I agree. It’s probably due to regional differences. Just as you mention about your family.
I promise you, a lot of mexican (men) eat menudo for breakfast on Saturday and/or Sunday with a beer or two. Also immigrants, some w/o “papers”.
Some in my wife’s family enjoy eating the eyeball, but they’re ethnically Chinese. Not sure if the ethnic Thais do that a lot. But I still don’t like to see it done.
A lot of Thai “food” would leave Westerners nauseated to say the least. In the Northeast of Thailand especially, there are quite a few insects that are considered delicacies. The Northeast ihas historically been the poorest region, still is today, so it may have something to do with poverty and not having much else to eat. But man, they still dig today in even if they have money. Some nasty-looking creatures, too, huge cockroach-looking things and giant bugs you’ve never ever seen before outside of a Hollywood horror film.
Since most bargirls are from the Northeast – at least the ones who cater to Westerners; the ones catering to Thais come from the North, as they have the lightest skin, and that is the Thai man’s ideal – you will see food carts offering a variety of insects parked in or near the bars. The grasshoppers seem especially popular. For example, there’s a bug vendor who’s set up shop right in the middle of a street called Soi Cowboy, one of our major bar areas. I’ve often sat at a table outside of Sam’s 2000, which this bug cart is always parked outside of, and watched as a motorcyclist comes roaring up bearing a big tray of grasshoppers, dumps them onto the cart and then roars away to make another delivery. The bar girls come flocking all night long to the cart looking for these treats. I always have to laugh thinking about how that tourist who has been kissing his newfound sweetie all night long has no idea what’s been going into that mouth (foodwise, I mean).
Raw food is also popular in the Northeast. An especially dangerous dish is one called “pla ra,” which is some sort of fermented raw fish and an excellent source of liver fluke, which just happens to be the biggest health problem in the Northeast. Rat is another popular dish that I pass on.
And then there are the ethnic Vietnamese communities, also mainly in the Northeast. There is a reason why you see no dogs in their streets.
The Thai variety of bugs look too scary for me, but I did eat once in a restaurant in Changchun, China, that specialized in insects. They looked a little tamer, still a little off-putting, but I sampled them. I have to say the scorpions were not bad, rather buttery-tasting. I could actually imagine kicking back with a bag of those and watching TV. The silk worms, though, were awful.
I’m sure not all Mexicans love menudo, but pretty much every Mexican joint in my neighborhood proudly advertises menudo on their menus for weekends. It’s a pretty popular item out here. I suppose it depends on the local population and how recently they’ve emigrated from Mexico. Also, most of the places here have tacos de lengua (tongue) as well (even one of our bowling alleys on Harlem Ave…you can bowl and have a tongue taco in between frames!) and many have sesos (brain tacos). I’ve even managed to find tacos de ojos (eyeball tacos) around here as well.
Many years ago I was touring Japan. This was long enough ago that Caucasians were rare in Tokyo & all but unheard of out in the prefectures.
I was in a city park on Shikoku watching a guy pushing a vending cart. A 20-ish total babe came up & bought one of whatever it was. I watched with interest as I hadn’t been able to figure out what he was selling from his signage. Depending on what it was, I thought it might give me an opener with the babe too.
He pokes around in the cart with a skewer & out comes a bright purple octopus tentacle about 8-10" long & maybe 1" in dameter at the thick end. She pays, tilts her head back & dangles the tentacle into her eager mouth and …
Sorry, my train of thought took a detour just there, exactly as it did 40 years ago… At any rate, she ate her tentacle with obvious enjoyment. (And I never did get anywhere with her, despite valiant efforts)
I doubt that particular very authentic and presumably popular Japanese snack food will catch on in the US.
I can find all those around here, as well. Of course, that’s because there’s a high enough population of Mexican immigrants and their families who patronize those stores to keep them open. When this gringo girl and her friends go, we’re ordering steak and chicken and veg. I gross out my friends by ordering lengua, when really you can’t tell the difference 'tween lengua and any other beef!
