Food & the City

My roommate's mother is as poignant as she is beautiful. When asked about navigating Boston, she shrugs lightly and says, "All roads lead to Chinatown." A month later her words are still floating around in my head.

Food is a tragically overlooked indicator of a global city. In fact, the integration of new styles of cooking and food is, in my mind, a necessary element of any city that claims global status. Perhaps, the most important necessary facet, far above development and wealth which only effect a limited number of individuals and as we've read cannot be considered the only attributes of global city status.

In particular, the presence of Asian inspired alterations to menus inside and out of restaurants all over a city, say Boston, radiate from the establishment of Chinatown, whichever city you may be in. (Or for that matter, any ____town or Little____ which may vary from city to city.) People move in, new foods become available, new restaurants open, things are shared and adopted. 

In my mind mixing and blending of taste and style is always a good thing. Anthony Bourdain, (one of the main players in the food-anthropology trend which has been made increasingly accessible by the Travel Channel) shares my sentiment that in terms of local food, global influence can only make things better. The clip shows the range of influence which can be seen through food in cities from Lebanese to Szechuan in this specific example. Yet most importantly for this discussion, towards the end of the clip featured, about 13:00, there's a conversation about how the surge of immigration after strict limits where lifted in Melbourne and the effects of a developing Chinatown on the local preference for food. Within the episode, No Reservations: Australia, which if you have Netflix you can watch, you can see how more and more restaurants (and thus people) are adapting Asian inspired dishes from cooking style to ingredient choice. Is this an occurrence symptomatic of a global city? Have all food trends (the growing popularity of sushi is another different but intriguing example of global food influence) originated from global cities in some way?
  
Perhaps in the debate between global or not we should look at food as primary source of information since it is the ultimate reflection of the people who inhabit the city and the global connections and networks within.

- Alexis Brinkman