The Off Topic Topic

[Barrister]

Chinese curry isn't anywhere near as good as Japanese... But I still end up getting it once or twice a month as Chinese takeaways are so omnipresent.

oh no

This is exactly the comment that caused the last online flair of British-American shit-talking about food as Americans were shocked to discover that British-Chinese takeaways serve different food than Chinese-American takeaways

Ahem as a Canadian in that fight I'm insulted

We have a handful of Canadian-Chinese dishes though!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Chinese_cuisine

I haven't heard of some of those on the list that are more local to other parts of Canada, but I certainly know ginger beef, green onion cakes and sweet-and-sour chicken balls.

[HVC]

Chinese curry isn't anywhere near as good as Japanese... But I still end up getting it once or twice a month as Chinese takeaways are so omnipresent.

oh no

This is exactly the comment that caused the last online flair of British-American shit-talking about food as Americans were shocked to discover that British-Chinese takeaways serve different food than Chinese-American takeaways

Ahem as a Canadian in that fight I'm insulted

We have a handful of Canadian-Chinese dishes though!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Chinese_cuisine

I haven't heard of some of those on the list that are more local to other parts of Canada, but I certainly know ginger beef, green onion cakes and sweet-and-sour chicken balls.

Are Sweet and sour chicken balls not a thing in the states too? Least Chinese Chinese food (perhaps second the English Chinese curry ), but still so ubiquitous and good in a strange way.

[Barrister]

Chinese curry isn't anywhere near as good as Japanese... But I still end up getting it once or twice a month as Chinese takeaways are so omnipresent.

oh no

This is exactly the comment that caused the last online flair of British-American shit-talking about food as Americans were shocked to discover that British-Chinese takeaways serve different food than Chinese-American takeaways

Ahem as a Canadian in that fight I'm insulted

We have a handful of Canadian-Chinese dishes though!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Chinese_cuisine

I haven't heard of some of those on the list that are more local to other parts of Canada, but I certainly know ginger beef, green onion cakes and sweet-and-sour chicken balls.

Are Sweet and sour chicken balls not a thing in the states too? Least Chinese Chinese food (perhaps second the English Chinese curry ), but still so ubiquitous and good in a strange way.

Umm - I just doube checked - I can get chicken with curry sauce, and beef with curry sauce, at my local chinese takeout place.

[HVC]

Are they sloped on top of french fries 

[Sheilbh]

Any chippy in the UK will do chips and curry sauce.

But from a Chinese takeaway it's normally that you can order a portion of chips like you order rice and then pour whatever you want on top of them (like rice - back to the base layer of starch ).

[Josquius]

Chicken curry.
Fried rice.
Chips.
This is the standard.

The fried noodle dishes are decent too, but much less filling, and they make me crave the authentic versions of this I had in Japan.


On starches.... A weird thing I noticed east Asians do is have the question of rice or bread. We just don't think of those two things as a choice at all. They're completely seperate.

[Sheilbh]

I've had the best starch conversation (potatoes, pasta and noodles, bread or rice) many times

[HVC]

I've had the best starch conversation (potatoes, pasta and noodles, bread or rice) many times

Answers change for me depending on whether it's a main, side, and whether you count a sandwhich as a full meal or snack.

[Barrister]

I've had the best starch conversation (potatoes, pasta and noodles, bread or rice) many times

Oof - it's like choosing between my children...

[HVC]

Separate question all that's has me thinking. When does cuisine become part of a culture. Like sushi has been in the states since the beginning of the 1900's. Over a hundred years. And popular since the 60s, but no one would call sushi an American cuisine, I don't think. Indian has been part of English cuisine probably a century longer, but the popular food then isn't popular now. The stuff eaten now has around has a similar timeline to sushi in the states, so is it consider English food, or still a separate thing?

[Barrister]

Separate question all that's has me thinking. When does cuisine become part of a culture. Like sushi has been in the states since the beginning of the 1900's. Over a hundred years. And popular since the 60s, but no one would call sushi an American cuisine, I don't think. Indian has been part of English cuisine probably a century longer, but the popular food then isn't popular now. The stuff eaten now has around has a similar timeline to sushi in the states, so is it consider English food, or still a separate thing?

Think back further - potatoes are considered essential to irish cooking, as is tomatoes to Italian.

Both are native to the Americas and were unknown in pre-colombian times.

[HVC]

Separate question all that's has me thinking. When does cuisine become part of a culture. Like sushi has been in the states since the beginning of the 1900's. Over a hundred years. And popular since the 60s, but no one would call sushi an American cuisine, I don't think. Indian has been part of English cuisine probably a century longer, but the popular food then isn't popular now. The stuff eaten now has around has a similar timeline to sushi in the states, so is it consider English food, or still a separate thing?

Think back further - potatoes are considered essential to irish cooking, as is tomatoes to Italian.

Both are native to the Americas and were unknown in pre-colombian times.

I give 400 a year gimme . Spicy Asian food is thanks to the portuguese, for example.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah - I mean what's chicken alfredo, or California rolls, or chicken tikka masala (the latter two having made the transfer to Japan and India respectively)?

The way I'd see it is that hybridity and assimilation are part of immigrant/diaspora food all over the world - and there are plenty of people in America annd Britain who are not white making American and British food that reflects that. A lot of that food is "inauthentic" precisely because it's the culinary expression of immigration and assimilation - and it's great (as long as its tasty).

I think Americans online can sometimes be a bit weirdly blood and soil about other identities, when in reality hybrid foods are the norm.

And BBoys point is right - not only tomato and potato, but until 1492 Chinese or Indian or Thai food didn't have chillies.

And as the world globalises new connections are made in different places. Just down the road from me there's a Colombian-Filipino place that's opened up which broadly isn't doing "fusion" (though there's one or two dishes like that) but different strands of the same menu. What that draws out is the way they rhyme, the differences and the similarities: cross-Pacific trade and migration, Spanish colonialism etc. Down to modern echoes - they do anime movie "eat-a-longs" because both chefs love anime, but also they're hugely popular in the Philippines and Colombia.

[HVC]

I have no problem with inauthentic food. Some of the best foods are inauthentic. They're purposely formulated to meet local tastes, and do so very effectively.

I sometimes give British food a hard time, because a) it's fun, and b) their propensity to remove at least 50% of the flavour (and then put it on top of fries ). What's the old joke, "the British went around conquering the world in search of spices and then refused to use any of them in their cooking" (or something along those lines)

[HVC]

And even authentic food isn't authentic. Go back 100 years, and often less, and recipes and ingredients are different. "Traditionalists" are misguided. I'm looking at you Italians.