Asian cuisine is as diverse as the continent it represents and can be hard to describe considering the complex flavors that make up the food. The history of Asian cuisine tells the story of the empires and trade routes that have, over the centuries, connected the people of Asia, Europe, Africa, and civilizations of the East. The local cuisine today incorporates tastes of China, India, Japan, Singapore, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, and much more. The cuisine has positional flavors; for example, the food in East Asia commonly includes fish. The Burmese combine sweet, sour, and salty flavors, which reflect the cultures of China and India. Southeast Asian cuisine always represents the tropical climate with a rich assortment of fruits and vegetables. Different ingredients and a succession of empires and traders from different parts of the world have influenced it.
Asian cuisine takes influences from several traditions. It states that “every cuisine follows tradition, adapts to modern techniques of cooking, and then goes through a back-to-roots movement.” In spite of the differences, the philosophies of Eastern and Western food are the same in terms of personal choice, happiness, and ever-go-down-the-throat concepts. Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, began to create a national cuisine in the 1970s. Food is a means of expressing hospitality and is one of the most lavish items for the guests, according to the Asian philosophy of eating. When two or more gather in Asian societies, they sit around on the carpet, dine, and interact. Different regions of Asia combine little bits of the tastes of other countries and make distinctive Asian cuisine. Understanding this is important to understanding the foods of Asia.
Key Ingredients in Asian Cooking
Despite divergent food traditions, many of the quintessential ingredients that mainly characterize cooking across the continent and its thousands of staples are strikingly standard. The ubiquity of rice, in Asia, for example, and the prevalence of noodles are the region’s most basic unifiers.
Rice is the dietary basis for most of the continent. Not only is it a core ingredient in cuisines as hyper-regional as those of Iran and Thailand, but most of the world’s population also eats at least 50 percent of its dietary calories from the grain. Noodles are slightly less dominant outside of Asia, but only a little so. And then there are soybeans; there probably is no more important source of cheap protein for a majority of the world’s poor people: minced, curdled, fermented, allowed to rot, dried, pressed, boiled, pulverized, and consumed with every possible grain in every possible meal. Asia specializes in this very wide range of soy products, such as tofu and miso, tempeh, and soy sauce stews. The average pantry contains large and diverse quantities of spices; once chosen for their tight air-locking cheer and their ability to mask the presence of not very good food, many have themselves diminished in their power to cure.
The list also includes balance tamers, such as the wide range of Indian pickles from as far north as Himachal Pradesh to the southern tip of Kerala, where small green chilies and green mango are long-soaked in olive oil. In most of Asia, “sauce” as it is understood in the West scarcely exists: there are chutneys and sambals, sauces that are more adjuncts than seasonings, used sometimes to dollop onto food already on the table and other times to be smeared onto a frying ingredient. The standard “sauce” is soy sauce in Japan and northern China; soy sauce is dribbled over the cooked and uncooked in every stage of preparation. However, milk is used, whether it is cow, yak, or reindeer milk; it is consumed fresh and, in the tropical countries of Asia, also curdled and made into cheese as a means to preserve it. Plant milk behaves similarly.
Regional Cuisines of Asia
Singaporean, Japanese, and Vietnamese cuisine occupy different spaces on the culinary spectrum, but all contain distinctive and regionally set elements. Depending on how wide the spotlight is set, a variety of differences can be found among them. All the same, these cuisines are also marked by how deeply they are entwined with geography and history, and show off to different degrees their connectedness, even while the routes of that connection often point to different geographic regions and periods. Geography encourages people to find proximity with those of similar backgrounds; a heterogeneous space like this can also invite comparisons across ethnic and geographical boundaries. This excerpt acts as a reminder of the regional variation, rather than national uniformity, characteristic of Asian people.
