SE 1

Adam Clark
Professor Leake
Writ 1133 4-6pm MW
My family has always lived in Minnesota going back at least four or five generations. With this, many of our traditional family meals consist of the boring foods Minnesota is known for. Even with the already bland food; this does not mean it is bad, it can just get dull, I was an especially picky eater until sophomore or junior year in high school. Because of this I am often the center of some family jokes about branching out and trying new food. Having large roots in Minnesota has brought me to not expect “wild” meals that have a potential of being very bad; a dinner at home always means a solid meal because I know it will be something we have had countless times that may be bland to most but still good to my family and I.
When I was younger I was a very picky eater. Picky meant that all the food on my plate was separated as to not “contaminate” other foods with an unwanted flavor. 85% of what I ate was white food, with 10% of the non-white food being meat, and every meal had a side of buttered noodles. So for at least the first 10-12 years of my life I have almost no desire to try new foods. So even in the land of bland food I found a way to make it even “blander” by rarely eating mixed foods and sticking to only what I knew I liked. Because of this, almost every meal with my extended family results in jokes, and some serious questions, about me previously being extremely picky and only eating white foods. These questions are now getting old as I have, for many years, been eating just about anything that is served to me as to expand my once very small group of foods I like. Also now with the dinning halls it would be near impossible to survive as a picky eater. Having an auntie ask at every family meal, “is there enough food you like to eat here?” gets quiet annoying when the most “out-there” food on the table is a toss up between a new vinaigrette on the salad or using a different recipe for the potato salad. But I did bring these questions on myself by being picky so now I have to play with the jokes dished at me.
Extended family meals almost always consist of the same side dishes with a small variety in the meat served. Most everything is a stereotypical food associated with Minnesota and the mid-West. At every meal one can expect at least one potato dish, generally mashed potato with the potential for an additional potato salad. There is always rolls and when possible corn or asparagus and another vegetable dish. Our appetizers are both very traditional Minnesota foods. We always have deviled eggs and lefse. Lefse is prime example of the blandness of Minnesotan food; it is like a tortilla made out of potatoes and is eaten with butter and if adventurous brown sugar as well. Another possible appetizer is spam. Yes, spam. My dad’s family grew up in Austin Minnesota, the spam home and capital of the USA so everyone in my family eats it. I doubt many people can say they have been to the spam museum, yes there is one, but that is to be expected from everyone in my family. I do not understand my family’s strange obsession with a food meant to last for years made for war times, but it is has become normal to see it served at our family events and meals.
Minnesota many be the land of bland food, but its what I am accustomed too. Though I do often want more unique meals, my mother fits just about all Minnesota stereotypes with food therefore that will not happen. She is one who finds ketchup to be a little spicy, yes she is very Minnesotan, and also wont eat a spicier BBQ sauce than Famous Dave’s rich and saucy. So compared to a lot of people outside the mid-West, our food may seem bland, repetitive and boring, but it is good to me and now coming home to a freshly prepared meal after eating Sodexo for months reminds me of how much I miss home cooked meals everyday even if most consider it bland food. Just thinking oh how all our family meals fit so many stereotypes of Minnesotans makes me laugh and remember all my extended family at these meals.