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Filed under: cooking, fusion food, meat neutral, vegetarianism Tags: mexico, tofu, world food
Over the course of writing this cookbook, we have embarked on a journey pushing the boundaries of traditional cuisine. Quite often we begin our explorations with “traditional vegetarian” cuisine and attempt to capture of the essence of what is missing… (meat). To recall one anecdote, a couple of weeks ago I was investigating new combinations of food, trying out new recipe ideas. One of my creations was Tofu Fajitas.
Tofu Fajitas?? Sounds crazy — I know. Maybe in all reality we are a little crazy.
To give our readers a background, I have spent considerable time in Mexico and toured throughout the different gastronomic regions, from the dry northern deserts of Tamaulipas where baby goat is a delicacy, the rainforests of Veracruz home of the Jalapeno pepper, ridden horseback through the avocado ranches of Michocan, and eaten the succulent pollo asados of the Yucatan – all the while taking notes, wafting the aromas, and savoring the culinary creativity.
In all my Mexican travels, I have never come across a Tofu Fajita, which reaffirms the “meat culture” of the land. But sitting there in my Victorian kitchen, my adventurous side overtook me and I decided to try it. I sliced the tofu with ease, all 16 layers of my Shun knife effortlessly manipulating the firm soy. The onions, the chiles, the tomatoes and the capsicum blending and fusing to create an experience going beyond the sum of its parts. The Woodstock Collective seated ourselves around the table, and dolloped the ingredients of the pan on to the maize tortillas, and brought the creation to our lips.
The result – well sometimes you can only go so far. I learned an important lesson that day, while it is important to explore and to innovate, we must also stay true to our roots. Because without our roots we have no balance. The tofu fajitas were just missing something…
Meat.
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