Posts Tagged ‘Shut up I Know I’m Weird’

I think we have established that there are things that I don’t like. As Bev Kaply said the other day, there is a list, and it is long and comprehensive, but don’t bother memorizing it because I am more than willing to tell you when I don’t like something. Often extensively and comprehensively.

So I thought we’d try exploring things I like. There are such things, you know. Shut up.

I am completely fascinated by Asian food and culture.

My dad was stationed in Okinawa at one point, and when we were kids, my family tended to go to Japanese restaurants. When we lived on base, we went to Mongolian wok night and teppanyaki at the NCO club. I grew up with Japanese food, and then when we moved to Maine, I worked as a teenager in a Chinese restaurant. This allowed me to eat the same food the chefs made for themselves, so I got used to real Chinese food instead of the Americanized menu they offered customers.

In Maine, at least when I lived there, Asian food was crappy most of the time and when it was good it was super expensive. This is because there was only a very small Asian population, and most of the people who lived there had an Americanized idea of what Asian food is.

One of the things I love about Seattle is the variety of amazing and excellent Asian food and ingredients available. There is a large Asian population here, and so there is a wide range of food to be had.

There is pho, and bun and hand shaved noodles for chow mein. There is dim sum and bahn mi, Korean bbq and teppanyaki, naan and on every corner of every street there is a teriyaki joint.

Don’t even get me started on the bakeries.

There are Asian grocery stores, and bookstores where you can find all sorts of stickers and notebooks and trinkets and an unnameable variety of cool shit.

And because there is a large Asian community, it all can be found at a reasonable price.

It’s like I’m in heaven, if heaven has noodles and hot and sour soup, and it couldn’t possibly be heaven without those, you know?

Things I May Not Have Mentioned About The Holidays:

It’s A Wonderful Life. Please, lord, save me from 24 hours of this terrible movie. In fact, please spare me from watching any Christmas movie, The Sound Of Music, The Wizard Of Oz and the Gene Wilder version of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Exceptions may be made for Scrooged. I like it when the Ghost of Christmas Present smacks Bill Murray in the face with a toaster. And Holiday Inn. That’s good, too.

Egg nog. I do not like the nog. Even when I was a drinker, I did not like the nog. It is evil to pollute perfectly good rum with that shit.

I like some Christmas cookies, but not gingerbread. I like Sizzle’s coconut balls and my mom’s sour cream sugar cookies, and these weird things my mom makes with peanut butter, butterscotch, tiny marshmallows and those crispy chow mein noodles. That’s all.

I am not a Christian, but I was a cradle Episcopalian, and the only religious thing I really enjoy is Advent. I like the candles and the ceremony. It reminds me of my childhood in a really good way.

I firmly believe that Christmas, like all holidays, means very specific things to each person. It’s your own traditions that make holidays what they are, and other people’s holiday traditions are somehow not as satisfying. An exception is Sizzle‘s Christmas Eve Taco Buffet, because she is awesome and loves me. But at the moment, I feel like I already had Christmas, because of all the stuff I did at my parents house. I am hoping I can get the Hotness to have Christmas brunch with me at his house, and then my holiday will be complete.

So there’s that.