I found that I liked bibimbap in the stone pot, and ate it a few times enjoying it, before one time one of the Korean waitresses saw me eating it unmixed as it had come out, grabbed my bowl away from me, squirted a bunch of the hot sauce into it, mixed it aggressively for me with my spoon, and then handed it back to me explaining that that’s the way to do it and I should do it that way from now on. And, some of my friends were in Thailand and had some kind of dessert come out for them that was in the shape of a snowman, and they had a member of their party who was a big fat guy, and when the food came out all the wait staff started messing with him that he and the snowman were the same shape.
I feel like Japan got all the politeness for the whole region rerouted to them and everyone else just kind does whatever kind of elbow-jabbing food-correcting baldness-making-fun-of thing that comes into their head to feel like doing at whatever time and if you don’t like it you can deal with that on your own.
Hehe. Yeah, Bibimbap is Korean. So not exactly the same thing. And as far as I know the word literally means “mixing” and “rice”. I think it’s really tasty. And it comes pretty spicy in the restaurants I’ve had it (Which is far away from Korea.)
Asia in general is just much more “honest” than the West. If you’re fat, they won’t beat around the bush and say “you’re beautiful the way you are.” If you’re ugly, they won’t hide in platitudes, they’ll say “damn, it must suck that you’re so ugly.”
It’s not malicious, these are simply facts that they don’t ignore. And, to be honest, I think it’s healthier in a lot of ways. The west has a ridiculously massive weight problem that we just completely ignore - or even actively support - because people are afraid to make anyone feel bad.
I took the phone to do a video chat with someone’s central Asian friend and he immediately said “Aw, shit, big fake American smile.” I sort of checked myself like yeah he’s right I do have a big fake bullshit meeting-someone smile on my face. Well now I feel like a dummy.
It gave me some cultural perspective.
