US Regional cuisines: then and now ...

[Gifted Gourmet]

Regional cuisines and you .. do you have a tendency to eat as you did when you were young, in the region where you grew up, because it is comfortable and secure?

Or do you eat so entirely differently now, that where you are today, both regionally and financially, dictates your daily fare?

There is, of course, no single “true” American cuisine. Our food is the product of different climates, crops, cultural influences and cooking techniques favored in various U.S. regions..... so do you eat regionally as when you were young or make a concerted effort to integrate all types of food in your adult years?

[NancyH]

Interesting topic, Melissa! I moved from the greater NY metropolitan area to Cleveland 9 years ago, and my eating habits have changed a bit. Now, part of that is a function of my husband, who is a Cleveland native, doing the dinner cooking during the weekend, but part of it is a function of where I be. For example, I never ate or cooked with sausages of any kind, but we do use them now (pork and poultry types); they are a staple in this part of the country. I eat fewer bagels since they are just not as good here; I crave the pizza I grew up on which is likewise not really available here.

We eat more soups, stews and chili in the winter - partly because that is cuisine Bob is comfortable making, and partly because the snowier winters here seem to make those foods more comforting.

[NulloModo]

I have added bits of regional cuisine from all of the places I have lived, as well as the places my parents have lived. I was born in AL, and both of my parents had lived in the deep south for some time, so there is a good bit of 'soul food' style southern cooking that strikes a chord with me, and that I try to prepare as often as possible.

I also lived for a period in NH, and thus great northern bean soup with ham, baked beans, maple syrup, and other New England dishes are in my repertoire.

I have lived for the most time in DE, which shares food culture with Philadelphia and Baltimore, so, lots of seafood, Italian-American cuisine, and Greek/Middle-Eastern diner food. There is also a strong influence from the PA Dutch (Amish/Menonite) community, which lends me to really enjoy things like shoo-fly pie, chicken and dumplings, and simple tasty roasted meats and veggies.

[jgarner53]

Hmm, I wouldn't say that I grew up with any kind of regional cuisine. Southern California isn't exactly known for anything except maybe Mexican food. Perhaps we ate more fruit and vegetables just because they were more available. My mom was certainly no heath food nut, so except for whole wheat bread, we didn't do the whole yogurt/granola/carob thing that some of my friends did in the 70's.

I eat much more broadly now than I did growing up - many more ethnic cuisines available to me, and a more mature palate. Though sometimes a pot roast is exactly the thing that his the spot.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Thanks to you folks who absolutely came up with superb "on target" responses and got the full import of my question!

Would hope to hear even more on my favorite "issue" ... what happens in adulthood is somehow a product of heredity and current life changes ...

[Jensen]

I'm not sure I eat the same as I did growing up but I also am thinking that my family's eating habits changed as I grew up.

I grew up on an island and, although it was a big one, it did still have an impact on how we ate. Fresh vegetables in the winter were pretty pathetic so my mum would freeze a lot of our garden harvest during the summer. As I got older (but was still in my growth phase), transportation improved and so we were able to buy better produce during the winter. As that happened, we bought more and put up less.

I did eat a lot more seafood as a kid than I eat now. Of course, I live in Sacramento and one can't just wander down to Fisherman's Wharf to pick up stuff for dinner. My sister lives one block from Fisherman's Wharf in Victoria and, when we visit, one of our favourite meals is a "seafood" dinner. We walk down to the wharf, buy some of everything that's available, and then spend the entire evening (up to 6 hours!) eating and drinking.

We also usually had freshly caught salmon in the freezer, either that we had got ourselves or that friends had. That held true until we moved off the island (as adults) in the early 90s.

I don't eat Chinese food like I did when I lived in BC, simply because there isn't any in Sacramento. Even the local Asian market doesn't carry a lot of the foods that I used to buy (Chinese fresh noodles, for instance). Most of their foods are Vietnamese, as there is a good Vietnamese population here. And, of course, we still go for pho.

