Here's what I actually said...
Saw Shack is selling good, healthy food. And it caters to both meat eaters and vegetarians.
Arepa Lady, for all the media hype, is selling junk food. It is almost certainly less healthy than McDonalds. It also tastes greasy. Cool if that's what you want.
Every Latin restaurant in Jackson Heights is serving food that is years behind the nationality's modern cuisine.
As far as I know, despite the size of the East Indian population, there isn't a single serious East Indian restaurant in the neighborhood.
Well Stew I have to applaud you for doubling down on your position and including East Indian restaurants in your attack. The problem is there is something about this neighborhood and its restaurants that it seems like you just don't get. I think it bothers you that restaurants here serve traditional dishes and home style cooking. I have no doubt that there is haute-bourgeois cuisine in Bogota or in Lima, that there is a "new Peruvian" cuisine that mirrors "new American". Some of that will be good I expect and some of it will be over-priced and overwrought, if New American is anything to go by. But I doubt that a middle class neighborhood in either city is the place for such restaurants.
Here's what I think happened. You were bothered by a thread in which people named their favorite restaurants in the neighborhood. A thread that was staying positive. Rather than criticize others favorites everyone added their own. I think the thread interfered with your vision of yourself as bringing culinary civilization to a barren wasteland. Some of us don't think we live in a wasteland. If you would position your restaurant as filling a niche, as meeting an unmet need, you would attract many more people than pursuing the path of scorched earth snobbery.
Thats what i love about the show diners, dives and drives, it's focused on a lot of places that no one would really see as high end blah, blah, blah, however, the dishes Guy tastes appear innovative, fresh and the "chefs" seem to be down to earth. The food is mainly comfort food, wouldn't (always) put it in the same catergory as "new .....cuisine" however, it is still creative.
The whole concept of fusion, new american, or "appropriation" food has been around for a very long time, i believe that has more to do with marketing than anything else.
