smart ass statement of the week from JZ:

if you eat tons of "foreign" (or any) cuisine it doesn't make you more multicultural, it makes you... hm... overweight

nothing wrong with that, being overweight, large is beautiful, and so is small and so ... but I am always puzzled why people go for food first when they want to express their openness... almost never am I asked "talk to me about poetry in your country" or "what is the architecture like" but oh, so many times, I am asked "what kind of food do you have?"

so, I am curious... why is food so important? 

Also,

why do people still use term "ethnic" to describe "all who are not very pale"?   People don't refer to English as ethnic even though if someone says they are English it denotes their ethnicity, no?  And even though, when pushed to it one would agree German restaurant is equally ethnic as Indian, when one goes for some "ethnic" food, they rarely think of German, or French, or Italian... usually this term is used to refer to non-Western, no?

Because, white, western, dominant is not ethnic - it is neutral? But we all know by now it is not so, then why use the terminology that perpetuates the old prejudices?  If you say you enjoy ethnic food - you are suggesting that somehow there is ethnic and non ethnic food, and non ethnic would be ....?

Another argument against the use of the term ethnic when referring to food - it lumps many different groups of people in some sort of unified category, those who are "others." 

Now, all this is common sense to many and it is easy to find far more sophisticated arguments against the use of the term "ethnic" and I suggest to those unconvinced by my critique to look into how labeling relates to furthering of the stereotypes and how the language we use reflects our believes. 

more to come...