Shengyuan Lin
Writing 2
Professor Lefebvre
3 March 2016 Irvine Chinese Food: A Demonstration of Cultural Pluralism America was known as the Melting Pot; people from all over the world brought their culture, custom and cuisine, which changed over years and become something different. However, compare to other places in America, the City of Irvine is more vibrant and pluralistic; here people from different cultural groups preserve their own culture and custom. In Irvine, we can taste cuisines from different regions in the world, which include Chinese Cuisine. Nevertheless, Chinese food served in different restaurants in Irvine can diverge significantly. Some old fashioned Chinese restaurants are still serving those westernized Chinese
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This kind of Chinese restaurant is often very westernized. They adopted western dietary habits and usually served spring rolls and dumpling as an appetizer, and a piece of fortune cookie as the dessert. In fact, Chinese people do not have the customs of having appetizers and dessert for a meal. In addition, the food is always served separately, and a meal is usually comprised of an entree, some chaw mein or some fried rice. and you get soda or ice water for drink instead of hot tea. For most Chinese fast food restaurants, the servers and cooks are usually not Chinese, but they are well trained. On the other side, customers are comprised of both westerners and Asians. In these restaurants, we can order classical Chinese food such as dumplings, fried rice, wonton, and chow mein. In addition, we can also find those westernized Chinese dishes such as Broccoli Beef, Orange Chicken, and Mongolian Beef. I went to pick up stix before, and I found that the food is better than my expectation; although the food is too sweet and sour for me, the meat and the vegetables are …show more content…
Compare to other regions in China, Guangdong is a coastal province and Cantonese people began to migrate to other countries several centuries ago. Cantonese cuisine is widely spread outside China due to a large amount of emigrants from Guangdong, and it is now synonymous with the term "Chinese Cuisine" in America. Words like wonton, chow mein, bok choy(Chinese cabbage) are actually pronounced in Cantonese, not Mandarin. In Irvine, although Cantonese food is not the only thing that represents Chinese food, it still has a large influence. Compare to other culinary styles in China, Cantonese cuisine is widely accepted by
Chinese restaurants have some good and bad qualities, but both do well in their own situation.
In Lavanya Ramanathan’s Washington Post article published in 2015 titled “Why everyone should stop calling immigrant food ‘ethnic’”, she discusses about people’s preconceptions on the type of food that should be labelled ethnic. Ashlie Stevens also touched on a similar topic in her Guardian article published in 2015 titled “Stop thinking and just eat: when ‘food adventuring’ trivializes culture”. She talks about how people assume that just by eating food from a certain culture, they are able relate to the culture as a whole. Both authors acknowledge the importance of appreciating authentic cuisines, but takes different approaches to convince the audience. Both authors establish credibility by using a wide range of substantiated evidences. While,
Chao-Wei Wu Jeffrey McMahon English 1A 23 July 2014 Chef Jeff Henderson_Cooked Chef JH’s personal memoir, Cooked, is a model confirmation that it is feasible for an author to give a moving message without sounding sermonizing and redundant. Cooked takes place after Henderson's rise and fall (and rise once more). The story begins with his alliance with drug merchants of becoming one of the top split cocaine merchants in San Diego by his 23rd birthday. It leads to his capture and inevitably his rising into the culinary business (Ganeshram 42).
Not only is panda express light on the pocket it is heavy on the stomach. Panda Express is common around colleges because the quantity of the food to the price is a more than fair deal. This allows college students to save their much needed money and still get a substantive meal out of the deal. When getting a tray the food will usually consist of a generous proportion of noodles, white rice, whole grain rice, or noodles. As well as large proportions of two types of meats or vegetables, plus anything else needed upon request.
Fresh ingredients are a vital part of Cantonese cuisine. The dishes that are prepared are cooked in the absolute minimum time possible. Seafood such as fish goes from the tank to the table in a short amount of time that sometimes they are served while the fish is still alive (Huffington Post; 2014). It is called Ying Yang fish. It is a great delicacy in Cantonese cuisine.
