Many people may have misunderstandings about old artists. They always think that foodies like us who travel around the world must have our own pair of predatory eyes.
In fact, this is not the case. I am most afraid of encountering this kind of situation: a friend from thousands of miles away comes to see me, and the first thing he asks when meeting is: You know so much about food, why don't you take me to try the most authentic local food?
This really puts me in trouble. I usually take the initiative to show my hands when encountering this kind of situation. I once tried to go to Lanzhou to find a friend, and insisted that he come with me on a journey to find authentic Lanzhou beef noodles.
△One clear, two white, three green, four red and five yellow are the characteristics of Lanzhou beef noodles, but I can’t tell the difference no matter how I eat it/Tu Chong Creative
The result is guess what? Even my local friends couldn’t tell which beef noodles were authentic. Not only did I not find the taste of authentic beef noodles that I thought of, but it also hurt me in those days.
Since then, I no longer believe in the slogan of "authentic food". because I discovered that the most invisible legend in the world is authenticity.
△Is there a gourmet restaurant downstairs in your house that is known as "authentic XXX"/google map
Whenever I hear comments that the food is not authentic enough and the local ones are called authentic, I laugh: I really need to get more serious. , we can't eat authentic food at all.
Authenticity is a basket
Everything can be put into it
The most inexplicable thing in the world is that I can only understand the indescribable exquisiteness of food. What else is there besides "authentic"?
Words like "authentic" are too common, especially when you travel to a different place. If you walk on almost any street in a scenic spot, there will be more than three gourmet restaurants with the "authentic" flag on their signs.
If you are serious and curious, you may not be able to tell the difference in taste between the "authentic" Goubuli shop on the street and the "authentic time-honored" Goubuli shop at the end of the street.
△There are many time-honored Chinese brands and authentic Goubuli stores/Tu Chong Creative
If you have local friends, they will definitely give you some advice: Don’t believe in the “authenticity” of these scenic food streets. These are all to deceive you foreign tourists. The shops that real locals love to go to are all hidden in the corners of inconspicuous alleys. The ones that are frequented by locals are the authentic ones! Is this really the case with
? But what’s funny is that in those dilapidated old alleys, there are at least two old shops selling the same snacks. They all say that they are the authentic ones, and they compete with each other to see whose ancestors are older and whose family can open the shop better. Earlier.
always brings out the legend of Emperor Qianlong. If he could collect endorsement fees, Emperor Qianlong would beat Internet celebrities in a minute.
△The characteristics of the authentic Tianjin Goubuli, but I can’t tell the difference no matter how I eat it/Tu Chong Creative
I once heard a friend ridicule the authenticity, saying that if it says authentic on the signboard, there is an 80% chance that it is not delicious. of. But in the world of food, authenticity is a very common compliment.
We went to Xiguan Xiaguan with an old man to eat rice rolls in Xiajiu. If you think the taste is bland and want to add some Laoganma or aged vinegar, they will immediately stop you subconsciously: "It's not authentic."
No matter whether it tastes good or not, there will always be people who use it." "Authentic" to emphasize the food. When you really ask him what tastes authentic, he will always use a sense of superiority and a very mysterious tone to say in one sentence: You will know if you eat too much .
△Authentic Cantonese rice rolls, are you talking about Cantonese rice rolls or Chaoshan rice rolls? There is a big difference/google map
If you really encounter regional differences in taste, Chaoshan people will think that beef without Shacha sauce is not authentic. Sichuan people will think that sugar and soy sauce should not be added to bean curd, and chili is the only way to make it authentic.
Even in the same place, authentic Hunan rice noodles are different: Changsha people like to eat flat noodles, Changde people like to eat round noodles. In the eyes of Beijingers, authentic Hunan rice noodles are rice noodles mixed into a ball.
△In Guangdong Yin’s view, Hunan rice noodles all look like Changde rice noodles/Tu Chong Creative
I have no intention of denying the importance of tracing food back to its origins, but I feel more and more that today’s “authentic” has already deviated from tradition. The original intention of the business is more to highlight the authentic and genuine style of the business.
For example, since the "A Bite of China on the Tongue" series made traditional food an instant hit and became popular, Tianjin Pancake Pancake enjoyed the sweetness, so the "Jianbing Pancake Branch" of the Catering Industry Association also came into being. Ersheng uses inherited production techniques to achieve standardized operations for pancakes.
△Tianjin pancake glutinous rice, what do you think is authentic/Tu Chong Creative
This is great, they want the public to identify the authentic brand, and the others are just counterfeit products, but the result is just the opposite.
You can find "authentic pancake dumplings" wherever you go in Tianjin. They are certified as being on the tip of your tongue, but they just taste tasteless. They are well presented, but the taste is not satisfactory. It is not as good as the ones you can find everywhere on the streets in other places. The pancake and glutinous rice stall is very popular.
