Gourmet

As I've mentioned before, the Mild Wife is Filipina. So, she brings her own cultural heritage and stories to the table, and that occasionally leads to some very interesting stories when our cultures meet (for example, this one). Let me put it this way: think about some of the amusement that results when my own two cultures mix, and now imagine adding a third culture to the mix. It gets pretty funny at times.

The first, and most obvious, bit involves language. The Mild Wife's family speaks a language called Kapampangan, so I hear it thrown around at family gatherings these days. Before I met the Mild Wife, I'd never even heard of it before. Still, it's considered one of the major Filipino languages (note that it's not a dialect of Tagalog, it's its own language), so that just means I was ignorant about these things.

As you can imagine, this meant I was starting from scratch in trying to understand people. You know who else is starting from scratch? Young nephews and nieces who happen to be around with the Mild Wife's family when I'm there. If they're between about two and six years old, that's my sweet spot. They can speak enough to make themselves understood, but they still speak slowly and clearly. They also have to be corrected occasionally, which is a prime opportunity for me to pick up tidbits of vocabulary or grammar.

In short, I now speak barely enough Kapampangan to sound like a toddler. The Mild Wife made sure that I learned all of the "important" words, too. I can say "booger," "armpit," and "whiny." Like I said, a lot of my language comes from interacting with little kids. These are words that are relevant to their lives and their education. I just happen to be along for the ride.

The other fun bit involves food. As it turns out, the province from which the Mild Wife's family hails, Pampanga, is somewhat known for its food. Specifically, its people are stereotypically considered to be good cooks. In the case of the Mild Wife and her parents, I will readily vouch for their culinary abilities. Let's just say that I can somewhat understand how the stereotype came to be.

I forget who, but someone explained this to me at one point. It wasn't meant as a boastful thing, but just one of those "let's educate Sam about the Mild Wife's culture" moments. Either way, I ended up internalizing what other Filipinos instinctively know.

For the sake of this blog post, it's that last phrase that really matters. I happen to have a few Filipino coworkers. And I don't just mean that they were born here and have roots back to the Philippines, I mean they're expatriates who call the Philippines home. These are honest-to-God, legitimate Filipino people.

They also happen to know that the Mild Wife also has cultural roots in the Philippines. So, the other day at lunch, one of them asked me, out of the blue, "so, do you eat gourmet [meals] now?" Because I had had the cultural education, I knew exactly why my coworker was asking. I cracked up on the spot. In fact, both of the Filipino coworkers were present at the time, and they both started giggling, too.

After I managed to get the laughter out of my system, I told them what I wrote earlier: the Mild Wife and her parents are pretty good cooks. I don't think we eat anything fancy (especially not if I'm in charge of the sous chef duties), but I like what we eat. All in all, it's not a bad place to be. Still, I was just amused that I understood the context of the question, enough so to be thoroughly amused.

I'm telling you, when it comes to culture, the more the merrier. I'm going to have to keep learning some Kapampangan words to keep this thing going.