I hereby give the world notice that I am trademarking the terms “McAsian cuisine” and “McAsian food.” Hell, I'll just take all of "McAsia" and "McAsian" for good measure. Anyone, anywhere who uses that term from now on has to pay me a glass of bia hơi each time they use it. Except if you’re in Somalia. I suspect not even Walt Disney's trademark department could enforce this in Somalia.
Seriously, I know that the second you read the header, you went “SNAP!” You knew exactly what I meant, even though you’d never thought about it that way. It’s that strangely generic “Asian” food that has populated food courts and airport waiting areas from Singapore to Seattle and is now even making its way into places like – the horror, the horror – the American Midwest. It’s a cuisine that takes a couple typical dishes from every country in Asia, dumbs them down and sweetens them up, and if at all possible, deep fries them for good measure. You’ve got your “Cantonese” fried rice, your “Singapore” fried noodles, some “Vietnamese” spring rolls, a Pad “Thai”… Just top it off with some shockingly bad sushi, and your McAsian menu is complete.
Now that the term is out there, it’s going to be pretty much impossible not to use it. “Hey, wanna go grab some McAsian food?” “What do you feel like tonight? – How about McAsian?” “I know this great little place that serves the best McAsian in the whole Tristate area.” Just remember, each time, that’s one more glass of bia hơi for me. And who knows, I just might have to order some real Vietnamese food to go along with all that bia hơi.
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I like to try and have different types of cuisines at food courts in Singapore where food from Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Japan, Korea...can be found at reasonable prices for people with low budget like us =)
ReplyDeleteYup, sometimes, the food might be not that authentic. For example, once, my Indonesian friend said Indonesian dish that she had was not similar to what she had at home.
But poor us that we are not able to afford a more fantastic restaurant with more genuine cuisine or go to that country to enjoy its food.
It's good to some extent and not good to some other.
Anyway, I am still happy to eat at "McAsian food" courts ^ ^