[kykeonaut]

it is not all bad :) look at latin america where colonization has erased a lot of the regional dishes. yet new combinations have arisen from a mix of pre-columbian and european dishes. tacos in mexico combining corn tortilla with cow and pork based fillings, or ceviche in peru are just a few examples of "comida criolla".

right now, it might be a swing in the direction of sameism, but i assure you that eventually new dishes will arise.

[stringsandchars]

> right now, it might be a swing in the direction of sameism, but i assure you that eventually new dishes will arise.

I do hope you're right, and I agree that there are some fusions that are quite exciting and add diversity to some cuisines that are otherwise quite bland and monotonous (Swedish food has definitely got a massive lift from introduced diversity, for instance).

But what I've mostly seen so far, is convergence towards the vaguely 'international' and inoffensive.

In this process, items like blood pudding (a sausage made mostly from blood and fat) or pork wrapped in cabbage with almonds and raisins get phased-out, in favor of homogenous crowd-pleasers that taste the same across Europe.

[d3VwsX]

Some nice things have been introduced to Sweden, definitely, but unfortunately also garlic+onion has gone completely out of control. For instance going to France or Greece or India, countries known for their garlic, and I assume most countries in the world, they still know to not ONLY serve food where the difference in taste is the ratio of garlic to onions. They do still have dishes that use other spices. I asked in a few restaurants in Sweden and they literally did not serve a single garlic-free dish. Swedes went from zero to "old Nordic food is tasteless, so we should put as much garlic+onions as possible in everything to fix that" in ~60 years, and much of that happened in my lifetime in this century.

[kykeonaut]

you are right in the fact that some dishes will be phased out, but new dishes will spring up. they might not be the old ones, but that is the way of human evolution :)

one example that springs up to mind is in dutch cuisine. take for example the "kapsalon" which is a mix of surinamese, dutch, and middleastern dishes. this is a new dish created in 2003 but which enjoys of massive popularity; you cannot find a snackbar in the netherlands that does not prepare kapsalon.

[kilpikaarna]

> add diversity to some cuisines that are otherwise quite bland and monotonous (Swedish food has definitely got a massive lift from introduced diversity, for instance).

Other than a lazy dig at "bland Nordic cuisine"[1], I'm not sure what makes this different from the situation bemoaned in the GP post?

[1] ie a culinary tradition of letting the taste of the ingredients stand for themselves, rather than covering them up with spices (originally a measure to make up for the fact that things spoil easily in warm climates)

[stringsandchars]

> Other than a lazy dig at "bland Nordic cuisine"[1]... > [1] ie a culinary tradition of letting the taste of the ingredients stand for themselves, rather than covering them up with spices (originally a measure to make up for the fact that things spoil easily in warm climates)

I'm afraid if you think that Swedish food is about "the taste of the ingredients stand[ing] for themselves, rather than covering them up with spices" then you really don't have a good familiarity with this cuisine.

Historically the need to preserve food through the long winter, or even make scarce food appetizing during the summer, means that Nordic food has always been much more processed (salting, pickling, smoking, smothering with dill or mustard, and so on) than the much more fresh and unadulterated recipes of the Mediterranean, where fresh fish, fruit and vegetables have always been more plentiful, and a greater part of traditional recipes (together with the sausage and other 'winter' food I mentioned).

I'm also sad to hear that you think my comment amounted to a "lazy dig".

[opo]

>...rather than covering them up with spices (originally a measure to make up for the fact that things spoil easily in warm climates)

While salt was used to preserve meat, the idea that the huge historical demand for spices was to cover up the taste of spoiled meat is a myth.

https://culinarylore.com/food-history:spices-used-to-cover-t...

https://historymyths.wordpress.com/2014/10/25/revisited-myth...

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/vztzpd/where...

etc

[carlosjobim]

If the subject is restaurant food, French style cooking is standard in all Nordic restaurants above the lowest level. Before it was introduced, I guess you had more like eateries with stew and porridge, or an oven baked chicken, smoked fish and such. The French techniques have really had a huge importance for Nordic cuisines. Combined with traditional Nordic ingredients, you get something truly excellent.

It's a pity that the only food that gets international success is mostly pizza, burger, döner kebab and taco. If restaurants world wide started learning and integrating the French cuisine, they could make some great combinations with local traditions and also let local ingredients shine in a way that you can never do with a god damned burger or kebab.