2008: Into the Kitchens

Doorway to spice merchant, South India,  Lucey Bowen, 2008.

     Which of the following would have been the biggest surprise to those early writers and editors of Gourmet of the 1940s?

1. China played host to the Olympics.
2. Dubai became a major hub of world air travel.
3. Pan-Asian cuisine was being adopted whole heartily in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
4. Americans travelled all across Asia to take cooking classes.

     All of these developments, and more, were recounted in the Gourmet's 2008 issues.  A new crop of writers, new destinations; a promising field.  In "Olympian Appetites," Stephen Glain discovers an innovative way to explore China's regional cuisines without leaving Beijing.  He frequents the cafeterias and diners associated with the offices that provinces and cities maintain in the capital.  The consumer benefits from the regional pride of chefs.
     Jay Rayner adopts a snarky attitude to Dubai's emergence from a sleepy pearl fishing village to the entrepot of the 21st Century.  While he searches, fruitlessly, for "real" Emirate dishes he relentlessly attacks the "glorious fakery" of the entire city.  The obvious parallel to Las Vegas is made only by noting that neither have access to much in the way of local ingredients.
    Brought as  bride from New York's East Village to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Andrea Reusing discovered no Asian restaurants. With her Lantern restaurant,  she decided to fill the niche with ultra-fresh and local ingredients cooked in the manner of China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and India.
     Meanwhile,  once again, my itinerary prefigured travel suggestions from Gourmet.  A favorite professor from Vassar and his Indian wife were leading a tour of South India, and my husband and I joined them.  The astonishing temples in seaside and tropical setting overwhelmed out senses with delight.  Gourmet's May issues would feature cooking schools in Cochin, Kerala and Tellicherry, all on our itinerary.  In fact, we feasted wonderfully at Philipkutty's Farm and with the incomparable Nimmy Paul.
      I must admit that at the time much of brain was caught up in an entirely different journey, that of retracing the photographic footprint my father made when he captured the Hudson River in his 1941 Great River of the Mountains.
The culture of South India would not come into focus for me until future study and travel in Northern India.

Meanwhile, the fate of restaurants reviewed that year:

San Francisco:
Hama-Ko at 108 B Carl Street is still Hama-Ko Sushi.
Murasaki at 211 Clement Street is still Murasaki.
Okina Sushi at 776 Arguello Boulevard is still Okina Sushi.
Minako Organic at 2154 Mission Street is still Minako Organic.

Boston:
o ya at 9 East Street is still o ya.

Seattle:
Chiso Kappo at 701 North 36th Street is closed.

Chapel Hill:
Lantern Restaurant at 423 West Franklin Street is still Lantern Restaurant.