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| Gah |
I work in the City. Lunch options are scanty - throw a stone and you'll hit an identikit franchise serving variations on the same inedible theme - Pret, EAT., Chop'd, Tossed, Crussh.
Bitter experience should have taught me that whenever one of these places launches a new dish, it won't be any good, yet foolish hope springs eternal and on occasion I will return.
More recently I've come across instances of what might even be called cultural insensitivity.
EAT. are by far the worst culprit - here are just three examples of how their R & D department are completely rubbish.
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| Udon Ramen |
Exhibit 1: Their "Udon Ramen". Udon Ramen. UDON RAMEN.
Udon is one type of Japanese noodle. Ramen is an entirely different type of Japanese noodle. This dish of theirs actually comprises a vague stock plus udon noodles. So it's udon. Not ramen.
It's the equivalent of a restaurant serving a dish called Rice Pasta, or Spring Roll Cannelloni.
IT MAKES NO SENSE.
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| Laksa Pho |
Exhibit 2: Their "Laksa Pho". As if confusing two types of noodles wasn't enough, EAT. also manage to conflate whole dishes.
Laksa is a Malay/Singaporean dish of round egg noodles (sometimes also rice vermicelli) in a pungent, curried soup.
Pho is a Vietnamese dish of flat rice noodles in a clear, aromatic stock.
THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
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| Hells, no |
Exhibit 3: I relate this one with a deep sense of sadness.
I'm walking past EAT. and see a sign for their new Hot Pots. I pop in out of curiosity, but I'm taken aback to see the whiteboard which says, "Burmese Chicken Curry".
Knowing EAT's track record for butchering "ethnic" cuisines, I walk straight out distraught. I thought I was safe - Burmese food is obscure, right?!
A few minutes later, I pluck up the courage to return.
I say, voice cracking, "Burmese Chicken Curry please", and the server yells, "Chicken Curry!" and every single one of the other staff yell back at him, "It's Chicken Hot Pot!". Already the dish is losing its identity.
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| The sight that greeted me |
I scurry back to my desk and remove the lid. It looks like it's been eaten already, and I dry-heave.
I'm struck by a cloyingly coconutty scent. So that's the first thing wrong - we use coconut in two savoury dishes and that's about it -
- the Burmese equivalent to laksa (ohn-no khao swe); and
- coconut rice (ohn-htamin).
Poking the surface gingerly, I spot bright green edamame beans and carrots. The Burmese only eat edamame that's been dried and then deep-fried, and carrots are very hard to come by (and we only use them in Chinese dishes anyway). Strike 2.
The carbohydrate under the slop is wild rice. Now Burma may once have been known as the rice bowl of Asia, but we have never produced wild rice - a Burmese person in Burma wouldn't be able to tell you what it was. Strike 3.
Sighing, I bring a spoonful to my mouth and chew. It tastes like a cheap, overly sweet Japanese curry, with the stringiest chunks of chicken breast.
Weirdest is the hit of chilli throughout. And guess what - the Burmese don't put chilli in our curries.
I'm done.
You might be thinking - what's the big deal: people have been tweaking recipes for centuries?
The big deal is that such tweaking ends up eroding the cuisine, even if the tweaking is an improvement (and this really isn't - it's more of an insult to said cuisine).
Burmese food isn't remotely well-known enough that it can withstand this kind of mucking about. The majority of punters won't know how the dishes ought to be, and so will take it as gospel that eg the Burmese dish mohinga uses cod (it doesn't), or that Burmese duck egg curry uses shrimp paste (it doesn't), rather than realising that the ingredients or methods have been changed at the whim of the chef.
Cuisines which are arguably well established in the UK have already suffered in this way - you wouldn't get Spaghetti Bolognaise, Chop Suey or Chicken Tikka Masala in their supposed countries of origin.
But at least those dishes and their names exist in their own right, and most people realise that they aren't authentic.
Whereas EAT. is declaring that Ramen IS Udon, and thus wilfully misleading the masses who aren't yet as familiar with Japanese (or Vietnamese or Burmese) cuisine.
I'm all for experimentation, but if EAT. are going to claim that a dish is a dish, they ought to get that dish right (with exceptions for ingredients that are genuinely obscure - though in that case, they shouldn't be seeking to mass produce that dish).
Dearest EAT., please keep developing new products, but if you're delving into new cuisines, you have to consult someone who actually knows what they're talking about before you slap a label on something and stick it on your shelves.
This is an open invitation to call me by the way ...
This post was inspired by Mr Noodles of Eat Love Noodles who is better at rants than me.
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| Slop in a cup |
The carbohydrate under the slop is wild rice. Now Burma may once have been known as the rice bowl of Asia, but we have never produced wild rice - a Burmese person in Burma wouldn't be able to tell you what it was. Strike 3.
