Maybe This Is Why We (I) (She?) Cook With Authenticity

[mongo_jones]

as i note somewhere in my twitter thread, what she's probably centrally trying to say is that americans need to de-familiarize/de-center their usual approaches when trying to cook new-to-them cuisines. but it gets mixed up with a lot of other half-baked stuff.

[voyager]

6 minutes ago, mongo_jones said:

yes, this is a very liberal, american train of thought. in india, for example, the food of other cultures gets indianized without a second thought and no one worries that they are not learning about america by putting tandoori chicken on doughy pizza.

 

4 minutes ago, mongo_jones said:

as i note somewhere in my twitter thread, what she's probably centrally trying to say is that americans need to de-familiarize/de-center their usual approaches when trying to cook new-to-them cuisines. but it gets mixed up with a lot of other half-baked stuff.

Bingo.

[Sneakeater]

Yeah, bingo.

[Sneakeater]

And just to own up, I wouldn't have presumed to make tonight's Erotic Beef if I hadn't come into some A5 beef from Hokkaido.  But that's because there isn't a local equivalent of that.

Also, I might as well admit that the chef's "secret ingredient" of doubanjiang was much better than the sambal I swapped in last week when I didn't have any doubanjiang.  But I don't think you can blame me for trying.  (OTOH, I'm never giving up my "tweak" of adding some Shichimi Togarashi, which as far as I'm concerned adds a delicious punch as well as added complexity.)

[Sneakeater]

(I guess I might also note that doubanjiang isn't Japanese.  So is this Japanese dish "inauthentic"?)

(BTW, I ended up using the Japanese-made doubanjiang, for those who are dying to know.)

[Sneakeater]

1 hour ago, mongo_jones said:

as i note somewhere in my twitter thread, what she's probably centrally trying to say is that americans need to de-familiarize/de-center their usual approaches when trying to cook new-to-them cuisines. but it gets mixed up with a lot of other half-baked stuff.

But then you also have restaurants like Indian Accent that become very very famous by applying French techniques to (in that case) Indian cuisine.

[mongo_jones]

i don't know that what restaurants do is very germane to her argument, such as it is.

[Sneakeater]

Of course you're absolutely right.

[Sneakeater]

I mean, that's key even.

Because that's actually my point:  things I'd never accept in a restaurant I absolutely expect from home cooking.

[joethefoodie]

What I find sad here, mostly, is that many can't find a little fun in the article. But I guess that shouldn't surprise me. 

When I pull a cookbook off the shelf, let's say a Fuschia Dunlop book, my hope is that it does teach me a little, does transport me (especially NOW) to that culture, for at least the time I'm reading the book, perhaps preparing a recipe from said book, and then enjoying the food - oh, this is how it might taste to a home cook in Chengdu. And yeah, I think using Szechuan chilies as opposed to say, Hatch chilies, makes a big difference.  

13 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

Genevieve Ko is a trained cook and she didn't know it's best to salt beans only after they've become tender???????????????????

My soak of beans is a brine and I always salt beans when they start cooking.

12 hours ago, Orik said:

In matters of erotic beef there can be no dispute.

And yes, that sentence about beans was funny, but I read that the cool kids brine their beans now, so who knows.

My soak of beans is a brine and I always salt beans when they start cooking. 

Sometimes it's fun to not see the trees through the forest - but I'm sure I'm an outlier; I'm not a professor, nor a lawyer, nor a food purveryor; just a shitty old home cook.

[Maison Rustique]

I guess I can't call my instant cream of rice cereal with sriracha on it congee any more. Dang! 🤣

[Anthony Bonner]

I thought the salting beans = tough thing was mostly debunked

[Orik]

I think it's just acidity that will actually increase cooking time, but in some cases (esp. in thinner skinned beans) adding too much salt will increase the tendency of beans to burst early in the cooking, thereby resulting in non-uniform cooking and a seemingly longer cooking time (because hey, I tasted one bean and it's done but that other one there isn't). Brining supposedly fixes that*, although for me the texture is still best in just water and the sauce is where salt and spices live.

 

* I understand why it would but I've had so many poorly cooked beans at places that I'm sure would buy into brining that I'm skeptical.

 

[Orik]

13 hours ago, mongo_jones said:

as i note somewhere in my twitter thread, what she's probably centrally trying to say is that americans need to de-familiarize/de-center their usual approaches when trying to cook new-to-them cuisines. but it gets mixed up with a lot of other half-baked stuff.

Right, I just don't think most Americans have a usual approach from which to de-center. Also it's ironic that the dish of white beans in tomato sauce she produced ends up showing she does have one, and imposes it on a recipe even while trying not to do so. 

[joethefoodie]

1 hour ago, Anthony Bonner said:

I thought the salting beans = tough thing was mostly debunked

I think this is true.

32 minutes ago, Orik said:

I think it's just acidity that will actually increase cooking time, but in some cases (esp. in thinner skinned beans) adding too much salt will increase the tendency of beans to burst early in the cooking, thereby resulting in non-uniform cooking and a seemingly longer cooking time (because hey, I tasted one bean and it's done but that other one there isn't). Brining supposedly fixes that*, although for me the texture is still best in just water and the sauce is where salt and spices live.

 

* I understand why it would but I've had so many poorly cooked beans at places that I'm sure would buy into brining that I'm skeptical.

 

I also think this is true. The beans I read the most about NOT soaking are the black beans.