Hispanic cuisine is poised to eclipse Chinese

[scott123]

No one has defined what's meant by "hispanic" food.  As far as I'm concerned - Cuban food has about as much in common with Mexican food as it does with Chinese food.  Robyn

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Here's an excerpt from the definition of 'Hispanic' from the The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000:

A more important distinction concerns the sociopolitical rift that has opened between Latino and Hispanic in American usage. For a certain segment of the Spanish-speaking population, Latino is a term of ethnic pride and Hispanic a label that borders on the offensive. According to this view, Hispanic lacks the authenticity and cultural resonance of Latino, with its Spanish sound and its ability to show the feminine form Latina when used of women. Furthermore, Hispanic-the term used by the U.S. Census Bureau and other government agencies-is said to bear the stamp of an Anglo establishment far removed from the concerns of the Spanish-speaking community. While these views are strongly held by some, they are by no means universal, and the division in usage seems as related to geography as it is to politics, with Latino widely preferred in California and Hispanic the more usual term in Florida and Texas. Even in these regions, however, usage is often mixed, and it is not uncommon to find both terms used by the same writer or speaker.

Even if you replace the term 'Hispanic' with the less offensive, 'Latino,' you're still, as far as I'm concerned, taking far too broad of a stroke culinarilly/culturally.

I'll be happy to talk about the surge in popularity of Mexican food. Or the popularity of Cuban food. Or even the African influences in both. But Cuban/Mexican food lumped under one umbrella with a potentially offensive label like Hispanic? No effin way.

[EdS]

I had no idea that "hispanic" was offensive to anyone.

[lovebenton0]

I agree, geographics definitely have a lot to do with it for me. I don't go to visit people in say Chicago or New york looking for Hispanic food...

Funny you should say that, I consider the Hispanic food in Chicago to be some of the best in the country!

The two places in America I have lived are Austin and Chicago, so (although I've never really thought about it before) I consider Hispanic food to be a huge part of the American food scene. Whenever I go back to London, one of the main things that seems strange to me is not seeing a taqueria on every corner.

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Perhaps I was not very clear, sorry. I lived up there for long enough, years ago, and visit frequently enough now that I know what I like to eat when I'm in the area. My point is that I can get that all the good Hispanic food I want when I'm at home, in Central TX. However, it is difficult to find a good Italian beef, or good German food out in my area. The Hispanic population has grown tremendously in the Chicago area over the past decade and I'm sure that now there are good places to eat. What I don't want is to pass up the opportunity to enjoy the more common regional foods when up there.

On the other hand while living in Tuscaloosa AL for a couple of years during grad school I had some of the best Mexican food ever at a little family-owned and driven joint just off campus. And the Thai restaurant two blocks away was fantastic as well. So I'm referring more to a personal general guideline. I like to stick with the region's best for the majority of my dining out.

edit to add: you can sub Latino for Hispanic if you please, nothing offensive was intended in the use of the term here. Both are used in my area, but Hispanic is more common.

And in the title of the thread.

And I do have to agree -- this is a very broad base for comparison. Too broad to be concise in its determination, in either culinary terms or statiscally. If we lump all Asian food into one category and all Latino/Hispanic food into the other category we are talking about an extended food list on both sides with so much diversity that the categories break down.

Edited December 20, 2004 by lovebenton0 (log)

[Pan]

In some Asian countries I've been to, people talk about "Western" food, meaning not food from the western US or something, but "white people's food." The national and regional differences are much more evident to people who've spent time living in those nations and regions than they are to most other people. Same with "Hispanic" and "Asian" food. But perhaps we could discuss whether there are in fact any commonalities among all the Latin-American cuisines.

[Mabelline]

Trinidad and Guyana were also home to very large populations of Indians, brought there as cheap labor by the English, and bringing with them their own curries and masalas,etc. to add to the mix. So those two places at least have an added culinary element to the foods.

[NulloModo]

I personally don't see a problem with the label of 'Hispanic' for a broad range of cuisines, and don't see why it can't cover Mexican, Cuban, Carribean nations, central America, etc. Then again, I don't mind the broad sweeping 'Asian' or 'Western' either.

If you stand back far enough you can see a lot of similarities, even though there are also lots of differnces. For example, most Asian cuisines have an affinity for white rice, lots of soupy/one-pot dishes, big use of noodles, and that salty/sweet/sour flavor combination going on. Some do it more than others, and obviously a Thai Curry is going to be a lot different from a Japanese Sashimi plate which is in turn nothing like a Schezuan stir-fry (except for the possible presense of soy in the latter two). Still, most peopls presented with Asian food could make an educated guess of what general area of the world the dish came from, even if they were unfamiliar with it.

Hispanic cuisine is very similar in that regard. Getting away from the white rices into more 'dirty rice', affinity for tomato, chiles, and certain characterstic cuts of meat such as flank steak you start to build a base. Add in condiments such as salsas, or the presense of flavoring agents like Sofrito (and all of its variations), and you start to see things looking more and more similar if you take them in as an abstract instead of just paying attention to the minor details.

[Pan]

Yes on the large Indian communities in Guyana and Trinidad, but even islands like Jamaica, with much less Indian influence, make curries, and many of the patties are pretty much like curry puffs. The other thing that's interesting is the Chinese influence in various parts of the Caribbean, both Spanish- and English-speaking. There are small Chinese communities in Cuba, Jamaica, Guyana, etc., but the popularity of Chinese dishes (often modified for local taste) goes far beyond those small communities. I know a young man with the last name of Chan who is of Chinese ancestry and has a classic Chinese look like you might see in a picture of a venerable scholar in an old book of scroll paintings (except that he is as of yet too young for the white beard and such), but culturally, he is Jamaican much more than Chinese.

As an aside, there was an interesting article in the Dec. 17 New York Times about the Indo-Guyanese community in Queens, New York and their interaction (and non-interaction) with the communities of immigrants from India who live mostly in other neighborhoods of Queens. The article is not specifically about food but does touch on food. Have a look.