J.J. North is a restaurant in Concord, right next to Circuit City and Mancini\’s Sleepworld. It\’s right across the center with Trader Joe\’s, Old Navy, and the first Krispy Kreme in Contra Costa. I hadn\’t been to that restaurant for more than 5 years. My grandparents because they don\’t speak English like the buffet style, because eating there doesn\’t require any language skills. There\’s no difficulty trying to translate Romanesque letters into a tone-flowing language. No struggle with the words \”macroni and cheese\”…they could choose by sight and smell.

My grandmother hadn\’t seen me for awhile because my schedule this summer has been very erratic. And so she chose a non-asian restaurant…J.J. North. I silently obliged, knowing that she often had an insatiable appetite for such meals (one time, she ate 3 plates full of crab legs). But suddenly, the whole restaurant disgusted me when I arrived. (Not just because I had gotten a pseudo-flu over the weekend and felt dizzy throughout the day..) Most patrons were…pleasantly plump. Despite the restaurant implementing a lo-carb section, it wasn\’t enough. I saw how obviously overweight people overindulged, piling on their plates levels of meat and sucking up cups of pepsi. All the while neglecting the salads. The entire atmosphere was supposed to be familylike…similar to the Reno and Las Vegas buffets. But it seemed more of a cholestrol-rising type of meal.

For the past few years at Berkeley, I have been wrought with my female friends\’ desires to be thin. To eat less and not work out. To not get sweaty, to do situps, but not do heart-rate increasing activities. To avoid foods, thinking that it would help them in the run. I dislike how it affects me…that this is just all superficiality. We just want to look good…for what end? It\’s never enough to have many compliments of \”you look great\” versus the impact of one single criticism of \”you\’re fat\”. Compared with the rest of the world, it seems so trivial. There are worse things out there. Much worse things to worry about…and here there are some that selfishly look inwards. To what end? Maybe just perhaps if there were more Chows out there rather than J.J. Norths.