Andra and I returned from a three-day trip to Disneyland on Thursday. When we married in 2019, I was not completely aware of the importance the Magic Kingdom played in her life, and the lives of her extended family. I understand now. My feet understand even better. In deference to my late father, I must first go through the litany of faults and issues one may find and have with The Happiest Place on Earth.
It’s teaming with humanity, especially during the summer months. Waiting in line, wending your way through the park with thousands of people is to be expected. And it’s kitschy and korny, still. Well into the 21st century, you will still hear marching bands and barbershop quartets wandering down Main Street, where a candy store still sells sweets that don’t inflict pain on your taste buds, and employees are dressed in garb straight out of a Shirley Temple movie. Much of Disneyland has always been about looking back to things that might have been that innocent, but our better-informed sensibilities know were not.
That probably doesn’t add up to a “litany,” but you get the point. Disney’s best-known generator of profit still provides entertainment to the masses that many feel is bourgeoisie, homogenized, sanitized, and at its worst culturally insensitive. All true, but that annoying little rat has been getting more sophisticated, and to some, controversial.
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And in their effort to keep up with changing tastes and diets, most of the eateries in the parks offer meatless menu items. I indulged in the Ronto-less Garden Wrap, found at Ronto Roasters, in the Star Wars-Edge of the Galaxy section of the park. It’s a pita sandwich with pickled vegetables and a peppercorn dressing. The carnivore version gets a pork sausage, but the vegetarian version was tasty and filling.
Many Disneyland visitors continue to arrive from culturally challenged regions of the country where Lawry’s Seasoned Salt is considered haute cuisine. Sampling fare from the Pacific Rim in a safe, non-threatening environment may be one of the best ways of opening minds to new places, people and perspectives.
| Copyright © 2022 by James Knudsen |
So what is the importance of Disneyland in your spouses life?
ReplyDeleteJames, could the subject of Anonymous’ comment serve your August “Acting Citizen” column? Then you could use whatever else you might have (or come to have) in mind for your SEPTEMBER column!
DeleteI was enjoying this article until the last jab at "culturally challenged" regions. Unnecessary, insensitive and stereotypical. Folks like to put us down, but heck, we've even been known to read. We got Cajun, Creole, Jamaican, Cuban and a host of other cuisines from such regions. We personally have a sushi chef of 14 years who we followed through three restaurants until invited to the pre-opening premiere of his own. The best Cajun joint in Franklin NC is next to an excellent sushi place. We've had every raw fish imaginable, including testicles. Oysters from Oregon the size of soup bowls, King crab in Anchorage, Firefly squid from the Bungo Channel in southern Japan, dried blowfish snacks from Sapporo, shwarma in Dominica, and I ate lumpia in the 70's at FSU. To narrate the cultural insensitivity of the Disney debacle then demonstrate one's own is counterproductive in my estimate.
ReplyDeleteRoger, we of course must wait until James (hopefully) responds to your comment. But it occurred to me that you may indict ME as well as James, because I am, after all, as culpable as you seem to think him of his posts' "insensitivity" and "sterotypicality" – simply because I edited and approved the post. HOWEVER, what's this about putting YOU down? I hardly think it possible that James, anymore than I myself, could remotely consider "putting YOU down." What about James' wording led you to think that he considered YOU "culturally challenged"? Or YOUR region? Or any region in particular?
DeleteIf you still, and really, think him (and me) culpable of a gross offense, please let us know what you would like for us to do by way of atonement.
And please accept my thanks for your well-detailed point that a person need not go to Disneyland or Disneyworld to sample some fine cuisines from all around the world. Even here in Mebane, North Carolina, we have such offerings, although I'm more of an "eat at home" sort of person.
What is the importance of Disneyland in my wife's life? For decades it has been a go to destination. And one of the last large family gatherings that included her late father, Capt. Marcel Iczkowski occurred at the Magic Kingdom.
DeleteRegarding Mr. Owens chastisement, I'll admit to using a broad brush. I will also admit to having been in a relationship with a woman from the Cornhusker State. That same woman's mother cited Lawry's Seasoned Salt as her go to condiment, and about the most adventurous stuff she used in the kitchen. Are cuisines improving throughout the country? Absolutely, my late father remarked to me, that when he first arrived in Tulare, the belt-buckle of California's bible-belt, the "fine dining" options were decidedly limited. The editor can probably provide better insight into that. And I would wager that the best restaurants in places even more obscure than Tulare or Visalia, California are plating food that of better quality than what one may find in cosmopolitan regions. It's a simple matter of many more well trained chefs plying there trade But, Tulare is in California, and that undoubtedly helps. Other parts of the country remain landlocked. And plenty of restaurants still turn out crap. I've eaten it. And that might be the only restaurant in town. The term, "urban food desert" is well-known. I don't think it impossible to imagine a "rural dining desert." Residents of these area are not to blame for their condition, and I did not intend to imply that they are. I had to explain what a fig was to a Wisconsinite. They'd never seen a fresh one. And one last thing, people in the travel industry will tell you that not everyone is adventurous. On a trip to the UK in 2010, the topic of England's food came up. To hear people rave about the food when they return from London may not be the norm yet. One of the reasons mentioned, by people who work in the travel industry, is that some people check into the Marriott London and dine at the Marriott London, and it's crap. Venture out into the areas where the locals eat, and it's world-class. Btw, my trip was to Manchester, Liverpool, and other less well known parts of the UK, and the food we were shown by the local tourism folks was excellent.
Many thanks, James, for your comforting observations. Would that you and Roger – all three of us – could gather for a robust man-hugging.
DeleteUnfortunately, the editor can not provide any insight into the restaurant-dining options in Tulare circa the nineteen-fifties, unless the emptiness of my memories of any can be taken as proof of a paucity of options, which I would not recommend.
My poor parents and I mostly ate at home of the same sorts of dishes they and their parents and many siblings had survived on in rural Arkansas. I do remember we also occasionally had catfish or trout or venison caught or brought down by my dad.
He and I even delivered a venison flank to your father on one occasion, a bright moment in my life. Your father invited us in and lavished his unfailing hospitality on us, neither my dad nor I aware of course that one day (over 25 years later) one of the supporting reasons that Carolyn and I would move to Chapel Hill would be that your father had earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina there in 1950.