Every year The
University of Alabama welcomes hundreds of international students from Europe,
South America, Africa, and Asia. This
five percent of UA students are far away from home, yet they form their own
groups, make new friends, and enjoy American college life just like the other students. Despite this, it is sometimes hard to adapt
to American customs, so each of these groups usually tries to find a place to
replicate some feeling of home. For
some, the best that can be done is networking with the other students, and
others find some local restaurant that serves something that reminds them of
home. For many of the Chinese students, that place
is, surprisingly, Swen.
Swen is by no means a traditional Chinese
restaurant. It is essentially just
another restaurant with fried rice, syrup-covered pieces of battered chicken,
and fortune cookies, your typical “American Chinese” restaurant. When you first walk in the small restaurant,
your senses are immediately overloaded with the scent of these stereotypical
foods, the egg rolls and beef lao mein, all sprinkled with MSG, and the
restaurant itself doesn’t even seem to try hard to fool you. Rather than walls lined with fake Chinese
paintings or paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling, there is nothing but tan
wallpaper stamped with brown elephants climbing up the high walls only to end
next to a bare ceiling. It’s furnished
with plain, worn, black and red tables and booths, and there is no attempt to
create the illusion that there are Chinese chefs leading the kitchen in the
back; you can often hear the cooks in the kitchen speak Spanish
as they take orders from the waiters.
Whatever it is that you notice, it is easy to tell that Swen is an American
style Chinese food restaurant. So why
would the Chinese exchange students flock to it?
The only reason that I can fathom is that, though not
traditional, Swen does carry a few authentic Chinese dishes. One in particular is a spicy dish with
vegetables and different types of meat.
(There are beef, fish, and fish and tofu varieties.) This dish caters to the Chinese
students. The meal isn’t displayed on
the menu, but rather it is posted on the front door in Chinese with a rough
English translation. Because of this, I
don’t even know the actual name of the dish.
I just call it by its translated name, boiled beef bowl.
This dish is rather different from the rest of Swen’s
menu, and perhaps that is why it is not on the menu. Though the dish uses the same red peppers and
same cuts of beef, both ingredients are utilized in different ways. The red peppers are infused into oil that is
drizzled on top of the soup and the beef is boiled in the soup along with
numerous vegetables in order to cook it.
The soup comes with a side of rice.
You’re not supposed to eat it like normal American food. That is, you can’t just eat it with a fork
like Mongolian beef and you can’t just sip it with a spoon like the egg drop
soup. Rather, the soup is much better suited for chopsticks. Most of the Chinese students use their
chopsticks to scoop vegetables out onto the rice and then eat the rice and
vegetables together. This is probably
not obvious to the American diner; it has to be inferred from watching the
Chinese students eat. The dish is also much spicier than anything
else Swen has to offer. Some of the Chinese students order extra oil in their
soup, which can separate even further from the regular menu.
Swen doesn’t have many more authentic Chinese
dishes. In fact, many of the Chinese
students will only eat the boiled beef soup and its varieties. With the amount of business that Swen
receives from Chinese exchange students, one would think they would try to
expand their menu. I, for one, am
disappointed. Swen has the capability to
recreate more of these types of dishes, but they have neglected to do so for
some inconceivable reason. Can you
imagine a Chinese restaurant in Tuscaloosa that exhibits all the variety that
traditional Chinese cuisine has to offer?
Though not Chinese food, Ruan Thai and Surin present an interesting
comparison relevant to the dilemma Swen food displays. Both restaurants serve Thai food, sort
of. Surin serves an American twist of
Thai food, while claiming to be Thai food.
Ruan Thai, on the other hand, serves authentic Thai food and has
consistently received better reviews that Surin. I feel like this may be due to the marketing
of the authenticity of the food rather than the marketing for the assurance
that American palates will approve of the menu.
Swen has offered as taste of
this authenticity only to stop short of being something truly great. I have been provided with a taste of a
culture, but have not been given the means to fully understand it. Maybe this is why I am so disappointed.
This may explain why the Chinese students are not clawing
at the doors of Swen asking for more authentic food. They understand their own culture. They just want a reminder of it. Rather than wanting a whole array of dishes,
the students want a taste of home, something to connect them. I talk about this all the time, but I’ve
rarely been on the other side of things.
When I go to a Japanese restaurant, if I can get at least one
authentic-tasting item, I’m happy. Being
able to feel that connection the food provides is more important than being
able to stuff yourself on a completely authentic meal. I feel Swen understood this and decided to
undertake the task of providing a taste of home to these students. So many Chinese students would flock to the
restaurant only to be disappointed and longing for some taste of home. Now, they can go to a place and experience a
small, but important connection that provides them with some sense of comfort.
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