Back in the early 90s, I informed the waiter at the Toronto Movenpick that the Apple Strudel was pretty good, but it wasn’t quite authentic because it didn’t include cinnamon.
My German grandmother always included cinnamon. Then, 30 years later, I find out some Austrians and maybe even some Germans don’t add cinnamon to their authentic Apple Strudel. 
I am not clear what my ‘urgency’ is or why you feel you need to comment on it.
To keep this about food and the subject of authenticity, I am finding that many of these articles consistently use words that are no less problematic.
And then they predictably go on to assign all manner of pejorative intent on the part of the folks who find success in using and understanding the word.
I just think green pepper in a broth based soup seems wrong. Or maybe it’s just green pepper.
You are correct that the word is heavily used in marketing. From that standpoint, it can be ignored, just like when a menu says ‘cooked to perfection.’
I maintain that there is a reason that lies underneath the heavy use as a marketing tool.
I also maintain that if the inauthentic exists, then its corollary is true as well. The question is: can you think of an inauthentic version of a food that you know exists and is perhaps prevalent? Can you think of a meal you like that is prepared in a way you can recognize as representing a particular culture, Wether it be Texas brisket, Cajun jambalaya or fu qi fei pian?
Let’s be generous with each other and not assume bad motives or outsized personal investment. One’s speed or lack thereof responding doesn’t necessarily indicate anything other than that one happens to be connected at the moment, has a fast/slow Internet connection, and/or feels like replying quickly or not. We can give each other the benefit of the doubt here a little more.
I’d be ok if you want to ban it from marketing.
However, it can also be a warning: If you came dragged here by a friend who likes to try new things, don’t go for that dish, it’s too ______."
Of course, some Chinese restaurants have already figured this out. They don’t even put those dishes on the regular menu or they post them in Chinese on the wall. Thai places take it one step further: nothing posted, you have to ask for the Thai-language menu, and if they don’t trust you they will insist it’s the same as the English menu.
There is no inauthentic food other than perhaps those fantastic Japanese plastic food forms.
There used to be a place under the BQE (off Hamilton Ave) in Brooklyn called “Solo Pollo” which had a list of non chicken dishes advertised on the same awning as their name. Don’t know why, just thought I’d mention it.
In Florida, just outside Tampa, there’s a place with a billboard that states “authentic Brooklyn pizza”. I know what he means but our conversation got a little heated when I started talking about the wood, coal and other non-gas fired methods that have been around Bklyn for most of my longish life.
And, of course, there is Ray’s Pizza in NY, which has spawned many imitations over the years, including one which named itself “Authentic Ray’s Pizza”. Not owned by the original Ray’s (or Ray for that matter).
Marketing will be what it is.
Oh, before I forget: the pizza in the Florida place was actually quite good.
There’s a Brooklyn Bagel place in the area as well - not bad at all. He hand boils then bakes 'em, just like the old line places used to do. The NYC water myth is right up there with the NYC sewer alligators.
But you do find them in NYC bathtubs and Prospect Park
I would say La Choy chicken chow mein which isn’t made with noodles is an inauthentic noodle dish
More commonly, for the purpose of choosing a restaurant, the vast majority of Chinese restaurants in the US serve dishes labeled Hunan and Szechuan which have nothing to do with those labels. So they may indeed be food, but they are inauthentic for what they claim.
Indeed. In the context of food, the word has been used, abused, watered down, eaten and crapped out. “Artisan” seems to be losing some steam in the food context as well. In the simple old days it was just “real.” “Real Mexican Enchiladas.” They just found new words to fondle and feck up. “Ethnic” seems to be less watered down, but it’ll get there.
“So loaded as be be meaningless.” -Hunterwali Truer words have never been spoken. Good line, Hunter!
“Ethnic” is the worst. It usually just means “food eaten by people who aren’t white.” Everyone has an ethnicity, but when’s the last time you came across someone inquiring about “ethnic” food, and they meant French?
At least they admitted it.
La Choy makes Chinese food swing American
About 21 sec in:
My Mom made that for us at least once a month as I was growing up. That and Old El Paso, before the “why not both?” ad, were our most “ethnic” meals. Kind of funny now. I was 20 years old before I realized that my Mom was not a very good cook.
And if it wasn’t for the red plaid Better Homes New Cook Book she might have been a bad one.
I was in a used book store looking at cook books when I was 30 or so, and just starting to cook for myself, when I spotted the cook book I had seen in the cupboard since I was a kid. Imagine my shock to see most of my Mom’s best dishes in that book! 
I actually made the La Choy Chow Mein for myself a couple months back. Not a very good meal. The fried noodles were the only redeeming aspect of it, and they were not that good.
You’ve gotta read the history. It’s fascinating! Someone here on hungry onion might have shared this a while ago: https://tastecooking.com/the-korean-immigrant-and-michigan-farm-boy-who-taught-americans-how-to-cook-chow-mein/
“To many Americans, the brand’s ubiquitous kits, sauces, tinned vegetables, and recipes for dishes like chow mein (with crispy noodles on top, rather than below a saucy topping) simply are Chinese food.”
“For many Chinese Americans in 2022, La Choy is synonymous with cultural inauthenticity, even appropriation. With its softened chopsticks font against a royal blue background, the name itself is a vague caricature of East Asian delicacies à la Chef Boyardee. For others, the brand barely registers as Chinese food cosplay, strictly for non-Chinese Americans. “These weren’t the things you’d find in Chinatown,” says Diana Kuan, author of The Chinese Takeout Cookbook. “So it was kind of like, ‘Oh, those are Americanized Chinese products.’””
"Martin Yan, the longtime PBS cooking show star, agreed that La Choy was instrumental in introducing Chinese food to America.
“People still don’t know too much about Chinese food, and La Choy is a very good entry to have a basic understanding of it,” he says. For instance, vegetables and meat are cut to bite-size pieces, there’s an emphasis on color, and the meals are meant to be shared, family-style. “The role that La Choy played is to give a little introduction” of that, he says.
Yet while La Choy’s products helped spread awareness of Chinese food, the exposure was a double-edged sword, as they also helped reinforce stereotypes of Chinese food as “cheap, inexpensive, and simple,” says Chen."
"These experiences might encapsulate what La Choy was to many: simultaneously a starting point for some and a stopgap or substitute for others. If you didn’t know Chinese food, well, here was a brand that could give you your first, if whitewashed, glimpse into that world to start learning more. And if you did, well, here was something that could maybe hold you over—or inspire you to give your cooking your own American spin. Maybe there was something to admire about the audacity to do things a little differently, to figure out another way of seeing your cultural heritage, to try something new.
“I guess my feeling for La Choy is that it worked, but it didn’t always feel super authentic to us,” says Belinda Chang. “But we were glad it existed.”"
How so? That can of deep fried crunchy noodles that you poured on top was the best part of the package. I would not hold myself out as the arbiter of authentic anything. Why bother? Obviously a lot of people buy and enjoy La Choy as its in practically every supermarket.
This is beginning to remind me of the fairly epic thread from Chowhound regarding Chow Mein vs. Lo Mein…
That would be great but if this is just a derivative thread from the original CH, would it be authentic or not?
Really? It seems more like groundhogs day where the same people repeat the same things over and over again in a cycle.
The primary problem with HO. So few people. When I look at the stats its a shame that so few people are registered and even fewer participate. Anything that could drive more participation is as Martha Stewart says “a good thing”
