The cuisines of the world are merging into one giant, amorphous mass, worries Salma Abdelnour in May's Food & Wine. "The problem is, too many chefs worldwide are creating menus that flit across so many borders and reference so many traditions that they--and we--lose any sense of place." She raises a valid point, but I'm not sure I buy it. Of course if you go to one of the may Nobu's anywhere in the world, you're not going to have a local experience. But there's plenty of street food to be had that's authentic. I traveled around Asia a few years ago and ate Thai food in Bangkok and Vietnamese and French food in Saigon. Perhaps if you only visit high-end restaurants, you'll get stuck with fusion and miss out on local specialties. But after the amount of eating and traveling I've done in the past few years, I don't feel like we're in danger of a homogeneous world cuisine any time soon.

Posted on April 18, 2007

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