That X restaurant must be good because a lot of X eat there?
As in: That Chinese/Korean/Japanese restaurant must be good
because a lot of Chinese/Koreans/Japanese eat there.
Well, I’ve found that’s often not true in my experience.
To me it seems more likely all the owner’s friends eat there,
or perhaps it’s a place where these ethnically similar people
like to meet and eat because they’re comfortable with folks they trust.
One exception’s a Korean restaurant my sister and I tried in London.
It was lousy with Koreans who might have been our relatives,
and the food was terrific, some of the best next to the Lee clan’s.
My Korean relatives can cook scrumptious Korean food,
which makes it difficult to find a decent Korean restaurant.
Just now I’m involved in a quandary about Indian food.
My friends tell me this cook’s the best they’ve found in Honolulu,
although they say they find Indian cooking here generally bad.
I’ve tried this woman’s cooking twice and not cared for it.
Now, I’m no expert on Indian food, but even in England,
where I’ve tried Indian food in many restaurants cooking
many regional styles of it, I’ve always been disappointed.
Brits, I’ve found, wax poetic over their fish and chips.
My mom, who used to visit my sisters in England annually,
craved fish and chips like crack, had a vat of malt vinegar
installed on our dining room table while she made my dad
replicate fish and chips repeatedly to carry her over
until the next pilgrimage to the fish and chips holy land.
I’ve tried fish and chips as often as I can steel myself to do so.
Never have I found the fish as flavorful as here in Hawai‘i,
and if you like your fries crispy, you’d best skip the chips.
Once flying to Edinburgh, I sat next to someone born there.
She said she’d tried fish and chips all over the UK, but the best
she’d ever found was at a shop in Edinburgh on the Royal Mile.
Already fairly sure I was not a fan of fish and chips, I thought,
“Gee, she’s a native, maybe I’ve not tried a good place yet.”
So I went there, and royally disappointed, I was, by many a mile.
It’s all relative, I suppose, at my age I’m thinking. I grew up
on Hawaiian style curry, so maybe it’s truly not at all about
a lifetime quest for the best place to eat a certain type of food,
but, more accurately, I should accept that I’ve finally found
I don’t care for a particular type of regional cuisine at all.
Lanning Lee 