Food & Drink Dec 16, 2015 at 4:00 am

What Makes the Union of Chinese Restaurants and Religious Minorities Work?

Levi Hastings

Comments

1
So we are pretending that only Christians in this country celebrate Christmas?

Every atheist and non-Christian I know celebrates Christmas. They get trees, give gifts, and open them with their friends and families. Some of them go to the movies afterwards, and yes, many go out to eat as well.

Not every Christmas celebration is praying to Jesus and singing hymns by the fireplace, you know.

Christmas for the vast majority has nothing to do with Jesus. It is about celebrating life and love with friends and family. Christmas is for everyone!
2
@1:
I'm an atheist who doesn't celebrate Christmas, and nor do several of my friends. Fortunately we have a friend whose birthday is December 25, so we dote on her and eat a Mexican feast, since there's nothing else to do. Christmas is pretty vile in America, I might celebrate it if I lived in a less consumerist culture.
3
Forget about the Chinese part (for now) it's the Restaurant that is the cool trend.

The last three Thanksgivings I celebrated with my (away at college) son by going to a good quality restaurant that served a seasonal turkey dinner and had or was close to a large screen TV for the football games, This year it was Fiamma at the MGM Grand in Vegas.

But why not Christmas? Even if you have a tree, toys, all the rest, why is it unthinkable you might prefer to take the whole clan out to a roast ham or turkey dinner? This way you don't end up with a home full of wrapping paper and dirty dishes to clean. Chinese is of course another great alternative to go with the idea of Eating Out Holidays.

4
@1, Christmas is for those who want it. Period.
5
Even Justice Kagan hits the Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day. Remember her conformation hearings when she was asked how she celebrated the holiday?
6
@1: another non-believer who doesn't celebrate. More than happy to have the day off, which I use to sleep in as late as I want, see a movie, and eat Chinese. The perfect Xmas for me is spent somewhere in SE Asia where the day can pass more or less unnoticed (sadly, far less likely now than even just 10-15 yrs ago).
7
Kosher and Chinese? Shirley you jest. Chinese cuisine is full of things such as pork and shellfish. In no way can this be kosher. Even should you opt for something that's not pork or shellfish the vessels used to prepare this stuff have not been "koshered" and it's highly unlikely in fact probably impossible that Chinese restaurants have received kosher certification. Jews well know that Chinese cooking is not kosher.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_C…

8
@2: Right, you celebrate Christmas in your own way, going out with friends, feasting, and talking about how consumerism is vile and being holier than thou about it. Exactly what I said.

@4: That is exactly what I said.

9
@2, @4, you TOTES missed what Teddy Gore was getting at. I got it. I appreciate it.
11
Some "middle eastern" & Indian restaurants are also open today.
12
"The United States ... has more CAFETERIA Christians than any other country on Earth." There, I fixed it for you.

Head down to little Saigon or Rainier Valley business areas, you won't even notice it's Christmas. Most of the Vietnamese restaurants will be open.
13
When sour, miserable hipster contrarians make a point of not celebrating Christmas and then tell people about it they are in fact celebrating Christmas by default.

Merry Christmas sincerely to all of you!
14
I think this might be the record for the most stale stealth repost yet. That's some Christmas spirit there.
15
Definitely check out "in search of general tso". (On Netflix). It covers the Jewish Chinese restaurant Xmas connection and more...
16
Shanghai Garden was closed on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year.
17
Ooops. I was wrong. My wife and I had wanted to go to Shanghai Garden on Christmas Eve...we checked their Facebook page and they said they'd be closed on both Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. We were disappointed but we made other arrangements.

Turns out, that Facebook page is for their Issaquah location...and Seattle was open.

Sorry to spread bad info...and sorry to miss those hand shaven noodles!
19
My parents took us for Chinese on Christmas for years - either on Christmas Eve (before midnight Mass) or Christmas Day (if we went to church that day instead). We also went bowling on Christmas Day, which was the only time my parents would even dream of bowling.
20
This was the first year I ever went out for Chinese on Christmas Day, and it was a hoot. The one hour wait was a bit of a drag, but the walk thru the ID, where I really never go, was interesting. And the eventual dim sum at Jade Garden was delicious (honey-walnut shrimp, come to me now!). I would say that this is a tradition worth starting for the years to come.
21
The opening line from this article is not true. It's not even kind of true. Literally five seconds will find you all sorts of countries more Christian than the US.

You can start with every single country south of the US. All of them.

Please wait...

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