The reasons are unsurprising. The second generation goes to college and becomes professionals, and there's no one to take over. The future seems to be Pei Wei and P.F. Chang's.
Earlier-generation Chinese cooks tended to modify their cuisine to suit the ingredients and tastes favored by the country they immigrated to. Now you can find regional Chinese cuisines, too -- but maybe only in bigger cities.
-------------------------------- “It's hard to win an argument with a smart person. It's damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person." -- Bill Murray
Posts: 13890 | Location: The outer burrows | Registered: 27 April 2005
Well, there are Chinese restaurants, and there are Chinese restaurants. I haven't noticed any shortage of the typical retail strip "Americanized Chinese" places, but the good, authentic Chinese places can be hard to find sometimes. Those places generally have two menus - a more basic one for the general trade, and the more authentic one that Chinese patrons generally use. I think it's great that now, when the Violin Maker and I go into a good authentic place, they automatically hand us the authentic menus instead if the "roundeye menus."
