These days, scroll through anyone’s social media and you’ll see a 15-second video of you eating a crispy roti or a shot of a ramen-crusted Korean corn dog cheese pull.
The near-ubiquitous presence of Asian food on social media is a stark departure from the days when Asian food was considered either cheesy and unappetizing, or exotic and too exotic, and an obsession with Asian food is on the rise across the United States. confirms that it is on the rise.
According to a study by blog The Picky Eater, based on hashtags, the most-posted foods on Instagram in 2023 were Italian, followed by Japanese, Indian, and Korean. In fact, 8 out of the top 10 most popular dishes on the platform were from Asian cultures. Another analysis of Google Trends by grilling website FoodFireFriends shows that the top five most-searched-for dishes in the United States include Chinese, Thai, Indian, and Korean.
This is an important cultural shift, one in which scholars and content creators believe that the children of Asian immigrants, especially Asian-American professionals, have access to their own language, resources, technology, and self-sufficiency. It is greatly facilitated by the fact that they have used their pride in their identity to change the way they eat. Heritage is recognized.
“This is in a way a departure from Eurocentric judgment…and I’m not going to apologize for that,” says Dr. Krishnendu Ray, Director of Food Research. He told NBC News about his program at New York University. “We are really on the cutting edge of saying, ‘Our food is great, beautiful, delicious. We have to find a way to measure it.”
After looking at Zagat, Michelin and other food trend data going back to about 1986, Ray said Japanese food did indeed skyrocket in both price and popularity, reaching a “peak” in 2000. After that, Korean food followed. Other cuisines, such as Chinese, which have long been staples of the American fast food scene, have gradually become more complex and varied, with more restaurants specializing in regional cuisine. At the same time, the Eurocentric taste is becoming less popular, says Ray.
But it’s taken us a long time to get here. Concepts of food and prestige in Western culture have long been colored by the history of European colonization, Ray says. For example, prior to 1800, spices were considered highly valuable ingredients, available only from exotic, highly developed and remote lands. However, tangible changes began to occur at the turn of the century with European colonization.
“In Europe, the idea arose that spicy food was inferior food, poor people’s food, less sophisticated food,” Ray explained. “They said, ‘Okay, they’re inferior because we colonized them, so they don’t like their taste.'”
But technology is “democratizing” conversations about food and taste that have long been exclusively reserved for white male food critics, Ray said. Unlike many previous generations, many Nisei Asian Americans were aspirational, educated peers in English, and were able to “say what they wanted without gatekeepers,” Ray said.
“People are eating more interesting and complex Asian food and acquiring the vocabulary to talk about it,” said Lei.
From content creators to casual social media users, Asian Americans are recreating home-cooked recipes passed down through generations and diversifying restaurants that are often ignored by so-called celebrity lists and publications. I have responded to this by creating a video introducing the.
So-called “food porn” content, which focuses solely on the aesthetics of cooking, is still prevalent on social media, but according to Taiwanese-American creator Justin Wu, who runs the Instagram account @hungryartistny, many of Asian Americans are using the content as well. Their platform aims to shine a spotlight on the chefs and small business owners who power many of the immigrant-owned, family-run restaurants, humanize them and keep their culture alive. . Wu said he often finds these kitchens exist to cater to an immigrant diasporic population that craves a nostalgic taste of home.
“Whether the chefs, owners or staff are, they are not only focused on making a living, but on serving great food that is lovingly prepared,” said the account, nine in over two years. Wu, who has amassed 9,000 followers, said:
Wu said these posts, which often showcase laborious cooking processes, complicate our ideas about beauty and value. Foods that were not always considered beautiful before, for example Indian stews and sauces, are being considered in a new way.
“Food is really a pure art form because you can actually taste it and smell it. “With Indian food, you layer flavors at every step. …I think people as a whole are starting to understand why it’s important to share these things.”
Lay also said that, in addition to the rise of Asian countries as world powers, the children of immigrants have contributed to the collapse of the Eurocentric idea that “beautiful things are beautiful just by looking at them.” Smells, tastes and textures are far more important across Asian cultures, Lei added, and the emphasis on these elements is forcing others to “re-evaluate aesthetic standards”. .
Johnny Baeza, who has more than 134,000 followers on his Instagram account @Johnnyeatsnyc, said he takes great pride in presenting the food and the cooking behind it in its raw form.
“It’s like, ‘I’ve had enough of hiding,'” Baeza said. “There shouldn’t be a need to hide it. There should be no need to Americanize our culture.”
Not only are Asian Americans open to new foods, but they are also “opening the minds of non-Asians to Asian experiences,” changing stereotypes about Asians themselves. Mr Ray said.
“Our judgments of people are not all uniform and equal. Hierarchies still exist, and the opinions of elite whites matter. But they matter far less than they used to.” he added. “Elite whites are also changing their mindsets, having been educated in a way from a specialized Asian class.”
Not without hostility towards Asian Americans. Also, some might interpret the rise of Asian-American culture as a threat, Ray said. However, discussions on these topics are important for growth, and Baesa noted that there is still much work to be done in the food sector and beyond.
“I think the mainstream media, even if they’re talking about America in general, thinks of the more popular Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, etc. when they say the word ‘Asia’. said Besa. “There are many other countries that are undervalued, and I think there is still a lot of room for growth.”