The other day, I was cooking, well rather, chopping up some veggies to make a delicious salsa. I skipped on purchasing one of the "musts" of making a perfect salsa - cilantro - because I was told by my roommate that he had some in the fridge that he wasn't using. So I get home and unfortunately, he was not present to help me locate my favorite leafy green in the fridge. His girlfriend was, and having been bragging that she has been working in a Mexican restaurant as a line cook for the past few weeks, I thought she was the right person to command to fetch me the cilantro from the fridge.
Instead, she brings me a different vegetable altogether. Parsley. Reasonable mistake at first glance, we all know that, but then I said something. "This is parsley," as a I examined the vegetable. "No, honey, this is cilantro." She appeared so confident, indicated by her use of the interjection "honey," as if she harnessing all the culinary knowledge of the world.
What a bitch. I wanted to slap her. Who the hell tells a DESI person what cilantro is? White people. That's who.
Ok, so I've never commented before but HAD to say something. Every time one of my white friends goes to the 99 Ranch or some ethnic market, they show off about it...but it's not like every time I go to Vons/Stater Brothers/whatever, that I scream it from the rooftop!! Ugh, and once I was waiting in line to buy roast duck and there was a white guy in front of me ordering. The cashier was tossing in the usual sauces, and the customer was like, 'is that hoisin sauce'? Obviously the cashier didn't understand him b/c he didn't say it right, and the white guy just kept repeating "You don't know what hoisin sauce is???" Well, maybe if you learned to say it properly instead of being condescending to someone who speaks the language natively.....
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