Wednesday 16 January 2008

Boy food and girl food

A few weeks ago, I needed to quickly grab something to eat in between dance classes. I asked a male friend where I could find something and of course he suggested the usual greasy burgers and takeaways available in the area. I rejected each idea, and eventually said that I was after girl food, not boy food like he was suggesting. And so began the birth of a new language.

So what is boy food? What is girl food? Can some foods be both? Of course they can! (We called them bi food, ie food that can go either way.) Here are some examples of food for boys and food for girls (and food for both):
Boy food: burgers, chain-store pizza, steak, fish and chips, white bread toasties, pies, fries
Girl food: salads, panini, sandwiches, side orders of veges with your meal
Bi food: kebabs, gourmet pizza, Subway (possibly) … see how it works?

Now, that’s not to say that boys can’t eat girl food and girls can’t eat boy food, nor that if you eat bi food that it implies anything else. Remember, these categories are more of a continuum, ie some boy food has girl variations, and some girl foods have boy adaptations. You get the picture?

We went to Coyote restaurant at The Palms in Christchurch for a work dinner tonight. The discussion about boy and girl food came up, so we analysed the menu. Here’s what we came up with. Feel free to add your own suggestions to the list, or challenge ours.

Baja Catch of the Day – Probably bi food (depends what the fish is, how it’s cooked, and what it comes with, ie veges, salad, fries etc)
Hacienda Hog – Definitely boy food. Any dish with the word ‘hog’ in the title makes it automatically boy food.
Voodoo Chicken – Bi food (girl = chicken, boy = voodoo hot)
Canterbury Lamb – Boy food
Vegetarian Burrito – Girl food
Coyote’s Indulgence: A do it yourself fajita for two – Boy food. Don’t let the salady bits fool you.

See, isn’t this fun? It makes so much sense when you think about it. What do you think?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but this is totally absurd. The more you think about it, the more it falls apart into ridiculous, unfounded gender assumptions that aren't based in reality.

Why classify food into genders, when people of all genders eat all kinds of food? What's the point?