Stereotyping.

Warning: the following contains many sweeping assumptions. Please do not think any less of me because of them. Also, I am referring to restaurants in the United States only.

For as long as I can remember, I have judged the authenticity of an ethnic restaurant by the percentage of patrons of that particular ethnicity. You can call it racism. You can call it ignorance. You can call it stereotyping. I just figure that, assuming there are many options in the area, and assuming a moderate price range, authenticity is a major factor in choosing a restaurant. Do the places I go to serve authentic food? Sure, it may taste good to me, but I've long suspected that I have rather conservative and wimpy tastes.

All of the Chinese restaurants I normally go to are filled with Chinese people. The food is authentic, and I know this because I've had good teachers. I have eaten at P.F. Chang's, and I can safely say that the food there is not authentic. I was also very glad someone else paid for the meal, because I disliked it very much. P.F. Chang's was not filled with Chinese people during my visit.

Nearly every Japanese restaurant I go to is not filled with Japanese people. The exception is Tobie Tyler's. Based on the assumptions made in the first paragraph, I believe that stir-fried seaweed-topped spaghetti, mild curries, yosenabe (sp?), and the occasional platter of sashimi are Japanese comfort foods. I like them all. Caterpillar rolls, although delicious, are not authentic. But I like caterpillar rolls too, so my tastes really run toward corrupted versions of Japanese cuisine.

Every American restaurant I have been to was filled with Americans, because American is not a race. So there. I would like to visit the First Nations restaurant in Vancouver, which I guess makes American a race, but it's referred to as First Nation. It's 1:00 AM so I won't try to resolve this now.

I have never been to an Italian restaurant filled with Italian people. However, I believe this is because these weren't really Italian restaurants, they were truly Italian-American restaurants.

I have never been to a Thai place that had Thai people eating there, but then, I hardly have the pleasure of meeting many Thai people to begin with, so I assume this has more to do with statistics than authenticity. Needless to say, I'm pretty sure I've never had authentic Thai food.

Every Korean and Indian restaurant I have been to had plently of Korean and Indian people, respectively, patronizing the establishment. This is where I think my assumptions begin to break down. I cannot eat very spicy food, and yet I could eat the food at these places. I can't possibly have chosen authentic restaurants every time, right? Didn't these places adapt their cuisine, "dumb down" the spice level if you will, to please my corrupted palate?

And now that you've read this, you must think I'm a horrible bigot.