I generally have an issue with the term "authentic" when it comes to food. In Thailand there are almost certainly thousands of takes on what Drunken Noodles are, if that is even a traditional Thai dish and not just an exported recipe developed for the taste buds of people outside Thailand.
Any traditional dish is made countless ways. There is really no such thing as "authentic" in my opinion. The best that can be done is to make something that tastes good and is desirable by enough of the people in the location it is made to make it reasonable to put it on a menu.
Wanting something "here" to taste like it came from "there" is not unreasonable, but it's also frequently unobtainable. The local supply chain, local ingredients, etc, are all going to have an impact, but the biggest impact will always be commercial viability. What will people "here" eat, what will they pay for? You can't force food on customers and just yell at them about authenticity. You have to offer things they want to eat.
I don't really care if the Thai food I eat in SLC is the same as the Thai food in Thailand (or Portland). What I care about is if the food I'm eating tastes good to me. I can certainly try to better understand Thai cuisine and get closer to what people in Thailand enjoy. If that is my goal I'm far more likely to find success making that food myself, in my kitchen, sourcing ingredients diligently according to the standard I'm attempting to achieve. Short of that, **** holding a commercial restaurant to a standard that would bankrupt them.
Hi Gameface,
First of all, this is a great post. On the point of your last paragraph. It's a common theme for local ethnic places(especially Asian) to lean conservative with their choice of offerings. While this, to some degree, seemingly guarantees modest success, I think it's unfortunate that most of the Thai, Viatnamese, Korean and Chinese places start to feel samey. They are conservative for a reason. Most of these restaurant owners need to succeed because they can't afford to fail. In fact, most of the restaurant owners I know that are Korean people don't own Korean restaurants. They all started Sushi places because Sushi appears to be a safe bet. White people love Sushi right?
This thread is a good example. There really isn't much to set this Thai place apart from the others.
The thing is, I'm of the opinion that branching out a little bit into more specialized and unique fare would, if done well, ensure success. I know for a fact that Utahns are itching for more options. I have people I barely know at work come up to me and ask if there are any new Korean places to hit up. We just need some competent thrill-seekers to open these places up and they'd have too many customers to handle.
When people feel confident that the market will support it. You'll start to see what we see in places like LA, NY. Instead ofa bunch of "Korean Restaurants" where they offer a 6 page menu of the same stuff you can get from the other "Korean Restaurant", places that specialize in specific parts of Korean cuisine will be available. like a place that does Dakgalbi, a Gomtang Jib, or a 24 hour gamjatang hangover specialist(this one is a long shot).
The good news is that there are some success stories here already. Mr. Shabu is big in the gateway (shabu is originally Japanese but huge in Korea too and Mr. shabu is owned by a Korean dude (he's kind of weird so I don't talk to him very much but his restaurant is gucci)) there are now multiple Kbbq places, none of which are very good yet but they're popular, there are two successful Korean Fried Chicken (the real KFC) in the valley now, and of course Hong Kong Banjum is a large step off the main path as it only offers Korean-Chinese food (very good too).
Hopefully, once it is clear that this kind of specialization of cuisine is welcome here in SLC, more and better things start to follow. Everyone do your part lmao.
On the authenticity portion of your post, I fully agree. Authenticity is whatever you can do with the original ingredients to make the "authentic" dish. I mean if you're using sriracha in place of gochujang nothing is going to be authentic. but if you're using gochujang in a Korean dish I think it's going to end up "authentic" enough. All of the Korean places in the valley make clearly authentic Korean food, It's just not as good as what you can get there.
