Hannah Elder
ENGL 096/101
Final Draft
Food Culture in Vietnam and America
When we discuss about the differences between Vietnamese and America culture, we can think of many things such as History, Style of Music, Arts, Religion, Language, etc. And, I will tell you some differences and similarities in eating culture of the two countries. Even though they both have things in common such as family’s dinner, tea and coffee for morning, three meals a day or small snacks between main meals. But, the food cultures of two countries are different in many ways including kinds of farmland, living style, cooking style and eating style.
First of all, Vietnam and America both have farmlands and seas to raise animals and sea creatures. When in fact, most Vietnamese are boat people, they make their living by shrimping and fishing. So their meals would most have of fish and rice every day. I noticed some Americans don 't even like fish. In Vietnam, there are not that many cows or pigs because there are not that many farmlands. Vietnam is almost like a big island; it is almost surrounded by water at all sides except the north, which is connected to China. Vietnam 's land is not so good; most of them are rocky or dry. It is mostly in the south where the land is good and where the farmlands are at, but mostly Vietnam has many rice paddies. It is too obvious that seafood in America is so expensive but in Vietnam it is so cheap and same for meat.
Secondly, people sometimes go out for dinner with romantic partner in both Vietnam and America. I noticed that there are many fast food restaurants in America, something that are not very popular in Vietnam. This clearly shows that life in America is very fast and people are working so hard trying to get rich and successful. As a matter of fact, americans are always busy that they do not even have time to prepare and cook their own food. They will have to get foods that are prepared quickly so they can also eat