Rant about authentic Chinese food
A man once said to me, "Because I'm [insert nationality], the food that I cook is [insert same nationality]." It made sense to me. I think the particular nationality in the phrase could easily be applied to any of the popular ethnic food in the U.S. Authenticity is a subject that can be tackled endlessly. It's no secret how I feel about supposed Chinese food that doesn't live in a predominantly Chinese neighborhood. This got me thinking even more... maybe I'm going about all wrong with authenticity. Maybe it's not about who cooks the food or what the food represents or emulating. Maybe it's all about who eats the food. Let's first establish that if you think something is delicious or represents something, I WILL judge you, but I'm not going to correct you. If you love the shit outta General Tso's AND you think it's 'real' Chinese food, more power to you. If you love Hunan Kitchen and think it's 'real' Chinese food, more power to you as well.
So in the even that the Four Season's hotel wants to kick out Joel Robuchon in NYC and hire Fuchsia Dunlop to cook 'authentic' Chinese recipes to big ballers, you know, I would still have to call a pig a pig. The question of authenticity has often centered around who does the cooking. Here in the United States, you'd probably find there's many Hispanics or Latin Americans in the kitchens. And if someone like Fuchsia Dunlop cooks the Chinese food, I have no doubt it'll be pretty close to what 'authentic' flavor is.
If it's not about who cooks the food, then is it really just about the food itself? I understand that supporters of a cracker-backed, Chink-cheffed 'Chinese' restaurant would say that if price wasn't a concern, many Chinese people will go. This is true. But price is a real thing, and if you have enough ballering Chinks, they'll go to fancy Chinese places. After all, there are some pretty ballering and pricy Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong and they're pretty much frequented by mostly Chinese folks. Where does that leave us if we talk about 'authentic' food?
The clientele. This is also one of the more racist way to talk about it. If I said that ethnic food like Chinese food or Mexican food, when served mostly to crackers, simply can't be authentic. Then I'm the bad guy. Hold up though. If you open a Chinese restaurant, first and foremost, YOU WANNA MAKE MONEY. So it's no secret that these restaurants in white neighborhoods do better profit margins than those near Canal Street, because many cracker-backed restaurants have smart accountants and business people, and if the business model of a Chinatown shop was better, it would be more widely adopted. Money is the reason that fancier Chinese restaurants don't open in Chinatown, and the location is why not as many Chinese people go. And the lack of Chinese clientele is really what separates an authentic restaurant from an inauthentic one. When it comes to authenticity, flavor is secondary to clientele.
I had this discussion with Jonathan earlier and he mentioned some Australian dude who's studied Thai food really closely and has opened Thai restaurants with one in Bangkok. I discount that man's efforts because while he might be opening it in Thailand and providing authentic flavors, he's doing high-end food (to give you an idea, his set menu is 1500 baht, while normal green papaya salad street food style in Thailand is 25 baht. Do the calculations yourself). Sure he'll win over some baller Thais, but the world must be about more than how you cater to ballers. That's just not enough.
The truth is I'm way too cynical to believe any notion of doing certain ethnic food with higher quality ingredients at the best price possible. You need to be catering the food to the people of the ethnicity for it to matter. Take someone like Rick Bayless for example. I'm sure the average earning Mexican in Chicago would delight in the food at Rick's restaurants, but are they priced for the average man? So going forward, in judging authenticity, it is only about two things: One - Where is your restaurant? Two - Who eats there?
You can take a restaurant that uses higher quality ingredients, and plop that shit on Mott St or East Broadway. You absolutely can. The idea that nouveau chefs want to do better ingredients but not for the people who'd could use it the most, it's baffling. If ingredients matter, why can't a restauranteur show me that while catering to the people? If you open an upscale Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, you pay more for more skilled workers, and you pay more for higher quality ingredients. So then it's about whether the business person thinks Chinese people will pay the premium. Is it more racist for me to say that if a Chinese restaurant is full of crackers then it's not Chinese food? Or is it more implicitly racist that business owners don't have faith that Chinese people would be willing to pay a premium for higher quality ingredients produced by higher quality craftsmen? If they believed it, they would open it there already.
P.S. - Oh and I know the pictures are of hot dogs and some pastries. The hot dogs were pricy and disappointing, and they were from Epicerie Boulud. The pastries are good, but if you compare them to France you might be disappointed. So don't do that. They're good pastries, and priced the way pastries are in these parts of town.
(I invite you to follow me on Twitter so you can get more of my non-sense in another medium.)
How many times a day do you call yourself racist?
I don't think you're too far off because ultimately this is a question of perception.
racist.
Jonathan
November 2, 2011 9:57 am
@Jonathan,
I guess that's why I should also stop calling myself fat. :D
Danny
November 2, 2011 9:58 am
I call myself fat all the time. Non-stop. But I say it with such love that it's like an affirmation now.
Jonathan
November 2, 2011 10:11 am
@Jonathan,
So it's like being on Oprah then! Affirmations! There must be a cute way for me to call myself 'I am a smart lil motherfucker, aren't I?!' haha. As for the fatness. I like petting my belly.
Danny
November 2, 2011 10:13 am
Let's say that authentic is a stand-in for "real" or "direct." An authentic meal has roots. It's the shit that people eat every day in some part of the world, and it's often part of some longer-standing culinary tradition. Or it's just the adaptation that cooks had to come up with to sell lunch to white people (read: American Chinese food) and survive. It's the food that isn't cooked up by a celebrity chef and pair of investors who can afford their own PR department. In a big way, a lot of sit-down restaurants of New York are inauthentic because they're based on "concepts" that enact a cleansing of the connection between diner, cook, culture, and economy. You never see the kitchen, you don't know where the food comes from, you sometimes revel in the fact that the food departs from longstanding food traditions, and you have little information on how much of your money is going to which workers at the restaurant -- in fact, that's the point. By and large, you go to a restaurant to have some shit paraded for you, being assured that it's tasty. But you don't intend to have any kind of experiential connection to the conditions of life behind your meal.
That's a pretty poorly formed tangent. Forgiveness please!
A few more pieces of food for thought on the subject of demographic behavior:
-There are Southerners who like KFC.
-For some reason, a lot of people with great taste in Hip-Hop have terrible taste in rock music. This is totally true.
-Plenty of Indians eat supbar Indian restaurants in America, just like plenty of Indians eat subpar Indian food in India. Really, as long as the quality of food is a gradient in any country, it's tough to ignore the fact that some people just don't care about food. I think Asian Americans tend to be more concerned with eating as a daily joy, but that doesn't say much about how cultured their palate is.
-Most Mexican food in New York is literally workers' food. In Mexico, it would be really simple, ho-hum shit that you snack on or eat because you can't afford meals at nicer restaurants. I think American might be the only country that jerks off at the mention of a taco.
-The vast majority of Americans don't go to baller restaurants. They eat frozen, processed meals from the supermarket or from fast food and fast-casual restaurants. The very idea of authenticity is three steps removed from people who aren't even acclimated to or capable of affording food that is made from scratch.
I really don't know where I'm going with this; I just like the conversation topic and am too scatterbrained right now to keep it going more intelligently :P
James
November 7, 2011 8:57 pm
It's been a while since I came to your blog and I'm pleased to see that you're still wrestling with the issue of race and food in your entries! I often go on similar rants and it's comforting to know that I'm not alone. Peace
luvsocks
January 13, 2012 2:13 pm