Food Culture: USA

If you google "lists of great food cultures of the world", the same countries keep coming up. It should come as no surprise that France, China, India and Japan are found on nearly every such list. As I pointed out in an earlier post, if the food cultures of all those countries rate as tens on a scale of one to ten, one country would have to rate as an eleven. Naturally Italy usually comes in at or near the top of all these lists.

And why not? Food is such an integral part of Italian culture that their language has two words for table. "Tavolo", refers to a piece of furniture, the physical table made of wood, metal, plastic or whatever. Its feminine counterpart, "tavola", refers to the conceptual table, the place where people (most often family members) come together to share a meal, and truly much more. It is similar to the way the English language differentiates the words "house" and "home", something that many languages do not. 

Countries with lesser-known food cultures such as Indonesia and Turkey, almost always show up on these lists. One country I would put at or near the top of my own list of great food cultures, but only occasionally makes the public ones, is Mexico. I think that Mexican food culture is perhaps the most underappreciated in the world, even by many people of Mexican origin whose associations of Mexican cuisine are based upon the type of food they ate at home which often is limited to a particular region of that country. In reality, Mexican cuisine is as diverse as the cuisine of India and can be as complex in flavor and technique as anything you'll find coming out of a French kitchen. 

In this wonderful 2015 interview held at the 92nd Street Y in New York, (which I highly recommend viewing), the late Anthony Bourdain asked the renowned French/American chef Jacques Pépin this hypothetical question: if he were forced to limit the remaining meals of his life to the cuisine of one country (excluding France or the US), which country would that be? Pépin without hesitation said Mexico.

With the exception of Morocco, these culinary lists generally exclude the entire continent of Africa. You'll also find a large swath of Europe routinely excluded: namely Central Europe, including Germany, Austria, The Czech Republic (Czechia if you prefer), and Poland to name a few. Exclusions such as these lead me to believe that the selections made for these lists are based more upon current trends and the personal taste of the authors, rather than any objective criteria regarding what constitutes a great food culture. My guess is that the food cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa are still off the radar of many list compilers, although that's rapidly changing, and the off-the-chart, high-caloric levels of much Central European cuisine, once all the rage 'round these parts, is now as out of style as 8-track tapes and Oldsmobiles. Simply put, the glorious Wiener Schnitzel, just isn't hip anymore. 

To put more food cultures on the radar, if not to ignore fashion trends, every year, UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, updates its "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" list, part of which is devoted to food culture. Their food culture list largely consists of specific dishes of specific nations, including two in Sub-Saharan Africa: Ceebu Jën the national dish of Senegal, and  Nsima, a thick porridge, of Malawi, and, it turns out, many other African nations. The list does get more general at times, including "The Regional Mexican Cuisine in Mexico", "The Gastronomic Meal of the French in France", and sometimes really general with "The Mediterranean Diet in (where else?), the Mediterranean Region."

Being the United Nations, I suppose there have to be great number of political considerations involved to compile such a list in order to spread around the wealth. Because of that I find it somewhat peculiar that of thirty entries, over one third of them come from a select part of the world, the region surrounding the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus Mountains of Western Asia. By contrast, the Americas in their entirety are only represented by three entries, one each from Haiti, Mexico and Paraguay. 

Once again, Central Europe is shut out entirely although there is a nod a little to the East. This year UNESCO added Ukrainian (not Russian, nor for that matter Polish) Borscht to its list. You don't think politics could be involved in that decision, do you?  

So where does the food culture of the U.S. fit in to all this? 

What food culture you may ask, hamburgers, hot dogs, spaghetti and meatballs?

I was expecting that.

It may come as a surprise to some that the good ol' USA does make at least some of the lists of countries with great food cultures, as it should I might add. The problem is, United States food culture is so diverse, it's hard to pin down. The American cuisine of the United States is at least as diverse as those of India and Mexico combined, and then some.

The American image of the Italian chef.

The problem in categorizing American food is that most of what we eat here has origins in other places, so it's hard to define what exactly is American cuisine. In reality however, the same is true for every cuisine on the planet except for those of indigenous cultures with no contact with the outside world. From the post I linked above, I brought up the national dish of Spain, paella, whose essential ingredients, rice and saffron, were brought to the country by the Arabs who conquered the Iberian Peninsula in the eighth century CE. 

