What American Cuisine Really Is

[F & J 21]

In summary, what I am saying is that I do believe there is an American cuisine, even though I also believe it is an arguable point, and that I believe that one would define American cuisine as that unique combination of many different cultures and foods, smoothly or otherwise. I have noticed that eating a different cuisine in a foreign country, for example, Italian food in the Middle East, or even a hamburger in Mexico will always result in a unique cultural variant of the native flavors. If I were to define strictly American flavors, I would identify a place such as Denny's or Applebee's as being foods that Americans in general grow up with, such as meatloaf, a big steak, hamburgers, Tex-Mex cuisine, American Italian food, scrambled eggs with hash browns, and our particular cocktails which can at times be surprising difficult to encounter in other countries.

I wholeheartedly agree!

Whenever you introduce new cuisine to a different country, the result is almost always different and catered towards the taste preference of that country (take for example Filipinos - our spaghetti sauce is a sweet and sour blend that I believe to be unique because I've never tasted any other sauce quite like it and I've eaten a LOT of spaghetti in my life).

Anyway, I think that if you want authentic 'foreign' food, you have to go to the country to be able to know how it's really supposed to taste.

Edited January 27, 2010 by Fatima and Jim

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Clam Chowder is american....corn bread is american um....

Pemmican

Ice cream soda

Fruit cobbler to name a few.

You have to realize that the US isn't very old so of course our ethnic foods are smaller then many countries.

Edited January 27, 2010 by Sousuke

[Calypso 464]

I wouldn't say that Americans have only invented fast food and junk food, though we certainly have produced and consumed quite a bit of it! The country was founded as a nation of immigrants, so of course our food has a basis in the cuisines of the immigrants who came over. But once here, often things took a life of their own and as different groups of people mixed and shared recipes and culinary work, and had to adapt older recipes to whatever ingredients were available here, distinctly new cuisines formed in America. Take Louisiana Creole cuisine, for instance. I grant that it would not be what it is today without huge contributions from the cuisines of France, the Caribbean, and West Africa, as well as the crops of the native Americans in Louisiana. But only in the New Orleans area were French colonists mixing with enslaved Africans and free people of color, and over time produced one of America's most unique cuisines.

And taste for the eclectic? There are all kinds of American dishes to be had that certainly are part of that category. Ever had a jibarito? It's American, by way of Puerto Rico and Chicago, now spread to other parts of the country. Basically a sandwich on plantains instead of bread, but just typing it makes me hungry... amazing, by the way.

(I happened to focus on the Creole food because I just got back from a family trip to New Orleans and the area, and I didn't have a bad meal once! Brilliant food culture down there, from high-end restaurants to po-boy shacks.)

All right... maybe it's safe to say that "what I see is what I get" when it comes to American cuisine.

FAE

[F & J 21]

When I think of American cuisine, the following comes to mind:

• macaroni and cheese
  
• sweet potato pie
  

I agree with those too!

[Calypso 464]

You guys are right. Even lechon doesn't really come from the Philippines but historically from China. It's just that the Philippine variety of lechon is really delicious and we call it ours.

FAE

[BriCar 0]

Hamburger, pizza, sausage, bread... they are not originally from the U.S.

I have gone to Italian, Indian, Mexican, Thai, Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese restaurants in places that I visited but I haven't spotted any authentic American restaurant. I mean a restaurant with that description.

Today is January 27. I arrived in the U.S. on October 27 last year. In my three months here, I have only been to Orlando, Los Angeles, San Diego, Burbank, Glendale, and Santa Monica. Maybe I haven't seen much but I am starting to ask myself: So... what is American cuisine really? You know, food that Americans can proudly call their own... food that has originated in the U.S.

Hakuna matata.

God bless us all.

FAE

You now live in a country with limitless freedom and opportunity!

Invent some new unique American food market it and make a fortune!

[Yurika & Jim 77]

I like the Roll House Sushi Japanese restaurant several blocks from where my husband and I live. We go there every Saturday evening for dinner. I never ordered any roll with avocado. Their chef are Japanese-looking though and even their servers.

FAE

This is California roll http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_roll

You go to Japanese restaurant every Sat? I envy you!! My husband likes cooking and we don't eat out much...

By the way, chefs and servers in many Japanese restaurant are Chinese and Korean

I tried to speak to them in Japanese some times, but they didn't understand...

