>> Yep. The most consistent occasion we have significant trouble with racism is in ethnic restaurants. They look at our skin and make wildly inaccurate predictions about our diet. <<
We get that a lot, too. One way we've found that seems to reduce the issue (fortunately, fairly easy to do around here) is to filter by how many of the patrons look like the place the cuisine is from: if you're a round-eye, and walk into a place like that, there seems to be a general presumption that you know what you're doing once you can convince them you haven't wandered into the place by mistake. Which we usually confirm by getting at least one instance of Stuff White Folks Don't Eat.
Speaking of culinary racism, spouse got a stiff dose of that once at a supposedly renowned dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong, where they got shunted off into a side room and served mostly mundane stuff. Having seen more interesting stuff in the main room, they went back, the staff attempted to put them back in the side room again, and they got across that they wanted to be in the main room -- where the dishes were much more varied and quite enjoyable.
More locally, they were taking a break to have lunch with a colleague, and went to a halal Chinese place we frequent once. One of the lunch specials was tripe, which the colleague loves and ordered. The server asked whether colleague knew what they were ordering, got "yes, bring it", and filled the order. When the order came out, a number of the wait staff and a few folks from the kitchen positioned themselves discreetly to check out what the round-eye was going to do with the order. According to spouse, there was visible relaxation once the colleague's enjoyment of the dish was observed.
Re: Foods and preferences
We get that a lot, too. One way we've found that seems to reduce the issue (fortunately, fairly easy to do around here) is to filter by how many of the patrons look like the place the cuisine is from: if you're a round-eye, and walk into a place like that, there seems to be a general presumption that you know what you're doing once you can convince them you haven't wandered into the place by mistake. Which we usually confirm by getting at least one instance of Stuff White Folks Don't Eat.
Speaking of culinary racism, spouse got a stiff dose of that once at a supposedly renowned dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong, where they got shunted off into a side room and served mostly mundane stuff. Having seen more interesting stuff in the main room, they went back, the staff attempted to put them back in the side room again, and they got across that they wanted to be in the main room -- where the dishes were much more varied and quite enjoyable.
More locally, they were taking a break to have lunch with a colleague, and went to a halal Chinese place we frequent once. One of the lunch specials was tripe, which the colleague loves and ordered. The server asked whether colleague knew what they were ordering, got "yes, bring it", and filled the order. When the order came out, a number of the wait staff and a few folks from the kitchen positioned themselves discreetly to check out what the round-eye was going to do with the order. According to spouse, there was visible relaxation once the colleague's enjoyment of the dish was observed.