1ST SNOWFALL puzzle by sudokusyndication.com
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan in Color
Thursday, November 2, 2017 — 3
Sinigang for the sentimental Ivy League stew
Classified yet obvious: room for sale, dm for details
Making Filipino food is to
retell a story of my culture
—
complex,
humbling
and
personal.
Sinigang is a classic Filipino
sour soup with a variety of
vegetables that are reminiscent
of a Filipino farm. It’s the
warm
hug
that
withholds
its
sentimental,
cultural
significance in times of a harsh
Midwest winter.
Prep time: approximately 15
minutes
Cook
time:
whenever
my
parents said the sinigang is
ready. I used to call to ask
my parents when I made it by
myself.
Total time: my whole existence
as a Filipino American, because
I never stop questioning it.
Note: best prepared with
Filipino
parents
at
home,
because they are the best
cooks in the entire world and
all-knowing when it comes
to Filipino cuisine, but you
reserve the right to disagree
with them on other things.
Ingredients
• Meat
(pork
or
salmon
are my favs, but if you’re
going to use salmon, it’s
absolutely necessary that
you use the salmon head.
Go big and go home.), cubed
• Tubig (water)
• Patis (fish sauce, but always
use the one with the green
and white label because it
reminds you of home)
• Kangkong leaves
• Sili (long green chili pepper,
the best ones come from the
garden in the backyard),
whole
• Kamatis
(tomato,
the
best ones also come from
the same garden in the
backyard)
• Labanos (daikon radish),
sliced
• Taro root, peeled and sliced
• Sinigang
seasoning
mix,
because no one has time
to
make
sinigang
from
scratch.
(You
can
find
packets at your local Asian
grocery store. My local
Asian grocery store was 50
minutes away. I recommend
Knorr or Mama Sita, but I
usually just trust whatever
my mom or dad picked out.
Sampalok,
or
taramind,
is the best flavor in my
opinion.)
• Sorry but I never learned
exact quantities, because
my parents cooked by feel
and I carried that technique
throughout life.
Instructions
1.
Fill a large pot with water
and bring to a boil.
2.
Put the meat into the
boiling pot of water.
3.
Wait for a long time, so
long that you wonder the
odds of ending up in the
cold Midwest when your
family comes from a hot
and humid archipelago.
4.
Become
even
more
hungry.
5.
Add the taro root and
kamatis.
Make
sure
you cook it all the way,
because you heard from
a Filipino friend that raw
taro root is poisonous.
6.
Skim the fat out of the
broth.
7.
Question
why
your
parents never told you raw
taro root was poisonous
and how they knew it was
properly cooked.
8.
Question the legitimacy
of your Filipino friend’s
sources on taro root.
9.
Add the sinigang mix and
patis. Stir occasionally.
10. Put the daikon radish into
the soup.
11. Put the celi in.
12. Listen to your parents talk
to each other in Ilocano
and wonder what they’re
talking about.
13. Add the kangkong leaves,
one for each time you said
thank you to your parents
for giving you your life —
a lot but not enough.
14. Wait for a little bit, but
not
too
long
because
overcooked
kangkong
leaves are the worst.
15. Enjoy with rice. Always
enjoy
everything
with
rice.
It’s
also
not
a
complete meal without it.
16. Cherish each spoonful,
because despite moving
from small town to small
town, your family has
preserved
the
Filipino
culture regardless.
17. Go home for Fall Break,
for
Thanksgiving,
for
Christmas, or every time
you felt defeated and rest
easy to the fact you have
your family and a hot pot
of sinigang ready.
18. Make
baon.
Take
the
leftovers with you.
19. Take
the
strength
of
your
family,
their
achievements,
their
sacrifice, and use that as
your drive to fight.
20. Try your best to make
sinigang
when
you’re
away at college, but know
that your sinigang is levels
beneath your parents’and
smile at the fact that
they’re just happy you
tried your best.
21. Find
Filipino
communities everywhere.
Eat their sinigang. Each
rendition is similar yet
different.
22. Share
your
recipe
as
if it were a page out of
your autobiography. It’s
something to be proud of.
23. Make
Filipino
food
whenever you can, not
just sinigang, in symbolic
honor of your parents’
sacrifices for you.
