No Crab for the White Girls

Apparently, there comes a time in every Caucasian's food experience when they're gonna get denied.

I'm talking about the ethnic food line in which us white peeps do not dare to cross. Our delicate vanilla taste buds just will not be able to handle it, according to the culinary gatekeepers to the ethnic realm.

Such was the case this weekend with a friend and myself, both of us of the Caucasian persuasion who consider ourselves fairly adventurous. We attended the most awesome Passport to DC Embassy Row tour, taking in the music, food, dancing and cultural offerings of the embassies of Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Brazil and Cape Verde.

Thailand had it going on, food-wise. While my friend and I watched a Thai cook prepare our papaya salad as she crushed all the makings in a huge mortar/pestle situation, we noticed a crock of black something or another on the food table. "What's that?," my friend asked. "Fermented crab. Not for you," was the reply.

We kinda laughed and my friend said, "Really? I'd like to try just a little bit." The stone faced Thai lady was not having any of that.

"No. You will not like."

At this point my friend and I really wanted that crab. "Are you sure?" I asked. "It's not for you," she insisted point-blank.

We paid for the salad and ventured on to enjoy its fresh, spicy/sweet and crunchy-tasty goodness. Yet we marveled at being denied the fermented crab. ("It's a taste that lodges itself deep into your sinuses," according to this blogger.)

Okay, it sounds pretty gross, but still. Not even a little bit for us inquisitive white ladies? I have never been refused a food based on my ethnicity before. It was a bit of a shock, really, but who are we to argue with the Keeper of the Crab?

Has something like this happened to any of you, dear readers? My white lily-hued inquiring mind wants to know!

Comments

  1. We had to fight for our bubble tea in Chinatown in Chicago once. The lady was SURE we would not like it.

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