Whenever I grow bored with the regular menu and want to change things up a bit, I go for Chinese food. I know people who absolutely love, and those who don’t but we can all agree on one thing and that is that the food has a unique taste when compared to the food we regularly eat. Sure it’s all meat and vegetables, but when we eat Asian food, the taste is nothing like you would expect. Here we will answer why that is the case.
Different culture
Different cultures have different philosophies and ideology, but also different traditional recipes that are passed down through generations.
In fact, if you would try chicken meat without any spices or salt you likely won’t find it particularly tasteful, it’s a pretty neutral taste. In other words, it really matters how the meat is prepared and what spices or vegetables we use to get a certain flavor.
Depending on the region, ingredients like seafood, sesame seeds, rice, chilies, onions, garlic, and soy, are prepared in different ways. Also, food can be fried, deep-fried, steamed, and these are all the aspects that affect the taste.
Different cooking philosophy
There was actually a study conducted on ingredients used for preparing meals around the world. By cross-referencing recipes from different cultures you can see which geographies have food with similar taste. The results of the research revealed that Western food recipes involve ingredients that in a way share many flavors. On the other hand, Asian recipes don’t do that, there are ingredients that do not taste that similar, so the end result is vastly different.
Furthermore, Asian recipes sometimes use ingredients that contrast each other, and we simply don’t experiment with our recipes in that same way. This also explains why some people don’t like it, as it tastes unnatural to them.
My personal experience
One thing that I have noticed when eating Asian food is how they prepare their veggies. So, we either boil them or put them in the oven with our food when we want to have juicy meat. Alternatively, we eat them raw when we prepare a salad. The veggies in Asian food are somewhere in between, they taste like those in a salad but at the same time they are covered in the same ingredients like meat or tofu. It seems these are prepared with the main dish but it seems they are added near the end, or simply prepared in a wok that grills the meat really fast. This is why I feel Asian food tastes more unique and it’s why I find it delicious.
