At any run-of-the-mill Japanese restaurant in North America, the menu features such traditional items as tempura, tonkatsu, and kara-age
chicken. This crispy trio has long had an important place in Japanese
cuisine. But it is surprising to find out that all three are cultural
borrowings, some dating back to time periods when Japan went to great
lengths to isolate itself from foreign influences. The batter-frying
tempura technique (used typically for vegetables and shrimp) was
borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese missionaries and traders in the
15th and 16th centuries. Tonkatsu is a breaded pork cutlet, a
version of the schnitzel from Germany and Central Europe, which was
added to Japanese cuisine probably no later than the early part of the
20th century. Kara-age originally meant "Chinese frying" and refers to
deep-frying foods that have been coated with corn starch.In The Babbo Cookbook, the celebrity chef and restaurateur Mario Batali wrote, "The single word 'crispy' sells more food than a barrage of adjectives. ... There is something innately appealing about crispy food." If crispy food really is innately appealing, that might help explain why Japanese cuisine was so receptive to these particular "outside" foods. In turn, it is quite possible that crispy dishes such as tempura and tonkatsu were gateway foods for the worldwide acceptance of squishier Japanese delicacies, such as sushi. Tortilla chips, potato chips, French fries, fried chicken, and other crispy items may serve as the advance guard in the internationalization of eating throughout the developed (and developing) world. Crispy conquers cultural boundaries.
The hypothesis that crispy foods are innately appealing is a fascinating one. As an anthropologist interested in the evolution of cognition and the human diet, I think that maybe our attraction to crispy foods could give us insights into how people have evolved to think the food that they eat.
Eating has been as critical to human survival as sociality, language, and sex and gender roles have, but it has not received much interest from evolutionary psychologists and other scientists interested in behavioral evolution. What we eat is, of course, shaped by culture, which influences the range of foods that are deemed edible and inedible in any given environment. But eating and food choices have also been shaped by millions of years of evolution, giving us a preference for certain tastes and textures, as well as a desire to eat more than we should when some foods are readily available.
by John S. Allen, The Chronicle Review | Read more:
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