I will right the wrongs with my body, my people, my culture
Lunar New Year 2015- commitments on the new moon
No white/American foods the first 30 days of the new year. If my grandmother didn't eat it, neither will I. (I actually continued this experiment and have adopted it as my daily diet, as much as possible)
Point of clarification: "white food"= the enriched, fortified, bleached, dyed, mass produced, subsidized, plastic barely edible food stuff at your monopolized American grocery store, or, DINER. Think white bread, hot dogs, yellow-orange cheese, individually wrapped!, and of course the all- American TWINKIE! Even more wholesome "authentic" American food- mashed potatoes, steak, mac n cheese has proven to not be of the highest nutritional quality. Not to say all this shit isn't delicious! Throw a stick of butter in somethin and of course it's delicious. DISCLAIMER: Not a judgment on you, just your food :)
DECOLONIZE YOUR DIET- a health plan for mind & body
1. native foods, recipes, ingredients from Vietnam & Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and vicinity i.e. pho, cha goi (eggrolls), ca ri (curry), rice noodles, lemongrass, fish, etc. 2. foods from north Asia- China, Korea, Japan- and the Asian Pacific islands- Philippines, Indonesia (I understand this is not an exhaustive list)
The point here is to stay as close to home as possible. the genetically local food movement :)
Now that^ is a LOT of delicious cuisine to choose from and if I was in a little Asian bubble, this experiment would've been a piece of moon cake. But alas, any experiment that you plan to live will only work if you acknowledge and address day-to-day reality. My reality is that I live in California, the settlement and fusions of countless diasporas and my mixed, multicolored community. One of the things we do best is to share food, every gathering revolves around food, food being a manifestation of our love and gratitude for each other, and the temptation of homemade (of course!) tamales led me to-
3. foods from non-white cultures! That means, yes, please bring me the foods of India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Madagascar, Mexico, Hawaii, Ghana, El Salvador, and yes please, even Easter Island!
If you do not wear the mask of my oppressor (or my father's or grandfather's) and want to feed me, I will gladly accept with open heart, hands, mouth :D
And since I'm detoxing from white food addiction (nah, it's a real thing. Stockholm syndrome- food edition) I gave myself an exception-
4. white foods are OK *in moderation* and ONLY if it's homemade and/or a gift. AND I would have to eat it with chopsticks, which I habitually carried in my purse and proudly whipped out at every meal :D