Análisis De Los Datos

It could also be argued that the powerful link between food and place is

related to a desire for authenticity. This is not important in all cases because a stunning visual experience can prove memorable even when the food has no perceptible links to the landscape in question. For example, H34 (party of 2, Exmoor, smart hotel) recalled a meal eaten at a skyscraper restaurant that had splendid views all over Boston. However, the enjoyment gained from eating fish at the seafront, or from tasting wine in a vineyard surrounded by fields of vines, could also result from the fact that the experience is deemed to be more authentic because the consumer has been reconnected in some degree with the production of the food or drink that is being consumed. There is therefore support for Boniface (2003) who suggests that a renewed desire for ‘traditional’ food products has occurred because the contemporary

consumer feels alienated from the food production process.

However, I would argue that authenticity is as much about a reconnection with culture as it is about a reconnection with place. In total, 20 per cent of the quotations relating to memorable holiday food experiences appeared to be describing what was perceived to be an ‘authentic’ cultural experience. X9’s (40s, female, administrator, Bath University) story of her trip to a remote part of rural France provides a good example of this:

“We were right down on the Spanish border, and we saw an advert that the village was having an evening celebration of shepherds. So we went along and… there were all these trestle tables – the whole village was

there. And the shepherds were singing all these folk songs and they cooked all this pork and omelette and they just brought it along and they had a local liquor. And then they had goats’ cheese that the shepherds had made, and then it was announced that we all had to go around the corner to the local rugby pitch and we had to watch a demonstration of the sheep dogs! … Whilst we were doing all this, the shepherds were having their supper, so they started singing again. But they’d had quite a lot to drink whilst they were having their supper, so the nature of the songs afterwards – and quite a lot of it was in dialect so I could only just understand the odd word – but I knew it was pretty rude! So the songs, after their supper, had changed tone completely! But it was just an amazing evening, and we were the only non-French people there.”

X9’s experience stands out, not because of the quality of the food, but

because she and her husband felt that they could put aside their tourist status for a while and, through food, gain what she considered to be an exclusive insight into the culture of that particular region of France. This encounter could be understood in terms of MacCannell’s (1989) comments about the tourist’s desire to find a way behind the ‘staged authenticity’ to the ‘back region’ so that they feel they have uncovered something of the essence of the culture of their destination. Contemporary commentators such as Meethan (2001) have criticised the idea of authenticity as an objective concept by claiming that tourists are fully aware of the staged nature of many holiday experiences. However, my data supports Cohen’s (2002) argument that we need to consider the perceptions of the tourists themselves, because it appears that

tourists – while often maintaining a healthy dose of scepticism as regards authenticity – still value some experiences as being more ‘authentic’ than others (see Chapter 2.10). Thus food and drink can act as a ‘sign’ for culture as well as for place, as X19’s (40s, female, lecturer, Bath University)

comments show:

“My favourite meals have probably been in France. Because you can just go into the cheapest-looking restaurant, but the quality of food is

fantastic, and you never get anything duff on the menu. Everything is just – they just cook with such high quality ingredients that – and the red wine helps – it’s just the way in which they eat I love.”

Here, X19 is not recounting a specific dining experience. Instead, she is commenting on what she sees as a ‘typical’ style of eating and cooking that she links with ‘authentic’ French culture. I would also argue that, in addition to offering a window onto another culture, such ‘authentic’ experiences may allow us to try out a different identity – that of a French person, for example – for a short period of time, as discussed in Chapter 2.5. In doing so, we are able to compare and contrast in a way that allows us to reflect on our own culture as well as that of the place we are visiting.

However, although perceived authentic cultural experiences proved memorable for the tourists described here, others did not appear overly concerned about whether a particular experience was authentic, as long as it was different to what they were used to, as the following section describes.

