Cuisine seems to be a reoccurring theme in
some of the pieces we workshop in this class, so I tried to find some examples
of them on National Geographic, and this is what I came up with.
First off, let’s talk about diction, because
this author’s word choice is particularly spot on, visible even from the
opening. Word pairs like “sultry climate” and the inclusion of Spanish phrases
help tie the piece together. This piece also does a good job of marrying
history and culture/cuisine. This sentence: “Since its founding by the conquistador, Hernán Cortés, in
1519, Veracruz has been Mexico’s main eastern port and a major gastronomic
crossroads” is a perfect example of how to get slightly-obvious history across
without being redundant or irrelevant. Some “foodie facts” add to this
food-tinged history: “The local Totonac people were the first to cure vanilla
beans for culinary use.”
The simple way in
which the author describes lists of food is also effective, rather than going
into detail on the thickness of the salsa, etc, the author is more interested
in translating Mexican/Spanish dishes to English equivalents: “Sample tamales
wrapped in banana leaves, fried tortitas made from plantain dough filled
with black beans, or thick corn tortillas, called picaditas”
or “toro — a milkshake laced with the local aguardiente, a potent sugarcane liquor.
Upon first reading, I found the textual
voice a bit disturbed by the introduction of bullet points, but I see the use.
Describing these fruits in windy paragraphs would make them less interesting
and less direct. Even the descriptions of these “exotic” fruits resonates well
with my tastebuds: “pink or
orange flesh of the mamey has a sweet pumpkin-like flavor. Try it
fresh, with a little lime juice squeezed over it.”
The last two paragraphs register as
irrelevant to me...I get the impression that they had to be included,
regardless of relevance to the article.
I very much enjoyed these descriptions of food because they did give the reader an image and the items of food that were specific to the area were explained in a good way that helped me see what the author was talking about.
ReplyDeleteI did feel like the bullet points at the end were a bit choppy but I felt like it did give a lot of good advice to the reader in order to entice them into trying it themselves. I do think I would've liked to know more about the history of the place, where it is geographically, more about the people just so I could get more out of it than just the food descriptions.
The author did a good job of not bogging down the article with useless descriptions of the food. What they did was describe what it looked like and what it tasted like, and even though I don't like the way the bullet points break up the article, it does make the description of fruits clears and keeps it from being a lot of new information at once, like an info dump.
ReplyDeleteBut I would have liked to see more of Veracruz. Where do people eat these foods? On the beach? At a restaurant? And what do these places look like. Or what do the markets look like. It was short and to the point but left the reader wanting more.
Always talk about food. Although I understand what Jackie means by her comment, I think there's a line where too much can be covered, especially if we want to start going into too many literal directions around Veracruz.
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