Before We Were Contessas

Every couple of weeks each Contessa is going to share an eating story that has shaped her to be the food connoisseur that she is today. My life shaping eating experience happened 13 years ago.

It was the spring of my first year of living in Baumholder, Germany. My sister, Jill, was a kindergartener at the German elementary school while I was in the second grade at the department of defense school on the army post. Jill was turning six and wanted to have a birthday party. She asked my mother if she could have her German and American friends out for dinner. The party was held at a Chinese restaurant that just so happened to be connected to our village home. At the dinner there were children who only spoke German, some who only spoke English, and one that only spoke Chinese. Some of the kids where children of American soldiers while others had grandfathers that were Nazis. The lack of cultural continuity was blatant but it became painfully obvious when my father attempted to get the table of children to sing happy birthday. It ended with me and my mom joining in while the multicultural five years olds just stared at us. The one Chinese girl at the party’s parents owned the restaurant and when my mother asked if we could hold the dinner there they decided since we were Americans to serve fried chicken in place of their traditional fare. During this eating experience I wasn't exposed to foreign delicacies or introduced to a food that changed my life. Instead, I was taught how to survive awkward eating situations. Which considering how my past 13 years have played out that lesson was quite valuable. I was reminded of my childhood dinner after this weeks excursion to Hokkaido buffet.

A Blacksburg Contessa,
Molly