This is not meant to be a “how to” blog, so you will not see step-by-step instructions. What I mainly want to share are some observations that have been amazing me, and my reflections may help you to come up with creative cooking ideas along the way.
I have a passion to try different foods from everywhere, and so far I have certainly tasted cuisines from all continents except Antarctica (unless you count ice as “Antarctica cuisine”:P), and from countless cultures. While I have always wondered at the diversity of the human food scenes, at a higher level I realize there are only a few components that define different foods: ingredients, seasoning, cooking method, and serving/presentation. Of course, the combination of these components will produce myriad possibilities. Ingredients should be the most obvious component of food, and it should be self-evident that cuisines from different cultures feature different ingredients abundant in the physical environments where the cultures took roots. Coastal cultures boast of fresh seafood, whereas inland cultures enjoy various products from grazing animals. Many dishes are exotic not because of how the dish is prepared, but because the ingredients are rarely seen in our own culture. For example, for Americans growing up in the Midwestern region, grilled zucchini may be a familiar summer barbecue side dish, but grilled cassava seems exotic, because cassava usually grows in relatively warm climate, such as Africa and South America. Likewise, for Chinese people, dried grapes (i.e. raisins) as a confection are familiar since the northern and western part of China have been growing grapes for over two thousands of years. Dried cranberries are very exotic, because cranberries have never been introduced or cultivated in China. If you plan to bring some small gifts for your Chinese friends, packaged dried cranberries are a good choice (they are so cheap in the U.S., particularly Wisconsin, but they are so expensive in China)! Even with similar ingredients, different seasoning may produce different dishes. The use of different spices and herbs are partly driven by what is available in the environment, partly due to people’s tastes. I have talked about the story of spices in a separate blog, but here I want to add that other seasonings may lay the foundation of the “flavor” of a culture. Many Westerners recognize a Chinese dish from the flavor of soy sauce, or a Japanese dish from the flavor of miso. Both soy sauce and miso are fermented soybean products with long histories in Asian cuisines, but rarely used in Western cuisines. Likewise, many Chinese people recognize a “Western” food from the flavor of ketchup—while ketchup is not the only seasoning agent in Western cuisine, and different Western cuisines feature different seasoning (e.g. Cajun)—because ketchup is rarely used in traditional Chinese dishes and it was only introduced to Chinese culture in the second half of last century, mostly together with French fries of McDonald. Different Asian cuisines are also associated with different flavors, e.g. Korean Kimchee flavor, Thai Tom Yum flavor, Indian curry flavor, etc. Mixing ingredients you are familiar with some exotic flavor will likely bring you a brand-new dining experience. In terms of cooking method, personally this is the least variable component of food, with the exception of baking in the Western cultures versus steaming in the Eastern cultures, which I talked about in great detail in a separate blog. Other common methods of cooking can be found in just about any culture, with certain methods used more often in one culture than another. Recent years have seen the creation and popularity of “molecular food”, which involves applying methods used in physical chemistry labs to cooking food in non-traditional ways. The ingredients are usually familiar, and the flavorings are similar to what we would expect, but the cooking methods are so interesting that these molecular foods spark people’s interest and curiosity. Doubtlessly this can be a great success in creating new dishes, but my only complaint is the difficulty of replicating the dishes at home, without purchasing any fancy equipment or renovating my kitchen to be like a lab. It is my prediction that this new trend will continue to grow its popularity in restaurants around the world, but is unlikely to become a part of the food culture anywhere. Finally, many dishes are interesting because of how they are served or presented. Originally the serving or presentation of the food is not an important component of food. After all, food is for eating and not looking or holding. However, the consumer-oriented cultures worldwide have pushed for dishes that are convenient to eat and cute/appetizing to look at. The Japanese have excelled in this art. When I travelled in Japan, I could not help being attracted by so many cute-looking traditional pastries—some look like a koi-fish, some look like a doll, some look like Doraemon (a robot cat from a famous Japanese cartoon)……but let me tell you, they taste very similar, if not exactly the same. They are all made with a thin layer of pastry (in whatever shape) and stuffed with sweetened red bean paste. Nevertheless, they are all popular! Why? Because people like holding differently-shaped pastries and they look cute! People visiting Osaka like to get a Taiyaki (the red-bean paste-filled pastry shaped like a koi-fish, the symbolic fish on Osaka castle) so they feel like “I am in Osaka!” Don’t get me wrong—all the above-mentioned pastries are tasty so I do not mind eating them all:P They just taste very similar one from another. Similarly, on a recent trip to Montreal, I came across a hot-dog restaurant that serves typical Japanese food (e.g. eel, teriyaki beef, ramen) in hot dogs. The flavor of the hot dog “toppings” are exactly as what you would expect from a Japanese restaurant, except that instead of serving them on top of rice bowl or sushi (or on the side, in the case of ramen), they are served in hot dogs. I would not say they are unforgettably delicious food that you cannot miss, but they are certainly interesting food ideas that showcase how multicultural food cultures are embraced around the world. So if you want to have some fun in the kitchen or impress someone with your creativity, maybe try to vary one or two of the above components of food. I bet the possibilities are endless. If you ask me, “what type of cuisine is this? If I combine Hawaiian ingredients with Eastern African spices, what should I call that?” Well, does it matter to you? If so, call it whatever you want—you are the chef that created this unique union, after all.
0 Comments
|