Yesterday, my office had ethnic food day. In our office of about 40 people, we have at least* eleven countries of birth represented. There was biryani, chicken tikki, raita, and a few other Indian and Pakistani dishes, there was baked ziti, chicken Kiev, macaroni and cheese (representing the all-American contingent), edamame, fried tofu, red caviar, and brisket, among other things. We were all stuffed.
I’ve posted before about the true joys of pluralism. What we tend to forget, when working towards a better and more pluralistic society, is how much fun it is. When my sisters married African-American guys, my reaction was, Whoa, there’s a lot more dancing at black weddings. Cool! Then my brother married a Chinese woman and they had a Chinese opera company perform at the wedding (as well as a band playing Ha Va Nagilla) and that, too, was cool. And the food!
The ability to share our cultures, our fun things, our food and dance and jokes and fashion, is dependent upon feeling safe and accepted. So if you’re a bigot and you’re forcing people to fit in or get out, your palate is both literally and figuratively more bland. You’re not just a bigot, you’re also missing the party.
*I know that the employees from the former Soviet Union come from at least Russia and Ukraine, but there may be other countries represented. The countries I counted were U.S.A., Russia, Jamaica, Ukraine, Israel, Peru, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, The Phillipines, and China. Among the U.S.-born employees we enjoyed Jewish and Italian dishes, as well as the aforementioned macs & cheese.
Off the top of my head, let’s see if I can count the different nationalities of the restaurants (or other food purveyors) in my immediate neighborhood:
Russian
Georgian
Indonesian
Burmese
Malaysian
Thai
Vietnamese
Irish
Mandarin
Hunan
Szechuan
Taiwanese
Singaporan
Filipino
Italian
Mexican
Cambodian
French
Korean
Japanese
I’m pretty sure I’m missing a few.
Yup, you’re right–multicultural society rocks. 😉
My department did an Indian food day a few weeks ago…. I was gonna bring Slurpees and Dunkin’ Donuts, but somebody said that would be politically incorrect…… ;-D
Y’know Ken, I’m working on a post about “why I hate the term politically incorrect,” but in this case, it fits. 😀
Tom, I’m going to have to check out where you live. Sounds like paradise. I love Indian food. When I lived in L.A. I’d eat it almost every day. It satisfied my Southern soul food craving and vegetarian to boot. My favorite restaurant would have a black-eyed pea dish that was delicious, coupled with some sag paneer and hot naan from the oven. YUM!
Oh my god…how could I forget Indian? Also Pakistani, Persian, Moroccan, and Ethiopian…
I live in the Richmond District in San Francisco. It may be the most restaurant-heavy part of town, and it’s one of the most ethnically mixed.
We have a guy whose last name is Mohammed but I’ve never asked if he’s Indian or Pakistani. Nonetheless, the cooking is slightly different, I think. We also have all these different Indian regions represented; someone from the South, someone from the Southeast, someone from Bombay, someone from Delhi, and all the foods are slightly different.
I love the Richmond district. Ever eat at Brothers, the Korean joint on Geary? At about 10th st? 14th?
Great kimchi chiggae there.
I keep meaning to go there, but haven’t gotten around to it yet (truth be told, we order in a lot more often than we go out). One of the two Brothers (#1 or #2, I forget which) was recommended to me by a Korean-American co-worker.