immigrant & ethnic food cultures, white ppl & appropriation, foodies

remy otm, it's the gentrification of a previously affordable economic niche

I think local food trucks here are maybe 50/50 when it comes to established affordable tacos versus entrepreneurs running a pop-up location out of a vehicle, but the latter are over represented at food truck “events”

move to a city with less white people

― El Tomboto, Sunday, October 29, 2017 8:50 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

america love it or leave it

Is that an absolute or as a % asking for a friend

and now there is this:

Our awesome sign is up! Wesohawni! #Misohawni pic.twitter.com/Fe5mlVQIwh

— misohawni (@misohawni) November 14, 2017

jfc

countdown to half-arsed public apology starting now

gender and ethnicity of owners was duly noted.

makes one ponder how many people they discussed this awesome idea with before getting the sign made and they apparently don't know anybody who at any point said "lads, lads".

move to a city with less white people

― El Tomboto, Sunday, October 29, 2017 6:50 PM (two weeks ago)

mexican food in the northeast is such a sad affair. i remember my first year there, i almost cried at how "not right" the "mexican" food was. n.b. i moved back to California right after graduation.

move to a city with less white people
― El Tomboto, Sunday, October 29, 2017 6:50 PM (two weeks ago)

exactly what i keep saying to people who tell me i'm gentrifying "their" neighborhood... finally someone who understands!

We've had a Miso Honey food truck in DC for a while now, no backlash that I know of. Not cool.

makes one ponder how many people they discussed this awesome idea with before getting the sign made and they apparently don't know anybody who at any point said "lads, lads".

― the intentional phallusy (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, November 15, 2017 9:02 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this seems less like they're just oblivious and more like they're intentionally trying to create social media outrage for the publicity, though

Don't you just love the name! @HelloJoburgMag https://t.co/7cCuYK5ogw

— misohawni (@misohawni) November 14, 2017

the local place that was trying to do this same bad decision was publicly shamed into not doing it

there's a flood of white people yelling at the NYT for posting the recipe for a common korean comfort food. white people are baffling pic.twitter.com/fo8RaETixJ

— chris hooks (@cd_hooks) May 7, 2018

lollin', but NYT calling budaejjigae "ramen" is quite a bit of a stretch.

i can't even figure out what they're being mad about

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/escobar-owners-respond-restaurant-name-2018

two dipshit gringos in vancouver are opening a pan-latin restaurant/bar which they are calling "escobar".

barf

come again

ctrl+f "crispy rendang"

We had a new "Mexican" place about to open here run by non-Mexicans, and they were gonna call it Cholo. To their credit, the owners listened when some local Latinos suggested that was not a good idea, and they changed it to Chivo.

it'd be much more to their credit if nobody needed to talk to them in the first place, kind of like the bar around here somewhere that had to be convinced that "Spirit Animal" was an appropriative name

Yeah, better to not have to flag obvious offensive things -- but good to pay attention at least when someone does. (Rather than going into hyperdefensive Twitter stance, which seems to be the norm.)

there was this recent thing:

https://la.eater.com/2018/4/30/17303328/yellow-fever-restaurant-backlash-over-name

people are really bad at understanding how others view them or how their ideas take on a different light if you move two centimeters away

or theyre not all that bothered yknow

cholo? yellow fever?

jfc

one of the local breweries here has a beer called "cholo stout" but otoh "here" is new mexico and i don't think there's been any fluff about it

there's a brewery in SoCal which has the outstanding but unfortunately named "Pablo Escobeer"

The defense of Yellow Fever making the rounds about the owner being Korean and wanting to reclaim the term just makes me think of that Ali Wong bit about fancy asians and jungle asians. “My husband’s half-Filipino half-Japanese, I’m half-Chinese and half-Vietnamese, and we spend a hundred percent of our time shitting on Korean people."

“People are making beans a part of their daily ritual.”

" “In today’s world, time is really valuable, which makes it an uphill battle for legumes..."

https://london.eater.com/2018/7/13/17567804/som-saa-boring-thai-chef-racist-you-tube

I truly believe that Shaun has only love for Thailand, its people and cuisine, and I hope we can get back to focusing on Trump today

cartoonish racism is the best way to show that you love a culture, def

This is delightful on Emily Dobbs, mentioned some way up thread, the self-styled ‘queen of hoppers’ who put out a book of Sri Lankan recipes this year:

http://www.economynext.com/British_chef_in_the_soup_over_Sri_Lankan_curry-3-10036-13.html

did she never look up what words mean and just tried to guess based on recipe names in another book or...

I think that’s part of it but part is also using Google Translate instead of asking anyone with a passing knowledge of Sinhalese to proof the thing.

I'd start asking questions but I think we know where this rabbit hole goes

The late Jonathan Gold re appropriation in his review of a Portland, Or Thai restaurant:

My critical-studies friends are already grumbling about issues of colonial logic and cultural appropriation. And it's true — in Los Angeles, unlike Brooklyn or aught-era Portland, there is no shortage of restaurants featuring Thai chefs cooking Thai dishes for Thai expats (and non-Thais who wish to eat like Thais). If you were a local restaurateur eking out her living one bowl of boat noodles at a time, it is easy to see how you might resent Pok Pok's media attention and glamour.

As the professors say: There is a lot to unpack.

https://la.eater.com/2015/12/28/10675044/jonathan-gold-tcultural-appropriation-authentic-thai-food-pok-pok-review

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2018/07/30/a-midwestern-chain-told-hawaiians-to-stop-using-aloha-with-poke-igniting-a-heated-debate/

*not immigrant

I kind of consider it ethnic. white people try to steal everything. I am glad the Hawaiians are fighting back.

same, that dude is a tool.

https://www.phillymag.com/articles/2018/08/11/mayonnaise-industry-millennials/

'identity condiments'

i always kinda forget how chilis (the peppers, not the theme restaurants) didn't arrive in asia until 500 yrs ago or so. for some reason i think of those levels of heat in curries etc as being something that has just about always been a feature of foods in that part of the globe

― dell (del), Thursday, June 7, 2012 9:42 AM (six years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

idk why* but this is one of those facts that occasionally bubbles to mind and it makes me appreciate just how fascinating the cultural history of food can be

*i do know why it's because i live in new mexico now and ppl are very proud of their chiles and put those fuckers in literally anything and everything

see also taters maters squash and corn

The most amazing part of the history of the sweet potato is that due to genetic testing, it was recently proved that the Polynesians navigated across the (mostly empty) pacific to Peru and brought them back as far as Guam (almost 10,000 miles) several hundred years prior to the better-documented European explorers, using the simple canoe and creative way-finding skills.

Polynesians know a damn fine root vegetable when they taste one... respect!

polynesian way-finding with those strange string maps of currents and that bottom of the boat malarkey is incredible to me