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From Shame to Reclaim: My Complicated Relationship With Vietnamese Food
There is a food hierarchy in America, and Asians are definitely not on top
Some would say I have a complicated relationship with Italian food. To make that statement a bit more complete, I would say that I have a complicated relationship with Italian food because I had a complicated relationship with Vietnamese food. As random as that may seem, both cuisines are intricately intertwined in my long journey of food, culture, identity, and race.
When it comes to Italian food, it invokes a myriad of mixed emotions within me. Frustration, slight jealousy, and maybe even an inferiority complex. I’m a first-generation Vietnamese American who emigrated to the United States in 1993. What does Italian food have to do with someone like me? Well, to examine the root causes of my discomfort with Italian food, it starts with exploring my past shame and present pride with Vietnamese food, the staple I was raised with.
It begins in the first grade during lunchtime with these words: “Ew! What is that? It smells!”
That was the reaction I received the moment I opened my lunchbox. The classmates around me were minding their own business when a pungent, fishy odor began to flood the lunch table and set off an immediate…
