Americans have been mocking Chinese food for a long time. Li quotes someone who says, "Chinese food was often labeled unhealthy and Chinese restaurants unsanitary." What I remember was the assertion — insanely often repeated — that if you eat Chinese food, an hour later, you are hungry again. So mockery of American food is well earned. Do you care if, instead of "American," the 2-word phrase "white people" is used as an adjective? Is it enough to know that it's used "without any bad intent or the awareness of racial sensitivity in the U.S."? In the U.S., the lack of awareness of racial sensitivity won't save you, but, of course, aware or unaware, in the U.S., there's plenty of latitude when you are making fun of white people.
ADDED: Why does it say "awareness of racial sensitivity" and not "awareness of racial insensitivity"? Did anyone writing/editing this article notice this subtlety? I think it would have been noticed if the targeted race were not white. But to say that there is "racial sensitivity" is to locate the problem in the one who is receiving the mockery. To talk about "racial insensitivity" is to express an expectation that the person doing the mocking ought to think about race and proactively avoid racism or anything might seem racist. There's a difference between awareness of whether other people are sensitive and the problem of you yourself lacking sensitivity.
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Not a great look for a society or culture that tried to use its own cruel and disgusting wet market “traditions” to explain away a biowarfare lab leak.
Eat some bat soup with a side of pangolin.
Dry crackers? That's racist.
If you say math is racist, you're making fun of black people.
A radio Taipei series on Chinese cooking started with the warning that Western and Chinese ideas of what is edible differ considerably.
Biden got his money. The next great democrat war machine war will be with China.
In the universe of Asian food, I general find Chinese food the most featureless - too many dishes taste too much alike to me. I mean, I like it, but it doesn't spark cravings in me, unlike, say, Thai or Malaysian food. I suspect this is an artifact of the particular Chinese food I have eaten.
But now there's a very popular (with Asians) and growing Asiantown area about ten or fifteen minutes from my house and we're trying different restaurants there regularly, so maybe my opinion will change.
Meanwhile... I was brought up in a household where food was drastically under-seasoned, and we were certainly very white, so I'm going to say that these Chinese social media folks are stereotyping but not wrong across the board, as is generally the case with stereotypes.
On Christmas, when every Chinese restaurant is closed, the only place they can go out to eat is White People restaurants.
How in the world did we lose to China?
CNBC special coming up. A good reporter. The idea with China's IP theft is to displace entire US industries. Right now they are stealing, and have stolen, jet technology. China may soon be in the position to build Boeing jets cheaper than Boeing.
Boeing alone keeps our trade deficit tolerable. Boeing alone is like 1% of our GDP or some crazy number like that.
The Chinese are out to destroy America and Biden helps them. In fact, many US industries have helped the Chinese.
Vivek has 3 main campaign themes. One is declaring our independence from China. Right now, we are losing.
Some years ago, people in the UW stadium neighborhood noticed that cats were disappearing. Eventually, it was found that a nearby Regent Street Chinese place was serving cat. It was closed down.
In order to help our Chinese mockers, here's a list:
Food OK To Mock: White people food, English, American, Irish, German, Russian, French, Italian, Norwegian. Swedish, and any other white country not listed.
Foods NOT ok to mock: Mexican-American food, Jewish Food, Black American food.
Its possible our Chinese mockers don't say "White People food" is because you have people in those countries with people making Black food, Middle-eastern food, and Mexican/Latino food.
I'd say Chinese food, along with Italian and French is the best in the world. Also, many Chinese like Spicy and flavored foods, and can't appreciate a Grilled Cheese Sandwhich, or a Tuna Sandwhich. Or Potato Salad.
"White people food" may mean English or Swedish or German or French or Spanish or Italian or Greek food. There's a lot of variation and some is indeed awful while some is sublime. Older USA food was derived from UK/German food. It was often very bland and seasoned only with salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce.
