Ordinary Gweilo

Which is worse: “ordinary” Chinese food in the UK or “ordinary” European food in Hong Kong?

I’ll admit that I used to enjoy Chinese food in the UK. Of course, I knew that it probably wasn’t exactly the same as the Chinese food in China, but it was different from European food and I liked it.  However, I was quite surprised when I came to Hong Kong and ate out in a variety of restaurants and discovered that food was so different – and so much better.  Clearly, even the more upmarket “Chinese” restaurants in the UK had been offering a parody of real Chinese food.  I suppose they still are.

In Hong Kong we have a similar story with many of the places that offer so-called European food, particularly at the lower end of the market.

Delifrance is a case in point. If they opened up in France I think they would get lynched – their baguettes are a pale imitation of the real thing, and many of the fillings are very poor (or just plain weird).  The other day I had the privilege of eating a ham and cheese baguette in one of their outlets, and it was truly horrible. The bread was indifferent, the ham was the ghastly square manufactured stuff, and the cheese was of the processed variety. I’m sure that would be against the law in France.

Talking of which, an awful lot of their food is faux-Italian rather than faux-French. For years they have sold so-called French Bread Pizzas (something that I had previously only ever seen in frozen food cabinets in supermarkets back in the UK) and now they serve pasta dishes as well. I will not claim to be an expert on Italian food, but I think I can confidently say that they are not authentic either.

I suppose that a lot of this comes down to laziness and cost-cutting. If you can get away with selling cheap rubbish, then there’s no incentive to do anything different. It seems unfortunate that there are so many Brits who have a totally wrong idea of Chinese food, and a lot of Hong Kong people who have a similarly misguided idea of French food.

Now, where can I get some Sweet and Sour Pork Balls?