Most People Rejected His Message · 6:56am Jan 2nd, 2019
They hated him because he told the truth.
Travel Channel Chef Faces Backlash for Comment About Midwest Chinese Restaurants
Apparently, a food critic was actually critical about food a few days ago, and it angered people enough to turn it into a racial pride thing. Well sit down and take your hands off those suspenders I know you're mighty keen on tugging, because if people are going to act like they can just throw open the gates on what is and isn't proudly Asian then I will gosh-darn well make myself the gatekeeper. Also I'm actually Asian, so I guess that gives me a running start.
You know what crunches my nuts? That people actually have the energy to be nut-crunched about something like this. I'm gonna be straight with people: I don't care if you're proud of your restaurant, you do you, but if you're running a Wendy's or a Burger King, don't get all high and mighty and pretend you're defending some kind of long history of culinary heritage. I never thought, as a born Asian and growing up in a household that was pretty close to the real thing, that I'd hear "P.F. Chang's" and "Asians forever" used in the same sentence. Can I just, just, have my moment here, my little time to vent? Because honestly? He's right. There's a reason shady, grungy, greasy spoons masquerading as Chinese restaurants have been a cliche for so long, because for crying out loud, they do suck walnuts. I don't go to the local "Chinese restaurant" because I know it's authentic and I have a hankering for the food of my "homeland" or whatever, it's because I'm hungry, and I want at least a passable imitation of food that I know is better but don't have the time or money to get.
I was in Los Angeles just last weekend. I flew in and ate at a real Chinese restaurant that very first night, recommended to me by my Chinese uncle, in a heavily Chinese-populated neighborhood, run by Chinese people who served dishes right off the boat from real Chinaland. And you know what? In spite of not even being a very high end establishment, in spite of having the faded paint and sticky floors of any greasy spoon, it was about eighteen thousand point six times better than almost any Asian Fusion Lounge or Super China House or Big Wall Buffet I ever had in, yes, Midwest areas where, sadly, it's almost impossible to get really authentic ingredients and you're surrounded by people who can't help but not know better and not be as open to new flavor palettes. I don't blame them for that. I blame them for having the gall to still call their food good, and I definitely blame them for jumping on this stupid bandwagon that I GUESS everyone has to get rolling now? Because the real squirrel spit is: most American food sucks, most American versions of Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese/what have you dishes definitely suck, and it's okay to admit that, because the only way you can solve a problem is by first admitting you have one.
Chittering chestnuts, are we going to get angry now at any regular rodent who says Taco Bell isn't "real" Mexican? Is it going to put our tails in a twist when someone goes to a Poundland and complains that they aren't getting a real taste of British heritage? Should we hop like rabbits to the defense of KFC when someone says their Arkansas-born-and-bred great-grandmother made better fried chicken?
Don't get all huffy on behalf of a "heritage" that was made up whole cloth because Asians realized America was the land of lard and sugar instead of salt and spice, and definitely don't do it because you think some other minority needs you to defend it. Even if you are of that minority. There's well over a billion Asian people in the world, and most of them already know what their food is like, and don't care what you or Zimmern thinks of it. The adaptation of Asian dishes to the American palette was never a part of anyone's "heritage" as far as I've been told by my own ethnic cohort, and the idea that suddenly PF Chang's and Panda nut-crunching Express are now part of my racial tapestry just because some people got mad at a guy who doesn't like some food is repulsive to me.
I'm RedSquirrel, and if anyone calls General Tso's Chicken an authentic Chinese dish in my presence, I can't be held responsible for what happens next.
Andrew is probably my favorite, uh, chef type guy thing of all time, and I was wondering when some dumb bullshit would creep his way.
I didn't expect the dumbest bullshit though.
We have a chain of buffet places called Mandarin around our area, which serves such authentic Chinese food such as General Tso's Chicken, Roast Beef, and Sushi. My mother damn near had a heart attack when one of her friends suggested grabbing Chinese food for dinner, then suggested going to Mandarin, because she couldn't process the fact that someone actually thought that place was a Chinese restaurant.