Native cuisines follow from what can grow locally. Scandinavian and British Isles foods tend to be fish-oriented and seasoned with dill and other relatively bland herbs. That's what you get when you move into former ice-age glacier territory where few plants can grow at all.
South Asia, to include India, Indonesia, and southern China, avoided the ice-age and many more species of plants evolved/survived. Europe had to import pepper, cinnamon, vanilla, curry, and most everything distinct and strong from that area. Similarly, chili peppers, chocolate, avocados, and tomatoes evolved in the warm regions of the Americas.
In sum, this is a nothing complaint and flavors naturally follow from climate and what will grow in a local area. White rice and white Chinese bun bread is equally bland and awful IMO.
"But to say that there is "racial sensitivity" is to locate the problem in the one who is receiving the mockery."
Which is exactly where the current racial problem resides.
Will this news improve the dumplings that I get from my favorite place? Don't think so.
So I am completely not interested in this news as it pertains to food. I concede that it may have some wider significance about Chinese culture and politics --maybe it's a predictor of greater militarism and racism by the CCP, but it's hard to see how they can be more so than they already are-- but that's just speculation on my part.
What I DO foresee is more of a Creole note in Chinese cuisine. They'll have that nice new spy base in Cuba and really get into some fusion cooking, when they come off-shift from harassing our maritime traffic and reading our email.
You will note that they do not mock barbecue or Southern fried chicken or chili or jambalaya. “Unseasoned chicken breasts”? Hell, any good ol’ boy would mock that too!
Hard to say - the American confections of Asian cuisine (any Asian country) are normally very different from what one would consume on the ground, there. Not always a bad thing, though. Bush meat has quite a lot of.... variability.
I'm not into eating cats and dogs.
Awaiting all the dopey comments that the Chinese are somehow wrong about something so obviously true.
Go ahead and "Dish" it out. White people are the only ones who can take it and laugh.
At DEI meetings white people are taught to be superior by being foolishly categorized and insulted. If you know its not true, then the only answer is that the DEI people are stupid.
I've found if you want exceptional Chinese food, ask a Chinese immigrant where they eat. It helps a lot if you bring them along and let them order.
Most Chinese restaurants buy their food, packaging and everything else from the same wholesalers. They prepare the same dishes with the same names, because they believe that's what their customers want and expect. It's mostly fungible.
Oh, no! Someone, somewhere, is racisming me!
"Do you care if, instead of "American," the 2-word phrase "white people" is used as an adjective?"
Yes, unless I want to assert that only White people are Americans, an assertion which I am pretty sure is illegal in all 50 states. Besides, most Chinese food, particularly Mandarin food, is not exactly flavorful. Boiled duck's feet being the most egregious example, unless you're into chomping on cartilage. And, it's not just the ingredients in mainland Chinese food that can be a turnoff, it's also the texture and the fact that they are not opposed to adding in a little putrid meat if they can get away with it. USDA rules don't apply in Asia.
I don't care if someone wants to make fun of "white people food", go ahead and knock yourself out. Am I doing it wrong? Should I be insulted instead?
*You ain’t lived until you’ve raised and consumed a shot of snake blood when toasting in China.
* as told to me by an old work colleague who at one time conducted biz in China
Well, first off, there is agreement. 30 yrs ago joining a research ship with a lot of crew from Seattle, I was stuck by the blandness of the food. The Norwegian-descent considered salt spicy. On the other hand, the Filipino cooks could when permitted spice things up.
On the other hand, the Chinese food most Americans get is a toned down local ingredient variant. Mexican used to be the same. As you move closer to the SW Mexican food got spicer and as you moved toward China similarly.
Living in Honolulu, I discovered that there were whole restaurants to a Chineses variant. It was the early '90s, with Hong Kong being given back, so a Chinese-American student in my office would only eat Hong Kong style if we went out.
And a lot of hot countries use a lot of peppers and other spices because they counter mild spoilage in the meat.
