Wrongful food acculturation

[Kent Wang]

When my family moved to America from Shanghai when I was six, my mom made me eat a lot of western food so that I would become accustomed to it. Although she cooks great Chinese cuisine, she was completely out of her element with American food. One thing she made me eat was cheese -- not good cheese but Kraft American cheese singles. And I would eat them cold, unmelted in a cold sandwich! I love cheese now but that childhood experience nearly ruined all cheeses for me.

When I was twelve, I decided that I liked the traditional Chinese breakfast serving of rice porridge. But my mom refused to serve it to me unless I also had a full serving of milk and cereal lest I become unaccustomed to the traditional American breakfast. For about a week, I was downing about 800 calories just for breakfast and feeling so full on the bus ride to school that I would nearly vomit. I caved in and gave up the porridge for just the cereal. I suppose that experience did ruin cereal for me; I never eat it any more though I still love the other traditional western breakfast foods like egg and bacon.

Do you have any similar experiences as an immigrant child being forced to eat the local cuisine?

[Alchemist]

My parents took me to India when I was thirteen. My mom had been there in the Peace Corps. The first meal we had in the town she used to live in, at the best resturant, almost turned me off food. All food, forever. The "dining room" was dim but there were bats divebombing us through out. The grandson of our hosts drank one Fanta and a Coke and threw up on the table. Then I got up to use the Loo, (Don't even ask), and I passed by the kitchen. It was a large fire around which a bunch of men hunkered, in loin cloths. They were sweat slicked, and yelling at eachother. Huge red shadows crawled menacingly on the walls, dancing to the din of crashing pots and pans, it was a vision of hell.

The food it's self was unremarkable, or maybe I just blocked it out.

For the rest of the time we ate at our hosts' house. I came to love Indian food. The firey curries extinguished with raieta. Everything eaten with your right hand. Kinda perfect for teenage boy table manners.

If there had been a choice, I would have prefered a slice of pizza, insted of the best resturant in a one elephant town in Gujarat. (SP?)

[Rehovot]

It was a large fire around which a bunch of  men hunkered, in loin cloths.  They were sweat slicked, and yelling at eachother.  Huge red  shadows crawled menacingly on the walls, dancing to the din of crashing pots and pans, it was a vision of hell.

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Or lunch in Plato's Cave.

[rooftop1000]

This is how Spaghetti and meatballs .."american" style came to be. The health dept in NY told the immigrants their children needed to eat more meat....

I dont know what happened in generations gone by in my family, but we have no "great great grandma made this", this way recipes left. Just had a lot of foods drowned in tomato sauce...including rice.

Although I am the only person I know that eats Acini Pepe...like pastina... for breakfast with milk and butter.

tracey

[slkinsey]

This is an interesting topic, Kent. On the one hand, it is sad in a way for certain cultural traditions and foods to be lost when families immigrate. On the other hand, to a large extent, the ultimate success of immigrants in their new country is dependent upon their success at integrating with the predominant and successful culture in that country. Cultures that have a history of great success in America have typically placed a high value on such integration, wanting their children to grow up as Americans and not as "Chinese (or whatever) living in America." My observation has been that it is not at all uncommon for first generation immigrant parents to deliberately emphasize American culinary customs and the English language, in the belief that it will help their children succeed here. This belief, I think, is one that is largely supported by empirical evidence. People from Asian cultures, in particular, seem to practice this upon immigration to the United States, and considering how widely different these cultures are from American culture, I have to believe that it has something to do with their remarkable success here.

I can't say I'd do any differently. If I had a family and we were to immigrate to Italy, I would want my children to be Italians. I would emphasize Italian language skills over English, and Italian culinary traditions over American. This is not to say that I wouldn't still try to preserve some traditions (Thanksgiving, for example). But the reality is that most of our "American-ness" would be lost by the third generation anyway.

[chile_peppa]

My mother is from Japan, and my father is American. When I was a small child, we lived in a remote, rural area in which there were no other Asian people, so no Japanese foods were available. My mother was acclimating to a life in the United States that was extremely different from what she had known before, isolated from any other Japanese folk. Struggling to learn English and cope with a new culture that was not always friendly, she passed on very few Japanese traditions to us. She wanted us to be Americans.

But as well, my mother is not a very domestic person and she hates to cook -- she had not learned to cook when she was young. On the farm, we mostly ate my grandmother's traditional Southern cooking, heavy on the bacon grease. When we moved to the big city, much of what my mother learned about feeding children came from advertising (Wonder Bread -- Builds Strong Bodies 12 Ways!), so our diet consisted of Chef-Boy-Ardee, Kellogg's cereals, Kraft dinner, and Oscar Mayer bologna with Kraft singles on white bread. She really did believe she was doing the right thing for us, feeding us modern, vitamin-enriched American food.

