Lisa chop suey
Because don’t get me wrong: however delicious these restaurants can end up being, they lose parts of themselves in the process, sloughing off the bits that would make their own stomachs happy in order to fit into preconceived notions of what those foods should be: takeaway, cheap, fast, unskilled, maybe even a little bit “dirty”. It’s a good idea! And like me, Lisa Ling has grown up having to adapt and evolve, assimilating yet losing a part of herself in the process.
So imagine my consternation - but also admiration, OK? - when I learned that Lisa Ling had already done this very same thing, except broadened to several Asian cuisines. The Thai restaurants and I were one and the same. I imagined the Thai food as a metaphor for me myself: an Asian transplant in a mostly white town, tucking away the fish sauce and the shrimp paste into little corners of herself to make her palatable to a different world. It wouldn’t be a finger-wagging exercise in authenticity, I hasten to add - just a sincere exploration of how we all alter ourselves in order to appeal to people who are not us. It would explore the ways that Thai restaurants adapt to the environments around them, be it in Europe, in the Americas, on a remote island, and in other parts of Asia. Unbeknownst to everyone except my friend Galen, I have been kicking around the idea for a documentary about Thai food abroad.
Beef noodles at Mike’s Noodles in Chinatown