Everyone knows that Marco Polo introduced pasta to Italy, which he actually didn't. That staple of Italian cuisine had been around at least since the days of ancient Rome. But another essential ingredient in Italian cooking, the tomato, was not known in Europe until well after the voyages of Columbus. 

Then there are the Japanese who are famous for adapting all sorts of things found in other cultures and making them their own, including their cuisine. 

We do that here in the States as well, although we have a propensity to give our dishes foreign sounding names to give them street cred, even if they are American inventions.

Take the hamburger. While there are dishes made of ground up meat found all over the world, there is only a tenuous connection between arguably the food most associated with this country, and the city for which it's named. Despite its name, the hamburger is American through and through. 

Our second most famous dish, the hot dog, also bore the name of a major German city, Frankfurt. This makes sense because frankfurter refers to the type of German sausage which is the heart of the sandwich. But a frankfurter doesn't become a hot dog until somebody puts it inside a sausage shaped bun, an American invention, although no one agrees exactly where in this country that took place. On this site, you'll find all, and perhaps more than you've ever wanted to know about the history of the hot dog. 

What is common knowledge is that the name frankfurter went out of fashion during World War I when anti-German sentiment ran high in this country, and people began referring to them with names that already existed such as red hots and hot dogs. The same happened to the hamburger which for a brief time became referred to as "Salisbury Steak", named I just learned not after the town in England, but after the American guy who invented it. During WWII, hamburgers took on another name, "liberty sandwiches". 

Thank God those spite-filled names didn't stick, otherwise we'd be ordering my one-time favorite meal by asking for a liberty sandwich with freedom fries. 

In this country, you can almost be assured that a food named for a particular country, almost certainly has little or no connection to that country, and probably was invented by an American. 

Here are some examples:

• French and Russian Dressing
• English Muffins
• Italian Beef, born, bred, and flourishing right here in Chicago
• Swiss Steak
• German Chocolate Cake
• The French Dip Sandwich
• The Cuban Sandwich
• Chinese Chicken Salad

I'd list French Fries here as well, but my Flemish friends would take offense, pointing out that they are in fact Belgian, although they don't refer to them as such. Obviously, neither do the French. 

The last two dishes on the above list do have connections to the country they are named for as they were both invented by chefs from those countries who immigrated to the United States. 

The same can be said for the following dishes with foreign, i.e.: non-English sounding names, which while invented in the States, do have a connection to the places we assume they come from. 

From the U.S. via China:

• Chop Suey, perhaps the granddaddy of dishes invented by immigrant chefs in an attempt to conform to the American palate.
• Egg Foo Young.
• General Tso's Chicken.
• Kung Pao Chicken.
• Sesame Chicken, starting to see a pattern here?
• Fortune Cookies, who woulda thunk?

From the U.S. via France:

• Vichyssoise.

From the U.S. via Italy:

• Veal Parmigiana, a dish invented by Italian/Americans that has found its way back to the old country. Ironically, some Americans mistakenly believe that Eggplant Parmigiana is an American vegetarian alternative to "authentic" veal and chicken parmigiana, but in fact, it's the other way around.
• Fettucine Alfredo.
• Pepperoni Pizza. Pepperoni, (a name made up in the U.S.)  is actually a type of salami which you will find on occasion on pizza in Italy, just not in the form we are accustomed to in the States.
• Spaghetti and Meatballs. In Italy you will find spaghetti, and you will find meatballs, but never together on the same plate.

From the U.S.  via Mexico:

• Chimichangas.
• Fajitas. I'm kind of cheating here because these two dishes come from just north-of-the-border.
• Hard shell tacos.
• Nachos.
• Margaritas, which while probably not invented in Mexico, can certainly be found there, especially in tourist destinations.

The list goes on and on...

All of these things are quintessentially American, specifically because they reflect back upon our cultural origins, that is to say, all over the world. 

That's not to say that there aren't thousands of American dishes that have no pretensions of being anything other than American. 

