Cross-cultural culinary cross-pollination

Salmon with ginger and Mexican rice, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

We have come to the conclusion, my fiancée (Finnish) and I (Mexican), that she cooks better mole poblano with chicken, whereas my specialty is salmon with dill.

Believe me, Mexican rice and salmon with ginger and dill makes a powerful combination.

So where the bloody hell are you?

An advertising campaing that shows that cultural differences are certainly not restricted to speakers of different languages, or languages other than English, "So where the bloody hell are you?" was a very controversial Tourism Australia campaign. Even though I like the ad, I find it really funny.



The worst part is that it seems to not have impacted the amount of visitors to Australia very much where it was aired.

A mis lectores hispanoparlantes: Es como si hicieran un comercial turístico de Venezuela y la Miss Universo al final le preguntara a la audiencia "¿Y dónde coño estás?".

Finland from A to Z

I found this list that reminded me very much of my student days, even if some of the references are only Tampere-specific and I studied in Espoo. If you are planning to visit or move to Finland, you should know at least some of these terms.

Mexican Hand Gestures, now with video

After this post, I had agreed with Rafa Peñaloza to shoot a video, explaining the point better.

Here it is. Hope it helps.



Shot with my N93.

A friend's adventures in the UK

I was chatting over messenger with a good Mexican friend of mine who is now living in the UK. She told me a couple of stories that dovetail nicely with my own that I've also posted in this blog.

She's rather fair-skinned, with blue eyes and blond hair, so I asked her if people believed her when she said where was she from. She answered that usually they don't, but the worst part was with her doctor, who for half an hour analysed her facial features until declaring that "I thought that all Mexicans were short, dark Native Americans". The funniest part was that he was Pakistani himself.

In another instance, after arriving in Barcelona for spending the holidays she was asked to answer a survey. The interviewer started going through the survey in English and as she stutterd with a word my friend ask her to switch to Spanish. The interviewer then seemed rather taken aback, as she didn't expect my friend to be a native Spanish speaker.

So, the lesson is that in Europe people think she's from an English-speaking country, whereas in my case people think I'm Morrocan, Turkish, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian, or even half-Thai half-Finn, but we're both Mexican.

I think it's time we all get rid of our stereotypes. They might be reference points, but they're not very valid.

Tex-Mex is not Mexican food!

Tex-Mex is not Mexican food!, originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado.

I bump into this issue from time to time (this photo is from Helsingin Sanomat), so I guess I have to tell my audience about it. The long rant that follows simply boils down to this: Tex-Mex is not Mexican food! The first time I saw hard-shell so-called tacos was in Europe. The only truly Mexican brand of chillies on sale here is "La Costeña", all others are European or American copycats.

Most of the food on sale in "Mexican" restaurants outside of North America (there are honourable exceptions, but they're few) is unknown to a Mexican, including such things as burritos (which are only found in Northern Mexico, if at all) or nachos with cheese. Those things to us are like a salmon burger would be to a Finn, or mussels with cheddar to a Belgian.

I don't deny Tex-Mex can be good food, just please don't call it Mexican. You have no idea how much you're missing. The funniest thing is that now in the States you can get proper Mexican food, but in Europe we're still stuck with the Americanised adaptation (just like the differences between rodeo and charrería).

They're afraid of me...

One of the funniest things that has happened to me in Brussels is that when I find Finns in the street and talk to them in Finnish, they get scared as hell. Why? Because I sure as hell don't look Finnish, so they don't know what's going on.

At least with the younger generation that's not such a big problem anymore, but I sure hope it'd change.

Hair colour scales

One thing that has caught my attention for a while now is how people see hair colour differently. For example: many people in northern Europe would describe my hair colour and my eyes as black, whereas in Mexico or in Africa my hair colour is brown, and so are my eyes. Same thing with blond, many people that I would consider blond really don't think of themselves as blond, and vice-versa.

Being nordic

I was in a class the other day, and the teacher asked "Who here is from the Nordic countries?". All my friends turned around and looked at me. Should I have said yes, or no?

TIME magazine person of the year: You

With 2006 being the year of Web 2.0, it was bound to happen. Head over to TIME.com to read the articles.

Mexican hand gestures

I've been asked so many times about certain things I do that I decided to explain.

1. Extending and contracting your index finger while all others are contracted means yes.
2. Extending your index finger and then moving it from side to side while all others are contracted means no.
3. Extending all fingers, then taking the tips of them to your forehead with your palm facing you and doing a movement outward of about twenty centimetres means thank you.

