Husband stands up for Asian wife when his cousin from rural Ohio calls her cooking 'not authentic'

The art of cooking takes a lot of effort for the final dish to turn out to be delicious. For all the time and effort that was put into making something, people who cooked the dish naturally expect some kind of compliment. But there are some killjoys who, no matter how good a dish is, would have something negative to say about it. Recently, one such incident was shared on Reddit by a husband who had to confront his annoying cousin for picking on his wife's Asian cooking. u/tx2mi stood up for his wife, though the family was not happy about it and people could relate to his situation.

The 48-year-old husband and his Asian wife were both working in the Middle East when they first got to know each other and got married. As they moved to the USA after his retirement, the couple lived closer to their family and often met everyone at gatherings. "My wife is a wonderful cook and one of the things our friends and family always request is her lumpia (thin spring rolls)," said the proud husband. In a recent gathering, his wife made a huge batch of lumpia for all his family members as per their request. But his distant cousin spoiled the mood for them.

Talking about his 30-something-year-old cousin's peskiness, the husband wrote, "He was oohing and aahing how good the spring rolls were but that they just were not authentic because they had meat (chicken) in them," and added, "He spent the whole day eating them and telling everyone how disappointed he was that an Asian could not make authentic spring rolls. The husband couldn't stand the comments of his nitwit cousin, who has never in his life visited Asia or tasted authentic Asian food other than a Chinese buffet.

The husband eventually lost his cool and said that his cousin shouldn't have eaten so much of his wife's delicious lumpia if he felt they were disappointing. "I told him he should probably apologize to the only actual Asian in the house who knows what authentic Asian food might look like," said the husband and added, "I closed and told him I was embarrassed for his ignorance and intolerance." Since this incident happened at a holiday party at his aunt's place, the 48-year-old extended his apologies to his uncle and aunt, who were upset about his indifference towards the cousin. "I also told them we won’t be bringing anything but store-bought food if this cousin is there in the future," he concluded.

"Oh boy, lumpia! Good on you for chiming in. There is always the same sort of colonial supremacy of an outsider dictating what is and isn’t 'authentic.' I have had the same issue, but it was a sibling rather than a cousin. Also hilarious that he wants to talk about 'authenticity,' but probably can’t distinguish between any cuisines, regions, etc.," commented u/FiggyPuddingExpert. "So, this cousin can insult your wife's cooking at a family event, but calling him out on his bigotry and ignorance at the same family event is beyond the pale? Your uncle has just as much to apologize for as your cousin, if not more," pointed out u/MarkAndReprisal. "He can prepare and cook the Lumpia for the next gathering, then!" joked u/FioanaSickles.