Final Thoughts

From this project, through self-reflection, research, a critical analysis of food in society, and most importantly through dialogue with Joyce, Sarah and Allison, it has become apparent that food both mediates and is mediated by our experiences. Therefore, food serves as an excellent vehicle for life narrative. Indeed, the idiom 'you are what you eat' can be read as a much larger statement than the commonly interpreted meaning that if you eat healthy, then you'll be physically healthy. I think the truth in 'you are what you eat' lies in the way we have internalized this and the value-judgement that has been attached to it. I think it can also be extended to read 'you are who you eat with, where you eat, how you eat, and so on'. But this is not to diminish the intimate relationship between food and our bodies; it is to situate food consumption and our bodies within the broader culture.
In looking back at our posts, I've noticed that our shared dark table experience reflections reveal that we did take notice of and feel similar things, although there were a lot of differences, for example in sensation and in our comfort levels .While we were at the restaurant, I felt that in a way we were narrating the moment, and I wondered how much this would affect our reflections. To a certain extent I think this did influence what we each produced. I also noticed in reading others' posts that there were a few details that I 'mis-remembered'. I decided not to make edits and celebrate the ambiguity of truth in life narrative!

In our group dialogue, there were a lot of other experiences and topics that we covered which we did not include on our blog. One thing that we noticed is how if one of us described a food experience with the group, there was usually a point where we could each weave in our own narrative. For example, at our pot luck, we all had a story to tell about the issue of food-related anxieties.

It comes as no surprise, then, that food memoir is an established literary genre. As well, cookbooks, food blogs, and instagramming food are often autobiographical. There is simply so much we can each speak about our selves, experiences, and identities through food.