chollie

Great post!

As a child in Hawaii, my favorite Chinese dish (when we were lucky enough to go to a resraurant) was kau gee mein (also spelled gau gee mein). It was like won ton, soup or fried, but the gau gees were wonton wrappers folded in half - much more filling.

I couldn't understand it when I moved to the mainland and couldn't find it on Chinese menus anywhere. Years later, I found out that it was not Chinese, it was local Chinese-Hawaiian.

I bought a Japanese cookbook of American food, what I think of as traditional old-fashioned comfort foods - mac'n'cheese, meatloaf, etc. Few Americans would have recognized their well-intentioned versions of American staples.

IMHO, Zimmerman chose his words poorly. I don't think many Chinese folks would consider the kind of Chinese food he's referring to as either Chinese or good. Some of it isn't good Chinese; some of it just isn't good, no matter what you call it.

gkbiiii

Considering this place is from NYC, I rest my case!

Maluku_Flyer

Qué? You posted a link to a restaurant in freaking Disney World. Does New York have a Disney World now? The (very small) menu contains some bog-standard Italian fare. Surprised they don't offer spag bol for the Mouse crowd.

bensyd

Well there is gnocchi bolognaise on that menu. That menu is a time warp, although the prices aren't! IME, Italian-American "cuisine" seems to be designed primarily for the nostalgia crowd.

annerj

I don't find ship food, including MSC, to be all that great/representative. Its all individual but I've had a ton of amazing Italian food in Italy that seems to be pretty easy to find. In the states there are a few good places just harder to find.

I don't mind Americanized Chinese food if done well......my experience in asia is limited to a few weeks/trips but and keeping in mind I'm not a fan of fish/seafood, I prefer the American version hands down. In fact I tend to avoid asia if possible as I've just never settled into liking the food there in general.

I've never found Indian food in the US that I liked but the couple weeks I spent in Delhi I ate a ton of amazing things.


So for me:
Italian much >>> than american Italian but good stuff can be found here
Chinese <<< than american Chinese
Indian >>> American Indian

weero

Nga?

Seriously?

halls120

annerj

I'm not sure what NGA means....

But yeah, again my time in any of asia is limited to SE asia and not a long duration just a few weeks. I can count on a single hand how many good meals I had while over there (good just meaning things I enjoyed). I was with locals for most of it and just couldn't settle into their food routine. I'm obviously lumping in all of the region from a small area/sample size but in all my travels its my least favorite cuisine.

pinniped

I guess it's just all personal preference at this point, but...

Hyderabadi cuisine is some of the best stuff I've had anywhere, ever. I had the benefit of some local friends who took me to both fine dining and random side-street cafes that rarely served westerners. I didn't have a bad meal anywhere in that town. Completely different than any Indian food I've had in the U.S. or Europe.

I felt like the food in Delhi and Jaipur was more like the westernized Indian I was familiar with, but I didn't have the same kind of "access". There were just a couple of us traveling with a driver, and although the driver did a good job of finding good local places for us I'm sure he wasn't taking us anywhere "risky" (in terms of westerners loving or hating the food).

I love good Asian-American fusion or higher-end American Chinese food. I have never developed a taste for authentic Chinese beyond the occasional dim sum in Hong Kong or wherever. Closest thing would be Peking Duck in a Beijing restaurant that claims to be one of the first to serve it, but the clientele was very international so I have no idea how authentic it really was. (It was excellent duck, of course.) When I'm in China, it's always big-city China and pretty easy to eat international or westernized food.

Italian food in Italy is uniquely heavenly. Nobody else does it like they do. In the U.S., I enjoy the heavier American-style Italian a couple times a year in the winter. American Italian tends to be a big carb bomb and often not terribly flavorful. But it's also the comfort food of my youth, so I enjoy it around the holidays.

annerj

Yes, I'm a big fan of the dim sum I've had and it makes up one of the "good" meals I had over there. The family I was with, it seemed to be more of a treat than their normal every day food/places we went in fact none of the older generation went with us when we went out for dim sum....just the kids.

Mr. Vker

[QUOTE=MSPeconomist;30589534]Travel is one of the cable channels that I wish would return to their roots: Travel should be about travel/QUOTE]

Ahhh the days when Travel Channel had travel, History Channel had history, TLC had Learning, Discovery Channel had Discovering

Honey Boo Boo ruined it all.

annerj

MTV had music

Mr. Vker

YES!!!!

bitterproffit

I love eating at all the first generation restaurants in my town. They all shop at the same international markets. The clever guys incorporate other ingredients into their traditional dishes to make it a uniquely American dish. Using jicama in a stir fry, or jicama kimchi, or using Chinese red peppers in a classic Mexican salsa, or Chinese vegetable ingredients in a Turkish kebab. Pho with jalapeņos. Why not?

My favorite Szechuan restaurant puts jalapeņos in their Chengdu Beef. OMG.

This is the fusion cuisine that makes things American, and I, for one, love it.

As if Zimmern's restaurant with Tiki faces with slushie machines at the bar was somehow authentic Chinese fare. LOL

weero

The romanization of 那个.
But China doesn't really qualify as SE Asia.

So even the different dumplings, you do not enjoy?