Speaker 1: You were listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair.
Speaker 1: My family has been in New York since nineteen sixties
Speaker 1: and I lived there until I was ten. From ten
Speaker 1: to seventeen, I was in Dominicam Republic. And you went
Speaker 1: back to when I was seventeen. My mom is working,
Speaker 1: my stepdad is working, my sisters and I were finding
Speaker 1: our afternoon sort of placements. I was working also on
Speaker 1: the weekends at Burger King and stop there, what were
Speaker 1: you doing? I worked at Burger King and what did
Speaker 1: you do here? I did the drive through. You know, Hi,
Speaker 1: welcome to Burgleem, I take your order. There was a
Speaker 1: lady from Guyanese lady who is like my boss, and
Speaker 1: I just loved her accent. Welcome to burger Que, Ma
Speaker 1: take Yorda. And I would like, I wasn't making fun
Speaker 1: of her. I would just try to kind of acquire
Speaker 1: this this accent because it was also like, now that
Speaker 1: I'm back in New York, I'm reconnecting with all these
Speaker 1: multicultures all over the place, and a lot of a
Speaker 1: big part of them was connecting with other Caribbean people.
Speaker 1: You know, we're from Spanish Antillas, so the West Indies's
Speaker 1: English and Tillas and the British Islands or whatever, like.
Speaker 1: We didn't really have that in Dominican Republic. So now
Speaker 1: I'm connecting with Jamaicans, I'm connecting with people from Maru.
Speaker 1: Buta Saint Lucia Grant came and cool so I and
Speaker 1: Queens is definitely a very big West Indian and so
Speaker 1: is Brooklyn, West Indian melting pot. So I was going
Speaker 1: bananas for the food. It was so good. And so
Speaker 1: I worked with a whole bunch of Caribbean people, but
Speaker 1: we were from different parts than at Barriking, and it
Speaker 1: was fun. I feel like that's when my curiosity over
Speaker 1: human behavior and who we are as people began. I
Speaker 1: think a restaurant does teach you that. Absolutely would say that,
Speaker 1: walk into a restaurant, look at the tape of everybody
Speaker 1: having fun, and everybody has a story. That's why. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: And one of my managers was this woman who must
Speaker 1: have been in her late thirties, but she drove to
Speaker 1: work in a motorcycle. You know, she was just toping
Speaker 1: I get them up junor like she would just talk
Speaker 1: like a brought during here. She just had a way
Speaker 1: of talking. And I just remember I would have like
Speaker 1: just doze off observing people and hearing their accents. Because
Speaker 1: now I'm in New York again, I'm getting to hear
Speaker 1: the world again. My life was very multicultural. It was
Speaker 1: from the beginning. I think growing up in New York,
Speaker 1: you're just around just the world at all times. Pick
Speaker 1: a block and you'll have like three continents and ten
Speaker 1: different countries and you can eat, and I feel like
Speaker 1: you do get to know people and communities through their food,
Speaker 1: And a lot happens when you break bread with individuals
Speaker 1: you just I don't know, there's an unspoken word that
Speaker 1: makes it permissible for you to connect with people that
Speaker 1: look obviously different, speak differently, smell differently from you, and
Speaker 1: yet through the food that they're sharing with you, you get
Speaker 1: a piece of who they are and vice versa. So
Speaker 1: New York is that special still to this day for me,
Speaker 1: Did you have Chinese food? Did you have any? Oh?
Speaker 1: My god? Did you Every Sunday? You I'm like the
Speaker 1: American families they go like every Sunday to like a
Speaker 1: diner and they'll have like pancakes. Oh god, why would
Speaker 1: I start the day eating cake? Like I don't you know,
Speaker 1: But like I said, I have a savory tooth. So
Speaker 1: we would wake up and go either to Flushing in Queens,
Speaker 1: which is the second biggest sort of like Chinatown Asian
Speaker 1: community outside of Chinatown in downtown Manhattan, or we would
Speaker 1: just go to Chinatown and we would have dim sum.
Speaker 1: You know, on Saturday nights you have Korean barbecue. Friday
Speaker 1: nights you have Korean barbecue. Or or sometimes if my
Speaker 1: family that was visiting from from Dominican Republic that are
Speaker 1: half Dominican half Japanese, they were in town, we would
Speaker 1: go have Shabu shabu, or you go you go to
Speaker 1: Seventhiet Street in Roosevelt and you would have like Indian food.
Speaker 1: That was our community there for Indian food. That shows
Speaker 1: a real curiosity that they really cared. It was always
Speaker 1: through food, mind you, there was still a simplicity. We
Speaker 1: didn't go any deeper than that. But by the time
Speaker 1: I would meet someone that comes from that part of
Speaker 1: the world, and if I've tried their dish before, I
Speaker 1: felt like I already knew half of them. Eating other
Speaker 1: world's foods feeds your curiosity and you do remain open
Speaker 1: going okay, so I know your dishes. Some of your dishes,
Speaker 1: like I want to know more about you. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening to Ruthie's Table four in partnership with Montclair