Science News Review

The Non-Evolution of Ethnic Cuisine

Jul 14 at 9:09pm by Aileen

It was bound to happen. Science Daily reports that research from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil entitled The non-equilibrium nature of culinary evolution has established that regional cuisines don’t evolve much. Even in a small world.

The researchers examined historical food preferences for ‘national’ diets in Britain, France and Brazil, and found that certain staples as well as unique ingredients remain in the cuisines despite modern access to restaurants specializing in regional or ‘national’ foods. And despite the modern availability of regional foods in grocery stores.

In other words, the Irish still love potatoes, the French still eat snails and frogs’ legs, the Germans still love sausages and sauerkraut, the Japanese still rely on fish stock and Central and South Americans still choose tortillas over Wonder Bread. Mediterranean peoples still consume lots of olive oil, and still have longer lives, less heart disease and lower cholesterol than the average American.

One thing that struck me odd in the article’s conclusion was the statement that…

“Some low fitness ingredients present in the initial recipes have a strong difficulty of being replaced and can even propagate during culinary growth. They are like frozen ‘cultural’ accidents.”

“Low fitness?” As in ‘fit’ for what? Last I checked, amaranth was still a high quality grain as well as greens supplying as much nutritional value as spinach (which, next to peppers, are highest in certain vitamins of all foods). Parsley and cilantro are still high-value greens as well, whether in salsa or tabouli. Potatoes - which originated in Peru - are still the closest thing to a ‘perfect food’ that exists, and the lowly chayote of Central America (singled out in this article) is rich in amino acids and vitamin C. It’s an important vegetable not just in Central and South America and the Caribbean, but also in Australia, Africa, Asia and Europe.

I expect that the foods one grows up with, the ones most associated with both family history (grandma’s pasta sauce) as well as ethnic heritage, are strongly imprinted in us as preferences at a young age. So while we might look forward to eating Thai on Wednesday or Mexican on Friday or Italian whenever the opportunity arises, day to day food choices will tend to be those we’re most familiar with. That’s cabbage and potatoes for me. What is it for you?

Fun Links:

American Recipes & History by Region
Chinese Regional Cooking Styles
Hawaii Regional Cuisine
Indian Regional Cuisine