Chinese food

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

http://wtv-zone.com/JBond/chowmein.swf

i got a giggle or two out of this.

[guohuen]

That was beautifull man. Got a hanky?
Reminds me of the place in Mass. that got busted for pressing the cabbage between the parking lot and a sheet of plywood with a pickup truck.

[fa_jing]

I'm not a big fan of Chinese-American food. Give me Veitnamese or Thai food any day.

[HuangKaiVun]

Chinese-American food, fa_jing?

Try my "HKV Egg Fu Yung" with white rice for breakfast:

1 or 2 eggs
a TINY bit of ground beef

1 stalk scallion (minced)
fresh potato (chopped)
1 tomato

a touch of parsley or coriander
fresh garlic

soy sauce
oyster sauce
sesame oil
ground pepper


1. Cook garlic and potato first in wok or skillet
2. Remove potato, cook ground beef
3. Add all the other ingredients, season to taste.
4. Mix a tiny bit of cornstarch in water and add to skillet if you don't want your eggs TOO runny.

[Cody]

and I always feel guilty that it does.
haha. I just love it.
thanks,
Cody

[GeneChing]

Inside the world's largest collection of Chinese menus
The Thread Tracy Mumford · Apr 28, 2016


Harvey Spiller collected Chinese menus from all across the country -- and the world. These are some of the 10,000 menus acquired by the University of Toronto. Courtesy of the University of Toronto

Fifty-seven banker boxes.

One thousand one hundred pounds.

Ten thousand Chinese menus.

That's what Harley Spiller delivered to the University of Toronto when the school purchased his decades-in-the-making collection. It's the largest assortment of Chinese menus on the planet. The menus go back more than 100 years and come from all over the world, from 1920s California to 1940s India to Spiller's favorite place, just down the street from his New York apartment.

"Anybody who's working in food studies knows about this collection," said professor Daniel Bender, director of the university's food studies center. "It's the Rosetta Stone of understanding the history of Chinese foods."


This Chinese menu comes from Portland, Ore., in the 1950s. It is one of the 10,000 menus from Harvey Spiller's collection, which was acquired by the University of Toronto. Courtesy of the University of Toronto

For the last year, librarians and archivists at the school have been sorting through the menus, studying how best to make the information available to the public. The menus don't just document the rising price of chow mein or the world's changing palates, Bender said. They speak to the history of Chinese immigration around the world.

"The oldest one that we found in the collection is from 1896, which is a really interesting time. That's around the time, or shortly after, the United States and Canada and many other places passed very restrictive Chinese exclusion acts," Bender said.

When countries closed their borders to Chinese immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, immigrants already in the U.S. found a loophole: Chinese restaurant owners were allowed to bring in workers for their kitchens. Thousands of people entered the country that way.

"The Chinese restaurant boom and Chinese exclusion happened really at the same time," Bender said. "Chinese restaurants became popular at the same moment that Chinese immigrants were looked at with suspicion."


This menu comes from Phoenix in the 1980s. It is one of the 10,000 menus from Harvey Spiller's collection, which was acquired by the University of Toronto. Courtesy of the University of Toronto

None of this history was on Harley Spiller's mind when he started his collection.

It began in the summer of 1981, when he moved to New York City. He was in his early 20s, and unfamiliar with city life.

"I'm renting a room in a friend's apartment, and they were out and I was all alone," Spiller said. "I heard a scuffle at the door, and I thought to myself: 'Oh great, I didn't even make it a week and I'm getting robbed.' So I hid in the bedroom.

"About five to ten minutes later, I poked my head out and went to see what was going on. It was a Chinese menu, shoved under the door.

"It was interesting to me because I was an English major, and there were typos, and there were foods I didn't know were foods. I thought squid were in the science lab, fermented. I didn't know you could eat it. I was a meat-and-potato kind of guy.

"Now I eat squid like peas," Spiller said.


