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Hi. I'm from India, an Asian country. We have 1.3 billion people. We don't use chopsticks.

zdragnar 4y ago
Where I live in the Midwest US, most people from Asia or with Asian ancestry are Hmong, Korean, Chinese or Japanese. Essentially, "Asian" has become a euphemism for "East Asian". There's a notable exception in Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic and related industry drew a lot of immigration from India. As a result, "India" is occasionally lumped in with "South Asia" but is typically referred to as its own entity in lay conversation. I suspect part of that is proximity to the middle east, which is also rarely lumped in with "Asia" in colloquial conversation, and general confusion or laziness over needing to specify the "east" part of "east Asia". Other parts of the country probably speak differently based on who lives there. I can say this though - if I want to go to a restaurant for "Asian" food, it'll usually be Chinese, Japanese or Vietnamese, and the restaurant will typically offer dishes from at least two of those cuisines (sometimes authentic, sometimes heavily tailored to a Midwestern pallet). On the other hand, if I want Indian food, I'm going to an Indian restaurant, and the closest thing on offer to one of the other above cuisines is some variation of a Manchurian dish from Mumbai, depending on what regional focus or focuses the restaurant offers.
OJFord 4y ago
नमस्कार। To give the benefit of the doubt - in the UK (and perhaps elsewhere) India is practically never considered 'Asian' in common parlance. As if 'the Indian subcontinent' (as is said) were actually a continent almost, subordinate to nothing. I am curious now though - obviously spoons have been around 'forever' but as eating utensils do they predate British/Portugese colonialism do you know? I understand today spoon/bread/hand is dish, region, and perhaps to some extent class/personal preference dependent, but has it 'always' been so? (I'm honestly not doing a 'be thankful we brought you spoons' bit here.. I hope it doesn't come across that way. Just genuinely curious as a हिंदी और भारतीय खाने का विद्यार्थी (student of Hindi and Indian food).)
- programmer_dude 4y ago
  Indian here, I think eating utensils came with the Europeans.
numpad0 4y ago
Asia really should unite and push to deprecate this term. There’s practically nothing we share all across this so-called Asia metaregion, except it’s neither the West nor the Africa.

Where I live in the Midwest US, most people from Asia or with Asian ancestry are Hmong, Korean, Chinese or Japanese. Essentially, "Asian" has become a euphemism for "East Asian". There's a notable exception in Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic and related industry drew a lot of immigration from India. As a result, "India" is occasionally lumped in with "South Asia" but is typically referred to as its own entity in lay conversation. I suspect part of that is proximity to the middle east, which is also rarely lumped in with "Asia" in colloquial conversation, and general confusion or laziness over needing to specify the "east" part of "east Asia". Other parts of the country probably speak differently based on who lives there. I can say this though - if I want to go to a restaurant for "Asian" food, it'll usually be Chinese, Japanese or Vietnamese, and the restaurant will typically offer dishes from at least two of those cuisines (sometimes authentic, sometimes heavily tailored to a Midwestern pallet). On the other hand, if I want Indian food, I'm going to an Indian restaurant, and the closest thing on offer to one of the other above cuisines is some variation of a Manchurian dish from Mumbai, depending on what regional focus or focuses the restaurant offers.

OJFord 4y ago

नमस्कार। To give the benefit of the doubt - in the UK (and perhaps elsewhere) India is practically never considered 'Asian' in common parlance. As if 'the Indian subcontinent' (as is said) were actually a continent almost, subordinate to nothing. I am curious now though - obviously spoons have been around 'forever' but as eating utensils do they predate British/Portugese colonialism do you know? I understand today spoon/bread/hand is dish, region, and perhaps to some extent class/personal preference dependent, but has it 'always' been so? (I'm honestly not doing a 'be thankful we brought you spoons' bit here.. I hope it doesn't come across that way. Just genuinely curious as a हिंदी और भारतीय खाने का विद्यार्थी (student of Hindi and Indian food).)

programmer_dude 4y ago
Indian here, I think eating utensils came with the Europeans.

numpad0 4y ago

Asia really should unite and push to deprecate this term. There’s practically nothing we share all across this so-called Asia metaregion, except it’s neither the West nor the Africa.