[The Epoch Times, March 24, 2024] In mid -March, I went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. This is a Chinese restaurant that is dominated by Sichuan cuisine and takes into account other cuisines.I went there to eat there at least three years ago, before the plague.I haven’t gone for a long time. I wanted to change the taste and see if they had any new dishes. As a result, I found that the original recipes were gone, and the boss had been replaced.But when you come, it is good to come, and it is good to taste fresh.
The author is not a gourmet, but it can be said that you should not eat anything, but you should eat anything.The United States is a melting furnace, and the most popular Italian cuisine, Mexican, French cuisine, and Chinese cuisine in the United States can easily accept it.When teaching in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I also wrote a food column to Philadelphia’s “The Epoch Times” called the “Great Philadelphia Restaurant Tour”.Star, dozens of restaurants should be written before and after.The column heard that it is still very popular. The most impressed by the restaurant is the Fountain Western Restaurant in the Four Seasons of Philadelphia. French cuisine, I don’t know if it is still there.A few years later, I left Philadelphia, returned to the south of the United States, and then traveled back to Philadelphia and a Sichuan restaurant in Chinatown to eat.EssenceAt that time, they gave them a very high score, and told the boss that he was indifferent and did not give us any discounts.
The words were homely, and we ordered half tables that day, including blue pepper fish slices, hair blood, husband and wife lung slices, and one forgotten the name, probably spicy chicken or palace bun chicken.After the dishes came up, it looked pretty good and the taste was not bad.But eating and eating, we all feel that there is something wrong, which is different from the experience of eating in the past.For example, the meat, green onions, and potato grains in the vegetables are one color, and some greens and tofu are the other color; some ingredients are very pertanence and dark color, and some ingredients seem to be completely completely completely completely full of ingredients.There is no taste and light color; some dishes are new dishes just out of the pot, and some look like old dishes overnight.At the beginning, only one person had such a strange feeling. Everyone later felt the same.Everyone was wondering. Suddenly, a person jumped out of the world, shouldn’t it be a “prefabricated dish”?Intersection
While eating, we continued to discuss, reviewed, and finally concluded that some dishes seem to use at least some of the prefabricated dishes, plus some fresh ingredients.Is this really the case, or are we suspicious?The color and taste of the vegetables are there, and there is no doubt that we doubt our diners, otherwise we can only doubt our eyes and tongue.I want to ask the waiter, I think it ’s too far -sighted, I am not very embarrassed.But in the end, curiosity took advantage of the upper hand, and asked the courage to ask, saying that you used “prefabricated dishes” and semi -finished products?But she immediately answered that there was absolutely no, there was no component of prefabricated dishes!We can’t say anything.
Continue to eat, I still feel uncomfortable. Of course, I am embarrassed to say if I can visit the kitchen, I feel so obtrusive and impolite.But the kitchen is not far from our table, and there is only one cloth curtain in the middle of the kitchen and restaurant.After listening carefully, the kitchen was quiet in the kitchen. There was no dongdang pot, pans and pans, and the smoky “pot gas” could not be smelled. It was surprisingly quiet.This headless case was left in the end.
When I went home, I searched online. If we were terrible, we were too closed and behind.Because of the discussion of this issue, it has long been enthusiastic.Not to mention the delivery and takeaway of Chinese food, many of them are prefabricated vegetables quickly heated in the boiling water, and then the scissors are cut and poured into the takeaway box with rice.Bro.People are also discussing the restaurant’s hallway service. Is there a restaurant using prefabricated dishes and semi -finished products!
According to the definition of Wikipedia, prefabricated dishes are semi -finished products or finished products produced by various processes such as pre -selection and modulation in food factories.Prefabricated dishes are usually based on one or more agricultural, livestock, poultry, and aquatic products as the main raw materials. They are supplemented by condiments such as seasonings (including food additives).Made after cooking and pre -packaging.Foods are supplemented with preservatives and other means to store or transport them to consumers or catering processors under the cold chain conditions.The typical prefabricated dishes can be divided into four categories: “food food” (instant food when it is opened, such as dried meat), “that is hot food” (need to be soaked with hot water or microwave oven, such as instant noodles), “that is, that is,” that is, “that is,””Food” (freezing processing dishes that can be eaten after simply cooking), and “即 配” (that is, food “(only the preliminary processing and need to be seasoned by yourself, such as meatballs/meat intestines).Perhaps entering the Chinese food and drinking industry in the United States or countries, and may cause controversy, it should belong to this so -called “that is, cooking food.”
