2 Weddings & an Ethnicity

Growing up in an Irish family in Chicago, I was always exposed to basically the same foods. This was especially apparent at any wedding that I attended. There was always some variation of the Irish "basics": soup, salad, meat - often chicken or steak with varying sauces, a vegetable, and of course some form of potato. The main meal was followed up with a yummy dessert of wedding cake. Minor variations did occur, but the menu was usually pretty similar. I was never pushed out of my comfort zone, and had never left a wedding hungry (often the opposite, left way to full!).

My comfort zone was pushed to its ultimate outer edges when my husband and I moved to Seattle. As there is an extremely diverse population living out here, we made friends with people of other ethnicity's. My husband's office mate was a really nice Chinese man who grew up in Australia, and they became good friends. My husband's office mate had just gotten engaged and was in the middle of planning his wedding. We were invited to the wedding, and I became nervous about it when I discovered that it was going to be a traditional Chinese wedding. I had never had any experience with 'real' Chinese food, just the American versions which included chop suey, sweet and sour pork, egg rolls, and fortune cookies.

After a beautiful ceremony, everyone headed off to the restaurant for the reception. I immediately felt out of my comfort zone, as the table we were at, which was composed of my husbands co-workers and their wives, was the only non-Chinese table in the reception. There was a menu in the middle of the table, and reading it over, i recognized nothing!

When the first dish was brought out, I was relived. I recognized pieces of pork, and there was some form of 'noodle' sitting next to them. I poked the 'noodles' and asked what kind of 'noodles' were a clearish white. My table mates informed me that it was shredded octopus, and I knew I was in for a long night. My comfort level was tested at each of the 10 courses served, as each dish brought out was more strange and exotic than the previous. Goey-duck, shark fin soup, barnacles, and a whole fish complete with eyes were some of the courses served. I found myself extremely uncomfortable and out of place. I didn't want to insult my hosts by being disgusted, and I knew that the meal was really expensive. I picked at various things through the night, but ultimately left the reception still hungry.

This wedding made me acutely aware of the power of ethnicity in choice of food. Never before had I ever been exposed to such exotic foods, and it made me uncomfortable and pushed me outside my comfort zone.