I lived in Forest Hills, Queens my whole life, but I rarely took the half hour subway ride to Flushing. I never saw the appeal because even though I am Chinese, my family is very American so we never went to Flushing for anything. It was an Asian cultural melting pot that had Chinese, Korean and Japanese food and stores everywhere you looked. Of course I would recognize all of the Chinese items, but would be a stranger to the rest of it.
In junior year, I went to Flushing with some Korean friends to try my first taste of an authentic Korean restaurant. Sitting down at a table, it looked similar to all of the Chinese restaurants I had eaten in growing up. But once the menu came, everything was different. I recognized nothing, so I let my friend order for me. She chose bibimbap, a signature Korean dish of warm rice served with seasoned vegetables, chili paste, meat and an egg on the side. I was under the impression that you eat it all separately, so I did and instantly everyone could tell I was a foreigner. My friend looked at me, shook her head, and threw everything in the bowl and mixed it for me. It was an awkward feeling, not only because a friend was serving me, but also because I was the odd one out and didn’t know the customs and culture enough to even eat the simplest dish correctly. We laughed about it and as I finished my meal, I could tell why they mixed it all together: it was much better. It was a good meal, and an even better encounter with Korean culture.
I found myself in a similar situation to this before. A few friends and I decided to go out to Koreatown for dinner one day. I’ve been to Korean restaurants many times before, but instead of ordering the usual bento boxes that I always order, I decided to order beef bibimbap. The waitress probably found my reaction very amusing because I was so surprised when she began to mix everything in the bowl with each other. It was definitely a nice change from the habitual Chinese dishes we have at home/Chinese restaurants!