Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Oh, man, I thought I had blocked out my Gatorade Gum cravings!

I am allergic to raw mushrooms, can't eat anything that has been cross contaminated with it. I ate some fresh veggies that had a few flecks of mushroom in it that I didn’t see and within 5 minutes it had triggered my asthma, my mouth swelled up and the lips, tongue and all the rest of the symptoms that go with it. I can eat them when they are cooked though and I now love canned mushroom, since I can’t eat the raw thing anymore. I can’t even handle raw ones (my husband hates mushrooms) so I can’t eat them freshly cooked unless I go out.

I have found that since I have given birth to my twins 3 years ago that my allergies and asthma have gotten exponentially worse. I can’t even be in the same room with cats, dogs, any animal with hair. My allergies to the great outdoors have had the same consequence. I also have developed an allergy to Celery, I have the same reactions as I have to mushrooms but I stopped eating it, so I haven’t found out if it gets worse with every exposure.

My main concern right now is that I have a reaction when I eat in combination tomatoes and bread. I can eat bread alone and tomatoes but when they are eaten in the same meal I get an overwhelming reaction to throw up. It can be as mild as a slight queasiness or I can start to throw up. I have looked and looked but I can’t find anything anywhere that mentions allergies when foods are combined. Since the birth of my twins the tomato and bread reaction has gotten worse as well. I have never cared for pizza because it always left me feeling sick afterwards which I just thought that it was the grease in it.

I feel like an idiot when I say anything about the t&b thing....I know it is not in my head but nobody has heard of it and people just think I am being picky. Since I was about 13 apples have made me feel the same way. Sometimes the reaction is worse than other so I will every once and a while eat a bit of an apple but never a whole one. The T&B reaction is worse than the apple one though because my mildest reaction to T&B is the worst I have had to apples.

I wish I wasn't on vacation when this topic came up because i would love to have participated fully in it! Oh well, I'll put my two cents in anyways!

As part of my vacation, I was reading an interesting book called "Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors." While I have my own set of issues with the book, as someone of Indian heritage, it is interesting to read about foods and techniques that I consider "Indian" as actually being the influence of Invaders or foreign merchants.
Some examples:
--Tea was only drank for medicinal purposes until the Brits decided they had an untapped market that needed to buy their products!
--Potatoes, chili peppers and Tomatoes were also brought in by various merchants. I can't imagine cooking a lot of Indian food without those ingredients, especially tomatoes and chili peppers!
--Rice was also not a native dish. Can you imagine? My grandma did not consider a meal finished unless we had a bit of rice.

Anyway, one of the points of the book was to debunk the claim of authenticity in Indian cooking, so...well, as people we are a sum of our experiences. So as a cuisine, Indian food, or Italian or Mexican or Armenian, is a sum of It's experiences.

I use it interchangeably with feta in mediterranean dishes(pastas, salads). Great with eggplant as noted above.

What comes around, goes around.... Don't believe me?! Pass the fondue!

Next year it may be mole, the year after perhaps Romesco sauce... either way we will continue to rediscover old foods and make them new again.

Regarding Rick Bayless (LOVE the guy and his food) I Think it's great that Chef Bayless has brought "authentic" mexican food to the masses. Too bad some of these awful strip mall mexican places didn't have the guts to do the same.

Oh, the new up and coming sauce romesco? Here ya go!

Romesco Sauce

2 ea Roasted Tomatoes
3 ea garlic cloves
1/4 c bread crumbs
1/2 ea lime -- juice & zest
1 ea dried New Mexico pepper -- seeded and rehydrated
1 ea roasted red bell pepper -- cored
1/2 tsp smoked Spanish paprika
salt to taste
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
2 tbsps red wine vinegar
1/4 c blanched almonds

Place nuts in a food processor and process until well ground.

Add remaining ingredients process until smooth. Adjust consistency of sauce by adding olive oil if too thick.

Notes:
Sauce should be made a few hours in advance to allow flavors to mature.
Blanched filberts (hazelnuts) may be substituted for almonds or a combination may be used.

I think understanding the origin of a dish is important. Food shows us so much about history and culture when you think about it. I understand using sauces or techniques in new and innovative ways, but I think being a purist sometimes can be equally delicious if not more so. And even without trying to experiment, a traditional recipe will always vary with the person cooking it.

My SO's father experiments a lot with cooking. I always search my cookbooks looking for ways to impress the family. Usually it's the traditional recipes that get the rave reviews. Making a tortilla with odd ingredients has never gone over well. And patatas bravas with a side of romesco can be much more impressive than just roasted potatoes. They're simple and traditional, but they're also foods I grew up eating.

My mother had a way of making these dishes, and my grandmother had her way of making them, and when I went to Spain I discovered many other variations on favorite foods depending on the relative cooking that night. I will never make tortilla like my dad's and that's ok. I still think his is the best and mine is just ok, but my SO doesn't know what he's missing so it works out ok.

