Please, where did Mr. Assaf photograph the wonderful looking dim sum?

I agree there is a real decline in Chinese restaurants in the Baltimore area (not including Howard County), but the same can be said for French restaurants too.

Its interesting that the two great cuisines of the world are giving way to ... (I won't say for fear of starting another bit of ugliness.)

I'll check tomorrow when I get into work. I had uploaded it a long time ago when I was planning to do Chinese restaurants and then never did. I just came across it recently. The info should be in the archives.

Monday morning update: the dim sum are at Szechuan Best in Randallstown.

Maybe Chinese restaurants around these parts would be better off serving more authentic Chinese food, rather than "American" Chinese food. I, at least, would be happier if they'd do that.

The decline in Chinese restaurants seems fly in the face of conventional wisdom. You would figure with the growing clout and importance of China that Chinese restaurants would be growing in both quantity and quality. It would seem there would Chinese equivalents of Nobu or Morimoto's that would be catering to the increasing number of people with ties to China.

Meanwhile, with the relative decline of Japan in both economic and political terms, you would expect to see a decline in the Japanese restaurants, but we don't see this.

Perhaps none of the geo-political things matter. It might just come down to taste. I to prefer Japanese food over Chinese food, both the tradtional dim sum food as well as the Americanized stuff like Cashew Chicken and Shrimp Fried Rice.

On a similar note, I also wonder why German restaurants are dying off, while Irish Pubs are everywhere. Both places are about beer and heavy foods. I can't think that people really have this much of a preference for shepard's pie and banger and mash over brats and schnitzel.

I think we can all agree that it's more appropriate to use the term sushi places/restaurants than to call them Japanese restaurants as they are not owned by Japanese nor do they employ Japanese chefs, around here anyway. The abundance and popularity of these places to me is more indicative of the ease of preparing the food of the cuisine of mediocre quality and somehow still be appealing to the masses. I doubt seriously that a Japanese would frequent the vast majority of these places.

My daughters and I always have our traditional Christmas meal at Jumbo Seafood in Pikesville. I think it's pretty good - and it is open Christmas day. My older daughter was surprised a few years ago when she learned that some people actually cook Christmas dinner.

"I also wonder why German restaurants are dying off, while Irish Pubs are everywhere."

Because Guiness is the nector of the Gods, and Spatan tastes like elephant urine. Just kidding !!!!

Actuclly, it's because the Irish are a lot cooler than the Germans!!

(okay, okay, JUST kidding again, I swear!).

;-)

Buy a wok, some shallots, ginger, beef, onion, rice wine, eggs, steam up some rice and have it at home.

Robert, I think you touched on something with your theory, although I suspect the converse to be true: the worse the geopolitical economic position of a nation, the better the expatriot cuisine is. The better off a nation is, the less necessary it is for the upper middle class to flee and open restaurants with their engineering and medical degrees. Of course, this is just a theory, but maybe Iraqi cuisine will become the next big thing.

Through the Nose, I understand your point. Economic migration both in the form of Brain Drains from the professional classes and labor drains from the working class can result in the spread of ethnic/regional cuisine. There are many examples of both. Places like Lexington, KY and Spartansburg, SC, where Toyota and BMW, respectfully, opened up plants, have seen new Japanese and German restaurants. On the working class side there was southern/soul food that the southern poor brought with them as they migrated to the industrial north.

I would not, however, discount the importance of the foods from those countries who are exporting power, influence and money instead of its people. Your theory would discount the "popularity" of American "cuisine". America has never experienced an out migration. (Yes, many Americans have spent time overseas, although far fewer than other countries.) but American staples like McDonalds and Coke are everywhere. I understand there is a difference between mass produced food products and cuisine, but I would still contend that superpowers influence what the world eats. Certainly Rome and Great Britian had tremendous influence on what the world ate and what it still eats today.

both the tradtional dim sum food as well as the Americanized stuff

Dim sum is only a very small segment of traditional Chinese food.

think we can all agree that it's more appropriate to use the term sushi places/restaurants than to call them Japanese restaurants as they are not owned by Japanese nor do they employ Japanese chefs

By this reasoning, a French restaurant would need to be owned and run by a Frenchman/woman.

American staples like McDonalds and Coke are everywhere.

Ackk!!! Please don't call either of those "American cuisine"!

I was quite embarrassed when I first saw a McDonald's in Paris.

I was resigned to seeing a McD's on a lovely Buenos Aires pedestrian-only street, but it had a darkened, leather-seated, carpeted high-end coffee lounge on one side, a cute dulce-de-leche ice cream dipping parlor on the the other side, with street window, and the garish yellow-orange burger counter was nearly hidden at the rear.

Back to Chinese, people who write about the lack say the bigtime chefs stay there because 1. they want to, and 2. the State Dept. makes visas unavailable for them. The brain drain may not be draining away from mainland China lately.

Robert, excellent point. Maybe the Celtic Tiger partially explains the international spread of Irish pubs today, or the internationalization of the Americanized McIrish Pub (apparently, they’re everywhere nowadays, from Hanoi to Moscow to Colombia.) I think we can all agree that it isn’t the Irish food that is driving the popularity (to which my Irish grandmother’s cooking can attest. Don’t season-boil for 6 hours-serve. Yick.), in much the same way that it isn’t the taste of McDonald’s food the is driving the popularity, but instead the marketing. Maybe that is where the difference between the two forms of cultural exportation lies. The marketing approach is the feel of a cuisine downward, while the people exportation approach is the essential tastes of the cuisine creating a foundation which then builds upwards?

Hal, did you notice my use of quotes around both the terms "popularity" and "cuisine"?

'By this reasoning, a French restaurant would need to be owned and run by a Frenchman/woman'.

All I can say is, you must not have been to Japan.

While I agree that McD's et. al. do not represent American [or any] cuisine, I have to confess that our first meal in Paris [Dec '91] was at a Pizza Hut. We were not interested in the pizza, but our son, who was studying in Paris, wanted an "American" salad. The only place he knew that would fit the bill was the Pizza Hut salad bar. Unfortunately for him, he could not afford to eat there, so it became our first meal in the City of Lights. And don't ask about the McD's at the exit from the RER station in Versailles!

Have you been to Zen Cafe by Belevedere Square? That's a really good sit down Chinese restaurant. Give it a try! The Orient in Towson is also pretty good.

I called Cafe Zen just now, but they aren't there on Mondays, and the voicemail message only mentions Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day. Unless they call me back before tomorrow, I won't be able to include them.

"I think we can all agree that it's more appropriate to use the term sushi places/restaurants than to call them Japanese restaurants" and "Buy a wok, some shallots, ginger, beef, onion, rice wine, eggs, steam up some rice and have it at home." - by these then we should call Americanized Chinese restaurants as "Stir Fry Pubs!"

When our children were young we used to stop in a McDonald's from time to time while traveling. It was eye-opening to see how cultural differences could tweak even a Happy Meal. I would swear that in Paris the "secret sauce" had been improved with tarragon, and in Germany you could get a beer with your Big Mac. Our favorite McDonald's was in Tokyo.