Assessment 3 - THE INFLUENCES OF VIETNAMESE CUISINES IN AUSTRALIA FOOD CULTURE PDF

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THE INFLUENCES OF VIETNAMESE CUISINES IN AUSTRALIA FOOD CULTURE...

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THE INFLUENCES OF VIETNAMESE CUISINES IN AUSTRALIA FOOD CULTURE

Australia is a multi-cultural country that is influenced by other countries’ cultures including traditions, foods, etc. (Jupp, 2002, p.48.). It is said that Vietnamese and their cultures have been enormously impacted to Australian, especially in this report – Vietnamese cuisines. It is impossible to deny the impacts of Vietnamese food in Australia food culture (Wahlqvist, 2002, pp.S562-S568). Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia, sharing its borders by China to the north, Cambodia and Laos to the west, Thailand to the south, and the South Sea to the east (Thrift, 1987, pp.340-344.). The diversity of Vietnamese food can be explained by its history, for example, under the one-thousand year of Chinese domination, stir frying, deep frying, and using chopsticks were introduced to Vietnam. Moreover, during the French colonization of Vietnam, baguettes, pate, coffee, cakes were also introduced to Vietnam. Furthermore, Vietnamese food is also influenced by other neighboring countries such as Mongolia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia as well as America (Thrift, 1987, pp.340-344). After the Vietnam War, when the Communist government took over Vietnam, Vietnamese started to migrate to Australia by boats as refugees. According to the Migration Heritage Centre of New South Wales, there were 70,000 refugees from Southeast Asia, most of them were Vietnamese, had arrived in Australia in 1985. The 2016 census pointed out that about 300,000 Australians have Vietnamese ancestry, with nearly 220,000 born in Vietnam out of 24.21 million Australian. Due to the expansion of Vietnamese community, Vietnamese food have been brought into Australia, many restaurants have been opened to meet the residence demands in many areas and has become the 4th most popular Asian takeaway food (Turrell & Giskes, 2008, pp.69-81). Normally, foods are carefully marinated before they are steamed, fried, stewed, stir fried, and boiled. Ingredients are bought freshly from the market and cooked as soon as all ingredients are ready (Wahlqvist, 2002, pp.S562-S568.). Traditionally, steamed rice is an essential food and served in almost every meal. Rice can be transformed to other types of food such as rice noodles, rice paper wrappers (Shalant, 1998), according to FAO stat in 2013, on average, one person consumed about 144.5 kg rice (and rice products) per year. Many dishes are famous and made from rice products such as Pho, Vietnamese style crepe, rice paper roll, spring roll, broken rice, etc. Addition to rice, other complementary foods are eaten by Vietnamese including vegetable (142.33 kg/capita/year), fresh water fish (12.95 kg/capita/year), marine fish (12.53 kg/capita/year), as well as poultry (12.36 kg/capita/year). It is believed that, a good meal has to obtain five factors: spice, sour, bitter, salt and sweet (Emily, 2015), however, still maintaining its nutritional. A traditional family meal contains steamed rice, one or two main dishes (fish or

meat/poultry), vegetable and dipping sauce or fish sauce. All dishes then will be place in a tray or placed directly in the table, everyone will share the food, as they can eat as much or as little as they want. Vietnamese food is rated as one of the most-healthiest cuisines in the world because of its nutrition balancing. In order to adding more flavors for the food, fish sauce is used along with the main dishes, either for seasoning or for dipping. Fish sauce is usually using for dipping sauce, garlic, chili, lemon, and sugar are sometimes added into fish sauce, depends on what kind of food is served. Besides that, Chinese-style soy sauce is one of the main dipping sauces in Vietnam, because soy sauce is derived from soybeans and wheat, this can be used in vegetarians’ meals (Park, Watanabe, Endoh, Watanabe, & Abe, 2002, pp.913-920). Trang (2003) pointed out that there is a relation between regional variations and geographical differences. Vietnam is divided into three main regions: the north, the central and the south, cuisines in each region has its own unique flavor as well as characteristics which represents that location. In the Northern Vietnam, black pepper is the dominant ingredient in making spice. It is said that almost every dish has a balanced flavor, in other words, there is no bias toward any of the five taste elements. By contrasts, the food character in the central is hot and spicy. The central culinary is also greatly influenced by the ancient royal cuisine, this is because Hue used to be the capital of Vietnam. Along with black pepper, chili and shrimp sauces are used for making spice, therefore foods in this region are generally spicy. Lastly, people in the southern Vietnam get access easily to many tropical fruits due to favorable weather conditions, people even use fruit such as coconut for cooking. Culinary in this region is very rich in flavor because they are seasoned with many ingredients before cooked such as garlic, shallots, and fresh herbs. In terms of religion, about 85% of Vietnamese worship of Buddha (Phuong & Eipper, 2009, pp.49-83.), therefore, it also affects their daily diet. Generally, Buddhist diet is vegetarian diet, they will mainly consume rice, tofu, vegetable, and soy sauce for dipping (Eliasi & Dwyer, 2002, p.911.). While a Buddhist monk has to follow the diet rules in their life-time, a Buddhist practitioner can set their own rules such as they have to follow the diet for once a week, once a month or for a period of time. There are many festivals occur in a year in Vietnam, however, the main festivals that directly influences to Vietnamese daily culinary are Lunar New Year, Mid-Autumn, as they are the most important festivals in Vietnam (Avieli, 2005, pp.167-187.). During Lunar New Year – the biggest and most important festival of the year, several celebration foods are served: sticky rice cake, dried fruits, ginger jam, watermelon seed, pickle scallion heads; main dishes: pork braised with eggs and coconut water, bitter melon stuffed with meat soup, etc. Meanwhile, during MidAutumn festival, mooncakes with different fillings (red bean, lotus seeds, nuts, and egg yolks) are eaten, green tea is also served. It is interesting since cuisines in different countries are different and unique and sometimes it seems unusual to other people coming from other backgrounds. In Vietnam, there are several unusual cuisines that make not only foreigners, but also local people hesitate to try, and even

