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Originally Posted by ChrisLehrer  Authenticity demonstrated by a refusal to frame any menu item in anything but the native language (usually Italian or Spanish), and a careful instruction (apparently) to the waitstaff to deride any customer who doesn't know what the terms mean. Also popular in sushi restaurants, who serve frozen mediocrity but make a fuss about using only the "authentic" terms just like in Japan (meaning, just like in sushi restaurants in the immediate Tokyo area, since everywhere else the terms differ). |
I've been to Indian restaurants where I pronounce something correctly (I grew up in India), and the server says "you'd like some xxx?", not-so-subtly correcting my pronunciation and benevolently smiling, when they are the ones mispronouncing it. There's no way they were just making sure they understood . . . I put a bit of an American accent to it, and then they totally mess it up
I'm a white guy, so they think I just don't know, I guess.