This menu comes from Empire Taipei in New York City. Moving to New York is what triggered Harvey Spiller's menu collection. His 10,000 menus were acquired by the University of Toronto. Courtesy of the University of Toronto
That first menu shoved underneath the door sparked his fascination.

"I couldn't afford to subscribe to The New York Times. I couldn't get magazines. So I read menus. They were up and down the avenues in my new town for the taking. I would take walks after dinner, check out the new neighborhood and grab those. They were spare-time reading material."

For those who think the ubiquitous paper menus are worthless, Spiller disagrees: "A menu is a book. It has covers and it has pictures and it has sections like chapters. It's a container for ideas. That's a book!"

Spiller went from casually collecting menus on the street to seeking out historical menus and menus from far-off locales. Older acquaintances ripped Chinese food menus out of their wedding scrapbooks for him. Friends brought them back from vacation.

He dreamed of driving across the country, stopping at flea markets and buying up every old Chinese menu he could found. But instead, the flea markets came to him: eBay was invented.

"In 1997, I was off: I bid on every single Chinese menu that came up on eBay the first year. I bought most of them, and then I looked at my bank account and I went cold turkey."


The University of Toronto's Food Studies program acquired Harvey Spiller's collection of 10,000 Chinese menus. The collection will allow researchers to track the rise and fall of certain dishes across time and location. Courtesy of the University of Toronto

That didn't stop the collection from growing, though.

One weekend in 2004 or 2005, a team of nine people gathered to count the menus for the Guinness Book of World Records. They stopped counting at 5,006, which handily beat the previous world record of 4,001. They were still only halfway through the collection.

As three decades of collecting came and went, though, Spiller decided it was time to find the menus a new home. He was delighted to hear about the University of Toronto's interest. Other potential buyers wanted to cherry-pick menus from the collection, choosing the most exotic or rare among them, but the university wanted the whole thing — and it wanted to make the collection available to the public.

"It started as a lark but it's going to end up helping people writing histories and working on immigration studies," Spiller said. "It helps normalize the immigrant experience."

Professor Bender agrees. "I like to think of that person who finds their own grandparents in that collection, finds the restaurant they worked at ... It's a bit like finding out your parents painted a great painting and now it's hung in a museum."

Spiller's collecting days aren't over, though. He still has a collection of rare coins. And wishbones. And yellow pencils. And blue bottle caps. And plastic spoons.


Harvey Spiller collected matchbooks from Chinese restaurants, too. They are included in the archive purchased by the University of Toronto. Courtesy of the University of Toronto

"That's a collection that I started to see if anything could arise from a dumb collection," he said.

Did moving the 1,100 pounds of Chinese menus out of his apartment free up any space?

"You know how if you squeeze a bowl of Jell-O, it just squirts everywhere?" Spiller laughed. "It's like that. The shelves that were emptied were immediately filled."


The menus allow researchers to track changing trends in Chinese food over the years. This historic menu is from a restaurant in San Francisco. It's one of 10,000 menus in the collection that the University of Toronto acquired. Courtesy of the University of Toronto


Harvey Spiller started by simply collecting the Chinese menus on the streets of New York City, but later began seeking out menus from across the country. This menu from Seattle is one of the 10,000 from Spiller's collection. Courtesy of the University of Toronto

Let me also take a moment here to point out our Dim-Sum-dian-xin thread.

[highlypotion]

I love Chinese food but I love Japanese food more.

[GeneChing]

[JasonB]

Chinese food is delicious. Link is not working anymore :C

[GeneChing]

...snake loose in the restaurant.

Live snake escapes from Guangzhou restaurant’s kitchen, gets caught by customer
At least you know your snakehead soup is fresh!
by Alex Linder October 5, 2018



Recently, a live snake escaped from the restaurant of a kitchen only to be caught and returned by one customer. This happened where else but in Guangdong province.

Video shows that the snake’s escape caused quite a stir in the Guangzhou restaurant, causing some diners to flee and others to step forward to help catch the creature. In the end, it was a brave uncle who snared the serpent and presented it back to restaurant staff.

