Part III - restaurant review

My expectation of dining out at Zooroona was to taste great quality “authentic” Middle Eastern food, especially kebab, and my actual experience perfectly fit right into my expectation of tasting great quality food since the foods there were more crafted, flavored, and well-made. The dishes were tasty and humungous which exceeded my expectation. I craved for better-quality kebab than the quality of a burnt “Koreanized” kebab I had on the street in Korea. I ordered Shish Tawook, cubes of marinated lemon-splashed chicken kebab. It was juicy and not burnt. Also, when I dipped it into the garlic sauce, it was refreshing which was different from the sauces I dipped the kebab in Korea.

I was definitely satisfied with their pita bread and flavorful long grain fried rice that came along with Shish Tawook. Baklava was one of the most amazing desserts I have ever had. Its combination of sweetness and crunchy layers harmonized greatly.  I’m not sure about tasting authentic Middle Eastern foods because I can’t really judge they were authentic or not since I’m not from the Middle Eastern countries. The owner of Zooroona, Mr. Mandwee insisted that foods of this restaurant are pretty much authentic since he is from Arab and knows what authentic dishes of his culture and root are. However, Zooroona might make Americanized Middle Eastern food that leads eaters to delude themselves into eating “authentic” Middle Eastern dishes while conjuring atmosphere that they might have felt like they were experience “real” Middle Eastern culture. I don’t have good amount of knowledge about Middle Eastern culture and foods either. Also, Middle Eastern culture is so vast and diverse so it would be a generalization if I consider all Middle Eastern foods that are served in Zooroona are overall representation of Middle Eastern foods.

Zooroona definitely served tasty foods, but sometimes the service wasn’t that great. Waiting time was short and wasn’t as long as I worried, but I had to wait at least five minutes for waiters to set up my table on Sunday buffet. Regular restaurant days except Sunday operate differently since waiter and waitresses were responsive and quick to take orders. Also, they were kind so that they explained the taste and ingredients of dishes that I was curious to know about.

Long’s “Culinary Tourism” exactly explains a mistake of my writing of analyzing my dining experience at Zooroona. Long says that “It[Culinary tourism] is about groups using food to ‘sell’ their histories and to construct marketable and publicly attractive identities, and it is about individuals satisfying curiosity” (20). Maybe Zooroona do their best to represent the image of authentic Middle Eastern food; however, they might just “sell” the culture and its food to attract eaters to come to their restaurants through marketing their uniqueness from other typical American restaurants. They might sell Americanized Middle Eastern foods.  It is hard to define even what authenticity is. What is “authentic Middle Eastern food”? I think that it is hard for Arabic and Lebanese restaurants to render true “authentic foods” in U.S. because the origin of ingredient for served dishes in these places are not likely to be same as the origins of ingredients for dishes that are served in Arab and Lebanon.

As a culinary tourist who doesn’t know much about Middle Eastern culture and its food, I doubted about does Zooroona truly serve “authentic” Middle Eastern food. However, in my first draft for the restaurant review, I wrote that Zooroona’s atmosphere and food were authentic by frequently misusing the word, “authenticity”. However, after reading Long’s “Culinary Tourism”, I realized authenticity shouldn’t be used thoughtlessly because it’s such a sensitive word. My experience in Zooroona was definitely the example of culinary tourism. I utilized my sense as much as I could to experience Middle Eastern culture through eating its “cultural dishes”, and Zooroona’s foods were different from my mundane foods that I have in school cafeteria. I intentionally went to Zooroona to find “authentic” Middle Eastern foods, but it is still mysterious that I had “authentic” foods or not.

Despite a confusing experience, the culinary tourism widened my perception and shifted myself from ordinary world that I live in. In the future, when I go to study abroad in Madrid, Spain, I will more be careful about what I perceive as authentic Spaniards food because Madrid is known for a tourism place, and the restaurants there can be not authentic many times because they might lose attractions from tourists who aren’t used to Spaniards’ dishes and reject their dishes. Furthermore, I will be more careful to claim authenticity of cultural dishes in ethnic restaurants in U.S. I used to think that cultural dishes like “European dishes” are all same although there is large diversity in European foods. Commercializing culture not only belongs to tourism but also invades to culinary culture, and we should be a critical eater and thinker when it comes to understanding different culture and its food.