JC
Yum, an article all about food (thanks for the tip, Gui!)! The New York Times takes a look at “second generation Chinese restaurants.” Some would argue that this fusion cooking is a step away from the traditional. Today, in NYC, you can find Chinese fusion restaurants that combine Chinese cuisine with the cuisine from Peru, the American South, India, you name it!

But over the past decade, as large communities of people from India, Peru, Korea, Trinidad and Guyana have formed here, New York has had to expand its ideas about what Chinese food can be. “I call them second-generation Chinese restaurants,” said Cheuk Kwan, who has directed a documentary film about the spread of Chinese restaurants around the world. “These restaurants always have a hyphen: Chinese-Venezuelan, Chinese-Norwegian, Chinese-Mexican. “Chinese-Malagasy,” he said, on the island of Madagascar, “was the best food, with lots of coconut milk and spices.”

“The term Chinese food represents an area four times larger than Western Europe and the eating habits of more than a billion people,” Mr. Kwan said. “You could say that there is really no such thing as Chinese food.” Eugene Anderson, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Riverside, and author of “The Food of China,” disagrees. “Chinese food is defined by a flavor principle of soy sauce, ginger, garlic and green onions” and methods including stir-frying and steaming, he said. “Once you get too far away from those rules, it is no longer Chinese.”

Whatever and wherever it is, it is in flux, said Eric Kwan, a New York native and chef and owner of Hip Hop Chow, a new East Village restaurant serving a hybrid of Southern American and southern Chinese cooking. “Chinese food in China didn’t change much in 2,000 years, but now it’s changing,” he said. “And Chinese food in America is something totally different.”

At De Bamboo Express in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, Chinese cooks toss rice and vegetables in huge woks, then top that with peppery jerk chicken wings and handfuls of raw cabbage, which steams gently in the rice and adds a crispness to the plate. “Chinese food and Jamaican food are tight-tight,” said Monica Lambert, a customer who was eating the dish. “This food is both. You know, like Naomi Campbell,” she said, referring to the supermodel whose father is Chinese-Jamaican.

And yes, the affinity of the Jewish for the Chinese was mentioned (for those of you who know me, the mentioning of this “obsession” is a source of annoyance for me). Imagine the scenario (which has happened to me on numerous occasions):

Clueless person: Jen, what are you anyway?
Jen: Chinese, white and Jewish.
Clueless person: OH! That’s so interesting. But of course! You know how the Jews love Chinese food?! (note the Interrobang ;))
Jen:

Yea, my mom loved Chinese food so she married my dad. Makes sense. Well then look out for Eden Wok in Midtown. There could very well be some love connections made over the kosher beef frank eggrolls!