Food: Culture, Baby Carrots and Bento Boxes
mood: 
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=|Two weeks ago, my friend--let's call her Sara--offered a group of preschoolers-and-older children black sticky rice pudding. Sara gave each kid a spoonful and asked them to "just try it."
Girl #1: *diplomatic grin* "We don't like this. Can we have goldfish crackers please?"
Girl #2: "I want Oreos!"
Boy #1: "Brownies!"
Sara's 1.5-y.o. daughter liked it, and Girl #2 shoved her plate across the table. "I don't want it. You eat it."
Granted, Sara should have heated up the dish and served it with coconut milk (It's not black sticky rice pudding without coconut milk!111), but it made me sad that they rejected the dish outright as being unfamiliar.
Food is so intertwined with Asian culture, and I'm not sure what to think of Asian Americans who are cut off not only from their grandparents' language, but also Asian food.
...and greasy Chinese take-aways are not Chinese food X_x;;
P.S. I do find it all sorts of awesome that Girl #1 has perfectly combined Asian "Respect your elders" with American "Be polite and diplomatic to get what you want." X-D
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2. I knew there was a reason why I don't like baby carrots.
[T]he cute baby carrots found in the supermarket are not a variety grown by nature but rather the product of technology. They are formed by a machine that cuts them out from full sized older carrots and in some cases, puts green food colouring at the "stem" end for further effect. --Carrots
And:
The success of baby carrots speaks to two things about American culture that sort of bug me:
1. The desire for food that is uniform in appearance and taste.
2. The desire for food to be sterile, already prepared and washed, and packaged for quick, mindless eating.
--Dickson, Andrea. Baby Carrots - The Frugal Idea That Isn't
I don't know why the fact that they don't have a yellow center didn't clue me in D:
This is why I'd rather buy fresh carrots, wash, peel and slice. No wonder baby carrots aren't tender at all O_o
***
3. Food is not only about taste, but also presentation. Especially Japanese food.
(Chinese food, for the most part, is a slapdash stir-fry "It's fresh and steaming hot. EAT IT." thing.)
Yes, I've seen beautiful creative arrangements in generic plastic containers. No, throw-some-food-together in a bento box does not mean it's bento.
But the bento box is part of the presentation. Beautiful food arrangement in a generic plastic box = beautiful food arrangement in a generic plastic box. I'm not Japanese but I'm elitist on the subject, 'kay? =/
Also, you can get a bento box for as low as $1.50. (Ichiban Kan, Daiso)
(I always ask for a bowl & a pair of chopsticks at Chinese restaurants. I eat Chinese/Japanese/Korean noodles in a bowl with chopsticks* and spaghetti on a plate with a fork. I drink coffee in a mug and rice wine in a sake cup. Yes, I'm OCD about the strangest things.)
* I actually go one step further and eat Korean noodles with metal chopsticks. I don't own a Korean long-handled spoon though.
[ LJ | IJ | DW ]
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