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A Pan-Asian Eatery Feeding (off) Two MSUs
A pan-Asian eatery arose in the late 1990s in East Lansing, Michigan, blocks away from the Michigan State University campus.
Two MSUs feed and feed off each other: the university and Mandarin-Speaking Undergraduates from China with deep pockets.
Let’s call him Martin after Martin Yan of the TV show Yan Can Cook since 1982. Chinese from the Shandong province born and raised in South Korea and migrated with his restauranteur parents to the U.S. in his teenage years, Martin has not only survived but continues to thrive in the so-called Oriental food business, working at his parents’ Chinese restaurants first, before setting up his own, for lack of a better term, pan-Asian eatery in the late 1990s in East Lansing, Michigan, blocks away from the Michigan State University campus. The eatery is small, hence “restaurant” may be too big a word in this case; Martin occupies the position between a chef and a short order cook. The miniature size and the coziness, even homeliness, constitute part of its appeal to East Asian international students searching for home-cooking. That sense of homeliness stems in part from the East Asian-themed interior design: its chaotic kitschiness and its fusion-style overstimulation cater to young Asian clientele almost exclusively from…