Our (Chinese) family actually use the terms "Chinese" and "American Chinese" to refer to two completely different cuisines when discussing dinner plans, because sometimes you just have a craving for Panda Express and the idea of saying "let's have Chinese food at Panda Express" is completely abhorrent.
I've never been to PF Chang's, but I'm told that it's decent American Chinese food, and as a second-gen immigrant, I can kinda respect that style of food as its own cuisine which someone could take pride in as long as they actually try to do it well. But conflating it with general Chinese food is dumb.
Also, now I have a craving for Orange Chicken and Bourbon Beef, and it's 2 am. Dammit.
Interestingly, locally, im not sure how many of the places here that serve chinese are really authentic and how many are not.
We have asian market, like we do euromarket (For alot of those of russian/german/irish/scottish heritage), and a large chunk of it stays relatively busy.
As someone that might have an insight on what could be true asian bits, what are point to look for? As I like the food really.
This is the quality RedSquirrel content I signed up for.
On the other hand, maybe don't call people "flyover rubes" when you're trying to broaden their culinary horizons.
But yeah, even in the callout generation, it's best to pick your battles. Preferably by thinking about them for more than two seconds.
All I know about PF Chang's is it sucks? I think I might have eaten there once, long ago, and there's definitely a reason for that.
I've always wondered why there seems to be a non-chain of Chinese restaurants, that wherever you go, they all have the same dishes on offer, made the same way, displayed on the same menu that's got washed-out colors because it's been up since the 60's. We've got one of those in my town; there used to be two, but the one closer to me changed management or something, not to mention name, and now they serve a much broader menu with lots of intestines. We also have a buffet that's a step above those places, but probably still also Midwest Chinese, which is a term I think I will adopt now.
To be fair to him, middwest chinese food is absolute crap. Just like any mexican food outside CA, AZ, NM, and TX is crap. Go away from the coast and seafood is junk, get out of the midwest and BBQ is absolute crap, and so on.
Every area of the country has its ups and downs, just how it works. Has to do with the way people settled in areas, and the kind of cuisine that formed around it. You wouldn't go to Utah to get a top notch hot dog, you go to NY city.
Red. I worked at a Mexican provider company, and I live in the US, watching people dismantle Mexican food into the stuff that they serve at Trump Tower. (Coincidentally, that's not actually his fault). I had people tell me they make "Mole Poblano" with freaking peanut butter as an ingredient. I understand your pain.
4989965
You missed Mexico there
I know you meant US-side 
And even in CA, AZ and TX (never tried in NM) I've had a hard time finding the real thing due to the sheer necessity of selling familiar food to people that sadly don't know better.
I live in Ohio. We have a whole bunch of on-the-cheap Chinese restaurants in the towns surrounding ours. Our tiny little town has only one, and it's owned by a family that moved here from China. It has been around for about 10 years, and their food is fantastic. Compared to the other restaurants, the taste, the quality, it's a cut well above the rest. It would probably qualify as American Chinese, but it's delicious, and the prices are reasonable.
Their food comes in generous portions, and with a lot of fresh vegetables. I can't help but laugh when I see out-of-town reviewers complain because "there were big chunks of onion and celery in my chicken chow mein!" They use spices and the flavors are subtle. The noodles they use are made from scratch, and have a firmness to them. You don't just taste limp noodles swimming around in salt and fat. It tastes like you're having a meal.
What's more is the staff: they're all polite, accommodating, and they even have a smiling little old man who guides people to their tables if you're eating in (they have a very small dining area, maybe 4 or 5 tables that sit in an alcove).
I have no idea how we lucked out by having this great little restaurant in a town of about 8,000 people, but I hope they stay (they close 2 months out of the year to visit family in China).
4989794 "American Chinese" is a perfect definition. "Sysco Chinese" would be closer, but nobody would understand.