△The pancake dumplings in Tianjin are not necessarily authentic, and the authentic ones are not necessarily what you like to eat.
Their original intention of maintaining the original appearance of tradition has long been blinded by the interests of establishing authority with authenticity.
discusses what kind of "pancake dumplings" are more authentic and traces back to the ancient method of pancake dumplings. Any pancake filled with vegetables and ham is heresy. Can the so-called "authentic" pancakes really satisfy the tastes of today's people?
△It seems that Tianxia Jianbing is either a heresy or a cult/Screenshot from Weibo
What you are obsessed with is not authenticity, but the legend
Since true authenticity is so difficult to define, why do so many people pursue authenticity and even superstitiously believe in authenticity?
Let’s first take a look at where the word “authentic” comes from. The word "authentic" first came from the sentence "The authentic sect of Shaoxuemen is half of Huilin" in Song Dynasty Chen Shidao's "Invitation to Zen Master Xinghua".
Strictly speaking, this term is generally used to mean direct inheritance in academic circles. In the food world, authenticity means tracing the sectarian inheritance behind the ingredients, techniques, taste, and culture. There is nothing wrong with
. This is a complex of regional identity and origin. People who pursue authenticity believe that there is more emotion behind food than just taste.
In the eyes of many people, the "authentic taste" is the white moonlight in the heart. It may be the food eaten in hometown, wandering in a foreign land, or as the years change, the original taste is lost when you eat this kind of food again. the taste of.
A tip of the tongue director Chen Xiaoqing said: " Good food has roots. " Everyone feels that the original delicacies of their hometown are genuine. Wang Zengqi once wrote about his hometown's Gaoyou duck eggs, saying bluntly " Once upon a time, it was difficult to find water in the sea, and I really looked down on salted duck eggs from other places."
If he were really allowed to try the current Gaoyou duck eggs, he would most likely feel that they tasted different.
△Gaoyou duck eggs are no longer the authentic internal flavor
The paradox lies in this. There is no fixed standard for authenticity in everyone's mind. If authenticity is judged according to the earliest food standards, in fact, what we eat today is not “authentic” at all.
As for a simple Kung Pao Chicken, if we can really trace back to the taste created by the Governor of Sichuan during the Qing Dynasty, the production process, heat and seasoning, and the meat quality of the chicken are all different from those of the past. How much has changed over the past few hundred years? Due to the subtle differences in control, even if the steps are the same, they cannot be completely authentic.
△Kung Pao Chicken, can you taste it authentically? /Tu Chong Creative
In recent years, delicacies have often been labeled with regional labels. In fact, not many people can say whether they are authentic or not -
You can’t say whether Hainan Chicken Rice in Hainan will be more authentic than Singapore ; many People say that the most authentic Northeastern stew is in Hainan, not the Northeast; is the stinky tofu more authentic from Changsha or Taiwan;
△Today’s stinky tofu is stinky just for the sake of being stinky, so stinky that it has no soul/Tu Chong Creative
How can we accept it more? Lanzhou beef noodles are still Lanzhou ramen made by Hualong people; Yangzhou fried rice was originally developed by Fujianese who once served as prefects in Yangzhou; Sichuan Malatang, which is popular all over the country, was actually improved by Northeasterners...
△ Mala It is popular all over the country. How many authentic Malatang can you find? Most of them are "new school" and not "authentic".
In comparison, it seems more appropriate to talk about "authentic" food.
There is a rich and far-reaching regional culture and local customs and habits behind the food. We understand the food, and we can trace the personality and taste of the local people through a simple fried rice. This is an interesting pursuit.
If you insist on the word "authentic", insist on whether the food is authentic or not, and equate "authentic" with "delicious", then there is really no need.
I recall that the most delicious baguette I have ever eaten was not in France but on the streets of Vietnam . The most delicious curry was not in India but in Japan. The most delicious pasta was not in Italy but in New York. The most delicious Vietnam Pho is not in Vietnam but in Houston...
Of course, I also accept the rebuttal. Who said that delicious food has to be in the place of origin? Behind the collision of "unauthentic" may be the taste of hometown brewed by foreigners with delicious food. People feel unexpected surprise.
△Vietnamese baguette tastes no worse than baguette/Tu Chong Creative
Pursuing authenticity
is the biggest misunderstanding of food
Are only Chinese people pursuing authenticity? It’s not that “authentic” has a magical power in the world.
Mr. Liang Wendao once talked about his experience of authentic food in the book "Taste". He found that the National Restaurant Association conducted a large-scale poll a few years ago and found that Americans now taste exotic flavors. When faced with the choice of whether taste or authenticity is more important, most people answered that orthodoxy is more important than delicious food. .
