Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#91

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 9:44 AM UTC

yompers888 wrote: post #78

stephenr wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Chinese" food is, in America, is designed to be tasty and relatively inexpensive. Authentic Chinese food isn't as appealing or palatable to most Americans. Do you really think any other culture/country's food is 'authentic' in the US? Do you somehow think "Outback Steakhouse" is anything like Australians eat? Do you somehow think Thai restaurants are anywhere close to authentic anywhere but Thailand? I've said it…

I'd argue that a lot of Chinese food is well-suited to American tastes. Certainly not the Guangdong stuff and the cheap animal parts (looking at you, pig and chicken feet), but almost everything else. At very least, everything about Sichuan and Hunan food seems to translate well except for the very spicy fish stew.

[deleted]

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#92

Post by careersuicide » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 9:47 AM UTC

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #87

beat wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern French cuisine was codified by Escoffier. Not only did he nail down what haute cuisine was in terms of technique, he codified a process of restaurant management, based on the military chain of command. Escoffier trained up-and-coming chefs on how to structure large kitchens (up to hundreds of staffers) and how to handle budget and marketing, to get the "right" customers. In other words, he invented the modern…

> That's why waiters at such fancy places seem like they're insulting you - they're actually insulting you! Because of this, the restaurants are expensive. Of course they're expensive. Not because the food is superior, but because the kind of people who would eat there expect it. At the best, putting prices on the menu is a faux pas. If you have to think about the cost, you don't belong. It sounds like you're saying…

I think you're 100% correct. But, I also think that even implying that that is the purpose is itself a form of signaling of your wealth/social class. "I'm much too smart/frugal/down to earth/in the know about where the real good food is to be fooled by cloth napkins and dim lights." Signaling is funny like that. We often discuss it in the context of letting others know how up the social ladder we are or want to be perceived as being. But at least as often signaling is used to convey to others that we're not at the top, we're right where we belong, with the other members of our tribe.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#93

Post by evgen » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 9:49 AM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #89

DougMerritt wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent point. But perhaps they meant "Latin American other than Mexico". Here in Silicon Valley, there might be Argentinian, Brazilian, Chilean, etc. restaurants that I'm unaware of, but even including the north bay, surely very few. And in most of America, predictably there'd be none in most towns and cities (aside from New York, Miami, etc.). Which is pretty different than Mexican, which is indeed widely embrace…

FWIW I've never seen ketchup in a London Mexican restaurant. Most make the bulk of their trade on Mission style burritos and similar. It's Mexican viewed through a West Coast American filter.

And except for a handful they are all very, very bad. Whenever I travel from London back to the bay area my dining consists of maxican and sushi (London sushi has two modes: terribly sad or incredibly expensive.) As a simple example, the only way to get a corn tortilla that is not a deep fried hard taco shell is to either make your own (by ordering masa from Amazon) or arrange for delivery by a service, you cannot find them in the grocery store. In general, it feels more like Mexican viewed by a Brit who spent two weeks in San Francisco once a few years ago...

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#94

Post by paperpunk » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 10:18 AM UTC

evgen wrote: post #93

barrkel wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW I've never seen ketchup in a London Mexican restaurant. Most make the bulk of their trade on Mission style burritos and similar. It's Mexican viewed through a West Coast American filter.

And except for a handful they are all very, very bad. Whenever I travel from London back to the bay area my dining consists of maxican and sushi (London sushi has two modes: terribly sad or incredibly expensive.) As a simple example, the only way to get a corn tortilla that is not a deep fried hard taco shell is to either make your own (by ordering masa from Amazon) or arrange for delivery by a service, you cannot fi…

When I lived in London I would buy corn tortillas "that are not deep free hard taco shells" at least once a week, from the chain grocery stores you find everywhere.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#95

Post by parennoob » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 10:48 AM UTC

SwellJoe wrote: post #38

This has Indian food near the bottom of the list, but in most of the places I've lived, Indian restaurants have been among the more expensive places I frequent. Of course, I'm not frequenting Zagat rated places, and I have a fondness for cheap Chinese food and taco trucks and taquerias, so I tend to like cheap and non-fancy places. But, I think I've only lived in one city (Houston) that had really good and really che…

Indian food often has a much higher proportion of purely vegetarian dishes (~50% or more) compared to these other cuisines, which I think is party responsible for the discrepancy.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#96

Post by jjgod » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 12:30 PM UTC

khuey wrote: post #81

Nadya wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Chinese" food in America isn't even "Chinese" food most of the time. It's "Oriental-inspired" at best. If I go to a Chinese restaurant in the U.S, I expect none of my dishes to be anything that would exist in a "typical" Chinese restaurant. Hell, most of the food is considered American food by Chinese people because it is so dissimilar to actual Chinese cuisine. If I go to a Japanese restaurant I can expect them to…

This definitely depends on where you live. Most major cities seem to support at least a few "authentic" Chinese places (and some, like the West Coast cities, NYC, etc, are loaded to the gills with them).

