Chow Fun City Reading:

The reading depicts menus of the past as “primary documents of their time, artifacts that go well beyond food, opening windows into issues of race, gender, transnational culture, economics and more.” Consider how in our present culture of assimilation, there is often a tendency to lose elements of distinctiveness or unique cultural identity. In this regard, to what degree do contemporary menus obscure the true identity of various ethnic cuisines?

But is it Authentic Reading:

As individuals visit restaurants of different cultures, they will often encounter food items promised to be “authentic.” However, how can one determine if something is truly authentic? Is the concept of authenticity something that is only learned from personal experience or does it have other roots? Consider the example from the reading. As an individual is exposed to a new food item, “the presence of a flavor one has never before encountered…ends with an ‘understanding’ that this flavor stands as an authentic marker of the ‘true nature’ of the ethnic other – and, therefore, the thing that separates one most fully from this other.” In this regard, how can a person rate the authenticity of a food item without previous exposure to it? Furthermore, in today’s assimilated culture, how can we define foods that are authentic, when they seem to be constantly changing as a result of blending from multiple cultures? How can we evaluate authenticity when the original primary ingredients, special cookware, specialized training, and skills to prepare the food are not readily available in today’s urban context?