Fusion food has been a part of our diet for as long as we can remember. Whether it be a Chipotle-run at night, or T-Pumps with our friends, we’ve all consumed some type of dish that features a blend of foods from different cultures. When we eat food that has roots in another culture, we don’t stop to think about the value that the dish holds within a specific culture, but people that follow those traditions do. People have eaten food of their heritage in a restaurant and felt a vague sense that it isn’t what the food is supposed to be like. Sometimes, it’s an outright indignation that the dish is being ‘culturally appropriated’, and in most cases, it is.
Although fusion food can simply be seen as a combination of two cultures, Susan Scafidi, a law professor at Fordham University, defines cultural appropriation as the “adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of another culture without permission.” These ‘elements’ also include food. However the question isn’t really whether food is being culturally appropriated, but why, and more importantly, is it really okay? Sophomore Haritha Shah who eats Indian food at home on a regular basis, thinks Indian food is more of a home cooked meal.
“Most fast food restaurants don’t really capture what Indian food is really about,” Shah said. “So it’s not as great as what would you would normally get.”
We may think, ‘it’s just food’, but with food comes a perception of a culture. Many people have a stereotyped idea of what food from a certain culture should look like, especially with the way it’s advertised. Take Mexican food, for example. We immediately think of tacos, or maybe a burrito. This stereotyping applies to any culture — Chinese, Indian, Italian. One or two images just popped into our heads that defined that entire cuisine, and in turn, a major part of its culture. To prevent this form of marginalization, we need to understand that appropriation doesn’t mean authenticity.
But sophomore Tim Pai doesn’t see it that way. “If it tastes good, I don’t really care,” Pai said. “There is a lot of diversity in Asian cuisine, and maybe fast food is just another representation of what they think Chinese food should taste like. If that’s what they think, and people like it, then I am ok with it.
In today’s culture, it is easy to get offended in any “appropriated matter” but sometimes it’s necessary to modify food, especially from a business perspective when you want to appeal to customers who are not always accustomed to the ingredients of that food. As long as a modified food is not labeled or portrayed as an accurate representation of its original counterpart, modification should be considered ethical.
However, calling something “authentic” when it’s not demonstrates people’s ignorance of a culture’s history and the meaningful traditions behind it. It’s not really about the food — that’s only part of it. The problem isn’t just that we’re reducing entire cultural cuisines to one or two food items, it’s that we’re reducing entire cultures, period. Like tacos for Mexican food and spices for anything east of Europe.
According to research conducted by LA Weekly, traditional Mexican food is rich in vegetables, herbs, legumes and spices, with a whole grain product at its staple. The cheese used to garnish Mexican dishes is generally Cotija cheese, and traditional Mexican burritos are nothing like the avocado and sour cream dishes we get at Chipotle.That isn’t to say that we shouldn’t appreciate and enjoy fusion food, but only that we shouldn’t misinterpret it to think that it is authentic and understand that there is more to the cuisine than meets the eye. We do have to keep in mind that preconceived notions about different cultures or ethnicities — not just limited to their food — need to be eradicated if we want to respect cultures as a whole.
Why is food from some cultures modified more often?
But even though we are modifying foods from all around the world, why do we pick and choose the ethnicities being popularized? Why are the main sub-categories mainly Mexican, Chinese, Italian and Indian? Why are authentic Greek or Mediterranean restaurants not as populated in Cupertino? The ethnicities and cultures present are given higher significance in terms of the representation of their food. In addition, places that have a higher concentration of a certain ethnicity or culture have a better chance to have their food represented in a more accurate and “authentic” light. In a city with a high Asian population, we can probably spot about two to three pearl milk tea shops in every shopping center, and there is an increase in the foods commonly associated with their cultures. In addition, the choices for Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese foods come in a high quantity around Cupertino.
This doesn’t go for all cultures, but typically the higher number of people, the more insight they have on the authentic taste, and the more needs they have for the specificity of food (rather than its mainstream flavors).
But that still doesn’t fully answer the question of why just pick and choose the cultures to popularize in mainstream fast food. Well, the foods that can be associated with the Mexican, Chinese, Italian and Indian culture have reoccurring themes of certain food types. For example East Asian noodles are easy to replicate into a variety of dishes such as chow mein, udon and ramen. Indian curries can be made from a variety of different vegetables and varied in other ingredients as well. Though they might not be exactly as made in the place of origin, it sells well as it provides the consumers with a sense of different tastes. We have a tendency to pick these cultures because not all other foods need to be modified. Most of their dishes contain ingredients too specific to their culture and are thus difficult to replicate and cannot be generalized enough to fit into the American fast food culture.
Authentic Indian food might only be popular among actual Indians, so, where there are a lot of Indians, there are lot of Indian places. But Indian restaurants also have to keep their options open to everyone else and therefore have to modify the ingredients in the food. Modification of food itself can be done for a variety of valid reasons, such as consumer tastes and feasibility. The main problem occurs however, when modified, fast food is passed on as “traditional” food of that culture. The fast food is not usually made with the same precision that the traditional food is made with, and this has the potential to completely change the taste as well as the traditional value that the food holds for that heritage. So as long as we don’t try to slap incorrect claims on modified food, we can give ourselves plenty of room to experiment without the worry of offending people from that culture. The fact that food is clearly modified should be acceptable under the assumption that the food is not intended to be authentic.
