Spicy

In this first instalment of my discussion of the Salty, Sweet, Spicy and Sour concept, I will be looking at the flavour spicy. I have a real thing for spicy at the moment, but I supposed that I have always been exposed to spice in one shape or form. So, in keeping with my favourite topic of identity, how does spice help people express their identity through their food? Here in Australia, spice is everywhere. Our cuisine is heavily influenced by the flavours of South East Asia. I am often reminded of this when I look at my Donna Hay magazines and reflect on my regular visits to Gourmet Traveller online. The South East Asian influence on our cuisine is particular apparent in segments which feature quick and healthy meals. The combination of fresh produce, plus the Salty, Sweet, Spicy and Sour flavour components are a favourite of many. Growing up, I was pretty exposed to different cuisines. My mum wasn't afraid to add a little or a lot of spice into her food, whether it was her Stroganoff with extra cayenne pepper, the Indonesian spicy soup she cooks from the Charmaine Solomon cookbook bible (still a favourite with my sister) or the Hot Tamale Pie recipe that she got from a family friend - and I think is still on the original piece of brown paper! With the changing population of Australia, that's not really a surprise that we are heavily influenced by different cuisines, but what is of interest to me is the way in which these flavour combinations were originally interpreted in Australia when they were first introduced to a widely European palate. I am thinking particularly of Chinese cuisine and how seemingly normal Chinese dishes in Australian standards are nothing like the cuisine in China itself. This became glaringly obvious when I visited my mum in China in 2008 where I indulged my obsession for dumplings.

Chinese communities have been in Australia since the 1850s, when the lure of the gold fields brought them here away from social and economic problems in China. So Chinese cuisine is not at all new for Australians, but for now I will be focusing on the type of Cantonese cuisine which was the norm in Australia in the 90s when I was growing up. This was epitomised by stir-fries and chop suey and Sweet and Sour sauce. Most of these dishes were normally not particularly spicy, and had been altered to fit into European palate. During my visit to China I was really interested in the separation of protein (particularly meat) and vegetables into separate dishes. So unlike the dishes served here in the 1990s where meat and vegetable are usually served together.

This makes me think of an paper that I was reading recently with regards to Indian food in England, Eating Cultures: Incorporation, Identity and Indian Food by Uma Narayan (chapter 5 of her book Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third World Feminism). In this chapter Uma argues that food is linked to idea's of identity and symbolic meaning, but what caught my interest was her argument that curry powder is a 'fabricated entity'. By this she means that curry powder was invented by the English to represent their perception of India and Indian culture. I find the exploration of Indian curries really fascinating as if you look at the dishes cooked at home in India, they are quite different from dishes cooked in Indian Restaurants in England (think of the quintessential Vindaloo). This is really not unlike Chinese restaurants in Australia and the Anglicised dishes offered, particularly in the 90s and to a lessening degree now. I still remember the Women's Weekly Chinese cook book that my mum had, it was packed off to a charity shop a long time ago, but from memory its recipes were not really representative of Chinese cuisine. It also makes me think of things like Kan Tong bottled sauces, which are totally manufactured in both taste and identity. Like the concept of curry powder these sauces are a 'fabricated entity', both literately and figuratively. The thing about both of these consumer items is that their existence totally counteracts the identity of the cuisine of a country. Food identity isn’t just about making something to eat, it’s about creating sauces and powder mixes from scratch, tasting for balance of flavours and respecting the traditions that created that cuisine. These spices and sauces are integral to community making through cooking for family and friends and expression of identity through the passing on recipes. Using a bottled sauce for a 'Chinese' dish, although convenient, doesn't fulfil any of these requirements which are the foundations for an expression of cultural and individual identity.