Well, not a new physics experiment that will give us unlimited power from water. More an establishment that will serve us the sort of food that will serve us right.
I am all in favour of melding cultures – in many cases good comes of it. Music, clothing, etc. can be used by many different people regardless of whether it is the way of their forefathers. It can be fun to dress up and try a new dance.
But when you take a cuisine that has been carefully refined over centuries – and nearly all have been, good or bad – and mash it up with the raw ingredients and procedures of an entirely different continent, you risk indigestion in more ways than one.
We are all keen on cultural boundaries and respectful observances these days. The Puce Lives Matter movement is only one example of the political power that can be wielded whenever someone wishes to get elected or to fleece the populace. It is even stricter when it comes to hairstyles and clothing and suggestive dances. You dare not infringe in another’s territory.
But we let our guard drop when it comes to cheap restaurants. The hiring of a Balkan cook who is able to make Bolivian sushi a la mode in a vat out the back means that the restaurant can become trendy and succeed before failing. The combination of cultures, nations, and ingredients may be truly astounding and it is all excused under the blanket of…fashion. You can be ” on-trend ” and serve up anything. There is an even chance you’ll get your seed money back before the next issue of Gastro Magazine comes out, when all is revealed and reviled.
So beware, customers. Go to an Italian restaurant with confidence. Go to a Chinese restaurant with an appetite. Go to a Greek restaurant with courage and earplugs.
But go to the Acropolis Italo-Chinese Fusion Food Experience with a torch and a pitchfork. You never know when you will be required to kill the monster.
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