Has food writing gone woke too?
A staff writer for the Washington Post’s food section has suggested to some online criticism that food shouldn’t be described as “exotic,” saying that it, quote, “reinforces xenophobia and racism.”
In the Post piece, G. Daniela Galarza wrote about readers who reacted to a ramen recipe she shared in her newsletter, with one calling it from an “exotic foreign cuisine” and another saying the “exotic ingredients” were hard to find in a typical grocery store.
She wrote, “Reading the word hit me like a slap, and initially, I wasn’t even sure why. Did they think the dish sounded odd or disgusting? Or were these ingredients simply hard for them to find? . . . What’s ‘exotic’ to you isn’t ‘exotic’ to my neighbor, might not be ‘exotic’ to my mom, probably wouldn’t be ‘exotic’ to my best friend.”
She continued, “[Its] use, particularly as applied to food, indirectly lengthens the metaphysical distance between one group of humans and another, and, in so doing, reinforces xenophobia and racism.”
Addressing what other word to use, Galarza wrote, “It’s not so much about replacing ‘exotic’ with another word, though ‘rare’ or ‘difficult to find’ might be more accurate descriptions for food in some cases. It’s about reframing your worldview.”