Excited
This week, popular food blog Serious Eats put up a Flickr photo of a popular Taiwanese dessert hongdoubing, or shaved ice with condensed milk, red beans and flan. It was meant to be taken as food porn, but to a couple of the commenters it was anything but: “That looks terrible to me,” said one. “Looks like someone had a bad bowel movement … if that ever came out of my [ass], I’d head straight to the emergency room,” said another.
I didn’t grow up on sweet red beans and shaved ice, so the dessert looks a little intense to even me, but at what point does someone’s objections to food start getting offensive? Another commenter put it best: “There’s an interesting dichotomy in the comments. This stuff is delicious, but I kind of feel like I do when they use ‘weird and crazy’ Asian food on Fear Factor after reading [these] comments.” Balut, anyone?
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The presentation is lacking in the picture, I think. I've had stuff like that in Japan ('kaki-go-ri': I don't know the food origin, but I suspect shaved ice dessert is as common all over Asia as 7-11 Slurpies are here) but part of good cuisine is the preparation/presentation of the food to look appealing. Of course, food aesthetics may vary between cultures, but I think most of us can agree that if it's just slopped into a bowl as it seems to have been done here, it doesn't look all that great. Combine that with a mixture of ignorance, culinary culture shock, and perhaps a little xenophobia/ethnocentrism, and you have the ingredients for a food flame war.
I personally think it's rude to say that what something someone likes (food, music, boy/girl, whatever) is 'shit', but even more so with food because it's so specific to certain cultures/ethnicities and so deeply personal because there is the idea that we are what we eat. Also, I think to have Asian food being insulted by non-Asians rubs us Asian-Americans/-Canadians the wrong way because it tends to evoke bad memories of our childhoods where we were made fun of for having (for lack of a better term)
"non-white" food, or food that was strong-smelling, or weird-smelling (I prefer the term 'exotic') and just added to our feelings of 'other-ness' despite our desperate attempts to fit assimilate into the Western culture we grew up in and had foolishly assumed we were a part of (when in reality many of us are neither here nor there, and kind of stuck between two or more cultures). Back then, happiest were the days when my mom would pack a regular 'Western' sandwich for my lunch instead of a bento box, although now I'm always grateful when my mom makes a typical Japanese dinner to the point where any girl who plans to marry me (whatever her ethnicity) had better start writing down some of my mom's recipes.
It's heartening for me now to see people of all colours in downtown Toronto packing away some lunchtime sushi and expertly handling chopsticks, or perusing the sushi bar with a keen eye, whereas I'm still reluctant to be seen enjoying sushi in public because it seems so... stereotypical. ;P And the 'raw fish' insults and queries from my childhood still hurt. ;-(
I'm generally not a picky eater and try not to be judgmental, but I understand there are certain kinds of ethnic foods that most people raised in the West would clearly be grossed out by (anything to do with insects, for example) and even I would probably balk at eating a cockroach or something. Even an ant would be pretty bizarre.
I did however once eat a mosquito but I was really drunk and really, I've eaten old pizza dipped in a used ashtray while drunk so I'm really not one to talk about what other people are willing to eat. When I was 16 our family went to Paris and there were fricken little gnats everywhere at night, especially around the restaurants and they kept landing on the food, getting into the salad, and it really grossed me out, I couldn't eat and I was really considering returning the food, although seeing how many gnats (or maybe they were fruit flies, I don't know and I didn't want to know) were around it was probably a pointless exercise in futility. Yet the Parisians around us didn't seem to be bothered at all by the bugs, I found it baffling. Of course, they eat escargots. ;)
/had escargot, wasn't bad but wasn't amazing either
//recently joined the Facebook fan page for 'natto', and was surprised at the number of non-Japanese fans, despite its weird smell, taste and questionable texture
I wouldn't say that it was racist. I mean, some foods just don't look appealing, even if they do taste good. If you look at what Andrew Zimmern from "Bizarre Foods" has eaten around the world, it would be clear that the crazy/weird food isn't only in Asia; it's all over the freaking world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarre_Foods
There are foods that absolutely repel me, just by the sight or idea of it--balut for one, but also any kind of insect or rodent (like roaches, a Thai street food, or guinea pig from Ecuadorean cuisine). But would I eat any other foods from those respective cuisines, yeah, I would. In fact, I have already.
I don't think it's racist to say that a particular food looks disgusting, because we all have different taste. But it IS racist to say something like "Ew, that food looks like only a Chinese would eat it!" I don't know...I'm not as bothered by it, because culinary appeal is very broad and subjective. Plus, being Chinese, a LOT of the food I've eaten, many people--including other Chinese people--consider gross. I mean duck's tongue, pig's intestines, chicken gizzard--you name it.
I wouldn't say that it was racist. I mean, some foods just don't look appealing, even if they do taste good. If you look at what Andrew Zimmern from "Bizarre Foods" has eaten around the world, it would be clear that the crazy/weird food isn't only in Asia; it's all over the freaking world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarre_Foods
There are foods that absolutely repel me, just by the sight or idea of it--balut for one, but also any kind of insect or rodent (like roaches, a Thai street food, or guinea pig from Ecuadorean cuisine). But would I eat any other foods from those respective cuisines, yeah, I would. In fact, I have already.
I don't think it's racist to say that a particular food looks disgusting, because we all have different taste. But it IS racist to say something like "Ew, that food looks like only a Chinese would eat it!" I don't know...I'm not as bothered by it, because culinary appeal is very broad and subjective. Plus, being Chinese, a LOT of the food I've eaten, many people--including other Chinese people--consider gross. I mean duck's tongue, pig's intestines, chicken gizzard--you name it.
