Fusion
I was doing my morning surf just a few minutes ago, and I really enjoyed this New York Times article about a new breed of Asian fusion cuisine: hyphenated Chinese.
It’s kind of funny; I’ve had Chinese food in just about every country I’ve ever visited. After a week or so of eating local cuisine a lot of times I just get in the mood for a change, and Chinese suits. These places all seem to have a local spin on Chinese food, probably to appease the local palate. For example, the egg rolls at a Chinese restaurant in Portugal tasted strongly of olive oil. This article, though, talks about actual purposeful cross-overs, like Chinese-East Indian, Chinese-Jamaican, and Chinese-Peruvian.
It makes sense, really. The Chinese have been some of the most successful immigrants in history. Just about every democracy has a thriving Chinese immigrant population, some of which have been established for many generations. It’s easy to see how a kid born in Peru to Chinese parents would pick up tastes and eating habits from both cultures.
The most interesting random fact I learned from the article: Naomi Campbell’s father is Chinese-Jamaican.
The second most interesting fact I learned from the article: many scholars believe that the origin of ketchup is the “intense Chinese sauce” ke-tsiap. It seems to have mellowed considerably across the continents.
Do you ever get to Minneapolis? It’s a wonder Rachel’s never told you about Chino Latino. In addition to being a really cool place to hang out (it’s gotta be about as trendy as MN gets), they have a list of tequilas at the bar that’s as long as your arm. Food’s good, too. I suspect you’d get a particular kick out of the desserts on offer.
I actually went to Chino Latino with Rachel when I visited her there a few years back. It was really fun. I liked the exciting, multicolored cocktails.
Mark Kurlansky’s book Salt: a World History has some background on ketchup as well; basically, he claims that ketchup and soy sauce have a common ancestor, along with any number of other sauces all over the world (like nuoc mam).
He pegs the source as an Indonesian fish sauce called “kecap ikan”. English ketchup was originally a related fish sauce (anchovy!) until tomato was tried as a replacement ingredient and totally took over the mindshare (which is what happened to italian sauces, too). I’ve no idea how accurate Kurlansky’s sourcing is compared to other origin stories, but it’s certainly interesting.
…and after a short break for research, here’s a Wikipedia article tying together the Chinese and Indonesian origin stories.
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