There’s a new restaurant in Portland, ME, called The Honey Paw, which pretty well sums up what’s happened to what used to be called Fusion Cuisine. Billing itself as a “non-denominational noodle bar… unencumbered by any cultural allegiances,” The Honey Paw (the name refers to the image of a bear swiping up honey after a long hibernation) took a few months to find its footing, but has finally arrived at a point that might be called Asian mashup.
There are yakisoba and chilled soba noodles inspired by Japan, coconut chicken curry noodles with a nod to Malaysia, Cantonese-style wok fried rice noodles and Vietnamese chili lobster with yellow noodles. Nightly specials, most of them positioned as “large format” dishes for sharing run to moo shoo made with duck confit, Szechuan bouillaibaisse, and spiced dry-aged beef with scallion pancakes.
Not only is the menu an exercise in culinary globetrotting, but the multi-culturalism also extends to the individual recipes. That yakisoba, for instance, is seasoned not only with Japanese nori seaweed and bonito flakes, but also Korean gochujang and oyster mayo. The point is not authenticity, but instead flavor and creativity.
In fact, Dale Talde of Brooklyn’s red-hot Talde and Pork Slope, boasts that he prides himself on cooking “defiantly inauthentic Asian-American cuisine.” His inspiration comes not from recipes passed down through the generations, but from his own multicultural background, which has become as American as the new apple pie.
Who would have guessed just a few years ago that these cross-cultural, culinary mashups would come to represent the cutting edge? Many of these concepts started with food trucks, pop-ups and specials, but have moved from bootstrap operations into the mainstream.
Though critics may call trendsetting foods like Korean tacos (a combination of a popular Mexican street food concept with the bold flavors of Korean cooking), cronuts (croissant + donut) and ramen burgers (a burger patty sandwiched between two crispy ramen-noodle discs) passing fads, but the best of these cross-cultural inventions reflect the eclecticism of contemporary American population.
In fact, many of the chefs creating some of today’s newest hits are themselves a product of multi-cultural families, such as Nina Compton, whose Compere Lapin restaurant in New Orleans reflects her Caribbean birthplace and her grandmother’s British roots, overlain with classical French training and the Italian cooking that she learned working in Miami’s Scarpetta.
The “gastronomic interchange” has given rise to a lot of interesting concepts, to be sure:
- Just Beclaws, in Jersey City, NJ, marries Cajun with Vietnamese in the form of spicy seafood boils—not so unlikely a combination when you take into account how many Asian immigrants made their living fishing in Louisiana
- Chicago’s new Izakaya Mita sets itself apart from the usual Japanese fray with a menu section highlighting Rice Sliders
- Mr. Curry, in the trendy Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY, offers up Brit-Indi specialties that use Indian spices to transform fresh, local and seasonal ingredients
- Chef Jose Andres plays with noodles and tacos at China Poblano in Las Vegas
- Touted as a “fresh way to roll,” Sushirrito, in San Francisco, specializes in… you guessed it: sushi burritos
A recent FoodBytes trend report by Datassential heralded the mainstream arrival of The Strange & Unusual, citing such chain menu-item introductions as The General (a sandwich filled with eggrolls and General Tso’s chicken, courtesy of the GetGo c-store chain); Hot Dog Bites Pizza (Pizza Hut); PB&J Wings (TGI Friday’s); and the Divalicious Red Wine Shake (Red Robin).
Items like these are true menu signatures, creating buzz (especially of the social media and Instagram kind), uniqueness and craveability. That makes them particular appropriate for highly promotable LTOs (limited time offers), where operators can test the waters for eventual inclusion on the core menu—that’s how Taco Bell’s insanely successful Doritos Locos Tacos got their start, after all.
Just don’t call it Fusion Cuisine.
Wanton Taco photocredit: Elsie Hui CC by 2.0