The good parts of cultural invasion...
Chris in SE TX said:
"Instead of feeling bad, I think you
should feel good about skipping the donut and getting a kolache (or three)!!
:)"
To which Rabbit added:
"I never knew that Koreans specialized in pastries and dry cleaning until I
moved to Dallas. Seems like there's one next door to the other any time you
encounter them. If course, Armenians make pretty decent pizza and Italian food,
I've discovered. Weird how you notice such things. Beware the kimchee-filled
ones."
Kim Chee-filled kolaches would be an excellent example of culture fusion at its best.
We have lots of Czech and German influence in central Texas (particularly around West, and New Braunfels), and it spreads pretty well throughout the community in a nice fashion. Hell-- the Texican border types love anyone that likes a polka, and the Germanic types like Conjunto, pretty good. Texas is the number one market for an almost lost German style of beer (the modelo) brewed commercially by exactly one company, which is Mexican. (Try it cold with small wedge of lime, poured in a glass.) One of the most famed venues for Texas music is the Sons of Hermann Hall in Dallas. So we find that a little imported flavor is a good thing, 'round here.
Now we have this infusion of Korean folk running donut shops and dry cleaners, courtesy of family run lending circles. Ask me if it bothers me in the least that these hard-working, service-rabid people are coming to Texas and "taking our jobs." Heh.
Back when I was in high school, one of the guys vying for valedictorian was a buddy of mine on the debate team. Sang was born of a first gen Korean family. His dad was a former S. Korean military officer who had worked with U.S. forces in VietNam. By all accounts, the Tiger Division was made up of fierce and disciplined fighters. Sang's dad was working on some graduate degree or another at our local big university, and Sang was doing summer internship (while in high school, keep in mind) in the physics department at another big univeristy. Sang's family owned a donut shop, which his mother and sister worked at. That shop put his dad through grad school (I want to say that he got an MBA, but there was some science in there, too...), and sent Sang to M.I.T. (He had been deciding between that and Cal Tech.)
Sang was a predatory scholar, with a vicious wit. Thank Gawd he's an American. (And on our side.)
Labels: beer, culture, food, immigration, Texas
posted by Matt G @ 10:42 PM
3 Comments:
When I lived in Chicago, I claimed that the food which best typified the city was the super taco on pita bread, and that the Koreans made the best ones. Truth, however, is that they were just messy heartburngers.
Mmmm...Korean fusion. And I could use a good beer, though I'm usually more a wine man or whiskey or rum guy.
When I asked Holly if she needed me to pick up anything at the store while I was there one time, she allowed as how she needed some:
-Sliced ham,
-Sauerkraut,
-Swiss cheese, and
-Frozen bread dough.
I returned with her request, thinking them all to be for different reasons. Oh, no. Thes disparate items all went into the same dish. Thaw the frozen bread dough and roll it out. Let it rise a little, and cut out squares. Put into the flat squares a large dollop of sauerkraut, a piece of ham, and a slice or two of Swiss cheese. Fold it over in a triangle, pinch it closed, and bake.
A multicultural perogie. Virginia ham, German kraut, Swiss cheese, all in that most lazy American of contraptions, bread that you bought frozen.
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