[PLUG-TALK] Open-Source Restaurants

[Rich Shepard]

   Chinese restaurants outside of China, and especially in the US, are the
restaurant equivalent to linux while McDonald's and the other chains are the
equivalent of Microsoft's Windows. Both venues have a consistency and
predictability that is comforting (attractive, even) to customers but one
achieves that by voluntary community contributions while the other by diktat
from a single source. This theme is well documented in Chapter 17 of
Jennifer 8. Lee's most excellent book, "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles:
Adventures in the World of Chinese Food."

   I unconditionally recommend the entire book to you, not just this one
chapter. Considering that at the time it was published (2008) there were at
least 40,000 Chinese restaurants in the US (more than McDonald's, Burger
King, and KFC combined, and about 24 in Gresham, Troutdale, Fairview, and
Wood Village) these restaurants are part of America for all of us, not just
Chinese-Americans.

   Her book is a story of immigration, integration, and people from the
perspective of Chinese who emigrated (primarily from
Guangdong/Canton/Fujian) to the US over the past couple of centuries.

   Did you know that fortune cookies were invented by the Japanese? That in
China they're known as American fortune cookies? And that no one in China
recognizes any item on the menu of an American Chinese restaurant? These and
other fascinating aspects of eating out (or take-out and home delivery,
invented by one Chinese restaurant owner on Broadway and 97th St. in
Manhattan, NYC) are carefully described and documented in Ms. Lee's book.

   The Multnomah County library has copies and Amazon sells used ones
starting at $0.01 (plus $3.99 shipping).

May your fortunes include winning PowerBall numbers,

Rich