Strange that there seems to be a bit of a Malaysian kick on for restaurants in the CBD, more students from that country?

I put a photo of my lunch on Facebook, prompting my sister to ring me up and ask what the hell I was eating, it looked like a slug on the plate with blue rice and dropped-on-floor salad. Sometimes I try a bit too hard to find something new.

Not sure why Tawaiian Cafe on Swanston St is so popular, if they can’t even give me a fresh can of coke when I order a drink it’s a bit worrying.

Duncan – Cheap and bad but popular, I understand; expensive and bad but popular leaves me equally bewildered. Pizza is a great example – how does La Por’s flourish when people could get an equally good (or bad) pizza both nearer to their house and at a cheaper price? I’d hardly put it down to marketing. Force of habit maybe?

Amen, brother.

It’s an unfortunate malaise that infects food appreciation in Australia. Before SBS’s “Food Safari” program, there was no cooking program in this country that dared to show how Asian people made Asian food. Inevitably it would be a white Australian chef giving his own “interpretation” of an Asian dish, while Asians watching at home pull their hair out in frustration at the bastardisation of their favourite dish.

Still, I can’t help but chuckle at those who are too scared to buy an ingredient from an Asian grocery, yet will happily buy the same thing for 4 times the price at The Essential Ingredient once it’s placed in a fancy jar with a celebrity chef’s name on it.

However I think that many restaurants tend to ‘dumb down’ their menu because their patrons stick to the well-known dishes like Pad Thai, ‘Mongolian’ Beef, etc. So they don’t offer or promote the more interesting, but lesser known dishes.

I remember standing in line at a Thai outlet in a food court once and saw the guy in front of me order a tasty-looking dish I hadn’t seen before. When I asked the staff what it was, I found out it wasn’t on the main menu, but on the specials board written in Thai.

So I ordered it as well and it was simply delicious. Unfortunately I’ve forgotten the name, and haven’t seen it at any other Thai restaurant since.

Exactly; but the way to learn is by exposing people to information and sensory experience, not by telling them what is the best. It’s a top-down, authoritarian method of instruction that doesn’t leave people with the skills and confidence to make their own judgements.

My parents are the Poon patron type – and they’d never read any article about food or cookery. If you’re interested enough to be reading the food section, you deserve something better than Wilden’s guide to snobbing.

Great post, Phil.

In this respect, I suggest such articles/publications do not hold much weight with people who are more confident about cuisine (regional asian or otherwise) as you discuss. Yet, I am sure those who are “fashion conscious gourmets” may find value, or perhaps a beginner will get some break-out inspiration. Like Phil indicates, I wish people were more demanding and grassroots with food, however I guess it must be taught and learnt. This is the part that is missing, probably from some journo’s too. From a media perspective, I suggest blogs cater to the more serious guerilla gourmets.

anyway…it is hard to resist a steaming bag of Poons Dim Sims…except they could taste even better now as I feel more guilty submitting to such comfort and behavioural urges!

I’m not trying to argue that the “Asian” metacategory thing isn’t a serious problem in perceptions of food and cooking among great swathes of the eating public, but I don’t think the basic problem is unique to the multitude of cuisines that fall under that ignorant umbrella.