Stem ginger...

[sherryillk]

A before I go to sleep musing...

I ran across stem ginger in a fanfic recently and I had no idea what it was. I mean, I know what ginger was and I kinda thought it maybe kinda was the same thing as this stem ginger, but apparently not.

Now, I have to wonder. Am I clueless about stem ginger because it's like a British thing and I'm just being my ignorant American self? Or is it because it's a "white" people's thing and I'm just being my ignorant Chinese self?

I hate it when this happens. I mean, I like to think I'm more or less completely Americanized but there are just some things that just cannot be substituted -- like growing up in a white home where stuff like this may or may not be commonplace. What I know of other people's cultures, mostly from books, TV and movies. Not exactly the best basis but I've never run across stem ginger before (not even on the Food Network) so I'm fairly confident it isn't something commonplace. But at the same time, I'm unsure enough to totally write it off. I really hate these sort of thoughts -- it makes me think of how far I elapse every single time. I try not to think people in terms of race because it's really mean thing to do, but sometimes, I can't help but go back to thinking "Me Chinese so I think differently than You White." Ugh, it makes me sick just writing that but sometimes, it's very true. And that makes me want to cry... We'll never get anywhere if people like me keeping thinking like that! Most of the time I think I'm good at pushing it out of my thoughts but sometimes... :\

Ah....all this talk of stem ginger, makes me really want to try some. It looks really yummy -- crystallized sugar ginger -- how could that not be good?

Comments

[harumi.livejournal.com]

It's not racism. It's cultural differences, and those are, as far as I'm concerned, a good thing. Someday there may be a world where skin color matters little in your everyday life, but different cultural backgrounds will change how you perceive it. Nothing wrong with that. You ARE different. You're American, but a different kind of American. What about black families? Then you have African American families, then African African families, and those are completely different too. Are they not "black"?

I've spent my entire life with people from different countries, but the moment I entered college, and was able to interact with other Chinese people, I jumped at the chance. It was a relief to be able to speak to them in the same language, talk about my difficulties and know that they've gone through it too, eat the same food and have them laugh and agree with you instead of giving you blank looks or worse, "eeeewww!!!"

Americans often forget that. We're NOT a homogenous society, and it is a bad thing to be so. It is not wrong to be ignorant, just wrong when you judge their differences due to your ignorance (or willful ignorance).

And for the record, I've never heard of ginger stems either. ^_^

[harumi.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I've often found, that when I'm ignorant of something, a search in google usually does the trick.

When typing "stem ginger" I got:

Stem ginger
Also known as preserved ginger, stem ginger is young ginger that has been peeled and preserved in sugar syrup. The syrup is usually quite sweet and provides a good contrast to the spicy, golden nuggets of ginger.

Hope that helps.