[Matt&Cui 0]

MMMMM Steak and Potatoes

[Calypso 464]

This is California roll http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_roll

You go to Japanese restaurant every Sat? I envy you!! My husband likes cooking and we don't eat out much...

By the way, chefs and servers in many Japanese restaurant are Chinese and Korean

I tried to speak to them in Japanese some times, but they didn't understand...

I like cooking any type of food regardless of its origin and my husband makes the best pizza I've ever tasted but I just adore Roll House Sushi. A few weeks ago after our first visit to that restaurant, we decided to go there every Saturday. I always look forward to Saturday evenings.

"By the way, chefs and servers in many Japanese restaurant are Chinese and Korean

I tried to speak to them in Japanese some times, but they didn't understand... "

Really? And they dare wear Japanese costume!

FAE

[Calypso 464]

You now live in a country with limitless freedom and opportunity!

Invent some new unique American food market it and make a fortune!

That's a sound advice.

[Lorenzoid 12]

American cuisine (that is, North American) may be a blend of other countries' cuisines, but other countries' cuisines have borrowed from America as well. Take Italian cuisine--especially southern Italian, with it's rich use of tomato sauce and pasta. Noodles are believed to be a Chinese invention. Tomatoes came to Italy from the New World. Italian polenta?--corn/maize is native to the Americas, not Europe. What is considered Italian cuisine today was a novelty to Italy 500 years ago. There is almost no cuisine in the world that has remain unchanged and uninfluenced by the cuisines of other countries.

Even what is considered stereotypical American cuisine today--things like hot dogs, pizza, and barbecue--have been borrowed from other countries. Hot dogs are Americanized versions of European sausages (can you say Wieners?). Pizza was borrowed from Italy, and there is an ever-exanding array of Americanized versions. Barbecue is believed to be a Caribbean invention, though North Americans have adopted the cooking method and made it their own.

Sure, American cuisine borrows heavily from other countries, just as countries have been borrowing foods from each other for centuries.

Your Filipino cuisine is what it is because of what it borrowed from Chinese, Spanish and other cuisines.

Edited January 27, 2010 by Lorenzoid

[Bernie C 24]

Hamburger, pizza, sausage, bread... they are not originally from the U.S.

I have gone to Italian, Indian, Mexican, Thai, Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese restaurants in places that I visited but I haven't spotted any authentic American restaurant. I mean a restaurant with that description.

Today is January 27. I arrived in the U.S. on October 27 last year. In my three months here, I have only been to Orlando, Los Angeles, San Diego, Burbank, Glendale, and Santa Monica. Maybe I haven't seen much but I am starting to ask myself: So... what is American cuisine really? You know, food that Americans can proudly call their own... food that has originated in the U.S.

Hakuna matata.

God bless us all.

Visit an American Indian reservation and have a wonderful traditional meal. After all, the rest of us all originated someplace else so were only american by birth generation after generation! That is what makes it interesting, everyplace cooks the same things differently!

The thing that dissapoints me most is that I cannot find authentic Vietnamese food where I live (we are searching for places to buy "real" products to make our own. I'm the USC and I miss traditional good ole Vietnamese food every day. I also love Thai, Korean, Mexican and South American food as well as Polish, Russian, Italian (well I think you get the picture). I love to eat GOOD food. Its great when they have the Greek fest and Polish fest stc stc so we can get the good ole home cooking from the old folks. Just hope that the grandparents and parents keep passing the traditions on.

As far as American Food - your best bet is to invent your own, that is what is American about it!!!

FAE

[mrsean 4]

philly cheese steak,hoagie,buffalo wings, all steaks,etc

[F & J 21]

This is California roll http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_roll

You go to Japanese restaurant every Sat? I envy you!! My husband likes cooking and we don't eat out much...

By the way, chefs and servers in many Japanese restaurant are Chinese and Korean

I tried to speak to them in Japanese some times, but they didn't understand...

I used to eat that a lot in the Philippines! They were usually called "California Maki"

____

I noticed that too! My sister-in-law and her family took me and my husband to a Japanese restaurant a few months ago and the hostess and some of the servers were Korean! I didn't see one Japanese chef or server the whole time we were there!

____

Look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_the_United_States

Edited January 27, 2010 by Fatima and Jim

[Dogwood_Poet 16]

I think the closest you will find to an "American" restaurant would be Cracker Barrel which started in Tennessee, but they have locations all across the country.

Their focus is on 'Southern-style' cooking, but that is pretty American to me.

Cracker Barrel