The way they test their orthodoxy is to "go to restaurants where the natives go."
△Foreigners are also superstitious about authenticity/unsplash
Liang Wendao’s question is that although the locals will go to those restaurants, have we seen whether these people feel helpless? After all, they may be choosing among a number of restaurants in other places. of.
Wanting to eat authentic exotic dishes is actually just a kind of psychological satisfaction. Just like traveling, everyone wants to experience the life of the locals during this period of travel.
Modern people feel that what they live is not real life, but a series of meaningless disguises, so we are curious about daily life in other places, and feel that other people's lives are the most "authentic" and meaningful.
△When I go to a different place, I always want to find authentic food/unsplash
In this way, "authentic" is actually more like a symbol of utopia that we long to escape from reality. It lies in the pursuit of the meaning of the ritual rather than itself.
If we really want to make food authentic, we are just looking at everything in the world from the vantage point of personal and local traditions, which deviates a bit from the true taste of food.
The real food culture lies in the core of diversified integration, and there is no sense of superiority about which one is better.
△The charm of Singapore’s food stalls lies in the coexistence of diversity/unsplash
To eat Japanese food, you must use your hands instead of chopsticks. When eating claypot rice, you must use soy sauce instead of soy sauce paste. When eating, you must use chopsticks instead of a spoon. You must first Eat around and then eat in the middle...
Once these fixed "authentic" authorities are solidified into formulas, they have long since deviated from the deliciousness of the food itself, as well as our true experience of deliciousness.
There is a food documentary in the Netflix series "Ugly Delicious" which is very interesting. Compared to simply filming food, it is more like a deviant but interesting documentary.
explores the stereotypes and racial issues behind food, as well as deeper thoughts on the authority and prejudice hidden behind "authenticity". Is the authenticity of
so important? Just like a simple pizza, Americans and Italians eating pizza are completely different things.
△The solemn Chairman of the Orthodox Pizza Committee is provocative towards the United States in his words/Video screenshot
If we really follow what the upright "Orthodox Neapolitan Pizza Certification Committee" says, authentic pizza must use Neapolitan flour and Italian cherry tomatoes. Italian mozzarella cheese cooked with basil leaves.
There are too many rules for authentic pizza, and the proportion of rolled edges must be consistent. Many people regard adding pineapple and chicken as heresy.
△Many local people say that pizza with pineapple and chicken is heresy/Video screenshot
Authentic Neapolitan pizza is delicious, but for different countries and regions, only the right one is the most delicious.
If we were in the United States, if we stuck to the authentic cooking method, the cheese transported long distances from Italy would be stale. In Tokyo, Japan, some chefs also made delicious Japanese pizza using mustard + tuna.
△This Tokyo chef uses local sushi methods to prepare pizza, adding tuna and wasabi/Video screenshot
They just use local ingredients to make pizza that meets the tastes of locals. Isn’t this kind of food that conforms to the geo-culture more worthwhile? Do you recommend it?
Compared with the standards of DOC or DOP certification, isn’t delicious food the most important and core requirement of a gourmet meal?
Among them, the immigrant chef David Chang said something in the program that impressed me deeply -
"I feel that authenticity is like a state of totalitarianism, an over-praised concept, but it has not been criticized. Enough supervision. It’s not that I hate authenticity, what I hate is that people only pursue authenticity.”
This is exactly what they bring to the audience: if they insist on authenticity, will they lose innovation, and if they propose changes, will they lose it? Fighting against tradition?
A delicacy is not just like a standardized component produced on an assembly line. It is alive in itself. Behind it are the customs of a place, the stories and experiences behind the cook, and the final blend of flavors.
When we use the word "authentic" to describe food in one word, it is actually a simple, crude, and soulless conclusion.
△ There is a history of humiliation behind African Americans making fried chicken in the United States, but perhaps this is the most sincere interpretation/video screenshot
If we really want to simplify the complex, does it really matter whether the food is authentic or not? Pretense is never as good as the real thing.
I am reminded of the words of Ip Man in the movie "The Grandmaster" which are somewhat similar to each other -
"Don't tell me how deep your kung fu is, how powerful your master is, how many minions there are in your sect. To me, Martial arts belongs to Datong. In the end, there are only two words, one horizontal and one vertical. Wrong, only those who are lying down are qualified to speak. Is this right? "
△ No matter whether it is an authentic sect or not, kung fu comes down to it. What you are looking at is strength/movie screenshots
Food is also from Datong. Regarding this ever-changing principle, everyone has already had wisdom about real food.
Someone once asked Mr. Chua Lan, "When traveling to a certain place, how do you judge whether the food is authentic?"
He replied lazily: "If you think it tastes delicious, just treat it as authentic."
It really needs to be simple and crude. It's better to say it's authentic than delicious.
