Exactly what do they mean by this? This evening, we saw a sign in a shop window in town that said “Coming Soon - Chinese Buffet, New York Style.” How is this different from any other Chinese buffet?
For some time, the North East USA was home to over processed Chinese food that was more like American Fast Food than Asian cuisine. Thick egg rolls, lotsa stuff from the same Asian food distributors and bad won ton (IMHO).
Well, even though over processed and non-home-cooked Chinese food is pretty much standard fare through most of the USA, saying “new york style” is sort of like saying “Hey, this is the generic fast-food style processed AmericanChinese food with a buffet that includes bad pizza, snow crab legs, chicken fingers, french fries, chicken wings and probably some bad sushi thrown in for kicks.”
That’s what the sign means. To Asian Americans, it REALLY means, “We don’t even have a secret menu for you”.
Ah. So I can disregard the place entirely? Good to know. Thanks.
Questions you never thought to ask but now that someone’s asked…
So, condensed version, New York Style means “Has other food for people who don’t like Chinese”? Okay.
The only time I’ve been to a New York Style place, they didn’t give us free green tea (although a buffet may be an exception.) So I’m wondering if New York Style isn’t also sort of like “Continental Breakfast”, fancy sounding but you are actually getting less? (The place also was a la carte without a lot of free white/fried rice on the side, no fortune cookie, etc.) Or maybe that place was an exception.