Expers' Viewpoints: Mastering Your Root Cuisine: The First Step toward A Successful Fusion of Flavors (1/2)

“Susanna Foo, the leading Chinese chef in America, has been hailed as an innovator by Gourmet, Food & Wine, Esquire, Zagat, the James Beard Society, and many others. By substituting fresh ingredients for canned ones and readily available items for hard-to-get ones, she has put a new face on Chinese food, first in her award-winning restaurant in Philadelphia, then in her award-winning book, Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine, which thrust Chinese cooking into mainstream kitchens, and most recently at Suilan by Susanna Foo, her ac-claimed restaurant in an exclusive resort in Atlantic City. In her newest book, scheduled for re-lease this fall entitled, Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration, she takes an even more revolutionary approach. Rather than recreating the Chinese dishes of the past, she redefines Chinese cooking. "My primary goal is to preserve the natural flavor and integrity of the ingredients," says Susanna.” The Revitalization of Chinese Cuisine Asian cooking mostly uses fresh produce, nor does it usually overcook the vegetables, meat, seafood or poultry. The cooking is also simple and easy to be adopted by both home cooks and restaurant chefs. All this fits to the modern fitness trend of health and wellness. China is growing fast and Chinese Cuisine is revitalized. Every time I return to China food is getting better and lots of great chefs are coming out all over the different regions. I believe Chinese cooking will be the prime trend of the next ten years. Asian Ingredients: Simple, Natural and Flavorful Each Asian Country has their own specialty. Japan is famous for their technique of fresh raw seafood, noodles and braising dishes. Thai is famous for their techniques of using fresh herbs and spices. Indian is famous for their dry spices. Vietnam uses rice flour for crepes, wrappers, light dipping sauces with fresh greens and herbs. The emphasis of Chinese cuisine is on light cooking, lots of vegetables, steaming and stir frying techniques to keep the original flavor. All of those techniques are meant to keep the natural flavor that God creates for us. Simple, Natural and Flavorful - this is definitely the trend of the future. Chinese cuisine will be the new trend for the next ten years. China is growing fast. Lots of American companies are setting up branches in China. They will bring the Chinese culture back home. Chinese cuisine is very diversified with techniques such as brine, braising, different techniques of stir fried, pickling, steaming, smoking and curing. The culture revolution destroyed so many master chefs but they are all starting to come back. The regional cuisine has been revitalized. Chinese cuisine has always the major influence to all the Asian countries. Those techniques will be applied to the restaurants. As far as key ingredients on the menus of Asian restaurants, it all depends on the chefs or owners background. Chinese greens, shanghai bok choy, Chinese Chives, long beans, eggplants, black beans, Sesame paste, Thai curries, lemongrass, turmeric roots, turmind, fish sauce, Korean grilled short ribs, Korean stir fried potato noodles with pork and napa cabbage would be classified as key Asian ingredients. Menu items such as pork dishes, pork belly, tea smoking, curing, pickling. Asian Sauces will be introduced and/or become popular shortly.. All the canned vegetables will be out. All the basic techniques such as Vietnam rolls, shaking beef, raw beef capriccio Thai dishes, Traditional dishes such as Japanese sushi and sashimi, Chinese regional cooking such as Shanghai, Peking duck are still popular. Asian soups are different from the western soups. They are either a light broth or “heavy hearty.” Many classical Chinese Soups are not offered on the menu and can be popular in this country. Thai rice soup are very, very good, made with some coco-nut milk, herbs such as ginger, lime, hot pepper.