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"With China, [Americans] are still filled with this funny disdain, that it is about cheap and crappy stuff, including about cheap and crappy food" Because unti
by kstenerud 10y ago
"With China, [Americans] are still filled with this funny disdain, that it is about cheap and crappy stuff, including about cheap and crappy food"
Because until very recently, it HAS been cheap and crappy food in America. "Chinese food" has traditionally meant the chop suey that you take out from Dragon Inn (and in many areas, it STILL means that).
I grew up with a severe dislike for Chinese food. It tasted like I was literally eating out of a garbage can. The first time I ate at a Chinese friend's place I was very leery, but it turned out of course that the Western idea and the Chinese idea of "Chinese food" could not be more divergent. Good food is good food, but Chinese cuisine has a long Western history to live down.
To this day I still cringe whenever someone suggests Chinese cuisine, because I never know which kind they have in mind.
- stephenr 10y ago> but Chinese cuisine has a long Western history to live down. a) don't lump the rest of the 'western' world in with America. "Chinese food" in Australia is of course not authentic, but by local tastes is usually delicious. b) implying something has to "live down" implies that there is fault with the item itself. Good Chinese food (or even good chinese-inspired food, rather than authentic chinese) didn't force Americans to eat shit.
- et-al 10y agoI think the parent meant "live down" in the American perception of Chinese cuisine as being just "chop suey" and other greasy dishes. The problem is that much of the early Chinese food cooked in America was by miners/railroad workers who had few other job opportunities. It was not until the late 1960s and 70s when actual chefs came to the States[0]. [0] http://time.com/4211871/chinese-food-history/ http://time.com/4211871/chinese-food-history/