I was having dinner with my Japanese friend Chieko last night, who has been in Shanghai over two years. Every conversation has centered around food, since she’s made it a point to introduce me to authentic Japanese places. She seems to have very high standards for Japanese fare, eschewing most sashimi restaurants because she bemoans the quality of non-imported fish. She also made a face when I brought up the popular-with-expats Haiku, and said that Hakkenden (my recent favorite izakaya-yakitori place) was OK for slumming but not appropriate for entertaining guests. Eventually, we started talking about western restaurants, which is more my purview.
Chieko: “I just really haven’t had any western food that was so delicious it made me want to go back for more.”
Me: “Really? But there is a lot of variety!”
Chieko: “Yeah? I mean, I went to Laris. That was…OK.”
Me: “Wow, expensive.”
Chieko: “And City Diner! That place is not good.”
I blanched. Did she just lump City Diner in with Laris? As if “western” was a single, definable category of food that allowed for comparison between its members? And did she just give the understatement of the year by saying City Diner, which has turned into quite the abomination, is simply “not good?” Japanese people, they make me smile.
