[Tlc] L-food politics

[Kelly Bornt Kidson]

Sabaidee kuu kgan!

Steven, excellent idea! Lao cuisine in finally coming out from under the
umbrella of "Thai Food". Here in Providence, RI we finally have our first
LAO restaurant that is marketing itself as such.

http://kellykidson.blogspot.com/2009/01/review-lao-thai-kitchen-in-providence.html

In addition another one recently opened in Blackstone, MA that is the sister
restaurant on one in Vientiane.
Now if we could only get Facebook to recognize Laos... ; )

Pop kgan mai,

Kelly Kidson




On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 8:45 AM, <justinm at ucr.edu> wrote:

> 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
>
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