One place I frequently almost every month is the Lobster House in Norwood. The food they have is amazing, and the service is always top notch. The Lobster House would be considered fine dining, as they don’t have a dress code, but most people always dress up nicely for the lobster house. Most of their food they have are typically steaks, chicken dishes and most of all Lobster or some other kind of seafood. But the best part is the price of the foods are very reasonable, but the drinks are a little overpriced in my opinion, but they still are very enjoyable to have with your meal. The location isn’t the greatest, but its local and close to home so it isn’t that much of a problem to get there. The service is always amazing, and they all have a uniform they need to where, which always looks great. Most of the waitresses are very knowledgeable about their foods, and can answer any questions you may have. Most of the customers I see their are always very well behaved, and dress very nice. I don’t ever see jeans or a gym shorts while I go into the restaurant. Everyone is always so nice, and I always noticed that it is typically quiet and respectful. Even at the bar most of the people are quiet and enjoying their drinks within a reasonable noise level.

All and all I would recommend the Lobster House for a very filling meal and reasonable priced meal.

WebstaurantStore. “Types of Restaurants.” WebstaurantStore, WebstaurantStore, 22 May 2019, http://www.webstaurantstore.com/article/353/types-of-restaurants.html.

Today after work I went to Half Tons in Potsdam for the first time in a long time. Half Tons would be considered a Casual Dinning experience, but also would be considered a bar/grill restaurant. The Waitress/waiters don’t really have a dress code, but they do all where black together. Most of the options on the menu were typical for around the area, and the prices for most of them were fair. The really only difference was there a lot of bar food, or finger foods. As there bar can get pretty popular from time to time, which I sometimes will go enjoy a beverage or two with my friends and girlfriend.

Most of the customers are what you would expect for a North Country restaurant. Most of the people where caucasian and most were middle aged, and look they were construction workers. It also seemed like most of the customers were males with very few females. I also noticed that most of the workers were females, and the cooks were mainly males. I also noticed that most of the people at the bars were mainly beer drinking and taking shots every 20-30 minutes.

Half Tons overall was a good atmosphere restaurant and I enjoy the food and drinks very much. I will definitely be coming back frequent.

WebstaurantStore. “Types of Restaurants.” WebstaurantStore, WebstaurantStore, 22 May 2019, http://www.webstaurantstore.com/article/353/types-of-restaurants.html.

I have a lot of friends who are jewish and the way they eat has always interested me. So I asked a couple of them how it was like to eat pretty much only kosher foods, and they said it really wasn’t that bad. For them it’s like second nature, and they never really think anything of it. They told me everything I needed to know about kosher food, and even how its suppose to be made.

Kosher food firstly comes from directly from the torah. One example would be for meat. The only meat that they can eat have to come from animals with cloven hooves and anything that chews the cud. Some examples of these animals would be bulls, cows, sheep and lambs. Which I thought was really interesting, you never really think into someones else religions until they tell you about it. I also think it’s interesting that a single book can tell a certain religion what you can and can’t eat. But then again the bible also does the something. They also told me they couldn’t mix meat and milk together, which blew my mind because I drink milk with pretty much everything. But because the torah says you can’t cook a young animal in the milk of its mother. (Koshercertification) I’m also interested in learning peoples religions, and learning about this one was definitely an eye opener.

“What Does Kosher Mean?” What Is Kosher Food, Kosher Rules, Products, Definition, What Does Kosher Mean, http://www.koshercertification.org.uk/whatdoe.html.

Christmas is celebrated all over the world. No matter where you are, everyone knows what Christmas is. Everyone even has their own version of Santa Claus, and every child loves this special holiday. Because of the presents of course, but one of my favorite reasons I love this holiday is because its another excuse to pig out at the dinner table.

Christmas is mainly a Christian holiday, but every religion has adapted their own flare to the holiday. Christmas Dinner isn’t as big as Thanksgiving dinner, but it’s still usually a huge cookout for families across the globe. The main dish usually is a ham for christmas with mashed potatoes, fruit salad and pretty much all the same food as thanksgiving. The females are typically the ones we are making the dinner, or that’s usually how it goes in my family, while the kids are playing with their toys they got from that morning. While the men in the family are either drinking beer conversing, and some may even be helping in the kitchen. Christmas dinner is actually originated in Britain. (Davidson, Washington Post)

Davison, Benjamin. “The Hidden History of Christmas Dinner.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Dec. 2017, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/12/22/the-hidden-history-of-christmas-dinner/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0d0d93f597f3.

Food media has drastically changed the way I buy food and what type of foods I eat. An example of this is the food network. I watch this channel almost every night, and they usually have different types of food to make, or different things to try. So I usually end up giving most of them a try, even though it doesn’t come out as good. They also usually have great shows on different types of restaurants, and which ones to try when you travel to different states. But that doesn’t effect what restaurants I go too, I usually always give a restaurant a chance before I give an opinion on it.

Another good thing about food media is that it’s help me eat healthier, and find foods that aren’t healthy. Not that I follow it all the time, but knowing quickly what’s unhealthy and what is healthy is great. But again I don’t let whatever they say scare me if some kind of health risk is out there. I will always eat what I want, but I will make sure it has some kind of healthy food to the meal. Sometimes I’ll even get a food ad on facebook about some great new dish, and that’ll make me feel inclined to make it. No matter where you go there will always be someone watching what you eat. Food has become such a mainstream concept and people will always love it. Chef’s are becoming more and more popular, some are even becoming celebrities. Celebrities have so much influence on stuff that people usually follow what celebrities do. So if a chef is changing their diet a lot of people will do the same thing.

Fiorentino, Alyssa. “Meghan Markle Eats ‘Sexy Mush,” and More Weird Celeb Food Habits.” Delish, Delish, 20 Mar. 2019, http://www.delish.com/food/g3366/celebrity-eating-habits/.

Being from Upstate New York I usually pass by farms, and dairy production places and even a meat packing plant quite frequently. So this usually makes me want to eat more cheese, with a nice piece of meat. Upstate New York has a lot of open fields, so a lot of farmers are able to successful raise cattle, and even own quite a lot of land for different type of crops. So having access to locally produced food is actually fairly easy for me. Most stores sell the product of local farmers and plants.

One draw back from living in the North Country is that we have long winters. So farmers are really only able to grow for around four months out of the year, if they are lucky. Even when the spring and summer time comes, you never know when farmers will be able to actually start planting crops. The weather around my area is so unpredictable it could change in a flash of an eye. But with having so many open and flat lands, they usually are able to still make enough crops to help support the local communities. A major crop that is grown around here is corn, you could go from town to town, and you will have a high chance of passing by a corn field. Corn is a perfect crop to be grown around the area, as our land just suits it so well.

Another aspect I love about being from upstate New York is their is a good handful of farmer markets around the area. So getting fresh produce isn’t that hard to come by. I do wish we could have more food trucks, but the really only food truck around my area is just a burrito truck. Which is kind of sad because I really enjoy food truck food, as I have noticed that they typically always have local produces and nothing ever is processed food. Upstate New York isn’t really lacking any type of meat or fish, we can fish our food all year, and we can hunt our food almost all year as well. So finding or buying a piece of meat that is local isn’t hard at all. Which would be a different story for a city area, as they don’t have as much forest, and lakes as we do.

Bushati. “The Unique Foods of Upstate New York.” Times Union, Times Union, 27 Oct. 2016, http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/The-unique-foods-of-upstate-New-York-10417933.php.

Each class has different ways to approach the food. The food they eat also falls back to what their social class is. Studies show that middle-class have healthier options then people in the lower-class. But also something that is interesting is a single mother tends to not care about what they get their children to eat, as long as they can get them something to eat.

The more I think about it the more it makes sense. I grew up in Middle-Class and I can remember having a lot of options for what my mom was going to make and their was always a vegetable and fruit. I can remember my best friend at the time, didn’t have a lot of money growing up, so he would tell me what he had. And all he would have was fast food it seemed like. Nothing ever homemade or any kind of vegetable, i didn’t even think anything of it. But he was in the lower class, so his parents always gave him something that was cheap and fed him. I never really realized how lucky I was to grow up in the middle class. The food that I had a chance to eat, and I sometimes took it for granted. It’s kind of sad that some people grow up in situations like that, although when I look back at it I wouldn’t mind having McDonalds all the time when I was a little kid.

