Why are American Chinese takeout restaurants so similar?
I’ve definitely noticed a lot of the same things as greenie2600 here in NYC, although it tends to be the greasy spoon take out Chinese food places that all look (and usually taste) alike. Here they’ll also often have huge backlit photos of beautiful sites in China – waterfalls, mountains, etc – on the walls. I always just figured there were a few major distributors for supplies for Chinese restaurants.
JaredSeth: yup, we have those backlit landscapes here, too. Sometimes they achieve a fake-waterfall effect with the lighting. They’re gloriously tacky 🙂 I think you’re right—the similarities seem to crop up a lot more with the skankier joints. There’s a reasonably classy Chinese joint I frequent (still nothing approaching authentic, but definitely a few notches up in quality), and while they do have the lacquered tables and the skinny menus, they don’t have any of the other stuff.
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…