In China, the people of Guangdong have a well-earned reputation as adventurous eaters — a popular saying goes that they will “eat anything that has four legs except for a table, anything that flies except for an airplane, and anything that swims except for a submarine — while restaurants there do not have such an impressive reputation for food safety, at least you know that the snakehead soup is made fresh.

I hope that 'brave uncle' got his meal comped, at least.

THREADS
snakes
Chinese Food

[GeneChing]

HK$800 Ozaki beef sandwich. HK$800= $102.16 USD

Hong Kong label chasers lap up luxury food trends: Wagyu, white truffles, Wuliangye
Always keen to try the next new and trendy thing, Hongkongers don’t mind having their egos exploited if it also means proving their crazy rich credentials

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 03 October, 2018, 12:31pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 04 October, 2018, 7:10pm
Andrew Sun



Hong Kong people want the best of everything and they know the brand names to prove it. From fashion to jewellery to restaurants by celebrity chefs, there is no better way for them to prove their crazy rich credentials than to engage in label chasing.

Bars and restaurant owners are as aware of this tendency as any other type of business. They’re not afraid to exploit our egos by pushing on us their most ostentatious ingredients. After all, Hongkongers don’t just enjoy wearing bling, they like to eat it too.

When red wine got a little too mass market for the oenophile nerds – I mean, connoisseurs – a snifter of whisky became the routine drink in expensive bars. Trend snobs would boast about single malts, dusty bottles from obscure distilleries, and the impressive number of years their drink was aged in oak barrels. Then, when the oracles of alcohol declared the best stuff was made in Japan, the lemmings started looking eastward.

As that fad plays itself out, booze brands are now pushing other bandwagon products. Have you noticed Chinese baijiu is suddenly being used in more cocktails? I suppose it’s to wean us before suggesting we should do the alcohol in straight-up shots. Once you’re hooked, naturally you’ll want to move some of the whisky bottles to make room in the cabinet for some Mao-tai and Wuliangye.


When wine got too widespread, oenophile nerds starting reaching for the single malts. Is luxury Chinese baijiu next? Photo: Alamy

The same marketing trick happens with food, too. I remember only being able to order buffalo mozzarella in restaurants. Now it’s available in supermarkets, so the fancy trattorias want to sell me burrata instead. Stuffing cream into mozzarella is, of course, more premium and, naturally, pricier. And just like that, mozzarella is relegated to second-class status.


Burrata – a cut above your mass market mozzarella. Photo: Alamy

I also remember when Kobe was the best beef you could eat. We were lured with mythic stories about the cows being massaged and fed beer. Then wagyu came along. Even though Kobe is technically a type of wagyu (which means “Japanese breeds of beef”), the label stuck and people who don’t know any better think wagyu is more elevated than Kobe.


Is wagyu better than Kobe? Who cares – as long as it’s trendier.

As wagyu started selling by the cattle load, producers began raising them in other places. In Australia, it was crossed with cattle breeds like Angus, so wagyu suddenly started appearing in steakhouses and French restaurants. Burger joints used it to make really marbled patties for their luxury sliders. At Repulse Bay’s Fratelli pasta bar, they even have an Italian wagyu beef on the menu. Will a McWagyu be next?

This summer, a hot new beef name arrived in Hong Kong. Elephant Grounds’ pop-up cafe with Japanese brand Wagyumafia introduced us to an HK$800 Ozaki beef sandwich. What is Ozaki? It’s wagyu raised in Miyazaki in southwest Japan, but specifically on a farm owned by rancher Muneharu Ozaki. You want exclusive? Post pop-up, the beef is only available in one Causeway Bay restaurant, Marble.


A piece of the HK$800 Ozaki beef sandwich from the Elephant Grounds pop-up in Causeway Bay. Photo: Bernice Chan

But the most successfully marketed luxury ingredient in Hong Kong has to be truffles. Around this time every year, restaurants with Michelin stars (or Michelin-star ambitions) will start shaving white truffles all over their dishes for status-seeking diners who essentially tell them, “Here’s my money, please show everyone what a big deal I am.”


