Food Trends

» Scousegit - Response to article by Mary Luz Mejia

I agree wholeheartedly with Mariluz on Morth American tapas being overpriced but in response I think the same can be said for food and drink generally in North America, not to mention its mediocre quality. As a European who has spent much of his life in Latin America, I despair at food here being either junk or overpriced and pretentious.

On the pricing: I am ever amazed at the retail price of produce in North America. Despite having massive economies of scale, much cheaper fuel and labour costs than in Europe, produce this side of the pond is still much more expensive in shops than in Europe. To look at retail prices, you would think even backward, under-invested Portuguese farming was somehow far more efficient than its North American counterpart.

I suspect farm-gate prices are pretty cheap in North America, but I think what is at work are deeper-seated cultural factors: lack of an autochthonous cuisine and the enduring legacy of Puritan settlers.

Lack of an autochthonous cuisine: This is the elephant in the living room. For the sheer size of North America, its contribution to world cuisine has been negligible, apart from Cajun cooking. This dearth of anything home-grown sets the bar pretty low, so everything else I can think of is plagiarised from somewhere else, and often adulterated to boot. I suspect this is the same with most former white settler colonies, and I know it is most unlike other former colonies. I have lived for long enough in enough places to know that whenever North Americans try to imitate an elaborate cuisine they nearly always get it wrong or debase it: the only exception I have found is in select Mexican barrios in the U.S. with a lot of recent immigrants, and where they don't cater to gringos.

Puritan values: Puritans were able to run riot in North America in a way they never were back in Europe. Protestant cultures in colder climes generally have tended to eat to live rather than live to eat, but this has been taken to extremes in North America. The result is that North America doesn't really do cheap and cheerful; if you want anything even half-way decent, you're going to have to pay for it, almost like a penance.

The same goes for wine, which is likewise an expensive luxury in North America rather than one of life's simple pleasures. Bad wine in a shop here is more expensive than decent stuff at a Portuguese restaurant (I often pay less than four euros, or six bucks, there for a BOTTLE, not a glass!), and in Spain they often give the stuff away with a "menu", their equivalent of a prix fixe. And while I'm on this subject, why would I even bother tasting wine from Ontario or California when I can get a decent Rioja for less, even with the usual North American mark-up?

Sadly the same also goes for shop-bought ingredients. Yes, they have industrial cheese and preserved meats in Europe, but over there the stuff is at least fairly decent and often very good: in Toronto, supermarket fare is dire and I have to go to one or two delis to get anywhere even half-way decent stuff, and pay through the nose for it, while the truly decent stuff simply isn't available.

Back to tapas: First of all, a quibble with the term "tapas bar", which I see as a tautology in Spain, where all bars have tapas and drinking without having at least something to eat is unknown.

Now a bit of history. I have been visiting Spain regularly for decades and have close family connections with that country. Once upon a time, a tapa was something the barman gave you without asking, literally a "lid" to cover a drink. He would take a slice off the cured ham hanging up behind the bar and slap it on a hunk of bread, or push a dish of olives at you.

We hardly used the word "tapa": anything you asked for was far more hearty and called a "ración", if it was called anything at all. Bars in those days were dirty, rather than chic, and it was the done thing to throw your olive pips, peanut husks and used serviettes on the floor. In fact, wading up to your ankles was a sign that a bar was the place to be, but the tapas were still better than anything I've tasted yet this side of the pond. In North America, they seem to have banished taste along with bacteria.

Then, as Spain swiftly went from being a backward, poverty-stricken dictatorship to modern, prosperous democracy, they started charging for tapas: I had my last free one in 2000. The bars are cleaner now, but they have kept the taste. They also started opening these things called "tapas bars" abroad, but back in Spain they were still NOT expensive.

Unlike Mariluz, I will take issue with the lack of authenticity in North American tapas bars, or restaurants generally, as when the owners choose to call a place a "tapas bar" and seek to charge people, they do have an obligation to live up to the claim. I am likewise sick of the "Mexican" restaurants whose food is a travesty when compared with the real thing.

Of course, I know that, sadly, I can't expect to see jamón de jabugo, lomo ibérico, morcilla de burgos or ventrisca de atún over here. But it IS fare like that which makes a true tapas bar. If it ain't available, then call the place something else!

The trouble with North America, is that restaurant owners can get away with calling food pretty much what they like, and lack of authenticity is almost always synonymous with mediocrity and lack of imagination.

Until they can come up with an original, gastronomically workable (rather than attention-seeking) alternative that is also reasonably priced, I don't see the point in parting with my hard-earned cash. I would rather wait for an annual trip to Europe than be disappointed here, and in the meantime, cook at home.

-- posted by Scousegit