"Frogleg" > wrote in message
...
> On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 05:45:16 GMT, "Peter Dy" >
> wrote:
>
> >"Frogleg" > wrote
>
> etc., etc.
>
> This is getting out of hand. We're going to have a novel posted soon.
>
> >> I resent "dumbed down" and "American tastes." One sauce? I dunno.
> >
> >Restaurant owners/worker have told me, and I've read it, that they want
to
> >serve vegetables Americans are used to. I'm sure if you asked diners in
> >such restaurants, they would say the same: I prefer American vegetables.
> >So, if you don't want to call that "Americanized", what, pray tell, do
you
> >suggest we call it?
>
> Is the problem American tastes, restauranteurs' expectations, or
> availability of ingredients? You imply the second, and assume the
> first.


You didn't answer the question. You also seem to have poor reading skills,
as I specifically said that availability wasn't the problem: "there are
Chinese vegetables pouring out into the streets in the grocery stores 3
blocks away."


[...]
> >If I know what Fish-Flavored Pork is supposed to be and what it's
supposed
> >to taste like, and a restaurant serves me a "Fish-Flavored Pork" dish
that
> >bears little resemblance to the real thing, and instead seems to have the
> >same sauce that they used for the fried noodle dish (which they should
have
> >used for that dish either), then I say that they have "dumbed it down"
for
> >the diners. What do you want to call it?
>
> Fish-Flavored Pork? *That* sounds interesting. Again, you mention "the
> restaurant served me." Maybe there *are* too many bad restaurants in
> the US. I expect there are equally bad ones in Madrid and Bangalore,
> but wouldn't Chinese food be equally "dumbed down" for the Spanish or
> Indians?


You didn't answer the question.


> My complaint (one of them) is that adaptations to local tastes and
> ingredients is (sometimes) judged artful adaptation in the rest of the
> world, but "dumbing down" when it comes to the US. With this
> discussion, I *do* think I'm missing something by not being able to
> taste particularly actractive cuisines on their home ground.


I agree now.


But I
> refuse to believe that my access to "Mexican" and "Thai" and
> "Pakistani" food is beneath contempt, nor my efforts to explore with
> the help of cookbooks and delightful web sites, in my own kitchen.


Only you seem to feel your access "beneath contempt."


[...]
> I resent being told (implied) that I'm "dumb" for liking green papaya
> salad, because it isn't the *right* green papaya salad. Or that I can
> never make *proper* dosa outside the Indian subcontinent. Nor can I
> say I like Indian or Thai or Chinese cooking because I've never
> experienced the real thing. And I don't/can't get the right soy or
> fish sauce.


Only the voice in your head seems to be telling you these things.


OK. I'll keep seeking recipes and ingredients and growing
> things and making curry with canned cocount milk and lurk for
> possiblities that please me and won't earn the scorn of afa'rs.


If you've earned any scorn here, quasi-troll, it is not because you use
canned coconut milk.

Peter