Out of class Journal entries

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Out of Class Journal Entries
Journal Entry 1: Visiting a local restaurant
I got to know about Tahiti’s Restaurant from my friends who had visited its facilities and were impressed by the service delivery and food served. I had never been to the restaurant but always planned to take a meal there as part of my experience in the city. Given that the restaurant is located approximately two kilometers from my residence, I planned to take a taxicab to the restaurant. Based on the reviews from my friends, I expected to have a memorable meal and experience good services. I made reservations at the restaurant three days before my visit to the restaurant. On 17th October 2016, I visited the restaurant to take a meal and evaluate the services and food offered at the facility. My booking was for 7.15 pm, as such I opted to arrive in the facility at 7.10 pm. The restaurant host proceeded to greet me in a friendly manner before conveying me to a seat and giving me a menu copy to peruse. The server approached me two minutes after the host had seated me, introduced himself and asked for my order. Both the server and host conveyed the feeling that I was a valued customer. I informed the server that I was a vegan, and he suggested some dishes for me; he appeared to be knowledgeable about the menu items. I was served my drink within one minute of making my order, with the server checking up on me within four minutes of serving me the appetizer.

He remained attentive throughout the dining experience and cleared the dirty dishes once I was done. When all the dishes had been cleared, the check was delivered along with the cash out instructions. The cash out the check was processed in two minutes, and then I was thanked for patronizing their facility, asked to consider visiting the establishment the next time, and I was ushered out of the restaurant. The whole dining experience took 90 minutes after which I took a cab back to my residence.
Journal Entry 2: Cooking experience in making chili fries
On 12th September 2016, I decided to make some chili fries in my kitchen. Before the cooking experience, I was not aware that I had a multitasking shortcoming within the kitchen. I began cooking by checking to ensure that I had all the required ingredients. Next, I added some canola oil in a steel pot, enough for deep-frying, and placed the pan on a gas flame set to medium high. I let the oil boil then added frozen fries to the pot. Given that cable television was playing a movie that I wanted to watch, I opted to watch the movie as the fries are cooked. I was so caught up in watching the movie that I forgot that I had fries cooking in the kitchen. Five minutes later, I smelled something burning and assumed that it was at my neighbor’s place. Three minutes later, smoke was wafting from my kitchen and the sitting room become smoky. It was at this time that I remembered I had something cooking in the kitchen. I ran to the kitchen only to discover that the cooking pot was on fire. I panicked at this and fetched a bucket of water to put out the fire. This caused the fire to flare up and the kitchen to become too smoky. Breathing become difficult at this point and I had to exit the house. Once I had exited the house, I heard fire engines rumbling down my street. They managed to put out the fire although the kitchen had to undergo some major remodeling work to repair the damage caused by the fire. It has been more than two months since the fire and is still afraid of cooking owing to my bad experience. I now understand that cooking is a very dangerous activity and requires full attention to prevent accidents as was my case.
Journal Entry 3: Tracking the food I eat in one day
I do not eat much, an observation that my family can vouch for. Whether breakfast, lunch or supper, I tend to eat very small portions. On any typical Saturday when am at home, I will have a banana, slice of bread and cup of coffee for breakfast at 8.00 am. Once I have had breakfast, will not feel any hunger pangs for the next four hours. For lunch, I will look at the fridge contents, identify the leftover food from previous meals, plate a combination of what I want to eat and warm the plate with food in a microwave. My next meal would be two hours later when I can have a pack of snacks or fruit. My final meal of the day is supper that occurs some six hours after lunch when I will have a bowl of chicken noodles. After supper, I will watch a movie and take some popcorn and soda as the movie proceeds. The end of the movie marks the end of my day when I go to sleep. Analyzing my Saturday meals for the whole day exhibits how my schedule impacts my food. After having spent the whole week running around doing my activities, Saturday offers an opportunity for inactivity when I looked for food that easy to make, and that satisfies my hunger pangs. As it stands, I have no intention of changing anything about my Saturday meals since they are part of my weekend relaxation routine. In other words, I want to have at least one day every week when I do not have to engage in any intense activity. In the future when I am employed, hopefully, I would like to have my weekends remain the same.
Journal Entry 4: Food commercial
NBA Finals commercials are, at least to me, an exciting way of identifying the more successful American companies that have at least a national reach. This is because they are typically longer than commercials for other games and are very expensive since they are for prime time and reaching a very large audience. Practically, most of the nation has its attention in watching the match, therefore offering a good opportunity for national business entities to inform that public about their products and services. It is my opinion that the food industry makes the best use of the advertisement opportunity offered by the game, taking advantage of the American tradition of bringing the whole family together to congregate with friends eating good food even as the game proceeds. For instance, the Bud Light advertisement that was aired at the 2016 NBA finals commemorated the highlighted of a united America. The setting was for common American scenery to include a rural farm, horse competition, basketball game, meeting, bar, and election, showing that the beer was appropriate for the American lifestyle. In essence, the commercial disclosed that agreement and unity are the foundations of America, identifying with the public and showing that the beer identified with a feeling of pride and satisfaction. This is an important correlation since it also acts as a pointer for new entrants into the country by catching their attention on what they would need for the acculturation process. These new entrants would be obliged to drink the beer as a way of becoming Americanized. Other than new immigrants, the commercial also identifies with the current consumers by reaffirming their belief that drinking beer at social events is the American way of life, with Bud Light representing a truly American product that unites the country. It becomes evident that food commercials are an opportunity for business entities to capture the market’s attention and change their perception of what is good food.