![]() ![]() Some reviewers called popular Korean barbecue spot Jongro “kitschy,” while others thought it simply looked Korean Jongro/ Yelp In particular, the large sample size of reviews reflects the dominant culture: one which is continuously and historically rooted in favoring the white, Eurocentric experience. While I don’t know anything about the specific demographics of the reviewers I studied, trends in the reviews I read reflect some of the more troubling themes seen on the internet these days. Seven percent of the 20,000 reviews I read - or 1,400 reviews - contained some sort of authenticity language. Over the course of six months, from September 2016 to March 2017, I read 100 reviews (written at any point prior to March 2017) for each of the top 20 Mexican restaurants on Yelp, recording how often commenters used the term authenticity or its synonyms like “legitimate” or the phrases like “this made me feel like I was in Mexico.” Then I kept going, ultimately reading 2,000 reviews for each of the nine other popular cuisines. I narrowed my data collection to reviews from New York, and focused my field even further by picking from Zagat’s top ten most popular cuisines in New York City: Mexican, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, French, Italian, Korean, and Indian, adding Mediterranean and Soul food based on recent dining trends. Of course, not all of these reviews support white supremacy, or even mention authenticity. There are 17 million restaurant reviews on Yelp from over 30 different countries. I would know: I have read and studied 20,000 Yelp reviews I can tell you a lot about what I concluded about the depths of the internet, but I’ll start with this one: The word “authentic” in food reviews supports white supremacism, and Yelp reviews prove it. I would know: I have read and studied 20,000 Yelp reviews - part of my thesis as a master’s student at New York University in the Food Studies program. Nowhere does that come into play more than on user-based review sites like Yelp. These claims, often used as markers of quality, are employed by diners and restaurateurs alike - often used by owners to evoke a homespun or faraway romanticism. Pundits claim that millennials crave it, restaurants boast authentic dining experiences, and Foursquare asks us to make judgments about it. What does authentic mean in this context? And how do I judge the authenticity of my grilled cheese sandwich? Woah, woah, woah - I asked her to slow down. We reviewed our current restaurant to explore how it worked: “Good for Kids?” Sure. Up for debate this lunch time was Foursquare she explained that the review-driven app allowed users to rate restaurants on a multitude of factors. Over grilled cheese sandwiches at a pub on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, a friend and I discussed our favorite topic - eating. ![]()
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