Yuson Jung

Tasting and Judging the Unknown Terroir of the Bulgarian Wine: The Political Economy of Sensory Experience

Some Bulgarian winemakers insist that their unique terroir (taste of place) and native grapes can deliver a “distinctive” product in the global market. Such beliefs are the driving force for marginal producers to continue with their wine production in a fiercely competitive global wine market despite the lack of brand equity and cultural capital compared to the worlds elite wines. How can the global consumer sense this unique “taste of place” which is itself an elusive culturally cultivated concept? What does gastronomic connoisseurship entail in a highly globalized world where knowledge of local products and taste are exchanged and experienced in a standardized way as a global foodway? Understanding these questions from the viewpoints of the Bulgarian wine sector, this article discusses the intersection of the sensory experience and the implicit global hierarchy of value that wine producers and consumers employ to objectify and communicate the subjective taste knowledge and identity of place.

Introduction to Crafting Senses: Circulating the Knowledge and Experience of Taste Special Issue of Food and Foodways, June 2014

The quintessential summer strawberry, a taste that evokes childhood memories, a new and exciting flavor combination. The nose picks up the scents, the eyes scan the offerings, the mouth waters, the hand reaches and feels the texture, bite, bite again, the sounds and the gustatory apparatus kicks into high gear, the senses interact in creating a sensorial experience of food. The flavors linger on the palate and a memory is formed. The body interacts with the food as it moves through and out of the digestive system, hopefully without mishaps. In this special issue, we discuss the question of taste, particularly the sensory experience of taste—how it is acquired, understood, and circulated at the intersection of bodily experience and the larger social world. We are inspired by David Sutton’s call to develop the field of “gustemology,” where taste is a social fact, and sensory experiences instill and reinforce social and cultural values. The contributors to this special issue, all anthropologists, investigate ethnographically the place of the senses in the scholarship about food. In doing so, we develop new avenues of theorization for taste beyond the markers of social distinction and cultural capital (Bourdieu). We hope to broaden current understandings of what counts as a sensory experience and how taste and taste knowledge are experienced and mediated in an era of global exchanges. By examining a wide range of processes related to the sensory experience, such as the work of memory, the notion of quality, individualized obsession, political economy, the politics of recognition, and even indigestion as forms of engagement, the contributors discuss how the sensorial organizes a range of social and cultural issues through the experience of taste and exchanges of taste knowledge. Thus, we put the multi-sensory

Experiencing the "west" through the "east" in the margins of Europe: Chinese food consumption practices in postsocialist Bulgaria

Abstract Globalization often assumes a directionality that is associated with a one-way flow of commodities and ideas from the “West” to the “East.” As a result, Western food practices and symbols such as McDonalds and Starbucks have become symbolic markers of globalization. Non-Western commodities such as Chinese food or Japanese sushi, however, have also been associated with globalization. In postsocialist Bulgaria, Chinese food has become very popular and has been considered “exotic,” and paradoxically a symbol of “Western-ness.” This paper traces the changing consumption practices of Chinese food in Sofia, Bulgaria over the past decade to show that the experience of eating “other” cuisines is not simply to imagine and romanticize the experience of the “other.” Rather, Bulgarians use Chinese food to evaluate their political and economic position within the global hierarchy during intensive social transformation. Chinese food consumption in Bulgaria, therefore, engages with debates on normalcy and authenticity that offer more nuanced understandings of globalization.

Everyday Moral Economies: Food, Politics, and Scale in Cuba

B o o k R e v ie w S of food producers and processors. Only with the corporate interests considered can the regulation receive support from large food firms. In summary, Thomas has written an exceptionally good synthesis of the history of food regulation in America and contextualized the changing regulatory regime. Readers can find elaborate arguments for and against certain approaches to food safety regulatory governance. Despite the lack of theoretical and structural analysis, this book’s provocative arguments and detailed examples make it ideal for students and researchers of public health-related disciplines, food regulatory agencies, and those who are interested in American food safety regulations. Anyone wishes to understand this topic will find some inspiration in it.