![]() ![]() To Americans, some names may make no sense or translate in a funny way, says Yeh, whose parents had a Chinese restaurant named Jade Inn in Springfield, Massachusetts, when he was younger. The word play, says Yeh, is usually lost on American diners. In Mandarin, garden is “yuan,” a homophone for money. They include words like golden, fortune, luck and garden. Many Chinese restaurant names are chosen for their auspiciousness-out of the owners’ desire for success. “Familiarity is one of their biggest selling points,” says Cedric Yeh, who as project head of the Sweet and Sour Initiative at the National Museum of American History, studies Chinese foodways (see artifacts below) and helped put together a 2011 exhibition on Chinese food in America at the museum. Even though the majority of the 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States are not large chain franchises, family-owned mom-and-pop shops adhere to a tried and true gustatory tradition. They offer up a familiar menu of comfort food, but also similar-sounding names. ![]() ![]() They are frequently the heart of small towns. Chinese restaurants are ubiquitous across America from big cities to suburban strip malls to dusty back roads, to highway gas stations. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |