Over the break, I thought more about making the cross-cultural component of my food project more prominent. I think that food fads are hilarious and interesting, and these fads are very often cultural–Korean barbecue, sushi, Spanish tapas, etc.

Reading through the other final project ideas in the class, I had an idea that builds off my original idea, boosts the cultural component, and incorporates elements of Keeley’s project: a tool that allows users to track and visualize the history of cultural food fads by looking at restaurant menus and reviews over time. It could also allow you to track classic dishes as they became popular in restaurant cuisine. For example, this tool could allow you to see the prevalence of Korean ingredients in restaurants rise over the past decade and visualize the origin and evolution of the Sazerac.

This modified project has largely the same audience, but it has a more prominent cultural perspective that may draw in an anthropological crowd as well.