Emma van Schalkwyk

APL120

Meals for the Mundane – a 24-hour Break-Down of Food Rituals

A student apartment accommodating two young sisters makes for an interesting nutritional
cross-section. In a household with such a flexible concept of rules, it is up to the inhabitants to
create daily structure to the extent that feels necessary. Food events seem like unique indicators
with which to measure the structures that have developed. The main food event that carves out
a passable routine in my sister’s and my day is – rather stereotypically – dinner.
My sister and I have quite polarised approaches to breakfast; however, our dinner routine
reflects more unity. At around 18:00 we both emerge from our rooms and take a welcome break
from our academic schedules. My sister, being much more culinarily inclined, is usually in
charge of preparing and cooking the food. In the background I see to feeding our cat – who’s
meal looks admittedly less appetising than ours – as well as setting the table outside on the
patio. Whilst my sister is cooking, an upbeat song can always be heard playing from a speaker,
which seems to spur on the creative process she endeavours each night. Due to a considerably
limited student grocery budget, our diet has shifted to an almost exclusively plant-based
regimen and although this seemed like quite a transition to have to make from a previously red
meat-heavy diet, my sister took this challenge in such stride that it seems difficult to have to
imagine transitioning back. When the food is ready, we use the time eating offers us to catch
up on the day’s events. This may seem like an unnecessary part of our dinner routine seeing as
we are both completing university from home, but the days become unintentionally isolated
when one is allowed to determine their own schedule. After dinner, clearing the table and
cleaning up the kitchen falls to me. We finish off the night with two cups of Rooibos tea and
my sister smokes her “before-bed” cigarette – which seems to constitute as important a part of
her mealtimes as any of the foodstuffs she eats. The juxtaposition of such healthy food choices
and such a destructive habit leaves room for wondering whether the bad habit is balanced out
or whether her healthy choices are negated by her unhealthy habit.
When regarding the food that now makes up our dinners, a considerable difference can be seen
in the USDA Food Pyramid. The USDA Pyramid breaks food up into four classifications: meat,
fish and poultry; grains; dairy products and fruit and vegetables (Delaney, 2004). This pyramid
is largely a result of the work of nutritionists and food experts, however, there is also sufficient
evidence that much pressure has come from USDA to maintain these classifications as it gives
considerable importance to meats and other animal products of different variations. This in turn
promotes the wealth of the dairy and meat industries, earning the U.S. economy billions of
dollars annually. This is why when a new food classification system was proposed – consisting
of fruits; legumes; grains; vegetables and meat and dairy products as optional extras (also
known as the vegan diet) (Delaney, 2004) – it faced heavy opposition. My household’s dinner
diet is much more aligned with this vegan diet. Interestingly, however, similar to USDA’s
motives for opposing the vegan diet, our motives for choosing the vegan diet were also mainly
financially oriented, wanting to save money, though, rather than earn profits.
Another plausible motivation for our vegan-tending diet – though possibly subconscious – is
the link that food has to gender. It has been stated that “[p]eople with power have always eaten
meat” (Delaney, 2004). This can be seen in the context of hierarchal power as well as in the

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Emma van Schalkwyk
APL120

context of male power over their female counterpart. This ties into the concepts of “women are
meat” and the concept that “men have a right to meat” (Delaney, 2004). These conceptions are
implicit in the gendering of meat as a seemingly male food. Contextually, this is aided by the
South African tradition of barbequing meat, also known as “braaiing”. Tied to this tradition,
again, is the assumption that men are responsible for barbequing the meat whilst the women
prepare the remainder of the meal. Having recently transitioned from a family unit in which
this stereotype held true to a family unit of two young sisters, it is possible that the structural
component of meat in our diet fell away when the male component that aided it fell away.
Finally, the aspect of a slow-food, plant-based diet is also a notable component of the food in
our household. The reality of having limited funds with which to buy food is faced by many
households, however a common tendency is to engage in a fast-food diet which is sold at
enticingly affordable prices. Health may seem to have been a consideration when my sister and
I changed our diet, however the subsequent role that smoking has taken in my sister’s life is
much more indicative of an alternative explanation: a slow-food diet forces consumers to invest
more time and effort into meals. Having to buy, prepare and cook food as well as having to
clean up after a meal offered a routine in which my sister and I could spend more time together
and take time off from our schoolwork. This was much more valuable to us than the supposed
efficiency of fast-food that has been prepared in methods resembling assembly-line production
and are isolation-inducing (Delaney, 2004).
In the case of my household, it is clear that food does not play the meagre role of sustaining
our nutritional need for food. As young adults, ambiguity seems to define the structure of our
lives. Our meals are certainly not exempt from this ambiguity as is reflected in the fluctuating
state of our diet. However, the familiarity of mealtimes in which we are both involved and
allow for us to spend time together, allows for us to give order to our days. It is interesting to
note, then, that the very structure that nutrition has offered our new lifestyle, has resulted in the
amplifying of the nutritional value of our meals.

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Emma van Schalkwyk
APL120

References
• Delaney, C., 2004. Food for Thought. Investigating Culture: An Experiental
Introduction to Anthropology, pp. 273-319.