Eating human brains for lunch is to learn what it feels like to be dead.
I'm not even close to offended because I know it's true. And by White People, it's really Anglos, those English descendants. I often kid my Brit friends that England conquered the world to get a decent meal.
Many Chinese are as insanely obsessed with bizarre foods as Americans are with bizarre sex. Both are grasping for the same thing. I say that as one who, in the Americas, has happily eaten goat, horse, elk, moose, rabbit, raccoon, bear, dog, lynx, guinea pig, eel. several species of snake, and tofu.
Being hungry an hour later is about the only Chinese food joke I can think of.
Guessing we can't make #YellowPeopleFood jokes, ya?
Mocking “White people food” is all the rage on China’s heavily censored internet.
I encourage the Chinese to mock "white people food". Life was more fun when everybody didn't pretend to be offended. People used to say that Black folks like fried chicken. Why wouldn't they? It's delicious. Chinese eat dogs! Well, some do in the rural provinces, but urban Chinese aren't pleased with that fact either.
I'm white people, and the lunch shown in the article, cucumbers and crackers, is appalling. I share the Chinese outrage and mockery.
It isn't clear why WaPo thought they could get an article out of this. I feel that way about any article based on something being "all the rage" online. It feels made up. There are a billion people in China, and maybe one in a hundred thousand posted about white people food.
Funny. This morning I was just reading the local online paper's rundown of the latest Health Dept. passes and flags for restaurants. Of course, leading the list of serious infractions were Chinese and Thai restaurants. Not all of them, of course. But there's always new ones at the top of the list.
American food is such an amalgam of so many peoples, cultures, blends of blends of cultures, eras, and evolving tastes that it's really impossible to state one food is American or another is not. Sure, the hot dog. But how many ways is even the lowly hot dog served from Detroit to Chicago, New York to LA? Today I'm going to a local Israeli influenced restaurant. Israeli food is also an amalgam of dozens of cultures/countries. This place is an Israeli/creative American restaurant, so it's an amalgam of amalgams. And...the food is great.
So it really does come down to 'White people's food' that they're trying to mock. And we all know people who prefer their food to be pretty basic, with no frills, nothing that veers off of what they were served as kids. White bread. I guess people still buy that. I see it on the store shelves. Yellow mustard. Saltines. Campbell's tomato soup (condensed!). In the South- biscuits and gravy for breakfast (ugh, never could get into it). White people's food could really be called WASP food, if we're going to get specific. I mean, who has more of a rep for basic, unflavored and unspiced foods than the WASPs. Not that there's anything wrong with it. But it is what it is.
And it ain't a corned beef on rye with Russian dressing, hot mustard, swiss cheese, a side of vinegary Cole slaw and an old dill. Or a vindaloo. Or a puttanesca sauce. Or shwarma. Or kimchi. Or fish tacos. Or any number of other foods we see all across American restaurants and food trucks.
Someone should open a restaurant just called 'WASP Food' and let it all rip.
Li quotes someone who says, "Chinese food was often labeled unhealthy and Chinese restaurants unsanitary."
Local health department scores that are published after regular inspections where I live would tend to confirm the unsanitary part. And, to be fair, a few Indian and Mexican restaurants, too.
Shortly before the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, Korea, I was working at a conference that drew attendees from across East Asia.
It was always interesting to chat with the attendees in the cafeteria of the conference center in Seoul. The Japanese attendees felt the food was overwhelming spicy while the attendees from Singapore and Malaysia thought the food was very bland.
So racist.
"Don't you blaspheme in here! This is my man, this is my restaurant, and you two are just gonna walk right out that door without your dry white toast, without your four fried chickens, and without Matt Guitar Murphy!" - Queen Aretha
I grew up in a time when it perfectly acceptable to tell "ethnic jokes." There were Italian jokes and Jewish jokes and dumb Swede jokes and of course "Polack jokes." It wasn't usually intended to be mean or hurt feelings and was a way to celebrate the differences in our culture. My brother in law, whose family had roots in Norway, loved jokes about Norwegians and Vikings. My best friend, a Jew, and I, a German-American, made fun of each others ethnicity. We've been friends for over 50 years and we've talked about how some of the ribbing we did back then was in poor taste and would have gotten us kicked out of high school back then.
