I would like to think I am woke, but I fear there are probably ways in which I am not. The most I can say is that I am more woke now than I was when I was younger. And I’m also antifa, just like my father was when he served in WWII.
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Yes - but the K-word was/is used very differently. In one of the two circumstances, as an historic term of abuse used by some Afrikans speaking South Africans about black people.
And much more widely, by some Muslims as a derogatory term for non-Muslims (the word meaning “non-believer” in Arabic). As a political term, it’s used against white people.
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Agree to some degree.
Many of the best French and continental restaurants in TO are staffed by Sri Lankan kitchen staff, as are many Irish and a English pubs, and the food is typically very good. The bonus at some of the pubs is that the curries can be amazing.
That said, the way you know a Greek Cdn , rather than an Italian Cdn, probably made your pizza is when you detect oregano in the pizza sauce.
When I get souvlaki, a gyro or a Greek salad from a place run by Middle Eastern people instead of Greeks in TO, there’s usually something about the salad dressing or tzatziki that tells me it wasn’t made by someone Greek. I also notice this at Greek food franchises run or owned by non Greeks, and the greasy spoon in my neighborhood that had been Greek-run, and I’ve got no idea who is running it now, and I won’t be back because it didn’t taste right.
Very well said.
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I mean, I really don’t want us to get sidetracked by the ‘authentic’ thing but I see it as very much related to the discourses around exoticism: it conveys so often a fantasy of the untouched space or culture, untouched by the colonial discovery or modernity. (It involves a romanticism and sense of preservation— a romantic taxidermy that ensures the other as a museum piece; difference secured by other connotations.)
But I’m nowhere near ready to get into this. I’ve not had enough coffee and I’m enjoying my holiday brain.
Thank you for jumping in. I really appreciate your contributions to this thread.
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Yes. There is academic work on it going back decades if not a century, probably originating in art. My survey of art history course in college had a whole module devoted to it.
But it’s never about academic arguments in real world settings.
And side tracking only spirals all such discussions into political rants that get the thread locked.
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I wasn’t directing my comment at you (although I was being intentionally circumspect).
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Crawfish. I’ve been eating crawfish in Houston a few times and people would come by and peer over like the mud bugs were from the moon and say “Ew, what do they taste like?”
Standard answer was not to be a wise guy but they taste like crawfish.
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Yikes, what a convenient memory and unflattering one of your FIL.
Ah, that story has often been told in different circumstances over the last 40 or so years.
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Parsley wasn’t sold in London, Ontario in 1970, because it was too exotic, and not enough people would buy it before it went bad, to keep it in stock. Now, every grocery store has 2 types of parsley, and cilantro. 
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Get thee to Breaux Bridge or Abbeville and you won’t get that question !
I’m really surprised by that information. I’m presuming that, as much of that region, very many people will be of North European heritage. As such, I would have expected parsley to be as popular a herb as it traditionally is here in northern Europe.
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It makes me so happy when our students take knowledge gained in class beyond the classroom. You’re not my student or former student but the sentiment remains.
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We always had parsley on dinner platters since I was a kid but no one ever ate it as we thought it a visual bonus to give a hint of green.
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I don’t see that word as a pejorative. Like many other words, it depends on how it is used. To my mind, when it comes to food, it has positive connotations. It conveys new possibilities to experience. It arouses curiosity. If someone described a food was “the opposite of exotic”, it would eliminate any desire for me to try it.
Btw, perhaps it’s inappropriate to call dancers as exotic. They might be offended by being categorized with the same language as a kumquat.
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Another angle on exotic. Scroll down to Corby Kummer’s opinions about the International Aisle, and why it makes sense.
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For those of us who don’t have an extra 25 minutes to listen to it, can you summarize?
Not really, because it’s very nuanced.
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