Now that we're in California, we do eat more Mexican food. <HOMER SIMPSON>Mmmmmm...carnitas!</HOMER> It's easier to find Hispanic groceries, even in mainstream grocery stores, than it is to find Chinese ingredients.

[birder53]

I grew up in Brooklyn, NY. Other than having corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day, there was nothing particularly ethnic about what we ate. The neighborhood was most Irish and Scandanavian and the food was pretty boring. When Mom got a job as the guidance counselor at a small highschool, our food horizons expanded. She was working in an Italian neighborhood where a lot of the students' parents owned local Italian bakeries, pork stores and a pasta shop. She got lots of good recipes from co-workers and students and we started to enjoy the good life at home. The parents were always ready to recommend a new dish to her when she went shopping at their stores.

My husband grew up with wonderful Italian home cooking. While his parents were alive we never went to an Italian restaurant becuase there was just nothing that could compare with his mother's cooking. He considered meals eaten at my parent's house as strange.

Now, living in the exotic state of NJ, we cook and eat a variety of cuisines. The large number of local ethnic restaurants has been a stronger influence on my current eating habits rather than the food I grew up with. This may actually be a revolt against home! We enjoy trying all sorts of new cuisines, dining in and out. We tend to use lots of Asian ingredients during the summer and a lot of southwestern during the cooler months. My favoite foods to eat out are Thai and Italian. I don't know if that is a reflection of what is available locally or our currents preferences. All I know for sure is that I have come a long way from home.

[FL Heat]

I grew up in Texas, with substantial family (and spent summers) in Tennessee & Mississippi. Dad's a huge barbecue freak and loved that his daughter was/is, too (that'd be me). Mom made a lot of traditional southern dishes, but loved the Cajun culture and cooked gumbos & seafood a lot, too. And I adore Tex-Mex food. . .so yes, when I'm seeking comfort, I make cheese enchiladas or fried okra. I'd say the southern food traditions influence me nearly as much as the Tex-Mex ones, and I don't think it's strange at all to have leftover gumbo on the side of tamales.

I do eat differently in one main aspect. . .that much fat & frying just isn't sensible for two people. When we have friends over, though, you can bet we fire up the smoker, heat up the deep fryer, and bring out the salsa. I moved around a lot after college and really got a kick out of making "my" dishes for people who hadn't had them anywhere but chain restaurants (if at all). At the same time, I learned a lot about different cultures & food from those same folks and incorporate it into my cooking now.

There's always a lot of vegetables on the plate, that much I picked up from the Southern cooking traditions. And I probably branch out more and try more things when it's just me (or just me & the boyfriend) than if we're entertaining. . .I definitely fall back on certain dishes that I know and love when it comes time to feed a lot of people.

Diana

[lovebenton0]

Thought provoking topic, Melissa. Not a new thing for you!

Both parents were from the Midwest -- Illinois and Ohio, so that was a definite influence. Dad was in the Navy so that jumping also around inserted more regional cuisines into the kitchen. He learned to love to grill out when they were stationed in CA, where I was born. My dad really liked the hot stuff he was exposed to in AZ, and more later when we moved to TX. The fact that he had little ability to smell and taste meant texture was important in meal considerations. I learned to kick up the spice fairly early on because of that. Going out to Mexican restaurants and bbq was on the list. No pizzas at our house! "Taste like damn cardboard!" was dad's evaluation of them.

Food at home when I was a little girl was for the most part basic, good middle American with lots of roasted or broiled chickens, pot roasts, liver and onions, swiss steak kind of meals. Also the occasional interjection of something "ethnic" you know, like spaghetti! Chili too, and goulash. But the menu was also always loaded with lots of veggies, fresh fruits and salads. Maternal grandmother lived on a farm by the time I knew her, and had a lot of fresh farm produce available to her in Ohio when my mother was growing up also. Lucky there.

