The Physician Anthropologist: SEATTLE A Foodie Paradise

samedi 12 octobre 2013

SEATTLE A Foodie Paradise

SEATTLE, A FOODIE PARADISE

Outside of New York City, in the USA, the major cities have regional emphasis on their cuisine, with a smattering of innovative cuisine. If you go to Miami, there are hundreds of Cuban Restaurants, almost all of them serving similar food, an occasional Colombian, Peruvian, Brasilian resto thrown in. Caribbean islands which have many thousands of its citizens here, barely makes a mark on the dining scene. There are scarce representations by the usual culprits: Italian, mainly, a couple of French and that is about it. No decent Japanese or Vietnamese Resto, and usually you have to drive far to find anything decent other than a Cuban resto.

Or take San Antonio, oodles of Mexican cuisine but none serving a good noodle soup. An occasional good eat along the River Walk (Biga).

This story is repeated in all major cities. SFO is Asian dominated; forget about medium sized cities such as St. Louis, Omaha etc. Mostly food deserts with great pretensions.vietnamese restaurants in Omaha serves food lower in quality than the food vendors of the markets in Hanoi!

You can imagine my surprise when I began looking for food in Seattle-outside the Chinatown with its array of Asian Restaurants. (Chinese). The number of wine tasting places with titbits served reflects the elegance of the palates of the natives. It is the first time that I have seen a Viet Resto in the USA that specializes in the regional cuisine of Vietnam, over and above the usual Pho and Bun Ga Xao. Fusion cuisine thrives here- Izikaya mixed with American Imagination. TanakaSan goes beyond the Japanese, Japanese American with finer textures and tastes.

The ethnic mix of the city adds yet another flavour. There are lots of Somali immigrants but their cuisine is not yet prominent in the local gastronomy scene. The “usual” North Indian restaurants usually owned by Bangladeshis, as they are universally are present, I did not detect any South Indian Restos.

What puts Seattle on the food map so prominently is the Fusion Cuisine or shall we say Nouveau American Cuisine. After all the food of the city should reflect the character of the city which produced Starbucks, Microsoft and Boeing! And the city that has the oldest Japanese restaurant in America. People here are a mix of Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and other American, European and Africans and some other Asians. When I visit Seattle or Vancouver I get the vision of the world of the future-people from al over the world living in more or less easy harmony. Sharing the same public culture while maintaining many private cultures, without imposing any belief or religion or rituals on each other.

So I will add Seattle to my modest list of Foodie Destinations

Kuala Lumpur in Asia

Buenos Aires in the Americas

Melbourne in Australia

France in general in Europe

London has recently become a Foodie Paradise in the absence of an aesthetic local cuisine

Foodie Paradise is not the same as Food Paradise. One eats well in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia; they are indeed Food paradises but not Foodie paradises.

Even though I have enjoyed eating well in Cape Town, South Africa, I don't know enough about it to add to my modest list, even though I am certain it is the best place to eat in Africa.

There is one Foodie Paradise that is very seldom mentioned because it does not belong geographically anywhere and it could be anywhere. The First and Business Class Sections of Long Haul International Flights.

My most recent, such a meal was aboard TAP from Miami to Lisboa.

Salmao Fumado

Zucchinni recheada com queijo feta