A Tale of Two Cultures

Lowi Mian，Sichuan Beef, or lucky cookie. These are so called typical Chinese cuisines that you can find in menus of every Chinese restaurant in the States. But I had never had them in China.
When I arrived in the States as Caijing’s Washington correspondent, the first place I went, like every Chinese tourist, was Chinatown. The first also the only trip in Washington‘s Chinese restaurants turned me into an excellent chef.
Food in Philadelphia’s Chinatown is much better, but the decoration style, the cuisines are a little bit outdated.
I am from Hangzhou, a beautiful city in southeast China which is called the heaven in the ground. In the recent five years Hangzhou developed its reputation as the heaven of gourmet for delicious food with reasonable price.
There are a lot of big restaurants of three to four floors. You have to reserve in advance or you have to wait in a long line for two hours for a table. The decoration styles in different restaurants are so colorful that sometimes I feel like I am in Las Vegas.
Hangzhou is an example of the development of China in the recent five years after its commitment to open to the world by joining the world trade organization, not only in food but everywhere.
Last month I read an article published in the New York Times which said the Chinese food in the States is outdated while the Japanese food is thriving. I don’t have much Japanese food here but I do like the Sushi in the Whole foods very much.
But why is the Chinese food outdated here? The article said that because the States doesn’t give more visas to Chinese chefs.
It may be true but I don’t think it is the real reason.
What Chinese restaurants lack are not only chefs but also enough costumers to cultivate a thriving Chinese food market in the States.
The Chinese food in Philadelphia’s Chinatown is a good example. Its costumers are two groups of people: tourist and residents in Chinatown.
Tourists, though come to Chinatown everyday, do not care much about the taste of the food. They come and go, just for exotic experience. The 5000 residents of Chinatown are the major costumers of the Chinese restaurants.
But it is just a small ethnic group, with most of its people from Guangdong and Fujian. The offspring of the railroad workers, who have been isolated from today’s China for a long time, satisfied with the authentic Chinese food. Others who swarm into the States in the recent 20 years, are struggling for survival and care more about price than taste.
Where are immigrants from other parts of China?
They are everywhere except Chinatown. The rising price of housing limited the expansion of Chinatown and Chinese restaurants.
So why not target Americans? Like the Japanese food in the Whole foods?
I don’t have the answer. But I find that Americans have their own requirement on daily food: clean, fast, simple, do not need a lot of time to eat. However, Chinese care more about taste. It could take one hour for a workday lunch in China.
Japanese find a way. The sushi, though have to be made by hand, is simpler to make, faster to eat and you can even eat it in super market.
However, I believe things will change. When more and more Chinese come from different parts of china, with new life style, fresh taste of food and eating environment , the Chinese restaurants here have to change to meet their needs.
Actually many great restaurants appear in the Maryland where Chinese move from Washington’s Chinatown. There are also many good Chinese restaurants in LA where a lot of Chinese live.
Chinese food in the States is unique, just like Chinatown itself. It is still at the edge of the American mainstream society, but also not like today’s China.
However, to be unique doesn’t mean you don’t need to go forward. Every culture needs to promote and open itself while it tries to preserve and protect itself.
What about myself?
I don’t cook at all here. But I have to go to New York’s Chinatown if I want to enjoy the food from my hometown.