My interpretation of the OP was that he was questioning the saleability of “authentic” ethnic food in suburban or rural areas without large numbers of people of that ethnicity in the area. Most small towns these days have a “Chinese” restaurant. Chances are real, real good that they don’t even have dim sum with ground chicken and pork, much less eyeball soup.
Or look at national chains - Taco Bell is not going to put ojos or esos on the menu anytime soon. Bennigan’s is not going to add deep fried caterpillars with dipping sauce to the appetizers. No one is going to Chili’s for their Friday Night Natto Special!
That’s not to say it won’t ever happen. I have a cookbook that belonged to my great-grandmother that talks about the “Exotic Italian!” recipes in one section. The recipe for “Authentic Italian” foods include things like tomato sauce, unseasoned, over macaroni noodles boiled for 15 minutes. These things take time to become accepted and to get right. I’m not sure if insects are so far into our food taboos that they can never be accepted or not. I suspect they may be too taboo. But then, would our great-great-grandparents ever have envisioned us eating SNAILS or YOGURT?
“Restaurant”
r-e-s-t-a-u-r-a-n-t
“Restaurant”
:smack:
I asked a server in Chevy’s if the food there was authentic. He grinned and said:
“Authentic turista”. Tipping well has it’s benefits. 
They have pretty good tortillas. Better than store-bought anyway.
I understand, and perhaps I was being extreme in my examples. But something like, say, authentic German or Italian food would not have a problem in mainstream America, in my opinion. My original point (not the Mexican restaurant one) was that, in my opinion, there are plenty of authentic restaurants around that might not serve the items perceived as weird to American tastes, but still have examples of authentic cuisine on their menus. As I was saying, authentic need not mean “weird” parts of the animal, insects, and the like.
I suspect the mainstream American restaurant industry has already answered your question with a solid “it depends”. Mexican food here may or may not be authentic depending on your definition, as Shagnasty noted, but in the right neighborhood it’s easy to find a restaurant that serves plenty of food only recent Mexican immigrants would actually eat. And the menu at Roberto’s on Rosecrans Ave may not be the same as the one at El de Roberto on Constitucion, but it reflects the Mexican-style food that makes San Diegans’ mouths water. And burritos and tacos are a sufficient part of our diet here that those places rake in cash faster than they can count it. If you ask me, whether or not people eat burritos in Baja California isn’t really relevant.
But if you really think “authentic Mexican” food can’t sell in America, I’ll happily show you the place half a mile down the road that sells tacos de lengua and tacos de tripa.
I don’t have the cite offhand, but the popular story down here is that Ralph Rubio stole his famous fish taco recipe from a taco-stand owner in Ensenada. I’ve seen it reported convincingly in local newspapers, and a classmate once visited the alleged taco-theft victim, took lots of pretty pictures of the restaurant and heard out the guy’s story for a presentation in Spanish class. Of course, I’m sure the guy would happily perpetuate a difficult-to-verify claim like that for a little exposure and a lot of San Diego business.
From what I hear, that may not be the tourist’s biggest surprise that night.
I hear that Amsterdammers are fond of eating herring this way, although it hasn’t caught on anywhere outside of the city limits.
Pretty much every society has some food(s) that outsiders would consider strange / gross.
Taking your example of German food how do you think a restaurant that served some of these fine German foods would fare?
Crackling Fat on a slice of German Bauernbrot
Fresh German bread, goose fat and perhaps a beer.
Stiglmeier Leberknödel (Liver Dumplings)
Cubed pork snouts in spiced gelatine with diced pickles and carrots.
Pretty yummy to the average American palette wouldn’t you say?
And I am not just picking on the Germans, there is something similar in every culture I can think of. Lutefisk anyone? How about some haggis?
