Gorge (ous)
Monday, December 21st, 2009It is the month to eat.
I haven’t stopped since Thanksgiving.
It’s becoming a problem. I wake up with thoughts of gravy soaked biscuits; I am numbed against the world as I dream of mashed potatoes and fries, and I fall asleep with mouthfuls of ice cream in my mind. Oooohh, I drool as I type.
Others say that this is a problem; that I shouldn’t be eating this much, and it’s not fair that I stay so thin. Well to them, I say: HA! I stay so thin as a cost to my energy’s endurance; anyway, it’s most likely one day I will wake up as plump as a pampered pigeon.
Lately, I’ve been appreciating grapefruit, mini-organic-apples, chocolate covered gummy bears, popcorn, korean rice-cake soup, and today I convinced my co-workers to order thai food for lunch with me.
In Asian culture, food is the ultimate medium for community and hospitality. It is the epicenter of life. If you have enough to eat, you’re doing okay. If you have great tasting food to eat, you’re basically rich. Your life is good enough. That’s why when you visit an Asian house, it probably smells like Asian food.
On the flip side, refusing to eat what’s placed in front of you is the ultimate no-no. Refusing a plate of food (or picking at it) equates to selfishness, un-appreciation, and obviously spoiled upbringing. It means you haven’t suffered enough to realize how valuable that plate of food is, and you haven’t connected that the person who offered it had to work/sweat/cry to even serve it. Or at least, that’s how it’s definitely interpreted. In American culture, they’re pretty kind about not finishing what’s in front of you. I’ve been conditioned though, and now I can’t say I’m done until every scrap on my plate is gone…
Sidenote: in history class, we learned about how the 1-child policy to control China’s population growth had Asians spoiling the single sons; the actual term for this demographic is “butterball”.
Off to dream of tasties and discover taffy in the wind!
<3
G





