Fusion food vs Authentic food
Being a food artisan, especially some particular cuisines, people ask me if that food that is about be in their mouthes are authentic. I am always hesitate to answer the question. First of all, I might be wrong. Second of all, I might not know. Last, let’s just have dinner without having so much questions. Ok. Here are the answers that you wish. If you are eating Japanese food and if you see Avocado on it or in it, the answer is probably “no”. Also, if you see low-sodium soy sauce ONLY at a restaurant, the answer is “No”.
I like many places which offer fusion food and Cali-fusion into Japanese food has been my favorite food and nothing wrong with fusion.
Authentic Japanese food, which has so many things to talk and discuss about, has 5 major seasonings aka “Sa shi su se so” which include sugar, salt, vinegar, soy sauce, and miso paste. I need to add “dashi” to the list. Dashi is any kind of broth from either fish flake, meat, bone, kombu seaweed or mushroom.
Compare to other asian cuisines, you find the seasoning list very short. Japanese cuisine respects the beauty of simplicity. Does simplicity means less variety? No. Japanese food especially in 21st century are very diverse. Japanese food nowadays is like fusion cuisine itself already. Chinese, Korean, Thai, Italian or American food are mixed into Japanese food culture and it is almost impossible to recognize the influence. For example, Japanese eat so much potato salad with Mayo in it. Of course it is with Japanese Mayo (Japannaise), but obviously it is from German or England food.
Good fusion food is good. Bad authentic food is bad. We cannot scale goodness of food by authenticity of food only.
Japanese food I cook is probably some sort fusion and also very authentic at that same time.
I was at Anthony Bourdain’s show and he told that the best cuisine on the planet is Tokyo cuisine. He surely got standing ovation from me in the middle of his show.
I am excited to talk about Tokyo cuisine, Japanese 21st century homemade food and bento box here.
