299412 Thu Dec 09 13:18:53 -0800 2004 11 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1658697 Can anyone help me with some cuisine terms. A website, book, etc. might help. For example, I've been seeing the term "fusion" a lot as in Latin Fusion, Japanese Suchi & Fusion. Does this mean a blending of various foods? I thought that was eclectic. Also, we are trying to figure out the difference between American, New American & Americana. Other questions come to mind such as: what's the difference between soul food & home-style food. They seem exactly the same to me. Thanks in advance for any responses. Thu Dec 09 13:18:53 -0800 2004 0 Sam the Sham 1 1658700 To me, fusion means "AVOID." All too often, it's a take on an ethnic cuisine for people reluctant to go for the real thing, and typically is priced much higher. Nothing wrong with borrowing and mixing flavors and ingredients, of course, but the places that are self-consciously "fusion" haven't been listening to the wise words of the Denver food writer (whose name I've forgotten) who said "If you are going to bastardize a cuisine, it helps to take it somewhere where nobody knows the parents." Link: http://eatingchinese.org Thu Dec 09 13:42:16 -0800 2004 1658697 0 Gary Soup 1 1658702 Well fusion is combining two atoms to make a new atom different then the original. So applied to food, it is taking the food and/or techniques of two cultures and combining them to make something new. Traditionalists find this horrifying, I am willing to let the food stand on its own merits or lack thereof. But unless you are eating unseasoned, locally gathered wild game, berries and tubers cooked over an open fire, at some time in the past someone fused something together. As for the differences between food being marketed as eclectic, fusion, American or New American this isn't Europe; you can call it whatever you want without the gov't inspector closing you down for making a speciality outside its designated region and precisely defined ingredients. The lack of good definitions is annoying, but it can make things fun. I would say that soul-food is a subcategory of home-style. Thu Dec 09 14:02:12 -0800 2004 1658697 0 muD 1 1658708 I think eclectic means a menu with an assortment of cuisines represented, sushi and pizza for example. Fusion blends two cuisines and gives you - sushi pizza! American would be something like pan-fried pork chops, corn on the cob, and applesauce. New American cuts the corn off the cob, balances the chop on top, and reduces the apples to a glaze swirled on the edge of the plate. Not sure about Americana - maybe just the classics like shortcake, apple pie, and burgers, the sentimental stuff. Home-style is the way your grandma made it or what we used to see in diners but soul food is specifically the food of the South, and particularly that of the black culture that arose out of slavery and poverty. Thu Dec 09 14:25:48 -0800 2004 1658697 0 suzannapilaf 2 1658709 Great explanations! Thu Dec 09 14:43:30 -0800 2004 1658708 0 k. gerstenberger 2 1658712 Americana is the same as American, but costing twice as much and served in a kitchy (theme) place. Thu Dec 09 15:42:48 -0800 2004 1658708 0 mod'ern 2 1658713 Yeah, you summed it up nicely! Thu Dec 09 16:00:30 -0800 2004 1658708 0 Larry Dallas 2 1658718 Great definitions! To add my 2 cents: Fusion can be a merging of very disparate cuisines (like sushi pizza) or of related but distinct cuisines titled under an umbrella term (such as Latin fusion). When I think of fusion, it extends beyond mere ingredients--I consider cooking technique and presentation of food. There seemed to be a period in the US when fusion restaurants were hot, whereas now some people (including myself) bristle or at least take caution when we hear that term. When done well, fusion food can range from eye-opening to transcendental IMO. An example of a good product of inter-culinary marriage is French-Vietnamese food, which seems natural and steeped in tradition and history (not just the whim of some young punk rock chef). Re: "Americana", I associate that as a label used by places outside of the Midwest to describe down-home food from the Midwest in order for coastal urban clientele to deem as hip, retro-chic. This is all very interesting culturally... Ultimately, these terms are a bit arbitrary for me b/c if I'm eating good food, I don't really care if it's called "old shoe"...just tell me after I've taken my first bite. Thu Dec 09 16:46:23 -0800 2004 1658708 0 Carb Lover 1 1658714 "Fusion" usually (and originally, as far as I know) means "A ingredients prepared in a B style" or "B ingredients prepared in an A style." For "east-west fusion," that would be "Asian ingredients prepared in a Western style" or "Western ingredients prepared in an Asian style" (almost always the former). For example, Japanese ingredients