Author Description

"Call their union what you will -- Pacific Rim, fusion, or East-meets-West -- Oriental and Occidental flavors have finally embraced each other with open arms. The great culinary traditions of Europe and Asia, long distant and remote, each exotic to the other, have blended, fused, and overlapped -- sometimes with seismic effects. The heartland of this new cuisine is a great loop of countries strung like a necklace around the edges of the seemingly endless Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim is an infinitely complex culinary mosaic: Thai, Malay, Japanese, Indian, regional Chinese, Vietnamese, Polynesian, colonial Western, and contemporary European influences mingle to produce the most varied, exciting, and sophisticated culinary landscape in the world. It is a universe of cuisine bursting with vibrant tastes: the warming tingle of spices; the exquisite perfume of lemongrass, coconut, ginger, and herbs; the heat of chiles and the tang of lime; the crunch of peanuts; and the irresistible tastes of tropical fruit. Once considered mysterious and foreign, these flavors are quickly becoming a staple part of the American food experience. The fragrant breezes of Pacific cooking are about to waft into the American home kitchen. But this vivid gastronomic exchange is not all one-way. While Western cooks are experimenting with Oriental flavors, their Asian counterparts are likewise discovering Western tastes and techniques. While we tuck into noodles and curry, in Asia they are going out for pasta and enchiladas. Food is on the wing as well as on the table. Pacific Rim cuisine is not a figment of the culinary imagination -- a gourmet fantasy that will soon give way to the next new fad -- but a contemporary global phenomenon rooted in the history, geography, economics, and social reality of everyday fin-de-siècle life. It is the flavor base for tomorrow, an exciting new vocabulary of tastes and techniques for the next millennium. Much more than a collection of ethnic recipes, th