4.3.3 ‘Different’ foods

In total, 16 per cent of quotations relating to memorable holiday food experiences mentioned some form of difference. This supports Alain de

Botton’s (2002) claims that, when we are tourists in an unfamiliar environment, we notice more about our surroundings because they stand out as different from home. For example, a little girl who was interviewed as part of a family group on Exmoor10 told me that she liked the supermarkets in France because they were “different” from those in England. Equally, two interviewees (H24 – party of 2, Exmoor, staying with friends; X28 – 50s, female, cleaner, Lancaster University) cited cruises as their most memorable food experiences because there were such a variety of different foods on offer.

However, the importance of difference may also relate to the ways in which we formulate our identities because ‘difference’ can provide evidence of a kind of bravado which enables people to give impressive accounts of how they have daringly tackled foods not normally consumed in the UK. As H2 (party of 5, Exmoor, average hotel) explained:

H2(2): We’ve just come back from Kenya and they had some really interesting stuff there. We ended up eating ostrich, zebra,

hippopotamus… you had to try all the local delicacies. It was quite

incredible, actually. Ostrich, zebra, hippopotamus… and I think there was a snake!

H2(3): Oh my goodness!

On one level, this experience stood out as memorable simply because it was different from what H2 had encountered before. However, there are also links to self-identity here. Hage (1997) has argued that there is an element of competition between tourists to see who can be the most daring, and people therefore use stories of culinary adventurousness to boost their social status (Bourdieu, 1984). In the case of H2’s example, there was some evidence for this because she had not known her holiday companions very long (the group had come together for a week’s musical holiday). This seemed to make group members want to compete to see who could come up with the best story because, straight after she recounted her experience, another group member quickly asserted: “I’ve just spent a month in Japan and I didn’t eat any

Western food at all for the whole month”. Although such competition may be unconscious – as Giddens (1993) noted, we may not always be aware of our desires and motivations – this illustrates the ways in which people can use their holiday food experiences to try and influence how others perceive them.

Despite this, it would be unfair to suggest that all tourists are trying to advance their social standing in this way because we may be sharing a story to

empathise with others or to describe something that is interesting for the enjoyment of everyone. Alternatively, as Germann Molz (2004) has argued, our encounter with different foods and cultures may lead us to challenge our own identity and perspectives more clearly. An example of this was X21 (20s, female, administration assistant, Lancaster University), whose most

memorable food experience was her recent trip to Italy. Although X21 had been abroad previously, she confessed to being a notoriously fussy eater who

had always avoided trying different foods in favour of ‘safe’ options that she knew she liked. However, on her Italian trip, she found herself in a place where the only option was to eat the Italian food available in local restaurants. Initially, she found this frightening because she did not enjoy Italian food in the UK and was sure that she would not be able to find anything nice to eat. However, by forcing herself to be brave and to try the local dishes, she discovered an adventurous side to her character – and palate – that she had not seen before:

“I was very proud of myself for trying different foods and I think I surprised myself because I used to say ‘I’m not trying that, and I’m not trying that’… and I sat there and refused to eat, and I think probably if I’d maybe tried something, I would have been alright but I wasn’t willing to do that, and I think nowadays I’ve missed out on opportunities – I spent three years living in Bradford disliking curries, and I found one I liked – I tried them, I just didn’t like them – and I found one that I liked. And it’s the same with the Chinese food – I spent years and years not liking Chinese food – I kept trying and I was: ‘No, I just don’t like it’. There are quite a few things I like now, only through trying food. So I think Italy would stand out as the most memorable.”

For X21, the Italian trip was a revelation because she discovered that she was able to be more adventurous and, as a result, she was considering eating out more often. I would argue that, although X21 was unusual in being able to acknowledge the degree to which her self-identity had been influenced by the

difference she encountered on holiday, her experiences were not uncommon. The fact that authenticity and difference were alluded to in 20 per cent and 16 per cent of memorable experiences quotations respectively indicates that people’s holiday food experiences can present a challenge to the way they perceive themselves and others. Tourist responses to, and perceptions of, difference and familiarity will be discussed further in Chapter 5. For now, however, I would argue that food experiences involving difference have the potential to be memorable because they throw our own culture and lifestyle into sharper relief.