Here are just a few of them in no particular order, lifted in part from yet another internet list, CNN's "American Food: The 50 Greatest Dishes" along with some of my own picks that didn't make the list:

• Key Lime, Apple and Pecan Pie,
• Delmonaco Steak.
• Jambalaya.
• San Francisco Sourdough Bread.
• Wild Alaska Salmon.
• Fried Chicken.
• Pot Roast.
• New England and Manhattan Clam Chowder.
• Cornbread.
• Meatloaf. 
• The Po' Boy.
• Oysters Rockefeller.
• Rocky Mountain Oysters.
• Spam.
• California Roll. 
• Indian (Native American) Frybread.
• Scrapple.
• Oreo Cookies.
• Grits.
• Maryland Crab Cakes.
• Baked Beans.
• BBQ Ribs

Unless you're the pickiest eater imaginable, there is probably something on this list that appeals to you. It ranges from high cuisine to junk food such as Twinkees, which were included on CNN's list, with stops everywhere in between.

The mention of some of these foods will probably make your mouth water, while others may be more likely to turn your stomach. Some of the items on the list you might eat, but would never admit to in public, unless you happen to be Jacques Pépin, (watch the video).

The list is so diverse it probably makes sense to divide U.S. cuisine into its component parts defined by region. The East Coast, The South, The Southwest, The Midwest, and the West Coast all have distinct food cultures. All of these regions can be further divided by cultures from specific states, cities, and even neighborhoods.

Then there is the vast array of foods specific to the groups of people who make up this country, starting with Indigenous Americans and working its way through every group that has found their way here, by whatever means. 

So what is the quintessential American dish? 

Well, number one on CNN's list of great food found in the USA is the Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner.

This is a holiday that almost everyone in this country celebrates, despite its troubling provenance in our day and age. More than any holiday in this country, Thanksgiving centers around the meal. As a ritual it is to Americans much as Seder is to the Jews, the Tea Ceremony is to the Japanese, and Sunday dinner is to the Italians.

One of the beautiful things about Thanksgiving Dinner in the US (I don't know much about its Canadian equivalent) is that every culture living here brings something of its own to the meal to add on to the center of attraction, naturally the roasted turkey. It's common to find kielbasa at a Polish American family's Thanksgiving table, cornbread dressing and collard greens at a Black American family's table, and pasta at an Italian American family's table, to name just three examples. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving in my own family with its Irish-American roots, without a bowl of turnips (that's what we call them, they're actually mashed rutabagas) at our table. 

Of course, Thanksgiving Dinner comes around only once a year and symbolic as it is, the same goes for the dishes featured at the meal. As much as I adore the rutabagas, the green bean casserole and especially the dressing, less so the turkey, once a year is plenty for me. 

Since it doesn't live outside of its context, I wouldn't use T-giving dinner to present to the rest of the world as the quintessential American dish. 

So, what would I pick? That's pretty easy. 

If I had to pick favorite food culture in this country, like many, I'd have to go with the Creole/Cajun culture of Louisiana, whose culinary if not political capital is New Orleans. 

A microcosm of the United States, but unique in so many ways, New Orleans like most major American cities, is a mix of people from all over the world. Specifically. the Crescent City is a mix of European, African, Latin, Carribean and Indigenous American cultures, with a little Asian thrown in for good measure.

And Gumbo is the dish that represents all the cultures found in Louisiana. As anyone who has made it knows, the heart and soul of Gumbo is the roux, a mixture of flour and fat that originated as its name implies, from France. From there the dish is thickened either with okra, a vegetable cultivated in Africa, or file (pronounced "FEE lay"), ground sassafrass leaves, introduced by Native Americans. The hot seasoning comes from the settlers from the Spanish Canary Islands, and the andouille sausage from the Cajuns, via the French-speaking part of Canada. 

Like Paella, Gumbo originated as a peasant stew, infinitely adaptable to whatever ingredients its maker has lying around the kitchen. 

Also like Paella, everyone has his or her own recipe. As such, Gumbo has made its way onto the tables of homes and restaurants of Louisiana from the humblest to the swankiest.

And Gumbo has found its way to tables all over the United States, especially in the past several decades with the growing popularity of Creole/Cajun cooking thanks in part to the two Julia Childs of Louisiana cuisine, celebrity chefs Paul Prudhomme and Justin Wilson.

Like America, coming from humble beginnings, Gumbo is infinitely diverse, and like Americans, it can be whatever it wants to be, good, bad, and everything in between. 

As long as you don't forget the roux.

So would Gumbo be my pick for THE quintessential American food AND the national dish of the USA?

Yup, you betcha I gawr-on-tee.