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"Food is everyone's first language," the Vietnamese-American film maker Paul Kwan says in his film, The Anatomy of a Springroll. Food is a major medium of communication in all cultures, and Southeast Asian food, and the complex symbols and rituals that surround it, can communicate a great deal about Southeast Asian cultures. |  |
Tasting the food of Southeast Asia is one of the most enjoyable and accessible ways of experiencing Southeast Asia in the Delaware Valley.
Food is not only an important medium of communication within cultures. In Southeast Asia food functions equally as an ethnic marker, distinguishing one cultural group from another. Shaped by geography and ecology, as well as by ethnicity and religion, the diversity of cuisines in Southeast Asia is extraordinary. Yet some of those same factors provide commonalities to Southeast Asian cuisine as well.
Across Southeast Asia one finds distinctive and common ingredients: coconut milk, lemon grass, laos (a root in the ginger family), palm sugar, local fruits, Asian basil, mint, shrimp paste or fish sauce, the varied spices of the Spice Islands--and liberal amounts of that import from the Americas: chilies. But the ways these ingredients are combined, and the cooking techniques used, vary greatly and give the different cuisines their distinctiveness.
Most Southeast Asian societies have been engaged in vigorous contact with each other and with the outer world (most notably India and China) for many centuries. Some dishes have become common to much of the region; others have been imported and given an indigenous twist. In addition, all Southeast Asian societies have substantial Chinese and/or Indian immigrant populations, with their own cuisines. Although Chinese and Indian restaurants predominate in many Southeast Asian cities, they will not be included in this guide. However, you should keep in mind that eating in an Indian or Chinese restaurant can be a typical eating experience in many of the cities and towns of the region.
Unfortunately, only two of the indigenous cuisines of Southeast Asia are easily available in the Delaware Valley, but happily there is an abundance of excellent restaurants for these two, Thai and Vietnamese. It is also possible to sample Burmese and Filipino food, but the food of the Malay peninsula and of the Indonesian archipelago is almost completely unavailable, despite its excellence and its popularity in some other American cities.
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Changing ChinatownPhiladelphia's Chinatown--which really should be renamed "Asiatown" as it becomes increasingly diverse--offers by far the biggest variety of Southeast Asian restaurants: Vietnamese, Thai, and Burmese. Eating in Chinatown links food with all sorts of sensory stimuli that enhance the experience: the people on the street from all parts of Asia, the signs and architecture, the sounds and smells, the groceries and curio shops, the signs of global Asian commerce. Chinatown has become the best place to begin to experience the once-fabled part of Asia (Nanyang) lying "south of China." Southeast Asian Cuisine Beyond ChinatownWhile the ambience of Chinatown may be missing, Thai and Vietnamese restaurants have spread throughout the region. In Philadelphia, the Italian Market area, Center City and West Philadelphia, and the Logan/Olney sections offer a variety of Southeast Asian choices. In South Jersey, Vietnamese cuisine may be sampled in Pennsauken and Haddonfield, and Thai food in Cherry Hill and Voorhees. |
East-West and Asian Fusion Cuisine
Thai restauranteurs and chefs have been at the forefront of the culinary revolution in Philadelphia in recent years, and several of them have been pioneers in "East-West" and "Asian Fusion" cuisine, combining techniques and flavors from various Asian countries and the West. Examples of such (generally upscale) restaurants in the Delaware Valley are Siri's, Alisa Cafe and Aloe Fusion in Cherry Hill, and Nan in West Philadelphia. However, those new to Southeast Asian cuisine should probably begin with the more "traditional" ethnic restaurants, in order to appreciate better the nature of the mix in East-West, Fusion, or Pan-Asian cuisine.
