Ethnic 'delicacies' that have become trendy thanks to worldly food critics and bloggers .

Lately, I’ve been surprised by the number of Cantonese words cropping up on upscale restaurant menus. It started with a ‘bao’ here, or a ‘siu mai’ there. Then one day I was looking at Rockpool’s dinner menu and there – without footnotes or explanation – were things like “zheng shui dan”, Mapo doufu and congee with Chinese fried bread.

That’s when it hit me: Neil Perry has turned into my mum. Somehow, they have started making the same dishes and buying the same Asian groceries in 2014.

Of course, Perry isn’t the only one to have given ordinary ethnic dishes the requisite ‘polish’ in hatted restaurants. These days, we are turning to celebrity chefs like Pete Evans for tips on fermenting cabbage, Karen Martini for Persian dessert recipes and food writers like Terry Durack to school us on the convenience of Chinese lap cheong sausage (“I always keep a pack in the fridge!”).

Characters 'discovering' exotic street food in the TV show 'Portlandia'.

Despite the backlash of ‘foodiesm’ in recent years, never have we been more eager to discover new food experiences as a way to gain cultural cachet. And since we are often ‘liked’ and ‘followed’ on social media for the kind of eater we are, it's all the more thrilling to be leading a buzzing trend (Korean Fried Chicken, anyone?).


There is just one problem though. Can anyone truly claim to have discovered something if an entire people have been eating, making or doing it for decades? Is it weird to call dibs on another culture’s creations if you feel your effort in ‘mainstreaming’ it is worth celebrating?

The website College Humour labelled this phenomenon ‘Columbusing’ – that is, the art of discovering things for white (often privileged) people. It’s every time a ‘clean eating’ blogger introduces readers to the benefits of ‘acai shakes’ and quinoa. Or when restless hipsters stake claim on ‘totally legit’ dive bars. At its worst, it’s the culinary equivalent of cultural appropriation – behaving as though diversity exist solely for our pleasure and consumption.

Writer Soleil Ho eloquently describes the problem of cultural appropriation and food in an essay titled ‘Craving the other’ in Bitch Magazine. “The positioning of Western aesthetics as superior, or higher, than all the rest is, at its bottom line, an expression of the idea that no culture has value unless it has been “improved” by the Western Midas touch. If a dish hasn’t been eaten or reimagined by a white person, does it really exist?”

Adding to this is the complicated emotional relationship shared by immigrants and food – since ethnic dishes, however beloved, often become a reminder of visible difference. By contrast, when Ho's white friends seek out ‘exotic’ foods, they are merely seen as being adventurous.

In a recent interview with NPR, LA-based chef Roy Choi shares a similar sentiment, “A lot of [immigrants] growing up, we kind of live double lives... When you bring a bunch of [friends] over to your house and your whole house is surrounded by dead salted fish, it was tough.”

Food is often the most superficial layer of multiculturalism. We can lull ourselves into believing that we are open-minded by boasting as much about our sophisticated palettes as we like. (Would a TRUE RACIST eat sushi and Peking duck buns? Hint: yes, they are delicious.) In Australia, we are smart, discerning eaters. Yet how accepting are we in other areas of our private and public lives?

So how do we tell between food appropriation and appreciation? Chef and TV presenter Anthony Bourdain thinks the key is to ask ourselves who is ultimately benefiting from the rise of a culturally-pegged food trend.

“Who owns the food, who owns the recipe? Not intellectual property right... Is it OK for a white guy to cook traditional northern Thai food and make money off it? There is some confusion. Is it OK for Paula Deen to make money off of traditional African American recipes? There’s a discomfort level that’s being discussed now.”

But is there such a thing as reverse-Columbussing? As the white gentleman in the College Humour video notes: “It’s impossible. White people are too good at taking credit for stuff.”