Guest Column: Technology and Asian Fusion Cooking

This continues the series of guest columns about how technology is reshaping people's hobbies and passions – fishing, basket weaving, community service – whatever.

This time it is Sameer Patel who consults to companies on performance acceleration via social computing technologies (also known as Enterprise 2.0) and muses on the Pretzel Logic blog. Here he writes about his love for cooking.

“I’ve been cooking for 18 years ever since I left Bombay (Mumbai). I’ve always been a food fanatic and have fond memories filled with visions and aromas of tantalizing stuff from the streets of Bombay to Lama Island in Hong Kong to the Kopitiams of Singapore and the floating market in Thailand (photo below). As a competitive swimmer and subsequently squash player growing up, 5-6 hours of training a day resulted in a voracious appetite. Thankfully, somewhere along the way my interest in sheer quantity evolved to curiosity around what went into creating the very best that I had eaten.

My style of cooking had two influences: my grandmother who lived with us when I was young and my multiple stays in Hong Kong during my teens. 

Most of my grandmother’s recipes were from her childhood on a farm, which now makes them 120+ years old. No zip drives back then to share recipes with others:) Cooking then involved taking whatever the land gave you and making one hell of a dish with it. Along with my own mother’s creations, many of these gems remained in our home in commercial Bombay where I grew up. Like good BBQ or original French cooking, you got amazing end-products from what we might refer to today as “tough cuts” or seemingly obscure ingredients.

I entered the working world at a young age with stints in the Far East, Australia, the UK and Australia that included multiple longish stays in Hong Kong. And that brought a strong Cantonese influence.

Both these influences means lots of traditional Indian (read: not curry powder from a package) and Cantonese cooking, still prevalent at the Patel household today.

Over the last 5 years, I’ve been drawn to perfecting certain ethnic cuisines that are for the most part an amalgamation of local methods and ingredients, and colonial/ immigrant influence: Singaporean and Malaysian food, and the French influenced Vietnamese cuisine. I love feeding of the fact that for 100+ years, home cooks in these countries experimented and then perfected the blend of hand pulled noodles, soy, and spices such as turmeric and cumin. And many more combinations.

When I use a new vegetable or a cut of meat, I often sauté a small amount with just salt and pepper to really understand what the meat or vegetable is trying to tell you (corny and low-tech, but true). Then I work my way up using the right cooking method and a few of over 150+ spices, seasonings and acids in my pantry. In my opinion, that’s how you respect the original version whilst still adding dimensions, where needed.  Looking forward, I hope to migrate my techniques and skills to Spanish and Creole cooking. Had this been a technology engagement, I am sure some privacy advocate would be warning me about the risks of that data portability:)

I try to be a minimalist in the use of technology. My toolkit includes Global Knives only (touch them and you’re dead meat), a well seasoned cast iron skillet, a pressure cooker, a wok, a grill and a braising pot. One thing that gets my goat in a kitchen is a spinning blender and so one of these will be my next purchase.

My time in the kitchen and on my workbench complement each other. To me, cooking, much like the pursuit of business acceleration via social computing constructs, is more craft than art. No canned recipe (or in business terms, a case study) ever produces the same results twice. No two ounces of coriander or legs of lamb are the same. Likewise, no two customer environments, circumstances, opportunity and appetite for transformation are the same. On one hand you need to embrace and feed off of inbuilt characteristics. And on the other, you need to know how to use additional flavors to enhance the experience. Oh and both require the presence of mind and objectivity to change course and rescue the final product should that perfect plan unravel.

Talking of social networks, I think this is an area where technology has been helpful. I far prefer Chowhound to Yelp when looking for restaurants. And my new favorite ways to discovering food related content are LazyFeed for blog posts and MicroPlaza for hottest links on Twitter, by ingredient.

If teleporting was a more mature technology, I'd love to have readers try out the establishments in Silicon Valley that make all of this happen for me. I procure most of my meats, seafood and spices and cheese and produce from Dittmer’s, 99Ranch, Madras Groceries and The Milk Pail, respectively. My butcher and friend, Mark and I put aside a small portion of anything new we might create, for the other to enjoy.

I’ll leave you with 2 tips. First, on the issue of chicken. With a few exceptions, I generally consider chicken to be God’s version 0.5 of a flavorful duck. For me, chicken brings little flavor to the party on its own. So, when using ground chicken (or turkey for that matter), use powdered spices and grated onion instead of chopped/whole seasoning. This gets the flavors into the meat giving you more control over the end product. Second: A little acid lifts the blandest of dishes. If you like making a curry that uses coconut milk or dairy, consider using tamarind instead of lemon or lime for acid. This brings the needed acid and a slight sweetness adding another dimension to the end product. More importantly tamarind, unlike lime, will not curdle the milk. In technology terms, a pretty impressive mashup!

Some folks prefer to do business on the golf course. Me? I'd do it over Pho or Daeji Bulgogi any day of the week!” 

Photo Credit: Pixdaus

Comments

[Mac]

I am a huge fan of the Global knives too. Rock on Sameer!

[Susan Scrupski]

Now you've intimidated me. Scared to come to dinner now. :-)

[Ricky Giordano]

Global chef knife is indeed excellent. Its high tech alloy material is remarkable and can give you great control during cooking. :)