#extravigin

[allaboutfoodgwu]

The Essential

Many foods’ journey is disconnected from the human experience; where they are grown, how they are processed, where they are sold, who buys them, and leading up to their shelve-life in a grocery store where humanity comes in contact with them. Some people are passionate about their food, thus food enters a more social relationship with humanity rather than a nourishment role. Robin Fox describes “food fashion” as a way to explain the passion people feel about their food at a certain point of time that results in food fads. Fox describes how food snobbism essentially elevates food fads to a point where if you aren’t informed in them, you are considered a social failure. Also, much like the fashion industry, food fashion is dependent on change and people are often captivated by these foods in a fleeting manner (2014).

           The focal point of this research aims to take reverse food snobbery, “a cultivation of proletarian tastes as long as they are romantic,” to the next point of opposition of food fads (Fox). A complete rejection of food fashion “in’s” and “out’s” and a focus on a commodity above it all; one in which embraces simplicity and necessity, cooking oil. This commodity in a grocery store is essential to practically all the food one eats. Cooking oil is not apart of the war of food fads versus common foods; rather it reflects all social hierarchy, or so I may have believed. I aim to uncover if an item, crucial to almost every modern diet, truly has the ability to manifest in a non-romantic collectivism interaction with humanity and their food. Could cooking oil, quite possibly be the thing that humanity has in common all along?

           For the purpose of this research cooking oil is defined as plant, animal or synthetic fat used in cooking that may be used in food preparation and flavoring, but is not solely used for this purpose. The cooking oil in this optical research focus differs from edible oil which is exclusively used for flavoring. Therefore oils such as truffle oil, or any other flavored oil that appears in the research are classified as edible oils and will not be analyzed extensively. Major cooking oil varieties include; olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, sesame oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil, corn oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, avocado oil, sunflower oil,  and safflower oil. The reason is mainly because, cooking oil reaches the essence of customary that the flavoring oils do not share. The price of truffle oil alone reveals that the intended consumer is of a higher class or one willing to allocate a large portion of their budget towards an oil.  

           For my field visits I went to five different grocery stores in Washington, D.C. and they included; the Whole Foods Market located in Foggy Bottom, Trader Joe’s in the West End neighborhood, The Mediterranean Way Gourmet Market in Dupont, the Giant Food in Columbia Heights, and the Walmart Supercenter in Brightwood. The pattern I wished to follow in these five locations was a general direction north (map) and to the benefit of my research, each location had a supply of cooking oils. Though, not every location offered the same kind of cooking oils.  

In five store optical research it is difficult to find similarities in such different stores from different neighborhoods about a product that runs consistent. The packaging, is however, a rather consistent particular similarity. Each store had some kind of glass or can packaging. The glass bottle packaging was always reserved for at least the olive oil in each of the grocery stores. Some grocery stores used the glass bottles for safflower oil or grapeseed oil. Often times glass bottles indicated a higher price, the only time where this could not be proven was the gourmet market because they had no comparison.

However, the gourmet market in Dupont had higher prices overall which could equate to the fact that since all their oils were in glass or cans, then they maintain the type of packaging elitism found. Glass packaging requires less energy to produce than the plastic packaging. Although glass is more expensive to produce, plastic is more expensive to recycle. Plastic also, has the possibility of leaching toxins which is a risk that can be avoided if one someone has the dispensable income to spend on not just the oil, but the packaging.

Another major similarity across all the stores was the presence of olive oil at each one. The packaging varied at each location, but olive oil was very consistent and also consistently was the product with a few taken from the supply of it. Some products had not a dent in the supply, but olive oil always appeared like someone just came by and picked some up. However, every time I was observing the oils, there was never more than 3 people around. Although, no one seem to stick around the oil section long, it only proved my point further. The oil is already a well known and trusted staple that the glamorization of the product does not need to be done. It is a given.

Differences were far and wide when it came to oil types; variety, packaging, pricing, location, people. However, something to note is how each store caters to its particular demographic. Whole Foods offered the largest selection of ghee I saw out of every store, and that probably has to do with the wealthy food fashion chasing people they hope to attract. While Trader Joe’s instead offered suggestions paired with each oil on the label, that gives you the friendly good-ole-Joe feel that the store wants you to have. The gourmet market really only had an extensive collection of extra virgin olive oil, because they were focusing on products from a particular region. The Giant had the largest selection of peanut oil, which is often used to fry food, which  appeared the cooking style of the demographic they wished to serve. Lastly, the Walmart had the best price and largest quantity of canola oil, most likely because their demographic mainly used this.

  Across the cooking oils; olive oil had the largest range on price and packaging, but people chose to buy it. Every time, people always bought olive oil. There was an olive oil for whatever type of person you were. However, my last two grocery store visits showed canola/corn/vegetable oil can serve this purpose too, but for those with a desired lower price point overall. However, it seems to be less about the price when it comes to essential items and at a times more about the type of Whole Foods/Trader Joe’s mindset, which prioritizes healthy and organic living over price. At times this means those who are wealthy can partake, but also those with maybe a lower income may want to partake as well because they share that mindset.

Reference

Fox, Robin. “Food and Eating: An Anthropological Perspective.” Social Issues Research Institute. 2014. http://www.sirc.org/publik/food_and_eating_0.html

[doronbond]

THE BEST olive oil in my opinion #LaEspanola #ExtraVigin #oliveoil #nopoppin like #goya