I chanced upon this blog: http://www.confinednomad.com/, which is kind of fun and really echoes how diverse and amazing I find New York City to be. It's a great idea for residents here to make a checklist of authentic food from each country and make the experience an adventure. What I don't see in this blog is much reflection on the culture or developmental state of each, a lens which I guess is limited to few to begin with and which they never purported to include anyway. But what they do excel at is discovering and explaining the diversity of cuisine within a single country. I discovered this for the first time when my roommate introduced me to South Indian food, which I am now addicted to and I find far more delicious than its North Indian counterpart. Dining at a Chilean restaurant for the first time also introduced me to new ingredients, like the insanely huge corn kernel that tastes nothing like corn from the Northern Hemisphere.
I kind of laughed when I read the entry on peanut butter in CAR, as I never saw such luxury there. I think if they really wanted to be authentic they would eat manioc (I believe this is the local word for cassava, but I'm not sure) and big fat, fried grubs. NO JOKE. Even the expats had to try the stuff. And sadly, one NGO worker described manioc as having "no nutritional value, smells like sh!t, makes you stupid and gives you gout." Don't even get me started on her.
Don't get me wrong, I love food just as much as the next person. I love the lovely manners of preparation and reliance on certain ingredients like they were familiar chords in your cultural songbook. But there's definitely a contingency of hipster foodies that seem to think that all over the world, people sit in their well-appointed living rooms with clean silverware and china plates with the air conditioning on and just happen to have different items on said plates. I think to not bring in the customs, history and a little bit of sensitivity rather misses the point. Besides, I'm somewhat jealous at how their pure curiosity and missions obtain them all these invitations to people's homes and other otherwise inaccessible places due to their light hearts, empty stomachs and open minds. Or is their open stomachs and empty.. ? Anyhow.. that is my diatribe for the day. =)