Update: The video is available here.

Use Sunscreen and the Generation Gap

Two questions:

1. Are you inspired by this video, or just completely bored?
2. Are you below, or over 30?

There's an answer here somewhere...

m(_ _)m

You know emoticons, right? Things like =) =D =P .

The one above is also an emoticon, but a Japanese one. Do you have any idea what it is?

It's a guy bowing ;-)

Types of Finnish silences

Talking with a friend and my significant other we came to the conclusion that there are different kinds of silences in Finland:

• Uncomfortable silences, those where you don't want to say anything so as to not screw up
• "It's happy to be here" silences
• "I'm working on something" silences
• And the most important ones, silences that just are there. No reason, no message.

There are more, but I can't remember them now...

Mexican view of death

You may have heard about the Day of the Dead, when Mexicans remember their dearly departed. What you may not know is that this view of death as part of life permeates their (our) lives. You may know that we eat sugar skulls with our names on the forehead around those days, but I'll tell you a story that will leave you speechless.

A young Mexican football fan saw the Mexico 1986 World Cup when he was a kid, and idolised Maradona. He cheered for his local team, UANL Tigres, and his dream was to see his team play in his idol's country, Argentina. Fast forward to 2005. UANL Tigres goes through to the group stages of the Copa Libertadores, and is placed in the same group as Banfield from Argentina. This fan (who is now in his twenties) is very happy and buys his ticket to go with the supporters group all the way there. However, he dies in a car accident the week before. No matter, his friends say. They do all the paperwork and bring the urn with his ashes all the way to Buenos Aires. The team goes to the field with a big sign in his honour, and they duly win 3-0. His friends sing and jump with his urn in their hands. Why? Because "that's what he wanted".

No wonder they sell caskets with the seal of your favourite team in Mexico...

Europe in the seventies

People very close to me lived in Europe in the seventies (the crazy seventies). It seems that moral attitudes have changed since then, as some of the conducts (especially relating to sexual promiscuity) are something that don't seem as widespread here as they once were. It is true that the current twenty-somethings are more moralistic than their parents' generation.

Does it have to do with the rise of AIDS (e.g., it was discovered the year I was born)?

Multiculturalism and different identities

I was talking with some friends about multiculturalism and different levels of culture identification (what do you feel part of, basically). I, for example, am Mexicano, Chilango/Sateluco, Espoolainen, Uussuomalainen and Brusselaar. I'm a North American, a Latin American, but also Europeanised and with a light Asian sensitivity. I'm the couple to my significant other, son of my parents, member of my family, friend of my friends and alumnus of the different schools I've studied in. I've taken parts of the places I've been to, so I eat a lot of Japanese food, listen to Brazilian pagode and read American sci-fi. I'm a techie, an engineer, a photographer, a linguist and a business person. But most importantly, I'm myself, and I know I'm all those things. I'll use them when I need to, and depending on where I am.

As a friend of mine said: "It's like a snowball, wherever you've rolled some things stick to you". Just be sure they're the good ones.

There can be more cultural differences between Belgians than between a Mexican and a Chinese

Which reminded me of bulletpoint #16 in this post. Of maybe it is not that there are more differences, but less awareness of their existence, and therefore less flexibility. All in all, it's always fun.

Old Internet fads

• The Star Wars kid (video here).
  
• All your base are belong to us.
  

Pulp fiction dialogue

Jules & Vincent are talking about Vincent's European experiences.

Vincent: ...But you know what the funniest thing about Europe is?

Jules: What?

Vincent: It's the little differences. I mean they got the same shit over there that they got here, but it's just - it's just there it's a little different.

Jules: Examples?

Vincent: Alright, well you can walk into a movie theater in Amsterdam and buy a beer. And I don't mean just like in no paper cup, I'm talking about a glass of beer. And in Paris, you can buy a beer at McDonald's. And you know what they call a, uh, a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?

Jules: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with Cheese?

Vincent: Nah, man, they got the metric system, they wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.

Jules: What do they call it?

Vincent: They call it a "Royale with Cheese."

Jules: "Royale with Cheese."

Vincent: That's right.

Jules: What do they call a Big Mac?

Vincent: A Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it "Le Big Mac."

Jules: "Le Big Mac." [laughs] What do they call a Whopper?

Vincent: I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King. But, you know what they put on french fries in Holland instead of ketchup?

Jules: What?

Vincent: Mayonnaise.

Jules: God damn!

Vincent: I seen 'em do it, man, they fuckin' drown 'em in that shit.

Jules: That's some fucked up shit.