This Toronto Restaurant's Menu Has Gone Viral for Being Allegedly Racist The internet is going crazy over this photo of a Toronto Koreatown restaurant’s menu that some are calling racist against white people. The menu presents customers with differing levels of spiciness for their food, with the hottest being extra spicy and the mildest being white. Since being posted to Reddit by user peternok yesterday, the photo has already been upvoted almost 8,000 times.
The post has elicited a number of reactions from the internet jury. Some claim that it's offensive, and that the restaurant is perpetuating the old stereotype that white people can’t handle spicy, ethnic food. People shared other anecdotes of being stereotyped because of their “whiteness” at other restaurants serving spicy cuisine.
Others seemed to be completely okay with the stereotype, because, well some of us just can’t handle spicy food!
And finally there was a group that gave the most rational explanation for the menu’s “white option”: apparently the Korean translation refers to the absence of peppers and the colour of the broth. No peppers + no colour = white broth, which makes complete sense to us.
One user, beaverji, used the comparison of seeing pizza blanco (white) or rosso (red) on a menu at an Italian restaurant—which merely refers to the presence or absence of certain ingredients. They argued that it wouldn’t incite such an uproar, but “since (this particular scenario is) Asian and ‘ooo uncommon’” perhaps everyone needed a reminder.
For the record, the restaurant is Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu up in the Koreatown area of Bloor Street in Toronto, and it’s absolutely delicious and one of the best meals you can get for less than $10 in the city.
