When fusion is discussed in culinary terms, it’s usually of the broader, cross-cultural sort, either occurring organically (Indo-Chinese, Chinese-Caribbean, Indo-Caribbean) or mandated by the exigencies of the market (any place you can get both Sushi and Pad Thai). But there are also smaller instances of synthesis, ones occurring incessantly within national cultures themselves, sometimes at the behest of foreign influence, sometimes owing to other factors. Take Delimanjoo, which is run out of a small booth in Manhattan’s Koreatown, sharing space with a steamed bun dispensary and doling out a small set roster of seemingly traditional pastries. These have individual appellations, yet here get classed together under the name of the shop, itself a portmanteau (Delicious, or Delice, the company’s name, and Manjoo/doo, for dumpling). Delimanjoo is a global chain that most famously sells these cute little corns stuffed with custard, a treat I’m convinced they did not invent, although I can find no immediate visual evidence of their existence anywhere else. Word of mouth, meanwhile, seems to indicate they’re spotted frequently within the Seoul subway system.
0 Comments
There’s a curious transformation that tends to afflict foods upon their passage into the New World, a form of steroidal expansion in which a joyously bountiful “more of everything!” aesthetic is paired with a parallel uptick in Americanized (often processed) ingredients (often cheese). Now, as the steady creep of modern industrialization spreads this sort of beefy maximalism around the globe, the practice has reverted to other countries, threading its way back across our inter-continental foodways. This means that things which appear to have been born here, nurtured in the hothouse cultural ferment of an uptown bodega or a downtown tea shop, may have actually been hatched back in the old country, creating another complex set of variables for charting how such transformations develop.
|
The coded language of snacks, sandwiches and seasonings, in NYC and beyond.
Archives
February 2022
Categories
All
|