Asian cuisine presents boundless opportunities for bold and exotic menu development.  Asian cuisine includes Chinese and Japanese and increasingly Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and Malaysian.  Based on MenuMine research of over 500 chain and independent menus, Asian cuisine presents unique opportunities.  

1. Asian meal components yield favorable menu costs.  Expensive proteins are often a smaller proportion of menu items, in keeping with the culture of Asian countries.  Indeed, 20% of the items are without any protein.  And cost efficient Chicken is the leading meat.

2. While Asian Menu Items and Asian Veggies may sound exotic and mysterious there are also many vegetables familiar to everyone.  Rice and Noodles, the leading carbs, are also already widely used. 

3. What often makes a menu item Asian is the cooking method and relatively inexpensive Seasonings, Spices and Herbs.  Moreover, these ingredients are becoming widely available are easily used with mixes, marinades, sauces and bases.

Asian Cuisine On Chain Menus Is Emerging

Compared to Italian and Mexican cuisines, the number of Asian dishes is still relatively small.  Slightly over one third (36%) of top chains have any Asian Cuisine on the menu.  And of these, 70% have less than three Asian menu items.  Some 37 top chains list one Asian menu item, 28 have two Asian items, 14 chains have three. There are 46 chains that menu between 4 and 10 Asian menu items and nine non-Asian Chains  with ten or more items each.  Listed below are Asian menu items from leading chains: 

Chinese And Japanese Cuisines Dominate

Of the 1150 Asian Menu Items on Chain Menus, Chinese (53%) and Japanese (30%) cuisines dominate, followed by Thai (9%).  Some 4% of Menu Items are called “Asian”.   Indian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Mongolian and other Asian cuisines are quite limited on chain menus with 1% or less menu incidence. 

* Chinese includes Cantonese with its Fried Rice, and Meat Roasting and Grilling, Peking (including Peking Duck), Honan with its emphasis on Sweet and Sour, and Szechuan-Hunan, known for its hot and spicy dishes. 

Prepared Entrees Are Most Common

In terms of Menu Item Types, Asian Cuisine menu items are served primarily as Prepared Entrees, (60%), Appetizers, (17%), Salads, (12%). Chains devote only 5% of Asian menu items to Sandwiches.  Side Items and Soups make up the remainder. 

% of Menu Item Types, by Cuisine, on Chain Menus

* Listed on menus as Asian 

The breakdown of Menu Parts is comparable between chains and cutting edge independents, except there are not any Asian sandwiches on cutting edge menus as well as considerably more Asian soups.     

Menu Part Distribution, Asian Menu Items, Chains vs. Cutting Edge Independents 

Familiar Cooking Methods

Chicken Is The Leading Protein

Chicken and Seafood are the leaders in Asian cuisine, way ahead of other proteins.  The leading seafood is shrimp ( 54%).  Beef and pork are relatively expensive and Seafood is a larger part of diets because of availability.  Prohibitions against red meats also exist in some Asian cultures. 

Share of Asian Menu Items By Protein Type

 * turkey, duck, lamb, game meats/poultry

Vegetables, Fruits and Carbs

Everyday vegetables and fruits like carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, peas, celery, peppers, spinach, zucchini, garlic cucumbers, eggplant, avocado, asparagus, string beans, soybeans, cauliflower, lettuce, pineapple, raisins, plums and citrus of all kinds are combined with “Chinese/Oriental Vegetables” like Snow Peas, Bean Sprouts, Bamboo Shoots, Nori (seaweed), Bok Choy, Water chestnuts, Taro root, Chinese cabbage, Chinese beans, Coconut and Coconut milk, Mangoes, Mandarin oranges Tamarind, Coriander, and Oriental chiles. 

Carbs are used with about half of Asian Menu Items.  Rice, in its many varieties ranging from Basmati and Jasmine to fried and steamed rice, accounts for 54% of all carbs.  Noodles, including Rice Noodles, Crispy Noodles, account for 32%.  The balance is bean curd (tofu), potatoes, pasta, dumplings, various beans, baby corn, lentils, among others. 

Flavor Enhancers Add Authenticity

Spices, herbs and seasonings in sauces, curries, marinades and other flavor enhancers make each Asian Cuisine unique.  For example, Hoisin sauce in Chinese dishes is a combination of soybeans, garlic, chile peppers and Chinese spices.  Soy sauce is the result of fermenting soybeans with roasted wheat and barley.   

Ginger, Mint, Cilantro (Coriander leaves and seeds) and Peppercorns are essential across virtually all Asian cuisines. Rice, of course, is also the basis for ingredient staples like Rice Wine and Rice Vinegar.  Lemon Grass, Peanuts, fermenting fish lead to the sauces particularly common in Thai and Vietnamese cooking.   

Popular Asian Sauces

Sweet and Sour, Plum, Ponzu (Japanese made with lemon juice), Peanut sauce, Ginger Mustard, Mango Chutney, and Wasabi (Japanese paste).  Teriyaki (Soy sauce, ginger and other seasonings) is a leading Japanese marinade, sauce and glaze as is Pineapple/Soy/Ginger Marinade.  

SUMMARY

Asian Cuisines are clearly an emerging opportunity.   The secret for foodservice operators is to combine the familiar with the authentic at relatively low cost in order to give  patrons an unlimited variety of interesting, bold Asian based flavors.