Authentic eating

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I was sitting in my favorite wonton noodle soup joint in Chinatown the other day, enjoying my freshly made noodles and wontons, when a white couple came in and sat down next to me. They clearly did not feel comfortable dining there, and they kept looking around as though someone was going to jump them any second. They debated whether they still wanted to eat there and finally settled and decided they would stay.

The both of them seemed a little perplexed as they are scanning over the menu, also glancing around to see what other diners are eating. “I think this place is supposed to make all their noodles and wontons in house,” the man said as he watches the open kitchen workers in front cutting fresh noodles and dumpling them into a massive boiling water-filled vat.

“I want to eat dumplings. Let’s get the vegetable dumplings; they sound good,” the woman said in response, clearly ignoring what her partner just said. The man insisted they get the steamed buns, or the char siu bao, and so that’s all they ordered.

The dumplings and the buns arrive at the table, and they started picking at the buns as though they are foreign goods to them. “I thought these were supposed to be Chinese pork buns, but the outside of the bun is sticky,” the man remarked. “It must be made with sticky rice. I had no idea that Chinese steamed buns were made with sticky rice.”

I’m not sure why you would go to a Chinese restaurant known for wonton noodle soup and order buns and dumplings. I’m also not sure why you would think that your steamed buns were made of sticky rice just because some of the dough stuck to your fingers.

Actually, I do know why. Foreign things always feel foreign to those who keep “foreign” concepts at bay, so it feels “safe” to order and eat what you know and are comfortable with and stereotype a culture to be. These are always the moments that I’m really grateful to be part of two Asian cultures that are rich in their history and food and not part of a generic categorization that gets ridiculed for not having any real culture.

 

Getting older

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If there is one thing that unites pretty much all of my friends, it’s that they all love to eat. Some have smaller appetites than the others, but they all enjoy eating food and see eating as a pleasure in life, not something they do simply to survive. One of my oldest friends from middle school has always been a stick, and she’s always had the largest appetite. She’s also known for eating slower than anyone I’ve ever met in my life, and after you are done eating, she has just barely scraped the surface of her dish, and then slowly will inch her way to your leftovers on your plate. We were on the phone tonight, and she said that in the last two years, she’s realized her metabolism is finally slowing down, and she cannot eat as much as she used to. She’s managed to surpass me in weight even though she is two inches shorter than me, and the bridesmaid dress she wore to my wedding stopped fitting a month after the wedding. She asked me for advice on how to lose weight and what I did to lose weight four years ago.

This is part of getting older — realizing that you can’t do all the things you wanted to do and eat all the things you want to eat without consequence. It means recognizing that your body is changing and that you need to slowly adjust what you are doing to it to treat it right, otherwise it will come back and be very mean to you.

9th year

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This my ninth year in New York City. I never thought I would say that. I always thought I’d spend 2-4 years in New York, then move back to San Francisco, or at least California. It’s strange to think about how time has passed so quickly, and at the same time, I feel very young and old simultaneously.

In New York, I’ve made a handful of good friends, got laid off from my first job during the massive economic recession of 2008-2009, and since had two other jobs that have taught and exposed me to new things in life, for better or for worse. I’ve faced intense office politics and unfairness, sex discrimination, and subtle racial discrimination. I’ve had to compromise on ethics and when faced with the decision to be myself or suck up and be someone I wasn’t, I continued to be an adult and be myself. I’ve come to know when Jewish holidays are coming up because in this city, that is the expectation whether you are Jewish or not. I realize here that no one gives a shit about Lunar or Chinese New Year the way people do in San Francisco.

New York has hardened me. It’s made me a little more jaded, a little more cynical. But at the same time, I also have more hope. I have hope that even in the worst of times, I can survive and make it out alive and well. And in a Trump Nation for the next four years, I know that survival is key, and I won’t let Trump or any bad work situation prevent me from living the life I want to live.

Back to the gym

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I finally got back to the gym this morning after a month hiatus. It’s always hard the first day back after Christmas and New Year’s given the long break from intense cardio and weights. It was even harder this morning when during my run on my treadmill, the guy who happens to be running on the treadmill next to mine continually farts, over and over and over again. It’s like he thinks that the ventilation at the gym is so strong that people right next to him cannot tell that he is flatulating. How dumb can people be?

I finally had to stop my treadmill and move all the way down to the other end of the row. And I was not the only one moving away from this idiot. It doesn’t matter how many smart people you meet in the city of New York; you will always continually meet even stupider people.

“expecting”

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There is something about coming back from a warm, summer climate to a sad, cold, and dreary winter climate that is so depressing. I just spent about three weeks in warmth and sun, and I am returning to 20-25-degree-Fahrenheit weather, snow, and big waterproof boots. Nothing is exciting about this. All these people in my Facebook and Instagram feed, complaining that they grew up in warm climates like California and never got to experience a snowy Christmas — you guys are so short-sighted and delusional. I have no idea why you think you were deprived. In fact, I feel sorry for people who had to deal with snow and all the disgusting aspects that come with it. It isn’t all fun and games and sledding and snow ball fights when you have to deal with snow chains, salting and shoveling snow out of a driveway, and flight delays and cancellations because of low visibility due to snow. Stop trying to romanticize snow. It’s not romantic. It’s sad.

So, you can imagine how excited I sounded to talk to my parents. Talking to them regularly means I am back in New York, as negative as that sounds. Today, my mom asked me, “So, are you expecting?” WHAT? No, I am not expecting. I am not pregnant. I will not be pregnant this year. “Well, there’s nothing wrong with expecting or getting pregnant. You are married and at the age!” she exclaimed. Why do you think I am expecting? I asked her. I heard you may be, she said, oddly. “Who in the world would you ‘hear’ that from?!”

