[Sca-cooks] Semi-OT: [long] Cultural Evolution and the "traditional" banquet in NYC's Chinatown

[Johnna Holloway]

It's Sunday and the list has been dead all weekend, so the account
is welcome. It goes rather well with the NYTimes Sunday Magazine
article today on publishing ''How to Cook and Eat in Chinese,'' by Buwei 
Yang Chao
back in the 1940's.
I read your account and what came to my mind is I wonder
what the local restaurant store had on sale and if the guy/gal who
did the shopping came across some of the foods and said
"Let's substitute that. No one will know."
Of course Chinese in the Midwest is an interesting experience.
The local restaurant was quite good, but since it's been sold they are
doing odd things like forgetting that sweet and sour shrimp requires
sweet and sour sauce. My one librarian friend knows of a successful
Vietnamese immigrant that has made good in America by running
a successful Chinese restaurant with Mexican cooks. No one speaks
the same language, so they resort to some sort of sign language
and following the commands of "Do this dish this way!" The owner
will show them how to do the dish and then they follow the steps.

Johnnae

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:

> Hullo, the list!
> Yeah, this sounds like it should be the title of a pretty interesting, 
> if somewhat academic, article in The Atlantic Monthly or some such.
> In reality, it's a couple of observations on weird stuff (as in, I 
> guess, disingenuous, since weird a matter of opinion, especially in 
> this setting) I encountered in an allegedly traditional southern 
> Chinese wedding banquet last night.
> As is usually the case with wedding receptions, the focus was not 
> really on the food, but generally the food was quite good: this was 
> held at the restaurant we generally go to for dim sum, when we go at 
> all...    large snip Life is good.
> Now, if only I had another bottle of I.P.A.
> Adamantius
>