Top Chef'ing It

The reason why I love my friends is because, not only did we have a Top Chef Finale Party, we had a BYOD (bring your own dip) Top Chef Finale Party.

We dipped, we took sides, we gasped in delight when Rocco came out, we braced ourselves, and in the end, we on Team Hung cheered when our boy prevailed.

After feeling ambivalent about last year's Top Chef and Project Runway winners, I felt like order had been restored in the world. Hung had undeniable skills to back up the arrogance (though I believe a lot of the cockiness was played up and edited for good tv drama).

And while I wanted Hung to win because of his talent, having him be a fellow Vietnamese certainly was icing on the cake. His stories of coming over as an immigrant and working his way up reminded me of my parents' stories, and his use of tamarind, coconut, and prawns reminded me of the flavors I grew up with (minus the prawns). First Chloe on Project Runway, then Hung. We're taking over the world, or at least Bravo reality shows.

If becoming the first Vietnamese Supreme Court Justice or Solicitor General does not work out, I guess I could also audition for a reality show. I won best knife skills and presentation for my pumpkin mousse dip with graham crackers. (No, I do not have that much free time, I carved the pumpkin while watching Top Model and reading for First Amendment. It's called multitasking.)