While in America, I remember a time when she went to a Chinese restaurant and told me about it (she's always been interested in international cultures and cuisines), and mentioned, "It was so good, because it was 'authentic.'"
As someone who is half-Chinese (or of Chinese descent, if the "half" is too politically charged), I asked her, "What makes you think it was authentic?"
My own previous experience with Chinese food in America had led me to deduce, that, much like all franchises attempting to make international cuisines more appealing, said cuisine had been tweaked in order to suit local palates. Which didn't mean they were any less delicious, only that they were not necessarily traditionally Chinese.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Authenticity
Good article at Stuff White People Do. This is just an excerpt:
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3 comments:
I enjoyed this comment under the article:
"One day we all went out to an Indian restaurant (we're Indian ourselves) that came highly recommended to us. When we walked inside, my parents noted with some confusion that all of the waiters were east Asian. When it was time to order our food, my dad asked with concern: "Are the cooks Indian?" because he was worried the food wouldn't be authentic.
In response, our waiter laughed and said: "We are all Indian!" Turned out that everyone at the restaurant was of east Asian ancestry but were second and third generation Indian. They even went back home every 6 months to see their families, when we hadn't visited India in 6 years. We had some great conversations with them and they had actually seen more of the motherland than my parents even had."
Had some authentic chinese last week with my chinese friend on Fri. The waiter brought us a random huge bowl if a starter soup that was thick and brothy. We kept spooning ladels into each others bowls and kept gulping away. Sadly, as we got to the bottom of the bowl we saw a CHICKEN FOOT WITH CLAWS starting at us! He was like, "that's the best part", I screamed like a girl and had no more soup.
Oh Eyal, Eyal. [shakes head]
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