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And one last thing...
...today's reading has inadvertently been themed: adapting Chinese food to other cultures. After I linked the Jennifer 8. Lee TED talk, I saw we had her book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles in the library, so checked it out and read most of it at lunch and in various waiting rooms at my doctor's clinic. There is a whole underground economy involving Chinese restaurant employees and owners that I had no idea existed - not just the hiring of undocumented workers, but in the buying and selling of restaurants, too.
The book in general is about Lee's adventures in hunting down the various origins of Chinese-American foods, and as a part of that it necessarily goes into various parts of the Chinese immigrant experience. It's been fascinating (and explains why I can hardly find Chinese Chinese food).
The other book is Oishinbo: Ramen & Gyoza, which unexpectedly (to me) turned out to have a heavily Chinese influence, as these dishes are Japanese versions of Chinese foods - although a bit less changed from the originals than American Chinese foods like General Tso's Chicken.* :) There's even one chapter in it all about how the editor of the newspaper the main character works at managed to offend two Chinese men by taking them to a Chinese restaurant named using an older Japanese version of "China," instead of the term that the Chinese government has asked them to use.
I've got a new (to the US) manga called Yokai Doctor to try out: the way things are going I wouldn't be at all surprised to find a chapter on Chinese (or Chinese-influenced) food in it.
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* I don't particularly like the Americanized version, but I'd love to try the original. For one thing, NO BROCCOLI! For another thing, not deep-fried!
The book in general is about Lee's adventures in hunting down the various origins of Chinese-American foods, and as a part of that it necessarily goes into various parts of the Chinese immigrant experience. It's been fascinating (and explains why I can hardly find Chinese Chinese food).
The other book is Oishinbo: Ramen & Gyoza, which unexpectedly (to me) turned out to have a heavily Chinese influence, as these dishes are Japanese versions of Chinese foods - although a bit less changed from the originals than American Chinese foods like General Tso's Chicken.* :) There's even one chapter in it all about how the editor of the newspaper the main character works at managed to offend two Chinese men by taking them to a Chinese restaurant named using an older Japanese version of "China," instead of the term that the Chinese government has asked them to use.
I've got a new (to the US) manga called Yokai Doctor to try out: the way things are going I wouldn't be at all surprised to find a chapter on Chinese (or Chinese-influenced) food in it.
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* I don't particularly like the Americanized version, but I'd love to try the original. For one thing, NO BROCCOLI! For another thing, not deep-fried!
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When I figured out why caricatures of Chinese girls were advertising ramen it was definitely startling to me, hahaha. Gyoza aren't so different from jiaozi, but ramen has evolved somewhat more.
I haven't read any Oishinbo yet--did the volume mention that the "Japanese" guy who invented instant ramen was actually a Taiwanese guy? Whee, imperialism.
Added The Fortune Cookie Chronicles to my wish list! When I worked at the Oakland Museum, I met Indigo Som, who was working on this interesting project with Chinese restaurant menus. ..
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I'll totally take you up on that if I'm ever out that way. XD
Interesting article and project! And reading Lee's book gave me a bit more insight into the restaurant workers Som talked with, too.
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