I'm pretty sure that I'm not as extreme as the author, Andrea, when it comes to her food cravings. She claims that whenever she meets a person of a different ethnicity, she immediately forms a picture in her head about the food from the place where that particular person is from. Here are some examples from her article:
- "Whenever I get in a taxi with an Indian driver, it kicks in: almost immediately, I start craving a plateful of creamy, tomato-y tikka masala. Pillowy naan. Saag with cubes of spongy paneer. Chut. Ney. Yes. Please."- "When the Korean mailman says "good morning," I smile back and daydream of tender bulgogi wrapped in crisp lettuce. A steaming bowl of bibimbap topped with oozy egg yolk. Lacy kimchi pancakes."
- "When our kindly Trinidadian office security guard greets me, it's all I can do not to turn around and race right out for a bowl of callaloo." She goes on and says that sometimes, it doesn't even need to be a person to trigger these cravings - she can start imagining about food from reading the news:
- "Google is having all those issues in China, so juicy, porky soup dumplings sound nice. But look at what's happening with Israel, so maybe some crispy falafel is in order. And Afghanistan! Horrific! Kebabs!"She realizes that she is just truly, deeply, and madly in love with food. The rest of the article talks about how 'racism' may be the wrong word since it is associated with such negative connotation and it's not that she has any dislike towards any group, just that she tends to "frame everything in life through food".
Personally, I think it's questionable when it comes to her proclaimed and extreme love for food. I'm not sure if she's just writing it for entertainment purposes, or is she really that crazy about food. It seems so out of this world! So obsessed to think about food whenever she talks to a person from a different ethnic or skims a newspaper article (although she did admit that she is food obsessed). It just seems a bit exaggerated, no? I can't imagine how she wouldn't be like 300 pounds by now if she is how she claims to be. One thing for sure is she cannot live in Toronto, or any multicultural city at that. However, seeing that The Atlantic is based out of Washington, D.C. and not some hick town, she can't be that deprived of food.
Nonetheless, her article is a really enjoyable read and made me smile. It's always entertaining to read the thoughts of another "foodie". Having said that, do you think you are a "Food Racist"? =)