East Asian Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico
Perhaps more than anyone I’ve ever met, my Singaporean friend Ming Lee (God rest his beautiful soul) regarded people by the content of their character, not by physical characteristics. So, it surprised me to hear him joke “we all look alike.” It was an unsolicited admission that even he couldn’t always discern the cultural genesis of Asian people he met. He also joked “at least I can always tell where an Asian restaurant’s food comes from.” Ming was a bona fide gastronome who introduced me to the cuisine of Singapore and Malaysia. Like me, he disliked restaurants in which overt homogenization of Asian food was apparent. Sure, different culinary cultures across Southeast Asia have borrowed from one another over the millenia, but most adapt to cultural tastes rather than copy exactly. Ming was wary of Asian restaurants that purported to serve the cuisine of more than one Southeast Asian nation. To him, the concepts of global cuisine and multicultural restaurants “dumbed down” what is best about each culinary culture. We disagreed on the concept of fusion cuisine, the blending of elements from different cultures, creating new dishes that offer several cultures on a plate. I like the concept when executed…
