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Posted to alt.food.asian
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"Authentic" Indian Food
Dennis R. wrote:
> In article >, says...
>> If Cowen was discussing Hong Kong Palace, they have two menus (well, at
>> least two) - one is the American Chinese menu, and the other is the
>> 'Traditional Chinese' menu, and if you are non-Chinese you should ask
>> for the Traditional one - and its in English. A third Chinese menu is on
>> the wall, and who knows what that says!
>>
>> HKP is near 7 Corners in Falls Church and does Szechuan food pretty
>> well. Their Szechuan Cold Noodles are an instant hit with everybody I
>> have brought there.
>>
>> Ian
>>
> In a more general vein, I would be interested in the prevalence of what
> Ian refers to as "Traditional Chinese" menus in restaurants. There is a
> large number of Chinese restaurants in my small city (200,000) in Canada
> across the border from Detroit, Michigan. About 20 out of 60 offer
> mostly "Traditional" menus with a couple of pages of the
> "American/Canadian Chinese" type items near the back of the menu. About
> 10 of those 20 also offer a one or two page listing of "Chef's
> Specials" in both Chinese and English. The only restaurants that
> actually have items written in Chinese only flyers or bristol board on
> the walls are very small "diners" near the university that cater to
> students who want cheap home-style cooking.
>
> The odd thing is that for most of the group of 20 restaurants, their
> menus are about 80% - 90% identical - often entire pages are identical.
> In fact, I have been told that the templates from the menus often
> originated from Chinatown restaurants in Toronto, Ontario where many of
> the owners or chefs once worked. Perhaps a similar thing happens in
> Vancouver (British Columbia), the other major Asian centre in Canada?
>
> Has anyone noticed a pattern in menus in their particular cities or
> regions in the USA or Europe?
>
> Dennis
Yes, here in Northern VA I get flyers from several local Chinese places,
and the offerings are often remarkably similar. I suspected just what
you report - that they are copying from somewhere else, or from each other.
The other tendency I am seeing in Chinese menus is Thai and other Asian
dishes - creeping fusion, you might call it.
Ian
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