Cultural appropriation:
So, Asian food. Vindaloo is derived from the Portuguese vin d’alho so how about that for a bit of appropriation. Potatoes anything is of course part of the Colombian exchange. But we’re not talking about that kind of Asian, are we? So, Japanese:
…
So you can stick that cultural appropriation idea in your toque and fry it with your tempura – actually, a borrowing into Japanese cuisine from Portuguese.
They need to go and protest all the spaghetti houses in Tokyo.
Or is that cultural re-appropriation?
All the chili-rich cuisines of Asia appropriate that lovely heat from South America via the Portuguese; Japan’s katsu curry appropriates the European fried cutlet AND curry, Vietnamese banh mi is appropriated from the French, chicken manchurian is an Indian favourite appropriated from China, the South Koreans have enthusiastically appropriated fried chicken from the USians and you would not believe what Chinese people will put on pizzas.
And it is all marvellous, apart from random Chinese pizza toppings.
Of course these ‘crimes’ against ethnic food purity need not be mentioned, unless there’s a white man to blame…
Cultural appropriation is only bad when whypipo do it
The inauthenticity to care about is the ingredients, because plants that grow on the side of the road in a country are cheap and liberally used in their typical cuisine. On the other side of the world if the ingredients have to be grown by specialists that’s expensive. So they’re used sparingly. Same if they are imported dried or canned. It changes the taste from the typical. Could be better could be equal but not likely to be the same.
MC As far as I’m aware, Indian food doesn’t traditionally use S/C American chilli as the “hot” ingredient. Different family of plants. Certainly entirely different taste.
I’ve eaten in Indian homes in the UK & the food’s been nothing like the vile shit one finds in “Indian” restaurants. The structure of the meal’s different for a start. Like most Asian meals, one gets separate dishes & sauces rather than the lot slopped on one plate.
I’m told vindaloo’s an entirely European creation.
Not quite. It’s an Indian creation. But based upon the Portuguese spice mixture of vin d’alho.
Who was pretending to offence on behalf of whom?
Dearime,
can’t access the CT but this was the review in question.
https://london.eater.com/2019/4/11/18306082/preview-first-look-gordon-ramsay-lucky-cat
Angela doesn’t mention Cultural appropriation in it, she’s just not impressed by the food, the presentation and the fusiony concept, which is fair enough IMHO. Her instagram posts might contain more out there than the article but it seems just to be snark rather than expousing the barmy CA logic.
Incidentally I noticed worstall’s law might be in operation. Angela points out a typo in Ramsey’s promotional blurb referencing Plumb sauce (which is fair enough snark directed to a would-be top end restaurant to get wrong) then she writes this.
“which felt more seedy nightclub than Asian eating house. Or, perhaps, that is Ramsay’s vision of a vibrant (nee “authentic”) Asian eating house.”
what’s that neé doing there? is it some new hipster usage or has she just not known what it refers to?
I learned recently that Thai massaman curry is only really eaten by Muslim Thais and was made as a result of spices being imported by Arabic traders.
Curry Chicken Rice is very big in Japan, and whole unauthenticate Indian (they don’t even use the same spice).
BiS- the chilli is well integrated into Indian food, although usage varies. There are well-established local varieties now, such as the famous Kashmiri chilli, which provides the vivid red in an authentic* rogan josh.
*inasmuch as there is an authentic version; there’s probably Indians on the web arguing about it even now.
Which idiot first labelled ‘Cultural Appropriation’ as some kind of crime? Surely imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and how is any culture harmed by having aspects of it copied by others? How culturally impoverished would we be if we were forbidden from copying the best bits from elsewhere?
@HB
For ‘née’, read ‘nay’?
as in vibrant nay authentic asian eating house. Yeah maybe, but doesn’t seem the authors style.
I understood nee as french for born, used to indicate maiden names. Highly doubtful though Angela intended even metaphorically “authentic” was the maiden name of “vibrant”.
I can guess from the context Angela’s probably attempted some sort of sarcastic ironic new usage here but i can’t quite get the meaning.
Having had a think possibly she meant it as a substitute for A.K.A which sarcastically would sort of just about work i suppose.
I think it began with wearing another culture’s dress to mock it and has now descended into this absolute farce as liberals attempt to out-virtue one another.
‘I understood nee as french for born, used to indicate maiden names. Highly doubtful though Angela intended even metaphorically “authentic” was the maiden name of “vibrant”.’
nee -> ‘previously known as’?
DJC- yes that would render as “vibrant previously known as authentic”. still a confusing a non point.