I was not even vaguely aware that fried food existed until age seven when we had guests and went out to the new Youngblood's Restaurant in town. First ever fried chicken livers for me -- and still one of the few things I will actually fry. mmmm. ("Fried" bologna doesn't count -- my first stove cooking experience at age six.)

I started cooking pot roasts, and chicken, and meatloaf, lots of veggies, etc., about age nine after cooking became more my job when mother had to go work.

Then new stepfather was a home gourmet cook, and delighted me to no end when he wanted to teach me how to do more complex meals. I was about 11 at the time, so had some basic kitchen experience already. Suddenly I was preparing escargot in garlic butter, curries, wild rice-stuffed chicken legs, artichokes, making my own salad dressings, molded aspics . . . . So my food world expolded wide open!

Dad married a PA Dutch woman (my mom) and more flooded in! Then we moved to Detroit, my dad and all moved to Chicago and a whole 'nother world of fish/seafood and Italian food opened up.

I'm just a sponge. I absorb everything from every place I have lived. For a while I have tended to cook a lot of Thai, Asian, Middle Eastern and of course Tex-Mex and interior Mexican cuisine (lived in SMA one summer and was off and on in MX for two years), also Cajun, and the smoker gets driven at least twice a week most of the year. But then I still love the one pot soups and stews, liver and onions, foods of the Midwest. And catfish, cornbread, greens, etc. (two years in AL )

Damn, if you come to our house you just never will know what I'm likely to feed you!

[DaleJ]

Thanks, Melissa.

I wqs born and raised about sixty miles south of Chicago and my mother, bless her heart, featured grey meat loaf, canned vegetables and jello.

Julia Child changed my life lo, those many years ago. My MTAoFC, volume I, is falling apart from use thirty years ago. When living in Lafayette Park in Detroit I gathered chestnuts that had fallen and made one of Julia's recipes (can't remember which one) only to find out that the "chestnuts" were vilely tart and rendered my "creation" inedable.

In the past six or so years, we have traveled to Italy spring and fall and I have fallen head over heals with the cuisine, the wine and the lifestyle. My wife and I, both being architects, studiously experienced Italian monuments and their great urban spaces. On about out third or fourth trip we confessed that while the architecture was outstanding, we really traveled to Italy for the beauty of the life there.

So, out of my perhaps fifty cookbooks forty are Italian inspired, from Ada Boni to Mario to Nigella to the girls at River Cafe. I have comadeered the kitchen and love dinner parties and the opportunity to show off. I spend the weekends making pasta, gnocci and six hour ragus. What great fun!

p.s. I did buy Tony's book and just ordered Bouchon. Perhaps there is hope yet.

[Chris Amirault]

Great topic.

I've lived in New England (outside Boston then here in Providence) most of my life, save for four years in Milwaukee. That little blip in the land of beer, cheese, and brats was interesting in some ways -- I fell in love with Friday night fish fry in particular, but fish boils are heinous events to which no one should ever be subjected -- but returning back to NE in 1994 an older person in a changed region has been more compelling.

I grew up in a classic Yankee house, with truly bad food served regularly: shake-n-bake pork chops cooked for an hour; American chop suey; grey broccoli; the usual. I suppose that that was my regional "comfort" food, though I don't remember taking much comfort from it (save roast beef and gravy, or tuna noodles Romanoff from a package).

This weekend, as I was driving around shopping, I realized that I have a new comfort food that is decidedly regional. Each Saturday and/or Sunday around mid-morning, I start to crave the southeast asian street food that is readily available on the south side of Providence: lort (egg rolls with pork and taro stuffing), steamed egg, pork, and sausage buns, banana- or bean-stuffed rice in banana leaves; yellow bean fritters. I buy a few of each with a tall roasted cocoanut drink.

