Food is more than just nourishment; it carries culture, identity, history, and power. Through globalization and colonial history, food has been continuously transformed and reinterpreted. To understand this, we need to explore two key concepts: food localization and colonial transformation — and how they shape what ends up on our plates.
Food Localization
Adaptation and Reinvention Within Culture
Food localization is the natural process where a cuisine introduced to a new place changes to fit local tastes, ingredients, and cultural contexts. This reflects organic cultural exchange and creativity.
An example is American Chinese food. Many dishes popular in the U.S., like General Tso’s chicken or fortune cookies, don’t exist in traditional Chinese cuisine. Instead, Chinese immigrants adapted recipes using local ingredients and flavors to appeal to American customers. This localization created a new cuisine that blends Chinese culinary traditions with American preferences, reflecting immigrant resilience and cultural fusion.
Colonial Transformation
Food as a Tool of Power and Exploitation
In contrast, colonial transformation involves deliberate reshaping of food and culture by colonial powers to serve their political and economic interests. This often erased or distorted local traditions.
For example, British colonialism simplified Indian regional curries into “curry powder,” a mass-produced spice mix sold throughout the empire. This reduced the complexity of Indian culinary heritage to a commodified product, sidelining authentic practices and empowering colonial markets.
Combination of both🤦♀️
Japan’s “curry rice” is a localized adaptation of British-style curry, which itself was derived from Indian cuisine during the British colonial period. When the British encountered Indian curry, they modified the complex and diverse regional dishes into a more standardized, powdered form—known as “curry powder”—to suit European tastes and facilitate mass production. This British-style curry then traveled to Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where it was further adapted by the Japanese palate, becoming milder, thicker, and slightly sweeter. Over time, this dish evolved into a uniquely Japanese culinary tradition called “kare raisu,”, which is now deeply embedded in Japanese food culture.
But the story doesn’t end there. Due to Japan’s colonial rule over Korea from 1910 to 1945, many aspects of Japanese culture—including its cuisine—were introduced to Korea. As a result, Korea also developed its own version of curry rice, heavily influenced by the Japanese style. Korean curry tends to be slightly spicier and less sweet than the Japanese version, but it retains the core characteristics of Japanese curry rice. The dish became widely popular in Korea, especially after the Korean War, and is now a common household meal.
This chain of transformations—from Indian culinary origins to British colonial modification, to Japanese localization, and finally to Korean adoption during colonial occupation—illustrates how food carries complex histories of cultural exchange, power dynamics, and adaptation.
🌟Summary Table🌟
| Transmission Route | Background/Context | Classification |
|---|---|---|
| India → Britain | British colonial rule and adaptation | Colonial influence |
| Britain → Japan | Meiji-era modernization and cultural exchange | Modernization/international exchange |
| Japan → Korea | Japanese colonial rule and cultural transmission | Colonial influence |
Why Does This Matter?
Again, Food carries stories of identity, history, and power. Colonial transformations continue to influence global food systems, sometimes erasing marginalized voices. On the other hand, localization reveals cultural creativity and adaptation.
Recognizing these processes helps us critically engage with food’s complex histories and supports movements like decolonizing food, which seek to reclaim culinary heritage and resist commodification.
References and Further Reading
- Appadurai, Arjun. How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India (1988)
- Sen, Colleen Taylor. Curry: A Global History (2004)
- Pilcher, Jeffrey M. Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food (2012)
- Mintz, Sidney W. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (1985)
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