Singapore is a melting pot of people drawn from different parts of Asia: one tongue-in-cheek saying runs that each Asian person living here is willing to compromise on their mother tongue. American industry is coming up with a product that might, however uneasily, be labeled ‘fusion’; there are food writers who, within some limitations, adamantly refuse to refer to any combination of ethnic foods in this country as ‘fusion.’ They do not believe that in America true intercultural fusion can exist, not simply a kind of cultural contamination, but deliberate miscegenation, an attempt to create a new category that transcends old divisions. In my culinary journey through Asia, I came across regional cuisines whose distinctiveness is as pronounced as the national cuisines. This piece looks at cuisines that have developed out of the history and geography of predominantly three countries: Singapore, Japan, and Vietnam. Some ingredients may travel across political lines, relatively unscathed by long distances and colonization; unusual combinations and ways of using them sometimes follow those traces or mutate in local territories. In general, the further people move their bodies and ways of being away from home, the more complex the process of remembering becomes; the more travel grows, the more skewed one’s idea of Asia becomes. It’s the regional cuisines, primal yet hidden in any short overview of a single country or state, that help remind me to taste the specificity of my Asian neighbors from time to time. A particular cuisine evolves partly because of the ways its ingredients pool together, or because of the manner of cooking, or its presentation that can link a whole region.
Chinese Cuisine
Sitting in the heart of Asia, Chinese cuisine is the cornerstone of Asian culinary methodology, incorporating unique flavors and a profound cultural foundation. The inception of Chinese cooking can be traced back thousands of years. It is within the ambit of Chinese tradition that regional flavors are developed by using ingredients and cooking techniques that are indigenous to certain geographic ranges. Chinese food ingredients include rice, beans, vegetables, seafood, and a variety of meats. All these ingredients have their remarkable importance in contributing to a vast array of food, which is highly recommended. Cast as a traditional, humane, and free food culture, the Chinese diet will host people from all over the world. Chinese cuisine has a significant influence on many Asian cuisines, being one of the world’s most popular and influential cuisines. It’s also one of the few bilateral kitchen cultures.
The unique result of the combination of ingredients, seasonings, implements, and techniques is a wide variety of extremely flavorful dishes. In Chinese cooking, it is critical to balance and match the flavors and colors of the dishes. Taste is often influenced by two things: the ingredients of flavor enhancers and the use of texture, the feel of the foods eaten. In Chinese restaurants throughout the world, it is customary to provide the food in the middle of the dining table. In Chinese cooking, the primary cooking methods are steaming and stir-frying. The ancient Chinese legend says that a significant amount of one’s nutrition was destroyed in five minutes, but today’s nutritional expertise thoroughly refutes this. With meat, vegetables, and condiments, these two cooking methods will maintain good flavor and nutrition! Food and diet are imperative, and the hierarchical view of Chinese dinner also underscores the significance of food. China is a country with a massive population, and family get-togethers are very popular.
Japanese Cuisine
In addition to rice, ‘sushi’ is one of the most primitive and popular foods in Japanese cuisine. Although sushi is usually recognized as raw fish on rice, not all sushi can be described as such. As an important ingredient, fish is most commonly seen in sushi and is even addressed as “food from the gods,” paired with major alcoholic drinks. Umami plays a crucial role in understanding the palatability of Japanese food. It refers to a pleasing savory flavor that is traditionally connected with foods rich in umami compounds such as those in fish, seaweed, and shiitake mushrooms. Sushi chefs are a kind of culinary artist who spend years perfecting their craft. The quality of rice is essential for making sushi because it is mixed with vinegar, sugar, and salt to make the rice seasonable. The typical Japanese meal is a well-balanced presentation of color, texture, and taste, using all four taste elements—the sour marinated vegetables or pickles are served as a condiment or as a savor, foods; the salty—rice, soup, and side dish; the umami—soy sauce and dashi stock; and the sweet. The cooking methods used to prepare the typical Japanese meal are many. The most common is grilling, in which the food itself, the flavor of the wood used for the coals, and the salt used for seasoning all give a shared taste enormously. Steaming and boiling, methods that retain the original flavors of the food, are also common. Additionally, because food poisoning caused by raw food occurs infrequently, many Japanese people still eat food in its raw form, such as sushi. Finally, fermented dishes or pickles add a variety of exotic tastes to a meal. In Japan, food is prepared with meticulous attention to detail. The presentation of food on the plate is essential. The entire dining setting is considered in Japan. The colors of the room, the table setting, the elegance and simplicity of the tableware, and even the waiting staff enhance the dining experience. The quality of the space in which food is eaten also plays a significant role in food appreciation: the overall sensory experience of entering a shop, hearing the kitchen sounds, and smelling the food cooking all contribute to one’s experience. There are various types of special dining experiences to enjoy in Japan, such as the traditional multicourse haute cuisine known as “kaiseki” and the traditional Japanese pub— or “izakaya” where friends and colleagues meet after work to eat and drink. Food trends in Japan are also multifaceted, including a strong influence from other Asian cultures on Japanese eating habits, an interest in the use of natural and organic ingredients, and a “fusion” food culture that mixes international traditions and products.
