Please tell me if it was just me who took offense or if the old guy was being rude.

Context: I live in LA and have been here for a handful of years. Married for 5 months now. In the amount of time I’ve been here, I’ve tried a myriad of cuisines, had numerous new experiences and had created a life for myself.

My husband and I were paying for some groceries in a Filipino supermarket & have been speaking in English the entire time (I speak English, Tagalog & Bisaya fluently. Husband grew up in the US).

An old guy who was waiting to pay after us had kutstinta and palitaw on his food choices, and in an attempt to be friendly, I asked,”Ooh, kutsinta? I haven’t had those in a looong time!” while mistakenly pointing at the palitaw.

He got all huffy and asked,”Ilang taon ka na ba nakatira dito?”

“A little over 7 years,”I answered gamely.

He then proceeds to say,”Nandito ako sa LA mga 28 years na at alam ko pa din kung ano ang mga ito.”He separates the palitaw and kutsinta and proceeds to point at them,”Ito palitaw at ito kutsinta”.

I found it very rude? I feel like if he pointed out that I was wrong in a less rude manner, I wouldn’t have been as offended. But the way he pointed out my mistake was ridiculously embroiled in a weird superiority complex.

I’m sorry I forgot the names of rice cakes I haven’t had in a long time? I still eat Filipino food from time to time but I’ve had Thai, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Burmese, American, English, Belgian, German, Chinese, Italian, French, Peruvian, Mexican and other cuisine since.

I felt like remembering what rice cake was which was being conflated for how Filipino I am, and despite his old age, all I wanted to say was,”Fuck you.”

/Rant over