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Prejudice and Discrimination in Today's Society


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11 hours ago, Tom Sietsema said:

Marty, I think you're right about the pricing at the Line, but the duck easily feeds four or more, plus the duck and the made-to-order (duck fat) tortillas are pretty rich. (The feast comes with a duck confit salad, too.) Ericandblueboy,   I'm fully aware you're no fan of mine, but I have yet to have even a good version of Peking duck at Peter Chang in Bethesda. Then again, my bar is pretty high: Duck de Chine in Beijing. 

The question is why are people paying $100 for a duck. Even if Duck de Chine opens a branch in DC, do you think people would pay $100 for a duck? I would bet people would still say how can a Chinese restaurant sell a duck for $100.  

I went to Q much later than you, so maybe they worked out the kinks.  But that's beside the point.  Peter Chang, a much better Chinese chef than either Drewno or Bruner-Yang, still has to charge less for his food.

BTW, I'm not the person who writes to your chat all the time begging you to quit.  I'm just not sure that any one person can speak authoritatively on several cuisines unless one's been immersed in those cultures.

9 hours ago, mtureck said:

Why does one need to be an expert on a culture to say that duck #1 tastes better, and feeds more people, than duck #2?

Food is a part of a culture. Every person can say what tastes better, but is every person's opinion equally valuable? Isn't an informed opinion better than an uninformed opinion?  

As for the number of people a duck feeds.  My point is, it's one duck. Does one duck at the Line feed more people than one duck at a Chinese restaurant?

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2 hours ago, FranklinDubya said:

Maybe they saw the Rake's Progress "Crown of Duck Price" at $110 and figured they had to bump it up to avoid their duck being perceived as too cheap to be high quality?/sarcsm

You're probably right.  Now am I going to order the Crown of Duck?  It's awfully expensive at $110.  How many does that thing feed?  Is there a casino tucked into the Line that I'm not aware of?

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[Stop. This crosses the line of civility. Tom is a member here, and has the same courtesies and privileges as every other member. It's wrong to make assumptions about a person's experience, and a couple of these posts need to be edited. If anyone wants to criticize the written word, by all means, do; but don't make *any* comments about a person's knowledge, character, etc. PS  - the generally accepted definition of "Asia" is anything on the other side of the Ural Mountains.]

3 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Food is a part of a culture. Every person can say what tastes better, but is every person's opinion equally valuable? Isn't an informed opinion better than an uninformed opinion?  

As for the number of people a duck feeds.  My point is, it's one duck. Does one duck at the Line feed more people than one duck at a Chinese restaurant?

As for the duck, people were (emphasis: were) saying the same thing about Kinship's chicken, which I gleefully enjoyed Tuesday evening. I've paid 99 cents for a cheeseburger at McDonald's, and $25 for a cheeseburger elsewhere. I see grousing about "uninformed opinions," but where are the informed ones? It's fine to criticize someone's critiques, but in this particular case, it should be confined to this particular thread (yes, even though it relates to this restaurant, it's still not *about* the restaurant - it's a meta-critique, a critique of the criticism, and everyone, from Tom-on-down, is entitled to voice a reasoned and supported opinion) - I probably have some meta-critiques of my own that need to be moved into that thread or this one or this one or this one, etc. I may be wrong, but I think I sense undertones of hostility about why such-and-such ethnicity can't charge higher prices for such-and-such cuisine (you once claimed Bangkok Golden was superior to Little Serow (which I thought was a bold and interesting take, although one with which I disagreed)) - Mark Kuller once started a thread about a similar thing shortly before he opened Doi Moi - something about why Asian cuisines shouldn't fetch a similar price to European cuisines - I read that as somewhat self-serving, but it was a fair topic for discussion: It's here somewhere, if you can find it.

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5 hours ago, DonRocks said:

 I think I sense undertones of hostility about why such-and-such ethnicity can't charge higher prices for such-and-such cuisine (you once claimed Bangkok Golden was superior to Little Serow (which I thought was a bold and interesting take, although one with which I disagreed)) - Mark Kuller once started a thread about a similar thing shortly before he opened Doi Moi - something about why Asian cuisines shouldn't fetch a similar price to European cuisines - I read that as somewhat self-serving, but it was a fair topic for discussion: It's here somewhere, if you can find it.

That is the point of my original post.  I'm shocked that people are dropping $100 on a faux Peking duck, whereas authentic Peking duck by the finest purveyors in the DC area charge maybe half that.  The obvious question then is, is Erik BY's duck so much superior or is some sort of prejudice at play.  To answer that question, we would need some informed opinions, which then led to the whole discussion about why we need informed opinions, and how one person cannot master all the cuisines.

ETA - someone else brought up Tom.  It wasn't my initial intention to address Tom's column, in fact, I never read it.  I was just saying in general that I don't rely on Tom's opinions when it comes to Asian food.

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10 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

That is the point of my original post.  I'm shocked that people are dropping $100 on a faux Peking duck, whereas authentic Peking duck by the finest purveyors in the DC area charge maybe half that.  The obvious question then is, is Erik BY's duck so much superior or is some sort of prejudice at play.  To answer that question, we would need some informed opinions, which then led to the whole discussion about why we need informed opinions, and how one person cannot master all the cuisines.

ETA - someone else brought up Tom.  It wasn't my initial intention to address Tom's column, in fact, I never read it.  I was just saying in general that I don't rely on Tom's opinions when it comes to Asian food.

"The obvious question then is, is Erik BY's duck so much superior or is some sort of prejudice at play."  The obvious answer, as I suggested, is neither:  Not only the duck, but everything else at *all* of the Line restaurants is priced higher than it would be if it were not in a fancy hotel. 

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The prejudice is on the part of the diners, not the restaurants.  Why are people willing to pay more for fusion food as opposed to authentic food.   Had the Line included a Hakkasan, would people eat there without bitching about its prices.

ETA:  David Chang had an episode of Ugly Delicious on this topic - price of Chinese dumplings vs. Italian dumplings.

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How much would Spoken English charge for the duck if it were in a Bailey’s Crossroads strip mall or Bethesda? How much would Peking Gourmet or Peter Chang charge for their respective ducks if they were located in an Adams Morgan hotel? It’s not really an apples-to-apples comparison otherwise.

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