Duck Sauce and Mustard

This is another essay that I wrote my senior year in HS.  It was also published in the Asian American students' magazine in college.  It reminds of where I came from.  It's disconcerting to me that these essays are still so relevant to me today.

Duck Sauce and Mustard

"Dad?  Where did duck sauce and mustard get their names?"  I asked my father at the restaurant one day.  Dad thought about it for a while and took a deep breath.  "Oh no," I thought.  "He's going to tell one of his stories again."  I frantically search my mind for a plausible excuse to avoid hearing his explanation.  Too late, he had already started, I sighed and forced myself to at least pretend to pay attention.

"Because unlike the other sauces, which are made by the chefs, duck sauce and mustard are usually mixed by the waiters or busboys."

"So?"

"So, the kitchen people usually don't have any formal education past high school, if even that much.  The waiters and busboys on the other hand are usually foreign students who decided to stay in America.  They usually have Masters or Doctorates.  The kitchen people gave the sauces these names because of this."

"I don't get it."

"Think about it, doc sauce or master."

"Dad, that's a terrible joke."

"It's true."

"Yeah, right."

"Okay, believe what you want," he shrugged, and started reading the newspaper.

Later that night, I thought about what he had said and recognized the bitter irony behind his story.  It was my parents' story in a way.  Right after my father got his MBA, he started to wait tables.  Mom was a cashier at another Chinese restaurant,  Mom has a MS in math.  Neither one of them could find jobs, because who wanted to hire a "chink" who couldn't speak English clearly anyway?  Eventually through hard work they managed to succeed, the American Dream in action.

Even though we are now well off, I can sometimes still see the bitterness in my father, especially when he tells stories like duck sauce and mustard.

Thinking back on my parents' story I wonder if it's still true now.  Perhaps not as much, but duck sauce and mustard will always stay in my mind.  So remember, the next time you go to a Chinese restaurant, your waiter might just be a "duck" or a "mustard."

Michele Chang

May 14, 1992