Yesterday I had a plan to go to an Egyptian restaurant. Unfortunately when I got there, they didn't have the dish i was looking for, and they were quite rude to my friend, so we decided not to eat there.
We ended up at a Moroccan. It was pretty bad, as it wasn't Moroccan food. I say this because they definitely didn't use authentic ingredients, the worst being the lack of any of the spices Moroccan food is known for. It was only made worse by the fact that the price was pretty high. There seems to be this trend of having a foreign restaurant and passing it off as more upscale when even in it's native land it would be a very cheap meal. I'm reminded of how Taco Bell in China is actually an upscale, white table cloth, expensive restaurant.
I wouldn't mind the high price if they were actually importing the ingredients they need, but when they are just using cheap Taiwanese ingredients to make their food than not only is it not authentic, but they are charging a high price for it as well. It makes the whole thing feel so disingenuous.
The real point of this post is my secret restaurant idea. Over the years i've had some good ideas for restaurants, but I never followed through. Years later other people opened up places I had thought about, and they have been successful. So my current idea has been a restaurant showcasing a specific type of African food. I'm not going to say, but perhaps even just saying that much will put my butt in gear.
