The Patels of New Jersey

                                             Typical Food Breakdown By Cost Per Week

Dairy: 15 %

Fruits, Vegetables, and Legumes: 50%

Grains: 10%

Spices: 5%

Premade Foods and Snacks: 15%

Drinks: 5%

Total: ~$100-150

My family is usually very busy. My father mostly comes home at 3, but sometime stays at work until 9. My mother, being a dentist, has to stretch her hours out until 6, but on Wednesdays and Thursdays her work lasts until 8:30. My brotheris a tae kwon do enthusiast, and often goes to practice after school between 5 and 7 on the weekdays. Thus, when it comes to eating meals, we often find ourselves eating at different intervals. Lunch is almost always eaten separately due to time constraints. Dinners are more or less the same, unless its the rare occasion when we eat out or order food in, in which case we do eat together.

The kitchen

However, that doesn't mean that our meals lack any of the love and enthusiasm that the meals of a closely knit family do. My mother, being the main cook of the family, often goes out of her way to make special 'get-together' foods, like 'katri' (potato stick snacks), that the entire family loves to eat. When one member of the family begins eating these 'get-together' foods, it's not long until all four of us are crowded in the kitchen munching on a delicious snack or satisfying meal.

Snacking is big in my family, as it helps us keep up the amount of energy we need to exert in our daily lives. We often have little bits of food in between meals, such as a bag of Poptarts or a bowl of Doritos, but sometimes we can't resist the temptation of Indian snacks like mathia or paratha. My brother's personal favorite is 'vaghareli' cereal, which is basically 'cooked' cereal mixed in with spices and other flavors. This gives the cereal a unique taste that can prove to be very addicting.

Overall, our dinners mainly consist of some sort of grain (usually in the form of Indian bread), plenty of vegetables, rice, spices or spice condiments on the side, and a banana. My mother usually prepares this in the morning before she leaves, so all my brother and I have to do is heat it up at night and enjoy. While we all usually eat separately and have different favorite foods, the food of my family has always been a focal point in bringing everyone in the house together.

The Food & Culture of Ecuador

          The Aymes family from Tingo, Ecuador, is a fairly large family; The household consists of the mother, Emelinda, and father, Orlando, and their six kids. Looking at the picture alone, the amount of food the family uses in a week is immense, ranging from an assortment of fruits, grains, and even dairy. However, the picture shows that although a lot of food is consumed in a week, the food the Aymes have is all very healthy. There are little to no processed ingredients or items visible in the picture, and very few sugary substances aside from the bag of brown sugar and milk.
          After analyzing the foods the Aymes ate for a week according to a list that they provided, it was clear that many people of Ecuador were strong supporters of growing what they could in their own village. Normally, the Aymes have fresh supplies of potatoes, corn, wheat, milk, tea leaves, and even natural spring water available at their disposal, and have access to many other grains, fruits, and vegetables right in their local market. As such, their cost of food for a week is exceptionally low for a family of 8, standing at $31.55, or about $4 per person per week, compared to $50 per person per week here in the United States.
          This low cost of food every week does not mean that the families are not receiving enough to eat either, as only 5% of Ecuador's population is undernourished. In fact, the Aymes get more for a dollar than people in other countries. The Aymes spent $11.25 on 47 lbs of fruits and vegetables, a feat that is almost impossible to accomplish elsewhere. This also keys off of the Ecuadorian culture of growing produce locally and selling it for cheaper, as opposed to industrialization and processing.

The Culture of Rutgers Prep According to an Alien Invasion on Food

            We have finally arrived on planet Zorlaxia after 12 long fluorons. Our space ship landed on top of a bustling building full of Zorlaxians. After camouflaging myself and engaging in a conversation with a few of them, I learned that I was in a place called Rutgers Preparatory School, and that the ‘humans’ used these schools to educate their young. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to study their kind. Many humans were heading off to an occasion called ‘lunch’, where they all gather and consume food. I will follow them and attempt to learn as much as I can.

            The cafeteria, or the building where the humans hold lunch, is full of human food. Apparently, this is a good day for lunch, as the cafeteria has something called ‘burgers’. After waiting some time in line, I picked up a plate and proceeded to be served a burger, and customized it with an assortment of what I recognized were vegetables and sauces. I also saw some golden fried starch sticks being served, along with noodles covered in sauces, called ‘pasta’.

            After analyzing the burger through my atomizer, I have come to the conclusion that these humans do a thorough job in providing nutrition to their young. Although I was not satisfied with simply consuming one burger, the burger did provide plenty of proteins, carbohydrates, and even some minerals to help the growth of the humans. Zorlaxia might be hard to conquer after all if the inhabitants are nourished like this every day.

However, as I quickly noticed, not every human enforces a healthy diet. Further analysis revealed that many, if not most, of them consumed sugary beverages in the form of carbonated drinks, which were harmful to the human body composition, and even had a machine of some sort in a building called the gym which was dedicated to serving out unhealthy foods in exchange for green rectangles. Also the humans must have felt unsatisfied with their meals, as they were only given 300 fidgets, or 30 minutes in human time, to eat lunch daily. Although they may seem substantially nourished, these humans may be easy to conquer after all if they are all like the humans from Rutgers Preparatory School..