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

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#101

Post by wavefunction » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 2:07 PM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #67

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…

> middle-white America has been eating tacos (with the crispy shell, itself a US development) for at least two generations. They're about as American as Chef Boyardee at this point. My dad likes to tell the story of his mother, who came from Durango, encountering the concept of "tacos" for the first time... in California. He's always had a hard time thinking of them as "Mexican food".

Tacos are derived from an aztec dish that was much the same, if filled with different ingredients.

They're as Mexican as moles.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#102

Post by wavefunction » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 2:10 PM UTC

stephenr wrote: post #57

fma wrote: post #54

I'll always favor eating real Chinese food than American food. You go to a decent American restaurant, for $20-$30+ you get a plate for yourself. For $15 at a real Chinese restaurant, you get enough food for yourself and share with another. The food comes out in mere minutes, even in a busy restaurant. Chinese food is meant to be shared. You go to a western restaurant, you order a plate for one person. A real Chinese…

> You'd end up with food that caters to western taste As Ive said elsewhere, the only food I've had in 4 countries that was even close to the same in all, is Indian food (i.e. curry + rice). Every other type of food I've experienced, is influenced by the local tastes, and availability of products.

"Curry" is a term invented by the English. It doesn't have any meaning to traditional Indian food.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#103

Post by stephenr » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 2:17 PM UTC

wavefunction wrote: post #102

stephenr wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'd end up with food that caters to western taste As Ive said elsewhere, the only food I've had in 4 countries that was even close to the same in all, is Indian food (i.e. curry + rice). Every other type of food I've experienced, is influenced by the local tastes, and availability of products.

"Curry" is a term invented by the English. It doesn't have any meaning to traditional Indian food.

> Curry was adopted and anglicised from the Tamil word kari (கறி) meaning "sauce",[5] which is usually understood to mean vegetables and/or meat cooked with spices with or without a gravy.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#104

Post by thaumasiotes » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 3:29 PM UTC

wavefunction wrote: post #101

thaumasiotes wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> middle-white America has been eating tacos (with the crispy shell, itself a US development) for at least two generations. They're about as American as Chef Boyardee at this point. My dad likes to tell the story of his mother, who came from Durango, encountering the concept of "tacos" for the first time... in California. He's always had a hard time thinking of them as "Mexican food".

Tacos are derived from an aztec dish that was much the same, if filled with different ingredients. They're as Mexican as moles.

Eh, "much the same as a taco, but filled with different ingredients" means a flatbread wrapped around any filling at all. They're considered quite innovative in the US now under the name "wraps", and can claim to be local to many different cuisines.

The fact that they're authentically Mexican won't change the fact my dad thinks of them as being less Mexican than tamales, or that 2-3 generations back their penetration was such that a farming community didn't even know the word.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#105

Post by wodenokoto » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 4:04 PM UTC

ravenstine wrote: post #9

Japanese food is way overpriced nowadays, and hardly "japanese". You have to pay a ridiculous amount for actual Japanese food; anything mid-priced or below is covered in fried breading, mayonnaise, and even jalapenos. I'm not against "fusion" cuisine, but it sucks when there's so much of that it makes it difficult to get the real thing. Chinese food in America much cheaper because the ingredients are much less costly…

I don't know if you've ever been to Japan, but they eat a lot of breaded, fried food with mayonnaise.

Ebi-fry, tonkatsu, tempura, katsudon, karaage, chicken namban, kurokke and the list goes on are all common, authentic deep fried Japanese foods that are commonly consumed with mayonnaise.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#106

Post by ceras » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 4:12 PM UTC

scholia wrote: post #100

khuey wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I find this surprising. I've lived in the Bay Area and NYC, and by chance most of my friends in both were immigrants from various Chinese-speaking places. Nobody ever complained about the Chinese restaurants we went to, and some would exclusively go to Chinese restaurants and eat quite happily (they never grew a taste for western food).

It never felt like these were hidden gems: we just went to Chinatown in NYC, for example. If you're particularly worried about authenticity, you can peek at the clientele and see what percent is Asian.

Is your wife Chinese American by any chance? Anecdotally I've found that Chinese Americans (and all other first gen Americans, e.g. Mexican Americans) are considerably pickier about their heritage food than immigrants. I'm a first gen myself, and saw it in my first gen friends growing up too -- it's a way to feel more attached to your cultural identity, one that you already feel a bit like an outsider in.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#107

Post by SwellJoe » Sat, Jul 16, 2016, 5:55 PM UTC

parennoob wrote: post #95

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.

The discrepancy I see (that Indian food is pricey in most of the places I've lived, while the original article has it near then bottom), or the discrepancy between Chinese and Indian? I can't tell if you're saying the cuisine having more vegetarian options is a reason for it to cost more, or the opposite.

Anyway, I'm vegetarian (vegan lately), so I'm always comparing vegetarian options across the board (and another reason I like Asian restaurants more than most other options; there's always more items on the menu that I'd eat). It seems like vegetarian options are usually cheaper than those containing meat, at Chinese restaurants. The same is not always true at a lot of other kinds of restaurant; for example, a burger place will usually charge more for a veggie burger, a pizza place will charge more for vegan cheese (if they even offer it), etc.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#108

Post by scholia » Sun, Jul 17, 2016, 1:39 PM UTC

ceras wrote: post #106

scholia wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I find this surprising. I've lived in the Bay Area and NYC, and by chance most of my friends in both were immigrants from various Chinese-speaking places. Nobody ever complained about the Chinese restaurants we went to, and some would exclusively go to Chinese restaurants and eat quite happily (they never grew a taste for western food). It never felt like these were hidden gems: we just went to Chinatown in NYC, for…

To be fair, it's based on a very limited amount of experience, but it has been consistently bad experience.

Neither of us is American but we've eaten Chinese food in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the UK, among other places.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#109

Post by khuey » Sun, Jul 17, 2016, 10:45 PM UTC

scholia wrote: post #108

ceras wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this surprising. I've lived in the Bay Area and NYC, and by chance most of my friends in both were immigrants from various Chinese-speaking places. Nobody ever complained about the Chinese restaurants we went to, and some would exclusively go to Chinese restaurants and eat quite happily (they never grew a taste for western food). It never felt like these were hidden gems: we just went to Chinatown in NYC, for…

To be fair, it's based on a very limited amount of experience, but it has been consistently bad experience. Neither of us is American but we've eaten Chinese food in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the UK, among other places.

Well, if you're ever in San Francisco again, I'd be happy to take you both to good Chinese food. Email is in the profile.

Re: Why Some Cuisines Are More Expensive Than Others

#110

Post by douche » Sun, Jul 17, 2016, 10:50 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #80

beat wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Relatively :-) Lobster meat in Maine still runs about $40 per pound. It may be about half that if you cook soft shells and pick your own meat but prices for live lobster are still $1 to $2 per pound higher this year at this time than they were the last few.

No way - it's been $5-8/pound this summer, and that's buying live lobsters from the grocery store, not off the boats on the coast where it's cheaper.

Of course, last year and the year before the prices were historically low; I think I bought hard-shells once for $2.50 a pound.