Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Being stationed in Germany, I'm usually up and online when everyone stateside is still sleeping - so that may account for 1am - 5am posts :)

I lived in England during my high school years, the daughter of an Air Force Major. I traveled Europe and became familiar with the dining customs of many countries, but the closest I ever came to Asia was in London's Chinatown. My best friend was half Chinese, and her mother was rather determined to keep her daughter in touch with her Chinese roots, speaking only Chinese in the house and complaining about my obvious anglo-saxonness. To that end, she took us on a day trip to Chinatown, where we stopped at a dim sum house for lunch. I had never used chopsticks before, and was having trouble with a particularly feisty dumpling when I finally broke down and asked the passing waitress for a fork. The entire restaurant turned and stared as my friend's mother broke out in a half-English, half-Chinese tirade - apparently, the restaurant didn't even have forks, I should have respect for other people's cultures, and it was ungrateful of me not to eat the fried chicken feet that I'd been carefully avoiding. A few minutes later, the waitress tossed a soup spoon on the table, but I was far too mortified to use it - I learned very quickly to use my chopsticks, and finished my chicken feet in silence.