Madagascar Fine Dining: What affects the diversity of cuisines?

[fondue]

  The country just celebrated its 59th birthday; there are many grandparents around who remember being colonized by France. As such, there are many, many opportunities to try high French cuisine.

  What surprises me is the variety of alternative cuisines: Lebanese, Pakistani, northeastern and Szechuan Chinese, and lots of Italian.

  Here's something else curious: Many styles are missing. Not one Ethiopian or Eritrean restaurant in a city of three million people. No Cambodian or Russian, no Mexican or Uzbek are available either.  Perhaps as the middle class enlarges, and the continuity of a stable government continues, these will come.....

  Any thoughts about what makes a place hospitable for a new type of cuisine?

Edited July 6, 2019 by Smithy
Adjusted title for clarity (log)

[Kerry Beal]

9 hours ago, fondue said:

  The country just celebrated its 59th birthday; there are many grandparents around who remember being colonized by France. As such, there are many, many opportunities to try high French cuisine.

  What surprises me is the variety of alternative cuisines: Lebanese, Pakistani, northeastern and Szechuan Chinese, and lots of Italian.

  Here's something else curious: Many styles are missing. Not one Ethiopian or Eritrean restaurant in a city of three million people. No Cambodian or Russian, no Mexican or Uzbek are available either.  Perhaps as the middle class enlarges, and the continuity of a stable government continues, these will come.....

  Any thoughts about what makes a place hospitable for a new type of cuisine?

 

Hmmm - I'd say immigration of the peoples who's cuisine it is. Every group brings it's own cuisine - then adapts it to the foods that are available. That's my two cents on it.

 

[teonzo]

Much has to do about the tolerance by the "natives".

Italian people are very conservative and traditionalist, more often than not bordering on racism. There are millions of African immigrants here, yet it's almost impossible to find an African restaurant. At least I don't know any around here, I only heard about a handful in Milan and Rome. There's a huge barrier between Italians and African immigrants, almost no dialogue between the two groups, this is natives' fault. If an immigrant wants to open a restaurant then he/she is forced to face lots of mazes about bureaucracy, it's pure hell for them especially if they still don't have Italian citizenship. Plus they face lots of detachment by Italian craftmen: to open a restaurant someone needs a plumber, an electrician and so on. When an Italian craftman is called by an immigrant, most often than not he will refuse the job.

The only ethnic restaurants with some presence here are the low level pseudo Chinese and pseudo Japanese restaurants (think all-you-can-eat "sushi" for 10 euro). Which is really sad.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[pastrygirl]

proof that everyone loves Italian food

[kayb]

Fascinates me that you can read the history of an area by the foodstuffs offered. In the Mississippi Delta, particularly along the river itself, one finds lots of Lebanese food, a legacy from Lebanese immigrants who worked on riverboats and railroads. Back in the 70s, there was a big influx of Vietnamese refugees into Memphis, and today there's a wonderful selection of Vietnamese restaurants. After the 1927 flood and the ensuing African-American exodus, a lot of Italians moved to the area as farm labor, thus there are many Italian restaurants up and down the Delta. Every small railroad town has its Chinese restaurant and grocery, a legacy of Chinese peasants who labored on the railroads.

 

Wish we had had more Germans in the area. There's a dearth of German restaurants in the Delta.

 

 

 

[fondue]

 Last night I found on-line a menu item at local hotel cafe called the Tandoori Pizza. It has tandoori chicken and pineapple.

  It got me thinking about the Desi diaspora here: Contract laborers from India were hired and brought to Madagascar seven generations or so ago. There are Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. So for a Malagasy person, this would be normal pizza fusion (maybe not for the vegetarian Hindu).

  Ditto the popularity and ubiquity of Chinese restaurants: Contract laborers transported from one part of the Empire to another, and not returned at the end of service. Now with the expansion and economic investment of China into Madagascar, a new wave of first-generation restaurants have opened up.

  Pizza, hamburgers, and fried chicken seem to be the unholy trio of "Western fast food ".  Available everywhere here in the Capitol.  Not a single restaurant lacks the trinity. Dunno if it's because so many tourists are unadventurous about food or because they're easy to produce.....but locals like them too.