That's a tough one. I can certainly understand the annoyance when someone from a different culture tries to imitate your culture and pass off a recipe as an authentic dish. I'm sure my risotto has many Italians rolling around in their graves right about now. But, that doesn't mean I don't admire the people that try to incorporate food from other cultures into their daily lives or recipe repertoires. I mean, isn't that what globalization and travelling is about?

Sometimes it's nearly impossible to make an authentic dish without the local ingredients but that doesn't mean the inspiration isn't authentic. A big factor to consider here is America: the melting pot of a whooole bunch of cultures. If you visit any major city, you'll find a place for Little Italy, Little India, Polish food, Mexican food, Chinatown, you name it. It's hard not to want to expand your horizons with all of these options so close together. So if you consider that most chefs get their inspiration from their favorite foods or foods they have tried, it's no wonder they're trying to make something from another culture. And like I said, I give them credit for it!

"I believe that people should make whatever they want with whatever food they can get as long as they are making food and not eating total crap."

I agree and cuisines would not have evolved to where they are today without someone adding twists to traditional recipes. However, when people start swapping out major components with very unique flavored ingredients or perhaps adding additional non-traditional ingredients, while continuing to refer to the dishes as their traditional names, that is when the anger is justified. A lot of people look up to celebrity chefs and the Food Network as authority figures and see their recipes as the real deal. I knew many who thought mayonnaise was a key ingredient in authentic guacamole because that's how their favorite "Mexican" restaurant made it or they found the recipe in a popular cookbook ages ago. With so many trying to make names for themselves in the food world these days through their restaurants, books, blogs, or whatever, we're going to see either more destroyers or more preservers.

Is it too hard to create an original name for a new creation? Instead we see, "It is sooooo good to be back! I just returned from South Korea and the bulgogi there was so delicious! I was experimenting in the kitchen last night and created this mouth-watering mango-chipotle bulgogi. Here's the recipe."

Where should the line be drawn?

Should someone be given a pass if they declare the truly authentic version is prepared this way with these ingredients but if some of these ingredients are hard too find, here are some substitutes that will keep the flavors and texture as close to the real thing as possible? Take Peruvian yellow pepper sauce (salsa de aji amarillo), for example. The authentic version calls for the pepper aji amarillo--what gives the sauce its unique color and taste. Steven Raichlen makes this known to the readers of his barbecue sauce book, yet he modified the recipe by substituting aji amarillo with yellow bell pepper (to provide color and flavor) and cayenne (heat) since the original pepper is probably hard to find. I personally don't have a problem with this. First, he makes it clear that his recipe is not authentic. Second, different peppers are blended to recreate the taste and kick of the aji amarillo.

My opinion is people can play with food all they want, I'll even try what they make.
Some of it will be good, some wont, but the recipes my daughter is taught by her mom are going to be hundreds of years old from Mexico.

It's nice to be creative and try new things but theres a respect that should be had for all time honored methods of preparation. If they've been doing it one way with one set of ingredients for 1000 years... it's probably really good.

Also if you're gonna change something, don't call the dish "Mexican ____" it's not, its a play off what WOULD have been Mexican food if it werent messed with.

@Jerzee: You really made me laugh. Campbell's tomato soup, brown sugar, and worcestershire sauce in tomato sauce? That sounds DISGUSTING.

I sympathize with your Dad. It irritates me to no end when someone trots out ethnic cuisine as if he/she were the first to discover such a thing and I often lament that when something gets trendy, it often gets expensive.

On the other hand,

People discovering great food fills me with pride, especially if it's from my own background. Your Dad should see this "discovery" as a point of pride with bragging rights. After all, he's been eating this stuff far longer than some of these hacks. And most importantly, everyone is finding out just how good the cuisine is and enjoying just as he had.

This is a very good topic because often we see our ethnic cuisine bastardized by some person or restaurant.

I once had a woman tell me she added campbell's tomato soup to her pasta sauce with brown sugar and worcestershire sauce. She smiled like she was Indiana Jones and found the Temple of Doom. I smiled back and said to her, "never say that to me again and we will be good," and walked away.
We all have passions in life things we hold important, defining and personal. Ethnic foods are one of those things. I have much respect for tradition, ethnic culture and the importance of food in all these things.

Great topic Pumpkin.

Excellent topic!
I'm pretty open-minded about trying something new, but I want to experience "authentic" food first, before tweaking anything.

Being Japanese I get annoyed when someone makes miso soup without dashi (don't get me started about sushi), but at the same time, I'm glad to see that people are becoming more familiar with Japanese ingredients, so I just keep my mouth shut (or I try very hard to).

I at least look up an unfamiliar dish on Wiki etc. to see what's behind the dish. I love learning about cultural influence or ingredient availability that shape a dish. After all, there are many common "traditional" dishes that are results of cultural fusions (like "Japanese" curry & rice, ramen etc).
As long as we respect the authentic version of foods and preserve old family recipes, making new variations of recipes is fine, IMO.
I deeply regret that I hadn't cooked with my grandma very much. Not that I can get the same ingredients here, but I don't think I can replicate my grandma's nimono. sniff.