I Am Everyday People

I've always hated the term Fusion Cuisine. It makes me think of bad strip mall restaurants in Hawaii.  Mixing things that shouldn't go together like Sushi and hot dogs. But I'm not opposed to taking the building blocks of a dish and changing all the ingredients to say, Mexican or Asian. I guess that's just another form of fusion.  Like these Mexican-ized Greek Gyros.  I made spiced taco-meat patties, put them on a whole wheat tort and added tomato, ribboned cucumber and cilantro with a little sour cream dressing. 

I also did a peach salsa with lots of jalapenos and lime juice, cilantro and red onions over warmed brown rice. Letting the herb be a main component of the wrap intensifies the flavors.  I would even do an herb mix with Italian parsley or thyme with the cilantro. 

The idea of mixing food styles is a given especially in a melting pot like Brooklyn. It's the ultimate too much of a good thing. Food wise anyway.

With all this diversity, sometimes, not always, comes intolerance. The subject of racism has come up twice this week. I think these are two great examples of funny and not funny. The one with the Zimmerman verdict, not funny.  And the one where a newscaster on KTVU announced the pilots of the SF flight to be Captain Sum Ting Wong and his crewmembers of equally hilarious names.  Wi Tu Lo?! That's comedy!

I'm not a racist but I do enjoy my racially charged inappropriate jokes, when they're funny and not hateful. You have to have a sense of humor if you're Mexican-American.  I'm on the bottom of the totem pole in power or importance especially here in New York City.  I do think a lot about differences because they're in my face all day. I'll say it, I see vast differences in many people. Maybe we are a lot the same but from where I sit, I see a lot of sharp contrasts. And that's great! Who wants to be just the same? I thought that was one of our strengths in the US?  Take me, I see myself as a rare flightless ugly bird out here. I'm pale, have a hick accent and I don't speak Spanish and that is heavily frowned upon. It's not my fault!  I grew up in the Midwest around a bunch of whacked out honkies, whom I love and grew to understand and relate to quite well by the way. 

Where I work however, it's like a rainbow liked I've never experienced.  Our customers are mainly first generation immigrants that are still struggling with the English language being served by second generation intolerant immigrants. Each coworker openly biased but to various ethnic backgrounds.  Like for example, the Puerto Rican hates waiting on the Hasidic Jews, the Dominican hates the Asians, and the dumb circus goes on and on.  I'm not immune, although my intolerances lean more towards the classes.  I am not crazy for the uppity Manhattan-ites. The designers and the architects who insist on announcing themselves each and every time.  'I'm an architect so....'  So? So what, you are highly educated but you couldn't design yourself out of a paper bag if your life depended on it? Because that's what I relate to the word! I can more easily explain our simple buying systems to the guy that just got off the dang boat! 

 

But speaking of, trying to explain whole systems to someone who is just learning the language can be very difficult.  It's funny sometimes too. The Russians often mistake the word kitchen for chicken and that's just giggle inducing!  I want to buy a chicken cab-ee-nyet.  I make fun only as a way to release some of the frustration.  I don't in any way hold hatred or resentment.  To the contrary, I admire anyone that comes over here and builds a life, learns a whole 'nother language and gives it a shot.  That's super cool. But that doesn't mean my head doesn't almost explode after the end of a regular day dealing with all of this wonderful diversity.

With the recent Zimmerman case, I read he was being called a white Hispanic.  Oh no you don't! Don't be trying to throw that Peruvian Jewish mix over here!   Where do you even file that? That seals it.  I'm officially leaving this Hispanic group.  I never liked that word anyway, Hispanic...and it's not even a funny word.  And by the way, it's a bogus term and I don't identify with it.  I resent the US for lumping all us brownies in one bowl.  Why not just call us raped Mexicans? And does that make Obama a white African-American or a black honky?  Is Tiger Woods a Thai African American Indian or when it gets too swirly and you were born in the states, do we drop all the adjectives and just call them Americans?

I like the term swirly that Wendy Williams uses.  The people that are a mix of flavors that look good together.  Halle Berry is swirly.

The Asians get poked fun at in a lighthearted way most times, with the slanty-eye jokes and the funny names. They also all got lumped into one big group. Just like Mexicans getting the lazy and bean jokes.  We laugh but it gets a little tiresome too.  But honky, now that's a funny word!  It's supposed to be derogatory but give me a break, it's hardly harsh and no one even knows what it means. I grew up in a time where people could say what they wanted, like George Jefferson and Archie Bunker on TV and people seemed to accept that as humor. It was charged but not in a hateful way.  Points were made but as a way of easing the mounting pressure. Maybe we need to get back to a bit of what we had in the 60 and 70s.  I hope we haven't gone so far backwards that we can't still have a little fun at the expense of the race that holds all the money and power. So I started making up my own terms.  White people are also very different and should have distinctions made.  For example:
A white-Asian is called a Chonky. In my experience, Asians are very good at adapting in one quick generation to the 'American way'. SF had a ton of Chonkies.  Mexicans are not as good at this. (see Monky)
A Bonky is a big ass honky, like Larry Bird. Bonkies are kind of awkward and therefore funny.
A Wonky is a really white honky. Joel Olsteen would be a good example of a wonky.
A Donky is an dumb ass-hole who happens to be a honky.  Like George Bush.
A Tonky is a tiny honky.  Kristin Chenoweth is teenie-tiny tonky.
A Fonky is one messed up honky, say, like Carrot Top, Brit-Bit, Lindsay Lohan's father, or Tom Cruise.
A Monky is a Mexican honky - there aren't many of them here but lots out in the West where you have several generations.  I'm almost a Monky!
A Slonky is a sleazy honky.  Like Tara Reid.
A Sonky is a honky who writes songs, like my P. I heart sonkies!
A Squonky is one of them squirrely honkies, like Matt Lauer.
A Swonky is a honky who sweats a lot.  These might be regional to the south.

I think there is nothing funny about George Zimmerman.  I don't know if he was a racist. I know he killed an unarmed teen when he had no business going after him.