The French Paradox is the theory that France has an unexpectedly low prevalence of coronary heart disease compared to levels that would be predicted by their high consumption of fats. Aside from high-fat foods, wine is portrayed by English media to be a staple of the French diet. In this article, I explore the wine-drinking cultures in Nice, France, and London, England, that were revealed by conducting semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and descriptive surveys. I describe two mealtime vignettes of my ethnographic experience that are symbolic of my main findings from this study. Specifically, I find that residents of Nice consume wine in smaller portions, often during shared social experiences at meals, whereas Londoners are more likely to consume wine in larger portions and more frequently for relaxation than their counterparts in Nice. Wine connoisseurship in London is a relatively novel practice, and wine drinking is often associated with the potential for inebriation, whereas mindful appreciation of high-quality wines is a staple element of French identity in Nice. Further epidemiological research is needed to determine causality of French wine culture's impact on cardiovascular health. However, it is evident from my research that the aesthetics of French wine culture may be a powerful tool to promote mindfulness and moderation.

Salo —cured pork fat—is considered to be the quintessential national dish in Ukraine. This article is an ethnographic exploration of how salo has become a contested space where wider anxieties over the industrialization of food and Ukrainian identity are played out. Russian jokes about Ukrainians and their love for salo highlight the complex relationship between the countries. A certain shrug with which many Ukrainians respond when asked about their “national” dish articulates how ambiguous they see their place in the world: not wanting to be labeled as folksy and peasant-like at the periphery of Europe, but still seeing salo as a marker of the good life that could unite the contending parts of the country. The Museum of Salo employs salo to reimagine Ukrainian identity as cosmopolitan, ironic, and “European.”

The recent race among nation-states to promote national cuisine as a way to counter globalization has marked food as a resource to reinforce national identity and preserve local food heritage. In 2008, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak joined this “food war” by launching the Global Hansik Campaign to reinforce Korean national identity and enhance the nation's image. The government chose royal court cuisine of the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) as the national representative to present a unified and culturally refined image to simultaneously neutralize local differences and project its global desires. Yet, rather than providing a unifying front for Koreans to project nationalism, the selection of court cuisine fomented debates among local, national, and international actors about what constitutes culinary heritage. Exploring how the state navigated domestic, regional, and global power relations demonstrates that debates surrounding heritage remain tethered to global forces that reproduce the hegemonic social order.

Foodways in Singapore embody the anxieties of the island-state—namely heritage, race, identity, and authenticity. Hawking in Singapore was initially seen as a nuisance that had to be tolerated and later regulated by both the colonial administration and newly independent government. The relocation of hawkers to centralized food centers marked the imposition of order and hygiene onto a squalid industry. Street peddlers, once an administrative problem, were refashioned into a potent symbol of Singapore's heritage. Hawker food has also been used as a trope of multiculturalism to unite a racially diverse people. The influx of foreign workers from the mid-1980s presented new tensions that shed light on the cultural power of food to articulate inclusion and exclusion. Markers of authenticity, namely historical traditions and artisanal expertise, map haphazardly onto the realities of actual foodways. Finally, a breed of connoisseurs, who grew up in a cosmopolitan nation-state, was birthed in the 1990s. Embracing the low culture of hawker food, local foodies impute new cultural meanings to hawker food that embody the tension between distinction and democracy.

In the Ukraine, salo is lard or cured pork fat, a product widely considered as the quintessential Ukrainian product. Salo has played an important gastronomical, symbolic, and political role on the territory of Ukraine for centuries, having acquired the role of a national product. This article explores salo's roots and its cultural and social meaning in contemporary Ukraine. The country's complicated geographical and political position between Russia and the European Union is a background, as well as the associated (perceived or otherwise) tensions between the Western and Eastern parts of Ukraine. The author traveled through the country during the summer of 2011 to carry out a short piece of fieldwork and visit several small-scale producers of salo (some were part of Slow Food or organic movements) in the Carpathian Mountains and near Kiev. The curator of the museum of salo in Lviv, an art-gallery that uses salo as innovative material and provocative concept, was interviewed. Salo appears to play a unifying role between different generations and parts of the country otherwise often perceived in opposition. The production and consumption of salo , more than most other foods, is a playground where wider concerns over industrialization of food, longing for lost past, Ukrainian identity and belonging (or lack of) to EU are voiced.