I have no idea if these sorts of things are served in most se asian stores, or if they're more particularly of Providence. But I feel comforted by eating them. I am a regular at the stores (something I unabashedly enjoy); I know where to get good lort and where it tends to be gummy; I love finding a still warm cache of fresh steamed buns. The entire experience of finding, buying, and eating makes me feel part of my community, and it helps me to get into my cooking mode (I usually do a big meal on Sat and/or Sun). I think it helps me realize the value and meaning of food.

I should say that, for me, there's nothing even remotely exotic about this stuff. It's my little version of regional comfort food, as American as anything else....

[phifly04]

Regional cuisines and you .. do you have a tendency to eat as you did when you were young, in the region where you grew up, because it is comfortable and secure?

Or do you eat so entirely differently now, that where you are today, both regionally and financially, dictates your daily fare?

There is, of course, no single “true” American cuisine. Our food is the product of different climates, crops, cultural influences and cooking techniques favored in various U.S. regions..... so do you eat regionally as when you were young or make a concerted effort to integrate all types of food in your adult years?

←

I tend to like the things i grew up on,and cook those same foods always at home-both parents were long time residents of the suburban philly region i grew up in,as were there parents so things like chicken and dumplings,pot roasts with all the trimmings,baked ham and baked mac and cheese,meatloaf(with the campbells tomato soup "robing")apple dumplings,etc--good and warming memories for sure!!! Dave s

[andiesenji]

I don't eat the way I did growing up all the time, but occasionally, often at holiday time, I revert back to the foods of my youth.

Of course many of the foods I was raised on, in rural western Kentucky, were not your ordinary "southern" cooking but was rather a unique experience. Of course I wasn't aware of it at the time but I came to appreciate it many years later.

Our food was "fusion" food long before that description was applied to such things as food.

We lived in the south but part of my family had come from England and the other half were southeners for several generations. My grandfather's cook was a Gullah woman from the Carolina lowcountry and brought that facet of the food world into the mix.

Also, my grandfather had traveled in the middle east and spend some time in India and had become fond of those foods. And in addition, my great grandmother, a remarkable woman who lived a very interesting life, and a very long one, was a collector of "receipts" and also had traveled a great deal in Europe and had even been to Egypt and Palestine.

Because there were so many people to be fed, it was not unusual to have several entrees, multiples of side dishes, condiments, little "sides" such as pickles, olives, radishes, and so on as well as several desserts.

Being raised by Victorians did have some drawbacks. Highly spiced foods or rich foods were not considered "good" for children so we did not get curries and other of the more exotic dishes (except what we could sneak out of the kitchen) and we also did not usually have dinner with the adults, except on Sundays when dinner was in the afternoon.

Holidays it was a different situation, we were allowed to stay up later and sometimes were accomodated at the tables in the dining room when we were old enough to "behave" ourselves.

So I remember biscuits and cornbread, buttermilk, soup beans, greens, green beans, ham hocks in beans and green beans and greens, bacon, boiled ham, baked ham and fried ham. Beef in all its many guises, crab cakes and oyster loaves, fried chicken, roast chicken, chicken pie, chicken curry, stewed chicken and chicken and dumplings. Grandpa's cook learned to cook curries and rice and various kinds of lentils in addition to beans and black-eye peas. There were game birds, ducks and geese, giunea fowl and turkeys, the bronze ones, prepared in every way imaginable.

After the war my uncles who were in the Pacific came home with food ideas from the Phillipines, from Japan and Hawaii. One uncle who had been in the China service prior to WWII had already brought home dishes from various places he visited.

It was an eclectic mix of foods that is probably the reason I have always had an adventuresome spirit when it comes to food and the reason that I mix things from varioius cultures that I think go well together.

(Coucous works as well with Thai food or Mexican food as it does with foods of the middle east.)

[emilymarie]

I grew up in Passaic and Morris counties in New Jersey, lived in St. Louis for 3 and a half years during high school and went to college in New York.

