What if I were to give you the choice between having a Curry or a Chinese?
Finding the decision hard?
With the innovative ways in which fusion cuisine is constantly developing there is now a dish called Indo-Chinese. This is a combination from everything that is good with Indian and Chinese food, combined together to create something unusual but delicious. I was working at an event the other week where they were serving Indo-Chinese, personally I had never even thought of putting these 2 foods together but it worked! It got me thinking, where else can fusion cuisine take you?
Fusion cuisine blends the culinary traditions of two or more nations (WiseGEEK, no date: online). It’s been around for donkey’s years now but with the ease of travelling getting easier the more expansive our knowledge of food has become, and so fusion cuisine is constantly developing creating new exotic flavours. Without it our food would be extremely bland and what’s the fun in that. There’s no harm in trying something new.
Did you know?
- Worcestershire sauce, which is a very traditional British condiment, has tamarind in it – which is a very Middle Eastern and Asian ingredient
- With fusion cuisine, Thailand also wouldn’t have coriander, which is a Mediterranean herb.
- We have Peru to thank for the potato and India and China for their tea.
(Gordon,2007: Online)
Food that we would think as typically British couldn’t be further from the truth.
However, even though fusion cuisine is meant to combine the best flavours from every country, it seems it can be used as an excuse to mix anything and everything together. Reading an article from The Spinning Plate, the author talks about a recently opening restaurant serving “chicken drenched in sauces from all over the globe, kind of: Thai peanut, Italian Alfredo, Japanese teriyaki.” Obviously the restaurant hasn’t got to grasps with the technique of fusion cuisine and therefore is trying way too hard. (Mears,2010: Online)
This is the danger with this style of cooking; if the chef doesn’t understand what does and doesn’t work, they’ll interpret fusion cuisine as “putting everything together and someone will like it”. The whole point is to culture ourselves on a daily basis, constantly stimulating our taste buds with exotic flavours.
Fusion cuisine brings people from all around the world together, it involves everyone with their universal love of food. My personal opinion is that fusion cuisine will never go out of fashion; there will always be something new to try. Yes, sometimes, it may not work out but that’s how we learn and improve.
References
WiseGEEK. (no date) What is fusion cusine?[Online] [Accessed on 16/11/2012] http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-fusion-cuisine.htm
Gordon, P . (2007) Fusion food- what is it? [Online] [Accessed on 16/11/2012] http://www.peter-gordon.net/fusion/
Mears,A. (2010) Why fusion sucks. Thespinningplate. [Online] [Accessed on 16/11/2012]http://thespinningplate.com/2010/04/09/why-fusion-sucks-maybe-sometimes/
Event Operations in Context 