-^-for posterity-^-

i spent the whole night trying to defend the food in philadelphia.

first, there were cheese steaks. i explained that there were two places to go in philadelpha: gino’s and pat’s. i told everyone that pat’s was the best but that most of the tourists went to gino’s which is much flashier and has many more pictures of celebrities on the walls.

i told them about cheese wiz. how do you describe cheese wiz except for saying that it is plastic looking cheese. no one understood and i told them they had to try it if they really wanted to understand it. who on earth would try plastic cheese.

i told them about the tastykake. i told everyone how famous pennsylvania was for having this kind of snack-food. i told them how their cake covering was so soft and supple and how their insides were so sweet and perfect. no one understood.

i told them about a diner. i told them you could order a cup of coffee and have it refilled hundreds of times before you left. they didn’t understand because they go to coffee shops every day where they can order a cup of coffee and have hundreds of cups of tea served to them. they especially didn’t understand when i told them the coffee was fairly weak compared to vietnamese coffee.

nothing was good. everything i cherished about home was not easily explained. names and descriptions did no justice to the true taste of a greasy cheese steak milling around in the mouth or the instant rush of chocolate and sugar one experiences from a tastykake or the relaxing conversation one enjoys over a cup of coffee that never seems to expire but never seems to be very good.