What the World Eats: McMahan family of Louisville, Ky

Posted by Dana McMahan on April 20, 2008

I recently saw Peter Menzel’s photo essay, “What the World Eats” for the first time. Based on the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Menzel and his wife, writer Faith D'Aluisio, the photo essay shows the a week’s worth of food for families from cultures around the world.

The husband-and-wife team wanted to see how globalization, migration and rising affluence are affecting the diets of communities around the globe. (NPR)

I was fascinated by the photos – the wild variance in how much people spend from one part of the world to another, how much some eat, and how little others, and how much packaged food is consumed around the globe.

I became intrigued to the point that I decided to document a weeks’ grocery shopping for our house. We’re a family of two with many good intentions about food that we often don’t follow through on. The shopping haul in the photo will make up most of what we need for meals Sunday through Friday this week. We had many staples on hand that we’ll need this week, like black beans, white beans, rice, olive oil, spices, pesto, dried pasta, breakfast cereal, coffee and some cheese. There are still some things we need I forgot to pick up, like apples for snacks and ice cream for an evening treat.

We spent $69.50 total at these stores:

Paul’s Produce: $25
Kroger: $15
World Market wine: $14
Rosita’s Carniceria: $2.50
Lotsa Pasta International Food Shop: $8
Whole Foods: $5

Here’s our menu plan (we make enough of each dinner to serve as lunch the next day):

Sunday: Asparagus and pesto manicotti (haven't decided on the recipe yet)
Monday: Pasta with peas, cream, parsley, and mint
Tuesday: Venetian style bean soup with pasta
Wednesday: Pad Thai with tofu
Thursday: Black beans and rice with roasted sweet potatoes
Friday: Pizza (whatever toppings we have on hand or feel like)

Click the photo to see a detailed list of the food.

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I found a flickr group called What flickr eats. It's had zero activity, but I'd love to see more of what people eat. Why not take a picture of your next grocery shopping trip and add it to the group? Comment here if you do it so I can take a look.

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What the World Eats: McMahan family of Louisville, Ky

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