Episode 21 — Asian Food Aisle

[admin 330]

Yo, what up race cars! This week’s guest Jay Caspian Kang figures out if labeling a grocery store aisle as Asian Food is racist or not. Call 323 389 RACE to give us a better solution to organizing grocery stores and to ask us a question.

[sifive 3]

I enjoy the show, but prefer the weekly format over the daily. Thanks.

[akiba_drumer 12]

I'll sort of second Si here, I like the weekly format only because this show is so good, and the short version leaves me wanting more. If the 45 minute format happened every day, I would listen.

[awesomerrr 0]

I went to a grocery store in central Florida and there was an aisle named "Chinese Food." I couldn't believe it!

[Lukas Holmes 2287]

Man, I didn't even think of this, how would you label it though?

[bekitty 0]

I lived in Knoxville, TN for a little while. The local supermarkets had "Asian food" and "Mexican food" aisles. The "Asian" one had ramen, among other things. Now I know that ramen is originally Japanese, but these were just American instant noodles.

 

Now I'm back living in New Zealand, and we have a similar thing here. Except in our supermarkets, the aisle is called "International Foods", and it's got everything from Japanese sushi-making kits to Thai curry pastes, Indian meal ingredients (curry sauces, chutneys, naan bread, etc) to tacos and tortillas. And the instant noodles are in the pasta aisle where they SHOULD BE.

 

I reckon some enterprising Racecars should go into their local big box store with a sign saying "White People Food" and put it by... I dunno, the mayo or something.