The morning after any brutal night about town usually starts off with a round of sloppy, semi-drunk phone calls muffled by a layer of blankets.
If summoning enough courage to scroll through the cellular phone book seems daunting, figuring out a common consensus to the universal question proves even more challenging: "Where do you wanna eat?"
The entire deliberation process may take up to a half-an-hour, but the cuisine is pre-selected even before the question's asked. Among many Asian Americans, the cure to a heavy night of alcohol is universally defined, yet naturally unspoken. The answer? Pho.
Pho (越南粉 Pinyin: Yue4 nan2 fen3), a hot, beefy Vietnamese noodle soup, is a fix it all for hangovers and countless nights of drunken debauchery. Since I can remember, it's been the go to choice for a morning after meal. Warm broth eases away any inkling of nausea and carb-filled vermicelli noodles soak up any ounce of Crown left over from the night before. For around $6 a bowl (the best spot in Renton is the 108 Restaurant next to Great Wall), pho does a mighty fine job of keeping the Porcelain God a mile away.
But a funny question occured to me while out grabbing pho with a friend. What do Americans eat after throwing up their intestines?
For the answer to this question, I sought the guidance of my I'm-Filipino-but-I-grew-up-on-the-Eastside boyfriend. I have a lot of love for Eastside cities like Issaquah and Bellevue, but having been born and raised in Renton, I admit a difference in these cultures do exist. Nonetheless, the boyfriend, who had the opportunity to live in both cultural worlds, simply and assuredly replied, "Well, we ate at Denny's."
Denny's? Greasy fried bacon strips and oil-soaked eggs will ease the vomit factory brewing inside of me?
After nearly 9 years of comfortably staying within my Asian American cultural circle, I was surprised to remember that another world exists where pho isn't the only option for a post-alcohol meal. Naive? Perhaps. Ignorant? Maybe.
...Which brings me to the reason why I posted this blog in the first place. This is a place where I'll visit cultural differences and merge them into anecdotal musings and posts. Part experimental, part historical, it's a place where similarities and differences can be cataloged and re-examined.
And, like the additional book light offer with the purchase of a Snuggie, you'll also get these with every post:
To the age old question of where to get an edible hangover cure, maybe you prefer Denny's, or maybe you'd rather grab a bowl of pho. Either way, there's something I'd like to know: what do you eat the morning after?
If summoning enough courage to scroll through the cellular phone book seems daunting, figuring out a common consensus to the universal question proves even more challenging: "Where do you wanna eat?"
The entire deliberation process may take up to a half-an-hour, but the cuisine is pre-selected even before the question's asked. Among many Asian Americans, the cure to a heavy night of alcohol is universally defined, yet naturally unspoken. The answer? Pho.
Pho (越南粉 Pinyin: Yue4 nan2 fen3), a hot, beefy Vietnamese noodle soup, is a fix it all for hangovers and countless nights of drunken debauchery. Since I can remember, it's been the go to choice for a morning after meal. Warm broth eases away any inkling of nausea and carb-filled vermicelli noodles soak up any ounce of Crown left over from the night before. For around $6 a bowl (the best spot in Renton is the 108 Restaurant next to Great Wall), pho does a mighty fine job of keeping the Porcelain God a mile away.
But a funny question occured to me while out grabbing pho with a friend. What do Americans eat after throwing up their intestines?
For the answer to this question, I sought the guidance of my I'm-Filipino-but-I-grew-up-on-the-Eastside boyfriend. I have a lot of love for Eastside cities like Issaquah and Bellevue, but having been born and raised in Renton, I admit a difference in these cultures do exist. Nonetheless, the boyfriend, who had the opportunity to live in both cultural worlds, simply and assuredly replied, "Well, we ate at Denny's."
Denny's? Greasy fried bacon strips and oil-soaked eggs will ease the vomit factory brewing inside of me?
After nearly 9 years of comfortably staying within my Asian American cultural circle, I was surprised to remember that another world exists where pho isn't the only option for a post-alcohol meal. Naive? Perhaps. Ignorant? Maybe.
...Which brings me to the reason why I posted this blog in the first place. This is a place where I'll visit cultural differences and merge them into anecdotal musings and posts. Part experimental, part historical, it's a place where similarities and differences can be cataloged and re-examined.
And, like the additional book light offer with the purchase of a Snuggie, you'll also get these with every post:
- A Chinese word/phrase
- Local restaurants you should also dig
To the age old question of where to get an edible hangover cure, maybe you prefer Denny's, or maybe you'd rather grab a bowl of pho. Either way, there's something I'd like to know: what do you eat the morning after?
