thought for today that doesn't make much sense

so i was lucky enough (blessed?) to get invited to a south asian (read: Indian) restaurant last night for a friend's mother's 60th birthday. and the funny thing was, myself, rockstar hubby and another friend, were the only 'whities'. the rest were 'brownies'. (note: because we are white, we are not aloud to call them brown, we are to call them south asian. so excuse my references which come directly from my south asian friend. were i telling the story in my own words, i would say, south asian, but then it wouldnt' be as funny.) the exciting part was that i would finally find out how they eat. yes, i know, with their hands and forks and knives. hardeeharhar. however...you know what i mean. how many of you have had the rare opportunity to go to a secluded, strange chinese food restaurant, and eaten 'real' chinese food? (sorry, north asian food) it's a huge treat. i used to work in a chinese restaurant in thunder bay (there were two and yes they were delicious). and if i did some prep work for the kitchen (mind you it didn't happen often because i was always working the front by myself), after we closed at 9-10 o'clock, i would be invited to eat dinner. dinner involved luxurious, simple dishes that were not, as B would put it, deep fried or battered. fresh fish, tofu and vegetables in tangy sauce, my favourite house fried rice! we would all sit in a circle, our bowls filled with white rice and we would slurp our food with chopsticks. i would never take the fish eyeball, even though it was offered. and conversation was pretty much in their language and i have absolutely no idea what they talked about, but it didn't matter because i was slurping right along, stuffing myself so i wouldn't have to eat breakfast the next morning. (you remember how expensive it was being a student)and since then, i have not had the privilege of eating anything so spectacular again. so when we were invited to dinner last night, i thought, finally! i get to try it!
the restaurant is the Taj Mahal on bank street. yes, it looks a little scummy from the outside. but let me tell you, when you open the door, you don't smell the typical stinky fried foods. the flavours are heavenly. i sat beside my brown friend, and asked her what we should order. we ordered a spinach dish and a lamb dish. now i know it sounds boring. she herself ordered the 'brown person's tandoori chicken', which turns out, is chicken that has been soaking in it's sauce for over 24 hours. so you can imagine the heat! we received our dishes and i have to tell you, it did indeed look like baby vomit. or dog vomit. well, it was vomit. but the smell!!! my nose was already tingling and getting stuffy. hubby and i threw on the basmati rice and piled it on.
oh my goodness.
it was brilliant. the flavours were incredible. it was spicy and fragrant and sweet and starchy and chewy and well, perfect. my brown friend explained that she had ordered the 'white person' heat because there was no way we could have handled it. then she gave me a piece of her chicken. i was smart. i picked from the inside, where the chicken had not been touched by spices. it was perfect. and then the heat hit me. and i couldn't stop the tears and i couldn't stop the burning but i didn't want it to go away because it was so good! i mean, it's not like hot chicken wings where all you taste is just plain hot. this was sooooo good! i guess she felt sorry for me because she handed me a glass of mango juice. yes, mango juice. i took a sip. gone. the heat, was gone. completely and utterly gone. but so was the taste.

needless to say we ate way beyond our fill and staggered back to the car where i proceeded to have disgustingly smelly farts all the way home. it was brilliant.

so my question is: what do canadians do? i mean, do south asians come over to a 'canadian' restaurant and say, 'hey, i don't want the food you feed everyone else. i want the real canadian food.' what do we give them? poutine? venison? salmon? i have absolutely no idea. hopefully i will never be asked.