When chopsticks themselves are a novelty

Strangely enough, I have had several conversations regarding the Chowhound forums over the past few weeks, and eventually we always end up laughing at good old Charles Yu, this dude who posts intensely detailed reviews in a very helpful and knowledgeable manner. Perhaps not so coincidentally, all these conversations occur between the same three people, so maybe we're just huge nerds.

Anyways, for those who don't frequent Chowhound, Charles Yu would be the equivalent of Mahjongmaniac (aka The Pochacco guy) on RedFlagDeals.

And if none of these references make sense to you, then you have already judged me. So let's move on.

Anyways, I always find it surreal when people on Chowhound swoon over common restaurants in the suburbs. Places along the Hwy.7 strip that I would go for family meals every week or so, sometimes get all this fancy praise heaped on them, with flocks of foodies making treks from downtown just to get a taste.

This blows my mind. I mean, I feel like being Chinese has so spoiled my perception of the food I consume daily that my standards have been skewed. I'm like a guy who's been dating Minka Kelly and now is no longer impressed by the likes of a Kristen Kreuk. It's madness.

It takes a lot more for a Chinese meal to impress me than any other cuisine, and I can probably only list on one hand the number of times I had Chinese food and was completely blown away.

I have never had this conversation with any non-Chinese people before, so I am curious if this ungrateful phenomenon applies to all cultures. I would imagine the appeal and novelty of different ethnic flavours always carries some clout in a dining experience, so to some extent this is not an uncommon thing.

But still. When people are making a ruckus about restaurants you've already filed under "good on an average scale", it makes you reconsider your edible world, y'know?

And great. Now I'm hungry. If I ever became a food critic, I can already tell I'd be one of the fat ones.