Adrianna Tan
I’m often unimpressed by restaurants that do fusion coz they can’t out fusion my everyday meals at home (quesadilla with Oaxacan cheese, Chinese pork belly and sardine kelp furikake)
I basically don’t have any ‘food boundaries’ (no breakfast food, no ‘right flavor combos’, savory meal then dessert then back to savory)
Food rules are weird to me
Chris Petrilli
@skinnylatte the only rule is that it must be tasty. And pork belly and Oaxaca cheese sounds amazing.
Adrianna Tan
One time I went to a three star Michelin restaurant and they served me a cauliflower ice cream and I was like yep, pretty good, but already had that
Adrianna Tan
Basically most American chefs trying to do fusion (unless they have deep exposure to other food cultures) end up making food that tastes like what a culinarily advanced child from other cultures would make as lazy food, to me. Just lazy, unimaginative. I’ve been impressed maybe one time? That’s it
Adrianna Tan
@artcollisions Dominique Crenn starting doing more Asian fusion in her tasting menus. It was pretty well done (tho some basics, like the bao they made from scratch, would have been a Chinese fail), but it’s also a $500 per person meal (that someone took me to)
Most other chefs just aren’t working at the same level of understanding. Very basic takes on Japanese / Korean / Chinese / other foods. Basically ‘put sesame seeds on it and call it Korean’. I can put sesame seeds on my own food any time.
Granny Art (Shrimp) (Joni)
@skinnylatte who/what impressed you?
Adrianna Tan
@dicenbuttons oh I don’t consider those fusions when it’s more cultural change. We should celebrate those things. It’s the fusion that passes for creative and innovative, often by the people who ‘look’ like chefs, that I especially dislike.
There’s a restaurant in SF that is often celebrated and I feel like a Chinese child could make that food better
Carson Hill 📎
I feel like "fusion" cuisine already exists between large countries, or on the borders between.
For example "Tex Mex" is American-Mexican fusion food. Hawaiian foods are sort of an American-Asian fusion. Philippino food is sort of a Latino-Asian fusion.
It's not quite the same - those countries/foods have their unique heritage and I don't want to reduce it overmuch, but I also feel like it's kinda silly to build up rules and structure around food.
Good food is for everybody.
Adrianna Tan
@artcollisions yeah places like that are just one off experiences. It’s not that the food isn’t good, its just a whole other thing. More of like you go to watch an opera sometimes even if you can stream it. Not just about filling your tummy.
I think that style of fine dining is getting even more unnecessary now, but at least she has some things to say through her food (she was the first big French chef to go meat-free)
Granny Art (Shrimp) (Joni)
@skinnylatte Yeesh, that's just an outrageous amount to charge for food.
I will have to tell you some time about some memorable food I've eaten, but I'm about to collapse, so it will have to wait.
Adrianna Tan
The food rule that makes me laugh the most is ‘breakfast should be light’
If you give me yogurt and fruit for breakfast, I will quite literally cry.
I come from a long line of Chinese laborers who needed rice and 16 hour overnight intense soup, or curry and noodles for breakfast.
Adrianna Tan
@David there are plenty of American chefs of non-white backgrounds who do incredible food.
David :SetouchiExplorer:
@skinnylatte "American chef" is a nice oxymoron.
Adrianna Tan
@MishaVanMollusq @SeaFury I did have lots of that when I lived in the Middle East. The ones out of a can are pretty decent too for a quick morning
Medea Vanamonde🏳️⚧️ ♀
You might enjoy Ful Medames, but I generally have that for second breakfast and skip lunch
Carson Hill 📎
Gotcha. So you're thinking more specifically of the "Hey I bet nobody thought of combining Chinese food with Nigerian cuisine" (or whatever, I'm picking that combo at random) sort of thing. Where each dish came from a space like "What if we put X in an egg roll" or "How about tacos, but with Y."
As opposed to more organic "fusion cuisines" that grew as a result of overlapping cultures (tex mex), international trade, military occupation (Hawaiian foods, bahn mi), etc.
Adrianna Tan
@dicenbuttons there’s a restaurant near me that’s $200 per person. The man bun chef’s entire schtick is, he made carbonara with like, Chinese noodles. And he shaves ice for dessert. Nothing interesting, not even well executed. He’s very celebrated and famous of course.
Adrianna Tan
@dicenbuttons also I think if you can reasonably get some version of the same range of foods, in a few different places, instead of just at one, it’s a cuisine or close to one.
I was very happy to see a Malaysian Chinese ‘British’ style food in LA when I went recently coz that’s actually a cuisine I miss from home
Carson Hill 📎
As a white dude with a man bun, I could say the man bun helps a person cook better.
I would be lying, but I could say it anyway and folks would believe me. Because I'm a white dude with a man bun.
Adrianna Tan
@dicenbuttons haha maybe the man bun has to be bigger to be an issue. Thanks for the laugh
Adrianna Tan
@David you can’t possibly be serious about saying that other people are not American
David :SetouchiExplorer:
@skinnylatte Because they make non-American food. 🙂
(also, don't confuse "white" and "Anglo")
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