Genre and the cultural realms of taste in Japanese, Korean, and U.S. Online recipes

This chapter investigates the language, culture, and the discourse of food in Japan, Korea, and the United States, as prototypical exemplars of Western culture (U.S.) and Eastern culture (Japan and Korea). We compare and contrast patterns of discursive representations of food and social interaction using the broad analytic unit of genre. The online cooking recipe contains complex discourse about food as well as reader/user commentary. Genre analysis of this type, including the socially organized interactional exchanges between members of socio-cultural groups, provides insights into praxis-and can serve as robust resources for socialization of novices e.g., students of foreign language, as they come to understand the macro and micro levels of discourse qua social practice.