A recent post from Andrew over at High Riser got me thinking and I decided to come up with a list of 'chinese' things that many of my white friends like but I (and many chinese people) find perplexing (in no particular order)...
1. Kylie Kwong.
2. The dim sim at the South Melbourne market.
3. The Flower Drum.
And to be fair, many of my white friends find a lot of chinese things rather perplexing too. As I recently learnt at yum cha, the consumption of chicken feet probably rates very highly on that list.
3 comments:
Is it not the cult of celebrity? The more these things, people and places are mentioned, the more popular they become. I am not fussed on Kylie. I am fond of South Melbourne dim sims as an occasional replacement for a healthy breakfast. The Aussie dim sim has a pretty tenuous connection to Chinese food doesn't it? I've not had the pleasure of dining at the Flower Drum, but so many foodies surely can't be wrong.
Ah, chicken feet.
When I lived in Hong Kong (decades ago) there was an attempt to introduce KFC which failed. The popular view amongst we 'Gwailos' was that there was too much chicken meat and not enough chicken feet on the menu to tempt the locals and so the franchise failed.
Maybe the locals simply had too much taste to fall for that food.
By the way, the locals used to populate Repulse Bay Beach at the bottom of my apartment complex during the evenings to enjoy barbecues of chicken feet. The attraction of that dish remains a mystery to me.
Andrew: Flower drum is good but there are many restaurants of equivalent quality that are better value and yet don't enjoy the same iconic status. Cult of celebrity?
Victor: I grew up eating chicken feet so I am not repulsed by it though it must have all the nails removed otherwise I get a bit grossed out. Nathan also loves it at yum cha so I guess not all gwaoilo are 'chicken foot averse' (though he also loves KFC).
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