Vocabulary in Context

Use the context and clues in the reading to explain the following vocabulary items.

Alex and Miguel Chang were managers of their father's chain of Chinese restaurants when they decided to open Zen, Madrid's first Asian fusion restaurant. The Chang brothers had an entrepreneurial role model in their father, restaurateur and businessman Hsin-Chun Chang. Born in southeastern China, Mr. Chang, Sr. immigrated to Spain with his family in the 1970s. He opened his first restaurant, La Gran Muralla ("The Great Wall"), in 1979. He now has seven restaurants in Spain and one in Portugal, in addition to a number of photo developing and dry cleaning shops.

1		chain of restaurants
2		role model

Chang Sr.'s restaurants flourished at a time when Chinese food was the cheap, popular alternative to the Spanish family lunch. However, by the end of the 1990s, the business started to decline as Chinese food was replaced as the affordable lunch of choice by fast food such as Burger King, McDonalds, or TelePizza.

3		flourish
4		decline

In Chang Sr.'s Chinese restaurants, La Gran Muralla, the food is altered for Spanish tastes. It is less spicy than traditional Chinese food and uses Spanish ingredients often not found in Chinese food in other countries. "Our advantage is that we've worked for years trying to adapt food to the Spanish palate," says Miguel. "We are bicultural. We mentally understand Spaniards because we grew up here, yet at the same time we have the authenticity of being from Asia and understanding Asian cuisine. We're not just another Spanish knock-off."

5		alter
6		palate
7		bicultural
8		knock-off

"Opening Zen was a logical next step," said Alex. "In the U.S., pan-Asian restaurants and Asian fusion cuisine have been popular for a long time, but in Spain, restaurants were usually only Chinese, only Japanese, only Thai." The Zen restaurants serve a mix of Japanese, Chinese, and Thai dishes.

9		pan-Asian

Meanwhile, other Asian entrepreneurs are following the trendsetters with their own pan-Asian restaurants which are popping up around Madrid in record numbers.

10		trendsetter
11		popping up