If you want a Michelin star, stick white truffle on the menu. Photo: Alamy

We can thank 8½ Otto e Mezzo chef Umberto Bombana for introducing us to this heavenly aromatic fungus; he was using white truffles way back in his days at Toscana, when the Ritz-Carlton was in Central. But his annual Alba truffle auctions are now little more than an excuse for tycoons to compare the size of their … wallets.

As the truffle obsession has grown, the rest of the year we want black truffles from France, Australia and even China. To give the grovelling masses a taste, there are synthetically simulated bottles of truffle oil to use with pizzas and pastas. Personally, too much truffle makes me slightly nauseated, so no thanks to all those eight-course truffle meals so popular in Hong Kong.

Of course, I say that because I’m broke. If I wasn’t, maybe I would be ordering an Ozaki steak marinated in 30-year-old whisky, topped with burrata, white truffles and plenty of gold leaf.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Pursuit of the best of everything leaves us vulnerable to fads

[GeneChing]

Shanxi shop leaves a sweet taste with its vinegar ice cream
'Delicious' and 'sweet and sour'
by Jethro Kang October 15, 2018 in Food



In China, vinegar is a no-brainer addition to everything from noodles to breaded pork cutlets, but a store in northern China is using it to flavor something rather unconventional: ice cream.

A dessert shop in Taiyuan, the provincial capital of Shanxi, has recently created the sweet treat with the sour condiment as the highlight.

The ice cream is made from milk, sorghum, peas, barley, and Lao Chen Cu (老陈醋), a type of aged vinegar the province is famous for.

“We use mature vinegar that has been fermented for three years to five years,” store employee Chen Yichao told Xinhua News Agency.



According to Chen, it took many experiments to make the vinegar ice cream palatable.

“Some people don’t like the flavor,” he said, “but we are catering to those who dare to try new things.”

There seems to be a lot of adventurous eaters: over 200 cones are sold everyday, according to China Global Television Network, and Chen said it accounted for at least 60 percent of their total daily sales. Each vinegar ice cream cone costs ¥10.

In a Weibo video by China News, a lady described the flavor as “delicious” and “sweet and sour.”

Lao Chen vinegar is considered to be one of the four famous vinegars in China. It has a history of over 3,000 years and it’s thought to be the first style of vinegar in the world.

[Photos via CGTN]

I don't eat ice cream any more for dietary reasons, but I would give this a taste. I love vinegar. I guess it's the Chinese in me.


THREADS
Addiction to ice cream...
Chinese food

[GeneChing]

This article is a few months old but rat lungworm is back in the news with another recent death of an Australian who ate a slug on a dare.

Two people got rat lungworm from eating raw centipedes. Could you be next?
The answer is yes—even if you don't like eating bugs.
By Sara Chodosh July 31, 2018


A beautiful lungworm.
Punlop Anusonpornperm

Rat lungworm is, thankfully, one of the few parasites that sounds more disgusting than it is. Unfortunately, it’s even more terrifying than its gross name would suggest.

Two poor humans who recently got infected—as reported Monday in the journal American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene—contracted the parasite by eating raw centipedes, which might give you a false sense of security. ‘I don’t eat centipedes,’ you think, foolishly. Nor do you likely live in a small rural town in Guangzhou, China, where the mother and son pair reported to the hospital with persistent headaches. (Of course, you may live in a small rural town in Guangzhou and/or enjoy the occasional centipede snack, but our reader analytics tell us this is statistically unlikely).

But rat lungworm isn’t confined to Asia and the Caribbean anymore: It’s in the U.S., too. And you don’t have to indulge in conscious entomophagy for the disease to strike you.