Which is not really surprising as West Coast and NYC are where most of the Chinese immigrants live.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#97

Post by roel_v » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 12:31 PM UTC

beat wrote: post #35

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Sydney, I've noticed the better places to eat are increasingly becoming the cheaper restaurants.

Minneapolis has an amazing food scene, driven by localvore ingredients (we're farm country) and hipster-casual "fine dining". It's a hard town for traditional fine-dining restaurants. The really good eating is split between the hipster places and southeast Asian ethnic restaurants. For $50/person, you can get a shockingly good meal here, and you can wear jeans and a t-shirt eating it.

In general, Europe is (much) more expensive than the US food-wise and I still can eat a four-course meal at a one Michelin star restaurant for less than $50 (without drinks) 10 mins by foot from my house (Netherlands - you won't get to wear t-shirt and jeans though). I'd certainly hope that $50 would get me exceptional food.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#98

Post by cableshaft » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 12:39 PM UTC

DougMerritt wrote: post #44

samatman wrote: post #32

"And when Latin American and Asian food also become American food, it will be a signal that the country has at last embraced a new generation of Americans." I found this peculiar, given that the US has no fewer than four distinct regional "Mexican" cuisines, not found in Mexico. These are Tex-Mex, California Mexican food (e.g. the fabulous Mission burrito), New Mexican food, and American Mexican food (think chimichan…

Excellent point. But perhaps they meant "Latin American other than Mexico". Here in Silicon Valley, there might be Argentinian, Brazilian, Chilean, etc. restaurants that I'm unaware of, but even including the north bay, surely very few. And in most of America, predictably there'd be none in most towns and cities (aside from New York, Miami, etc.). Which is pretty different than Mexican, which is indeed widely embrace…

I'd argue that Brazilian food has gotten a bit more of a "higher class meal" distinction compared to its counterparts, but that's probably because they're often Steakhouses (which are often considered higher class), and it's offers a bit of a unique experience as people often come to your table and offer you all sorts of different cuts of meat that they carve for your right there. There's quite a few of those around the area, and they're not cheap places to eat. There's quite a few of those now in the Chicago area.

There's a Peruvian sandwich place near me now. I wouldn't say it's high class, but the sandwiches are more expensive than many other places around here. I just assumed it was due to it being more expensive to import the food they need, but now this article makes me think of the cultural aspects of it too.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#99

Post by cableshaft » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 12:52 PM UTC

beat wrote: post #24

donretag wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lobster is another great example. It used to be a poor man's food and now it commands a high price.

Interestingly, lobster is pretty cheap now, due to abnormally high numbers of catch-sized lobsters (probably something to do with global warming). There's a restaurant here in town that specializes in basically lobster everything, and it's not out of line price-wise with standard Minneapolis hipster fare. If lobster prices ever go back up, they're toast. Their whole menu would skyrocket.

Or they'll just do what tons of other restaurants already do and serve you fake lobster and no one would know the difference.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lobster-not-lobster-subs...

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#100

Post by scholia » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 1:03 PM UTC

khuey wrote: post #81

Nadya wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Chinese" food in America isn't even "Chinese" food most of the time. It's "Oriental-inspired" at best. If I go to a Chinese restaurant in the U.S, I expect none of my dishes to be anything that would exist in a "typical" Chinese restaurant. Hell, most of the food is considered American food by Chinese people because it is so dissimilar to actual Chinese cuisine. If I go to a Japanese restaurant I can expect them to…

This definitely depends on where you live. Most major cities seem to support at least a few "authentic" Chinese places (and some, like the West Coast cities, NYC, etc, are loaded to the gills with them).

That may well be true but it's hard for tourists to find them. My experience of "Chinese" food in San Francisco is that it's appalling, and in New York, my Chinese wife wasn't even willing to try it. Fortunately, tourists are usually very happy with "New York diners" and other exotic American restaurants, whose authenticity is unquestioned.