🚀 go-pugleaf

I have to agree with the poster questioning whether ethnic "correctness"
on the part of the cook is essential.  I've found with Chinese food, at 
least, that most Chinese restaurants (here in Baltimore, at least) tend to
produce not particularly authentic Chinese food.  They cater their 
cooking to the taste of their idea of Americans.  And in fairness to 
them, they're probably doing the right thing from a business standpoint, 
as most Americans seem to want food that fits what they're expecting 
rather than food that's authentic.

Heck, after having done the necessary research, *I*, a considerably 
non-Chinese person, can make better Chinese food (to be exact, I'm best at
Szechwan food, although I can do it bit of Cantonese) than most if not 
all of the Chinese restaurants where I live (Baltimore).  Now I *have* 
had authentic Chinese food in the Chinatowns (and nearby) in San 
Francisco and Oakland, but it's largely unobtainable in Baltimore.

Now that I've rambled awhile, my point is that if I (a Caucasian) can 
make better Chinese food than most of the Chinese-owned restaurants 
around here choose to do, why couldn't Korean's make quite authentic 
Japanese food?

Oh, and one bit of anecdotal evidence that my Chinese cooking is 
relatively authentic:  once a friend of mine invited a woman from Beijing 
over to my house for me to make her some Chinese food.  After resisting 
the temptation to kill my friend for putting me in such a spot, I made a 
Szechwan dish called Sui-mu Ji.  The guest of honor (who, as an aside, 
was very surprised to see the authentic Chinese ingredients I had in the 
kitchen) pronounced the dish a success, but commented that the chicken 
pieces should have been cut smaller.  I went back and checked my 
cookbook, and sure enough, I should have cut the chicken pieces smaller 
than I had.  It certainly enhanced my opinion of the veracity of the 
cookbook.  If anyone is interested, the cookbook was "The Good Food of 
Szechwan", by Robert Delfs.  I highly recommend it as an excellent 
introduction to Szechwan (in particular) and Chinese (in general, 
although it's not a comprehensive source) cooking.

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Hal Laurent               | Home: laurent@charm.net          
Baltimore Maryland USA    | Work: laurent@tamrc.enet.dec.com