Reverse Import Cafes

Every culture, when it adapts foreign cultures, adds its own flavors to them. This not only applies to Japanese rap music, but also to restaurants and cafes. We do it here too. Typical American pizza is nothing like the original from Italy. An interesting phenomenon that I noticed when I was in Rome a year ago, was that Italians reverse-imported the American style of Pizzeria. I suppose it came out of the expectation of the tourists. Likewise, I have been noticing here in New York reverse-import cafes from Asia. The first one that I noticed was Panya on Stuyvesant Street. It is a Japanese bakery/cafe that offers among other things: Japanese style white bread, sandwich with a single slice of bologna, and impeccably uniform and geometric sweet pastries. Then we have Saint’s Alp Teahouse that first appeared in China Town and now spreading elsewhere. Basta Pasta is a Japanese style pasta restaurant which is famous for its fish row spaghetti. “Reverse-Import” in my definition is when a piece of culture exported comes back home with a few twists from abroad. Note: San Francisco style burrito, for instance, is not a reverse import, unless it is brought back to Mexico to be served.

One of the new comers in this genre is East Pearl Cafe on St. Marks Place (Between Avenue A and First, pictured above). They serve a large variety of teas in tall glasses typically used for ice cream floats, hot or cold, with or without Tapioca. I’m not sure of the history of these concoctions but are obviously results of Western and Eastern fusion. Hot teas are served in large mugs with Cappuccino style foam on top. A toast with peanut butter, strawberry jam, butter & condensed milk, or hazelnut & cocoa is served on a piece of perfectly geometric, over-sized, white bread typically seen in Asia. The decor of these cafes is just as much of a product of reverse-importing aswhat they serve, dominantly Western feel with an infusion of cutesy modern Asian culture. Interestingly they also serve Japanese style Chinese food. The Japanese have adapted Chinese food in their own ways. Ramen noodle for instance is a Japanese interpretation of Lo Mein in broth, but it evolved to the point where it became a genre of its own. Fried rice at East Pearl is a very authentic Japanese style fried rice, subtle but distinct. Only the native Japanese may notice the difference like the use of short grain rice instead of more common long grain.

In order to fully enjoy this type of cafes or restaurants, one needs to see them in this perspective, that is, they were exported, altered, and imported back. Only then would you fully appreciate the meaning of what you are seeing on your table, that is, how one culture transforms another. What you don’t want to do is to see them simply as Asian cafe owners trying to pass as Italians. It is a distinctly different statement that they are trying to make here.