"Cultured"

While enjoying a Latin American dinner event this evening (somehow, another post inspired by a dinner event. odd.), our plates full of empanadas and platanos and arroz con frijoles, a Puerto Rican friend leaned over to the girl seated beside him to suggest the best way of eating platanos fritos (fried plantain).


"Try this garlic sauce," he insisted, "They're best when you have them with this."


I looked up just in time to catch her sideways glance at him and hear the accompanying response, said with that stereotypical power of attitude that print just can't convey as well as it deserves: "I know, I grew up in Brooklyn - I'm cultured."


I couldn't help but smile in agreement and appreciation. Funny, isn't it, the number of definitions for a word like "cultured"....