Pain (Xi'an Famous Foods)

Liang Pi Cold Skin Noodles

Coach Boone: What is pain?
Team: FRENCH BREAD!

The above, of course, is from the movie Remember the Titans, which is one of my favorite movies. To the five people out there who actually read my blog, forgive me for my lack of content over the past couple of weeks. I've had a lot going on these past couple of weeks, and right now, I'm gouging my eyes out studying for a monstrous 132-question neurology exam on Monday. I found it amusing that some of the lecture topics -- most notably, sleep disorders and pain -- are particularly salient in the lives of medical students.

The Merits of Authenticity (Ken's Asian Taste)

Sliced Beef with Chinese Broccoli

The question of what constitutes "authentic" Chinese cuisine is something that actually makes me pause for a second. This might seem strange since, after all, I am Chinese. But as my friend Nicholas noted in this post, our determinations of what is or is not "authentic" ethnic cuisine often comes from people of said ethnicity. Of course, this comes with the stipulation that the person whose opinion is being sought has a proper grasp of authentic cuisine, but then what becomes of individuals who were born in a country different from their ethnic background? I bring this up not because I'm bored and have too much time on my hands (which I probably do anyway during the summer), but because, as a person of Chinese descent who was born in the US and has only gone to Hong Kong once in my life, my idea of what is "authentic" Cantonese cuisine is pretty much based on what I ate as a child at home and at Chinese restaurants that my family would go to. What if the only Chinese food I ate growing up was egg foo young, chicken and broccoli and mushu pork? Then my concept of "authentic" Chinese food would likely include these dishes because 1) I wouldn't know any better, and 2) I had never been to Hong Kong and seen that these dishes aren’t served there. So isn't my judgment of what is and isn't "authentic" Chinese food just as dependent on others’ concepts of authenticity as, say, my white friend who asks me for a restaurant recommendation to an "authentic" Cantonese restaurant in Chinatown?