Sighing, I bring a spoonful to my mouth and chew. It tastes like a cheap, overly sweet Japanese curry, with the stringiest chunks of chicken breast.
Weirdest is the hit of chilli throughout. And guess what - the Burmese don't put chilli in our curries.
I'm done.
You might be thinking - what's the big deal: people have been tweaking recipes for centuries?
The big deal is that such tweaking ends up eroding the cuisine, even if the tweaking is an improvement (and this really isn't - it's more of an insult to said cuisine).
Burmese food isn't remotely well-known enough that it can withstand this kind of mucking about. The majority of punters won't know how the dishes ought to be, and so will take it as gospel that eg the Burmese dish mohinga uses cod (it doesn't), or that Burmese duck egg curry uses shrimp paste (it doesn't), rather than realising that the ingredients or methods have been changed at the whim of the chef.
Cuisines which are arguably well established in the UK have already suffered in this way - you wouldn't get Spaghetti Bolognaise, Chop Suey or Chicken Tikka Masala in their supposed countries of origin.
But at least those dishes and their names exist in their own right, and most people realise that they aren't authentic.
Whereas EAT. is declaring that Ramen IS Udon, and thus wilfully misleading the masses who aren't yet as familiar with Japanese (or Vietnamese or Burmese) cuisine.
I'm all for experimentation, but if EAT. are going to claim that a dish is a dish, they ought to get that dish right (with exceptions for ingredients that are genuinely obscure - though in that case, they shouldn't be seeking to mass produce that dish).
Dearest EAT., please keep developing new products, but if you're delving into new cuisines, you have to consult someone who actually knows what they're talking about before you slap a label on something and stick it on your shelves.
This is an open invitation to call me by the way ...
This post was inspired by Mr Noodles of Eat Love Noodles who is better at rants than me.
Comments
This reminded me of my recent trip to the US: "It's the equivalent of a restaurant serving a dish called Rice Pasta"
We ate at a place that proudly boasted their wild mushroom risotto was "by far our most popular pasta dish". Bwa?!?
@Matthew - I was once served muttar paneer in an "Indian" restaurant which comprised garden peas covered in cheddar cheese. I thought I would cry.
And wow - you have actually had rice pasta :)
IMHO the UK is particularly prone to abysmal food-grammar - I've seen (insert random name of country) Tapas, 'Sicilan-style' dishes with Northern Italian ingredients, Banh-mi with red peppers, Thai curries with courgettes, not pea aubergines.
Enough is enough.
Thank you for your feedback. We really appreciate you taking the time to review some of our products and love to hear different people's points of view.
At EAT. we like to put a twist on our recipes so they are often 'inspired by' rather than strictly traditional.
Our Team would love for you to share some of your recipes with us if you'd be interested.
Kind regards,
The EAT. Food Team
Imma gonna get me some pasta rices right now.
@Mr Noodles - I also felt enough was enough. And I was cross at forking out £4.25 for that cup of sorrow.
The food grammar thing - throw enough adjectives and one will stick? Plus as @_aka_hige said to me on Twitter:
"So the concept is one of compounding and contributing to food ignorance while playing on exoticism? Is it 1900 again?
It makes me very annoyed too. Selling food like this smacks of 'oh white folk don't/won't know any different'."
@The Food Team - You get a separate reply later.
@The Shed - I think it's called trying to blag their way out of it.
@walshy - EXACTLY!!!
Ugh.
I posted some Spanakopita on my blog a while ago. I admitted it was an adaptation but it still contained feta, spinach and filo. A recipe I found on BBC good food website (by a very famous chef) had no feta in it at all and used ricotta????? Now that's just wilfully wrong!
I'm no Asian food expert but I would have spotted and been annoyed by the Ramen / Udon and the Laksa / Pho but as you say not many people have experience of Burmese food and I'm no different so I wouldn't know.
It's one thing putting a 'twist' on a recipe, it's another thing changing it completely, and YET CALLING IT THE SAME THING. It insults the culture it comes from, and it also puts out food that engenders bad and wrong ideas about a culture's dishes.
Poor show EAT. When you first started, we had high hopes of you. You seemed different. Now you are just another chain.
Get in proper consultants, people who know what they are doing, and how to keep foods fresh and inviting.
Mamacook - I think I read that recipe, and a little part of me died.
The shrimp paste in duck egg curry really got my goat because the recipe stated "use shrimp paste to be authentic".
Especially to part of you dying when you see this stuff happening.
If you are "inspired by" a cuisine or have adapted a dish, I think you have a responsibility to make that clear to your customers.
Moreover, your "Burmese Chicken Curry" bears no resemblance to any actual Burmese Chicken Curry and it breaks my heart that someone will believe that it might even approximate the Real McCoy.
