[Tlc] L-food politics

[justinm at ucr.edu]

FYI. From Steven Sanith.
Thanks,
justin

Sabaidee,

 

I've been trying to get Yelp.com to add a "Lao cuisine" category, but they're refusing to add it despite my several requests for them to add our cuisine. Even "Cambodian" cuisine and “Filipino” cuisine are included on Yelp.com, but "Lao cuisine" isn't. There's not even that many Cambodian/Filipino restaurants either, but even they have their own cuisine categories on Yelp. I believe their competitor Chow.com already has a Lao cuisine category, so I don’t understand why Yelp.com is so resistant to adding a “Lao cuisine” category.

 

Lao restaurants are being unfairly categorized as "Thai" on those food-oriented websites like Yelp.com and I really would like the Lao community to do something about getting those sites to update their category list. Lao restaurants like Vientian Cafe are being classified as “Thai” on Yelp.com, which leads their site visitors to assume that restaurants like Vientian Cafe are “Thai” restaurants and that all the dishes at those restaurants are “Thai” dishes. I'm hoping that your organization will have an idea as to how we can get the various Lao communities in the U.S. to come together and figure out a way to encourage those food-related sites to add our cuisine. Americans will continue to assume that Lao dishes are "Thai" unless if we can get Yelp.com and others to give the credit to "Lao cuisine", rather than "Thai". No one will ever know about “Lao cuisine” until we give it the much needed attention. If we don’t, then more Lao dishes like “Larb” will become known as “Thai” and etched in the minds of Americans.

 

I would like the Lao communities to start a petition or do a mass-marketing thing to target websites like Yelp.com, newspapers, food magazines, and others to encourage more companies to give credit to Lao cuisine and give it some attention, rather than allowing Thai cuisine to continue to slowly incorporate our cuisine and taking credit for our Lao dishes.

 

We need to educate the American community about Lao cuisine. Most people learn about a culture through its cuisine.  People will never realize that Lao cuisine exists until we get websites like Yelp.com to stop allowing people to classify Lao restaurants as “Thai cuisine”. People are forced to use “Thai cuisine” because there isn’t a “Lao cuisine” category for them to choose. The fact that the Yelp.com management team is refusing to add “Lao cuisine” to their database made me realize that they are being very insensitive and do not care that Lao restaurants are being incorrectly categorized as “Thai cuisine”. I thought that Yelp.com’s purpose was to educate site visitors about restaurants and other business establishments. Yelp.com’s refusal to add “Lao cuisine” is a disservice to their site visitors and to the Lao community as a whole.

 

If you have any idea as to how we can encourage Yelp.com to add a "Lao cuisine" category, please feel free to reply to me and let's start a campaign to promote Lao cuisine. Now is the best time since the first International Lao New Year Festival is right around the corner. That event would be a great place to encourage the Lao community to actively participate in promoting Lao cuisine by emailing the management of Yelp.com and other food-oriented websites to add a “Lao cuisine” category to their sites. The CEO of Yelp.com mentioned to me that there has to be a demand for the “Lao cuisine” category. So I think we should give them that demand by getting thousands and thousands of people to send the management of Yelp.com email letters until they’re willing to add “Lao cuisine” to their database.

 

Khop Jai,

 

Steven Sanith

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu