Immigrant culture in Asian-American restaurants
- eatwithaaron
- Feb 10, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 22, 2020
So this article is basically taking about a type of Asian cuisine restaurant that is running by Asian-American. And I do think these kind of restaurants are very common in US, especially in chinatown. The article called the chefs “third culture kids”.
Because they do heir the culture that they were raised in and lived in. It has specific sociological significance.
Also the article talks about the history of Asian-American cuisine which goes further in 1850s during the Gold Rush time in California. The Chinese immigrants set up the first tearooms and banquet halls at that time.
It's part of the immigrant culture.
“Sometimes the nostalgia for this kind of food can be difficult to convey to those who don’t share the same history.”
“So these chefs’ cooking, born of shame, rebellion and reconciliation, is not some wistful ode to an imperfectly remembered or never-known, idealized country. It’s a mixture of nostalgia and resilience.”
I do think this kind of restaurant is a part of immigrant culture. It’s actually shows no boundaries, no matter you are from Asian or Europe, it’s about the nostalgic feeling. If you are in American, you are going to miss your country and original culture.
And we can see the development of these Asian-American restaurants. At first, the restaurants regard as a symbol of nostalgia and regional characteristics. However, with the development of the world, people are not content with this simple mindset. Most of the Asian-American restaurants now are paying more attention to the taste of the food. They are trying their best to restore the local characteristics from the ingredients to cooking methods, and even the decoration of the restaurant.
(one of the restaurant I went to called Szechuan Mountain House. They present a restaurant atmosphere with Tao quietude. The fishpond, the Chinese calligraphy, the Tao brush, the iron teapot and the ceramic, all tell you the Tao culture of China.)
In this way, these kind of restaurant will be better able to cater to the market demand of tourism, and their target customers will not limited was the immigrants and compatriots.
Find more in the original article: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/t-magazine/asian-american-cuisine.html
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