Fusion at Home

[BadRabbit]

I know that fusion has been discussed on this board many times but it occurred to me that the time scale on the fusion of cuisines has diminished rapidly and no longer needs colonization, migration, or cultural assimilation in order to occur. Everyone on this board has at least some knowledge of multiple cuisines and likely has ingredients from all over the world in their fridge or pantry. We often don’t even realize how much we’ve assimilated into our everyday cooking that would have been completely unheard of in our respective region 50 years ago.

Often this blend of techniques and/or ingredients produces something new and fulfilling but occasionally I find that I’ve achieved something with no identity. My wife thinks I’m crazy and usually raves about the dishes in question but for me they make me feel “fake” as though I’m some guy with vague knowledge of foreign cuisines that has made something that is somehow unnatural.

I find this seems to happen to me most often when cooking Asian dishes (though it occasionally happens with Euro cuisine as well). I may start off to make a simple Chinese noodle dish that by the end has acquired wasabi, galangal, lemongrass and 5 other ingredients from my Asian pantry/ fridge shelves that might or might not belong in the original Chinese dish. I end up with an obviously Asian dish but one that has a muddled cultural makeup.

Since these dishes are often delicious and I never present them as “authentic ________”, it’s not like I’m misrepresenting these dishes as anything other than what emerged from my kitchen.

Am I just thinking about this too much? If it tastes good, should I just tell my inner food pedant to shut up?

[judiu]

Yes and yes. If it tastes good to you and yours, the hell with 'authentic'! That's what tweeking is all about, personal touches.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Am I just thinking about this too much? If it tastes good, should I just tell my inner food pedant to shut up?

Ummm, yeah? Food is (or at least should be) all about personal enjoyment, especially dishes you cook yourself! Who gives a fig if it's "authentic" - particularly if you're not trying to pass it off as such?

[Alcuin]

Fusion happens. If you look at Ah Leung's excellent Chinese Food Pictorials on this forum, you'll find a chicken stirfried with black beans and lemongrass, and another chicken dish with butter. These are both Chinese style dishes, using non-Chinese ingredients. I've made Caesar dressing with fish sauce in it and a braised chicken dish using Japanese ingredients but structured like a Mexican Caldo (a Momofuku dish I think). They're both good. I say, why keep your ingredients in separate corners like rowdy hooligans spoiling for a fight when they can get along swimmingly? The path to deliciousness is paved with good intentions.

[BadRabbit]

Am I just thinking about this too much? If it tastes good, should I just tell my inner food pedant to shut up?

Ummm, yeah? Food is (or at least should be) all about personal enjoyment, especially dishes you cook yourself! Who gives a fig if it's "authentic" - particularly if you're not trying to pass it off as such?

The authentic thing was not really what I was driving at. I regularly change classic dishes and blend cuisines. I guess the point I'm getting at is occasionally I think I blend things to the point where the roots are indiscernable and that's when it starts to make me feel like the sum is not greater than its parts (or at least that I've lost something important within the dish).

Edited February 23, 2012 by BadRabbit (log)

[thirtyoneknots]

Am I just thinking about this too much? If it tastes good, should I just tell my inner food pedant to shut up?

Ummm, yeah? Food is (or at least should be) all about personal enjoyment, especially dishes you cook yourself! Who gives a fig if it's "authentic" - particularly if you're not trying to pass it off as such?

The authentic thing was not really what I was driving at. I regularly change classic dishes and blend cuisines. I guess the point I'm getting at is occasionally I think I blend things to the point where the roots are indiscernable and that's when it starts to make me feel like the sum is not greater than its parts (or at least that I've lost something important within the dish).

But consider all the great cuisines that are themselves fusion, even if we don't think of them as such. Mexican cuisine is a fusion of Aztec and other indigenous peoples with Spanish influence, which is itself an amalgam of European and Arab foods. And Louisiana's cuisine, fusion of Creoles (itself a complicated group), Acadians, African slaves, and US Southerners all bringing their own native foods to the table. China and France, home to two of the most revered cuisines in the world, also rank among the most invaded places on their respective continents, by peoples with varying culinary traditions.

There is a lot of skepticism surrounding "fusion" and a lot of that skepticism is merited. But ya know, at one time tomatoes on pasta was "fusion" and now it's hard to imagine a world without it. It's how cuisine happens.

So go with it!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Am I just thinking about this too much? If it tastes good, should I just tell my inner food pedant to shut up?

Ummm, yeah? Food is (or at least should be) all about personal enjoyment, especially dishes you cook yourself! Who gives a fig if it's "authentic" - particularly if you're not trying to pass it off as such?

The authentic thing was not really what I was driving at. I regularly change classic dishes and blend cuisines. I guess the point I'm getting at is occasionally I think I blend things to the point where the roots are indiscernable and that's when it starts to make me feel like the sum is not greater than its parts (or at least that I've lost something important within the dish).

See, and that is actually what I was talking about in the first place - if it tastes good (as both you and your wife say it does) then does it really matter that the roots of the dish are no longer discernable? I'd say no, it doesn't, but it sounds like you hit a point where you feel uneasy about the blending.

[Mjx]

Maybe it's more a planning issue? It sounds (and I may be misunderstanding) like things have reached the point of being combined a bit haphazardly, because they're there/you're used to them. Maybe just a little pruning is in order.

[BadRabbit]

Maybe it's more a planning issue? It sounds (and I may be misunderstanding) like things have reached the point of being combined a bit haphazardly, because they're there/you're used to them. Maybe just a little pruning is in order.

Maybe that's it. It could be that I just feel like I didn't end up where I originally wanted to be and that's really what's really bugging me.

I feel like I plan well (at least I prep and organize my kitchen well) but I also improvise a lot as I cook and sometimes I veer pretty far off of my original plan once I get to tasting the dish.

Edited February 23, 2012 by BadRabbit (log)