We Are What We Eat

We Are What We Eat PDF

Author: Donna R. Gabaccia

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0674037448

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Ghulam Bombaywala sells bagels in Houston. Demetrios dishes up pizza in Connecticut. The Wangs serve tacos in Los Angeles. How ethnicity has influenced American eating habits—and thus, the make-up and direction of the American cultural mainstream—is the story told in We Are What We Eat. It is a complex tale of ethnic mingling and borrowing, of entrepreneurship and connoisseurship, of food as a social and political symbol and weapon—and a thoroughly entertaining history of our culinary tradition of multiculturalism. The story of successive generations of Americans experimenting with their new neighbors’ foods highlights the marketplace as an important arena for defining and expressing ethnic identities and relationships. We Are What We Eat follows the fortunes of dozens of enterprising immigrant cooks and grocers, street hawkers and restaurateurs who have cultivated and changed the tastes of native-born Americans from the seventeenth century to the present. It also tells of the mass corporate production of foods like spaghetti, bagels, corn chips, and salsa, obliterating their ethnic identities. The book draws a surprisingly peaceful picture of American ethnic relations, in which “Americanized” foods like Spaghetti-Os happily coexist with painstakingly pure ethnic dishes and creative hybrids. Donna Gabaccia invites us to consider: If we are what we eat, who are we? Americans’ multi-ethnic eating is a constant reminder of how widespread, and mutually enjoyable, ethnic interaction has sometimes been in the United States. Amid our wrangling over immigration and tribal differences, it reveals that on a basic level, in the way we sustain life and seek pleasure, we are all multicultural.

The Ethnic Restaurateur

The Ethnic Restaurateur PDF

Author: Krishnendu Ray

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-02-11

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0857858378

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Academic discussions of ethnic food have tended to focus on the attitudes of consumers, rather than the creators and producers. In this ground-breaking new book, Krishnendu Ray reverses this trend by exploring the culinary world from the perspective of the ethnic restaurateur. Focusing on New York City, he examines the lived experience, work, memories, and aspirations of immigrants working in the food industry. He shows how migrants become established in new places, creating a taste of home and playing a key role in influencing food cultures as a result of transactions between producers, consumers and commentators. Based on extensive interviews with immigrant restaurateurs and students, chefs and alumni at the Culinary Institute of America, ethnographic observation at immigrant eateries and haute institutional kitchens as well as historical sources such as the US census, newspaper coverage of restaurants, reviews, menus, recipes, and guidebooks, Ray reveals changing tastes in a major American city between the late 19th and through the 20th century. Written by one of the most outstanding scholars in the field, The Ethnic Restaurateur is an essential read for students and academics in food studies, culinary arts, sociology, urban studies and indeed anyone interested in popular culture and cooking in the United States.

Ethnic American Food Today

Ethnic American Food Today PDF

Author: Lucy M. Long

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2015-07-17

Total Pages: 741

ISBN-13: 1442227311

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Ethnic American Food Today introduces readers to the myriad ethnic food cultures in the U.S. today. Entries are organized alphabetically by nation and present the background and history of each food culture along with explorations of the place of that food in mainstream American society today. Many of the entries draw upon ethnographic research and personal experience, giving insights into the meanings of various ethnic food traditions as well as into what, how, and why people of different ethnicities are actually eating today. The entries look at foodways—the network of activities surrounding food itself—as well as the beliefs and aesthetics surrounding that food, and the changes that have occurred over time and place. They also address stereotypes of that food culture and the culture’s influence on American eating habits and menus, describing foodways practices in both private and public contexts, such as restaurants, groceries, social organizations, and the contemporary world of culinary arts. Recipes of representative or iconic dishes are included. This timely two-volume encyclopedia addresses the complexity—and richness—of both ethnicity and food in America today.

Ethnic Cuisine

Ethnic Cuisine PDF

Author: Elisabeth Rozin

Publisher: Penguin Mass Market

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780140469318

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Presents recipes utilizing the "flavor principles" of thirty international cultures and subcultures from such diverse regions as Yucatan, Indonesia, central Asia, Northeast Africa and Provence.

