Study On The City 's Taste Memory

The taste memory generated by the food and eating behavior is meaningful to discuss issues about the human and the city culture. In essence, the taste memory explored in this article consists of emotions and memories which come from the food and eating behavior. The group identity of the food culture which built by the traditional snack food has been playing a role in helping people obtain the sense of identity and sense of pride whose origins are the personal status and the city’s culture.The city has witnessed dramatic changes in those years, Nowadays, the traditional catering industry is facing the critical pressure from various dining forms under globalization circumstances. Part of the old brands can not cope with the social changes and gradually disappear on the historical stage. Nanjing traditional snacks reinforce the Nanjinger’s relationships in the dimensions of family, community and society, as well as construct the cultural and geographical identity, which are of enormous significances to the culture formation and the future development of the city and great research value.This article chose the LanLaoda Snack Bar located in the ShuangTang road of QinHuai district as the investigation point. By means of literature review, the relevant literature data and video data were revived through periodical investigations to interview the Lans’since August2012, which provided related information by ways of observation, recording and interview. This article also summarized and analyzed the data gathered from bibliography and the first hand profiles. In the Food Yarning part, Cross-disciplinary approach was used to give multifaceted interpretation to the issue.This article expanded research and dissertation mainly focused on the relationship among four objects including food, individual, family and the city. The first chapter introduced the purport, the theory and the method of the research which also gave the historical background, geographical location and brief introduction of the LanLaoda Snack Bar. The next part analyzed the reasons of its popularity tracking the clue of foods, taste. In the third chapter, two dimensions, eating and cook, were the found of dilatation on the emotions from diners on foods and the taste memory originating from the cooking skills of Lan’s. Food helps to frame the memory as the medium. Through the case study of snack, diner and family, the historical detail and the real world could be revealed more distinctly. The bonds of food recover people’s memories and emotions concerning the family and the society. The fourth chapter talks about the significance of taste memory from two ways. Firstly, it brings about the identity of one’s region status and the culture identity. And the culture identity is about the old south region of Nanjing and Muslim food culture. Then in the aspect of city culture, this article will discuss Nanjing’s culture characters and prove that the usual characters are unique and important among the development of homogenized cities. It will be helpful to the protection and inheritance of its culture for the city if the traditional food culture grows healthily. The concluding part presented that as observers, participants, witness and heirs of the city’s historic building, everyday scene, cultural atmosphere and the interpersonal relations, humans had the function of preserving and protecting the culture and memory.This research studied food ways and culture in Nanjing city regarding local snacks as entry point, combining historical with present phenomena and built structure of individual, family, community and the city. This article expects to bring the peoples’true understanding and attention on traditional cuisine culture.