C for Cultural Conundrums

All those messy spaces of cross-cultural engagement

You’re overthinking it.

Am I though? It’s such a complicated dish. There are… so many layers to it. So many steps — so many histories. So many ways to make it… I can’t just make mole without understanding everything that makes it mole, no? Wouldn’t that be cultural—

Don’t say the “a” word, please, I’ve had enou —

—    problematic. I was going to say problematic.

It’s a dish. You make it. You enjoy it. It has nothing to do with… there’s no problem. Would you have an issue with me trying to make… I don’t know… dosa or sambar or something that you grew up with?

I don’t know.

Really?

I don’t know. It would depend.

On what?

On… you know… are you making it to show off to — to — like — random people that you’re some kind of… India expert? Are you making it because you enjoyed it when you were last in India and… I don’t know… you have memories associated with it? Did you learn how to make it from someone who told you their family’s version of where the dish comes from and what it means to them and wh —

You’re asking for way too much. It’s just food.

Not to me it isn’t.

Seriously.

Yes. That’s what happens inside my head when I think about making mole.

I don’t know what to say to you right now.