Taking another look at Asian food
28 September 2007, 7:51 pm. View comments. Filed under Miscellaneous.
It must be this natural thing that's been passed down the Asian generations. While we (Asians) tend to be more conservative in most other aspects, it seems to me that we, or at least my parents, totally love weird food.
I don't mean the oily Chinese, Thai curry or spicy Malaysian you get in restaurants. I mean taking a look at Asian food in Asian homes.
Although my parents don't go as far as eating dogs and cats, fried worms and monkey brains that the Chinese have this weird liking for, they do have weird tastes. That is, mixing "all good things" together to form something nasty.
- Strawberry jam, meat, avocado and cheese... all in a sandwich. In minor cases, dad loves strawberry jam plus Nutella and/or peanut butter.
- Soy milk and... something. Just imagine something like... egg, or... juice. Juice? Yeah, sweetly home-made avocado or carrot or another one of those let's-add-everything-together juice.
- Cereal. This sounds normal, right? But um... cereal in boiled water, left to cool for twenty minutes because soggy cereal tastes better. And you know parents, they love the tasteless muesli kind of cereal. So you get it, tasteless, soggy mush.
All this, in the name of "health". When I say they taste yuck, they say I have problems because they're healthy things. When I say I prefer to eat these things separately, they emphasise that I really have mental problems because they don't think there's anything wrong with them.
If you're Asian, do you or your parents eat such things? But please put up your hand if you also agree my parents eat weird stuff (they're not food because they're not edible for me).
23 Comments »
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Well I'm not Asian, but I like (raw)onion and honey on bread, and my mother sometimes puts strawberries on bread. But that strawberry jam and meat together sounds little erm... So yeah your parents like weird stuff.
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Wouldn't oatmeal taste much better than cereal in boiled water? Or are they the same?
*puts hand up* Although, I do want to try out Nutella + Strawberry jam
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Yo! I know what you mean by the Asian food mix... Like my dad will buy a whole lotta stuff and make a juice -___-"
something along the lines of celery, carrot, orange, apple AND potato (yes... potato...) all mixed into a "healthy" drink.
And then my mum.. she adds the strangest stuff to those water crackers.. *shudder*
*puts hands up* Although this is just say "I'm with you... I can never eat such.. umm... exotic? food combinations... bleah..
talk to you soon ;) -
@Johnny: Lol I had the exact same mix of "juice"!
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Wow, I never heard of doing any of that stuff, lol. Third one has to be the worst! Cereal boiled in water, then set out... ew. I have to have my cereal crunchy, it's cereal. Now number one, I kind of do that. I'll have like a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit, and put strawberry jam on it. It's good!
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The idea of eating those combinations together makes me feel slightly ill.
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Not being Asian, the only experience I have with Asian foods is going to a Chinese resturant.
But every culture has their weird foods. My grandparents are Russian Jews, so I had my own array of weird foods to eat. The weirdest thing being called Schav. It's a soup made of water, salt, sugar, lemon juice, egg yolks and sour cream served cold. -
Mixing strange foods together isn't an Asian thing. Lots of people do it. Most people... But the combinations you listed are frightful. Soggy cereal? Yuck. My grandmother eats some nasty stuff that I won't go near (cow brains or something...).
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Well, I am known for my weird tastes but I have to admit that your parents beat my taste. I mean I used to put ketchup on my mashed patatoes, I eat ranch dressing with my pizza, and several other weird things, but your parents take the cake, Rilla. I have known of a person who put butter on cashew chicken. I never understood that one.
Oh the gallery is in the icons. It is the third icon. I am trying to condense my site links. I imagine that I am trying to work up to changing the design in the future. Probably next month. I think I am going to go for a single column theme. But my goal is to create two more designs for TWD first. -
My family's not asian, but I find my dad's habits weird. He eats everything with a knife and fork, and can often be found mixing all his food together to create one big mess of a meal.
Your parents tastes are admittedly weirder, though -
Mmm, this reminds me of balut...aren't HALF-DEVELOPED CHICKS STILL INSIDE THE EGGS just wonderful?