In fact, she heard it from no one. She was just hoping. And she also said I sounded so grumpy that she thought I was getting mood swings from pregnancy. Great.

Birthday cake

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I’m ordering myself a birthday cake this year. This year’s indulgence will be chocolate mousse, creme brulee, and chocolate sponge cake. I’ve done this many years before, and this year, I am doing it again. Why is this so amusing to so many people?

I was on the phone with someone at a French bakery in Midtown East today, and she asked who the cake would be for. I told her it would be for myself, and she laughed and said, “For yourself? hahahahhaha!”

Why does a birthday cake have to be purchased for you by someone else? If I want to buy myself a birthday cake, I will do it. I don’t need some loser bakery assistant to imply it’s silly or excessive to buy myself a cake. If I want to buy myself a cake every single day, then I will do it.

Jetlag dreams

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I am plagued with a negative subconscious. When I remember my dreams, which hasn’t happened much in the last month, they tend to either be confusing, conflicting, or flat out negative. Oftentimes I am having an argument, aggressive or passive with someone, and it’s not going in the direction I’d like it to go. Someone is dying in the dream or getting beaten or battered, or I am screaming for some reason.

Because my jet lag is always the worst coming back from Australia, I knew my first few nights of sleep back here would be disturbed, resulting in waking up every few hours. However, what I did not anticipate was that all of Chris’s dreams would literally be about fun and rainbows. In between small snores, he keeps repeating “wow, look at all the rainbows. Look at all the different colors. So many.”

It doesn’t seem to matter whether he is conscious or unconscious, but he always seems to experience better things than I do. Why can’t I have blissful dreams like that?

“Just 22 days”

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When you work in a country like the U.S., and in a city that is as competitive and work-obsessed as New York, it’s always amusing to hear people’s reactions when you tell them that you will be out of the office for more than five consecutive business days. If you tell them that you will be out for 2+ weeks, be prepared for them to respond with, “wow” or some other surprised gesture or facial expression. The U.S. doesn’t recognize paid time off as something that you really deserve or should take advantage of; we’re a capitalist economy that strives to work everyone to death unless you are the upper 1% who doesn’t really need to work. People pride themselves on saying that they don’t want or don’t need to take a vacation. I have colleagues now who ridicule other colleagues in their mid-twenties for taking vacations in excess of four to five days. This is the world I choose to live in and be a part of.

So you can imagine my reaction when I was on our day trip tour outside of Chiangmai, visiting Doi Inthanon National Park in Thailand, when a German woman announced to our small group of six that “my holiday is just 22 days, so I’m only visiting Thailand on this trip.” Just 22 days? I couldn’t help but laugh and call her out on it.

“It’s clear that you are not American because no American would ever say she is on holiday for ‘just’ 22 days,” I said, laughing, and everyone else in the van laughed in response. We were in a car of one German, two Italians, three Hong Kong citizens, Chris as an Australian living in the U.S., and me, the sad American.

Every time I hear something like this, a part of me feels pain and wonders if I really belong in the U.S. Clearly, I live a privileged life, and I do not feel sorry for myself at all, but these conversations on principle make me so angry. Why should any American feel guilty to take a holiday for two weeks or 22 days? Why have we done this to ourselves? There’s so much here I just do not agree with. But the grass always seems greener on the other side. So what would I really miss here, other than family and friends, if I were to leave?

Back to a reality of being blamed

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I called my parents for the first time since coming back to New York this evening, and my mom immediately brings up the spicy food order I sent them and says that it has now caused my dad a prostate infection. She said she didn’t want to blame me, but she wanted me to know the facts. Umm… what? That was weeks ago now, and what does a spicy food order from over two weeks ago have to do with some supposed prostate infection of today? I told her I had no idea what she was talking about and to put my dad on the phone. He was awkward, but he would tell this to me straight.

“The food has nothing to do with the infection,” my dad said in an annoyed tone. “Don’t listen to anything she says. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. And also, we’re still waiting for the test results, so we don’t even know if I actually have a prostate infection yet. Prostate infections cannot be caused by food. She just loves to connect two unrelated things and say one caused the other.”

Oh, really? Are you just realizing that now, Dad?

 

TSA Snafu

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After clearing immigration and tossing our checked bags to get rechecked on our flight back to New York through LAX, we went through the regular security check line at Tom Bradley International Terminal and passed our carry-on bags through. Much to our annoyance, the tray with all three of our laptops in it got marked for inspection, and we waited over 20 minutes for a TSA rep to do a formal check on our computers. When we asked why there was no one coming to do an inspection, a rude TSA worker said they didn’t have anyone to do it. Chris said to her that we had a flight to catch. She responded back, clearly annoyed, “Everyone here has a flight to catch.” Yet, she stood there the entire time just looking around and not physically doing a single thing. The even more ridiculous part about this was that there were three other TSA reps standing by the body scanners, chatting away and doing little to nothing, plus a random TSA employee standing there and watching the trays pile up at the end of the security line (while there was a shortage of them at the beginning of the line), and the TSA guy who ended up calling out for bag check ended up doing the check on our bags. So he called for someone who never ended up coming, and in the end after over 20 minutes, he decided to do it himself. Wow, what a good idea.

As much as I love Elizabeth Warren, I have to strongly disagree with her when she gets mad that people knock government agencies and say that “nothing in government ever gets done.” When you see incompetence and flat out laziness like what I’ve described above, it’s quite hard to have respect for government workers when they do not value efficiency and actually getting their jobs done (which they are paid very well for). At the end of the day, what is their incentive to work faster with getting travelers through security, anyway? Their wages will be the same, and they’re not incentivized to work faster, be friendly to travelers getting through, or to take on tasks that they may not have gotten officially assigned at the beginning of their shifts. People work based on incentives. If there are no incentives, there’s no reason to do a better job.