Tag: chinese

Is there still a glass ceiling for Asian cuisine restarants in North America?

For a time in Toronto there were discussions I was following in various forums about the low cost of food in Asian restaurants. For example, people were asking: Why are Chinese restaurants so cheap in Toronto?  There were various reasons given, from “people don’t value the cuisine” to “it’s a form of fast food” to “racist attitudes and beliefs”. And this wasn’t just Toronto: you could see similar patterns in other major North American cities, from Montreal to New York.

It concerned me that this might be true. I knew Chinese and other Asian cuisine was just as sophisticated and varied as cuisines of Europe, and I felt North America needed more restaurants that reflected that.

Based on the latest list of the top 100 restaurants in New York (produced by Pete Wells of the NY Times), I think we have those restaurants. I went through this review by Eater of the list of the New York Times best restaurants list (2024) and I extracted the following info on Asian cuisine restaurants. Of the top 100 places, I made this short list:

  • Chinese: 5. #15 CheLi, #36 Szechuan Mountain House, #59 Great NY Noodletown, #68 Chonging Lao Zao, #84 Hakka Cuisine
  • Japanese: 4. #9 Yoshino, #22 Kono, #32 Shion 69 Leonard, #45 Raku
  • Indian: 4. #7 Semma, #54 Dhamaka, #80 Temple Canteen, #95 Hyderabadi Zaiqa
  • Korean: 7. #4 Atomix, #16 Jeju Noodle Bar, #30 Atoboy, #40 Okdongsik, #52 Yoon Haeundae Galbi, #77 Oiji Mi, #91 Mapo Korean BBQ
  • Vietnamese: 1. #20 Mam
  • Thai: 1. #29 Zaab Zaab

(The number after the cuisine is the number of restaurants (e.g. 7 places serve Korean cuisine). The ones in bold-italic are in the $$$$ price range, bold is the $$$ price range, and italic is $$.)

It’s not just one or two places, like Yoshino or Atoboy: there are numerous high end restaurants in NYC serving Asian cuisine from all parts of the continent.  There are everyday places like Temple Canteen and Great NY Noodletown, too, and I am positive there are tons of places serving great Asian food that is not listed in the top 100 that are still great. But Asian cuisine is no longer limited to restaurants in the $ to $$ range.

That is not just New York. In Toronto we have high quality and higher end Asian places like Sushi Masaki Saito, Aburi Hana, Kaiseki Yu-zen Hashimoto, Shoushin, 156 Cumberland, Indian Street Food Company, Sunnys Chinese, PAI, and more, according to experts like Michelin. I suspect it is the same in other North American cities too. It’s good to see and a good sign.

Here’s to more people gaining a greater appreciation for cuisines of all kinds, and here’s to more opportunities to experience that, be it in a small place in a food court or a grand establishment in a beautiful building. Cheers!

P.S. To see the entire New York Times list, go here.

 

 

It’s Sunday. A good day to be useless. Here’s a guide to being that way


You may laugh and say “I know how to be useless”, but to truly appreciate the value of uselessness, I recommend this: How to be useless | Psyche Guides.

It talks about the ideas of the great Chinese philosopher, Zhuang Zhou and his work, the Zhuangzi. (You may know him as Chuang Tzu from the great book by Thomas Merton on him.) If you have to do something useful this Sunday, I recommend you read that. Then go make yourself useless. 🙂

Chinese millennials are just like young people everywhere (surprise!)


I love this piece: Chinese millennials are rejecting dull factory jobs — and transforming the economy – Los Angeles Times.

Why? Because it affirms my view that people are largely the same when it comes to certain demographics.

I say “largely” because there are differences. Chinese millennials will still have differences with millennials in Serbia or Canada or Kenya or Peru due to culture and geography. But there are many similarities. Going through that piece in the LA Times, I kept reading the quotes and thinking: that’s true for young people here too!

People ignore age demographics all the time, as if young people — not to mention older people — have different interests and drives in different eras and in different regions. Don’t be one of those people. 🙂