I don't mind at all! It's nice to meet you! And sorry for the edits. I don't know what happened to my paragraph breaks
My parents used to have eating wars with one of my brothers. He wouldn't eat, for some reason, so they'd make him sit at the table, even long after everyone else was done, until he finished everything on his plate. I remember some of his lunches lasting like 3 hours. He eats everything now, and in slightly less time, but he's always been a sloooow eater.
Meals have communal significance and it's considered the height of rudeness to eat dinner separately from the rest of the family.
My family is the same way with meals. They're a little more relaxed about breakfast and lunch, though if they can get the family to eat together then too, they will. In the Philippines, where most of my relatives are, all the aunts and uncles and cousins do Sunday lunch together. I think they alternate between them as to who picks the restaurant (and who pays). There is also always someone who complains about the choice. Heh.
Wasting food seems to be more acceptable among whites.
There's a big emphasis with my grandparents' generation on finishing your meals because you never know when you'll get the next one -- even after they've been financially successful/stable for years now, and always have food (or money to buy food) around. My mom's family is quite large -- she has 8 siblings -- and they've often joked or alluded to not so much not having enough to eat, but having to fight or be sneaky about getting the best parts of the meal. Eat fast or it might disappear off your plate!
(I think tied into this is the idea that being able to provide for the family = love, so it's almost like the more you eat - the more they can give you to eat - the more they love you. I don't know how other Asian families are about this, only that mine has strange ways of demonstrating affection.)
It's generally also only with white people that I run into opinions like "I don't eat Indian food because it smells" or "I don't like sushi" -- which is fair enough, but I personally can't imagine NOT eating it, or not trying food from other ethnicities (because more often than not, it's tasty!). These would also be the people I wouldn't take to or suggest to go to a more traditional Chinese (or Filipino) restaurant; the Americanized Chinese food is fine, delicious even, but it doesn't contain stuff like fish heads and other "smelly" foods.
But then, maybe their reaction to the food I love is not unlike my reaction to American food, initially. Like bread. I still remember the first time I had it; I was 5 or 6. It was at a sleepover at my (white) neighbour's house. One of their kids was my age and we played together a lot. It was breakfast and they asked me if I wanted toast. I had no idea what that was, but I said yes anyway to be polite and because I didn't know what other options were available (what do you mean you don't have rice for breakfast?), and it was horrible. Like eating cardboard. I didn't realize until later that toast = bread, and you could put stuff on it to give it some flavour. Or salad -- talk about disliking raw food. ;) I like it now, but I still tend to prefer my vegetables cooked.
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Re: eating from your culture
Date: 2009-08-10 06:29 pm (UTC)Meals have communal significance and it's considered the height of rudeness to eat dinner separately from the rest of the family.
My family is the same way with meals. They're a little more relaxed about breakfast and lunch, though if they can get the family to eat together then too, they will. In the Philippines, where most of my relatives are, all the aunts and uncles and cousins do Sunday lunch together. I think they alternate between them as to who picks the restaurant (and who pays). There is also always someone who complains about the choice. Heh.
Wasting food seems to be more acceptable among whites.
There's a big emphasis with my grandparents' generation on finishing your meals because you never know when you'll get the next one -- even after they've been financially successful/stable for years now, and always have food (or money to buy food) around. My mom's family is quite large -- she has 8 siblings -- and they've often joked or alluded to not so much not having enough to eat, but having to fight or be sneaky about getting the best parts of the meal. Eat fast or it might disappear off your plate!
(I think tied into this is the idea that being able to provide for the family = love, so it's almost like the more you eat - the more they can give you to eat - the more they love you. I don't know how other Asian families are about this, only that mine has strange ways of demonstrating affection.)
It's generally also only with white people that I run into opinions like "I don't eat Indian food because it smells" or "I don't like sushi" -- which is fair enough, but I personally can't imagine NOT eating it, or not trying food from other ethnicities (because more often than not, it's tasty!). These would also be the people I wouldn't take to or suggest to go to a more traditional Chinese (or Filipino) restaurant; the Americanized Chinese food is fine, delicious even, but it doesn't contain stuff like fish heads and other "smelly" foods.
But then, maybe their reaction to the food I love is not unlike my reaction to American food, initially. Like bread. I still remember the first time I had it; I was 5 or 6. It was at a sleepover at my (white) neighbour's house. One of their kids was my age and we played together a lot. It was breakfast and they asked me if I wanted toast. I had no idea what that was, but I said yes anyway to be polite and because I didn't know what other options were available (what do you mean you don't have rice for breakfast?), and it was horrible. Like eating cardboard. I didn't realize until later that toast = bread, and you could put stuff on it to give it some flavour. Or salad -- talk about disliking raw food. ;) I like it now, but I still tend to prefer my vegetables cooked.