TOW #27 - Why is Asian Salad Still on the Menu

Walking into a restaurant, it is not difficult to find culturally diverse and exotic foods.  However, one type of item often comes with an interesting name.  Asian foods are commonly given jokey names “Oriental Chop Chop.  Mr. Mao’s.  Secret Asian Man.  Asian Emperor.  China Island.  Chicken Asian Chop Chop.  Chinese-y Chicken” (Tsui 4).  These names reflect the common misrepresentation of Asian Americans.  Bonnie Tsui brings attention to this problem with the use of personal experience as research.  Utilizing this research has allowed Tsui to highlight the issue of unseen racism in our daily lives.

                Being an Asian American, Tsui documents the many things she’s seen in restaurants.  In her piece, she uses what she encounters as inspiration for her research.  She includes historical context on the creation of the title, “Asian Fusion.”  She notes that is was created in the 80’s and used by popular chefs like Wolfgang Puck and Roy Yamaguchi.  They sparked popularity of titling foods “Asian.”  Today, restaurants used this to their advantage, “A single Cheesecake Factory, Rainforest Café or Applebee’s could sell 500 Asian salads a week.  Each chain punched up the name to seem foreign yet familiar” (Tsui 10).  Not only does her factual evidence establish credibility in her article, but it also serves to expose these restaurants.  Applebee’s and other are utilizing Asian culture as a way to produce revenue.  Characterizing an item as Asian draws customer’s in since it sounds exotic and foreign. Not only are the restaurants just using the name, but they don’t even know the ingredients to their food.  Tsui asked Applebee’s for “more specifics on what made its Asian greens Asian and its Oriental vinaigrette Oriental, a spokesman told me the company was unable to ‘provide a thorough response” (Tsui 11).  Restaurants are solely using the Asian title as a marketing tool.

                Tsui documents the problems with restaurants through her own experiences.  Not only are restaurants using the name to draw customers, but they also don’t know what they’re putting into these foods or what makes it “Asian.”  This problem plays into the racism Asian Americans face in the country.  Their culture is taken advantage of so other companies and businesses can profit.