I had no biases against using fake meat in this recipe, as I am already vegetarian myself, and have been for over 4 years. I’ve used fake meat or substituted meat in many recipes over the years. These substitute recipes are often just as good as the real thing.
(1) The cultural implications of making traditional foods into non-traditional versions, in my opinion, is doing it with the same spirit and not altering it too much. Obviously, don’t modify it to the point where its hardly the same thing anymore and still try to call it that. I think older generations would see their dishes being altered and some would be happy with the fact that people continue to enjoy these dishes, but others who are more traditional would not appreciate it.
(2) It is rather important to target your customer’s cultural tastes when creating your menu, but also have a portion of the menu that varies. Some people like to only eat what they know, where others are fine with trying new things. This is the same reason some students were willing to try the plant fillings and others were not enthusiastic. Target markets should be partially based on age and ethnic group, but not strictly.
I found making masa and tortillas much easier than expected. My group’s were actually pretty good, we tried them. I left wanting to make my own masa and tortillas at home.
(3) I think the best way to master a new skill (such as tortilla making) is just to do it over and over again. For example, I’ve made pancakes every weekend for the last few months and have progressively perfected my recipe and technique. My pancakes used to always come out burnt and flat, and now the majority come out golden and fluffy. Practice makes perfect!
Our plating was relatively simple. We just put two tacos half-opened side-by-side and put topping and salsa on them. We also created a little design to the side with the sauce bottles.
(4) I like how artsy our sauce design was. Nothing about our plating was bad, it was just a little too simple I think. I saw one group who lightly drizzled sauce over their tacos and another who photographed on a wooden plate for more of a rustic look. I liked both of these ideas, and would add those to our design if we re-did this lab.
Creating a meal with a group was somewhat difficult, as we either had too much to do or not enough to do. It was nice though, that we could split up tasks and have multiple things going at once without getting overwhelmed. I do wish we had more time though, as I feel like we could’ve produced more of our product, considering we had a lot of left over masa/tortillas.
(5) I feel like I wouldn’t enjoy working at a restaurant. I’m not terribly into fast-paced environments and prefer to chill and work at my own speed. Working in a kitchen where everything has a time limit and every mistake is noticed by the customer just doesn’t sound like my thing.
Learning to Cook with Grace 