So, I’m reading the food blog Serious Eats – it’s a food blog I read like hardcore porn when I’m having leftovers and want to pretend that I’m eating something fancier – when I come across MSG150. What’s that, you ask?
The basic premise of the MSG150* is this: Over the next year or so we will eat lunch at every restaurant in Seattle’s International District (aka Chinatown) and (a) collect interesting data, (b) write funny and useful reviews, and (c) make a million dollars.
We, of course, being “a bunch of bored white software developers.” Awesome.
When you have said white software developers creating a weblog about restaurants in Chinatown Seattle’s International District, you’re bound to find some common themes. Let’s verify, shall we?
- Chop suey font
- Ratings in chopstick format
- Obvious reference to MSG (previously refuted)
- Buck-toothed squinty eyed mascot defended vehemently by Germans
Well, three for four isn’t too bad.
That said, whether you’re wondering if I’m going to go all angry asian man… no. A lot of Chinese restaurants play to the fortune cookies and the chop suey font and the unfortunate naming conventions, those very same stereotypes that make their sons and daughters roll their eyes; but the goal of the Chinese restaurant owner – usually immigrants, mind you – isn’t to be appropriate, it’s to make money and send their kids to Stanford.
And as someone who likes to eat a lot – oh wait, a foodie – I appreciate the fact that there are more reviews on the web, even though my version of Chinese food might be of a different standard as theirs. (I do have cravings for fake Chinese food from time to time. Mostly on long road trips and at airports.) Should I ever find myself in Seattle, I might actually use this guide, for no other reason to go a place called Unicorn Crepes. UNICORN CREPES! That shit might be magical.
(Flickr photo credit: celesteh)