Indian Cuisine
In Indian cooking, complexity is a fundamental principle. Indian cuisine relies on the use of a plethora of aromatic spices, many of which are native to India. Indian dishes are divided into North Indian and South Indian flavors. Iconic dishes include curries, such as rogan josh, dal makhani, butter chicken, biryanis, and Kashmiri pulao, to name just a few. In South India, the main meal preparation is different, and popular dishes include dosas, vadas, idlis, and pongal, to name a few. Preparation methods vary by region. For instance, in the north of India, tasteful tandoori food is common. Sri Lanka also has a cuisine that is influenced by southern Indian cooking. In India, traditional customs and festivals play a significant role in the preparation of many dishes.
Chefs in India are trained to use a wide range of ingredients in numerous combinations. Dishes relating to different regions are characterized by the way these key ingredients are combined. Salad-type dishes are known as kachumbers in the west, served as accompaniments with a main meal in the south. Raw food, including chopped cucumbers, carrots, and onion salad, is known as salads in the west and is usually consumed as a main course meal with boiled potatoes as a side dish. Emphasis is placed on balancing flavors, and methods such as the making of chutneys to serve with the acidic and spicy relishes of pickles help portray the Indian approach to taste and flavor. Refinement of ingredients such as saffron and cardamom produced a unique and harmonious cuisine that reflects a deep historical connection with the origins of spicy flavorings as far back as 3000 B.C., when the preparation of curry was first mentioned in India.
One of the key factors largely shaping Indian culinary practice is vegetarianism. Because of cultural and religious beliefs, the Hindu religion restricts the eating of meat during various fasting periods and on certain days of the week. Being predominantly vegetarian, the consumption of pulses, legumes, vegetables, and cereals is highly ranked. No other country in the world has developed such a wholehearted vegetarian cuisine. Buddhists in India are also vegetarians, and certain parts of India, for example, Gujarat and Rajasthan, are entirely vegan. For many devout Hindus, the cow is a sacred animal and, as a result, is not consumed. The food culture of India is predominantly vegetarian due to the influence of religious beliefs in the country, and this gradually changed while under British rule. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism are the top four religions, of which three are Hindu, coinciding with similar taboo beliefs.
Thai Cuisine
The main characteristics of Thai cuisine, taken as one unit in every region, are well known among people around the world. Thai cuisine is an art in itself because its combinations of flavors and textures are inviting to everyone. Ingredients that always play a significant role in Thai cuisine include fish sauce, the basic seasoning in the country that always makes food aromatic, and lemongrass and various kinds of chilies, which always make food spicy. Eastern Thai style cuisine is a coastal cuisine, and the region’s food, which has a fresh seafood base, is flavored with the influence of local herbs and, in some cases, tropical fruits. Therefore, the balance of flavors, slightly varied to reflect local tastes or agricultural practices, is important. However, ethnic cuisine can still be found in most parts of Thailand. The best known Thai dishes are fairly representative of Thai cuisine; the ones made most famous include pad Thai and the many assorted types of curries. Thai papaya salad, which has come to be known on nearly every street corner in the western world as a Thai street food, is also an example. The food chosen is based on typical Thai dishes that Thai restaurants usually serve to their customers. Social attitudes toward food in Thai society are something that should be attributed to the status of a high-context society. Parties, big and small, are almost always planned as dinners and barbecues, most of them with alcohol, and everybody expects to get their fill and have a good time.
Korean Cuisine
Korean cuisine, often marked by its intense flavors and unique spice base, helps to shape an important part of the Korean cultural identity. Common parts of a meal include rice, as well as kimchi and other pickled vegetables. Fermented foods have long been an important part of the traditional Korean diet, known for aiding in digestion and maintaining proper gut health. One of the most well-known fermented foods, and the basis for this practice, is kimchi. Preparing kimchi for the winter is not only a cultural practice, but it defines a family as one; traditionally, it is seen as a visual sign that a family has come together. Completely fresh offers are rare, as tables in many types of restaurants will offer diners little plates of banchan or side dishes before their meal begins, often for free. This is traditionally meant to be shared between patrons, emblematic of the communal aspect of Korean feasting. Individual dishes, such as bulgogi and bibimbap, are known more widely, but inside Korea, the dishes are made slightly differently from office to office and house to house. Bulgogi is thinly sliced beef that is sweet and spicy, usually marinated for longer than 24 hours before being placed on the grill. Bibimbap is traditionally seen as a mixture of whatever leftovers are in the house, but in practice, it is far more methodical to make. Both use pickled radishes, bean sprouts, sesame, and greens, and mix all of the individual ingredients with gochujang. Bibimbap is also created by placing everything in a hot bowl and letting it get toasted before serving, creating a special crunchy texture. Korean culture has become increasingly popular across the globe in recent years, especially via K-pop and Korean dramas; therefore, people are looking to cook their dishes at home.