My dad's habits are weird too, Kaylee. He adds Worcestershire sauce to EVERYTHING. And I'm talking about his SODA and stuff.
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Wow. Numbers One and two seem OK, but number three is just wow. :O
The thing that really disturbs me, but mostly not others, is seafood. I just find seafood creepy and it makes me feel sick when I look at it -
Lmao, I'm not Asian but that little descriptive menu made me cringe a little. I can't say my parents do anything like that, but there are certain Indian foods that get strange reactions from my friends here.
Like I had a chutney (its like a spread made of herbs... so like a pesto almost) sandwich and my second grade friends were convinced I was eating grass. *Sigh* Maybe food doesn't translate too well across cultures sometimes.
Although that is definitely a new take on healthy (the put all good things together to make mush made me laugh) -
FRIED WORMS?!
... you're kidding, right? *appetite is ruined*
My parents don't eat weird stuff, except for intestines. Which I actually like too =P -
I have a few Thai relatives that enjoy weird things like mud fish and curried carrots (smells SO BAD!).
But there's an Asian Fresh down the road from me and I love that place. The "weird" food there is gooood.
I like rice crackers (savoury) with icing (sweet). They seem weird, but taste awesome. -
Lol sounds like many of you have had your fair share of weird food as well. But Cindy, I've actually seen them introducing fried worms on TV for these Chinese shops. They actually look like normal fries because they use the big and fat earth worms, chop them and fry. *shudders*
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Oooohhhkay. Fried worms? Yuck! I haven't had breakfast yet and I think my appetite's a bit worried *prays for delicious food* And my parent's don't eat those kinda food errr I mean stuffs.
My parents enjoy things like pig stomach, and my dad likes the intestines. I'm sure eating liver is quite normal in this case.
& Rilla, you've got an award =D -
Um, yuck? LOL. But to each's own. I'm sure it's much healthier than what us Americans eat. I rarely see an overweight Asian and correct me if I'm wrong, and are always very healthy.
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Suffice it to say that I'm cringing right now ...
My father just loves the weird foodstuffs. You walk into the kitchen every second morning and he's eating an egg sandwich. Yup, fair enough, you can't really make anything out of that, unless you also find he's stuffed macaroni, pork, sour cream and peanut butter in between the slices.
MMMM, that's good eat'n'!
*flails hand in the air* -
BOMBAY DUCK!
And they (used to, my dad anyway) eat tongue, feet, brain, eyeballs, livers (but most Indians do anyways)... but Bombay Duck, I hate the most.
It is the nastiest thing in the world, with the nastiest smell. My parents don't eat it anymore because thankfully there is no market for it where we live, but back in Canada... they'd eat it quite often.
My parents like to eat jam with a lot of stuff. And my mom mixes every left over in her dinner (not because she likes, but because to finish it)... but still, nasty. -
We eat stuff that a lot of Caucasian people find disgusting, such as chicken feet, chicken hearts, pigs blood, pigs kidneys and pig livers (kidneys and livers especially during your period)...
Then theres just my parents weirdness. Rather, just my dad. He makes horrible food. He thinks once he has seen anything on tv, he can make it himself. Such as 'easy muffins', where you put flour and a TON of some Asian red sugar into the rice cooker. They came out like round pieces of leather.
Or he'll make those cup-a-soups with noodles, then destroy it by adding eggs and sausages and any leafy vegetable (even the ones with really strong bittery tastes) and sesame oil. The cup-a-soup becomes something horrible.
The only thing he's ever mixed together that is actually nice, is bacon and peanut butter. You wouldn't think so, but it's nice.
Dad doesn't waste any food at all so he'll mix everyything into one big disgusting glop and just eat it. He calls himself a pig cause he eats anything so as not to waste food. Ewwws. =P -
Everyone has their share of weird foods...
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Thankfully I never had to endure food like that! I do hear from my grandma and mum that if you boil ginger with Coca Cola it's supposed to be good for colds. =/ I guess... Pepsi would also be a suitable alternative.
My mum used to put yoghurt in EVERTYHING she cooks! Though that's more my mother thing, rather than anything generalisable.