Corn, squash, and my personal favorite, chocolate are all of at least North American origan. Chocolate came from Mexico tehnically because the Aztecs first figured out how to make it. Most hot peppers come from the Americas too as well as potatos and sweet potatos. Are you hungry yet?
Does America even HAVE its own kind of food? With the exception of Native Americans, US culture, especially culinatry culture, is a mish-mash of the countries people emmigrated from. Pizza is Italian, burgers and big sausages German, pies and stews British, curries Indian, noodles Chinese, I could go on.
Except hot dog eating contests. That seems to be US specific. And doughnuts. I’m fairly sure they’re American. I’ll give you that one, doughnuts are a damn good culinary innovation (cue someone proving they’re French or something).
I dont’ think there is a nation in the world whose cuisine hasn’t been influenced by other countries, either from immigration or invasion. It’s how those dishes evolve that make them representative of the culture. Even UK cuisine can be considered multicultural. You can’t tell me that the Romans and Normans didn’t influence your cuisine. I’m pretty sure that saffron and mace, two very important spice of medieval UK cooking, don’t grow in Britain. I understand that in modern times curry shops outnumber the fish and chip stands.
And Tea? Not very UK in origin at all, is it?
As for competitive eating….it’s mainly popular in three countries: US, Japan,...and England. In that order.
As for dishes that are distinctly American…..Hominy comes to mind. So does succotash, peanut butter, pumpkin pie, Southern fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, surf and turf, blue claw crab.
What would Italian cuisine be without the humble tomato? Guess where that came from? So by default, Italian dishes that contain tomato must really be American, no? Of course, it came from the Spanish Colonies, so maybe we can credit Spain there.
Fish and chip stands. I honest don’t remember the last time I saw one of those. Come to think of it, outside the TV I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one of those. Damn I feel like a chippy now. Think that’s decided my dinner for me.
And what the hell is Hominy? Isn’t that a groupd of words that are identical in spelling and pronunciation but have different meaning?
We have more fish and chip shops around here than you can wave a halibut at (I tried it once, and the halibut gave out about halfway through). Sadly, most of them serve them don’t serve anything like proper chips. And the best such place in the area for some odd reason dropped about half the items on its menu, which is a shame as they made good gyros (the stand is run by some Turks).
Smerk - 13 May 2008 02:13 AM
And that’s saying something, picky critter that she is.
Does America even HAVE its own kind of food? With the exception of Native Americans, US culture, especially culinatry culture, is a mish-mash of the countries people emmigrated from. Pizza is Italian, burgers and big sausages German, pies and stews British, curries Indian, noodles Chinese, I could go on.
Except hot dog eating contests. That seems to be US specific. And doughnuts. I’m fairly sure they’re American. I’ll give you that one, doughnuts are a damn good culinary innovation (cue someone proving they’re French or something).
I do believe doughnuts are originally American. Actually, a lot of delectable desserts and other delicious and high-calorie sweet things come from those masters of delectable desserts and delicious and high-calorie sweet things, the Pennsylvanian Dutch (who are actually German, not Dutch, but don’t let’s even go into that).
Of course most American food had its start from other cultures. What’s your point? As Carlotta pointed out, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t evolved into something distinctive. It isn’t what you start with; it’s what you do with it. I mean, popcorn and polenta are made from the essentially same grain. Go figure.
As for hotdog eating contests, I’ve never seen one in person, but I’ve seen a couple on the Food Network, and the ones I’ve seen have both been won by a smallish Japanese man—the same man, I think: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeru_Kobayashi
Not very UK in origin at all, is it?
