Oriental Food as the Cultural Other Essay

In Coco Fuscos The early(a) History of Interethnical work, he promotes the idea that racial difference is absolutely fundamental to esthetic interpretation patch giving an explanation of how western civilization has viewed the cultural Othermeaning, the so-called primitive people often stumpd as savage and lacking in discipline, civilization and industry (Fusco). From the horse opera side, oriental person nutriment is considered as the Other. The Ameri suffer staple typically consists of processed sustenances that ar readily operable such as pizza and burgers.These western sandwich discuses evoke be tack in almost all major cities and towns of the get together States which hand per practiced a cultural appetite for anything that is ready for consumption. eastern diet for thought, on the other hand, is viewed mostly as an alternative, albeit oftentimes costly, for the average westerlyer (Counihan, p. 58). As with most Asian meals, the principle is to cook food fr om the freshest ingredients available. Typical vegetable dishes atomic number 18 ready exploitation vegetables that be picked fresh whereas seafood meals ar cooked using the freshest fish and seashells for instance.Every food is prep ard c arfully regardless of the period of the process, thereby creating the impression that each serving of oriental person food is a handiwork, so to speak, that send away exactly be rivalled by fast food chains. Although there is hardly any single ingredient that unifies all the end of the oriental person cuisines, there are similarities that can be pointed out. For instance, the Tom Yum dope of Siameseland, a thwack of hot and sour flavours using aromatic herbs, is a mix of spices and leaves of plants that are abundant in the country.As for the more than than(prenominal) customary Thai cuisine, dishes are basically hot and spicy and are prepared using a balance of its five key flavours salty, sweet, sour, spicy and the nonobligato ry bitter flavour. extraneous herbs and spices are preferred over dried ones which is mayhap one reason why Thai dishes school on that decided taste. In annexition to these single unanimous dishes, rice is as well served as use of each meal with the inclusion of fish behave such as nam pla and other complementary dishes. Japanese meals are another example of oriental person cuisine.Perhaps the most fundamental and unique characteristic of most Japanese meals is that each dish is served using raw ingredients. For instance, the popular Japanese food sashimi is raw seafood coupled with a dipping sauce. Aside from seafood, meat can also be prepared raw in Japanese meals such as Basashi, a raw horse meat delicacy. Sushi is also one of the more popular dishes in Japanese cuisine. It basically complicates vegetable, meat and fish which can be rolled inside dried sheets of seaweed or placed over a bowl of rice. Philippine cuisine as an example of oriental dishes also includes ri ce as take leave of the whole course of every meal.However, most Filipino dishes are prepared using the milk from coconuts and the sauce from tomatoes. Examples of these dishes are kaldereta (goat in tomato stew), afritada (beef or pork simmered in chummy tomato sauce) and ginataang manok (chicken in coconut milk). In a way, Philippine and Thai cuisines are similar in the sense that they make use of the ingredients that are naturally found in the surroundings and that these ingredients are harvested and cooked almost the analogous day. There is the preference for everything fresh instead of dried spices, herbs and main ingredients.Fresh fish and meat is also preferred over frozen ones although the survival to make use of the latter is available. More importantly, the techniques involved in preparing these eastern dishes are unique in their own ways. The way Japanese sushi or sashimi is prepared is different from the way Thai tom yum is prepared. And yet while there are differen ces, there are also semblances which seem to concern all these oriental food. Apart from the mountuation that most oriental meals include rice as part of the course, these dishes also include spices and herbs which strengthen their flavours.Westerners who have travelled all the way to the Eastern parts of Asia often discover the strong aroma from oriental person dishes that are distinct from those of Western dishes. It is not surprising that most Americans, for instance, would rather depend on fast food restaurants for their meals. For people living busy lives in the dense urban areas of the joined States, time is a precious commodity that should not be pinched in exchange for sumptuous meals in cosy oriental person restaurants. Moreover, Westerners precisely have a full idea of how to prepare oriental meals for themselves without versed skills or the help from other skilled individuals.The familiarity of preparing oriental person food is simply beyond the inherent or imm ediate environment of Westerners. The fact that not all ingredients for oriental person cuisines are readily available in Western societies adds to the seemingly inaccessible or at least hardly accessible nature of oriental person dishes for Westerners. In general, there are more reasons to believe that Westerners are more inclined to settle for what they have in their immediate surroundings than to learn things outside of their reach as out-of-the-way(prenominal) as cuisines are concerned.What does Oriental food mean? For the most part, Oriental food reflects the culture of Oriental people in many ways. The ingredients employ in these dishes reflect the kind of environment that the people have in which they have no other choice but to survive. Every arrange of vegetable or leaf of plants in each delicacy indicates the available and usually abundant resources in the peoples native land. In effect, the unique ingredients in Oriental dishes create the identity of these dishes that are distinct and altogether different from Western dishes.Moreover, the very presence of these ingredients easily helps in identifying what is Oriental from what is Western. From a Western perspective, these Oriental dishes appear to be entirely different from the food delicacies which they are accustomed to, creating the impression that what is alien to their taste buds, so to speak, are either alien or rare. By attributing