Well, of course 'unseasoned chicken' is lame.
Toss on some Masterpiece Original, then rip it off.
To be fair, this blog posts (or used to post) photos of Chinese food all the time. Dog day at the park.
Chinese food is my second favorite cuisine, after Mexican. “White people food” is nonsense, there’s no such thing as white people cuisine.
Food from Northern climates is not very good as those people historically had little access to spices, but there are plenty of examples of good ethnic food developed by people who are white. Meanwhile, nobody eats the “meals” described in that excerpt.
People that are insecure in their culture will take offense at things like this.
But I guarantee that if they were eating any kind of decent BBQ, they wouldn't be making these jokes.
American white people are the least racist of all.
Thai/Malay/Singapore tend to have the best spices.
This. from people who eat bugs.
The thing is this:
#WhitePeopleDontCare that some Chinese people are mocking #WhitePeopleFood.
Hard to argue with the Chinese on this. I would except South Louisiana Cajun and Creole fare but even that's usually a pale imitation if sourced and prepared elsewhere.
A lot of Americans have no idea how little Chinese, Thai, Italian and other 'foreign' food they love resembles the stuff served in the country of orgin or seriously ethnic enclaves in mostly large cities. If you've ever had a Totino's Party Pizza, you know what I mean.
I recently found a tiny Thai place with a native Thai owner/cook who turns out real street food treats with a choice of heat levels. Her 'hot' goes miles beyond farang hot. Mai pen rai :-)
The above truths aside; a good bowl of chili and grilled cheese sandwich is pretty f***ing awesome!
Poached eggs on top of corned beef hash. A satisfying and filling hot breakfast.
When I was younger it was toast with lots of butter and poached eggs. Dip the toast into the yolks to soak up the yumminess, and when done, finish up the whites.
An hour later you're hungry after eating Chinese food? There's some truth to that- depending on what you eat.
But at a German-Chinese restaurant it's even worse. An hour after you eat you're hungry for power....
Americans have been making fun of their own food for, well, probably as long as there have been Americans. Saturday Night Life used to have the ongoing scenario of a white kid carrying around an industrial size jar of mayonnaise with a spoon.
Other cuisines? Well, there's English food. Conquer the world searching for spices to trade- then not using them. And then there's what I read once about Welsh food. Just like English food but without the taste.
I recall an episode of a show where the (black) restaurant owner in the South had collard greens on the menu. One day his regulars ordered them. "We're out." he replied. Well the next day- IIRC- it repeated. Then- "Why are you out?" and he replies-"We're always out. I never have collard greens. No one ever orders them. But if they're not on the menu then everyone asks why I don't have collard greens on the menu." TBH, I don't have a clue what collard greens are. I do know what grits are, and avoid them like the plague. Well, that's not actually true. I don't actually know where grits come from. For all I know they're the leavings that are swept up off the fields after harvest. No actual taste to them. But then there's no actual taste to oatmeal, which I like. With milk and maple syrup. But not all by it's lonesome.
Meanwhile... I was brought up in a household where food was drastically under-seasoned, and we were certainly very white I could just about say the same. But there was lots of gravy, which some people seem to think odd. But mashed potatoes without gravy- why would anyone serve them that way? Gravy can cover up a multitude of food sins. My kids remark I never used spices on food. I remark that vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger are spices. They admit my French toast, waffles, pancakes, and chicken breasts, among other things, prepared with them are better then anyone else's without. My theory was that the more a food tasted like dessert, the more likely it was I could get the kids to eat it. The theory was successfully tested. I've no idea where they developed a taste for peppers and other stomach destroying foods from. And all 5 drink coffee, which my wife and I never had in the house since neither of us do.
