What is Authentic Asian Food?

Binh and Robyn just brought up an important issue that plagues me -- keeps me worried and up at nights, frankly: What is authenticity in the realm of food?

For example, every once in a while, I get an email from a Vietnamese American asking me if my book, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, offers authentic Vietnamese recipes or Americanized Vietnamese recipes. I don't know what "American Vietnamese" food is about. Are they wanting techniques and ingredients presented from the motherland? Am I inauthentic because I use a 4-burner gas stove instead of a single burner, propane fueled system or a charcoal brazier? Should I sit on a low stool on the floor to do all the prep work? What about the food processor -- one of my favorite appliances? Is that modern convenience inauthentic?

I know what is good and what is bad food to my palate. I wouldn't put forth a recipe that I wouldn't eat or wouldn't proudly present to family and friends.  As a food writer and recipe developer, I try to compromise as little as possible but I also balance that with the need to get people into the kitchen to cook.

In response to such queries, I often ask these folks to elaborate a bit, and one of the responses has been that Americanized Vietnamese food is the overly sweet crud that is dished up in Viet restaurants. Well, my friends, plenty of Vietnamese people prepare and patronize those establishments and they say that the food is cheap but "it's just okay." Why eat it then? Why not demand better? Why not make it yourself. You'll have no one else but yourself to praise or blame.

I'm a stickler for learning the foundations of cooking and of a cuisine before fiddling with it. I'm working on a new book project (not Vietnamese) and in a conversation with a renown Japanese food expert and author Elizabeth Andoh, she mentioned that she avoids the word classic because food is constantly changing.  She instead goes for 'typical' preparations -- what people in the main prepare, how they prepare it.  We didn't even touch on what authenticity is. However, at the end of the day, the food has to taste good and the techniques have to be solid.

Something else that Elizabeth said a few years back that always sticks with me is this (and I paraphrase): Mastering a cuisine is not a birthright. This means that just because you're of a certain ethnicity doesn't mean that you're genetically programed to prepare it well.

Saveur magazine, a food magazine that I write for and am a contributing editor of, has the tagline of "Savor a world of authentic cuisine." So what does that mean? How is authentic cuisine defined? We answer it all the time, for every story, and it changes because it has to do with the subject. At the end of the day, I always define authentic cuisine as one that captures the relationship between people and their food.

If any of you are philosophy types, Jean Paul Satre was a proponent of something called the authentic self -- meaning that you are a true, honest person. Though that authentic self includes the good, bad and ugly, I like to put a positive spin on things by defining authentic food as this: Good tasting food that's well-crafted from someone's heart and soul.

And now, it's your turn!

Some parting thoughts and I await your shots...

• What does authentic food mean to you?
• I just came back from Asia, where I did some serious eating with Robyn and her husband Dave in Kuala Lumpur, where the cuisine is a crazy combination of Asian cuisines that's evolved over centuries. How would you capture authenticity there?
• In Hong Kong, there is instant ramen noodles everywhere for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Is that authentic  Hong Kong fare or merely a trend?
• In our post-modern, reality-TV based world of the Food Network and Top Chef, how authentic is the stuff presented on air?

Comments

[Xander]

I see the term 'authentic' used a lot in food-travel writing, and I always find it kind of questionable. I come at food from a background in anthropology, so I tend to approach cuisine like I approach culture. In anthropology, the idea of 'authentic' cultures has largely been brushed aside. To describe either culture or food as authentic ignores that they are vibrant, always changing. What is authentic Thai food, for example? It's been so influenced by Indian, Chinese, Portuguese, Khmer (etc etc) influences, that you'd be pretty hard-pressed to pick out the 'authentic' core. I think partly the term is used as a way for the author or critic to maintain a sort of authority- to determine what is 'authentic' or 'inauthentic' is a gesture of power. -X

[T H Le]

I think when people say authentic, it is in the favor of the food or the technique that it was cooked. An example is making coq au vin with a stir fry method. The favor would be different because of the technique.

