American Cuisine: Part One

    As a person who grew up in the United States, I thought that I have had my fair share of American food. Although an In-n-Out burger or a combo pizza from the Costco food court will always have a place in my heart, one may ask, what exactly is "American" food? We may not come up with a straight answer to this, as food names that are synonymous to its home country (such as sushi or tacos) may not exist as much in the land of the free. To find an answer, I went to my university library and searched for a book that may be of some help. How America Eats: A Social History of U.S. Food and Culture by Jennifer Jensen Wallach, through its chapters of extensive explanation, approaches the culinary culture and history of the United States of America. 

    The first chapter "The Cuisine of Contact", starts us off with the ones who started it all: Pilgrims. The Pilgrims, who arrived after their journey aboard the Mayflower, had a small clash with the Native Americans during the two parties' first encounter, but made peace and were taught how to forage and grow crops. The peace did not last long however, as skirmishes occasionally erupted over food and other resources. As Pilgrims also brought diseases with them, they eliminated a large number of Native Americans in addition to the bloody disputes they already had. The version of Thanksgiving which I was taught at my elementary school in San Diego, where both Pilgrims and Native Americans sat around a stuffed cornucopia holding hands and singing songs, was apparently a twisted narrative of what actually happened. The foods we associate with this holiday such as turkeys or sweet potatoes, may have been served at the actual feast, but in a much different appearance to what we expect today. The rest of the chapter explores foods from Pilgrim times such as "Indian Pudding", "Pork and Beans", and "Johnny Cake".

    Chapter Two, titled "Food and the Founding", explores how food culture developed during the colonial and early American periods when European settlers started to adapt to their lives in what would become the States. They mixed their traditional European diets with local crops like corn and beans, influenced by the Native Americans. This chapter also touches on the regional food cultures that were made during this time. For example, New England diets were predominantly based on fish and dairy, while Southerners incorporated African ingredients bought through the transatlantic slave trade. Slavery and plantations not only affected agricultural production but also made inequalities, as the wealthy colonists feasted on valuable products like tea and sugar, while slaves and the poor survived on much meager diets. Events that popped up at this period such as communal meals reinforced community cohesion. In short, this chapter highlights how the continued expansion across the North American impacted food and its meaning.

    "Foodways in an Era of Expansion and Immigration" examines the changes in American foodways driven by immigration and the cultures it brought with it, mainly in the 19th century. Due to immigrants from all over the world moving into the States at this critical time, it can be said that American cuisine was birthed with cooking techniques and ingredients from a variety of regions, some of which were invented or used before the States' founding. This third chapter dives in on some of the intercultural cuisine that was created, such as gumbo from New Orleans, Tex-Mex food, and spaghetti and meatballs. The powerful impact of Jewish culture is also stressed in this chapter. Anti-Semitism in Europe pushed millions of Jews into America, where they would live in densely populated neighborhoods. Some would bend their kosher laws in a land where they could afford meat much easily, and created a new Jewish-American culture which was inspired from numerous places in Europe where the Jews had previously resided in.