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Fusion Cuisine in the Food Scene
The word fusion means the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a whole new one. Fusion cuisine refers to the combination of various kinds of cuisine exhibited in various methods. For example, an American dish can be prepared with influences from Mexican and Texan cuisines, giving rise to a hybrid cuisine called “Tex-Mex.” Dishes based on one culture can also be prepared using ingredients and flavors native to another culture. For instance, pizza (an Italian food) can be made using taco ingredients (from Mexican cuisine).
Many tourists are now interested in visiting restaurants because of their fusion cuisine, a trend that makes food tourism even more mainstream. It is now also customary for chefs to go to countries to learn how to make authentic dishes from other countries. A perfect example is David Chang, a Korean-American chef who went to Japan to learn about noodles and came back to the U.S. to build a culinary empire.
In the United States, many chefs reintroduce dishes local to them by adding Asian twists to the dishes to cater to evolving American tastes as well as Asian palates. For instance, Mexicans find kimchi (a famous Korean dish) a good ingredient for burritos (a Mexican dish common in the U.S.) while curry and basmati rice (both common Indian ingredients) are now used for sushi (a Japanese dish that has become popular around the world). American ingredients can also be incorporated in foreign dishes to make them more familiar to American palates like David Chang’s recreation of ramen (a Japanese staple) using bacon (an American food) to prepare the broth.
Although fusion cuisine seems relatively new, it is a social phenomenon that resulted from many forces. In fact, ancient cultures that have come in contact with each other did experience fusion cuisine under various circumstances. A country’s cuisine can be influenced by a country’s neighbors or previous colonizers. For instance, many dishes in Malaysia are fusion cuisines between Malay, Javanese, Chinese, and Indian cuisine with light influences from Thai, Portuguese, Dutch, and British cuisines. Fusion cuisine can also be a result of cultural assimilation which is perhaps one of the biggest drivers of all. A perfect example is the United States, especially California and New York, which is a melting pot of diverse cultures from around the world.
These days, however, fusion cuisine is usually a deliberate combination of cookeries to create something new for the market especially for culturally diverse consumers and tourists. It has become a craft that many aspiring chefs hope to master to make a name in the culinary industry.
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