No matter in New York or Shanghai, many restaurants and bars are super popular on social media such as Instagram and Xiao hong shu (小红书). Bloggers love to go to those restaurants and take nice photos and post them on social media. In China, people called them as internet-famous-restaurant or WangHongCanTing (网红餐厅), which means that they are popular online. Internet-famous-restaurant usually have three common features. First, they must look “Instagramable.” They usually have fancy decorations or themes so customers can take nice photos and post them online. Second, they must have some signature dishes so customers have another reason to come, but those signature recommendations don’t have to be delicious or unique. They just need to be popular on social media. Last but not least, there’s always a long waiting list to go inside the restaurant.
When Jeffrey Pilcher talks about culinary infrastructure in his article, he defines culinary infrastructure as “the basic facilities and technologies used to convey food, and knowledge about food, not only from the proverbial field to the fork, but also across continents and cultures.” He divided culinary infrastructure as physical infrastructure and knowledge infrastructure. If I apply his arguments to popular restaurants on social media, I don’t know why those restaurants exist as a symbol of food culture, because I believe owners open those restaurants as an entertainment rather than a place for customers to enjoy food.
In Shanghai, there are many must-eat restaurant list on social media such as crab noodles (蟹家大院) and bullfrog hotpot (哥老官). If you want to eat inside, you have to wait at least 2 hours. Crab noodles in XieJiaDa Yuan is branded as the best crab noodle in Shanghai, and it’s famous for its authenticity. Just as Pilcher says about the physical infrastructure, “restaurants pursue customers by promising the unique creations of the untrammeled authenticity of ethnic cuisines” However, most customers only come here once, and more than 60% of customers don’t think it’s very delicious or unique. Most of them just think the price is too high, just like the Hermes in the noodle industry. I use this example to say that some innovations in restaurants are not creation but promotions. Some infrastructures are necessities such as delivery system or supply chain in food system, but others such as restaurant decorations and creative ideas for promotions are only accessories. It also raises the question if social media can count as the part of culinary infrastructure, especially at the age of technology. Without social media, will customers come to certain restaurants? Without social media, will some restaurants survive?
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