Asian Food

Before I get started on this article… no this article is not about the best Asian recipes or dishes out there. I do cook Asian dishes but the recipes I use are not my recipes (and I did not check the copyright laws for recipes yet). Sometimes I blindly cook without recipes. Other times I cook fusion.

Whatever I cook, it is considered food but it often is not considered authentically Asian since some specific spices are missing or there are some methodical aspects, which are not Asian. Hence, I am not writing about how to cook Asian food today. Instead, I want to write about Asian food in general.

Asian Cuisine

Before I start, I have to disclose that my sense of Asian cuisine has changed a bit over the years, since I figured out that Asian food does not only includes Chinese cuisine but also the whole Asian cuisine spectrum. If that does not say a lot, let me put it into perspective by naming a few Asian cuisines.

There would be Central, East, North, South, Southeast and West Asian cuisine. Since ‘a cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, usually associated with a specific culture.’ (Source: Wikipedia.) Therefore, let´s dive deeper into the different types of cuisines in Asia.

Let´s take East Asian cuisine for instance. That includes Chinese, Hong Kong, Japanese, Korean, Macau, Mongolian, and Taiwanese cuisine. There are also a great deal of subtypes of each individual regional cuisine since there are often smaller cultures within a country. This is just to name a few.

All I was trying to say is that there are many different cuisines in Asia and it is a bit messy to group them all under the same umbrella term since they are vastly different from one another. However, the terminology is not the topic I wanted to write about today.

An idea

Honestly, I can´t really call it my idea since people before me have thought of it as well. Unlike me, some people even followed through on that idea. That is the reason why the internet is overflowing with travel-food blogs and vlogs. However, I still thought about starting an Asian food-related vlog channel.

Then I realized I am not dedicated enough to spend thousands on a video camera therefore the idea flew out the window just as fast as it came in. Other factors like photo-genetics and repetition were vital variables in that decision as well. Either way, for multiple reasons I did not start a vlog.

However, the reason why I wanted to start a vlog talking about Asian food differed from the reasons why I did not want to start a vlog. The reason I took vlogging into consideration was the simple fact that my worldview changed.

Moving from Asia to Europe can really change someone´s point of view especially if one was in their preadolescence. During my preadolescence, I mainly cared about myself and only myself but then other human experiences came to my attention. More specifically, how different human experiences can be.

Even the most universal thing in the world, food, was different from country to country to no one´s surprise. Therefore, I wanted to start a vlog and talk about Asian food ranging from small snacks to filling main courses since even though I am in Europe I still eat a lot of Asian food.

Back then, I knew for a fact that the vlog is an interesting idea which people like my classmates would watch since they would regularly interrogate me about Asia and life in Asia. Fun fact about my ex-classmates. They would unintentionally take turns asking the same questions.

Honestly, I do not mind talking about my experience if that interests them. However, I quickly got bored constantly having to repeat myself. What better way to avoid repetition than to record everything I have said. That is how the vlogging idea came to life.

Explaining how the food taste and how it was made also seemed like the better option in a decision between brainlessly scrolling through social media or enthusiastically explaining things to a non-existent audience so the choice was clear.

That is how I ended up here with a non-existent vlog even though I am still playing with the idea and all the possibilities I could pursue if I did start a vlog. Maybe I will gather up the courage and have the guts to start a vlog one day but until then I have to write.

Origin of Asian cuisine

I can already imagine the weird faces people would make reading this part of the article. You would probably think something along the lines of, “Asian food comes from Asia. What are you talking about when you write about the origin of Asian food?” Don´t worry and let me explain.

From my experience, I still believe that each Asian cuisines are somewhat ill-defined. Don’t get me wrong, I know what Asian cuisine is and all the different dishes I could get if I ask for Asian cuisines. However, each dish´s origin is hard to track down at least from my opinion.

Let´s take a simple example of a rice dish for instance. Recently, I have cooked (what I believed to be) a Taiwanese rice dish and I told my Hong Kong friend about it since we tend to talk a lot about homemade food. At first, my friend did not understand what I was talking about since terms got lost in translation.

