A Boring Meal
When I was 7-8 years old, I was traveling to the U.S by plane, and we didn't have much money, so we probably rode economy class. I remember my experience on the flight really well because it was my first time ever riding on the plane in addition to the first time speaking to someone who didn't speak Vietnamese.
As most of us know, economy food plane food absolutely sucks. Since I was only alive for approximately 7-8 years and hadn't experience cuisines outside of Vietnam, I ordered a cup of ramen and a cup of lemonade. I ordered ramen simply because I saw the word "Ramen." and expected to taste like the stuff in Vietnam. A little background on Ramen in Vietnam is that there is a brand of ramen where the stuff is literal gold when you eat it. It was rare that I ever get to eat this type of ramen because it was relatively expensive but... oh boy, was it a treat when I get to have some. This set up some expectations when I was eating on that plane.
The cup of lemonade came first, and it tasted weird from the ordinary lemonade I usually had in addition to it being too sweet. However, I didn't mind it that much since it wasn't that different from the standard fresh-squeezed lemonade that I had. I kept up my expectations for the ramen that I was going to eat.
When I tasted the broth and the ramen, I was utterly disgusted. It was really bland, and the noodles were super thick as if you've left the ramen out to soak up water for a few hours.
This is a betrayal to a young child with dreams of ramen.
Now, don't get me wrong, I've grown to like ramen that is made here in the U.S. I am not trying to argue with anyone whether the U.S pre-packaged food is literal garbage or not; It's merely up to preference. But, this single experience kind of set me on the road to not really trying any English pre-packaged food until I was around 12.
This was personally really memorable for me because I was expecting something else when I was ordering ramen on the plane. Ramen, that is made in Vietnam, was on a totally different level than the ramen that I had on that plane. It was a sense of betrayal of expectation that made this meal really memorable for me.
As most of us know, economy food plane food absolutely sucks. Since I was only alive for approximately 7-8 years and hadn't experience cuisines outside of Vietnam, I ordered a cup of ramen and a cup of lemonade. I ordered ramen simply because I saw the word "Ramen." and expected to taste like the stuff in Vietnam. A little background on Ramen in Vietnam is that there is a brand of ramen where the stuff is literal gold when you eat it. It was rare that I ever get to eat this type of ramen because it was relatively expensive but... oh boy, was it a treat when I get to have some. This set up some expectations when I was eating on that plane.
The cup of lemonade came first, and it tasted weird from the ordinary lemonade I usually had in addition to it being too sweet. However, I didn't mind it that much since it wasn't that different from the standard fresh-squeezed lemonade that I had. I kept up my expectations for the ramen that I was going to eat.
When I tasted the broth and the ramen, I was utterly disgusted. It was really bland, and the noodles were super thick as if you've left the ramen out to soak up water for a few hours.
This is a betrayal to a young child with dreams of ramen.
Now, don't get me wrong, I've grown to like ramen that is made here in the U.S. I am not trying to argue with anyone whether the U.S pre-packaged food is literal garbage or not; It's merely up to preference. But, this single experience kind of set me on the road to not really trying any English pre-packaged food until I was around 12.
This was personally really memorable for me because I was expecting something else when I was ordering ramen on the plane. Ramen, that is made in Vietnam, was on a totally different level than the ramen that I had on that plane. It was a sense of betrayal of expectation that made this meal really memorable for me.
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