these qualities of exoticness and rareness to Oriental dishes in a general manner, Westerners have showed the disposition to suffuse some of the ingredients founds in these dishes into their own meals.Moreover, Western societies have found ways to establish food chains that provide supposedly authorized Oriental dishes in their menus. In the unite States, for instance, numerous restaurants serving Oriental meals have been put-up primarily for profit. Through the profit-seeking motives of business-minded individuals, Oriental dishes in Western markets have been characterized oftentimes as luxury delicacies or alternative dishes to the more predominant pizza, burgers and other Western meals. In contemporary times, the effect is that Oriental dishes are stereotyped as the cultural Other when in equipment casualty of food.The ways in preparing Oriental dishes also reflect the behaviours of individuals and groups in these Oriental regions of Asia. They indicate a performance done in order to create the distinct flavours and tastes of these dishes, the friendship of which has been passed-on from one generation to another. The skills involved in preparing these dishes have been practiced and perfected through the generations of families that have continued the legacy of preparing Oriental food. For them, preparing these meals is nothing but an ordinary routine that has become a part of their line up(a) survival.From the viewpoint of Westerners, Oriental dishes are rarely part of their daily survival or not at all. That is, they can cont inue with their lives redden if they are not able to relish the taste of Oriental food. These meals that are conflicting to Western societies are, in effect, taken for granted or are simply considered as alternative viands to their regular course of Western meals. That attitude reinforces the notion that any plate of Oriental dish is on the button another Other. It can be said that Western societies can unless get as close to so-called authentic Oriental dishes by replicating them through food establishments.Whether consciously aware or not, Western societies are macrocosm outlets for contributing to the notion espoused by Fusco they reinforce the stereotype of the primitive and the Western ability to exert control over and plagiarize knowledge from the primitive world (Fusco). Restaurants in Western societies that feature Oriental dishes are not simply established from almost everywhere in these societies without first studying these culinary delicacies. On the contrary, West erners tend to extract knowledge from such primitive dishes as if Western meals are the bases for identifying a dish as whether a part of civilized world or otherwise. care Fuscos public experimentone that sought to bring into actualisation the often disregarded observation that a substantial portion of the public believed that our fictional identities were real ones as though these beliefs have never been challenged and has sit firmly well in the collective consciousness of the peopleso-called Oriental restaurants in Western societies reinforce the many illusions about Oriental dishes and, more generally, Oriental culture. One of these illusions is the belief that there are Oriental dishes that do not fit well with the palate of Westerners.For instance, there are Oriental delicacies which make use of several animal organs which are rarely used for preparing Western meals. There are even insects that are part of the ordinary Oriental dishes. Westerners tend to develop an aversion t owards Oriental dishes with these animal organs and become branded as either exotic or primitive. The larger consequence of such an aversion, apparently, is an aversion towards the people who take pride in preparing and eating such dishes (Smith, p. 486).Nevertheless, the fact that there are restaurants in Western societies that serve Oriental dishes signify that there are attempts to bring these dishes closer to Western societies even if such attempts are only secondary to the intent to profit. Moreover, a notable characteristic of Oriental restaurants dictated in Western societies is that they slightly redefine the Oriental dishes that they serve in order to attract potential customers and maintain the patronage of the buying public. They add a Western touch, in a manner of speaking, to these foreign dishes.In consequence, Oriental dishes are given the impression that they are alone subjects of Western consumption and can be subject to change depending on the needs of the Wester n clients. To a certain degree, it goes to show a form of cultural subjugation or assimilation that distorts the original nature not only of the dishes but also of the Oriental culture from a Western perspective. The dishes that are presented to the Western public are no longer congregation to the original dishes as they were in Oriental countries.Western societies become unwittingly unaware of the original nature of such dishes, thereby treating their false impressions of these Oriental dishes as the so-called Other. On a personal note, I can say that there is a great deal of knowledge that can be derived from studying Oriental dishes as they serve as windows into the cultural aspects of several Asian countries. An awareness of Oriental dishes in damage of their distinct ingredients and unique methods of preparation can help the Western perspective look beyond that false impression that veils the genuine.If we are able to extend a significant portion of the stories behind each o f these Oriental dishes and the whole array of Oriental food in general, there is a chance that we can gain substantial cultural knowledge of what has been called as the Other (Mintz, p. 104). As the saying goes, you are what you eatif you know what the Other eats, it is likely that you get to know the Other.Works CitedCounihan, Carole M. nourishment Rules in the United States Individualism, Control, and Hierarchy. Anthropological Quarterly 65. 2 (1992) 55-66. Fusco, Coco. The Other History of Intercultural Performance. 1994. November 21 2008. <http//academic. evergreen. edu/curricular/fopa/fopatext/fusco/fusco. pdf>. Mintz, Sidney W. , and Christine M. Du Bois. The Anthropology of Food and Eating. Annual Review of Anthropology 31 (2002) 99-119. Smith, Monica L. The Archaeology of Food Preference. American Anthropologist 108. 3 (2006) 480-93.