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Day Three: Authenticity In Question
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January 23, 2007
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« Day Three: In a pig's ear | Main | Day Four: White Sauce Has A Reason »
Bad
soup is depressing enough, but Joe's few bites of blandness have taken a foul
churn. We head back to the hotel, where
Joe feels the need to take a nap, hoping that he'll feel better after a little rest. After a couple of hours, he's looking to eat
again, but he wants something a little more familiar. We head to the nearby restaurant district,
and after some deliberation pick a little French place. Let's see how the Hong Kongers do the bistro.
It's
a cute place with a helpful hostess/waitress. Probably seats around 25. Four businessmen at a table next to us are
drinking a Bordeaux, but we're not offered a wine list. I see that the menu lists a charge for
"glass service", so I presume that it's BYO and does not have a
liquor license.
There's
a 3-course prix fixe for around $30 U.S., so that's what we go for. Mine began with a mushroom-leek soup that did
the job, but didn't taste like something I couldn't have made without too much
effort. The main course, a roasted
chicken, was eatable but
shrugworthy. Dessert was a panna cotta
with a tart citrus sauce; best course of the evening. Overall, the dinner doesn't fare well against
what you can get for a $30 French/New American 3-course in San Francisco.
In
fact, it felt a little bit like imitation food, as though we were at Epcot
Center's version of a French Bistro. I
don't know why this is. Joe and I had an
extended conversation about authenticity and food. What I found interesting is that the
experience was no less authentic than many in the United States, and yet I felt
very differently about it. There's a
little "French" breakfast and lunch place near my house. It's got white shutters, a French flag, and
other affectations that someone actually from France would probably find to be
cheesy. I equally recognize it as
affectation, or at least as much as someone can who has never been to France,
but I don't have the same negative reaction because I know what they are "getting
at". There's some cultural context
that I share with that place that I don't share with this little bistro. Odd. Not an unpleasant meal, but not worth the price when there is such good,
cheap food to be had if you know where to look.
January 23, 2007 in Hong Kong | Permalink
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