« Every culture is born from mixing, from encounters, from shocks. Conversely, it is from isolation that civilizations die. »
Octavio Paz.
Hello, young Padawan
This morning, I woke up thinking I’d like to eat Chinese food. But finding an Asian restaurant in Detroit that is vegan, am I being too optimistic?
So I launched into Sherlock Holmes mode, made a Google search, and found, with my eyes wide and my heart pounding, a Chinese restaurant proposing vegan solutions. Yeah!
Just a Little moment to enjoy driving on the highway to Hell in the car (the real ones know I’m a fan), and here I am.
From the outside, it is indeed a typical Asian restaurant. The decor, the sign, I am in the right place, R.A.S. The room is traditionally decorated with the little napkins folded into flowers on the tables and the lithographs on the walls; everything is in its proper place. I go ahead, and a tall Lebanese lady dressed all in black, a long dress with a very pretty satin veil and slippers on her feet, welcomes me warmly. Alone in the room, I was on the verge of turning around to check for a hidden camera. I try to hide my astonishment with a big smile, sit, place my order, and watch. And above all, I listen.
And I hear the sound of the knife cutting, the wok frying, the cook putting all his love into preparing his dish. I started to tell myself that it was going to be a delicious surprise.
After 5 minutes, I hear the Lebanese waitress talking to the cook in English and a woman answering her in Chinese. And obviously, they understand each other very well, lol!
The first dish arrives. It’s supposed to be a vegan spring roll, but it’s fried like a nem (I guess they adapted to American tastes); it’s nevertheless delicious, and I’m enjoying it.
The main course arrives. And there, I’m jubilant! First, the rice, usually always overcooked every time I order some, is just perfect, the seasoning is ideal, the vegetables are good and cooked just right, and fresh, the tempeh cooked like lemon chicken is excellent, I love it, if I were about to give a note I would have given it a A+!
And when she came back to ask me how my dish was, and I told her that it was absolutely delicious and that I was counting on her to say to the chef, those big black eyes, already so friendly, lit up like stars. She was already smiling but now she could have won the contest for the prettiest teeth of the year. She replied that she thanked me for her colleague and that it would make her day, but I understood by her look and her wonderful smile that it would make hers too.
So there you have it, in conclusion, we have two happy restaurateurs proud of their work well done, a delighted customer with a very taut belly, who even thinks that it would deserve a little nap all that, what more could you ask for!
As I quoted you in the introduction to my post, Octavio Paz said: “All culture is born from mixing, from encounters, from shocks. Conversely, it is from isolation that civilizations die.”
I would add, dear Mr. Paz, that not only civilizations die from isolation, but also ourselves as human beings.
So, even though it may sound like a bad porn: let’s meet, learn from each other, mix, merge, and fucking love each other (I warned you, ed).
XO 🥡