4990037 You have one of those too? We have a place in Manhattan called Happy Valley that bridges the gap. American? They'll serve you. Chinese, and I mean Read-The-Menu-In-The-Language Chinese, and they'll spoil you rotten. We do a hot pot there about once a year, eat until we're spherical, etc... They also have family back in China that they visit on occasion, so they're open unless they're closed.
4989977 My son works at a sit-down Mexican restaurant here (although he's joining the Army next month) and the key is they literally can make *anything* back in the kitchen, if they have time and are tempted into it. About half Sysco and half made from scratch.
Quick story: Went to a wedding in Chicago, they had a roast chicken breast that was to *die* for at the wedding dinner. Went to the caterer, asked for the recipe, and found out... Sysco. Literally, they put in the order, get it the day before, do nothing but cook it for X hours and serve. Almost every restaurant in the US that is not big enough to have their own dedicated distribution network does Sysco. You want to run a American Chinese restaurant? Tai? Chicago pizza? New York franks? Pretzel shop in the mall? They stock it *all* and deliver right to your door in the right sized boxes when you want. Need tables, mops, salt and pepper shakers, light fixtures, plates, forks, etc... You can order right off the catalog, right down to the number, Sysco, Sysco, Sysco. All you need is the window signs.
We don't eat at McDonalds if we want a specialty hamburger, we eat at Big D's, this greasy spoon in town that only does burgers. By the same token, when we just want some fried rice and Kung Pow Chicken, we stop by Dillons and grab a takeout.
4989796
Dishes involving organs (tripe/stomach, heart, gizzard, kidney, liver) are a decent sign that a place at least tries to cater to a Chinese populace, since those kinds of dishes are generally not looked kindly upon by stereotypical Americans.
Dishes that seem really grandiosely translated, to the point where someone who doesn't speak Chinese would probably never order them (Moo Shu Pork may sound dumb, but Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is the kind of thing that obviously no one has tried to translate into something that sounds palatable to an English-speaking audience).
Also, sauces that are less heavy on sugar and soy sauce. Not to say we don't use those things, but I find American Chinese food a lot sweeter than plain-old American food.
(If you want specific answers ping me on Discord - I think we still share some servers together.)
4990260
As a second-gen Chinese-Canadian, it's incredibly annoying to find a restaurant where the Chinese and English menus are different, because I can't read Chinese. Like, I don't want General Tso's Chicken and Broccoli Beef, I want That One Dish With The Tripe And The Lungs In The Turnip Stew Yes That One I Know You Have It Hell If I Know What It's Called Without My Family There To Translate For Me. At least on an English menu I can kinda try to find the description that looks most like the thing I want. Are you actually able to order there like a Chinese (IIRC you aren't Chinese) or do you just settle for the American stuff?
I think the issue is not that he's wrong statistically, but that he doesn't acknowledge exceptions. Even if he's right, he's painting a huge swath of America--most of it--with the "flyover rube" brush that people in most of America are really sick of. This anger isn't really about Chinese food; it's about half the nation being consistently treated like non-citizens, like they're less American than foreigners are, by the east and west coast elites. New York and Los Angeles film-makers set more films overseas than between our mountain ranges.
4989919
There is a single company that provides the paper place-mats with the Chinese zodiac, the square pine snap-apart chopsticks, and other disposables for a huge number of American Chinese restaurants. Or else they all just copy the same design. This does give them a similar look+feel.
farm1.static.flickr.com/41/101170886_927285ab87_b.jpg
cdn2.bigcommerce.com/server5700/11938/products/30/images/78/chinese-bamboo-disposable-chopsticks-pack__20287.1272962267.1280.1280.jpg
The idea of defending "Chinese food", though, is tricky--because "Chinese food" exists only outside of China. Inside China, there's Hong Kong food, and Cantonese food, and Kunming food, and Harbin food, but there's no "Chinese food". China is too big for that.
Some American Chinese restaurants have a separate menu in Chinese, with additional entrees on it.