Being open to 'ethnic' food does not mean eating pizza and Tom Yam soup on the
same night. It means eating 'Mixed Intestines in Mandarin Sauce' (really
good). For the most part westerners eat a pale imitation of the real thing and
which is virtually unrecognisable to that community. (Lemon Chicken? Chicken
Tikka Marsala?)
Thai is the most recent cuisine (I think) to get the western makeover. Pizza
has become a culinary dustbin although a good one is great (and here the
Chinese love it). A hamburger can be a wonderful thing if done properly, but it
isn't in a fast food joint (which is not a restaurant'). I can get a curry
quite close to here but it is a vapid occidentalised version of Indian food - I
have to go to the Indian community centre to get a choice between proper North
Indian, South Indian, Sri Lankan and Hindu Vegetarian restaurants. (and Afghan
and Somali and Nepali and…). The local 'Mumbai' restaurant doesn't have a
single Bombay dish on the menu (i.e.a Dhansak of which I am very fond) and
fakes up Tandoori dishes as it doesn't have a tandoor. At least in the UK the
Indo/Pak community has been around long enough to fix that - although I'll not
thank you for the abomination that is Chai Latte.
Fortunately, Australia (contrary to commonly held understandings) is the most
multi-ethnic country on the planet. At least i can get a decent feed if I know
where to go. And someone is always happy to tell me where to go..
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.soultheft.com
Author/Publisher:
The SLR Compendium:
revised edition -
http://blur.by/19Hb8or
The TLR Compendium
http://blur.by/1eDpqN7
On 20/11/2013, at 2:55 AM, Ken Norton wrote:
> American cuisine is, for the most part, a homogenized blend of global
> foods. La Choy makes Chinese food swing American. Since WW2, we've
> become a nation of pizza. There are still great differences in foods
> from one region to another. For a person, like me, who has travelled
> extensively (all but 4 states), seeing the familiar yellow "M" is a
> life saver when you aren't overly sure if you stomach is up to the
> task of eating the local fare. This was especially true for us in
> Ireland, which tends to not to be exactly gastronomically pleasing or
> exciting from one eatery to the next.
>
> However, in defence to our gastronimically impoverished nature, one
> must consider that we Americans tend to be open to eating a far
> greater range of ethnic foods than anywhere else in the world. Proof
> of this was just this Sunday evening at our church, were we almost
> always make it a point to have international foods. (We've got a stash
> of hot dogs in the freezer just in case the kids threaten a hunger
> strike). This past one saw foods from every continent. And they all
> were not only very good but authentic. (I did both Thailand and
> Italy--talk about fusion).
--
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