I would have to say that there are certainly regional specialties in all three areas but that they are all variations on broader food categories--Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, junk food, ballpark food, etc. For instance, the Italian food in St. Louis is very different from the Italian food in New Jersey and New York (New Jersey Italians do not generally consider toasted ravioli "Italian" while this same dish is a very popular thing in St. Louis' Italian communities). And, I also think it's important to remember that when talking about regional foods that we don't separate regional from ethnic. Perhaps this is a given, but the kind of food that becomes associated with certain regions of the country is heavily determined, I think, by the kinds of people who settled in these regions.

In places like north Jersey and New York City where there are immigrants from all over the world, it's hard to say that there is one regional specialty. I mean, there are so many different types of food available at our fingertips. I grew up eating my grandmother's food--my grandmother is a first-generation Italian-American and my grandfather came to NJ as an infant from Italy.

As I've grown up (and settled in north Jersey) I can't say that what I eat specifically reflects any particular region. What I eat, however, does reflect the fact that I have more money now and have been exposed to a lot more types of cuisine--Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, classical French, regional Italian, etc., etc. As a very young child, going out to dinner with 3 kids and 2 parents meant local, family-run Italian joints with overflowing plates of lasagna (which we relished), Bennigans and other local places where salad was always included with dinner (I thought this was standard until the age of 10).

Now that I am older I have more choices and will eat greek one night (tonight actually), Italian the next, ice cream the next. I'd say that my food choices are really mostly determined by what I can afford rather than some specific regional specialties. I will say, however, that my grandmother's food will always comfort me, pierogies will always remind me of my polish aunt, and I will always enjoy a good hot dog all the way and pizza made the right way (so, never anything found in St. Louis).

[Chris Amirault]

andiesenji and emilymarie, those were great. I really enjoy this thread -- and I suspect that many other people would enjoy it, too. I also have wondered about how some of the other interesting eGs would answer Melissa's excellent question (yet another in a long string of great ones).

So I'm hoping that my little note will pop it to the top of the "View New Posts" lists...!

[Gifted Gourmet]

I also have wondered about how some of the other interesting eGs would answer Melissa's excellent question (yet another in a long string of great ones).

So I'm hoping that my little note will pop it to the top of the "View New Posts" lists...!

←

With my deepest appreciation for your compliments and for popping the topic back into a place where others may want to read and ponder the question posed ... Thanks, Chrisamirault, for this!

[wordwiseguy]

I grew up in Milwaukee, WI. Funny thing is that I didn't really dig cheese (Cheeseheads and all) and I didn't drink beer until I was in my early 20s. Now I love both. Especially mircobrews from Wisconsin like Sprecher.

Now I live in Birmingham and have fallen in love with southern cuisine as well as Mexican (my wife is originally from Mexico).

However, there times when I really crave bigger than should be legal hamburgers with butter on top (we call them butter burgers in Wisconsin), covered with ketchup and mustard. I also crave custard ice cream like you'd get at a place called Kopps. Yum. And anytime I visit my hometown I always go directly to this old pizza place in Wauwatosa, I've been going to since I could walk, for their heavenly thin crust pizza served on a baking sheet.

Even today I find this place to be my comparison for all other pizzas I eat. There's this voice in my head (several sometimes) saying: "Good, but not Balistreri's good."

[Gifted Gourmet]

Even today I find this place to be my comparison for all other pizzas I eat. There's this voice in my head (several sometimes) saying: "Good, but not Balistreri's good."

←

Ah, perhaps Balistreri's will always be your personal Gold Standard by which all else is judged??

[RETREVR]

There is, of course, no single ?true? American cuisine. Our food is the product of different climates, crops, cultural influences and cooking techniques favored in various U.S. regions.....

←

Agreed. Just as there is no single true Italian cuisine, or single true French cuisine. Regionality plays a role. There is no SINGLE true American cuisine. But there is TRUE American cuisine, and many of them. Globalization and assimilation of new products plays a role. For instance, the introduction of the potatoe to Europe and Britain. For instance, the influence of asian products and techniques in modern American cuisine. A region's cuisine is not static. It is constantly evolving.

