Eat Fruit and Stay Skinny.

The first time I realized the advantage of being an Asian child (besides being good at math, oh wait - I'm not...) was when I was working my first official job in the real world after I graduated from college.

Since I worked at a public accounting firm, when it was "busy season" for us, lunch and dinner were usually comped.  It was a pretty neat little perk also known as newbie 20.  It wasn't until my pants were already sitting a bit tightly a few weeks into busy season that I realized newbie 20 was on its way and would be a lot scarier than the college freshman 15.  Since I was living at home at the time, (but really I was living in the back of my parents home in the garage add on turned studio that they personally updated and painted two shades of purple for me), my mom, more afraid of my weight gain than me, sent me to work with some "healthy snacks" while lecturing me about not letting myself go. Despite the sugar in fruit, it was just assumed that you couldn't get fat on fruit.  So my mom would tell me to eat fruit and stay skinny.

This normally meant I was sent out of the house with a ziploc bag or tupperware of one of the following:

• apples
• strawberries
• pineapples
• blueberries
• oranges
• clementines
• grapes
• watermelon
• honey dew
• cantaloupe 
• Korean melons
• Asian pears

But what really separated my fruit from the others was that it was always prepared in a way that it was ready to eat, like the outrageously expensive fresh cut fruit at Whole Foods.  My mom made sure all my apples were peeled, sliced, and dipped in salted water (to preserve it longer), my strawberries had the crown removed, my pineapples, watermelon, and melons were always deseeded, peeled and cored before being cut into bite size pieces, my oranges were peeled, and my grapes were removed from the stems.  Time consuming, but this is just how Asian moms do it.  

I know.. because everyone at work who wasn't Asian became amazed that my mom put the time and effort into preparing my fruit.  Meanwhile, everyone who was Asian would comment about missing their own moms who obviously did the same.  My ready to eat fruit was not special in the Asian world, just the American one.   

Then, when I lived with a white girl in my mid 20's, I'd learn it really was an Asian thing.  Whenever we had friends come over, we'd prepare a bunch of fruit and cheese, and I'd always be in the sink, removing the grapes from the stems before rinsing them.  Meanwhile, she'd look on in disbelief before asking me why I was doing that.  And we never even bought melons or anything that would require serious labor prep. 

Honestly, I hadn't even though about it.. it was just mere habit and it was the only way I had eaten grapes my entire life.  Who ate grapes in a cluster besides Cleopatra?  I really thought that.  But I tried to adapt to being more American, and started to just leave the grapes as is, but it always felt so foreign and uncomfortable.  Why didn't everyone just remove their dang grapes and then rinse 'em?!

And then I'd spend a weekend with Asian girlfriends and we'd all prepare the fruit the same.  Someone would immediately hull the strawberries, another would peel the Clementines, and I would remove the grapes before rinsing.  Someone would always ask, "who wants to cut the melons?" 

Maybe that's why Asians don't usually have dessert, just fruit.  It takes so much time to prepare, you might as well enjoy it.  A slice of orange after dinner?  Some watermelon, why yes please.  I don't mind if I do.  Especially if my mom has already cut it.. which by the way, if I'm home visiting the family, I know there's always at least five types of already prepared fruit in the fridge for me to munch on.  Ahh, the good life.