Mì

"Mì" means "wheat" in Vietnamese.  Mì has been in my vocabulary for as long as I can remember.  Growing up, I ate many bowls of mì gói (packaged, instant noodles, usually Top Ramen or Maruchan), mi hu tieu, and mi hoan thanh.  The common denominator in all these bowls were golden noodles.  It wasn't until recently that I learned that mì refers to "wheat" more broadly.  

Embarrassingly, I only came to know this definition a few weeks ago.  My (non-Vietnamese-speaking) friend, my mom, and I were making banh xeo together soon after I returned from my six-month search for an organic grain and dry bean farm to work on.  I recounted my travels, which included passionate proclamations of my rationale and intentions to cultivate as many ingredients in a Southeast Asian diet as possible in California.  When I finished the story and we refocused on cooking, my friend looked at a Vietnamese-language recipe and asked what mì is.  I said, "It's a kind of noodle, usually a wheat noodle."  My mom waited, in the way teachers do, to correct me.  "It means wheat.  Any kind of wheat." 

How embarrassing!  I go on about wanting to grow grains for Vietnamese immigrants, yet I don't know how to talk about it.  This event reminds me of a few things:

1. How I sometimes feel like an imposter among Vietnamese people
2. How I sometimes feel like an imposter among non-Vietnamese people
3. I should talk to my parents more than I do
4. The adjustment to grain and dry bean cultivation will exercise humility

While I continue to work on those things, I'd also like to research

• grains and beans grown in Southeast Asia
• grains and beans grown in California (past and present)
• selection of grasses