Conservatives Criticize Pearl Harbor Day Asian Lunch Menu At Obama Children's School

In what seems to be an unfortunate coincidence, Sidwell Friends -- the school that Malia and Sasha Obama attend -- served an Asian-inspired lunch menu [pdf] Wednesday, Pearl Harbor Day. The menu consisted of the following items:

Asian Mushroom Soup
Oriental Noodle Salad
Classic Spinach Salad
Teriyaki Marinated Chicken Strips
Szechuan Tofu & Veggies
Garlic Roasted Edamame
Vegetable Fried Rice
Fortune Cookies

Apparently, this menu has ruffled some Conservative feathers. The school told the Washington Post that the menu was "just a fluke":

The contractor that prepares school lunches randomly assigned an Asian menu to Dec. 7, and the subcontractor that prints the calendars automatically marked Wednesday at Pearl Harbor Day. "It was completely coincidental," said Ellis Turner, associate head of the school.

Although intentionally serving Japanese food on a day that commemorates one of the bloodiest foreign attacks on U.S. soil would certainly be strange and inappropriate, the Sidwell Friends' menu is barely Japanese. Last time we checked, dishes like "Classic Spinach Salad," "Szechuan Tofu & Veggies, "Vegetable Fried Rice" and "Fortune Cookies" are not particularly Japanese. The "Teriyaki Marinated Chicken Strips" and perhaps the "Garlic Roasted Edamame" are the only items remotely reminiscent of the country's cuisine. More interesting to us, actually, is how surprisingly tasty much of the school's food sounds.

For the record, here's Barack Obama's statement on the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Comments

[beckymonster]

01:55 PM on 12/25/2011

as long as it was delicious, then there really is no issue here.

http://beckymonster.blogspot.com/

[Brad Kessler]

10:39 AM on 12/16/2011

So these "conservatives" are reader comments from a DC news website? Reader comments? Really? Since when are reader comments newsworthy?

[Koeiseun]

12:39 AM on 12/13/2011

What a bunch of simpletons......is that really all these people have to think and worry about??? I often wonder what it would be like to go through life as such a simpleton.......

[honeybear64]

10:12 AM on 12/12/2011

This is so ridiculously childish. I'm going to leave aside the fact that most of the food on the menu is not even specifically Japanese in the first place. Fact is, the event occurred 70 years ago, and we are at peace with Japan, and have been for decades. Yes, by all means, let's honor the memory of those who died in the attacks. But what is the sense in rekindling animosity toward Japan, now our close ally and trading partner, in this day and age? Pearl Harbor Day is not "Hate Japan Day".

I seriously doubt that the conservatives would have claimed that a school that a Republican president's kids attended was paying homage to Italy's WWII fascist dictatorship by serving spaghetti, pizza, or lasagna on V-E day.

[stacyhpt]

08:55 PM on 12/11/2011

Wish my kid got that nice of a lunch! His school had tuna sandwich. Heck! Wish I had that nice of a lunch.

[soisay]

12:50 AM on 12/14/2011

Ohmygod! Japanese Bluefish tuna sandwiches? The offense to our military veterans. I am throwing out all of my Chicken of the Sea!

;)

[xstevejx]

06:43 PM on 12/11/2011

What DOESN'T ruffle uptight conservatives' feathers???

[treemonkey]

06:04 PM on 12/11/2011

So, we totally missed the important lessons from these horrible wars, and rather than learn, or even practice a little tolerance, we use a lunch menu for children to re-fight the start of our involvement in World War II. Oh, wait, these same conservatives have never conceded the end of, and never stopped re-fighting the Civil War. And over half of us continue to place these clowns in office so that more of the same can be perpetrated. Like Pogo said, 'We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us."

[lobear00]

09:32 AM on 12/11/2011

Conservatives' need to keep their heads in the closet's and stop being so nosey .

[Donns]

09:30 AM on 12/11/2011

MY goodness, but aren't these conservatives lunatics a scary lot?

[osofar]

07:28 AM on 12/11/2011

As far as I can remember, most of the Asian nations in WWII were allies of the USA.

[sabelmouse]

11:12 AM on 12/12/2011

they weren't treated very friendly by japan.

[Adam Valen Levinson]

07:20 AM on 12/11/2011

Exactly, this is almost entirely Chinese. It would be nice to shoot back at those offended and play the racism card for conflating all Asian cultures into one (that we are supposed to hate for a day because of that thing their army did 70 years ago) — but that doesn't usually get through to these people.

[Brad Kessler]

10:51 AM on 12/16/2011

All of it looks rather American to me. Most dishes over here that use the word Szechuan have nothing whatsoever to do with China. And they don't eat a lot of chicken in Japan either. But what's more puzzling is why a DC news agency chose to report it in the first place. Bait perhaps?

[cyoohoos]

05:54 AM on 12/11/2011

Tofu in school? I can't get a grown man to eat tofu let alone kids. Put these lunch ladies on Chopped.

[jgw845]

12:23 AM on 12/11/2011

Oh good grief! Maybe instead they should have served K-rations with the 4-packs of Lucky Strikes in the green boxes. Nothing says WW II like that! Or maybe that old Navy standby, SOS.

Is there anything that doesn't offend the PC wingnuts?

[Mr Anonymous]

09:07 PM on 12/10/2011

Well, you do know that conservatives have a problem with geography.

Asian, Japanese, same difference, right?

[USHistoryMan]

02:53 PM on 12/10/2011

Strictly speaking, many Asians, especially Chinese, suffered horrible treatment at the hands of Japanese soldiers. (Think Bataan Death March, but much worse and lasting many years.) The serving of a mostly Chinese lunch could be seen as a gesture of sympathy.