A Culturally Insensitive Machine?

Published by

Clarissa

December 29, 2015

I just bought N one of those programmable, multi-option tea-brewing machines for New Year’s. It felt like a good idea at first but now I’m wondering if it might be culturally insensitive. I wouldn’t like it if he got me a borscht-making machine, would I?

I have fallback gifts, too, but this was going to be the centerpiece of the celebration.

P.S. And no, I couldn’t get him a samovar because a samovar needs actual flames and any suggestion of an electrical samovar freaks out a Russian person really badly.

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15 responses to “A Culturally Insensitive Machine?”

Pen

December 29, 2015

What makes you say it might be culturally insensitive? What’s wrong with tea?

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1. Clarissa
  
  December 29, 2015
  
  Maybe he likes brewing it manually and I’m taking that away. Russian people are very particular about their tea.
  
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  1. Dreidel
    
    December 29, 2015
    
    “Maybe he likes brewing it manually and I’m taking that away.”
    
    Not at all, you’re just giving him more options. 🙂
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      December 29, 2015
      
      True. I’m not breaking the pot he uses to brew it manually.
      
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  2. Shakti
    
    December 29, 2015
    
    How did Russians and Ukrainians review this tea maker? Sometimes these multi option tea makers and brews aren’t calibrated for different tea traditions, let’s say.
    
    All the same, if you have a large party, a tea maker may prove useful.
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      December 29, 2015
      
      A large party of Russians??? What did I ever do to you?
      
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      1. Shakti
        
        December 29, 2015
        
        :p
        You’re right, they would never shut up about the tea maker. :p :p :p
        
        At a large party of Indians, someone always ends up putting one of those giant gallon pots on the stove to make chai. My maternal grandparents could have used one. People would stop from dawn to til late at night and they’d always need tea for visitors.
        
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        Clarissa
        
        December 29, 2015
        
        I would not mind a large party of Indians because I don’t think they’d tempt me to poison the tea by glorifying Putin a lot. 🙂
        
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Dreidel

December 29, 2015

??How would it be culturally insensitive to buy you a borscht-making machine??

Would that be implying that a good Ukrainian like you couldn’t make great borscht without special equipment? I don’t get it…

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1. Clarissa
  
  December 29, 2015
  
  Exactly! What, like I’m so pathetic I can’t make my own borscht? And need some Russian fellow to point that out?? My borscht recipe is legendary. Legendary!!
  
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  1. Stille (@aperfectbalance)
    
    December 29, 2015
    
    Better than legendary, it’s delicious.
    
    I guess this all depends on how important the tea-making ritual itself is for N. If he’s getting something through the ritual itself, then things that simplify the ritual away won’t be used much. If, however, the ritual is the thing he goes through to get the reward of the tea, things that will deliver the tea faster/with less effort will probably be very welcome
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      December 29, 2015
      
      He doesn’t mind me brewing it, even though I’m bad at it. I’m thinking, the machine can’t be much worse.
      
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      1. Stille (@aperfectbalance)
        
        December 29, 2015
        
        In that case, the machine will probably help. In my years when the coffee making process itself was important to me, I’d get really twitchy about anyone making it for me (and the process itself was designed to be as complicated as possible)
        
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Dreidel

December 29, 2015

Next time, just buy N a George Foreman grill — nothing culturally insensitive about that all-American machine, and it’s by far the easiest way to grill boneless meat and chicken. You ever tried one?

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1. Clarissa
  
  December 29, 2015
  
  That would be a gift for me, not for him. 🙂 Everything that has to do with cooking is mine. And yes, I’d like one. Now let’s make sure N knows. 🙂
  
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