Whose idea was it?

This is not a restaurant/food review. But some thoughts about food. Warning, it is a long thought.

Have you ever encountered a story, a painting, a piece of music, or just an idea, created by someone else and that made you leaped off your chair and yelled "that was my idea! he stole my idea!!"

I have....Anthony Bourdain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bourdain) "stole" my idea.

Let me explain.

Anthony Bourdain wrote a most recent book titled "Medium Raw" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_Raw). I flipped through the book at Borders one lazy afternoon and stumbled upon this paragraph. The said chapter of the book involved Bourdain's criticism of new restaurants trying to "invent" new food and thus making the eating experience "complicated" for the eater and the creator of food. What followed was this sentences:

"If any good comes out of all the pain and insecurity (of creating new food experience), I can only hope that the Asian-style food court/hawker center is one of them. This institution is way overdue for an appearance (on a large scale) in America. Scores of inexpensive one-chef/one-specialty business (basically, food stalls) clustered around a "court" of shared tables. When will some shrewd and civic minded investors (perhaps in tandem with their city governments) put aside some parking lot-size spaces (near commercial districts) where operators from many lands can sell their wares? Sharing tables, as in classic fast-food food courts? Why, with our enormous Asian and Latino populations, can't we have dai pai dong -literally, "big sign street", the Chinese version of the indigenous food court, like they do in Hong Kong- or hawker centers, like in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur? Or "food streets," like Hanoi and Saigon? The open-to-the-air "wet" taco vendors and quesadilla-makers of Mexico City?"  End of quote

That, my friend, is what I have been talking about for the last 4 years.

As Bourdain pointed out, we do have food courts here in America, the ones in the mall...but the food are bad!!!!

If you have spent time living in any Asian country, what Bourdain said will resonate with you. Or put it another way, think about the food/restaurants that you go back to time and time again. What are they?

Taco, Roast Chicken (Pio), Soup Dumplings, Cumin Burger, Bahn Mi, Arepas, Dosai, Cerviche,  Tamale. You can argue that because we are a multi-ethnic bunch of people, hence we love ethnic food. But i think this is a weak argument. The food that i mentioned are simple, delicious, and affordable PERIOD. NO frill, NO BS, NO gimmick, and won't cost you $60 (inside joke with Antelmo).  Why is the best chinese food in chinatown? The best mexican food in spanish harlem, the best indian food in jackson heights? Instead of waiting for New Yorkers to come out from their "shell" and explore these "intimidating" neighborhoods (literally), why not bring these food all under one roof and make it more accessible to everyone instead of having to seat in a basement mall in Flushing?

the concept is there, the market (new york city) is there for the taking, how to implement? Give me half a million dollars and I will answer that question...

if you can't give me half a million dollars, this is how you can help. Send this article or share it with friends who might share the same sentiment as I. Maybe we can create a new food movement here in NYC, maybe one of your rich friends might be interested as an investor. Maybe Bourdain is secretly working on this project already.....