On Fri, 28 Nov 2003 10:40:01 +0100, Ian Hoare
wrote:

Salut/Hi Frogleg,
le/on Thu, 27 Nov 2003 15:08:56 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

*is* a large topic for discussion. However,... should I be denied
cooking or tasting Vietnamese or Chinese or Italian or Mexican food in
the US simply because I don't travel to Vietnam or China or Italy or
Mexico? I *know* it's going to be different

No, but you should be aware that what you're eating is vastly different.
Better perhaps in some respects, less good in others.

OK. I know it. It still doesn't mean that 'ethnic' food (home cooking
or restaurant) should be distained as "watered-down" (not your words,
but another poster's). I expect by now that *all* of world cuisine is
far different than it was 20, 50, 100, 1000 years ago. Does it include
chiles, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, or corn? Clearly either fusion
(OK) or adaptation/adoption (non-authentic). That is, away from the
Americas. I'm perfectly willing to believe there are in-situ dishes I
might enjoy more than what Thai Garden or Mama's Cocina has on the
menu. OTOH, when Thai Garden's owner/cook is delighted to "adapt" to
plentiful supplies of tender beef, local fish, and veg/fruit, I don't
think it's outrageous to say "ummm. Good! I *like* Thai food."

Well, I'm *not* someone paid to travel for food or any other purpose.

Neither am I, but I'm sufficiently interested in it to have been prepared to
put aside all the money from ou B&B for two years, so that I _could_ find
out for myself.

This is a pretty exclusionary view. Good for you, if you enjoy and can
afford travel and pursuing your culinary interests. However, *don't*
feel free to rain on my parade when I 'discover' Ethiopian cuisine in
a DC restaurant or delight in my first green papaya salad. Don't tell
me what I eat and enjoy is crap, and I really *must* go to New Delhi
to taste *real* curried shrimp or Jakarta for rijstafel.

all, but certainly cheeses (all the best French Cheeses are made with raw
milk, and as such are banned in the States). meat products and many
vegetables.

We are certainly deficient in cheese. The EU also bans unpasturized
cheese, more's the pity.

This is the error of fact that I want to correct. I don't know WHERE you got
that idea, but it's entirely incorrect. All the cheeses I serve at my table
are made from raw milk, and none are produced or bought illegally or via the
back door.

Where I got the idea was the BBC sitcom 'Chef!' in which Lenny Henry
appears to have a great deal of trouble obtaining a genuine,
unpasteurized Stilton. It appears that while the US is waay too picky
about cheese, the EU may be following suit in some areas. Hold onto
that cheese, boyo. BTW, I made my own soft cheese (easy) from
unpasteurized goats' milk. Am I authentic?

But many French dishes were devised to make fairly marginal meat cuts into something edible.

It'sa certainly true that the genius of French cooking (which it shares with
Chinese, by the way) is that over the years it has evolved recipes which
convert relatively unpromising raw materials into soimething truly
delightful. Take Coq au vin. A 3-4 year old rooster that has strutted his
stuff in liberty is going to be a pretty tough bit of meat.

Congrats to the French. There are pigs' feet and ears in my local
grocery stores which have, presumably, been made palatable to many
with traditional recipes. And I betcha 98 out of 100 ear purchasers
would be delighted to see a nice ham plopped down on their doorstep
instead. If you won't try and tempt me with aged fowl, I won't invite
you to try pigs' feet. (Which I never have.)

snip labor/time intensive recipe to make an old rooster into a meal

But that doesn't stop the result being pale imitations. Try - just once -
making a proper tagliatelli alla carbonara with real home made pasta, real
free range eggs, real italian pancetta and real stravecchio parmigiano
reggiano. I did, and was converted from disliking pasta to adoring it.

One recipe, among all the thousands of varieties of pasta dishes, is
acceptable to you? And *I'm* provincial?!

I didn't say that. But when you try the real thing, you realise just how
pallid the substitutions have made it.

I'm not much of an egg eater, and 'free range' eggs aren't available
within 15 miles or so. I *do* occasionally make my own pasta. Can and
have bought some pretty classy parmigiano reggiano. Virginia 'country'
ham is considered quite the equal of prosciutto (which I realize is
different from pancetta. There's plenty of bacon around here, too.) I
just don't see how Parma has the patent on the *only* way to make
pasta with bacon and eggs. And that every similar recipe is inferior.

asparagus with egg sauce ($18) and "mingling with the sexy,
hip crowd"
(http://www.myriadrestaurantgroup.com...obu%20Main.htm)
is authentic?

I've not followed the link, but all cuisines are capable of excess and not
all cuisines are uniformly successful.

You were the one who mentioned Nobu.

In fact all creative invention (art,
literature, music, cooking) is likely to produce somewhere between 80% and
95% dross. Time alone will tell whether any particular invention is genius
or dross. I don't, not by any manner of means, allow myself to be hypnotised
the the glamour element in any cooking style, no matter how popular or how
well written up. All I said, and stand by, is that the compromise that
substitutes a battery broiler for a rooster bears no relationship in
creativity, to the creation of a dish using eastern ingredients and western
cooking techniques (or the other way round) by someone who has spent his
whole life tasting and judging severely her culinary creations.

Nice for you. I don't doubt your experience and delight. Just don't
tell me my *own* delight is inferior. I *know* a supermarket pineapple
isn't the same as what's on the breakfast table in Hawaii (which I
*have* sampled). But it's pretty damn good. And I'm happy to be able
to buy one. If a Vietnamese restaurant opens in my town, I go. I don't
say, "oh, well. This isn't as good (or bad?) as food in Vietnam.
Sigh." I say, "wow! This tastes terrific." I don't feel punished by
not having aged roosters available. I'm not sophisticated enough to
appreciate many of the fine distinctions. Just let me enjoy spicing
with lemon grass and cilantro, making my own (adaptive, probably
inferior) red chile sauce, and chicken broth. And visits to
non-authentic restaurants.