On 2006-11-23 20:55:11 -0800, "Musashi" > said:

> Increasing respect? Or merely increasing expoloitation of a clientele who
> really have no idea what good or bad Chinese food is?

Beats chop suey in one of those joints that serve really bad 1960's
style "Chinese" food. There all over middle America.

> I ate at a PF Chang's. Once. Won't happen again.

I'll echo that. Well, I'll probably eat there again when I'm a
minority in the dining selection crew, but I thought it a lot of
blabber and expense for relatively little. It is to Chinese food what
the Olive Garden is to Italian: formulaic, consistent/predictable and
overpriced.

> On a par with eating sushi at a Todai.

I'm not a fan of the sushi at Todai, the rest of the stuff can good to
very good. But it's an unfair comparison. Todai isn't really ABOUT
sushi, do you think? I don't know, maybe it is. But it certainly
isn't a formulae chain approach to sushi.

> So far I haven't run into "bad" Korean food which makes me happy.

Once they get the Korean BBQ thing down they'll probably have an equivalent.

I note in the paper that the originator of the Chowhounds web page, now
sold to CNet is taking a cross-country dining tour and shares and
interesting observation. All towns seem to have a Vietnamese
restaurant now. Doesn't surprise me in the least. I predicted it 20
years ago. Americans love noodles, chicken soup, egg rolls, and much
of the rest of a straight-up-the-middle Vietnamese restaurant.

I expect a one-size-fits-all chain to emerge soon.
--
What a day this has been, what a rare mood I'm in.