The Chinatown neighborhood has different restaurants, including a Korean and numerous Chinese restaurants. The Chinatown neighborhood has many gift stores, cosmetics stores, ice cream stores, and bakery. As Harry Kiang’s Chicago’s Chinatown points out, “Tourists shop for oriental gifts or groceries or enjoy Chinese food; along Wentworth Avenue between 22nd and 24th Streets there are at least 30 Chinese restaurants. Printers and bakeries are found in the commercial areas along Wentworth Avenue and Cermak Road” (Encyclopedia of Chicago). Many visitors came to the Chinatown neighborhood to visit the neighborhood and try the Chinese foods because it has the authentic Chinese food in the Chinese restaurants. Since many people came to the Chinatown and consumed in the neighborhood’s shops, the consumption promoted the local commercial development and increasing the economic growth. Therefore, the residents are very happy to have the shops and appeal to the
For example, they speak English, Cantonese, and many of other languages which I did not understand, and these things I did not get from our class. Before I did this field trip, I thought that they only speak Cantonese and English. “Most residents are Chinese American, but there are other Asians, especially Vietnamese Americans, and a scattering of whites, Indians, and other ethnic groups. San Francisco’s Chinatown is the largest Chinatown in the United States, the largest cohesive community of Chinese Americans outside of China. Then I saw that there were many Chinese retail stores, and the retailers they do not speak English at all. These retail stores may import many of goods from China, like they import Chinese herbs, Chinese snacks; whereas, for the American brand companies, like Wells Fargo, Citi Bank, Chase, Bank of America, T-Mobil, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T; these American companies they put English and Chinese together on the boards and doors, and the staff can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, but speaking English is not required. I think that the targets are to give people who live in Chinatown better service. Surprisingly, I did see a store which was selling
Food is traditionally considered as a simple means of subsistence but has developed to become filled with cultural, psychological, religious, and emotional significance. Consequently, food is currently used as a means of defining shared identities and symbolizes religious and group customs. In the early 17th and 18th centuries, this mere means of subsistence was considered as a class maker but developed to become a symbol of national identity in the 19th centuries. In the United States, food has been influenced by various cultures such as Native American, Latin America, and Asian cultures. Consequently, Americans have constantly Americanized the foods of different cultures to become American foods. The process on how Americans have Americanized different cultures’ foods and reasons for the Americanization is an important topic of discussion.
Hoobler, Dorothy, Thomas Hoobler, and Michael Kort, comps. China: Regional Studies Series. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Globe Fearon, 1993. 174-177.
Not only are Korean cosmetics gaining popularity due to dramas, but Korean food has also spread its wings. In China, fried chicken and beer became immensely popular due to the drama You Who Came from the Star. Customers waited three hours in line to buy fried chicken and beer at different restaurants in making the income shoot up compared to the previous income from the year before (Chen Tian, 2014).
Brands are much more successful in China than in the United States, would be the mystique that America has created. For example, it somewhat reminds me of how successful Asian food is in America. Some people just crave different culture foods. Thus, it also helps that population in China is in the billions, whereas, United States is somewhere around 300
The United States of America, a country where anyone can become anything he or she wants to be. It is even given the phrase “Land of opportunity.” This is one of the reasons people from different parts of the world choose to immigrate to the United States. Immigrants do not immigrate alone, but bring their cultures with them. One of the representatives of culture is food, and with the vast amount of immigrants, the vast amount of ethnic restaurants are introduced. Beneficial things happened with the rise of ethnic restaurants, they serve as a doorway to introduce different cultures and they improve the country’s economy. Some people disagree and believe that ethnic restaurants are a problem. That they lead to cultural separation because it
"Food in Vietnam - Vietnamese Food, Vietnamese Cuisine - Traditional, Popular, Dishes, Recipe, Diet, History, Common, Meals, Rice, Main, People, Types, Make, Customs, Fruits, Country, Bread, Vegetables, Bread." Food in Every Country. Web. 11 Nov. 2011.
American culture is changing dramatically. In some areas it’s a good thing, but in other areas, like our food culture, it can have negative affects. It is almost as if our eating habits are devolving, from a moral and traditional point of view. The great America, the land of the free and brave. The land of great things and being successful, “living the good life.” These attributes highlight some irony, especially in our food culture. Is the American food culture successful? Does it coincide with “good living”? What about fast and processed foods? These industries are flourishing today, making record sales all over the globe. People keep going back for more, time after time. Why? The answer is interestingly simple. Time, or in other words, efficiency. As people are so caught up in their jobs, schooling, sports, or whatever it may be, the fast/processed food industries are rapidly taking over the American food culture, giving people the choice of hot
All in all, the Chinese culture is vastly different than the culture we have in the west. Although that may be the case, we still have to learn and maintain a connection with the Chinese culture since we are so heavily involved in their economic system. Not only are we involved in theirs, they are greatly involved in ours. There are thousands of factories in China that make products to export to the United States. This means that we need to maintain a good connection with the Chinese culture in order to keep our “guanxi” positive with