Well, white people have used certain examples to "prove" how Chinese people were inferior in the past by pointing to the fact that they ate filter feeders such as clams, mussels, lobsters, crabs, etc.
Being of Taiwanese descent AND living as an expat in Taiwan, I've heard my fair share of stupid comments about the food here from other foreigners. I wouldn't say that those comments are racist (for one thing, they come from non-Asian expats AND other Taiwanese-Americans alike), but as other commenters have said, they do come off as being both culturally ignorant and childish.
I think it's one thing to say that something looks unappealing to you. After all, there is nothing wrong with being honest. And if you are also OK with sounding like a douchebag, it's fine to say something literally looks like shit, as that Serious Eats commenter did. But, in my opinion, it's another thing to start going off on how "you can't believe how any human being could eat that" and how "people who eat that shit can't possibly be human." I've heard other expats/visitors here say things like that, and I think it is highly offensive to imply that someone's culinary habits make them somehow less than human, especially when the food they are eating is simply the norm for them.
I haven't tried Flan with Shaved Ice. I probably would try it if someone insisted that it was good. That pic would probably be more enticing if those beans were replaced with chocolates. I think the beans may throw off people, since some Asians eat it as a dessert while Non-Asians might not.
If somebody didn't know about shaved ice and that was the first thing that was introduced to them as shaved ice, I could understand why they would make such comments. I just hope they would be informed there's alot more variety, since there are quite a lot of delightful and yummy looking shaved ice such as Korea's Pat Bing Soo.
This topic reminds me of when I introduced Boba to some friends. The first time they saw it, they couldn't stop staring and thought it was distrusting. Now they tell me to to get them extra Balls every time.
That looks yummy!
If it's not racism, at least it's xenophobia, or ethnocentrism. There's plenty of full-fledged racism in the way people express it, though.
I think what is being described here and in the comments above (such as anita's comment) can be categorized as racial microagressions, which was described in a previous 8asians article: http://www.8asians.com/2009/09/14/racial-microa...
Why else would you describe foreign food as excrement, if not to belittle the culture that the food came from.
Of course Red Bean Ice is decilious, especially in a sundae glass with vanilla ice cream. But plopped on a plate doesn't look quite appetizing and even more puzzling is the flan. I don't think it's a racist thing, it's just more of an aesthetic thing. At the same time, few would instantly fall in love with a new food just by looking at a picture without knowing what it is or how it taste.
You'd think that people who follow a blog called "Serious Eats" would know what red beans are, and that they're a tasty tasty dessert. It might not be outright racism, but it's definitely cultural ignorance and childish behaviour.
Funny coincidence... a couple hours ago in our project room an older white lady started talking about how she was served beef tongue at a wedding this weekend and then about how she can't stand the texture of some Chinese dishes (using jellyfish as an example). I know she was just sharing her opinion but I felt all offended, especially as she specifically said Chinese food (I don't even know if she knows I am Chinese). I said I loved jellyfish and tongue and ignored her the rest of the morning.
Racist? Sometimes, depending on the person. But having noticed comments like that before, on and offline, I just think it's rude. Which is a good enough reason to stop saying stuff like that.
I wouldn't dread over figuring out the racism part. That word has been so over-used to the point where saying anything which happens to be related to demographics can be considered as racism.
IMO, the racism part probably stems from memories and experiences of Asian Americans who faced pretty mean people who used those words to hurt them. On the outside, they may seem quite innocent or neutral but to those affected, not so. It's sort of hard if people haven't experienced something similiar which sort of why directly descriptive phrases like "crazy asian food" may bring out a bigger reaction.
Usually, well it's kinda common sense, the aesthetics or first impression should produce the biggest reaction and then actually trying the food. On a comparative note, like exkclamation mentioned on the meat dishes, some "American" or "Western" dishes aren't that appealing and I've heard some similar outcries as those low grade (brutally honest as others call it) comments.
A lot of those guys/gals were probably quite shelted to begin with;it's likely they would have been troubled trying to face food from their own heritage and make somewhat similiar comments as well. It's just easier to go all out with words when the subject is more distant (foreign) for people.
Overall, pretty much what Johnny said, the only clam response is they're missing out.
I suppose it is all a matter of personal experience. As, even though I eat meat, there are a lot of meat-based dishes that completely gross me out too. And given that a lot of foodies tend to be meat-centric... I typically stay out of those blogs.
But you touch on an important topic---and one which I recently wrote about on my personal blog ( http://exkclaim.info/5 )---that difference viewed through ignorance is often perceived as "bad". And while I can't quite get on board with the notion that saying this looks like a bowel movement is akin to racism, I do agree that terms like "crazy asian food" can be quite hurtful.
But you know what? As a whiter-than-white man who grew up in a traditionally meat-loafed family, this DOES look like "crazy" asian food. It looks *nothing* like what I grew up eating, and had it not been for patient friends like Ernie, or for living in a culturally diverse community like the Bay Area.. I would still be in that same mindset.
Nevertheless, thank you for the notice... (speaking for all white people here) ...sometimes even those of us who do not mean harm by our remarks do make mistakes in expressing ourselves, and it is always good to call us out.
Because ultimately we can't learn to love hongdoubing without trying it, just like we can't learn to be sensitive without making mistakes (and being called on it) either.
Dammit. You're totally right. Title fixed.
I believe it's "Culinary".
In regards to food, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I mean, look at the foul smelling fruit, Durian. I have many friends who say it smells, literally, like sh!t. To me, it simply smells simply like Durian. They have gone far to disparage the taste, texture and smell; I can only respond that they're missing out. It's one of those things that you have to live with. Not everyone is going to agree with you.
Same with music, video games, culture. One man's heaven is another man's hell.
do you mean "culinary?"
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