After I properly translated it into English (and by that I mean sent pictures instead of using words), my friend finally understood what I was talking about and immediately replied that they have a different name for that dish in Hong Kong.

Since I was curious, I looked up the Hong Kong version of that dish and how it was cooked. Turns out the method was nearly identical to my method to cook that dish. However, there was a catch. The ingredients are completely different and it is not just a small recipe alterations.

I am sure that there are many people out there right now who are complaining that I am just a picky eater (which I am) and pay too much attention to detail (which I do). Do not worry. I know my flaws and I am learning to change but hear me out.

The ingredients I use would make the dish solely savoury but my friend´s ingredients would make a savoury dish with a sweet kick. Then I checked the Chinese version of the same dish and it turns out they use different ingredients as well.

I looked up how that dish I cooked is called in English and the internet just labels it as a Chinese dish but from my experience, I can confidently doubt that. I have learnt that Chinese is a not specific and vast umbrella term for tons of different culinary specialities just like how Asian food covers a great deal of foodstuff as well.

This just got me thinking about where dishes in general comes from. Did the country invent the method and other countries just alter the ingredients or did each country find the method simultaneously and culinary evolution just kicked in? More importantly, what does that mean for the origin of Asian dishes?

Does the dish origin change with each ingredient that has been added, removed or exchanged? What adds to this problem are names. The name of each dish is different depending on their respective countries they are from but translated into English they all have the same name even though they are different.

Maybe I should research the determining factor for the origin of a dish in a future article and how different a dish should be to be considered different. It is interesting to get a clear-cut answer in this world full of unanswered question. However, that is not an answer I wanted to answer in this article so I digress.

A shady stereotype

It is impossible to talk about Asian food without some subtle racism. Therefore, let´s talk about the elephant in the room (or the dog.) Do Asians/Chinese really eat dogs? To that question I can only answer, get your head out of the gutter and think about this peculiar yet stereotypical question you have just asked.

First things first. Be more specific. Are you talking about all Asians or Chinese specifically? Since all Chinese are Asians but not vice versa. Some people (especially males) just do not seem to know that tiny difference, which just gave me the impression that boys are uneducated but many guys who came after proved me wrong.

My point is that we all make wrong assumptions every once in a while and that is all right but constantly assuming the same thing and not learning from one’s own mistakes is a factor that differentiates the matured from the children in this world.

The second detail, I want to point out is the fact that I am not Chinese. At least, that is what it says on my birth certificate, passport and ID so it must be true. Long story short, I may look the part but I am not grouped as such so I do not know for sure if Chinese eat dogs since where I come from dog eating is illegal.

Last but not least. Have you not been paying attention? There are many documentaries and articles from film crews and journalists going to different countries in Asia to tackle that question and they came back with the same result each time. No, they do not (at least not on the scale, they used to).

Attitudes have changed over the years and the government started recognizing the animal cruelty behind dog-meat consumption. In the past, dog meat consumption may be common practice due to health-related beliefs. However, nowadays ancient remedial beliefs have died and so are dog consumption practices.

Dog-meat consumption is a dying practice, which only a minority do. Please stop judging a whole race based on their worst minority trait since personally, I am sick of it. Constantly being accused of eating dogs or being the cause for World War 2 is somewhat exhausting. (Being multiracial has its perks but also not.)

In addition, constantly asking that same question won´t suddenly change the answer. If you still believe all Asians eat dog meat, then do me a favour and remove your genes from the gene pool (before you ask… no, that is not a threat and there are multiple ways to achieve that goal) or at the very least read this article.

I did not believe that I would spend a few paragraphs explaining how dog-meat consumption but here we are. Dog-meat consumption aside. I love the curiosity but I just hate the stereotypical racism behind it. A tip: before you ask racially insensitive questions, please reconsider and make the world just a little bit nicer.

How does Asian food taste?