24. Remember that Filipino
American
history
isn’t
always
academic.
It’s
weaved into the recipes
and lessons your family
passed down to you.
CHRISTIAN PANEDA
MiC Senior Editor
ILLUSTRATION BY NOAH SHERBIN
Best prepared
with Filipino
parents at home
Last week, I was in an
argument.
Although
no
punches were thrown, I felt
like I got slapped in the face a
few times, but I thought I did
the best I could. Even though
I was ducking and weaving
through the racist rhetoric, it
still felt like I got my ass beat.
As soon as it ended, I went
upstairs to my room, pulled the
covers over my head, and cried.
Now, I know I’m the only
Black kid in my house.
Most days, I think I can
handle anything.
But obviously, I can’t. And
I should’ve known that. Even
my grandma thought I was
crazy when I said I was going
to live with four white girls
in a house my junior year
of college. She knew that I
didn’t really understand that
being Black in a white house
means constantly walking on
eggshells, and making sure not
to draw too much attention to
your most prominent feature:
your blackness. Ah, if anything,
I’d like to ask Michelle and
Barack… but they can’t come
to the phone right now so I’m
constantly
stuck
on
mine.
Scrolling, trying to muster up
the strength to go to class.
And since, I have come to
one conclusion.
C.C. Little and Angell are
not the only problems the
University of Michigan needs
to confront.
The University needs to
address and hold accountable
the assailants whom bleed out
the soul, compassion and fight
of the Black students.
Because there aren’t any
dead men coming to evict me.
But these little white girls
are doing everything in their
power to make sure I don’t stay.
It felt as though they kicked
me repeatedly while I was
down; I had just lived through
a week of white supremacist
posters were affixed to campus
structures. The word “n****r”
was being written on the backs
of Black students’ dorm doors,
screamed at a group of students
and posted on Snapchat by
groups of white kids.
You all want to be able to say
the word “n***a” in your snaps,
songs and at your parties, but
do you realize you use n***as
every day?
We write the music you
blast at frat parties. We create
the culture you steal. Kim
Kardashian came on the scene,
and now everyone wants the
fat ass that was exhibited as
a “freak show attraction” on
numerous Black women, most
famously
Sarah
Baartman,
in circuses during the 1800s.
Kylie Jenner has made the
big pouty lips (which pushed
pseudo
scientists
to
argue
Black people were closer to
apes) attractive. And Katy
Perry has toldyou it’s okay to
wear cornrows, despite the
discrimination Black people
encounter in schools and the
job market when they wear
them.
Additionally,
many
of
you all exploit Black people
for a chance to reinvigorate
the
white
savior
complex
passed down to you from
your
imperialist
ancestors.
You volunteer for Teach for
America so you can have a feel-
good résumé booster. Yet you
don’t know a damn thing about
the inner city or its trials.
And I’m that n***a a lot
of you at the University use.
Somehow, somewhere along
the way, I became your Negro
— the proof to your friends and
family that you aren’t racist.
Yet, you watched as I was
verbally assaulted.
While I crafted intellectual,
academic
arguments
from
the
Pew
Research
Center,
academic
journals
and
personal
anecdotes,
my
roommate repeatedly told me
systemic prejudice no longer
exists — that my experiences
were
superficial
and
fake.
That white and Black people
move throughout the world
in the same way — insinuated
that institutional racism and
systematic injustice are simply
in my imagination — that I have
a “chip on my shoulder” and
racism is only as meaningful as
I let it be.
I sleep in a bed 29 inches
from my other roommate. Yet
somehow, even though she
saw me hurting and upset, she
couldn’t muster the strength
to say, “Stop”? Or, “She’s had
enough”?
You saw my eyes watering.
Hands shaking. Lip quivering
from the anger I felt as she
dismissed my statistics and
data.
But you complained that I
was making too much noise as
she made slight after slight.
We were “disturbing” your
ability to study.
So, I smiled. I chalked up
our exchange to “politics” and
went to bed.
And as I lay there, feeling
assailed, I realized I no longer
feel safe in my home.
I don’t know if I will heal.
All I know is that I might
need a new place to stay.