First, though, let’s talk about what the heck rat lungworm is. As the name implies, the parasitic roundworm that causes angiostrongyliasis (the scientific name for the disease) lives inside rat lungs, specifically inside the pulmonary blood vessels. Infected rats excrete the worms in their feces, where it can go on to infect other critters like snails, slugs, frogs and, yes, centipedes. Cooking any of these animals kills the parasite, so escargot fans needn’t worry, but eating any of them raw may very well pass the roundworms on to you. You, a human, are what epidemiologists call an incidental host. Angiostrongylus cantonensis isn’t trying to infect you, but if it finds itself in your bloodstream it’ll make itself at home.

Once inside you, the worms can get into your central nervous system, where they can cause eosinophilic meningitis. Meningitis is, generally, inflammation of the meninges, which is the membrane surrounding your brain and spinal cord. The eosinophilic type is rare and is so-called because it involves a proliferation of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell that fights parasites. That is, in fact, how many cases of rat lungworm are diagnosed in humans. There’s no blood test, so diagnosis relies on doctors picking up on certain clues enough to think to test the cerebrospinal fluid for high levels of eosinophils.

That was the case for this mother and son, who reported to the hospital a few weeks apart complaining of persistent headaches. The mother, 78, also had cognitive impairment and sleepiness. The son, 46, had some neck rigidity. It was only after questioning that the doctors discovered both had eaten raw centipedes in the previous days, and thought to look at their cerebrospinal fluid.

Those symptoms aren’t exactly typical of rat lungworm, though. The neck stiffness and headaches are classic signs of meningitis in general—the inflammation in the meninges causes both. But most people with meningitis also have much more serious symptoms. Many report nausea, vomiting, fever, abnormal sensations in the arms and legs, and changes to vision. As the disease progresses, some people can develop other neurological problems and can even die. That being said, rat lungworm isn’t always horrifying. It doesn’t even always cause meningitis. Some people don’t have any symptoms, others get minor headaches or a stiff neck, but their bodies mostly fight off the parasite without them ever noticing.

The other parasite that causes rat lungworm, Angiostrongylus costaricensis, can also cause abdominal pain since it often travels to the intestines. The Centers for Disease Control notes that the pain can be severe enough to mimic appendicitis, and it’s often only once surgeons remove the appendix that they realize what’s actually causing the pain. If the worms stick around, though, people can develop internal hemorrhaging from their intestines as the worms get stuck in capillaries and cause inflammatory reactions as they die. (Okay, maybe this is grosser than it sounds after all…).

This used to be problem mostly in Asia and the Caribbean. That’s where the parasite circulated between the rat and snail/slug populations. A 2013 study found that the disease is spreading, though, largely as a result of global shipping patterns in cargo ships and planes, which can carry rats and snails or slugs without anyone realizing. That same study found infected apple snails in New Orleans and infected flatworms in Hawai’i, as well as other infected mollusks and many, many rats. A 2015 study found the parasite in the Giant African Land Snails that hang out in Florida, too. Some researchers have expressed concern that climate change could expand the reach of these critters, thus also broadening the area that the parasite can come in contact with humans.

Now, you may be thinking at this point that you still don’t eat uncooked snails and slugs. To that we will say that you don’t eat uncooked snails and slugs intentionally. Some people certainly do eat these creatures raw, whether for supposed medicinal purposes (which was why the two people in the case report consumed the centipedes raw) or on a dare, or simply because they enjoy it (no judgement). But many of us have probably eaten some raw slug unintentionally on a bit of poorly-washed lettuce. And you don’t have to eat the slug or snail itself—larvae can hide inside the slime. You can get infected without even realizing it. Besides, it’s not just slugs and snails. Shrimp, frogs, and crabs can give you the disease, too, and so can water that’s harbored any of those animals.

People living in Hawai’i have already gotten infected (and so did one teen who was just on vacation there). Several people have ended up in comas, and a study of the 84 cases of rat lungworm in Hawai’i from January 2001 to February 2005, researchers found that at least 24 of the cases were attributable to A. cantonensis.