Chop Suey, USA

Chop Suey, USA PDF

Author: Yong Chen

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2014-11-04

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 0231538162

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American diners began to flock to Chinese restaurants more than a century ago, making Chinese food the first mass-consumed cuisine in the United States. By 1980, it had become the country's most popular ethnic cuisine. Chop Suey, USA offers the first comprehensive interpretation of the rise of Chinese food, revealing the forces that made it ubiquitous in the American gastronomic landscape and turned the country into an empire of consumption. Engineered by a politically disenfranchised, numerically small, and economically exploited group, Chinese food's tour de America is an epic story of global cultural encounter. It reflects not only changes in taste but also a growing appetite for a more leisurely lifestyle. Americans fell in love with Chinese food not because of its gastronomic excellence but because of its affordability and convenience, which is why they preferred the quick and simple dishes of China while shunning its haute cuisine. Epitomized by chop suey, American Chinese food was a forerunner of McDonald's, democratizing the once-exclusive dining-out experience for such groups as marginalized Anglos, African Americans, and Jews. The rise of Chinese food is also a classic American story of immigrant entrepreneurship and perseverance. Barred from many occupations, Chinese Americans successfully turned Chinese food from a despised cuisine into a dominant force in the restaurant market, creating a critical lifeline for their community. Chinese American restaurant workers developed the concept of the open kitchen and popularized the practice of home delivery. They streamlined certain Chinese dishes, such as chop suey and egg foo young, turning them into nationally recognized brand names.

The Cooking Gene

The Cooking Gene PDF

Author: Michael W. Twitty

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2018-07-31

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 0062876570

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2018 James Beard Foundation Book of the Year | 2018 James Beard Foundation Book Award Winner inWriting | Nominee for the 2018 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Nonfiction | #75 on The Root100 2018 A renowned culinary historian offers a fresh perspective on our most divisive cultural issue, race, in this illuminating memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces his ancestry—both black and white—through food, from Africa to America and slavery to freedom. Southern food is integral to the American culinary tradition, yet the question of who "owns" it is one of the most provocative touch points in our ongoing struggles over race. In this unique memoir, culinary historian Michael W. Twitty takes readers to the white-hot center of this fight, tracing the roots of his own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine. From the tobacco and rice farms of colonial times to plantation kitchens and backbreaking cotton fields, Twitty tells his family story through the foods that enabled his ancestors’ survival across three centuries. He sifts through stories, recipes, genetic tests, and historical documents, and travels from Civil War battlefields in Virginia to synagogues in Alabama to Black-owned organic farms in Georgia. As he takes us through his ancestral culinary history, Twitty suggests that healing may come from embracing the discomfort of the Southern past. Along the way, he reveals a truth that is more than skin deep—the power that food has to bring the kin of the enslaved and their former slaveholders to the table, where they can discover the real America together. Illustrations by Stephen Crotts

The Food Lover's Guide to the Best Ethnic Eating in New York City

The Food Lover's Guide to the Best Ethnic Eating in New York City PDF

Author: Robert Sietsema

Publisher: Arcade Publishing

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9781559707169

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This unique guidebook is definitely for those interested in experiencing new tastes on an affordable budget. In this authoritative restaurant guide to New York City, eminent food historian, critic, and culinary anthropologist Robert Sietsema offers more than 600 places in 80 national and cultural groupings, personally selected by him, that reflect the culinary tastes of the entire world. Sietsema, who updates his research each year, has zeroed in on restaurants big and small-holes in the wall and off-the-beaten-track eateries-where inevitably delicious and innovative cuisine is enjoyed daily by a local and faithful clientele. He introduces you to exotic places you didn't know existed. Each ethnic restaurant is explained, as is the food you are about to experience. With only a short subway ride, readers can expand their gastronomic knowledge with the rich cuisines of Malaysia, Pakistan, Armenia, New Guinea, Surinam, Haiti, Ecuador, Poland, Bulgaria, Central Asia, West Africa, and many more-not to mention regional American cooking-all within the boundaries of New York City.

Cleveland Ethnic Eats

Cleveland Ethnic Eats PDF

Author: Laura Taxel

Publisher: Gray & Company

Published: 2009-04

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1598510533

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A guide to ethnic restaurants and markets in Cleveland, Ohio, covering dining experiences from places such as the Pacific Rim, the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America, with information on menu items and specialties as well as prices, hours, ambience, recommended attire, and parking.