[Sca-cooks] furign foods

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Stefan li Rous:
>'Lainie said:
>>  I do have a food question though, and it may be semi-related. What's the
>>  deal with presenting dishes as 'foreign' when they really aren't? Icelandic
>>  chicken, which isn't Icelandic, is the example that immediately comes to
>>  mind. Modernly there are thigns like the 'Spanish' rice that my mother used
>>  to make, which isn't Spanish. Is there some hallmark ingredient or
>>  technique that makes us call them different? Or something else?
>
>You mean like "French Fries"? Or "Mongolian BBQ"?
>
>Actually, I think the Icelandic Chicken may have gotten it's name
>when the manuscript may have thought to have originated in Iceland.

I think, though, that 'Lainie is talking more about some exotic
cachet attached to foods allegedly foreign.

Me, I really have to wonder about both Tartar Sauce -- yeah, you
should _see_ those Central Asian horsemen cutting up rough with the
fried shrimp!-- and Steak Tartare, which some American cookbooks of
the past, including older editions of The Joy of Cooking, have
subtitled, parenthetically, as -- are you ready?-- "Cannibal Balls" !
Maybe that explains the idea now proliferated that there were never
any cannibals in the world -- the originals were all gelded!

But I digress ;-)...

Some people seem to think foreign food is kewl. Others, of course,
view it with a deep suspicion, generally, but not exclusively, the
head-smackingly ignorant. But overall, it may be a facet of
hospitality, rather than merely of subsistence, to try to make foods
and/or hosts appear to be more sophisticated, well-travelled, and to
use Stefan's favorite term, "fancy" than they may actually be.

You do see medieval and renaissance examples of this kind of
approach, such as English recipes for Toad-Butts and Moose-Noses In
Ye French Fashion, which might appeal to a people unused to extensive
travel, or simply bored. Then you have your various "de Almayne"
dishes, which may or may not be German in origin, but are so named
anyway. Taillevent has a recipe for A Subtle English Brewet which may
not be English. It's hard to tell, and there are a lot of such
examples.

I think it comes down to the Calontiri (or is it Caidan?) theory of,
"You cook because they believe."

Adamantius