Yeah, Americans hate Chinese food so much there's a Chinese takeout every other block in some cities.
Get back to me when there is as many American food restaurants in China as there are Chinese food restaurants in the U.S.
Also Chinese people for the most part are racist. Just like most people around the world.
@Jamie:
My family was so White, we ate tamales out of a can, and we liked it.
The anecdotes in the article are from the Netherlands and Switzerland. So "white people" isn't equal to "American," at least according to the article.
Are "white people" supposed to be offended by this meme? Why should anyone care? There is no such thing as "white people" food. English food is different from French food which is different from Italian food which is different from German food etc. European's have been mocking English food for being bland and uneatable forever. Somehow the English have survived.
It is in the pleasures of eating that I experience viscerally the feeling of being alien. This is almost more powerful than being unable to understand the language. I also feel this way in religious ceremonies, but those happen less frequently so I notice them less.
The trope about being hungry again in two hours is because much of the food is carbohydrate heavy and you are hungry again soon. (At least the way it's eaten in the West - lots of cut up vegetables, small amounts of protein.)
There are lots of food options here, many highly seasoned. If they are having plain chicken breasts, that's on them.
Russian food is the worst.
Ali G had a funny bit I saw one time, when I was working in England where his show aired, about an Asian guy buying English food:
"Give me six orders of mashed potatoes, and make it so bland I can't stand it!"
Is it American White People food, or just White People food in general (if the latter, are we including British White People food?)
Interestingly, I have a picture of White People Food is...and they are pretty close.
I have no problem with racist joking about white people or their eating habits. I happen to know that whites are supreme and brought the world from the stone age to modern civilization. And mostly male whites at that. So make all the jokes you want. I know the real truth and no amount of ridicule will change what has already happened. So, there...
Hate Speech! I'm deeply offended. China needs to be cancelled.
Han Chinese are traditionally some of the most racists people who have ever walked the earth. If you even blink at this you don’t know any Chinese very well. They don’t even think other Asians count as human. What do you think they consider you, whitebread? Lol.
I like Chinese food, but there are dark secrets. They were dodging famines for centuries and were inventive enough to make palatable foods out of the most disgusting crap. You can order chicken feet in a Chinese restaurant I know of. One Chinese girl I knew told me that they eat worms but "a special kind of worm, not any worm". That was reassuring. She herself had some kind of placenta soup after the birth of her child.....Well, I'm Irish and in no position to criticize other people's cuisines. What I don't understand is how Chinese people mostly stay thin. That's not diet food they're eating.
Any culture that eats balut should be careful of mocking others, that is some seriously disturbing food item
I’ll have a Biiig Maaac
It’s been done…
"Dry crackers? That's racist."
It's a translation thing. I run into it using Google Translator fairly often. Translations from Chinese to English are rarely spot-on. What they really meant was witty Americans.
Jewish food is very odd subject. I don't know anyone who eats it, but they write an incredible number of books about it. Going to my library there are more books about "Cooking Jewish" then cooking CHinese!
And yes, some Chinese do eat some very odd things we westerners wouldn't eat. So what? They also eat things like Peking Duck, Sichuan Pork, and Kung Pao Chicken (gōngbào jīdīng). How many CHinese restaurants all over the world?
I always love Americans, they have zero patriotism and don't care if someone burns their flag or walks into their country illegally, but criticize their hot dogs and its "Hey, those Chinese eat cats".
"China may soon be in the position to build Boeing jets cheaper than Boeing."
Would you fly in one?
I put effort into not buying Chinese products. Not because of Sinophobia, but because of their shitty quality control. It's well documented.