These cases don’t seem to have been treated for the parasite specifically, but rather were given medicine to improve their symptoms. Similarly, the CDC doesn’t list a specific treatment for rat lungworm. Both of the Chinese patients in this recent case study were treated with albendazole (an anti-parasitic) for 21 days and dexamethasone (an anti-inflammatory steroid) for 15 days, which seems to have resolved the disease.

If you live around the Gulf of Mexico or in Hawai’i, rat lungworm could be a growing problem for you. So yes, avoid eating raw or undercooked slugs or snails (not that most of us would know the proper cooking technique for a garden slug), but also don’t drink from the garden hose or handle any of these critters that you find near your house without washing your hands afterwards. Thoroughly wash all your produce, too. And maybe just stay away from raw centipedes generally.

[GeneChing]

It's about time...

The Launch Of The MICHELIN Guide Fine Cantonese Food
This special edition compiles the best addresses for Cantonese cuisine across 15 countries in Asia, Europe and the United States.
13 November 2018



Michelin has just unveiled the latest edition of its MICHELIN Guides with a new title dedicated to one of the world’s most celebrated cuisines: The MICHELIN Guide Fine Cantonese Food.



This is the first time that the teams of the MICHELIN Guide have created a selection that does not cover a particular geographical area but which compiles the best addresses offering a regional specialty.

Gwendal Poullennec, International Director of the MICHELIN Guides comments: "The MICHELIN Guide is now acclaiming, internationally, Cantonese gastronomy, which enjoys a worldwide reputation and is appreciated both in Asia, Europe, North America and in the Pacific”.

The selection lists some 291 establishments from different editions of the Guide, of which 78 are starred restaurants, 62 are Bib Gourmand restaurants and 151 are restaurants awarded a MICHELIN Plate.

These include the four Cantonese establishments around the world with the highest three-Michelin-star status: The Eight in the Grand Lisboa Hotel in Macau, Lung King Heen and T’ang Court in Hong Kong, and Le Palais in Taipei.

These different addresses are located in 15 countries from China to the United States through Italy. Asia has the largest number of starred Cantonese restaurants with 69 establishments, while Europe has eight and the United States one.

This special edition of the MICHELIN Guide pays tribute to one of the most famous Chinese cuisines that has seduced gourmets from around the world, demonstrating the expertise of the Michelin inspectors and their ability to appreciate the most varied cuisines with a universal criteria.

Banner image courtesy of Lung King Heen.


Written by Rachel Tan

Rachel Tan is Digital Associate Editor at the Michelin Guide Singapore. A former food magazine writer, she has a degree in communications for journalism but is a graduate of the school of hard knocks in the kitchen. When not at the keyboard, she might be found devouring food fiction or slaving over the stove with a kid on her hip. In the words of Anais Nin, she writes to taste life twice.

[GeneChing]

Andrew Zimmern apologizes after criticized for 'offensive' comments about Chinese restaurants
The celebrity chef's remarks about the quality of Chinese-American restaurants, such as P.F. Chang's, were criticized for being culturally insensitive.


Travel Channel's "Bizarre Foods" host Andrew Zimmern, a four-time James Beard award-winning chef, samples Taiwanese noodle soup and pork roll at Happy Stony Noodle in Elmhurst, Queens in New York on July 20, 2017.Kathy Willens / AP file

Nov. 27, 2018 / 3:14 PM PST
By Agnes Constante

Celebrity chef and “Bizarre Foods” host Andrew Zimmern has apologized for controversial remarks he made about Chinese-American restaurants

“The upset that is felt in the Chinese American community is reasonable, legitimate and understandable, and I regret that I have been the one to cause it,” Zimmern wrote in a statement posted to Facebook on Monday. “That is the very last thing I would ever want to do.”

The apology follows Zimmern's interview with Fast Company, published last week, where he discussed the opening of his latest restaurant Lucky Cricket, a Chinese restaurant that includes a Tiki bar, at a mall in a Minnesota suburb. The goal, he said, was to introduce Midwesterners to "hot chili oil, introduce them to a hand-cut noodle, and introduce them to a real roast duck," and to open 200 of those restaurants across middle America.

