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Yeah, maybe he does have some profound insights into Chinese food just by virtue of volume, but the fact that he doesn't like spicy food and his favorite dish i
by _hardwaregeek 8y ago
Yeah, maybe he does have some profound insights into Chinese food just by virtue of volume, but the fact that he doesn't like spicy food and his favorite dish is soy sauce and rice means that I'm probably not going to trust him for food advice. Kind of a shame actually.
- zawerf 8y agoMaybe soy sauce on rice can be done really well? A lot of my favorite rice dishes are equally plain sounding (saffron with rice, coconut oil rice, and even japanese donburi are mostly "just" soy sauce and rice). If it's literally just plain soy sauce on plain rice though, it's probably just nostalgia over childhood poverty meals. It's not bad but you don't do it by choice!
- stevenwoo 8y agoI am second generation Chinese from the same region as Chan, and I, too, did not enjoy most of the regional dishes my parents gave me and actually chose to eat soy sauce on plain rice when the dishes were unpalatable to me. I mean actual poverty meals but my bias/ignorance is showing because it's actually not clear from the article if that's what he meant or if he meant what you are describing.
- irrational 8y agoThis is fascinating to me. When my kids don't want to eat what we are serving they will often have carrots or broccoli with ranch dressing instead. I never stopped to wonder what kids in other cultures eat in similar circumstances.
- wenc 8y agoSide note: soy sauce and butter on rice [1] can be really good. It doesn't sound that good, and I didn't believe it could be good until I tried it. [1] https://norioonwine.blogspot.com/2010/11/rice-with-butter-and-soy-sauce.html https://norioonwine.blogspot.com/2010/11/rice-with-butter-an...
- stevenwoo 8y agoI was hesitant to mention the butter part in my post (I realize it would sound weird to most Americans), that is what I ate as a child, too.
- dgzl 8y agoRice is one of the most important foods in the world. I'm not sure you understand it's significance.
- _hardwaregeek 8y agoSure, and bread is the most important food in western society, but if a French food critic's favorite dish was a baguette with jam, I'd question their judgement a little.
- staticautomatic 8y agoYou underestimate how important bread still is in French cuisine. I was just in Paris and complained to the concierge at our high end hotel about a bad restaurant recommendation. He said he didn't need to hear anymore about how bad the meal was after I said the bread was bad (and stale). In other simple French food news, Joel Robouchon is known for saying his last meal would be a good potato with good butter.
- _hardwaregeek 8y agoAnd rice is profoundly important in Chinese culture :D. But just because a restaurant has good bread/rice doesn't mean it's good. Good bread/rice is the baseline, not the goal.
- dgzl 8y agoFrom what I understand, rice is the most important ingredient to sushi as well. (More so than the fish)
- jvzr 8y agoI was just thinking, "what's wrong with that?". I'm French, though.