Miniature
Asia
Visiting Scholar
Institute for International Studies
Stanford University
When we look outside the university community, a fantastic variety of Asian people live in Silicon Valley. Naturally, there are many grocery stores and restaurants from each country, and as a result, people who live here can taste a wide variety of authentic Asian cuisines without ever leaving the neighborhood.
Of course, various Asian restaurants also exist in Tokyo. However, it is hard to say that the food from a given Asian country is always authentically reflected in Tokyo. For example, many Japanese misunderstand Korean cuisine, believing that it consists entirely of B.B.Q. Similarly, Indian cuisine does not necessarily equal curry (I thought so, too!). In addition, I think that Asian restaurants in Tokyo adapt their seasoning according to the tastes of their Japanese guests. I wonder if the same thing happens in other Asian countries.
In Silicon Valley, a similar circumstance also arises. We sometimes find meals in which the true tastes of the native country are not reproduced particularly well. Unfortunately, many people who live Silicon Valley think that Japanese cuisine equals sushi, period. Although sushi is one form of Japanese cuisine, no Japanese eats a high-class dish like sushi every day in Japan. More typical, popula Japanese foods are Oden (Japanese pot-au-feu) or Ramen noodles.
Still, we can taste many full-scale, authentic Asian cuisines in Silicon Valley simply because lots of people from different Asian countries live here. Naturally, folks ask for the genuine tastes of their own countries. This fact gave me a great idea: "Bring together, in one place, the most excellent food from all over the world and then the most excellent people will come from all over, too."
Undoubtedly, one of the biggest factors in Silicon Valley's success is that many excellent people gather here from all over the world, especially from Asian countries, and maintain high mobility through positive communication and feed-back. Sure, there are also excellent people and diligent labor forces within each Asian country. But we cannot say there is high mobility of human resources between Asian countries.
Recently, a Japanese engineer opened a Ramen-noodle shop in Silicon Valley using sophisticated technical improvements. A good cook is often a good entrepreneur. If Asians dream of Silicon Valley for their countries, maybe the first step is to prepare an environment where the most excellent cooks from all over Asia can be given an entrepreneurial chance to start their respective businesses in one place. Just by imagining such a wonder, at the same moment, I can taste Asia today. Yummy!
