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   Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 08:47:38 JST Adrianna Tan

   You know you’re at a Chinese restaurant when the guy walking around has two jugs of water.

   One for ice water

   One for HOT water

   • Embed this notice
     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 09:06:07 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     The ice water is for the children, and guests

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 09:08:55 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     If you’re a Chinese person above the age of 40, you are no longer able to drink any liquids that are below 212F / 100C

     Everything must be super hot, including water that you chug at the restaurant, while you’re walking

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 09:11:18 JST Adrianna Tan

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     https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1000919

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     Matt Boyd (3psboyd@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 09:16:29 JST Matt Boyd

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte "As traditional medicine became broadly accepted across society..." feels like a clause that's eliding a lot.

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 09:16:29 JST Adrianna Tan

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     • Matt Boyd

     @3psboyd I think that was about the 1800s

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 09:17:35 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     At this point for most people it’s probably not the superstition, but familiarity

     Ice water makes me extremely uncomfortable, cold water more so, cold water with bubbles even more. There is only hot flat water in my life

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 09:22:24 JST Adrianna Tan

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     • Daniel Reeders

     @onekind Ice water for the American born kids :)

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     Daniel Reeders (onekind@beige.party)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 09:22:26 JST Daniel Reeders

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte I'm curious about the health aspects of this.

     Ice water for the kidlets who are most likely to die from untreated water.

     Boiling water for the elders who have broad immunity to food and water-borne toxins and are more likely to develop oesophageal cancer.

     I guess it's another example of 'culture eats health for breakfast' (my field is full of them!).

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 09:26:34 JST Adrianna Tan

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     • Matt Boyd

     @3psboyd I mean, there are a core set of beliefs that one can broadly identify as what many Han Chinese people believe about food and health.

     But I also learned today that what we think of as historical Italian and French breads are decades old only. So culture and tradition can be whatever I suppose.

     The culture of Chinese Gen Z kids is to exist and subsist on boba

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     Matt Boyd (3psboyd@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 09:26:35 JST Matt Boyd

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte I was thinking in terms of "If it had to be accepted across society, whose tradition was it?"

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 10:06:41 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     Most of our desserts are hot

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 10:23:34 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     @mhoye scroll up

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     mhoye but seasonally spooky (mhoye@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 10:23:35 JST mhoye but seasonally spooky

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte I sometimes wonder if there would be a great cultural-rapprochement video series to be made, that involved people who are introspective, self aware and articulate, but running into a new culture for the first time. As in, one one side of the table, knowledgeable food critics from one culture, on the other, chefs and culinary historians from a different culture, and some sort of conversation. Warm water... why? What do I need to understand here? Sweet desserts I recognize, but hot?

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 10:33:33 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • mhoye but seasonally spooky

     @mhoye boomer San Franciscans can’t even let an AAPI food critic in the Chronicle say she dislikes The French Laundry, Zuni and Chez Panisse (and opinion I share) without accusing her of being racist towards white people hahaha

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     mhoye but seasonally spooky (mhoye@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 10:33:35 JST mhoye but seasonally spooky

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte I can definitely understand the othering of food culture, and how gross that can be. But from my own experience, I've had meals where I honestly didn't think I understood what I was eating, until it was explained to me, but then I felt like... oh. Oh, I sort of understand now, I kind of get it.

     I just wonder if it's possible to communicate that revelation, I guess, in some way that's genuine and respectful.

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     Adrianna Tan (skinnylatte@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 11:02:15 JST Adrianna Tan

     in reply to

     • mhoye but seasonally spooky

     @mhoye haha that was in the NYT and it was absolutely clickbait

     I do think individual items can be very good but at least to me when I talk about best X in a place it’s less about the one singular experience and more about the overall accessibility and range and variety. Like how every random bagel is good in a place with New York. You don’t have to go out of your way to one place.

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     mhoye but seasonally spooky (mhoye@cosocial.ca)'s status on Saturday, 12-Sep-2026 11:02:16 JST mhoye but seasonally spooky

     in reply to

     @skinnylatte I remember seeing some breathless article years ago about "the best bagel in San Francisco" and thinking, wow, cool, next we can go looking for the best Pad Thai in Brussels. Awesome. I'm looking forward to hearing about the best burrito in Calgary. I want to know about the best pho in Omaha.