5 ms·

The Great Ethnic Food Lie

• transfire 10y ago
  > But behind our public enthusiasm for Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Ethiopian, Korean, and the many other foreign cuisines that can be enjoyed in cities like New York, there is also private, and yet pronounced, form of bias, a subtle hypocrisy that suggests we think these foods are inferior. Dumbest statement I have ever read.
  • transfire 10y ago
    ... and some of the most expensive restaurants I have ever eaten at were "ethnic".
  • waterphone 10y ago
    It's the big new stupid thing social justice warriors are hyping up lately, an asinine claim that by enjoying food from other countries we are calling it inferior.
• venomsnake 10y ago
  > Most cheap Indian food is made by Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, and most Indian food here is cheap. Of course, people don't realize that. But it's true. More than 70 percent of the Indian restaurants in New York City, for instance, are not run by Indians. They are run by Bangladeshi and Pakistani restaurateurs. Isn't that ironic - to claim inferiority of the food preparation due to the nationality of the persons preparing it, when you are complaining that americans treat food the same way. Lets take a history book, shall we ... and a map while we are at it. Those territories were split fairly recently. I am willing to bet that Pakistani people could prepare decently Rajastani dishes, or the Bangladeshi from west Bengal. And of course the concept of Indian food is ridiculous by itself. As every other country that has varied climate zones, terrain and people - my wild guess is that India probably has at least 10-20 distinct cuisines based on what is available here, what grows well and the religion and customs of the people that inhabit the territory.