Will the PC Police Close Oriental Noodle Shop?

Oriental Noodle Shop

The blog Hungry Travels points out the horribly amazing logo of the Oriental Noodle Shop on 45th btw. Lex+3rd.

I’m waiting for the P.C. police to come storming in and shut the place down. That’d be a shame, because if you ignore the mildly offensive logo and name, you can get tasty noodle dishes and noodle soups here at reasonable prices, especially for midtown (lunch will run about $7-$10). I especially like the thick, almost chewy texture of their pan fried noodles.

After last weeks (still going in the comments) debate about the Trini Paki Boys Cart (on 43rd & 6th) I shudder to think of what people are going to say about this.

23 Comments

  • I was under the impression it’s still PC to use Oriental to refer to objects but not people. Food would be more an object than a person, so I think they’re okay.
    **I remind everyone that Oriental is not considered or taken offensively overseas, particularly in the UK…
    Also, I’m kind of assuming this was opened by Asian people, so their caricature of an Asian person in their logo is pretty f’ing funny imo… like “hi we’d like to perpetuate and propagate ignorance regarding what Asian people realllllly look like please”

  • Great chinatown style food in midtown. Used to love that place when my office was around the corner. The lunch specials are fantastic.

  • In a Giant Robot article a few years back, someone wrote that “Oriental” is only cool if you’re describing a salad dressing or a rug. Ha! I think I’m a bit less stringent about the rules of the term, although I only refer to myself non-specifically as “Asian.” The logo doesn’t really bug me, though. Am I missing something here?

  • Just call ’em Zipperheads and be done with it.

  • If the PC police shut down my go-to “It’s cold outside and I want some hot udon soup” place, I’m going to raise some hell. Yes, Yvo, it’s run completely by recent immigrants. And yes, this is one soup I’ll actually eat and enjoy.

  • It’s not offensive in any way.

    Don’t see clowns complaining about McDonalds.

  • I can’t believe you racist Occidentals are condoning this!

  • So if I open a burger joint and my logo is just a regular, fat white dude chilling with a burger is that offensive to white people?

  • What imagery would you like Tom? Rape of Nanking?

    Oliver Stone Crying?

    A naked Mrs Chucky running from her recently Napalm’d camper van?

  • Holly shit, not derail all this nip picking. But did anyone catch this???!

    http://nymag.com/daily/food/2008/09/shocker_street_vendors_not_the.html

    Zach, your opinion?!??

  • That cute little scamp on the sign is not offensive. Now, if he had buck teeth, glasses and a cleaver in his hand and was still a virgin… THEN you could consider him offensive. Realistic – but offensive. Unless he was Jerry Lewis. Then he would just be sad: Chef Jerry

  • Sorry Rudy, forgot my tags.

  • Damn it, it blocks out unless I quote it.

  • [quote][/quote]

  • Damn it! Pretend it says open carrot, sarcasm, close carrot.

  • I hope it stays the same. Best Egg Foo Young in the city.

  • I think Tom’s talking about “carets,” there, unless he’s talking about making a weird salad.

  • I am deeply offended!

    And now I want a bowl of noodles and a straw hat… hmm… strange…

  • As an asian, I’m actually not the least bit offended by this. I think it’s kind of cute and you’d see this type of logo in china all the time.

    My white friends get more offended at the word oriental than I am.

  • As a Chinese, I don’t find the logo offensive at all, in fact I think it is soooooooooo cute! :o)

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