excerpt:
David R. Chan isn’t your typical Chinese food enthusiast. He can’t speak Chinese, he doesn’t use chopsticks, and he grew up barely eating anything Chinese. But the Los Angeles native has over his adult life, obsessively eaten at over 7,000 Chinese restaurants, mostly in America, and has them all methodically logged in an Excel spreadsheet. This is his story.
Cool video!
Writer Clarissa Wei has been at Hong Kong-based Goldthread2 for the past year, so it was great to watch her reuniting with @chandavkl on her last trip to LA. As many of you are aware, Clarissa started writing about @chandavkl in 2012 after discovering he had eaten at 6,000 plus Chinese restaurants in the US. His story is a fascinating hook to illustrate the history of Chinese food/immigration/etc. in the US, and is nuanced in that he’s using food primarily as a tool to understand and embrace culture (though, as I understand it, he fully enjoys the food too).
@dearclarissa and @chandavkl are an informative pair to follow on Twitter and their respective websites. On Goldthread2, Clarissa writes to an English speaking audience about Chinese culture in Asia, a great endeavor on its own, and also entices about trends before they (hopefully) hit stateside. @chandavkl’s social media feeds take you along for the ride as he progresses now toward 7,500 restaurants, and his Menuism blog lends insights about the geographical dispersion of Chinese restaurants, food supply companies, and a slew of other patterns.
That was a fun view. Thank you for posting.
