this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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Gee, how far back does it have to go to be authentic? Tomatoes weren't in Italy until after Columbus brought them (of course after 1300), and didn't catch on until well after the later date mentioned of 1700, so there goes all of Italy's most famous dishes.
Hamburgers are American food. Not Native American food, but American. Next you're going to tell me baguettes are Middle Eastern food because grain was domesticated there, or that camel meat is Native American food because they evolved in America before crossing the land bridge in pre-human times.
Yeah, tandoori naan is apparently popular across neighboring countries too. I'd say India can still claim some co-ownership, just like Europeans and their various loaf breads, but I guess that's a matter of definition, so sure, it's not exclusively Indian.
The dal dishes are Indian, though. Curries in general are Indian - that one goes all the way back to Harrapa IIRC. Since you seem intent on keeping score, that's 2 to 1.
According to your source
The word Naan originates from Iran.
Anyway you might as well try to make the case that any Indian dish that contains tomatoes, potatoes, chillies, squash, and much else isn't really Indian because they didn't exist there until a few hundred years ago.
I think after a cuisine or manner of cooking has been used in a region for almost a thousand years we are free to say it is authentic to that region, even though it was introduced. That you would deny Indians that, while accepting that Thai cuisine only started using chilli peppers in the last 300 years, opens a broader discussion about your personal understanding of culture and ethnicity.
Further, a Big Mac is a product made by a single corporation, lmao. I’m not going to justify that with further argument. But to use your Naitive American angle; a big part of NA cuisine is a bread called ‘bannock’. It can be savoury or sweet, and every tribe cooks it a little different from every other tribe. It is an important part of Indegenous cooking… and it’s an introduced food. The word bannock isn’t even from any native word. It came about from Scottish settlers/workers surviving on meagre company rations of flour and oil in isolated regions where they had no idea how to get food from the land. First Nations were introduced to it then found themselves in a similar situation as they were pushed off their land and given flour rations by the government so they wouldn’t all die. This all happened so recently my grandparents knew people affected by this.
It’s integral to their culture, even, and anyone who would deny bannock isn’t naitive would rightly be called an idiot by any indigenous person I know. Even though it’s an introduced food. That’s how culture, and food, work.
No one made mention of anything being ‘invented’ anywhere until you, just now. I think I’d like to quote from one of history’s true greatest food scholars when I say, “What is even going on in this thread?”
I’m outta here.
Pakistan was part of India until 1947. These guys ended up on the Pakistan side of the partition, and then returned to India as refugees.
I'm not sure that it's fair to say that they weren't Indian.