Luckily, we lived in a very diverse neighborhood, and my mother learned to make tacos from her Mexican friend and spaghetti from her Italian friend. We also now had access to a Japanese grocery store, so on special occasions, my mother would make sukiyaki or other dishes from home. As well, a world of takeout opened to us -- pizza, Chinese, gyros, and sushi!

To this day, my mother prefers not to cook, but to go out or open a package for a meal.

[bleudauvergne]

I think these days "integration" doesn't ever mean erasing your own cultural identity, or even favoring a dominant language at home over your own if yours is different, although at one time this was probably the case. The efforts people go to in order to fit in also largely depends on whether they belief that life will be better if they do. The reason for and circumstances in which the move took place also most likely have an impact on the desire to transmit their original culture or not. Also success stories in the local community can influence the choices people make.

I have had many thoughts about how I plan to raise my children. It's a delicate topic. I don't want my children to feel that I have witheld anything about their cultural origins, i.e. my own. I'd like to think that the process of raising my children will include aspects of both French and American traditions. But when it comes down to what we eat on a daily basis, I can't really say if I'm going to go to special efforts to make sure that we eat 'American' dishes all the time.

Of course we'll continue to celebrate Thanksgiving with the traditional fixings, and I'll bake birthday cakes at home, etc. in an American way. One of the big battles I think for me is going to be how to deal with my own impulse to try and prevent my children from being ridiculed at school, and to prepare them to best succeed in this environment etc. A major part of that is to prepare them for the stereotypes they'll inevitably face, and make sure there are no holes in their knowledge of the local culture. It's a slippery slope and will take a lot of deliberate planning.

When I hear the horror stories of kids who were forced to have Kraft singles sandwiches, I think of my own childhood and how only the popular kids brought that kind of thing for lunch, on Wonder Bread, no less. I was getting tuna salad on Roman Meal, and suffering because of it. I wonder if we all didn't suffer a little bit as kids no matter what we ate.

[zaelic]

Well, I was born in NYC but I live in Budapest. My son is bilingual, lives with his Mom, and has lived all of his life in Hungary. When he comes to my house he wants no part of Hungarian food - which I like and not surprisingly, is what the corner grocery sells. Head cheese, kolbász, stuffed cabbage.

For my son, however, Papa's house is all about ethnic cooking, like pancakes, apple pie, matzoh ball soup, fried chicken, New Mexico lamb chile, best of all, home style sushi and seaweed salad (my girlfriend is Japanese from Tokyo.) And when he comes over with his friends, they all want to try strange concoctions he has raved to them about... like hot dogs on buns with mustard and sauerkraut (it was a big hit at his school "bring an ethnic dish" themed picnic. All the other kids brought ramen noodle packages or Grandma's Slovak potato soups.) These kids now use the word "pancake" to refer to palacsintas, and their Mom's ask me for recipes so they too can produce the stodgy, thick IHOP style pancake these kids find so exotic...

[kellytree]

I am a Yank living in Italy --- I force feed my little italo bambini pancakes (with maple syrup), caeser salad, chips and dip... peanut butter and jiffy pop popcorn (this is a major hit with all the friends) along with a vast assortment of candy corn, reeses peanut butter cups ect. ect.

and of course Thanksgiving ( the nice thing about celebrating Thanksgiving in another country is that you can do it when it's convienent since nobody knows the real date!!)

It would be silly for me to deny my past and make my children miss out on Fluff and Jello (which they really find disgusting by the way).

I agree that one should fit into a country and try to adapt to the local ways but in moderation.

[Pan]

Lemme get this straight: Do your kids hate all this stuff you're "force feeding" them? By the way, I grew up in New York and had plenty of pasta but never do I remember being served "Fluff and Jello" in my parents' apartment. I don't even know what you mean by "Fluff."

[Mandarin]

I am a Yank living in Italy --- I force feed my little italo bambini pancakes (with maple syrup), caeser salad, chips and dip... peanut butter and jiffy pop popcorn (this is a major hit with all the friends) along with a vast assortment of candy corn, reeses peanut butter cups ect. ect.

Mmmmmmmm - healthy diet...........

[lamb]

Lemme get this straight: Do your kids hate all this stuff you're "force feeding" them? By the way, I grew up in New York and had plenty of pasta but never do I remember being served "Fluff and Jello" in my parents' apartment. I don't even know what you mean by "Fluff."

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You've led a deprived life.

see fluff website here

FLUFF!!

Life in the 60's in Brooklyn would not have been complete without this jingle

Oh you need fluff, fluff, fluff to make

a fluffer nutter,

Marshmallow fluff and lots of peanut butter.

First you spread, spread, spread your bread

with peanut butter,

Add marshmallow fluff and have a fluffernutter.

When you enjoy, joy, joy your fluff

and peanut butter,

You're glad you have enough for another

fluffernutter. "

[Pan]

OK, I remember Fluffernutter. Not necessarily part of your balanced breakfast.