some of the foods cause the controversial among people (Berger & Sparks, 2012, pp. 79-96). One of the most controversial dishes is the blood pudding which is made of the blood of an animal. To stop the blood from coagulation, it is mixed with fish sauce or diluted salt water, and top with chopped innards of an animal. Due to the high risk of consuming bacteria and other pathogens from eating the blood pudding, it is recommended not to eat this food to prevent negative health effect. Balut of duck embryo is a popular street food in not only Vietnam but also in Southeast Asia. The balut is boiled and serve with the Vietnamese mints, pickles, salt and pepper. Besides that, other foods such as coconut beetle larvae, fried cricket, orchid tree salads, fermented shrimp paste, and durian are also considered as unusual foods due to their origin or strong smell (Choi & Isaak, 2012). The increasing in Vietnamese as well as other countries’ population in Australia, the Australian cuisines therefore have been adapted and changed due to the introduction of new cuisines from migrants (Foley, 2005, pp.25-44.). According to the survey in 2017, Vietnamese foods are one of the 6th choice of eating-out foods for Australian, the top five Australian food choices are healthy eating, seafood, modern Australian, Japanese and Korean, and vegetarian foods. Vietnamese foods are now available in a wide range, high in nutrition and inexpensive, the spread can be shown by the appearance of many Vietnamese dishes in cooking shows such as Master Chef, My Kitchen Rules. In addition, many supermarkets (Coles, Woolworths) now have to supply Asian foods and ingredients to meet the local demand (Keith, 2012, pp.47-81). Vietnamese cuisines have impacted to Australian food intake, for example, people now change (or shift) their food preference such as Banh Mi for lunch and rice noodle for dinner. Due to the high green content in food, Australian now would consume more vegetable than before which will benefit to their health (Choi, Lee, & Cho, 2011, pp.1427-1438). Word count: 1482 Vietnamese cuisines have impacted to Australian food intake, for example, people now change (or shift) their food preference such as Banh Mi for lunch and rice noodle for dinner. Due to the high green content in food, Australian now would consume more vegetable than before which will benefit to their health (Choi, Lee, & Cho, 201p.1427-1438). Vietnamese cuisines have impacted to Australian food intake, for example, people now change (or shift) their food preference such as Banh Mi for lunch and rice noodle for dinner. Due to the high green content in food, Australian now would consume more vegetable than before which will benefit to their health (Choi, Lee, & Cho, 2011, pp.1427-1438).

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Thrift, N. (1987). Vietnam: geography of a socialist siege economy. Geography, 72(4), pp.340344. Tom, S. (2018). A History of The Vietnamese Community in Australia. Retrieved from https://theculturetrip.com/pacific/australia/articles/a-history-of-the-vietnamese-community-inaustralia/ Trang, C. (2003). Essentials of Asian Cuisine: Fundamentals and Favorite Recipes (p. 46). Simon & Schuster. Turrell, G. and Giskes, K. (2008). Socioeconomic disadvantage and the purchase of takeaway food: a multilevel analysis. Appetite, 51(1), pp.69-81. Wahlqvist, M.L. (2002). Asian migration to Australia: food and health consequences. Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition, 11, pp.S562-S568....