📢 Looooong post ahead, but we'll make it worth your while.
So you think you know "American" cuisine?
While it's easy to pass off a number of culinary classics as "American", cold, hard facts reveal that American cuisine is, in truth, a sum of all its diverse cultural parts. An amalgam of international flavours brought to the land of the free by immigrants, Americanised to appeal to the average Joe's palate.
🌭Take hot dogs, for example. This streetside staple was brought to America by German immigrants. Originally referred to as "daschund sausages", they continue to feature a German wiener or frankfurter to this day.
🍣 Consider the "California" sushi roll—an iconic Japanese invention that's been given a very American twist (and a very hybrid name!).
🥧 Even Southern favourites biscuits and gravy and apple pie both trace their roots all the way across the Atlantic, to the UK.
🍝 And let's not even get started with Italian favourites spaghetti and meatballs and mac 'n' cheese, both of which borrow major flavour inspo from Italian cuisine, but dress themselves in typically American garb.
🌮 Perhaps the most glaringly obvious global influences in the American culinary landscape, however, are evident in Tex-Mex fare. Dishes like nachos, fajitas, chili con carne, and chimichangas are not authentic Mexican, but instead, entirely Tex-Mex. What differentiates Tex-Mex meals from their authentic Mexican counterparts is the liberal use of ingredients such as ground beef, black beans, cumin, canned veggies, sour cream, and most distinctively, yellow (mostly processed) cheese.
The list is long, but the caption space is limited. And so we wrap this post up here.
Despite its length, though, it's worth noting that we've not even grazed the tip of the crosscultural iceberg that is American cuisine. That said, you can consider this your 101 on the subject before you dive headfirst into our American food festival's many flavourful celebrations. You know what they say: the more you know...✌🏼💪🏼
📢 Looooong post ahead, but we'll make it worth your while. So you think you know "American" cuisine? While it's easy to pass off a number of culinary classics as "American", cold, hard facts reveal that American cuisine is, in truth, a sum of all its diverse cultural parts. An amalgam of international flavours brought to the land of the free by immigrants, Americanised to appeal to the average Joe's palate. 🌭Take hot dogs, for example. This streetside staple was brought to America by German immigrants. Originally referred to as "daschund sausages", they continue to feature a German wiener or frankfurter to this day. 🍣 Consider the "California" sushi roll—an iconic Japanese invention that's been given a very American twist (and a very hybrid name!). 🥧 Even Southern favourites biscuits and gravy and apple pie both trace their roots all the way across the Atlantic, to the UK. 🍝 And let's not even get started with Italian favourites spaghetti and meatballs and mac 'n' cheese, both of which borrow major flavour inspo from Italian cuisine, but dress themselves in typically American garb. 🌮 Perhaps the most glaringly obvious global influences in the American culinary landscape, however, are evident in Tex-Mex fare. Dishes like nachos, fajitas, chili con carne, and chimichangas are not authentic Mexican, but instead, entirely Tex-Mex. What differentiates Tex-Mex meals from their authentic Mexican counterparts is the liberal use of ingredients such as ground beef, black beans, cumin, canned veggies, sour cream, and most distinctively, yellow (mostly processed) cheese. The list is long, but the caption space is limited. And so we wrap this post up here. Despite its length, though, it's worth noting that we've not even grazed the tip of the crosscultural iceberg that is American cuisine. That said, you can consider this your 101 on the subject before you dive headfirst into our American food festival's many flavourful celebrations. You know what they say: the more you know...✌🏼💪🏼
