Hardly a zinger: ESEA food and the tide of ignorance
by Amy Phung
Zing Zing proclaims to be, “North London’s clean & MSG free chinese takeout with vegetarian & vegan options.”
Founder Josh Magidson created the business after recognising that, “Chinese is one of the UK’s most popular takeaway cuisines, with the national market estimated to be worth £1.4bn. Despite this, [he] noticed that the quality of food and service wasn’t always up to scratch across the industry.” The story goes that Magidson picked the name Zing Zing after pulling out a map of China, where the city Xing Xing caught his eye, because it was “snappy and memorable”. It’s this shallow and surface level approach that pervades all of Zing Zing’s treatment of Chinese culture.
Zing Zing’s manifesto which has since been deleted from their website but has been saved in full here, goes into further detail into the company ethos:
“It is our aim to create the best Chinese takeaway in the world.
Ironically the way to do this is by acting nothing like a regular Chinese takeaway.
This is because the industry has been heading down the wrong road for a number of decades. Low quality ingredients are rife, chemical additives are the core elements of most recipes (stir-fried MSG stew, anyone?) and customer service is pretty much non-existent. The worst thing is that, as consumers, not only do we tolerate this from the Chinese takeaway industry, we pretty much expect it.
However, despite these awfully low standards, Chinese food has taken the UK by storm. The dishes have become household names and we have all come to love the unique taste of oriental flavours. Chinese food has essentially become, well… British.”
Despite acknowledging the profound success and popularity of Chinese takeaways, Zing Zing seems determined to wedge hyperbolic negative connotations into one of the nation’s best-loved foods. If there isn’t a problem to solve, why not create some? Zing Zing is the takeaway equivalent of a “Halloween Oriental China lady costume” complete with chopsticks in hair. A dressed-up shopfront that pretends to be Chinese, except it’s an overt mockery of the culture. Zing Zing elevates itself by denigrating Chinese food and positioning itself as the saviour. The colonial spirit returns hard with the final line. Chinese food is to be washed clean of its origins, fully assimilated, fully British. It’s much easier to twist and contort something if they feel like they own it.
Image credit: @zingzingchinese Instagram
Confusingly, Japanese Katsu curries and Pad Thai appear on the menu; I guess providing non-Chinese food is one way to “act nothing like a regular Chinese takeout”. The tendency to conflate various countries within East and South East Asia is a common occurrence in Western society. Very distinct cuisines that have a long history and take years to master are erased of their identities, placed under the umbrella of Chinese. Chopsticks poke jarringly out of various dishes and gimmicky American-style takeaway boxes, a bad omen in China where, at funerals, it denotes offerings of food for the deceased.
Image credit: @zingzingchinese Instagram
My original question when I first came across their manifesto has since been deleted: “What’s wrong with MSG? It’s naturally-occurring in lots of foods including vegetables, cheese, fruit and nuts. Human breast milk has 6-9 times the MSG of cows milk. The fear of MSG is rooted in Sinophobia. Please stop pandering to the western gaze and celebrate Chinese food appropriately.”
Just as they want to “sanitise” our food, the silencing of the ESEA voices that question their problematic values is a further effort to erase our humanity. It’s easier to do that than admit the very core of their business is founded on rotten ideals and racist premises.
Foodbeast has a comprehensive article on how and why Monosodium Glutamate, otherwise known as MSG, came to have it’s bad reputation, in particular with its link to East and South East Asian food. Essentially, rising prejudice in the US against China, a communist nation, was compounded by an article written in the New England Journal of Medicine. It extolled unfounded links between the presence of MSG and a supposed “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”, based on one man’s complaint of feeling ill after eating at various American Chinese establishments.
“Suddenly, a linkage now existed between Chinese restaurants and something that made people sick. That, combined with the growing anti-Chinese sentiment that resulted from its Communist regime, made it easy to start pinning the blame on a single ethnic group… despite the fact that the rest of the food industry used it en masse as well.
In fact, MSG is naturally in almost every single food we eat. At its most basic form, MSG is the fusion of sodium (which typically comes from salt) and glutamic acid (an amino acid, the building block of protein, which all living things have). When they combine, usually under heat, they form the key compound we associate with savory and umami flavors. When added into seasonings and sauces at an appropriate level, the delicious results can be mind-boggling.”
As with any seasoning such as salt, pepper, chilli powder, paprika, you name it, any ingredient added at increased volumes will cause health implications. So why does Zing Zing make such a song and dance about being MSG-free? Let’s return to their manifesto.
“CHEMICALS: MSG - NOT FOR ME
We’ve all had it. That horrendous feeling for hours after you’ve tucked into a bog standard black bean mess with egg fried rubbish. At Zing Zing, we like to call it ‘The MSG Hangover’. Unfortunately, the entire Chinese takeaway industry has become addicted to stuffing products with chemicals and preservatives. These ‘flavour enhancers’ are simply a cheap way to pass off awful ingredients as semi-tasty food.”