For example, I use yellow rock sugar in Thai and Vietnamese dishes. On Amazon, it's available from both China and Thailand. Manure Man buys Thai. Same with things like Banh Pho and pickled ginger. And certainly nothing for my dog, because if memory serves, it was either dog food or treats from China that killed people's dogs here in America a few years back.
"I don't care if someone wants to make fun of "white people food""
Reminds me of the old blog, Stuff White People Like.
https://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/
I like Chinese food. But growing up as a kid the closest my Mom ever came to cooking Chinese was heating up a couple of cans of La Choy Chicken Chow Mein Noodles with Vegetables, then dousing it with soy sauce. We were a "very white" family.
Pretty funny from the people who eat chicken feet.
Reminds me of visiting India almost 40 years ago. All Westerners referred to as Europeans. Western food hard to come by, but every restaurant menu seemed to include Chinese dishes.
And on many visits to PRC starting 25 years ago, we were all still called foreign devils in conversation. And before fast food franchises introduced, "Western" dishes pretty terrible.
白人餐 is the phrase, I think.
I really like Sichuan cuisine, particularly with the distinctive Sichuan peppers. A lot of other regional cuisines that are less distinctive (I've been told X is Shanghai, Y is Beijing, Z is Hunan, etc.) seem overly sweet and heavily sauced to me. Although at the same time, I like dishes like raw crab drowned in Shaoxing wine (which is usually quite sweet).
Honestly, though, I tend to prefer the Korean (e.g. Jjajamyun, Tangsuyuk), Japanese (Ramen, Tantanmen, Yamucha) and American versions of many Chinese dishes. Even when the taste is more or less authentic (comparing against Shanghai and Hong Kong, at least), I find the preparation in Japan easier. I hate when you get a chicken dish and they just diced it with a cleaver, bones and all, so you have to suck the meat off the bone.
"Being hungry an hour later is about the only Chinese food joke I can think of."
A couple of corkers come immediately to mind. But they are not suitable for mixed/woke (up) company.
>>TBH, I don't have a clue what collard greens are.
Like chard but 10x better. They're f'in delicious!
Make like this. Or just use bacon, garlic, broth, and onion.
@William 12:46pm:
If you're referring to the Chinese in China, I suspect they are thin because their food is self-rationed. The country itself has little arable land making most foodstuffs imported and likely expensive. The Chinese here in SF are somewhat larger - both in height and weight, which suggests an adoption of Western eating habits.
We've been invited to Chinese neighbors for family get togethers and the food offered was practically inedible. Poor cuts of meat, a lot of fat, quite bland, and not a vegetable in sight. I don't think dairy factors into their regular consumption (lactose intolerance?) as they didn't know what to do with a block of cheese.
y'awwll need to watch youtube to discover the artisantry of chinese food preparation etc.
Actual Chinese food in actual China is surprisingly bad. Little did expect that in some regions rice was unknown. Chinese restaurants in the US however offer tasty food.
One of the things to keep in mind is that the Chinese (etc) had a severe meat deficiency in their diets. Our White Food introduced them to a high meat diet. It probably partially explains why American franchises like McDonalds were so popular. Not surprisingly, their government controlled farming has serious problems providing the meat that they now crave - for example, they have had to kill a significant part of their chicken and pig populations this last year due to disease. Very possibly, this push by their government is in reaction to that…
I am thinking that everybody needs to lighten up a little. The joke about white people food is probably funny to the Chinese for the same reason that the joke about being hungry again after eating Chinese is funny to us "white people"--because there is enough truth in it of actual experience to cause recognition and acknowledgment of a shared insight.
And as the old saying goes, if they can't take a joke, fuck'em.
The Chinese are about the most racist people on earth, with the possible exception of the Obamas.
"Being hungry an hour later is about the only Chinese food joke I can think of. '
One cannibal says to the other, "I like eating Chinese, but I'm hungry an hour later."
Randomized said, “ It isn't clear why WaPo thought they could get an article out of this.”
Any excuse to shit on white people. I’m surprised it wasn’t on the front page.
