The Dinengdeng Debate: Authenticity and Cuisine

The photo was of Dinengdeng as served in La Preciosa in Laoag.

Here’s the review by Market Manila, back in 2007.

However, there followed an interesting exchange with Vic Vizcocho, who responded to the photo as follows:

Certainly, the Ilocano food blog Pinakbet Republic puts forward so many varieties of Dinengdeng (I had another version of it later that day, and it did look more like the versions in the blog):

But this brings up the question of authenticity in cuisine. Here are some interesting readings on the subject, based on debates over other kinds of cuisine.

As this article points out, there is a political dimension to interpretations of food.

Here is another article on the subject.

Another article, this time, on Japanese cuisine.

In Thailand, there was a recent controversy on foreign chefs cooking Thai cuisine:

Here is a review of the chef’s cooking.

And more on questions raised by debates on authenticity.

So where does that leave us in terms of regional variations and interpretations?

Perhaps it will lead to yet another debate: whether there ought to be –and can be– canonical recipes of famous regional dishes.