Have it Your Way........ Just Not in Asia




Paco and I were trying to remember what foods we miss from home, and we have been away for so long that we have forgotten. I don't know what it is that I miss from home. Sometimes I get tired of eating Korean food, but then I can't think of what I actually would like to eat. I know that I didn't used to eat kimchi and rice everyday, so what the hell did I eat before I came to Asia? The grocery store always has the same five vegetables so that is what I tend to eat when I cook for myself. The other morning, Paco and I were discussing this over coffee and bagels (the other non-Asian food items that I consume). As we reminisced about the best western meals that we had while travelling, I realized something. People in Asia look at you like you are nuts if you ask for something slightly different than the menu. A few times, we tried to elicit to people that we wanted something modified from how it is normally served, and everytime they seemed baffled. Sometimes, they even try to talk us out of it. This is especially true in Korea. Here, there is a specific way that you are supposed to do things, and they will not let you waver from the norm. Once again, I am reminded of the hemogeny of this country. I have just learned that I cannot ask for my bibimbap without mushrooms. I cannot tell them that I do not want the awful anchovy soup that they always give me. It doesn't matter that I will never touch the dried minnows they set before me. They serve things to me the way that it is supposed to be done. This attitude also extends beyond food. For example, Ariel and I bought little brooms at the store to sweep our apartments. We picked out some cheap, simple brooms but were then told by a Korean salesperson that we had picked out the wrong broom. We were supposed to buy a different broom, and she would not accept no for an answer. What could we do but buy the recommended brooms? I know that I do things in ways that I am not supposed to all the time, and I think it just kills the Koreans. I have been told by numerous Koreans that I am not supposed to use chopsticks to eat my rice. You are supposed to use a spoon. However, I eat with the chopsticks because my students told me that it makes you smarter. I ride my bike to work in a skirt and heels despite the fact that bikes are only meant for exercise in a hardcore spandex outfit and not for transportation. I don't do these things to make people crazy. I don't know why I do things the way I do. I just know that I want things the way that I want them. When I am at a restaurant, I want to order things the way I want to eat them. I want to have it my way (I think that that is some fast food restaurant's slogan), but they don't do things your way in Asia. They do things the way they are supposed to be done. By the time I come home, I may forget what my way is.

The picture is a meal of pasta that our Korean "mom" made for us.