I’m sure you meant ‘dessicated’, but ‘desecrated’ works too!
Seriously though, this whole thing is completely absurd. I can sort of get the idea of not calling something say… Vietnamese if it’s clearly not a Vietnamese dish. But where do you draw the line? Is it safe to say that Italo-American dishes are “Italian”, since they are adaptations of traditional Italian dishes to the ingredients available in the US? What about German Pilsners? They’re about as Czech as a Bud Light, but just happen to be more flavorful, so nobody gives them a hard time.
The culinary world is just one big seething pot of cultural appropriation, and always has been. Some of the best dishes in the world are the products of that sort of thing- much of the Creole and Cajun cuisines of Louisiana work that way, as do many iconic Texan dishes such as barbecued brisket and chicken fried steak. Or Chicken Tikka Masala, which was developed in Britain by an Indian cook using British ingredients.
That’s why it’s silly- these people sound like they’d get torqued out of shape because that Chicken Tikka Masala wasn’t really authentically Indian, even if it was excellent. Or get torqued about Chicken Fried Steak being culturally appropriated schnitzel, or something equally stupid.
Aren’t we supposed to appreciate other cultures? One major way of doing that is food. How do we foster intercultural rapport if we’re building “don’t even THINK about eating food from another culture” walls?
Not very well phrased, sorry. I know what I’m thinking, it’s saying it that’s tricky. Especially since I’m trying to avoid being sarcastic about the precious widdle wannabe radicals.
This is my first rule of food nomenclature: If it says <country> in the name, it’s not what they eat in that country.
French Fries aren’t French. American Brownies aren’t American. Italian Meatballs aren’t Italian Meatballs. “Mexican Food” isn’t Mexican. It’s irritating sometimes, but it isn’t limited to a small university in Ohio.
Eh, it depends, at least if you widen <country> to <location>. There may be a recipe by that actual name in the actual location, but if found anywhere else it’s likely to have been distorted. For example, in Valencia there is a specific version of paella that’s called paella valenciana, but if you ask for paella valenciana in a restaurant located in NYC, Coventry or Stockholm it may contain green peas - that makes it paella de Castellón, the two locations having been at each other’s pans for generations over that one ingredient (if someone claims to be from Valencia, ask if paella has peas; if he goes the color of overripe tomatoes before finding enough air and reason to start pointing out all the existing failures in your reasoning and ancestry, he’s from Valencia; if he says yes, he’s a fake).
Generally when some rando kicks up a fuss and after the backlash says it was under the guise of a “social experiment,” you can generally write said individual off as an asshole.
It’s usually amusing/enraging when people barely out of puberty try to tell the world how it should work.
The problem seems to be someone got torqued over bad “ethnic” food, as anyone who has eaten at a college mess hall may understand can be moderately torqueworthy and may justify some venting and ranting, but then those around him seized the moment to somehow make it a reflection of their other grand issues. Makes me think they’d likely do the same if someone complained about lack of parking spaces, a broken down elevator, allergy to the plants in the flowerbeds, etc.
Oh, and BTW in any case “Africa” is a Phoenician/Latin word to begin with so whatever the spelling they are still using an outsiders’ name for it.
I’m just having a mental fantasy of one of these “radicals” getting all butthurt in 16th-17th century Mexico because these flatbreads aren’t “tortillas” because tortillas are a sort of omelet/frittata kind of thing. Or of one getting torqued because the remoulade they’re serving him in New Orleans isn’t the same thing they serve in France.
but at what point did one culture absorbing and modifying another’s cuisine go from being “the state of things” to “evil cultural appropriation?” Why does everyone have some pet issue where they think the way they want it to be should be frozen in time forever?