Well, yes. That’s my point–I’m not sure if you’re missing it, or helping me make it. Even American cuisine has that. Hog’s maws and chitterlings anyone? Scrapple?
Are liver noodle dumplings considered weird? Cause I consider that fairly normal. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a German restaurant in the States that didn’t serve leberknoedelsuppe. Headcheese is also pretty normal around here. I don’t think you could find a deli counter in Chicago that doesn’t have at least one form of it on sale.
That point was that “authentic” != “weird” bits. You can have an “authentic” German restaurant and not have to serve pig snouts in gelatine.
True. There are indeed a few poor souls who discover their newfound sweetie comes equipped with some Thai spicy sausage. 
Of course I was asking about the so-called “weird” foods.
If I were talking about ground beef and process cheese, there wouldn’t be a question.
When I was a kid, in the late 50’s, hamburger (ground beef) was considered a little odd by my mexican friends. A weird, authentic, american food. They enjoyed it and used it often, but recent arrivals hadn’t seen or used it before.
Most of their “loose” meats were shredded. Not so much cheese, either.
Mmmm. Barbacoa.
Mmmm. Carnitas.
We are talking about girls with penises, right? My imagination could come up with a different interpretation. :eek:
IIRC, they were called “bingo boys” in The Philippines when I was in the Navy.
A little extra bulge in the ol’ g-string?
I would dearly love a plate of authentic posole.
To answer the question: throughout middle America, lots of folks accustomed to watered-down mainstreamed versions of foreign cuisines would not be happy. Do we assume they can still go to Chipotle, or do we assume they now have to choose between La Cocina Auténtica and Friendly’s? Given that choice, some of them would try the genuine article and find that they actually like some of this odd, very different food. (Remember, in the 1960s a great many folks in middle America had never had General Cho’s chicken or a true marinara sauce; they knew chow mein and Chef Boy-ar-Dee type “spaghetti and meatballs” and the CW of the time said there was no market for anthing much beyond that).
Meanwhile, it would really delight a smaller population of people who go to Chi Chi’s only because there’s no place local where they can get the big puffy pillow type of northern New Mexico fried sopaipillas and the astonishingly hot carne adovada and the delicious stew they remember that that little joint in Juarez made with the goat’s head.
When I was a kid my Basque neighbors would make both goat’s head stew, and deep-pit barbeque. There were a lot of Basque people around Bakersfield, most involved in sheep ranching. There were (are?) several excellent Basque reataraunts in the area.
I (vaguely) remember the food as being heavily influenced by Spain and Italy. But I was just a kid, and memory fades. It was good, though.
Well, maybe the “retired” goat was a little stinky. 
That’s right.
AFAIK, many traditional Japanese foods are already doing well in America, but there are many traditional dishes that would not, such as live baby squid.
I live in Northern Virginia and there is a wide variety of ethnic food restaurants. I’m not talking about the Americanized chains, but the real deal. You go into Thai joints, Mexican joints, Ethiopian joints, Greek joints, Chinese joints, Japanese joints, etc., and you will typically see a bunch of “mainstream Americans” partaking.
But not much with the Korean restaurants. My wife and I go on a fairly regular basis, and usually I’m the only white guy there. The serving staff usually does not speak *any * English at all. Unlike a lot of other places which have to cater to Americans for business survival, they seem surprised to have any non-Koreans show up, except for those, like me, who come in with a Korean spouse. I’ve gone in by myself a few times and had servers “argue” with me, by pointing to something else on the menu, becasue they didn’t want to take the order that I had given. (They thought I didn’t know what I was getting myself into).
There are a couple of Korean places that basically do the Korean BBQ, which attracts American walk-ins, but the “real” places? I can’t ever see one of these opening in any place without a Korean population big enough to support it. I pretty much guarantee that the first time Joe Six-Pack takes his family into a Korean restaurant and sees the couple at the next table picking the flesh off a fish that is still twitching will be the last.