Finally got to the real reason why I oh-so desperately wanted to write this article. I wanted to describe how Asian food tastes. Now you may think I am crazy since I couldn´t have possibly tried every Asian dish in Asia with my very meticulous taste. However, just continue reading since I promise this is perfectly logical.

On my play pretend food vlog, I tried to describe how multiple Asian foods I am eating taste like since I have been told I have precise taste buds. Some foods have flavours that are either easy to describe or have a Western substitute for that taste.

However, sometimes I struggle with the description of the taste. Don’t get me wrong, I can describe the basics like the texture, the colour, and the aroma. However, I struggle with the flavour a bit since I can´t seem to find a Western substitute and simply describing it as savoury seems inaccurate and misleading.

Asian foods have a reputation of being eye-opening taste perceptions for Westerners who tried. In this rather globalised world, people have tried Asian cuisine outside of Asia but as a picky eater, I can tell you that they don’t serve everything here and the food favouring has been adjusted to the Western taste.

Asian cuisines can have a certain blend of spices, which make plain potatoes seem boring and mundane. They have certain snacks that make chocolate seem old and outdated. That cuisine has certain exotic flavours that make a person want to change their meal plan just to add this interesting taste to their diet.

I just found how most description of Asian culinary specialities in the food blogs and vlogs seem to not do those dishes justice. I am not saying that those bloggers and vloggers are doing a bad job but I just think language is doing a bad job providing us with the words necessary to describe the flavours to people who never tired.

Just simply describing mochi as sweet with another flavoured filling, curry as spicy with a milky aftertaste, satay as savoury with a peanut-ty taste, stir-fried bitter melon as bitter with a meaty filling, Peking soup as sour with a spicy kick or sashimi as umami with a cold taste is simply not enough. This is also rather general.

It is just hard to describe a taste to a person who has never tasted something like that before. Take Mary´s room thought experiment as an example. Mary has never seen colour before but learnt all about it. Does Mary learn anything new when she perceives colour one day or does the sudden burst of colour change nothing in Mary´s black and white life?

Therefore, when people ask me how certain food like seaweed or red bean soup taste. I can only stutter and describe the general flavour. Simple things like seaweed are salty with a slight taste of the ocean or red bean soup is sweet with a lumpy texture.

However, words seem to fail me when I need to specify what I have just described, the actual taste of seaweed. What should I say? The seaweed has a crunchy texture even though it is paper-thin and leaves a tangy flavour in your mouth after you have swallowed it? How does one describe seaweed?

At the same time, the lack of knowledge of the listener/reader fails me when I need to describe how the red bean soup taste. Red bean tastes a bit like the green bean but has a warmer feeling in comparison. Does that tell you anything if you haven´t tried the green bean soup before? No.

Therefore, many factors account for my limited ability to describe Asian food. Fun fact, the same would have gone the other way as well, if fast-food chains did not take over. There may be special items on the menus in Asia but the burger recipe stays the same (even though the cow may be different.)

All I am trying to say is that I love Asian food and I urge anyone who hasn´t tried it to try it but just please do not ask me to describe the taste. Either you will have to have deep knowledge about distinctly Asian flavours or someone needs to go and invent new words then later popularize that word.

Otherwise, I really can´t go into depth to describe Asian food flavours and do those flavours justice. It´s impossible. Do not get me started on how each regional cuisine is different from the other; otherwise, I will be here all day. It is also quite a shame, honestly, but that is just the simple truth.

Conclusion

Asian cuisine is just something one needs to have tried to understand what the others are talking about since the lack of words and knowledge just contributes to this mystery many consider to be Asian food. Moreover, in my opinion, simple flavours don´t do the in-depth, layered flavour justice.

For the lack of better words, just try it and I am not just being biased. It is a culinary experience. You can love it and crave for more or you can hate it and try another Asian cuisine instead. Either way, go out and broaden your culinary horizons (and please do not be racist on that trip).

Maybe you will even find out the true origin of a certain dish you like and even start your own food blog or vlog. My point is you will never know until you try and I promise that this is an experience you will most likely not forget.