What is “authentic?” “Authenticity” is not only challenging to define but, controversial in its meaning. Some people modify recipes due to lack of access to ingredients due to migration, socioeconomic status, or merely the interest of their tastebuds. Then there are fusions that have caused a boom in capitalism and the market of the food industry. Restaurants merging cultural flavors to please the consumers exotification of cuisine.
Then there is the layer of people modifying “authentic” recipes from “back home” with slight modifications like adding or withholding or substituting an ingredient. Not to mentions, this day in age where we have gone sugar free, gluten free, and more health conscious with plant-based modifications. These recipes have globalized and migrated across the world in ways that have transformed them as humans have migrated themselves. Like humans, cuisine carry multi-ethnic identities with a historic narrative that shapes its identity.
The recipes provided on this website are not trying to claim their authenticity but the ways in which they have migrated and changed. Some carry their original identity but are located and cooked in different states with possible slight modification(s). The purpose is to show how foods migrate and carry multiple identities and meanings as they diffuse across borders onto different plates.
The vegetable oil in place of the expensive olive oil.
The brown wheat substitutions in place of flour.
The numerous replacements for sugar.
The butter in place of the inaccessible ghee.
Meat and animal product substitutions due to changing (ethical) eating choices.
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