7/18/2008
Is that ok?
Just walking around New York today eavesdropping, and I overheard someone ask whether their dining companion liked fish. What struck me is the changing patters of which foods I ask that question about. For example, it still seems clear to me that politeness requires asking whether your companion likes sushi. Same, probably, with Korean and Thai, but I'm not sure I would ask about chinese. Certainly Indian food, I'd ask. But not pizza or pasta, and not "mexican" or steak (oddly, since for a non-steak lover, a steak house is every bit as exclusive as a sushi bar). I suppose, in the end, that this is all a complicated matrix of social expectations and relationships, that foods enter the realm of presumed acceptability over time. I wouldn't be surprised if sushi were firmly planted in that world, in New York at least, in the next ten years. But what's next? I'm not sure.
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I have a variety of pickiness just in my family, so it's second nature for me to ask whether people like this or that (except with regard to Indian food!). My dad eats everything; my mom is on Atkins, which removes pasta as an option; my older sister is a pollotarian (which made finding a meal at Taillevent for her very difficult); my younger sister is a pescetarian. I try to be open-minded, but eat steak only if it what is being served at someone's house.
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