Let's Go OUT-TAKE Tonight...

We returned from Chicago Wednesday evening. It was great to see our daughter and spend time traipsing around the Windy City, but as always… it was also great to be home. For people in the Midwest, trips to the Chicago are comparable to Easterners going to NYC. I realize they would say that’s like comparing oranges and Big Apples, but there are similarities. Lots to do--famous people, fantastic shows, shopping, museums, and hundreds of one-of -a-kind restaurants.

I mentioned we ate at Ed Debevic’s. That night, the sassy waitress opened her table act with, “Hey, you! George Lukas at the end of the table! Pay attention. I’m ’splainin’ the menu, and I won’t repeat it!” (The shtick at Ed Debevic’s is treating the customers rudely. She was about the fifth stranger to make a “George Lukas“ remark since I’ve gone gray. As I was leaving, she said, “Just be glad you don‘t have that goiter thing goin‘ on.”
I laughed out loud because those were my very thoughts on the subject two years ago.) On our last day, we had lunch at the Grand Lux, which is surprisingly affordable considering how swanky it is. What a place! I highly recommend it for lunch.

Speaking of unique dining experiences, before viewing the featured Youtube clip below, I should warn you that the end of the video alludes to an unusual menu item I learned about in Thailand. (You may want to see the Parts I and II and the clip called "A World of Class" to provide a context for these“out-takes.”)

Though the medical mission trip and the video are not simply a"cultural experience," it was my hope to touch the five senses in providing a "sense" of Thailand and the hill tribe life as well as the team’s experience. Even “out-takes” can help do that. As explained on the Patterns of Ink Youtube page, I mean no disrespect to the people seen in the out-takes. These are just "moments" that were not usable in the main video. Toward the end of the clip our Akah friend, John, provides a TASTE of the culture he has known all his life.

At one Lahu village, I was confronted by several barking dogs as I took pictures of the hut they had been sleeping under. It was the first and only time dogs (and we'd seen hundreds of them) barked at me. John said, "See this is what happens when you don't eat dog. Too many watch dogs--not enough to watch." [He gestured toward huts with nothing fit to burgal.] “Whenever one of my Lahu friends has a dog go missing, they think I took it to eat.” He laughs, and I ask. "So they don't ever ask you to watch their dog when they're out of town. He replies, "No. Dey don't ask me dat." [He laughs again.]

"Do you name your dogs?" I ask. "No. Just call dem 'dog' we don't keep dem dat long to get to know dem." (I wish I had videotaped that exchange. It's funny to hear him tell it. As you know from past posts, we have a pet Westie named Kip. We are very attached to him. Millions of Americans spend billions each year on pets. That "cultural fact" is equally hard to grasp for the Akah.)

In the Akah villages the only “kept dogs” are raised for food--just like other small livestock. The dogs don't interact like pets with the humans around them (any more than the chickens and pigs do). They are a wild looking non-breed. You would not be tempted to pet these animals if you saw them. (If you'd rather not watch that part, it does not come in the video until the last two minutes.)

"Some Out-Takes and Cultural Delicacies"


I first met John in my office last summer when he was visiting the states. He speaks English, Akah, three dialects of Lahu, and Chinese well enough to converse when he crosses the border to visit Akah tribes there. He does understand our American sensitivities, which is why he considered my question hard to answer.
.
(The original “field draft" of these thoughts are in the January archives.)