Dos Chinos Gets Great Mention in Bad New York Times Piece About “Diverse” OC Food



A sincere congrats to the Dos Chinos luxe lonchera for being the center story in a New York Times piece. May the lines get longer, the money bigger, and the tweets as hilarious as ever.

But the premise of reporter Jennifer Medina's take–that you can tell that Orange County is finally diverse by what people eat–is fundamentally flawed, and about a decade late.

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“To see how radically demographics have changed in Orange County, Calif., just look at what's for lunch,” Medina begins in that preciously overwrought style the Gray Lady has mastered. Examples? Dos Chinos and … a Mexican and his kid who likes Dos Chinos. Real authoritative there! There's no mention of the pho shops in SanTana like Pho Cali, which cater to a Latino clientele, Adobo & Taco, Dee Nguyen's efforts over at Break of Dawn, and the many other Mexi-whatever fusions that have characterized dining in Orange County since the days of Modjeska. Hell, people: The first fusion dish in Orange County was tamale pie, and that goes back to the 1920s, at least. An Asian-Mexican combo? Same trend.

Medina doesn't even mention that the king of fusion luxe loncheras, Roy Choi of Kogi, is an Orange County native. Dos Chinos does deserve good press–and Orange County deserves much better coverage from the Times. I bet you they still think Nixon is alive. …

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