In Colorado there are regional dishes like Green chile and BBQ that I love and will eat no matter what my economic or gegraphic sitiation comes to be. These dishes have an honesty that can be enjoyed by any gourmand, no matter how sophisticated. Regional wild game plays a role. If I were in NYC, I would not search out pronghorned antelope. I will eat it here. The farm ducks served in NYC, are not even similar to the wild ducks I eat here. On the same note, it is pretty hard to get a a sea duck in Colorado.

My grandad was a butcher. That is part of my heritage. I worked with Japanese, and Italians, and learned a lot of French cuisine that has become the foundation of knowlege that I base my cooking on. I may apply this to produce available in my region. Or create a dish that apeals to the population in my region.

The truest of French cuisine may not be in any of the classic books. It may be something cooked by a Frenchman using what he has available to him.

[purplewiz]

I also grew up in northern New Jersey (Bergen County), and from what I'm reading here, it's changed a lot since I was there. When I was growing up, eating ethnic meant either Italian or Chinese, and by Chinese I mean chow mein which was mostly bok choy and onions in cornstarch thickened chicken broth. So maybe I did eat regionally when I grew up :-).

But I don't now. There are very few dishes on in my repertoire that resemble anything I ate growing up - the exceptions being Mom's meatloaf and what constitutes a Thanksgiving dinner. I attribute this to many things - first and foremost being that I eat a different diet. But going to school in upstate New York (Greek and pizza), living for 9 years in California (produce!), and now living 8 years in Colorado (beef, beef, and more beef) have had far more of an affect on my current eating than anything else.

In fact, I'd probably rate the time in California as still having the greatest culinary hold. Not only the ready availability of good, fresh produce year round, but an abundance of good restaurants for educating the palate and inspiring dishes, and an abundance of other foodies for advice, encouragement, and more inspiration. The whole culture was amazing, and it's something I still miss very deeply.

But when I want comfort food, yeah, it's Mom's meatloaf. Having had a couple of upsets lately, I bought some ground pork today - it's going to be on the menu soon.

Marcia.

[MarketStEl]

Hi, folks! And thanks for a great topic-starter, Melissa.

I've come to the Mid-Atlantic region from the Midwest (the Grain Belt part, not the Rust Belt part) via New England, and little bits of each remain in my culinary DNA.

Growing up, I really don't remember much that is distinctive about the food my parents and grandparents served in Kansas City. Most of it is what I think most of you would call traditional "comfort food"--meatloaf, pork chops, fried chicken and so on, accompanied by potatoes or rice and (canned) vegetables, except when Mom or one of my aunts prepared traditional "soul food" dishes, most of which require long simmering. Oh, yes--there was chili (from a sausage-roll-like package, but quite spicy) as well, and chili (made from scratch, no two batches alike) remains one of my signature dishes.

Eating out usually meant more of the same, with some exceptions. The best Mexican meal I've ever had anywhere was served at a little hole-in-the-wall on Southwest Boulevard at the south end of KC's traditional Mexican neighborhood; my dad took me there. You felt like you were eating in someone's kitchen (for all I can remember, I was), and the food tasted homemade to boot. There was a standard-issue Italian restaurant downtown with huge portions and oceans of tomato sauce (I still can't bring myself to call it "gravy" as South Philly Italian-Americans do), and another, fancier Italian restaurant, also downtown, that had a rather unusual pizza with an extremely crunchy crust that I enjoyed.

And, of course, there was barbecue. Friends of my family owned a small barbecue joint in Kansas City, Kansas, which we dropped in on often, and in later years, my mother would frequent Ollie Gates' restaurant and bar--the one he owned before he got to take over his dad's operation. My dad loved to grill, and I've tried to keep the flame burning to this day, although it's next to impossible to do so living in a city apartment. However, I have managed to produce mean barbecue ribs every now and then.

My college days in Boston served as my introduction to seafood. Not that I never ate things that live in water before, but in Kansas City, they tended to live in fresh water. Here I became enamored of New England clam chowder, scrod and lobster, among other things.

