Re:The economics of all-you-can-eat buffets
by dllthomas on Monday December 11, 2023 @01:58PM
(#38603893)
In this case it was purportedly invented by a Chinese-American barback in a Polynesian themed establishment quite visibly owned by a white guy, named after a city in Burma, and then later adopted by a slice of American Chinese restaurants. I think it's reasonable (but not required) to consider it less Chinese than food developed more solidly within the American Chinese food tradition.
> (This is true of “<ethnicity> food” in the US generally, its not specific to Chinese food.)
Outside the US too. I remember ducking into a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant in Poland and finding that everything was served with a very Eastern European cabbage and carrot salad.
Those are overlapping, but different, categories, and “Chinese food”, without additional qualifications, in the US usually refers to the former (and/or food of Chinese-themed restaurants in the US catering to general American tastes, with some inspiration from from it), without regard for whether or not it is also the latter.
(This is true of “<ethnicity> food” in the US generally, its not specific to Chinese food.)