Dude, where's my Chinatown?

Today I got Chinese food for the first time since moving to Seattle! Although that doesn’t seem like a big deal, I ate Chinese food at home all the time. The Bay Area has an awful lot of Chinese food, and dinner consisted of Chinese takeout about once a week. Since moving here, I’ve had Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, but I hadn’t had Chinese food until tonight!

I noticed the strangeness of this situation last week, and my best explanation was that the difference between San Francisco and Seattle as far as varieties of Asian food goes would be the different groups that immigrated to the areas. Both Oakland and San Francisco are known for having large Chinatowns, and Chinese food is all over the place. However, I’ve noticed that there’s much more Vietnamese food here than at home. Therefore I’m assuming that there are/were many more Vietnamese immigrants to Seattle than San Francisco.

The entire ordeal reminds me of a few of the readings we've done for class, particularly the Borderless Cuisine article. It's fascinating to see how different cultures integrate parts of other cultures into their own. For me, being from the Bay Area, it's hard to imagine life without Chinese food because it's always been part of what I eat. Maybe it's that way for people from other places with other foods that aren't necessarily part of their culture.

But who knows, the important thing is there’s delicious food for everyone!