Questing for authentic Asian food

I used to get pretty excited when Princeton's lunchtime stir-fry stations offered Asian food. Being Asian myself, I spent a lot of the first few weeks of college going through pangs of homesickness, so I was excited to get a taste of home. I didn't yet know what I was in for.

A few weeks in, I went up to one of the counters, checked out the selection of noodles, rice, vegetables and chicken, and naively asked for a dish of "just everything." Imagine my shock when I came back and my bowl was full of rice and noodles stir-fried — together! If you’re not Asian and don’t get the reference, rice and noodles are never, ever cooked together in the same dish.

I’m sure most Asians here would agree with me when I say that the Asian food on campus is far from ideal, especially in the dining halls. Honestly, it’s not entirely the dining staff’s fault. There’s no way that recipes from halfway across the globe are going to work as well over here: The ingredients just aren’t right, and the cooks lack experience making this type of cuisine. But apart from that, I often feel that to most Americans, the definition of Asian food is just “anything with a ton of soy sauce in it.” This ignorance is a major source of pain for those of us who know better.

The fried rice and noodle stir-fries here are the best example of this. If the cooks would just stir-fry the ingredients and not splash in an entire bottle of soy sauce, it might not turn out so nasty. I’ve had instances where my rice was literally swimming in half a bowl of sauce. And the rice itself is always undercooked. I don’t know if Americans prefer their rice crunchy or what, but in Asia we like our rice cooked to perfection: soft, firm and tender.

I’ve only had a few instances of halfway decent Asian food here. Once in a while, Whitman will have a stir-fried noodle dish that’s edible. And although I can’t speak for the eating clubs with much authority because I’m a freshman, I remember that during the “Taste of Prospect” event, the dumplings and noodles at Colonial weren't half bad.

Frist sushi, though, is a different matter entirely. For most people it’s pretty good, but it’s definitely not authentic. In my opinion, the notion of packaged sushi itself is unusual: Sushi is supposed to be fresh. Frist sushi has all the right ingredients, but the taste is off. There’s an odd flavor that I can’t quite place with this sushi, but I suspect it might be from the preservatives they use. In all fairness, it’s an ideal late meal item since sushi is light yet filling, but for you Asian food connoisseurs, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

Basically, if you’re an Asian on campus, chances are you’re going to be disappointed more often than not. So I’ve compiled a list of possible solutions here that I’ve occasionally found useful: