Thursday, August 26, 2004

Ethnic pudding

Ended a long and strangely Internet-free evening with a friend at Veselka, where I mentioned to him that I'd always been curious about the "Ukranian pudding" but didn't feel like actually ordering it. My friend asked our waiter what he thought of this pudding, and he made a face that said "eww." When pressed for more information, he described the taste as "ethnic." Does that make the waiter a xenophobe? Are Ukranians, who are definitively white, considered "ethnic" these days? Or is it just their pudding that's ethnic?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

When they wash the dishes, is that ethnic cleansing?

Anonymous said...

I think the description of food as ethnic implies that it would taste strange to someone not of that ethnic group. What is considered ethnic can change with time. To wit, sushi would have been considered ethnic food thirty years ago. but now it is mainstream.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy said...

Yes, yes, everything is "ethnic."

Especially Ukranian pudding, though.