Archive for February, 2009

Yummy Food

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

fried okra

Here’s a picture I forgot to post a while back. It’s from when some friends and I went to see a one-man show (btw, Sleepwalk with Me is definitely a must see!). We wanted to have dinner together beforehand, so I googled for nearby places and discovered one down the street from the theater had fried okra. As we were from small-town kansas and Missouri and big-town Texas, I knew the others would dig it as well.

I also had the red beans and rice to go along with the okra, and I was reminded of college and how different food is across our country. One of my freshman year dormmates had never had or heard of fried okra. After about the third time I talked about, she asked where I got the whale. Yeah…thought I was talking about fried orca.

Posted in **New York, food/beverage | 1 Comment »

I Only Speak English…

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

adoption phrase in Korean

I must be looking pretty FOB lately. This past week, I’ve had multiple Asians talking to me in their native languages. From my eight months in Asia, I at least have an idea of what they’re saying (”You’re Korean?” or “Thank you!”), but I have completely forgotten what to say in response.

However, because I keep buying kimchi from the same Korean bodega, I know I might have to bust out the “I was adopted by an American family” line again. I pulled out my little phrase sheet to refresh my memory. It’s kind of annoying how quickly I’ve forgotten all that I learned while I was traveling. I’m still racking my brain to remember how to say, “I was raised by a family other than my own” in Thai.

But I don’t think I’m going to pull out my Mandarin handbook any time soon. My Chinese accent sucks.

Posted in *China, *South Korea, *Thailand, language | 2 Comments »

Oh, God, What Did I Do???

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

What am I thinking?

How can I have joined the dark side??? Please…be nice…no tagging of unflattering photos please.

Posted in media | 3 Comments »

The Asian Cougar

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

When I was traveling in SE Asia, I took a trip that had two French people on it. They were amongst other Europeans and a couple of Canadians. Everyone on the trip pretty much ignored the older French man and his much younger companion, who I’d talked with a bit (in broken English and really broken French). The second day, though, I came to find out that everyone else on the trip thought they were a couple. Uh, no. It was a dad taking his daughter on a graduation trip. When I let them in on that fact, they responded with, “Well they are French…” insinuating that age is clearly not an issue for men with names like Pierre or ladies named Amelie.

Which brings me to last week. A few friends and I went to “French Tuesday,” which is basically a monthly mixer for Frenchies in New York and their friends. It was my first time to one of these, and another Asian-American gal in my group commented ahead of time that there would be lots of “older” Asian women there…the ones in their 40s (or 50s) going after the young French guys because of said un-taboo-ness. Sure enough…there were a few pacts of these snow leopards on the prowl…and the French blokes were being sussed out like fresh meat. It was like watching an Asian twist of American Pie’s milf scene.

French Tuesday

Posted in **New York, being Asian-American | 3 Comments »