A funny thing about travelers is that they often do things that they would never do back in their own countries.
This is most obvious when it comes to eating. There are many travelers out there who would never dream of eating at a Denny’s or a truck stop, yet when in a foreign country figure these places are more “local” and “authentic.” Why? I suppose because in the third world people are poor, therefore, travelers should eat poorly as well?
I’ve always thought this a bit silly. Afterall, I seek out quality cuisine in America. I look for cute cafes with interesting menus, dive diners with a solid reputation–above all, I look for quality. So, how is a traveler’s experience cheapened when they do the same thing?
Another thing–why is it less authentic and local to eat, say, Italian food in Japan? I assure you, the Japanese eat it at least once a week if not more so. I don’t think any Brit considers themselves less authentically British for loving a good chicken tikka marsala (and some would say, not liking it makes you somehow less British.) Certainly, Italian in Japan isn’t “traditional” fare, but then again neither is a lot of things local, authentic Japanese people eat.
So today, Hugh and I decided to try and be a little “local.” Upon arrival, a local who was helping us set up showed us the closest restaurants and told us they were very good. We were a bit saddened to see they were mostly non-Chinese places, ooh, sooo NOT authentic (right?) She then pointed in a direction of more restaurants but added, “those are for the taxi drivers, please don’t eat there.” Now, if I were one of these stubborn authenticity-seekers then we woulda gone over there, but here comes the rub. WHY? You go to New York and your friend says, “Yeah, avoid those spots–not so good,” would you really go? Why do we travelers act so patronizing to our host countries sometimes? Cheap & bad =/= authentic.
So anyways, unable to take my own good advice, we contemplated eating at the Chinese Hooters for giggles (needless to say at Hooters China the, um, waitresses are a little less hootery…) but we decided to save that for when we were really dying for Western food. For some unknown reason we decided upon a Japanese restaurant that are fairly popular in China it seems. Here’s where the whole bit about travelers doing things they’d never normally do comes to play–we would NEVER eat at one of these places in Japan, a chain restaurant that serves cheap food poorly. Yet we did it in China. Not surprisingly, it was pretty meh. We followed it up by going to a “local” (and dead) ice cream parlor (and not the insanely busy McDonald’s or Haggen Daaz) only to be served ice cream with freezer burn and a mint coffee that tasted like antacid.
For foodies like us, this was depressing.
Am I saying all “local” Chinese places are bad? Of course not, I’ve eaten at some delicious ones so far and found cute cafes and wonderful modern places. Some would say eating at a place that costs more than 50 cents makes it less authentic, but I call those people stupid. From now on, I’ll take my advice. Eat with the locals, even if that means having Italian in Japan.
Comments
Powered by Facebook Comments
From Michi:
It could be that locals may think that working class food isn’t good enough for tourists. Which kind of makes sense from their point of view — why would someone who obviously have enough money to travel to their country from the West want to eat like their poorer citizenry? W
Cheap & bad, no matter where you are, sucks. But also, cheap & GOOD is always a treat. It’s just a trick to finding it. For Shanghai, have you tried the open air markets yet? Man, I’d get so fat if I ever had a chance to do a trip to Asia — all I’d do is hunt out street food
From admin:
This is a very good point of course, but my local friends know I’m not a tourist. We eat where they eat and something tells me they’d never eat at a “working class” place unless it was exceptionally good (but that goes for anyone with expendable income, really.) I suppose it’s definitely different in countries like Korea and Japan, and now China (at least Shanghai) than say, Laos or Cambodia. In rich countries with social stratification locals eat all kinds of food in all kinds of price ranges.
One of my friends is taking me out to the popular street area over the weekend, that should be fun. ^.~ I’ll take video. ;D
From Janus!:
I’d be interested in an Italian place in Japan, simply because I know they have their own unique take on it.
This local who was suggesting these “non-Chinese” places… is it a friend? What I mean is, sometimes we don’t take the advice of a local stranger because we think that they’re trying to cater to a foreign tongue… giving us tacos or california rolls when we really want menudo or uni.
on the contrary, if it’s a friend, they oughta know you well enough to take you to the good places.
I still get frustrated every time my parents take family from Korea to Korean restaurants. honestly, I’m pretty sure they know what good Korean food is, and don’t need to go to America to try it.
From Janelle:
Haha, yeah, the friends are Chinese… they suggested Chinese places galore, but also a lot of great foreign places.
Japanese style Italian means sauces made of squid ink and fish eggs and seaweed on top. But of course, they have Italian-style Italian in Japan too, which feels more “authentic” (but I loove Italian-American Italian)
Speaking of Korean, we almost ate at a North Korean restaurant. Not sure what the food differences are, though.
From Chad:
How North Korean food is different than South Korean food? Much much smaller portions.
*rimshot*