After some trial and error, I decided to shift the structure of my project quite significantly. Originally, I planned to create entirely new songs from scratch, where I would be combining my own compositions with traditional techniques specific to each country, layered with cooking sounds. But I quickly realised how much time it would take, and especially to learn and recreate traditional styles authentically within such a short timeframe was not something I knew I could do.
Now my plan is incorporating field recordings of street vendor environments instead of kitchen ones into these remixes, including social conversations, clattering pans, and ambient street noise. I chose to keep only five countries out of the seven: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Spain. Even though I mostly explored Asia with these choices, these countries gave me a strong sense of sonic textures and street food environments to work with without overloading myself. This new approach still allows me to explore culture and sound, but in a more focused and achievable way. To restart my sourcing material, I ended up calling my dad and asking him to give me a list of Youtubers he watches (because I know he is obsessed with food culture just as much as I am). He included Youtubers such as Mark Wiens and Alin Food Walk, and I ended up finding the right kind of soundbites from their videos.
This change helped make the project feel more cohesive and realistic while still aligning with my original goals of blending food culture with music. I’ve started collecting samples and sourcing high-quality recordings of traditional tracks that are well-known in each region.
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