"ggull" > wrote in message
...
<snip>
> (2) I've had some interesting discussions with Chinese friends on why
> "Chinese restaurant" food bears so little resemblance to real Chinese
food,
> or at least is so limited.

It's simple.... we(Chinese) have 2 types of food in most Chinese restaurants
across the world incl. in HK, we have restaurant styled food & home styled
food. You'll more often then not find home styled food on the Chinese only
menu, well that's how it is here in the UK.

> restaurant managers think this is what their customers want, and that they
> would be put off by more authentic dishes, so that's what they offer; and
> the customers think that that is what Chinese food is, so that's what they
> demand.

Probably true but if you grew up eating *westernised* Chinese food say 20,
30, 40yrs ago in the States or UK & not had the real thing before, you'd
think what you're eating was the real thing anyway. Then people started
going on long haul holidays & it also became easier to import some hard to
get ingredients from Asia & we now have the 2 menu secenario. There's also
more recently arrived Chinese now in the States & UK, so there's a demand
for more *authentic* Chinese food. This thing about having 2 menus... well
it's just food developing & tastes evolving. We now have *westernised*
Chinese food in Asia too & some are really good like deep fried oatmeal
coated prawns flavoured with butter or how about deep fried prawn
wantons/dumplings served with salad cream/sauce. Back to the OP, i
believe this is true for Indian food as well, you can now find *English*
Indian food like Baltis in the Indian subcontinent. BTW... quite a lot of
the Indian restaurants in the UK are run by Bangladeshis from a certain part
of Bangladesh, can't remember which province/region. Same thing is true with
Chinese restaurants in the West, most are or in the early days were run by
Cantonese, hence Cantonese/Southern styled Chinese food is popular in the
West or outside China.

> Historically, at least in the US, I have a hunch it goes back to
> the 19th and early 20th century, when Chinese restaurants were founded
> basically by batchelors who had never actually learned to cook, were just
> going by memories of what their moms had made and a few key ingredients
(soy
> sauce, etc).

Hehee... not quite true... i've done a bit of research into this, Chinese
men were expected to travel & look for work, some went overseas to earn
money & send money back to family in China/Asia. Once settled in new
pastures, they would or might consider bringing the wife/women or family
over. These men knew how to cook, you'll only have to read about the
Hainanese cooks in colonial days in service with the British across Asia &
beyond. The main problems for Chinese cooking overseas/in the West in the
early days were getting their Chinese ingredients. Even till this day, this
still rings true, i've travelled across Europe & found that in countries
which did not have colonies in Asia, there are very small Chinese/Asian
communities in these countries & as such the supermarkets & restaurants do
not stock everything. I've even eaten in these restaurants & have spoken to
the owners in various dailects. (a very tough job indeed) & the general
consensus is that ingredients are hard to get. That's why most of the dishes
are pretty basic. I've even had spaghetti fried up as noodles... so my
point is that Chinese men can cook but it's just not easy finding Chinese
ingredients for a proper meal in a *foreign* land. Besides... there are very
few Chinese women cooks/chefs even today in restaurants unless you go to a
small mum & dad type cafe stall. As a Chinese, we say it's a hard life
working in a restaurant & we prefer men to do that kind of work while the
women either stay at home or work as waitresses... not being sexist at all
but that's how it's been for as long as i know.

> There also seems to be a certain element of snobbery
> and exclusivity, not wanting to share the 'good stuff' with the
barbarians.

Now that bit might be true... i certainly wouldn't want to share my chicken
feet, duck tongues & stinky shrimp paste with any barbarians, heheeee...


> (2) more humorous notes: At a conference in San Francisco, a colleague
from
> Hong Kong invited me to a restaurant he had eaten at and liked, 'just like
> home'. We were apparently treated wholly differently because he now had a
> 'foreigner' with him -- seated in different section (actually a whole
> different floor), given different menus, rice on plates instead of rice
> bowls, etc. Eating with another friend in a restaurant with both 'real'
and
> 'Chinese restaurant' food, she refused to believe that one pork kidney
dish
> I particularly liked was not on the English menu ... I had to get the
> proprietor to admit to that and show me where on the Chinese menu it was.

I wouldn't call the above example racist... it's just that you'll probably
feel more comfortable eating with a mixed crowd then in a Chinese speaking
only dining area... we are pretty messy eaters, we shout, talk with our
mouths full & shovel rice from bowl to mouth in 10secs flat. Some elderly
gents even Umm... have rather disgusting behaviours like snort & clear their
noses or thoats in public. But to be fair & on the practical side of
things... Chinese speaking waiters work the Chinese areas while bilingual
waiters do the dining rooms/halls/floors with the mixed crowds. And hence...
we're back to the 2 menus scenario.

my 2 chopstixs worth of commentary...

DC.