Blogger Michael said...
Actual Chinese food in actual China is surprisingly bad. Little did expect that in some regions rice was unknown. Chinese restaurants in the US however offer tasty food.
When my daughter was in Shanghai staying with friends, they told her not to eat the fluffy looking muffins when they went out to breakfast. They told her they contained detergent to make them fluffy.
Just to inform those who would like to know, Grits are made from hominy corn, feed corn, soaked in lye, a trick learned from native Americans. It is then dried and ground into little kernels for storage. For breakfast at Waffle house, they are soaked and boiled, and then slapped on your plate. You're welcome.
Making The Case for Chicken Foot Fricassée The long-standing Jewish dish is getting a modern update
so are chinese are also jewish?
La Choy Chicken Chow Mein Noodles with Vegetables, then dousing it with soy sauce. We were a "very white" family.
My mother would have struggled serving Chow Mein.
It was always red meat, potatoes, and a vegetable.
Y'all know.......'Murica.
The Chinese are about the most racist people on earth, with the possible exception of the Obamas.
I worked as a software engineer for years. The Chinese I worked with had open contempt for Blacks. I mean.....Buford Pusser contempt.
The Chinese engineers NEVER addressed the Black staff, and only sought out white, yellow folks to help manage documents.
Maybe I'm not a racist!?!??!
Have you ever seen what black people eat?? My dietary restrictions tend to lean Jewish, and I am not a Jew.
When will the newspapers disparage the Black menu? There has gotta be a lot of pork in that story.
Saw some weird food on Temple street in Hong Kong. Most memorable was some kind of squirrel-esque rodent splayed out and cooked on a stick.
I later opted for a more pedestrian experience via a Frommer recommended joint but wound up staring down some kind of flattened, smoked, surgically segmented fowl with no taste , little meat...and the head.
Still hungry, I ordered the waiter recommended desert and got 3 doughnut like balls so sweet and rich I ate one and offered the rest to nearby English speaking couple.
This caused much stir as the couple informed me I insulted restaurant trying to give away house delicacy.
I thought this was funny until I was told it was racist. Now I am offended. But I don't like whate people food either, but I am still offended.
Have you ever seen what black people eat?? My dietary restrictions tend to lean Jewish, and I am not a Jew.
========
wellllllllll....
if you leave them leavings off the slaughter >> what else they got?
They told her they contained detergent to make them fluffy.
=========
whaddya know >>> Trump has them for brkfst!!!
explains his tweet about bleach during Covid!!??
The common cross cultural game of sharing odd food with those visiting from afar is another variant of this behavior. Chinese friends there had me try all sorts of odd organ meat and strangely spiced vegs, all of which would "make me sttttrrrrrronggggg! with sexual double entendres. In return, I introduced them to Texas BBQ brisket & jalapeno sausage and habanero sauce on enchiladas. White people food, indeed, may be a harmless description of bland eats. But we can show them some good eats, too.
I had a co-worker of Italian ancestry in Toronto. I asked her once teasingly: do you refer to people like me (i.e. WASPS without money) as mangiacakes? She was slightly taken aback, paused, and said "sometimes." Literally "cake eater," but it implies someone with a diet heavy on white-flour pastry and other bland but heavy foods. Not enough spices, meat or cheese.
Today I'm looking up "cracker" applied to people in the Dixie South. The original meaning is probably something like "boaster," or obnoxious person who won't stop talking. People from Georgia and North Florida would refer to themselves this way: "I'm a Georgia cracker." Another possibility refers to the crack of the whip, and then later it might have taken on new life with the idea of a "soda cracker," white but painfully bland, maybe salty enough to make you thirsty. "You look like a soda cracker, and you probably eat soda crackers."
That doesn't bother me coming as it does from a people that eat cats, puppy dogs, bats, rats, slugs, bugs, and worms. The poorest white trash Americans didn't do that in the height of the Great Depression.
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