Saturday, January 28, 2006

 

Looking, But Not Seeing



It’s been years since I had dinner at Benihana and there’s a reason for that–the food is blech. However, it was a birthday party for a close young relative, so I went. Everything looked just the same as when I'd been there the last time: the "decor," the lines of people without reservations waiting to be seated, reservationed others already seated around the hibachi tables, the hostesses and chefs in their traditional "Japanese" uniforms. It took me more than half an hour to realize there was one big difference. Because there was a lot of ambient noise, when our chef would say something in his Asian accent, I always had to ask him to repeat what he'd said. Finally, I heard him say something garbled to our busboy and the busboy replied, "No tengo nada." Good gawdalmighty, I realized that, the accent I was hearing wasn't Asian at all! Although most of the hostesses were indeed Asian, the male workers, including our chef, were nearly all Hispanic! I shouldn’t have been surprised, since in the Bay Area, the majority of restaurant workers are Hispanic; but, damn, it was... dis-Orienting.

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Listening to:
Aerosmith: Honkin’ On Bobo
Fuel: Something Like Human
Various Artists: Superhits, 1972
Freddie Mercury: Mr. Bad Guy
Extreme: Extreme
Joan Armatrading: Joan Armatrading

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