ALLIE BROWN
MiC Columnist
In 1966, sociologist William
Petersen coined the term “model
minority.” Model minorities are
minorities who had supposedly
overcome
discrimination
through solid family structure
and values of hard work.
Ingredients
list:
one
new
3-year
old
immigrant
from
South Korea
Prep time: 17 years
Cook time: four years
Servings: one
Preparation list:
1. Your child is in elementary
school; though they are at
the prime age to play and
develop social skills, quickly
enroll
them
in
private
education such as Kumon.
2. Put
them
in
a
foreign
language
club
or
school
during
the
weekends,
preferably in the mother
tongue.
3. Make sure they play an
instrument,
preferably
violin or clarinet so they are
seen to be competitive and
able to be in the spotlight to
play the melody.
4. Don’t
forget
to
enroll
them in a sport. Asians are
stereotypically the best at
racquet sports and sports
about
hand-eye
coordination.
Recommendation is tennis.
5. Continue
to
put
them
through copious hours of
tutoring.
6. Take
away
video
games
and TV shows, as they are a
waste of time that could be
used for education.
7. Force them to take the Math
Placement
Exam
and
as
many honors and AP courses
as possible.
8. Stuff them into STEM field
extracurriculars.
9. Make sure child is well-fed,
but it’s not necessary to ask
how they are doing.
10. Surround your child with
adults who think they can
control their life at whim,
and never ask your child
what they want.
11. Every moment should be
used as a teaching lesson,
including
car
rides
and
birthdays.
12. Make sure they are only
involved in things that can
improve résumés.
13. Use fear tactics to motivate
your child, teaching them
failure is never OK.
14. Buy them an entire classics
book set or demand other
lofty pursuits.
15. Career
professions
must
be
limited
to:
engineer,
business and doctor.
Success
Rate:
5
percent
(acceptance rate of Harvard)
Warning: Your recipe could
go awry. Though it may look
fine from the outside, there
could be a sudden souring flavor
as your recipe may undergo
crippling depression or constant
anxiety and panic attacks. No
need to worry, just continue to
go through the recipe and hope
things get better.
Notes: Make sure to ask other
parents what they do with their
children to make sure your
recipe will not finish “last.”
“If you judge a fish by its
ability to climb a tree, it will
live its whole life believing it
is stupid” -Albert Einstein. For
many East Asian parents, the
ultimate measure of the success
of their offspring is based on
the mere names of prestigious
institutions and Fortune 500
companies, worshipping them
as idols and as points to brag
about to their social circles.
Through
this
belief,
many
Asian-American students are
pigeonholed into paths that
are supposed to lead to these
outcomes.
Granted,
there
are
those
who do make it down this path
and become doctors, bankers
and engineers. You often hear
of these stories on the news;
reflected as “model minorities,”
Asian Americans are held as
the gold standard for the rest
of the country for our work
ethic and prized as evidence
that the American dream is still
vibrant and possible. However,
what is less often presented
are the statistics on mental
health for Asian Americans.
Two-point-two million Asian
Americans have been diagnosed
with mental illnesses, and 18.9
percent
of
Asian-American
high
school
students
have
reported considering suicide.
Consider also that not all Asian
Americans come from the same
background. Not every Asian
American came over as an
immigrant working in the tech
industry, and there are those
who face financial hardship,
with a wealth gap of the richest
Asian Americans wealth being
168 times the amount of the
poorest ones.
I am not saying there is
something intrinsically wrong
with jobs such as doctors or
bankers, but when it becomes
a one-size-fits-all, there are
consequences. When excellence
becomes defined in limited and
damaging ways, it removes the
human aspect of it all. The fact
is that humans inherently are
all born with different gifts
and talents, especially when
these jobs are selected for the
sole reason that they have high
salaries.
In
addition,
Asian
Americans do not realize that
the very spots at Harvard we
strive for have already been
given
away
to
donors
and
wealthy white folks who have
legacies at the school — or when
admissions officers say they are
moving toward more holistic
approaches,
valuing
sports
higher than musical ability in
priority in admissions because
too many Asians are good at
music.
YOUNG LEE
MiC Columnist
Read more online at
michigandaily.com