People Like This Think Flour Is Too Spicy

My high-school calculus class was very chill — around twenty kids who were all friendly with each other, a laid-back but enthusiastic teacher, and a light enough workload that we could afford to goof off in class but still learn and do well.

At some point in the year, I got really into cooking. It’s my stress reliever. My family couldn’t possibly eat the amount of food I was making, so I started bringing it into school and “hosting” Friday parties in my calc class — with my teacher’s approval, of course.

I’m Vietnamese and I live in a predominately white town. This is only important because it meant that most kids from town only ate American or European foods and weren’t used to eating other ethnic foods.

Last year, around Lunar New Year, I wanted to bring in some Vietnamese foods to celebrate. It is a very important time of year for my family. I ended up making a bunch of Bánh Da Lợn, a steamed layer cake and traditional Vietnamese dessert. Some of my friends from class found out I was going to bring in a traditional dish and brought in their own traditional dishes from their own cultures, whether they celebrated Lunar New Year or not. We had different Indian, Korean, Filipino, and Spanish desserts. It was great, and I was really excited that my friends wanted to celebrate with me.

Apparently, this was an issue for one girl in my class.

I would say Bánh Da Lợn is an acquired taste, so when not a lot of people ate it, I wasn’t offended. I knew not everybody would like it. There was a lot of other food, anyway.

During our lunch period, one of my friends (who wasn’t in our class but knew I brought food in) overheard a girl from my class complaining about the food while in the lunch line. Apparently, she was saying really negative things about how I “forced everyone to eat weird Chinese foods.”

Later that day, I texted her.

Me: “Hey, I heard you didn’t like the food today, and I just wanted to know why.”

I don’t really care when people don’t like the food — I make it for myself and just bring it in when I have extra anyways — but her calling it “weird Chinese foods” when she KNOWS I’m Vietnamese didn’t sit right with me.

She texted back.

Classmate: “It’s rude of you to bring in weird ethnic foods that nobody likes except for you. You should know better since most of the class is white.”

Me: “I bring in food to share because I feel like it, and I don’t have an obligation to cater to your tastes. If you have an issue with it, you literally don’t have to eat it. Other people can bring in food, too, so if you want to, you could bring in something more to your tastes.”

Classmate: “You shouldn’t bring in ethnic and foreign foods. Stick with American foods. We’re in America!”

Excuse me?! How much you wanna bet if I brought in jambalaya, which originated in Louisiana, she would call it a “weird foreign food”?

Fine. She only wants to eat American foods? Then she can eat American foods.

The next week, I brought in a bunch of Oliebol, a Dutch doughnut, and started passing them out at the beginning of class. When I got to her desk, I pulled out a loaf of Wonder Bread and plopped it on her desk.

Me: “Sorry, but these are Dutch — too ethnic. Here you go! All-American cuisine.”

Later, she texted me.

Classmate: “What the f*** is your problem?!”

Me: “Almost every single food I brought in this year was ethnic. It pisses me off that you only have an issue when it isn’t European. You’re entitled to not liking Asian foods, but if you’re going to complain about it being ethnic, then you’d better have that same attitude when the ethnic food is from a white culture. And especially don’t call another person’s culture weird.”

She didn’t complain about the food again.

For the record, I’ve enjoyed making many different kinds of American cuisine, including tater tots, jambalaya, fried chicken, many types of pies, smores, and Philly Cheesesteaks. America is a very diverse place, and that’s reflected in its food. Happy eating!