Food evolves with diversity. Viet food has become better, in my opinion, when Viets moved to the USA. The country has allowed introduction of different favors which enhanced and/or improved on taste.

Pho may have it's origins from a French dish, but can we say that pho is non-authentic French? Northern Vietnamese people have transformed pot-au-feu into an Asian dish by pouring pot-au-feu over rice noodles. As the dish moved south, raw veggies was introduced.

I think a good question is...can Vietnamese food be made without fish sauce? If you would replace it with soy sauce or salt, can you call it authentic?

[White On Rice Couple]

Another stimulating post here Andrea, Bravo!
Everyone has made wonderful points, not much left for me to contribute.
I say "Authenticity" is so relative- based on a multitude of factors, all of which have been beautifully clarified here. It sometimes tires me out with all the energy and heated passion that gets put toward this subject. Sometimes people think about it too much. Everyone here makes sense because they speak from their heart, their family traditions, their experience.
All I say is, just remember to give credit(via explanation or comment like Simon Bao says) to it's origins and people. Most people will be satisfied with that. For those who are not, get a life! With that, I'd rather spend the rest of my time cooking and eating!

[JoeDo]

To Mike- Since when was pho French? I fail to see how a dish with all traditional east Asian ingredients and techniques becomes European. The complement of roasted herbs and aromatics is shared throughout the old Viet heartland of Southern China/Vietnam. The liquid is a universal bone broth- used in Asia, in Latin America, Europe and Africa, i.e. everywhere. The hoisin sauce and chili-garlic used to liven the dish aren't authentically Parisian, my friend.
The truth is that no one ever wrote down "I invented pho on the 3rd of May 18--". Go ahead- google in "origin of pho". You'll get a couple of French guys and one Viet guy making the claim that the French invented it. It could very well have its origin in the Viet royal court- among the thousands of dishes created ad hoc at the emperor's whim. This is in fact the origin of Mughal style northen Indian cuisine. There are royal Thai, royal Korean, imperial Chinese foods. Remember it's the richest people in a society that has access to the most ingredients and leisure time. The French only got their groove on when Catherine de Medici brought her Italian flair and chefs with sophisticated techniques to the country after her marriage with the king; before it was merely Germanish (France=Franks, a German tribe) The above mythology is conjecture on my part but the notion that pho is french onion soup in the heart of Asia is simplified, childish and offensive.
I've driven through Vietnam by motorbike from head to tail on the national highway, Quoc Lo 1A and sampled the regional foods the whole way. Have you ever had pho in the northern city of Nam Dinh? Besides being the reputed birthplace of pho, it is also famous in Vietnam (not in America) as the best tasting soup in the whole country. I think they add dill among other spices/herbs. This is "Southern style" by your defintion far north of Hue.
Anyway, the term authentic should not be an ethnic or geographic distinction, but a cultural one. Of course it would be best to know the language of a place- how else are you going to understand the literature and music? Some dishes are authentically Spanish when they show up in novels like the wedding feast scene of Don Quixote. Really Chinese when they show up on banquet plates in Hong Lou Meng or Jin Ping Mei. Culinary authenticity to me entails respect and thorough knowledge of (perhaps including identification with) the people and cultural milieu that made the dish possible. That's not something you can buy in one day at the grocery store. You can't fake it. It's a lifestyle.

[Jack Ko]

The definition of what makes something authentic is complicated and opinionated. So instead I'll venture into what's not authentic. For example, Singapore fried rice noodles does NOT contain curry powder, despite what many asian restaurants in the United States would have you believe. For that matter, you can't just add some fish sauce and call something Vietnamese, and you can't just add soy sauce and call it Chinese. I recognize that people from a certain ethnicity don't universally have great palates and may have their own stylistic takes on classic dishes. However, if you give a bowl of Pho to someone who is straight out of Vietnam, and that person can't identify what it is, then it isn't authentic.

There is a difference between good food and good vietnamese food. Just because I grill a steak with lemongrass and fish sauce doesn't make it vietnamese, it might be good, but it isn't Vietnamese.