Also, calling your dish Udon Ramen isn't inspired by anything - it's not only inaccurate and misleading, it's actually illegal - please see Sections 1, 2(1)(c), 3 and 4 of the Trade Descriptions Act 1968.
Lastly, I would be happy to share recipes with you if you're interested in hiring me as a consultant.
Thank you,
MiMi
But no.
Taking recipes from a culture and adapting them to your own tastes - fine! Hello Nigellissima, which I know has annoyed the bejeezus out of some people but she is adamant it is just her take on food she loves, and is quite clear on "a Sicilian wouldn't do this..." etc.,
You take my culture's recipes, change them beyond belief, use ingredients we do not have and call it by our name?
No. For shame.
And yes, Nigella is very good at admitting when something is her own spin or take. Other chefs, not so much.
Mainly, I wonder why they feel the need to label their curry (eg) as 'Burmese' in the first place... Surely if they were to call it 'Chicken Curry' or 'Creamy/Spicy/insert-appropriate-adjective-here Chicken Curry', just as many people would buy and eat it...?
Maybe I'm wrong.
And re the udon/ramen/pho/laksa thing - well that's just silly, innit?
If I asked for rice and got ice cream or asked for fried chicken wings and was given sauteed aadvark slices, I'd naturally be a little bit confused - misnaming stuff is really just plain weird.
Re the need to label the curry as coming from a specific geographical origin, see the comments from @_aka_hige above. I genuinely think EAT. etc believe that "ethnic = trendy".
I say EAT. etc because unfortunately there are numerous other culprits -
Waitrose has a "pho" which contains egg noodles, edamame and some kind of beef stew and
POD Food sell a "Super Soba" containing rice and kelp noodles, but no actual soba noodles.
It's a bit like people who put random Buddha or Ganesh statues in their loo to make it look "spiritual".
Lots of love to you (not them)
Rosana x
That's why it's so insulting. It doesn't seem as though they're trying to actually engage with Burmese, or Japanese or Vietnamese cuisine, and just getting it a bit wrong. It's just looks like a marketing ploy to sell more pots of goop by branding it as "Asian".
That's the other thing that's insulting about it too, it contributes to the tradition of assuming one homogeneous set of pan-Asian flavours. Udon, ramen, laksa, pho, Japanese, Vietnamese, Burmese, it doesn't seem to matter, it's all just chillies, limes, coconut, noodles and edamame beans right?
I do like EAT's bircher muesli though, best thing in there!
It's just good manners as much as anything, but with a side helping of exoticism and cultural homogenisation that reeks of something more privileged and unpleasant in this case than debating whether your Lancashire hotpot is 'more authentic' than mine because it has oysters/black pudding/an actual flat cap in.
I get annoyed when people here don't know what champ is (ie: not colcannon) but this is more cynical and unpleasant.
If you are foolish enough to visit those overpriced chain eateries in the city or west end you deserve having the piss taken out of you.
It was you who demanded this sort of crap fake world cuisine with your wallets and because you thought you were to sophisticated for beans on toast in a cafe.
My national cuisine is fairly mucked about with too. I ordered a pavlova in Bill's once, and was served a large, rock-hard meringue.
Don't think anyone can accuse me of being too sophisticated but then I guess you've never read my blog before.
Oh I know - it's because I said I work in the City, right? We're not all well-paid "suits" you know. Think you're the snob here.
You shit me?
Actually their website does say in small print "Inspired by Burma" though it's still called Burmese Chicken Curry.
Am slightly embarrassed at having to defend myself to someone who won't even sign their name, but am worried my other readers might believe the nonsense you're coming up with.
I never said I was starving. Sometimes though I only have 5 minutes to grab something and haven't had the time to make a packed lunch - and EAT is literally across the road from my office.
Saying these sorts of places will always exist because of the demand is such a tired argument. The fact is, yes, there will always be demand. Me boycotting EAT will achieve bugger all in the whole scheme of things - surely it's better that I try to make things better by letting them know that we know that they're trying to shovel shit down our throats and we don't want to stand for it?
Also - it's "pray".
So before they go round telling people these are authentic ethnic dishes that they are selling, do some research or just brand them accordingly and not misleading the public. How would they feel if I start selling Pie Mash with couscous instead of potato mash, or Kedgeree Pizza and called them authentic British food?
Dear Anonymous – Bean on toast? If you want to go down that route why not just have instant noodles which cost far less if you buy in bulks. Just make sure you don get the ‘Laksa Pho’ flavour.
Now I, much like Anonymous here, was *literally* forced (ie, sat in a chair, eyelids held open "Clockwork Orange"-style) to read this blog post, and as such I realised that I needed to post criticism.
