Assignment 1: Interview Five Individuals (Friends and Family)

Coding Practice for a Dinner Survey

Interview Questions

· What kind of food do you like best to start a dinner of your choice? Describe it in detail and why you like it.

· What kind of food do you like best for a main course during a dinner of your choice? Tell me why it is your favorite.

· What kind of food do you like best for desert after a dinner of your choice? Describe the sensory experiences when eating this food.

· What other information can you tell about your favorite dinner selections, or where you may prefer to eat your favorite dinner foods?

Open Coding

Axial Coding

NVivo assisted axial coding revealed the following:

1. Close to half of the participants (40%) answered some type of bean curd product as their favorite dinner appetizer/antipasto, and another close to half (40%) of the participants answered salad as their favorite dinner appetizer/antipasto. One participant (20%) answered other food item as the favorite appetizer/antipasto.

2. Close to half of the participants (40%) answered some type of seafood as their favorite main course, and another close to half (40%) of the participants answered some type of red meat dish as their favorite dinner main course. One participant (20%) answered other food item as the favorite main course.

3. More than half of the participants (60%) answered ice cream as their favorite dessert, 40% of participants answered some kind of bake good as their favorite dish and only 1 participant (20%) answered others. One participant had an answer overlapped both ice cream and bake good.

4. Close to half of the participants (40%) answered they do not dine out very often.

Selective Coding

In the first interview question, participant 1 and 2 chose a bean curd product as their favorite appetizer. Participant 1 answered bean curd with baby fish, and liking this dish due to the mixing texture and the rich calcium nutrition value. Participant 2 answered the bean curd stripes salad, and liking the dish due to its protein nutrition value. Participants who chose salad as their favorite appetizer had no common on the reason of liking it. One was “no reason”, and another one said it was because it was fresh and healthy.

In the second question, no participants answered the same item, which they can only be separated in to seafood, read meat, and others. Participant 2 and 4 both answered a seafood dish. Participant 2 chose seafood because she thinks red meat is gamy, greasy, and too hard to choose. On the contrary, participant 3 chose lamb chop (a red meat dish) particularly because of the meat smell and flavor. Participant 3 mentioned about choosing lamb chop due to “it is easy to grab”, and participant 1 also included the convenience factor as one of the reason he liking his dish. Both participant 4 and 5 found it difficult to rationalize why they like the dish they chose.

In the third question, participant 1, 3, and 4 all mentioned about ice cream as the whole or part of their favorite dessert. Participant 3’s answer was chocolate lava cake with ice cream. He likes it because it has a mixture of hot and cold, crunchy and creamy. Participant 1 and 4 both said they chose ice cream because it is often the desert that the restaurant offered. All participants answered a western dessert as their favorite dessert item.

In the last question, participants gave out very different information. Only both participant 4 and 5 mentioned they did not dine out a lot.

Theme

1. All the participants who selected a bean curd product as their favorite food was at least partially due to its nutrition value.

2. All participants answered a western dessert as their favorite dessert items.

3. Except ice cream, most of the participants’ favorite food items did not overlap, which showed the variety of human diet.

4. Overall, the reason for participants to choose a dish as their favorite were “flavor”, “texture”, “nutrition”, and “convenience” (occurred 28%, 23%, 14%, 14% respectively).

5. Participants who answered did not dine out a lot in the last question had more difficulty on choosing a favorite dish in the non-main-course category.