— Rose Hang

The first thing that comes to my mind right away is to travel to where those different cultures are. Um, and if you have the opportunity to do that, try to take some cooking classes from some local people in wherever you're going to. So if you're looking in those local cultures, um, you know, and you're going to some place like, I don't know, I'll just say Italy, right? Different places in Italy have different kinds of cuisines in it. So if you go to Rome, you might have something versus if you're going, um, more Northern Italy as well too. Um, so taking a cooking class in that specific region to be able to find out exactly the cooking techniques that they use is definitely the best way to be able to learn some of those different cultural techniques. Now, um, beyond that, if you can't do the travel, which not everybody can, you can also look, um, more locally as well too. So there are a lot of places that are a little hotbeds of different communities, um, where the cultural cuisine is really spotlighted through the food that's there. You can look for local cooking classes to be able to spotlight some of those cuisines, but you can also look for different restaurants and ask the owners if they might be able to, um, you know, do a class or getting a, a job in the restaurant on a temporary basis to be able to really learn the tips, um, and practices that they're doing in those restaurants too. So the first tip would definitely be to travel, to be able to see that cuisine in action, to be able to see what kind of techniques they do. Taking a class from a local in one of those regions or somebody who's come from one of those local regions, it's closer to you to be able to do a course as well. So, not a full course, but just a class, like an afternoon kind of a thing. And usually it can fit in a lot of different techniques into just one class. So those are probably my first recommendations. Now, again, if you can't do those, going to your local library, picking up cookbooks from different regions is always a wonderful way to be able to learn as well. I have a huge library of different cookbooks, um, from all over the world, um, and all kinds of different techniques including, uh, cuisine. Like I don't eat meat and haven't done it for 28 years, but I have a lot of books, uh, cookbooks that have techniques on, um, you know, different meat techniques as well too. I will utilize what they're doing in that and transform it into a plant-based dish as well. So going to your local library, getting, um, you know, as many cookbooks as you can to be able to kind of get some inspiration, inspiration from those to be able to look up, um, some techniques that are used in those different cuisines is wonderful as well. Um, you can also find a lot of different videos, documentaries as far as, um, you know, PBS shows are a wonderful way to look. You know, there are different things like, um, uh, different shows like Patty's Mexican Table, a wonderful one, um, to be able to show really a bigger view of some of the things that go on in Mexico cuisine. 'cause Mexico is such a huge country and has a lot of different cuisines and styles across the entire country where, uh, if you're on the east side of the country versus the west side of the country, you're gonna get a very, uh, kind of a different, um, you know, style of doing certain dishes. So, um, you know, using the free resources at your fingertips might always help with that as well too.