efozzie

Went surfing with Jed again on Saturday and he had this surfism:

There are some days when you won't catch a wave.

The waves were feisty and big, unlike a few weeks ago when they were nice and accomodating. Needless to say, it wasn't as easy, but it was nice to use my new wetsuit.

I was eating at a restaurant the other day -- location, occasion, name of restaurant are irrelevant -- and I was kind of offended by their menu. It was a diner kind of restaurant that served breakfast foods, grilled burgers, salads, wraps, etc.

The menu was plain with a plain font, kind of mediocre in design, but it served its purpose. And then I noticed in the salad section that the "Asian Chicken Salad" was in a completely different font from the rest of the menu. It was in that "Asian" font. You know what font I'm talking about... the kind that looks like Chinese characters but it's writing out English letters.

What were they trying to do by making the "Asian Chicken Salad" have a different font from the rest of the salads? Was I supposed to believe it was more "Asian" because of it? Were non-Asians supposed to feel like they were getting something more exotic because the salad's name was written in an exotic font? Were Asians supposed to feel like the "Asian chicken salad" was more authentic because of the font?

And what exactly constitutes a chicken salad that is "Asian"? Just because you throw in mandarin oranges, almonds, crunchy rice crackers, and rice wine vinagrette does not mean it is "Asian." And what part of Asia are they referring to anyway? I've been to, lived in, and eaten at several countries in Asia and never have I experienced an "Asian chicken salad" quite like the ones here.

Then I browsed through the rest of the menu and noticed the "Mexican Fajita Wrap" written in a "Fiesta"-esque font.

Sigh.

Americans are ridiculous.

Internalized racism? Or me being sensitive?

I love the weekends. Jed, Karla, Bern and I went to Pacifica on Saturday to go surfing--it was Karla's first time so she wrote this huge epiphany-laden post about it (read it here).



That's Karla and Jed walking into the water and up ahead to the right is me. It was great to just be able to get out into nature, even though it was freezing cold and my hands and feet were swollen red after I was done. Somehow being one with the water made it OK. Going to invest in my own wetsuit soon because I've been renting this whole time and that's been racking up quite the surfing bill.