some snacks to go with the tea. She would also would offer lunch or dinner, depending on what time it is. If there is no food to eat, she will make something for everybody. Some of my friends loves my moms cooking and some don't. The one's that do not like my moms food usually say that its too spicy and they could not handle the spice. I am not going to lie, her food is very spicy and every time I'm eating the food I've to have a gallon water next to me. But the food taste so good that I do not complain. My mom is mostly nice to everyone. She do not like being taken advantage of and she treats everyone fairly. If she feels that someone talk bad about her or her cooking, she would never be nice to that person again. Other than that my mom is cool. She loves cooking for people and make sure that they are satisfied.