New York restaurant touted as "clean" Chinese insults entire culture

I just paid a pretty hefty sum for a meal at a highly-touted Chinese restaurant. It was worth every penny. I don't think I had a better prepared Chinese meal anywhere else.

It's an injustice and a tad bit racist that people always expect Chinese food -- all Asian cuisines, in general -- should be cheap food and thus not as good as something you'd get in  a fancy French or Italian restaurant.

We need to acknowledge that preparing a high-quality Chinese meal takes just as much talent, skill and artistry than a meal prepared by a European-trained chef.

So when a white person describes her Chinese restaurant as "clean" and "healthy" she's taking a swipe at an entire culture targeting most of the Chinese restaurants most of us have enjoyed eating at.

New York-based Arielle Haspel told Eater that at Lucky Lee's restaurant she features “clean” Chinese American recipes for “people who love to eat Chinese food and love the benefit that it will actually make them feel good.”

Her Instagram post which has since been deleted says that traditional Chinese lo mein makes you “feel bloated and icky the next day,” according to Next Shark. 

Haspel's comments (now deleted) naturally stirred up the pot in the Twitterverse:

To be clear, I'm not trying to make this issue a case of cultural appropriation for I know that practice has been around for a long time and will probably with us forever and it goes both ways. Some of the best turkey hot plates I had were cooked by a Chinese chef at my favorite (lamentably, now closed) hofbrau, and if you've been around the California, some of the best chefs and kitchen crews are Latino at some of those Michelin-starred restaurants featuring so-called "fusion" or "California" cuisine.

Lucky Lee's marketing is at fault and it's based on the implication that all Chinese-owned restaurants are not clean and serve unhealthy food even though they must pass the same cleanliness standards as other restaurants and required by their local health inspectors.

In an interview with the NY Times following her controversial statements, Hapsel appeared contrite, saying, "We have been listening and learning, and we have been making changes and we will continue. Shame on us for not being smarter about cultural sensitivities."

"We were never trying to do something against the Chinese community," Haspel continued. "We thought we were complementing an incredibly important cuisine, in a way that would cater to people that had certain dietary requirements."
The ubiquitous Chinese restaurant has been under attack lately. Noted travel host Andrew Zimmern  drew massive outrage from the Asian American community late November 2018 when he made the comment: “I’m saving the souls of all the people from having to dine at all these horse-sh*t restaurants masquerading as Chinese food that are in the Midwest,” in promoting his own restaurant chain, Lucky Cricket.

According to the magazine Chinese Restaurant News, there are over 41,000 Chinese restaurants in the U.S., three times the number of McDonalds franchise unit.

With the San Francisco Bay Area's easy access to locally grown meat, seafood and fresh produce, several Chinese restaurants have discovered that its easy to widen their clientele and increase profitability by placing an emphasis on the quality of their fresh, healthy dishes.

But I return to my original complaint: We shouldn't begrudge paying higher prices for high quality Chinese cuisine. The stereotype of Chinese food automatically means inexpensive means unhealthy food should be thrown out with yesterday's American-inspired chop suey.

ASAM NEWS contributed to this report.

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