Campaign for Authentic Food

This campaign is part of a wider syndrome that I'm sure many of you will have experienced over the years - the two tier menu system. It seems that the fine providers of Asian food throughout our cities seem to want to only provide us with food that they think British people will like. For this reason it is often difficult to get hold of authentic regional specialities as menus are always crammed full of Pad Thai, Fried Rice or Chicken Tikka. To me this seems unfair - I can't remember a single restaurant in China offering us Chow Mein whilst on holiday - we were always presented with a wide array of far more interesting (and healthy) dishes. Now I don't believe that restauranteurs do not know how to cook more interesting food - they surely eat it themselves every night - so why don't they want to share it with the British public - we want to be educated!

Recently we have visited a few excellent Chinese restaurants in Birmingham and you know as soon as you arrive what is going to happen - gone are the chopsticks, in come the forks with the prawn crackers (have you ever seen the Chinese eating these?). Out goes the proper menu and in comes the reduced English one - or worst still you are directed immediately to the greasy buffet - it is almost insulting. I just want to be treated the same as the Chinese students that are tucking into (and sharing) beautiful clay-pot dishes of delicious smelling stuff - especially as the menus often have English translations.

Anyway the campaign starts here and I hope many of you will join us in this quest for authentic food - asian and otherwise. Please send us your information so that we can review restaurants that give the British the choice as well.