Texto de covariación

ings of eating out and eating at home

First, I look into meanings of eating out and eating at home among participants. Restaurants and cafe produces alternative social spaces to eating at home by accom- modating social demands which can be institutionalised and marketable. Finkelstein (1989) also examined phenomenological accounts of eating out, and revealed that ambivalent aspects of sociality associated with eating out. She remarked that the restaurant provides a space for “self-presentation and the mediation of social re-

7.3. SOCIAL DISTINCTION AND MORALITY 139 lations through what is currently valued, accepted and fashionable” (Finkelstein, 1989, 3). Through the creation of the images of pleasure, convenience, wealth, and luxury which stimulate individual desires, the restaurant provides variety of social spaces which accommodate individual needs and mediate all kinds of issues related to eating at home. At the same time, Finkelstein also emphasised anti-social as- pects of eating out. She argued that “dining out allows us to act imitation of others, in accordance with images, in response to fashions, out of habit, without need for thought or self-scrutiny”(Finkelstein, 1989, 5). Therefore, the practice of eating out offers opportunities for self-representation, but it also engineers individual thoughts and behaviours into cultural codes of the social structure.

Individual narratives of young adults embody these ambivalent aspects of eating out: maximising a variety of choices and increasing homogenisation and commer- cialisation of eating. Many described eating outside of their home provides the variety of choices such as restaurants, food, and atmosphere as well as new cultural experiences.

It is an entertainment. I want to try every restaurant in town. (A 34 year-old Australian man in Canberra)

I choose the menu which I would never make it or I would not have the time to make it. (A 29 year-old Australian woman in Canberra)

I love trying new food. No matter where it is from. No matter where I travel to. (A 34 year-old Australian woman in Sydney)

When I eat out with my friends, I try to pick the restaurants which look interesting. We tried African restaurant last time. (A 28 year-old Japanese man in Tokyo)

It is fun to choose from the variety. (A 38 year-old Japanese man and a 33-year-old Japanese woman in Tokyo)

These narratives illustrated the disposition of ‘openness’ to new food, restaurants, and cultures. Some participants associated the practice of eating out with their travel experiences to overseas. Warde et al. (1999); Warde (2000) suggested that seeking variety of food-related knowledge and experiences was to display social dis- tinction, and this practice was common among the educated, metropolitan middle- classes in England. Like British cities and other urban metropolitan cities, Tokyo and Sydney have increasingly more numbers of restaurants providing exotic foods

and cultural experiences. Compared to other capital cities, Canberra is a rather small capital city, but has the most educated population in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2014)∗. Furthermore, majority of Australian participants had exposed to multi-cultural experiences through their family, travels, and study abroad experiences (See Chapter 3). The experience of variety of food as an expression of self-refinement and their middle-class cosmopolitan identities is also common among some young adults in urban Australia and Japan.

In contrast, some participants described that eating at the commercial venues limits the capacity of humanity and morality, which are not yet institutionalised and commercialised. They compare and contrast the impersonal aspects of marketplace with the comfort at home. A 39 year-old Australian woman said,

At home, there is no one pushing you to get the table back. If it is your place, that’s fine you do not have to worry.

She also stressed that the home provides a more comfortable space for social inter- actions than outside:

You can relax and stay as long as you like. You can interact with people and it breaks down the barrier. It also shares a bond.

Some participants viewed that commercialised services were not flexible enough to accommodate personal needs. A 40 year-old Australian man whose meals always centred on fishes and vegetables said, “When you order salad at restaurants, they never get it right for me.” Similarly, a 26 year-old Japanese woman said, “The restaurant food has few variations of ingredients and less quantities.” She compared with her mother’s meal, and said, “My mother would put more vegetables and meats in Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) to make the dish perfect for me.” Ingredients and quantities of individual dishes are controlled at most restaurants in a collective form, and these dishes do not necessarily meet personal needs unlike her mother who know what she wants.

Although restaurant industries started to accommodate demands for some di- etary restrictions, the integrity of the restricted diets prepared by anonymous chefs are still questionable. A 33 year-old Australian woman who had celiac said, “I feel that people do not understand allergy very well. They may use the same knife on the bread so it is not safe anymore.”

∗_{According to the ABS report in 2014, 40% of people in the Australian Capital Territory, where}

Canberra belongs to, had a Bachelor Degree or above as their highest level of education attainment. This was the highest proportion among all states and territories in Australia.

7.4. PLACE FOR COMMENSALITY AND SOLO-EATING 141