prepared in a French style. When done properly, you get excellent results -- and there are still places that do "fusion" well (in my limited experience, these are on the West Coast -- one example was "Ma Tante Sumi" in S.F., which did French/Japanese fusion -- not sure if it still exists). The term could also foreseeably be used to refer to other ways of combining two cuisines, hopefully in a way that produces creative, well thought-out, and harmonious results. The problem is that many restaurants use "fusion" as a marketing tool and really don't take it seriously or put much thought/creativity into their food at all, thereby sullying the good name of real "fusion." For example, some just use the term to mean a thoughtless mish-mash of, e.g., Chinese, Vietnamese, and Japanese cuisines -- succeeding in ruining all of them. Others just mean that the menu includes dishes whose ethnic origins lie in various places in the world -- all of the dishes poorly executed. So I agree with Gary Soup in that regard -- the vast majority of "fusion" you'll find sucks (but, in my opinion, that's usually because it's not really "fusion"). One glaring example of this misnamed "fusion" for marketing purposes is "Spices" in Washington, DC -- you can usually tell beforehand by the cheesy name. When "fusion" is used to refer to other cuisines (e.g., "pan-Latin," "Latin-Asian"), I have yet to find a single well-executed example (see "Citrus" on Manhattan's Upper West Side, which claims to be "Latin-Asian" cuisine). Thu Dec 09 16:00:58 -0800 2004 1658697 0 Reece 1 1658730 New American is the broader name for the style that was called California Cuisine. However, when chefs used the California Cuisine style in New Jersey, obviously they couldn't refer to it as CC, so they came up with the name New American. The name is around 20 years old. It's defined as using local, seasonal ingredients in odd combinations. Thu Dec 09 19:54:53 -0800 2004 1658697 0 Kevin in SF 2 1658732 It's too bad you can't edit these posts after the fact... Anyway, Soul Food is quite different than "home-style" food. To my knowledge, "home-style" is a generic, pretty meaningless term, probably refering loosely to peasant food or family-style, depending on who's saying it and what they're trying to sell you. Soul Food is the classic Southern (American south) African-American style of cooking, which shares a lot in common with traditional Southern cooking. Soul Food could be defined as a fusion between old world African cooking and New World ingredients. It should also be noted that it's evolution came about because black people were enslaved for so long, and often the only foods available to them were of a lesser quality, thus the eating of chitterlings and ham hocks. Often black Southern cooking fused with Native American cooking and this also has an influence on Soul Food. Like with a lot of black culture, there was crossover to the poor white community who adopted many of the dishes like cornbread as part of their culinary heritage, so often now what you see referred to as Soul Food, is also basic Southern Food. For example collared greens (and eating them on New Year's Day), black eyed peas, succotash, cornbread, grits...I'm probably overlooking a lot. Thu Dec 09 20:11:03 -0800 2004 1658730 0 Kevin in SF 1 1658822 Fusion I believe came about with the passing of Nouvelle Cuisine and the arrival of the jet age (and cheap travel as well as the end of the Vietnamese War). NC rejuvenated a lot of jaded palates and chefs into thinking about food again. At the same time increased travel meaning that more and more people were being exposed to different food and cultures. NC had some rules though and being a French revolution (that did create a rebirth of food here in the U.S. -- witness what Alice Waters did for restaurant food during the NC wave), NC played out. But the interest in food continued. Fusion is really a California product. We were getting alot of Asian influences and emigration and there were all these culinary school graduates who wanted to be the next Bocuse. So people started to marry all sorts of ingredients. But with Fusion there are no rules to guide you. It is the heavy metal approach to culinary composition. Unfortunately fusion became synonomous with bad food. Fusion requires intelligent pairings. You have to think about what you are doing and ask if that fits. And that means understanding the culture of the original recipe. There is more to risotto than rice and stock. There is a rich history and it would be a mistake to diss that history by making a mishmash of a classic like risotto. So there are chefs out there creating startlingly good fusion dishes. Odds are they aren't labeling it Fusion, but good chefs continue to make good food. And they get ideas from everywhere. Sun Dec 12 01:39:05 -0800 2004 1658697 0 Food Tyrant