A cultural food being made "authentically" doesn't make it better. amirite?

There are two routes basically. 1) refined authentic food. It still retains the original flavor, but, taste better and has better texture. 2) iconic food that made a name for itself, such as Jambalaya is an American Creole and Cajun rice dish of French, African, and Spanish influence.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Good Jambalaya might be the greatest thing that the rest of America is missing out on

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Whos the rest of America?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Everywhere not in the southeast-ish with good Jambalaya

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Im haitian creole and for jambalaya we didnt have to worry about the spice trade from china etc, so we have flavor forward. Conversely if u cook authentic italian professionally u spend a lot of time giving people red pepper and extra sauce cups (i was taught authentic spahetti has no excess sauce in bowl, however the customer always wants it) I never felt bad about cooking authentic creole. I felt conflicted about authentic italian.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I like that

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Get some bland green bean casserole this Thanksgiving?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I actually laughed, that was good

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Unlike the green bean casserole

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I would say call the burn unit, but I doubt OP has access to medical care.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

AMERICA! I'll take my award for comedy Now

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I too greatly enjoyed this comedy

by Anonymous 2 years ago

We need to trade about the word "authentic" and replace it with "traditional." Authenticity in food is such a frustrating concept because most culturally historical dishes will have multiple recipes depending on the region or even the individual family recipe. You're never gonna be able to find the sole authentic recipe for bolognese or pad thai. Add to this that everyone has their own palate and appreciates food for different reasons.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Well said. Though I wasn't referring to the overall experience an authentic or traditional dish may bring, just the actual taste. Obviously certain dishes are significant for cultural or religious reasons, which is important. I was just getting at the inferior tastes many of them have when they rigidly stick to authentic/traditional ingredients/processes, when they could so easily be made to taste much better if you ignore all that, lol.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

But that might be made perfectly to their taste while a place the next town over makes a version more to *your* taste. If you followed a recipe rigidly and found the dish lacking, you can look up other recipes and see if there are any that are more aligned with your palate. Neither are less authentic than the other. But food is open culture and you can absolutely add your own flair to anything as long as you acknowledge the inspiration. Gatekeeping at any level of dining is nonsense.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Authentic Italian! Why does it have tomato? That's not from Italy!!!

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I am pretty sure if you ask for Bolognese in Bologna there might a murder.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Authenticity is not only ingredients, but the techniques you use to make the dish. If you dont believe me, just look at the quality of italian pizza dough.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I'm going to agree with these. I can't stand all the snobby hipsters I run across that sneer at Tex-Mex and only eat "real" Mexican food because their exposure to Tex-Mex is either Taco Bell or Old El Paso.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Tex-Mex is real mexican food, it's just from a specific area of what used to be Mexico. Cuisine differs all across Mexico. It's not like Mexico redefined what foods are theirs after the Mexican Cession. If they did, they'd have lost tacos and burritos, which originated in what is California today.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Give us one example of an authentically made dish being inferior.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I much prefer thick pizza that feels like eating a donut then the authentic thin pizza

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I unironically agree with that statement.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Like Chicago pizza ? Maybe you haven't had a proper Neapolitan or Roman pizza before ?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Doughnut pizza. Yum

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Italian pizza. I said what I said.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Chicken Parm>eggplant parm

by Anonymous 2 years ago

MSG is the answer...

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Fuyiiooo

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Tell that to the tabbouleh I had at a nice nyc restaurant that came with cherries instead of tomato. Still shaken about that.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Every time I see chocolate brownie flavored hummus at the supermarket, I want to curl up and cry.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Bro there's white people tacos and then theres real tacos. 10/10 authentic Mexican tacos are better. Wtf you talking about?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I think food can be the same , but different . American Italian food is delicious, but not the same . I would say it is on par if it's made well . Like lots of immigrants it can't be compared . I think people overplay the "it's better there " card .

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Absolutely

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I don't think that you have a working understanding of how "authentic" is used

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Dont you know that unless you come from a culture you're not allowed to cook or prepare that food? Cultural appropriation in food is rampant and only when it's made authentically should it be allowed. /s

by Anonymous 2 years ago

case in point: pizza I don't care, American pizza will always taste better to me than a burnt flatbread with tomato sauce and random splotches of cheese on it.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

And depending on how rigid your definition of "authentic" is, even the use of tomatoes at all in Italian cuisine is a no go.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

This is a fact not an opinion

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Can you give an example of authentic vs not?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

People have different taste buds.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I appreciate authentic cultural food, but I don't always prefer it. Sometimes dishes are an acquired taste.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Depends on your food preferences. I love Hawaiian pizza which is definitely not authentic but I don't like cream cheese in Sushi rolls and I prefer them without cheese. It comes down to what preferences a person has and there are no right and wrong ways to cook food.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

If you have the street tacos in California you will beg to differ.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Example: so this whole field of cabbage died and is rotted. Hey I know, we will still it in vinegar and ferment it so we don't starve! Sauerkraut invented. Yikes

by Anonymous 2 years ago

100% Disagree but I can respect this for definitely being unpopular.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I respectfully disagree.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Taco Bell got the best tacos

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Sometimes maybe. For my country, often authentic is better.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

As a Mexican, I don't care what you eat, just don't call it Mexican. It's frustrating watching dishes that have nothing to do with my culture be referred to as "authentic". I have tried a variety of "Mexican" food in the US and well...yeah, it's disappointing. I don't think it's wrong to change dishes to fit your palate, and a dish doesn't have to be authentic to taste good, but then there's no need to get mad whenever someone points out that it's not authentic.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

I'd rather have my food made by someone's abuela. I guarantee there's more love in it

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Largely agree, but if by "authentic" you mean "from scratch" then I will always argue that "from scratch" is better.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Dire?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Sounds like you haven't lived much of life quite yet

by Anonymous 2 years ago

You're all wrong. And also I'm hungry for everything now. Especially pizza.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

"Authentic" is just a marketing ploy. Like here in Canada when we started having people of Middle East descent buying up all the pizza shops in the last ten years, we saw some of the original Italian mom and pop pizzerias advertise "authentic Italian" which is a bit of a dog whistle to let people know "hey this isn't owned by brown people".

by Anonymous 2 years ago

Problem is to find the point where you rename your appropriation, because you changed it up. I recently ate a burrito that had pieces of sausage in it. It wasn't a burrito. If no one cares what the original name implies then we cannot talk about the commonly known concept anymore.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

A burrito is ingredients wrapped in a tortilla. Having sausage in it is pretty common. Do you think there's no sausage in Mexico?

by Anonymous 2 years ago

If you say so I stand corrected in what a borrito is. In this instance it was labeled as minced meat borrito and I didn't get one, so pardon my complaining on another issue. But I guess it is also besides the point, lots of other examples exist: Is vegan cheese still cheese? Is butter still butter, if it is >80% plant-based fat? Is it still a kebab, if they make it from a completely different sort of meat? I also consider frozen pizza a similar, but actually very different dish to the one my favourite italian restaurant serves. Food-companies around the world would jump at the opportunity to use some protected names for stuff and copy them cheaply and they do where they can get away with it already. If the concept a name of smth describes is too fluid the words do not mean anything at some point.

by Anonymous 2 years ago

OP probably orders chicken tendies at every restaurant.

by Anonymous 2 years ago