Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2005-06-14 03:11 pm
azurelunatic) wrote2005-06-14 03:11 pm
Non-canon food
On the phone with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amberfox a few weeks ago, I mentioned the mushroom recipe, and how I had to re-create it, and how I had a decent chance at doing this because I'd gotten a decent schooling from Dad in the ways of basic Chinese cooking. This led into the differences I noticed between real Chinese food and buffet-style Chinese food. Specifically, I pointed out that crab puffs, which have cream cheese, couldn't be "authentic", because of the traditional Oriental attitude towards milk and its food value (nil). But they're an accepted part of Chinese cookery now, at least in takeout and buffet restaurants.
"They're ... they're ... they're fanon!" I declared.
amberfox cracked up.
After we recovered, we explored this new analogy. The authentic places that serve any ethnic food the way you could find it in the source culture are canon. The things that everybody think of as being authentic, but you'd never find in the source culture, or you'd have not found it there five years ago, those are fanon. Things like french fries at a Chinese buffet? Those? Those are Mary Sues.
I think pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough is a Mary Sue on the field of American cookery to start with. To wrap that like a wonton and deep-fry it (given that I suspect deep-fried anything is a bit fanon when it comes to authentic Chinese cooking)? That's a Darth Mary Sue.
(And it's so good.)
amberfox a few weeks ago, I mentioned the mushroom recipe, and how I had to re-create it, and how I had a decent chance at doing this because I'd gotten a decent schooling from Dad in the ways of basic Chinese cooking. This led into the differences I noticed between real Chinese food and buffet-style Chinese food. Specifically, I pointed out that crab puffs, which have cream cheese, couldn't be "authentic", because of the traditional Oriental attitude towards milk and its food value (nil). But they're an accepted part of Chinese cookery now, at least in takeout and buffet restaurants. "They're ... they're ... they're fanon!" I declared.
amberfox cracked up. After we recovered, we explored this new analogy. The authentic places that serve any ethnic food the way you could find it in the source culture are canon. The things that everybody think of as being authentic, but you'd never find in the source culture, or you'd have not found it there five years ago, those are fanon. Things like french fries at a Chinese buffet? Those? Those are Mary Sues.
I think pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough is a Mary Sue on the field of American cookery to start with. To wrap that like a wonton and deep-fry it (given that I suspect deep-fried anything is a bit fanon when it comes to authentic Chinese cooking)? That's a Darth Mary Sue.
(And it's so good.)
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Also, Chinese cooking in places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, or anywhere else would be quite different from Chinese cooking in China.
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But just looking over some of the selections, I can see where bits of cooking that were presented to me as canon have been fan-altered to fit in with the Americanized palate better.
I've heard there are some really amusing fanon versions of American cooking out there. I've got to try some at some point, to see if I like fanon American cooking better than canon...
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*braces for impact*
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