a short thought on fusion (in food, not nuclear physics)

[pantryslut]

I've been thinking about fusion cuisine again.

I've decided that, personally speaking, I don't like strict fusion within a dish. I am suspicious of crossbreeding cuisines. It seems for the most part fussy and show-off-ish, not my kind of food. (There are certainly exceptions, and I am speaking in serious generalization mode. Bear with me.)

But I'm pretty open to mixing and matching dishes from different traditions, it seems. I get the vague feeling that I do it all the time, without much thinking of it.

This week, I was contemplating curried potatoes paired with a saute of summer squash and bay leaf. (I got taken out to dinner instead, but this still could happen). Why does that sound so good? Why does that work (if it works), when putting the bay leaf in the curry would not? I don't know. But I want to eat it.

imnotandrei is alway praising my palate as that which makes my cooking so noteworthy. And he may be right, but it's such a subconscious, instinctual thing for me; I find it hard to rely on when thinking about things like this.

So, my foodie friends, give me examples of fusion cuisine that you think works well. Either matching dishes with each other, or within dishes. Tell me why it's fusion, and why it works. Cautionary examples of bad marriages also happily accepted.

P.S. tyrranio, it's OK to interrogate the very concept of fusion itself -- I wouldn't expect any less of you.

Comments

Carlos Murphy's

[manomano.livejournal.com]

An example of a bad idea. A restaurant chain that was big in California back in the late 1980s, early 1990s. There's still a few around. "Irish Mexican" which mean Mexican food, and alcohol. They've mostly been replaced by Chevy's restaurants, but a quick google search still reveals some around.

Re: Carlos Murphy's

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Weird. It's not like Mexico doesn't have its own beer legacy to fall back on or anything.

It's in the bite

[imnotandrei.livejournal.com]

Why does that work (if it works), when putting the bay leaf in the curry would not?

Because you think about the bite.

We've talked about this. It's OK to have two very different things upon the plate; so long as they work together as "adjacent" bites -- when they wouldn't work together if eaten at exactly the same time.

I think many people think in terms of "what ingredients go together" across an entire *meal*, or at least across an entire plate's worth of food -- "We can't have X with Y" when they'll never be eaten in close proximity, or the reverse: "What about X and Y together?" since they may work in the same meal, but not at the the same time.

You think about it bite-to-bite. That may be the difference.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I agree that The Philadelphia Roll is an abomination. Fishy-salt goes well with dairy, indeed with cream cheese. The problem is specific to the sushi rice (maybe because of the unique texture, maybe because of the vinegar and touch of sugar.) Bagel and lox with cream cheese, or omelet with smoked fish and cream cheese, can work very well, even though the omelet has no texture contrast.

In general, substituting one vegetable for another has a fair chance of working, even across cultures that have only recently discovered each others' vegetables. Jicama for turnip. Fiddlehead ferns in pasta primavera.

not really fusion...

[n-elisbeth.livejournal.com]

more like variations on an old New England dish.
I have started to experiment with bag pudding. It's like a corn bread, equal parts flour and corn meal. You put the batter into a square peice of cloth, tie securely with a string leaving room for the batter to expand then you boil it for an hour. The traditional way that my great grandma used to make it is to boil it with spring potatos and fresh dandilion greens. After boiling for about an hour the pudding is cooked and can be eaten as it is with butter or you can butter it add brown sugar and cream for desert. Very good. I am now beginning to experiement with boiling the pudding with fruit to make a compote or adding different spices to the pudding base such as cinnimon or cumin and boiling it with different veggies or greens. It sounds kind of grose to boil greens for an hour but it all tastes really good and is very easy to make. Yummy!