Saturday, November 1, 2008

Mixed Meat Politics

So on the home stretch of my nightly stroll around the block, I was stopped by 5 kind faces, two of them my neighbors. They offered me a plate of fruit. I knew from experience that they don't take refusal well, so I had a seat.
The neighbors run a mixed meat stand out of the store front of their home. I've been bought and offered a couple plates, and it has to be some of the strangest varieties of "meat" I've ever seen in one place. Thankfully, I think they realize that Americans do not enjoy charred Chicken Head or Feet. Though I know now what the heart tastes like, and I'm pretty sure I ate an authentic chicken nugget...
I regress.
After the fruit, my neighbor -- a kind hearted old lady who gives away more meat than she actually sells -- got up to get me a skewer full of meat that could compete against any cafeteria mystery food. Again, I accepted the UFD (Unidentifiable Foreign Delicacy). It was surprisingly tasty.
Her kind-eyed husband and the other gentleman seated offered me cigarettes. This time, I denied. The gentleman spoke, through broken but stable English, that he was from Hong Kong, where everyone smoked, but knew that in America it was not popular.

The conversation shifted back into Chinese.
I had another grape.

He looked at me and I thought I heard "residential location," but then he said "Obama and McCain?" He asked if I thought it mattered that Obama was "a negro." I told him that I thought it would be healthy for America to see a bi-racial man in Office. The conversation had already shifted back into Chinese, and I don't think they heard me.

Nevertheless, it left me thinking...
First, I thought "Does Hong Kong have a President?" but that was overtaken by another thought:
Tuesday's a big deal.
From 10 hour line at strip malls in Atlanta, to the quiet benchside of a Taiwanese Mixed Meat Stand... the world is waiting to see what will come.

2 comments:

Rachel said...

Mixing UFDs and politics? Bold :)

Samantha said...

And the world was not disappointed. :)