Eat like a local

Eat like a local. Finally.

Did something I should have done long ago. Accomplished something that's been on my list for two years now. Put laziness aside and practised, practised, practised. It just took a withering glance from somebody to get me here - while I didn't appreciate the look of derision at the time, I'm grateful for it now.

While most might wonder why the big fuss, for me it's a moment of great pride.

I am no longer the idiot foreigner who didn't try hard enough to embrace the way majority of the world's population eats. 

I am no longer the lazy Indian girl asking meekly for a fork at a Chinese/ Thai/ Vietnames/ Japanese restaurant. 

At my favourite restaurant, I am now free of the acute frustration of having to pronounce caa correctly (Cantonese for 'fork' which sounds a lot like cha, 'tea') to make a hurried (and often) frowning girl understand that I want tools to eat with while she makes me acutely aware of wasting her time. 

I no longer have to be part of a party of two with a fork for one (yesssss!)

And, as a colleague pointed out, I can now be deemed 'intelligent' by the Chinese elders (woohoo, I am suddenly all smart and super brainy now :)

So, bring on that lovely, complex, exciting East Asian food. I am ready to eat things they are meant to be eaten.

Yay!