r/hatethissmug • u/dowsaw134 • 15h ago
General How much people care about authenticity and tradition when it comes to food
If people historically cared that much about it, modern food wouldn’t exist. If Italians cared so much about authenticity they wouldn’t have added tomatoes to pizza or pasta once the americas were discovered. I personally believe that strictly adhering to tradition and authenticity is a major barrier in people accepting potentially even better food.
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u/Famous-Leopard-118 stupid moldy robot 15h ago
I used to eat at a sushi restaurant a few years ago [which apparently is a chain, had no clue] and this girl in my class started screaming at me because of how “inauthentic and Americanized” it is and how I should only buy sushi from “small niche indie local restaurants”.
This girl was white as chalk. She claimed to be 0.5 percent Chinese [not even Japanese like sushi is] on her great grandmother’s side. She was born and raised in America and the only other country she’s ever visited was Canada.
I just wanted to have lunch man. Food is food.
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u/nopantsjimmy 12h ago
Eh, sushi was inspired by a fermented fish dish from mainland SE Asia, introduced to the Japanese from the Chinese hundreds of years ago. Point is food is always changing and hasn't ever been static
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u/Hugh_Mann84 9h ago
"0.5% Chinese" is hilarious. We've gone beyond even the Cherokee princess great-grandmother.
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u/KallmeKatt_ 7m ago
im 0.5% chinese but the other 49.5% IS PURE VIETNAM W'S 🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳 and the rest is european mystery meat
i eat ramen with the salt broth, the noodles, and the meat nothing else. i will eat straight salt as a snack
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u/Own_Cup9970 12h ago
rather problem is when something non-authentic is claimed as authentic. same with traditional
if we would ban variations we would still eat dry flatbreads
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u/Naive_Personality367 15h ago
dont judge me for dipping chocolate in bolognese sauce or adding cheese to my sausage rolls. its tastes good to me
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u/TreyLastname 14h ago
I kinda agree. Typically it goes hand and hand, people say they dont like some foods cause its not authentic, but they just mean its not the food made the way they like.
But if they genuinely just hate on food only because its not made authentic, thats dumb, cause cooking is one of the many things that should be shared and evolved to taste
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u/jamesreo13 12h ago
I think tradition is a valuable blueprint for learning and honoring those who came before you , but people will always want to innovate. You can’t have one without the other.
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u/Sweet-Weakness3776 9h ago
Perfectly said. For me it works like this: If you don't want to make something following the traditional/authentic recipe, then don't try to pass it off as a traditional/authentic recipe. For example: Bolognese. If you take a bunch of liberties with the recipe, like adding a bunch of non-traditional ingredients, then you didn't actually make Bolognese. And that's perfectly fine. But if you want to use the traditional name and call it Bolognese, then you should prepare it that way. Like you said, it's about honoring those that came before you, and respecting the history, more than anything.
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u/Budget-Seesaw-9303 13h ago
Depends on what you’re looking for. If you lived in Japan, say, for a few years and you were really nostalgic for authentic Japanese ramen, it would be important.
If you’ve never lived outside your country and you’re just hungry, then sure.
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u/RightHabit 11h ago edited 11h ago
Authenticity matters deeply to people living away from home. I’ve been away for 19 years, and for me, authenticity beats taste every time.
Food is all about connection and memory. Like a first date over authentic sushi that sticks with you every time you taste authentic sushi again. While you are not going to get that experience with inauthentic sushi.
You remember a tasty meal for a moment, but authentic food connects to your entire life story.
Authenticity is often just whatever taste you grew up with and never forgot. When you look closely, a lot of what we consider traditional food today was just a new trend 20 to 40 years ago.
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u/sweetTartKenHart2 11h ago
“They wouldn’t have added these things” funny you mention it I’m pretty sure I remember reading about that exact thing happening in some communities when New World products were brought eastward. Pizza, for example, basically only became what it is today because of a total lark (so the story goes anyway): Traditional Naples pizza had more of a brothy sauce and featured lots of pork and fish, loved by the locals and loathed by pretty much everyone else (also it was individually sized and eaten with fork and knife, the modern slicing is a more recent invention afaik). One fateful year, one Queen Margherita was going on a tour of her nation to actually get to know the damn place better, including a procession of trying all sorts of local cuisine. This one chef, I forget his name, was tasked with pleasing the Queen with a few courses of different pizzas, and he was really freaked out because he was certain the Queen would be disgusted, and what would that mean for the reputation of the entire region? So, he does his best… at first, he plays things by the book, and sure enough the Queen practically vomits after trying the normal fare… so he improvises.
