Balakian’s mom would have these days were fast food was the meal for the night, but even their fast food was fancy in there cultural. For Americans they would never consider lahmajoon (An Armenian dish) as fast food. Balakian claims in the text “our neighbors were masters of the five-minute dinner, which consisted of minute steaks, four inch square of beef thin as linoleum and served with potato puffs.” Balakian’s mom would never go that low into making a dish. The most American dish she makes still involves some kind of Armenian food. When it comes to Armenian food they would take it very seriously. Balakian’s tells us that his mom had this “strong passion for food that was cultural and temperamental.” It what makes them who they are. When having dinner Balakian describes his parents as “becoming about the propriety and ritual of dining.” They ate dinners properly and took rituals of dining very serious. There was never a moment that Balakian’s mom was not getting up from any family gathering to fill up all the platters of food (Balakian 1951,