https://watermark.silverchair.com/10-2-108.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAkQwggJABgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggIxMIICLQIBADCCAiYGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMlnVivykH-46jOKIfAgEQgIIB9_2p1DCclHmHEhrQ9j9wwPkgwgnV8PX1fBF6wIX8s_-CrY-SGFdi51_Ek-pRYUc8aXzk11bQl2ySAlqxwD9DHl5-bkVxuMfjLf5IWeSeE_o6jG9qC5qIXkOj4RwgkbEyYURMewPlbRik8aH_ozAclKZ3oVKoK4C3QfZ3J0qxZLOd-zAVGIiVbZDMrLG1sOSONU4OinEbqG3-gS4o4ey4ugaXwU9WQpzIuZD5JUuNpGWAh13YD6dZuShQnE86dXrK_9JSSDgMTZ89H9mR_WJ7_WGs5ZPmPQk20av9wVR4NbsMVzgNAWkmw29YsdVryD4CBVPrBEQjG4ZVA8ZTnILpaB17fj–w6EfdxE4VIY5v9E-a40I7rkbiAJM8YvkO1J_RgpvOVNo1sRK8mimPsbtt729_6AR2_AWvX9UI76ESKzSHATlKbS4-kx-VZ5La-Ozga7CYRYQ88-QtDM8FF24O1G_afk-IZZohu5pDq2nUYU0O0qJzB2tHep8QB3404BsZh94FaR2FCXYL1jqEMywrcEn4rK-zedsuThvzK4v8PKOQKnDJXL7LY2VwAQYfMgnOavqlIp8AWtRyeetl3IyrF2wJYRSoLpAj30bpnQsnnB8EKqP0B-8B-9FQfz79ktLIcVkJ6Xag5ZNMbahDcUDfN8bjGjhIeFt

Chicken has been one of my favorite foods ever since I was a little kid. It comes in a lot of different forms, my favorite is grilled chicken, it just has so much flavor.

Domestication of the Chicken started around 2000 B.C. The red jungle fowl is the most common chicken found in the world, it’s even said to be the main ancestor of all the domesticated chickens. It was said that the first European settlers brought chickens with them, and ever since then it has been grown to what it is now a days. A great source of tasty protein.

Mrs. Wilmer Steele is said to be the first person to collect chickens for the meat and sell it. She started her business in Delaware, and she made an enormous amount of profit, which made people start the commercial chicken production, which has the hatchery. The hatchery is pretty much where all the chickens live, the next part is the incubation, which is where the chickens drop their eggs and are kept at the perfect temperature for the eggs. The next part is allowing the chickens to grow healthy as they possible can for slaughter. After about 6 weeks of growing they are sent for slaughtering, which is pretty self explanatory. They are then chilled, and then the cutting starts, and all the different types of the meat is packaged and sent out.

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-5/Chicken.html

McDonalds is one of the most popular fast food chains in America, and even the country. They strive for fast service and good food ever since they opened up their doors. I visited the McDonalds in Potsdam, New York. When I entered I immeditaly noticed four or five big families inside enjoying their meal. Each family had their kids who were around six or seven year olds, and each had their happy meals. As I went up to order my food, the cashier greeted me and asked me to order whenever I’m ready. I noticed most of the workers they are around the age where they are still in college, or still in high school. I also noticed that the prices are not overly expensive, other than the craft burgers you can make. I thought they were a little overly priced. But most of the meals you can get were priced perfectly for the area they are placed. I also noticed that where they are placed is easily accessible for both of the surrounding colleges. Although they have a lot of competition in the area, they are usually always packed.

All of the customers I saw that came in were all different types of individuals. Elderly, children, middle age, teenagers. There didn’t seem to be just one type, it was all mixed. It was the same for the race, there wasn’t just one single race that would come in.

https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/about-us/history.html

The Modern Food Systems is interesting and I love it. You can get any food you want delivered to your door, or you can go out to a fancy restaurant and get a nice juicy steak. But everything good thing comes with it’s benefits and comes with it’s negatives.

I’ve never really thought about how my favorite foods are made, and I’ve never really been one to look at nutrition facts. For example, when people tell me how McDonald’s make their chicken nuggets, it doesn’t really bother me because I like the way they taste. Which probably isn’t the best thing for me to do, but it’s just the way I was brought up.

But I would like to share with you the ecological footprint of my favorite type of beef, steak. Experts have said if you give up beef it will reduce your carbon footprint more than a car. The agriculture has been a significant force for increasing global warming, as most beef plants use industrial equipment to produce their meat. But giving up meat isn’t something that everyone isn’t going to do, so this really isn’t that realistic. But if the bigger companies reduce their production and they way they raise their beef, maybe then we can reduce some of the carbon footprint.

Carrington, Damian. “Giving up Beef Will Reduce Carbon Footprint More than Cars, Says Expert.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 21 July 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/21/giving-up-beef-reduce-carbon-footprint-more-than-cars.