Wednesday, July 1, 2009

The Colonel Can Kiss My Flat Asian A^^*!

My mother-in-law's birthday is coming. While my husband is looking forward to it, I’m contemplating calling in a priest for an exorcism. Before I go too far into lala land I should inform you that my husband is African American. "So what you say?" Well, I’ll tell you so what. And with all due respect to the Jewish and Italian mother- in-laws, there is nothing more frightening than an African American mother-in-law. When my inscrutable Japanese ancestry comes up against her “I’m from the South" sistagirl sensibilities it's like WWF on Friday night. Take off the earrings and pass the Vaseline cause it's on!

Of course you wouldn’t notice it by the conversation; it's in the looks and mannerisms where the throw down really takes place, and there is no more an epic battlefield disguised as the dinner table. This battle royale has been going on for fifteen years, and for seven I will admit, I got my ass kicked. On the eighth, I decided I was going to put a beat down on her or commit seppuku.

For seven years, I sat through my husband rolling his eyes and feigning a heart attack due to the culinary ecstasy of every bite of her homemade fried chicken, cornbread and greens, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, ham with the denouement being the sweet potato pie for desert. Yes, you read that menu correctly; I always wondered why his heart didn’t stop and my in-laws didn't pass out with the need of resuscitation after a holiday meal. The coup de grâce was of course, her fried chicken. For seven years, the East bowed to the West or should I say the South? I made it a point to visit her every few weeks and learn at the foot of the master how to make soul food for my man. No, I couldn’t use olive oil it had to be shortening! No, I couldn’t omit the neck bones with tofu and liquid smoke. Yadayadayada.

This went on for seven years, then I grew a pair. When she brought out chittlins, I brought out octopus. When she talked mountain oysters, I talked sushi or at the very least real oysters. The great showdown took place over chicken. My husband has raved over her fried chicken since for frakin ever. Early in our marriage when I said I was going to make fried chicken he would say, "Don’t bother I’ll stop and pick up some Colonel." When we would visit my mother-in-law she would send us home with fried chicken. For Christmas, they got gifts; I got her chicken recipe. Chicken became for me the last battleground. Even my children would say, "Let’s go by Grams and get some chicken."

It took eight years but I was finally able to hold my head high On Wednesday April 11 at 6:30pm in the year of our lord 2004 or as we say Heisei 16 I created fried chicken that was equal but not better than his mother's. Now years later on her birthday I bring my Japanese never- been- below- the-Mason Dixon- line fried chicken to her birthday feast. To her credit she eats it and mutters so low that only I can hear,"This is really good," and then she bashes me over the head with greens and sweet potato pie. But I don’t mind. It’s not that I think my fried chicken is better but at least I can say the Colonel can kiss my flat Asian ass.
_______________________________________________________________
Camile Ryerson is our regular contributing writer. Her column appears every Wednesday. Read her views on politics, world affairs, pop culture and of course, what she's reading. Her favorite genre is sci-fi.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've noticed husbands generally seem to think their mothers make something or other "the best" even if it isn't!

Ello - Ellen Oh said...

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

So I have a Korean mother-in-law and for the first 2 years of our marriage once a week, my MIL would call the hubby up and ask him what I had made for dinner that week and if it was any good. The next day she would show up with a pot of whatever meal the hubby had raved about, but cooked her way. It was her way of reminding the hubby that Mama's cooking was best. Well I got smart and I stopped cooking and I would tell hubby to tell his Mom that I had cooked a dish I had a hankering for just so she would cook it instead. After awhile, she got tired of one upping me, but I got used to not cooking.

Tarie Sabido said...

Hahahaha! This is a great post. Congratulations, Camile!

tanita✿davis said...

*Hee hee!!*
So, you're not posting your recipe, or at least a cookbook you like that helps you bridge the East-South gap? Inquiring minds want to know...

Tarie Sabido said...

Ooh ooh! I want to know how to bridge that gap too!

Kristi said...

Cracking up! Loved this post.

I am lucky - I am my husband's second wife - first one was literally psychotic - so MIL treats me like I am a princess!

Unknown said...

Really, give up the the famous chicken recipe that went toe to toe with MIL, really funny stuff

Becca said...

I love it! I am glad you can now hold your head high. I am from the South, and my parents, too. To my mom's credit, she did nutrionalize it (I just made up that word :P). We ate a lot of fried foods, but we also had steamed veggies and grilled out a lot. She cooked ethnic foods as much as she knew how and so we got a pretty good variety for a white bread family. :) It is always hard when the husband is about as much help in the matter as a teenager, but I am sure there have always been plenty of areas that you kick her a** in from the start. :)