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Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

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Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#201

Post by ams6110 »

davidw wrote: post #128
opportune wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah all these people talking about Americans not having good taste in food are entirely missing the point. It has nothing to do with that, and everything to do with economics. There's no reason to eat fish when in almost all cases chicken, pork, and beef provide much cheaper and filling sources of protein. I mean, I love the taste of fish, but even I rarely eat it because it's just that much more efficient to feed m…

The US is a pretty wealthy place. I lived in Italy for something like 15 years, and people there eat a lot of fish too, of varying kinds. By and large, they do not have as much money as people do in the US. If it were only about efficiency, you'd probably just eat beans and rice, day in and day out, with a bit of this and that thrown in. Edit: BTW, this book has some interesting ideas about the US and food: http://am…

The point is, in the US most seafood at the store is at least $15/lb. Beef (depending on cuts) is as little as $3/lb. Chicken and pork are typically cheaper than beef.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#202

Post by emodendroket »

CPLX wrote: post #187
briandear wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mexican food was a favorite of mine in the United States, but in France it tastes like cardboard. I want to find but France doesn't sell it. This conversation can be had in literally any country in the world. Can't find a decent cheeseburger in Delhi, can't find decent cheese in Shanghai, nearly impossible to find good tequila in Germany. Every country has foods they're good at and foods they're not. As far as the de…

> Every country has foods they're good at and foods they're not. I mean... sure. But I've travelled a whole lot of the world and some places on average have way better food than others. It's sort of impossible to go to Lyon, France, say, and then pretend everywhere else's food is just like different, but no worse.

If you spent a year or more in a Lyon I think you'd have a much easier time thinking of things you wished they had.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#203

Post by CPLX »

emodendroket wrote: post #202
CPLX wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every country has foods they're good at and foods they're not. I mean... sure. But I've travelled a whole lot of the world and some places on average have way better food than others. It's sort of impossible to go to Lyon, France, say, and then pretend everywhere else's food is just like different, but no worse.

If you spent a year or more in a Lyon I think you'd have a much easier time thinking of things you wished they had.

Indeed. But dramatically less so than, say, Lyon Puerto Rico.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#204

Post by sytelus »

TLDR;

Chinatown sources from local small producers and are able to get big discounts. They also reduce cost by skimping on things like good furniture, printed labels, credit cards etc and keep their margins to 10-12% over wholesale.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#205

Post by joshyeager »

pault wrote: post #96
kbutler wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We could call it "HomeGrocer" or maybe that's too specific - how about "Webvan"? (I agree though, I think this is something that is going to happen - just have to find the right business model at the right time.)

Eh? I don't have a car and do _all_ of my shopping via amazon now and instacart (direct from Whole Foods). I get deliveries 3-4 times per week.

Kbutler is joking. HomeGrocer and WebVan were early companies that attempted to sell groceries on the Internet. They both collapsed in the dot-com crash.

I am not sure why they failed but more recent attempts seem to be succeeding. My two current theories are: 1. They were ahead of their time. There weren't enough people shopping on the Internet to sustain them back then. 2. They were killed by structural obstacles that may also kill the new versions.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#206

Post by stupidhn »

zanny wrote: post #196
ams6110 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans have also been scared away from eating a lot of fish over fears of mercury and PCB contamination. America is also a big place. Fresh fish spoils quickly. So no, you won't see a lot of selection at a midwestern supermarket. If you're near a coast, the selection and number of specialty seafood shops is a lot better.

I would be surprised if major metro areas didn't have enough seafood demand to justify building inland fish farms to supply the urban centers.

People are also afraid of fish farms.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#208

Post by stupidhn »

smhost wrote: post #197
briandear wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps some data to back that up? Some of the best restaurants and chefs in the world are American. Have you been to an American grocery store of any reasonable quality? The cheese selection of many big-city grocery stores rivals even French grocery stores. I shop in France all the time and I am still amazed at the variety at many American grocery stores. Try finding Napa/Chinese cabbage, fresh chiles, daikon radish…

The stereotype is pass around among restaurant owners as well. It's not a secret that the American palate is picky and easy to understand. Avoid foods that are mushy, gooey, slimy, or "weird" (even though most food is like that), and try to make it crispy, sweet, and/or salty. Sushi is gross, but put the rice on the outside (beacuse eww seaweed) and cover it in sweet sauce, and suddenly it's delicious. Chinese food i…

>Granted, Americans have gotten a lot better at food and culture in general in the past decade ever since the hipster/foodie-ism thing

American culture, in general, has improved thanks to 10 years of hipsters? Where are you from?

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#209

Post by jessaustin »

theparanoid wrote: post #169
metaphorm wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

re: meat https://www.meatinstitute.org/index.php?ht=d/sp/i/47465/pid/... relevant numbers from linked page 25.8 billion pounds of beef 23.2 billion pounds of pork 5.8 billion pounds of turkey 286 million pounds of veal, lamb and mutton 38.4 billion pounds of chicken beef, chicken, and pork are all highly prevalent, but chicken is king. there are other meats produced as well but in much lower quantities. turkey is get…

Pork is almost as popular as beef. 50 years ago, beef was king. With meat the US has become poorer.

...beef was king.

That may have been true 50 years ago, but it wasn't true 80 years ago, and I have my doubts about before that. Unfortunately I haven't known too many people old enough to have been keen observers of eating habits a century ago...

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#210

Post by jimbert »

metaphorm wrote: post #120
ithinkinstereo wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sushi is quite popular with the Chinese, both in the states with ABCs as well as in the mainland. See this article for one datapoint: http://www.worldfishing.net/news101/Comment/analysis/norway-...

interesting, and a very recent trend. the population of 1st generation Chinese immigrants in Chinatown have not developed a taste for sushi though.

My father was born in China in 1940 and he refuses to eat raw food like sushi. He isn't particularly hygenic when it comes to food preparation​ (defrosts meat in the sink, flies are not a huge concern) but cooks everything well done.
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