One meaning is fidelity to the cuisine’s traditions.

Another meaning is doing things in the spirit of a cuisine’s traditions.

My common criticism of a lot of the pan-Asian restaurants in DC is that they serve a bunch of different types of Asian food that don’t go together, like Thai food and sushi. That’s low fidelity, in that the food is usually not of very high quality, and that’s against the spirit of the cuisines, in that they’re serving stuff that doesn’t go together.

For high fidelity, I like Sushiko. Best sushi in the area, imo. And Pho 75.

For high in the spiritness but NOT high fidelity, I’m not sure what I would cite for Asian food. I cook a lot, and I’ve done a veggie lasagne with whole wheat noodles, eggplant and kale, going light on the ricotta. I would think of that as being in the spirit of Italian food, but not necessarily in high fidelity to what Italian cooks of the past have done.

The problem with Asian food is that its ingredients often don’t mix well across cultures. Completely different tastes. Within Asian cuisine, I’ve yet to go to a restaurant that mixes them well. There was this restaurant in Minneapolis, Chino Latino, that attempted to mix Latin American and Asian. It was an interesting concept, in that Latin American and many Asian cuisines use a lot of pork, have strong tastes, and share some herbs in common like cilantro. What we got was essentially an Asian menu and a Latin American menu, though. And their attempt at sushi had just too much going on to be good.

One meaning is fidelity to the cuisine’s traditions.

Another meaning is doing things in the spirit of a cuisine’s traditions.

My common criticism of a lot of the pan-Asian restaurants in DC is that they serve a bunch of different types of Asian food that don’t go together, like Thai food and sushi. That’s low fidelity, in that the food is usually not of very high quality, and that’s against the spirit of the cuisines, in that they’re serving stuff that doesn’t go together.

For high fidelity, I like Sushiko. Best sushi in the area, imo. And Pho 75.

For high in the spiritness but NOT high fidelity, I’m not sure what I would cite for Asian food. I cook a lot, and I’ve done a veggie lasagne with whole wheat noodles, eggplant and kale, going light on the ricotta. I would think of that as being in the spirit of Italian food, but not necessarily in high fidelity to what Italian cooks of the past have done.

The problem with Asian food is that its ingredients often don’t mix well across cultures. Completely different tastes. Within Asian cuisine, I’ve yet to go to a restaurant that mixes them well. There was this restaurant in Minneapolis, Chino Latino, that attempted to mix Latin American and Asian. It was an interesting concept, in that Latin American and many Asian cuisines use a lot of pork, have strong tastes, and share some herbs in common like cilantro. What we got was essentially an Asian menu and a Latin American menu, though. And their attempt at sushi had just too much going on to be good.

by the author of the book by the same name.  

so often we humans require a rubric by which to judge things (especially things as subjective as taste) and food is no exception.  I automatically distrust restaurants that include the word “authentic” in their advertising.  I find the words “good” and “bad” far more useful.  There is a pizza place that serves 100% authentic Neapolitan pizza in my town but i 100% dislike Neapolitan pizza and thus it is “bad.”  Much more meaningful than “authentic.”

mostly though, i want life to be fun and creative, and creativity inherently involves change and inovation. at home, i combine irish cooking with indian cooking. i mix my sense of mexican with thai. all the time. too many fun and delicious results occur and we lose out when we don’t mix things. creole is a prime example of why mixing is fantastic. creating Creole is all about throwing away authenticity. italian food wouldn’t be italian food if they hadn’t tossed away authenticity when marco polo got back.

to me, authenticity is like comfort food for when we need to be reminded, or when we feel lost. but the fun is in inauthentic.