Untitled
Food has always been an important part of my life. I understand that food is important for everyone, but food has really been my safe haven for a very long time. Whenever I had to go to sleep, my grandma would give me a cup of warm milk mixed with a little bit of sugar. I could always expect a warm bowl of tomato red beans gently spread out on top of snowflake white rice when I got home from school. The apartment was fairly small, but the smell that radiated from my grandma’ kitchen teleported me to the Colombia my family had always wanted me to visit. I loved the smell of chicken that filled the room. The smell of fresh cheese on top of an arepa accompanied with fresh, sweet hot chocolate. But as much as I loved visiting my parent’ home through the food that was being served to me, I never understood how big the world really was. Fortunately for me, my mom was very open to American foods. But even if I got to try new things, it was not until high school when I started trying Asian foods that I finally began to truly open my horizons. The first time I actually noticed conflict between my friends and I was when I went out to eat with them. Most of my friends were Asian, so they ended up suggesting we eat pho or Thai food. I was very curious about these foods but I was also very weary. I am a pretty picky eater so I was worried that I was going to end up disliking the food. After a couple of minutes of pondering, they finally decided to get pho. I joined them and I already felt lost when I sat down and cracked open the menu. Everything I saw was encrypted. I had to constantly ask my friends what the words meant and even then I didn’t understand what they were getting at. When the food arrived, I felt a nice sense of familiarity when I saw that we had our own separate bowls. That familiarity quickly diminished when I saw the chopsticks. They slipped out of my hands the moment I tried to pick them up. When I tried to use them, the chopsticks battled against each other even when I tried my best to be the mediator between them. The smells that hit my nose were pleasant but very foreign. It was not my grandma’s familiar smell of tomato beans over snowflake rice. I got hit with the smell of various different vegetables instead. The broth was clearer than the broth I had at home too. As I kept battling with the chopsticks, I wondered if I would ever get used to these vegetables with their encrypted names. I ended up wishing that I had been more exposed to these different kinds of foods. Thai food was another adventure. I embarked on this new food journey with my friends once again. When I walked into the restaurant, I felt like a beam of light in the middle of a dark room. I thought that everyone was staring at me and that they were wondering why I was eating there. The decorations were very foreign. I saw a lot of red and gold and various little trinkets. It was very different from the American and Mexican restaurants that I was used to going to. When we got our menus and began to order, I just assumed that we were going to get our own separate plates. My friends then told me that we were going to end up sharing all of the foods we chose together. It was so shocking to me. I never shared food like that in my life. My grandma served our food on separate plates. She would even personalize our meals because we had different tastes. I felt very out of place at the restaurant. My friends wanted to order curry when I did not even know what that was. When they finally did order, I was still very confused on how we were going to share the food. The servers ended up bringing a couple of plates and huge ladles to pick up the food with. They handed us the bowls and then it was up to us to distribute the food. I honestly felt really embarrassed about getting food. Even though I paid for my meal like they did, I felt like I was being greedy every time I grabbed the ladle to serve myself more food. I felt like I could eat the entire restaurant. It was like I was a plastic doll putting myself on display whenever I reached for the food in the middle. There was another time that I was exposed to an Asian restaurant. My friend and I went to Japantown and her family had decided to go eat at a Chinese restaurant. I was very surprised when our waiter asked us if we wanted tea. I never got asked if I wanted tea at the restaurants that I normally went to. The restaurants I went to would ask me what I would like to drink first. When I told the waiter that I didn’t want tea, I noticed that my friend and her family did not ask for something else to drink with the meal. I decided to not ask for anything to drink either. It was a little uncomfortable for me because I usually had something to drink with my meal. This experience made me think about how different my culture was from hers. I also noticed how different the condiments were. They were in the middle of the table and the containers had little spoons to pick up the condiments inside. They restaurant also placed a lot of chopsticks in the middle of the table. When we started eating our meal, I learned that I was not supposed to put my chopsticks in my food and leave them there unattended. Apparently it was considered bad luck. I felt like I learned a lot about her culture when I went out to eat with her. Eating out with friends was a wonderful experience. Even though the food that I had with my friends was very different from my usual Colombian food at home, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. If I went to these restaurants by myself, I would have felt a lot worse about not being able to order the food or not being able to use chopsticks. My friends helped explain things I did not understand to the best of their abilities and they even taught me how to hold my chopsticks. I ended up liking the Thai food so much that I went there with my mom frequently afterwards. My world was so small before I went to eat with my friends. I will always love the familiar taste of Colombian food, but maybe I needed to be shocked a little. My culture shock ended up with me being open to trying many new foods and I am very grateful for that.