Image by Chris Hilbert from Pixabay
It’s only Wednesday but the grocery stores are filled with busy shoppers. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow would be rainy and then freezing, which makes today the best day for weekend shopping.
Usually in HMart, we only see Asians. I rarely see non-Asians there. Wait, I can’t say that since every weekend, groups of Rutgers students of diverse racial composition would come in, looking around in their jolly ways, and enjoying talking to each other more than the shopping itself. Other than that, once I saw an Italian man–I guessed he was Italian but my friend guessed he was Jewish–who was standing in the rice aisle puzzled. He asked us about certain kind of rice, but we didn’t understand the word he used. I would know risotto if he said it, but he didn’t say risotto. Obviously he was looking for a special kind of rice, which he couldn’t find. He threw up his arms in despair, “so many rice, but none is the blahblah that I am looking for.”
At the check out today, a lady behind me suddenly asked me, “how do you cook this?” She was pointing to the Taiwanese cauliflower I was purchasing. It tastes like the cauliflowers from American stores, but it is a little tougher. Also it has an unruly look since its head is not a shapely round ball like a cheese curd. Rather the head spreads out into wild unshapely form, like those vegetation that grows too vigorously, especially in tropical areas.
I turned and saw that she’s a well coiffed white lady, who just dropped in to buy one bottle of Korean bean sauce, probably for her special Christmas dish. Immediately I thought about the stereotypical image of an Asian woman working as a cooking slave in the kitchen. I think people always have such a stereotypical image whenever they see an Asian woman, and it is my duty to fight against stereotypes. So I said,
“I just microwave it. You know I am lazy…”
She started to laugh very heartily. I was a little surprised to see she laughed so happily.
“That’s the best way. I am sure.” She said as if we shared some secret feminine comradeship.
Haoyan Do 
I love the microwave. Haha! 🙂
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Thank you and Happy New Year to you, your daughter, and your family!
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What a lovely moment in time. It’s interesting how we can form opinions about each other without even speaking a word.
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Sooooo true. We have our thoughts about each other without verbal interaction. LOL. And probably we just presume that people think of us in a certain way… It is a stereotypical presumption of people’s thoughts.
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And why not microwave it? Time is precious!
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I totally agree with you. Microwave is a wonderful cookware…
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I love the way you answered and it’s great she was so cool about it lol. To be fair most things are best microwaved. I know the type of cauliflower you’re talking about and I like to steam it and then bake it. And I eat it as a side dish with rice. I rarely buy it now though since prices have risen and things that come from foreign countries have become incredibly expensive.
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So true. Right now the price is through the roof. This is why I bought the Taiwanese cauliflower because it allows you to just buy a little chunk of it… You just inspired me to prepare sentences to use against stereotypes. I think I will do that during the holiday season. LOL.
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That’s fair, we’re all trying to save whenever we can. Haha yes, you should. I do that too lol.
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The older I get and the more people I meet the less and less I stereotype people. People are full of surprises.
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I think you have a lot of experience interacting with people…
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When people can just be themselves, away from having to conform in a certain way, all sorts of interactions and possibilities can happen 😊
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My opinion exactly. If we can just be ourselves, communication will come naturally. However we have to unlearn a lot of things in order to be our true self…
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