Over the years, restaurant users have become more discerning and more concerned with the ‘authenticity’ of their restaurant experience, a number of restaurant trends have emerged that offer a more realistic reflection of the food from its country of origin.
For the last couple of decades, far eastern food from various countries has increased in popularity, with many towns now having a Thai restaurant and perhaps even a Japanese restaurant. There has even been a trend for seeing authentic Thai food served on pub menus as Thai families take over pub tenancies or simply run the kitchen.
Japanese food has been a huge foodie trend in the UK, with most supermarkets selling packs of sushi alongside their sandwiches – although if that’s the only sushi you’ve tried (especially as the packs from a certain high end supermarket do not contain fish!) then you’ll be amazed at the difference in quality and taste when you first try ‘proper’ sushi. After all, sushi chefs train for seven years just to master making rice, let alone cutting fish!
The latest restaurant trends are towards South American food. Not just the big, juicy steaks from Argentina – that is SO 2007 – but more the smoked chipotle chile flavours of Peru. Mexico has also been a source of inspiration for a lot of newly opened places, with authentic burritos and salsas showing the wealth of difference between regional cuisine and the ‘Tex-Mex’ style that was popular in the 1999.
CHINESE FRIED RICE
Fried rice is a popular component of Asian cuisine, especially Chinese food. It is made from rice stir-fried in a wok with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables and some kinds of meat. It is sometimes served as the penultimate dish in Chinese banquets . As a home cooked dish, fried rice typically is made with ingredients left over from other dishes, leading to countless variations.
In Asia, the more famous varieties include Yangzhou and Fujian fried rice. Elsewhere, Chinese restaurants catering to non-Chinese clientele have invented their own varieties of fried rice including egg fried rice, Singaporean (spicy) fried rice and the ubiquitous 'special fried rice'.
Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken tikka masala is a curry dish of roasted chicken chunks (tikka) served in a rich-tasting red or orange-coloured sauce. The sauce is usually creamy, lightly spiced and contains tomatoes.
The origins of chicken tikka masala are disputed. In 2009 a Glasgow MP suggested it should be given EU Protected Geographical Status as a Scottish food. Others believe it originated in the first Indian restaurants in Soho, London in the 1970's. An Indian expert on street food from Delhi, Rahul Verma, has stated that the dish originated (probably by accident with subsequent improvisations) in Punjab during the last 50 years.
Surveys have found chicken tikka masala to be the most popular dish in British restaurants and it has been called "Britain's true national dish."
CHINESE FIVE SPICE
Five-spice powder is a mixture of five spices. It encompasses all five flavors of sweet, sour, bitter, pungent, and salty.It is popular in Chinese cuisine, but also used in other Asian cookery.
There are many variants. The most common is bajiao (star anise), cloves, cinnamon, huajiao (Sichuan pepper) and ground fennel seeds. Instead of true cinnamon, "Chinese cinnamon" (also known as rougui, the ground bark of the cassia tree, a close relative of true cinnamon which is often sold as cinnamon), may be used. The spices need not be used in equal quantities.
Another variant is tunghing or "Chinese cinnamon", powdered cassia buds, powdered star anise and anise seed, ginger root, and ground cloves. The formulae are based on the Chinese philosophy of balancing the yin and yang in food.
