Why do I hate spicy ramen so much??

I ate peking duck pizza today. Wayy good. Fatty, a bit crispy, with some bite from a cilantro garnish and a tangy orange mystery sauce on top. Someone at that joint on Larkin Street knew what the hell they were doing. It’s wild to think that not a single ancestor of mine has ever tasted that before — globalization is kinda the bee’s knees 👀

So why don’t we make all food fusion food? If we want to make the best dishes possible we should really be as indiscriminate as possible when selecting ingredients. It’s almost close minded *not* to consider throwing your leftover mapo tofu into your next spaghetti.

And yet — every time I see ramen full of Chinese spice oils, I find the Japanese side of me twitching with offense. I once taught an ex-girlfriend to make Japanese curry and was so disturbed by her decision to throw in green beans that I later found out she was cooking it whenever I wasn’t around so that she could make it the way she wanted. For some reason, I can’t stand to see the food of the culture I was raised in merged with flavors that don’t traditionally belong. The first word that comes to mind to describe this kind of fusion is ‘butchering’. Harsh.

It feels wrong to have this reaction. Of course spicy ramen broth tastes delicious. And I should’ve just been happy that someone was able to enjoy something I introduced to them. But in both cases, it’s not that the resultant dish is bad — it’s that I fear people don’t appreciate the beauty of the construction of the dish in the way it was originally intended.

I’m half-Japanese and both my parents are half-Japanese, meaning it was truly a half-Japanese household. We ate Japanese food and non-Japanese food, but the two rarely mixed. Particularly with the Japanese food, there was always a respect for the tradition with which the food was prepared. It wasn’t just that my mom or my Baba’s opinion — hundreds of years of ancestors had come to the conclusion that this was the best way to cook fish. And when you tasted it, you understood.

Maybe I just want more people to understand. Japanese people are very proud of their food, and in particular a large part of the Japanese-American experience is the fight to stay connected to culture. I wonder if Chinese-Americans take offense at peking duck pizza. Probably not because it’s really not that big a deal 🤷

I’ll make an effort to be open to teriyaki pizza if I find it. Better to enjoy things than to not