In Philly, I've wandered all over the culinary map, taking in a variety of ethnic cuisines (Vietnamese, Ethiopian, West African, Greek, Chinese, Afghan...) and adopting the city's signature sandwiches, the cheesesteak and the hoagie, as my own.

[Daddy-A]

We had a similar discussion in the Vancouver, BC forum with regards to Canadian cuisine. Canadian Cuisine Thread.

Keep in mind that 80% of the Canadian population lives within 160 km's (100 miles ) of the Canada/US border ... so regionalization is our speciality.

A.

Edited November 5, 2004 by Daddy-A (log)

[hjshorter]

My mother is from the Boston area, and I grew up eating baked beans, brown bread, corn chowder, clam chowder, sweet cornbread, cod cakes, Harvard beets, molasses cookies, etc. She never used Joy of Cooking, her kitchen bible was the Fannie Farmer Cookbook (1965 edition). My own cooking has branched out but I still prepare many of these dishes regularly. I've never warmed up to Joy but have two editions of Fannie - the 1965 I grew up with and an updated version from the mid 1980s.

[fifi]

Growing up in the late forties and into the fifties, I was fortunate enough to live within an extended family of grandmothers, aunts, etc. They were all very good cooks but my memory tells me that it was mostly "southern" fare with some Tex-Mex creeping in. I never remember when someone didn't have a garden. There was always a country place, a bay place so veggies and seafood were common.

As I got into middle school and high school, I did the latch-key thing and was in charge of starting dinner. By then, my mother had started to branch out. She grew her own herbs and sent off for stuff she was curious about. Then in the late 50s and early 60s we spent some time in southern Louisiana because my grandfather had some construction jobs there. Cajun and Creole started to creep in. My dad was traveling there fairly regularly and would bring back treats from the good Cajun butchers and such.

I went to college in south Louisiana and, with my room mates' families, picked up more of that. Then I married and spent more time in New Orleans and environs. That added more creole and a touch of Italian. Some time around then, my mother subscribed to Time-Life Foods of the World when they first came out and things got really crazy. My dad bought mom, my sister and me our first woks.

I guess that my overwhelming sense is that it all started from a tradition of good ingredients, attention to detail in technique, the magic touch of a caring cook, and a sense of adventure. Early on, it was good basic southern and expanded from there. I am continuing that tradition and passing it on to my own grown kids.

Next stop... Indian and Middle Eastern.

[Carrot Top]

In another thread, Pontormo raises this discussion:

Whose culture?

Whose United States?

Certainly, there are foods one might identify as culturely significant across much of the continent (Hawaii did not become a state until after your timeline begins). Many I'd list have been named, I'd imagine. I know I'd fight for pizza given the solid reasons srhb provides as well as the consensus of a small group of Italian cooks who, on a recent visit to Manhattan, ate pizza, and in part, liked it, though declared it something utterly different from "real", i.e. Italian pizza.

Just as you could argue there is Chinese, French, Spanish or Italian food as well as Szechuan, Burgundian.....specialties, I think you can and ought to acknowledge the central role of regional dishes when thinking about the United States. Essentializing American cuisine distorts the picture. I know I'd want to introduce a foreign guest to the cooking of the Deep South as much as a lobster from Maine with corn on the cob and a tour of wine country in California, ending up at The French Laundry with a detour to hot dog and taco stands. Class should be taken into consideration in addition to location and histories of immigration. Unifying factors include the powerful media and corporations, including chain restaurants, Stouffers and take-out joints. After all, rich people and those with advanced degrees do eat Big Macs.

Here is the chance to discuss regionalism, class, location, and histories of immigration. . .powerful media and corporations, chain restaurants, Stouffers and take-out joints.

So tell me about it. What's the scoop? What are we all about, in our many food guises?

What is different, unique, special that you can tell us about the food of your part of the USA?