Fusion and Experimental

This is also a fortnight late, due to a lack of interesting eating.

This weekend is a little better, but I am not tlaking about what I ate this week.

What I want to talk about is fusion. That wonderful, to me at least, moment when ingredients from two cultures merge together.

As a lot of you are aware, I love mixing flavours together, especially chili and something else. I also love eating any food that was inspired by a flavour or dish from a culture different to the one the chef was from. Sometimes we don’t know even know this has happened. There have been a few things I have eaten thinking they were Korean, only to find out they were Korean/Chinese fusions, or a western inspired korean dish.

Recently I went to Madtongsan for lunch, and was informed by one of the people I work with that while it is mainly Korean, it is Korean fused with Chinese and Western food.

Come to think of it, unless someone points it out to me, a lot of the time I wouldn’t know what food was fusion and what wasn’t.

I should take the time to point out to things, also known as stalling. Firstly, there is nothing wrong with fusion, professional or otherwise. A lot of great flavour combinations have not been around as long as some people may believe. Secondly, fusion has been happening for a very long time, but this is not a history lesson and you have access to a search engine.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way. My favourite version of fusion is also possibly called home experimentation.

HOME EXPERIMENTATION YAY

This is the point at which you look at the hot cross bun, the ham, the cheese and the mustard, and think “YES!! this will taste awesome”.

It occurs to me that there may be a definition of fusion in regards to food.

There is, it’s kind of vague, so on with the experimental food waflling.

Maybe throw in sriracha or wasabi though with the ham and cheese hot cross bun.

Back on track. Honest.

I am a fan of fusions of my own creation. By this I mean, I came up with them by myself but I am pretty sure there would be other people with similar taste buds out there. My favourite of these is Waffles,vanilla ice cream, berry jus/compote, bacon (this whole part is Lady Marmalade’s, and probably a few other places) and sriracha (this bit was my doing, encouraged by people who liked the idea but weren’t game to try it). I would like to point out I am aware that fusion doesn’t just mean adding sriracha to things. Add vegemite to your stir fry, just a little though because it makes a pretty strong stock. Try adding miso to your gravy, I have had this and like it but I am aware it is not for everyone. I don’t think a nutella and ham sandwich counts as fusion, but it certainly was experimental and tasty. The possibilities are endless.

Some of us probably do it all the time without thinking about it in more subtle ways, adding spices from one region to dishes from another or using meats or plants in a dish that normally aren’t from the region that dish is from. My all time favourite fried rice is my mum’s. She sometimes makes it with cut up frankfurters in it, there are times she has made it without but this is my favourite.

Eating Out

A lot of the time I have eaten at places I didn’t know were fusion places, some had dishes they would say were a fusion of different regional food in the menu but wouldn’t say they were a fusion restaurant. I am also not familiar enough with some places to be able to say if something is fusion or not. Take Junk for example, it says it is a mix of different types of street food. I don’t know enough about the places to know which dish is just from that region and which is a fusion of a few different regions. I also don’t really care, as I love the food in the Coorparoo store regardless.

I would love to see a German Japanese fusion place. I’ve no idea which way you would take that. Sauerkraut and miso? Japanese curry with chickenwurst instead of fried chicken? Oh, how about pork knuckle curry. I am making myself drool here. Who is willing to make this happen with me? I have no idea howm but it will taste incredible.

 

Ok, I am keeping this short this week, for a reason. Aside from making myself drool on the keyboard, again.

Here is the challenge. Come up with experimental or fusion ideas that you have not been brave enough to try and put them in the comments or message me. I will give them a shot, if I haven’t already. The more bizarre the better, but it has to be food, and I’d prefer it if it is something you genuinely wanted to try and were not brave enough to eat.