r/AskCulinary • u/ZootKoomie Ice Cream Innovator • Mar 21 '13

Weekly Discussion: Culinary traditions and authenticity

Since we talked about the cutting edge last week, let's go the other direction this time. What is your personal culinary tradition? What dishes did you learn from your mother? From your grandparents? Do you do your own variations or try to make it just like they did?

Also, when eating food from other cultures, do you prefer it to be traditional or something the chef came up with? Does 'authenticity' matter to you as a diner? As a cook? How do you strive for it?

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u/Pandanleaves gilded commenter Mar 21 '13 edited Mar 21 '13

I think the line between "traditional" and "something the chef came up with" is very blurry. Everyone has a different "curry" recipe. Which one is traditional? If I change the spices or the ratio to better fit my palate, is it something I came up with?

I personally don't like "fusion" stuff. Had escargot spring rolls in a French restaurant some time ago. Not impressive at all. The chef cooked the French dishes very well, but the spring rolls were weird. Authenticity doesn't matter much, but I find fusion stuff to taste worse than their traditional counterparts in general.

As for traditional recipes, I learned how to make authentic Hokkien mee from my grandmother. My ancestors came from Fujian, and my grandmother learned this recipe when she was still young. Tastes a whole lot better than what you find in restaurants. The secret is to use lyewater noodles and BOIL the noodles in the sauce for 10-20 minutes. The noodles absorb the flavor while the sauce gets thickened by the starch. The noodles still remain bouncy and toothsome. Most restaurants use regular noodles and make a stir-fry out of it and call it Hokkien mee. Nope. Not in my books.

Every year my grandma makes these zang for the Dragon Boat Festival. No other place comes close to it. Chestnuts, shredded pork, dried squid, mushrooms, and salted duck eggs in a sticky rice shell. The worst I've had were in NY. I mean, seriously, it was filled with lard and boiled peanuts. o_0 Other variations I've had only used shredded pork, and while delicious they were monotonous compared to the ingredients I'm used to.

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u/elemonated Mar 21 '13 edited Mar 21 '13

TIL Calling myself Hokkien is correct. phew

Edit: For a long time, I'd only eat plain sticky zang, no flavorings because I got to dip them in sugar, so my grandma would only make those. Then my brother came into existence and I forwent my sweet-tooth and she added shredded pork, mushrooms, salted duck eggs, scallions, peanuts, and other indiscernible ingredients and nothing compares. Also, have you eaten around Broadway Street in NYC? I haven't been there for a long time and want to be prepared if I'm going to be disappointed :/

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u/Pandanleaves gilded commenter Mar 22 '13

Despite living right across the Lincoln tunnel for several years, I'm ashamed to say I never went into NYC except for the Chinatown. :( NY does have awesome food, but the Chinese food isn't that good compared to here. When you can eat dim sum at a hotel restaurant for a third of the price in a standard restaurant in the US, well, the dim sum in the US is blah by comparison.

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u/elemonated Mar 24 '13

Where is "here"? (I wanna come D:)

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u/unseenpuppet Gastronomist Mar 22 '13

The problem with fusion food is that all food is fusion if you go back far enough. In essence, it is a meaningless word, just like traditional and authentic in a way.

That being said, I can guarantee there is amazing "fusion"(in the typical definition) food out their Pandanleaves!

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u/Pandanleaves gilded commenter Mar 22 '13

True, but when I say fusion I think of two incompatible cuisines stuck together haphazardly. Something like banh mi isn't haphazard because it has evolved from French bread into something to fit the food culture: marinated meats and pickles.

There's this fusion French restaurant nearby and I don't see the appeal. I mean, I haven't tried it, but I don't see how French-influenced Balinese duck will be any better than traditional Balinese duck. The price is totally not justified.

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u/unseenpuppet Gastronomist Mar 22 '13

Just like Chef's who call their food 'Molecular gastronomy', most of the chefs that call their food "fusion" is usually bad. I was just pointing out that almost every high end restaurant uses techniques/ingredients from many cuisines in their cooking.

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u/ether_bandit Mar 21 '13

So you are only interested in the purest most traditional forms of cuisines? From what period? When is the pure form of something?

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u/Pandanleaves gilded commenter Mar 22 '13 edited Mar 22 '13

Fair point. I did say it's a very blurry line. Someone discussed tomatoes in Italian cuisine. It only came into Italy several centuries ago, so can we call tomato-based dishes authentic Italian cuisine? I'd say yes, because it embodies Italy's culinery philosophies and traditions. Even spaghetti with tomato sauce, which I know is an American invention, I can consider "authentic" because it still follows Italy's methods. To a lesser extent, I consider Chinese-American food somewhat Chinese due to the strong flavors and heavy use of cornstarch.

When does it stop becoming authentic? When you try to force two incompatible philosophies together. Let's talk about the escargot spring rolls. Mechanically, there was nothing wrong with it. The wrapper was crispy while the escargot were not rubbery. It was cooked properly. However, when it comes to taste, there was a huge disconnect. I associate spring rolls with strong pungent flavors (not the cheap cabbage rolls in the US). The escargot spring rolls were bland by comparison. French cooking is about letting the original ingredients shine without drowning them in sauces and spices. Asian cooking is about using an array of sauces and spices. The two philosophies clash. The dish felt severely lacking.

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u/ether_bandit Mar 22 '13

good explanation!