Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Mcdonalds

Many people have the false impression that I am inordinately fond of Mcdonalds. This is a patent untruth. I like Chinese food much more than Mcdonalds.

The reason people feel I like Mcdonalds more than other types of food is that I eat it once or twice a week. I also talk about it to some extent. The question to ask is then:

How come other people eat Chinese food (or Malay or Indian or whatever) 7 days a week and discuss its fine points constantly yet nobody says "wow you really like Chinese food (or Malay or Indian or whatever)?"

I think the answer is that we expect people to predominantly eat food from their own culture, or food that is somehow identified with local culture. Since their liking for such food compared with their liking for say, McDonalds is on the order of 9:1, while mine may be on the order of 8:2, it appears that I am very fond of McDonalds, when in fact I am not. I am just a little more fond than you.

I like Chinese food way more than I like Mcdonalds. If you were to dump me on a desert island and present me with the choice of eating Chinese food for the rest of my life or Mcdonalds for the rest of my life, I would definitely choose Chinese food. However considering I eat Chinese food for probably 10 of my 14 meals a week (lunch + dinner 7 days), and Mcdonalds for probably just one, it seems rather peculiar to say that I am very fond of McD.

So before telling me how much I love burgers, please consider how often you eat rice. As we are all citizens of the world now, all food should be equal to us. For as we are all children of God, is not all food too equal before His eyes?

Equality!

4 comments:

  1. Food preferences are acquired tastes, so people assume immediately that it isn't exceptional for someone to like food that they eat on a daily basis. Its hard for some to move out of their food comfort zone constantly.

    In fact if I was in your place and someone did give you an off-handed comment like "Omg you like rice!!" I'd probably quip back "You don't say..."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes I see the thinking, it's pretty normal to think that way. I really just wanna point out that the judgment is shaped by one's perception of another person's ethnicity, i.e. "you are chinese so liking chinese food is normal but liking fast food is noteworthy".

    ReplyDelete
  3. but i hate rice...

    ReplyDelete
  4. lol lol, is it because you got overloaded while in China?

    ReplyDelete