Authentic Chinese Food . . . Or is it??

Do instant Ramen noodles and Spam sound like "real" Chinese food to you? I know quite a few people who would argue with someone who said that "real" Chinese people (admittedly a tricky term) don't eat this sort of food. Rather, they eat some sort of "authentic" Chinese dishes that you can only find if you go to China. Or Chinatown.

I am here to tell you that these naysayers are wrong.

Sometimes we encounter food here that makes us laugh because it's (1) it's so familiar and (2) it totally goes against what a lot of people think that Chinese really eat.

Take for example this dish:



It is exactly what it looks like. Ramen noodles (the instant kind) and Spam. D ordered this at a restaurant near our campus. The deluxe version of this dish includes a fried egg on top.

Indeed, there are lots and lots and lots of things to eat in China that you can only find in China or Chinatown. BUT, this kind -- instant noodles with everyday topping -- isn't rare here. Below is a photo of me sampling a similar dish (I swear that the noodles were Maruchan brand, they tasted so familiar!) in the southern part of the city (mine has the fried egg):



To my left in the photo is the "green vegetable" (i.e., whatever green vegetable the kitchen has on hand) that is served with meals in China. In this part of the world, a meal just ain't a meal without some sort of green vegetable dish (never mind that most of the time they seem to serve stir-fried lettuce, which has fewer nutritional benefits than water).

What's most interesting to me about this type of noodle dish is that it's both familiar to me and to the locals here. So, this kind of food is both foreign to China and local to this area. That is, this kind of food is real Chinese food. Real Chinese people eat it. Real Chinese people cook it. So, the next time you're eating Ramen noodles and spam (or hot dogs or whatever), and someone tells you it isn't "authentic," you can tell them that you know better.