Traditional Cooking Techniques
Great distances, diverse climates, different geographical locations, and communication constraints led to different culinary specialties in each part of Asia. While very diverse, the cooking traditions of each of these cultures place food at the center of gustatory pleasure, and a well-prepared meal is proof of hospitality and caring. Traditional methods of food preparation enhance both the nutritional and taste quality of food, albeit in very different ways. Steaming is a classic way of cooking in Asian cultures. Steaming allows the ingredients in the steaming vessel to be moist and succulent. The fire itself does not touch the food. Steaming is seen in all Asian cultures. Different kinds of steaming vessels have evolved. There are flat-bottomed types that can be nested. Steaming equipment has also been designed to be stacked. In northern China, a popular style of steamed bun known as a baozi has three layers. The most delicate, fluffy buns are at the top; the so-so ones are in the middle, and the slightly dense, less tasty ones are at the bottom. Steamed round buns are also popular in Tibet, where they are called mantou. Steaming ingredients inside a wrapping package, such as a banana leaf or a lotus leaf, is also popular. These are not used for cooking a bun per se but for lightly setting a spiced fish or chicken flan. Stir-frying is believed to have been developed as a way of using up the housewife’s daily rations in China. As wagons were scarce, housewives could only purchase exactly what they needed for home cooking. As a result, the housewives would daily pick the handles off their rations and stir-fry a steak or a sack of vegetables. Stir-frying spread across China, and each city developed its own style. The individual city styles have slowly made their way into Chinese commercial cooking, often reflecting the cuisine’s style of stir-fry cooking. Gourmet Cantonese stir-frying incorporates just a little less oil and sauce than Southern Fujian-style dishes. Almost every restaurant in China will serve at least one stir-fried vegetable dish. The region’s favorite is sour and hot cucumber pieces, although eating first and asking questions later is not common in China. Stir-frying is all done with a marinade and oil. When tender foods that have a naturally high oil content, such as fish and chicken, are being stir-fried, some oil is added to avoid sogginess. The oil consists of a few spoonfuls of fat, broth, and soy sauce, and the corn flour is the clincher.
Modern Fusion in Asian Cuisine
There is no unifying “Asian cuisine,” of course. Rather, there is a smorgasbord of culinary traditions often based on regional flavors, ingredients, and influences in countries and cities throughout Asia. To discover the broad world of Asian flavors in just one place or region could be difficult, though increasingly popular. You can now find restaurants that specialize in Asian dishes—no matter how many influences they incorporate—despite no particular area or region to call home. Such intimate bistros and award-winning eateries have largely been born out of big-city settings, attracting attention thanks to hyper-creative chefs who aren’t afraid to merge culinary traditions.
Just because there’s a trend of global fusion within Asian food, don’t be fooled into thinking it’s all completely off the wall. These chefs—many from top culinary training programs—have a unique sense of balance, tipping their hat to tradition while also wanting to leave a lasting impression. Their cooking may include the use of different ingredients, foods, and techniques; using regional flavors and ingredients in new ways, these artisans blur the culinary line between modern and traditional. They’re known for their ability to place China, Japan, and other parts of Asia in a new light for their guests. Popular dishes on modern Asian menus include things like sushi-fusion style dishes, Southeast Asian spring rolls, and classic Thai dishes; the ingredients prepared or used separately to look or taste really unique are sometimes shattered by the new method, though. Trends come and trends go—this is particularly true for the culinary world. In our fast-paced digital age of constant updates and new gadgets, can it really be otherwise? The heart of food culture still exists in these times of globalization, a time when thanks to the technical precision and creative prowess of chefs, international blending and fusion make it all too easy. In kitchen culture, grand traditions still hold sway and, as they always have, skilled chefs can riff on them with respect.