Oberlin College's Food and Cultural Appropriation
In fact, it is quite real.
The core student grievance, as reported by Clover Lihn Tran at The Oberlin Review: Bon Appétit, the food service vendor, “has a history of blurring the line between culinary diversity and cultural appropriation by modifying the recipes without respect for certain Asian countries’ cuisines. This uninformed representation of cultural dishes has been noted by a multitude of students, many of who have expressed concern over the gross manipulation of traditional recipes.”
One international student suffered a sando-aggression:
Diep Nguyen, a College first-year from Vietnam, jumped with excitement at the sight of Vietnamese food on Stevenson Dining Hall’s menu at Orientation this year. Craving Vietnamese comfort food, Nguyen rushed to the food station with high hopes. What she got, however, was a total disappointment. The traditional Banh Mi Vietnamese sandwich that Stevenson Dining Hall promised turned out to be a cheap imitation of the East Asian dish.
Instead of a crispy baguette with grilled pork, pate, pickled vegetables and fresh herbs, the sandwich used ciabatta bread, pulled pork and coleslaw. “It was ridiculous,” Nguyen said. “How could they just throw out something completely different and label it as another country’s traditional food?”
Multiple students were dissatisfied with their landlocked, Midwestern institution’s take on the cuisine of an island nation with Earth’s most sophisticated fishing culture:
Perhaps the pinnacle of what many students believe to be a culturally appropriative sustenance system is Dascomb Dining Hall’s sushi bar. The sushi is anything but authentic for Tomoyo Joshi, a College junior from Japan, who said that the undercooked rice and lack of fresh fish is disrespectful. She added that in Japan, sushi is regarded so highly that people sometimes take years of apprenticeship before learning how to appropriately serve it.
“When you’re cooking a country’s dish for other people, including ones who have never tried the original dish before, you’re also representing the meaning of the dish as well as its culture,” Joshi said. “So if people not from that heritage take food, modify it and serve it as ‘authentic,’ it is appropriative.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/the-food-fight-at-oberlin-college/421401/
I understand the grievance of crappy cafeteria food but to make it into a social justice issue? -_____- These kids really need to grow up if they expected authenticity in freaking Ohio.
= new reply since forum marked as read
That would make me a bad, bad person, now wouldn't it?
how much does Oberlin embarrass you? 
Per Wikipedia:
Corn, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, chili peppers, avocados, strawberries, peanuts, turkey, squash, pumpkins, pineapple, pecans, and chocolate are American. (Fun fact: most traditional Thanksgiving foods are native to the New World!)
Wheat, oats, peas, lentils, figs, lettuce, carrots, almonds, cucumber, and mustard are Middle Eastern.
Grape wine, asparagus, cauliflower, kale, chestnuts, beets, broccoli, and hops are European.
Chicken, pigs, rice, eggplant, citrus fruits, and peaches are Asian.
Cows are Indian or African.
Macadamia nuts are Australian.
Coffee is African.
I'd guess that almost everyone in the US eats foods from multiple origins every day. How boring food would be if we didn't!
Meanwhile, I want the Asian kids to accuse the African-American kids of cultural appropriation for cooking their native food in a non-traditional manner. 
