ugly delicious

[toastykitten]

The other thing I was thinking was - how out of the mainstream is Asian food if they are sitting and ordering dumplings in the Din Tai Fung that's in the AMERICANA in Glendale, which normally has a 1 hour+ wait?!

Comments

[rachelmanija]

Does Ugly Delicious operate under the premise that what they're looking at is out of the mainstream? (I haven't seen any of it.) But yeah, Asian food is really not out of the mainstream in LA, at least. Din Tai Fung specifically is extremely well-known.

[toastykitten]

Yeah, it's a big theme in the show that "real" Asian food is not accepted by the Western mainstream, which would seem kind of ludicrous given the last decade and everyone going nuts over banh mi, ramen, etc., and given his own career. On this particular episode, he's talking with the comedian Ali Wong about how Din Tai Fung could totally charge $30 for their dumplings and Ali Wong's like "NO! I don't want that!" (which, me, too). He seems mad that Asian people are doing their own thing for the most part and don't seem too bent out of shape that Westerners don't know about it.

Which, he also goes to China and then refuses to try some specific food (I forget what) that was supposed to be really good because he considered it survival/subsistence food or something. Like, who's not accepting who here?

[rachelmanija]

That seems so weird.

[toastykitten]

I have this theory that the first gen Asian-American chefs who are now opening their own restaurants are also really starting to figure out their own identity when it comes to food, similar to where Asian American lit was a few generations ago. So perspectives are going to be inconsistent, identity is going to be prominent base for the food they make, and everything is just super messy. David Chang is completely inconsistent and he just contradicts himself from episode to episode and it's maddening. But he gets some great stuff in, like he gathers a bunch of people who claim to be sensitive to MSG in Chinese restaurants and then feeds them Doritos.