Hankering interrupted

I was visiting Medium-Sized City in the Midwest and had a hankering for Korean food. One of my friends from law school (non-Asian) was born and raised there, and so I decided to ask her for restaurant recommendations.

"Hey," I asked her, "do you know any good Korean restaurants in Medium-Sized City?"

"Hmm," she said, "Korean restaurants?"

"Yeah, Korean restaurants."

"Hmm," she said again. A long pause. "There's a Benihana's."

"Really," I said. "A Benihana's."

"Yeah," she said.

"Benihana's isn't Korean."

"Oh, well, I don't think there are any Korean restaurants."

Something about that conversation bugged me. First, I later learned that there were in fact Korean restaurants in Medium-Sized City. She just didn't know (or didn't care to know) about them. Maybe it bugs me that the extent of "exotic food" people will try is the Olive Garden or, if they're particularly adventurous, P.F. Chang's.

Second, a Japanese chain is not an acceptable substitute for Korean food. Maybe all East Asians "look the same" but their cuisine is not.

Yes, I realize my post reeks of coastal snobbery. I know not all Caucasian girls born and raised in a medium-sized city in the Midwest will be completely ignorant of Korean restaurants or find that Korean food and Japanese food are interchangeable. I'm sure there are some who are probably very adventurous and have tried eating bats in Cambodia or marinated raw meat from Ethiopia.

I just haven't met any of them. But maybe I just need to make an effort to find them.

My new favorite "movie"

on lawyers. Tragic yet funny.

The inevitability of familial nagging

I see my life as temporal increments of nagging from my mom, other Yellow relatives, and family friends. Through their Yellow lens, life is not a series of achievements or milestones. It is defined solely by what is deficient and lacking.

When you're single:
How come no boyfriend?
Why are you still single?
What's wrong with you?

When you're in a relationship:
When are you two going to get married?
Has he proposed yet? Why not?
What's wrong with you?

When you're engaged:
How long before marry?
Why is your engagement so long?
What's wrong with you?

When you're married:
When are you going to have your first baby?
How long you wait before having kids?
What's wrong with you?

When you have you first child:
Congratulations - when is the next child coming along?
Have you begun saving for Harvard yet (Yale, safety)?
What's wrong with you?

When you have two children, one boy, one girl, both Harvard-educated:
Your son and daughter married with children yet?
How come you not ask them why not married? They should be married by now.
What's wrong with them?
And what's wrong with you?