You are learning food media literacy: you will read the scene it happens in, learn 10 words and phrases, take apart the pattern behind them (media literacy language: analyzing perspective, bias, and framing), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.
Watching food content at a coffee shop in Williamsburg, then visiting Smorgasburg
Smorgasburg is Brooklyn's famous outdoor food market. On a Saturday, it draws thousands of people — many of them with their phones out, filming every bite. The rainbow-colored grilled cheese. The ramen burger. The ube ice cream. The food is designed to be photographed.
But look through a critical lens. Who is making the food? Often, the vendors are immigrant entrepreneurs working fourteen-hour days in the heat. The influencer posts a thirty-second video, gets a hundred thousand views, and moves on. The vendor gets — maybe — a temporary line. Who benefits more?
Food media tends to romanticize certain narratives. The 'hidden gem' story frames a neighborhood restaurant as a discovery — but the people who eat there every day never thought it was hidden. The 'street food is the real food' narrative celebrates poverty aesthetics while the chef in the stall can barely pay rent.
This isn't a reason to stop watching food content. It's a reason to watch it better. Ask: Whose story is being told? Who is telling it? What's left out? And most importantly — does the person who made the food benefit from the attention? Media literacy means not just consuming stories, but questioning who they serve.