November 2, 2011 - 8:01am
Noodles in the East, Bread in the West
Why does this (generalized) demarcation hold: noodles in the East; bread in the West?
Is it because the lack of energy resources in the East (compared to the West) discouraged the use of energy hungry ovens?
I realize there's no mutual exclusivity here (there's bread in the East, noodles (esp. pasta) in the West), but it seems like the history of bread is so much more rich in the West.
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Also, can anyone recommend a good bread book on Asian breads? I have plenty noodle books, but none for Asian breads, preferably one that documents authentic recipes (i.e. not overly influenced by Western occupation, like French Indochina [e.g. You can get great croissant and baguette in Hanoi.]).
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I'm not going to comment on the differential histories of bread vs. noodles in east vs. west because I'm not a cultural or nutritional anthropologist, but I would really, really hesitate to say any particular culture is "richer" than another. Even if we ignore the fact that there is a great amount of variability within, nevermind across cultures, the questions you've asked are complex enough that they probably can't be handled comprehensively on an internet forum.
Unfortunately, there aren't any good (English) books on Asian breads. I've looked everywhere for one, to no avail. Any tips would be greatly appreciated from fellow TFLers
OK. Not "richer", but "more established"?
I wouldn't hesitate to say the noodles are more central to Eastern cooking, bread to Western, although neither is exclusive.
Not if you count naan, parathas, idlis, dosas, chapatis, tandoori rotis, bajra (millet ) rotis, spiced breads, lentil breads, and all this is from just one country, India, only a part of Asia. And note that these are all complex and fundamentally different "breads". Western bread comes in different shapes and combinations ( and I love them all!) but they are wheat, white and rye. So, it is really accurate to say Breads are 'western" only if your fundamental definition of what constitutes bread is narrow enough to begin with.
...which is certainly part of Asia and has some wonderful breads, but noodles?
I was going to use the "Far East", but that includes India.
If I must list them, I primarily mean China, Japan, Korea, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
although noodles are not widely found in India, but there's a adaptation of noodle formed food - Putu Mayam, made from rice flour and noodle formed, eaten with orange sugar, at least in Singapore/Malaysia. Fantastically wonderful! check this write up on it - http://ieatishootipost.sg/2011/10/heavens-indian-curry-manna-from-heaven.html?m=0#more
There are various kinds of rice noodles in different parts of India; many are steamed and are breakfast dishes in India. They are known as Idiyappam, Sevai, dal dhokli (flat broad noodles) to name a few.
there's also differences whether you are from north or south - buns in the north, rice in the south.
anyway, there are indeed very very few books on Asian Breads - I've got one called Magic Breads from Alex Goh, a Malaysian, who created beautiful Asian breads. tried, his recipes and was pretty successful with it. The recipes are in English. check out my site for a couple of the recipes that I tried: www.foodforthoughts.jlohcook.com
We have a couple of TFLers and other bloggers who had indicated their use of Taiwanese or Japanese books, mainly in the local languages. check out happyhomebaking - singaporean baker, TFLer - Shaoping - her mention of Japanese recipes.
I don't see the book listed in the usual places, but I'll try to find it.
Thanks for the link to jlohcook and the others. Time to explore.
I've never been to China, but my niece is currently doing a 5-year stint in Shanghai as part of her job. She tells me ovens really are not that common; they are considered more a western item and some view them as somewhat of a status symbol. Their first appartment didn't have one, so they made everything with stovetop materials or their rice cooker. Since breads like pitas, chapatis, naan and the like can easily be managed on a stovetop, I imagine that's why you would find more of these kinds of breads and fewer varieties of oven baked breads.
...as is the fuel required to heat them. If you look at the history of bread baking, a true oven available to the masses was a luxury 300 (or more) yrs ago plus it required more fuel and experienced bakers educated in it's use.
In the history of bread, it seems to me that there have always been two types of bakers - professional bakers and home bakers.
Home bakers, in the past, mostly could not afford the expense of an oven and the expense of the fuel required to heat it.
From this simple economic fact, we gain a rich tradition of bread baked via direct heat and/or by steam. Unyeasted flat breads are a rich tradition from India and other geographical regions. Steamed breads (which may use yeast) are a rich tradition from China and other Asian countries.
As a home baker, I am continually enthralled by the knowledge and skill of th0se home bakers who have gone before me.
...I read last year on how the availability and cost of cooking fuel heavily influenced everything in food history, from the types of cooking vessels used and techniques developed (all the way) to the types of plants and animals domesticated. It was a really fascinating article. If I find it (I think it was on longform.org), I'll post a link here for you to read.
This also reminds me of a quote from another book (I think it was either the Sundays at The Moosewood Restaurant or The Great Peasant Dishes of the World) that said all of the great dishes of the world come from the peasant class. Since they were responsible for growing, collecting, tending, and butchering the plant and animal stocks and cooking meals for the upper classes, all great dishes trickled up from the peasant class to the upper class and eventually trickled down from the upper class to the middle class.
what a cool site and articles.. Thanks for sharing !
Anna
Glad you like. If you set up a http://www.instapaper.com/ account, you can save articles for later reading. It's great, because just too little time to read everything you want on that site. Just press the "Saved" button and it gets saved to your instapaper account.
Here's the food section: http://longform.org/category/culture/food-culture/
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Another site of similar quality is: http://longreads.com/
They're both curated, long-form journalism.
It's rather hard to find an article on either of those sites that isn't worth reading.
Been reading for an hour and have forwarded the two sites to friends.
thanks much, Thomas.
anna
here's an article on the history of Mantou - the plain steamed white bun, http://www.chinatownology.com/bao_and_mantou.html and this was discussed in the China History forum on its accuracy - http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?/topic/5843-did-zhugeliang-invent-mantou-%26-39314%3B%26-22836%3B/ Doesn't seem like there's any conclusion unless I search into the chinese history in chinese.
Whether its rice or bread - I think its to do with the terrain? why rice are more abundant in south, because of water. In the north, they have less water, and usually harvest only once a year. the terrain drives the kind of food that we eat, which is unlike now, we can import anything aruond the world.
and by the way - most people in the East (Asia including India) eat rice, and not noodles. so, this demarcation is not quite accurate.
oh another article that I found on towards a rice eating culture in Sri Lanka, settting up their bread ordinance, maybe that also explains why bread does not quite take off as much in Asia - to protect the farmers. http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/08/14/fea02.asp
...I was also thinking about cattle/oxen domestication too, how wheat is much harder to grow than, say, rice, and how the lack of large populations of domesticated "beasts of burden" would affect the outcome, especially as you contrast it with India, with much of its food dependent on the cattle domestication–even their cooking fuel for much of history was cow dung.
So many variables, but interesting to think about...
I'm rather convinced that, collectively, there's probably a lot more history and subtance to bread in the East than we think there is.
(Maybe we should dispatch http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/ to write another book, her first three being so unbelieveably great).
Thanks for the links.