Traditional? Real? Authentic? What label communicates what we all perceive about culturally themed restaurants, but can’t describe with any sort of reliability? Certainly we have a sliding scale based on our experiences, although there is definitely a je ne sequa factor that makes a place feel like the real thing.

This has been an ongoing problem for me since I love to hit hole-in-the-wall ethnic joints.
Cocina de Colima's decor.: Katherine Hook photos
Part of the fun comes after you’ve discovered particularly cool places and then you want to return to the new-found treasure with friends. My adventurous culinary reputation attracts folks up for anything, but it has a downside when dining with those who aren’t normally so curious. In this situation describing just how far out on the cultural continuum we’re planning to go is critical to an enjoyable evening.

The problem focuses on how to credibly label the validity of our various ethnic restaurants. Saying that something is authentic when you are not of that culture seems a bit ridiculous when you think about it, but we hear it all the time. Even so there is definitely the feeling of being immersed in a cultural experience when you visit some places and that you’re being patronized in others. Some are so cartoonishly silly in their pandering to the stereotypical American view of a culture that they no longer represent their nominal culture at all.

This inconsistency has me jaded enough that when a restaurant advertisement includes the term “authentic,” I assume the opposite and that goes for word of mouth testimonials too. It seems to me that there might be a bit of unintentional culturism buried within these descriptions that is a little disturbing but that is a discussion for another forum.
Pei Wei's decor
This phenomenon is completely separate from the quality of the food or the enjoyment of the culinary experience. Pappasito’s is about as silly as you can get in its authentic Mexican ambiance, or cuisine for that matter, yet the food is generally good and thousands of smiling people leave those restaurants every day. I just want to have a way of communicating the experience of feeling like "you’ve” been there" that you get when you go to places like Cocina de Colima on Fountainview or Nam Gang on Gessner. And, it’s just as valuable to know when you’re going to somewhere like Pei Wei that you won’t have to tie your shoes tight enough to deal with servers who don’t speak English and have to order by pointing at pictures on the menu.

So here is my Perceived Cultural Accuracy Scale. It runs from 1 to 5 with 5 having the most perceived accuracy. Any attempt to quantify subjectivity is always a dicey undertaking, yet it does give me a platform for my cultural take on the restaurant in question. The scale is an elementary mathematic exercise. I just take several constituent parameters and assign 1 to 5 values for each, then sum them and take an average. Voila, you have a PCA number for the restaurant.
Colima's menu
Assuming that the food is on target, the parameters that seem most important to my perception of culture are:

• Customers are of the culture
• Menu is in the language of the culture
• Restaurant décor and ambiance reflect the culture
• Servers are of the culture

Let’s take a look at Cocina de Colima, for example.

• Customers are almost all Hispanic: 5
• The menu is in Spanish with English translations: 4
• Restaurant has inexpensive cultural artifacts, posters and photos: 5
• Servers are all Hispanic with little English ability: 5

Colima's total is 19. Take the average and the restaurant has a rounded PCA of 4.8.

Now let’s contrast Pei Wei with Cocina de Colima. Since Pei Wei calls itself an Asian bistro we’ll go with Pan-Asian as a culture.
Pei Wei's menu

• A few customers are Asian: 2
• The menu is entirely in English: 0
• Restaurant has stereotypical Asian art: 3
• Some staff appears Asian: 2

Pei Wei's total is 7. Take the average and Pei Wei Asian Bistro has a rounded PCA of 1.8.

A 4.8 out of 5 pretty well communicates that you’re in for a genuine Hispanic adventure at Cocina de Colima and Pei Wei’s 1.8 reassures you that your cultural comfort level will not be challenged when you go in for Chinese vegetables with Korean spicy sauce. If I was rating their food independent of the cultural experience I would place both these places in the good box so PCA doesn’t reflect food quality at all.

We could probably say that a 3 on the scale is the tipping point for feeling some measure of cultural accuracy although I need to test this on some of my dining buddies to see if it works.

Post up comments on other cultural criteria that might make the PCA scale more effective if you think that I missed something and if it works, I’ll use PCA in future posts. This just might give me some credibility the next time I describe one of my authentic really traditional finds.