Why are American Chinese takeout restaurants so similar?
Greenie2600, I don’t think you are crazy, in fact I’ve often thought about asking this question myself. The strip-mall-style Chinese restaurant we have here in my small South Dakota town is virtually identical to the strip mall Chinese restaurant I went to in North Carolina. Same menu, same clip art, same decor, same tables and same backlit take out menu. This same setup was also prevalent in other parts of North Carolina that I lived in with multiple restaurants in each city. I also saw this in West Virginia when visiting. Anyway, I have no answers. I’m just a data point trying to prove that it’s not just confirmation bias at work.
You should read this book ASAP: The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food It’s a fun read, and absolutely has answers to all that you’re looking for.
It’s not just the U.S. In my experience, they’re the same all over Canada, England, Spain, Italy, South Africa (I once whiled away hours in a huge, deserted Chinese restaurant in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State, waiting for a midnight train) – menu, decor, prices. It seems to be a formula which has been passed around as people moved from place to place. The places that are different have actually been in the Chinatowns of places like Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary…
I’m curious about Fortune Cookie Chronicles. I haven’t read it, but I have worked in the restaurant biz. My experience is that restaurant supply companies have a set number of dishes/ingredients that they carry, and given the limited selection there’s only so many dish variations you can make. Since there aren’t that many distributors, the options are cook what you can with what the distributors carry or shop for fresh ingredients at local stores and pay a premium for the privilege but have wider culinary options. Any restaurant that goes with the fresh locally-sourced ingredients is going to have to pass the cost on to the consumer though. If you have a Chinatown or similar area within easy driving distance you owe it to yourself to go to an upscale Chinese restaurant (or one that caters to a Chinese clientele) because I guarantee you there will be a difference. You can go to any number of cheap chinese restaurants that have Chow Fun out of a boiler bag, but you’re likely not to find