Rather than not comment, or perhaps attempt to start a constructive discourse, I'd prefer to snipe with some snide silly snarky sarcasm. And there's no way I'd say "well Mimi, I really enjoyed this post, because you made your arguments with proper, irrefutable evidence peppered [sorry!] with amusing descriptions of your horrid experience." Oh wait, that's actually how I feel.
As the journo Sid Lowe said: "Give a man a mask and he will tell the truth, Give a man a user name and he will act like a total twat." Now I don't want to imply you're a man, Anonymous, just didn't want to misquote. And surely you can choose a username of your own to dish up obnoxious ripostes to someone's PERSONAL FOOD BLOG. ffs.
I'm not entirely sure that people buy food from EAT. because of it's authenticity, much the same as I doubt people buy food from KFC because they believe it is from Kentucky.
I enjoy world cuisine, and enjoy trying foods from different cultures, however it wouldn't offend me to the point of boycott if they misstated the origin. I was in a Lebanese restaurant in the West End last week and I'm 90% tempura shrimp isn't Lebanese but enjoyed it anyway.
It's a well constructed article, and I understand many of the points, but it's not a Burmese restaurant, or a Japanese restaurant. It's a convenience eatery.
Secondly, sorry if it wasn't obvious but I was being sarcastic about wanting to be hired as a consultant. I may not be rich, but I happen to enjoy my entirely-non-food-related full-time job (too many hyphens, whoops).
Thirdly, I'm sure people don't buy food from EAT for its authenticity, but at the same time if EAT says something is a duck then the majority of punters will think it's a duck and I don't think that's right. And as a passionate duck expert (go with me on this one) it does upset me when they get things wrong and the public is misinformed.
To take your Lebanese example, you may not have been bothered, but I expect the average Lebanese person would have been.
It raises an interesting point regarding who do you target and unfortunately with places such as Pret, EAT, Costa etc it is the majority of people that wont have a clue how food is served in Burma or Japan that make the money.
To be completely honest, I think anything to changes peoples traditional tastes and gets them to try new things (whether they are 100% authentic or not) is fantastic and people should be commended for that. Without this, our culture wouldn't grow, people wouldn't be tempted to travel and we'd end up with a nation of people eating baked beans and thinking Swindon is an exotic location.
Food is often people's first experience of a new country or culture and, although it may not be exactly correct, it will expand peoples horizons.
(Apologies if I'm rambling, I just think it's an interesting debate!)
You raise a very good point about widening horizons. There's nothing I want more then people to be comfortable about trying new cuisines. I remember being bullied at school for eating foreign packed lunches - hopefully this kind of thing is less common these days.
But I do still think that if new cuisines are to be promoted, it should be done with some attention to detail - not slapdash, cynical marketing. We'll have to agree to disagree on this point.
And seriously though - I really don't want to work for EAT :)
Good point: Widens horizons, introduces people to new cuisines - quite tasty IMO!
Bad point: Packaging, and food perhaps, should be double checked.
That about sum it up?
Pretty large company = the resources and the responsibility to get things right and admit when they've got things wrong.
It's not widening horizons to say, "Look, have some ethnic food and feel good about yourself" when the food in question is misrepresentative, and IMO largely not very nice.
And it's not just a packaging problem as I think I've explained at length above.
Let us not forget that many restauranteurs 'put our own twist on' the heck out of plenty of dishes, too. Mainly to get the punters in - giving them the crowd pleasers that they want/are expecting. Crispy seaweed, anyone? It is not only the western high street who are 'to blame' here.
However, I disagree that EAT had no choice but to copy paste that form response. For starters, they could have admitted that they were wrong (and culturally insensitive, lazy etc) for calling udon, udon ramen, and a generic noodle dish, laksa pho. They could have reassured that they would pass the feedback to their product development team, so that they don't just name any generic noodle dish, pho, in the future. I believe they could have responded in a more positive manner.
I think I would have cared less if they actually tasted good but since they suck, yeah, bad times. I used to wish we had an Eat near us so I'd have more lunchtime options!
Anyway, keep on doing what you are doing. But, you may want to give up at some point as ranting wouldn't help much. Start bringing lunch box to work. Good luck with EAT!
xo,
Lela
http://www.LelaLondon.com
I'm in Thailand at the moment so thankfully can have the real thing... Any particular Burmese food you recommend me to try? I'm in Chiang Mai so it's pretty available and I'm thinking of going to Burma at some point as well..
See this article for more.
The chicken curry doesn't look appetising. Basically, they just make an almost curry-sauce and dump whatever in there to create curry.
Anyway, the Laksa-egg-noodles-pho combo is rather interesting. LOL
Wild rice is also overrated. What eat need is some sort of chicken and chorizo with normal rice, maybe a bit of coleslaw in a pot. Similar to what LEON does...