from an "ethnoburb" in the Deep South

A while back, I read a couple of interesting articles about "ethnoburbs."
Here's one from the New York Times...
...and here's another one, from The Atlantic...

Last month, while visiting friends and family in Georgia and South Carolina, I visited an artisanal "tteok" (Korean rice-'cake'/pasta, with a texture similar to gnocchi) production facility--proof that Asian 'ethnoburbs' are no longer a phenomenon solely of suburban Los Angeles and New York. 

It blew me away to find this, tucked into a converted garage on a suburban, bucolically-named, tree-lined street with pick-ups and picket fences.

Check it out:

This scene could've been in rural Korea a century ago...(sepia-tone helps)...This rice-mill was shipped over in a shipping container over thirty years ago, the proprietor told me...

The densely gooey "tteok" cylinders are in high demand in winter--sliced up, they're perfect in dumpling soup... 

Well, butter my buns and call me a biscuit, as they say...
Dixie grows more diverse with each passing year. Kimchi-and-grits...go figure...


Many Asian immigrants plant persimmon-trees in their backyards. Although my mother doesn't grow them in her garden, she does pickle them with soy and vinegar: 

 (Who knew you could pickle persimmons?)

Tastes of the Far East south of the Mason-Dixon Line...