When called to comment on their non-MSG line, Zing Zing representatives explained, “We take pride in using the freshest ingredients. That’s what we mean.” However, the manifesto is very clear in disparaging a whole industry of Chinese-run restaurants who have worked for decades and created an extremely successful industry, in the face of immense adversity, an impressive display of resilience and adaptability. I’m also inclined to query the supposed “freshness” of their deep-fried wonton Creme Eggs. Which farm did the chickens come from Zing Zing?
Image credit: @zingzingchinese Instagram
Chef, writer and travel documentarian Anthony Bourdain once said, “You know what causes Chinese Restaurant Syndrome? Racism. “Ooh, I have a headache, must have been the Chinese guy.”” Bourdain’s work sought to explore international cuisine in relation to the human condition and that is where Zing Zing miss the mark wildly. They wish to divorce Chinese food completely from it’s people, without realising that the two, food and identity, are absolutely entwined.
William Li commented on their account, “Your branding is disgusting. It is based on dragging down other businesses that have historically been the only way hardworking immigrants like my parents could be accepted by their colonisers, perpetuating racist stereotypes like all non-European food is “dirty” unless blessed by the hand of a white man, and whitewashing the very culture you are profiting off of.”
Georgie Ma, aka Chinese Chippy Girl, recalls the effect of food-shaming, “It’s hard to explain how this affected me. It brought back memories of me being bullied at school and getting teased that my school lunches were different and it was dirty. My parents owning a takeaway where kids would say my Dad’s food was dirty - when it was actually the opposite.”
Scottish-Chinese artist, Karlie Wu created the artwork, Delicious Colonialism, “Influenced by a common design on Chinese takeaway bags, this one colour print emphasises the central image and its message: that British Chinese food (and the community) is resilient, ever-adapting in order to survive and feed the next generation.”
Chef Huong Black highlights, “I think the fact that independent businesses will vary in quality across the board is a moot point when it comes to critiquing racist campaigns such as these. No-one ever compares in the same breath all representations of an English breakfast from a budget greasy spoon to one you’ll be served in Claridges. The fact that a single Chinese takeaway has to represent an entire industry is problematic, and I will defend it with all my heart.”
The exclusion of the very essential voices and representation of Chinese people in Zing Zing’s marketing is prominent except for that of Jeremy Pang, credited as the executive chef. Pang is the Head Chef and Founder of School of Wok, an online cookery school, and his story doesn’t seem too different from the voices that are calling to be heard:
"Both of my parents grew up in Hong Kong, migrating to the UK in the 60’s… My Grandma opened a little take away called Dragon. So Dad and his seven siblings all grew up in the kitchen of the restaurant, learning the trade, how to be efficient, how to run a business etc."
The extent of Pang’s involvement in Zing Zing’s marketing is unknown, however it’s important to recognise that his presence in the business doesn’t negate the very worrying connotations of Zing Zing’s branding and the ideas that it perpetuates.
Racism against East and South East Asian communities has always existed. The includes the demonisation of Chinese communities residing in Limehouse Chinatown in the 19th century, forced deportation of Chinese sailors from Liverpool despite their wartime service in the British Merchant Navy after the Second World War, to where we are now. A 21% rise in hate crimes against ESEAs since the start of the pandemic, a number likely to be far higher due to unreported cases. Filipino NHS healthcare workers racially attacked after caring for COVID-19 patients, Chinese takeaways vandalised, the incidents are too numerous to count. All for the stigma attached to our community, that ESEA people and therefore our food is “dirty”, “unsanitary” and “unhygienic”. A narrative that is happily peddled by Zing Zing, who are markedly silent on the hatred currently being enacted upon the community and people whose culture they are capitalising on.
Josh Magidson LinkedIn profile
It’s a sorry and repetitive tale. Last year, Masterchef contestant Philli Mattin, self-titled, “Asian Specialist” wanted to be the one to make “Dirty Food Refined”. Dominos Pizza recently ran a marketing campaign that encouraged people to order “anything but Chinese”. Zing Zing would do well to acknowledge that New York restaurant Lucky Lees closed down for feeding into exactly the same racist stereotypes around Chinese food. Whether Zing Zing chooses to use MSG or not is entirely their decision, however the impact of blatantly derogatory language and the denigration of East and South East Asian communities has to end. The impact of this damaging language is far reaching and goes beyond Chinese takeaways. It normalises the racism that we see directed towards ESEA people and businesses, compounded by the problematic media representation as a result of the pandemic.
What can we do to combat this tide? Support your local ESEA-owned takeaways and restaurants, elevate the work of ESEA chefs, continue the conversation and educate ourselves by deconstructing the biases that have been built up over centuries of racial oppression. A good place to start is listening to The MSG Pod, following the work of Anna Sulan and reading the stories posted by Chinese Takeaways UK. British Chinese Biz hosts fortnightly zoom calls to encourage people to buy from local ESEA takeaways. The #eseaeats hashtag started by Anna Chan and Georgie Ma is a place to discover and share authentic ESEA food.
Finally, for a business that waxes lyrical about their exemplary standard of hygiene, with a whole paragraph in their manifesto dedicated to their openness and transparency, it’s a wonder that they could not achieve a 5-star rating by he Food Hygiene Standards Agency. I implore the Chow Meinaging Director to reassess the Zing Zing Professional Mopping Committee.