“I think I'm saving the souls of all the people from having to dine at these horses--- restaurants masquerading as Chinese food that are in the Midwest,” he said.

Angry Asian Man
✔
@angryasianman
To quote @hooleil: "If a dish hasn't been eaten or reimagined by a white person, does it really exist?" https://www.eater.com/2018/11/20/181...hain-minnesota …

292
3:30 PM - Nov 20, 2018
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Why Does Andrew Zimmern Get to Create the Next P.F. Chang’s?
The chef and TV host wades into questions of appropriation with his new Chinese restaurant chain, Lucky Cricket

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Zimmern's remarks were widely criticized for being culturally insensitive.

"The Midwest’s 'horses--- restaurants' are what paved the way for Zimmern’s venture and more broadly, Chinese cuisine in America," Washington Post contributor Ruth Tam wrote in response. "Chinese American food may have originated in the nation’s coastal cities, where immigrants first opened shop, but I’d argue that this cuisine’s ability to thrive in the Midwest with fewer Asian patrons cemented its lasting role in this country. These 'horses---' restaurants may not clear Zimmern’s bar for authenticity, but despite adversity, they created a time-tested model for immigrant food and helped make Chinese food not only ubiquitous, but part of American identity."

Serena Dai
✔
@ssdai
So Andrew Zimmern basically called into question a Chinese guy's Chinese-ness and authority to sell Chinese food — while promoting his own authority to sell Chinese food as a woke white guy

Eater
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@Eater
Andrew Zimmern wades into questions of appropriation with the launch of his new Chinese restaurant chain Lucky Cricket https://www.eater.com/2018/11/20/181...source=twitter …

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Eater restaurant editor Hillary Dixler Canavan also criticized Zimmern for inaccurately portraying the Chinese-American restaurant experience. During Zimmern's interview with Fast Company, he said, “Someone else is going to be the next P.F. Chang's, and I don't want them to blow it. And is it up to me to do it? …. I certainly think I'm in the conversation. And just because I'm not Chinese, I leave that to the rest of the world to judge.”

He also suggested that P.F. Chang's was a “ripoff” because it was owned by the son — “a rich, American kid on the inside” — of culinary figure Cecilia Chang, who is credited with introducing America to traditional Chinese cuisine.

"With one glib comment, Zimmern basically erases [Philip] Chiang’s experience of race in America because he was from a rich family," Dixler Canavan wrote. "Calling Chiang’s cultural purity into question in order to give his own work on Lucky Cricket a pass is deeply misguided, if not outrageously offensive."

She added, “Zimmern not only makes a value judgment about authenticity … but he also makes it without questioning why he gets to pass judgment in the first place. That act of 'translating' on behalf of the presumably white audience — the idea that American diners need to have something unfamiliar 'made more palatable' to get them to the table — has shades of a strange, increasingly outdated form of cultural elitism.”

In his apology, Zimmern said he did not intend to portray himself as the expert of quality Chinese or Chinese-American food or culture, and that some of what he said was taken out of context.

He noted that many people in Minnesota only know the Chinese food found at airports and malls.

“For those folks, I hope to open their eyes to the greatness of Chinese and Chinese-American cuisines and the people who put it on the plate,” he said. “And hopefully, since Americans in general inhale other cultures first through their mouths, if they can love the food they can become more accepting and understanding of the people.”

Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.

CORRECTION (Nov. 28, 2018, 10:26 a.m. ET): An earlier version of a photo caption in this article misspelled the name of a TV show hosted by Andrew Zimmern. The show is "Bizarre Foods," not "Bizzare Foods."

I do think poorly of P.F Chang's too, but just because it's overpriced. I'll never eat at Lucky Cricket. I'm not convinced that Zimmern can even make a decent dish of crickets. That's not because he's white, mind you, it's because his thinking is too narrow.