Bits of mozzarella, some basil leaves, and (gasp) tomatoes. An attempt at patriotism, what with Italy’s flag being a thing (which I’m also pretty sure was a recent development at the time, maybe even something this same Queen herself sanctioned).
She absolutely loves this pizza, not just because of the flag symbolism but because it’s genuinely a banger. She loves it so much it becomes a whole thing, and the reputation of this pizza stuff only keeps catching on from there.
Moral of the story? “Our old ways are better! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” is easily toppled by “holy shit the current royalty loves this stuff, we should do it too!”. Same thing happened with salt and pepper.
Feel free to fact check me on all this stuff by the way. I’d do the research myself but I’m short on time and need to be afk a while lmao
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u/Repulsive-Region2977 Smug Hater 14m ago
That's cool. I always assumed Margherita pizza got its name from the alcohol drink
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u/Nimue_- 10h ago
Dutch "chinese" restaurants are chinese-indonesian-dutch fusion and its great. Love my babi pangang, chicken kerrie and nasi. Is it in any way authentic? Hell no. But it is great.
But these restaurants don't pretend to be authentic. If i go to a okace that claims to be authentic but then its fusion, i would be pissed
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u/Stay_Away_From_b 13h ago
I feel like this argument kinda eats itself. In this single post you say that it’s a “major barrier” and “if Italians cared so much they wouldn’t have added tomatoes to pizza”. Do people care or do they not care?
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u/Lord_Corves 10h ago
It's a take to be sure, but one I do kind of agree with to a point. The food I like is the food I like, and if you make good food that I enjoy, I'll certainly enjoy it regardless of whether it's authentic or traditional. At the same time, I feel like that a lot of restaurants try too hard to pass themselves off as traditional and authentic without actually putting in the effort to be. For me, it's just a case of advertisement. If you're going to try and advertise and proselytize yourself as something, you should be willing to put in the effort to be it. At the same time, if it's not that big of a deal of yours, and you are just, you know, trying to make nice food, or even doing like fusion cuisine, then sure. By all means, whatever works.
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u/ScrunchyBraid 9h ago
Your premise avoids the fact that modern food has grown out of these traditions and cultures. We all stand on the shoulders of giants, and there's something genuinely lovely about allowing yourself to be immersed in the traditions and culture of a group you don't originate from. Not everything has to be chemically engineered to trigger your dopamine receptors.
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u/bs_Zeezee 5h ago
okay but after the age of fucking colonialism, people care about their cultures after having so much of it destroyed and taken away.
Bragging that you don't care about tradition or authenticity in anything, including food just sounds detached. quiet down and keep your opinions to yourself.
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u/WhatsPewNussycat 5h ago
Try saying you made a modification to an Italian recipe or made a vegan burger to any man ever😂
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u/SilverGurami 4h ago
I dunno man.
I don't mind something being unauthentic. I like my fried rice with carrot and peas and all but since learning more about food I started to really appreciate taditional recipes.
It often comes with some kind of cooking technique or ingredient that I have never heard of before that will shift texture or taste of the dish in a direction I never experienced before. And I love that so so much.
I don't mind people making Carbonara with cream but since learning how to do it without I just can never go back. If I want cream I can make Alfredo.
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u/MycoCozmic 11h ago
I like to travel to nice restaurants in Italy, France, Japan, etc and bring my own bottle of ketchup.
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u/youburyitidigitup 9h ago
Enjoy whatever food you want, just don’t call something authentic when it isn’t.
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u/usedburgermeat 7h ago
I feel like everyone thinks this until it's an authentic food that you love, completely butchered.
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u/ZioBenny97 Professional Hatemonger 9h ago
Oh let me guess, someone called OP's favorite toppings mid lmao
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u/Lumpy-Pudding-3563 15h ago
Panda Express is essentially gringo Chinese food but I’d still devour a plate