In the restaurants of the hall, whether the ingredients of semi -finished products are reasonable, or whether it is reasonable, routine, moral, and food -related laws should be a question worth discussing, but it is not too much.However, prefabricated dishes have obviously surpassed the category of semi -finished products, and should belong to the category of finished products and final products.Prefabricated dishes and semi -finished products, frozen or refrigerated, enter private families, and provide convenience for housewives to cook and cook. For many years, there should be no doubt.However, the use of semi -finished products in the restaurants of Tangshi may not be questioned by consumers; the prefabricated dishes use prefabricated dishes in the restaurants of Tangshi just simply heat, simply stir -fry, or the burned meatAdd some tofu or vegetables to the seafood, and then mix it again, and go out of the pot to serve. What may cause is not ordinary doubts, but the true service operatThe question of agreed.
In Marketing (Producting) from products (Product) to the spectrum of service (products) provided by the service industry, restaurants are both both the attributes of products (meals and foods), as well as services (waiters and cashiers).The attributes, also the key link of the chef’s cooking (product manufacturing).People go to the restaurant for dinner. Of course, I hope to eat fresh foods, unique flavors, delicious food, and delicious deliciousness that they can’t make.If the prefabricated menu is simply heated, it will be served on the table. Why do people spend more money to go to the restaurant for dinner and be happy?This is an important question that involves whether the restaurant industry is necessary to exist and can continue to survive!
Furthermore, if a restaurant in the community uses a large number of prefabricated dishes, because the cost can be reduced, it may be slightly heated at a prefabricated package of 5 US dollars, and it will be on the market at a price of $ 20-30.Restaurants that make fresh ingredients will be in an unfavorable competitive position.In the end, the result of vicious competition, delicious and authentic restaurants have to be closed, restaurants selling prefabricated dishes will be popular. The food quality of the Chinese meal and drinking industry is declining, and people will not go to the restaurant for dining. In the end, the industry may be defeated.This is undoubtedly a really serious problem.
The Chinese Culinary Association and a number of units participated in the “Pre -Made in the Prefabricated” group standards. The definition of prefabricated dishes is “one or more agricultural products as the main raw materials and use standardized flowing operations.Pickled, rolled, forming, seasoning, etc.) and/or pre -cooking (such as fried, fried, baked, boiled, steamed, etc.), and make pre -packaged finished products or semi -finished dishes. “The “fast food cooking package” sold on the Chinese merchant line is between 2.77 yuan and 6.84 yuan, and the specifications range from 160 grams to 200 grams.Liu et al.According to the data of Ai Media Consultation, the size of the prefabricated vegetable market in 2022 is estimated to be RMB 149.6 billion. It is estimated that it will maintain a high growth rate in the future. In 2026, the size of the prefabricated vegetable market in China is expected to reach 1072 billion yuan.The production of large -scale prefabricated dishes must be industrialized, large -scale, and mechanized operations, and there will be no delicate and deliciousness of “small pots”.
Will the Chinese restaurant industry be destroyed in prefabricated dishes?Hope not, but it is difficult to say.Of course, people do not want the tradition of Chinese food, because of the emergence of prefabricated dishes, they are impacted.But soon, it is estimated that outside the United States in the United States, in order to protect themselves, some may hang out brands: “Chefs are fried now”, “not selling prefabricated dishes”!If you dare not hang up, the prefabricated dishes are used.The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has blurred the boundaries between reality and virtual. People have not been distinguished what is real and what is fictional. They have deceived our eyes and ears.Almighty God and Buddha has created us human beings. The human body has facial features and five senses, eyes, ears, nose, tongue tongue, visual auditory smell and taste.Now, our vision and hearing have been deceived by artificial intelligence; now, science and technology must interfere with our ability to taste the “color and fragrance” of food, will it be cheated?IntersectionWe humans, in the face of computers, algorithms, data, machines, and technology, are they really going to be defeated, or do they need to inspire and fight against each other?
(Dr. Xie Tian is a marketing professor at the University of South Carolina University and Professor of Palm Chair Professor of John Olympic Palm)
