Jerk Chicken Fried Rice

A very naive person might walk into a Japanese restaurant and assume that most of the staff and cooks are Japanese.

But if you look and hear carefully, you'll notice that the wait staff and owners are actually Chinese. Then, often times you'll need to go to the bathroom and walk through the kitchen to get to it, and lo and behold, the chefs are busboys are Mexican. So there you have it: Japanese food served to you by the Chinese, and made by Mexicans.

I've noticed that people get kinda weirded out if a Mexican is cooking another ethnicity's food, usually because they have to mention it, like my Dad did tonight, which sparked this blog posting. They automatically think the food is inauthentic and just plain wrong. Even if right before they didn't think twice about their eating experience in a room that was decorated with all the right decor. Once you realize your food is made by Mexicans, it slightly unravels the fantasy of a meal that is representative of the food of a single, static culture bounded by ancient traditions passed down the generations.

Welcome to the post colonial world. Authenticity was disrupted long before Mexicans started cooking Asian food. Chinese immigrants are always adapting their recipes to fit the palate of whatever population they're serving. That's why if you go to a super white town with no Asian people, you'll think authentic Chinese food is just super sweet, grease filled chicken nuggets that's named after General Tso for some reason. It's completely disgusting (actually I kinda like it..), but the white people love it, and pay for it, and thus we have General Tso's Chicken on pretty much every Chinese food menu in the the US. Go to any other country, and the Chinese food will taste significantly different.

I have had Chinese-made Mexican food before. It's kinda strange, awkward, yet after a few bites and resolving that this is a new experience rather than trying to imagine a super burrito from Pancho Villa, it becomes something unique, innovative, and tasty in its own right. How come when people of color make food of a different ethnic background, it's called inauthentic, and when white people do it's called "FUSION"?

I especially enjoy the post colonial mashups made by such courageous innovators, like the famous Vietnamese sandwich which is now as common as a hamburger. Or the classic, California Roll. And my favorite: jerk chicken fried rice, which I ate at my first Chinese Carribean restaurant in Florida.

I think the only authentic food is that to which we can say, "Ah this is just how my grandma made it". But if you can't say that, then you just don't know what it is your looking for.